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Meeting Abstracts

2007 Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA

Meeting Begins11/17/2007
Meeting Ends11/20/2007

Call for Papers Opens: 11/15/2006
Call for Papers Closes: 2/28/2007

Requirements for Participation

  Meeting Abstracts


Reading with Rahab: Liminality and Interpathy in Joshua 2
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Denise Dombkowski Hopkins, Wesley Theological Seminary

This paper investigates the intersections between the human text and the biblical text in the story of Rahab and the Israelite spies in Joshua 2. A sustained conversation between the two presenters and their respective disciplines (Hebrew Bible and pastoral care), will surface the psychological and political issues at stake in the interpretive process, not only for Rahab, but for interpreters of Joshua 2. Foremost is the issue of identity and boundaries - who is the outsider and who is the insider (R.Coote, D. Rowlett)? Who determines, based on what criteria? What kind of “double consciousness” (WEB DuBois) must Rahab deal with, and how? With whom do we identify in this text, and why? A second issue is liminality, the fertile yet fragile imaginative terrain in which the human and divine narratives meet (Anderson/Foley). What happens to identity and self-esteem in liminal situations? The location of Rahab’s house in the city wall, the geographical position of Jericho and the Israelites separated by the river Jordan, the cover of night, the crimson cord, all suggest liminality and the possibility of new self-understandings for Rahab, for the Israelites, and for us. Ironies and power reversals abound in these liminal spaces, inviting us to read with “interruption” (D. Fewell), a strategy for rejecting a passive or hegemonic interpretation of the text in favor of an imaginative questioning and retelling. This retelling, supported by the narrative predominance of Rahab’s dialogue, helps us to reconfigure what is at stake in the text. Rahab is the catalyst for such ‘interruption’. We fill in the gaps of the text by encountering Rahab with interpathy (Augsburger, Lartey) and relational sensitivity (Lartey) as opposed to culturally-located stereotypes. Such textual reframing (Capps) invites new possibilities for intercultural care (Ramsay).


Children Crying in the Academia: Potentials and Challenges within Research on Childhood in Antiquity and Early Christianity
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Reidar Aasgaard, University of Oslo

Since Ph. Ariès groundbreaking, but quite simplistic book “Centuries of childhood” (1960) historical research on children and childhood has developed immensely, and become far more detailed, nuanced and balanced. This has also been the case as far as the study of childhood in antiquity and early Christianity is concerned. Only during the last decade several significant monographs and edited volumes have been published. This paper will give a brief survey of the most central literature, sketch main areas of interest, and indicate some recent trends within research. On the basis of this the paper will reflect on potentials and challenges for further study of childhood in antiquity and early Christianity. What sources and types of material are likely to yield new findings? What kind of approaches and methodology may prove particularly fruitful? Can the study of ancient childhood enrich and even challenge our perception of life among the early Christians? And can a hearing of the ancient sources from a “children’s perspective” cast new light on this formative period in early Christianity? The paper will develop on these issues by means of a few select examples.


In the Beginning Were the Scrolls: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Qumran
Martin G. Abegg, Jr., Trinity Western University

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“Break your Treaty…!”: Implicit Judgements in the Sources of the Book of Kings
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Klaus-Peter Adam, University of Marburg

The reconstruction of a pre-dtr literary stage of the book of Kings is a major concern of the redaction history of Kings. The paper attempts to explain some early stages in the development of the synchronistic chronicle as a source document of the book of Kings. It touches upon the question, whether and to what extent already a synchronistic king list of Israel and Judah contained implicit judgements about the rulers. These regnal formulae in the synchronistic chronicle with their idiomatic references to royal military campaigns, conspiracies, building activities and the like, were, above all, concerned with the individual monarchs. Also, they share the perspective on the dynastic history of Judah as a larger period of time. The formulaic parts and the short narratives (annals) about the monarchs that were inserted in the reconstructed source document are the evidence for an early historiography that originated from a Judean point of view.


Paul’s Body-Talk: Clarifying Paul’s Anthropological Use of Soma
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Edward Adams, King's College London

The meaning of the term ‘soma’ when used anthropologically by Paul has been a perennially debated issue in Pauline studies. The view, given its classic expression by Rudolph Bultmann, that soma for Paul means more than the animated physical body, and characteristically refers to the human being as such, the whole person, the embodied ‘I’, etc., remains a firmly entrenched one with the discipline, despite the lexical and exegetical difficulties it involves (exposed by Robert Gundry). Theological interests seem to underlie the preference for this line of interpretation, not least, the concern to keep Paul at a safe distance Paul from theologically troubling ‘Hellenistic dualism’, with its wide-ranging matter-spirit dichotomy. The construct ‘Hellenistic dualism’ and the assumptions entailed in it, however, have increasingly been questioned by scholars, prompting a reappraisal of Paul’s anthropological comments and debates (esp. David Aune and Dale Martin). This paper and the larger research from which it is drawn seek to further this work. Here, I will argue on lexical-semantic and comparative grounds, that when Paul uses soma as an anthropological term (with the exception of the expression soma pneumatikon in 1 Corinthians 15), he does so with the standard lexical sense ‘physical body’ (i.e., body as material organism). Sometimes Paul’s usage implies a dualistic anthropology (as obviously in 2 Corinthians 5); in other cases it does not. Coherence is to be found in an underlying ‘instrumental’ view of the human body, which has certain similarities with Aristotle’s understanding of the soma (as expounded by A.P.Bos).


Retrieving the Earth from the Conflagration: 2 Peter 3:5–13
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Edward Adams, King's College London

2 Peter 3.5-13 is one of the most difficult texts in the New Testament to read from an ‘Earth-friendly’ perspective. The author envisages a massive conflagration at the ‘day of the Lord’ in which the heavens and elements are set ablaze and dissolved. Readers are encouraged to ‘hasten the coming’ of that day. Keith Dyer, in a contribution to the Earth Bible Project, concludes that this text ‘presents irretrievable problems for an ethical response to ecological problems’. Without denying that 2 Peter 3.5-13 expresses a destructionist view of the cosmic future, which is – on the face of it – eco-theologically problematic, I will try to show that the passage is not beyond recovery for a biblically informed environmentalism. In this section of the letter, the author is responding to his opponents’ philosophically informed rejection of the parousia (v. 4). I will draw attention to the extent to which the author is drawing on Stoic physics both in his reply to the cosmological argument of his opponents in vv. 5-7, and in his description of the ‘day of the Lord’ in vv. 10-13. I will argue that what the author is depicting in these verses is not the total annihilation of the existing heavens and earth (as pictured in the Nag Hammadi tractate The Concept of our Great Power), but the regeneration of the cosmos along the lines of the Stoic ekpyrosis. The portrait affirms rather than negates creation. This understanding of the text in its historical context is suggestive for a contemporary ‘Earth-sensitive’ reading of it in ways that I will endeavour to demonstrate.


Response to Friendly Critics
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Marilyn McCord Adams, University of Oxford

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Rethinking the Use of Yahweh-Language in Proverbs
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Samuel L. Adams, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education

This paper will examine the use of Yahweh-language in the book of Proverbs, including recent scholarship on this topic. Certain scholars have suggested that the book of Proverbs developed in stages, based on the insertion of God-language into a previously secular instruction. According to the hypothesis, earlier versions of the various units in Proverbs had a more “secular” orientation, based on an international genre. As Israelite religion developed, subsequent redactors shifted from traditional Wisdom to a more religious discourse. Yet even if one allows that editors inserted certain “Yahweh-sayings” into Proverbs, it is problematic to assume a progression from a religiously neutral discourse to pietism, particularly if such an argument is used to chart the overall development of the book. The Egyptian analogy used in support of this hypothesis is flawed, since the deity stands in the earliest Egyptian instructions as a powerful force in human events. Divine freedom and a more automatic system of causality are twin features of Proverbs, operating in a complex, dialectical relationship. This paper will address the use of the divine passive in the book and also consider the appeal to Wisdom as a source of authority. Rather than presenting an elaborate theology or world-order principle, the primary purpose of God-language in this collection seems to be didactic. Israelite sages seek to underscore the divine impact on human affairs in order to motivate pupils and encourage certain behavioral patterns.


Barr, Lexicography, and Semantic Domains: Some Issues and Refinement of Semantic Domain Theory for the Development of Lexicons
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Sean A. Adams, McMaster Divinity College

Since Barr’s comments on lexicography in his Semantics of Biblical Languages there have been a number of changes to the study of words, both in the Old and New Testaments. One of the most recent contributions to the lexicographical study of the New Testament is the lexicon created by Louw and Nida using semantic domains. Although this is a great starting point, there are a number of areas in which it could be improved. This paper will attempt to address some of the major critiques of Louw-Nida’s semantic domain theory with specific emphasis on the difficulty in determining what the various semantic domains are and how they should be categorized. Related discussion will revolve around the development of cultural lexicons and the possibility of creating a mental lexicon for an individual author that attempts to map their cerebral lexical connections that are expressed in their particular corpus of work. It is the hope of this paper to also propose some further avenues for research within semantic domain theory.


Register, Genre, and Context: Their Differentiation and Importance for the Study of the Greek New Testament
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Sean A. Adams, McMaster Divinity College

The notion of context is widely used within biblical studies as a useful hermeneutical or exegetical tool. However, even though it is extensively cited, there is no concise definition. It is important, therefore, to provide a succinct differentiation between co-text and context, making it clear that co-text is the actual specific formal features of the text, whereas context is the unseen items that affect the author and the creation of the text. Context, furthermore, can be roughly divided in to two parts: context of culture and context of situation. In the same vein, there is much ambiguity in the study of the context of situation and the definition of register and genre, with these terms often being used synonymously. This, however, fails to realize the nuanced nature of register and its function within the development of a discourse. This paper will attempt to formalize the distinctions between register and genre and outline their relationship, namely, seeing register as part of the context of situation and moving genre to the context of culture. Although this will form the majority of the paper, the discussion will conclude with an outline of how this distinction would be used exegetically and its advantages in biblical exegesis.


Editing a Volume on the Religions of Antiquity: Approaches, Problems, and Pitfalls
Program Unit: Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
William Adler, North Carolina State University

One of the challenges facing the editor of a volume on the religions of the ancient world is the formulation of meaningful analytical categories. Setting the chronological limits of “late antiquity” inevitably entails a degree of arbitrariness. The collapse of the Roman Empire in the West would, for example, be a far more meaningful cut-off point for Christianity in Italy than it would for Syriac Christianity of the fifth century. A satisfactory alternative to the disagreeable and homogenizing term “pagan religion” is also elusive. Terms like “indigenous” or “traditional” are only marginally more useful as descriptions of the dynamic religious landscape of late antiquity. Another problem has to do with the question of “origins.” In a book treating the religions of the ancient world from a regional perspective, which essay should ideally cover the origins of Manichaeism? And when can one speak of Christianity as a religious movement clearly distinguishable from Judaism? The two-volume Cambridge history seeks to redress the deficiencies of past studies by incorporating material evidence more fully into the analysis. But material and literary evidence do not necessarily complement each other as neatly as we might like. The available source material varies both from region to region and from tradition to tradition. Given the wealth of literary sources for Christianity and Judaism, for example, the generous coverage that our volume extends to these two traditions is completely warranted. But this should not come at the cost of presenting a picture of ancient religions distorted by disparities in the surviving source material. The challenge for the editor is to find the right balance.


Exemplary Figures in the "Palaea Historica"
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
William Adler, North Carolina State University

The "Palaea Historica," a relatively understudied Byzantine work dating from the 9th century, is mainly a retelling of the biblical narrative from Adam to David. While the work has chiefly interested scholars as a repository of extra-biblical Jewish and Christian legends about Abraham, Melchizedek and Moses (among others), comparatively little has been written about the broader purposes of the work in the Byzantine Church. Much of the "Palaea" was composed as a narrative commentary on and Byzantine homilist and hymnographer Andrew of Crete (ca. 660-740) and sung during the Lenten season. This paper examines the way in which the connection of the "Palaea" with the Byzantine liturgy has shaped the work's representation of exemplary biblical figures.


John 9:5 and Matthew 7:21–23
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Cameron Afzal, Sarah Lawrence College

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Numbers 32: Second and Subsequent Generation Judeo-Babylonian Reading
Program Unit: Pentateuch
John Ahn, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

In Second Isaiah, after the repeated words of “Comfort, comfort” (40.1), recalling the 597 B.C.E. and the 587 B.C.E events, the text quickly enters into what is called the new exodus or more broadly, the return migrations theology of Second Isaiah (43.1ff). Against, this background, the second and subsequent generation Judeo-Babylonians who have fully assimilated (like Daniel and his three friends) as further depicted in the later Murasu documents (Persians) cannot and do not wish to return for socio-economic and other reasons. The return is not realistic, nor is it a possibility. However, an ideological justification for remaining in the land—the other side of the Jordan is needed. Enter Num 32, a text which functions and upholds the conditions for this ideological/theological purport. Num 32 recounts the second generation Reubenites and Gadites asking for inheritance on the other side of the Jordan. Moses sees their request as a repeat of the major threat seen in Num 13-14. In the shadows of Babylon, this earlier narrative context not only resonated, but it became the backdrop for the polemic between the successful second and subsequent generation Judeo-Babylonians wishing and demanding to live on the other side of the Jordan against the call of Second Isaiah to return and enter the promised land. The tension that mounts from this refusal is powerfully echoed in a new wilderness and new exodus with new creation taking center stage. However, this is still not enough to convince this particular Judeo-Babylonian community. As in the proposal and subsequently the compromise that is reached when the Reubenites and Gadites agree to join the Israelites, Num 32 may be read and understood as the second and subsequent generation Judeo-Babylonians also making the return trip so that they too, can come back to their family and acquired wealth in Persia. Home for this generation is none other than other side of the Jordan. In short, this is the final chapter of my larger work on the exile (forced migrations). This thesis which began under Dennis Olson in 1996 is now ready for presentation.


The New Polytheism
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
George Aichele, Adrian College

This paper explores indications within both recent popular culture and recent philosophical and theological works of the emergence of a new or reawakened polytheism in the contemporary, postmodern world, and the resonances between these hints and biblical texts. The paper concludes that there is a relation between the contemporary popular demise of monotheism and the disintegration of the biblical canon. Popular cultural evidence is drawn from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the fantasy novels of Robert Howard (the Conan stories), James Morrow (the Godhead trilogy) and Neil Gaiman (American Gods), among others. Biblical evidence is supported by the work of Jack Miles and Regina Schwartz. Additional theoretical considerations come from Gilles Deleuze and John Docker.


Apocalyptic Fire in the City of Rome: Memory and the Cultural Repertoires of Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Ellen B. Aitken, McGill University

The question of how Hebrews is to be related to an ancient social context remains a fundamental methodological question in the interpretation of this discourse. In order to approach Hebrews with attention to its social, political, and cultural dimensions, as well as its theological and ethical aspects, it is necessary, with as much historical specificity as possible, to examine how the text makes and evokes meaning. This paper proposes a strategy for interpreting Hebrews that connects the imagery used in the text to the cultural repertoires available to an audience in Rome in the late first century C.E. It takes as a case study the use of apocalyptic imagery in relation to the heavenly sanctuary in Hebrews 12. By correlating this imagery to the importance both of temple fires and of the Flavian building programs within the city of Rome, the paper develops a method for understanding how Hebrews responds to its cultural context. It argues, moreover, that Hebrews is thus engaged in shaping the memory of its audience by developing a way of reading the events and monuments in its urban landscape in terms of a specific scriptural repertoire. The argument here thus responds to the larger discussion of “Judaism” and “anti-Judaism” in Hebrews not by assuming clear religious and social boundaries but by inquiring into the ways in which the discourse uses particular elements of cultural repertoires to interpret one another.


Jewish Use of Greek Proverbs
Program Unit: Greek Bible
James K. Aitken, University of Cambridge

There has been no systematic tracing of the reception of Greek Proverbs amongst Jews, despite the book of Proverbs being a natural source for quotations in Rabbinic literature. D’Hamonville (2000) only cites the Patristic use of the Septuagint version, and Weingreen’s early study (1977) notes rabbinic features in the Greek but does not investigate whether it influenced later rabbinic interpretation. At the same time there has been a tendency in some writers to conclude that works such as Wisdom of Solomon were dependent on the Hebrew rather than the Greek of Proverbs (e.g., Skehan 1971; Clifford 1999). Kaminka (1931-1932) has noted many parallels between Greek Proverbs and the Targum, but this leads him to the conclusion that the Targum was written in the 3rd century BCE and that each version derives from the same Hebrew text-type. There is clearly a need to revisit this question. Beginning with Jewish Hellenistic writings, the use of Greek Proverbs amongst Jews will be traced. Inscriptional evidence indicates knowledge of both the version of Aquila and the ‘Old Greek’, and the continuing influence of one of these versions on the Targum and some reasons for the choice of quotations in Rabbinic literature will be noted. It will be seen that some quotations might be dependent on an understanding of the Greek rather than upon the Hebrew. Some questions of method will be considered, and some tentative conclusions regarding the continuing use of Greek Proverbs amongst Jews, even within the literary Hebrew of the rabbis.


“For Whenever I Am Weak Then I Am Strong”: Paul’s Letters and Disability Studies
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Martin C. Albl, Presentation College

I begin by considering two autobiographical passages in which Paul refers to his own physical disabilities: Gal 4:12-20 and 2 Cor 12:7-10. In commending the Galatians for not “despising” him because of his physical disability, Paul alludes to beliefs, commonly accepted in both ancient Jewish and Hellenistic societies, that associated disability with demonic powers and consequently attached a strong social stigma to people with disabilities. Paul’s message challenges these cultural assumptions. At the heart of Paul’s thought lies a paradox, “For whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). Paul denies that disability is to be seen as a weakness or a source of shame, rather, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness” since “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). I then trace Paul’s paradoxical view of disability to its source in his belief in the intimate association of Christ and the believer in Christ. Christ’s crucifixion is the paradigmatic moment in which all apparent weakness and disability is transformed into strength: “We proclaim Christ crucified…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24). The believer shares in this moment and this transformation, “”But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Rom 6:8). Paul thus contrasts the “wisdom of the world” that views disability as a weakness and a source of shame with the wisdom of God in which disability is understood as a paradoxical source of power and strength (1 Cor 1:20-25). Paul’s thought is a rich resource for the efforts of modern disability studies to re-evaluate the very nature of disabilities. Paul’s gospel radically challenges a world that understands disabilities as a sign of weakness to rethink its view.


Intertextuality between Acts and the Classics
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Loveday C.A. Alexander, University of Sheffield

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Canon and Exegesis in the Medical Schools of Antiquity
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Loveday C. A. Alexander, University of Sheffield

The concept of ‘canon’ takes us back to the classicizing world of the Hellenistic schools, a world perpetually pulled between the two poles of ‘philology’ and ‘performance’, between the preservation of tradition and the needs of contemporary praxis. Nowhere are these tensions more evident than in the ancient medical schools. This paper takes three samples from the rich tradition of Hippocratic exegesis (Apollonius of Citium, Erotian, and Galen) as a means of exploring the processes of canon-formation and ’critical traditioning’ in one of antiquity’s best-documented scholastic traditions, a tradition that displays significant parallels with analogous processes in early Christianity.


Mary of Bethany, the Forgotten Disciple: Luke 10:38–42 within Second Temple Jewish Thought
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Sharon Alley, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

While scholarship has noted Mary and Martha’s involvement in hosting Jesus’ ministry, a cryptic statement concerning Mary’s status has often been misinterpreted or regarded as inconsequential. Luke 10:38-42’s unique and compact story portraying Mary of Bethany sitting at Jesus’ feet has largely been interpreted along patristic lines. Kathleen Corley sees Mary’s depiction in these verses in light of Greco-Roman table customs—Mary submissively sitting next to a reclining Jesus would seem to endorse traditional Hellenistic roles for women. Jesus’ seemingly enigmatic assertion, “one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion,” has puzzled scholarly interpretation. Analyzing Luke’s passage within Second Temple Jewish thought sheds light on Jesus’ words and portrays Mary of Bethany in a new and distinguished position. This paper will present two collocations found in Luke 10:38-42 whose proper understanding significantly alters our perspective of women’s role in Jesus’ ministry. Luke’s literary allusions, when read in their cultural context, appear to acknowledge Mary of Bethany as another disciple.


Reading the Primary History as a Post-war Document
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Frank Ritchel Ames, Colorado Christian University

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John and Qumran: Discovery and Interpretation over Sixty Years
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Paul N. Anderson, George Fox University

This paper will outline the history of research into connections between the Johannine Literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls.


From One Quest to Another: The Johannine Conception of Authentic Faith as a Response to the Divine Initiative
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Paul N. Anderson, George Fox University

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Philo and Plato's Laws
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Julia Annas, University of Arizona

Philo is familiar with Plato's Laws, and some of his language in his works on the Decalogue and the Special Laws reflects this. More importantly, his project in these works can reasonably be seen as similar to Plato's attempt, in the Laws, to show how a system of laws can be presented in a persuasive framework which brings out the ethical aims of the laws and the virtues encouraged in those who live according to them. Law is thus presented in a eudaimonistic framework.


Crown, Name, Robe, and Throne
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Daphna Arbel, University of British Columbia

This paper will discuss 3 Enoch of the Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, and examine the ways in which the depictions of Enoch/Metatron, set out therein, both incorporate and alter ‘divine kingship’ traditions, which are themselves well documented in the Hebrew bible. It will further discuss possible cultural and ideological motivations for evoking and re-conceptualizing these ancient biblical traditions in the context of 3 Enoch, which was written in a different context and a later time.


Sacrificial Iconography: Creating History, Making Myth, and Negotiating Ideology on the Ara Pacis
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Gail Evelyn Armstrong, Brown University

The Ara Pacis Augustae, dedicated in 13 B.C.E. and finished in 9 B.C.E., serves as a reflection of the Roman Senate’s participation in Augustus’ redescription of history. The iconography of the monument, with its pictorial language of peace, fertility, abundance, and piety, can be read as a text that engages with the history- and myth-making of Augustus. It evokes texts such as Virgil’s Aeneid, and provides another, supportive narrative of the fictional history that established the power and authority of Augustus. In other words, the monument serves as the Senate’s recognition of the Augustan redescription of Roman history. This paper argues that the Ara Pacis functioned primarily as the Senate’s negotiation of its own role within the “new order” established by the Augustan myth but also secondarily, to identify itself as a continuing participant in the “field of cultural production” (Bourdieu). Indeed, it engages in its own history-making, in which it describes itself as an active partner in Augustus’ production of history and myth. The ritualization of sacrifice that we see depicted on the Ara Pacis serves to legitimate the power of Augustus and the power of the Senate as part of the new order. The senate is working within the new myth already laid out by Augustus and it utilizes the imagery and the ideology he has already established. The Senate might have “accepted” the Augustan redescription, but it also needed to situate itself within it, and thus it became an active participant in the process. The Ara Pacis, using the language of sacrifice and thereby of religion, serves to index Augustus and the imperial family, and the Senate as both producers and actors.


"Ta Stoicheia:" Galatians and Hellenistic Moral Philosophy
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Gail Evelyn Armstrong, Brown University

Over the last century the majority of scholars have defined the 'stoicheia' in Galatians as demons, fallen angels, or spirits. This definition, however, does not make sense for the time and place of the writing of the letter, nor does it make sense in the context of the letter as a whole. This paper thus seeks to challenge the assumptions regarding Paul’s use of stoicheia in Galatians. It analyzes the usage in terms of Hellenistic philosophy and morality, not in terms of ‘pagan’ gods and demons, as has been the trend. In order to fully explicate this argument, I offer an analysis of the Greek uses of stoicheia prior to Paul, and I contextualize Paul’s argument in terms of Hellenistic philosophy. For Paul, I argue, just as the Law offered moral guidance to the ‘Jewish Christians’ so too, the stoicheia functioned as moral guidance for the “gentile” Christians. For Paul, those who are in Christ are no longer in need of either the stoicheia or the Law because God and the Spirit offer superior moral guidance. In addition, the Stoic view of the stoicheia as passive is problematic for Paul because it means the soul is unable to actively seek God. This paper analyzes the two contexts in which stoicheia is found in Galatians (4.3 and 4:9) and suggests a new reading, which makes sense in light of the paraenetic section of 5:13 – 6:10 and in light of Hellenistic uses of the term.


The Collection and Synthesis of “Tradition” and the Second-Century Invention of Christianity
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
William E. Arnal, University of Regina

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"And They Answered and Said": Reading Ritual Practice at Qumran
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Russell C. D. Arnold, DePauw University

The Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran include a significant number of texts, many of which were only relatively recently made available to scholars, relating to the ritual and liturgical life of the members of community settled at Qumran. Up to this point, scholarly treatment of these materials has focused primarily on reconstructing and interpreting individual texts and determining their provenance. This paper employs approaches from ritual studies to describe Qumran’s system of liturgical practice in the context of the life of the Yahad. We will investigate a number of key ritual and liturgical practices associated with the Yahad, such as: Initiation and Covenant Renewal, Calendrical Liturgies, Purification Rites, and Hymns and Psalms. In each case we will discuss the ways in which such ritual practices furthered the social and ideological goals of the community, established and maintained social boundaries and social order within the community, instructed new members in the proper understanding of the Law of Moses and the laws of the community, reinforced the interpretive authority of the priests among them, and assured the members of their chosen status in direct connection with the divine realm.


“I Was Intending to Visit You, but …:” Clauses Explaining Delayed Visits and Their Importance in Papyrus Letters and in Paul
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Peter Arzt-Grabner, Universitaet Salzburg

As many senders of private papyrus letters, also Paul several times emphasizes that he intended to visit his addressees earlier but for some reason could not or did not do so (cf. especially Rom., 1Cor., 2Cor., and 1Thess.). The large number of papyrus letters from Graeco-Roman antiquity, covering clauses that explain such delayed visits, provides us with the opportunity to study such clauses extensively and in detail, also because these letters are much shorter than most of Paul’s letters, and less sophisticated in style and contents, but nevertheless written according to the same principles of communication and letter writing. The first important result of the study is that such clauses are not mere phrases explaining simply that the letter writer could not visit his addressee and nothing else (or, in other words: these clauses are not just philophronetic), but that, in a direct combination with such clauses, the letter writer informs the addressee, more or less clearly, about the original and primary intention of the letter. Sometimes, this intention is to express via a letter exactly what the writer had wished to express on the occasion of a visit. But, there are also examples, where a writer obviously explains something different, and deals with informations, queries or expectations in a way that is different from what she or he would have done when visiting the addressee in person. And sometimes, of course, a letter merely functions to ease the writer’s personal desire for the addressee, or to confirm the ongoing good relationship between both of them. A comparison with the relevant clauses in Paul proves that these results are very well applicable, and that these clauses in Paul provide us with important clues to the primary intentions of some of his letters (i.e. most of all 1Thess., 1 and 2Cor., and Rom.).


Ruth and Bakhtin’s Theory of Carnival
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Nehama Aschkenasy, University of Connecticut

The Book of Ruth is currently enjoying a flow of commentaries, yet its comic underpinning with its potential for chaos, leading to the overturning of the status quo, has yet to be fully explored. Reading Ruth in light of Bakhtin’s theory of carnival and the dialogic imagination illuminates the tale’s rebellious narrative voice and uncovers the socio-cultural critique inherent in it. Within a Bakhtinian framework, the end-of-harvest celebration is read as a mini carnival, and the whole story is seen as permeated with the carnivalesque spirit and cultural attitude. As in the Bakhtinian paradigm, existing structures are mocked and parodied, especially during the climactic festivities and their aftermath, bringing about social, psychological, and theological transformations. The interpretation proposed here foregrounds the polyphonic tenor of the tale’s language, which gives voice to multiple and contradictory points of view, and the comic, folksy situations and characters in it. A carnivalesque reading thus reveals the subversive elements in Ruth, the comic reversal of roles which occurs in it, and the codes of cultural exchange between authority and the marginalized inherent in it.


Collections or Compositions: Ancient Sayings Traditions and the Rhetoric of Logic and Intertextual Relations
Program Unit: Q
Jon Ma Asgeirsson, University of Iceland

Ancient Sayings traditions have often been described as mere random collections of sentences, gradually, at best, arranged seriatim on the basis of catch word connections or common themes and topics. While collections of this type do, indeed, exist from ancient times into the Western medieval period, sayings have equally as long been used and manipulated not only in the context of the more extended literary forms of dialogues and narratives but in what came to constitute a specific genre of books or writings consisting of sayings. By this latter definition, books of sayings are literary products of a learned person applying to various degrees his/her rhetorical skills and compositional training. This paper will discuss elements of rhetorical composition in the context of philosophical texts, religious mythology and the emerging fictional narratrive of the second century BCE. It will, further, trace the establishing of certain authoritative traditions that became sources of literary and rhetorical composition and redaction such as in early Chritstian literature. For this end, the paper focuses on examples from the Gospel of Thomas and the Synoptic Sayings Source (Gospel) Q for demonstrating their compositional nature by diverse ways of manipulating sayings for the sake of extended argumentation and by application of intertextual elements of received traditions.


Vygotsky: A Forgotten Voice
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Don Ashley, Wayland Baptist University

The review of research to be presented concerns Lev Vygotsky’s work and in particular, his contributions to the comprehension of cultural, social, and historical impacts upon texts. In this brief presentation, the scholarship reviewed will evaluate the textual and contextual impacts culture in particular makes on biblical passages via Vygotsky’s perspective on language and his model of higher mental functions as a part of overall human cognition; reviews the essential questions Vygotsky asks of texts in order to deepen the understanding of their place in time and culture; and ends with a short exordium reminding all to consider anew Vygotky’s original and seminal works as they impact the critical explication of biblical literature. Possible points are: internalizing culture as a collaborative process, the social nature of knowledge, how Vygotsky’s theories impact classroom praxis etc.


The Concept of "Mystery" in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
John Ashton, Oxford, UK

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Second Thoughts on the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
John Ashton, Oxford, UK

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Isaiah 2:2–4 and Micah 4:1–5: The Vision of the End of Days as a Reaction to Assyrian Power
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Shawn Zelig Aster, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Scholarship has long discussed the relationship of the two almost-identical prophecies (Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-3) which present the famous swords-to-plowshares vision. Debate over the compositional relationship of these two prophecies is usually conducted on textual grounds, and has included examination of the minor text variants between the two prophecies. But the larger conceptual approaches found in the two books should also be considered, when attempting to understand the inter-relationship of these two texts. Isaiah and Micah represent radically different approaches to the rise of the Assyrian empire, since each understands the threats it poses in very different ways. A plethora of recent studies (Machinist, Levine, Weissert) show that Isaiah sees to Assyrian claims of empire as a theological challenge, since these claims threaten the claims of YHWH to sovereignty, while Micah takes a more limited and practical view of the Assyrian threat, as evidenced by Micah 5:4-5, which argues that Judah can defeat Assyria. These larger conceptual approaches are used as a background for understanding the vision of the end of days. This text should be seen as a reaction to the Assyrian empire’s role in arbitrating disputes between local rulers, and as imposing a sort of pax Assyriaca on the Near East. The role of YHWH in this text is similar to the image of the Assyrian king. The text is representative of the “replacement theology” response found in Isaiah, which uses epithets and motifs connected to royal Assyrian imagery to describe YHWH and emphasize His universal sovereignty. The Isaianic text is then cited in Micah, which appends additional verses to the original prophecy. These verses object to the use of universalist and Assyrian motifs in describing YHWH, and reflect a traditionalist reaction to Isaiah’s “replacement theology,” preferring to overlook a transcendent view of YHWH as divine sovereign in order to emphasize His parochial relationship to Israel.


Jerusalem Replaces Babylon: The Neo-Babylonian Background to Isaiah 60
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Shawn Zelig Aster, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Isaiah 60 is an argument for Jerusalem’s future glory. It describes the city as a universal focus of attention, which receives tribute, whose sovereignty foreign kings acknowledge, and whose building projects attract foreign workers. Scholars usually see this motif as borrowed from the reality of an Achaemenid capital: by comparing future Jerusalem to one of the capitals of the Persian empire, the prophet responds to its political insignificance in his time period. But the descriptions in the chapter contain specific similarities to Neo-Babylonian inscriptions which describe restoration projects in Babylon’s temples. These include the inflow of foreign products for use in temple restoration, including the plenty of the seas, and the emphasis on the luminescence which emanates from the restored Jerusalem. The luminescence, in particular, bears important similarities to the melammu of the restored temples, which is a recurring motif in Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions from Marduk-apla-iddina to Nabona’id. The specific similarities to Neo-Babylonian material indicate an intentional connection between the description of Jerusalem in this chapter and the image of Babylon in royal inscriptions. Rather than arguing for Jerusalem’s future political importance (based on Persian-period capitals), the chapter ought to be understood as a more profound theological argument. The prophet is intentionally comparing the future Jerusalem to the central holy city of Mesopotamian religious thought, a city which had great cosmic significance in cuneiform culture, as the nexus of contact between gods and men. The prophet attempts to transfer this significance to Jerusalem, and to argue that Jerusalem is the true cosmic capital. This chapter should therefore be understood as a central milestone in the development of the theology of Jerusalem in Biblical thought.


Queen Salome Alexandra’s Neglected Contributions to Hellenistic Judaism
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Kenneth R. Atkinson, University of Northern Iowa

Queen Salome Alexandra is the only legitimate woman ruler in Jewish history, and the sole female to govern the Hasmonean state. Although Josephus largely portrays her as a pawn of the Pharisees, a close reading of his War and Antiquities suggest otherwise. Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Egyptian papyri, as well as neglected historical accounts, reveal episodes in the life of Salome Alexandra that are unmentioned by Josephus. These documents suggest that through military campaigns and diplomatic overtures, and increases in military expenditure, Salome Alexandra brought about the most peaceful and prosperous period in Hasmonean history. This evidence, moreover, supports the later testimonies of the Talmud, which regard her reign as a golden age. This presentation will examine Josephus’ War and Antiquities in light of incidents mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Egyptian papyri, and other historical texts, to highlight some of Salome Alexandra’s unknown contributions to Hellenistic Judaism. It will especially concentrate on how Salome Alexandra used politics and religion to unite her people around the teachings of the Pharisees. The content of this presentation will also provide some historical background for understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls that mention women, many of which were likely written during Salome Alexandra’s reign.


Josephus the Essene on the Qumran Essenes and Related Jewish Sectarians along the Dead Sea
Program Unit: Josephus
Kenneth R. Atkinson, University of Northern Iowa

The past decade has witnessed an increase in the number of prominent scholars who question the traditional identification of the Qumran sectarians as Essenes. Moreover, scholars of Josephus, recognizing that his books are as much original literary compositions as they are historical narratives, increasingly seek to understand Josephus’ Essenes in light of his works, apart from the Qumran texts. At the same time, scholars of the Scrolls are now seeking to understand what the Scrolls tell us about their authors apart from Josephus’ testimony. The result is a flurry of recent articles by both Qumran scholars and Josephus experts alike that challenge the tradition identification of the Qumran sectarians as Essenes. The problem is that neither side in this debate uses all the available evidence in a proper manner, thereby failing to recognize that the bulk of evidence suggests that Josephus’ Essenes and the Qumran Essenes were one and the same. This paper will offer a defense of the traditional Qumran-Essene hypothesis by focusing on two neglected issues in the current debate. First, it will suggest that because most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written or copied in the first century B.C.E., they should not be used to understand the Essenes of Josephus’ day. Second, only those Scrolls that likely date to Josephus’ day, or which were redacted in the first century C.E., should be examined in light of Josephus’ books. These texts, when compared with earlier Scrolls, indicate that the Essenes of the first century C.E. were very different than the Essenes of the first century B.C.E. As a former Essene, Josephus knew the beliefs and practices of the Essenes of his day quite well, but little about the Essenes of previous generations documented in the majority of the Scrolls. His descriptions of the Essenes of his day, moreover, provide us with a valuable eyewitness account of life among the Qumran Essenes. With the exception of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus the Essene remains our best historical source for understanding the Qumran Essenes and related Jewish sectarian communities along the Dead Sea.


Cultural Contexts and Literary Dynamics
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Harold W. Attridge, Yale University

A critical examination of seeking the Dead Sea Scrolls as a background for the Fourth Gospel, especially in light of the gospel's literary dynamics.


The Jesus Seminar
Program Unit:
Harold W. Attridge, Yale University

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Film and the Apologetics of Biblical Violence
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Hector Avalos, Iowa State University

This paper examines the diverse strategies used by filmmakers to address violence found in biblical texts. The presentation specifically identifies four interpretive strategies found in films which refer to biblical passages where violence is found: 1) Omission of the violence; 2) Maximization of the violence (e.g., The Passion of The Christ [2004]); 3) Minimization of the violence so that it is not depicted as graphically as the biblical text might allow (e.g., the crucifixion of Christ in C. B. De Mille’s King of Kings [1927]); 4) Reconfiguration, whereby a violent episode is transformed altogether, as in the case in the animated Prince of Egypt (1998) where Moses kills an Egyptian by accident rather than through the intentional act described in Exodus 2:11-12. The paper includes discussion of apologetic agendas, which range from vindicating biblical characters to emphasizing the aesthetic and missionary value of biblical violence.


When Scarcities Abound: The Economics of Religious Violence
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Hector Avalos, Iowa State University

Despite the multiplicity of theories that attempt to explain the role of religion in violence, there are still very few explanations that relate religious violence to scarce resource theory. This paper proposes that: Most violence is the result of scarce resources, real or perceived. When people do not think that there is enough of a valued commodity, then conflict may ensue to acquire or maintain that commodity. Such scarcities can explain conflict from the smallest levels of human organization (e.g., not enough love in a family) to a global scale (not enough oil to meet energy demands). When religion causes violence it often does so because it has created new scarce resources. The paper will identify four commodities whose value is created principally by religious belief: (1) sacred texts (the belief that only some texts are privileged communications from divine entities); (2) sacred space; (3) group privileges conferred by membership in particular religions; and (4) salvation. The paper illustrates how these commodities may be viewed as scarce resources that have generated violence in Judaism, Christianity and Islam from ancient to modern times. A brief final section considers possible solutions to the problems posed by scarcities created by religious belief.


Evidence of Foreigners from the Persian Heartland
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Annalisa Azzoni, Vanderbilt University

The paper will offer a preliminary reflection on the evidence regarding foreign individuals and groups residing in Persepolis during the time of Darius I, as revealed in the Persepolis Fortification Aramaic Tablets. These administrative texts, a small portion of the Persepolis Archives excavated in the 1930s by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, will contribute to the discussion a unique perspective, which so far has been largely missing: the one from the core of the Empire. The paper will first examine data such as onomastic evidence, and review the use of titulatures and gentilics in order to ascertain the extent of the presence of foreigners in the tablets on the one hand and the retention or loss of ethnic markers on the others. The paper will then proceed to inquire whether foreign individuals appear in similar or related contexts in the tablets. The results of this inquiry will help us determine whether individuals belonging to the same group may have maintained their connections among themselves, through their position and/or occupation within the Persian administration, or not.


Dinah in the Pseudepigrapha
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Mary Bader, College of Wooster

This paper will explore how the HB character Dinah found in Genesis 34 is portrayed in the Pseudepigrapha. There are both direct and indirect references to her and the incident at Shechem throughout these texts. I will investigate the various details the narrators/writers give about her, the rhetoric used to speak of her defilement, and how knowledge of the details may build sympathy or antipathy for those involved. This paper is currently a developing chapter in a manuscript (under contract) for my second book with Peter Lang Publishing Company. The book, which has an anticipated publication date in early 2008, is titled Tracing the Evidence.


Jesus "By the Sea": Galilean Regionalism and the Historical Jesus
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Rene A. Baergen, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto

Reconstructing the particularity of first century Galilee has become the sine qua non of historical Jesus studies to the extent that the quest of the historical Jesus threatens in many quarters to become the quest of the historical Galilee. Most problematic here is the description of Galilee as an undifferentiated entity. Literary, archaeological and even topographic evidence argues to the contrary, substantiating the regional distinction between upper and lower Galilee noted already by Josephus and accentuating as well the particular character of the Kinneret valley as a point of heightened contact between west (lower Galilee) and east (the Golan and the Decapolis), yet scholarship has tended not to demarcate a geographical region around the lake nor to bring the project of Galilean regionalism to bear on the historical Jesus as first century Galilean. This paper is an attempt to pay attention, consecutively, to each of these two lacunae. By interrogating the material and textual evidence for ancient life on the lake, it advances the thesis that the Kinneret be considered an interface rather than a border– viz. a surface which facilitates the interaction of two or more regional systems rather than their dissociation– and attempts to anticipate the effect of this scenario on the (re)location of the historical Jesus “by the sea.”


The Ms. Potiphar-Joseph-Potiphar Triangle: Interse(x)(ct)ionality of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class in Genesis 39:1–18
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Randall Charles Bailey, Interdenominational Theological Center

This paper explores the proposed hetero-erotic relationship between Ms. Potiphar and Joseph and the actual homo-erotic relationship between Joseph and Potiphar in Genesis 39. In so doing issues to be explored are the cover-up translation strategies of splitting v. 6 and the translation of v. 9aa, the speech of Joseph as a taunt, enslaver-enslaved sexual politics, and the sexual maligning of/signifying on the Egyptians as an ideological narrative strategy.


The Hebrew New Testament of Franz Delitzsch
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Wilma Ann Bailey, Christian Theological Seminary

In 1877, Professor Franz Delitzsch, a Christian Hebraist, who was employed at several universities during his lifetime, including Rostock, Erlangen and Leipzig, published a New Testament that he had translated over a period of time (beginning in 1838) into a modified version of Biblical Hebrew. He called it Ha-Berit Ha-Chadasha. This paper will examine the Hebrew used in that translation noting the adaptations that were made in grammar, syntax, punctuation and vocabulary to accommodate words and ideas that do not appear in the Hebrew Bible but do appear in the New Testament and to communicate to his intended readers.


Ishmael’s Genealogy in Judaism and Islam
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Carol Bakhos, Princeton University

The Arab identity of Ishmael is well attested in ancient Jewish sources. The pervasive, metonymic and synecdochical use of Ishmael to denote Arabs, however, belies the exceedingly complex genesis of the identity of Ishmael as Arab progenitor, a genesis complicated by the paucity, and no less by the nature, of extant sources. This paper will examine early Islamic sources in order to understand the meaning of Ishmael’s Arab identity in the Islamic tradition. The Jewish traditions from the biblical through the ancient and early medieval period provide a useful foil to highlight the significant ways in which Ishmael legends were selectively incorporated into Islam. As we shall see, ancient Jewish sources ascribe to Ishmael the role of the Arab pater eponymous, which Islamic sources tailor in light of the pre-Islamic Arab genealogical system for socio-political purposes.


I Will Wake the Dawn: Crafting a Visual Interpretation of Psalms
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Debra Band, Honeybee in the Garden, LLC

The paper discusses the crafting of a contemporary visual interpretation of biblical text, focusing on two psalms, 23 and 128, drawn from Band’s work, I Will Wake the Dawn: Illuminated Psalms, to be published by the Jewish Publication Society in June 2007. The medium of the illuminated manuscript — or more often, its reproduction — offers the reader a particularly pregnant opportunity to contemplate the text itself and its visual interpretation. This format that fully integrates text and imagery lends itself to close, leisurely contact and thus offers the viewer an intimate intellectual, emotional and aesthetic experience that supports, in the case of private readings of Psalms, an inner conversation among the artist or reader, the Psalmist, and the Divine. The process of composing the visual interpretation is founded upon the concept of “disguised symbolism” described by Erwin Panofsky in his studies of early Netherlandish painting, particularly Jan van Eyck. Here, the artist discusses how she chooses and arrange objects recognizable from the contemporary world in ways that make logical sense in the narrative setting, but bear complex symbolic value related to the biblical text at hand. This iconography is drawn from diverse sources, from midrash, from other related biblical texts and, in many cases from modern society and science, from various landscapes and many other sources. While the overall painting usually creates a coherent, easily understood physical reality, parsing the symbolism of individual items within it reveals a more complex structure of ideas.


Multi-functionality of the Biblical Hebrew Verb: Theory and Pedagogy
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Barry L. Bandstra, Hope College

The approach to understanding and teaching the biblical Hebrew verb presented here is based on the school of grammatical analysis called systemic-functional linguistics. This approach is associated above all with M. A. K. Halliday (see his Introduction to Functional Grammar, 3rd edition, 2004). In this approach, grammatical analysis focuses on the clause, which is viewed as having three core functions in communication and three simultaneous lines of meaning. (1) The clause encodes an experience of the world, either mental or material, and this is its representational function. (2) The clause enacts an interpersonal exchange of some sort, including giving and demanding. (3) The clause is worded as a message relevant to and fitting within its surroundings. The multiple functions of the BH verb within clauses are sorted out using this framework. Initially students can get confused by the multiple ways verbs demonstrate variability. They vary by being finite or non-finite; they can have person, number, and gender; they have roots and stems; they have tense (or aspect); and some come automatically built with the conjunction. A multi-functional and systemic approach to understanding the BH clause enables these various forms to be assigned their functional roles within the three component systems of the language.


Marginal Predicative Possessive Constructions in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Elitzur Avraham Bar-Asher, Harvard University

Biblical Hebrew, like most Semitic Languages, does not have a verb to express possession. The regular predicative possessive construction consists of the following elements: [yeš +] NP + l + NP. This way of expressing possession by existential predication together with the possessor in the “dative” case is very common cross-linguistically. Next to this construction, grammarians and linguists noticed a few other marginal constructions for this function, such as the use of the comitative preposition ’et, a type of construction known from other Semitic languages [Yemeni Arabic ma? “with”, MSA (Mehri) š- “with”]. In addition, Kogot (1993) has noticed that occasionally the possessive function is expressed by a nominal predication in which the possessor is expressed by genitive pronominal suffixes. In my paper I will try to demonstrate that this phenomenon is not unique to Biblical Hebrew. Alongside examples from other languages in which this is the regular way, I will show that similar examples can be found in other Semitic languages, such as Akkadian and Aramaic. In addition to this survey, I will suggest a systematic structural analysis for this construction.


Syriac and the Other Eastern Aramaic Dialects
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Elitzur Avraham Bar-Asher, Harvard University

Since the early works of the Semitic philologist on Aramaic, Syriac has been categorized, together with Mandaic and Babylonian Aramaic as an Eastern dialect. Sharing some innovations, such as the plural masculine marker /e/ and the prefix of the 3rd masculine singular in the imperfect tense, these dialects signifies the stage of “late Aramaic” in which dialectical features became overt and regular in the written form of the language as well. A few scholars have recognized that such a uniform picture is not accurate. Boyarin (1981) demonstrated that Syriac shares some innovations with western dialects as well and argued that these phenomena should be explained in light of the wave theory. Morag (1991) suggested to speak about graded isoglosses in east Aramaic and accordingly, to describe the distribution of certain phenomena in the three major dialects of this part of Aramaic. Recently, Heinrichs (2004) compared these dialects in light of diachronic evidence and examined the resemblance of these dialects to the modern eastern dialects. In my paper I would like to reassess these theories by examining a few new and old phonological and syntactical phenomena. With the result of these inquiries I would like, on the one hand, to strengthen Heinrichs’ argument, but on the other hand, to argue that since some of the early researches were based on the written form of the language, there are good reasons to suspect that this is not a true reflection of the spoken language. In my mind, the phonology of Syriac was probably closer to the other eastern dialects, already in its earliest stage.


The Syriac Translation of the Book of Ben Sira: Differences between the Hebrew and the Syriac Texts Reconsidered
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Michal Bar-Asher Siegal, Yale University

On the question of divine determination and human free will Ben Sira shows conflicting notions. On this matter Collins (1997) concludes: "Sirach's overall position remains ambiguous... There was, then, in Sirach's own theology a basis for the view that sin also comes from God, even though this inference was unacceptable to the sage." However, Collins suggests that "the implications of divine responsibility are drawn out in the secondary recensions of Ben Sira." He gives as examples the Cairo Genizah version as well as the Greek additions to 11:14 stressing God's hand in the creation of evil, sin, error and darkness. While I agree with Colllins’s conclusion regarding these recensions, I believe the Syriac translation is different in this regard. I will demonstrate that the treatment of evil in the book of Ben Sira has caused the Syriac translator to change the content of the original text in several places. I will suggest a list of examples in which it is reasonable to consider that this translator had problems with the treatment of the creation of evil by the Ben Sira text and its suggestion of the possibility of predestined wicked men. In these cases the Syriac translation tends to stress human choice, and dims the parts of the text in which Ben Sira suggested divine determination and God’s creation of Evil. Outlining this motivation in the Syriac version brings new insights concerning previous scholarship on this translation, (such as Winter [1977]) , and reevaluation of their arguments.


"A Time for War": Literary Allusion in Qoheleth 9:11–18
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Jennifer Barbour, Oxford University

This paper asks whether we can detect earlier Hebrew Bible traditions in the tale of a siege told at Qoheleth 9:14-15, which strikes many interpreters as a shared literary allusion between Qoheleth and his audience. Echoes are found of the approach of Sennacherib to Jerusalem in 701, both as that crisis is recorded in Isaiah and the Deuteronomic history, and as it reverberates in the Hebrew exegetical tradition. Reflections of both the original tradition and its later accretions are found in Qoheleth's tale: his besieged city is considered against Isaiah's picture of the Jerusalem of 701 and the neo-Assyrian vocabulary of siege; his "great king" is traced to the Hebrew Bible's stock representation of Assyrian kings, with consideration of the connotations of that epithet in the Hellenistic world; and his wise man is compared to the book of Isaiah's figure of the prophet, with parallels to the strange deliverance of the city by wisdom found in the versions of the episode in Judith, Sirach, Herodotus, the Talmud, and the Targum to Isaiah. The pessimistic reflections surrounding the tale reflect its place in the national story, in which also "wisdom is despised" and "much good destroyed". More widely, an implication for our understanding of the book is the possibility that the texture of Qoheleth may be more allusive and more rooted in the Hebrew Bible than we usually judge.


Why the Roman Empire was Insignificant to Paul
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
John M.G. Barclay, Durham University

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Josephus' against Apion and the Commentary Genre
Program Unit: Josephus
John M.G. Barclay, Durham University

Introducing my recent commentary on Josephus' Against Apion, I will explain how I have tried to address some of the dilemmas faced by all commentary writers, and also what is added by approaching this intriguing text from a postcolonial perspective.


How Big and How Old Is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1353?
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Don Barker, Macquarie University-Sydney

P.Oxy. 1353 is a fragment of a page of 1 Peter from a parchment codex. The ed. princ.(Grenfell and Hunt) misread the page number that appears on the left hand top corner of the back of the page. In the light of a rereading of the page number this paper will explore the length and possible contents of the codex as well as its date and the socio- historical implications it has for early Christianity.


Melchizedek, Priest of God Most High
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Margaret Barker, Cambridge University

The figure of Melchizedek in Genesis 14 has taken a wide variety of variant forms in Jewish and Christian literatures. His many connections with the temple, kingship, priesthood, peace, and other functions will be examined as background to the understanding of Melchizedek in the Latter-day Saint tradition.


Dining on Death: The Ugaritic Banqueting Theme, the Funerary Marzeah, and Isaiah's Eschatological Banquet
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
William D. Barker, University of Cambridge

The Ba‘al-Mot Myth (KTU 1.4-1.6) is often proposed as background material for Isaiah 25:6-8. This is because of Mot’s characterisation as the personification of death with a ravenous appetite (KTU 1.4 viii 15-20; 1.5 i 5-8; 1.5 i 15-26; 1.5 ii 2-5; 1.6 ii 17-23; 1.6 v 20-25; 1.6 vi 10-13), and Mot’s devouring of Ba‘al in a banquet setting (KTU 1.5 ii 2-5 and 1.6 ii 17-23). However, this paper seeks to demonstrate that there are additional, meaningful connections between the Ba‘al-Mot Myth and Isaiah’s eschatological banquet. These connections can be established in the light of the “banquet theme” in Ugaritic literature and the Canaanite marzeah societies, which may have continued to exist in ancient Israel long after the demise of Ugarit. J.B. Lloyd demonstrated over a decade ago that the banquet theme is used in both Ugaritic and Hebrew Bible narratives, and that this motif can be identified when three scenes are present in a banquet text. However, heretofore, Lloyd’s research has not been applied to Isaiah 25:6-8. This paper will also consider whether Isa. 25:6-8 might be an inversion and condemnation of marzeah practices, as part of a polemic (i.e., Isaiah 24-27) against Canaanite cult practices in ancient Israel.


Re-creating the Shema: The Johannine Jesus’ Reinterpretation of God’s Oneness
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Lori Baron, Duke University

The Gospel of John lacks the synoptic story of the Great Commandment, in which Jesus sums up the Jewish Law by citing Deut 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This passage comprises the centerpiece of ancient synagogue liturgy known as the Shema. Although explicit quotations of the Shema are conspicuously absent in John, the prayer was not outside of the purview of the Fourth Gospel. Rather, the Fourth Gospel weaves affirmations of God’s oneness throughout the narrative. This is typical of the way in which OT scripture is often utilized in John; while there are explicit quotations, there is also a sense in which Jesus is portrayed as “embodying” or fulfilling tradition, often in the form of a direct challenge to Second Temple Jewish institutions and practice. Seen through this lens, Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is a re-imagining of the Shema, affirming both God’s oneness and Jesus’ exalted status, along with the command of love. The unity of the Father and Jesus, the Logos, is boldly proclaimed at the outset (1:1). Jesus “exegetes” the Father, for only Jesus has seen God, and only he is able to make God known to humans (1:18). The Father has invested divine authority in the Son; they have a unity of purpose and both have the power to judge the living and raise the dead (5:19ff). I argue that John’s emphasis on the oneness of Father and Son is a response to the Jewish emphasis on the Shema, an emphasis which in turn seems to have grown in response to the challenge of Christianity. By stressing the Father-Son unity, John answers the challenge that Jesus’ claim to exalted status constitutes a breach in the divine Oneness: Jesus’ relationship with God embodies what the Shema intended all along. Furthermore, the appeal for unity among believers as an embodiment and a witness to the Oneness of God constitutes nothing less than a reinterpretation of the Shema itself.


The Bible Is Like . . . or Is It?
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Eric D. Barreto, Emory University

Type “the Bible is like” into Google, and you will find a deluge of images to which the Bible is compared: a lion, a room in a house, a fully clothed person, Santa Claus, let alone all the less-than-complementary comparisons I found. From the obscure to the ridiculous, the profound to the incomprehensible, students enter our classrooms with certain models, metaphors, or lenses through which they view the Bible. How often do they have the opportunity to step back to examine their perception of the Bible and its role in their lives? How can we challenge students to grow beyond simplistic metaphors of the Bible—whether naive or antagonistic—and thus discover the complexity of the biblical witness? This "teaching tip" can help students uncover some of the lenses through which they view the Bible. The activity asks students to recall a metaphor through which they or others they know understand the Bible. Past examples have included a cellular structure, quicksand, a gold mine, and even a Magic-8 ball. Once students have shared their metaphors, the teacher's task is to engage them with one another and to help the class understand what is brought to the forefront and what is neglected in their selected metaphors. By explicitly naming these active metaphors, students can explore both their positive and negative implications and begin to understand that any single metaphor cannot encapsulate the many functions of the Bible. Ultimately, one of the primary goals of this activity is to invite students to consider new, unexpected metaphors that allow them to give critical nuance to their perceptions of the Bible. The format of my presentation will be primarily descriptive, detailing how to complete the activity but will also include several specific examples.


YHWH’s Threats against Israel in Deuteronomy: A Modern Nation-State Analogy
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Rob Barrett, Durham University

Violence in the Hebrew Bible, particularly that of divine origin, is regularly cited as evidence for the primitive and irrelevant or even dangerous thought behind these texts. In this paper, I argue for a mutually-illuminating analogy between YHWH's threats against Israel in Deuteronomy and threats against the disloyal made by the modern nation-state. The appropriateness of an analogy between the "religious" and "political" spheres is justified in the ancient context by Deuteronomy's use of the political model of the ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaty to express Israel's relationship with YHWH. In the modern context, I argue that the distinction between the religious and political spheres was developed as a consequence of the rise of the modern nation-state within the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, a distinction that is blurred by the concomitant rise of nationalism and liberal democracy as Durkheimian functional religions. My analogy is based on two important structural features of both Deuteronomy's covenant and the modern nation-state. First, both YHWH and the state demand the exclusive loyalty of their constituencies. YHWH denies Israel the right to serve "other gods" while the state demands precedence over citizens' loyalties to other states, family, guild, deity, etc. Second, I compare YHWH's threatened destruction of disloyal Israel to both the social contract theorists' responses to treason and modern American examples of how the state wields its violence against internal threats. I conclude that the demands and threats advanced by the ancient and modern religio-political systems have important common elements.


Ancient Interpretations of the Mythic Structures of Sacred History
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Herbert Basser, Queen's University

Matthew 1:17 breaks Jewish history into three parts of 14 generations each.. Talmud Bavli Avodah Zarah 9a divides a mythical 6000 year Jewish history into three equal periods. M. Eduyot 2.10 and Tosefta.Eduyot 1:14 substantiate Qetz (endtimes) divisions as best reckoned in generations. Pesikta de Rav Kahanna 5.12 Rav speaks of a generational pattern mirroring a lunar image (waxing and waning). In Genesis Rabbah 98:7 the image is that of a lion crouching and lying down which presumably relates to a threefold division. The text breaks at the end to give a variant twofold version. We will argue that the portrayals of history follows a mythic structure of tension of two movements and a gradual resolution or else a two fold movement of grandeur and collapse—with a burst of salvation at the end. Joseph Campbell’s works amongst others will help us find the models for these interpretations. Time periods relate to the totems of the moon and lion (of Judah) and thereby correlate the mythic structures with nature. Alternatively, a history in terms of years can be seen in terms of growth and development and this history lacks totemic reference which illustrates dramatically the true mythic nature of the other models. Matthew’s generational model seems to fit the mythic structure.


Reading the Bible in Occupied France: André Trocmé and Le Chambon
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Alicia Batten, Pacific Lutheran University

The Huguenot pastor André Trocmé took unpopular positions in both his tradition and country throughout his life and sometimes at tremendous risk. He is most famous for his participation in the “illegal” harboring of several thousand refugees in and around the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, during World War II. Trocmé’s leadership in Le Chambon was important to the rescue efforts, but such a rescue could not have occurred without the involvement of the villagers, surrounding farmers and others, who took responsibility for much of the work and often acted on their own initiative. This paper examines Trocmé’s use of the Bible in his wartime sermons, stories, as well as his biweekly discussions with 13 local leaders of Le Chambon, known as the "responsables," who after the meeting with Trocmé, would go to 13 different parts of the parish to promote more deliberations about biblical passages and aid in coordinating the rescue. The paper grants that the Trocmé family’s presence and commitment to the refugees and to the village, as well as help from outside organizations, were crucial for the success of the operations. But it also argues that the symbiotic relationship between Trocmé’s approach to the Bible and the predominantly Huguenot identity of Le Chambon was important for sustaining and promoting resistance to the representatives and policies of the Vichy government and those of the subsequent German command.


Postcolonial Perversions in the Epistle of Jude
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Betsy J. Bauman-Martin, Saint Norbert College

The primary claim of biblical postcolonial criticism is that the Bible is a colonial document. This can indicate the ways the Bible has functioned as colonial literature in later historical contexts, but also the attitudes toward empire and imperialism in the texts themselves. This paper examines the language of pollution, shame and perversion in the Epistle of Jude from the perspective of postcolonial theory, which offers an analytical apparatus that is especially effective at exposing power assumptions in texts. The author of Jude, writing most likely in colonized Palestine, Syria or Alexandria, participates in Roman imperial assumptions of honor and shame, but more significantly, uses a binary discourse of pollution and purity to eschew hybridity within his group. Hybridity, the natural result of colonialism, according to Homi Bhaba, is often overtly rejected by subaltern groups in their attempts to resist cultural and identity crises wrought by invasion and imperialism. Ironically and concomitantly, these subaltern groups utilize the empire’s own language of dichotomy and superiority to demonize opponents. Thus the author of Jude, in order to deny hybridity and resist the shame and homogenization of empire, externalizes insidious adversaries and defines his own group as superior through purity – of belief and behavior, and his opponents as inferior -- polluted and impure.


Either Jew and Gentile: Ethnic and Religious Terminology in the Pseudoclementine Novel
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Giovanni Battista Bazzana, University of Milan

Although considered one of the most relevant examples of ancient Jewish-Christian literature, the pseudoclementine novel has never been examined in its use of terms denoting ethnical and/or religious distinction. In fact, the two version of this long writing, the so called Homilies and Recognitions, allow to draw some very interesting observations on the self-conception and self-styling of groups that occupied a position across the divide between Judaism and Christianity. Of course, an assessment of this theme must consider the various contextual and literary settings that shape the text. For instance, throughout the novel two competing terms, Jewish (Ioudaios) and Hebrew (Ebraios) are used: while the first one appears repeatedly in the first book of the Latin Recognitions (which might preserve the text of a more ancient Jewish-Christian source, the so called Anabathmoi Iacobi) even in the peculiar image of Christ who took a Iudaicum corpus, Ebraios appears frequently in the Greek version of the novel and, in particular, to indicate the Jerusalem "church of the Hebrews" that is governed by James. Moreover, an analysis of the contrast between "Hebrews" and "Gentiles" is very helpful in understanding the pseudoclementine religious system: in H 8, 7, 1 Peter states that Jews are not condemned even though they do not know Christ, while conversely Gentiles are not condemned if they do not know and respect the Mosaic law. In Rufin's Latin translation the apostle's reasoning is completely reversed (R IV 5) and both Jews and Gentiles are called to believe the other's teaching in order to be eligible for salvation. These two opposing views are just a sample of the theological and terminological designations an ancient Jewish-Christian group had to come up with to pursue the aim of creating a common space of salvation for Jews and Gentiles together.


The Laborer Is Worth His Wage: A Socio-rhetorical Analysis of Q 10:7
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Giovanni Battista Bazzana, University of Milan

The Q version of Jesus' commissioning of his disciples contains the quotation of a proverb ("the laborer is worth of his pay", Q 10:7) that has been variously interpreted in the following New Testament tradition. In this paper I will try to assess the content of this saying in its literary context employing some tools of socio-rhetorical criticism. An analysis of the passage intertexture shows that Q inserted the proverb in Jesus' discourse as an authoritative statement to assert the disciples' entitlement to a reward for healing the weak and preaching the incoming kingdom of God. At the level of social and cultural texture this portrait of the disciples’ activity betrays many similarities to that of ancient itinerant physicians: through such a mimetic discourse, Jesus’ commissioning emphasizes the subcultural rhetoric that is apparent in many ancient Christian healing narratives. It is most interesting to note that Matthew's reworking of the Q passage implies a significant modification of the cultural texture apparent in the text: whereas the Q (and the Lukan) version assigned to the workman a wage, Matthew substituted this term with "nourishment". An analysis of documentary, papyrological sources informs us that the phrase "the laborer is worth of his nourishment" would have made poor sense in the social environment of daily workmen: indeed, the term trophé employed by Matthew usually designated the allowance provided by a householder to the members of his group, wife, children and slaves. Matthew intended to change radically the cultural and social texture of the commissioning by portraying the disciples not as workmen for a wage, but as members of God's household without any entitlement to a reward apart from an allowance for mere subsistence.


The End of the Word as We Know It, and I Feel Fine: The Bible in the Twilight of Print Culture
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Timothy K. Beal, Case Western Reserve University

The booming Bible business is paradoxically symptomatic of the end of print culture, that is, the end of the book as privileged medium of writing, scripture, and Scripture. Flooding the market with an array of Bibles, from Biblezines to the Precious Moments Bible - all somehow "the Bible" - the Bible biz is unwittingly spending down the Bible's sacred capital, the accumulated value of something as sacred. The sacred capital of the Bible has accumulated over centuries through institutions and doctrines, worship and devotional life, and commonly held standards of reproduction, translation, publication, and handling. Today's Bible business inundates the market with new, unprecedented versions in a variety of translations, layouts, and material forms. The Bible is losing its set-apartness. What we are witnessing is the disappearance of "the Bible" as a cultural icon, the literal Word of God, The Book. It's the end of the Word as we know it. And I feel fine. Indeed, I argue that this spending down of the Bible's sacred capital and the ensuing dilution of its cultural meaning is symptomatic of a larger phenomenon: the end of print culture. Like all endings, this one is also rich with potential beginnings. "After theory," there has been a trend toward cultural history. Cultural histories of the Bible concern themselves with exploring ways that Bibles, biblical themes and images, and the very idea of "the Bible" have taken different forms and meanings in different cultural contexts. Good cultural history is post-theoretical only in the sense that it always thinks through theory, in two senses: first, in that theorizing is the means by which we critically analyze the construction of cultural meanings; and second, in that we continue to think through canons of critical theory, which provide us with common frames for interpretation and analysis.


"Justice Enacted Not These Human Laws" (Antigone): Religion, Natural Law, and Women's Rights
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Christian Beattie, Roehampton University

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Greek Variable Syntax as Signals of Discourse Meaning
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Mark Beatty, Hawaii Theological Seminary

By applying an autonomous syntactic theory to Biblical Greek, one is able to recognize alternative patterns for various phrasal structures between which a Biblical author can choose. The pattern of choices any Biblical author makes provides insight into meaning at a discourse level. This study will primarily focus on the Epistle to the Hebrews but the theories will be checked on other texts for universality.


The Babylonian Roots of the Motif of the Fiery Furnace in Daniel 3
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Paul-Alain Beaulieu, University of Toronto

This paper argues for a Babylonian origin of the motif of punishment by fire for crimes of impiety and its association with the function of the king as regulator of religious behavior. The paper also explores the reception and transformation of the motif in the Jeremiah and Daniel traditions.


The Magnificat among the Biblical Inset Psalms
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Scot Becker, University of Aberdeen

This paper will look at the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) in the light of the Jewish biblical literary form of 'psalm within narrative,' arguing that like the biblical inset hymns, a principal function of the Magnificat is to present the readers of the gospel with an opportunity to appropriate for themselves the themes in the surrounding narrative. In the case of Luke, this means the Magnificat is intended to function (among other ways) as a liturgical appropriation of the new work of God represented by the birth of Mary's child. To support this argument, we will take an extended look at the literary features of 1 Samuel 2 and Exodus 15, and a briefer look at features of other inset songs in the Hebrew Bible. Finally, we will turn our attention to the content of the Magnificat itself and the Lucan Infancy Narrative.


What’s for Dinner? Feasting and the Establishment of Order in the Baal Myth
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Daniel Belnap, University of Chicago

One of the overall purposes of the Baal Myth was to explain the order that existed within the pantheon and thus of Ugaritic society. Whether or not the myth depicts a change in that essential order as some suggest, or it recounts social changes within a generally accepted hierarchy according to present common consensus, the myth does demonstrate that an ordered divine world was ideal. Much of the myth, as explored above, is spent making sure that the proper social order is set in the divine realm. Throughout the text, Baal is the one who establishes or seeks to establish a stable order by which the cosmos may function properly. This aspect of Baal is represented in three ways. First, Baal possesses items that represent his power to establish and maintain order. Second, Baal possesses knowledge that others do not reflecting the cosmic scope of his abilities. Third, Baal possesses the concern to use the above two things to bring about the cosmic order necessary for proper life. All three of these are met in Baal’s presentation and concern with proper feasting in the divine society. It is at Baal’s feasts that we are introduced to Baal as host. His divine cup, concern with the improper feasts and the presentation of his own feasts that demonstrate his ability to provide for others, and it is in the original non-invitation to Mot to his feast that provides the ritual failure which he must reverse to demonstrate his mastery over the ritual forms. In each case, the feast is the mechanism for demonstrating the validity of Baal’s claim to kingship by stressing his desire for both physical and social order.


Devorah: A Hornet or a Honeybee? Disputes about Women’s Leadership in Rabbinic Literature
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Rachel Ben Dor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This paper explores various rabbinic sources regarding the public leadership roles of the biblical prophet Devorah. We will look at Devorah as a case study, observing the variety of opinions regarding women’s leadership and how the sages deal with this biblical story. The paper will reference the five categories that are mentioned in Joy Schroeder’s parallel work on early Christian interpretations of Deborah. For instance, on the issue of domestication of Devorah, one famous passage in the Babylon Talmud (Megillah 14), acknowledged that Devorah’s designation as “wife of Lappidoth” could be translated “woman of flame,” a potentially powerful epithet. Cleverly, the sages “domesticated” Devorah by explaining that this phrase referred to a womanly domestic role of making wicks for the Sanctuary. They praised her “flame” but at the same time safely channeled her efforts to the sacred sphere of the temple. As this Talmudic passage continues, the criticism toward Devorah become much more blatant. Rabbi Nachman, probably bothered by Devorah’s actions of summoning Barak to herself, uses her name as occasion to say, “There are two haughty women, and their names are hateful, one [Devorah] being called a hornet and the other [Huldah]a weasel.” Christian texts, on the other hand, tamed Deborah by allegorizing her as a “honeybee.” Judaism and Christianity had similar anxieties about women’s leadership but sometimes used different strategies to mitigate Devorah’s authority. Unlike Christian interpreters, some Jewish sages were critical of Barak himself for sharing his authority with a woman (Genesis Rabbah). Or with respect to Devorah’s judging “under the palm tree” they explain that this spot was chosen in order to avoid temptations posed by privacy, an issue not raised by Christians in this context. This review of rabbinic responses to Devorah reveals patterns of struggle regarding women’s leadership in Jewish and Christian literature.


Reading Hosea and Imagining God
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Ehud Ben Zvi, University of Alberta

Readers among whom and for whom the book of Hosea was composed construed and visited numerous (virtual) sites of "memory" located in their past and future. In fact, YHWH's speeches in the book are aimed at those who through their readings and the mental activity visit the worlds portrayed in the book. As they vicariously lived the reported events the readers repeatedly encountered and could not but notice one primary and consistent feature of YHWH, namely: YHWH is primarily a speaking deity. Through the use of comparisons, YHWH the speaking deity uses tropes to illustrate various aspects of the deity's self-characterization—for example, comparisons of YHWH to, a father, a husband, a number of animals (e.g., lion, leopard, bear), a tree, dew or to emphasize punishing or saving powers. Moreover, even as YHWH is characterized as a deity who speaks, from the Diety's and the readers' perspectives, YHWH speaks mainly about the relationship with Israel and associated dystopia (past) and utopia (future) matters. This characterization of YHWH as a speaker/communicator/teacher is consistent with the social and ideological worldview of the literati who wrote, read, and reread the book of Hosea and other prophetic books; furthermore, the characterization of YHWH has implications for understanding the social roles of the literati and the repertoire of prophetic books that evolved in ancient Yehud


Would Ancient Readers of the Books of Hosea or Micah be “Competent” to Read the Book of Jeremiah?
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Ehud Ben Zvi, University of Alberta

Since these books were read, reread and read to others by a shared social group, ancient Yehudite literati, the answer must be a clear “yes.” Beyond issues of shared cultural literacy and similar implied readerships, what follows from this answer? Among others, this paper examines how these considerations raise the matter of exploring, shaping and communicating the ideological horizons of a group from the level of a single book in which a multiplicity of viewpoints inform each other as the book is read and reread (as is the case in each of these prophetic books) to that of a multiplicity of voices, each reportedly associated with a different period in the past, and each of which includes multiple viewpoints. What does it do to the literati as a group that they express themselves and shape their ideological world and social memory (of a past and of a utopian future) in this manner? What does it do to their idea of what a prophetic book/YHWH’s word should be?


The Niphal and Hitpael in Typological Perspective
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Richard C. Benton, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The contrasting Niphal and Hitpael forms of the Biblical Hebrew root XB’, “hide,” in Genesis 3:8-10 present an opportunity to deepen our understanding of these two verbal forms. The author depicted the same action with two different verb forms, but his purpose for doing so remains obscure. Modern commentators do not comment extensively on this contrast, many reading a single meaning for the two verbs. Other Hebraists attempt to explain the distinction using a passive vs. reflexive contrast, but this explanation has been challenged. I propose here that the author of Gen 3:8-10 presents a single action from different situation aspects, signified by the Niphal/Hitpael contrast. Cross-linguistically we can see that languages contrast situation aspect in the passive voice. Situation aspect contrasts states, processes, and transitions. Voice and aspect interaction can be found in Spanish and Tagalog, for example, where one passive construction focuses on the ultimate state a passive subject enters into, while another brings the process preceding this state into relief. Biblical Hebrew similarly demonstrates this distinction broadly. We see this contrast in non-“hide” verbs (Leviticus 11:43 TM’, “defile”; Daniel 2:1-3 P‘M, “trouble”). These examples, like Genesis 3:8-10, present the same action in the Niphal and Hitpael in the same context. Nevertheless, the Niphal refers to the passive state, and the Hitpael to the passive process. Among “hide” verbs (Psalm 19:7 and Isaiah 45:15 STR; Leviticus 5:2-4 and Deuteronomy 22:1-4 ‘LM) we see that the same contrast holds. The Niphal and Hitpael in Genesis 3:8-10 thus distinguish between passive state and process, respectively. At first, Adam and his wife hear the voice of YHWH and go to hide—a Hitpael process. When YHWH asks Adam where he is, he replies that he is hidden, a Niphal referring to his current state.


The Afterlife of Atonement: “Sacrifice” as Cryptic Discourse
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Wes J. Bergen, Wichita State University

If we are going to read Leviticus at all, part of what we need to do is understand its ritual sections as discourse. The discourse of sacrifice extends from Leviticus to current American politics, heavily influenced by American apocalyptic language and images. This paper examines the link between ritual, apocalyptic, and political discourse through an analysis of the cryptic nature of each. In each case, the language hides more than it reveals. In each case, the language is not innocent, for it is cryptic also in its ties to death.


From Passion to Compassion: Intertextuality and Plot Expectation in Ruth
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Yitzhak Berger, Hunter College

Scholars have identified a range of biblical texts to which the author of Ruth appears to allude. Most prominent is the story of Judah and Tamar, which contains many striking parallels to Ruth. Yet few scholars evaluating the book of Ruth have seriously attempted to develop a theory of how the author consciously utilizes this earlier material. This is especially true of those employing reading strategies that steer clear of the question of authorial intent, and whose conception of intertextuality calls for the consideration of both conscious and unconscious textual and cultural influences on the writer and reader. One notable exception is Kirsten Nielsen, who suggests that the author of Ruth intended to provide a more attractive account of the origins of Judean royalty than the Tamar narrative. The book is thus seen as a response to the Tamar story, which transforms the memory of the Judean royal ancestry. Consistent with this view, the claim of the present study is that the Tamar parallels raise the expectation of Ruth's successful seduction of Boaz, an expectation that is thwarted by Ruth's critical deviation from Naomi's plot. The planned seduction is rather transformed into a wholesome, legal union; and the Davidic royalty emerges from a bloodline that is now cleansed of any promiscuous associations. The theme of contrast and transformation is borne out by a range of literary observations--primarily in chapter 3--that highlight the unrealized sexual encounter, and the attendant purity of Ruth's and Boaz's interactions. It is further argued that it is precisely a Moabite woman associated with Moab's promiscuous origins (witness the book's unmistakable allusion to the story of Lot's daughters) who breaks free of such associations, and serves as the ideal candidate to enact a similar transformation of the royal lineage of Judah.


A Foreign Policy in Christ? Assessing Claims that the Bible Influences American Statecraft
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jacques Berlinerblau, Georgetown University

A recurring criticism of the Bush administration’s Middle East foreign policy is that it is influenced by the President’s biblically based Evangelical worldviews. The charge, long made by journalists, pundits and bloggers on the Left, has recently received its most thorough rehearsal in Kevin Phillips’, American Theocracy: The Perils and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century. Starting with a review of the “religious turn” in American thinking about international relations stimulated by 9/11, this lecture seeks to identify the biblical sources which inform the theological idea of “premillennial dispensationalism.” From there it is asked if “PD” really does play a role in the way that the President and Conservative Christians think about the Middle East? To what degree can it be said that readings of Scripture impact upon the way the current administration crafts foreign policy? And finally, to what degree is it desirable to factor biblical and/or religious beliefs of any variety into American statecraft?


Lamentations 1 as the Drama of Spiritual Rehabilitation
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Joshua Berman, Bar Ilan University

In his Lamentations commentary, Delbert Hillers speaks for a consensus within the scholarship that there is "no easily observable outline or logical progression of thought or action" in Lamentations 1. This paper seeks to provide a solution to this conundrum. Lamentations 1 should not be categorized as "dirge", or "lament." Rather, this poem needs to be construed as didactic in nature. As was the role of so many of the classical prophets of Israel, the speaker in Lamentations takes as his mandate the call to explain to his audience how they have misunderstood the events that have befallen them. In vv. 1-9b, the observer/narrator, speaking of Jerusalem in the third-person, lays out a series of propositions that address the questions that Jerusalem asks herself following the Destruction: Was the Destruction the doing of the enemy, or of God? Is the Destruction a sign of God's impotence? Has the covenant been permanently breached? From there to the end of the chapter we hear, in alternating fashion, Lady Jerusalem, speaking in the first person, and the narrator, speaking in the third person. The key is that Lady Jerusalem here is a fiction: unlike the real Jerusalem - too dazed and hurt to properly interpret what has happened - the "Lady Jerusalem" that our author has created is a model whom he wishes the real Jerusalem to emulate. The paper will demonstrate how the cries to the Lord of Lady Jerusalem from v. 9c until the end of the chapter represent a progressively stronger sense of identification between Lady Jerusalem and the program laid out by the narrator in vv. 1-9b. In vv. 9c-22, the narrator's third-person utterances aim to both comfort lady Jerusalem and encourage her to the next steps of internalizing the lessons of the Destruction, and achieve her spiritual rehabilitation.


The Rhetorical Purpose of Aramaic Narrative in Ezra 4:8–6:18
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Joshua Berman, Bar Ilan University

The presence of Aramaic narrative in Ezra iv-vi has long posed a conundrum for scholars of Ezra-Nehemiah. While the Aramaic pericope is often thought of as a collation of official documents with a few lines of narrative connection, the narrative portions, including, significantly, its conclusion, make up more than one-third of its verses. Bill Arnold maintains that the Aramaic sections are related to the reader from “an external point of view.” This is supported by the fact that the Aramaic narrator — and not only the documents he cites — speaks in a fashion that is alien to the discourse of the Hebrew sections of Ezra-Nehemiah. The Aramaic pericope is distinguished from the Hebrew sections of Ezra in its references to: i) God; ii) the Jews; iii) the Temple; iv) the Law. In this paper I advance the thesis and propose that the point of view of the section is that of a Samarian scribe. This accords with the use of adversarial gentile point of view elsewhere in Scripture, where this is often employed with two concurrent goals in mind: first, to underscore the spiritual obtuseness of the Israelite protagonist by demonstrating that even the gentile has grasped a spiritual reality that he has not. Second, to pare down to size the often intimidating gentile enemy by giving voice to his own insecurities in the face of the Almighty. These are the two aims that the author seeks to achieve by “handing over the microphone” to his Aramaic narrator who tells of the slanderous letters written by Rehum during the reign of Artaxerxes, and of Tattenai during the reign of Darius. It is through hearing testimonial of the adversarial Samarian narrator that the Jews of Achaemenid Judah will learn that their adversaries are, indeed, a force that can be met and overcome.


Three Ways of Interpreting the Bible at Qumran
Program Unit: Qumran
Moshe J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University

The Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Natural History includes three manuscripts whose primary focus is the interpretation of the Bible: 4QPesher Isaiah b, 4QGenesis Commentary A, and 11QTargum of Job. This paper will use these texts to characterize the multiple dimensions of biblical interpretation at Qumran.


Jewish Exegetical Freedom in Antiquity: The Example of the Fate of the Canaanites in Philo's Hypothetica and the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Katell Berthelot, National Center for Scientific Research

In a treatise thought to be one of Philo's latest and most apologetic works, the Hypothetica (in Eusebius, Praep. Ev. 8.6.5-8), the Alexandrian exegete suggests that when the Hebrews reached the Promised Land, the Canaanites, motivated by awe of Moses and his laws, in all likelihood surrendered their lands to them freely. In a comparable way the Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael, one of the earliest halakhic midrashim, refers to the possibility that some of the Canaanites recognized the election of Israel, willingly abandoning the land in favour of the Hebrews. Comparative analysis of Philo?s text and the MRI (which will itself be set alongside a similar account in the Tosefta and a differing version in the Talmud Yerushalmi) will help us understand both the exegetical strategies involved in so surprising a re-writing of Biblical history and what motivated these ancient Jewish writers. I will try to show that a dependance of the MRI on Philo is highly unlikely, whilst investigating what may have been the original historical context of the tradition preserved in the MRI.


The Codex Tchacos as “Collection”
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Hans-Gebhard Bethge, Humboldt University

In this contribution we examine the Codex Tchacos (CT) as a whole (as far as the state of preservation allows us to do so). Our research focuses on semantic and thematic links between the four main texts (Ep.Pet.Phil., 1Apoc. Jas., Gos.Jud., “Allogenes”). A study of the agreements and divergences between the texts that are attested in CT and in Nag Hammadi contributes to the establishment of the characteristics of the CT. We think this is not an arbitrary gathering of Gnostic writings, but an intended “collection” which has its specific goals and interests. Some of the common themes of the CT writings are e.g. the descent and ascent of the Saviour and the human (Gnostic) souls, the power of the archons and the way to get passed them. These are, of course, common Gnostic themes, but they seem to be presented in coherent context in CT. We think the CT is a “collection” of chosen texts which have been consciously put together.


Postexilic Judaism and a Silent Persian Crown: Did the Satrapy System Usurp Central Persian Authority? Unraveling the Judean-State Dilemma in the Post-Nehemiah 12 Period
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Harold Betton, New Light Baptist Church

The Biblical record sustains the fact that the emancipated Judean state faced many hurdles in its postexilic formation and provides evidence that the surrounding Satraps directly interfered with its state formation. No longer could one posit an amphictyony; the people were one and the Temple, their focal point, represented evidence of statehood. The record reflects conflict which retarded the Temple's construction for a period of sixteen years necessitating the prophecy of Haggai, and Zechariah. The temple's ultimate completion under Zerubbabel and Joshua, despite its accomplishment, did not eliminate political confusion. Confusion came under control during Nehemiah's first tour of duty. Judean statehood was well under way through Nehemiah's first stay and statehood dedication (Nehemiah 1-12). It is what Nehemiah found upon his return (Chapter 13:1ff) that serves as the basis of this paper's question. The solution to this question requires the answer to three questions: Did the Satraps usurp the crown's authority? Was the Persian crown preoccupied with more urgent matters than those which affected an emancipated people? Did Nehemiah return with new powers previously not held before his first departure? The answers to these questions require an in-depth investigation into two issues: 1. Did the Satrapy system change - giving them more independence in operating their provinces? 2. Did Nehemiah inform the Crown of his observations and return not only with new orders, but also under a different Satrapy system? This hermaneutical exercise provides the sitz im leben for the Nehemian restoration narrative (Chapter 13) - information unsupplied in the Biblical text but directly bears upon it.


The Sensory Safari and the Ethics of Reading
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Arnold Betz, University of Toledo

The proposal comes out of a recent service learning experience with an introductory Hebrew Bible class. In my introductory biblical studies courses, students learn about the multifaceted nature of biblical texts and how we as readers need to be sensitive to a multiplicity of readings. Students tend to come into my courses with the notion that biblical texts have one meaning and any reading that does not conform to that meaning is false. The Sensory Safari is an annual event that takes place at the Children’s Zoo in Lincoln, Nebraska. On this day the zoo is turned into an environment in which visually impaired children and adults can experience and learn about wildlife. Many of the visually impaired guests have been coming to the event for years and have become wildlife experts though they have not actually experienced wildlife in the same way that people who see experience it. For the service learning project, students served as guides for the visually impaired as they experienced the wildlife. Students spoke with visually impaired guests and where astounded as to how much they knew even though most had never seen wildlife with their eyes. After the service learning experience, students wrote essays on the multifaceted nature of a given text from the Hebrew Bible. Students commented on how they never realized that someone could have such a different perception of the same wildlife that we all take for granted. In the same way, we as readers of texts have different perceptions of what we read and where we find meaning. The proposed paper will explore and expand on issues pertaining to service learning and biblical studies especially as it pertains to the ethics of reading.


The "Rhetoric of Catechesis" in Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Francois Beyrouti, Saint Paul University

I will focus on how Origen approaches the Biblical text with the goal of addressing his audience through a "rhetoric of catechesis." This study will consider the importance and role of the audience in his approach and look particularly at the effect of this “rhetoric of catechesis” in implicating the audience.


Differentiating Elijah: A Study of 1 Kings 19
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Beth Bidlack, University of Chicago

As a Unitarian Universalist trained in biblical studies, I became very interested in “psychological” approaches to the Bible while completing a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. During CPE, I found that members of my peer group did not share the same assumptions about the Bible. Using psychological approaches I was able to talk about the biblical texts not only with my CPE peer group, but also with hospital patients, nursing home residents, and members of my denomination. In this paper I will illustrate one example of such an approach by discussing the biblical character Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and the concept of differentiation. Within the Elijah cycle, at times Elijah embraces the Mosaic prophetic traditions, whereas at other times, he differentiates himself from it.


Olympia Brown: Reading the Bible as a Universalist Minister and Pragmatic Suffragette
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Beth Bidlack, University of Chicago

Olympia Brown (1835-1926), who was ordained a Universalist minister in 1863, understood the Bible through the lenses of the Universalist theology of Hosea Ballou and her own educational experiences. Combining Universalism and Pragmatism, she became a leader of the women’s suffrage movement and a pioneer in theological education for women. Drawing on her autobiography and selected sermons and speeches, this paper outlines how Universalism and her education at the “orthodox” Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and at the more progressive Antioch College and St. Lawrence University influenced her use of the Bible in the struggle for the emancipation of women.


Beyond the Dichotomy between Myth and History
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Kune Biezeveld, Leiden University

The contrast between myth and history belongs to the period in which ‘history’ was the dominant paradigm for reading the OT texts. Being the exponent of this period, Gerhard von Rad both saw the Old Testament as a ‘history book’ and considered the rejection of a mythical mindset as one of the distinguishing drives in the biblical religion. In current OT theology other paradigms have come up, occasioning a change in the valuation of myth(s) in biblical studies. Myths can now be seen as filling the gaps in biblical texts which were overlooked by the focus on history, or as an incentive to rebalance a lopsided theological structure. Wisdom texts and ‘theologies of creation’ are being brought in as a medium for this rebalancing and correction. Going a step further I would like to question the dichotomy between myth and history itself. Is not the very distinction a modern concept projected into ancient texts? As Wyatt says, Heilsgeschichte could be labelled as a myth itself. At the same time, however, Wyatt himself sticks to the dichotomy by blaming biblical scholars for holding on to the connection between history and ‘reality’. In my opinion, also in biblical studies, history is a concept too complex to be seen in the light of ‘what really happened’. In the end I want to argue that a possible dissolving of the dichotomy between myth and history may not imply dissolving any differentiation in terms of god-talk. In some contexts, as Von Rad came to discover, ‘history’ could be the only medium to express the meaning of a myth. That is to say, in some contexts only the story of a divine actor in interaction with ‘reality’ could make sense.


After the Eagleton Has Landed: Assessing an Encounter between Biblical Studies and Critical Theories of Interpretation
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Jennifer Bird, Vanderbilt University

Terry Eagleton’s popularly flippant critique of cultural theory, in his infamous After Theory, has caught the critical eye of scholars across academic fields. The “After” of his title implies, among other things, that there is an academic practice that has clearly drawn to a close (or at least that it should). On the contrary, we suggest that it is only getting started, particularly in biblical studies. Despite his title and some of his vacillating arguments, Eagleton’s critique is mostly leveled at what he labels “high theory.” This move indicates that the issue is not whether to use theory but how and which theories are proper to use. Biblical scholars should be especially invested in this set of questions, since it provides a useful opportunity to critique and redeploy the theoretical claims made by others. Eagleton’s text proves relevant not as a guide, then, but as symptomatic of the encounters with critical theories of interpretation that occur in and outside of biblical studies. One can too easily find echoes of Eagleton’s cooptation, minimization, and erasure of the contributions of feminist, postcolonial, and queer theory in most biblical scholarship. Though he alludes to biblical and classical sources in his arguments, his lack of attention to the patriarchal and dominating ideologies of these “foundations” repeat some of the more problematic tendencies of biblical interpretation. Thus, this engagement can show how Eagleton and biblical scholars should be in no rush to declare a death, demerit, or disinterest in these theoretical approaches; rather, it might demonstrate the ongoing relevance of and need for biblical scholars and critical theorists to engage each other’s work.


The Faith of Jesus Christ: Problems and Prospects
Program Unit:
Michael Bird, Highland Theological College

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"Obeah Man Come Back": Reflections on the Bible, Bahamians, and the "Evil Other"
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Fiona Black, Mount Allison University

This paper uses several biblical texts as a lens through which to explore the development of obeah in the Bahamas and its subsequent marginalization by colonial powers. The Bible is used by obeah practitioners in the performance of “fixes,” and as an authentication of practitioners. Two psalms, 109 and 110, in particular, provide an intriguing example of the influence of biblical/colonial religion on African traditions imported into the Bahamas by slavery and slavery-induced immigration. More than merely evidence of syncretism, however, the psalms operate intriguingly both to undermine colonial religion in their employment in white magic—as religion on the margins—and, unexpectedly, to support the colonizer—as imprecations against the (king’s) “enemy” and avowals of imperial power. Now, the ambiguous presence of the Bible in obeah’s midst might be of little consequence, were it not for the dangerous erosion of Bahamian culture in the present and the Bahamas’ modification from a self-sufficient nation to second-time colony. This time, the colonizer is no longer Britain, but the US, whose dollars urge the Bahamian government to press its citizens into the service of a new kind of slavery-through-tourism. Obeah, quietly existing on the country’s margins may soon clash with the colonizer anew, especially as American interests look for new, uncharted territory. In all this, the paper wonders about the connections between imperialism (old and new) and biblical religion (illicit and licit), which functions both as target and tool of the Bahamian government’s new found, economically-motivated self-discipline. It asks, further, whether the Bible in the context of Bahamian slaveries, past and present, might be a text that teaches, that is, a “pedagogy of crossing” (Alexander).


One Really Striking Minor Agreement: "tis estin ho paisas se" in Matthew 26:68 and Luke 22:64
Program Unit: Q
Steve Black, Toronto School of Theology

“Q” stands or falls with the defensibility of two convictions; the priority of Mark and the independent redaction of Mark by Luke and Matthew. If it can be demonstrated that Luke used Matthew then the Q-hypothesis becomes redundant, and this is exactly what “minor agreements” threaten to do. Matthew 26:68-Luke 22:64(-Mark 14:65) is the most difficult of the minor agreements. Some advocates of the two-source theory have addressed this minor agreement by trying to make sense of the narrative as we have it, and others by making sense of the text as we have it (arguing for textual corruption or lost recensions). While some of these arguments are reasonable enough, in the final analysis they are not satisfying. This paper will argue that while Farmer’s interpretation is also not satisfying, the interpretations offered by Goulder-Goodacre achieves a greater level of success. If this minor agreement were the only piece of evidence allowed into consideration (fortunately for those who hold to the two-source theory it is not), we would likely conclude that Goulder was correct and abandon the two-source theory. Considered by itself, this minor agreement will offer no comfort for the two-source theory, and it might be exactly this lack of comfort that can serve to remind us of the exact nature of our endeavor, and its uncertainties and limitations. The actual events that went towards the agreement of Matthew 26:68 and Luke 22:64 against Mark 14:65 are lost in the sands of time and will most likely never be recovered, leaving us with conjecture. Although we might remain persuaded that the two-source theory best integrates the data relating to the synoptic problem, this minor agreement reminds us that the synoptic problem is still a problem, and that all “solutions” proposed are provisional, including the two-source theory.


The New Testament and Hellenistic Anthropology: The Future of a Modern Paradigm
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Ward Blanton, University of Glasgow

This presentation will consider the modern history of the topic, "Paul and Hellenistic anthropology," providing a sketch of the cultural and intellectual factors that shaped this topic over time. As a conclusion to this brief history of interpretation, I will articulate several of the implications for future research on the New Testament and Hellenistic anthropology that seem clear to me from this understanding of our modern past.


Laughter in the Book of Job?
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Adrien J. Bledstein, Chicago, IL

The tragedy of an innocent person suffering is no laughing matter. But dramatic treatment of a horrific subject which concludes with the sufferer laughing out loud could be cathartic for an audience. This paper treats the book of Job as a whole work of art. After traumas of losing his children, servants, animals, physical well-being, and community, Job maintains his integrity. While his friends condemn him, he questions the belief that anyone who suffers must have done something wrong. Job anticipates he will be vindicated by God. But Divine revelation ignores Job’s question of justice and challenges Job to respond to a grand-eloquent description of powers quite beyond human experience. Translators and commentators have interpreted Job’s response (42:6) in three ways by filling in the ellipsis. Job repents, that is humbly acknowledges he is wrong about something, even though YHWH states Job is innocent. Job rebels, that is rejects God. Or Job despises his lost wealth and comforts himself for loss of his children. Reading Job as tragicomedy offers an alternative. I propose that Job’s response to Divine revelation is just what YHWH intended for a favorite who is tested, laughter at the incongruity between what Job expected and Divine prodding. Appreciation of ancient Hebrew wit allows us to view heaven and earth, to identify with the anguish of an uncorrupted person, to explore arguments without an answer as to why innocent people suffer. Job’s community gathers to comfort him “for all the misfortune that YHWH had brought upon him” (42:11), so Job, more prosperous than at the beginning of the tale, dies “old and full of days.” (42:17) Acknowledging misery, this paper will show how the book of Job is intended to evoke relief. Cathartic laughter is healing.


The Transformation of Royal Ideology in Ezekiel
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Daniel I. Block, Wheaton College

Included in Ezekiel’s arsenal of rhetorical strategies is a creative reuse of older textual and traditional materials. This paper will explore Ezekiel's attitudes toward the monarchy and his vision of the monarchy's future, stressing the manner in which he takes traditional materials and transforms them, often yielding surprising, if not shocking, results. The paper will conclude with reflections on issues relating to Old Testament intertextuality in general.


How to Determine Scopes of Literary Works in Genesis to Kings
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Erhard Blum, University of Tübingen

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"Uttering Precious Rather than Worthless Words:" Divine Patience and Impatience with Lament in the Prophetic Corpus
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Mark J. Boda, McMaster University

The voice of lament and supplication appears at various points within the prophetic corpus. Many have argued that this is evidence that the cry of the individual or community played an important role in the genesis of prophecy on the oral level, especially in relation to temple liturgies both on the individual and community levels. However, the preservation of such cries in the literary forms of prophecy invites closer attention to the rhetorical role they play within written prophecy. This study investigates several examples of voices of lament and prayer which punctuate the major corpora of the Hebrew prophetic collection (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve) to reveal varying degrees of acceptance and rejection of such voices in the literary shape of these books.


Problems of the Deuteronomist’s Poetics: David, Saul, and an Allegory of the Cave
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Keith Bodner, Atlantic Baptist University

This paper explores an interaction between David and Saul from a Bakhtinian perspective. During David’s long period as a fugitive in the wilderness, direct confrontation between the king and his son-in-law has been avoided. The events of 1 Samuel 24 report a extraordinary change, as Saul and David come face to face (in rather embarrassing circumstances, it must be said), and have their longest conversation thus far in the story. This tête-à-tête is the focal point of the chapter, with significant speeches from both major characters. David will speak first, and the reader is impressed with a subtle political genius in this public discourse of David. There is both scatology and eschatology in this chapter; that is, after the awkward lavatory moment, the future (and the destinies of two houses) is a central topic of discussion. I will further discuss how Bakhtin’s notion of the “hero” may contribute to an understanding of this chapter.


Marxism and Masculinities
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Roland T. Boer, Monash University

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Reading for Life: Utilizing Postcolonial Criticism in Queer Hermeneutics
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Thomas Bohache, Episcopal Divinity School

In the last several decades “postcolonialism” has become an area of intense study, as peoples and countries historically infiltrated and overseen by dominant foreign countries have begun to ask questions about how their own cultures have been affected or supplanted by the culture of foreign powers. Postcolonial studies recognizes that counter-colonial movements develop writings which are designed to defy, erode, and supplant the hegemony of foreign dominants and seeks to dismantle the “us vs. them” binarisms of colonial discourse; this mode of counter-resistance through language and literature has been termed “writing back.” It is ironic that the quintessential text used to authorize imperialism was “the European Book,” that is, the Bible, inasmuch as the biblical texts were composed as a sort of writing back by those under the sway of Empire. Therefore, postcolonial biblical interpretation has become an extremely important area of interest within both postcolonial and biblical studies. LGBTQ biblical interpreters should familiarize ourselves with the tools of postcolonial interpretation because postcolonialism can inform us in how to live against the dominant script of heteronormativity which this presenter calls "heterocolonialism," a phenomenon which has directed all of our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and customs toward compulsory heterosexuality from the moment of our birth, when we were assigned a gender. By learning from postcolonial biblical interpreters, we are able to approach the biblical text anew and do our own writing back in order to queer texts that have been used indiscriminately by heterosexist hermeneutics.


"So, Brothers": Pauline Use of the Vocative
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Sean Boisen, Logos Research Systems

Use of the vocative by New Testament writers represents a pragmatic choice, yet there is little understanding of what motivates its use, or of its exegetical value. Most descriptions cast it as a structural marker of discourse units, corresponding to paragraph boundaries. However, many vocatives in the Greek New Testament text occur within paragraphs, calling the traditional account into question. This paper will review previous work on vocative use in the Greek New Testament, and briefly describe its discourse function based on its similarity to pragmatic markers in other languages. Representative examples from the Pauline corpus will be examined to demonstrate the exegetical value of careful attention to vocative use.


Integrating Greek and English Digital Resources
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Sean Boisen, Logos Research Systems

Common corpora and data standards help advance research, by providing a shared focus for researchers and elevating the baseline from which investigation begins. Several digital resources specifically designed for GNT study (for example, the Louw-Nida lexicon, the OpenText.org Syntactically Analyzed Greek New Testament, and the ESV English-Greek reverse interlinear) can be usefully integrated with other English resources and corpora to provide benefit to English-speaking Bible students as well. Examples include WordNet (a semantic lexicon), PropBank (a corpus annotated with verbal propositions and their arguments), and FrameNet (corpus-supported semantic "frames" for concepts). The resulting hybrids may also be more broadly useful for the study of other Hellenistic corpora, and may point toward the development of new resources for Biblical scholarship. This paper will briefly overview some of these digital resources, and describe ongoing work at Logos Research Systems to integrate them. The paper will also propose several practical steps to facilitate greater integration of resources from the community of biblical scholars with those from the computational linguistics community.


Revisiting Qohelet and the Greeks
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Thomas M. Bolin, Saint Norbert College

This paper revisits the question of whether the Book of Ecclesiastes bears any traces of contact with Greek speculative thought. While such a viewpoint was popular among scholars in the 19th Century, most commentators prefer to situate Ecclesiastes exclusively within the Ancient Near Eastern tradition. This paper argues that there need not be an either-or dichotomy to the question of cultural influences in Ecclesiastes and, using the carefully argued work of scholars such as W. Burkert, M. West and C. Penglase on Aegean-Near Eastern contacts, makes a case that Qohelet exhibits thematic and structural similarities to the extant works of pre-Socratic thinkers.


At the Court of the High Priest: History and Theology in John 18:13–24
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Helen K. Bond, University of Edinburgh

In contrast to the rest of his gospel, John’s account of Jesus’ Jewish interrogation in 18.13-24 is often regarded as historical. There are several reasons for this: (1) the legal difficulties with the Jewish trial in the synoptics, (2) John’s apparently straightforward account of events, (3) the superfluous nature of any kind of trial at this point, (4) the presence in John of several authentic-sounding details: the prominence of the high priestly office, the presence of Annas, the marital link between Annas and Caiaphas, the association of the high priest and prophecy, and the absence of a formal Sanhedrin, (5) the presence of ‘the other disciple,’ and (6) the apparent lack of theology in this section. But how strong are these arguments? I wish to challenge (6) in particular, and to argue that this scene is highly theological. John characteristically reduces groups of characters to one figure (contrast Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb with the women of the synoptics). And, in a gospel which continually juxtaposes Jesus alongside Jewish feasts and institutions, we should hardly be surprised that the evangelist brings Jesus face to face with the supreme representative of ‘the Jews’ at this climactic point (whether the high priest is Annas or Caiaphas here, I suggest, is perhaps deliberately ambiguous; John is interested in the office rather than its incumbent). Jesus speaks with dignity and majesty, echoing the voice of God/Wisdom while the high priest seems almost visibly to disappear (whatever happened before Caiaphas, ‘the high priest that year’ in 18.24 is not even worthy of mention). For John, the role of high priest – like every other institution of ‘the Jews’ - has been transcended and superseded by Jesus. Once the theological tendencies of the scene are recognised, several supposedly ‘historical’ details become much more problematic.


The Envisioning of the Land in the Priestly Material: Fulfilled Promise or Future Hope?
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Suzanne Boorer, Murdoch University

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Concepts of Scripture in 1 Maccabees
Program Unit: Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
Francis Borchardt, University of Helsinki

On a number of occassions in 1 Maccabees different parts of the scriptures are quoted and referenced. However, of particular interest are 5-6 occassions whereing special titles are given to the scriptures or parts of them. This paper examines how the author of 1Maccabees defines and regards the texts referenced. It also seeks to draw broader conclusions on how wide-spread the concepts of bible in 1 Maccabees could have been.


The Scriptures and the Words and Works of Jesus
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Peder Borgen, University of Trondheim

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The Bible on the Battlefield
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
David A. Bosworth, Barry University

The US military has become increasingly characterized by an evangelical Christian ethos. This religious influence has paralleled the rise of evangelical Christianity in American society generally. Religiosity in the armed forces may be cause for concern. A recent Air Force Academy scandal exposed religious coercion of non-Christian students by superior officers. However, some credit Christian influence with ending disciplinary problems of the Vietnam era. The present paper will briefly review the recent rise of Christian influence in the US military and the problems it has raised. The focus, however, will be on how selected biblical texts have been used in military contexts. These include military religious services (involving chaplains) as well as uses of Scripture within non-religious military contexts. These uses of Scriptural texts range from a chaplain presenting US Marines entering Fallujah as similar to Jesus entering Jerusalem to an eloquent plea from an intelligence officer to refrain from torturing prisoners (citing Psalm 24:3-5).


Did King David Read Machiavelli?
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
David A. Bosworth, Barry University

With few exceptions, Machiavelli studiously avoids drawing on biblical examples to illustrate his claims about effective leadership. The paper will ask whether 1–2 Samuel provides material illustrating Machiavelli’s points (especially from The Prince, chaps. 15–19). Modern scholarship has understood the books of Samuel as propaganda and King David as an ambitious Machiavellian leader. This reconstruction of David is sometimes overly cynical and posits a potentially false dichotomy between piety and realpolitik. However, the traditional reading of David as a pious hero treats the text as simplistic didactic literature and glosses over contrary indications in the text. As political literature, 1–2 Samuel may provide a nuanced response to Machiavelli. Although the paper will include material relevant to imagining the historical David, the focus will be on the biblical text (in dialogue with Machiavelli) and what it communicates about political leadership.


The Quotidian of Mythology: Aspects of Place and Visual Environment in Redescribing Greco-Roman Antiquity
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Pieter J. J. Botha, University of South Africa

Two areas of the material world of the early Roman empire typically do not feature in descriptions of “religious experience”: Roman art and the Roman house. Both aspects are intricately saturated with myths and mythmaking. Consequently, an argument can be presented that the Roman domus is about more than simply private life. The remains of houses from the Empire are a major resource for investigating how people living within the Roman world thought of themselves and how they communicated this self-image to the world. Secondly, against the backdrop of the epochal transformations — both in the structure of society and in the individual’s relation to that structure — that mark the history of the Roman empire, the changes in the functions of art need consideration. The suggestion is to have a look at Roman art as both a key to, and reflection of Roman syncretism, and to relate a cultural phenomenon which brought together an extraordinary variety of races, nations, art forms, styles and cults in romanitas. It seems that we still underestimate how much “secular” space was determined by evocations of the sacred. In order to emphasise and manage such interrelatedness a reduction of historical scale to the description and understanding of everyday life and its multiformed ways of storytelling is required. This shift of focus is an attempt to transcend a sharp dichotomy opposing objective, material, structural, or institutional factors to subjective, cultural, symbolic, or emotional ones. It is an expression of the effort to join the historical, anthropological and sociological disciplines which have sharpened their focus towards the micro-scale by considering stories (myths) in action, storytelling not necessarily by means of formal literacy.


Looking for Some Satisfaction: Egyptian Antecedents of ybbl by+
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Alejandro F. Botta, Boston University

The attribution of the satisfaction clause (“my heart is satisfied,” Aramaic ybbl by+ Demotic HAty=i mtr.w) to Mesopotamian origins (Y. Muffs 1969) is one of the cornerstones of a remarkable consensus among scholars regarding the Mesopotamian origin of the legal formulary of the Aramaic documents from Elephantine. This paper, part of an ongoing comprehensive study of Aramaic and Egyptian legal formulae, takes into consideration methodological issues regarding the process of ascribing legal formulae to the Aramaic, the Mesopotamian, or the Egyptian legal tradition and then proceed to identify the semantic and functional equivalents of the satisfaction clause within the Egyptian legal tradition. Evidence from the Persian Period is used to understand the Egyptian background and hitherto unnoticed examples of Egyptian antecedents of the Aramaic and Demotic satisfaction clause from the New Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, First Intermediate Period, and Old Kingdom are also introduced. Previous evidence presented by R. Ritner (2002) is also further analyzed resulting in a more balanced picture of the origins and development of the Aramaic formula.


Shrinking the City: Private Chapels, Reserved Eucharists, and Ritual Miniaturization in the Sixth-Century East
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Kimberly Bowes, Fordham University

This paper addresses the intersection of individual versus civic ritual attested by sixth century private chapels and the practice of Eucharistic reservation. The chapels have been only cursorily studied and never subject to any contextual analysis. It will be suggested that in their sophisticated plans and elaborate liturgical furnishings, these small chapels mimicked the spaces of public basilicas. However, it is not always clear that these miniature churches were ever intended to enact the complex ceremonies they seemed designed to accommodate, for their ritual apparatus and ritual communities were likely too small too be truly ‘functional.’ The miniaturization of liturgical furnishings, does, however, draw particular attention to their form qua form, and thus to those forms’ imputed (but almost certainly unrealized) ritual ‘content.’ These tiny chapels thus point to the appropriation and possession of a holiness based in the civic sphere. The approximately contemporary texts point to similar attitudes. The practice of Eucharistic reservation became a means of tying individuals and families to their urban church and particularly, to their local bishop. The texts which attest to this practice describe a heightened tendency to view the eucharist as holy object – used to heal, to convert, to punish, and able to be dispatched to absent parishioners, even non-community members. The eucharist in these texts has become a miniature physical synecdoche for the bishop’s Eucharistic mass, and thus detachable from both church and community. Like the chapels, these texts describe the miniaturization of complex liturgies into physical, possessable form. The evidence of chapel and Eucharistic reservation thus describes a heretofore unexplored intersection of individual and civic Christian ceremony in which the civic was miniaturized for individual consumption and in so doing, was itself radically transformed.


Terminating Terminology
Program Unit: Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
James E. Bowley, Millsaps College

This period will include an open discussion of proposals for reforming the academic nomenclature for ancient Israelite and Jewish literatures in order to improve historical and conceptual accuracy for pre-canonical and pre-codex cultures.


Yahweh, A Lion against Zion: Isaiah 31:4–5
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Craig D. Bowman, Rochester College

The fact that so little has been written on Isaiah 31:4-9 is no indication that one ought to be content with the way it has been translated and interpreted. Nearly every commentator points out that this section is riddled with problems. However, the solutions offered do not solve the difficulties and are far from satisfying. In fact, the broad array of views in recent commentaries is more contradictory than the passage itself, resulting in even greater confusion for those turning there for helpful clarification and trying to follow the discussion. The unique juxtaposition of the two nature metaphors resulting in a collocational clash of imagery creates major interpretive difficulties. This study offers a reassessment of Isaiah 31:4-5 in its literary and theological contexts with specific reference to form-critical concerns, ancient Near Eastern iconography of growling lions and flying flocks of birds, the prophet’s innovative application of the Zion tradition, and finally, possible historical situation(s) for this oracle, which yield reasons why this text declares pictorially that Yahweh would first attack and then defend Jerusalem.


The Bible-Shaped Mirror: Biblical Women and Contemporary Culture in Recent Film
Program Unit:
Donna Bowman, University of Central Arkansas

The millennial boom in fiction based on biblical women (The Red Tent, The Gilded Chamber, Zipporah), was a harbinger of cultural things to come. As media conglomerates scrambled for the suddenly-powerful Christian dollar, some formed branches to create or obtain and market works specifically to the evangelical market, such as Fox Faith; others positioned themselves with religious franchises to win the trust of the churchgoing audience, such as Lionsgate's partnerships with Tyler Perry and Kirk Franklin, or Sony's backing of the Left Behind movies. The two trends have merged in one prominent stream of the new Christian movie machine: films based on women in the Bible. In order to reach a mass media audience and produce dramatic, accessible narratives, recent examples of the genre have relied on a tried-and-true communication strategy. Like painters who showed biblical figures in their own medieval costumes, films like The Nativity Story and One Night with the King have imagined their heroines as essentially modern figures, subject to familiar romantic, familial, and psychological pressures. Women make up a majority of the churchgoing population in the United States, and therefore can be expected to comprise a majority of the audience for the films being aimed squarely at that market. And women, media decision-makers believe, respond more strongly to stories in which they can empathize and identify as fully as possible with the characters. Hence, although the biblical women in these films dress authentically and move through meticulously researched environments, their thought processes and motivations are those that would be experienced by the twenty-first-century female viewer if she were transported back in time. Call it the Mel Gibson/Mark Lowry effect: The former created massive cinematic worlds where characters spoke in dead languages, yet related to each other with the intuitive, extralinguistic codes of post-Reformation theater; the latter wrote the lyrics to "Mary, Did You Know," the classic expression of the modern woman's psychological sisterhood with the first-century B.C.E. Jewish virgin. In this paper the promise and peril of this schizophrenic approach to Biblical storytelling is explored through the lens of The Nativity Story's Mary and One Night with the King's Esther, with support from other representations of Biblical women in film. The presentation argues that encouraging such identification can create powerful narratives, but that its use in film has the potential to relegate any strange or alien cultural element to the margins, downplaying the effort needed to understand the Biblical world and trivializing the gap between Biblical narrative and contemporary religious practice.


Rabbi Yoh-anan and Resh Lakish: On the Cultural Backgrounds of a Talmudic Story
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Daniel Boyarin, University of California-Berkeley

The story I am discussing here is about a latter-day Jacob and Esau pair. It thematizes what I shall try to show is a very ancient cultural problem of the tensions between intellectual/spiritual friendships and the claims of kinship and the ways that this problematic intersects (perhaps surprisingly) with the question of dialogical discourse. It thematizes, as well masculine heroism and especially dialectic as competition. It is a talmudic story (Baba Mes-ia 84a) that has oft been retold especially in recent years. Resh Lakish is a well-known Jewish brigand, sometime military hero, and pursuer of female flesh. On a certain occasion he observes from afar the paragon of male beauty and radiance, Rabbi Yoh-anan, bathing in the Jordan and swoops down upon this figure of sexual allure by vaulting on his lance. The manuscripts explicitly thematize the question of homonormativity and heternormativity by indicating that there was some ambiguity about the gender of that alluring figure in the eyes of his/her suitor. After some byplay involving the parallel and competition of the sexual life with the life of Torah-study, Rabbi Yoh-anan offers Resh Lakish the possibility of both: me for your friend, my sister for your wife. Although in the past I have read this story as the very exemplar of a Jewish privation of (or even opposition to) a Hellenistic culture monotonously imagined by me (or them), I want now to explore another, richer possibility, namely that the anecdote(including its bitter end which we will read presently) carries within itself a narrative of diaspora.


Echoes of the Septuagint in Byzantine Judaism
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Cameron Boyd-Taylor, University of Cambridge

In 1924 D. S. Blondheim (1884-1934) published an article in the Revue des Études Juives entitled ‘Échos du judéo-hellénisme’ in which he presented evidence for the continuous transmission of Greek Bible translations in Byzantine Judaism. “It is clear,” he wrote, “that Jewish scholars continued, from antiquity to our own time, in translating the Bible orally, to use expressions borrowed from the Septuagint and above all Aquila.” While Blondheim’s position has since found support in the work of John William Wevers, Kurt Treu, Natalio Fernández Marcos and Nicholas de Lange, a comprehensive study of the Byzantine evidence, much of which has only come to light recently, has yet to be undertaken. In June 2006, the University of Cambridge was granted funding to undertake a three-year research project under the direction of Nicholas de Lange aimed at gathering together evidence for the use of Greek Bible translations by Jews in the Middle Ages. My paper will draw upon selected documents within the corpus of the Cambridge project in order to establish the nature and degree of their relationship with the Greek versions of antiquity. Of particular interest is the extent to which continuing knowledge of the Septuagint can be demonstrated.


Christology, Violence, and Resurrection
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Joseph A. Bracken, Xavier University

In Suffering: A Test of Theological Method, Arthur McGill, Professor of Theology at Harvard in the 1960's, claimed that a culture of violence was all-pervasive in contemporary society. People were exposed to scenes of violence every day in and through newspapers, radio and television. Yet they failed to demand any changes in the casual acceptance of violence either out of indolence or fear of criticism. In response , McGill proposed a new reading of the Gospel narratives, focusing on the life and death of Jesus as one who refused to use violence even to defend himself but instead took on the self-sacrificing role of Good Samaritan to humanity. Christians, accordingly, must choose to which power they will in the end submit: the demonic power of control through domination of others or the divine power of self-giving love and service to others. In this paper, combining insights from McGill and my own recent book Christianity and Process Thought, I will argue that the demonic powers of which McGill speaks are a manifestation of a collective power of evil at work in the world which can only be effectively resisted by a collective power of good. The Incarnation, accordingly, took place to give new focus and impetus to this collective power of good. The passion of Jesus reveals the intensity of the struggle between inordinate self-interest and self-giving love at both individual and institutional levels of society. The Resurrection is the guarantee that self-giving love paradoxically prevails only after it has been apparently vanquished by the collective power of evil.


The Power of Anger: Tiptoeing Around Xerxes
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Robin Gallaher Branch, Crichton College

King Xerxes governs Persia and Media, the known world from Iran to India. But anger governs him. His mercurial anger flares (Est. 1:12; 7:7) and subsides (2:1; 7:10). He burns with rage at Vashti, his queen, when she disobeys his command. He deposes her. Aides tiptoe fearfully around him. When his anger cools, they suggest an empire-wide beauty pageant for Vashti’s replacement. This pleases the king (1:21). Esther, a lovely Jewish maiden, wins the favor of all who see her—including the king (2:9, 15, 17). Learning from her predecessor’s mistakes, she acts and speaks wisely. Key to her survival strategy amid deadly court intrigue is this phrase, “If it pleases the king” (5:4, 8; 7:3; 8:5; 9:13). Using a literary approach, this paper examines the extremes of anger and favor in the Book of Esther. It argues that Xerxes’ mood swings cease when Esther and her uncle, Mordecai, become his chief advisors (8:1-2). This ruler of 127 provinces begins to conquer his anger by learning simple tools of anger management. He listens to advice (8:3-10), finds that logic defeats anger, and redirects his angry energy toward something positive: working for the good of his kingdom (10:1-2a). Within the court of Xerxes, Esther the queen emerges as one who walks gracefully yet forcefully before the king. With quiet boldness she confronts anger, neutralizes it, and finds ways constructively to channel its powerful energy.


Written to Amaze and Astound: Watching the Johannine Trial as Greco-Roman Spectacle and Theater
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Jo-Ann A. Brant, Goshen College

In recent years, scholars have awoken to the realization that our methods of interpreting ancient text have ignored the fact that this material was published through oration and audition rather than solitary reading. With this realization comes a renewed interest in the material and social culture of the authors and those who first received these texts. In classical studies, the questions of how spectacles and theatrical performances define Greco-Roman societies and how these ephemeral events become art and literature have proven to be meaningful. This paper examines how Jesus is made to stand before the crowd that seeks to condemn him as a victorious hero in a parody of Roman justice -- enacted in events such as the munera (the gladiatorial games) -- in Pilate's contest with the Temple Authorities. I will draw upon scholarship on ekphrasis to examine how the presentation to the audience of the Gospel subverts the Roman parody of exoneration so that the audience becomes a witness to the evidence of Jesus’ exaltation. This paper fits into a case that I am building that the rhetoric of the Gospel is designed to arouse positive feelings such as the joy that Jesus tells them they will feel in his final discourse.


Agonistic Insults in the Fourth Gospel: Performance, Transgression, and Resistance
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Jo-Ann A. Brant, Goshen College

Many cultures formalize the exchange of insults into competitions with conventions that allow their audience to identify winners and losers. This paper examines the explicit and subtle insults and boasts in the debate about Jesus’ identity that runs through the Gospel of John. It contextualized Jesus’ rhetoric within an agonistic culture where the goal is not to define orthodoxy so much as to identify and applaud the hero. By comparing the volley of words to "flyting" in Northern European literature or "naqa'id" in Arabic poetry, the vaunting that precedes Homeric battles, and particularly “playing the dozens” or “sounding” in African American traditions, we can make better sense of Jesus’ insults as transgression of and resistance to Roman hegemony and our role as witness to the war with words.


From Loud Myth to Quiet Story? Transvaluations of Mark in the Second Century
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Willi Braun, University of Alberta

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The Rape of Babylon
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Kathleen Brennan, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

When taken as a literary whole, the oracles against Babylon in Jeremiah 50-51 may prove to be insightful as the use of feminine imagery is uncovered and a comparison with the oracles against Israel is conducted. In Angela Bauer-Levesque’s foundational work, Gender in the Book of Jeremiah, she endeavors to trace the female imagery that appears throughout the prophetic work. She is particularly interested in the way gender works in language, image and metaphor. It will be the function of this paper to lift up the feminine imagery throughout Jeremiah 50 and 51, to endeavor to understand God’s relationship to Babylon in its female personification and to compare these oracles with those against Israel found earlier in Jeremiah 4 and 6. The text of metaphorical sexual violence against women as it is read in Jeremiah can stand as a witness to those we may consider our enemies or unworthy of our concern. The metaphor need not be considered acceptable or an appropriate way to interpret God’s justice, but it does remind one that Babylon is a victim of rape and abuse. To ignore it or to abandon it would be to tacitly accept it. They place metaphorically in the biblical canon real women’s experiences and the atrocities of war which we cannot ignore. In their cries of pain, in the appalled stares of the ones who would look upon the disgraced, an image stands and makes a claim that her voice, daughter Babylon, daughter Jerusalem, real daughters of these cities, will be heard. Perhaps we who witness would cry out for justice all the more and end the violence against women, both in the perpetuation of violent metaphors and the real violence perpetrated against women of every time and place.


Tikva Frymer-Kensky's Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism: An Assessment
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Athalya Brenner, University of Amsterdam

Studies in Bible and Feminist Criticism is a selected collection of essays by Frymer-Kensky that have been first published in the last three decades. As such, and together with her "Introduction: A Retrospective," it maps the author's multifaceted career as a Bible scholar. This panelist will attempt to follow this map and assess several of the contributions made to the field by the late and lamented Frymer-Kensky.


Aural Design and Coherence in the Prologue of First John
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Jeffrey E. Brickle, Concordia Seminary

Following a modernistic hermeneutic that approaches texts from a literary perspective, studies treating the Prologue of 1 John have often drawn negative conclusions regarding its involved structure and grammatical complexity. While some scholars have demonstrated awareness of the passage’s organization, none have attempted to fully exploit the Prologue from the standpoint of its inherent aural characteristics, reflecting a first-century culture oriented towards reciting and hearing texts. This paper proposes that an investigation of the Prologue of 1 John from the standpoint of aural patterning will illuminate its overall design and coherence. The approach proposed by Chrys Caragounis for pronouncing ancient Greek will serve as a test case for how the Prologue could have sounded to its original audience. Employing techniques of “sound mapping” pioneered by Bernard Brandon Scott and Margaret Dean, as well as principles of euphony described in antiquity by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the text’s aural profile is probed for its inherent aural features.


Ideologies of Work and Slave Labor: Does Gender Make a Difference?
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Sheila Briggs, University of Southern California

The question of why industrial technology was not developed and implemented in the ancient economy leads to an investigation of how cultural beliefs become enacted in material existence. This paper asks whether gender as both a sociocultural construction and material practice influenced technology in antiquity and whether Christianity reshaped ideologies of work with significant implications for later economies and their technological base.


Columns 7 and 8 of the Anonymous Parmenides Commentary
Program Unit: Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic, and Patristic Reception
Luc Brisson, National Scientific Research Center, Paris

A discussion of the Anonymous Commentary's understanding of the relations between the One and time.


“Mnemohistory” and Biblical Covenant Curses
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Brian M. Britt, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

One of the most fruitful uses of Freud’s Moses and Monotheism is Jan Assmann’s notion of “mnemohistory,” the history of memory. For Assmann, the persistence of the Egyptian Moses reflects the displacement of a memory of cultural and political turbulence from Egypt to Israel. In place of Freud’s quasi-biological explanation of “half-forgotten memories,” Assmann offers a model of the transmission of memory itself, even across the boundaries of cultural difference and historical transformation. Such transitions constitute part of the dramatic shift Assmann calls the “Mosaic distinction.” Does Assmann’s notion of “mnemohistory” explain the retention of pre-Israelite motifs in biblical literature? This paper considers how Assmann’s work on memory can illuminate research on biblical covenant curses. The cutting of animals in ancient treaty ceremonies indicates a curse for violations of the treaty. When parties to the treaty witness the slaughter of the animal, it represents a symbolic warning, a conditional curse, as if to say “Here is what will happen to you if you break this treaty.” As Robert Polzin, Delbert Hillers, and others have observed, the biblical idea of cutting a covenant in texts like Genesis 15:10-18 likely derives from the tradition of acted-out conditional curses, but as texts set in the historical past, their status as efficacious ritual curses comes into question. Through a close examination of Genesis 15:10-18 and Jeremiah 34:18-19, this paper considers the relationship between non-biblical covenant curse formulas and their biblical counterparts. Assmann’s “mnemohistory” helps account for the preservation and transformation of treaty curses into biblical texts, but it raises new questions about the status of these transformations and of biblical memory itself. Rather than declare this process a secularization of magical or supernatural traditions, we can see the encoding of covenant curses as the displacement of cultural practices concerning human agency and uncertainty. The “Mosaic distinction” describes the historical emergence of canon and people, but it also preserves ancient anxieties.


Heaven on Earth: Interconnections between Image and Text in the Reconstruction of Sacred Space
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Karen C. Britt, University of Louisville

In the programs of decoration in Early Byzantine church interiors, scholars have assumed that the surface decoration of the buildings was arranged hierarchically with the most significant imagery placed on the ceilings, vaults, and walls and the least important on the floor. It is perhaps natural that the floor pavement, the surface upon which the faithful trod, was considered inferior to the mosaics or paintings which adorned the upper parts of the building. This theory was bolstered by Otto Demus’s identification of a mosaic program of this very nature in Middle Byzantine churches throughout the Mediterranean. The relationship of the decoration of the walls and ceiling to the floor in Early Byzantine churches is difficult to determine because the superstructures of the buildings rarely survive. Nonetheless, evidence can be pieced together from literary and archaeological sources which indicate that a pivotal transformation occurred in the conception of the church interior between the pre- and post-Iconoclastic periods which renders a hierarchical interpretation of Early Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture incorrect. In most cases, the archaeological evidence and literary sources cannot be correlated; they attest to artistic trends in disparate locations. The provinces of Palestine and Arabia represent an exception. For this region of the Near East there exist both literary descriptions as well as substantial archaeological evidence for Early Byzantine churches (fifth through eighth centuries). Through the reconstruction of sacred space, an environment in which function and symbol merge, an effort can be made to discern the meanings of the overall programs, their relationship to the liturgy performed inside the church, and their impact upon the visual experience of the faithful. As a case study in both methodology and interpretation, this paper will focus on a single category of imagery, pervasive in Near Eastern church decoration, the inhabited vine scroll, and a single subject of early scriptural exegesis, the Hexamaeron. By identifying intersections between imagery and text, we can come closer to understanding the role played by architectural decoration in ecclesiastical ritual-events.


Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism: The Problem of Nomenclature and Definition
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Edwin K. Broadhead, Berea College

A persistent problem in the quest for Jewish Christianity is the task of naming and defining this religious phenomenon. Numerous problems in the history of research and in recent treatments result from definitions that are careless, inconsistent, and vague. Other definitions are so narrow that they are of no real use. This paper will trace the various ways this phenomenon has been named and defined through some 150 years of critical research. Particular attention will be given to the complex role of ethnicity for any definition. This survey will highlight the difficulties involved, but it will also point to possible ways forward. Recent attempts at definition will be used to clarify the central requirements for a useful definition. A final section will offer a working definition that seeks to address these various issues without closing off the potential for further research.


Three Revolutions, a Funeral, and Glimmers of a Challenging Dawn
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Thomas L. Brodie, Dominican Biblical Centre, Limerick

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The Scrolls and the Luke/John Overlaps
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
George J. Brooke, University of Manchester

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Matthew’s Use of Scripture in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Matthew
George J. Brooke, University of Manchester

The aim of the paper is to consider afresh several aspects of the use of Scripture in the Gospel of Matthew. Special attention will be given to three matters. First current views of the structural understanding of the Gospel will be considered in the light of the various rewritten Bible traditions now known amongst the Scrolls. Second, in a review of work since K. Stendahl’s landmark contribution, there will be consideration of the similarities and differences between Matthew’s use of proof-texts and the Qumran sectarian interpretation of prophetic texts as can be found in the various pesharim. Third, the hermeneutical principles and practices of the Gospel will be reconsidered in the light of similar issues in both the sectarian and non-sectarian compositions from Qumran. Amongst the principles to be considered will be views on prophetic fulfilment, and the role of key concepts and major figures in shaping the choice of implicit and explicit allusions; amongst the practices to be considered will be atomisation, wordplay, dream interpretation, catchword use, and textual variation.


Prolegomena to Proto-Luke
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
E. Bruce Brooks, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Over the last century, it has several times been suggested that the Gospel of Luke was composed in more than one stage; that is, that Luke has a formation history. But specific proposals about that history have differed widely. I here approach the question de novo, from the viewpoint of text philology. Accepting the wide consensus that the final order of composition of the Gospels is Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and further supporting that conclusion with a trajectory argument, I take up in turn the Non-Markan and Markan material in Luke 1-5. In the former, I find that the Birth Narrative and the Genealogy are intentional refinements of the parallel material in Matthew, and that they are narratively exiguous in Luke; that is, they are later additions to a Luke which was formally satisfactory without them. This implies a two-stage process for Luke. In the latter, I find that the Markan material in Lk 1-5 not only differs in order from the Markan prototype, but that it originally stood, in Luke, in Markan order. This again implies a two-stage process. Finally, the implied motive for the Lukan rearrangement of Mark-derived previous material seems to be compatible with that for the Lukan addition of Matthew-based new material, so that the respective two-stage processes may be identified with each other, yielding a single two-stage model to be tested by further investigation. Finally, the motive for the second stage of Luke is linked with the plan of Luke/Acts, which is to give a comprehensive account of salvation history, from the promise of God to Abraham up to the definitive rejection of Jesus by the Jews at Rome, and their replacement by the Gentiles as the New Israel.


Christ’s Resurrected Body as Key to a Nonviolent Theology of Location
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Sarah Morice Brubaker, University of Notre Dame

Starts with three lacunae in contemporary Christian dogmatic theology, all of which bear upon “place” as a theological category. Theologians who thematize place as a term of theological resonance, tend to restrict the conversation to created emplacement, bracketing the question of place’s grounding in the triune God. Meanwhile, an influential stream of postmetaphysical trinitarian theology (here exemplified by Jean-Luc Marion) exhibits a nearly opposite tendency: here placial terms, applied to the trinitarian relations, perform a key role in clearing Christianity from the charge of ontotheology… yet placiality itself is given only implicit, and often contradictory, status. Third, some postliberal ecclesiologies, it is argued, are so invested in setting up the Christian church as a rival polis, that they tend to assume the same kind of emplacement is appropriate to the Christian church as to a rival polis – the main difference being that the church defends its borders without violence. (The possibility that nonviolence mandates an entirely new form of emplacement – one arguably more faithful to scriptural witness – is not, the author suggests, not adequately considered.) In response to this, first, although a number of factors conspire to make place an urgent question for contemporary theology, there has so far been a failure to give theology of place a trinitarian grounding with satisfactory ecclesial implications. Second, part of the blame for this failure must lie with a fundamentally violent, dominating episteme wherein place is coded as a supremely passive foil for agency (human or divine). I suggest that the strange mode of emplacement exhibited by Christ’s body in the post-resurrection appearances, hints at a possibility for a genuinely theological, nonviolent, and specifically pneumatological understanding of emplacement: one with sufficiently trinitarian groundings, and one with implications for Christ’s ecclesial body.


Exegesis of Isaiah 11:2 in Aphrahat the Persian Sage
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Bogdan Bucur, Marquette University

I will first present Aphrahat's exegesis of Isa 11:2, and highlight its peculiarities. I will then discuss the theological intention of this exegesis, by considering the larger context of Aphrahat's thought. Finally, I argue that it is necessary to compare the results to the exegesis of Isa 11:2 found in Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria. Even though no literary connection exists between these two writers and Aphrahat, the exegesis of Isa 11:2 and the "midrashic" connections with other Biblical passages are strikingly similar. This suggests the existence of a primitive Christian tradition that used Isa 11:2 to compare the Spirit-endowment of prophets with that of the Messiah.


Wirkungsgeschichte of Matthew 18:10
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Bogdan Bucur, Marquette University

The Wirkungsgeschichte of Matthew 18:10 presents a more complex picture than so far acknowledged in Biblical and Patristic scholarship. I intend to discuss the ways in which this verse was interpreted by the Marcosians, by the author of the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, and in various texts by Clement of Alexandria, Aphrahat, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. While it is certainly true that this verse became a locus classicus of Christian angelology, and while much of patristic exegesis seized upon the obvious ethical implications of the passage, the analysis undertaken in this article shows that Matthew 18:10 also provided scriptural proof for the doctrinal phenomena termed "Face Christology" and "angelomorphic Pneumatology."


Jerusalem and Beth-Shemesh: A Capital and its Border
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Shlomo Bunimovitz, Tel Aviv University

Excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh – past and current - have exposed an array of state symbols: fortifications, public buildings, storehouse, granary, underground water reservoir and iron workshop (the earliest known from the eastern Mediterranean) - spread all over the town of Level 3. These finds indicate that since the second half of the tenth-beginning of the ninth centuries BCE, state organization was involved in the daily life of the site and brings into relief the problem of meager evidence for state formation in Jerusalem – the capital of the Judean kingdom- vis à-vis its periphery. Recent years saw increasing skepticism by historians and biblical scholars, as well as by archaeologists, about the authenticity and reliability of the biblical passages describing the days of the United Monarchy. This in turn has led to a dramatic lowering of the date of state formation in Judah from the tenth to the late eighth century BCE. One of the arguments for a late establishment of the state in Judah is the lack of clear archaeological evidence concerning the status of Jerusalem – the governmental heart of the kingdom – during the tenth and ninth centuries BCE. Relying on recent theory of anthropology of borders, we suggest a different perspective of the problem: 'A view from the border'. Such a perspective shifts the focus of the discussion from the problematic core of the Judean polity to its well documented periphery – the border zone with Philistia where early signs of Judean statehood can be traced in the archaeological material. The finds from Beth-Shemesh, indicating that the Iron I village of Beth-Shemesh (Levels 6-4) was turned into a planned town, are interpreted as a deliberate action taken by the young monarchy at Jerusalem to overcome problems of liminal identity and loyalty at its most fragile frontier with Philistia.


Review of Kelley Coblentz Bautch, "A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17–19: No One Has Seen What I Have Seen" (Brill, 2003)
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Silviu N. Bunta, Marquette University

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Sitting in Heaven: An Ancient Near Eastern Pre-Merkabah Reading of Ezekiel 1
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Silviu N. Bunta, Marquette University

The paper responds to the current quest for the origins of Merkabah mysticism within the vision of Ezekiel 1. It proposes a reading of the biblical text not only through the perspective of its later use in visionary accounts of divine thrones in heaven, but primarily within the context of ancient Near Eastern ideologies. The evidence leads to the tentative conclusion that Ezekiel 1 is not a mystical text, whether one defines mysticism as concerns with or practices of ascent, or only employs the term based on the social organization behind these forms of religiosity. In response to the argument that Ezekiel 1 represents the origins of Merkabah mysticism in that it transforms the ruined earthly temple into a heavenly chariot, this paper contends that Ezekiel 1 simply answers (as many other ancient Near Eastern texts do) common concerns about the endurance of the divine presence through the destruction of its abode. Moreover, for Ezekiel the divine presence is not yet retired to a place entirely separate and clearly distinguishable from earth, that is, to ‘heaven.’ In what regards the later ascent-oriented developments based on Ezekiel 1, it is not clear to what extent one may associate them with priestly traditions or with temple-oriented groups. It is suggestive that 1 Enoch 14, one of the earliest depictions of a ‘heavenly’ temple, is not evocative of any traditions attributed to P, but of themes prominent in the Deuteronomistic ideology. While Ezekiel 1 does not seem to be about heaven and ascents, the earliest depictions of both seem to be only marginally (that is, only in regard to imagery) about Ezekiel 1. Caution must be used in suggesting that examinations of Ezekiel 1 within its context will uncover the ideological origins of later Jewish mysticism.


Is God Funky or What?
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Theodore Burgh, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

As with many forms of artistic expression, music changes over time. In its developments, this unique art form often reflects elements of cultures, societies, and particular chronological periods. In the hands of some artists, music has the ability to transgress the limits of areas such as language, sex/gender issues, and religious differences. For example, artists often employ music to share religious views, perspectives of deities, and at times incorporate interpretations of liturgical practices in lyrics and musical performance. Blues, jazz, R&B, and funk, for instance, all have strong foundational elements of African American church music, vernacular and verbiage, and also present perspectives of events that took place during specific time periods. While each genre possesses a specific and distinctive flavor, these types of music also contain basic elements that effortlessly cross perceived boundaries, and clearly show their intricate relationships. Funk, a first cousin to R&B and a child of the Blues, has gone on to give birth to hip hop culture and the development of rap. Although these genres often give views of the world around them, they also possess unique perspectives of a supreme deity and associated religious practices. These insightful perceptions provide engaging exegesis of deities, aspects of the relationships, and prophetic interpretations. Employing examples of funk, jazz, blues, hip hop/rap and R&B artists, lyrics, and performances, this paper will explore and discuss examples of how the syncretism of these musical genres with the influence of the African American church may transgress beyond “traditional” interpretations and present unique theological perspectives of a higher power.


Deconstructing Identities in Christian Discourse: The Ethiopian Eunuch as a Queering Figure
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Sean D. Burke, Luther College, Decorah, IA

In some discourses, “queer” functions as an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons. In other discourses, “queer” functions more broadly as an umbrella term for persons whose sexual preferences, orientations, and habits differ from the heterosexual-and-monogamous majority. Each of these discourses constructs “queer” as an identity defined by particular practices of sexuality and/or gender. Such usages of “queer” fail to realize the radical potential of the term articulated by “Queer Theory.” Here the term, used as a verb, functions discursively to challenge all identity categories as arbitrary, totalizing, exclusionary, and normative constructions that deny ambiguity and difference. “Queering” refers to multiple deconstructive practices in which a variety of strategies are utilized in order to disrupt the dominant notions of identity that underlie any and all distinctions between “the normal” and “the abnormal.” Employing one strategy, “deconstructive history,” I argue in this paper that the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8.26-40 queers not only ancient identity categories of gender and sexuality, but also ancient identity categories of race/ethnicity, class, and religious identity.


Apophatic Strategies in Allogenes
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Dylan Burns, Yale University

Histories of negative theology tend to identify its root in Plato’s engagement with Parmenides, the Middle and Neoplatonists’ reading of this engagement, and their enormous influence on the Church Fathers, and especially the rich mystical traditions of medieval Christendom. Histories of Gnosticism often identify negative theology as characteristic of “Platonizing” Gnostic treatises, particularly those today identified as “Sethian,” or philosophically inclined “Classic Gnosticism.” The cogent and complex negative theologies of these documents is always noted by scholars but is only beginning to be explored with the same attention to detail that is rote in Neoplatonic studies. This paper will deal with the following issues concerning negative theology in Late Sethianism, focusing on Allogenes: the significance of the predication of intermediary entities by via negativa; Carlos Steele’s distinction between apophatic reasoning that describes the indescribable (typically medieval) and apophatic mystical praxis that describes nothing (typically Neoplatonic); and the relevance of performative speech-act theory (demonstrated by Derrida and Rappe) to negative theology as practice. The paper will conclude by emphasizing the differences between Late Sethian negative theology and its Neoplatonic counterpart: the via negativa in Allogenes resembles, more than Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius or medieval sources in that it employs apophatic reasoning to describe an indescribable transcendent as well as verbally perform mystical praxis. In this respect scholars have been correct to compare it to Neoplatonic verbal theurgy. Yet theurgy is where these texts part most of all: Late Sethianism’s origins remain controversial, but its interest is anything but the service to and codification of Hellenic paideia we find in Iamblichean Neoplatonism.


Social Conflict and the Epistemology of Difference: The Separation of Judaism and Christianity in Provincial Syria
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Joshua Ezra Burns, Yale University

The aim of the proposed paper is to outline a historiographical approach to the separation of Judaism and Christianity in the Roman Syria. Scholarship on social relations between Jews and Christians in antiquity is typically conducted on the premise that Judaism and Christianity came to be regarded as discrete categories of religious expression as the function of a theological schism between the two religions that was decided by the mid-second century. It is the position of the author that this presupposition is controverted by a range of ancient evidence indicating that Judaism and Christianity continued to operate on a common theological platform throughout Syria and the Near East through the early fifth century. I refer here to the phenomenon generally known to modern scholars as Jewish Christianity. Given its prevalence in areas of dense Jewish population, I submit that this phenomenon evinces the failure of its constituents to recognized a basic epistemological distinction between Christianity and their native Jewish tradition. I therefore propose to describe the schism between Judaism and Christianity in this region as a function of the cognitive process whereby these individuals came to acknowledge that their theological platform could no longer operate within the framework of normative Judaism. I submit that this process was initiated as a result of Roman administrative reforms that affected the social dynamics of the region’s broader Jewish populace. Specifically, I argue that Rome’s endorsement of the rabbinic tradition the arbiter of normative Jewish law during the early third century served to disenfranchise those who claimed fidelity to the Jewish tradition, yet whose standards of practice and belief were not in accord with those of the rabbis. I intend to demonstrate the effects of this development upon Jewish Christianity with reference to such texts as the Sifre to Deuteronomy and the Didascalia Apostolorum.


Imitating Jesus: An Inclusive Approach to the Ethics of the Historical Jesus and John’s Gospel
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Richard A. Burridge, King's College London

At first sight, John appears very different from the other gospels with its neglect of the kingdom of God, exorcisms, parables and pithy sayings, all associated with the historical Jesus. Most studies of John 13-21 in particular stress the negative attitude towards ‘the Jews’ and ‘the world’. The Farewell Discourses breathe a different atmosphere from teaching blocks like the Sermon on the Mount. Instead, they focus on a small introverted group of disciples, with the double command to love God and neighbour being narrowed down to ‘love one another’ within an exclusive sectarian community. This suggests a large gulf between the ethics of the historical Jesus and the fourth gospel. However, it is a genre mistake to treat the gospels as though they are ethical treatises. Comparing them instead with other ancient biographies reveals how such ‘lives’ attempted to portray their subject’s words and teachings within a narrative of their deeds and activities, especially their last hours and death. Such portraits provided an exemplary model for moral imitation, mimesis. Interpreting the Synoptic gospels in this way shows how Jesus’ rigorous ethical teaching is set within a narrative of his welcoming acceptance of those with moral problems, like ‘sinners’, within an inclusive community. How does the apparently exclusive ethic of the Farewell Discourses with its opposition to ‘the Jews’ and ‘the world’ and its introverted attitude to love of other members fit in with that? This paper attempts a brief biographical account of the deeds and words, teaching and activities of the historical Jesus and his ethical example for emulation and compares it with a similar biographical reading of John’s gospel. It argues that despite all the differences, John’s portrait of the divine love bringing truth into the world still stands in the same tradition of ‘imitating Jesus’.


The Origin of Paul’s Image and Adam Christologies
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Brett Burrowes, Siena College

Scholars have generally assumed a natural connection between Christ and Adam as the divine image in Paul’s thought deriving either from Jewish sources (Dunn, Wright) or from Paul’s vision of Christ and his reflection upon it in light of Genesis 1 and Ezekiel 1 (Kim, Newman). But a connection between the concept of Messiah and Adam as God’s image, does not exist in Jewish literature. There is also scant evidence that Paul alluded to Ezekiel 1, whether referring to his “conversion” or to Christ as God’s image. There is no necessary reason that Paul would leap logically from his vision to the conception of Christ as divine image without a prior reason to make that connection, and so the origin of this identification remains an open question. Instead, Paul’s conception of Christ as the image of God derives from the Hellenistic ruler ideology, (with an ultimate background in ANE ruler ideology from which the language of Genesis 1 itself derives). In his vision of Christ, Paul experienced Jesus as the risen and enthroned kurios, since his most basic confession of faith is “Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9, 1 Cor 12:3). The exaltation of Jesus to universal lordship would naturally have brought comparison to secular rulers, specifically to the Roman emperors and the Seleucid kings of Antioch. In Hellenistic political philosophy, the ideal king was an image of the divine in the exercise of his power and in his moral character. As the only true Lord in contrast to the mere Roman and Seleucid pretenders, it is Jesus who is the true and faithful image of the divine. Only after Paul’s identification of the risen kurios as the divine image, was he led to identify Christ in terms of Genesis 1:27 and subsequently conceive of Christ as the eschatological Adam.


The Problem of Deuteronomic Language in the Ketef Hinnom Silver Amulets
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Sean Burt, Duke University

The two 7th century silver amulets found at Ketef Hinnom have long been recognized as a crucial resource for reconstructing the history of Pentateuchal traditions. The majority of scholarly work has focused thus far on the appearance and significance of the Priestly Blessing in these texts. Less attention has been placed on the occurrence of what has been characterized as a possible reference on KHin 1 to Deuteronomy 7:9b (cf. Nehemiah 1:5, Daniel 9:4). As the recent republication of the amulets by G. Barkay, et al., suggests, the text on the amulets actually corresponds more closely to the Nehemiah and Daniel texts than to Deuteronomy. Given the impossibility of a 7th century amulet citing post-exilic narratives, this paper explores the relationship among these texts, as well as the implications of such a curious connection. More specifically, this paper argues that the presence of this text on an apotropaic amulet suggests that it has a non-Deuteronomic origin. In other words, this text may have been a liturgical formula that was part of a pre-Deuteronomic (possibly a ‘popular’ religious) tradition in ancient Israel, and which was picked up or co-opted first by Deuteronomy and later by other traditions (e.g., Jer D and the (proto-) penitential prayer tradition). Thus, the later usages of this phrase need not be seen as Deuteronomistic reflexes. Finally, the possibility of ‘pre-Deuteronomic’ phrases co-opted by Deuteronomy hints at the likelihood that other linguistic formulations seen as Deuteronomistic may have originated in other contexts.


Constructing a Critical Apparatus of the Latin Manuscripts and Versions
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Philip Burton, University of Birmingham

An assessment of progress in the construction of a critical apparatus for the Latin manuscripts and versions.


Dialogues of Resurrection in Mark’s Gospel
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Austin Busch, State University of New York College at Brockport

Scholars such as Joel Marcus have recently argued that Mark’s gospel reflects Paul’s theology. If so, Mark betrays not only the influence of but also resistance to Pauline ideas. Consider their representations of Jesus’ resurrection: Paul evinces resurrection appearances confirming Jesus rose (1 Corinthians 15:1-11); in Mark, the risen Jesus never appears (unless one presumes a lost ending). There is only an ambiguous (cf. Matthew 28:11-15) empty tomb and a young man proclaiming his resurrection (16:1-8). Bakhtin’s concept of dialogue helps explain how Mark incorporates Pauline ideas in light of such radical divergence: Mark assigns Paul’s theology a privileged voice, but not an uncontested one; alternative voices compellingly challenge Pauline convictions, especially about resurrection. My paper examines Jesus’ dispute with the Sadducees (Mark 12:18-27) to trace the dialogue it orchestrates between Pauline and other theological ideas. I locate their dispute in a Pauline context: the Sadducees’ position on resurrection reflects Paul’s opponents’ in 2 Timothy 2:17-18 and Acts of Thecla 14. These are second century texts, but the conflict to which they refer was older, perhaps related to the dispute underlying 1 Corinthians 15. I also draw attention to a difficulty with Jesus’ claim that the eschatological resurrection will negate marriage because risen people are “like angels from heaven” (Mark 12:25), arguing that this too may be resolved with reference to a Pauline context. My ultimate purpose, however, is to examine the pericope through a Bakhtinian lens to suggest that the dialogue it represents approaches Bakhtin’s description of the Dostoyevskian novel: “a world of consciousnesses mutually illuminating one another, … of yoked-together semantic human orientations” (PDP 97). Mark does not simply show Jesus vanquishing his (or Paul’s) theological opponents; he rather invites his readers seriously to ponder their compelling ideas, even as they challenge his discourse’s privileged voice about resurrection.


Testing Half a Language: A Language Neutral, Standardized Biblical Hebrew Exam
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Randall Buth, Biblical Language Center, Jerusalem

So how well do students learn Biblical Hebrew in program "A" or program "B"? How far have our students gotten? Biblical Hebrew presents special challenges for someone who would develop a standardized test. A test should be language neutral, not biased towards a specific background language. It should be theory-neutral, not biased toward a particular metalanguage. It should be objective. We have models in the Educational Testing Service exams. Some sample questions of “vocabulary in context” will be presented as well as some theoretical justification for its major role is assessing language levels. We have used questionaires of this type effectively in assessing language levels of students entering our summer Biblical Hebrew ulpanim. They can be tailored for the 1000 most common words, 2000 most common words, 3000 most common words, etc. Questions about vocabulary and morphology can be devised in Hebrew itself. Samples will be presented. Reading comprehension and syntax present more of a problem because of the limited corpus of BH. The material will have been covered or read in translation by many testees. Consequently, comprehension tests may be testing background literary knowledge as much as testing simple language skill. Artificial material can help ameliorate the 'background knowledge' factor. Examples of reading comprehension types of questions in Biblical Hebrew will be presented. And why 'half a language'? Because we can test vocabulary for 'dogs' but not 'cats' in Biblical Hebrew.


Lexicography of the First Century, Two approaches to a Semantic Domain
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Randall Buth, Biblical Language Center, Jerusalem

The lexicon of Greek of the first century is still needing fundamental work. As a sample we are going to look at the attestation of body language and extended idioms. We will arrange the semantic domain within the language of the first century and discuss metaphorical extensions. A second aspect will approach the same semantic domain from a diachronic perspective. How much movement can be detected in the language between the classical period and the first century? Methodologically, what can we learn about evaluating register and dialect across centuries?


Habeas Corpus! Ossuaries, Palaeography, and Prosopography in the New World Order
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Ryan Byrne, Rhodes College

Recent donnybrooks have disseminated certain urban myths regarding the typological control of Aramaic palaeography during the Roman period. Our understanding of script development accepts certain historical presumptions, rather than stratified benchmarks, in its self-assuredness. Statistical arguments for the probable identification of biblical persons are likewise fraught with methodological predication on putative data and metrics for which there exists no scholarly consensus, viz. residential acreage, demographic coefficients, diachronic nomenclature curves, social stratification, and untestable tautologies about the Jewish presence in Jerusalem between the reigns of Vespasian and Hadrian. The Zeitgeist of the ossuary has come. Ornamented by casually exploitable epigraphic and prosopographic minutiae, the repositories of secondary human remains will feature as pawns of archaeological sensationalism for the foreseeable future. This exploitation is obvious in hindsight; inscribed ossuaries offer what controlled archaeological examination of stratified tells cannot: physical remains unequivocally affixed with biblical names from the biblical period. This specificity suggests to the untrained eye the plausibility of literally recoverable biblical characters. But what of the trained eyes? As if by Kuhnian revolution, the Information Age has leveled the discursive playing field, pitting filmmakers against epigraphers in commercialized, syllogistic debate. How epigraphers choose to respond will determine their worth in the new world order.


John 2:19–22
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Jared Calaway, Columbia University in the City of New York

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Rhetography and Rhetology of Apocalyptic Discourse in 2 Peter
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Terrance Callan, The Athenaeum of Ohio

This essay is an exercise in applying to the Second Epistle of Peter the socio-rhetorical approach to interpretation developed by Vernon K. Robbins and his associates. The essay focuses on the apocalyptic discourse found in 2 Peter and explores the rhetography and rhetology of this discourse, i.e., the pictorial narration and argumentation of the apocalyptic discourse. The essay shows how use of these interpretive categories illuminates our understanding of 2 Peter.


Reading Jeremiah 4:27 with Some Help from Gadamer
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Mary Chilton Callaway, Fordham University

Read in its context, Jeremiah 4:27 is one of many inconcinnities that Robert Carroll called to our attention in the rich legacy that he has left us. In a blizzard of prophetic oracles of doom heavy with images of predatory animals, foreigners eating up Israel and God letting go of the created order, 4:27 improbably reads, “Yet I will not make a full end.” Three such verses in the unit that runs from 4:5-6:30 stop the reader and confound meaning that had seemed unequivocal. Scholarship on these verses offers a virtual tour of the development of historical-critical methods, from text critical to lexical, philological and redactional approaches. Each of the methods seems to yield one of two discoveries: why the text means what it says, or why it doesn’t say what it means. Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Wirkungsgeschichte, a term coined in his 1960 study of philosophical hermeneutics Truth and Method, offers another way to understand these verses without, in Brueggemann’s words in a recent study of 4:27, “verdicts of closure.” Rejecting the idea that one human mind can directly understand another from a distant time, Gadamer proposed that in order to understand a text from the past readers must first become aware of the “fore-understanding” that defines the horizon of their own present. For biblical scholars, the task includes exploring the often-invisible ways by which earlier readings have affected our own hermeneutic. Using several brief examples of Jewish and Christian readings that have left their mark, this paper explores ways in which pre-critical and critical Wirkungsgeschichte of the three “problematic” verses (4:27; 5:10,18) have (de)formed readers’ sensibilities and defined contemporary horizons of expectation. The paper will conclude with suggestions of how the work that Gadamer famously called the “fusion of horizons” might contribute to Jeremiah studies.


Motherhood as Hermeneutic: Mary the Mother of Jesus according to Nineteenth-Century Female Interpreters of the Bible
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Nancy Calvert-Koyzis, McMaster University

Mary the Mother of Jesus loomed large in the minds of nineteenth-century female interpreters of the Bible such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Rundle Charles and Sarah Town Martyn. In this paper, how the theme of motherhood was understood and used to interpret Mary will be examined against the background of nineteenth-century views of motherhood.


Why Redescription Matters
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Ron Cameron, Wesleyan University

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To Be or Not to Be: Verbal Aspect and the Greek Perfect
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Constantine Campbell, Moore Theological College

It is well known that the perfect indicative represents a problem area within Greek grammar. Traditionally the perfect indicative has been understood as combining the aorist and present in that ‘it denotes the continuance of completed action’. The strength of the traditional approach, however, is weakened when it is admitted that this description requires a great deal of flexibility in order to account for perfect usage. McKay and Porter propose that the perfect grammatically encodes stative aspect, which would then comprise a third major aspect, alongside perfective and imperfective aspects. While their contributions are worthy of serious evaluation, suffice to say, this so-called ‘stative’ aspect raises various difficulties. In contrast, my research has led to a different conclusion. In this paper, I will offer an alternative solution to the problem of the perfect, and seek to demonstrate why this provides better power of explanation than previous suggestions.


The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians
Program Unit:
Douglas Campbell, Duke University

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Tit for Tat: A Rhetorical and Apocalyptic Analysis of Paul's Intertextuality in His Justification Texts
Program Unit: Paul and Scripture
Douglas Campbell, Duke University

The language that Paul uses in the passages where he speaks about Justification is distinctly intertextual. Most interpreters have construed this language as an attempt by Paul to corroborate a particular account of his gospel directly, building from problem to solution. Against this trajectory, this paper will argue that Paul's use of Scripture represents a "tit-for-tat" argument with another adept Jewish-Christian exegete from whose system Paul has appropriated some of the texts that he cites. In the process, Paul constructs an argument that is framed around a web of scriptural texts linked together by shared key words. This web offers a systematic, point-by-point refutation of the opposing system of his opponent. Viewed in this light, Paul's argument from Scripture turns out to be less direct than many interpreters have supposed for the reconstruction of his own position. It deploys explicit scriptural texts, and also draws, slightly less directly, on a shared theology of divine kingship. The theology behind this argument turns out to be more apocalyptic than is usually thought.


Kaesemann on Romans: The End of an Era or the Way to the Future?
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
William S. Campbell, University of Wales Lampeter

In partial reaction to Bultmann and in dynamic interaction with his contemporary context Ernst Kaesemann provided a powerful reading of Romans and of Paul's gospel. The task for contemporary scholarship is to evaluate which elements of Kaesemann's ongoing influence are significant mainly for a limited historical context and which offer potential for future readings of Romans.


The Faithfulness of Jesus as a Theme of Pauline Theology
Program Unit:
Ardel Caneday, Northwestern College, St. Paul

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The Nuptial Imagery of Christ and the Church in Augustine's "Enarrationes in Psalmos"
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Aaron Canty, Saint Xavier University

This paper will examine Augustine of Hippo’s approach to the interpretation of the psalms. Perhaps both the most profound and most pervasive exegetical lens through which Augustine views the psalms as prophecies is that of the totus Christus, the ‘whole Christ’ comprised of Christ as the head and the Church, with its members, as the body. Augustine believes that the bond between Christ and the Church is profoundly intimate and that one cannot be separated from the other. Augustine applies several images from the New Testament as hermeneutic lenses through which to read the Psalms, but perhaps the most complex image is the head and body and head and members imagery from books such as Romans, 1 Corinthians, Colossians, and Ephesians. The imagery from Ephesians is especially significant because the relationship between Christ and the Church acts as a pattern for marriage. Drawing from the relationship between Christ and the Church as articulated in Ephesians, Augustine interprets the Psalms as prophesying the intimacy and union between Christ and the Church in nuptial terms. The paper first will describe the historical context of the Enarrationes in psalmos and Augustine’s method of interpretation. Next, it will describe how Augustine interprets nuptial passages in the psalms, such as in Psalm 44. Finally, the paper will explore briefly the Christological and ecclesiological implications which Augustine draws from this method of interpretation. It will look at how Christ and the Church relate to one another during Christ’s life, and how they relate to one another throughout history. Although Augustine reads the psalms through the head and body and head and members imagery of the New Testament, he also enriches his understanding of these New Testament images through his theological interpretation of the psalms.


John, Qumran, and Virtuoso Religion
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Brian Capper, Canterbury Christ Church University

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The Rhetoric of Interpretation, Mercersburg-Style
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary

The Mercersburg movement of the nineteenth century developed a distinctive hermeneutics in addition to its contributions in theology and liturgy. This paper briefly introduces Mercersburg theology and its use of scripture. It will explore how the Mercersburgers, particularly John Williamson Nevin, (a) articulated their fundamental convictions as topoi, or rhetorical commonplaces, and (b) configured other, fairly standard rhetorical conventions.


The Archaeology of Qumran: The Digitally Reconstructed Settlement and a Proposed Occupation Model
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Robert R. Cargill, University of California-Los Angeles

This presentation will present the completed Qumran Visualization Project, a real-time, virtual reconstruction of the ancient settlement at Khirbet Qumran, presently on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum as a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. The project is a product of the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and is funded in part by the SDNHM and by Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation. This paper demonstrates the latest technology in 3D virtual reality modeling and satellite imagery, and unveils a fully-interactive reconstruction of the Qumran settlement within its regional context. The reconstruction takes into account all theories about Qumran, including those of deVaux, Humbert, Magness, Donceel & Donceel-Voute, Magen & Peleg, Hirschfeld, and others. Finally, this presentation will offer the research’s conclusions, proposing an occupation model for the site that focuses upon the nature of the settlement’s establishment and its subsequent expansion.


The Gospel of John and Euripides' Bacchae: An Intertextual Study
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Ryan Carhart, Claremont Graduate University

The Gospel of John is a consciously alternative presentation to what we find in the Synoptic Gospels. By closely examining the Johannine sondergut, one can trace significant Dionysiac themes in the material, namely in the pericope of the Wedding of Cana (2.1-12), the Bread of Life discourse (6.22-59), and the metaphor of Jesus as the True Grapevine (15.1-17). These Bacchic elements are understood as rhetorical flags that help to establish a noticeable Dionysiac theme running throughout the Gospel of John. I then look at recent developments in genre theory on the Gospel of John that emphasize the tragic character of this gospel, which opens the door to mimetic theory and connection with Dionysos and Euripides’ Bacchae. Not only is the author of the Gospel of John trading upon Dionysiac themes, but is also drawing upon Euripides’ Bacchae to present his rendition of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I establish this theme through the literary categories developed by Alan Culpepper. The two texts, namely the Gospel of John and Bacchae, have overt similarities in plot, characterization, and motif. I study each of these individually, and trace them in relevant sections, e.g. the prologues of each text, concluding that there is a conscious literary connection between them. Seeing the literary connection between the Gospel of John and Euripides’ Bacchae sheds light on many peculiar aspects of the Gospel of John, such as the enhanced portrait of the divinity of Jesus, the overtly negative characterization of the Jews, the distinct prologue in the text, the placement of “Temple Cleansing” scene in the front of the gospel, et alia. Thus my paper challenges much scholarship on the Gospel of John and presents a new reading of its content that is grounded within its ancient literary context.


Scribal Culture and the Tablet of the Heart
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
David McLain Carr, Union Theological Seminary

Having written a major work on a closely related subject, this paper will constitute a general response to van der Toorn's approach to scribal culture as it relates to the formation of the Hebrew Bible.


What Might "Empirical" Comparison Yield for Analysis of the Relationship of the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets?
Program Unit: Pentateuch
David McLain Carr, Union Theological Seminary

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Reflections on a Johannine Pilgrimage
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

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Matthew and Empire
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Warren Carter, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

This paper argues that in telling the story of Jesus, crucified by Rome and raised by God, Matthew's gospel negotiates the Roman imperial world. In part the gospel is a work of resistance that reveals Rome's world to be devilish, sinful, and under God's judgment, that offers an alternative ideological worldview, and urges alternative social practices. Yet in part the work also participates in, imitates, and sanctions imperial ways in proclaiming and demonstrating the empire of God and the forcible and final imposition of God's will. In evoking previous studies of Matthew and Empire, it employs a variety of methods: historical and literary criticisms, post-colonial perspectives, social-science models, and peasant and classical studies.


Herbert Spencer, John Garstang, and the Processes of Structural Functional Differentiation in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
David Chalcraft, University of Derby

In my opinion we have yet to fully understand the history of sociological approaches to the Hebrew Bible and its social worlds, and hence have yet to comprehend what is central to a sociological concern in distinction to the concerns of a biblical studies-orientated social scientific criticism. The history is important therefore, not only to bring about contemporary and informed dialogue between biblical studies and sociology but also to ensure that both the insights and shortcomings of sociological approaches in the past have been fully acknowledged. With this aim in view the paper concentrates on the work of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), and in particular his Hebrews and Phoenicians (H&P)(1880) which was one volume of his wide-ranging and multi-volume Descriptive Sociology. After a close analysis of the method and theory developed in H&P, my paper follows the history of its reception in Biblical Studies at the hands of Alfred Cave in the 1880’s and later in John Garstang’s Heritage of Solomon, (1934) which was in fact a commissioned ‘up-date’ of Spencer’s 1880 study, for which Spencer had left a legacy under the control of trustees. The extent to which Garstang furthered the cause of the sociological approach to ancient Israel in the process is considered. The main theoretical thrust of Spencer’s sociology, evidenced in H&P (as well as the Principles of Sociology) - structural functional differentiation- is subjected to analysis and considered from the perspective also of its contemporary significance in thinking about social change in ancient Israel and also in the tendencies to divide, form critically, ‘settings in life’ that correspond to institutional differentiation of spheres. From a sociological point of view high degrees of structural functional differentiation are a characteristic, not of ancient societies, but of modernity.


Some Biblical Artifacts in Search of a Sociological Theory
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
David Chalcraft, University of Derby

This paper explores three examples of the Bible as artifact and seeks to discover ways of theorising these from the perspective of sociology (social theory and cultural theory). The whole is introduced by the ‘survival’ of the image of Samson’s lion on tins of Lyle’s Golden Syrup available in all supermarkets. . The latter serves to raise the fact that accounting for persistence of the presence of the bible in culture challenges sociological accounts of continuity and change in social mores, especially in situations where social carriers (in Max Weber’s sense) cannot be identified. The first example is the case of the Biblical Promise Box; the second, is the game, 'Redemption: The City of Bondage Board Game'; whilst the third is the case of Noah’s Ark children’s toys, of which there are many varieties. Brief introductions to the artifact will be given with some overview of its history. I will then be looking at sociological ideas to explore similarities and differences between these examples: use of the Promise Box is examined through comparison with Adorno’s critique of horoscope consumption; Redemption is approached in the light of theory concerning the relation between mainstream and sub-cultural activities with respect to the extent to which (biblical) sub-cultures make use of mainstream cultural traditions, and, finally, Noah’s Ark toys are considered from the perspective of cultural theory, especially theorising the processes of appealing to a mass audience in modernity whose consumption of Biblical ideas is possible only through an anodyne ‘message’ that appeals to a ‘common denominator’. In each case I am wondering about the continuing presence of biblical ideas/artefacts in contemporary culture and society, even when its presence and the link with its ‘source’ is in pianissimo.


The Bible and World Construction: The Reality of Multiple Voices in Biblical Religion
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
J. Bradley Chance, William Jewell College

This paper explores an interdisciplinary approach to biblical studies that employs the sociology of knowledge, as presented in Peter Berger's The Sacred Canopy, to provide students a model for how society works, to wit, that it is people who construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct culture and society. Religion is often a hindrance to change and pluralism, rooted as it is in perceptions of its "otherness," what Berger calls alienation, and, hence, beyond human control to change and its monopolistic claims to interpret reality. The paper explores one particular example that introduces students to the reality of multiple voices within the Bible, leading them to examine how post-Exilic Jews who shared a common faith could interpret and apply that faith in diverse ways. Ezra-Nehemiah illustrates the attempt to reconstruct early post-Exilic Judaism around a defensive strategy, whereby former exiles separated themselves from "the peoples of the land" in an effort to construct a monopolistic culture and plausibility structure. Third Isaiah and Jonah offer an alternative vision of God that, while insisting that the true god was their god, pressed for a more inclusive vision of welcoming the excluded, e.g., foreigners and eunuchs (3 Isaiah) and introducing Israel's enemies to Israel's god (Jonah). Students, particularly those who view the Bible as "normative," who can accept that biblical religion is itself a social construction and that competing voices stand within the Bible, can be more open to the implicit "normative" appeal to employ religion not only for the sake of "world maintenance," but also for world reconstruction and to find acceptance of and even comfort with competing voices within and between religious traditions.


Framing Mark: An Inclusive Reading of Mark in the Context of the Episcopal Laity
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
J. Bradley Chance, William Jewell College

The Episcopal Church USA has, in recent years, experienced much controversy over issues of inclusion and openness, first with respect to the admission of women into the ordained ministry and, more recently, openness to members of the gay and lesbian community, in both lay and ordained contexts. This paper explores the use of a reading strategy for Mark's gospel, commonly referred to in the guild as "sandwiching" or "framing," intended for presentation to the laity of the Episcopal Church, to demonstrate the consistency of the theme of the inclusion of all people within the reign of God. The method frames the Markan narrative, beginning with a large frame (Baptism || Death Scene), which "portrays" a movement from God's declaration of Jesus as the Son to the centurion's declaration of Jesus as "son of God." This large frame sets off "the big picture," inviting readers to explore how the story moves from the private recognition of Jesus by God to the same recognition by one who represents outsiders. The paper also explores smaller frames to demonstrate the movement toward inclusion, (e.g., Cleansing of Temple || Death Scene). These are two examples, among many, to illustrate this contextual way of reading. In the context of reading with the Episcopal laity, I do not note explicitly the issue of inclusion of women and gays and lesbians; rather I have found that the audience, recognizing the pattern of inclusion within the flow of the narrative, can, in the context of discussion and questions, make connections on their own. Ways and strategies of reading that allow "ordinary readers" to make their own contemporary applications are more effective and owned than expert readings that tell "ordinary readers" how to interpret and apply the narrative.


Natal Siblings and the Brokering of Marriage in the Ancient Near East
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Cynthia R. Chapman, Oberlin College

This paper will demonstrate the central authority of a woman’s natal brother – the brother born of the same mother – in brokering her marriage. Using comparative ethnographies from modern polygynous societies, the role of the natal home in marriage preparations will be identified and defined. These ethnographies will then help to bring into relief the existing kinship patterns for brokering marriage in the ancient Near East. An examination of the kinship unit known in anthropological literature as “the natal family” demonstrates that ancient Near Eastern literature shared the view that siblings born of the same mother had a unique relationship and a specific function within kinship structures. Heightened emotional bonds and a strengthened sense of loyalty characterized the natal sibling relationship. In the brokering of marriage, the natal brother(s) assumed the role of protector and guarantor of the rights of his sister and his family. Texts to be considered include Laban and Rebekah (Genesis 24), Dinah and Simeon and Levi (Genesis 34), the speaker of the Song of Songs and her brothers identified as “the sons of my mother” (Song 1, 8), several marriage texts of Innana and Utu, and Anat and Ba’al in the Canaanite Ba’al Cycle.


Family Fights: Kinship and the Gendering of Wartime Memory
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Cynthia R. Chapman, Oberlin College

The origins of a war are often remembered and recorded in the Bible as family disputes. Within these family disputes, the players in a battle are portrayed with specifically gendered motivations - a brother avenges the rape of his sister or the killing of his natal brothers; a husband protects his honor against an errant wife.? Behind the narratives of family squabbles, however, are clear indications of tensions over land and limited resources. If the social memory of a given group is the key to its self identity, what do we learn about ancient Israelite identity from the biblical text's choice to memorialize its battles in gendered kinship terms? This paper will examine the gendered kinship aspects of ancient Israelite social memory of warfare in order to show how the takeover of land and resources was justified as a matter of family honor.


The Canon Debate: What It Is and Why It Matters
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Stephen B. Chapman, Duke University

Rather than simply a dispute about “early” vs. “late” dating, the current debate over the biblical canon encompasses questions about the nature of scriptural canons as a religious phenomenon, the appropriate terminology to use in describing them and the sociological conditions for their origin, growth and closure. The answers to these largely historical questions will necessarily affect critical issues within Christian theology, including the relationship between the two testaments of the Christian Bible, the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and the relationship between scripture and tradition.


Polemic and Persuasion: Literary-Rhetorical Perspectives on the Epistle of Jude
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
J. Daryl Charles, Union University

The aim of this paper is to offer an analysis of the epistle of Jude against the backdrop of classical literary-rhetorical canons and strategies. Building on the ground-breaking work of George A. Kennedy, New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism (1984) and Duane F. Watson, Invention Arrangement, and Style: Rhetorical Criticism of Jude and 2 Peter (1988), and supplemented by J. Daryl Charles, Literary Strategy in the Epistle of Jude (1993), this paper will explore how the prism of rhetorical analysis might yield fresh perspectives on the interpretation of Jude.


To What Extent and through What Means Have Qumran Unique Terms and Concepts Influenced the Johannine Community?
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary

This paper will review the relationship between the Johannine Literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls from the perspective of Johannine Studies.


How Important Are the Dead Sea Scrolls for Understanding Matthew?
Program Unit: Matthew
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary

Matthew’s use of scripture is clearly informed by the Qumran Pesharim. Is the influence “direct” or “indirect” and what is meant by such terms? How and what specific ways are the Dead Sea Scrolls important for understanding Matthew’s editing of tradition and his own theology? Are the influences added by Matthew [and his “School”] or do the possibly derive from the historical Jesus? What methods helps us make such judgments? These are questions raised by this paper and the research published since the 1950s.


The Book of the People from the People of the Book
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary

The scriptures did not descend from heaven in a complete form, but took shape due to expansion, addition, and final editing. The People of the Book were involved in shaping the book by a process that was long and extended from before the Babylonian Exile until past the first century. The focus of this report is column seven of the Pesher Habakkuk. By looking at this column we see a scribal school at work, correcting a commentary. It is also possible that scripture was changed to clarify the meaning of the lemma cited.


Heresy Hunting in the New Millennium
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Tony Chartrand-Burke, York University

The popularity of Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code has led to a surge of attacks on Christian Apocryphal literature by conservative NT scholars (e.g., Ben Witherington III, Craig Evans, Darrell L. Bock). The work of these scholars is transparently polemical—for example, Evans states that his book, Fabricating Jesus, was written “to defend the original witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus” (p. 17). And their methods are not new; indeed they use the same rhetorical strategies employed by such early heresiologists as Irenaeus, including the use of sarcasm and invective to describe their opponents, the intentional misrepresentation of the heretics’/scholars’ views and the content of the primary texts, the excerpting of material from the texts in order to expose their absurdities, and the demonization of their opponents by associating them with the powers of darkness. “Heresy Hunting in the New Millennium” illustrates the parallels between modern critics and the ancient heresy hunters but focuses particularly on how the two groups use and abuse the apocryphal texts. Perhaps we can learn from the contemporary debate something about the reception of the Christian Apocrypha in antiquity.


Untangling Metaphors and Text-Critical Problems in Jeremiah 6:27–30
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Kevin Chau, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Although metaphor is one of the key elements in biblical Hebrew poetry, occasionally, they are difficult to understand and create conundrums for the interpreter. Scholars have long noted Jeremiah 6.27-30’s text-critical difficulties and interpretive problems stemming from an obscure smelting metaphor. For example, is verse 29’s ambiguous verb n-ch-r to be taken as the bellows ‘were scorched’ or ‘blew’? Are the ‘iron and bronze’, in verse 28, a metaphor for the wicked who do not separate out of the purification process, or is it a metaphor for stubbornness? While most scholars understand that Jeremiah is figuratively called to be a metal assayer and a silver refiner of the people, they conflate these two roles in their interpretations of this text. This paper will propose that the difficulties of this text can be resolved by properly delineating this text’s two metaphors: verses 27-28 refer to Jeremiah as a metal assayer and verses 29-30 to Jeremiah as a silver ore refiner. In order to explain the problems with previous interpretations and to provide a more refined analysis, this paper will examine this passage in light of other biblical texts that concern metallurgy and a cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor. In recent years, the cognitive linguistic approach has emerged as, arguably, the leading theory for metaphor and has provided a wealth of tools for analyzing metaphors (especially in poetry). This metaphor analysis will show that these smelting metaphors function (1) as an indictment against all the people for their failure to cast of their wickedness (as opposed to the scholarly consensus that it is the failed culling of the wicked from the righteous) and (2) as an exoneration of Jeremiah’s failure as a prophet.


The Use and Misuse of the Bible by the Taiping Rebellions
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Yiyi Chen, Peking University

The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) was a large-scale revolt against the authority of the Qing Government in China, led by an unorthodox Christian convert Xiuquan Hong, who declared himself the new Messiah and younger brother of Jesus Christ. The rebellion was the second bloodiest conflict in history. Hong and his followers attained control of significant parts of China. Hong developed a literalist understanding of the Bible and a unique theology; his army established a theocratic based on his enlarged Bible, which includes the Christian Bible. Officials took civil service exams on subjects within the Christian Bible. The biblical texts had been used and many times misused by the rebellion army. My paper will study instances of both types. Biblical texts had been used to justify the actions of the leaders and to enforce regulations for the army. Many of the public policies were inspired and based on biblical passages. For example, the society was declared classless and the sexes were declared equal, women for the first time in Chinese history were allowed into civil service exams, foot binding by women was banned, monogamy was promoted, opium, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, slavery, and prostitution were all prohibited. However, actions such as massive killing of conquered civilians by the army were also defended by biblical texts. The study on the use and misuse of the Bible by the Taipings is especially important today since it was the only time in China’s history the Bible was read by the mass and used as source for public policy making. Today, the Bible is being read by even more Chinese, a re-evaluation of Taiping’s usage of the biblical texts in their policy making could prove to be beneficial when both China and the west sit down again with their dialogues.


Paul, Poverty, and "Equality": A Plutocritical Reading of 2 Corinthians 8:1–15
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Jacob Cherian, Princeton Theological Seminary

This paper will examine the ethical and economic significance of Paul’s use of grace and “equality” in 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. My study will crucially intersect at least three foci of the Group (with respect to Paul and Israel, the politics of the Empire, and the politics of Interpretation). The main argument in (my dissertation and) this paper is that Paul advances a “plutocritical” ethic. (I have coined “plutocritical” to represent a reading and/or appropriation of Scripture that requires the hermeneutist to highlight and be conscious of the socio-economic embeddedness of the text and the reader, as well as the ethical/moral challenges of her own context. I build on the hermeneutical insights of Schüssler Fiorenza, Patte, Blount, et al). My critical history of research accentuates how many previous commentators of Paul have failed to grasp the economic and status-quo implications of Paul’s radical ethic of grace and equality. Critically interacting with studies (by Gordon, Chow, Joubert, Theissen, Meggitt, et al) of euergetism in the Empire, this paper shows that Paul’s instructions for gracious equality run counter to usual societal norms for philanthropic endeavors which bolster unequal social arrangements. This plutocritical reading of Paul is further substantiated by my study of Paul’s use of Israel’s Scripture in 2 Corinthians 8:15—where I make a significant point of comparison based on a thorough study of Philo’s use of “equality” (esp. in Her. 191, where Philo, like Paul, cites Exodus 16:18). I show how Paul creatively draws on Israel’s manna story to materialize grace for the sake of needy believers in the commonwealth of grace (unlike Philo, who dematerializes manna). I suggest that this Pauline ethic of gracious equality has rich hermeneutical potential for Christian ethics as well as for public policy in a world of growing economic inequalities and scandalous poverty.


Virtuous Reading: Aphrahat's Approach to Scripture
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
J. W. Childers, Abilene Christian University

In mid-fourth-century Persia Aphrahat asserted, ‘humility begets wisdom and discernment’ (Demonstration 9.2). Connecting knowledge and sound cognitive processes to the presence of moral virtues and praiseworthy dispositions is commonplace among ancient writers. However, the modern epistemology of the last 300 years or so has displayed more interest in the propositional content of beliefs rather than in the agency through which beliefs are formed and sustained. Contemporary virtue epistemologists prescribe a change in the direction of analysis, from properties of beliefs to properties of persons, so that epistemic justification is explained in terms of a belief’s source in an intellectual virtue. In advancing this proposal, virtue epistemologists commonly notice parallels between their own assumptions and those of ancient authors, yet they have made relatively few attempts to explore the ancient texts of specific authors and intellectual traditions with this in mind. The Demonstrations of Aphrahat represent a piece of an ancient tradition for which it may be said that notions of virtue play a prominent role in shaping epistemological assumptions. Building on a preliminary overview of some of the epistemological assumptions at work in Aphrahat, the paper will focus particularly on his handling of scripture. It will illuminate the ways in which Aphrahat understands particular dispositions and habits -- internal and external -- as prerequisite for good biblical interpretation and partly constitutive of the same. This distinct approach to Aphrahat's methods of biblical interpretation will show that his engagement with Judaism on the basis of scripture succeeds in certain ways precisely because his approach is marked by particular virtue characteristics.


The Influence of Odysseus’ Transfiguration on Jesus’ Transfiguration in Luke 9:28–36
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Jae Hyung Cho, Claremont Graduate University

Jesus’ transfiguration in Luke 9:28-36 seems to be influenced by Odysseus’ (Odyssey 16:154-224, 299-399). It is obvious that Luke and Matthew follow the Mark’s version in this story even though there are some differences among them. Many scholars have tried to explain Jesus’ transfiguration story, emphasizing the differences among three gospels and each gospel’s theology based on these differences. Most of their attempts, however, complete a half volume of this study because they ignore the literary parallels with the Homeric epics. In the perspective of inter-textual approach to this story, we can find similarity between the Jesus’ transfiguration and Odysseus’. Therefore, first, I like to critically look into some scholars’ interpretation of the Transfiguration story (W. Hendriksen, Sharon H. Ringe, I. Howard Marshall, Morton Smith, Cyrus H. Gordon, and Dennis R. MacDonald, ane etc). And then, I present the parallels between the gospels and Odyssey. Second, I investigate the influence of the Homeric epics on the Greek and Early Christians focused on Iliad and Odyssey which provided a cultural, political, philosophical, and religious code at that time. Third, I will deal with the methods of intertextuality; I will explore criteria for the study of Jesus’ transfiguration and Odysseus’; density and order, explanatory value, accessibility, analogy, and motivation. Fourth, I will present parallelism between Jesus’ transfiguration and Odysseous’, arguing how Luke changes Mark’s version and imitates Homer’s story according to Luke’s theology (motivation). Lastly, my conclusion may include that although some Moses typology in the transfiguration story is shadowed, the literary parallels and dynamics indicate how much that Odysseus’ transfiguration influences Jesus’. This story is highlighted in the explanation of the formation of Luke, for it reconstructs and uses the literary plot, intimation, and sequence of the Odyssey.


Miniature Codices in Coptic
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Malcolm Choat, Macquarie University

This presentation will examine the phenomenon of the miniature codex in the Coptic environment. I will survey miniatures written in Coptic, noting especially the range of their dimensions, the contents, and use (if apparent or at all deducible) of these miniatures. I will also ask, among other questions, if language choice correlates with codicology in any way.


An Island unto Herself? The Male and Female Influences on Lucy Meyer and the Chicago Training School
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Agnes Choi, University of Toronto

The interpretation of New Testament texts concerning deaconesses by Lucy Jane Rider Meyer (1849-1922) played a crucial role in the establishment of the Chicago Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions and in the development of the curriculum at that school. This paper will compare Meyer’s interpretation of the New Testament texts concerning deaconesses in her book entitled Deaconesses: Biblical, Early Church, European, American with the interpretations of both her male and female contemporaries in view of the resources that were available to her.


Like Dogs under the Table: A Minority Reading of the Bible with Bourdieu and Certeau
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Jin Young Choi, Vanderbilt University

My work reflects a new kind of experience to be the Other while I have lived as a foreigner and studied as a minority graduate student in the U.S.A. I aim in this paper to recover the subjectivity of racial minorities through a type of biblical hermeneutics. To do this, first, I will analyze Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and doxa and Michel de Certeau’s ideas of strategy and tactics, and construct them as hermeneutical tools which bridge between the text and my context in which the matter of race is at stake. Also I cannot leave out Du Bois’ “double-consciousness” in dealing with the issue of race, which I employ in each section in places where it illuminates the discussion. Second, I will try my tactical reading of Mark 7 as providing not only the text for appropriate minority biblical hermeneutics but also practical tactics for minorities to live on in this racist society. In Mark 7:1-23, Jesus is present to challenge Jewish leaders’ doxa with his heterodox breaking bodily boundary. However, in the following passage of 7:24-30, Jesus represents Jewish doxa when he says to the Syrophoenician woman that “it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” I will show how the woman tactically poaches the other’s place and tries to seize an opportunity to survive through my close reading of the biblical text and De Certeau. In conclusion, I will reflect on this tactic in the context of biblical studies in the western academic guild, arguing that racial minorities’ tactic is to eat the children’s crumbs under the table, which is a symbol of hegemony. And there, paradoxically, I will see resistance and hope that all the Selfs and all the Others share the table.


Priestly Power That Empowers: Cross-Denominational Alliance and “Popular Religious Groups” in Israel
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Mark A. Christian, Sewanee, The University of the South

Central to a debate over popular religion and popular religious groups in Israel would be questions over the reliability of assuming a sharp divide between “official” and “popular religion.” Sociologists have drawn attention to the problem of imposing such a dichotomy (Berlinerblau). Although it has become axiomatic in some circles to characterize “official religion” as an ideological system designed to legitimate the domination of the economically privileged, such portraiture can lead to an overly-polarized perception of the power-dynamics within the Israelite cult. Not a few texts suggest a middle tier of specialists who, less directly connected to centralized power—and whether by choice or by force—may find themselves coopting with non-specialists in reform or opposition movements. Such “cooperatives” may associate with rival cultic centers, validate their views on unique interpretations of common traditions, or base their beliefs on uncommon traditions (e.g., those reflecting a northern, or southern theo-political context, so A. Alt, 1953). This paper focuses on the likely methods used by one groups of specialists, the Levitical priests, to manage their middle-tier ministry among the primarily non-urban populace. Their history of conflicted cultic performance sets them apart, but it also positions them, especially in view of their passionate piety (Exod 32; Dtn 33:8f), to attract disenfranchised traditionalists to their cause. Michel Foucault has described how some specialists are able to “impose normalizing homogeneity” while at same time allowing for “individualization.” Can we apply such a model to the Levites? If so, then we may justifiably characterize their ministry as an empowering one.


Integrating the Alien
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Mark A. Christian, Sewanee, The University of the South

Reinhard Achenbach has in several publications set forth a persuasive case for a potent literary-historical force in the Hebrew Bible that he terms the Hexateuch Redaction (cf. also E. Otto). Built into the conceptual framework of this expansive work is surprising support for the integration of aliens, that is, those aliens who come to devote themselves to Israel’s god. There are a fair number of biblical personages who fairly fit this criterion, though not all of them appear within the confines of the Hexateuch. This paper investigates the possibilities of an even broader biblical scope supporting such integration.


Erik Peterson's Concept of Eschatology
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Alf Christophersen, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität

Especially during the Weimar Republic Erik Peterson (1890-1960) was one of the most influential Theologians. Based on a short introduction into Peterson’s turbulent biography (he converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism in 1930) and an integration into the exegetical discussion of his time the paper presents Peterson’s commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (published in 1997) – with a focus on Peterson’s differentiated concept of eschatology


Groaning Together for Redemption: Contextual Interpretation of Romans 8:22
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Sejong Chun, Vanderbilt University

I am reading Romans 8:22 as one among many Christians praying for North Koreans who are groaning not only because of a shortage of basic resources for living, but also because of a lack of freedom under the dictatorship of Kim Jung-il. Recent scholarly understandings of Paul’s use of the term Ktisis (creation) in Romans 8:22 could be roughly grouped into three. For the first group, Ktisis refers to nonhuman creation; for second, it means humanity; and for third, it indicates God’s whole creation with no sharp separation between humanity and nonhuman creation. I will investigate Paul’s use of Ktisis in Romans 1:20; 1:25; 8:39 and Kaine Ktisis (new creation) in Galatians 6:15 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 to find the meaning of Ktisis. Those investigations and my contextual concern, the groaning of North Koreans, will lead me to prefer the third option that Ktisis refers to the entire creation including humanity. I will explore scholarly interpretations of Romans 8:22. One group understands the painful situation of whole creation as the punishment of God on the nonhuman creation (Theological/Forensic interpretation). Another group focuses on a close association of humanity with nonhuman creation as one community (New Covenantal/Pastoral approach). The third group emphasizes the eschatological presence and intervention of God over the current suffering (Apocalyptic/Messianic understanding). With insights of the Apocalyptic/Messianic understanding, I will argue several implications Romans 8:22 provides. First, the verse implies God’s imminent and redeeming intervention into the present situation. Second, Romans 8:22 can be understood as an action of resistance against the power that is oppressing the whole creation and, at the same time, as a sign of hope for liberation from bondage. Third, “groaning together and being in labor pains together” can be a sign of the coming of God’s new age.


The Gifts of the Divine Warrior: Ephesians 4:7–11
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Daniel C. Claire, Catholic University of America

The quotation in Ephesians 4:8 is one of the most perplexing exegetical challenges in the entire epistle. It occurs with significant changes, such that its meaning is in effect opposite that of the source text in Psalm 68:18. In addition, the author’s elaboration on the text in 4:9-10 appears tangential to the broader subject matter of unity and diversity in the body. Many solutions have been proposed, yet commentators often end their treatments of this passage unsatisfied with the various interpretive options. For these reasons, this passage warrants careful reexamination, and all the more so because of its importance to the structure and message of the epistle as a whole. Recent scholarship has identified correlations between Ephesians and ancient Near Eastern divine warrior texts. These observations are particularly noteworthy in view of the longstanding recognition of Psalm 68 as a divine warrior victory hymn. The divine warrior motif presents a new interpretive lens through which to view the crux of Ephesians 4:8 and understand the role of this modified Old Testament quotation within the epistle. Unlike Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, the gifts given Ephesians 4 are people. In Ephesians, these people are the captives of the divine warrior; they are his plunder from the lower parts of the earth. When the divine warrior ascends in triumph, he becomes the church’s benefactor in distributing his plunder. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, serves as a chief example of those whom Christ has given for the sake of the church. The reference to Psalm 68 thus functions as an external authority to substantiate the author’s explanation for Christ’s sovereignty over diversity within the church.


The Hairy Situation at Corinth: Androgyny and Eschatology in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Dan W. Clanton, Jr., Denver, CO

There can be little doubt that 1 Corinthians 11.2-16 is one of the more convoluted, confusing, and controversial passages in all of the Pauline correspondence. Various scholars have proposed multiple solutions for what appears to be a baffling pericope. In this presentation, I will argue that Paul is referring to hairstyles here, not veils, and that the situation to which Paul was responding is best explained by both a proto-gnostic analogy and the eschatological self-understanding of the Corinthians themselves. That is, using and augmenting the work of Dennis R. MacDonald, I will argue that the Corinthians understood themselves to be symbolically altering their gender by engaging in ritual transvestism in order to advance spiritually towards a more perfect state of existence, viz., an androgynous existence in which one has overcome the imperfections of material existence. By examining cross-cultural experiences of religious transvestism, as well as texts such as the gospels of Philip and Thomas, I hope to show that the Corinthians thought that by engaging in such a ritual act, they could alter their spiritual existence and move up what they understood to be the creational hierarchy, based on a reading of Genesis 2-3. My reading of 1 Corinthians 11.2-16 will conclude by noting the eschatological context of the Corinthians’ practices, and why the social construction of gender during this time might affect the ritual performance I am postulating.


Biblical Interpretation and Christian Domestic Terrorism: The Exegeses of Reverend Michael Bray and Reverend Paul Hill
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Dan W. Clanton, Jr., Denver, CO

This presentation examines the use of biblical texts dealing with violence by two of the most important figures in the modern American radical anti-abortion movement: Rev. Michael Bray and Rev. Paul Hill. The former’s 1994 monograph A Time to Kill: A Study Concerning the Use of Force and Abortion is often cited as the main ideological text by violent pre-born activists, and the latter was the first person executed in the United States for the murder of an abortion provider. Hill’s writings have been widely disseminated, and I will focus mainly on his scripturally-based arguments in his essay “I Shot an Abortionist.” In both Bray and Hill’s works, biblical texts such Genesis 14, the book of Esther, and even sayings of Jesus are discussed and used in an attempt to bolster their violent program. Given the prominence of the abortion debate in the United States, probing the biblically interpretive underpinnings of the most radical of abortion opponents would seem to be a necessary task. After examining these discussions, I will offer some remarks on how scholars of religion and violence such as Charles Selengut, John J. Collins, and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer recommend engaging and perhaps even countering such interpretations of biblical texts.


Many Psychologists Can Bring Victory: Really!
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Ronald R. Clark, Jr., George Fox Evangelical Seminary

Proverbs 15:22 suggests that counsel and advice help the young Biblical scholar become an effective resource in their community. Some Christian counselors and pastors, however, have suggested that psychology destroys faith and Biblical interpretation. Intimate partner violence prevention specialists, counselors, and psychologists, on the other hand, have suggested that the Biblical texts enable intimate partner violence and abuse to continue in our homes and culture. While these professionals are accurate in their description of some interpretations of texts, they are not actually in the texts themselves. The roots of this form of oppression lie in attitudes about women and the powerless in society. Religious counselors have an opportunity to gain the respect of prevention specialists through using the Biblical narratives to address male violence, the nature of masculinity, oppression, social justice, and human induced trauma. Those who approach the Biblical texts from a psychological perspective that acknowledges oppression and violence as a problem, also have an opportunity to better interpret texts that can be used to heal clients who are both victims and oppressors. The Biblical narratives concerning these issues also provide a strong tool for therapeutic healing and creating empathy in oppressors and violent individuals.


"This Gate Shall Remain Shut": A Test Case of Eastern Orthodox Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Timothy S. Clark, Emory University

The use of Ezekiel 43.27-44.4 as one of the scriptural readings on Marian feast days in the Eastern Orthodox Church presents an interesting challenge to biblical interpreters in the Orthodox tradition, since it offers as a scriptural typology for Mary an episode that seems far removed from even an obvious allegorical exegesis. This paper examines the origins and context of Marian interpretation of the passage. Ezekiel’s temple, the focal point of the book’s idealized cosmological system, served as an powerful symbol of a purified and rationalized universe, in which religious, political, social, and even geographical entities adhere unwaveringly to the divine order. Owing to these inherent qualities, some early patristic exegetes were led to associate Mary’s virginity and the purity and holiness concerns expressed by it with Ezekiel’s temple imagery. These early interpretations were then adopted by liturgical commentators, who used this passage as a proof-text for evolving Marian dogmas in the church. It is this proof-texting of the passage, grounded in the unique development of a particular theological tradition, that can be so difficult for modern interpreters trained in historical-critical and other contemporary methods of biblical study. Therefore, the paper also offers some suggestions for reconciling in a confessional setting contemporary academic biblical criticism with ecclesial interpretations founded in pre-critical exegesis.


John 13: Footwashing and History
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Jaime Clark-Soles, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

What claim, if any, does the foot washing in John 13 have to historical veracity? The question has not been raised to date but bears investigation. Scholars readily adduce Joseph and Asenath and the Testament of Abraham as parallels since both have references to foot washing and are probably 1st cent. CE documents. One reads of Abraham’s gesture of welcome (Gen. 18). Philo notes that foot washing was required before entrance into the temple. Mary Coloe, God Dwells With Us (74-82), admirably treats the theme of foot washing in John as it relate to FE’s temple replacement theme, but historicity is not her lens in that piece. Generally, the literature emphasizes the washing of feet as the job of a servant, done routinely and necessitated by wearing sandals in a dusty world. But is that truly all we can say? For this paper, I will investigate ancient literature to fill out the picture regarding this practice. I will then relate it to the likelihood that John’s account reflects an historical event.


Visual Representations of Worship in Ancient Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia: First and Second Centuries CE
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
John Clarke, University of Texas at Austin

How can analysis of visual representation reveal the attitudes of ancient Romans toward the gods? Examination of temples, sanctuaries, wall paintings, and inscriptions allow us to reconstruct these attitudes--particularly when their original archaeological context has survived. This is the case with several cults: that of Isis at Pompeii and Rome, Magna Mater at Pompeii and Ostia, and the unusual marriage of religion and social climbing represented by the cult of the Lares of Augustus at Rome and Herculaneum. By paying particular attention to the social status and gender of both patrons and consumers of these visual representations, it is possible to see these cults with Roman eyes.


Johannine Exegesis in Transition
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Carsten Claussen, University of Munich

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Albert Schweitzer's Understanding of Righteousness by Faith according to Paul's Letter to the Romans
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Carsten Claussen, University of Munich

In contrast to the contemporary debate on justification by faith the interest in the Pauline "in Christ" and "with Christ" motifs has recently been rather limited. However, these expressions of participation in Christ are at the heart of Albert Schweitzer's "The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle" (1930; ET 1931). By interpreting Paul's theology consistently within the context of Jewish eschatology Schweitzer clearly opposes the history of religion school of his day. According to Schweitzer Jewish eschatology, as it can be seen in the apocalypses of Baruch and Ezra, provides the concept for Paul's Christ mysticism: As the messianic kingdom has already begun, believers can participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. Such a relation is established through baptism. The consequences for Schweitzer's understanding of Paul's theology are basically twofold: on the one hand his mystical doctrine of redemption has lead him to characterize the doctrine of righteousness by faith as a "subsidiary crater". This move has been welcomed by a number of more recent exegetes of Paul. Therefore, this development prompts to look again at the role of justification by faith within Pauline theology. On the other hand Schweitzer has pointed to the corporateness of Christ mysticism over against the individual dimensions of righteousness by faith. As a strict either-or exegesis seems to be out of place an attempt will be made to demonstrate how Paul himself held together the individual and the corporate aspects of justification. Thus, an outline of Schweitzer's contribution to Pauline exegesis, especially that of Romans, will be followed by a critical assessment of his position in light of present day discussions of the Paul's theology.


Is "the Joseph Story" a Misnomer for Genesis 37–50?
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Richard J. Clifford, Weston Jesuit School of Theology

There are good reasons to question whether Genesis 37-50 are mainly about Joseph. For one thing, the title in 37:2 (Jacob's line) implies otherwise and, for another, the four primary Leah sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah) engage in a characteristically Genesis struggle for firstborn status (partially completed before ch. 37). Moreover, Jacob figures in virtually every chapter except those directly concerned with the enlightenment/transformation of Judah and Joseph (chs. 38 and 39-41). In chs. 48-49 Jacob rises at last to full stature as patriarch and in ch. 49, gives political authority to Judah, not Joseph. Finally, If Joseph is the hero, the story climaxes too soon, and it becomes difficult to integrate chs. 38 and 49 into the narrative.


A Hebraist Reads the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
David J. A. Clines, University of Sheffield

I will offer some of my own experiences of using CAD in the course of the preparation of the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew. My admiration for the scope, the intensity, the presentation, and above all the completion of CAD will be evident. In accord with the principles of DCH, which does not present Semitic cognates for each and every word in the lexicon, I tangle with Akkadian mainly when scholars propose a new meaning of a Hebrew word or phrase on the basis of an Akkadian cognate-which is not so very often, though more often than not with good reason. In the paper I will report on how in this respect CAD has served the work of Hebrew lexicography.


Madness, Philosophical, or Mystical Experiment? A Weird Text, Recognitions 2:61–69
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Claire Clivaz, University of Lausanne

Among all the stories of the Pseudo-Clemens' Recognitions, 2:61-69 has not still been commented in details by scholars. This story represents yet a particular moment of the confrontation between Peter and Simon the Magus, because the apostle seems to share a strange experiment with Simon: «spreading his mind» in order to observe diverse places on the earth (see Recognitions 2:61,3). One day, as Peter was sitting on a rock in Capernaum, he «spread his mind» until the point he was able to «see» the cities of Jerusalem and Caesarea. But his brother Andrea, «inspired», convinced him that it was an hallucination coming from a mind disease, the phrenitis (see 2:64,1). In this story, the points of view of the diverse characters cross and interact, in order to describe an experiment that can be perceived as a mind disease, or as a human particular potential, or as a mystical or philosophical experiment. Its analysis requires literary and cultural parallels from philosophical and medical fields in Antiquity. The paper will demonstrate that 2:61-69 refers to the problematic of the perception of reality in Antiquity, such as described by Cicero in Lucullus and by Iamblichus in the Mysteries of Egypt. On the socio-historical level, the paper will add some clues to consider the Recognitions in the Syriac frame of the 4th century, as already proposed by Chapman in 1908, and recently by Kelley or Côté. On the literary level, it will underline that Recognitions 2:61-69 presents Peter as a Simon Magus who changed his point of view. What is at stake in the debate about the perception of reality remains, as well in Antiquity as today, "to be sure of his own mind's health" (see Lucullus XVII).


"Only It Was Never Said by Christ, 'And the Angel, Which Spoke within Me, Said unto Me:'" A Forgotten Perception of Jesus
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Claire Clivaz, University of Lausanne

Tertullian, in the De Carne Christi XIV,6, reflects an opinion that he attributes to Ebion and contradicts it: "Only it was never said by Christ, 'And the angel, which spoke within me, said unto me'". This passage of Tertullian allows to link the book of Zechariah, parts of Judeo-Christianity and a particular perception of Jesus: a human Jesus in touch with an archangel. Tertullian does not seem to understand this dualistic perception of Jesus, and tries to read the Ebionite data through a more orthodox view on Jesus. Epiphanius shows in the Panarion the same difficulties in understanding what is at stake in the Ebionite christology. Working on the hermeneutical level with the concept of forgetting in historical process (see Ricoeur and Assmann), this paper will show the presence of this particular kind of christology in the frame of the second century, particularly in the Alexandrian context. First coming back to the book of Zechariah in its Septuagint version, the paper will underline links between Michael, a christological archangel and the particular title attributed twice to Jesus by Clement of Alexandria and Origen: "the big fighter." Secondly, other witnesses will allow to demonstrate the existence of such a dualistic perception of a Jesus in touch with an archangel, for example the Prayer of Joseph and The Shepherd of Hermas. Third, this particular perception of Jesus will be postulated as reason for the suppression of Luke 22:43-44 in the Alexandrian context. The challenge is here to rediscover some parts of Judeo-Christianity -or of Christian Judaism- in Alexandria, beyond the forgetting of the third and fourth centuries.


"They Were Absent from the Flesh:" Masculinity, Martyrdom, and Pain
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Stephanie Cobb, Hofstra University

Several recent studies of Christian martyrdom assert that suffering was central to early Christian identity. The valorization of suffering, moreover, is understood to reveal a subversive element in early Christianity. In particular, scholars argue that early Christian authors reject ancient sex construction and the virtues associated with it. Thus the martyrs gain power through vulnerability; they become victors by being victimized. In this paper I argue that an examination of early Christian martyrologies (2nd-3rd cen.) shows that Christians appropriated—rather than rejected—these Roman social categories. In particular, the authors of the martyrologies drew on Stoic notions of the “good man’s” insensitivity to pain to portray their heroes and heroines as overcoming pain by embodying masculine virtue—in short, by becoming men. Although we might expect martyrologies—as narratives presumably dedicated to describing the torture and death of Christians—to focus on suffering, the opposite appears to be true: suffering was not part of the Christian identities constructed in these texts. The author of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, for example, describes the shredding of the martyrs’ skin—down to the very veins and arteries—but insists that “none of them complained or groaned, showing us all that at that hour, while being tortured, the noble martyrs of Christ were absent from the flesh.” Perpetua is described as being oblivious to the fact that she had been tossed by a bull. These examples—which could be multiplied—show that suffering was not an element in the emerging Christian identities of the martyrologies. By reading the martyrologies in light of Stoic philosophy, this paper offers a corrective to two scholarly trends: 1) that suffering was idealized as a Christian virtue; and 2) that Christianity formulated a subversive ideology. The paper will also show that the martyrs’ insensitivity to pain is one of many ways these authors portray Christians as embodying Roman ideals of masculinity.


Stoicism and the Problem of Pain in Early Christian Martyrdom
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Stephanie Cobb, Hofstra University

Several recent studies of Christian martyrdom assert that suffering was central to early Christian identity. Early Christians’ valorization of suffering, the argument often continues, reveals a subversive ideology. In this paper I argue that an examination of early Christian martyrologies (2nd-3rd cen.) shows that Christians appropriated—rather than rejected—Roman social categories. In particular, the authors of the martyrologies drew on Stoic notions of the philosopher’s insensitivity to pain to portray their heroes and heroines as overcoming pain by controlling the passions. Although we might expect martyrologies—as narratives presumably dedicated to describing the torture and death of Christians—to focus on suffering, the opposite appears to be true. An examination of the portrayal of pain in the martyrologies shows that suffering was not part of the Christian identities constructed in these texts. The author of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, for example, describes the shredding of the martyrs’ skin—down to the very veins and arteries—but insists that “none of them complained or groaned, showing us all that at that hour, while being tortured, the noble martyrs of Christ were absent from the flesh.” Perpetua is described as being oblivious to the fact that she had been tossed by a bull. These examples—which could be multiplied—show that suffering was not an element in the emerging Christian identities of the martyrologies. By reading the martyrologies in light of Stoic philosophy, this paper offers a corrective to two scholarly trends: 1) that suffering was idealized as a Christian virtue; and 2) that Christianity formulated a subversive ideology. The paper will also show that these texts offered hope to communities fearful of persecution (i.e., like Polycarp and Perpetua, other Christians can rise above pain), but they also provided a model of Christian behavior (i.e., rationality, justice, self-control) applicable to Christians in all times and places.


Ezekiel as Precursor to the Divine Vision in Merkavah and Hekhalot Literature
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Kelley N. Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward's University

Gershom Scholem’s observation that ancient Jewish mysticism is “throne mysticism” speaks to the significance of Ezekiel’s vision of the divine for subsequent merkavah and hekhalot traditions. While one might explore Ezekiel as a mystic, this paper focuses on the visionary experience that is related in Ezekiel 1-3:15, in particular the ophannim, merkavah and hayyot; we then take up the Nachleben of these motifs first in Second Temple apocalyptic literature and then in merkavah and hekhalot literature.


Response
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Kelley N. Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward's University

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Biblical Criticism from a Geographer's Viewpoint
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
David Ben-Gad Hacohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Geographical data can be used as a powerful tool in identifying the biblical sources. The method of investigation is identical to the one used in literary criticism: finding changes in place names and looking for conflicts and inconsistencies in topopnym chains or itineraries. Biblical toponyms have remained static with almost no change over thousands of years. Even sites that had been renamed by conquerors returned to their original names when hundreds of years later, the foreign conquerors disappeared. Thus any slight change in place names may prove to be very meaningful. Geographical Criticism will be demonstrated through the conflict with the Trans Jordan's kings. By comparing the different geographical itineraries connected to those conflicts we will be able to identify an original verse of E that was omitted from the Pentateuch by R who did preferred the parallel verse of P. It seems that some of the original Pentateuch verses might be hidden in the later biblical books.


"Across" or "By" the Jordan: Biblical Criticism from a Geographer's Viewpoint
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
David Ben-Gad Hacohen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Geographical data can be used as a powerful tool in identifying the biblical sources. The method of investigation is identical to the one used in literary criticism: finding changes in place names and looking for conflicts and inconsistencies in topopnym chains or itineraries. Biblical toponyms have remained static with almost no change over thousands of years. Even sites that had been renamed by conquerors returned to their original names when hundreds of years later, the foreign conquerors disappeared. Thus any slight change in place names may prove to be very meaningful. Geographical Criticism will be demonstrated through the Transjordan's itinerary. Starting with the final encampment in the steppes of Moab, 'across the Jordan' (Num. 22:1) or 'by the Jordan of Jericho' (Num. 33:48-49) we will go backwards to the land of Jazer.


Constructing the Temple in a Rabbinic Image: A Literary-Anthropological Reading of the Mishnah’s Ritual Narratives
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Naftali Cohn, University of Pennsylvania

A series of narratives throughout the Mishnah describe rituals said to have taken place in the past when the second temple still stood in Jerusalem. Drawing on the approach to historiographic narrative developed by Hayden White and to accounts of ritual developed by Catherine Bell and Philippe Buc, this paper describes two choices made or emphases given in narrating past ritual in the Mishnah which express rabbinic claims for authority. First, focusing on Mishnah Pesahim 5:5-10, the Passover sacrifice narrative, I demonstrate that the Mishnah’s ritual narratives emphasize entry into and exit from ritual space by repeating these words and by beginning and ending the narratives with these actions. Comparison to earlier non-rabbinic accounts of Passover sacrifice shows that the rabbis place special emphasis on and ritualize these actions. Using an approach built from the work of Arnold van Gennep, Jonathan Z. Smith, and others, I suggest that this narrational choice expresses a rabbinic understanding of ritual, rhetorically acts to construct boundaries in the imagination of the audience, and asserts a rabbinic claim for the Temple. Second, with reference to a narrative of ritual failure in Yoma 2:2 and one of court control against sectarian resistance in Parah 3:7-8, I show that the Mishnah’s ritual narratives repeatedly construct the court from the time of the Temple as the ultimate authority over Temple ritual. Comparison with pre-rabbinic accounts of sunedria and similar institutions illustrates that this court control over Temple ritual is a rabbinic invention. The rabbinic construction of the court as their predecessors in recurrent chain of transmission narratives elsewhere in the Mishnah suggests that the rabbis remember the court as the authority over past ritual in order to support their own claim for authority over post-Temple ritual.


Postmodern Contextual Translation: A Proposal/Question
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Jason Coker, Drew University

Contextual hermeneutics has had some relative success as a legitimate method of biblical inquiry and has in some cases become very influential in the realm of Biblical Studies. Instead of grounding biblical exegesis in historical context, contextual hermeneutics analyzes the context of the reader with as much scrutiny as the context of the biblical literature. This intersection of contexts has been able to create new and meaningful biblical interpretations. Although contextual hermeneutics is somewhat related to the rise of postmodern theory in Biblical Studies, the two disciplines have not enjoyed much dialogue. Postmodernism can offer critiques to contextual hermeneutics as it relates to non-essentialized categories of identity. In other words, postmodern “contexts” are always ever shifting and in flux. Moving from methods of reading to methods of translation, how would a postmodern, contextual translation read?


Ascent to Heaven in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
John J. Collins, Yale University

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Welcome
Program Unit:
Matthew Collins, Society of Biblical Literature

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Beyond the Beyond
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Mary L. Coloe, Australian Catholic University

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Dueling Eschatologies: Strategic Positioning to Influence the Interpretation of the Apocalypse in the East
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, University of San Diego

The early seventh century Eastern Roman Empire saw plague, civil war, famine, and catastrophic barbarian invasions. Eschatological fervor ran high as people were convinced the end of the world was near. Within this climate, the most important Greek patristic commentary on the Apocalypse was composed by Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea, Cappadocia. Andrew’s commentary was composed only after the first Greek commentary on Revelation appeared a few years earlier, authored by Oikoumenios, a Monophysite. Oikoumenios’ inadequate interpretation erred to the opposite extreme of public hysteria and so allegorized Revelation as to rob it of its legitimate and powerful message, and deprive it of its prophetic quality. But without an alternative orthodox Greek commentary, Oikoumenios’ interpretation stood unanswered. Sergius I, Patriarch of Constantinople, is revealed as the heretofore unidentified recipient of the commentary and the individual who assigned Andrew the unenviable task of interpreting Revelation. Andrew concluded that the end was not near, refusing to apply the images of Revelation to his own times. Andrew situated the eschaton in the future, providing the populace with a balanced interpretation of Revelation, possibly inspiring Sergius himself with confidence in the positive outcome of troubling current events. Andrew encouraged people to pursue lives of virtue and assured them of the love of God for humanity. Sergius saved the Empire by boosting morale, encouraging them not to resign themselves to defeat, even when surrounded by barbarians and all hope seemed lost. The Empire prevailed and survived, but Andrew’s contribution was even more enduring. Andrew and Sergius won the psychological battle with doomsday naysayers, the theological battle with Oikoumenios and firmly fixed the general eschatological attitude for the Orthodox Church. Andrew’s commentary became the accepted Orthodox interpretation for Revelation. For the first time, the motivation behind the most important Greek patristic commentary on Revelation is revealed.


Apocalypse Patchwork: Finding Lost Scraps of the Ancient Eastern Interpretation of the Apocalypse Preserved in the Commentary of Andrew of Caesarea
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, University of San Diego

The first Greek commentary on Revelation did not appear until the end of the sixth century, due to Revelation’s shaky canonical status and association with heresy. The first Greek commentary, authored in the late sixth century by Oikoumenios, a Monophysite philosopher, was unacceptable to many Christians. Not long afterward, a second Greek commentary appeared to respond to Oikoumenios. This second commentary was composed by a well-known and respected exegete, Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea, Cappadocia. Andrew’s superior skill and exegetical training produced a commentary that quickly eclipsed that of Oikoumenios to become predominant and the standard patristic commentary for the East, including for the Slavic, Armenian and Georgian Churches. Andrew demonstrated that he stood in the stream of patristic tradition, even if it amounted to no more than a trickle. Although composed in 611, (a date proposed for the first time), Andrew refers to many interpretations of Revelation passages by earlier anonymous teachers, pointing to a heretofore unknown oral tradition of interpretation in the Greek East reaching back into the centuries preceding Andrew’s time. The totality of the ancient Greek tradition for the interpretation of the Apocalypse was preserved in the commentary of Andrew of Caesarea, who succeeded in drawing together the various strands of ancient tradition. His accomplishment and success are evidenced by the existence of eighty-three complete manuscripts of Andrew’s commentary, along with countless abbreviated versions. Oikoumenios’ commentary, on the other hand, was nearly lost to history and survives intact in only one manuscript. Andrew’s commentary also influenced the textual transmission of the Apocalypse and created a unique text type. Moreover, Andrew’s commentary is responsible for the eventual acceptance of Revelation into the canon of the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Churches. No significant amount of scholarship has been devoted to this most important Greek commentary on Revelation until now.


Ideologies Past and Present
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Colleen Conway, Seton Hall University

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A Textual Critical Solution of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Lamont T. Conyers, Liberty Theological Seminary

Textual Criticism in the books of Samuel present a challenge for the interpreter in order to arrive at the underlying text in the Old Testament. In Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22, there are two different versions of the story of the Deliverance of David from King Saul. The textual corruption in the book of Samuel is well known in biblical circles of what is the text or can the text of Samuel be recovered through the versions. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the text-critical issues in Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22 and propose a solution to the problems.


Women Prophets in Ancient Israel: Gone with the Men?
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Steve Cook, Vanderbilt University

In scholarship on prophets, an inclination exists to maintain a distance between the biblical representation of prophets and the history of Israel’s prophets. The results of source criticism, considerations of the ideological commitments of biblical authors and the compilation of prophetic books, and emphasis on the biblical text as literature have caused, in some quarters, biblical prophets to become unrecognizable as historical personages. Representative of this situation, Robert P. Gordon has called the “disappearing prophet” a “well-known feature of the biblical landscape.” Because so much of the scholarship that has created this situation has focused on men prophets, one could properly speak of the “disappearing male prophet.” While the prevalence of literary criticism in feminist criticism has contributed to this “disappearance,” feminist scholarship also treats women prophets as a subject of historical research. We can identify three primary approaches. The first treats women prophets in the biblical text as women prophets in history. The second comprehends women prophets in the biblical text by employing sociological models and archaeology or drawing upon attestations of women prophets in ancient Near Eastern sources. Third, scholars read the biblical text attuned to the genders of its voices and identifies possible female authors of prophetic texts. Using these approaches, feminist scholars have made the guild and society take note of the presence of women prophets. In this paper, I want to outline the three principle modes of feminist scholarship on women prophets and put them in dialogue with discussions about biblical prophets and history. In doing so, I will argue that the biblical representation of women prophets meets with many of the same situations that lead to questioning the biblical text as a source for the history of Israel’s men prophets and offer suggestions for future research on women prophets in history.


What's a Subjunctive? Teaching Verb Modality to Elementary Hebrew Students
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
John A. Cook, Eisenbrauns

As challenging as it is to teach concepts like tense and aspect to first year students of Biblical Hebrew, it can be even more difficult to help them grasp the nuances of non-indicative modality expressed by the Biblical Hebrew verbal system. First, some types of non-indicative modalities are less familiar than others. For example, "command" is relatively clear non-indicative category, but what about "subjunctive"? Second, there is a growing recognition that modality is often marked syntactically in Biblical Hebrew, which necessitates teaching students about word order (e.g., Joosten 1992; DeCaen 1995; Cook 2002). In this paper I outline recent developments in understanding modality in Biblical Hebrew, and then discuss the pedagogical challenges of teaching first-year students to discern the non-indicative meanings of the verbal system.


The Hebrew Participle in Typological Perspective
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
John A. Cook, Eisenbrauns

The participle in Biblical Hebrew, commonly labeled a "verbal adjective," has been referred to as an "intermediate" form because of examples such as Jer 33:22 in which the participle is treated both nominally (construct plural) and verbally (followed by direct object marker) (see Gordon 1982; Dyk 1994). Dyk has argued that a participle may be the main verb of a predication when the copula is reanalyzed as an auxiliary (1994: 212). The question of whether a participle is acting as the main verb or a verbal adjective with a copula (overt or covert) is important in light of recent theories of the Biblical Hebrew verbs that argue the participle is an integral part of the finite verbal system (e.g., Joosten 1989; Hoftijzer 1991). In this paper I examine the Hebrew participle using diachronic typology and drawing on recent research on the status of adjectives with respect to nominal and verbal systems.


Incapacity and Submergence in Ezekiel 24:15–27: The Death of Ezekiel's Wife and His Release from Speechlessness
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary

Two signs mark the end of the judgment section of Ezekiel's book: the prophet's suppression of normal human grief at the death of his wife and the announcement of the prophet's release from his physical inability to speak. The death of Ezekiel's spouse signals the people's loss of the Jerusalem temple and their own children (24:21), and his reaction to her demise gives his audience a picture of the stifling discernment of judgment that awaits them. The abnormal quality of this imminent emotional submergence begs for clarification. An understanding of possible human responses to epiphanies of the numinous proves greatly illuminating in this regard (cf. Amos 6:10; 8:3b; Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13). Up until this point in the book, Ezekiel has been "speechless," unable to perform the normal functions of a prophet. It is no coincidence that his impediment ends precisely at this point. As the people fall abnormally silent, Ezekiel's paralyzed tongue is transfered to their mouths. Again, understanding the peculiarly numinous quality of Ezekiel's God helps illuminate the situation. The prophet's speechlessness has been bound up with the character of his God as sui generis and irrepressible.


Interpreting Sacrifice and Atonement in the Scriptures of Reverence
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary

Perhaps the Hebrew Bible’s profoundest presentation of the meaning of ritual sacrifice and sacral atonement occurs in the “RS” Scriptures, the Scriptures of the Reverence School. (By the rubric “RS” I designate the writings of the “Priestly Torah” strand of the Pentateuch, a subsection of “P,” and those of Isa 40–66, which, I have argued, defend an identical theology.) In the thinking of the RS writings, the public immolation of atoning sacrifices cannot be construed as bribes or gifts to God. Any worshiper offering a sacrifice of atonement with the thought “I give, you give, O God” was sadly deluded. In the RS Scriptures, the Holy One of Israel is self-dependent, non-contingent, already in full possession of all earth’s life, and absolutely unwilling to accept any sort of human care or feeding. Atoning sacrifices have nothing to offer God, nor do they satisfy or placate God, as if God were anthropomorphic. How then do we interpret animal sacrifice in the RS Scriptures? I submit we must meet their scandal of violence head on, starting with the scandal of the immolation of animals. We must also reckon with the peculiar death-dealing dynamics experienced by the finite human mortal in the presence of the Holy, the utterly numinous. In the Reverence thinking of the Scriptures, drawing near before the Holy means death, death as submergence and release. So too, it also means consecration and exuberance. Fortunately, both classic and revolutionary new theoretical work on the dynamics of reverence as it is provoked by an experience of the numinous is available to us for guidance. My new interpretive work on sacrifice in the RS Scriptures draws particularly on research by Israel Knohl, Paul Woodruff, Rudolf Otto, and Edward A. Westermarck.


Deuteronomy 32 as the Road Map of Jewish History
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Alan M. Cooper, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Taking his cue from a brief passage in the Sifre on Deuteronomy, the 13th-century Jewish commentator Nahmanides (Ramban) claimed that the “Song of Moses” in Deuteronomy 32 was both a retrospective and prophetic account of Jewish history, encompassing past, present, and future. Ramban’s interpretation decisively influenced subsequent traditional commentary on the text. In this paper, I will survey the development of this line of interpretation from Ramban to Abarbanel (early 16th century), with particular emphasis on themes--especially the nature of divine providence and the imminence of redemption--that appear to be direct responses to Christian supersessionist claims.


“Preposterous Violence”: End of Days and Revelation
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Laura Copier, University of Amsterdam

I start with Richard Walsh’ reading of the 1999 film End of Days. Walsh argues that End of Days presents an inverted reading of Revelation: “[w]hile Revelation moves from suffering to (redemptive) violence, the movie moves from violence (guns) to faith” (2002: 12). Walsh draws this conclusion by taking the scripture of Revelation as the natural precursor of the historically later cinematic rendering of Revelation. I argue that the film is more than a cinematic adaptation of Revelation. I read the film as an instance of “Preposterous History”, a reverse reading that treats what comes first (“pre”) as an aftereffect of its later recycling (“post”). This reading sets up a dialogue between contemporary Hollywood cinema, and art of the past, biblical images and biblical narrative structures. The concept of “quotation” can function as a mediator for integrating visual and linguistic traditions of interpretation. The term quotation encompasses both iconography and intertextuality. It can be defined as a recasting of past images. I analyze the numerous presences of Arnold Schwarzenegger the film star, whose images – packed together in his star text – constitute a source of iconographical and intertextual meanings. By juxtaposing Schwarzenegger with both archangel and warrior Michael and Revelation’s final manifestation of Christ as the rider called Faithful and True, a new iconography emerges. In the final part of the film, a reversal in imagery occurs that resists the imagery of Revelation: End of Days emphasizes the sacrificial act performed by Schwarzenegger. The motifs of self-sacrifice and martyrdom have a strong biblical, iconographical grounding. They refer back to textual sources of martyrdom in Revelation. Yet, these motifs have been imported within a new context, that of Hollywood cinema. Interpretation should then focus on the interpretation of self-sacrifice or martyrdom in its new context. While I agree with Walsh that the film’s denouement, by renouncing violence, seeks to improve on its source text Revelation, I also suggest that it does so by creating a whole new iconography.


The “Son” as Reformer of the Cult: Thematic Parallels between the Rule of Righteous Davidic Kings in the Hebrew Bible and the Rule of the “Son” in Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Felix H. Cortez, Andrews University

This paper seeks to explore the role that Davidic traditions of the king as reformer of the cult may have played in the shaping of the Christology of Hebrews. The analysis of the actions of righteous Davidic kings in the Hebrew Bible shows that their rule followed a fairly consistent pattern that reached its most perfect expression in the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah. Seven main elements comprise this pattern (though not always in the same order). After ascending to the throne, the righteous Davidic king would (1) renew the covenant between God and the nation, (2) cleanse the land from spurious forms of worship, (3) build or repair the temple, (4) reform the cult by ordinances that secured a better service for the worshipers and reorganize or reestablish the cultic function of the priests and Levites, (5) promote the reunification of Israel, and (6) achieve “rest” by defeating the enemies, and, in several cases, the rise to power of the Davidic king coincides with (7) the emergence of a faithful priest. Most of these actions were later included in the expectations of a future Son of David in the Hebrew prophets. Jesus’ accomplishments are described in Hebrews in similar terms. Thus, Jesus is the “son” enthroned at the right hand of God (1:3, 5-6). He has defeated “death” (2:14-16), built the “house of God” (3:1-6; 8:1-5), and provided “rest” to his people (4:1-10). His ascension to the throne implicates as well the reform of the cult by changing the order of priesthood (chaps. 5-7) and the law of sacrifices (9:9-10). Consequently, the new king cleanses his people (9:11-14) and mediates a new covenant (9:15-23). Are Davidic traditions a subtext of Hebrews? How would this impact our understanding of Hebrews’ exhortation to its readers to “hold fast to the confession”?


A Lament Song from the Ancient Greek Tradition
Program Unit: Lament in Sacred Texts and Cultures
Charles H. Cosgrove, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

This paper focuses on the only extant musical score (words and musical notation) of an ancient Greek lament song. The song is undoubtedly an “art song” meant for performance in an odeon or at a private gathering. Nevertheless, just as literary hymns imitated cult hymns, so other kinds of art songs imitated various kinds of folk music and are an important source for reconstructing traditional song forms and practices. The score in question is a papyrus fragment—P. Berlin 6870 lines 16–19, 23—dating to 156 CE (although the text is probably much older). The score dramatizes Tecmessa’s lament over the suicide of Ajax. The text does not come from a known drama. It has either been adopted from a lost drama or is based on a dramatic scene, a practice that was evidently common in ancient Greek song-writing. The melody is scored for a female voice and features a curious singing against the tonal accents. The extant Greek songs preserved with musical notation display a conformity of melody to verbal accent from at least the Hellenistic period (almost certainly also before and going back at least to Homer) through the second century CE. Tecmessa’s lament, however, does not at any point conform to this convention. In a statistical study of melody/accent relations in ancient Greek music Mary C. Meyer (Statistics Dept., University of Georgia) and I have shown that this non-conformity is almost certainly not accidental but deliberate (“Melody and Accent Relations in Ancient Greek Musical Documents: The Pitch Height Rule,”Journal of Hellenic Studies 126 [2006]: 66–81). This suggests that singing against the pitch accents is a musical device of this lament, designed to enhance the expression of extremity. The presence of this musical device in an art song raises the question whether the composer has imitated a traditional style of lament in which women sang against the verbal accents. A comment by Plutarch may be pertinent here: “it is fitting in mourning to do what is not customary” (Mor. 267A).


In Other Words: Incarnational Translation as a Hermeneutic
Program Unit:
Charles Cosgrove, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

Incarnational Translation is a method of contemporizing restatement of the biblical text that attends to functional equivalence in both sense and form. The concept and practice grow out of a decade of teaching in the foundational course of the Association of Chicago Schools D.Min. in Preaching Program. The approach raises interesting and challenging hermeneutical questions about the relation between scripture as ancient rhetorical event and contemporary rhetorical re-enactment in diverse cultural contexts.


Sad Psalms Say So Much: Lament, Rhetorical Violence, and Moral Agency in Psalm 109
Program Unit: Lament in Sacred Texts and Cultures
Amy C. Cottrill, Birmingham-Southern College

In Psalm 109, the psalmist responds to a situation of acute suffering with a heightened, even vicious, revenge fantasy. Though the psalmist designates God as the agent of the violent acts of the psalmist’s imagination, this paper explores the agency afforded the psalmist through use of violent language. A central argument is that violent language is itself a violent act that extends a particular kind of moral agency to the psalmist. The rhetoric of violence in Psalm 109 is especially potent because it is combined with another powerful self-representation of the psalmist as weakened and defenseless; the psalmist’s diminishment is as fully articulated as the psalmist’s violent aggression. This combination of self-representations, as both dominating and vicious and weakened and defeated, offers all (the psalmist, God, and the audience) involved in this speech act a significant experience of rhetorical violence and an interpretation of the desire for violence as just. While rhetorical violence and revenge fantasy may be a way of resisting social diminishment, it also constructs an agonistic worldview in which domination over the enemy is the only, or most desirable, alternative to diminishment. The literary concepts of comedy and tragedy, used as heuristic devices, elucidate the embedded worldview of Psalm 109 with regard to violence. As opposed to a tragic vision that emphasizes the hideous and dehumanizing aspects of violence, comic violence is portrayed as positive, or at least necessary, for the subject’s restoration. In this psalm, rhetorical violence occurs within a comic framework that emphasizes its restorative trajectory as opposed to its squalor.


The Mystery Now Revealed: Lohse's "Colossians and Philemon" as the First Word on Hermeneia
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Ronald Cox, Pepperdine University

I propose a rhetorical study of the Hermeneia commentary series by Fortress Press. This study takes into consideration attributes of the various commentaries produced in that series but will focus primarily on Colossians and Philemon by Eduard Lohse. This inaugural Hermeneia commentary (published in 1971) was translated from Lohse’s "Die Briefe an die Kolosser und an Philemon," which originally appeared in 1968 in the KEK series by Vandenhoech and Ruprecht. I assess the commentary against the backdrop of the Hermenia editors’ self-described purpose in forming this “international and inter-confessional” collection of “critical and historical” commentaries, not prescribed with “arbitrary limits in size and scope”: “The editors of Hermeneia impose no systematic-theological perspective upon the series (directly, or indirectly by selection of authors). It is expected that authors will struggle to lay bare the ancient meaning of a biblical work or pericope. In this way the text's human relevance should become transparent, as is always the case in competent historical discourse. However, the series eschews for itself homiletical translation of the Bible” (editors’ introduction.


Jesus' Resurrection in Social-Scientific Perspective: Can Anything New Be Said?
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Pieter F. Craffert, University of South Africa

Although explanations for the earliest proclamation of Jesus' resurrection vary and claims are made that results are “more finely nuanced” than in previous quests, research overviews show that some standard answers and arguments appear again and again. While it has been suggested that the data is much more ambiguous than many would admit and that in most cases conclusions are largely known in advance, it is argued here that the resurrection debate, like the Third Quest of which it is part, has reached a dead end. Engagement in social-scientific interpretations offers an escape from the stalemate positions which vary between those who promote the historicity of the empty tomb and visual experiences of the resurrected Jesus (thus, a literal bodily resurrection) and those who deny these claims (and promote some naturalistic explanations). Both groups are trapped in a historiographical framework which limits the possibilities about the historicity of the reported events. A social-scientific perspective offers a new way of looking at the data and an alternative interpretive framework for dealing with historicity.


The Generation of Holiness: On the Logic and Production of Tabernacle Space
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Cory Daniel Crawford, Harvard University

The purpose of this paper is to examine the soundness of the search for a logic of the Tabernacle’s spatial arrangement. To be sure, treatments of the Priestly system of holiness, especially by Haran, Gorman, and Jenson, have advanced the understanding of homologous axes of gradations on which space, time, and the cult itself seem to turn in Priestly texts. Last year in this section Professor George made the important observation that the community as described in P also turns on such an axis, and went on to argue that it is this axis that is responsible for the structure of the tabernacle space. I investigate whether the search for a compositional logic allows us to understand fully how this space was produced. After delineating some of the narrative constraints often overlooked in the study of Priestly texts, I investigate a possible “thought-space” dichotomy analogous to Catherine Bell’s positing of a “thought-action” dichotomy, and the concomitant possibility that the search for the Tabernacle’s logical production is invoked by scholars bridge the gap. I rely on the work of Henri Lefebvre, J.Z. Smith, and others in investigating the process by which the Tabernacle space comes to have significance. I argue that perhaps the most fruitful way of analyzing the production of this space is through reflexivity and reciprocality among those homologies long noticed by students of Priestly writings.


Allegorical Interpretation of the Ban and the Plain Sense of the Text: Reading the Herem Law for Ethics
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Jerome F. D. Creach, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Modern scholars have often dismissed Origen's allegorical interpretation of the herem law as a fanciful and too-easy sanitizing of what is arguably the most ethically difficult portion of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, Origen seems to overlook the troubling aspects of Deut 7:1-5; 20:10-18 and the narrative in Josh 1-12. This paper proposes, however, that Origen's interpretation provides clues to features of the text that modern scholars have often missed, features that may help contemporary readers deal with the ethical implications of the ban. As R. W. L. Moberly has shown, a close reading of Deut 7:1-5 suggests that the herem law in its present literary context is a metaphor of faithfulness to God rather than a command to kill (note that herem, commanded in vv. 1-2, is defined in v. 3 by a prohibition on intermarriage and in v. 5 by an injunction to destroy cult objects belonging to Canaanite deities). This indicates perhaps that the ban was sublimated in the Hebrew Bible in much the same way child sacrifice was transformed into a symbol of religious devotion. At least three conclusions may be drawn from such observations: (1) Origen's allegorical reading of the conquest story is more consistent with the "plain sense of the text" than modern scholars have often recognized; (2) a comprehension of the "plain sense" of the conquest story requires attention to its "layers," that is, evidence of a process of "traditioning" in which the story's tradents struggled with and corrected the tradition they received; (3) hence, pre- critical interpreters like Origen often had insights into texts about warfare that may inform modern scholars interested in interpreting for ethical concerns.


War hrm and the Erasure of Memory in Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Ovidiu Creanga, King's College London

Recent interpretations of war-hrm in Deuteronomy recognize the role of violence in the construction of Israel’s religious and gender identity (Lohfink 1995, Washington 1997, 1998). However, none of these studies link memory to violence and identity-formation. Physical and spatial annihilation of the ‘seven nations’ of the land erase their memory. This paper explores the role of remembering and forgetting in the construction of Israel’s identity as illustrated by war-hrm in Deuteronomy 7 and 20. Social and anthropological studies show that identity and memory are intimately connected (Gillis 1994). Scholars such as Halbwachs (1980) claim that religious memory finds material support in sacred buildings, cultic objects, and religious practices. Connerton (1989) stresses the importance of non-inscriptive practices that preserve memory in the body. While identity and memory can be represented in various locations, these studies indicate that human bodies and religious buildings are ‘sites’ of memory, places that symbolically contain, or display, a useful past (Bohloul 1996; Lowenthal 1985; Fentress and Wickham 1992). Their displacement through death and destruction tends to erase or dilute a group’s religious memory (Bevan 2006). Drawing from these studies, this paper argues that war-hrm in Deuteronomy legislates the destruction of ‘Canaanites’ and of their shrines in order to erase the memory of ‘foreign worship’. By associating local cult worshipers with the ‘seven nations’ of Canaan, the Deuteronomists obliterate alternative worship and suppress its memory from its most conspicuous sites: the body and the shrine (Deuteronomy 7.2, 5; 20.17). Understanding of war-hrm in this way opens new ways of reading accounts of total destruction elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, e.g., in the book of Joshua (Joshua 6-11). It also relates well to other Deuteronomic themes, such as ‘remembering to forget’ (ex., Amalek, Deuteronomy 25.19) and, finally, to the question of Israel’s identity as a community of memory.


Not as Moses Said: Identity Formation through the Rejection of Scripture
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
David Creech, Loyola University of Chicago

In the mid to late second centuries as various breeds of Christianity proliferated and competed with one another, a group’s relationship to the sacred text came to function as a powerful identity marker. This dynamic appears to be active in the Gnostic-Christian text, the Apocryphon of John. Although the authors of the Apocryphon are critical of Moses, they nonetheless follow his account closely. Even at the points of explicit disagreement, several features of the “corrections” reveal continuing attention to and respect for his narrative. First, the disagreements do not seem to be fully/always substantive. The changes to Moses’ account generally concern details; in some cases one could even question whether a true disagreement exists. Second, and related, the versions often disagree with each other on precisely where Moses’ erred. Finally, through time, it is clear that the authors were returning to the text. That is, although the authors assert that Moses’ account is not trustworthy, they nonetheless continue to mine it for insight. These three inconsistencies lead me to conclude that the authors of Ap. John explicitly maligned the proto-orthodox Christian scriptures not because they found them inherently misguided. Rather, the critical attitude is primarily rhetorical, drawing a clear boundary between themselves and their rivals through their “rejection” of Moses.


The Great Betrayer: Portrayals of Judas Iscariot in Modern Fiction
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Zeba A. Crook, Carleton University

Poor Judas: so misunderstood, so maligned! The recently "discovered" Gospel of Judas illustrates that the desire to understand the actions of Judas Iscariot through fictional writing is very old indeed. But in this paper, I am interested in modern fictional attempts to do so. In the era of the modern novel, there are over 300 fictional works that, like the Gospel of Judas, seek to understand Judas. These are novels about Jesus or the early Christian movement, but of course Judas is prominent in all of them. In this paper, I shall analyse how the character of Judas is presented and how his actions are explained. I shall do this in reference to several accounts of modern fiction: Sholem Asch, The Nazarene (1939), Anthony Burgess, Man of Nazareth (1979), Gerd Theissen, The Shadow of the Galilean (1987), Jose Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1994), Norman Mailer, The Gospel According to the Son (1997), Nino Ricci, Testament (2002), and Walter Wangerin Jr., Jesus: A Novel (2005).


Historical Jesus
Program Unit:
John Dominic Crossan, DePaul University

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Was There Wisdom in Edom?
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Brad Crowell, University of Toledo

In biblical studies, Edom is often considered the location of a skeptical wisdom school responsible for either sources or entire books of the Hebrew Bible, especially the book of Job. An ostracon discovered at Horvat Uzza in the eastern Negev was published in 1993 and initially considered a Hebrew poetic text. Recently, this ostracon was interpreted as an Edomite parallel to the biblical book of Job. This interpretation will be critiqued along with the popular scholarly construction of Edom as the location of a major ancient wisdom school.


Mantic Mary: The Virgin Mother as Prophet in Luke 1:26–56
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
N. Clayton Croy, Trinity Lutheran Seminary

The title of George Tavard’s book "The Thousand Faces of the Virgin Mary" is indicative of the many images and roles that have been envisioned for the mother of Jesus. One image that has been suggested but whose literary and theological dimensions have not been fully explored is that of prophet, particularly the conjoining of Mary’s prophetic role with her status as a virgin. The proposed paper will examine features of the annunciation story, the Magnificat, and the surrounding narrative in Luke that suggest a prophetic characterization of Mary. I will investigate the relationship between virginity and the prophetic office in ancient Israel and especially in the Classical and Hellenistic worlds. Finally, I will survey several Early Church writings whose authors explicitly viewed Mary as a prophet. As a (tentative) conclusion, I will suggest reasons why the evangelist characterized Mary in this way but avoided an explicit designation of her as a (virgin) prophet.


The Vision of Exile in Second Isaiah and Mexican Immigrant Corridos
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Gregory Cuellar, Texas A&M University

In terms of my specific positioning as a Hispanic in the U.S. Southwest, this paper intends to “read-across” journey experiences of exile. In terms of a reading trajectory, I first read the experience of exile addressed in Second Isaiah (40-55) across to the contemporary Mexican migratory experience. This reading project is theoretically grounded in a theology of the diaspora, which, according to Fernando F. Segovia, is a theology grounded and forged in the migratory experience of U.S. Hispanics. From this perspective, the Jewish Babylonian exiles and contemporary Mexican immigrants are viewed as common human experiences of diaspora. Moreover, these experiences find expression in each of these groups’ corresponding cultural literature. Thus, I propose to read-across this spectrum of cultural literature from the vision of exile in Second Isaiah to the Mexican immigrant corridos (ballads). In the end, this paper argues that the diasporic category of exile in Second Isaiah can inform our reading of exile in the Mexican immigrant corridos and vice versa.


John 21:24–25: The Johannine Sphragis
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
R. Alan Culpepper, McAfee School of Theology

John 21:24-25 has typically been examined for clues to the composition history and setting of the Gospel. The questions asked of it have concerned the identity of the Beloved Disciple, the "we," and the "I," and the role of the Beloved Disciple in the writing of the Gospel. Here, I propose to look at its function as a "sphragis" (seal) for the Gospel. The Gospel of John is distinctive in that it is "self-referential" and concludes with a guarantee of its own truthfulness. Would this literary seal have been recognized as a standard element of ancient historiography? How does it function? For whom is it designed to be convincing? And, what can we learn from the literary seals in other documents?


Pursuing the Elusive
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
R. Alan Culpepper, Mercer University

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Mind, Miracle, and the Gospels
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Istvan Czachesz, University of Groningen

This paper examines the effect of cognitive constraints on the formation of the Jesus tradition. It uses a cognitive model of oral memory based on evolutionary psychology, the cognitive science of religion, and script theory. First, it discusses how the human mind deals with agency, intentionality, and ontology, interpreting the idea of Jesus’ resurrection against the backdrop of these cognitive structures. Second, it explains how the same cognitive capacities, in combination with other psychological factors, underlay the formation of early Christian miracle stories. Third, it discusses the encoding and retrieval of narrative episodes to understand how these elements were transmitted.


The Translator and the Para-textual Elements of the Masoretic Text
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Stephen C. Daley, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

From a text-critical perspective, how do modern translators treat the inner-MT textual variants that are preserved in certain cases of Ketib-Qere, “extraordinary points,” and “corrections of the scribes”? Where these elements of MT represent significant textual alternatives, the translator is all but forced either to adopt a policy toward them (always to follow the Qere, perhaps) or to evaluate the variants they present and make case-by-case, text-critical decisions. Such choices are required even if textual eclecticism is eschewed and the goal is to reflect MT as it is. In this study we survey the treatment of Ketib-Qere, extraordinary points, and the tiqqunim (corrections of the scribes) in a number of the best known English translations (ETs). By including a range of ETs from the 1611 KJV to the those completed more recently, twenty-one ETs in all, it is possible to note trends and to identify various approaches, as well as to single-out problem cases and unusual, even surprising solutions adopted in some ETs. Recognizing the variety of approaches and solutions represented among the ETs surveyed, we will briefly consider some of the challenges and choices that para-textual elements of MT present to those currently involved in translation. Would it be possible to develop and adopt a shared approach?


Conjectural Emendations in Bible Translations: Past, Present, and Future
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Stephen C. Daley, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

When neither the Masoretic text nor any other Hebrew source contains what a scholar regards as an authentic representation of the biblical text in a particular reading, and when none of the ancient versions suggests a satisfactory alternative, then the consonants of the Hebrew text are sometimes altered, not on the basis of manuscript evidence but on the basis of conjecture, which is to say, by educated guess. Because such alterations are intended as improvements, the terms ‘conjectural emendation’ or simply ‘emendation’ (practically synonymous with ‘correction’ or ‘restoration’) are commonly applied. The practice of conjectural emendation has been part of biblical studies since at least the seventeenth-century beginnings of modern textual criticism, but have emendations “trickled down” into Bible translations intended for churches, synagogues, and the general public?====In this study we assemble a random sample of suitable conjectural emendations and survey twenty-one of the best known English translations—from the 1611 KJV to the 1996 NLT—to determine how widely the emendations are adopted. Which translations adopt conjectural emendations and which do not? Which translations reflect the most conjectural emendations? By examining translations completed over a span of nearly 400 years it will also be possible to determine when conjectural emendations began to be accepted into translations and whether they were most commonly adopted during a certain period or by a specific type of translation.====After we understand the varying practices reflected in the English translations with regard to conjectural emendations, we will open the question of whether conjectural emendations should have a place in Bible translations intended for public use. If there is a place for them (and we will suggest that there is), would it be possible to develop and implement a well scrutinized, common approach so as to reduce subjectivism?


Poor People Read Paul
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Noelle Damico, University of the Poor School of Theology

This paper will employ experiences from contemporary efforts by poor people to build a social movement across divides of race, class, geography, and ethnicity as hermeneutical tools for uncovering traces in the Pauline corpus that suggest Paul's ministry involved organizing diverse, dominated peoples against Roman rule. Among the experiences considered are: the centrality of meeting survival needs, infiltration of spies, and poor people's own language and media of resistance. This paper will argue that reading the biblical text with poor people who are themselves collectively resisting corporate, political, and economic systems that dominate, can help scholars better understand the context in which Paul's worked, be attuned to new theological readings and imagine how these letters may have been received among the communities to whom he wrote.


Early Christian Veiling in North Africa: The Importance of the Visual Record
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Carly Daniel-Hughes, Harvard University

When scholarship on ancient Christianity has considered the prevalence of veiling amongst Christian women the discussion largely focuses on whether the apostle Paul commanded women to veil with the presumption that veiling is an act of oppression. Informed by recent feminist scholarship on Islam that treats Muslim women’s veiling as a multifaceted practice (i.e. El Guindi, Mahmood), I highlight how in the early centuries of the Roman Empire veiling or unveiling could articulate and produce manifold identities. I suggest that to understand what the veil might signify for Christian women who rejected the mantle or happily took it up, we need a sustained treatment of early Christian literature that takes into account the ubiquitous visual representations of the veil that populated ancient cities. This paper will look at one Christian discussion of veiling, outlined in Tertullian of Carthage’s De virginibus velandis, between Tertullian, who advocated the universal appropriation of the veil, and virgins, who rejected its wear for themselves, but not for matrons. I interpret contemporaneous images from portraiture and on coins (such as: the Small Herculaneum and Pudicitia portraiture types, coins of the Severan Emperesses as Pudicitia and Pietas, and images of Ceres Fortuna). Integrating analyses of visual and material culture into my interpretation of De virginibus, I highlight how Tertullian and the virgins variously accessed the symbolic range of veiling and unveiling to sustain opposing anthropologies: one that held a fixed gender hierarchy of male over female persists outside of sexual relations and the other that suggests sexual chastity promotes certain women to the class of honorary sexless males.


Gossip as Adjudicative Testimony for an Elusive Jesus in John's Gospel
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
John W. Daniels, Jr., University of South Africa

While important work has been done recently on how the cultural phenomenon of gossip might be brought to bear on the New Testament, none significant has yet been applied to the function of gossip in John’s gospel. Although the gospel offers examples throughout of texts reporting gossip, there are as well a number of texts explicitly describing gossip as it occurs. This essay explores the form and function of a number of texts [John 6:41-71; 7:10-13; 7:25-36; 7:40-44; 9:13-17; 10:19-21; 11:32-37; 11:45-46] that appear to be a flurry of peculiar gossip activity in John from chapters 6-11 – peculiar in that these instances may embody a kind of “adjudicative testimony” concerning Jesus’ identity and/or origin that is ultimately divisive to greater or lesser degrees. Richard Rohrbaugh, in his most recent book, has proposed that testimony, martyria/martyreo, is in fact, part of the semantic field for gossip, which suggests a relationship between the concepts of testimony and gossip. Moreover, since the forensic character of the Fourth Gospel has been emphasized in recent work, it may stand to reason that gossip in John exemplifies a kind of testimony. Indeed, it may then be asked whether such curious testimony – testimony embodied in argumentative gossip – serves not only to advance the narrative, but also to process John’s portrait of Jesus in such a way as to keep Jesus “under construction” and so continually “up for grabs” in disputatious discourse underscored explicitly in a number of scenes by schism.


Hanging out with Rahab: An Examination of Musa Dube's Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Lynne St. Clair Darden, Drew University

This paper proposes to examine the contributions of Musa Dube’s two-dimensional approach of postcolonial-feminist interpretation as an illustration of Two-Third World women’s "other way of reading" in which social activism is the prime component of biblical scholarship as her recent work on the bible and HIV/AIDS has made evident.


The Strangeness of Home: African American Biblical Hermeneutics through the Understanding of Homi Bhabha's Middle Passage
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Lynne St. Clair Darden, Drew University

This paper proposes that African American engagement with the bible is an emancipatory act of double consciousness, a bi-focal vision that revolves around a counter-memory. It is, paradoxically, an ambivalent yet sustaining praxis that constructs a positive identity while enunciating a dissent with the American ethos. It is an engagement that satisfies individual and communal desire for access into the divine realm while also providing a collective re-membering of past events and a means to imagine a future that ranges across a broad cultural/political spectrum. African American engagement with the bible is a knotty hybrid hermeneutic that enunciates a narration of nation based on the estrangement from home. Although, the methodological approaches of African American hermeneuts are diverse, their point of departure is grounded in this knotty hermeneutical tradition. However, womanist biblical scholars add another dimension to the “strangeness of home” by reframing the biblical narrative in a wider and more complex set of conflicts within the African American community, itself. Womanist scholars provoke and challenge their own community in its unreflective mimicry of aspects of the dominant ethos. Therefore, the paper will not only suggest that African American engagement with the bible exemplifies Bhabha’s notion of “performative practice”, i.e., that “repetitious recursive strategy” in which people, "not necessarily unified in their beliefs or by their willingness to be represented by the national identity, take part in producing national culture differently through the enunciation of the national story or identity," but will also claim that the fusion of African American biblical hermeneutics and postcolonial theory not only informs the relationship of the (neo)colonized with the (neo)colonizer, but also focuses its lens on the relationship of the (neo)colonized with each other.


Redefining Release in Jeremiah 40: Resistance and Home Rule
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Steed Vernyl Davidson, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

The narrative of Jeremiah 40:1-6 is one of the few places in the book of Jeremiah where the voice of the prophet remains silent. In this narrative that details Jeremiah’s release from the line of imprisoned captives on their way to Babylon, Babylonian imperial actions and officials over determine the central character and set up a narrative that attempts to conscript consent for Babylonian rule. The introduction of the prophetic word formula that does not lead to prophetic speech, the Deuteronomistic character of the Babylonian official’s speech, the textual problems in 40:4-5, and attendant issues of translation, as well as comparisons of this pericope with others that report the same event and those related to Gedaliah raise several questions about the transmission history, the tradent community, and the ideology of this pericope. This paper will propose a resistant reading of the compliant portrayal of Jeremiah in this chapter. The narrative will be reframed from a focus on release that draws attention to Babylonian generosity, to a focus on survival, shedding light on the strategies and choices of the community that remained in the land. An attempt will be made to demonstrate the reclamation of agency in the text through an exploration of Bell Hooks’ notion of marginality as a form of resistance to dominant power. Hooks’ ideas will help situate the reading of Jeremiah in the narrative as adopting marginality, a resistant position, through the choice to remain in the land and the denial of Babylonian preferential treatment. This portrayal will be contrasted with that of Gedaliah who serves as the imperial governor during the period of home rule on whom marginality is imposed.


Tears in Jerusalem: David’s Response to the Death of Absalom in 2 Samuel and Tomkins’s "When David Heard"
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Andrew Davies, Mattersey Hall

This paper will examine, compare and contrast the utility and value of literary and musical sources as media for the presentation and communication of both cold narrative fact and deep emotion, showing how David’s response to Absalom’s death is portrayed in the Hebrew Bible itself and in the anthem ‘When David Heard’ by the English composer Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656). I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of each medium for telling this kind of story and for communicating such depths of passion, illustrating the skill and artistry of both author and composer upon the way. I will also offer some suggestions for a methodology for reading musical sound itself, and not just lyrics, as an exegesis and interpretation of a biblical text, before closing by drawing some parallels with contemporary music.


My God … Why? Criticising the Actions and Inaction of God in the Psalms
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Andrew Davies, Mattersey Hall

This paper represents the latest phase of an ongoing research project on the concept of ‘unbelieving faith’, the open questioning of the character and conduct of Yhwh within the pages of the Hebrew Bible itself. The Psalms ask a number of difficult and pointed questions of the deity – such as why? Why not? How long? When? – often with surprising coolness and distance and sometimes with apparent hostility, but do so in a context and from a perspective of complete and utter reliance upon and trust in God’s intervening power. I am interested in this underrated phenomenon from a theological as well as a literary perspective, and propose to examine it here at both levels by means of a detailed analysis of the questions themselves, their form and distribution, and a close resistant reading of the key passages, which I hope will help to reveal the rhetorical and religious functions of such questions within the Psalter and the broader canon and give us more insight into the distinctive nature of the faith of Ancient Israel.


Counterfactual History and Other New Methodologies
Program Unit: Qumran
James R. Davila, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

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Hebrews 6:4–6 from an Oral Critical Perspective 
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Casey W. Davis, Roberts Wesleyan College

Few biblical passages have caused as much confusion and argumentation as Hebrews 6:4-6. Scholars have used a variety of approaches to try to decipher these enigmatic verses. Recent strategies have included a synthetic look at the five warning passages in the book, discourse analysis, comparison to Roman patron-client relationships, and the investigation of Old Testament backgrounds, of Jewish apocalyptic and of pneumatological literature. All of these methods are viable because they recognize the mindset of the original audience. This paper seeks to add to current and historical scholarship by going back to the mindset of the original audience, the original hearers. Scripture, as the church has known it throughout the vast majority of its history, is a literary entity. That was not true for the majority of people in its original setting. It was created in a strongly oral culture, one in which authors structured their compositions for hearing audiences who thought the way hearing audiences in an oral culture think. An approach which examines Hebrews 6:4-6 by taking into account the principles of oral composition in the literature of the NT world can only add to our understanding of this difficult passage. After briefly surveying some relevant conclusions of the recent work done on this passage, this paper presents findings from an oral critical point of view. The major finding of this work is that the author is not saying that Christians who have “fallen away” cannot come back. Rather, he is stressing what he, as their teacher, can do for them – he cannot bring them back. The focus of this warning section is the role of the audience’s teachers and leaders versus their responsibility.


Assimilation 101? The Curse of Canaan and Nella Larsen's Passing
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Stacy Davis, Saint Mary's College

This paper analyzes the curse of Canaan in Nella Larsen's Harlem Renaissance novel, Passing. The main characters, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, are both African-American women who are light enough to "pass." Irene is a situational passer; Clare has entered the white world permanently. Both women theoretically reject the curse of Canaan's application to African people. Practically, Clare uses the rejection to reject the reality of a color-conscious society, and she pays for this rejection with her life. Irene's emphasis upon respectability and race pride causes her to internalize the curse for both self-sacrificing and self-serving reasons. For Irene, blackness proves to be an impediment to the stability that she seeks above all else.


Angelic Vision: An Arabic Christian Commentary on Revelation
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Stephen J. Davis, Yale University

In the thirteenth century, the first major commentaries on the Apocalypse of John in the Arabic language were produced by two Egyptian Christian authors, Bûlus al-Bûshî and Ibn Kâtib Qaysar. Both of these writers contributed significantly to a Copto-Arabic ‘Golden Age’—a cultural renaissance of theology and biblical interpretation in Egypt that lasted into the fourteenth century. My current project focuses on Ibn Kâtib Qaysar, whose work is preserved in a manuscript from Cairo dated to 1335 and published in 1939 by Armâniyûs Habashî Shattâ al-Birmâwî. I am currently preparing an English translation of this text for publication. In my paper, after highlighting the important place of this commentary within the history of eastern Christian biblical interpretation, I will concentrate on the author’s opening interpretation of Revelation 1:1, where he provides his readers with a hierarchical classification of revelatory visions and portrays John as an angel, apostle, prophet, and priest.


"She Has No One to Comfort Her": Unmitigated Grief in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Lament in Sacred Texts and Cultures
Linda Day, Pittsburgh, PA

The most prominent biblical perspective on human grief is in the Psalter. In the psalms of lament, the expression of pain is typically subsumed by one of hope and confidence, and though God’s failure to respond to the psalmists’ traumas is part of the problem, a return of divine attention is the anticipated solution. In contrast, certain biblical materials provide a counter voice to this dominant perspective, the book of Lamentations primary among them. The grief experienced by Zion is unmitigated; the deity is not viewed as alleviating her suffering but only as causing it. Moreover, the distinction between redeemed and unredeemed pain falls along gender lines. In Lamentations, the book’s whisper of hope and comfort is a distinctly male expression. Likewise, the sorrow of female characters generally (e.g., Eve, the daughter of Jephthah, Tamar) tends to remain unrelieved, in contrast to the sorrow of male characters (e.g., Job, Jeremiah, David). These instances coalesce into a persistent motif of certain traumatic experiences as ultimately unredeemed, even unredeemable. Like the cry of Rachel, this voice of unconsoled female devastation echoes down throughout the canon, refusing to be shushed.


Word Classes in Biblical Hebrew: A Cognitive Approach
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Reinier de Blois, United Bible Societies

Traditional grammar has always divided words into different classes, such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, etc. This system has often been imposed on languages irrespective of the question whether the structure of those languages supported this way of categorizing. However, when semantics started to develop into a discipline of its own, a new way of dividing words into different categories emerged. Nida, for example, made use of the following four categories: objects, events, abstracts, and relationals. These two different approaches to the classification of words do not completely match. Even though there is partial overlap between semantic classes and their grammatical counterparts, there are considerable differences as well. More recently, however, there have been voices claiming that the traditional grammatical division can also be justified from a semantic point of view. Langacker, in his book on cognitive grammar, argues that “basic grammatical categories such as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb are semantically definable.” According to his analysis there are two basic classes of words: things and relations. In this paper an effort is made to apply Langacker’s theory to Biblical Hebrew and to determine whether this leads to a better way of categorizing words into different classes.


Imagination in the Study of the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Izaak J. de Hulster, University of Utrecht

“Adequate understanding of the Old Testament is achieved only by imaginative and disciplined study.” After Gottwald wrote so in 1959, the concept of imagination has been and is employed by several scholars in Old Testament studies. Thiselton, Perdue, and Vaughn use it in a similar way as Gottwald to construct links between the fragmentary elements of the available historical data. Another example provides Brueggemann’s application of the notions ‘prophetic imagination’ to denote the prophet’s vision of the future and ‘imaginative remembering’ as a north-west Atlantic counterpart of Assmann’s (kulturelles) Gedächtnis. Together with these facets, imagination comprises a vital element of the mental maps of all the persons involved in the history of the Hebrew Bible, ranging from the earliest people remembered to the present readers and researchers, extending to future generations. This paper will further explore and systematize the use of the concept ‘imagination’ in the Study of the Hebrew Bible and interdisciplinary show the interrelations between the different approaches.


Standing Stones and Lithified Liturgies
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Izaak J. de Hulster, University of Utrecht

Erecting stones as memorials seems to be of all ages; from millennia before Christ till the present day we remember the diseased with cut gravestones. Also in the Mediterranean many examples of this custom have been found. Albeit that standing stones served several different (sometimes related) purposes, an important usage has to do with the death. With its anchorage in the Hebrew Bible, this paper aims to survey the usage of upright stones and research the specific usage in death cult. Within this context the paper will concentrate on the difference between standing stones inside temples and cultic places, stones at the gate and freestanding stones. To achieve this aim, textual and iconographic approaches will be employed, and where necessary further elaborated.


Does Paul Want to Frighten the Corinthians or Not? Translating 2 Corinthians 10:9
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Marijke de Lang, United Bible Societies

Chapters 10-13 of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians differ in content and tone from the previous chapters 1-9. In the last four chapters Paul attacks false apostles who had come to Corinth and convinced members of the Corinthian community that Paul had no real proof for his authority. Paul addresses the Corinthians with a mixture of pastoral care, irony and anger. In almost all modern English, French, German and Spanish Bible translations Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 10:9 that he does not want to give the Corinthians the impression as if he is trying to frighten them with his letters. The commentaries (e.g. Barrett, Furnish, Lietzmann, Plummer, Thrall, Windisch) seem to support this interpretation. In this paper it is argued that this is exactly the opposite of what Paul intends to say, namely that he really does want to frighten them, but not only with letters. He is not only writing them harsh words (10:1 and 10:11), but he will also act accordingly. The exegesis and translation of verse 10:9 will be evaluated in the broader context of chapters 10-13.


Undoing Pg: The Corrective and Restraining Trends in the Reception of P
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Albert De Pury, University of Geneva

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The Ethical Implications of Violent and Vengeful Language in Revelation 18
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Pieter G.R. De Villiers, University of the Free State

This paper discusses first of all the decisive role that irony plays in understanding the violent language of Revelation. Examples will be given of the way in which contemporary interpretations of Revelation fail to fathom its stance on violence because of the failure to recognize the literary technique of irony that is applied in the book. In a last section the ethos of such use of irony is discussed: The question is not so much whether Revelation is against violence, but rather whether it opposes violence in an ethically responsible manner and, thus, effectively. Does not its ironic language, intended to subvert violence, undermine itself in trying to do so by taking over the very linguistic categories it opposes? Can violent ironic language be used to counter violence? This analysis will be done by providing and discussing examples of the problematic use of language in comparable situations and by analysing the way in which language creates rather than reflects meaning. The presentation will focus on the description of the fall of Bayblon in Revelation 18 to illustrate the issue under discussion.


The Subversive Gospel of Judas and Sethian Humor
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
April D. DeConick, Rice University

This paper will explore the subversive textures of the Gospel of Judas, particularly in terms of its employment of reverse exegesis to critique mainstream Christianity. Traditional genres and stories are subverted in order to expose their hidden meanings, meanings that support Sethian perspectives while berating the mainstream Christian, in particular the confession of the Church, its tradition of apostolic authority, and its coveted atonement theology. The result is Sethian humor that mocks the stupidity of mainstream Christianity in, what I think, are frighteningly profound ways. In the end, I will attempt to expose a Sethian reading of this gospel, whose “hero” Judas is really an “anti-hero,” an evil man associated with the demon Ialdabaoth. His tragedy is used to comment on the ignorance of mainstream Christians, who do nothing more than worship Ialdabaoth and curse the very man who made possible their atonement. The Sethian author(s) argues very logically and profoundly given his premises, if Judas was a demon working for the demons that rule this world, than the evil sacrifice he made of Jesus’ body was to the archons who rule this world, not the supreme God. This means that the eucharist is ineffective in terms of redemption, because it serves only to worship and give power to the god of this world who has entrapped us, not the supreme God who liberates us. Everything in this gospel, from the traditional confession story to the traditional betrayal story, is turned upside down and inside out to poke fun at those who do not share Gnosis.


John 20:24–29 and Matthew 22:23–33//Mark 12:18–27//Luke 20:27–38
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
April D. Deconick, Rice University

An exegesis of these passages will be provided.


Textual Criticism of the Bible during the Spanish Renaissance
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Francisco J. del Barco, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Textual criticism of the Bible has a venerable ancestor in the text-editing of classical Polyglot bibles, among which the Complutense Polyglot was the first ever issued in the very beginning of the 16th century. This biblical masterpiece of the Spanish Renaissance, which was promoted and sponsored by Cardinal Cisneros, generated an intense search for ancient and accurate Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible in order to edit the Hebrew column. This task was carried out with great zeal by Alfonso de Zamora, a converso whose knowledge of rabbinic tradition and the Hebrew language made him the most ideal scholar for the job at that time. Our paper will talk about the editing process of the Hebrew column in the Complutense Polyglot, the selection of manuscripts, the different tasks performed by Alfonso de Zamora, and the materials related to this process that have endured up to the present. We will also show pictures from the main biblical manuscripts used for the Hebrew column, and from other manuscripts used and copied by Alfonso de Zamora and which relate to the Complutense Polyglot as well.


More Ethiopian Manuscripts in North America
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Steve Delamarter, George Fox University

At the 2006 annual meeting in Washington D.C., I told about the location, digitization and cataloguing of 245 previously unknown and uncatalogued Ethiopian manuscripts in North America. One hundred eleven of these are codices; 134 are magic scrolls. As of February 2007, fully another 200 manuscripts have come to light and we have begun to digitize and catalogue these. This illustrated presentation will report on the progress of the work of digitizing and cataloging of these new manuscripts. In addition, we will tell about the deposit of the manuscript images in research libraries and about plans for making images of the manuscripts available online and in PDF format. Finally, we will talk about the economic and sociological engines that are driving the movement of manuscripts out of Ethiopia.


Refining Sociological Models for Understanding Scribal Practices in the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Qumran
Steve Delamarter, George Fox University

For six years I have been working to develop sociological models for understanding more fully the scribal practices in evidence in the biblical Dead Sea scrolls. This line of research was prompted by the work of Emanuel Tov and Shemaryahu Talmon and refined through the study of the methods of the new sociologically-trained, medieval codicologists. In addition, we traveled to Israel and Ethiopia to study the sociology of living scribal communities. This work was particularly productive among scribes in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition. We are now in a position to propose some models that speak to the issues of the social role and social location of scribes, the economic engines that affect their work, the sociological matrix that connects scribal features in manuscripts with community ideology and the unique function of frozen languages in religious communities. In this illustrated presentation we will briefly trace the path of our research and set forth a few of the models that appear to be most promising for de-coding more fully the information embedded in the scribal practices in evidence in the biblical Dead Sea scrolls.


Israel's Prophets: Dressed for Success or Set up for Failure?
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Carol J. Dempsey, University of Portland

Israel's prophets were inspired poets gifted with the power of imagination and rhetorical skill, who used their talents to shock their leaders and people into the harrowing realities of what was to befall them if they did not change their ways. The prophets' multi-faceted poetic illuminations of God were also often frightening, violent, and overbearing. Such images were also meant to stir the people into change. Israel's history, however, has shown that the prophets did not achieve their mission. The leadership and many of the people did not change. Israel lost its land, its temple, its holy city, and its monarchy. Thus, the prophets appear to be unsuccessful, but were they really? They were prophetic, but to what extent, and what sort of prophetic message were they delivering besides the usual one of doom and gloom? This paper explores selected texts from Israel's prophetic poets to determine if and how successful they were in their day, and if and how they remain prophetic today.


From Writing Exercise to Literary Composition: The Book of Lamentations
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Aaron Demsky, Bar Ilan University

Since deciphering the `Izbet Sartah ostracon, it is clear to me that there is a close affinity between writing exercises and biblical literature, particularly between abecedaries and acrostic poems. They are the two sides of scribal training. We will take a closer look at the structure of the Book of Lamentations which is a product of “alphabetic thinking”. The author has allowed the twenty-two letter alphabet to shape the structure of the individual laments as well as that of the whole book. We will attempt to show the use of certain elementary drills in the hands of the master poet who lamented the great calamity that befell his people.


Crafting Memory in the Roman Catacombs
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Nicola Denzey, Harvard University

Death is dramatic. Just as the writing of history in a grand or literary sense demands the creation and re-creation of events for the sake of public memory, so did the reality of death provide the citizens of late antique Rome the opportunity to craft and mediate memory traditions into specific and enduring memoriae. This paper argues that citizens of late antique Rome often exploited the vibrant interface between drama, history, and the crafting of memory traditions to commemorate themselves and their loved ones in ways that reflected a canny knowledge of the dramatic. It takes as a comparandum the recent book of art historian Marjorie Venit, which explores the theatricality of Roman Alexandrian tombs. Far from merely ornate sepulchers, Venit notes that the tombs themselves evoke theatrical sets. Mourners, in their funereal costumes – and even the deceased themselves – take their set places in these “memory theaters.” This paper focuses on one particular set of grave chambers from Rome’s Catacombs of Via Latina. The penultimate chamber, Cubiculum N, dates from ca. 350-370 CE and features a series of wall-paintings featuring the deceased couple as Alcestis and Admetus. The classicist Beverly Berg was the first to point out that the tomb itself was likely commissioned by the wife, who strove to demonstrate her erudition by allusions to Euripides’ drama Alcestis. The presence of Alcestis in funerary art from the late Empire and late antiquity is not particularly rare; more unusual, however, is the manner in which our unnamed female patron conceived of a dynamic and histrionic relationship between an ancient play, the circumstances of her own life, and the active viewing space of an ancient catacomb, which under her direction became no less than a “memory theater.”


Markan Christology and the Omission of yiou theou in Mark 1:1
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Dean B. Deppe, Calvin Theological Seminary

Of what significance is the textual problem of Mark 1:1 to the Christology of Mark’s gospel? Codex Sinaiticus, several witnesses to the Caesarean text type, and a few early church fathers omit the title “Son of God” in the prologue to Mark so that it reads, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Is this a sufficient designation of the person of Jesus for Mark? Or is the additional title, “Son of God” required to understand Mark’s point of view? First, we will investigate the evidence for a shorter title and consider its ramifications for Mark’s Christology. Then we will reflect upon the different implications for Markan Christology when the initial title reads, “Jesus Christ, Son of God” and counter each of the arguments for the shorter text.


Text and Memory: Luke's Use of Q
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Robert Derrenbacker, Regent College

This paper will explore Luke's use of the Sayings Gospel Q, with particular attention being given to Luke's compositional methods in light of the roles that orality and memory played in the production of ancient literature.


The Strategic Arousal of Emotions in the Apocalypse of John: A Rhetorical-Critical Investigation of the Oracles to the Seven Churches
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
David A. deSilva, Ashland Theological Seminary

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"Like Noble Athletes of Piety": 4 Maccabees as Source of Inspiration for Ignatius, Martyrdom of Polycarp, and Origen's Exhortatio
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
David A. deSilva, Ashland Theological Seminary

Laying down one's life for one's religious (or other) convictions and commitments represents the supreme investment that one can make in those convictions and commitments. One should want to be certain that such a sacrifice is nobly made, is in line with the divine requirements of a pious life, and looks forward to particular rewards in which one can have confidence, based on the claims of, among other resources, sacred texts. It is therefore of great interest to find early Christian martyrs (Ignatius), recorders of martyrdoms (the author of Martydom of Polycarp), and promoters of martyrdom (Origen) using not only the authoritative resources labeled "canonical" in their own contemplation and interpretation of death for the sake of piety, but also other textual resources that, while not being so labeled (in retrospect?), nevertheless functioned as foundational support and guidance where the ultimate religious choice was being made or about to be made. This paper explores evidence for the influence of 4 Maccabees (in distinction, in particular, from 2 Maccabees) on three early Christian authors, with a view to discerning how this text functioned as an authoritative and authorizing document, and how the use of this book is distinguished from the use of books designated "Scriptural."


The Early Christian Anti-oath Polemic and Social Cohesion
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Nathaniel Desrosiers, University of Missouri-Columbia

This paper investigates the possibility that early Christian communities acquired specific benefits through their members’ refusal to take oaths. I argue that the avoidance of oaths was understood as a necessary sacrifice whereby Christians denied themselves access to many of the dominant social and economic structures that were linked to oath-taking. Therefore, not swearing became an important mark of Christian community membership, identity, and cohesion. As a starting point, I briefly discuss the origins of the anti-oath polemic in the writings of the moral philosophers and certain groups within formative Judaism. Valuable insights on the relationship between avoiding oaths and group identity may be gleaned from these texts since status, moral progress, and even membership in these communities often were linked to the individual’s refusal to swear oaths. Turning to the Christian texts, many of these same themes begin to present themselves. Through a close reading of the Christian writings, and Matthew's gospel in particular, one is able to see how the refusal to take oaths acted as a boundary marker for Christian communities. I argue that the oath was seen as an unnecessary and dangerous human construct that could destroy one’s relationships with the community and God. Those who opposed oath-taking understood that maintaining oaths could be distracting to the individual, leading him or her away from the pursuit of salvation. Furthermore, taking an oath could create unnecessary tension between members of a community. Thus, refusing to swear became a sign of selflessness and dedication within certain Christian groups. Such an action was understood as necessary for the internal solidarity of the community since it demonstrated the individual’s faith and commitment, even in the face of hardship.


When Jesus became a Christian
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Adriana Destro, University of Bologna

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Jesus in the Political and Social Context of Jewish Revolts against the Roman Empire: Reflections on Mark 15:7
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Steven Di Mattei, Cornell University

Mark seems to suggest rather strongly that on the particular Passover in which Jesus was crucified there was some sort of sedition (15:7) and that furthermore Roman troops come in and arrested some Jews (many?), and crucified them on the charge of insurrection. Barabbas and some fellow insurgents, Mark tells us, were captured for committing murder during this sedition. The very fact of there being some sort of revolt on this particular Passover raises various questions. What sort of sedition was this? Was Jesus a part of this uprising? Was he perhaps its leader or instigator, or viewed as such by Roman authorities? Was his overturning of the tables of the moneychangers somehow a part of this uprising? Is Jesus’ crucifixion then somehow related to this sedition? If so how? What about the others caught and crucified in this rebellion, are they connected to Jesus? How many were actually crucified here? The current paper attempts to look at Mark’s casual mention of this sedition against the background of Jewish revolts and protests in the political, religious, and social climate of the first-century. The paper also cautions against formulating questions to narrowly in our historical reconstructions. The Gospel accounts are unequivocally concerned with the sole person of Jesus of Nazareth. History is already presented from the sole perspective of its central figure, Jesus Christ, and its central theological claims. From the Roman perspective of the events which unfolded on this particular Passover, Jesus of Nazareth, however, might have been little more distinguishable from the unnamed robber crucified next to him. Thus, rather than ask: Why was Jesus crucified by the Romans? We might reformulate: Why were Jews crucified on this particular Passover?


The Invention of Christian Tradition: Women, Icons, and the Consecration of Churches
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Paul Dilley, Yale University

This paper examines the strategies by which bishops adapted the domestic practice of icon veneration to the developing urban liturgy in Late Antiquity. In particular, I assemble evidence from apocryphal literature, homiletics, imperial law, and archaeological research to describe a completely neglected aspect of the early cult of images: the consecration of churches through the procession and installation of icons, a process which was likely repeated annually at the encaenia festivals. The icon functioned as the primary marker of sacred space, based in part on the logic of the imperial image. However, the most important antecedent for liturgical icons was the use of smaller icons in domestic prayer niches, a practice that seems to have been particularly associated with women. I develop these ideas by focusing on an apocryphal text about the death of Mary from fifth-century Palestine, which describes how she kept a cloth with an imprinted image of Jesus at her home in Zion. Mary prays regularly to this icon of her son, a scene which is found in the wall paintings of prayer niches in some Egyptian monastic cells. After her death, the apostles lead her body in procession from Zion to Gethsemene, taking the icon with them. After holding vigil, they bury her there, install the image of Jesus, and leave a record of their actions; presumably this refers to the text itself, which would have been read at the yearly encaenia for the Gethsemene church. This narrative succinctly displays the appropriation of private icon veneration by bishops, who use it in a ceremony to institute a public, sacred space. By the production of texts which locate the beginning of this practice in the first Christian generation, what was likely a controversial innovation was authenticated with the veneer of apostolic tradition.


Hagiography, Commemoration, and the Ritual Production of Kinship
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Paul Dilley, Yale University

The Life of Pachomius, despite the complexity of its transmission, is one of the earliest examples of Christian hagiography. The Life also presents significant information about its own development and use within the Koinonia, the community of monasteries founded by Pachomius. In my paper I explore the ritual context of remembering Pachomius’ Life, beginning with his successor Theodore’s encomium at the annual meeting of the monasteries for the Pascha. In the account of the speech, only the barest outlines of Theodore’s praise for his teacher are recorded; instead, the focus is on his lengthy discussion of the need for this commemoration (Bohairic Life, 194). I argue that Theodore presents his hagiographic project as a means of ritually enacting the monks’ status as Pachomius’ children: in his apology for bestowing such honor upon a person, rather than God (the usual recipient of liturgical praise), he uses scripture to show that it is the collective duty of children to praise their father. Theodore institutes this with an antiphonal blessing of Pachomius, in which the Koinonia responds to his call in unison. Theodore also employs the commemoration of Pachomius to exhort the monks to follow the commandments of their father. He reminds them of Pachomius’ labors to fulfill the covenant he made with God for their salvation; according to this model, they too must complete their obligations, as recorded in his rules, to inherit God’s promises as Pachomius’ children. In conclusion, I show how the ritual context of hagiography is continued by Horsiesius, Theodore’s successor, in praising his two predecessors: developing Pachomius’ prohibition against the veneration his own relics, Horsiesius defines the "bones" of the Koinonia's father as his rules, which his children must keep (Bohairic Life, 208).


A Sample Commentary on Philo De Abrahamo 119–132
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
John Dillon, Trinity College, Dublin

A sample commentary of De Abrahamo 119-132 will be presented. In this section Philo enters upon an allegorization of the incident described in Genesis 18, where Abraham is approached by, and entertains, a trio of strangers, who are in fact the Lord, under an alternately monadic and triadic guise. This leads Philo to an exposition of the relation between God himself and his two chief Powers, the Creative and the Administrative (represented by theos and kyrios respectively) which is of great interest, both as to its possible sources and to its philosophical significance. The issue of three levels of approach to God, linked to the triad of manifestations of the divinity, is also of much interest, and requires discussion.


A Hope for Status Inversion in the Acts of Thomas
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Edward Dixon, Emory University

This paper attempts to illuminate the social reality of those people who produced and first read the Acts of Thomas (AT), as well as the ideals for which these people stood. The paper contrasts the actual third century socio-political world of the Roman Empire with the very opposite story world of the AT. Specifically, I argue that the AT uses its stories of Thomas to establish a motif of subversion and inversion of well-established social hierarchies. Three stories in the AT resolve themselves with an inverted social order (the story of the king and his daughter in the first act, King Gundaphorus and Thomas in the second and third acts, and finally, the marriages of both Charisius and Mygdonia and King Misdaeus and Tertia, as well as the political relationship between Misdaeus and Siphor, in acts nine and following). By concentrating on well-defined power relationships (parents and children, kings and slaves, husbands and wives), the narrative clearly presents a story-world in which the lowly are raised and the raised are brought low. The status reversals depict a re-structured society that was unrealizable in the third century Roman Empire. I am suggesting that the motif of status reversal reveals the “community’s” bleak situation in the present age, but that the AT’s authors temper the present state of affairs by providing their readers with eschatological hope for an inverted social order. I conclude the paper by comparing this motif in the AT with the Gospel of Luke. I suggest that the hopes expressed by the AT place its producers and readers in a stream of eschatological thinking similar to Luke’s Magnificat (1:46-55).


Ezekiel's Theology of Divination and the Authority of Prophetic Speech in Ezekiel 21:26
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Brian Doak, Harvard University

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the language of "divination" in the book of Ezekiel, the relation of such language to Ezekiel's own prophetic speech, and to define the terminology of "divination" as Ezekiel seems to understand it. Toward this end, I examine a series of passages in Ezek 12, 13, and 21 to determine Ezekiel's overarching attitude toward divinatory practices, and I attempt to discern whether or not the book of Ezekiel contains a coherent theological outlook on the practice of "divination." I will assess and identify the methods of divination mentioned in ch. 21.26 and propose a translation of the latter part of v. 26 which correctly recognizes the particular method of religious inquiry practiced by the Babylonian king. Through this examination, we will find that the author of Ezekiel 21.26 was well informed regarding the practice of hepatoscopy and was even willing to include Ezekiel's actions in the YHWH-sanctioned divinatory scheme which plays itself out in the chapter.


A Re-evaluation of the Iconographic Motifs of the Ta'anach Cult Stand
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Brian Doak, Harvard University

This paper explores the iconographic motifs of the so-called "Ta'anach cult stand" (10th century BCE) in light of some biblical materials and the broader matrix of the Levant and ancient Near East. Despite the fact that these artistic representations may have far-reaching implications for the history of Israelite religion in the Iron Age, we contend that the common identification of the female figure in tier-I of the stand as "Asherah" is methodologically unsound, and thus the proposed scheme of divinities in the stand must be reconsidered. Further questions regarding the alleged "empty space aniconism" of tier-III are evaluated in view of the biblical discussion of YHWH's enthronement "on/above/between the cherubim" in the Temple. Finally, we make an endeavor to synthesize the various textual and art-historical data represented in the stand in an attempt to understand the relevance of the top tier, containing a calf and sun-disk, as a depiction of YHWH under which the other religious/artistic motifs are to be subsumed.


Scripting Dreams: The Gospel of Matthew’s Use of a Literary Convention
Program Unit: Matthew
Derek S. Dodson, Baylor University

The Gospel of Matthew contains three dream reports (1:18b-25; 2:13-15; 2:19-21) and three references to dreams (2:12; 2:22; 27:19). Scholarship has generally interpreted these dreams, especially 1:18b-25, in light of biblical and Jewish traditions. Such studies eclipse the literary dimension of the Matthean dreams, particularly how these dreams correspond to a conventional representation of dreams that is found in the larger context of Greco-Roman literature. This paper seeks to demonstrate this conventional, literary representation of dreams in the Gospel of Matthew by exploring (1) the form of the dream report, (2) dreams as a motif of the birth topos (1:18b-25), (3) the association of dreams and prophecies (1:22-23; 2:15, 23), and (4) the presence of a double-dream report (2:12; 2:13-15).


Dream Magic: The Dream of Pilate’s Wife and the Accusation of Magic in the Acts of Pilate
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Derek S. Dodson, Baylor University

In an effort to fill out the canonical narratives, the Acts of Pilate further elaborates the false accusations brought against Jesus by the high priest and Jewish leaders. One of these accusations is that Jesus is a wizard (1:1). This accusation of magic continues in relation to the dream of Pilate’s wife (2:1; cp. Matt 27:19), which causes her to suffer many things and subsequently to warn her husband to have nothing to do with Jesus. The Jewish leaders allege that this dream has been sent by Jesus. Behind this accusation is the practice of dream magic, a form of divination that was common in the ancient Mediterranean world. Drawing primarily upon the Greek Magical Papyri, this paper describes the ancient practice of dream magic in order to demonstrate the accusation of magic in the Jewish leaders’ assertion that Jesus sent the dream to Pilate’s wife. The paper concludes with some observations about the polemic of magic in antiquity in general and the Acts of Pilate in particular.


Sophia and the Gang: An Investigation of Lady Wisdom in Light of Other Personifications in the Wisdom of Solomon
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
J.R. Dodson, University of Tübingen

While much has been written on Sophia and her idenitity in the Wisdom of Solomon, relatively few authors have taken into account her role in light of the many other personifications employed in the work. The majority of energy has been spent on the identity of Sophia as a mere rhetorical device or an autonomous power. For instance, Alice Sinnott recently concludes that Sophia is a mere personification “rather than a person, or hypostasis;” who is clearly never “envisaged as a second god.” No reason, however, is given why Sophia could not be a personification of a person or hypostasis. Is this really “clear”? Can a scholar say with certainty what the author intended or how Wisdom would be envisaged by him or his audience in a world full of the belief in suprahuman powers? Our hope is to marginalise this debate so that we can push the argument beyond the ambiguous identity of the personification to the more concrete purposes for it. Drawing from both ancient and modern theories of personification, we shall first seek a clear definition of and hermeneutic for personification. Next, we shall investigate the role of Sophia in light of other personifications in the work such as Virtue, Creation, Logos and Death.


Children at the Saturnalia
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Fanny Dolansky, Brock University

The Saturnalia was one of the most popular and enduring Roman festivals. Its defining features – role reversal between masters and slaves and the extension of greater license to all, but particularly to slaves – have made the festival a source of perennial interest. Scholars (e.g. Versnel 1993, Gowers 1993) tend to focus on the participation of freeborn men and their slaves in the rites, and maintain that a complete elimination of status distinctions occurred accompanied by suspension of norms and laws. In this way, the Saturnalia functioned chiefly as a means of diffusing tensions that resulted from slavery. The evidence, however, suggests much wider participation in domestic celebrations, prompting a re-evaluation of this important observance in regard to its composition and functions. Ancient sources record freeborn and slave children, as well as freeborn women, at Saturnalia festivities, but to what extent did each group participate and to what end? What did the festival accomplish for its youngest participants whether freeborn or slave? In this paper, I examine evidence for children at the Saturnalia and assess this within the context of socialization, a process for which religious rituals arguably played a significant role. In addition to serving as a ‘safety valve’ that helped mitigate conflicts between masters and slaves (Bradley 1979), I propose that the Saturnalia aided in acclimating all members of the household, and especially children, to their place in the domestic hierarchy. A close reading of the ancient sources reveals differential participation in the rites on the basis of juridical status, gender, and age, and ultimately shows that gradations of license rather than total freedom actually characterized this celebrated occasion.


Text and Context: Considerations on the Iconography of Goddesses in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Shawna Dolansky, Northeastern University

Imagine we did not have a Hebrew Bible with which to frame our understanding of Israelite archaeology. Specifically, imagine that we knew nothing of biblical “asherah” or had any occasion to debate the meaning of this term in the biblical text. How would we view the female figurines from the Bronze and Iron Ages? With no theological stakes, perhaps archaeological interpretation would proceed as it does in other ancient contexts. More attention would be given to comparative iconography between Israel and its neighbors. Studies would analyze the change and continuity among the figures both diachronically and synchronically. One might in fact, (erroneously) draw the conclusion for Israel that has been drawn elsewhere; that a plethora of female imagery and the relative absence of male imagery signify a goddess-worshiping society. There are ample studies of biblical religion conducted without regard for the archaeological evidence. There are no archaeological studies of the religious iconography of ancient Israel that do not assume, either covertly or overtly, the biblical text as a starting-point. As a corrective, this paper will evaluate the religious iconography of ancient Israel in the absence of the biblical text, with two goals in mind. First, to attempt an honest appraisal of the archaeological evidence on its own terms; and secondly, to demonstrate the ways in which archaeological interpretations are affected by textual evidence, and how archaeology and text complement, enhance, and are in need of each other as interpretive frameworks.


The Land Claim of Jeremiah: Was Max Weber Right?
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
William Robert Domeris, South African Theological Seminary

Land is one of the central themes of the Hebrew Bible, just as it continues to play a vital role in our Post Modern world. First peoples and settlers still lock horns over land and its ownership. Turning to the HB, we have in Jeremiah his acquisition of a field (Jer 32:6-15). Is it a purchase and why is there mention of a relative? Max Weber referred to this action as a land claim - as Jeremiah “reclaiming of his lot from among his people” (cf. Jer 37:12). Did Weber come up with the right answer? What do we know about land-tenure from that time? Can we even speak about land ownership in the western sense before Roman times, or is this a case of imperialist exegesis – rightly exposed by post-modernist criticism?


The Pauline Epistles in Athanasius: A Contribution to the Alexandrian Text Type
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Gerald Donker, Macquarie University-Sydney, Australia

As the third class of witness to the New Testament text, the (Greek) Fathers have often been neglected due to the inherent difficulties associated with extracting a reliable text from their writings. Though their value as chronological and geographical witnesses to the history of the text has long been recognised it is only in the last few decades that there has been a concerted effort to make this resource more accessible via the SBL NTGF Series. Athanasius of Alexandria is one Father whose writings hold promise as a valuable witness for the New Testament text. A text critical study on Athanasius' gospels text was completed in the late nineties (Brogan) and now my own efforts are being applied to extracting Athanasius' text of the Apostolos. In an initial investigation I extracted the text of the Pauline Epistles from Athanasius' chief dogmatic writings, the three 'Orations against the Arians' and analysed it against the text of P46. This current focus on the Pauline Epistles is now being extended to all of Athanasius' authentic writings with analysis (Quantitative and Comprehensive Group Profile) against a range of representative manuscripts. The current research has value for a number of areas, not the least being the contribution of Athanasius' New Testament text as an important witness to the Alexandrian text type contemporaneous with, and prior to, some of the major (majuscule) witnesses. The paper will present the results of the analysis of Athanasius' text of the Pauline Epistles with a focus on the implications for current considerations of text type.


The Golden Calf in the Enneateuch
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Thomas B. Dozeman, United Theological Seminary

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Sexing the Jew: How Origen Reads Jewishness
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Susanna Drake, Duke University

This paper examines how Origen reworks Paul’s dyadic pairing of “flesh” and “spirit” to spiritualize Christian identity and em-body Jewish identity in On First Principles and Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. For Origen, Paul’s subjugation of flesh by spirit serves as a model for the subjugation of literal Jewish interpretive practices by spiritual Christian ones. In his construction of Jewish interpretation, Origen consistently reads Jewishness as that which is drawn to fleshliness and literalness, and he identifies Jews with the object of Paul’s accusations of porneia. In sexual practice as in textual practice, Origen argues, Jews display an “adulterous understanding” (Comm.Rom 2.11). According to this framework, the improper hermeneutics and textual corruption of the Jews are analogous to sexual corruption. Building on some of the ideas of Daniel Boyarin (Carnal Israel, Border Lines), I argue that Origen’s hermeneutical method is imbricated with a theory of alterity that differentiates Christian identity from Jewish identity on the basis of relationship to the flesh. That is, Origen’s criterion for distinguishing between Christian and Jew—as well as between Christian and Jewish modes of interpretation—involves affinity for the flesh. By attending to the dynamic play between discourses of sexuality and hermeneutics, I consider the strategies by which Origen constructs Christian difference, and I explore how sexuality functioned as a “dense transfer point” for power relations between Christians and Jews in late antiquity.


Violence against Women and the Discourse of Alterity in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Susanna Drake, Duke University

This paper examines how Irenaeus, Origen, and John Chrysostom use narrative reports of violence against women to construct Christian “Others.” In Against Heresies (Book 1), Irenaeus aligns heresy with sexual exploitation of women in his representation of Marcus as a sexual predator. Origen employs a similar construction of the “Other” as sexually violating in his brief commentary on the story of Susanna and the Elders in his Letter to Africanus. Here, Origen interprets the elders’ attempted rape of Susanna to map Jewish difference and define Jewishness as sexually (and textually) corrupting. John Chrysostom, in his first sermon against the Judaizing Christians, includes a report of an attempted abduction of a chaste Christian woman by a “defiling” Christian “judaizer.” Chrysostom’s gendered and sexualized depiction of the “hybrid” –the Christian Jew—as a male predator who preys upon Christian women not only defines heresy by analogy with the exploitation of women but also imagines orthodox Christianity as a form of (feminized) sexual purity. By attending to invocations of sexual violence in heresiological representation, I consider the rhetorical work of such narratives of violence in the simultaneous construction of gender and heresy in early Christianity. I also examine how these early Christian authors identify practices of sex and violence as pivotal reference points in the mapping of Christian difference.


John 1:18 and Matthew 12:6
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Jonathan A. Draper, University of KwaZulu-Natal

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For a Generation to Come: The Addressee of Psalm 102 in Reception and Recent Research
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Daniel R. Driver, University of St. Andrews

In recent years, some attention has been paid to Psalm 102 by scholars interested in the canon’s final form, though in very different ways. Odil Steck, for instance, has argued not just that the psalm be read as a whole (contra an older form-critical understanding), but that its singularity be explained with reference to a body of scripture largely extant at the time of its composition. For him, the psalm arises at a late redactional phase in the formation of the canon, testifying to the confluence of distinctive prophetic and sapiential streams of tradition. Somewhat differently, Brevard Childs has discussed Psalm 102 as an instance of the authority scripture increasingly accrued in textualized form: it was “recorded for a generation to come” (19a). Despite fairly substantial disagreements in a number of areas—including about the place of intentionality as such—Steck and Childs agree that the intended audience is in the remote future. On analogy with late prophecy, perhaps, the generation addressed is not near, but distant; in Steck’s word, the psalm voices “Fernerwartung.” The burden of the present paper is to query the history of reception of Psalm 102, particularly verse 19, to see whether there is any “family resemblance” (Childs) with these more recent interpretations. Which generations have been found in the psalmist’s purview? The results may have an important bearing on Childs’s program, which has long sought to hold the history of interpretation together with modern research (most recently, cf. The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture). If preoccupation with an original cultic context is a modern oddity, what can be said for the theory of a radicalized eschatology?


Did "Luke" Write Anonymously?
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
A. J. Droge, University of Toronto

Why would an author capable of the inventive literary prose of “Luke-Acts” choose to remain anonymous? And what is the relationship between the anonymous “I” of the prefaces and the anonymous “we” passages of Acts 16-28? The paper attempts to answer these questions through an analysis of the narrative’s rhetorical strategy rather than by an appeal to genre or the use of sources. I try to establish that no reading of the Lukan preface necessarily precludes a connection between the implied author and the “autoptai” and “huperetai” referred to at Luke 1:2. This provides the basis for a reconsideration of the mysterious “we” passages of Acts 16-28 and an argument for the identification of these passages with the “I” of the prefaces. By this I do not mean that the real author was an actual participant in the events narrated in Acts; rather I contend that the author employed a deliberate literary conceit to authorize his narrative: the “I” of the preface and the “we” of Acts were intended to be read as the same voice. That is, without forging an explicit claim to authorship, the narrative implies that it was in fact written by an eyewitness of the events which brought Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. This, I submit, is a type of pseudepigraphy—one which does not blatantly assume the guise of someone else but accomplishes the same end rather more subtly, by giving authority to a narrative without actually committing an act of outright forgery. The paper concludes with a comparison to similar cases of pseudepigraphy, before finally addressing implications for the formation of Luke-Acts, the use of sources, and the question of genre (history or fiction).


Institutions of Samaria in the Persian Period
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Jan Dušek, Charles University

New evidence for our knowledge of the history and institutions of Samaria in the Persian Period has become available in recent years. Interesting discoveries and corpuses have been published in the fields of archaeological surveys and excavations, numismatics, sigilography and epigraphy. A new full edition of the Wadi Daliyeh manuscripts prepared by the author will be published soon. All of this newly available evidence sheds new light on the administrative, economical and religious institutions of Samaria in the Persian Period, and their relationship to Judah. The Wadi Daliyeh manuscripts prove the existence of triple local administration: the governor of Samaria, the prefect and the judge. We also find this triple administration in other regions of the western part of the Achaemenid Empire. Concerning the economic institutions, we have some information on the means of payment in use in Persian Samaria: coins and weighted silver. Some questions arise concerning the relationship between these two systems: the weight of the basic unit in the system of weighted silver and the system of payment with coins. Questions also remain about the circumstances connected with the beginning of coin use in Samaria. As for the religious institutions, the paper deals with the available evidence concerning the date of the foundation of the temple of Yahweh on the Mount Gerizim, the priests and the high-priests, and other deities evidenced in Persian Samaria.


Transformed “from Glory to Glory”: Paul’s Appeal to the Experience of His Readers in 2 Corinthians 3:18
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Paul B. Duff, George Washington University

2 Corinthians 3:18 is so riddled with problems, that the curious phrase “from glory to glory” usually receives scant attention. Typically, it is seen as describing the believer’s transformation from the image of the resurrected Christ to further glorification in the future. This interpretation, however, adds little to Paul’s overall argument. Since much of 2 Cor 2:14-7:4 deals with Paul’s appeal to the divine drama of death and resurrection, a better strategy would be to understand the phrase in that context. The use of doxa in 3:18 appeals back to 3:7-11, where doxa and words from the same root appear ten times. There, Paul makes the claim for the surpassing doxa of his ministry over the doxa of the ministry of death (3:7a). If the Mosaic ministry brought death to sinners, including gentile sinners (Paul’s likely focus here, as recently suggested [NovT 46:313-337]) then Paul’s ministry, overturns that sentence of death imposed upon the gentiles. Seen in this context then the phrase “from glory to glory” functions as shorthand for the Corinthian believers’ transformation from death to life (i. e., from the old covenant’s sentence of death to the life guaranteed by the new). This sets up the argument that Paul will make in the following chapter (chapter 4) where he interprets his own suffering as “carrying around the dying of Jesus” and his survival against all odds as the manifestation of “the life of Jesus” (4:10). By appealing to the Corinthians’ transformation “from glory to glory” in 3:18, therefore, Paul prepares his readers to accept the forthcoming interpretation of his own poor health and survival (as the reiteration of Christ’s death and resurrection) by pointing to the same divine drama that has taken place in them.


The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Robert R. Duke, Azusa Pacific University

The mandate of the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha (OCP) is to develop and publish electronic editions of the best critical texts of the "Old Testament" Pseudepigrapha and related literature. The OCP is an SBL endorsed site. This presentation will introduce this tool and encourage suggestions on how to improve and make this site beneficial to scholars who study pseudepigraphical literature.


Making Sense of Scents: Ancient Mediterranean and Biblical Osmologies from a Social-Scientific Perspective, with a Focus on the New Testament
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Dennis C. Duling, Canisius College

While there are important studies of Biblical spices, perfumes, incense, flora/fauna, and cooking, and while there are the impressive studies such as those of Caseau and Ashbrook Harvey on scent from the Church Fathers to the Medieval period, there appears to be no comprehensive study of the sense of smell in the Bible in its ancient Mediterranean social contexts. The focus of this paper is the history, theory, and the social-scientific study of “scents and non-scents” societies on the one hand, and Biblical olfactory codes as represented especially in the New Testament in its first century Mediterranean osmological context on the other. The paper will attempt to raise consciousness about the need for olfactory study in realtion to the New Testament and, after examining some New Testament examples, it will emphasize that while there are dominating “spiritualizations” of the Temple and sacrifice in the New Testament, the cultural appreciation of smell in everyday life is still very much in place. The olfactory context of the New Testament is "odoriphilic," not "odoriphobic," in contrast to "modern" Western societies.


What Is This Luminous Woman? Thinking Sexual Difference in On the Origin of the World
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Benjamin Dunning, Fordham University

This paper will explore the etiology of human sexual difference put forward in On the Origin of the World. Specifically it will examine how the text builds what Judith Butler has called a particular “sensical notion of the human” through its creative interpretation of the Adam and Eve narrative within a tripartite anthropology. While acknowledging the value of redactional hypotheses (Painchaud), if we are to take seriously Bethge’s characterization of the text as an apologetic essay, it remains necessary to read it as a literary and theological whole, even in the midst of inconsistencies that are apparent throughout the anthropogonic narrative. Following this line of analysis, the paper will argue that for OrigWorld, sexually-differentiated human subjectivity finds its primary articulation not in the markings of sexual anatomy but in a set of complex hermeneutical negotiations based on the “image” and “likeness” of Genesis 1:26. Driving an interpretive wedge between image and likeness is a familiar move known from other Nag Hammadi texts (HypArch, ApJohn, ValExp). Indeed OrigWorld shares with these texts a vision of Adam’s creation in which the creator / creators pattern the human being according to both a demiurgical element and a higher divine element, each one corresponding to either the image or the likeness. But beyond this shared ground, the text proves distinctive in the way that it narrates the formation of Eve. Here OrigWorld conceptualizes the origin of human sexual difference through a counter-narrative of creation, one in which Sophia negotiates image and likeness differently from Yaldabaoth and the archons, so as to create a sexually differentiated human being as part of her active resistance to the prime parent’s project.


"Liken Yourselves to Strangers": Debating Outsider Identity in the Apocryphon of James
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Benjamin Dunning, Fordham University

This paper will consider the ongoing discussion within first and second century Christianities around the use of identity categories such as “stranger,” “foreigner” and “resident-alien” as a means of articulating legitimate Christian identity. In addition to canonical texts such as Hebrews and 1 Peter, the trope of the Christian as alien or outsider can be seen in a broad range of texts including 1- 2 Clement, Diognetus, Hermas, Martyrdom of Polycarp, Polycarp To the Philippians, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Yet the texts use the alien-stranger topos differently and to different ends. Within this context, the paper will specifically examine the way in which the Apocryphon of James enters the debate. Following recent calls to integrate Nag Hammadi literature into the broader history of early Christianity (King, Pagels, Williams), it will seek to situate ApJas in a broader conversation ongoing in antiquity around the proper use of outsider tropes as a way to think about what it means to be Christian. In particular, the paper will argue that ApJas calls into question the basic move to construct Christian identity by valorizing marginality and looking to a far-off eschatological city. Instead the text playfully reworks the terms of the outsider topos, positing a single city as a metaphor for salvation – one that will not be found in a distant future but to which Christians very much belong in the present moment. However, many have unnecessarily made themselves outsiders to this city through their failure to grasp a deeper soteriological point: salvation comes not through Christ’s atonement but through Christians acquiring grace for themselves. Thus in an ironic dialogue with other early Christian positions, the apocryphon rejects positioning identity at the margins and instead locates it in realizing and taking hold of one’s true salvific insider status.


How Can Satan Cast Out Satan? Colonial Realities and Mark 3:20–30
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Nicole Wilkinson Duran, Trinity Presbyterian Church

This paper examines the rhetorical tangle that is Mark 3:20-30, including especially the parable of the strong man, keeping in mind the realities of the Roman occupation of Palestine. This passage is seen as concerned with spiritual warfare by most interpreters; thus conservative interpreters may emphasize it, while others largely ignore it. Though I will acknowledge redaction critical questions that the passage might raise, I am more interested in the possibility of seeing the two tiers of local response to colonization in the binding of the strong man that leaves his house (a loaded term) open to exploitation by the invader, the thief. In my reading, the passage reflects the extreme tension between those who collaborate with the imperial power and those who resist, as well as the reality that those tensions are often more immediate and more readily expressed than the tension between the colonized and colonizer.


Standards, Scholars, and Archiving
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Patrick Durusau, Snowfall Software

2007 has been a banner year for scholars who are interested in preserving long term access to their papers, monographs and other materials. For years scholars have suffered at the hands of vendors who change file formats and from the lack of support for older formats. No more! Scholars can now own their data, the very data they have spend years compiling, editing and carefully assembling. Now there are two standards that enable scholars to use standard word processors to create files than can be read 10, 20 or even 100 years from now. This presentation is not technical overview of the standards but rather an examination of what they do (and don't) enable scholars to do to preserve the legacy of their scholarly careers.


Queen Mothers and Royal Politics of the Seventh Century B.C.E.
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Patricia Dutcher-Walls, Vancouver School of Theology

One of the curious tidbits of historical notation in the book of Kings is the inclusion of the name of the mother of the newly crowned king of Judah in the standard regnal formula. The names are apparently dismissed as of little value in reconstructions of the ancient world of the Bible and so these women remain an enigmatic historical detail. This paper uses the queen mothers’ names as its focus for a social scientific approach in order to illumine the web of connections suggested by the mother’s name and origin. I develop a sociological model that identifies patterns of external and internal relations characteristic of small states on the periphery of a major empire. These patterns include the externally focused tactics of accommodation and resistance pursued by a vassal on the periphery of a core empire and the internally focused exclusionary power strategies practiced within a factionalized polity. All of these characteristics are relevant to Judah in the 7th century B.C.E. I then expand the data on the queen mothers inherent in the regnal formulas to identify the dates and conditions of the royal marriages in the 7th century and add key information from historical and archaeological study of the period. The major work of the paper will be the analysis of the data on the royal marriages in light of the identified sociological patterns. The model helpfully alerts us to the complexities and nuances of the realities behind the seemingly simple notice of the queen mothers’ names and origins. When placed into documented information about the historical, political and economic trends and events of the time, these complexities and nuances fill out an intriguing portrayal of royal politics and policies that marriage alliances helped to further.


The Clarity of Double Vision: Seeing Ancient Israel in Sociological and Archaeological Perspective
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Patricia Dutcher-Walls, Vancouver School of Theology

This methodological review is a discussion of the interactions between sociology and archaeology as approaches in biblical studies. The paper proposes that these distinct but complementary fields act together heuristically to give scholars ways of understanding and reconstructing in the social world of ancient Israel not available in other approaches. These methods, in their respective ways, can use the information available to them to focus on the common and repeated rather than on the idiosyncratic and individual. This focus enables their interactions as methods in analyzing ancient data so that patterns, formations, relationships, and trends are visible. These constructs are then useful both in explicating biblical texts and in reconstructing lived realities in the world of those texts. Examples of the utility of such “double vision” are drawn from history of scholarship in recent years.


Architecture, Sacred Space, and the Cult of St. Paul in Rome
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
David L. Eastman, Yale University

This paper focuses on the architectural development of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome and its relationship to cultic continuity. My work builds off the recent excavations by Giorgio Filippi, which have clarified the various phases of development throughout Late Antiquity. The construction of a completely new and reoriented edifice in the Theodosian period and the subsequent renovations by Leo I and Gregory I brought about radical changes; however, I will argue that the space outlined by the limits of the small, Constantinian basilica continued to provide the boundaries for the most sacred area of the church. I will demonstrate that the architects of the post-Constantinian phases made specific choices that highlighted the centrality of this particular space for the continuation of practices associated with the cult of the apostle Paul.


Philippians 2: Divine and Human Agency in Christ's Story
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Susan Eastman, Duke University

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The Contribution of Heroic Poetry to the Identification of a New Genre in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Charles L. Echols, Clare Hall, Cambridge

The victory song is among the most ancient genres in the Hebrew Bible. However, that not one text appears in all of the inventories of such distinguished scholars as Mowinckel, Eissfeldt, Westermann, and Gunkel and Begrich reveals confusion or disagreement over the genre. The application of heroic poetry provides a heuristic way forward; but because it occurs infrequently in the Hebrew Bible, it is necessary first to construct a template of heroic poetry from a diachronic, trans-cultural survey that identifies its central characteristics as well as those of non-heroic poetry. The texts which have been classified as victory songs by these and other scholars can then be re-evaluated using the template, which refines their classifications and distinguishing a new genre, the heroic victory song.


Ezra 1–6 as Utopian Literature
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Diana Edelman, University of Sheffield

The account of the rebuilding of the temple in Ezra 1-6 narrates the actualization of prophetic pronouncements in 2 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah 1-8, and Ezekiel 40-48. The last may itself be earlier utopian literature. The author of Ezra 1-6 harmonized conflicting predictions and used the temple-building template to create a narrative that told how, when, and why the temple “should have been” rebuilt, but not how, when it was it was. It is likely that the temple was rebuilt when the provincial seat was moved from Mizpah to Jerusalem ca 450 BCE, during the reign of Artaxerxes I, to serve as a treasury, income-generating place of sacrifice, and possibly as a library facility, though the last may have been located separately within the temple grounds or elsewhere in the city. Utopian literature can revisualize a past that is considered unsatisfactory, change a past to visualize a desired, altered present, or depict a future that will grow out of a desired, altered past or present. I will explore the possible life-setting of the author and what prompted the writing of the text.


In the Wake of the Wake
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Diana Edelman, University of Sheffield

The archaeology of Syria-Palestine and our understanding of biblical historiography has witnessed a sea-change in the 15 years since publication of In the Wake of the Goddesses. I propose to examine the historical methodology(ies) used, the assumptions, and the conclusions T. Frymer-Kensky embodied in her analysis of ancient Israelite women and cultus, and to situate IWG in the context of current research.


Structure and Signification in the Catalogue of David’s Conquests (1 Chronicles 18:1–13; 2 Samuel 8:1–14)
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Cynthia Edenburg, Open University of Israel

Study of the two versions of the catalogue of David’s conquests generally focuses on text- and historical-critical issues, with the goal of establishing the original readings of the text and evaluating its historical value. In this paper I undertake a close comparative reading of the two versions in order to examine the ideological statements implicit in the structure of each text. Like the genre of the Assyrian summary inscriptions, the catalogue of David’s conquests lists the king’s conquests in order to detail the extent and ideological basis of his rule, and presents a forceful cumulative image of his dominion over all the lands within his scope. And yet the analysis of the two texts suggests that both have undergone separate and purposeful editing, and reopens the question of the editorial development of the synoptic material in Samuel and Chronicles. The various possibilities are weighed, namely, whether 1 Chr 18 was derived from 2 Sam 8 (or vice versa), whether both developed independently from a shared source, or whether an ongoing process of re-editing may have occurred in one or the other text. Finally, I consider the implications this case may have upon evaluating the development of the DtrH and Chronicler’s history.


Archaeology and the Galilee: Eric Meyers and the Setting of New Paradigms
Program Unit:
Douglas R. Edwards, University of Puget Sound

When four villages in upper Galilee drew the attention of a team led by Eric Meyers, it demonstrated how integral the long neglected study of villages are for understanding ancient life. This paper explores the on-going impact of Meyers’ study of villages and his work at Sepphoris for what they tell us about village life, regionalism, urban and rural relations, and cultural continuities and transformations in Galilee.


“How Did You Write All These Words?” Writing on the Written in Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Chad Eggleston, Duke University

When Jeremiah 36.17 reports that the officials in the secretary’s chamber interrogated Baruch by asking how he wrote “all these words”, the text reveals a scribal interest on the part of its writers. For centuries, scholars of a more or less historicist bent have debated the historical value of the book of Jeremiah’s testimony about its textuality, and in so doing they have often ignored the long history of interpretation preceding them on the book’s presentation of texts and writing. This paper poses the question of the officials to interpreters over the centuries, focusing especially on their understandings of the theme of writing in the book of Jeremiah. What do Jeremiah’s readers think about writing in the book, and what can the history of interpretation teach us about the cultures for which they are writing? Representative examples are taken from the earliest Jewish interpreters to postmodern literary critics, and special attention is given to the nature of the culture in which various figures are writing. The interpretive survey concludes by reflecting on the conception of writing in 21st century biblical scholarship, particularly engaging Niditch’s presentation of writing as one pole in an oral-literate continuum.


Feminist Perspectives on Paul's Reasoning with Scripture
Program Unit: Paul and Scripture
Kathy Ehrensperger, University of Wales-Lampeter

The perception of Paul’s use of Scripture is closely intertwined with the perception of Paul’s use of power. When it is presupposed that Paul claimed authority over his congregations in the vein of a command-obedience model, then his appeal to divine authority via the use of Scripture appears to have a coercive tendency to end dispute. From a feminist perspective this involves using Scripture in support of a highly problematic exercise of power. If on the other hand Paul’s use of Scripture is viewed from the alternative perspective of feminist theories of power, a different assessment of the function of Scripture in Paul’s way of arguing emerges. Distinguishing the differing aspects of power not only as power-over, but as power-to, and power-with (following Arendt etc.) impacts on the understanding of the function of Scripture in Paul. Rather than being a coercive tool to settle disputes, Scripture may be seen as part of a socialization process into Christ which includes socialization into the world of the Scriptures. Like good teaching Paul’s reasoning with Scripture forms part of an ongoing interactive conversation concerning the meaning of the Christ-event.


Redescribing the Religion of Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Pamela Eisenbaum, Iliff School of Theology

In honor of Jonathan Z. Smith's acceding to the presidency of the SBL, this paper will attempt to take up certain challenges issued by Prof. Smith to scholars of early Christianity: first, that early Christianity has not been sufficiently re-described, which is to say the data that comprise early Christianity have not been sufficiently explained so as to be theoretically interesting; second, that scholars of early Christianity eschew the term "religion" as if early Christian phenomena are not of the same species as those ordinarily categorized as religions; and finally, that for all their juxtaposing of early Christian texts with other texts, Jewish, Greek, Roman, etc., scholars of Christianity do not seem to use the exercise of comparison to explain very much. To quote one of Smith's memorable dictum's "a conceptual category cannot simply be the data writ large." In this paper I will juxtapose Hebrews with a couple of other texts, including one to which it has often been compared, and one to which it is hardly ever compared, in order to ascertain what sort of religious expression is represented and/or refracted in Hebrews. Figuring out how to categorize the form of religion reflected in Hebrews is key to ascertaining whether or not Hebrews marks the beginning of Christian supersessionism, an issue that has recently been the subject of some vigorous debate and discussion.


The Rise of "Israel": Common Denominator of "Mixed Multitude"
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Amir Eitan, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

The settlement process which led to the emergence of “Israel” has been the topic of many studies over the last century. An examination of the current literature increasingly suggests that this process was both long and complex, and more specifically it involved various populations (‘Mixed Multitude’, as termed by Killebrew). Three conventions are rather established: 1.The emergence of “Israel” is part of a spatial process in the Levant between ca. 1250-950 B.C; 2.The period between ca. 1250-1100 B.C. is characterized by a large-scale migration that took place over the most of the Levant; 3.The settlement process is most evident in the Highlands of “Israel” and in the Beer-Sheva valley. In this paper, I argue that there is only one possible common denominator to these three conventions, which is crucial for the understanding of the process leading to the emergence of “Israel”. This common denominator triggered a certain unification of the mixed multitude, which would otherwise prefer to keep their original configuration.


Interpreting "ton arton hemon ton epiousion" in the Context of Ghanaian Mother Tongue Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
John David A. Ekem, Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana

The translation and interpretation of the phrase "ton arton hemon ton epiousion" has engendered much discussion among New Testament scholars. Located within the Matthean and Lucan versions of 'The Lord's Prayer', this difficult phrase also poses a challenge to mother tongue Bible translators/exegetes in Ghana. Considering the difficulties facing many Sub-Saharan African communities in the provision of basic daily needs, an in-depth discussion of the text from an African/Ghanaian hermeneutical perspective becomes highly relevant. This paper evaluates all the possible interpretational options and argues that it would be most appropriate to interptret "ton arton hemon ton epiousion" as a reference to the supply of "needs necessary for our existence", an interpretation supported by some Early Church Fathers, and meaningful to Ghanaian target audiences. The paper suggests viable ways of translating the text into some local Ghanaian languages.


The Qur’anic Talut and the Rise of the Ancient Israelite Monarchy: An Intertextual Reading
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Nevin El-Tahry, University of Toronto

Using contemporary intertextual methods, this study investigates the Qur’anic story of Talut, the first Israelite monarch, as it is set against the background of the biblical account. A verse-by-verse analysis yields the Qur’anic sequence of events, which includes the nomination, the appearance of the Ark, the river crossing, Goliath’s defeat and David’s succession. The biblical counterparts are located within the books of Joshua, Judges and 1 Samuel, and feature various characters such as Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, and Saul. Thus, the Qur’anic Talut is an amalgamation of these characters and provides an outline for reading their respective narratives as parallel, not consecutive accounts. This reading enhances the Qur’anic story, for example, by illustrating the skill with which Muhhammad’s typological prefiguration was composed, combining both military and prophetic roles. However, reading the two texts together also enhances the biblical story, showing the skill with which the multiple consecutive narratives implicitly argue for judgeship as opposed to kingship in the post-exilic context.


Is the Medium the Message? Developments of the Attitude towards Scripture in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Zeev Elitzur, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Holy books embody a fundamental duality – they are holy media and also holy objects. This basic fact raises several questions on the border between Semiotics and Exegesis, involving the impact of holiness as a cultural sign on the semantic value of the texts within the holy artifact. My paper attempts to situate these questions in a specific historical context – Rabbinic Judaism of the Mishna and the Talmud. I shall argue that there are clear signs of a shift towards the reification of Scripture as a holy object in the abovementioned period. This may reflect a similar development in Post Constantinian Christianity.


Rewriting the Sacred: Some Problems of Textual Authority in Light of the Rewritten Scriptures from Qumran
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
C.D. Elledge, Gustavus Adolphus College

The “rewritten ‘bible’” constitutes an important category in the analysis of how both “canonical” and (so-called) “non-canonical” texts functioned in ancient times. Through a survey of “scriptural rewriting” in the Qumran Library, the current presentation charts some of the most significant problems which this literature poses for the study of “non-canonical” texts and their ancient functions. The central writings included in the analysis (Temple Scroll [cf. Reworked Pentateuch], Moses Apocryphon, Pseudo-Ezekiel, Genesis Apocryphon, Psalms of Joshua [cf. Testimonia], Jubilees) pose two related questions: 1. Compositional Methods: How does scriptural rewriting treat its earlier scriptural sources, especially when utilizing such methods as harmonization, imitation, and legal / theological revision? 2. Reception / Functions: What treatments did rewritten scriptural texts receive at Qumran, as indicated by manuscripts, quotations, and compatibility with other writings central to Qumran ideology? These two complementary questions reveal a complex portrait of early canonical processes exhibited in the Qumran Library: On one hand, rewriting may often stand as a strong indicator of a text’s traditional popularity and authority; yet on the other, rewriting often took dramatic liberties with earlier scriptural sources, transforming them into previously unknown writings that could sometimes function as scriptures themselves in other Qumran literature.


Grace Theology in Psychotherapy
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
J. Harold Ellens, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

This paper describes the theological theme of God's radical, unconditional, and universal grace, as it is intimated in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures, and develops an operational design for its application in clinical psychotherapy. The emphasis is upon the arbitrarily and imputed nature of God's grace toward humans, as reflections of the Imago Dei and as God's compatriots in fashioning the reign of God's grace and love in the human community. The applied contours of grace in psychotherapy assumes that human healers are the incarnation of divine grace as we carry out our professional tasks in clinical work. God is the analogue redeemer expressed in the human analogy of healing practice. This paper describes three hinges for this model: a psychotheology of health, a psychotheology of illness, a psychotheology of healing. It then develops a model for psychotherapy with eight principles: biblical theologies of personhood, alienation, grace, dysfunction (sin or sickness), discipline (discipleship), wounded healers, mortality, and celebration. There follows the identification of ten factors at play in effective application of grace theology in psychotherapy, and eight concrete results for psychotherapy and pastoral care.


The Psychology of War
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
J. Harold Ellens, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

This paper introduces its theme, the psychology of war, with a paradigmatic selection of biblical war stories, identifying their stated motivation for war and providing a brief psychological assessment of those conscious motives. This is followed with an analysis of the psychology of war by means of a summary treatment of eight main issues: (1) A brief overview of the history of warfare methods, (2) Assessment of the psychological implications of that developmental history, (3) An identification of the psychological roots of war, with a special view to those which have religious dynamics, together with an assessment of the proclivity of Fundamentalisms to produce violence, (4) The role of psychological archetypes, (5) The psychosocial obscenity of war itself, and (6) The apparent imperative of the lesser evil. The paper concludes with observations upon the apparent inevitability of war and the psychological alternatives to war, or the vision of a usable future.


Faithful Tears: The Prayer of Lament in the New Testament
Program Unit: Lament in Sacred Texts and Cultures
Scott A. Ellington, Beulah Heights University

While increasing attention has been paid to the need to reinvest in lament in the Christian church, little has been done to explore the function lament in the New Testament. The discussion in this paper will fall into four parts: a look at the extent to which the lament prayer form is found in the New Testament, a consideration of the New Testament doctrine of our shared suffering with Christ that appears to invalidate the prayer of lament under the New Covenant, an observation of the function of lament as a frame for the Revelation of John, and an exploration of the cannonical function of lament in Matthew. Throughout the paper I will demonstrate the peculiar role that prayers of lament play in the New Testament as a means of moving the unfolding messianic mission of Christ forward.


The Faith of Jesus Christ in the Church Fathers
Program Unit:
Mark Elliott, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

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Theological Insights on and from Leviticus 1–7
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Mark Elliott, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

Leviticus at first glance, especially if we launch into it in the middle, seems to promote a 'culture of death', one in which sin and sickness are related. The groundwork appears pessimistic, with its optimism of solution one of the can-do mentality that orders certain things that must be performed. And yet translating this command to sacrifice into one of obedience, as in Origen (Homily IV,5 following 1 Samuel 15:22), and Erasmus, encourages the idea that souls and bodies are disconnected. Indeed, the teaching of Job and of the Jesus of John 9:3 declare that there is no straight connection between sin and sickness, and that there is a given of corruption in the world for which deliverance rather than blame is the response. Yet the corruption cannot simply be transcended. Rather, the idea of offering means the handing over of a problematic embodiment to God for his cure; if sacrifice appears meaningless, then it is just that, in the sense of what humans are doing. The divine response to the ‘useless’ acts of prayer and worship should inspire ethical ‘whole-life’ obedience, but not through by-passing the cult (or, from a Christian perspective, the person of Christ.) Of course it needs to be remembered that Leviticus is not simply about dealing with sin (the first three prescribed offerings, despite the interpretations of e.g. the proto-Puritan Henry Ainsworth, having nothing to do with sin and the fourth views sin as unintentional), but that its first and last notes are an invitation to relationship, a spirit of thankfulness and blessing. I shall use examples from the history of interpretation (including Origen and Rendtorff) of the early chapters of Leviticus to illustrate the breadth of the book’s message.


Blasphemed among the Nations
Program Unit: Paul and Scripture
Neil Elliott, Augsburg Fortress Press

Going against the tide that reads a Jewish or Jewish-Christian interlocutor (or "opponent") as the target of Paul's rhetoric in Romans, this paper argues that Paul's statements and citations of Jewish scripture regarding "works," law, and being put right before God must be interpreted in the context of non-Judean perceptions of Judeans. This requires attention to the historical context of Roman policy toward Judean populations and Roman ideological portrayals of Judean and other subject peoples.


How Can an Apocalypticist Have a Directly Political Agenda?
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Copenhagen University

Here are four apparently inconsistent, but true statements about Paul: (1) On Paul’s understanding, Christ faith stands in direct confrontation with the politics of the Roman Empire. (2) On Paul’s understanding, Christ faith requires submission to the political authorities of the present world. (3) On Paul’s understanding, the relationship between all members of the churches (men/women, masters/slaves etc.) is a fundamentally egalitarian one. (4) On Paul’s understanding, nobody should try to change the present social system of non-equality between men and women, masters and slaves etc. How may these four truths cohere? The paper attempts to provide an answer by spelling out the precise character of Paul’s apocalypticism. The thesis is that once one takes seriously Paul’s apocalyptic stance, all the four claims listed directly follow. This means that Paul’s combined position both is and is not highly political. Finally, the question is broached of how one may employ Paul’s position for a modern directly political agenda.


Sour Grapes, Fermented Selves: Folk and Grunge Revamp the Shulamite
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Heidi Epstein, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan

How might the study of pop musical settings of the Song of Songs inform biblical criticism? In Melting the Venusberg: A Feminist Theology of Music, I enlisted insights from New Musicology to redefine music’s theological meanings. New Musicologists (McClary et al.) approach music as a site where human sexualities and identities are sonically negotiated and contested. Extension of this heuristic to musical settings of the SoS will nuance claims within current debates over the Song’s erotic content (cf. Moore /Burrus, "Unsafe Sex"). Feminist scholars have framed the Song and its heroine’s quest as celebrations of egalitarian heterosexual love. More recent provocateurs queer its pitch to accommodate pro-porn positions and s/m fantasies of a bottom’s “pain-filled pleasures” (ibid.) The latter allegedly constitute the “first” iconoclastic interpretations of the text’s mottled eroticism. Yet musicians of the 70s and 80s have already taken these ‘latest’ interpretive risks and created the newly endorsed “counterpleasures” (MacKendrick) that decenter selfhood. Initially, Steeleye Span’s electric folk (“Awake, awake”), and the Pixies’ proto-grunge (“I’ve Been Tired”) seem like musical reiterations of the above debate; they respectively honour and revile this canonical text and its elusive animatrice. Steeleye Span’s music and text reproduce the linear pas de deux that readers coerce from the text; no dissonant musical idioms evoke its beating scene, the Shulamite’s anguish, the lovers’ grotesque bodies (cf.Black). By contrast, the Pixies (pleasurably) drag the pair through musical grunge. Yet such analysis is just good-pop/bad-pop agitprop. Reread via new musicology’s sense of music as a culturally inflected “technique of the self,” generic differences between normative and deviant Shulamites recede and countercultural affinities emerge. My comparisons reframe these two as sororial riot grrrls. As such, these musical Shulamites model overlooked “performative practices” with which to unsettle constrainingly orthodox (gendered) pleasures and subjectivities (Moore/Burrus). Correlatively, the Shulamite's musical reincarnations participate in “cultural mythologies of subjectivity” (McClary), and thereby renovate, quite unexpectedly, her allegorical wiles.


The Ambiguity of Jehu: A Reexamination of Sanctioned Violence in 2 Kings 9–10
Program Unit: New Historicism and the Hebrew Bible
Jacob Erickson, Yale University

One of the bloodiest narratives of the Hebrew Bible is the story of Jehu found in 2 Kings 9-10. A present-day reader of the story is horrified yet eerily captivated by Yahweh’s approval of Jehu’s bloodthirsty extermination and purge of the ruling House of Ahab. And, upon first reading, the divinely-sanctioned violence of Jehu might seem intended to bring about peace for Israel by destroying the idolatries of the ruling dynasty and by restoring covenantal fidelity to Yahweh. Indeed, the narrative has often been read in such a way. However, to simply state that the story supports Jehu’s coup as positive reform does not do the text full justice. The text itself begs a deeper, more sensitive interpretation. Using hermeneutical tools employed by New Historicism, I argue that, when placed within its literary context of the Deuteronomistic History, the narrative in its final form neither condones nor condemns Jehu’s character and actions. Rather than receiving an emphatic endorsement from Yahweh, the appropriateness of Jehu is questioned through irony, ambiguity and tension shaped by the hands of the Deuteronomistic editor(s). By portraying the moral character of Jehu ambiguously, the story subtly wrestles with the view that purgative violence brings about peace. Finally, beyond the Deuteronomistic narrative found in 2 Kings, the biblical tradition gives yet one other evaluation of Jehu—a biting critique. In Hosea 1:4-5, the prophet unabashedly condemns Jehu’s actions, asserting that violence like Jehu’s only elicits further violence.


The Corpus of Hellenistic Inscriptions from Maresha
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Esther Eshel, Bar Ilan University

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A Late Iron Age Hebrew Letter Containing the Word Nôqedim
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Hanan Eshel, Bar Ilan University

The Hebrew letter discussed in this paper contains twelve lines written on both sides of a storage jar sherd. The first ten lines of the letter were written on the exterior side, and the last two lines on the interior side, behind the lower part of the inscription. Paleographically, the script is similar to that of the Lachish letters and the Arad inscriptions of Stratum 6, and should therefore be dated to the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century BCE. After the opening formula, in lines 3-8 Nethanyahu reports to Shelemyahu that some nôqedim had come to take the flock apparently from Hebron hill country, and that they were on their way to Lachish. The nôqedim evidently had come while ’Ibzan was staying in a placed called ’Arab. It seems that the term nôqedim is used in this context to refer to shepherds working for the kingdom who collected flocks as tax payments. This definition fits particularly well with what is said about King Mesha? in 2 Kgs 3:4.


African-American Intra-Community Social Justice: A Reading of Nehemiah 5:1–13
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
A. J. Evans, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University

It is easy to look at social justice from the perspective of the oppressed under the hand of the more overtly powerful. The injustice that occurs from within one’s own interest group remains more subtle. While Blacks in the United States have traditionally been the victims of inequality in many ways – economically, educationally, legally, etc. – there has been definite progress. Yet, when progress has come, those who have been fortunate enough to advance have sometimes forgotten to reach back and pull others along. Consequently, pronounced class distinctions have arisen within the African-American population. Some of those who have achieved a measure of success are guilty of perpetuating stereotypes about and taking advantage of their own people. Nehemiah encountered a similar situation when leading the effort to restore the Judean’s community. When he returned to Jerusalem, he encountered three groups: representatives of the Persian monarch, the people in the surrounding areas (including descendants of the original population and other immigrants), and the returning exiles. These groups and their interaction play an important role in the development of the drama in Nehemiah. While the biblical account suggests that the Judeans worked together at first, the issue of social justice within Judean society eventually came to the fore. This paper will compare the intra-community social injustice in Neh 5 as impacted by religion, money and power with the current state of the African-American community.


Fulfilling the Law and Seeking Righteousness in Matthew and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Matthew
Craig A. Evans, Acadia Divinity College

Not long after the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the first cave, scholars began making comparisons with the Gospel of Matthew. Krister Stendahl’s The School of St. Matthew and Its Use of the Old Testament offered a bench-mark contribution to the discussion. The publication of the last of the Scrolls has given interpreters the opportunity to re-assess what light these important writings shed on the Gospel of Matthew. The present essay focusses on Matthew’s understanding of the fulfillment of the Law, as part of the quest for righteousness, and in what ways this understanding coheres with similar concerns in the Scrolls.


From Mad Ritual to Philosophical Inquiry: Ancient and Modern Fictions of Continuity and Discontinuity
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Nancy A. Evans, Wheaton College

This paper will explore one of the more creative — and influential — moments of mythmaking and fictionalizing from the ancient Mediterranean world: the (re-) invention of prophetic madness. In particular, I will first look to the fictionalized encounter between two Athenians, Socrates and Phaedrus. Plato’s Phaedrus records their conversation, a talk that ranged over a vast terrain of topics ranging from homoerotic lovers to skilled (and less skilled) rhetoricians. In the midst of this dialogue Socrates famously interrupts himself, and invokes two powerful allies in his search for true speech: first the mythic tradition surrounding the fall of Troy, and then ancient rites of purification that facilitate human access to knowledge of the divine. In this context of his palinode Socrates investigates the links between prophecy and divine madness, and ultimately he applies the purported gifts of this madness to pursuits that are generally considered to be more rational. After a brief analysis of some of the rhetoric and syntax in Socrates’ palinode, I will open up the paper to examine the possibilities and complexities of identity in the Athens of Plato and Socrates. Multiple and overlapping social identities and cultic traditions are alluded to in the palinode; drawing from the work of Walter Burkert, Eric Hobsbawm, Bruce Lincoln and Jonathan Z. Smith I will examine how — and even whether — the multiple religious identities that lie behind this dialogue could be thought to advance and invent a tradition that came to be known as philosophy.


Dildos and Dismemberment: Difficult Texts and the Liberal Arts
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Janet S. Everhart, Simpson College

A liberal arts education includes the opportunity to read and interrogate a wide variety of texts. In recent years, scholars have examined difficult biblical texts through various ideological lenses, exposing and resisting violence and/or seeking to recuperate the texts through new reading strategies. Teachers of the Bible may struggle with how (or whether) to present notoriously challenging passages (for instance, the Levite's dismemberment of his concubine in Judges 19 or the imagery of Samaria and Jerusalem as "whoring women" in Ezekiel 16 and 23). The liberal arts tradition of "questioning old truths and looking for new perspectives" offers a helpful approach to such texts. This brief paper will suggest why it is important to acknowledge difficult biblical stories and, to begin discussion, will offer a few strategies for presenting them in the undergraduate classroom.


Any Dream Will Do? Joseph from Text to Technicolor
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
J. Cheryl Exum, University of Sheffield

Who but Joseph would have dreamed that the story of his life would become a hit musical? Yet Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s unpretentious romp through the biblical story of Joseph, has delighted audiences in countless theatres around the world, grossing something in the area of four hundred million dollars at the Box Office (not to mention video, CD and DVD sales). It is obviously a successful version of the Genesis story. But what kind of version is it, and what accounts for its remarkable success? In seeking some answers to these questions, the paper considers how Rice and Webber have adapted and changed the biblical story, how they interpret certain key moments in the story, and what overall ‘message’ their version gives to its audiences.


“Out of Egypt I Have Called My Son:” Matthew’s Infancy Narrative in Afrocentric Perspective
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Ernest M. Ezeogu, Spiritan International School of Theology, Enugu, Nigeria

This paper is an exercise in Afrocentric exegesis in which one uses the standard tools of biblical exegesis to highlight aspects of the text that are of special interest to people of African descent. The paper submits the thesis that the tradition available to Matthew was one in which Mary and her son Jesus were known to be Africans of Egyptian origin resident in Galilee. This tradition created difficulties for the Jews of Matthew’s time in accepting Jesus as their Messiah, since the Messiah was expected to be a Hebrew (descendant of Abraham) of the line of David. Matthew, therefore, retells the story (redacts the tradition) in such a way as to portray Jesus as a son of Abraham of the bloodline of David. But Matthew's make-over leaves many gaps. The paper identifies these historical and narrative gaps and shows how the thesis of the African origin of Mary and Jesus helps to fill them.


The Politics of Bible Translation in Nigeria: A Case of the Igbo Catholic Bible
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Ernest M. Ezeogu, Spiritan International School of Theology, Enugu, Nigeria

Making a new Bible translation involves much more than the technical skills one learns in Bible colleges. This awareness dawned on me between 1993 and 1996 when I served as chief operations officer and only full-time “expert” on the Igbo Catholic Bible publishing committee. Drawing from that experience, this paper brings out aspects of bible translation in Africa – in the areas of linguistic and hermeneutical skills, technology, funding, and personal relationship – that are often left out in text books on bible translation but which bible translators in Africa are likely to encounter.


Ideology, History, and Translation Theories: A Critical Analysis of the Venda Bible Translation of 1 Kings 21
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Elelwani Farisani, University of Kwazulu-Natal

This paper explores similarities and differences between my translation of 1 Kings 21 and the two Venda translations. This will be done in three stages. First, I will translate 1 Kings 21 from Hebrew to Venda. Second, I will explore similarities and differences between the Venda official translations and my translation. In exploring differences and similarities I will focus on ideology, translation history and translation theory. Finally, I will spell out the significance of such a comparison for Bible translation and African Biblical scholarship.


Performance of the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Pam Faro, Pam Faro, Storyteller

This session will examine the implications of performance for how we engage the biblical text. First-century Mediterranean culture was primarily oral; as a result, written texts would have been experienced by the majority of people as oral performance. This invites reflection on how the experience and interpretation of orally performed text differs from the experience and interpretation of written text. In this session, professional storyteller Pam Faro (M.Div. Iliff, specializing in cross-cultural storytelling) will perform a major section from the Gospel of Mark. Panelists will consider, e.g., how the structure of the text informs performance, what elements are necessary to make performance an act of communication, how the interaction between performer and audience impact performance, how performanc alters our experience of text [for further information see articles by David Rhoads posted at academic.she.edu/btb/vol36/btb06.html]. This will be followed by a general discussion of the implications of performance criticism for exegesis of the biblical text.


Peter "Gets Some Exorcise" in Mark 8:27–33: Suffering, Discipleship, and Exorcism
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Justin P. Farrell, Princeton Theological Seminary

In the Gospel of Mark, discipleship and suffering are necessarily linked. Jesus preaches discipleship in light of suffering, and establishes it as his messianic identity. The rebuke of Peter in 8:27-33 shines light on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Peter famously misunderstands Jesus messianic identity, which is rooted in his misunderstanding of non-suffering discipleship. In relation to two famous exorcisms in 1:25 and 4:39, we find Jesus using the same violent language to exorcise Peter of these demonic misunderstandings. By laying this foundation, we are then able to see that the rebuke of Peter in 8:33 can be correlated to the language and rhetoric in 1:25 and 4:39. Thus, Peter (and the disciples as a whole) join the company of demonic forces found throughout the narrative. Subsequently, Peter is rebuked because of his false conception of a non-suffering messiah, which thrusts itself against Jesus’ subsequent teaching on suffering discipleship (greek: dei). The goal of this paper will be to analyze this event by shedding light on its context, language (greek: epitimao), and most importantly, the connection between suffering and discipleship. As a result, Mark forces the reader to make a decision— either continue the demonic misunderstanding, or break the chain and act in true discipleship.


The Extent and Intensity of Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Avraham Faust, Bar Ilan University

A detailed examination of data from dozens of excavated sites, urban and rural alike, reveals that most parts of Judah prospered in the 7th century BCE. Systematic investigation of the data conducted both on the site level and on a regional basis allows us to identify patterns of continuity, prosperity and decline during the transition from the 8th to the 7th century BCE. In this paper the identified patterns will be presented, and possible explanations for them will be suggested. These patterns will then be compared and contrasted with information from the various textual sources (both the biblical and the Assyrian sources) on Sennacherib's campaign to Judah in 701, in order to gain a better understanding of the campaign and its impact on the kingdom of Judah.


Praise of Perfection: Wisdom and Passion in Proverbs 31:10–31 and the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Eve Levavi Feinstein, Harvard University

The years since the publication of Marvin Pope's 1977 commentary have seen a wealth of scholarship on the Song of Songs, but there has been little discussion of the Song's relationship to wisdom literature. This paper will explore that topic by addressing the specific relationship between two poetic texts. The first is SoS 6:4-10, which encompasses one of the "wa?fs" in the Song, a poetic unit that praises the beloved's physical features. The second is the "Worthy Wife" acrostic at the end of the book of Proverbs (31:10-31). A grammatical analysis of SoS 6:9 and of Prov. 31:28, as well as a grammatical and form-critical analysis of the larger poetic units in which they appear, suggests that SoS 6:4-10 is based on Prov. 31:10-31. I will argue that the former is a deliberate subversion of the latter, and that a proper understanding of the interplay between these two texts can shed light on the relationship between the very different genres of love poetry and wisdom literature, particularly in the forms that they took in ancient Israel.


Creative Projects: Aural and Visual Student Productions as Biblical Exegesis
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
James D. Findlay, California State University-Northridge

This presentation will explain and document the evolution of the assignment of "creative projects" as exercises in biblical exegesis by undergraduate students in the 21st Century. Including works by students from a community college, a public university, and historically confessional universities, this paper/production explores how students have responded to the opportunity to interpret biblical texts out of their own experience and in media with which they are familiar, including video, original music, hand-made collages, and creative literary compositions. Reflections on the process of pedagogy and the empowerment of student growth will be offered.


Between Rabbinic Text and Archaeology: Meyers' Contribution to the Study of Greco-Roman Judaism
Program Unit:
Steven Fine, Yeshiva University

During the course of his career, Eric Meyers excavated five Galilean synagogues, a southern Italian Jewish catacomb, and the Galilean city of Sepphoris. In addition, he wrote an important study on the history of Jewish burial in latter Second Temple Jerusalem. This lecture explores Meyers' program of excavation in light of his vision of ancient Judaism, and discusses the continuing significance of his oeuvre.


"Israelite"-Christian Relations in Late Antique Palestine: Samaritan, Jewish, and Christian Schools during the Fourth-Sixth Centuries CE
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Steven Fine, Yeshiva University

Scholars of late antiquity have been deeply interested in the institutional, social and cultural histories of Christian and Jewish academies in late antique Palestine. Oddly, the significance of Samaritan sources for this research has not been recognized. During the last thirty or so years important discoveries pertaining to Samaritan institutions have been made in Israel and the West Bank. In addition, Samaritan literary texts from late antiquity have appeared in critical editions. These literary and archaeological sources cast important light upon Samaritan schools and synagogues in late antique Palestine. In this lecture I will begin by presenting what we know about Samaritan schools based upon these sources. I will then set the Samaritan evidence in conversation with our sources for Jewish and Christian schools. It is my contention that Samaritanism is an important and vastly underutilized source for the study of "Israelite"-Christian relations during late antiquity.


The Contribution of Josephus' Essene Characters to His Larger Literary Portrait
Program Unit: Josephus
Doug Finkbeiner, University of Pennsylvania

Studies on the portrait of the Essenes in the works of Josephus typically focus upon the descriptions of the Essenes in Josephus editorial asides of the three philosophical Jewish sects (War 2.117-166; Ant. 13.171-173; Ant.18.11-25). While these asides are critical in reconstructing his portrait, this presentation analyzes the contribution of specific Essene characters threaded throughout his works to his overall literary portrait and agenda—Judas in War 1.78-80 = Ant. 13.311-314; Menalaus in Ant. 15.371-379; Simon in War 2.112-113 = Ant. 17.345-348; and John in War 2.567 & 3.11,19. Banus does not seem to be designated as an Essene in Life 11-12. While Josephus claims contact with the Essenes (Life 10), he does not claim to be an Essene. Themes that surface in this investigation include virtuous character, prophetic ability, similarities with the Pythagoreans, and societal interaction. The first two are necessarily linked together by Josephus. Prophetic ability is especially prominent. While Josephus mentions it as a characteristic of select Essenes in his lengthy editorial aside in War 2. 117-166 (specifically 2.159), it does not seem to be typically practiced in a proper fashion among the Pharisees (Ant. 17.43). While Josephus understands prophecy to have been practiced regularly in the biblical period, he describes it as practiced selectively in the post-biblical period by virtuous Jews such as priests (e.g. Hyrcanus, Josephus, cf. Sameas). It is noteworthy that he connects the term essen to the oracular breastplate of the high priest in Ant. 3.163-171, 216-218. For Josephus prophecy is an evidence of God's providence. My investigation considers the immediate context of each passage, the differences between the synoptic accounts, parallels with the larger Greco-Roman world, and parallels with biblical and post-biblical characters within Josephus works.


Spiritualization of Sacrifice in the New Testament
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Stephen Finlan, Fordham University

This paper examines several different strategies of reinterpretation and metaphorical appropriation of sacrificial imagery in the NT, with an emphasis on Hebrews and the letters of Paul. The term “spiritualization” has been used in several ways by scholars; two of these meanings are intended here: spiritualization as interiorization, and as metaphorical appropriation of sacrificial images. The former involves internalization of religious values, with an ethicizing emphasis; the latter utilizes ritual imagery metaphorically to describe non-ritual experiences, as when Paul speaks of himself as being “poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith” (Phil 2:17). Spiritualizing is a hermeneutic for interpretation of cult, tradition, and text. The Epistle to the Hebrews has a complex and troubled spiritualizing hermeneutic, marking the sacrificial cult as inadequate, as replaced, even describing Christ quoting an antisacrificial psalm (7:18; 8:7; 9:23; 10:5-9), and yet picturing Christ as a purification for sin, his body an “offering,” his blood cleansing (1:3; 10:10, 29; 9:26). The sacrificial cult is “obsolete” (8:13), but what replaces it is sacrificial. Christ is a “better” sacrifice, but still a sacrifice; a higher order of priest, but still a priest. This is ethical as much as it is cultic, however, due to the concept that Christ’s incarnation was an exercise in compassionate participation in human life. In both Paul and Hebrews, cultic spiritualization is inseparable from a compassionate concept of the incarnation of the Son.


Response
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Frances Flannery-Dailey, James Madison University

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Accessing the Divine Presence: Fourth Ezra and the Reconfiguration of Social Memory
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Frances Flannery-Dailey, James Madison University

4 Ezra uses multiple formulas for accessing divine presence, including discourse with an angel, transformation along the angelic-human continuum, dreaming and visionary waking sequences, tours of heaven before one's death, ascension of the soul after death, and the consumption of revelatory substances. The author reconfigures remembered visionary materials, including dream narratives, ascent texts and theophanies, by shaping them in light of biblical images of prophets, (pre-eminently Moses and Daniel), who progress in their abilities to receive increasingly greater levels and types of revelation. In this way 4 Ezra serves as an excellent example of the reconfiguration of social memories, namely of visionary materials, the core concern of which is access to God's presence, and of prophetic materials. This has implications for the way memory functions and for the ways in which “apocalyptic” and “sapiential” materials were configured in early Judaism. Finally, the text offers a window onto a contested area of cultural memory in maintaining that the true understanding of scriptures comes by revelation, not by study.


John's Preaching in Q and the Synoptics
Program Unit: Q
Harry Fleddermann, Alverno College

The first Q pericope, John's Preaching (Q 3:7-9, 16-17), offers a convenient place to study the development of the synoptic tradition. A close study of the Q pericope and the relevant passages in Mark, Matthew, and Luke allows a critical reader to peer into the history of the tradition. The Q passage reveals itself as the earliest form of the material. Mark passed over the first half of the Q pericope, but he adapted the second half, the saying on John and the Coming One (Q 3:16-17), as part of his initial portrayal of the ministry of John (Mark 1:7-8). In adapting the saying Mark shows knowledge of redactional Q which supports the position that Mark knew and used Q. Matthew and Luke, independently of one another, combined the Q pericope of John's Preaching with Mark's pericope of the Appearance of John (Mark 1:1-6) using redactional techniques that we can observe elsewhere in their gospels. The passage thus supports a modified two-source theory which claims that Matthew and Luke drew on two main sources, Mark and Q, and which further maintains that Mark depends on Q in the places where the two overlap.


Luke 13:31–35: Jesus, the Winged Shekinah, and the Temple's Desolation
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, St. Mary's Bryanston Square

This paper offers a fresh reading of Luke 13:31-35 in the light of recent work on the Jewish background to a NT Wisdom Christology. It will be argued (following H. Gese) that although Jesus does identify himself with Wisdom here, another, primarily temple-focused, theophanic Christology is in view. The double vocative and the image of the brooding mother bird in verse 34 express the conviction that, as had been expected of the true king (Lamentations 4:20, cf. Ezekiel 28:14; Isaiah 32:1-2), Jesus speaks for and embodies the sheltering shekinah of the temple. Contrary to the consensus of the commentators v. 35 is not a prophecy of future abandonment. Several exegetical considerations confirm an at-face-value reading of the present tense in verse 35. The house – that is the temple – is currently evacuated of both human and divine presence for the following reasons: (a) as verse 34 has intimated, God has been unable to gather his people to his house where they can find shelter in the presence of his winged shekinah, (b) in the biblical scheme of things, that is also reflected in contemporary Jewish literature, the rejection of God (as described in v. 34) inevitably leads to his rejection of his people and his abandonment of the temple, and (c) this is a state of affairs that is accelerated where there is bloodshed and the defiling presence of human corpses in the temple. This train of thought in Luke 13:34-35 can be illustrated through comparison with passages in Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the pseudepigrapha. It is anticipated in earlier material in Luke 13 (esp. vv. 1-5) and in the immediately preceding verses (vv. 31-33), which contrast the defiling presence of Herod the unclean fox (cf. Leviticus 11) with Jesus the one who cleanses Israel of impure demons.


Purification and Baptism: Enacting the Borders of Judaism and Christianity in Syria
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Charlotte Fonrobert, Stanford University

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Semantic Roles in Biblical Hebrew: "When to Split and When to Quit"
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
A. Dean Forbes, Palo Alto, CA

In reviewing the approaches to semantic roles taken by linguists, I will focus on the "category split/quit dilemma." I will then explain the approach to semantic roles taken by Andersen and Forbes in our database of extended phrase markers for the Hebrew Bible, using illustrative examples.


The Gospel of John and the Signs Gospel
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Robert T. Fortna, Vassar College

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The M-Source: Its History and Demise in Biblical Scholarship
Program Unit: Q
Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh

As part of the Q session on compositional issues, this paper will trace the development of the theory of the so-called M-source. The paper will discuss the rise of this theory, the classic articulation of an M-source by B.H. Streeter and its role in scholarship subsequent to Streeter. There will then be a discussion of some of the assumptions that stood behind the postulation of this hypothetical source and an analysis of why this putative document is largely seen as redundant. In particular, a comparison will be made between the role of M and Q in scholarship and the reasons for the survival of the latter while the former has fallen beside the wayside. The last section of the paper will seek to address the question of whether anything can be retrieved from theories surrounding the M-source, apart from understanding it as a historical oddity of a previous generation of scholarship.


Amenemope in Israel
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Michael V. Fox, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This paper will assess the relationship between Amenemope and Israelite Wisdom—Prov 22:17-24:22 in particular but elsewhere as well. I will argue that the Instruction of Amenemope in its entirety was known to the Israelite sages; that we can explain the sequence of the parallels in Prov 22:17-24:22 with some precision by following the editor through five “sweeps” of Amenemope; and that the most likely vehicle for the transmission of Amenemope to Israel was an Aramaic translation, probably in the eighth or seventh century B.C.E.


Divine Design, Tattooed Images: The Prohibition of Leviticus 19:28 and Beyond
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Nili S. Fox, Hebrew Union College

Comparable to practices of the 21st century CE, humans in antiquity encoded their bodies to express a broad range of cultural information. Tattooing, one method of body marking, is attested in the archaeological and textual records of the ancient Near East and Egypt since earliest times. The biblical prohibition against making skin incisions--any form of tattooing--seems to be unique to biblical Israel, and, as such, has raised numerous questions in scholarly circles. First and foremost is the question: Why ban the practice at all? This paper seeks to explore the topic from two perspectives. First, as a manifestation of permanent body transformation tattooing has various social implications which can mark the bearer's status, gender, and societal role. Second, as a cult related phenomenon tattooing functions as an expression of religious identity and devotion to a particular deity. In discussing these issues we will examine the evidence for tattooing in the cultures of the region, as well as the thesis that the biblical prohibition is directly related to the mandate for exclusive Yahwistic worship.


Qumran Yahad and Rabbinc Havurah: A Comparison Reconsidered
Program Unit: Qumran
Steven D. Fraade, Yale University

It is fifty-five years since, shortly after the first discovery and publication of Dead Sea Scrolls, Saul Lieberman, in two articles (“Light on the Cave Scrolls from Rabbinic Sources,” PAAJR 20 [1951]: 395-404; “The Discipline of the So-called Dead Sea Manual of Discipline,” JBL 71 [1952]: 199-206), discussed the possible connection between the Dead Sea Scrolls and early rabbinic literature, focusing, in particular, on the possibility of comparing the Qumran yahad to the Rabbinic havurah. Since then, many more scrolls have been discovered and published that bear in the social structure and religious ideology of the Qumran community, as well as its second-temple Jewish and Greco-Roman pagan analogues. In the same period, major advancements have been made in the critical texts and methodologies for the study of early rabbinic literature, including the adducing of its social structures and historical settings. Most recently, there has been renewed interest in the possible intersections between the two bodies of ancient Jewish writings in these regards. Surprisingly, the question of the relation, whether generic or morphological, between the Qumran yahad and the rabbinic havurah has not been reexamined in any depth. It is the purpose of this paper to revisit Lieberman’s early attention to this comparison and to ask how the advancements in scrolls and early rabbinic studies should lead us to reformulate the question of the “light” they might shed on one another.


“Blessed Is the One Who Reads Aloud...”: The Book of Revelation in Orthodox Lectionary Traditions
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Matthew Francis, Athabasca University

The lectionary traditions of the Christian east are variegated and complex. Not less mysterious is the place of the Book of Revelation within Orthodoxy. For a text that has so deeply influenced the liturgical praxis of the Church, it is one of the few canonical Biblical books excluded from the lectionaries. Earlier and more widely read in the west, the Book of Revelation is also included in western lectionaries from the medieval period through to today’s Revised Common Lectionary. Why, precisely, has the Apocalypse been marginalized in the lectionaries of the Orthodox Church? Building upon the work of Petros Vasiliadis and Philip Sellew, this paper explores the reception history of the Book of Revelation in the Christian east during the first five centuries, and the development of Orthodoxy’s primary lectionary traditions. Additionally, the Coptic blessing for the Apocalypse's reading during the Paschal Liturgy will be examined as a basis for an Eastern Christian liturgical hermeneutic.


Isaiah 58: Past, Present, and Future Realities: What Has the Mouth of the Lord Spoken?
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Chris Franke, College of Saint Catherine

The poem(s) in chapter 58 will be analyzed with special attention to images which have prominence elsewhere in the book of Isaiah. They include the following: abuse of sacrifices and sabbath, delight or lack of delight in sabbath observances and fasting (Isaiah 1, 60); God's complaints of the people's injustice and the people's complaints against God in the form of communal laments (Isaiah 63-64); gloom and darkness of the present replaced by a luminscent and lavish future (Isaiah 40, 60, 66). Repetition of the refrain ki pi adonai dibber in 1:20, 40:5, and 58:14 highlights the importance of the speaking voice.


Where the Spirits Dwell: Saint Shrines as Sites for Possession in Late Antique Christianity
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
David Frankfurter, University of New Hampshire

Numerous late antique Christian witnesses, from Shenoute of Atripe (Egypt) to Gregory of Tours (Gaul), describe manifestations of spirit possession at saint shrines. While typically labelled “demons,” these spirits notably offer oracles and gain devout audiences from among shrine devotees. The point of this theoretical paper is two-fold: to analyze the dynamics of spontaneous spirit possession as part of the process of Christianization, drawing on anthropological work by Lewis, Stirrat, and Sluhovsky; and to highlight the importance of place in inspiring and controlling possession phenomena.


Sharif of the Jews: The Importance of Davidic Ancestry in the Medieval Islamic World
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Arnold Franklin, Hunter College

Sources from the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries reveal widespread claims to Davidic ancestry among Jews living in Muslim societies. The proposed paper suggests that the flourishing of this ancestral tradition reflects a growing fascination with the line of King David within Jewish society, which in turn may be understood as a complex response to the Jews’ minority status. Evidence is cited illustrating the ways in which both Jews and Muslims came to think of the Davidic dynasty as a Jewish equivalent to the family of Muhammad. It is suggested that, in their veneration of both Davidic ancestry and its claimants, medieval Jews were in conversation with their host society, reflecting its values and seeking to establish their legitimacy in its eyes.


Writing the Beloved: The Motif of Longing in Philippians and Other Ancient Letters of Friendship
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
David E. Fredrickson, Luther Seminary

Hundreds of letters written between the second century B.C.E. and the sixth century C.E. declare their authors' longing for absent friends or relatives. To classify these writings as "friendly letters" is correct in a technical sense since they exhibit the characteristic philophronetic clichés. Yet, not to recognize something out of the ordinary in these confessions of desire underplays the intensity of emotion and fails to represent the acute problem of absence. Even more, one of the most interesting aspects of all letters, how the writer and the recipient are transformed into words, is obscured when patterned expressions of grief over an absent loved one are not at the center of the interpreter's concerns. This has been the recent history of Paul's letter to the Philippians. His expressions of longing have remained hidden to interpreters under his friendly feelings. Inadequate attention been given to 1:8, "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ." Even though no such epistolary type as "letter of longing" exists in the handbooks, longing was a popular motif among the papyrus letters as well as the correspondence of Cicero, Fronto, Julian, and a multitude of Christian writers from the third to the sixth century. The declaration of longing is the organizing center of four related themes: the epistolary situation as separation of lover and beloved; the dire effects of longing on the writer's body; an oath establishing the truth of the writer's grief over the separation; and consoling fantasies of presence. All of these themes are present in Philippians. Paul, along with a host of others, wrote himself as a lover yearning for reunion, and the church at Philippi became the much longed for beloved.


The Spirit-Paraclete in John: Qumran Parallels and Early Christian Background and Theological Function
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Jorg Frey, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität

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The Contribution of Eric Meyers’ Work to the Study of the Historical Jesus
Program Unit:
Sean Freyne, Trinity College, Dublin

In this paper I explore the significance of Eric’s work in providing the data that has enabled Jesus scholars to have a better understanding of the social world of Galilee, thereby challenging others to see Jesus in his social as well as religious Galilean setting. In particular Eric’s discussion of Judaism in the Galilee helped to finally put to bed the ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ ideas of the Religionsgeschichte approach. And yet at the same time his work accentuated our understanding of the positive influences of Hellenism for Jews in the region. I document this from Eric’s work and also explore where we are now in regard to these questions, and their significance for a more adequate interpretation of the Jesus traditions.


The Concept of "Impure Birth" in Fifth Century Athens and Judea
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Lisbeth S. Fried, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

In a tribute to Tikva Frymer-Kensky, this paper examines the notion of “impure birth” in 5th century Judah and Athens and compares the legal rights of the foreigner, of foreign wives, and the inheritance rights of their offspring. The two situations have strange parallels. In the mid-fifth century Athens (451-450), Athenian citizens had suddenly to prove descent from an Athenian mother, as well as from an Athenian father. Five thousand Athenians were consequently struck from the citizenship rolls as being of ‘impure birth.’ Of these, some were put to death, others were exiled, others were allowed to live in Attica, but deprived of their rights. Confiscation of property and loss of life threatened those allowed to remain in Athens. Those who sued for their citizenship rights and lost their suit were executed. This paper seeks to understand this attitude, and asks if a common origin lies behind the Athenian citizenship laws and the attitudes toward foreign wives visible in Ezra-Nehemiah.


Why the Story of the Three Youths in 1 Esdras?
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Lisbeth S. Fried, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

According to one view of the compositional history of 1st Esdras, the book existed originally without the story of the three youths. This story was added later. According to another view, 1st Esdras was created as a framework for the story. This paper examines this issue by investigating what question the story of the three youths seeks to answer, why the story was written, and its literary role in the book of 1st Esdras.


The Preaching of John the Baptizer in Mark and Q
Program Unit: Q
Timothy A. Friedrichsen, Catholic University of America

This paper examines the preaching of John the Baptizer in Mark 1:2-6 as well as the more extended presentations of his preaching in Matt 3:1-12 and Luke 3:1-18 in light of the Two Document Hypothesis (2DH). The purpose is to test the 2DH's explanation of these passages in light of challenges offered by other theories, most especially the proposals of Mark's use of Q and of Luke's use of Matthew. As much as is possible, attention is also given to the other theories represented on the panel.


A Resource Scale for Roman Imperial Populations, or, the Further Adventures of Friesen's Poverty Scale
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Steven J. Friesen, University of Texas at Austin

This paper discusses Friesen's original poverty scale proposal and some difficulties with the scale. We then discuss possibilities for a new and improved "Resource Scale" for measuring economic resources of populations and individuals.


Random Acts of Violence: Pagans, Christians, and Jews Write Back
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Chris Frilingos, Michigan State University

A recent New Yorker profile of Joel Surnow, co-creator of the television series “24”, stresses the mimetic effects of representing torture: according to a former Army interrogator, U.S. soldiers in Iraq watch closely the techniques of mental and physical torture depicted on the show; then the soldiers apply what they have to Iraqi prisoners. Is it possible, however, that stylized depictions of violence might lead to a different form of understanding, not mimesis but mimicry? I propose to explore this alternative interpretation in texts from the Roman era, specifically, the Greek version of Esther, Leukippe and Kleitophon, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The study of ancient Jewish and Christian martyrologies has grown increasingly sensitive to the appropriation and redirection of "mainstream" Roman discourses. The texts in this paper tend to evince a darkly comic approach to depicting violence: brutality and death serve as dramatic devices, as the well-known examples of Scheintode ("false death") in the Greek romance attest. One scholar, looking to second-century CE stories in which characters are killed and then raised from the dead as part of a "truth contest," has suggested that the mock, topsy-turvy violence of such narratives reflects the religious unrest of an era. I will argue instead that the texts in question offer an ironic commentary on routine forms of coercive violence under the Roman Empire, especially torture and capital punishment.


Gender and Biblical Studies: Recent Theoretical Trends
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Esther Fuchs, University of Arizona

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Feminist Methodologies in Biblical Hermeneutics: Re-reading Jephthah’s Daughter
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Esther Fuchs, University of Arizona

This paper offers a theoretical and historical overview of contemporary feminist hermeneutic approaches to the Hebrew Bible. I suggest that three major approaches have emerged in the last two decades. I name these without any implication of judgment: gynocritic, pluralist and feminist. The gynocritic approach seeks to reconstruct women's histories and traditions, discourses and codes as evidence of the social power they exercised in ancient Israel and the centrality they continue to enjoy as literary subject in the Hebrew Bible. The pluralist approach argues against any coherent interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, given the historical complexity and literary heterogeneity of sources. This approach sees an irreducible plurality in the representation of women as both marginal and central, powerful and victimized, superior and inferior to their male counterparts. This plurality makes it impossible to differentiate between descriptive and prescriptive texts, and to question the Bible’s ideology. The feminist approach argues that most female characters are products of a patriarchal ideology whose purpose is to legitimate female subordination. The feminist reader should therefore read the biblical text in opposition, seeking to establish the political investments of women’s literary and legal representations, she is to read the text against the grain as it were. To illustrate this tripartite approach, I will focus on the story of Jephthah’s daughter, taking first Trible’s reading of the story as a “text of terror” my own work on Jephthah’s daughter and the subsequent pluralist reading by Mieke Bal. More recent contextual readings of biblical texts may avail themselves of this reading methodology, while emphasizing at the same time the cultural location and perspective of the reader, using the text as an occasion for effectuating what is known in feminist literary theory as “reading oneself.”


What of the Old Testament? Addressing the Unity of Scripture with Bakhtin
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Christopher C. Fuller, Carroll College

A recent trend within biblical studies has been a return to the theological study of the Bible. While acknowledging the distinctive literary and historical characteristics of the individual biblical books, this approach argues for an understanding of the unity of the Christian scriptures at the level of meta-narrative. As N. T. Wright has argued, “Most of its [the Bible’s] constituent parts, and all of it when put together (whether in the Jewish canonical form or the Christian one), can best be described as story.” From a Christian perspective this story is about God, Israel, the world, and Jesus as the culmination of God’s plan both for Israel and the world. It is a story that has been described variously as one centered on the Deuteronomistic understanding of history, a five-act drama, a six-act drama, or based on the themes of “holy people” and “holy land.” In response to these claims, others have argued that the multi-valence of the individual biblical texts poses a challenge to the attempt to adduce any larger narrative unity for the Bible or it must be addressed more forthrightly in any such theological discussion. For example, one cannot allow the desire for unity to subsume the theological dilemmas posed by the conquest narrative in Joshua 1-12. In this paper I will propose Bakhtin’s concept of dialogism as one that addresses the interrelation of unity and diversity within the biblical canon. More specifically, I will argue that his notion of the dialogical “other” requires the tensions of multi-valence in order to produce a participatory exchange between the narrative drama of the canon and the theological distinctiveness of individual biblical texts. Bakthin’s prosaic sensibilities appeal to the narrative focus of contemporary theological interpretation while addressing the challenges posed by theological diversity.


Post-exilic Biblical Genealogies: Exclusive or Inclusive?
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Deirdre N. Fulton, Pennsylvania State University

Modern scholars have observed that the use of genealogies in post-exilic biblical literature became increasingly important as a way to tie together certain groups of people for social, religious, and political organization. Although there are several reasons for the inclusion of genealogies within post-exilic literature, it is evident that each text is employing a specific set of parameters for the utilization of these lists. The use of genealogies and the distinct types of genealogies employed reveal conscious decisions that each author/authors made and considered important in order to include or exclude people from the community. These differences are reflected in the genealogies found in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Chronicles 2-9, where the former two focus specifically on discerning who is pure enough to be included within the post-exilic cultic community, while the later has a wider view of purity, choosing to include a larger number of people in its extensive genealogical lists mostly set within a pre-exilic framework. In this paper, I will examine the function of the priestly genealogies in the post-exilic biblical texts, specifically focusing on the methods and language of classification that Ezra and Nehemiah use, as opposed to the classification employed in 1 Chronicles 5-6.


A New Look at Matthew 18:23–35: The Parable of the Unforgiving Slave
Program Unit: Matthew
Susana de Sola Funsten, Claremont Graduate University

This parable, which on the surface appears as a simple story about forgiveness, contains several elements that are troubling to modern ears. Some of the tensions in interpretation can be resolved by reading this parable from the perspective of the broader context of the institution of ancient slavery in the Roman empire. The parable posed challenges for ancient audiences as well, but not for the same reasons that challenge us today. On the one hand, the parable reaffirms and re-inscribes the dominant ideology of slave owners and the physical subjugation of slaves to their masters. On the other hand, the parable calls for a radical model for personal interactions between masters and slaves. This would have been perceived problematic on many levels for a rigidly hierarchical society, with deeply entrenched investments in maintaining the status quo of relationships between genders and social classes.


Greco-Roman Religious Concepts in Rabbinic Law: The Case of Idolatry Annulment
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Yair Furstenberg, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

A central theme throughout Tractate Avoda Zara, both in its legal and narrated units, is the annulment of idolatry, a symbolic act of corruption by its worshippers. This novel concept, which stands in contrast to the biblical demand to destroy idolatry to the ground, was substantiated by scholars mainly through the employment of internal rabbinic considerations. Economic necessity, underestimation of idolatry's influential power, and theological objection to the existence of many gods were all given as reasons for the Rabbis' lenient attitude. This paper offers an opposite point of view. It is suggested that the rabbinic concept of idolatry annulment is not a product of rabbinic concerns rather it reflects a well established institution prevalent in contemporary paganism, adapted into the halakhic language. This concept reflects the accepted Greco-Roman perception of worship, as well as its normative nature. The mutilation of images mentioned in the Mishna, corresponds to the wide spread Roman practice of damnatio memoriae: the condemnation of unpopular emperors through the mutilation of their likenesses. From a religious perspective, damnatio is the direct antithesis of consecratio. The divine status of the emperor was a result of the subjects' recognition, repaying his benefactions towards them. Likewise, since no strict theology guided the division of gods in Greco Roman paganism, and there was no absolute criterion by which divinity was determined, this same attitude is present also towards other deities. A parallel contractual system operated between patron and client, between god and man. In fact, this is the core argument presented by Rabban Gamliel in Aphrodite's bath (m A. Z. 3.4), and sharply expressed by Tertulian in his Apology (13). Both interlocutors note an inherent characteristic of contemporary paganism, which supplies a conceptual background to reuse and misuse of deities.


The Rhetoric of Anti-Pharisaic Polemics: The Form of Q Woe-Sayings in Light of a Parallel Dispute
Program Unit: Q
Yair Furstenberg, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The collection of woes against the Pharisees has spurred much scholarly debate concerning the nature and scope of the shared source of Matthew 23 and Luke 11. In this paper I propose that a surprisingly close parallel to the collection of woes is to be found outside Christian literature, in the earliest strata of the Mishna: Mishna Yadayim 4:6-7. This source stands in close relation to Matthew's middle woes (vv. 16-28) and it corresponds specifically to the Lukan anti-pharisaic woes (vv. 39-44). The parallel contents of this passage and the close resemblance in form and style disclose the scope of the early source utilized by Q. This can be ascribed to a genre I would label 'claims against Pharisaic halakhah', and it reveals the nature of the original controversy. An examination of Sadducean claims against Pharisaic halakhah concluding Mishna Yadayim exposes two basic complaints, which point at two characteristics: reversing the hierarchy of the sacred and the profane and combining purity and impurity in the same unit. These two points subvert the Biblical command "to distinguish between the holy and the profane and between the impure and the pure" (Lev. 10.10). These same objections, in the same order and in parallel phrasing, are presented by Matthew's set of woes. Here, the halakhic standpoint serves to expose the character and nature of the Pharisees which display the same features. It is therefore plausible, that all texts drew from the same reserve of anti Pharisaic claims, fashioned in typical style and wording. This context can serve as an additional component in reconstructing the woes in Q in relation to each of the Gospels.


"Dialogues between Sages and Outsiders to the Tradition": Creation of Difference as a Literary Method of Religious Polemics in Rabbinic Literature
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Eszter K. Fuzessy, University of Chicago

Texts found in abundance in rabbinic literature in which a dialogue is portrayed between a Sage and an ”Outsider to the tradition” can, if studied collectively, be used for the study of a literary process in rabbinic literature whereby a difference between a “rabbinic us” and a “them” who are outside of “our tradition” was created. In tannaitic times, the period to which the original versions of the texts of the literary genre “Dialogues between Sages and Outsiders to the tradition” belong, a definite “rabbinic” identity did not as yet exist, and thus in their original version the “Dialogues” did not differ from other tannaitic interpretations and did not have a polemic edge to them. In amoraic times, however, these original tannaitic texts were reformulated and put in a fictional setting (fictionalized). The aim of the transformation of the original versions was to find a literary form that could be used to get across the message of the amoraic editors to their audience; i.e., a form that could portray difference in discourse, set markers to distinguish between a “rabbinic us” and a “them” outside “our tradition”. The introduction of the “Outsiders” served the purpose of picturing all the divergent opinions together as being in opposition to that emerging form of Judaism the authors of the “Dialogues” (n.b., not the Rabbis as a class!) considered as “normative”. The question to be asked is how far the texts of the “Dialogues” can be considered as reflecting the discursive transfer in rabbinic literature from a world of different Hellenistic Judaisms to the world a “rabbinic” Judaism that considers and portrays itself as the sole, “normative” Judaism.


"Dialogues between Sages and Outsiders to the Tradition": Creation of Difference as a Literary Method of Religious Polemics in Rabbinic Literature
Program Unit: Midrash
Eszter K. Fuzessy, University of Chicago

Texts found in abundance in rabbinic literature in which a dialogue is portrayed between a Sage and an ”Outsider to the tradition” can, if studied collectively, be used for the study of a literary process in rabbinic literature whereby a difference between a “rabbinic us” and a “them” who are outside of “our tradition” was created. In tannaitic times, the period to which the original versions of the texts of the literary genre “Dialogues between Sages and Outsiders to the tradition” belong, a definite “rabbinic” identity did not as yet exist, and thus in their original version the “Dialogues” did not differ from other tannaitic interpretations and did not have a polemic edge to them. In amoraic times, however, these original tannaitic texts were reformulated and put in a fictional setting (fictionalized). The aim of the transformation of the original versions was to find a literary form that could be used to get across the message of the amoraic editors to their audience; i.e., a form that could portray difference in discourse, set markers to distinguish between a “rabbinic us” and a “them” outside “our tradition”. The introduction of the “Outsiders” served the purpose of picturing all the divergent opinions together as being in opposition to that emerging form of Judaism the authors of the “Dialogues” (n.b., not the Rabbis as a class!) considered as “normative”. The question to be asked is how far the texts of the “Dialogues” can be considered as reflecting the discursive transfer in rabbinic literature from a world of different Hellenistic Judaisms to the world a “rabbinic” Judaism that considers and portrays itself as the sole, “normative” Judaism.


The Tora in Psalm 106 and Psalm 136
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Judith Gaertner, Universität Hamburg

While Psalm 106 and 136 choose partly the same and partly different pentateuchal traditions, while they develop different basic ideas of biblical history. Ps 136 sketches in the style of a hymn a history of Yahweh’s major acts of salvation, indicating thus a salvation history. Ps 106 describes history completely different, as an apostasy from Yahweh, i.e. as a history of the people’s guilt and failure. One and the same historical event may be described from opposite points of view, as for instance Israel’s time in the desert. The paper focuses on these different interpretations of history as they are apparent in Ps 106 and 136. Especially the intentions of these interpretations of history will be pointed out. The results will be synthesized on two different levels: First on the level of the single psalm, and, second, on the level of the compositions of the 4th and 5th book of the Psalter of which the single psalms are a part.


“Women-Prophets Will Inherit the Earth”: Female Prophets in Mesopotamia and Biblical Israel
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Wil Gafney, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

“If an anomaly’s right ear is cropped and inflated female muhhutu-prophets will seize the land.” (Shuma Izbu) This paper is drawn from my forthcoming work, “Daughters of Miriam,” (Fortress Press, 2008) and examines examples of female prophets in Mari, Nineveh, and Emar, vocabulary pertaining to their roles, preserved oracular material and, will compare them to Israelite female prophets. Tikvah Frymer-Kensky reads female prophetic activity in the ANE as normative and contextual for the prophetic activity of women in ancient Israel. Portrayals of female prophets in Mari, Emar, and Nineveh offer ways of understanding the role and function of Israelite female prophets beyond their limited portrayal in the Hebrew Scriptures. The verb, ’nh, “to answer” may indicate comparable Israelite and ANE understandings of apilu-(respondent) prophecy. In Exodus, Moses and YHWH answer each other (4:1 and 19:19), as does YHWH and Isaiah in 6:11. And, Miriam “answered” the deliverance of the Israelites with a choreo-poem accompanied by “all the women,” associating percussion with prophecy. Jeremiah (23:21-39) condemns several types of oracular manifestations, i. e. dreams, oracles, but seems to endorse prophetic answering. The prophets of Baal and Elijah in 1 Kings 18 use ’nh, as does Huldah in 2 Chronicles 34. The Emar citations may link lamentation and prophecy. Lamentation and prophecy are associated in the Hebrew Scriptures in 2 Chronicles 35:25, where Jeremiah’s lament for Josiah is performed by female and male singers. YHWH directs Ezekiel to prophesy using the form of a lament over the princes of Israel in chapter 19, Tyre in 27:2ff, the prince of Tyre in 28:12ff and Pharaoh in 32:2ff. And in Micah 1:8, the prophet laments and wails, going barefoot and naked in mourning over Judah. The masculine noun also appears in Mari, and there it is paired with “diviner” and functions as a synonym for apilu.


Christians and Jews in the Late Antique Synagogue
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
John G. Gager, Princeton University

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From Nahum 3 to “Number Six”: The Biblical Motif of the Tortured Woman in American Popular Culture
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
David G. Garber, Jr., McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University

This paper gives a brief survey of the tortured woman motif in the Hebrew Bible and the resurrection of the motif in the contemporary apocalyptic tales of Battlestar Galactica and Carnivále. In dialogue with literary trauma theory, the paper will compare and contrast the rhetorical function of the motif in the biblical material with the function in contemporary American culture. While the display of the tortured woman in the biblical text—either metaphorically in the prophetic tradition or as a character in Judges 19—tends toward dehumanization and control, the display of tortured woman in contemporary culture asks the viewer to re-humanize her.


The Term "Shoah" in the Hebrew Bible: A Teaching Lesson
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Zev Garber, Los Angeles Valley College

The term "Shoah" occurs at least twelve times in the Hebrew Bible. Collectively, the texts in which it is found speak of the destruction of Israel/Judah and Babylon; desolation of nature and the land; and distress and anguish in the realm of personal experience. My paper intents to examine this word in the text and context of its time, and its designated usage to mark the Jewish genocide of World War II.


See My Hands and Feet: Fresh Light on a Johannine Midrash
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Jeffrey Paul Garcia, Nyack College

The Johannine pericope of Doubting Thomas (Jn. 20:19-29) provides the only explicit reference to the wounds of Jesus (vv. 25, 27). On the other hand, both the crucifixion and resurrection accounts in the Synoptic Gospels are silent regarding the use of nails or Jesus’ wounds. Even John’s own crucifixion narrative lacks any mention of wounds or nails. Scholarship has assumed that Luke 24:39 also alludes to Jesus’ stigmata. Yet, neither the context of the Lukan story, nor the disciple’s fears indicate that Jesus showed his hands and feet in order to show his wounds. Instead, his demonstration, similar to his eating fish (Lk. 24:41-43), was intended to dispel the disciples’ disbelief that what they were seeing was a ghost (v. 39). Scholarship has paid little notice that the only occasions in which Josephus utilizes the term ‘to nail’ (proselow) to describe crucifixion are during the procuratorate of Gessius Florus between 64 and 66 C.E. and Titus’ barbarity during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. (J.W. 2:308, 5:451). Prior to this, the collocation of the verb ‘to crucifiy’ (avastaurow or staurow) with ‘to nail’ never occurs. It seems that the Roman practice, in Judea, of nailing victims to the cross during crucifixion developed only in the decades after the death of Jesus. This study will trace the language employed to describe crucifixion in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, and the Gospels. It will demonstrate that the Johannine account is a midrashic re-presentation of the death of Jesus in light of specific passages from the Hebrew Scriptures.


Prophecy and Identity Formation: A Frame Analysis of Judean Oracles against Foreign Alliances
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Doris J. Garcia-Mayol, Seminario Intercultural Mayense

The oracles of Isa. 30:1-5, Jer. 2:14-19, 13:20-22, and Ezek. 17:1-10 evoke an identity construction process in response to perceived socio-political and cultural changes of their periods. This paper, analyzes public discourses in Judah from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, illustrating how the texts imply the struggles of distinct social groups over meaning construction. The paper briefly describes the ancient Near East’s socio-historic background of treaty making, emphasizing the political, cultural, and symbolic aspects affecting identity processes and Israel’s and Judah’s treaty-making policies geared to produce freedom from Assyria or Babylonia. Comparison between the images and symbols of epigraphic and textual ancient Near Eastern material with selected prophetic texts illumines a conscious and purposeful modification of the tropes’ application aimed to challenge the assumed identity of factions supporting alliances and define adversarial identities. By using frame analysis, the examination of the figurative language reveals five frames designed to provoke and discredit those in power. Frames referring to treachery, worth, identity, conspiracy, and religion selectively encode the problem of foreign alliances. This analysis highlights the multileveled resistances in Judean society. Internationally, the resisting Judean elite chose foreign alliances to free the state. Locally, groups opposing the ruling elite promoted submission, non-action, or selective resistance against the empire. The oracles against foreign alliances represent an effort of contending prophetic groups to gain control over Judah’s foreign policy, and to construct a new identity for the social groups represented. Similar to defiant social networks, these groups constructed a challenging discourse revealing the “true character” of the official interpretation of the court’s foreign policy and the “true identity” of their supporters.


An Egyptian Version of Atramhasis?
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
John Gee, Brigham Young University

An Egyptian ritual text parallels the Atramhasis text in various details, and thus also parallels the Biblical Flood narrative, sometimes in ways not reflected in the Mesopotamian version. The Egyptian text survives in five versions all of which are securely dated. None of them dates before the Amarna period, but allusions to the text are found in texts dating seven hundred years earlier. I will examine both the parallels and differences between the texts and discuss the problems that the date of the manuscripts presents for interpreting the parallels.


The Preexilic Redaction of Kings and Priestly Authority in Jerusalem
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Jeffrey C. Geoghegan, Boston College

There has been a growing interest in the compositional history of Kings as researchers have become increasingly aware of the inadequacies of Noth’s model to account for the redactional and ideological complexities of this work. As a consequence, a number of scholars have argued that the present form and placement of Kings should no longer be viewed as part of a unified historical enterprise, but rather as a distinct compositional work that underwent its own, rather lengthy, redactional process. In short, the idea that there once existed a unified history spanning from Deuteronomy through 2 Kings is considered by many scholars to be a modern invention, not an ancient reality. The present study, though agreeing with many of the recent critiques of Noth’s model, argues that there still exist compelling reasons to consider the composition of Kings as part of a larger historical enterprise that included traditions roughly equivalent to those now found in the books of Deuteronomy through 2 Kings. Moreover, there are specific redactional and thematic clues that indicate this history was compiled by a relatively small group of Deuteronomistically-oriented scribes who began their work prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.


Israel’s Tabernacle as Modification of Priestly Creation
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Mark K. George, Iliff School of Theology

Scholars have noted the literary connections that exist between the Priestly creation account in Gen 1 and the Tabernacle narratives in Exod 35-40. These connections led Joseph Blenkinsopp to suggest the construction of the Tabernacle is a completion of the work done in creation. Jon Levenson states that the connections to creation reinforce the portrayal of the Tabernacle as a world, and the world as a sanctuary. The Tabernacle narratives, however, introduce a significant modification to the Priestly creation account of Gen 1. If the Tabernacle represents the completion of creation, and is itself a “world,” then this is a creation and world brought about not by the deity alone, but in partnership with humanity, specifically Israel. It is this modification of Priestly cosmology that this paper examines and explores.


Hurrying the Analogy: The Analogical Function of Hurrians and Beds in CAT 1.132
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
James R. Getz Jr., Brandeis University

Ugaritic scholarship has made great strides in last decade in gaining a better understanding of Ugaritic narrative texts through analogical relations to cultural and societal studies of Ugarit and its Late Bronze Age neighbors. However, in the realm of ritual texts, scholars have been less progressive in using analogical relations. This study examines CAT 1.132, a ritual text that has suffered from a narrow view of analogy and has been too quickly labeled a hieros gamos. To better understand the meaning of the text, this paper examines the role of the Hurrian deities addressed in the text as well as the possible cultural analogies that can be deduced from the bed mentioned at the outset of the ritual. The text concludes by noting that both the Hurrian deities and the bed evoke an image of hospitality to foreign royalty rather than a sacred marriage between the king and goddess.


Patterns of Worship at the Temple to Hecate
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Patrick Scott Geyer, University of San Diego

During the 1999 field season, soil samples were collected from the site of Lagina near Turgut in southwest Turkey. This is the site of a circa 1st Century BCE temple complex dedicated solely to the goddess Hecate, who ranks among the first generation of deities within the Greco-Roman world. Samples were taken from above, within and below the plaster floor of the original temple to Hecate, which predates the destruction of the temple complex by Quintus Labienus and his Parthian army in 40 BCE and its subsequent reconstruction by Augustus on a decidedly grander scale (27 BCE). Following collection, the samples were sent by Dr. Ahmet Tirpan of Konya University, the project director, to the pollen laboratory at the University of San Diego. A pilot palynological study was undertaken to ascertain if pollen was recoverable from them. After two attempts pollen was extracted from the five samples taken from the plaster floor of the original temple structure at Lagina in sufficient concentrations to attempt the standard 200 grain counts. These identifications and their tabulations were completed by mid-April of 2000. This paper represents the first time this data has been presented to the academic public. The results of this study netted a spectrum of twenty distinct pollen types representing a pollen signature that the author contends, portrays the temple culture at the site in the guise of its tithes and offerings in the period preceding the destruction by Labienus in 40 BCE. Recovering these fossil pollen types from the central floor of the original temple to Hecate, a floor capped by both a layer of destruction and the subsequent ruined foundations of the second rebuilt temple, is tantamount to opening a time capsule, the contents of which contain a random sampling of the typical eco-factual gifts ritually presented the goddess.


Foods from the Cellars of First Century Gamla
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Patrick Scott Geyer, University of San Diego

In February of 2004 a total of eight core soil samples were taken from the floors of two previously excavated residential cellars at the 1st Century archaeological site of Gamla. This breaks down to four samples from two level depths of five and ten centimeters taken from each of the cellar floors of these two dwellings in Area R of Gamla. While it is clear that more samples need to be extracted at a future time, both from these two cellars and from others known to have been excavated, this will not prevent the author from offering this report as a preliminary effort. Especially as such a report might give us a hint as to what information is still to be gleaned from the cellars of Gamla that will undoubtedly widen our picture 1st Century residential life in Israel. As samples representative of foods stored in a typical 1st Century Greco-Roman single family residence they give us a unique glimpse into the staple diet of a family from this region and period. The validity of these samples is argued from comparison to modern control samples and from the capping of these cellars that resulted from the historical destruction of Gamla by the Roman General Vespacian in 67 C.E. as reported by Josephus. Based upon such an argument, the types of plants tabulated from these samples offer us an unprecedented virtual tour of not one, but two 1st Century cellars. Such well stocked cellars provided many, if not all, of the essential ingredients from which the meals of the 1st Century eastern Mediterranean family were produced. hough referenced in the third and final volume of the Gamla site report, this is the first time the preliminary results of these samplings are being fully reported on to an academic audience.


John 1:12, 5:37–38, 12:28, 17:6, 20:31 and Mt 28:19–20 and Mt 26:64//Mk 14:62//Lk 22:69–70
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Charles A. Gieschen, Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne

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Die Zeit der Erwartung: Karl Barth’s Christological Understanding of the Nature and Role of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Mark Gignilliat, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

‘Whether we like it or not, the Christ of the New Testament is the Christ of the Old Testament, the Christ of Israel,’ so Barth states in Church Dogmatics I.2 (p.488). For Karl Barth, the Old Testament is Christian Scripture and must be understood so on confessional and classical grounds. The stakes were high for Barth during his reflection on the nature and role of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture in 1932 (while the CD I was in progress). Marcion’s ghost haunted the German churches and universities. This paper will explore Barth’s dogmatic formulations on the nature and role of the Old Testament as a witness to the revelation of Jesus Christ in the context of German Old Testament scholarship in the early twentieth century. The primary focus will be an exposé and analysis of Barth’s formal theological reflection on the Old Testament in CD I.2 alongside a few examples of Barth’s Christological exegesis of the Old Testament drawn from various quarters of the CD. The paper will hopefully conclude with constructive prospects Barth may offer for reading the Old Testament Christianly in our current situation. Barth’s voice may be a very fresh one in the current debate over theological exegesis and what this looks like in practice. Positively, Barth allows his confessional commitments to the nature and role of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture to inform and in large measure determine the ways in which he actually goes about exegeting (or reading) the text. This is a fine example of where theology and exegesis actually do intertwine while at the same time moving beyond methodological discussion alone to actual practice. In this light, Barth looms largely as a key figure in the history of interpretation in general and more specifically in the twentieth century.


The Book of Jashar: The Song Scroll
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Terry Giles, Gannon University

There are two and perhaps three lyrics quoted by prose authors of the Hebrew Bible that are cited from the same source: sefer ha-Yashar or the “Book of Jashar” as it normally appears in English bibles. This “Book of Jashar” deserves a closer look for it may be that it provides an important link between the oral performance of ancient songs and the twice-used appearance of those songs in the Hebrew Bible. A performance critical examination of the lyrics adds to our understanding of the lyrics within the narratives in which they are now embedded and perhaps gives us a window into this long lost “Book”.


"Comprehensive Coverage" in the Dead Sea Scrolls Sect: The Ideology of Care in the Damascus Rule and the Rule for the Congregation
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Yonder M. Gillihan, Boston College

This paper explores the implications of laws in the Dead Sea Scrolls that provide for the inclusion and care of the disabled for our understanding of the sect's self-conception as a whole. Their laws both allocate funds for the care of the disabled and vulnerable, and define social roles that the disabled may fill. They reveal that while cultic purity was of utmost concern for the Covenanters, it was not the only criterion for defining the sect's boundaries: one of the primary responsibilities of sectarian officials was to apply the sect's resources to the care of members who clearly were not cultically pure, but whose inclusion and care remained a central concern of the sect. Questions arise: in practical terms, how were the disabled and vulnerable cared for? Can we gain insight into the Covenanters' "healthcare and welfare" system by comparing the practices of other early Jewish and Christian groups, Greco-Roman voluntary associations, or other social groups? How does full consideration of the laws on care for the disabled enrich our understanding of the Covenanters' ideology and self-understanding? While the Covenanters' laws on the disabled have analogies in the statutes of Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman voluntary associations, which require care for the sick, the imprisoned, and burial for the dead, the Covenanters' statutes are more comprehensive and systematic. First, they include a broader range of disabled persons; second, care is organized in legal terms; third, a "bureaucracy" of sectarian officials oversee the administration of care. These features have strong analogies in the laws of the Torah, as well as in the constitutions of Greco-Roman states. I conclude that by including the disabled and legislating for their care, the Covenanters affirmed and anticipated their eschatological status as a nation, comprehensive of every faithful member, at the end of days.


Framework and Discourse in the Book of Judges
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Aachen University

A (deuteronomic) schema has long been noticed in the book of Judges. Starting with a detailed description in Judg 2 most of the stories from Judg 3-16 occur within a framework presenting the stories as a cycle of Israel’s failure to observe YHWH’s covenant, condemnation, oppression and rescue. A varying number of reoccurring elements upholds this schema. Although the existence of such a framework and its elements has been described numerous times, its narrative and rhetoric function has been widely neglected. This paper will show that the framework is more than a loose bond between the stories reminding the readers of the standards of YHWH’s covenant. Rather the framework opens a discourse for every story. To describe this discourse adequately Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia, polyphony and dialogism is used. The different voices in the book of Judges cannot be separated and reconstructed exactly, as a historical critical exegetical approach suggests. Better they are described as overlapping voices forming a double voiced discourse. Looking closely at the variations within the schema-like framework, its position within the narration and the connetions between the framework and a particular story it becomes obvious how polyphonic voices shape the stories. With regard to the whole book the interaction between the framework and the single stories further evokes an ongoing discourse on the judges and their reign.


Melito, This New Enoch, the Divine Scribe: Typological Interpretation as Revelation of the Divine Mysteries in Melito's Peri Pascha
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Dragos-Andrei Giulea, Marquette University

My paper proposes the hypothesis that Melito's typology may be seen as a method of disclosing the divine mysteries in a similar way with the enterprise of Enoch, the discloser of heavenly mysteries. Beyond the Greek method of typology, one may see in Peri Pascha a re-writing of the Jewish tradition about the divine scribe and mediator. Melito, in a similar way with Enoch, is receptacle and revealer of divine information. This is the highest knowledge and concerns the deepest secrets of heavens, universe, and human being. Melito, as Enoch, plays the roles of messenger, mediator, translator, and discloser of the mysteries that the divine plan conceals. As a distinctive mark, Melito stresses the mystery of economy and salvation through Christ's Incarnation. By portraying Christ both as Divine Wisdom and human revealer of divine mysteries, Melito realizes a Christology of the two natures in a hermeneutic key and apocalyptic language.


Paul and Writing
Program Unit: Paul and Scripture
Mark D. Given, Missouri State University

This paper takes a philosophical and ideological approach to the subject of Paul and Scripture, relying especially on insights from deconstruction. While the discussion of Paul and Scripture in recent years has been preoccupied with methodology, the discussion should begin with theory, particularly with the issue of Paul and writing per se. I will demonstrate that underlying Paul’s entire ideology is a hierarchy of value grounded in a logic of presence and absence that can be designated “apocalyptic logocentrism.” This hierarchy has profound implications for the subject of Paul and Scripture because of where writing itself falls within it. An awareness of Paul’s apocalyptic logocentric symptoms will allow a number of key texts pertaining to his usage of writing and Scripture to be read from a new and illuminating perspective.


The Law of the Opened Body: Tertullian on the Nativity
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Jennifer A. Glancy, Le Moyne College

For Tertullian, parturition marks a site of intimate violence, violence experienced by both mother and child. Tertullian characterizes the exchange of birth as the forcible disruption of corporal unity (Carn. Chr. 20). Jesus emerges from Mary’s womb in a bloody show that Tertullian treats as an instance of male sexual violence (Carn. Chr. 23). Tertullian offers these views to refute theological opponents who are said to deny the corporeality of the nativity. Elsewhere Tertullian reacts specifically to Marcion, who, Tertullian claims, understands the womb as a sewer and childbirth as shameful torment (Marc. 3.11). In countering Marcion, Tertullian briefly suggests that Marcion profanes what is sacred, i.e. pregnancy and childbirth (Marc. 3.11). Tertullian nonetheless vivifies Marcion’s depiction of childbirth as a source of shame and a target of derision. He succumbs to a reading of gestation as a prolonged time of torture for the fetus and observes that Jesus suffered his first wound with the severance of the umbilical cord (Marc. 4.21). From conception, bodies ooze with effluvia that Tertullian concedes are coded as dishonorable. In examining Tertullian’s treatment of what he calls “the law of the opened body,” I situate Tertullian in the context of ancient medical lore and writings, especially the writings, familiar to Tertullian, of Soranus. I also situate Tertullian and his theological opponents in the context of the significatory matrix of Roman corporeal habitus. For Tertullian, Jesus’ soiled and violent exit from Mary’s womb is integral to Jesus’ embrace and redemption of the flesh.


Mary in Childbirth
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Jennifer A. Glancy, Le Moyne College

In the second century, Christians read multiple stories in the gravid body of Mary the parturient. Some Christians claimed that Mary experienced no pain and that the birthing process did not split open her body. They suggested that her hymen remained intact and that she was surprised to find a newborn infant in the room with her. Such claims are variously reflected in the Odes of Solomon 19, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the Protevangelium of James. Odes of Solomon 19, a hymn replete with rich imagery of the maternal fecundity of God, evokes a painless birth. In the Ascension of Isaiah, Mary gives birth so quickly that the appearance of the child startles her. The Protevangelium of James, a work obsessed with Mary’s purity, supplies the vivid image of Salome’s finger, singed as she probes Mary’s post-partum physis. Scholars often stress what are seen as common points in an emergent Marian tradition. I argue that, although these texts suggest both that Mary’s body is unperturbed by childbirth and that the condition of her body is theologically meaningful, the meanings they implicitly ascribe to her remarkably easy childbirth differ.


Syria and Samaria in Septuagint Amos
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
W. Edward Glenny, Northwestern College-St. Paul

This paper is a study of one element of the translation technique in LXX-Amos. It focuses on passages in LXX-Amos that differ from the MT in order to determine if the translator evidences an anti-Syrian (Seleucid) or anti-Samaritan bias in his renderings. After an analysis of relevant passages in LXX-Amos, there will be a consideration of what they might reveal about the translator of Amos and the genre of prophecy in the LXX. Two items are of special interest: 1) Does the translation evidence contemporization and actualization of the message of Amos, and 2) do the renderings studied suggest the translator is a “dragoman,” functioning like a copyist who works at the level of words and phrases, or a scribe-scholar, who is familiar with the content and interpretation of the text?


The Preservation and Transmission of Wisdom in Sirach
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Greg Schmidt Goering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ben Sira develops his understanding of the relation between the people of Israel and their special wisdom through the metaphor of "inheritance." Within the multivalent world of metaphor, not only does Israel constitute the inheritance of Wisdom personified, but Wisdom herself is envisioned as a desirable inheritance. The very notion of "inheritance" in the Hebrew Bible, to which Ben Sira alludes, suggests a portion to be preserved within a lineage and transmitted from generation to generation. But the metaphor itself provides little understanding as to how Ben Sira envisioned the preservation and transmission of wisdom in the Jewish community of his own day. Martin Hengel argued that Sir 44-49 evidences a "principle of succession" and compares these chapters to the chain of transmission for the oral Torah evident in Pirqe Avot. Amram Tropper has shown, however, that despite several similarities between the two texts Sir 44-49 does not constitute an unbroken chain of transmission as we find in Pirqe Avot. Rather than seeking a chain of transmission, this paper approaches the problem of the preservation and transmission of wisdom in Sirach through a comparison of the institutions and offices that Ben Sira discusses with the various institutions (king, scribe, family) referred to in the Book of Proverbs. Through this comparison, one can see that Ben Sira marginalizes the role of the king and the family while he elevates the importance of the scholar and introduces the role of the priest as preservers and transmitters of wisdom.


"Spiritual" and "Fleshly" Types of Humankind in 4QInstruction, Philo, and Paul
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Matthew Goff, Florida State University

4QInstruction is a sapiential text in Hebrew that was written during the second century BCE and published in 1999. The emergence of this composition provides a new perspective for comparing Diaspora Jewish texts, and Hellenistic literature in general, to the Hebrew wisdom literature of the late Second Temple period. My paper will examine the anthropology of 4QInstruction and compare it to that of Philo's On the Creation of the World and 1 Corinthians. All three texts make a distinction between "fleshly" and "spiritual" kinds of people. Moreover, these three compositions ground their understanding of humankind in an interpretation of Gen 1-3. These and other works include variants of an early Jewish exegetical tradition attested in both Palestine and the wider Hellenistic world.


Jezebel and the Deuteronomists Who Created Her
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Amy Gohdes-Luhman, Saint Olaf College

Jezebel is well-remembered, largely because of her grisly death, by readers of 1 and 2 Kings. I suggest that there is another, less readily apparent, reason for Jezebel to trouble our minds. When one applies a socio-rhetorical reading to the redactional layers in which Jezebel appears, a glaring disjuncture in her characterization is evident. Readers tend to project coherence onto this fragmented character. I intend to show that a better understanding of Jezebel is gained by examining her in her disassembled parts. I assign those disassembled parts to four different hands: the pre-deuteronomistic author (pre-Dtr), the deuteronomistic-josianic complier (DtrJ), the deuteronomistic-exilic editor (DtrE), and the deuteronomistic-post exilic editor (DtrPE). Using R. Albertz and others, I place each of these hands in their socio-rhetorical settings, finding that the two later editors (DtrE and DtrPE) are the most creative in their characterizations of this wife of a king. Yet something odd happens in her characterization. Employing Meike Bal’s narratological tools, I find that Jezebel moves from the position of Ahab’s evil helper to the position of anti-subject to none other than YHWH and his people. This situation is never remedied, even in her death by horses and her consumption by the dogs. Jezebel is never put back in her place and so never forgotten. So who is this DtrPE who has lost control of the character he creates in 1 Kings 21? To what audience was he writing and why was a freakishly domineering wife something he needed so badly?


"By the Blood That You Shed You Are Guilty": Persepctives on Female Blood in P and Ezekiel
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Elizabeth Goldstein, University of California-San Diego

The priestly texts of Leviticus and the prophetic writings of Ezekiel are clear: female blood pollutes. However, both the rationale for and the ramifications of the pollution are different in the two sources. This paper demonstrates that while Ezekiel’s depiction of female blood may be rooted in priestly ideas, his metaphor of Jerusalem as a menstruant is a significant step beyond the priestly concerns of Leviticus. Specifically, I will show how Ezekiel manipulates the “blood language” of the priestly writer in order to isolate one aspect of the priestly purity system, that is, the impurity of female uterine blood. In doing so, the prophetic writer systematically transforms this single link in a long chain of established purity laws into a symbol for the greatest of all biblical evils: apostasy and the betrayal of Yahweh’s covenant. Although considerable debate remains concerning the date of P (the portions of the Pentateuch ascribed to the Priestly writer), there is growing consensus that the biblical Hebrew found therein predates the Hebrew of Ezekiel, a book we can firmly place in the exilic period (between 586/7-540 B.C.E.) When depicting female blood Ezekiel draws from both priestly ideas and language which should come as no surprise given his priestly lineage (Ezek 1:3). In her 2002 work, Risa Levitt Kohn shows 97 terms that appear in both P and Ezekiel and analyzes their relationship to one another. Levitt Kohn shows that not only does Ezekiel adopt P’s phraseology but that he “twisted, poeticized, disarticulated and reconstituted” P “to suit his personal agenda and the current circumstances of his audience.” Ezekiel’s depiction of female blood is yet another example of the prophet engaging in this kind of linguistic and ideological manipulation.


Abraham ibn Ezra and the Midrashic Interpretations on the Book of Esther: Two Perspectives in Contrast
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Mariano Gomez-Aranda, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas

The traditional rabbinic interpretations of the book of Esther, as reflected in the Talmud, the targumim and the midrashim, tried to give responses to questions such as the absence of the name of God, the meaning of the proper names, the identification of the characters of the book with other biblical characters, and the motivations for the behaviour of some of the characters. Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1140) wrote two commentaries on the book of Esther, in which he polemizes against the midrashic interpretations of the rabbis; however, in some cases, he tried to justify them by providing more logical arguments than those given by the rabbis in an attempt to base the rabbinic tradition of the book of Esther on logical principles. Whereas the traditional rabbinic perspective reflects the midrashic context, Abraham ibn Ezra's rational approach reflects the sociocultural context of medieval Spain, in which linguistics, philosophy and science are used for the interpretation of the biblical text. In this paper I will analyze and contrast some rabbinic interpretations on the book of Esther and Ibn Ezra's two commentaries on this book, in order to show how the socio-historical context determines the development of specific exegetical methods.


Taking Leave of Mark-Q Overlaps: Major Agreements in Matthew 3:7–12, Mark 1:7–8, Luke 3:7–9, 15–17
Program Unit: Q
Mark Goodacre, Duke University

Matt. 3.7-12 // Mark 1.7-8 // Luke 3.7-9, 15-17 (John's Preaching) features substantial agreement between Matthew and Luke against Mark. The Two-Source Theory explains this by appeal to the overlapping of Mark and Q while the Farrer Theory suggests that Luke was dependent on Matthew as well as Mark. This paper argues that Luke's use of Matthew is the preferable option because (1) the degree of verbatim agreement between Matthew and Luke against Mark is too high for it to have been mediated by a shared source; (2) the agreement here represents a mid point in a continuum of influence of Matthew on Luke, which spans triple tradition to Mark-Q overlap passages to double tradition; and (3) the theory of Mark-Q overlap necessitates major contacts between the structure and thought of Mark and Q, which causes problems for the architecture of the Two-Source Theory.


The Future of the New Testament Gateway
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Mark Goodacre, Duke University

When academic subject gateway sites began to emerge in the mid 1990s, it was possible for every major internet resource on the site’s subject area to be covered. It was also possible for one enthusiastic and energetic individual to do all the work, designing the site, researching content, adding links, writing annotations and correcting ever-changing URLs. The massive growth of the internet has now made it impossible for one individual to do all the necessary work and gateway sites are beginning to suffer. While newer technologies like blogging have opened up new possibilities, and dealt with some of the difficulties of maintaining a gateway site, the larger questions of effort and workload remain. It is now essential for gateway sites to embrace new technologies and different models that aid collaboration if they are to avoid becoming moribund. This presentation explores the future for subject gateways by focusing on The New Testament Gateway (http://NTGateway.com), which is now ten years old, and demonstrates a new collaborative model which will enable it to build on existing strengths and to adapt to the future.


Didactic Hymnody and the Wisdom of Solomon
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Matthew E. Gordley, Regent University

This paper investigates aspects of the Wisdom of Solomon in light of the understanding that there is a class of literary compositions with certain distinct features that justify their designation as “didactic hymns”. While scholars of antiquity do recognize the existence of such compositions, no comprehensive descriptive or comparative study has been made. Instead, studies of ancient hymns and songs tend to focus on hymns and songs that were composed primarily for worship of gods and goddesses, making little mention of the compositions that were written primarily for purposes of instruction and education. The first half of this study will fill in part of that gap by providing a working definition of the genre based on a survey of hymns found in Jewish writings of the Second Temple Period and considered to be composed for instructional purpose. The second half of the paper will examine the strategic deployment of didactic hymnody in the Wisdom of Solomon with the goal of gaining a deeper appreciation of the types of literary compositions and instructional modes available to Jewish authors in the Greco-Roman world. The “Ode to Wisdom’s Saving Role in History” (David Winston’s designation) in Wis 10 will provide the focal point for discussing didactic hymnody as it is used in Wisdom of Solomon.


The Colossian Hymn and the Imperial Cult
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Matthew E. Gordley, Regent University

This paper places the Colossian hymn (1:15-20) in conversation with aspects of the imperial cult. A number of scholars have recently drawn attention to hitherto unrecognized ways that the epistle to the Colossians draws on imperial language and re-appropriates that language in a manner which undermines Caesar’s authority by portraying Christ as the one who truly embodies what Caesar illegitimately claims for himself. The Colossian hymn has been referred to as “subversive poetry” which presents its alternative vision of reality in terms which resonate with imperial celebrations of political and civic concord. In a similar manner, another recent study has suggested that the Philippian hymn appropriates for Jesus the honorific tradition of the ruler cult. This paper builds on these earlier studies and identifies several ways that Colossians 1:15-20 can be more fully explained in light of the omnipresent imperial cult. Specifically, the issue of the extent of Caesar’s divine status (i.e., his “relative” divinity) and the meaning of that claim in the imperial cult is brought to bear on an understanding of the status ascribed to Christ in the Colossian hymn. Through such comparisons, aspects of the epistle’s subversive nature are reinforced, while at the same time several new avenues for interpretation emerge. Finally, this paper suggests that the appropriation of the language and ideas of the imperial cult, while no doubt a factor in the rhetorical situation, is but one dynamic within the hymn. The hymn’s resonance with other aspects of Greco-Roman culture must also be considered in order to accurately assess the meaning and impact of the hymn in its epistolary context.


Paul, the Resurrection, and the End of Violence
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Michael J. Gorman, Saint Mary's Seminary and University

John Gager (2005) refers to Paul’s “violent christology of the cross” that, he claims, (a) results in Paul’s own commitment to “participation in the violent act of crucifixion” as “his way of participating in Christ” and (b) is rooted in Paul’s “own personality, his own predilection for images and symbols of violence, his ‘excessive zeal.’” Understanding the relationship of the resurrection to the cross in Paul’s experience and theology demonstrates how Paul’s zeal for violence has been radically altered, and provides a paradigm for our own reflection and action. The first part of the paper examines the roots of Paul’s zealous violence in the OT example of Phinehas and his spiritual descendants like the Maccabees, as well as the manifestation of this zealous violence in Paul’s own life. The second part of the paper argues that Paul’s experience of the resurrected crucified Messiah Jesus results in his conversion away from violence and toward nonviolent forms of reconciliation. Because of the resurrection of Christ, Paul comes to see the cross, not merely as a means of death, but as a means of life. He also sees Christ’s resurrection by God as God’s pronouncement that covenant fidelity, justification, and opposition to evil are not achieved by the infliction of violence and death but by the absorption of violence and death. The third part of the paper draws on Paul’s experience and theology for contemporary theological and ethical reflection. Those who are in Christ identify with the life-giving and reconciling cross of Christ, validated by God in the resurrection, not as an expression of a violent personality or a conviction that violence is salutary, but in the paradoxical belief that in Christ and his cross God was nonviolently reconciling the world to himself and giving to us the ongoing task of nonviolent reconciliation.


From Marginality to Liminality: Moses' Reverse Migration and the "Journey of Achievement" of Filipino Migrants
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Athena E. Gorospe, Asian Theological Seminary

The Philippines has one of the largest migrant workers in relation to its total population. Filipinos see migration as a “journey of achievement,” which is expected to culminate in economic success and a rise in social status not only for themselves, but also for their families. Sadly, many of those who work overseas experience marginalization, social dislocation, and downward social mobility. Moreover, having been changed by the migration process and having been shaped a consumerist mentality, those who return cannot fully integrate back into the home country, so that a cycle of departure-return-departure takes place. The story of Moses as a migrant returnee can act as a cultural critique of Filipino migration as a “journey of achievement,” as defined by the global consumerist mentality of success. There is an alternative “journey of achievement” which is defined not by economics, but by commitment and service. Through the call of God to return to Egypt, Moses’ marginal life in Midian became imbued with a transitional character, an in-between state between the Egypt of Moses’ upbringing and the Egypt of his prophetic calling. In the borderlands between Midian and Egypt, Moses underwent a liminal death encounter that transformed him from a marginal person in Midian with a confused identity to one with a new status and vocation as God’s spokesperson in Egypt with an unambiguous Israelite identity. In the same way, the marginal experience of migrant Filipinos when transformed into liminality, can result in the purging of colonial identityand consumerist values, and open a space for new possibilities.


Fences and Neighbors: The Limits of Paul’s Communities
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Rachel Gostenhofer, University of Toronto

Paul’s exhortation to “quietism” in 1 Thess 4:9-12 has generated a small library of studies. Many take a “history of ideas” approach, with some attributing Paul’s paraenesis to an “imminent eschatology,” and others explaining it in light of broader philosophical discourses. While these ideational approaches shed important light on this passage, they do not sufficiently address the socio-political context that might have precipitated these comments in the first place. I argue that Paul’s paraenetic remarks are a strategic attempt to render his social formation immune from the charge of political subversiveness, an accusation to which this assembly—like all “new” religions—was especially vulnerable. This “quietism,” however, was not merely strategic. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of “heterotopia,” I offer a re-description of Paul’s religious vision as an attempt to construct a heterotopic space which required the construction of clearly demarcated boundaries, both ideal and real. This “heterotopia” might further be described as “utopian” (in a spatial sense à la Smith) insofar as it consistently reflects a strident anti-cosmicism which holds out the promise of escape. In other words, the very attempt to create this heterotopic space requires that the group not attract the attention of “outsiders.” In light of this analysis, the paper concludes by addressing a much-discussed question of late: what is the most useful social paradigm for understanding Pauline community formation (i.e. voluntary association, synagogue, mystery religion, etc.)?


Daniel: Sage, Seer,... and Prophet?
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Lester L. Grabbe, University of Hull

In recent scholarly tradition Daniel has been excluded from prophecy, but chs 7-12 have placed among the apocalypses. Support for this position has been found in the placing of Daniel among the Writings but also in the fact that Daniel is never referred to as a "prophet" in the book. This paper will consider the position of Daniel in the light of recent study of prophecy and apocalyptic.


The Origins of 1 Esdras: Redivivus Noch Einmal
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Lester L. Grabbe, University of Hull

1 Esdras was once regarded in some way more original than the Hebrew book of Ezra. More recently it seems to be almost a consensus that 1 Esdras was concocted from the Hebrew books of Ezra and Nehemiah. I proposal to challenge that view and argue that 1 Esdras exists in its own right and was not a "creation" in the sense just described.


Human Anger in Biblical Literature
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Deena Grant, New York University/Hofstra University

Cognitive theory maintains that an emotional response is not a reaction to a pre-determined set of behaviors, but rather, derives from the meaning an individual ascribes to behaviors. Therefore, in order to understand the nature of biblical anger, one must explore its social contexts, triggers, and consequences. Biblical anger is predominantly displayed by people with high ranking degrees of authority who direct their anger at dependents. Anger’s primary triggers are rebellion, theft and illicit relations with a superior’s family member. Texts such as Genesis 39 and 44, Numbers 16, Judges 9 and Esther 7 suggest that these triggers are perceived to be a rejection of or trespass upon a superior’s domain of authority. The consequent anger compels a superior to display his power. In light of this recurrent context, this paper suggests that the primary goal of anger in the Bible is to reclaim threatened or compromised authority. This paper additionally observes that when directed at a foreigner, anger incites irrevocably damaging retribution (e.g. Gen 34, Jud 14). In contrast, when directed at a family member anger usually carries no consequence (e.g. Gen 27, 1 Sam 20, 2 Sam 13). These disparate outcomes can be linked to the value placed by the offended on his relationship with his provoker. When an angered party values the relationship between him and his provoker less than the social position, object, or third party the provoker violates, anger compels the offended to protect his authority through murder or banishment. In contrast, when an angered party values the relationship highly, he either silently bears the assault on his domain or searches for a non-destructive means of re-asserting his authority. This paper is part of a larger work in progress wherein it serves as the framework to explain the nature of divine anger.


Who Are the Blind? What Is a Stumbling-Block? Rabbinic Interpretations of Leviticus 19:14
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Alyssa Gray, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (New York Branch)

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Intertextuality and Sociology in Early Christianity: A Study of 2 Peter and Jude
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Gene L. Green, Wheaton College

Any reader of 2 Peter and Jude will notice that a good portion of Jude is found also in 2 Peter. Both the language and thought of these letters is paralleled at numerous points with the principle locus of these correspondences found between Jude and 2 Peter 2. In composing his letter, the author of 2 Peter likely had the Epistle of Jude at hand. Although the author was the earliest interpreter of Jude, we should not assume that both letters counter identical heresies. The author carefully adapted the denunciations found in his source to demonstrate their application to the situation which his recipients faced. The way he adapts his source material classifies this letter within the ancient intertextual category of “imitation” (mimesis or imitatio) rather than “theft” (klope or furtum). Imitatio allowed borrowed material to be reworked extensively to make it one’s own. The models drawn from were regarded as “the books” and due honor was rendered to their authors through this practice. Indeed, authors thus imitated were considered to occupy a place of greater honor than their imitators. The way 2 Peter uses Jude highlights the honor ascribed to Jude since it recognizes him as one worthy of imitatio. Jude, as the half-brother of the Lord, held considerable honor in the Early Church (R. Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus, 1990). The intertexual relationship between 2 Peter and Jude is not simply a question of sources and comparative linguistic analysis but brings us to the heart of the sociology of the Early Church, especially its structures of honor and authority.


Jewish Biblical Theologies
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Frederick E. Greenspahn, Florida Atlantic University

Although Jewish thinkers are sometimes said to have avoided biblical theology, they have repeatedly emphasized the Bible’s centrality. However, that has been described in several different ways, which can be grouped into three broad categories, depending on whether they focus on what the Bible says, what it is, or what it does. The first group of views includes those that understand the Bible as a conduit for revelation. Some have seen it as containing all significant truths; however, most often it is understood as promulgating law (Gesetz). Still others have emphasized its teachings (Lehre), whether intellectual or moral. The second group embraces those views that are concerned with the Bible's status rather than its contents. Rooted in the Bible’s wisdom theology, this approach attributes cosmic status to Scripture, sometimes even equating it with God or, occasionally, elevating it above God. The third approach avoids questions about whether the Bible is human or divine by treating it as the arena where the two meet. Although this has obvious attractions for our own time, it was already evident in rabbinic tradition, which portrayed the Bible as a marriage contract. As much as these views demonstrate Judaism’s commitment to the Bible, they also reflect the diverse ways in which its centrality has been understood.


Saucy, Sagacious, and Sound: Biblical Women in the Comic Strip
Program Unit:
Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

Biblical women—from Eve to Mary Magdalene—make occasional appearances in daily and weekly comic strips. Often, they are pictured as the wiser and “better half,” leading or solving when they hapless husbands are at a loss. Such women may be “updated” to our day and age; on other occasions, the cartoonist manages to provide some exegetical insight of value in appraising the ancient text itself. In all cases, there is room for reflection—and laughter.


What I Learn from the CAD and What the CAD Can Learn from Me
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Edward L. Greenstein, Bar Ilan University

The completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is indeed a cause for celebration. The wealth of Akkadian literature is so vast that we could hardly proceed in grappling with Akkadian texts without it. Particularly helpful is the sensitivity of the dictionary to usage and idiom. There is probably no better way to understand the ancient Semitic mindset than to analyze Akkadian expressions and figurations. Tracking the growth of Akkadian idioms and semantic developments, wherever possible, provides authentic Semitic models for the reconstruction of West Semitic etymologies and semantic developments. There is no better resource for this type of research than the CAD. Everyone who is responsibly engaged in Biblical Hebrew philology, and Semitic philology in general, must constantly compare Akkadian language—words, expressions, semantic developments, and even syntactic constructions—for potential cognates and analogues. The CAD, however, does not typically take into consideration West Semitic language and philology. This sometimes leads the dictionary to what appear to be errors from a broader Semitic perspective. In the present paper, the above assertions will be developed and illustrated with specific examples.


Drinking the Dregs of the Divine: Neo-Assyrian Libation Rituals and Israelite Religion
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Jonathan Greer, Pennsylvania State University

This paper will discuss various aspects of Neo-Assyrian, and to some extent Neo-Babylonian, libation rituals and then examine their impact on the religion of Israel as described in the Hebrew Bible. Linguistic and literary parallels will be identified in their archaeological and iconographic contexts, highlighting Israel’s incorporation and rejection of elements of these Assyrian rites and the significant role such attitudes played in defining Israelite religion


A Synoptic Tool for Comparison of the Bible and the Qur’an
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Franz Volker Greifenhagen, Luther College, University of Regina

Various synoptic tools have facilitated the scholarly study of parallel scriptural texts within the biblical tradition; the various synopses of the four (or more) gospels are probably the best known examples. A similar tool would be very useful in the study of the Qur’an and the Bible. In this presentation, the initial stages of an online synopsis of the Quran and Bible under development by the author will be demonstrated. The online format not only allows for wider accessibility, but also for more flexibility in the formatting and display of Quranic and Biblical parallels. A discussion board for registered scholarly users allows for the generation of scholarly notations to the parallels and for explanatory and supplementary material.


Teaching with the Bible in One Hand and the Qur’an in the Other
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Franz Volker Greifenhagen, Luther College, University of Regina

Biblical studies can no longer be done without awareness of other scriptural systems and their impact on the hermeneutical world of modern readers and interpreters. With the increasing prominence of Muslims in public awareness and as potential students in biblical studies classes, and because of its close parallels with the Bible, the Qur’an, in particular, becomes an important scriptural text to acknowledge and draw into the interpretive conversation. In this paper, the rationale, and potential pitfalls, of integrating awareness of the Qur’an and of the Muslim interpretive tradition into the biblical studies classroom is explored. The reading and interpretation of Biblical and Qur’anic parallels by students with the help of an on-line synopsis, and the addition of Qur’anic material to introductory textbooks on the Bible are examined as potential ways and means of actualizing a wider scriptural awareness in biblical studies pedagogy.


Going back to Galilee to See the Son of Man: Mark’s Gospel as an Upside-down Apocalypse
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Robin Griffith-Jones, Temple Church

Three challenging features of Mark’s gospel are interconnected. We can clarify each when we clarify them all. (i) The character of the Son of Man. Mark exploits the Son of Man to tease and challenge his Greek-speaking readers. He gradually makes clear the figure’s relation to Daniel’s one like a son of man: the Son of Man who should have been seen in – and confined to – a vision of heaven has, in Jesus, walked on earth. (ii) Jesus’ use of parables to exclude most of his audience from understanding (Mark 4.10-12). Mark challenges the reader to recognise the whole gospel as a parable, whose surface story will trap most readers in a profound incomprehension. (iii) The gospel’s apparent conclusion at 16.8. At the end of the gospel Mark sends the reader back to Galilee, where the gospel started: back, that is, to 1.14, to read the gospel again. But how can the readers who return to the gospel’s start see there, in the story of the earthly Jesus, the risen Jesus they are looking for? On repeated, liturgical readings the readers will come to recognise, in the Jesus and Son of Man portrayed in chapters 1-15, a figure at once earthly and heavenly. This is the readers’ sight of the risen Jesus. Mark, then, has written an inverted apocalypse: what should have been a sign in heaven has become the event signified on earth; in a deliberate confusion of categories, Mark has made visible to all his readers what would otherwise have been the insight of a few privileged seers. Mark’s whole gospel is a parable; and those who read the gospel as a straightforward narrative – as a biography – were, on Mark’s own terms, “those outside”, who looked with all their might and failed to understand.


John 20:11–18
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Robin Griffith-Jones, Temple Church

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Resisting the Food Regime in the First Gospel
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
James P. Grimshaw, Carroll College - Waukesha

U.S. food policies have placed a strenuous demand on the land and the poor in developing countries. Transnational corporations have dominated the “agro-food sector” and established a “food regime” (Friedmann). Rainforests in Brazil, and communities of poor settlers, are being destroyed to produce beef (NG, January 2007). Subsidized U.S. corn exports, enabled by NAFTA, displace unsubsidized Mexican farmers like Lorenzo Rebollo (NYT, 2/26/2002). As I purchase food in the U.S., I participate in this colonizing that robs the earth and the working poor. Yet, I participate with others to resist this exploitation through local interdependent food relationships (McKibben). As I read Matthew 6-15 as a citizen and food consumer in the US, I choose passages that highlight food exchange and identify relationships between community and world. In Matthew 6-15, the Matthean community is portrayed as those who are marginalized and struggle to access food: children (6:1-21), “day laborers” (10:10), resident aliens (12:1-8). In the first century, self-sufficiency was not possible and dependence upon the imperial market was not advised (Garnsey). Generalized reciprocity was one way peasants survived and resisted the imperial presence through their initiative and imagination (Garnsey; Scott; Carter). As an example, the Matthean community is to cooperate with, not manipulate, God’s earth to receive nature’s abundance (Joel 3:18; Matthew 6:10-11, 6:25-34, 12:1-8, 15:32-39). Further, the community confidently seeks out God’s providence (6:25-34) and expects generous sharing (7:7-11) as it exchanges food within its “family.” Finally, the community extends the sphere of gift exchange to the larger world as it cautiously but consciously exchanges food with the wider Jewish community (10:5-11:1) and Gentile world (14:13-21, 15:29-38). The Matthean text envisions for today’s world relationships of cooperation and mutual support among various communities to resist relationships of domination, subordination and exploitation.


Ignorance Is Bliss: Attitudinal Aspects of the Judgment according to Works in Matthew 25:31–46
Program Unit: Matthew
Sigurd Grindheim, Mekane Yesus Theological Seminary

Previous studies of Matthew’s soteriology have struggled to reconcile the rigorous demands characteristic of Jesus’ teaching with the mercy characteristic of his deeds. I will argue that these themes come together in a powerful way in the judgment scene in Matthew 25:31-46. A comparison with similar descriptions of judgment reveals that the ignorance motif provides a significant clue to the understanding of this passage. Those acquitted come before the judge unprepared to make any claims on their own behalf. They stand out by their attitude as well as by their actions. The passage therefore comes as a fitting conclusion to Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, highlighting the connection between right attitude and right action. The ignorant righteous ones demonstrate how helplessness and obedience both characterize Jesus’ disciples.


Gendered Sectarians: Some Methodological Thoughts on Gender and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Qumran
Maxine L. Grossman, University of Maryland College Park

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Reading "Lydia" in Acts 16: A Figure in Rhetoric or a Rhetorical Figure?
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Alexandra Gruca Macaulay, Saint Paul University

While female figures in Luke-Acts have been examined for their rhetorical function, what is the function of the rhetorical examination itself? Using the figure of Lydia in Acts 16 as a test case, I will explore how this female figure in Acts continues to be read socio-historically by focusing attention on her social status and her offer of hospitality. While the interplay between the two has been read differently, even post-colonial readings retain a basic socio-historical assessment. I will show how this assessment has been used rhetorically in inexplicit ways but will argue for a reading that brings the rhetorical nature of the figure to the surface.


Ancient Symbols, Ancient Meanings: A Reappraisal of the Palatine Crucifix
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
William "Chip" Gruen, Muhlenberg College

Symbols used in representations of religious images convey meaning. However, the use of symbols is successful only when the observer is cognizant of the antecedents for the iconographic shorthand. In the case of the “Palatine Crucifix”, an archaeologically recovered graffito from the Palatine Hill in Rome that depicts a crucified half man / half donkey, many modern scholars have assumed that the meaning of the symbols used is consistent with their modern meanings. According to this reading, a cross is the normative symbol for Christianity; a donkey is the usual symbol for foolishness or stupidity. Is this how ancient Romans would have understood these symbols? How is the donkey used in religious symbolism of this period, whether it be Christian or Pagan? What does the image of a crucifixion convey? This paper seeks to be methodologically aware of the potential problems of ancient symbolism and reevaluate the Palatine Crucifix within its own cultural context and in light of recent scholarship on ancient Christian diversity.


A Cultural Reading of the Prologue of John: Race, Hybridity, and Interdependency
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Leticia A. Guardiola-Sáenz, Drew University

The Prologue of John, by and large, has been studied in light of the cultural contexts of Jewish Wisdom traditions and Hellenistic philosophies, with the occasional reference to its Gnostic resonances. In recent scholarship, however, the contextual influence of the Roman Empire has become central in studying the production of the Logos discourse. The interpretation I propose here is a postcolonial exploration of the Johannine Prologue through a parallel reading of the relationships US-Mexico vis-à-vis the relationships God/Logos-humanity. When analyzed through the lenses of border theory and borderlands relations, the classical oppositional pairs of above/below, flesh/spirit, dark/light and divine/human from the Prologue become hybridized creating in the process the possibilities for inclusive realities. Through this reading I suggest that the racialization of Jesus, his becoming flesh-a subject of the human-race-offers a paradigmatic story of interdependency and hybridity that could serve as a model for constructive international relations between the One-Third World and the Two-Thirds World.


Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s Commentary on the Bible
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Alan Guenther, Briercrest College

The Mohomedan Commentary on the Holy Bible that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan began to publish in 1862 remains a unique attempt by a Muslim to produce a verse-by-verse commentary of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures from a Muslim perspective. The role that this publication played in the dialogue between Muslims and Christians in British colonial India has been largely neglected. This paper examines Sir Syed’s purposes for writing the commentary, and the corresponding responses by Christian missionaries. It seeks to demonstrate that while Sir Syed intended to reconcile Muslim and Christian communities, Christians generally viewed it strictly in terms of their own convictions of the truth of the Christian position and the need of Muslims to conform to that truth.


“Godwomen”: A Reevaluation
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Ann Guinan, University of Pennsylvania

In the fifteen years since the publication of "In the Wake of the Goddesses" our understanding of Mesopotamian goddesses has been enriched by the methodologies of gender studies. Previously ignored, non-literary sources such as votive inscriptions, offering lists, and visual imagery have also cast new light. Today's discourse tacitly underlines the weaknesses inherent in Frymer-Kensky's portrayal of gender in the Mesopotamian cosmos. Yet her treatment of goddesses in terms of their femininity, sexuality, and social roles, though simplistic in hindsight, cannot stand alone. Rather, her discussion of the nature and function goddesses cannot be separated from the large question she asks and the overall trajectory of her argument — focusing as it does on the Mesopotamian pantheon being absorbed and transformed by a new theological construct.


Dura from the East: Considering Mesopotamian Jewish Biblical Narrative in Light of Third Century Manichaean and Buddhist Analogies
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Zsuzsanna Gulacsi, Northern Arizona University

Among the limited sources on the religious cultures of 3rd century Mesopotamia, Dura-Europos provides the richest accumulation of archeological, artistic, and epigraphic data. It has become customary to interpret the paintings of the synagogue with expectations preconceived by late antique and early mediaeval religious art of the Mediterranean region. A variety of its features, however, reflect non-western characteristics – one of which may be seen in the religious function of its images. In light of the pan-Asiatic practice of picture recitation (i.e., performance illustrated with scenes on a variety of surfaces as first described by Victor Mair [Honolulu, 1988]), I argue that Dura’s narrative cycle is analogous to the didactic use of images by two of its contemporaneous “eastern” religious neighbors: the Manichaeans of Sasanid Persia and the Buddhists of Kushan India. Both of them are known to have used images in their missionary activities. Recent discoveries about early Manichaean art from textual and visual sources, document the presence of picture recitation in mid-3rd century southern Mesopotamia, raising the possibility that Dura’s Jewish art, too, may reflect the existence of this shared regional religious phenomenon. The clearest evidence for picture recitation derives from Buddhist visual sources that allow us not only to observe the current existence of the practice, but also to trace its origin gradually back in time to Kushan India.


Principles for Interpreting Metaphors in Paul: "Prosagogen" (Romans 5:2) as a Test Case
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Nijay K. Gupta, Durham University

Studies on New Testament metaphors have enumerated in the last thirty years, partly as a result of the "cognitive turn" in metaphorology. Pauline scholars, in particular, have attempted to apply "conceptual metaphor theory" to various metaphors or metaphor clusters including themes such as sacrifice, kinship and death. With so many dissertations and monographs dealing with figurative language in the New Testament, there is a growing need to test the exegetical validity of this research. Influenced by the fields of conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff, Johnson, Turner), biblical semantics (Barr, Turner, Silva), and literary intertextuality (Hays, MacDonald), seven principles can aid in determining the nature and meaning of a Pauline metaphor: figurativeness, quality, exposure, cotextual coherence, analogy, history of interpretation and intertextual influence. These principles will be applied to the interpretation of the Greek word prosagogen (Rom 5:2); a term that could be interpreted from a cultic perspective (e.g. Kasemann, NT Wright) or a royal one (e.g. Dunn, Fitzmyer). Employing these diagnostic tools will illuminate the strengths and weaknesses of the decisions made by exegetes and commentators and offer a more systematic approach to understanding Paul's metaphors.


The Death of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel: An Unfolding Portrait from Beginning to "End"
Program Unit: Matthew
Daniel M. Gurtner, Bethel Theological Seminary

This paper argues that the significance of the death of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel should not be sought in any single text in isolation from others, as is often done. Instead, the first gospel is carefully crafted in such a way as to disclose descriptive elements of Jesus’ death from the very first chapter through the last. These descriptions open at strategic locations throughout the narrative and, strung together, employ a hermeneutic of unfolding disclosure, bringing seemingly random pieces of cryptic statements together at the ‘Last Supper’ and, ultimately, to the climax of the death of Jesus itself.


Woman Wisdom, Strange Woman, and Job: A Deconstructive/Reconstructive Reading of Biblical Wisdom Texts through a Postcolonial and Feminist Literary Approach
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
SungAe Ha, Graduate Theological Union

This paper is designed to unmask a subversive dimension of the biblical wisdom tradition and texts through a postcolonial and feminist literary approach. The paper will cover some of the wisdom corpus in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on the dialectics of the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman, in comparison with two faces of Job. Investigating the selected texts, I will be attentive to the following literary features.1) How do the dynamics between the dualistic construction (discontinuity) and the interrelation/interplay (continuity) of the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman, who are represented as two conflicting personae that at the same time hint their similarity, work in Proverbs? How do the dynamics of the continuity and the discontinuity of Job’s identity that embodies two personae in one person (Job the hero and Job the stranger/rebelling) work, in comparison with the relation between the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman in Proverbs? 2) How does the resemblance of the capable wife in Proverbs 31 and Job the hero (Job 29; 31), while representing an embodiment of traditional (female/male) wisdom which conforms to social classification and hierarchy, impact the deconstruction of that very traditional wisdom caused by the reversed perspective of Job as the stranger who comes out of Job the hero?


Woman Wisdom, Strange Woman, and Job: A Deconstructive/Reconstructive Reading of Biblical Wisdom Texts through a Postcolonial and Feminist Literary Approach
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
SungAe Ha, Graduate Theological Union

This paper is designed to unmask a subversive dimension of the biblical wisdom tradition and texts through a postcolonial and feminist literary approach. The paper will cover some of the wisdom corpus in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on the dialectics of the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman, in comparison with two faces of Job. Investigating the selected texts, I will be attentive to the following literary features. 1) How do the dynamics between the dualistic construction (discontinuity) and the interrelation/interplay (continuity) of the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman, who are represented as two conflicting personae that at the same time hint their similarity, work in Proverbs? How do the dynamics of the continuity and the discontinuity of Job’s identity that embodies two personae in one person (Job the hero and Job the stranger/rebelling) work, in comparison with the relation between the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman in Proverbs? 2) How does the resemblance of the capable wife in Proverbs 31 and Job the hero (Job 29; 31), while representing an embodiment of traditional (female/male) wisdom which conforms to social classification and hierarchy, impact the deconstruction of that very traditional wisdom caused by the reversed perspective of Job as the stranger who comes out of Job the hero? Investigating these literary features, the theme of “Crossing Boundaries” or hybridity will be discussed in terms of deconstructing traditional wisdom of keeping boundaries based on "hierarchically arranged binary oppositions."


Retrieving the Voice of Earth in the Exodus Event
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Norman C. Habel, Flinders University

The Exodus event has often been viewed as the supreme expression of God’s intervention in history. This event has been hailed as the epitome of Heilsgeschichte. An ecological reading of the exodus narrative might consider a corresponding Erdegeschichte, tracing the story of Earth as part of the ‘history of salvation’. A more radical ecological approach, however, would set aside an anthropocentric Geschichte approach and consider Earth as an ecosystem. From the perspective of Earth, as an interdependent ecosystem, has God violated the very ‘way’ of each domain of nature involved in the event so that God could ‘gain glory’ and Israel could be saved? In the hands of YHWH the warrior God, the domains of nature appear to become agents of defence or defeat. If we dare to identify with Earth, or specific domains of Earth in the Exodus story, what is the response of Earth to the event? How does the sea react to being an agent of total destruction, allowing no option for prisoners, peace or survival? What do land, sea or fire say if they are to be true to their intrinsic roles in this ecosystem called Earth?


"Like a Stubborn Heifer": Animal Imagery and the Construction of Identity in Hosea
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Susan E. Haddox, Mount Union College

The metaphors in Hosea are varied, multivalent and include a number of animal images. Cognitive anthropologists have shown that cultures use metaphors not only to experiment with human identity, but also to create and change relationships in social space. Because of the elements of sameness and Otherness, animal imagery is primary among metaphoric predications. Hosea uses metaphors to try to reshape the audience’s self-perception and its relationship with YHWH. Because the rhetoric of Hosea is targeted to a male audience and plays on many elements of masculinity, animal imagery in the text has implications for the construction of gender identity. This paper argues that the text uses animal imagery within the context of its general rhetorical tactic of attacking the masculinity of Israel's leaders. Predators and other animals often associated with hyper-masculinized kings and rulers in the ANE are used to symbolize YHWH, while Israel is typically shown as domestic and prey animals, which are feminized roles. Animal imagery is juxtaposed with many other image fields, including explicitly gendered ones, which serves to emphasize the complexity of the identifications. In addition to its roles in the construction of identity, animal imagery is used in the text to symbolize more broadly the state of the relationship between YHWH and Israel.


Foreigner by Inscription: Determining Ethnicity in Some Cretan Inscriptions
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Anselm C. Hagedorn, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

Using recent interpretative models derived from social and cultural anthropology that move beyond the general notion of ethnicity as defined by Max Weber and Frederik Barth, this paper will investigate how “foreigners” and “others” are treated and depicted in select legal inscriptions from ancient Crete (esp. Lyttos and Gortyn). Next to the so-called “foreigner-laws,” the legal material regulating access to sanctuaries in the Greek world will provide a further window on how communities (poleis) regulated their external relationships. Since we can assume that these laws were actually used and their punishments implemented, the insights from the Greek world might aid in understanding the intellectual rational behind the scribal exercise that led to the written codes of Biblical Law.


Blasphemy or Prophecy? Assessing the Historicity of Mark 2:6–7
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Tobias Hagerland, Goteborg University

Mark portrays some Galilean scribes as silently accusing Jesus of blasphemy when he tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven (Mark 2:5-7). It has been remarked that this reaction is entirely unrealistic from a historical point of view, since the implied agent of the passive in 2:5 is naturally construed as God. Ingo Broer (1992) demonstrated conclusively that such proclamation of God’s forgiveness, even if taking place outside the sacrificial cult, would not likely have raised accusation of blasphemy in Jesus’ religious environment. However, Otfried Hofius (1994) has challenged the common understanding of the formula in 2:5 as a “divine passive”, pointing out that the implied agent could as well be Jesus himself, in light of Aramaic evidence. The present paper argues that irrespective of whether the implied agent in 2:5 is God or Jesus, evidence from Josephus and other early Jewish literature suggests that the reaction as depicted in 2:6-7 is historically implausible. A first-century Jew claiming to forgive sins would not, to the extent of our knowledge of early Judaism, be accused of infringing on God’s prerogative.


Miniature Codices: Methodological and Historical Questions
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Kim Haines-Eitzen, Cornell University

This paper reflects on the typology of miniature codices, the historical context and use of miniatures, and it raises questions about directions for further study. Special attention will be given to the use and function of miniature codices in early Christianity.


The Gospel of John and the Mediterranean Diaspora
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Raimo Hakola, University of Helsinki

The Gospel of John is often located somewhere in the Mediterranean Diaspora even though scholars hesitate to detail the locale of the community that produced the Gospel. The conflict between the Johannine Jesus and “the Jews” is read as a reflection of the violent conflict between a local Jewish synagogue community and the Johannine Christians. This persecution scenario is based largely on the assumption that Diaspora synagogue communities lived in isolation from their environment and had strict boundaries defined by a strong leadership class. In recent decades, however, the idea of the social and cultural isolation of Diaspora communities has been severely challenged. The paper draws on recent studies dealing with such issues as the interaction between synagogue communities and their Greco-Roman surroundings, the synagogue organization and leadership and the diversity among Diaspora communities. This evidence suggests that societal structures in the Diaspora were much more complex than the persecution scenario assumes. It is conceivably that the boundary between the Jews who came to believe in Jesus and other Jews remained open and that it was possible for Jesus’ followers to interact with synagogue communities and their members in different ways. Furthermore, the strict distinction between Jewish and Greco-Roman stimuli is not viable in the Diaspora context. While John’s various convictions most certainly originate from the multiform Jewish traditions, the larger Greco-Roman background makes it possible to appreciate more clearly how the message of the Gospel was perceived and received in the social, cultural and political climate of the day.


The Q People and Burdens Hard to Bear: Polemic against the Pharisees and the Lawyers in Q 11:39–52
Program Unit: Q
Raimo Hakola, University of Helsinki

At the core of the traditional Christian portrayal of the Pharisees is the notion that they had exceedingly burdened the everyday life of their contemporaries with various legal interpretations and rules. Various Jewish sources suggest, however, that the legal rulings of the Pharisees quite often made the observance of the Torah more practical rather than hindered the fulfillment of God’s will. The paper studies the early Christian idea of the Pharisees and “burdens hard to bear” (Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46) in its original setting in the saying source Q, where it is a part of the polemical attack against the Pharisees and the lawyers. The woes listed in Q 11:39-52 aim at undermining the integrity of the Pharisees by ridiculing their religious practice. Q 11:46 echoes a rhetorical theme found in Greco-Roman polemical traditions by claiming that the opponents of the Q people demand more of their contemporaries while ignoring their own moral flaws. This claim is understandable in a situation where their proclamation had driven the Q-people into the margins of the surrounding society and their social identity was at stake. Such a polemical claim cannot, however, be taken as an unbiased report of how the Pharisees realized their vision of the true Israel in their everyday life.


The Influence of Isaiah 57 on Ephesians 2
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Jonathan Hall, University of Virginia

Interpreters of Ephesians have long recognized an allusion to Isaiah 57:19 in Ephesians 2:17, examined most recently in T. Moritz's *A Profound Mystery*. While Moritz focuses on the specific allusion, he recognizes that the author of Ephesians seems to have an excellent knowledge of Isaiah, specifically chapters 52-60. This paper argues that the allusion in 2:17 is the tip of an iceberg, revealing the influence of the entire chapter on the letter to the Ephesians. At the center of the paper's argument is the assertion that Ephesians 2 shares vocabulary, ideas, and theological content with the Hebrew text of Isaiah 57. By reading the Church back into the prophecies of Isaiah 57, applying them both to Christ and the Church as the body of Christ, the author of Ephesians allows his theology to be shaped by the language and ideas found in Isaiah. This is reflected in the language about the sinful state of humanity, salvation apart from good works, and peace in the Church. In addition to furthering the discussion of the use of the scriptures in Ephesians, this study adds some important notes to the debates on the letter's authorship, audience, and purpose. It suggests that the author makes use of a Hebrew text rather than the Septuagint. It also argues that Ephesians 2 is not focused on the incorporation of Gentiles into the Church, but on a theology of why and how Christians should live moral lives. Whether the work of Paul at the end of his career or someone following him, Ephesians 2 attempts to provide the theological basis for reconciling the radical teaching of salvation apart from works with the emphasis on moral exhortation. It accomplishes this through an ecclesiological re-reading of Isaiah 57.


John 12:37–41 and Matthew 13:43
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Robert G. Hall, Hampden-Sydney College

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Did Northern Israel Collapse because It Failed to Evolve from Charismatic to Bureaucratic Leadership? Weberian Categories Provide New Views from Old Eyes
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Taylor D. Halverson, Brigham Young University

How might political theory expand our understanding of why the Southern Kingdom of Judah persisted for a century longer than the Northern Kingdom of Israel? Max Weber’s “Politics as Vocation” (1922), though nearly ninety years old, still commands respect while providing a fresh perspective. In that lecture, Weber proposed three types of leadership: Charismatic, traditional, and legal or bureaucratic. This division is commonly labeled the “tripartite classification of authority”. This is the lens through which I investigate ancient Israelite kingship. My presentation will share the results of investigating if Weber’s classification is justly applicable to ancient Israelite politics and if his classification can shed light on the political instability that marked the Northern Kingdom’s short existence. Specifically, I am investigating whether the Northern Kingdom followed a primarily charismatic leadership model, the Southern Kingdom a bureaucratic model, and if these leadership differences contributed to the longevity (or brevity) of each kingdom. It is hoped that this study will lay the groundwork for future exploration of Israelite leadership through the lens of the “tripartite classification of authority” with wider reference to the history of political leadership in Israel from the days of Judges to the reestablishment of leadership in Judea after the return from exile in Babylon.


Why Isn't Adam the First Monotheist?
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Taylor Halverson, Indiana University

Was Adam a monotheist? He was the first to talk with God, the first to walk with God, the first to worship God. Despite an impressive resume of experience, Adam is seldom even an afterthought in the topic of monotheism. Why is this so? When we think of the great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is not Father Adam that we turn to but Father Abraham, who retains the lofty title—“Father of Monotheism.” This presentation will share (1) several reasons why Abraham, not Adam, is considered the first monotheist, (2) the implications that this tradition has upon our reading of the Bible and our understanding of the development of Biblical faith, and finally (3) how LDS scripture impacts this conversation.


Zechariah and Exile
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor, University of Virginia

The canonical shape of Zechariah reveals the process by which the Babylonian Exile of history came to have transhistorical and identity-conferring meaning and how it came to be understood as enduring in the Second Temple period. This paper examines how the end of exile and the nature of exile itself were redefined and qualified in the redaction of Zechariah’s night visions (Zech 1:7-6:15). The deferral of the end of exile was accomplished when the seventy year exilic period was calibrated to stretch beyond the fall of Babylon; the prophet defined the true threshold between exile and restoration as the return of Yhwh. This paper will also examine how the immediacy of the end of exile is further qualified and deferred by the addition of Zech 9-14 and Malachi.


Pentateuch and Exile
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Martien A. Halvorson-Taylor, University of Virginia

Biblical scholars have long suspected that an original and more decisive end to the Pentateuch - one in which Israel occupied the land - was suppressed. This paper will argue that the editorial shaping of the Pentateuch was informed by a transhistorical and identity-conferring notion of exile. This redactional strategy is evident, for example, in the ending of the Pentateuch, which leaves Israel perched on the edge of the Promised Land, still in exile, and which makes the Pentateuch, to quote James Sanders, a "rather truncated affair." This paper will explore how the curses of exile in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 -- in their formulation and their redaction -- also lay a basis for the understanding of exile as metaphorical, transhistorical and identity-conferring. This notion of exile further informs the redaction of the Pentateuch as a whole and further elucidates how an historical experience came to be a paradigm by which present tribulations were rendered and by which the expectation of return and restoration was cultivated.


A New Deal for Ancient Israel: Psalms and Inscriptions Revisited
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Mark Wade Hamilton, Abilene Christian University

H. L. Ginsberg, followed by Patrick Miller, fruitfully compared biblical psalms with ancient Near Eastern, especially Levantine, inscriptions. More recently, Tomes has expanded this comparison to non-Israelite texts of other genres. In this paper, I focus on a specific topic in both psalms and some royal inscriptions, namely, the prosperity of the people as a demonstration of the king’s qualities as a ruler. Examining especially on the inscriptions from Sam’al, Suhu, Tyre, and Moab on one side, and Psalms 45, 72, and 89 on the other, the paper argues that Israel did utilize, adapt, and reflect upon on wider notions of national prosperity as a function of the state’s proper functioning. The paper further explores ways in which this basic idea impinges on portrayals of kingship in general. Since ancient societies often understand royal rule in terms of what David Cannadine (speaking of the British Empire) has called “ornamentalism,” that is, in terms of its symbolic and relational dimensions, it is striking that all the texts under consideration portray national prosperity in just such non-utilitarian terms. The paper also argues that while comparing liturgical texts like psalms and quasi-liturgical texts such as inscriptions (which after all, must have been performed at their dedication and then rarely or never thereafter) raises serious literary problems due to the possible incommensurability of genres, the similarity of the texts’ ideas and metaphors actually points to a shared underlying symbol system, which we might call the monarchic ideal. This paper identifies some aspects of that ideal and directions for further study of it.


Varieties of Anthropomorphism in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Esther J. Hamori, Union Theological Seminary

Anthropomorphic descriptions of deity have long been a significant issue in the study of the Hebrew Bible, as well as in many other areas of religious studies. However, scholars (even in the broader field of religious studies) have not distinguished between different types of anthropomorphism, beyond the generality of “anthropomorphism” (i.e., any reference to physicality) and “anthropopathism” (i.e., thinking and feeling as humans do). This is the same basic binary division evident in the scholarship of a century ago, then called physical and psychical anthropomorphism. References to the face or arm of Yahweh, for example, are still treated as the same phenomenon as Yahweh appearing in a vision, or even walking the earth. Given the significant concern with anthropomorphic portrayal of deity shared by many biblical authors and traditions, it is necessary to differentiate between diverse kinds of anthropomorphism, both in biblical texts and in the broader context of Near Eastern literature. This paper involves the identification and analysis of diverse categories of anthropomorphism, as well as an exploration of the uses of each type in both biblical and Near Eastern texts. Some examples of types of anthropomorphism that differ in important ways include concrete anthropomorphism (physical and literal embodiment on the earth, such as Yahweh walking in the garden, or Anat battling young men), envisioned anthropomorphism (physical, but in a dream or vision, such as Amos’ vision of Yahweh standing before the altar), figurative anthropomorphism (metaphoric or abstract language with no implication of visible physicality), and more. The uses of these diverse types of anthropomorphism reflect a range of perspectives of the nature of deity, and of divine-human contact and communication. The examination of different types of anthropomorphism illuminates the perspectives of various biblical authors and traditions, and on occasion demonstrates unexpected divergences between Israelite and Near Eastern thought.


Performance Strategy in the Hebrew Accents of the Joseph Cycle
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Jin Hee Han, New York Theological Seminary

Traditional biblical interpretation tends to privilege the consonantal text, shrugging off the masoretic accents as Oriental punctuation marks or liturgical chanting codes. The presumed late date of the accent marks also contributes to the notion that they are far less important to the perception of the text than the printed consonants. This paper will demonstrate that the masoretic accents in the Joseph Cycle provide clues to emotive aspects of the story of Joseph that the Masoretes envisioned.


Hybridity and the Roman Mystery Cult of Palaimon at Isthmia
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
James Constantine Hanges, Miami University

Archaeological evidence reveals the mid-first century beginnings of the cult of Palaimon at the Pan-hellenic sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia, a sanctuary that Pausanias will later include in his peripatetic reconstruction of Greek religious identity. However, the evidence at the site tells the story of a Roman cult. This paper will explore the cult’s origin through the lens of Homi Bhabba’s concept of hybridity, and through references to examples of its comparative application in discussions of contemporary globalization of religion. The paper concludes that while the concept of hybridity, with its fundamental insight that religious communities are not passive but imaginative and innovative appropriators of globalized cultural products, can be helpful in understanding the origins of this cult, this particular Roman example demands a serious re-description of the post-colonial understanding of the relationships of power usually assumed in modern applications of this concept.


Robert Jewett (2006) and Robert Gagnon (2001) on Romans 1:16–2:16
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Thomas D. Hanks, Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana

Robert Jewett's long-awaited Romans commentary in the Hermeneia series offers significant new insights regarding exegesis and hermeneutical perspectives for interpreting Romans 1:24-27 in the context of 1:16-2:16 and the letter as a whole, but fails to interact with detailed treatments in earlier works, such as Robert Gagnon (2001), as well as many significant contributions cited in The Queer Bible Commentary (QBC 2006). The paper will compare such recent exegetical insights and the hermeneutical perspectives that lead interpreters to radically different conclusions regarding the use of Romans in contemporary ecclesistical battles. Thanks to recent advances, for LGBT/Queers concerned about Romans, the Emerald City may be in view, but we are still on the yellow-brick road.


Wars from Heaven and Soldiers from Earth: Three Jewish Responses to Violence
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Todd Russell Hanneken, University of Notre Dame

The Maccabean revolt prompted a variety of theological responses to violence. Jewish thinkers operated within a common tradition of law and salvation history. Yet they developed different understandings of the meaning of persecution, martyrdom, civil and foreign war, and how one should act in these circumstances. This paper will consider three texts in historical context: the Animal Apocalypse, Daniel, and the Book of Jubilees. The Animal Apocalypse promotes participation in the Maccabean revolt. The conflict is portrayed not only as national resistance to foreign oppressors, but as a façade for a cosmic conflict. God and angels determine the outcome, but by joining the struggle humans claim a share in the victory of the cosmic alliance. The final apocalypse of Daniel differs significantly in emphasis, but should not be understood as quietistic. Daniel addresses the problem of those who do not live to see vindication. Humans may not determine the course of history through military victory, but they do determine their own fate in the resurrection. Although Daniel focuses on the role of teachers, the teachers do not compete with the fighters. Rather, they serve as theological ground support. The Book of Jubilees looks back on the revolt as a futile civil war driven by impiety on all sides. The foreign armies are viewed as divine punishment to be met with repentance, not resistance. Although biblical wars were justified, Jubilees paints warfare, especially civil war, as demonic. Furthermore, the legal ruling against fighting on the Sabbath amounts to a prohibition against joining an army in the first place. These three texts all work within the Jewish tradition to interpret the same crisis in the same genre, yet they develop different theological perspectives with very different implications for how the person of faith should understand and respond to violence.


Likenesses of the Egyptian Opening of the Mouth Ritual in the Bible and the Book Mormon
Program Unit: Poster Session
Eric G. Hansen, Independent Scholar

The ancient Egyptian opening of the mouth ritual was practiced from about 1500 BCE to about 200 CE and was performed upon the statue or mummy of the deceased. Recent work (Hansen, SBL 1997 and SBL 2006) has examined a likeness of the full ancient Egyptian opening of the mouth (OM) ritual in the Book of Mormon. This poster focuses on Bible and Book of Mormon passages that resemble smaller portions of the OM. Some of the key OM elements that are found in one or more examples (not necessarily in order) include: a death-like or sleep-like state; discomfort while in sleep; instruments to open the mouth and eyes; womb-like or web-like wrappings; calling out for help; visions of one’s father; men waiting in the room; a weeping woman; extending the hand to lift or sacrifice; imagery of birth/rebirth; healing. Several of the examples illustrate very positive outcomes of the participants in the OM-like process. On the other hand, there are examples in which the outcomes are negative in the sense of “closing” the mouth and/or eyes rather then opening them.


The Least of the Apostles: A Dramatic Interpretation of Paul's Letters
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
James S. Hanson, Saint Olaf College

In last year's session, I presented an overview of the process of--and the questions and problems involved in--rendering Paul as a dramatic character. Chief among those questions was, and remains, a decision about the major, overriding goal of the Paul of the authentic letters, and the principal obstacles that stand in the way of that goal--i.e., the dramatic through-line. For this session, I will present a section of the monologue that will illustrate how I have dealt with these issues, and, it is hoped, generate critical discussion about the dramatic choices.


"Messianic Time" and Readings of Romans by Giorgio Agamben, Karl Barth, and N. T. Wright
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Douglas Harink, The King's University College

I begin with an account of the idea of ‘messianic time’ in Walter Benjamin’s “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” and its development and use in Giorgio Agamben’s The Time that Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans, as an illuminating entr? into understanding the relationship between apocalyptic, history and scriptural exegesis in Romans. Agamben argues that the apostle Paul is the source (the “hunchback theologian”) behind Benjamin’s idea of messianic time. Focussing on Romans 9-11, I examine Karl Barth (the 1919 Römerbrief) and N.T. Wright (“Romans” in The New Interpreters Bible), asking whether and to what extent they discern the Pauline ‘messianic time’ in their commentaries on this text. I argue that Barth has a better sense of Pauline messianic time, with his eternity/time dialectic, than does N.T. Wright, whose emphasis on “God’s plan” leads to a (classic salvation-historical) misunderstanding of messianic fulfilment. I draw out implications for two areas of theology. First, responding to William Campbell’s critique (in Paul and the Creation of Christian Identity) of an earlier paper on this theme, I address the question of the theological significance of the historical continuity of Israel and the church. Second, I address the question of the relation between historical-critical exegesis and theological exegesis of scripture. I argue that the Pauline idea of ‘messianic time,’ leads us to a concept of simultaneity, or perhaps Sabbath ‘rest,’ which holds potential for addressing both of these questions.


Planning and Designing Distance Courses: A Crash Course in the Basics
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Joel Harlow, Reformed Theological Seminary

According to the Sloan Consortium, nearly 3.2 million students took at least one online course in the fall of 2005 — an increase of more than 800,000 over the previous year. As a result, more and more faculty are finding themselves faced with the challenges of teaching distance courses. Even when institutions provide faculty with a "turn-key" online system (e.g. BlackBoard, Moodle, etc. ), many feel unprepared and overwhelmed with all the details of planning and designing an online course. This presentation will give a brief overview of some basic principles of instructional design (the "how to's" of developing a course from scratch), with a particular view towards planning and designing an online course. Topics will include (1) setting course goals and objectives; (2), understanding the "distance" in distance education; (3) deciding which content to deliver in which format; (4) designing appropriate tests / exams; and (5) some "ups and downs" of teaching online. A list of web resources to assist in the planning and designing of web courses will be made available to attendees.


The Structured Self in Stoicism and 2 Peter: The Eschatological Destruction of "the Ignorant and Unstable" in Light of Stoic Moral Philosophy
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
J. Albert Harrill, Indiana University

This paper examines the reference to the cosmic conflagration in 2 Peter 3:10-13, a long-standing exegetical puzzle. Scholars have wondered how the author imagines the survival of the "we" (v. 13) after the universal burn up and dissolution into fire. One solution, for example, proposes that 2 Peter alludes to the idea of "refinement" from ancient principles of metallurgy--that the faithful in the letter will "be found" more pure than the sinful opponents, which a number of scholars have begun to favor. I argue, however, that the Stoic moral philosophy of the "structured self" provides a more plausible solution to the exegetical crux. The Stoics argued for a holistic self, as opposed to the "multiple-part" theory of the self in Platonic and Aristotelian schools. This philosophical system connected morality and physics. The Stoic wise person was "structured" (stable, unified, more compacted), and the unwise (ignorant) were "unstructured" (unstable, incoherent, less compacted). And, because the wise had a more solid corporeal structure than that of the unwise, the self (pseuche) of the wise was believed (in some Stoic authors) to survive (or at least be long-lasting during) the total conflagration of the universe (ekpyrosis), a periodical and natural event in Stoic cosmology. The philosophical context of the Stoic structured self makes 2 Peter's polemic--against the "ignorant" and "unstable" opponents (2 Peter 3:16)--more intelligible than what is currently available in the commentary literature.


Purification in John in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Hannah K. Harrington, Patten University

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Exegeting Ethnicity in Ezra-Nehemiah
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Hannah K. Harrington, Patten University

Ezra-Nehemiah begins a trend in Second Temple Judaism of excluding those who do not conform to the group identity and, especially, banning intermarriage with outsiders. How does the author use Pentateuchal traditions to make this case and how does this trend continue in later Second Temple texts? Several legal traditions from the Pentateuch are used in new ways by Ezra-Nehemiah, including, the requirement of an asham, guilt offering, to expunge sacrilege (Lev. 5:15), the prohibition on sacrificing one’s offspring to Molech (Lev. 20:2-5), and the ban on Moabites and Ammonites entering the congregation until the tenth generation (Dt. 23:4). In each case, exegesis has turned into eisegesis with the purpose of excluding any possibility of foreign entry into Israel. This trend begins in Ezra-Nehemiah and continues in the exegesis of several Jewish groups in the Second Temple period (e.g. authors of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls).


The Reception of Ezekiel among Twelfth Century Northern French Rabbinic Exegetes
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Robert A. Harris, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

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Did Paul Pioneer a New Understanding of State?
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
James R. Harrison, Wesley Institute

Scholars have debated Paul’s attitude to the imperial rulers in Romans 13:1-7. Paul is depicted as either a social conservative (J. Botha), an advocate of submission because of the historical circumstances in the fifties (M. Tellbe, B. Winter), or a critic of the authorities in ‘hidden transcript’ (N. Elliott). This paper explores Paul’s understanding of imperial rule against the backdrop of the Pythagorean political theorists, the popular philosophers, the Jewish literature, and the imperial documentary, iconographic, and literary evidence. It argues that while Paul adopts a quietist stance towards the authorities, he demotes them in importance, critiques their propaganda, and presents the church as God’s counter imperial household. Paul’s teaching in Romans 13:1-7 opposes Greek and Roman traditions that exalt the ruler as the image of God, the priestly intermediary between the state and the gods, the summation of divine virtue and wisdom, and the universal benefactor and dispenser of mercy. Traditionally the ruler acted beneficently in imitation of God, but Paul assigns this role to the Christian community. Moreover, Paul challenges the system of imperial patronage through the new benefaction networks established in his servant communities. Paul also strips the ruler of his status as ‘Father’. Through the Spirit of Jesus, Roman believers could address God as abba (8:15), being members of God’s household through the fatherhood of Abraham and Isaac (4:16-18; 9:10). Thus Paul dismantles the symbolic universe erected upon Rome’s founding fathers, Aeneas and Romulus, and which had found its culmination in the Augustan forum, with the Princeps as ‘Pater Patriae’. God’s household had been established through the extravagant mercy of God over against the Stoic mercy of the ruler (Rom 11:30-32; 12:1) and it demonstrated God’s mercy in its body life (12:8). The virtue of clementia was therefore no longer the preserve of the imperial house.


Who Is the "Lord of Grace"? Jesus' Parables in Imperial Context
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
James R. Harrison, Wesley Institute

The social implications of Jesus’ parables have been little studied against the backdrop of the rabbinic parables (though, pace, P. Fiebig and R.M. Johnston), let alone their imperial context. W.R. Herzog II has delineated the subversive social content of the parables within their Palestinian milieu. However, modern interpreters of the parables have forgotten that the retelling of Jesus’ parables by subsequent generations of believers in the Empire would have posed questions for their auditors regarding the social and political consequences of the ‘reign of grace’. In the first century, the eschatological age of Augustus marked a watershed in beneficence. From the late first century BC, as the Julian house eclipsed its rivals, beneficence was monopolised by the Caesars. The one-sidedness of this contest struck contemporary observers as a turning point and this was reflected in the Augustan propaganda. Luke’s gospel, as R.A. Horsley has demonstrated, is alert to the themes of the Augustan propaganda and resists its soteriological implications. Moreover, Jesus is portrayed as one who criticised the rule of the Hellenistic and Roman Benefactor-Kings (Lk 22:25), along with their affluent Herodian clients in palaces (Mt 11:7-8; cf. Lk 13:32). Jesus, as rendered by Luke in 6:32-36, jettisons the entire modus operandi of the reciprocity system (including its imperial expression), thereby setting himself against one of the most fundamental social conventions of antiquity. There is need, therefore, for further study of Jesus’ parables within the networks of grace established by the imperial benefactors. This paper investigates the political and social consequences of Jesus’ parables of grace against the propaganda of the Julio-Claudian benefactors and the counter-propaganda of their critics. It will be argued that the ‘reign of grace’ inverted the social dynamics of imperial grace and established an alternate community of servant benefactors who would be vindicated by their ‘Lord of grace’.


To What End Methodology?
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Stan Harstine, Friends University

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Response
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Kevin Hart, University of Virginia

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The Genre of the Gospel of Judas and Its Relationship to the Gospel of Mary
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Judith Hartenstein, Philipps Universität-Marburg

The Gospel of Judas shows many points of contact in form and content to Gnostic dialogues, especially to those whose narrative frame is an appearance story of the risen Jesus (Sophia of Jesus Christ; Apocryphon of John; Gospel of Mary). Nevertheless, there are dissimilarities as well: the chronological setting before the passion, the repeated appearances of Jesus, and the polemical attitude of the whole gospel. In my paper I will show how the Gospel of Judas fits into the genre and what conclusions can thereby be drawn for the development of the genre. In addition to this general comparison, a more detailed analysis of parallels is fruitful, for example on the concept of visions and questions of anthropology. In my opinion, the Gospel of Judas is particularly closely related to the Gospel of Mary. Paying attention to these connections improves the understanding of both writings – and it might even evoke new ideas about the content of the missing pages in the Gospel of Mary.


Non-canonical Appearance Stories and the Development of the Resurrection Tradition
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Judith Hartenstein, Philipps Universität-Marburg

In my paper I will examine the form and function of narratives of appearances of the risen Jesus in several non-canonical writings. Particular attention is paid to the appearance stories that form a narrative frame for some Christian Gnostic dialogues. On the basis of this analysis of the non-canonical stories, a comparison with the canonical narratives offers new perspectives on the formation and development of the tradition. In my opinion, the typical features of the appearance story genre are more clearly visible in later writings. For example, they are autonomous stories used in different contexts, while in earlier sources the connection to the passion narrative is essential. Furthermore, in the terminology and character of the appearance itself, the similarity of Jesus to a heavenly messenger is reinforced. From these observations on the development of the tradition in the written sources available, conclusions can be drawn relating to the shape of the early oral narrative tradition on the resurrection. It seems likely to me that the earliest stories about some disciples (most important: Mary Magdalene) meeting Jesus after his resurrection did not resemble appearance stories and did not exist independent of the passion narrative. In general, my paper gives an example as to how form-critical analysis of non-canonical writings might help to reconstruct early oral (pre-canonical) tradition, although the appearance stories examined clearly represent a late stage of the tradition.


Visual Blasphemy: Definitions and Defamations
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
John Harvey, University of Wales

Profane images constitute the most extreme rupture between a theological and visual conception of God and one of the most potent forms of (anti-)religious representation. Visual blasphemy articulates concepts that are unthinkable for the believer. It may be designedly antagonistic and involve either a strategic transgression of normative codes and expectations of religious visualization or the deconstruction and recontextualization of acceptable religious images in such a way as to express ridicule and contempt. Visual blasphemy may also be inadvertent, arising from a profound conflict between the perceived significance of a religious image and the theological sensibilities of the percipient. Thus it is both an absolute and a relative condition. The paper discusses the iconography of profanity, both as a construction aimed to defame God and disseminate anti-Christian and anti-biblical ideology and as a contingent of theological contrariety. It seeks to establish a criteria for blasphemy informed by the historical and contemporary perspectives of Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, jurisprudence, and legislation, and in contradistinction to the concepts of blasphemy in literature and common parlance. Visual material will be drawn from historical and contemporary art, visual culture, and the websites of militant Satanist and anti-Christian groups.


Lazarus, Darling, Come out!
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Jione Havea, Charles Sturt University

This paper flirts with “race” at the confluence of postcolonial and queer theories, rocking its place on the (disintegrating?) raft of Identity, through a reading of the story of Lazarus, a dead man who was raised, unwrapped then ignored (John 11:1-44). Lazarus is a figure for “race,” also erected, exposed than put aside as if it is defiled and defiling. “Race,” together with “gender” and “class,” whirled the shores of biblical criticism with the fleet of literary and ideological criticisms. And with the hurls of postcolonialism, exposing the faces upon which empires rise, the “race” of darker skin people marked the repressed identities. This marking is problematized in the diaspora, where the identities of (mostly darker skin) migrants are hyphenated and hybridized. Whose experiences, e.g., should define Asian identity? The experiences of people in Asia (who are conditioned by the West)? of first generation Asians in diaspora (who are rooted in the homeland)? of second and third generation “Asians” (who may have no connections to Asian homelands and mother tongues) in diaspora? Under the rave of queer theory, we see how identity is constructed and inherently hybrid and mixed. So is “race.” We can also see, and query, darker colored people building empires. Is “race,” as we know it, drowning? I handle Lazarus at this juncture. Lazarus, still, will rise, unbound and bathed (cf. Moore’s Parlor and Gym), then led to meet other racialized characters: the Medium of Endor (who gazes at the dead), Uriah the Hittite (murdered by s/words), Mrs. Potiphar the Egyptian (partner of a gay man, as Bailey suggests), and the black lover on the couch of the Song of Songs. For “race” to walk again, the strangle of Identity must be unbound so that “race” may bathe in the wells of queer theory.


Gilgal or Gilgalim? Fortified Encampments in the Israelite Settlement
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Ralph K. Hawkins, Bethel College

This paper will examine the role of Gilgalim in the settlement of the central hill-country in the Iron Age I. The Israelites are said to have reconnoitered the region of Jericho (Josh. 2:1), crossed “near Jericho” (3:16), and camped “in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho” (4:19). Yet the instructions for carrying out religious rites at Mts. Ebal and Gerazim contained geographic references which located them "opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh” (Deut. 11:29-30), which suggests that this is a reference to a northern Gilgal; in addition, “the oak of Moreh” was located near Shechem (cf. Gen. 12:6). The biblical tradition claims that "Gilgal" served as the Israelites’ base of operations throughout the early phases of the Israelite settlement (6:14; 9:6; 10:15, 43; 14:6), but is this a reference to a southern or a northern Gilgal? In all, the MT refers to at least three, and possibly five, different locations identified as “Gilgal” in both the north and south, and multiple Gilgalim have been discovered in surveys of the central hill-country. This paper will seek to synthesize these sources of data in order to further understand the Israelite settlement.


Hating Wealth and Wives: An Examination of Discipleship Ethics in the Third Gospel
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Christopher Hays, University of Oxford

In 1989, in a short article entitled “Die Armut der Jünger in der Sicht des Lukas”, Hans-Josef Klauck suggested that the key to understanding Lukan wealth ethics might lie in the coincidence of his prescriptions regarding possessions and family. The present essay proposes to take up Klauck’s thesis in somewhat greater detail, contending that these two themes, more vociferously expressed in Luke’s Gospel than any of the other Synoptics, are integrally connected and a direct product of Lukan eschatology. This analysis of Luke 9.57-62, 14.25-35, 17.20-37, and 18.18-30 will also highlight the integration of the themes of wealth and family into the broader frameworks of discipleship and history in Luke, and thereby intends to make strides towards ameliorating Luke’s apparently equivocal imperatives regarding the use of possessions.


Prophecy, Intertextuality, and the Comparative Method
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Christopher B. Hays, Emory University

The comparative method, as it has traditionally been conducted within form-critical and linguistic categories, may not do justice to the biblical prophetic literature. The literary creativity of the prophets is such that one expects motifs often to be employed in new ways that elude traditional categories (e.g. in new Gattungen with different Sitze im Leben). This paper argues that the comparative study of the Hebrew Bible would be enriched by a fuller engagement with the category of intertextuality, in that it would allow a broader standard for "commensurate terms" for comparison. The paper surveys existing examples of intertextual study in comparative research, finding them still very limited. Julia Kristeva's original writings on intertextuality might embolden comparative studies to expand beyond their familiar form-critical and linguistic territory. Kristeva's broader definition of "text" and her interest in the socio-historical location of texts invite the inclusion of iconographic and archaeological data. Her theory also allows the scholar to envision the intertextual encounter not merely as a literary relationship, but as an insection of cultures (or "discursive universes," to use Stephan Alkier's term): How do biblical texts "read and write" their contexts? This prospect is illustrated by an example of Isaiah's interaction with its cultural context.


Intertextuality between Acts and Biblical Texts
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Richard B. Hays, Duke University

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Philo, Jerome, and Jewish Exegesis of Genesis 49:14–15
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
C. T. Robert Hayward, University of Durham

The paper will seek to identify ancient materials in the exegesis of the these verses as represnted by LXX, the Aramaic Targumim, and the Midrashim, comparing and contrasting them with the particular observations offered by Philo on the one hand, and with the remarks made by Jerome in his Hebrew Questions on Genesis and the translation he offered in his Vulgate.


The Gospel of Mark in Codex Sinaiticus
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Peter M. Head, University of Cambridge

This paper offers a full investigation of the way in which the Greek text of Mark is presented in Codex Sinaiticus, including a singular reading analysis and with special attention to the unusual paragraphing (esp. prominent in chs 8-9) and the use of lists (e.g. 7.21f). I shall also deal with the textual/reading function of the nomina sacra and the effect of the marginal Eusebian sections. I hope also to investigate the effect of successive corrections on the readings of the manuscript.


Notes on P. Oxy 4497 (P113): The Smallest Portion of the New Testament Ever Identified
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Peter M. Head, University of Cambridge

In 1999 a manuscript fragment of Paul’s letter to the Romans was published as P. Oxy 4497. P. Oxy 4497 (P113) measures only 2.7 x 2.4 cm (taking the maximum possible measurements, i.e. approximately one inch in each dimension) and is the smallest portion of the New Testament ever identified and published. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that there are no complete words on the extant material, and there are only around twelve clear letters over four lines on each side of the manuscript. This paper examines the deciphering and identification of this piece, and investigates what can be learnt about the manuscript of Romans from which only this tiny portion survives.


Like the Sitting of a Mountain: The Significance of Metaphor in KTU 1.101's Description of Ba'al
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Katie M. Heffelfinger, Emory University

KTU 1.101 describes Ba’al with the imagery of a stormy mountain. Given that Ba’al is often described as a storm god whose home is located on Mt. Zaphon, these attributions seem relatively unremarkable. However, the poetic genius of this text lies not in its choice of familiar images of Ba’al, but in the way in which these familiar attributes are deployed in distinct and interesting ways. This paper argues that the interchange of poetic techniques as well as the interaction of storm and mountain imagery in the explicit comparison of Ba’al to a stormy mountain in KTU 1.101 carefully nuances these two primary associations for the storm god. Within the poetic flow of the text the storm imageries are gradually subverted by the mountain imageries to illustrate a complex deity who is unpredictable and inaccessible as well as fixed and constant. The paper's primary exposition of the text highlights the text’s interchange of simile and metaphor as well as its alternation of visual and auditory imageries. Conceptual metaphor theory is applied to the primary metaphors of the text with the aim of determining the significance of these attributions in the world of the text. Finally, this examination is brought into conversation with the Ba’al cycle with the aim of illustrating the religious discomfort which may have given rise to the desire to nuance the storm god’s attributes.


Atonement and the Gospels
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
George C. Heider, Valparaiso University

For 75 years Gustav Aulen's "Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement" has stimulated reflection on the "models" by which Christians understand the saving work of Jesus Christ. This paper argues that each of the canonical Gospels tends toward and emphasizes a distinctive model of the atonement, three of which are essentially congruent with the typology constructed by Aulen. The paper reflects critically on Aulen's work and the scholarship that it has generated, but its primary focus is exegetical. The paper concludes that Christian theology is well-served by the variety of perspectives on the atonement that is found in the Gospels, in a way that is analogous to the benefits of the four-fold Gospel's "takes" on Jesus.


Jesus in Conflict with "This Generation"
Program Unit: Q
Christoph Heil, Universität Graz

In the first part of the paper, six proposals for the composition of Q 11:14-52 by Kloppenborg (1987), Sato (1988), Jacobson (1992), Schürmann (1994), Kirk (1998) and Fleddermann (2005) are presented and evaluated. Those compositional studies are all based on the "literary paradigm". Recently Horsley/Draper (1999) and Dunn (2003) have called this paradigm in question and have proposed an oral model for the Q material. According to Horsley, "Q was an oral-derived text that calls for interpretation as it was performed orally before groups or people". Thus, in the second part of the paper, it is asked how "altering the default setting" from a literary to an oral mindset (Dunn 2003) can help to understand the composition of Q 11:14-52. Which are the gains, which are the losses?


Variant Repetition in Proverbs and the Nature of Biblical Parallelism
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Knut M. Heim, The Methodist Church; The Queen's Foundation

This paper considers the most important building block of poetic parallelism, the combination of repetition and variation. Selected from a study of over 200 verses that appear more than once in Proverbs, I am presenting comparative analyses of five variant sets, focusing on (a) parallelism, (b) similarities and variations between repeated verses, (c) the influence of the context on the choice of words and (d) direction of borrowing. A comparison of alternative ways in which parallel lines have been created allows us to glance back in time over the shoulders of Hebrew poets as they created the proverbs. We find that: (1) Parallelism is constituted by variant repetition, a dynamic interplay between equivalence and similarity as well as difference and dissimilarity. (2) The choice of ‘repeated’ and ‘variant’ elements in parallel half-lines is not only shaped by their respective other half, but also by the context. (3) A brief look at variant repetition in Psalms shows that there are different levels of parallelism (semilinear parallelism and intralinear parallelism in Proverbs, plus interlinear and translinear parallelism elsewhere). (4) Consequently, we learn more about (i) the meaning of the actual half-lines, (ii) the relationship between the actual half-lines and (iii) the relationship between the various parts of poetic lines and their context. All this contributes to a new theory that can explain parallel elements in biblical parallelism as well as those elements that have no corresponding counterparts: Variant repetition is a purposeful juxtaposition of elements in such a way that there is enough repetition to render ‘parallelism’ perceptible yet sufficient variation to create a dynamic tension. This tension renders the statements interesting, increases their informativity and stimulates creative thinking about the relationships between the various parts of the poetic line and their contextual environments on the various levels of parallelism.


Texts, Scribes, Communities, and Caves: Reflections on a Busy Decade in Scrolls Research
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Charlotte Hempel, University of Birmingham

In this paper I will offer some reflections on a number of developments in Scrolls studies over the last decade. This period saw the full publication of the literary corpus. We are now on a firm footing to assess the significance of the corpus for our understanding of ancient Judaism. The issue of the communities reflected in the texts has received new nuances both because many texts are not sectarian and because some key sectarian texts exist in multiple textual forms. The latter question is closely related to the important role of scribes in the shaping and/or creating of texts. These and related questions will be discussed in this paper.


The Messianic Community: The Mission of Jesus as Collective Christology
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Suzanne Watts Henderson, Salem College

It is now axiomatic to acknowledge that a range of messianic titles and expectations flourished within the Second Temple Judaism. To probe the question of Jesus’ messianic self-consciousness, then, requires attention to the polyvalence of Christological hopes in first-century Palestinian Judaism. Despite their diversity, however, Jewish texts expressing messianic expectation consistently portray individual figures whose values and purpose are intrinsically related to those of a faithful community. Though the study of the historical Jesus has routinely addressed questions of Jesus’ Christological identity, this paper broadens inquiry to encompass his Christological mission as it impinges on, and directly involves, the wider community – those who respond to the encroaching “gospel of God.” First, we explore the dynamic oscillation between individual and community reflected in a wide range of prophetic, wisdom, and more fully developed apocalyptic texts (including Second Isaiah, Sirach, the Similitudes of Enoch, and the QL), highlighting along the way the collective implications of each figure’s messianic agenda. In each case, the individual figure both embodies the community’s ideals and engages them collectively to dispense God’s wisdom and justice on the earth. In the end, our understanding of the historical Jesus must incorporate clues from Jewish literature that suggest a closer correlation between Jesus’ “kingdom of God” mission and its broader manifestation through those who aligned their lives with his.


The Gospel of Peter and Early Objections to the Resurrection of Jesus
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Timothy P. Henderson, Marquette University

This paper examines the Gospel of Peter in light of the early objections to the resurrection of Jesus that were made by critics of the Christian movement during the first two centuries of the Common Era. I suggest that the traditions involved in the formation of the Gospel of Peter developed, in large measure, as a response to specific arguments made against the Christian claim that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Preliminary reasons for adopting the view that the Gospel of Peter postdates the New Testament Gospels are discussed briefly. Building on the work of Graham Stanton and others, I then survey some of most pertinent early objections to the Christian resurrection claim that were made by outsiders. The majority of the paper is devoted to an examination of several of the ways in which the Gospel of Peter retells the story of Jesus’ resurrection in a manner that appears to reflect apologetic reaction to non-Christian criticisms of previous burial and resurrection narratives. This approach of referring to documented objections avoids some of the pitfalls inherent in the mirror-reading of texts.


Apocalyptic Appropriation of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology in Daniel 7–12
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Matthias Henze, Rice University

The four apocalyptic visions in the latter half of the Book of Daniel, composed ad hoc in response to the oppression under Antiochus Epiphanes, were written specifically to address the particular circumstances of the persecutions. Their authors were obviously well familiar with the mythology of the ancient Near East which they used freely to interpret the crisis at hand. In that respect the visions are anything but particular but share in the broader Mesopotamian literary tradition. The visions thus are prime examples of the apocalyptic appropriation of ancient Near Eastern mythology, a common feature in Early Jewish apocalyptic literature.


Whitewashing the War-Waging Angels of the Apocalypse
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Juan Hernández, Jr., Bethel College

The Apocalypse’s violent imagery has headlined discussions of the Bible in recent years. Accordingly, a number of hermeneutical approaches have been applied to the problem with varying results. The Apocalypse’s manuscript tradition, however, remains an untapped primary source in such investigations. Moreover, while the Apocalypse’s reception history is often an integral part of such studies, the actual textual history of the Apocalypse is seldom incorporated. This paper will attempt to fill this lacuna by approaching the issue from the perspective of fourth and fifth century scribes. Specifically, the paper will explore scribal changes to passages containing depictions of angelic violence in the Apocalypse. Contrary to widely held assumptions about the types of scribal activity in the Apocalypse’s manuscript tradition, several early variants suggest that scribes were also concerned about its violent content.


Samson's Moment of Truth
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Bruce Herzberg, Bentley College

The story of Samson comes to its climax when Samson reveals the secret of his strength to Delilah. She cuts his hair when he is asleep, he is captured by the Philistines and the rest, so to speak, is history. Why does Samson give away his secret? The text says that Delilah nagged him until he finally gave in. This explanation, however, is thoroughly unsatisfactory. Before revealing his secret, Samson has parried three identical requests with clever subterfuges and can be in no doubt about Delilah’s motive. To accept that he succumbed to nagging requires us to believe that Samson is a dolt, a characterization not supported by the rest of the story. I will argue, first, that there is a far better explanation for Samson’s action than the one offered by the text itself, one that takes Samson’s character and history seriously. Because this interpretation conflicts with the “nagging” explanation, I will also discuss the problem of internal contradictions of this type in several Bible narratives and suggest ways that we can justify bracketing the unsatisfactory text. Finally (time permitting), I will review midrashic retellings of the Samson story, many of which reveal discomfort with the “nagging” explanation, and focus on two later retellings—by Milton (Samson Agonistes) and de Mille (the film Samson and Delilah)—which obscure the nagging and seek to rescue Samson from the characterization that he is a mere brute.


Hospitality as Resistance
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
William R. Herzog II, Andover Newton Theological School

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Women’s Genealogies in Hellenistic Literature: The Descent of Bilhah
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Vered Hillel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Women‘s genealogies have played influential roles in literature throughout history, from the Pseudo-Hesiodic, Catalogue of Women to biblical genealogies, from Boccaccio’s, De mulieribus claris (1361) to Christine de Pizan’s, Cité des dames (1405). This is particularly true of the Hellenistic period when previously existing women’s genealogies were reused, embracing a purpose other than originally intended: i.e., the Catalogue, which was widely read and referenced, Jubilees, which preserves genealogies of the patriarch’s wives, and the Testament of Naphtali, which includes the genealogy of his mother, Bilhah. Each such genealogy took on a new function in the context of the larger narrative setting. As a case study, this paper examines the genealogy of Bilhah in the Greek Testament of Naphtali in light 4QTNaph and Bereshit Rabbati, as well as the maternal genealogies in Jubilees, to show how the author adapted Bilhah’s genealogy for his purposes and how it functions within the testament.


The Phenomenon of Parallelism in Ancient Hebrew Verse: A Review of Recent and Ongoing Research
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
John F. Hobbins, Trinity United Methodist Church

The phenomenon of parallelism in biblical Hebrew poetry continues to attract the attention of researchers with diverse points of departure. In this essay, I highlight recent contributions by the following scholars: Phillip Nel, Joel LeMon, Walter Gross, Martin Mark, and Klaus Seybold. The outline of a project in which the corpus of ancient Hebrew poetry is to be tagged in terms of prosodic, semantic, syntactic, and morphological parallelisms will also be presented.


How Well Do You Know Biblical Hebrew? Reflections on the Pedagogy of Menahem Mansoor
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
John F. Hobbins, Trinity United Methodist Church

As his students will attest, Menahem Mansoor was a master teacher of biblical Hebrew. Key features of his method will be provided in outline, with personal memories thrown in for good measure. A strategy for recovering the strengths of Mansoor's method is set forth. A survey of online resources by which that might be done will be provided.


Household Management in the Greek Novels
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Ronald F. Hock, University of Southern California

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Creation in the Womb in 4 Ezra and Other Early Jewish Texts
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Karina Martin Hogan, Fordham University

Fourth Ezra is rich in imagery of pregnancy and childbirth, much of it functioning metaphorically to refer to the earth as the mother of humankind or as an analogy for the inevitable “birth” of the messianic age (e.g., 4:40-43; 5:8, 46–55, 6:21, 10:9–14). There is one remarkable passage, however, that speaks literally of the genesis of human life in the womb: 8:4–14, which is part of Ezra’s appeal to God to have mercy on sinful humanity because they are God’s creations (8:4–36). On the theological issues, its closest parallel is 2 Baruch 48, but it more closely resembles Job 10 in its interest in the anatomical details of pregnancy and birth. This paper focuses primarily on the theological claims of Ezra’s meditation on “creation in the womb,” although some attention will be devoted to attempting to understand its “scientific” background. Ezra’s meditation will be located in relation to attitudes toward birth and the womb expressed in texts of Second Temple Judaism, such as Hodayot XI.7–24, 4QInstruction (4Q416 2 iii 16-17) and Wisd 7:1–2, and early rabbinic Judaism, such as m. ’Abot 3:1. In many of these early Jewish texts there is a close association between the womb and the tomb, i.e., mentioning the beginning of human life generally calls to mind its ending (and its brevity). The idea that the brevity and frailty of human life are grounds for God’s mercy is found in Sir 18:7–14 and elsewhere. For the more specific “scientific” claims of the passage there are fewer parallels in early Jewish texts, so the paper attempts to locate them in a broader Hellenistic context.


Resurrection and Biblical Tradition: The Relation between the Pseudo-Ezekiel Fragments and Ezekiel 37 Reconsidered
Program Unit: Qumran
Albert Hogeterp, Catholic University of Leuven

4QPseudo-Ezekiel is usually dated to the second-century BCE as pre-Qumranite composition. Hitherto much attention has focused on 4Q385 fragment 2 (// 4Q386 1 I 1-10, 4Q388 7 1-7) as well as fragments 3-4. This paper will reconsider the question which place resurrection has within the larger framework of Pseudo-Ezekiel's vision account, thereby paying particular attention to the sequence of columns I and II of fragment 1 of 4Q386. The analysis will be conducted along two main lines:(1) the place of resurrection in 4QPseudo-Ezekiel's theological perspective, with attention for(a) the occasions for references to knowledge of God as Lord (4Q385 2 4 and 4Q386 1 II 1);(b) the role of God's covenant (4Q385 2 1);(c) the identification of those subject to divine redemption (4Q385 2 1-4, 8 and 4Q386 1 II 3 and 6);(d) the dialectic between Ezekiel's questions and divine answers(2) the relation of 4QPseudo-Ezekiel to biblical tradition. Should one analyse the text in terms of reworking the biblical text or of elaboration on an older literary version of Ezekiel in accordance with Lust's thesis about papyrus 967? The focus on resurrection as reward for a just/pious way of life of the children of Israel (4QPseudo-Ezekiel) is different from the focus on restoration and return from exile in the majority text of Ezekiel 37 (Ezek 37:12-14.21-22). Nevertheless, the Pseudo-Ezekiel fragments also pay attention to the expectation of gathering together in view of an experienced situation in which the land of Israel lies waste (4Q386 1 II 2-3) and to the divine return of a remnant (4Q386 1 II 6). Analysis of this evidence and comparison with other 'parabiblical texts' will serve as the basis for comments on criteria to specify the relation between parabiblical texts and biblical tradition.


Ancient Egyptian Instructional Literature in Its Social Setting: Instructional Texts and Rites of Passage
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Susan Tower Hollis, SUNY Empire State College

This paper will further develop the idea of the social setting of Instructional literature in ancient Egypt suggested by Leo Perdue (ZAW 1981). There Perdue noted that the instruction of Egyptian Instructional literature occurred at points of transitions from one social status to another, for example, from crown prince to king, as in the Instruction for Merikare, or official to Vizier, as in Rekhmire, thus representing a key feature in the tripartite rite of passage as outlined by Arnold van Gennep and elaborated by Victor Turner and more recently Ronald Grimes. Using several examples from the corpus of Egyptian literature, the paper will explore more fully the social features of the examples as well as discussing the content of the literature in its social setting.


The Relative Clause in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Robert D. Holmstedt, University of Toronto

Within the various linguistic frameworks of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the relative clause has been the object of as much, if not more, scrutiny than any other clause type. It has a high frequency of usage, independent of text or register type, and in many languages it exhibits features (such as the movement or non-movement of the relativized noun phrase, the presence or absence of a resumptive constituent, and restrictive versus non-restrictive semantics) that provide access to basic structural properties of that language. This paper will provide an overview of the features of the relative clause in the primary NWS inscriptions, highlight specific areas in which the current understanding of relative clause properties requires revision, and provide points of comparison with Biblical Hebrew.


The Biblical Hebrew Relative Clause in Typological Perspective
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Robert D. Holmstedt, University of Toronto

Within the various linguistic frameworks of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the relative clause has been the object of as much, if not more, scrutiny than any other clause type. It has a high frequency of usage, independent of text or register type, and in many languages is exhibits features, such as the movement or non-movement of the relativized noun phrase, that provide access to basic structural properties of the given language. Moreover, it is a clause type that exists in all languages, although it is manifested across languages in diverse ways. This paper will provide an orientation to the typology of relative clauses and an overview of the features of the Biblical Hebrew relative clause. In the process, I will highlight specific areas in which the current understanding of Biblical Hebrew relative clause properties needs revision and illustrate potential interpretative implications.


Narrative Normativity in Diasporic Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Else K. Holt, University of Aarhus

As a biblical book the book of Jeremiah transmits normativity to two groups of audiences, the implied biblical audiences and contemporary Christian and Jewish audiences. The question is how this is done? Can we identify the modes of communication in the literary structure of the narratives in this prophetic book? My proposal is that the literary persona, Jeremiah the prophet, serves as the vehicle for this communication, partly as a role model for the people in distress, partly as a metaphor for God. The presentation will examine the interaction in some of the narrative texts between God, prophet, and people, showing that here we find a matrix of conjunction and disjunction between the three parts which helps to communicate the message of a new normativity on the ruins of a destroyed society. The final question then remains: Does this communication strategy still work in contemporary Christianity? Is the book of Jeremiah still a normative book?


Recovering Biblical Courtroom Vocabulary: Arguing the Case for Adversarial "Yahad"
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Shalom E. Holtz, Yeshiva University

In the quest for a better understanding of courtroom procedure and terminology in ancient Israel, narrative and poetic passages are an important supplement to the few relevant legislative passages. Because poetic books like Job and Isaiah make extensive use of legal metaphors, and specifically the metaphor of argument in court, these books are a treasure trove of biblical forensic terminology. The proposed paper identifies yahad and yahdaw as forensic terms that have been previously overlooked. It examines the use of these words in four verses (Isaiah 41:1; 43:26; 51:8 and Job 9:32) which reflect metaphoric lawsuits between humans and God. The paper argues that these words denote the opposition between the two litigants in these metaphoric lawsuits. In addition to the evidence available from close reading of the four main passages, the proposed paper will draw on data from Biblical Hebrew as well as from Aramaic and Akkadian. It will examine the use of the words yah?ad and yahdaw in descriptions of physical fights between two opponents, and will study the use of other terms for "togetherness," such as 'im and et, that, in relevant contexts, also denote opposition. The paper will also show that in Aramaic and Akkadian descriptions of lawsuits, terms that usually denote "togetherness" ('im and itti) have a specifically adversarial connotation.


Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Qumran Essenes: Examining a Jewish Sectarian Movement
Program Unit: Josephus
Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, Crichton College

Sixty years ago, a cave containing ancient Hebrew manuscripts were found in the hills of the Judean desert. Though to be associated with a community called the Essenes, these manuscripts proved to provide valuable insight into the known existence of the Jewish Essene sectarian group known from Josephus. The description about the Essenes in Josephus was able to shed light not only on the identity of the community associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also on the ideology of this apparently identical community. Examination of various themes among both literary works revealed unmistakable similarity. This paper will examine one particular theme: sacrifice in particular, in both works with regard to this harmonization. The Essene group will be examined according to Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities 18.19; a textual analysis of this passage will be given in order to understand its overall context. Reference will also be made to the description of the Essenes in Philo’s Quod Omnis Probus Liber sit 75. Subsequently, certain claims will be made about the probable connection between the classical descriptions of the Essenes and movement associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls (the DSS movement hereafter). If, in fact, this connection can be made, then insight concerning the cultic ideology of the entire DSS movement (which includes the later Qumran-related community) can be determined. With this in mind, Josephus’ and Philo’s descriptions also need to be investigated alongside the texts of the DSS movement and later Qumran-related community. In this examination, this paper will investigate the sectarian works of the Dead Sea Scrolls only.


The Heavenly Cult: The View of Sacrifice in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Jamal-Dominique Hopkins, Crichton College

Similar to other texts found at Qumran, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice resembles the spiritualised ideology of the Qumran community. Although the text is not a composition of the community, its content harmonises with it. Highlighted in this text are: (1) the spiritualised view that praise is likened to sacrifices; (2) the view that these spiritualised sacrifices are heard and performed in the divine realm; and (3) that the offering of this liturgy is in the presence of the divine which achieves harmony with God. The liturgical aspect of the document is similar to various other liturgical texts also found at Qumran. Moreover, the document’s spiritualised ideology is analogous to the Rule of the Community (1QS). As the community settled at Qumran, focus on their spiritualised ideology became more prevalent. As is demonstrated in the Rule of the Community, some of these practices included offering prayer and praise according to the 364-day cultic calendar. Liturgical worship, which normally accompanied the sacrificial regulations and cultic festivals, now came to be viewed as substitutionary. Along with 1QS, the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice was just one of the many liturgical texts that demonstrated the spiritualised view of the community. The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice presents itself as a liturgical text, which describes sacrifice as taking place in a heavenly temple with particular emphasis on an angelic priesthood. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice concerning its views of sacrifice. Our examination will look at three particular aspects simultaneously: 1) The literary function of the work in relation to the Qumran community who preserved it 2) The ideology of heavenly sacrifice in relation to the cultic ideology of the community 3) The nature of the angelic priests and heavenly temple in relation to the community.


Qur’anic Perspectives on Jesus’ Life and Death in the Light of the Transmission and Reception History of Apocryphal Christian Literature
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Cornelia Horn, Saint Louis University/ Dumbarton Oaks

The Qur’an reflects knowledge of main events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Key among them are his conception and birth, instructions he offered to his disciples, as well as his death and resurrection. For parallel information the reader of Christian literature can draw on Biblical and extra-biblical, specifically apocryphal material. While certain parallels between the Qur’an and the narrative recorded in the Biblical text have been discerned, that angle of comparative analysis is neither exhaustive nor often satisfactory. Also, parallels between Qur’anic traditions and early Christian apocryphal literature have been studied previously, but for the most part only in a selective manner. The Protoevangelium of James and the Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Thomas readily come to mind. Thus far, no systematic treatment of the question of the relationship between apocryphal traditions and the formation of the text of the Qur’an has been offered. Within the framework of research that aims at closing this gap, this paper addresses the question of parallels between the Qur’an and apocryphal literature that deals with the apostles as Jesus’ followers as well as with Jesus’ death. The paper also argues that the examination of the reception history of specific apocryphal texts in the first millennium C.E. as well as of the transmission history of these texts in the manuscript tradition offers a crucial component in studying the intersection of apocryphal literature with the Qur’an.


Children at the Intersection of Classical and Early Christian Popular Literature
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Cornelia Horn, Saint Louis University/ Dumbarton Oaks

This paper introduces and reflects upon a comparative approach to studying matters of childhood and children in the Mediterranean world in early Christian times. It offers a consideration of how one might be able to learn from ancient sources which perspectives on children and childhood ancient peoples shared with one another and which perspectives served to characterize specific groups as distinct from one another. Analysis of motifs and social-historical comments in the narrative provides one of the main methodologies in achieving such a goal. The evidence discussed is gleaned from a deliberately chosen set of texts belonging to ancient popular literature, more specifically Chariton’s Callirhoe and the apocryphal Acts of John. As novels, both of these works are representatives of ancient fiction. Their shared genre as well as their arguably similar target audience qualify them well as candidates for comparison between non-Christian Greco-Roman and early Christian perspectives. Since matters of childhood and children are not an intended topic of either one of the two texts, what each text has to say about children, often in passing, stands a good chance of reflecting at least some aspects of the historical reality of children’s lives at the time of the composition or redaction of the text. The threats of the temporary or permanent separation of family members from one another, particularly through death, matters of integrating children into married life, emotional relationships between older and younger generations, cultural appropriation or distancing of the individual from the surrounding culture, as well as the process of children’s integration into dominant forms of religious services and piety are among the main areas of consideration in which shared traditions as well as distinct differences emerge.


Christian Masochism and the Queer Heterosexual
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Teresa J. Hornsby, Drury University

The explosion of the internet in the last decade or so rivals the revolutionary global changes of technologies of previous centuries (linguistic, agricultural, industrial, nuclear). Each of these revolutions produced varying constructions of normative desire. The construction of desire necessary for the rise of post-war, pre-internet (thus bounded and defined) monopolistic and colonial capitalism, is obsolete. While Michel Foucault describes the discourses (e.g., Christianity) that produce sexual desire within a Western, capitalist milieu, he does not take into account such a dramatic change within capitalism itself. While Freud et al posit masochism (a blurring of pleasure and pain) as rudimental in the formation of desires, Christianity takes a leading role in constructing normative desires borne of masochism for the maintenance of Western capitalism. The primary question I address is, what role can a masochistic Christianity play in the construction of different sexual desires, of new normatives? Several critics have already imagined these alternative desires, these “queer heterosexualities.” Kaja Silverman offers the ‘male lesbian.’ A man who desires to be passive, to be dominated by a woman takes on the role of a woman who desires other women; who seeks sexual gratification through passivity and without the penis. She effectively separates gender from sex, but creates other problems. Similarly, in Take it Like a Man, David Savran argues that at the core of a masochistically produced capitalism lies the feminine male: a male who desires pain and humiliation, who seeks victimization and identifies as victim though he occupies a place of power. Christianity, a principal source of Western symbolic order, has constructed a model of masculinity and sexual desire necessary to produce the subjects Silverman describes as the “normative desires and identifications” that a dominant fiction requires. I will re-read selected Pauline texts to explore possible queer constructions of normative desires.


My Name Is "Legion": Demon-Possession and Exorcism as Responses to Roman Domination
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Richard A. Horsley, University of Massachusetts Boston

Jesus’ exorcism can be understood as response to Roman imperial domination by bringing together four lines of recent research. First, recognizing that the Gospels complete stories, we can discern, e.g., that in Mark exorcism is a key component in the renewal of Israel over against the Jerusalem and Roman rulers of Israel in which God’s liberative power(s) are winning the struggle against the alien powers possessing the people. Second, we now realize that the Roman control of the eastern Mediterranean determined the circumstances in which Jesus acted and the Gospels emerged. Third, medical anthropology has insisted that illness and healing culturally defined and “critical” medical anthropologists now recognize that illness and healing are rooted in political power-relations. Fourth, recent ethnographic studies find that spirit/demon possession is often related to, perhaps a symptom of, imperial domination. The very names of demons evoked by exorcists turn out to be (symbolic of) the forces that dominate the possessed people’s lives. Bringing these lines of research to bear on exorcisms in Mark in the context of Palestine under Roman domination, we can explain how demon-possession was a self-preservative adjustment to Roman rule, and note the Judean confidence in divine forces resisting the invasive forces. I will focus on the confidence expressed in Mark that in Jesus’ exorcisms divine power is at work not only in casting out (1:21-28; 3:22-27), but in defeating the demons that possess the people and (symbolically) in the ensuing implosion of the alien occupying Roman military forces (Legion, 5:1-20). The divine power that defeats the demons is also active, “under the radar” of Roman domination, in renewal of covenantal community capable of living without the self-preservative mystification of demon-possession and aware of the concrete imperial power that still controls their life-situation.


Strangers, Fire, and Dangerous Distinctions: Cognitive Cues to Moral Authority in Matthew 25:31–46
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Bonnie Howe, Dominican University of California

How do NT texts construe and assert authority? Cognitive linguistic analysis points to dynamic interaction among the conceptual metaphors, frames and blended mental spaces activated as the text is read in specific linguistic communities. Roles played and voices heard via fictive discourse evoke, subvert and revise conventional construals of moral authority.


Students' Perceptions of Jesus' Personality
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Susan Harris Howell, Campbellsville University

My research explores college students’ perceptions of the personality of Jesus Christ. Along with an overall exploration of students’ perceptions, I focus on whether students are likely to make self-based attributions in their perceptions of Jesus’ personality. Perceptions are assessed with two Jungian-type inventories: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1998) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II (Keirsey, 1998), which categorize personality along 4 dimensions: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judgment/Perception. Results indicate that students perceive Jesus to be an Extravert Feeler and make self-based attributions along the Sensing/Intuitive dimension. Application is made for the risks involved in perceiving Jesus' personality as a reflection of our own and steps which can be taken to minimize such a perceptual bias. This study has been published in the Journal of Psychology and Theology, Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring 2004, pp 50-58.


Reading Revelation’s Violence in the Visions of Hildegard and Hadewijch
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Lynn Huber, Elon College

Examining the ways interpreters have responded to Revelation’s violent imagery allows modern interpreters to understand the contours of this violence and to devise new methods of approaching these sometimes troubling texts. We may not be surprised to learn of Revelation’s popularity in the medieval world, a world typically thought of as violent. However, a close look at two medieval texts that use Revelation as a visionary model, those of Hildegard of Bingen and Hadewijch of Brabant, suggests that Revelation’s scenes of destruction were not always appropriated in a straightforward manner. Although they reinterpret Revelation’s violence toward distinct ends, these visionary writings employ violence in their reworking of Revelation’s image of the faithful or the church as a bride. It is this intersection between violence and gendered imagery which this paper will explore as a means of better understanding Revelation itself.


Ephesians versus Eddy: Contrasting Interpretations of Paul and of the Role of Women
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Barry Huff, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education

Ephesians 5:21-6:9 employs a transformed version of Paul’s metaphor of the body of Christ in order to justify theologically its demand for the subordination of women. In the late nineteenth century, Mary Baker Eddy reinterpreted the Pauline corpus and Acts in order to advocate the rights of women. This paper analyzes the contrasting interpretations of Paul and of the role of women in the longest New Testament household code and in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy.


Warfare Avoidance in the Book of Jeremiah
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Herbert B. Huffmon, Drew University

The Book of Jeremiah presents consistent advocacy for the goal of the suvival of the Yahwistic community in the face of the overwhelming Babylonian military power, a power directed against Israel by God. Judah itself is to avoid warfare, whether as resistance by King Zedekiah or assassination by the royal Ishmael, as such actions have only negative consequences. By avoiding warfare the community can survive in forced exile, as shown in the letter to the whole community exiled to Babylon, or in remaining in the land, as in the advice to the remnant community following the the assassination plot by Ishmael. The path of survival includes praying for the well-being of Babylon and rejects violence, although this policy is not described in terms of non-violent resistance as in the stories in the Book of Daniel. The community's task does include resistance to false, misleading voices within the community, such as the prophet Hananiah in Judah and the false prophets and diviners in Babylon who will themselves encounter violence either from God or from the Babylonian king. The primary focus of the community is faithfulness to God who will eventually restore them. Ultimately, survival will be possible because of the radical intervention of God in the internal transformation of the people.


Text History as a Research Tool on Literary Development in the Books of Kings: The Case of 1 Kings 17–19 in the Masoretic Text and Septuagint
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Philippe Hugo, University of Fribourg

How can text history contribute to analysis of the literary development of the books of Kings? Surely by definition text criticism is concerned with transmission of a text rather than the process of redaction which resulted in the “final form” of this text. Yet text-critical research on the Septuagint since the discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the literary and textual histories are intertwined. In the books of Kings, comparison of the putative Hebrew source of the Old Greek (OG) and MT suggests a different edition or form of the text in OG which may even be older. Since the textual witnesses attest different literary text forms or editions, the task of research involves identifying theses text forms to locate them chronologically in relation to one another. This entails a review of theories of the redactional history of the books of Kings usually based only on evidence from MT. I would like to contribute to this debate by focusing on the story of Elijah and showing that the Hebrew text underlying the OG is older and that the proto-MT is a theological rewriting of the narrative.


Advice to the Bride: Moral Exhortation for Young Wives in Two Ancient Letters
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Annette Bourland Huizenga, University of Chicago

This paper compares moral exhortation for women in two letters: from the Pythagorean Melissa to Kleareta, and the NT Pastoral Letter to Titus. In Melissa’s letter, an older woman gives advice to a younger woman about wifely decorum. This letter, found in P. Hauniensis II.13, dates to the 3rd century CE. The papyrus is a Koiné version of the Doric text found in twenty-two Renaissance manuscripts. (The Doric text seems to be more original.) The papyrus provides the earliest documentation for the letter’s transmission and its social functions. In Titus, the author gives gender- and age-specific “sound teachings,” paying particular attention to the older women instructing younger women in virtuous behavior (2:3-5, found in the earliest ms. for Titus, P 32, ca. 200). The goal of the teaching evokes a philosophical way of life within a Christian context. I argue that both letters presume a common philosophical-educational process for women, in that: (1) they share literary characteristics of the philosophical letter genre (being pseudepigraphic, paraenetic, and using classical rhetorical stylistic features); (2) they utilize authoritative (and pseudepigraphical) names to reinforce the teaching; (3) older women are thought to be the appropriate teachers of and models for younger women, and (4) the content of women’s instruction is different from that for men, i.e., exemplified in “feminine” topoi. On the other hand, the letters differ in their “theological” basis for virtuous living, which is seen in Titus in the “Christianization” (and especially, “Paulinization”) of the teaching. Also, while the letter of Titus explicitly anticipates an audience of men and women, Melissa’s letter to Kleareta imagines an all-female readership.


Mark 14:62 in Light of Markan Narrative Dynamics
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Leroy Andrew Huizenga, Wheaton College

Although creating difficulties for Markan priority, most scholars consider the longer, Caesarean reading of Mark 14:62 (su eipas hoti ego eimi) the result of scribal assimilation to Matthew 26:64, Matthew having added su eipas hoti to Mark’s simple ego eimi to assimilate this trial before the High Priest to the trial before Pilate (Matt 27:11), to distance Jesus from oaths (cf. Matt 5:33-37), and to emphasize Caiaphas’ responsibility in the affair. On traditional text-critical grounds, however, a substantive minority of scholars, such as Taylor, Streeter and, most recently, Joel Marcus, contends that the longer reading is original. This paper will contend on narrative-critical and theological grounds that the shorter reading of ego eimi makes better sense than the longer reading. Jesus’ confession before the high priest and Peter’s denial in the courtyard comprise one of the celebrated Markan intercalations, and careful attention to the text’s narrative dynamics reveals that Jesus’ bold and direct confession occurs precisely at the same time with and thus in ironic juxtaposition to Peter’s denial.


Laypersons’ Ratings of Passages Attributed to and Not Attributed to Jesus
Program Unit: Poster Session
John Hull, Bethany College

In a series of three experiments, groups of adults read a series of quotes attributed to Jesus, then evaluated the quotes on several dimensions (e.g., The passage is judgmental; Reading the passage comforts me.) from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Some participants read “pink-letter” passages, judged by the Jesus Seminar (The Five Gospels, 1993) to be quotes similar to what Jesus probably said. Other participants read “black-letter” passages, judged by the Jesus Seminar to be things Jesus did not say. Experiment 1 involved quotes from the gospel of Mark, Experiment 2 quotes from the gospel of Thomas, and Experiment 3 quotes from the gospel of Luke. In Experiments 2 and 3, black-letter passages were further subdivided into apocalyptic and nonapocalyptic passages. Across the three experiments, pink-letter passages were rated significantly less: judgmental, critical, aggressive, “doom and gloom,” and pessimistic than the black-letter passages. In addition, pink-letter passages were rated significantly more: loving, active, comforting, in agreement with religious beliefs, and applicable to one’s own life. Apocalyptic black-letter passages were rated especially judgmental, critical, unloving, aggressive, noncomforting, pessimistic, and filled with doom and gloom. Comparisons between college student and older adult participants showed that older participants generally rated the passages as easier to understand, less abstract, less passive, and more challenging. This study suggests an empirical methodology for studying the response of laypeople to biblical passages, in particular to passages identified by Jesus Seminar participants as attributable or not attributable to Jesus, a methodology readily adaptable to other topics. Results will be discussed in terms of their implications for understanding and interpreting the historical Jesus.


The Apostolic Church's Influence on the Ordering of Sayings in the Double Tradition
Program Unit: Q
Stephen Hultgren, Fordham University

Early 20th century gospel scholarship often regarded "Q" as a collection of catechetical or paraenetic material that served as a supplement to the apostolic kerygma. For the most part, however, scholars did not attempt to show how the material's use in the apostolic church could explain the order of the material in Matthew and Luke. In the more recent period, this view of Q has been replaced by the redactional approach that regards Q as a written document with intentional redactional design, determined by an outlook not necessarily derived from the apostolic church. My paper will argue that the redactional approach has been a wrong turn in gospel scholarship and, on the basis of some representative examples, will show that looking to the apostolic church for clues to the ordering of the material is a more fruitful way of approaching the problem of order.


Bourdieu Reads Jude
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Jeremy F. Hultin, Yale University

This paper applies Pierre Bourdieu's sociological approach to language, as exemplified in his "Language and Symbolic Power," to the text of Jude. This is, in a sense, an application of a form of speech-act theory, such as has been applied with good results to other short, anti-heretical writings from the New Testament. But Bourdieu's unique approach to linguistic practice is especially well suited for Jude and his world, and promises insights beyond what can be achieved with a Searlean approach. Because Jude was unwilling or unable to describe his opponents beliefs or practices with much clarity, Bourdieu's conviction that language is employed to achieve certain outcomes—rather than simply in the hopes of conveying information—is a particularly promising point of departure. Jude's language is amazingly skillful and allusive and acerbic, but also amazingly uninformative; a socio-linguistic approach that de-emphasizes "meaning" is ideal. Jude can thus be conceived more as performance and as act and less as communiqué. Bourdieu's concepts of field and capital can be applied productively to Jude as an utterance. Each field has its particular rules, which shape what will be capital. With Bourdieu, we can ask how Jude, in the very act of writing his letter, was trying to alter the linguistic rules so as to alter, in his particular "field," the distribution of its forms of capital. Furthermore, each linguistic market will determine the value of a particular utterance, and hence competent utterances will reveal the market's social structure. Thus we can learn not only about Jude and his effort to change the rules of the game in his own favor, but also about the social structure that constrained his linguistic options.


Jude and 1 Enoch
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Jeremy F. Hultin, Yale University

There is perhaps no richer cite in early Christianity for exploring the complicated and uneasy relationship between the concepts of "canon," revelation, authority, and tradition than in the case of Jude's reliance upon 1 Enoch (and, to a lesser extent, the Assumption of Moses). Not only does Jude cite 1 Enoch verbatim (his only "scriptural" citation), but the language, imagery, and eschatology of the entire epistle is heavily indebted to this great (and once quite popular) apocryphon. What is the meaning of a "canon" that includes the Epistle of Jude, but rejects that text to which Jude so reverentially refers? Is Jude not to be trusted when it says that Enoch authored the words from 1 Enoch? The problem is not made any easier by the way Jude cites 1 Enoch. In fact, the language of Jude, and of other early Christians, belies the claim of some modern scholarship that the practice of pseudepigraphy, especially in testamentary or apocalyptic genres, was so common as to be transparent. In fact, ancients were often quite credulous. Jude identified the author of 1 Enoch as the antediluvian "seventh from Adam," and Tertullian addressed such concrete problems as how Enoch's teachings could have survived the flood. Such serious and literal commitment to Enochic authorship left no easy out for those who would receive Jude but not 1 Enoch. From the author of 2 Peter, who used most of Jude but omitted reference to Enoch or the Assumption of Moses, to Augustine, who granted that Enoch must have written something divine, I explore the various strategies early Christians adopted for dealing with Jude's use of an apocryphon. This survey illuminates the distinctions various early Christians were making—and were forced to make by Jude's citation—between inspiration and canonicity.


No More Double-Speak: The Bible and Immigration
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Alice W. Hunt, Vanderbilt University

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Reflections on the Relevance of Early Jesus Devotion for the Identity of Jesus
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Larry W. Hurtado, University of Edinburgh

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Early Christian Manuscripts of Biblical Texts as Artifacts
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Larry W. Hurtado, University of Edinburgh

Based on my recent book, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (Eerdmans, 2006), I review major physical/visual features of earliest extant Christian manuscripts, with special attention to those containing what came to be Christian scriptures; and I explore what inferences we can draw about Christian usage of these texts in the second and third centuries CE.


The Fate of the Temple Vessels and Prophetic Fulfillment in Jeremiah 28
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Rodney R. Hutton, Trinity Lutheran Seminary

Robert Carroll proposed that the prophecy regarding the temple vessels in Jeremiah 28 was a part of the polemic of the post-exilic community for control during reconstruction, and that such temple vessels were no longer even in existence or were at least unusable by the post-exilic community. This paper will examine the issues regarding the fate of the temple vessels within the context of ANE practice of despoiling temples and the literary context of the Hebrew texts and consider the significance of the prophecy for the questions about prophetic legitimation raised in Jeremiah’s confrontation with Hananiah.


Paul's Use of the Paron Phrases in 1 Corinthians 5:3–5
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Jin Hwang, Fuller Theological Seminary

In 1 Corinthians 5:3 Paul expresses his own verdict in terms of three participle phrases: "For though absent in body (apon to somati), I am present in spirit (paron de to pneumati); and as if present (os paron) I have already pronounced judgment." The first of these no doubt denotes Paul's bodily absence. However, scholars have been grappling over the meaning of the latter two. The scholarly views on the paron phrases in 1 Corinthians 5:3 can be largely divided into three groups: (1) anthropological interpretations; (2) theological interpretations; and (3) epistolarly interpretations. While it is difficult to reconstruct exactly how Paul's letter was delivered to the Corinthians, the epistolary-rhetorical interpretation that fully accounts for the aural/oral nature of the paron phrases and that can properly appreciate their 'vivid' and 'realistic' sense and the rhetorical force of Paul's threefold emphasis on his epistolary presence in the Corinthian community seems to be far more promising than the other two views. In this paper, it will be argued that Paul intentionally uses the paron phrases twice to make his voice heard in the Corinthian community when the text is orally performed by the letter-bearer, probably Timothy, so that the Corinthians might make the same decision with regard to the sexual offender.


Metaphor and Ethics in Revelation
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Susan E. Hylen, Vanderbilt University

The violent imagery of Revelation is morally repulsive to many readers. Interpreters usually deal with the problem of this imagery in two ways. Some simply reject Revelation as too violent. Others argue that, understood properly, the metaphorical meaning is actually nonviolent. While the first approach takes the language of Rev too literally, the second ignores the way the violent metaphors shape the imagination of the reader. In making this argument I draw on conceptual metaphor theory to explore how metaphors function and what they require of the reader. I offer a strategy for reading Revelation ethically that involves understanding Revelation’s imagery as multiple metaphors that each contributes something to the reader’s understanding of a complex concept. I conclude that the violent imagery of Revelation does indeed matter, but also that John’s non-violent metaphors disrupt the logic of the violent imagery, and thus may serve as a counterpoint.


An Ecological Reading of Psalm 8 with New Eyes through Naga Creation Myth
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Moa Imchen, Graduate Theological Union

That there is an ecological crisis which is worsening daily is a fact we can no longer ignore. Unfortunately, the issue and concern for ecology is one area which is neglected in biblical scholarship. Biblical scholarship has traditionally understood and read, and to date has focused on attempts to interpret Ps 8 more from anthropological perspective giving importance to humans as the center of creation. As such, the role “to have dominion” assigned to human was misunderstood. This paper is an attempt to rethink the traditional categories by which humans distinguish themselves from the natural world and will seek to situate Psalm 8 within an ecological reading to re-read the text in the light of alternative creation myths. This paper will ask whether Psalm 8, as is, is not anthropocentric and does a re-read from a Naga perspective reveal another orientation? How does Naga tribal creation myth helps to understand the interrelationship between the place of humans and the rest of their natural surroundings.


Widows and Prophets: Sexual Moral Economy in the Elijah/Elisha Cycle
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Avaren E. Ipsen, University of California-Berkeley

In conversation with Gayle Rubin’s theory of “sexual hierarchy,” this paper postulates a sexual moral economic subtext underlying the depictions of Elijah and Elisha and three women in I Kings 17:8-24 and II Kings 4:1-37 and 8:1-6. There are interesting differences in the way the two prophets relate to the widow of Zarephath versus the widow of the sons of the prophets versus the Shunammite woman, who perhaps is eventually a widow also by II Kings 8. The three stories, while thematically linked by the common story elements of resurrection, unfailing supply of oil, and hospitality to prophets, they also perhaps differ with each other due to the differing class, ethnic and sexual statuses of the three women. In addition, this study wishes to link these differences to the various ways prophets and widows sustain themselves and survive economically in the midst of war, famine and persecution. The broader goal of this investigation is to examine economic correlations with the religious sexual ideologies discerned in the texts in order to propose the hybrid concept of a “Sexual Moral Economy” and ultimately, to explore sex positive interpretive strategies that can aid in the contemporary justice struggles of women.


“A Thousand Books Will Be Saved”: Manichean Manuscripts and Religious Propaganda in the Roman Empire
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Eduard Iricinschi, Princeton University

Manichean codices were overwhelmingly present in the Roman Empire as instruments of bilingual religious propaganda; their illuminations, sizes, and titles made them also significantly more attractive than their Christian counterparts. This paper identifies the strong connection between the constant reference to Mani’s books in three Manichean writings and the rapid spread of Manichaeism from Syria into Egypt in the fourth century, as a result of intense missionary efforts. In Cologne Mani Codex, the revelation of Mani’s prophetic persona is never separated from the act of writing down its content in apocalyptic books, by the prophets themselves, or by their closest disciples. The first pages of the Kephalaia, a Coptic fourth-century text, originally written in Syriac, attributed to the first generation of Manicheans, present a Mani preoccupied with turning his oral teaching into books. The Kephalaia sets the educational frame for imparting Mani's teachings. This textual stratagem lends authority both to Mani’s figure and to his disciples who would carry the Kephalaia westward, translating the original Syriac in Greek and Coptic. The very act of further copying these translations had ritual meanings, being later converted into a religious practice of its own. Finally, with the Manichean Homilies one could look at Mani’s scriptures as instruments of power that have become even more effective with the birth of the codex and its wide use in Christian Egyptian circles. This paper argues that the Manichean sub-elite acquired its textual identity in Syria, becoming a “religion of the Book” under Jewish influence. A missionary religion, such as Mani’s, adapted its message not only to the social structures of early Christianity in Syria and Egypt, but also to the more subtle tones of the administrative and textual culture that permeated the Roman provinces.


Romans 2:13: Is Paul Coherent?
Program Unit: Poster Session
Lee Irons, Fuller Theological Seminary

There is an apparent contradiction between Rom 2:13 ("the doers of the law will be justified") and Paul's teaching in the next chapter (3:20, 28). Some scholars just think Paul was incoherent. Others try to resolve the apparent contradiction in one of two ways: either (1) Rom 2:13 is hypothetical, setting forth the standard that no one actually meets (3:9-10, 23), or (2) "the doers of the law" refers to the obedience of faith and does not equal "the works of the law" which Paul rejects elsewhere. Option (2) comes in two varieties: (2a) Gentile Christians are in view, or (2b) non-Christian Gentiles. Option (2a) is currently gaining ground among both opponents and advocates of the New Perspective on Paul (Cranfield, N. T. Wright, Simon Gathercole). In this poster, I critique option (2a) and defend option (1) - the hypothetical view. Paul is coherent because Rom 2:13 must be read in light of his larger argument in Rom 1-3, especially its conclusion in 3:9-28.


Management and Labor: The Irony of Qoheleth’s Lament over the Fate of his “Labor”
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
John R. Jackson, Milligan College

Qoheleth laments the disposition of his “toil” (’amal) because at death he will have to pass his “toil” on to others (Eccl 2:17-23). Qoheleth’s anguish is tinged with irony from two perspectives. First, Qoheleth holds a managerial view of labor. “Toil” in Ecclesiastes 2 is not work that is toilsome due to the nature of the tasks themselves. Qoheleth’s work involves the use of his mind, the exercise of wisdom and knowledge (Eccl 2:19, 21). Qohelet’s attitude toward “toil” here is work viewed from an aristocratic perspective, of the king in particular, and also of Qohelet as a learned and successful member of the upper class in actuality. ’amal in this scene refers to the work of the aristocrat, the landlord, and the estate manager. A second, related irony is that Qoheleth never acknowledges that his “toil,” the wealth that he has accumulated because of “toil,” is actually the result of the “toil” of the hammer strokes of the carpenter on his house, the sweat of the gardeners who planted his vines, and the backaches of the laborers who dug out his reservoirs. In his discontent over losing his “toil,” he never acknowledges that his “toil” is the product of the “toil” of others. This paper will offer an economic and social critique of Qoheleth’s managerial view of labor as it highlights the irony of his anguish over the disposition of the fruit of his “toil.”


The Bible Translations of Noah Webster, Alexander Campbell, and Joseph Smith: Three Nineteenth-Century American Bible Translations in Context
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Kent P. Jackson, Brigham Young University

Alexander Campbell, Noah Webster, and Joseph Smith were early 19th-century thinkers who had profound influence on American history, but in different ways. Remarkably, each produced a new translation of the Bible within seven years of each other. My paper will discuss the objectives of the three in making their translations and examine to what extent they were able to meet their objectives in the translations they produced. I will also explore the impact that each translation had after the time of the translators.


Mnemohistory and the Chronicler's Re-imagination of Asaph
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Karl Jacobson, Union-PSCE

Even a cursory comparison of the content that is available in the extant psalms attributed to Asaph, and the characterization of the Asaphite role/content as we find it in 1 Chronicles 16:1-42 and Nehemiah 11:17 (and elsewhere), reveals something of a disconnect. Indeed, 1 Chr 16 records the psalm-singing of the Asaphites, and for an example records not one of the psalms "le-Asaph," but a composite of Pss 96, 105 and 106. The question is, “Why is this the case?” Interpreters of the Psalms have tended at this point to simply disregard Chronicles as an unreliable and late inventor of Asaphite influence. In contrast I argue that Chronicles represents a mnemohistorical re-imagining of the Asaphite role and content, altered both to fit the context for which the Chronicler’s second-history is written, and to fit the very different historical and theological Sitz-im-Leben of Chronicles. Mnemohistory, a term attributed primarily to the work of Egyptologist Jan Assmann, does not deal with detailed questions of factuality, of what “really” happened. Instead, mnemohistory is recourse to the past that takes seriously the impact of memory in tandem with the historical past. It is my contention that the work of the Chronicler is helpfully understood both through the lens of mnemohistory – i.e. read with an eye to what and how memory is at work; and as mnemohistorical itself – i.e. written with an eye to the shaping of a particular memory for application in the re-formation of identity in the restored Israelite nation. Mnemohistory provides a helpful entry point to an evaluation of the Asaph-tradition in Chronicles, and may also suggest some broader applications to the nature of the work of Chronicler as a whole. My paper explores these aspects of the concept of mnemohistory.


The Origins of the Flood in Second Temple and Rabbinic Interpretation
Program Unit: Midrash
Alex P. Jassen, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Recent years have witnessed an increase in the comparative analysis of rabbinic Midrash together with Second Temple period interpretative traditions. This comparative analysis has been significantly enhanced by the large corpus of interpretive traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in particular the recently published parabiblical texts. Scholars are now in a position to examine early Jewish biblical interpretation in a more systematic and comprehensive way, with careful attention to shared and divergent traditions, possible lines of historical development, and literary and exegetical transformations. The present study proposes to offer an integrated analysis of Second Temple and rabbinic traditions concerning the origins and background of the flood. In general, Second Temple traditions ascribe the reasons for the flood to the pernicious influence of the Fallen Angels and their introduction of evil into the world. In contrast, midrashic traditions identify human complacency associated with the ideal antediluvian conditions as the reasons for the flood. This paper will demonstrate that this distinction, though represented to a large degree in the relevant sources, requires significant modification. The Fallen Angels appear in midrashic traditions about the flood just as the ideal antediluvian conditions are present in some Second Temple sources. This paper analyzes these shared interpretive traditions in an attempt to identify their points of literary and exegetical correspondence and divergence and to map out their literary and historical relationship to one another. Special emphasis will be placed on the importance of 4QAdmonition on the Flood (4Q370), a recently published Qumran text that overlaps in content with several later midrashic traditions about the origins of the flood.


The Epistle to the Colossians
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Roy R. Jeal, Booth College

Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation has developed to the point where scholars are preparing full-bodied commentary on New Testament and other ancient Mediterranean religious texts for the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series (Deo Publishing). By employing Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation as an analytic, commentary on New Testament texts reveals the nature of how early Christians creatively employed rhetorical language from their emerging religious milieu to explain and convey their faith understandings. Socio-Rhetorical Commentary analyzes visual rhetoric (“rhetography”), the rhetorical modes of discourse employed by early Christians (“rhetorolects”), and a variety of social and rhetorical “textures” as features of the documents that together provide a dynamic rhetorical force that conveys ideas and moves audiences toward understanding and activity. This paper provides a sample of Socio-Rhetorical commentary on a selected passage from the Letter to the Colossians in order to show the RRA Seminar what such commentary might look like and what it reveals.


Classic Commentary: The Rhetoric of J. B. Lightfoot, T. K. Abbott, and J. A. Robinson on Ephesians and Colossians
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Roy R. Jeal, Booth College

Virtually all scholars who study and write on Ephesians and Colossians are familiar with the Victorian era commentaries by British scholars and churchmen Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Thomas Kingsmill Abbott and James Armitage Robinson. These works are classics of the biblical commentary genre. They are groundbreaking in their presentation of massive amounts of data and interpretation that subsequent generations have considered to be foundational for their own studies. They are quoted and referenced continuously, despite the fact that they are all now well more than one hundred years old and have never been revised. The commentaries remain available in print, and two of them, Abbott and Lightfoot, are available in computerized versions. Like all commentaries, these works have a rhetorical presentation that reflects the times in which they were conceived and written, yet, unlike many others that are not read so often any more, their rhetoric continues to be deeply effective. They have been and remain remarkably influential. This essay examines these “classic” commentaries in order to understand their rhetorical discourse and why their rhetorical influence continues. It considers the rhetorical conditions that surrounded their composition and the rhetorical intentions that Lightfoot, Abbott and Robinson, scholars of great depth and wide concerns, had for their efforts. The paper looks in particular at how the commentaries function rhetorically to achieve their interpretive intentions and at how this rhetoric continues to attract attention. We do not come to Biblical Studies in a vacuum or in completely new ways, so the long tradition of compelling interpretation must not be disregarded. A study of the rhetoric of these classic commentaries reveals much about how erudite and thorough commentary can affect people and promote learning in long-lasting ways.


The Cosmological Imagination: Space, Gender, and Power in the Hebrew Bible and the Pseudepigrapha
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Ann Jeffers, Heythrop College

Drawing on accounts and understandings of ancient cosmologies and cosmographies, this paper will explore the relationship between images of cosmos and gender. It will be argued that competitive cosmologies during the Persian and Hellenistic times have significantly affected perceptions of women and gender constructs. This can be explored through a number of texts taken from the Hebrew Bible, Jewish writings from the Second temple period and the Pseudepigrapha. Examples from the Hebrew Bible and post biblical Jewish Writings and Pseudepigrapha will illustrate and highlight the ideology at work behind the imag(in)ing the cosmos and how it affects portrayals of women in narratives of heavenly revelatory experiences. Texts under scrutiny will be Philo’s de Opificio Mundi, Joseph and Aseneth, the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Job.


From Tradition to Redemption: Images of Eve in Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Ann Jeffers, Heythrop College

This paper will focus on the complex characterisation of Pullman’s main female character, Lyra as the ‘new Eve’. Through an exploration of some of the traditions underlying the Northern Lights Trilogy, this paper how that by processes of acquisition and reversal of traditions from Biblical Eve to Gnostic writings, the Malleus Maleficarum and Milton’s Paradise Lost Pullman’s Lyra will be shown to be a hotch potch of past images of Eve. By processes of acquisition and reversal of traditions, Lyra’s characterisation contributes to a modern understanding of Eve as a embodying a new redemptive function.


Review of Nancy Pardee, The Genre and Development of the Didache: A Text Linguistic Analysis, (Mohr-Siebeck, 2006)
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Clayton N. Jefford, Saint Meinrad School of Theology

This paper will review the recent publication of Nancy Pardee, The Genre and Development of the Didache: A Text Linguistic Analysis, Mohr-Siebeck (WUNT.2), 2006.


Family Life and Family Dwellings in First-century Rural Galilee
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Morten Hoerning Jensen, University of Aarhus

During the last three decades, “Roman Galilee” has become an issue of intense interest, uniting various strands of scholarly enterprise, such as research on the historical Jesus, Josephus and Rabbinic Judaism, as well as archaeological field work. One important issue in this connection concerns family life and family dwellings in first-century Galilee, known to us especially from the archaeological material gathered through a growing number of excavations. These excavations have shed light on aspects of the socio-economic ‘pulse’ of rural life in Galilee under Herod Antipas and after. The aim of this paper is to present this material and to discuss whether or not this period witnessed a rapid change of living conditions within the family realm of life.


Picturing the Departed: Memorial Portraits from Roman Africa
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Robin Jensen, Vanderbilt University

One of the characteristic pictorial art forms in the ancient Mediterranean world, was the funerary portrait. This paper will consider the funerary portraits from the early Christian world, especially the tomb mosaics of Roman Africa, with special attention to the interplay of costume, facial features, and gesture. Since accompanying inscriptions are part of the overall composition of the portrait, adding details of name, age, and status they will be included in examination of the construction of the memorial portrait. Items in the iconographic field (candles, birds, flowers) may be of some significance. Some of the issues that will be addressed include the representation of children, special costumes for clergy, and the identification of consecrated virgins among the deceased. Style, borders, and other formal features will be discussed in relation to the dating and geographic specificity of these objects. Also considered will the the tomb portrait itself as a sign of high status.


Berbers, Romans, Vandals, and Greeks: Carthage as a Cultural Crossroad
Program Unit: Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
Robin Jensen, Vanderbilt University

The history of Christianity in Roman Africa is characterized by struggles between different competing groups, some of them quite different in ethnicity and culture (e.g., Berbers and Vandals) while others are at least arguably from the same cultural – if not ethnic context (e.g., the intra-Christian opposed camps of Catholics and Donatists). Urban Christians tended to be more Romanized than the rural population which continued to speak Punic – just as Numidian Christians were different from those who lived in Proconsular Africa. In the fifth century Arian Vandals took over churches that belonged to Romanized Catholics. A century later, after the Byzantine reconquest, the churches were occupied by the Greek-speaking Orthodox who introduced their own liturgy, saints, and traditions, building new churches but also retaking churches from Vandals who had taken them from Catholics, who had (sometimes) taken them from Donatists. This paper will consider the particular case and context of Carthage from the late fourth to the early sixth centuries, attending to the political, social, and cultural transitions that took place in that time span. Focusing on key architectural remains will provide a lens for looking at these transitions in a place that was always, but perhaps increasingly, "hybridized" during this period.


The Mystery of Troas: Investigating Maritime and Land Routes to Clarify the Role of Alexandria Troas in Commerce and Religion
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Robert Jewett, University of Heidelberg

The importance of Alexandria Troas in Greco-Roman maritime strategy and in the early Christian mission has long been recognized, but neither the road network nor the function of the artificial harbor for ancient sailing vessels have been thoroughly investigated. The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World identifies "minor roads" north and south from Alexandria Troas, and the only road eastward from the city is also identified as "minor" and links up with what has been identified as a major north/south route between the minor towns of Gargara and Ophroneian. No route extends into the rich Skamander valley toward Skepsis, Argyria, Argiza and Pericharxis, which is a mysterious situation of the only large metropolitan city in a region being cut off from its agricultural and mining hinterland. This is also an important gap in the reconstruction of Paul's travels from Galatia to Alexandria Troas, the exact course of which also remains a mystery. The illustrated lecture reports the discovery of paved roads to the north, south, and east of Alexandria Troas in the expeditions of "The Troas Project" in 2005-07, working in cooperation with the archaeological team excavating the city under the direction of Prof. Elmar Schwertheim. Recent discoveries in the city will also be reported, along with plans to investigate the function of the harbor and the itineraries in Acts by reconstructing a replica of a Roman coastal merchant vessel. Modern survey techniques and a form of experimental, nautical archaeology promise to throw light on the mystery of Troas.


Administration of Phoenicia in the Achaemenid Empire: A Case for Managed Autonomy
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Vadim Jigoulov, University of Michigan

The question of administration of Phoenicia, as well as other entities under the Achaemenid empire, has been raised in a number of recent publications. Some scholars have proposed that the Achaemenids preferred a laissez-faire style of governance, whereas others insist that the Persian empire either controlled some aspects of local political affairs, or carried out the governance of subjugated lands through bureaucrats appointed by the Great King. As for the Persian-period Phoenician city-states themselves, scholars have generally proposed the idea of a considerable degree of independence from the empire. One of the major arguments for this independence has been the Phoenician trading activity in the Levant and the Mediterranean. This paper will attempt to modify this notion and propose an idea of “managed autonomy” as an administrative system wherein Phoenician city-states were allowed to run their affairs largely unhindered, still within the realm of the empire.


Use of the Old Testament in Indian Christian Theology with Focus on Some Recent Trends
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Rajkumar Boaz Johnson, North Park University Theological Seminary

The structure and thought of the Hebrew Bible is very close to the thought structure in Indian Philosophy and Religions. Yet traditionally, most of the attention was given to the development of Christology in Indian Christian Theology. This is true in the examination of the writings of people like Brahmobandav Upadhyaya, Appaswamy, etc. In more recent times the focus has been on the thought of theologians like M.M. Thomas, and the Dalit theologians, whose focus has been on social justice issues. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of work on how Indian Christian Theology and the historic Indian Church have used the Old Testament in formulating a holistic theology in the Indian context. This paper will seek to examine the use of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the Indian Christian Church- in its formation of identity, in worship, in its development of an existence in a pluralistic society, etc. The paper hopes to take a step forward from the works of more recent scholars like D.N. Premnath. It will examine the use of the Old Testament historically, especially the use of Poetry and Wisdom Literature in Bhakti models, as well as, in the works of more recent theologies.


Of Treasures and Tropes: Job 28 and Gilgamesh
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Scott C. Jones, Covenant College

While no one doubts its poetic genius, the conceptual background of the search for wisdom in Job 28 remains a matter of debate. This paper sets Job 28 in dialogue with the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic in order to highlight some of the cognitive metaphors behind the biblical poem. No genetic relationship between the texts is assumed. However, comparison is facilitated by the fact that both Job 28 and Gilgamesh are didactic wisdom poems which are governed by a “violent search” trope. Against the background of the famous Mesopotamian epic, this paper develops an interpretation of Job 28:1-11 that attends especially to its cosmic dimensions and its epic coloring. Interpreting the biblical poem in light of the search for wisdom in Gilgamesh suggests the fruitfulness of reading Job 28:1-11 as condensed heroic poetry. The typical technical reading is not denied, but it is suggested that the rich mythological symbolism of these verses is equally significant for interpretation. Nevertheless, these cosmic dimensions do not necessitate understanding God as the subject, as some have suggested recently. Rather, the strong mythological coloration in the first section of the poem is at home in epic poetry (such as Gilgamesh), where humans accomplish incredible feats which often take them into the realm of the gods, affecting human society and even world order.


Contrapuntal Hermeneutics: Semantics, Edward W. Said, and a New Approach to Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Alissa Jones Nelson, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

The work of Edward W. Said continues, nearly four years after his death, to be the subject of heated intellectual and political debate. Said has made significant contributions to semiotics, particularly to the field of semantics and the study of textual meanings in the postmodern and postcolonial worlds. This paper will discuss Said’s contribution to semantics in the form of his concept of contrapuntal reading and will examine the ways in which this concept could be helpfully applied to the field of biblical hermeneutics. The first section will outline the nature of textual interpretation in Said’s work, particularly his emphasis on the place of the signifier and the ways in which his thought on the issues of subjectivity, the relationship of knowledge to power, the role of the intellectual, and his understanding and use of the terms “secular” and “religious” are relevant to this emphasis. This will serve as a necessary basis for the second section, which will examine in greater detail Said’s concept of contrapuntal reading and its adaptability and applicability to biblical hermeneutics. Finally, the third section will argue for the use of contrapuntal reading as a tool to enable a dialogical exchange between vernacular and academic hermeneutics and for the possibility of multiple interpretations coexisting in counterpoint.


The Prayer of Azariah (Septuagint Daniel 3): Sources and Origin
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Jan Joosten, Marc Bloch University

The Prayer of Azariah, one of the additions to Greek Daniel (DanLXX 3:25-45, separately transmitted as Ode 7), is widely considered to go back to a Hebrew or Aramaic prayer originally unconnected to the Book of Daniel. The text is a fine example of “scripturalized” prayer as it developed during the Second Temple period. Although it expresses some strikingly original conceptions, the language throughout follows biblical models. What has been insufficiently observed hitherto is the extent to which the Greek text of the Prayer is rooted in the Septuagint version. Some passages can hardly be explained otherwise than by supposing that they represent creative rewriting of verses of the Greek Bible. This phenomenon suggests that the Prayer was originally composed in Greek. It appears to reflect a very early stage in the reception history of the Septuagint—contemporary with Jewish Hellenistic authors such as Aristobulus, and much earlier than Philo or the New Testament. If the Prayer of Azariah was originally written in Greek, this sets the question of its origin in a new light. Rather than being an independent Hebrew prayer secondarily incorporated into the Book of Daniel, one might ask whether it was not from the start created in order to function in its present context. Several elements of the Prayer, notably the theology of martyrdom it develops, could indeed confirm this hypothesis.


Gender and Sexuality in the Book of Judges
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Renate Jost, Augustana University

This paper is for the panel Gender, Sexuality and the Body: The Transformation of Feminist Biblical Studies


The Leuven Hypothesis in C/catholic Perspective
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Peter J. Judge, Winthrop University

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Quotation of Isaiah 6:9–10 in the New Testament: With Emphasis on the Quotation in Matthew 13:14–15
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Chang-Wook Jung, Chongshin University

Matthew’s quotation of Isa 6:9-10 in Mt 13:14-15 betrays some intriguing elements which are different from his quotations in other parts. First, though usually deviating from the LXX for the so-called fulfillment quotations, he adopts the verbatim of the LXX in Mt 13:14-15. Second, the fulfillment introductory formula in this passage is different from the one frequently used in the Gospel; it is modified by omitting the conjunction i;na (in order that) which clearly points to the purpose of the quoted OT passage. Finally, this is the only instance in which the fulfillment quotation is presented not as coming from his hands but from Jesus’ mouth. Why did Matthew decide to deviate the common way to quote the OT? This study purports to examine this problem by looking at the context of Mt 13:14-15. The study will also compare the quotation of Isa 6:9-10 in Matthew with that in other NT books, especially in Mark 4:12 and Jn 12:40 where the verbatim departs from the LXX. The study will investigate how Matthew, different from other Gospel writers, quotes Isa 6:9-10 according to his own purpose.


Combining Key Methodologies in Johannine Studies
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Felix Just, Santa Clara University

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Christ and His Disciples in Gnostic Dialogues
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Michael Kaler, McMaster University/University of Toronto

Gnostic dialogues between Christ and his disciples view these disciples in a variety of ways. It is common to find one or more disciples singled out for special praise (or blame), but the way in which this is done and the identity (identities) of the disciple(s) so "honoured" can vary greatly from text to text. These issues can be very significant for our reading of the text in question, and our determination of its original Sitz im Leben. In this paper I will expose the range of ways in which these situations are presented (paying special attention to the Gospel of Judas), provide a summary and overview, and will briefly link them to contemporary Hellenistic teacher/disciple relationships as shown through the extant literature on holy men and philosophical teachers.


Exorcism in Antioch: Understanding the Ritualization of Urban Space in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Dayna Kalleres, University of California, San Diego

By the late fourth century, Christian initiation in the eastern cities of the empire had developed into an elaborate process rooted in ecclesial space. John Chrysostom, for example, described the three-day baptism staged in Antioch’s Great Church, during which time the building was closed to all but the participants. Earlier liturgical as well as patristic scholars have conventionally invoked Arnold Van Gennup’s liminality or Victor Turner’s ritual process when analyzing this event. Consequently, regularity, formality and communal exclusivity have emerged as central characteristics of the urban Easter baptism. By contrast, current late antique scholars employ recent theorists who challenge the notion of static ritual as well as a ritual’s association with a designated location. Catherine Bell’s ritualized body, rooted in Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus, informs interpreters’ attempts not only to loosen a ceremony from a space, but also to interrogate the essentializing effect of those categories when attempting to understand the more complex aspects of ritualization. To that end, this paper focuses on the practice of exorcism within the baptismal ritual. As John Chrysostom described in his Catecheses, this rite occurred not only in baptism but also recurrently during the weeks prior to final initiation. This paper contends that catechumens gained a “ritual mastery” or an embodied sense of semiological schemes within such exorcism practices. These ritual agents, then, reproduced that field of knowledge and reality both in ecclesial baptism as well as the environs beyond the church. Textual evidence suggests how Christians in late fourth century Antioch might “body forth” anti-demonically in other spaces of the city: the market place, open areas of the church, local shrines, as well as other religious buildings. Finally, the paper addresses how these exorcisms interacted with analogous activity elsewhere, looking specifically at exorcistic practices surrounding the martyr shrines within the city and the cemetery.


Jesus, Wisdom, and Matthew’s Place within Judaism
Program Unit: Matthew
John Kampen, Methodist Theological School in Ohio

Further exploration of the use of wisdom allusions and traditions in the development of the portrayal of Jesus within the Gospel of Matthew is now possible because of continued research on the wisdom texts from the Qumran corpus. Additional work on understanding the relationship of wisdom and apocalyptic, particularly in texts such as 4QInstruction, provides a more adequate basis for understanding the use of wisdom in its relationship to Jesus within the gospel. New insights with regard to social context result from these developments, as well as related observations on literary form and genre. Utilizing the perspectives developed from that research, this paper focuses on the relationship of the use of wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount, especially the Beatitudes, and its development in Chapter 11 in light of the material in 4Q525 (Beatitudes) and ancillary texts. The implications of this research are then formulated for related material in the gospel such as chapters 11-13, the section of the composition in which the term “wisdom” is actually employed, 23:34-39 and 28:16-20. Attention to social context receives significant attention.


The Mesha Inscription and Iron Age II Water Systems: A Revised Proposal
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Jonathan Kaplan, Harvard University

The Mesha Inscription details the construction of water systems at both Baal-Meon and Dibon (lines 9, 23-25). Mesha speaks of having made an ’šwh? in these two towns. The nature of this water system remains ambiguous in the text except for its distinction from private household cisterns (br; lines 24-25). In 1969 Y. Yadin identified the ’šwh? with the monumental water systems of the type present at Megiddo, Hazor, Gezer, and Gibeon. Recently, P. King and L. E. Stager have argued against Yadin’s suggestion and instead have correlated ’šwh? with the type of well-planned reservoirs present at Arad, Beth-Shemesh, Tel Sheva, and Kadesh Barnea. In this paper, I will first reexamine the meaning of ’šwh? and related hydrological terms in the Mesha Inscription and then explore the arguments made by Yadin and King and Stager against the backdrop of Iron Age II water systems in Israel and Judah. I will argue that King and Stager’s correlation of the ’šwh? with the southern group of water systems is highly probable and is further buttressed by evidence from the Copper Scroll (3Q15). I will also propose, building on linguistic observations made by J. A. Emerton and S. Ahituv, that the northern group of water systems may be correlated with the term mkrtt in line 25 of the Mesha Inscription.


Presentation of Septuaginta Deutsch (Part II)
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Martin Karrer, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal

The translation of the Septuagint into German will be published in summer 2007 by the German Bible Society. The presentation aims at the clarification of the scholarly decisions concerning the German project and marks some perspectives of the translation which contribute to Septuagint research in general.


Who Loves the Pastorals and Why?
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Marianne Bjelland Kartzow, University of Oslo

The last decades’ scholarship on the Pastoral Epistles has shown a very interesting tendency: two kinds of scholars, both challenging the traditional historical-critical perspective, have embraced these texts, although reaching different conclusions. Since the 1980s, feminists have studied the Pastorals and "read against the grain" in order to find evidence for proclaiming that women were important contributors among the first Christians. In recent years the letters have been studied to unmask structures of power and dominance. At the same time, though often not in dialogue, conservative Christian scholars have also devoted themselves to the Pastoral Epistles. Their focus has been to “save” Paul from pseudonymity and thus retain the infallibility of Scripture, or they use the Pastorals’ theology to legitimate church order, hierarchy and codes of behavior. With a hermeneutics of suspicion this paper will look at studies representative of these positions. Which passages are in focus? What are the arguments, frameworks and theoretical positions? And finally, is it possible for these two perspectives to interrelate?


Apocalypse Now: Hegemonic Discourse, Veiling, and Everyday Violence in the Post 9/11 World
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Shelina Kassam, University of Toronto

Academics, journalists, politicians and commentators refer to 9/11 as the starting place for the ‘new’ ideology and global politics, a so-called “New World Order”. While 9/11 is certainly a watershed moment, its political discourse is not new: it is a continuation of classical Orientalist discourse mapping the world into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ According to this discursive tract, ‘we’ are civilized, democratic, free, righteous, while ‘they’ are uncivilized, different, primitive and tyrannical. Combined with the language of ‘threat’ and ‘security’, this discursive tract has become naturalized as legitimate political and public discourse. Biblical metaphors play an important role in reinforcing this discursive tract and ‘story.’ From the use of scriptural metaphors and language in the Crusades to the ‘axis of evil’, this (ab)use contributes to a sense of a threatening apocalypse prevented only through the additional violence of a ‘War against Terror’, which again finds its support in biblical rhetoric. This discourse is an important tool in the continued violence against the ‘other’, specifically Muslims, in the post-9/11 world. Against this backdrop, the ‘other’ is viewed as a legitimate target of violence—through war or everyday violence perpetuated against individual Muslims. The veiled Muslim woman is the site of furious debate within hegemonic discourse and, in recent years, the veil has been a salient signifier of the “otherness” of Islam. Grounded in notions of latent Orientalism (Said, 1978), and the gendered nature of Orientalist discourse (Yegenoglu, 1998), this paper outlines the hegemonic discourse relating to the Bible and the narrative of Islam in the post-9/11 world, and traces its genealogy through Orientalist and neo-Orientalist discourse. It analyzes debates around the hijab and niqab in Canada and the United Kingdom within the context of this discourse and the global political, religious, and ideological climate of the post-9/11 world.


The Significance of the Work of the CAD for Biblical Studies and the Lexicography of the Other Major Ancient Near Eastern Languages
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Stephen A. Kaufman, Hebrew Union College

Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic have been conversation partners, accessories after the fact, and occasionally victims of Akkadian lexicography since the Royal Asiatic Society staged a contest to prove Akkadian deciphered 150 years ago. The completion of the magisterial Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, with its thousands of pages of translated context organized by period and genre, constitutes a powerful tool for historical research as well as cognate West Semitic lexicography. But: effective use of this tool requires a minimal understanding of Sumerian and Akkadian, and the riverine civilizations of Mesopotamia. Based on years of teaching and Aramaic lexicography, I will discuss theoretical and practical guidelines that might assist the budding young Alttestamentler concerning the role of the CAD in his or her career, both as a teacher and as a research scholar.


"You Shall Love the Lord Your God": On the Interpellation of the Ancient Israelite Subject
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Robert S. Kawashima, University of Florida

The Marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser, in his dialectical analysis of the subject, posits a formative speech-act between a first (“I”) and second (“you”) person, which he calls “interpellation.” Not coincidentally, he illustrates it with an incident from the Hebrew Bible: “God thus defines himself as the Subject par excellence, . . . who interpellates his subject, the individual subjected to him by his very interpellation, i.e. the individual named Moses. And Moses, interpellated-called by his Name, having recognized that it ‘really’ was he who was called by God, recognizes that he is a subject, a subject of God.” According to Althusser, it is in and through this encounter between the Self and Authority that the subject is constituted. Though the biblical text here merely provides an occasion for his description of a modern philosophical concept, he does draw attention to a genuine, noteworthy feature of biblical religious thought. For this encounter is contingent — it could have failed to take place. Mythic thought, in contrast, defines the relation joining the human and divine worlds as a necessary fact established in time immemorial — what Eliade famously refers to as illud tempus. One might damage this relationship, incurring the wrath of the gods, but one neither chooses it nor rejects it. According to various biblical traditions, however, each Israelite must enter into relationship with Yahweh as a conscious decision within history — whence the covenant. Biblical thought, in other words, conceived of the subject in historical terms, radically transforming the “mythic” concept of the self. Thus, while Foucault and others have located the beginnings of reflection on the subject in Greek or Greco-Roman philosophy, it arguably already appeared in pre-exilic biblical traditions. It is this newly conceptualized ethical problematic, located within the subject, that I will describe in this paper.


Scripture, Interpretation, or Authority? Tracing the Motives in Jesus’ Conflicts on Legal Issues
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Thomas Kazen, Stockholm School of Theology

The attitude of the historical Jesus to legal issues such as sabbath, purity, divorce or fasting has been a bone of content all through the various “quests”. The picture of Jesus in sharp opposition to Jewish law either in principle or in practice is no longer viable. Recent studies confirm that the historical Jesus must be viewed within his own context of Second Temple Judaism. This does not mean, however, that he had no conflicts with his contemporaries over questions of law and legal interpretation. It should rather be expected that he participated in such intra-Jewish conflicts over various issues of Torah and halakah as we know of from ancient sources. Although we may be fairly certain of what some of these conflicts concerned, there is a problem in sorting out the arguments. What exactly are the reasons for disagreement on particular points? What motives may be traced behind various standpoints? Which of the motives and priorities found in the Jesus tradition are to be ascribed to early Christians rather than to the historical Jesus? Various suggestions are examined in this paper: scripture vs. paradosis, compassion vs. cult, creation principle vs. scriptural law, interpretation vs. interpretation, authority vs. authority, or the urgency of the kingdom as overruling other priorities. Should we expect to find one general principle governing all issues, or is there evidence for Jesus’ motives and arguments varying from case to case?


Emotions, Biblical Interpretation, and the Ethics of Ethnicity
Program Unit: Character Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Thomas Kazen, Stockholm School of Theology

In modern western society, human morality is often regarded as a predominantly rational phenomenon. Such views are increasingly questioned by cognitive sciences. Results from developmental psychology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience suggest a crucial role for emotions in the formation of human morality. In addition, a complicated interplay between biology and culture confound our preconceived boundaries between ethics and conventions. Texts about foreigners and immigrants are found throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New testament. These texts often display contradictory ethics; some view foreigners as threatening outsiders while others advocate inclusion and/or compassion. Behind such diverse reactions we may trace very basic human emotions such as fear, disgust and empathy. These emotions are shared with a number of animals and have an evolutionary, biological basis in the human being, but are further developed through culture and somehow mitigated or balanced against each other. The present paper employs tools from disciplines belonging to the field of cognitive science, to analyze and discuss a selection of legal and hortatory texts, dealing with foreigners and immigrants. The aim is to explore a still fairly uncommon avenue for relating ethical issues to biblical interpretation.


Hosea’s (In)Fertility God
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Alice Keefe, University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point

Discussion of God in Hosea has typically been conditioned by the premise that Hosea champions a dualistic metaphysics that insulates the deity from any implication in nature, sexuality or the cycles of fertility. This premise however is disturbed by the Hosea’s own characterization of God as a fertility God, as many have noted. This paper will examine Hosea’s double-edged metaphors of God as a deity of both fertility and infertility, as one who brings and withholds the rains, and as one who brings forth children and gives miscarrying wombs. This language of divine blessings and wrath points to an understanding of God who is similar in some ways to other Iron Age fertility deities, but who also possesses the will and the power to utterly reverse his blessing powers, transforming fertility into infertility and arable land into desert.


Who Are the Devil's Children? John 8 in the Early Church
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Kyle Keefer, Converse College

The passage most central to the discussion of anti-Judaism in the Gospel of John is 8:31-59. Many scholars in the past two decades have explored the question of whether anti-Judaism is inherent to the gospel itself. As a way of broadening this discussion, I explore in this essay the ways that this passage was read in pre-Nicene Christianity. Sometimes this passage was used by interpreters in arguments against Jews, but often interpreters glossed over the Jewish aspect of the text, instead labelling other Christian opponents as those who have the Devil as their father. What I try to show in this essay is that even if the anti-Judaism of chapter 8 is often de-emphasized, the passage nevertheless functions in early Christianity similar to the way scholars have assumed it did in the Johannine community.


Abraham Lincoln and Biblical Rhetoric
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Kyle Keefer, Converse College

In the past decade, scholars (Garry Wills, Douglas Wilson, e.g.) have given renewed attention to Lincoln as a crafter of words, both oral and written. One obvious feature of Lincoln's speeches and writings is his indebtedness to the Bible as a source. While a few studies have looked at the Bible’s influence on Lincoln’s speeches, the dynamic between specific biblical texts and Lincoln as interpreter remains relatively unexplored. Studies of the “House Divided” Speech, for instance, rarely look at the context of Mark 3 or Matthew 12. In this paper, I explore some key writings and speeches of Lincoln alongside their biblical citations in order to underscore how he used the Bible in the formation of both his public and private declarations. I am especially interested in the question of Lincoln’s hermeneutic and how his interpretation of the Bible was commensurate with a larger pattern of his humanist and romantic reading. With regard to content, I will focus on the question of “union” and how Lincoln wove biblical themes together with his understanding of the dissolubility of the United States.


Genre, Sources, and History
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Craig S. Keener, Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University

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The Circumcision of Jesus (Luke 2:21) and the Formation of Luke's Infancy Narrative
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Jeffrey Keiser, McGill University

Among extant ancient gospels, including “infancy gospels” of considerable antiquity, only the Gospel of Luke indicates that Jesus was circumcised. This observation shall serve as the starting point for an analysis of Luke’s use and transformation of texts and topoi from the book of Genesis (LXX), especially in relation to Abraham’s children, Isaac and Ishmael, and Abraham’s grandchildren, Jacob and Esau. Particular attention shall be given to the parallel Lucan accounts of promise, circumcision, and naming as marked sites of intertextuality with a definite bearing on Luke’s portrayal of John the Baptizer and Jesus. I shall further argue that Luke unfolds a tale of reconciliation that is best understood as a counterpoint to early Jewish variations on the theme of Abraham’s “seed,” as represented in vignettes from the Book of Jubilees and the letters of the Apostle Paul.


A Performance of the Text: The Adulteress' Entrance into John's Gospel
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Chris Keith, University of Edinburgh

A long-held bias for the “original version” of a text and “the best and earliest manuscripts” has caused scholars to overlook the fact that the Pericope Adulterae presents a unique phenomenon. This passage is the only example of a complete Jesus tradition with no other parallels in the canonical gospels being accepted into a canonical gospel after that gospel had been written and accepted in Christian communities and, perhaps more importantly, into the fourfold collection. In this regard, I will here focus upon what the insertion of this story into manuscripts of John’s Gospel says about several overlapping issues in textual criticism and ancient media criticism. Specifically, I will firstly argue that the Pericope Adulterae seriously problematizes the reigning scholarly assumption that written tradition existed in a “static” mode while oral tradition existed in a “performance” mode. Rather, this particular textual variant (inter alia) demonstrates that texts were also malleable and capable of “performing,” i.e., responding to a particular audience. Secondly, I will argue that while the Pericope Adulterae is not originally Johannine, it is a Johannine phenomenon insofar as it is an observable stage in the transmission of the Fourth Gospel. That the Fourth Gospel was capable of absorbing a non-Johannine (possibly oral) tradition suggests that its first readers had different conceptions of the boundaries of “Johannine” tradition than modern scholars. Thirdly, I will propose that the newer methodology of social (or cultural) memory, since it views both manuscripts and oral tradition as cultural artifacts, provides useful approaches for assessing NT textual variants and the interaction of oral and written Jesus tradition.


Implications of the Oral-Scribal Approach to Tanach Studies
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Werner H. Kelber, Rice University

What has loosely been called the oral-textual (=scribal) approach has provided humanistic scholarship with new insights and enormous intellectual challenges. Far from being merely an embellishment to textual studies, something to be added to the existing body of purely literary scholarship, the oral-scribal approach is testing both the work of interpretation and critical theory. What is involved is far more than “oral” versus “scribal,” but “an inadequate theory of the verbal art” (Foley). This presentation will address three aspects. First, it will articulate some programmatic theses concerning biblical studies and the oral-scribal study of the Tanach. Second, it will present a brief synthesis of existing oral-scribal scholarship of the Tanach. Third, it will seek to develop traces of future studies of the Tanach from the perspective of oral-scribal sensitivities.


Epilepsy in Late Antique Christian Writings
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Nicole Kelley, Florida State University

This paper will examine the treatment of epilepsy and epileptics in the exegetical and theological writings of ancient Christian authors such as Origen of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea and John Chrysostom. Following a general discussion of epilepsy in the ancient world, the essay will focus on the various representations of epileptics that are present in these texts, as well as the medical and religious explanations for epilepsy that are presupposed by them. The paper concludes with reflections on what these authors’ understanding of epilepsy reveals about the role of sickness and healing in the Christian economy of salvation.


"And There Will Be Terrors and Great Signs from Heaven": Biblical Scholarship, Violence, and Genocide
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Shawn Kelley, Daemen College

In recent years, New Testament scholarship has begun to confront its often deeply ingrained antiJewish prejudices. The Nazi holocaust haunts this debate with a presence all the more powerful because of the silence that often surrounds it. In this paper I wish to drag the topic of genocide out of the shadows in which it lurks, placing it at the center of my analysis. I will begin by identifying some of the ways that the Nazi genocide informs recent analysis of early Christian antiJudaism and scholarly antiJewish prejudice. The analysis will identify the ways that the genocide functions as an (often unspoken) warrant for and against certain reading strategies and theoretical positions. This section of the paper will tease out the assumptions about the relationship between Biblical and scholarly antiJewish prejudice and the Nazi genocide. This analysis will be designed to bring to light scholarly assumptions about the relationship between antiJewish ideologies and the Nazi holocaust. In the second section of the paper I will put these assumptions in dialogue with recent holocaust and comparative genocide studies. I will pay particular attention to some recent theoretical debates regarding the nature of genocidal regimes (i.e. the straight path versus the crooked path; the intentionalists versus the functionalists) and to the disputed question of the place of race in explaining the motivation of perpetrators (i.e. Browning, Goldhagen, Lifton, Koonz). In both instances, holocaust scholarship simultaneously recognizes and problematizes the role of ideology in constructing and implementing genocide. Attention to these debates could help biblical scholars think through the knotty problem of the relationship between race, religion, and genocidal violence.


In the Wake of My Mother
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Meira Kensky, University of Chicago

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Repetition as Narrative Tactic in 1 Samuel 28
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Grenville Kent, University of Manchester

Robert Alter called repetition '[o]ne of the most imposing barriers' between the modern reader and the artistry of the text. He provided a 'scale of Biblical repetition' from Leitwort through motif, theme, sequence of actions and type scene. (Art of Biblical Narrative) Literary theory and film theory (the analysis of narrative cinema) also discuss the technique of repetition, and can offer to Biblical studies further refinements on this model, revealing subtleties in the way that repetition contributes to the development of plot, characterisation and theme. This paper uses literary and filmic theory of repetition to examine 1 Samuel 28, a pericope late in the narrative of Saul's decline, and demonstrates how it picks up threads of plot and character from earlier in the narrative and thus builds on themes. It also suggests that the artistry of repetition and near-repetition, while not at all denying various sources behind the text, does tend to unify the overall narrative, and suggests intentionality in style and substance on the part of the editor of the final form.


Rome as an Alternative to Alexandria in the Early Transmission of Philo's Works and Philonism
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph's University

The most popular reconstruction of the early history of Philo's works and ideas is that they were directly transmitted from Philo through Jewish communities in Alexandria to the earliest Christian communities in Alexandria. In this view these Christian communities survived the devastating revolt of 116-117 and transmitted various forms of Philonism during the second century, including forms associated with "Gnosticism." This reconstruction is assumed in extrapolations from second-century Christianity in Alexandria back to first-century Judaism and Christianity in Alexandria. Despite its tantalizing simplicity, this reconstruction has become increasingly untenable. First, recent research on the revolt in 116-117 has shown that its suppression was much more devastating than once supposed. Jewish and Christian communities in Egypt could not have survived to pass on Philo's works or ideas. Second, much of the purported evidence for Philonism in second-century Christian documents from Egypt can be better explained as a recent development in Egyptian Christianity. Extrapolation of first-century Jewish or Christian communities from these documents is anachronistic. Third, the use of Philo in Egypt in the late second century appears with a flood of Christian and Jewish literature imported into Egypt. Philo's works had circulated widely enough before the revolt in 116-117 that their appearance in Egypt after this point might also be due to transmission from another region. This paper will suggest that the survival of Philo's works and ideas up to the middle of the second century is due largely to their transmission in Rome, not Alexandria. Philo sent copies of his works to Herodians and other elites in Rome. Philo's works and ideas were transmitted from Rome in the second century by Gentile Christian travelers and missionaries, some of whom reintroduced them to Alexandria.


Diaspora and Homeland in the Early Achaemenid Period: Community, Geography, and Demography in Zechariah 1-8
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
John Kessler, Tyndale Seminary, Canada

Zech 1-8 reflects extensively on questions of Israelite identity and destiny especially in light of the new geographic and demographic realities of the Babylonian and Persian periods. Various significant terms are used to describe the community in Yehud and the Diaspora, and attention is devoted to the relationship between the two. This text’s orientation is inclusive of the entire Israelite/Judaean Diaspora, yet ultimately idealistic and restorationist in its vision of the ultimate end of the Diaspora and repopulation of Yehud.


Reading Life: Teresa Okure’s Hermeneutics of Life
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Malebogo Kgalemang, Drew University

As the first African woman scholar of the New Testament, Teresa Okure has made immense contributions to the feminist discourse in published books, edited anthologies, journal articles, book chapters and commentaries. One of her unique contributions is the claim that first was the life, not the book thus underlying that authority lies more in life than, perhaps, in the biblical text. This paper will investigate Okure’s hermeneutic of life, its contribution and challenge to the feminist biblical discourse among African women and the wider discourse of biblical feminist discourse of liberation.


Tobit's Theological Blindness
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Micah Kiel, St. Ambrose University

The Book of Tobit is a fascinating text that employs a wide array of motifs, topoi, and traditions from the heritage of Israel and the wider culture. This paper will assess the character of Tobit and his blindness, offering three main observations. First, Tobit’s blindness is not complete until after he visits doctors. This perhaps shows the author’s mistrust of healthcare and contrasts some perspectives elsewhere in contemporaneous Jewish literature (e.g., Ben Sira). Second, Tobit’s blindness is coordinated with a theological perspective the text intends to make more problematic. Treatments of the text of Tobit often miss the fact that the simple view of retribution—often labeled Deuteronomistic and claimed as the core perspective of the book—is limited to Tobit the character within the narrative. This view of retribution is coordinated with Tobit’s blindness in such a way that the blindness functions as an assessment of Tobit’s simple view of retribution. Third, Tobit is healed by Raphael and God, not by any meritorious action on Tobit’s part. This shifts Tobit’s rhetoric in the final two chapters of the book from a direct correlation between one’s actions and God’s response to a more capricious view of God where “perhaps” God will show mercy (13:6).


John and Sibling Rivalry
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Mark Kiley, Saint John's University

This presentation explores some of antiquity's cross-cultural expressions of sibling rivalry as part of the distant horizon of the Fourth Gospel. I will pay particular attention to Roman examples in legend and law, and trace their contours through the republican and early imperial periods. I will also assess the potential these data bear for increasing our understanding of the controverted category of Johannine "Jews".


Four Springs that Ground an Experience of the Sacred
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
D. Andrew Kille, Interfaith Space

Around the turn of the 20th century, Henry Burton Sharman, graduate of the University of Chicago, developed a unique seminar method for studying the Gospels. In 1917, he published Records of the Life of Jesus, a parallel version of the Gospels, followed by a number of other books including Jesus in the Records (1918) and Jesus as Teacher (1935). Sharman’s approach involved “scientific inquiry with frank and relentless group discussion” focused on the historical Jesus during the course of six-week seminars held in Canada and the U.S. Elizabeth Boyden Howes and her colleagues fused Sharman’s seminar approach with psychological concepts from Fritz Kunkel and Carl Jung. Together, they established the Guild for Psychological Studies, and held their own Records of the Life of Jesus seminars, beginning in Southern California and then, from 1956 forward, at Four Springs in Middletown, California. The seventeen-day Records seminars, and other seminars brought together Sharman’s Socratic seminar method with the synoptic Gospels and additional material from art, music, drama, myth, movement and insights from other religious traditions. The Guild process has been influential on several subsequent developments. Walter Wink was profoundly influenced by Records seminars at Four Springs, and much of his work reflects the influence of the Guild process. Transforming Bible Study (1990) represented an effort to make the Guild process more accessible to a general audience. William Dols also attended Records seminars and brought together the educational process developed at The Educational Center in St. Louis, MO with the perspectives of the Guild to create the approach of The Bible Workbench, a bible study resource published by the Educational Center for the past fifteen years. This paper will trace the developments of the Sharman/Guild process and how it has continued in Transforming Bible Study and The Bible Workbench.


Is It Democratization? The Identity of the Audience in Proverbs 1–9 in Relationship to the Expressions “My Son,” “Sons,” and “Humanity”
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Hee Suk Kim, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

In Proverbs 1-9, the father’s vocative expressions related to son(s) appear eighteen times. A plural vocative form (banîm) may be observed on four occasions (4:1; 5:7; 7:24; 8:32), and in the other occurrences, the singular form (ben) is used. A careful examination of the literary development of this section suggests that this plural vocative is used purposefully, especially with regards to the progress of the father’s argumentation. The first occurrence (4:1) introduces the trans-generational aspect of wisdom; the last three (5:7; 7:24; 8:32) warn against the danger of the Strange Woman. In particular, the expression benê ’adam in Lady Wisdom’s speech of Prov 8:4-31 expands the more basic human aspects of ben / banîm. Hence, this paper proposes that a strategy of democratization is employed in Proverbs 1-9, which helps the audience probe their identity by means of wisdom, so as to be prepared for entering the world of individual maxims in Proverbs 10 and onward. The paper will be structured as follows: I. Literary voices in Proverbs 1-9 concerning the plurality of its audience II. The expressions ben, banîm, and benê ’adam and their intertextual development III. Implications of the democratization strategy in Proverbs 1-9 for reading Proverbs 10 and onward.


A Critique against the Lord? Reading Psalm 80 in the Context of Vindication
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Hee Suk Kim, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

In Psalm 80, vine imagery is used conspicuously with the Israelites crying out to the Lord for the purpose of their own vindication--not for divine judgment as in Isaiah 5, Ezekiel 17 etc. More strikingly, the vine imagery of verses 9-17 in Psalm 80 suggest that the Lord has caused the perishing of Israel and is therefore responsible for her restoration. In particular, the poetics of verse 17-19 demonstrate that a rhetorical device is at work, which shows the implausibility of the fall of Israel. Reading verse 17 is crucial in this regard: the third person plural “they” in verse 17b should then be understood as Israel herself, not as Israel’s enemy as in the scholarly consensus. This would persuasively demonstrate that it is the Lord, not Israel or her enemy, who should seriously take the responsibility for the fall of Israel. Hence, this paper argues that Psalm 80 speaks of a strong critique against the Lord, as a vindicatory voice, which urges the Lord to take appropriate action for the restoration of Israel. An intertextual reading of the surrounding psalms is further supportive of this argumentation. For example, Psalm 81 in particular gives a critical response to the critique against the Lord raised in Psalm 80.


Christian Biblical Interpretation of Samson's Saga in Light of Greek Tragedy
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Ho Kim, Kanana Fou Theological Seminary

Taking a glance over the Samson’s saga leaves in the memory of the reader an intense impression that his story is erotic, brutal, and eccentric. However, Heb. 11:32 in the NT introduces him as a Christian hero of faith, a paragon of martyrdom. How did the early Christians read Samson’s saga, so that Samson could be reflected on as a hero of the Christian faith? Since the NT authors saw Jesus as the ideal hero in terms of Greek tragedy, their reading and understanding of the OT in light of Greek tragedy made them discover many typological figures and events to prefigure Jesus from the OT. The thesis of this study is to argue that the early Christians read the life and death of Samson in the mold of the life and death of the typical heroes in Greek tragedy. Such reading enables them to regard the Samson’s saga as an anecdote of martyrology. Thus, this study is to disclose not only that the literary structure of Samson’s narrative parallels the deep structure of Greek tragedy, but also that the pattern of the life and death of Samson corresponds to that of the heroes in antiquity. For this purpose, the methodology employed is (1) to reconstruct the deep structure of Greek tragedy and to project it upon the literary structure of the Samson narrative; (2) to reconstruct the typical image of the ancient heroes and to reflect it on the image of Samson. The source employed is Aristotle’s Poetics. As for the scope, this study does not assert that Samson’s saga was composed under the influence of Greek tragedy. It is to analogize the probability that, when Greek tragedy-oriented Christians read Samson’s saga, they found affinity between Greek tragedy and the saga, and understood Samson as a tragic hero.


Mrs. Pilate: A First Century Memsahib? A Postcolonial Reading of Matthew 27:19
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Jean K. Kim, Moravian Theological Seminary

Matthew’s ambiguous attitude towards Gentile women reaches its climax at his inclusion of Pilate’s wife. As contrasted to Joseph’s dream about Jesus birth, Pilate’s wife’s dream about Jesus appears very briefly, and has rarely drawn scholarly attention. Just like Gentile women introduced in Jesus’ genealogy, Pilate’s wife, as an outsider within the text, is not allowed to give her own voice. With a postcolonial postulation that Matthew might be a border-work written under the Roman imperial context, this essay argues that Matthew employs Pilate’ wife, the female colonizer, as a decolonizing strategy to cope with the identity crisis that his community was undergoing in transitioning from deviant Jews to true heirs of Israel in the context of the Roman empire. In the border-land of the colonial contact zone, Matthew, as a border-writer, constructs the subjectivities of Pilate and Jesus in a hybrid space, and tries to subvert Roman as well as Jewish authority through his re-conceptualization and mimicry of either side of his opposition. However, inattention to gender in reading Mt 27:19 obscures the role of Pilate’s wife in Matthew. The coming of female colonizer/memsahib to the empire can be seen as the beginning of the end of imperial domination, as a postcolonial writer (Richard Dyer) has observed. Thus, in both British and Roman imperial contexts, the presence of colonial women disrupts male power through their disapproval of male governance. From this postcolonial feminist perspective, this essay suggests that Matthew includes Pilate’s wife’s dream, which is both an affirmation of Jesus’ authority and a sign of Roman decline, in order to reaffirm the hope that Jesus will save his people (1:21). In so doing, Matthew completes the chiastic pattern that began with his inclusion of Gentile women in the genealogy – but only in situations where Israel was endangered.


Strategic Arrangement of Royal Psalms in the Last Two Books of the Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Jinkyu Kim, Nyack College

It is well known that the royal psalms, such as Pss 2, 72, and 89, are strategically positioned at the seams of Books I-III. However, no systematic study has been done regarding the arrangement of royal psalms as a whole in Books IV-V. Thus, the goal of this study is to identify the organizing principle of the royal psalms (Pss 101, 110, 132, and 144) in these books. This study presupposes a difference in editorial techniques between Books I-III and IV-V (which many scholars already accept). Nevertheless, the final editor made use of a similar positioning technique of royal psalms in the subgroups of Books IV-V. There are six subgroups in Books IV-V: Pss 90-110 (or two parallel subgroups: Pss 90-101 and 102-110), Pss 111-118, Ps 119, Pss 120-134, Pss 135-145, and Pss 146-150. Besides Pss 146-150, which is the conclusion of the entire Psalter, the structure of Books IV-V centers on the giant wisdom psalm (Ps 119), which has been strategically positioned in the center of the composition. The wisdom psalm entrenched with torah motifs is closely related to royal psalms in that the destiny of the Davidic covenant and kingship is primarily dependent on the king's keeping of the torah. What is important in this grouping is that the royal psalms are located at the end or near the end of each group of psalms. The group of Hallel psalms (111-118) is an exception which forms a grand doxology following Ps 110 (a strategically positioned royal psalm). Each royal psalm is also followed by a doxological psalm(s) similar to the endings of Books I-III. By arranging the royal psalms in Books IV-V strategically, the editor(s) intended that the entire Psalms in these books, as in Books I-III, be understood eschatologically.


The Origin of the Biblical Hebrew Infinitive Construct
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Yoo-Ki Kim, Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary

Grammarians have long assumed that the Biblical Hebrew infinitive construct has an origin different from that of the infinitive absolute, while using the terminologies that seem to presuppose a certain relationship between the two forms. They suppose that the infinitive construct shares a common origin with the imperative, but not with the infinitive absolute. However, this assumption comes mainly from the morphological identity of the infinitive construct with the imperative in the basic (Qal) stem formation of strong verbs, without strong supportive evidence, either language-internal or comparative. This paper examines this standard hypothesis, held by most scholars, as against the alternative hypothesis, proposed by A. J. Fox, who posits a common origin for both the infinitive construct and the infinitive absolute. We investigate the morphological features and syntactic behavior of the Biblical Hebrew infinitive construct to find out which of the two hypotheses better account for its linguistic features. Among other Semitic infinitives, Akkadian infinitives will be discussed for comparative evidence. From these examinations, we conclude that Biblical Hebrew shows a tendency toward verbalization of the infinitive construct, lending support to the alternative hypothesis. Furthermore, certain types of nouns are also verbalized resulting in their functioning as infinitive constructs.


Exploring Theological Themes of Three Figurative Body Discourses in 1 Corinthians
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Yung Suk Kim, Virginia Union University

The paper explores theological themes in relation to three figurative body discourses evident in a close reading of 1 Corinthians.


Rereading Basileia and Dikaiosune from a Communal Perspective (Matthew 6:25–34) in a Korean and African-American Context
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Yung Suk Kim, Virginia Union University

In the life context of materialism and individualism, Mt 6:33 is often read with a two-step blessing formula that applies to individuals: “if you strive for basileia of God ?” (6:33a) and “all these things will be given ?” as a result of it (6:33b). Often this verse has been read to support the reading of two-step blessing formula in the sense of do it and get it. Or some consider its relationship as a matter of priority of the kingdom of God (as equivalent to the future kingdom of God or to the otherworldly heaven) over against the material world here and now, by emphasizing the adverb proton. By contrast, this paper argues that, when read from a community-centered context (my native Korea, yet also other communities today, including in the U.S) 33b can be viewed not as a resulting blessing statement of 33a but as a qualifying statement of 33a. 33 is read as a one-step statement. The state of basileia and dikaiosune requires the state of community in which all things should be shared (justice). In this sense, 33b can be understood as “all these things (tauta panta) will proceed” for the community --the ideal community toward which one should strive, the basileia, marked by dikaiosune. This kind of community reading is supported by the irony of internal conflict in Mt 6:25-34: Why are humans not like lilies of the field or birds of the air if God cares about human needs more than lilies or birds? This irony is due to two different survival mechanisms for lilies or birds and for humans; the former naturally grow without toiling but the latter have to toil to survive, which is unnatural, as compared to lilies or birds. But this irony is resolved with 6:33 in the way that “if you strive for basileia and dikaiosune in which all things are shared and continue to be shared.” This reading awakens readers to a sharp sense of community for all and challenge their self-centered conception and/or behavior.


The Varieties of Biblical Approaches to the War against Amalek and the Seven Nations of Canaan
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Reuven Kimelman, Brandeis University

This focuses on the mentions of Amalek in Ex, Deut, and three times in Sam and asks about the propriety of reading Ex 17 and Deut 25 through the prism of I Sam 15 as opposed to 1 Sam 30 and 1 Sam 1. Similarly, the question is asked how Deut. 7 is to be read in the light of Ex 23, Lev. 18, and Num 33 along with the absence of extermination noted in Josh. Jud. Kings, and Ps. 106. This study is based on my previous articles and that of Moshe Weinfeld.


Scribal Composition, Memory, and the Order of Q Tradition in Matthew's Sermon
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Alan Kirk, James Madison University

Oral-traditional competence, the technology of writing, and memorative trafficking with written artifacts converged in the figure of the ancient scribe. Scribes were not merely copyists but tradents, that is custodians and performers of their community's normative traditions. Written artifacts of foundational traditions were activated and traversed primarily out of scribal memory. Manuscript-based tradition and its transmission, that is to say, were positioned at the interface of orality, writing, and memory. A long-standing problem in synoptic gospels scholarship is the order of the double tradition (Q) material in Matthew's Sermon, composed by a “scribe trained for the Kingdom of God, who brings out from his storehouse things old and new.” This paper re-examines this crux issue in light of our emerging knowledge of scribal practices.


Aphrodite at Aphrodisias: A Case Study in Greco-Anatolian and Roman Hybridization
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Bradford A. Kirkegaard, University of Pennsylvania

This paper employs archaeological and epigraphical evidence to examine the religious developments of one important city on the border of cultural interactions between Ionian Greece and the rise of Rome. In this confluence of cultures and through a complex process of hybridization, the city of Aphrodisias drew upon its religious identity to recraft itself in an appeal to Roman leaders for special treatment while maintaining its own local distinctiveness. With increasing Roman dominance of the region in the first century BCE, this city took advantage of the opportunity to create a language of shared piety, combining Greco-Roman with Anatolian religious constructs in order to adapt its local goddess into the highly Romanized Venus Genetrix. This language of shared piety and fides with Rome was richly inscribed on an archive wall prominently located at the entrance to its theater. The local figure Zoilos, a freedman of Augustus, through his elaborate building programs within the city provided an opportunity for the city to further re-envision itself in relationship with Rome. The city declared Zoilos a priest of their local goddess Aphrodite for life while developing new cults to Eleutheria and Demos around him. Completing a rebuilt temple to Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, the city emphasized its highly distinctive vision of its local goddess in statuary and on coinage. With the new opportunities offered by imperial cult, Aphrodisias again drew upon its connection with Augustus and its faith in its local goddess to construct a new place for itself within the Roman world. Aphrodisias played upon the opportunities offered by Roman myths and devotion to emperors in order to hybridize its local goddess and achieve its own ends. This one case study offers a model for the interactions of local cult with Roman religion in the province of Asia.


A Goddess and Her City: Aphrodisias as Offering to Aphrodite
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Bradford A. Kirkegaard, University of Pennsylvania

This paper employs archaeological and textual evidence to argue that patrons and inhabitants of Aphrodisias constructed the city – from its layout to its buildings and sculpture – as a cult offering to Aphrodite. Previous scholarship has examined the inscriptions, sculpture and individual buildings of Aphrodisias; however, no study to date has analyzed the city's development as a dedication to Aphrodite. By using this broader scope, city-as-consecration is a feature traceable throughout its entire existence. Votive offerings demonstrate the earliest stages of cult at the site. In the Roman period, Sulla and Julius Caesar dedicated gifts to the goddess. Roman leaders granted various privileges to the temple and its city, including asylum rights equaling those of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. A language of shared piety with Rome, centering on devotion to Aphrodite, inspired construction of the city from the first century BCE through the third century CE. Zoilos, freedman of Augustus and local priest of Aphrodite, built multiple structures with inscribed dedications to Aphrodite. Two families who erected the Sebasteion repeated this pattern of aristocratic euergetism. Sculpted images of Aphrodite paralleled these offerings of buildings. Individuals and the city as a group offered images of Aphrodite as votives within her shrine and throughout her city. In turn, Aphrodite, drawing on the resources of her temple, dedicated buildings to the people of her city. These buildings, inscriptions and sculptures created a civic landscape entirely devoted to Aphrodite. As a result, Aphrodisias faced particular challenges as Christianity eclipsed paganism in the fifth and sixth centuries. Dedications both to and from Aphrodite remained, even as Christians defaced the goddess' image and rebuilt her temple into their cathedral. It was precisely because Aphrodisias was so completely dedicated to Aphrodite that Christians faced such difficulty claiming the city as their own.


Cursing, "Leprosy", and the Wrath of Yahweh
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Anne Marie Kitz, Kenrick School of Theology

As we know, the Ancient Near Easterners identified ‘disease’ with a wide range of phenomena from skin blemishes to rashes to bruises to sores to any other form of spreading marks. For them disease was a sign of divine displeasure. The concept undergirding this correlation is the image of an angered deity bellowing a plethora of curses while beating the wayward offender with his hand or divine weapon. The likelihood that this type of divine conduct reflects human behavior is confirmed by two Akkadian texts; one a Middle Babylonian letter and the other an entry from a so called ‘medical commentary’. This image looms large in the use and meaning of the term nega‘. In Leviticus 13:2 Yahweh’s curse of ‘leprosy’ is described as a nega‘, a term that is customarily translated as ‘disease’. While this in and of itself would seem to make eminent sense, an examination of ng‘, whose fundamental meaning is ‘strike’ and the root from which nega‘ is derived, reveals much about a constellation of ideas and images that surround the effects of divine cursing that includes beatings that leave marks on the skin. If ‘leprosy’ is a feature of an angered deity pronouncing maledictions while simultaneously hitting the offending individual with his divine weapon, then the value system illustrated in Leviticus 13 and 14 is based on a simple premise. In the end, all of this suggests that under these circumstances the Hebrew term for ‘unclean’ functions as a euphemism for ‘cursed’. Conversely, it also implies that the term ‘clean’ bears the opposite meaning. It is a synonym for ‘blessed’.


The Study of Qumran Doctrines: Methodological Reflections
Program Unit: Qumran
Jonathan Klawans, Boston University

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The Rendering of 2 Chronicles 35–36 in 1 Esdras
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Ralph W. Klein, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

1 Esdras begins with a translation of 2 Chronicles 35-36. This paper will investigate the relationship between this Greek text’s Vorlage and the Massoretic Text of Chronicles, the significance of the two verse supplement after the equivalent of 2 Chr 35:19, and the altered function of these chapters from Chronicles in 1 Esdras.


"Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver": History in Wisdom Literature?
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Gerald A. Klingbeil, Theological Seminary, Adventist International Institute for Advanced Studies

Introductions to biblical wisdom do not usually include a section on wisdom and history. Often it is assumed that biblical wisdom literature as a genre is not really concerned with history, but emphasizes other elements of human existence, such as the training of leaders and children, or functions as a corrective to Torah, at times challenging theological or ethical traditions. The emphasis on the human condition in general and relationships between individuals is sometimes used to underline Israel’s dependence on extrabiblical wisdom literature, since YHWH’s saving acts in history are not obvious in biblical wisdom literature. The first section of this study will review the basic characteristics of OT history and historiography, which will be followed by a discussion of specific historical references found in biblical wisdom literature. The question of how major themes of OT wisdom literature interact with history and historiography is the subject of the next section. Particular attention will be given to the “God-is-in-control,” the “A-godly-life-equals-a-happy-life,” the “Building-of-God’s-house,” and the “Paradise-regained” motifs. Finally, a concise conclusion will summarize the findings of this study and will point to further research in this particular field.


The Marcionite Gospel and the Synoptic Problem
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Matthias Klinghardt, TU Dresden Germany

The most recent debate of the Synoptic Problem between proponents of the Two-Document-Hypothesis (2DH) and the Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre hypothesis, with its assumption of Luke’s dependence on Mark and Matthew, predictably led into a dead end: Both positions are cogent in their critique of their respective opponents but much less convincing in the positive answers they provide. A partial solution to this situation is provided by the inclusion in the debate of the Gospel which was used by Marcion and the Marcionites. Although this gospel (which I, for lack of a better designation, name “Mcn”) is usually regarded as a re-edition of canonical Luke, it can be demonstrated that the relation of these texts must be reversed. Only recently, two independent publications strongly suggested that Luke is an augmented re-edition of this anonymous gospel (J. B. Tyson, Marcion and Luke-Acts [Columbia: University of SC Press, 2006]; M. Klinghardt, “Markion vs. Lukas,” NTS 52 [2006]: 484-513). If “Mcn” is prior to Luke, however, the basic data of the inter-synoptic relations change considerably, and so does the model to explain them. The paper briefly summarizes the most important arguments for Mcn’s priority and then demonstrates how the picture of synoptic relations changes if Mcn is included. For this purpose the most controversial features of the synoptic relations (minor agreements; alternating primitivity of the double tradition materials) are utilized to establish the alternative solution.


The Poetic Verb in Biblical Hebrew: Research, Reflection, and Pedagogy
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Sheri Klouda, Taylor University

The syntactical function and translation problems associated with the poetic verb in the Hebrew Bible are well known. The presentation surveys recent developments in the scholarly discussion of the verb in biblical Hebrew poetry, examines how these developments contribute to a better understanding of the difficulties surrounding the syntactical role and translation of the poetic verb, and explores ways in which to employ this research as a pedagogical aid in the instruction of elementary Hebrew students.


Sacred Text and Symbolic Violence in the Epistles of Ambrose of Milan
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Jennifer Knust, Boston University

As an architect of a still tenuous imperial Christianity, Ambrose of Milan faced a dilemma: How would he convince imperial administrators, senators, fellow Italian bishops, the Christians of Milan and even the emperor himself to adopt the Nicene cause? He does so in part by presenting himself as a would-be martyr, under threat from "heretics," "Jews," and malicious judges bent on the violent destruction of God’s true church and those who defend it. No stranger to juridical torture or to the implementation of capital punishment, Ambrose, a former provincial governor, assumed that truth was legitimately extricated by means of bodily pain, though in his role as bishop he preferred to leave this work to others Invoking both sacred text and the tradition of the martyrs in his letters and sermons, he presents himself as a brave victim, ready to lose his life for the sake of Jesus (Matt 10:39; Ep. 75a [21a].8) and eager to protect fellow innocent Christians from the sword, from cudgels and from whips loaded with lead (Ep. 74 [40].29). This paper explores Ambrose’s exegesis of holy death from the executions of Jesus and Paul to the miraculous discovery of the bodies of Gervasius and Protasius, noting how scripture and tradition are employed to highlight those suffering from the fear of violence rather than from violence itself. By arguing his case as God's passionate advocate and bishop, he places himself in line with Jesus and the apostles, employing scripture and sanctified memory to divert attention toward those whose victimization is potential rather than real. This theorization of the potential martyr as primary victim works to conceal the systematic brutality involved in the newly Christian-Roman/Roman-Christian judicial system with which he was intimately involved. As such, he develops a theory of violence analogous to the current discourse of terrorism, which points sympathy away from victims of direct physical harm and toward those who fear that they may be harmed in an attempt to justify endless war.


The Eucharistic Prayers in Didache 9 and 10 and the Riddle of Didache 10:6
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Dietrich-Alex Koch, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

The character of the Eucharistic meal the prayers of Didache 9 and 10 belong to is a much debated problem. The fact that the ‚words of institution’ (1 Cor 11:23-24; Mc 14:22-24) are lacking has led to the hypothesis that there was a second part of the liturgy, the Eucharist in the proper sense, which is not mentioned in the text of the Didache, whereas the extend prayers in chapter 9 –10 would be used in the initial part of the meal, often designated as Agape. It is argued in this paper that the ‘words of institution’ are a catechetical and not a liturgical tradition and that this tradition was not used in the liturgy of the ritual meal, not even in the Pauline communities. The old crux interpretum “If any one is holy, he shall come; if any one is not so he shall repent” (Did 10:6c) often used as argument for the hypothesis of a second part of the meal is understood as part of the last part of the liturgy. This restricted invitation is pointing to the prayers which followed the last prayer held by the leader of the ritual meal (10:1-6a). After this fixed prayer there followed an open situation with the possibility for liturgical exclamations of the participants, for prayers added by the prophets (10:7), and the other participants of the meal, at least ‘the holy ones’ who are invited ‘to come’ and add their spontaneous prayers as well.


Marcel Mauss and the Study of Talmudic Property Law
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Madeline Kochen, University of Michigan Law School

This paper is both an argument for and an illustration of the use and usefulness of anthropological theory and method in the study of rabbinic literature. In recent years, arguments have been made for the value of studying non-western and historical cultures in order to disrupt and expand our own fixed categories. The inverse is also true. Looking at ancient texts using the contemporary lens of anthropology can be of great benefit to the scholar of ancient sources. In particular, anthropology can help the scholar of Rabbinic literature see beyond situated categories for a potentially more fruitful study of the vestiges of ancient Jewish culture. This paper will demonstrate this proposition by way of example. I use the concept of the donor's lien, as found in Marcel Mauss' famous essay "The Gift", to analyze the legal institution of gifts to and from God in Rabbinic literature. What might appear to be dry laws of Temple sacrifice (hekdesh), when examined through this lens, become newly invested with additional and even crucial import. This study demonstrates the productiveness of applying "the potentially subversive possibilities" (Ouroussoff, 1993) of anthropology to the study of Rabbinic literature. The subversive move in question takes place here as the substantive legal notion of divine participation in property ownership is shown to undergird Talmudic property law in general, undermining commonly held Western liberal assumptions of an exclusivist notion of "private property" as the cornerstone of Rabbinic property law.


Roman Slave Trade and the Critique of Babylon in Revelation 18
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Craig R. Koester, Luther Seminary

Revelation uses images of slavery in a positive sense for those who have been purchased by the Lamb to serve God. Being a servant or slave of God entailed honor and belonging. By way of contrast, slavery plays a sharply negative role in the portrayal of Babylon, where the list of goods once traded with the fallen city culminates with references to the sale of human beings. This adds rhetorical force to Revelation’s critique of first-century Rome, which had an enormous market for slaves, many of whom came from Asia Minor. Inscriptions mentioning the slave markets at Sardis, Ephesus, Thyatira, and other cities in the region provide valuable glimpses into the dynamics of the slave trade in the cultural context in which Revelation was composed. The people and groups associated with slave markets in these inscriptions often had ties to Rome. Ancient writers show that owning slaves was a sign of social status, yet they also indicate that those who sold slaves enjoyed little respect. The negative connotations associated with selling slaves underscored the way the ruling power lured people into debased relationships, giving readers incentive to distance themselves from a commercial web that shaped life in the cities where they lived.


Monastic Duty and the Biblical Past: Ascetic Exegesis in Shenoute’s "Abraham Our Father"
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Erik William Kolb, Catholic University of America

In "Abraham Our Father," a lengthy letter about monastic duty, the Egyptian monk Shenoute defined his vision for the ideal ascetic life. On the basis of their reading of Isaiah 56:1-5, a number of monks in his monastery were arguing that sexual renunciation was the focal point of their monastic identity. Shenoute, who strongly disagreed with this interpretation, challenged the exegesis of these monks and defined the monastic life as a type of parenthood, although with spiritual rather than biological children. For Shenoute, the ascetic life was not simply one of renunciation; rather, he wrote (contra those who were neglecting their obligations), true monks must serve and take care of others in the community. In order to construct his argument, Shenoute recalled many ancestors from the biblical tradition and lauded their righteous deeds. In my analysis of "Abraham Our Father," I explore Shenoute’s biblical hermeneutics and focus particularly on his recollection of exemplars from the biblical past. Specifically, I address the prominence of female role models in Shenoute’s narrative of spiritual lineage, and argue that his notion of spiritual parenthood was especially relevant to women. In addition, I examine Shenoute’s distinction between sinful and pure children among the descendants of Abraham, and suggest that his rhetorical strategy enabled him both to distinguish between the “true” and “false” monks of his monastery, and to strengthen his own legitimacy and authority over the community.


Swords into Plowshares and Nations into States: Isaiah 2/Micah 4 in the Contexts of Assyrian Hegemony and Political Theory
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Aaron Koller, Yeshiva University

The famous prophecy about swords and ploughshares found in Isaiah and Micah foretells the end of international conflict, but this issue has been little discussed in a comparative context. The proposed paper will address three intertwined issues regarding this prophecy: what exactly the prophets hold up as an ideal; what, if any, predecessors they had in this ideal; and why this ideal may have been formulated specifically in the late-eighth century BCE, especially under the Neo-Assyrian hegemony as redefined by Tiglath-Pileser III. It will be proposed that the dream of world peace had rarely been articulated, because, contrary to the modernist theory of nationalism, the idea of the city-state was so firmly entrenched in the ancient Near Eastern consciousness that superseding it did not seem feasible. Specifically after the innovative policies of Tiglath-Pileser were put in place, however, borders began to look artificial and potentially obsolete, and the idea of the various states being ruled from a centralized location seemed more reasonable. This was the Assyrian policy, and the Israelite prophets essentially adopted it, only protesting that the seat of guidance should be Jerusalem, not Nimrud. Finally, the theory of national identities latent in the prophets will be analyzed in light of modern political theories. Particularly useful for formulating the issues are Nussbaum’s critique of Rawls and the much earlier post-nationalist writings of Mordecai Kaplan. The paper will argue that the prophets had good reason to stop short of the more radical ideas of Kaplan and Nussbaum and adopting the intermediate view of Rawls regarding the usefulness of individual nations.


Lexicography of Realia: Two Examples from the Semantic Field of Blades
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Aaron Koller, Yeshiva University

Ancient Hebrew (AH) has numerous words for objects with blades, including apparently swords, knives, razors, and some of their component parts. This paper proposes to define two such terms, kidon and ma?atsad, with precision. The basic argument is that the various AH words for bladed tools are not merely complementary lexemes, and that there are hyponymous relations among some of them. Additionally, the paper will try to discern what features were salient enough to set it an object apart lexically. I will try to show that the kidon was a type of sword not common in ancient Israel, but that we can identify it in both the philological and archaeological records. Evidence for the identification comes from a typological study of Bronze- and Iron Age Levantine weaponry, the biblical text, and Qumran literature. In this case the foreign-ness of the weapon is what apparently dictated the desire for a separate word for the type of sword. The ma‘atsad can be shown to be a particular style of knife, also attested in the archaeological record of the southern Levant in Iron II. In this case, it seems to be not the origin of the tool, but its function that distinguished it, and philological evidence from the Bible and archaeological evidence from recent excavations at Philistine Ekron combine to show that the tool had a cultic function.


Progress and Regress in Recent Johannine Scholarship
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Andreas J. Kostenberger, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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Philosophical Reading Beyond Paul: Jean-Luc Nancy on the Epistle of James
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Adam Kotsko, Chicago Theological Seminary

In the context of the recent philosophical turn toward Paul and a long tradition among modern philosophers of regarding Paul as the only New Testament author worthy of serious attention, Jean-Luc Nancy’s reading of the Epistle of James—famously called the “epistle of straw” by Luther—represents a major departure. Recently collected in Nancy’s La Déclosion : Déconstruction du christianisme, 1 (Paris: Galilée, 2005), “Le judéo-chrétien (De la foi)” is an indirect response to Jacques Derrida’s landmark essay “Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone.” Nancy begins with a discussion of the term “Judeo-Christian,” exploring the ways in which the “Judeo-Christian” can provide an avenue for a deconstruction of the Western tradition. Rather than leaving the discussion at an abstract conceptual level, Nancy turns to a reading of the Epistle of James, the Judeo-Christian document par excellence, placing particular emphasis on the necessarily active or performative nature of faith, on the significance of James’s discourse on wealth and poverty, on the idea of the “law of freedom,” and on the relationship between Christ as “annointed one” and the passage on the annointing of the sick. I will begin this paper by contextualizing this essay in terms of the recent turn in continental philosophy toward New Testament texts and Nancy’s broader project. The bulk of this paper will necessarily be taken up with a critical exposition of Nancy’s reading of James, including sufficient quotation (in English) to give listeners a feel for this as-yet untranslated and often very lyrical essay. In addition, I will use Nancy’s questionable historical assertions about James to reflect on the possible relationship between these philosophical readings and mainstream biblical scholarship. Finally, I will propose Nancy as a model for philosophical readings of neglected or apparently “unphilosophical” New Testament writings.


Opening the Seven Seals: Interpretations Ancient and Modern
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Judith L. Kovacs, University of Virginia

A primary locus of violent imagery in the Revelation to John is the three plague sequences: the 7 seals (6:1-17; 8:1-2), 7 trumpets (8:2-9:21; 11:15) and 7 bowls (11:1-16:21). This paper considers selected ancient and modern interpretations of the first of these cycles, including understandings of the seven seals as prophecies of endtime events, as an outline of world or church history, as predictions of specific events in the interpreter's own time, as poetic evocations of the battle between good and evil in personal or social life, and as a conventional feature of the apocalyptic genre. The paper asks whether earlier interpreters agree with modern commentators in seeing the violence of the imagery as an ethical problem and considers various strategies that address this hermeneutical concern. Interpreters discussed include Victorinus (4th century), the radical Franciscan Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306), the Methodist reformer and hymn writer Charles Wesley (d. 1788), the anonymous authors of African-American spirituals, and several 20th and 21st century commentators.


Looking for Philo's Abraham in all the Wrong Places
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Robert A. Kraft, University of Pennsylvania

Philo's information about Abraham is mostly built on the Genesis traditions, but occasionally also takes the reader outside that body of material. What other Abrahamic literature or traditions might have been extant in the mid first century, apart from what is also found in Josephus? This presentation is intended as part of the "new M.R.James" (Lost Apocrypha of the OT) project, and surveys the various possibilities that have been suggested over the years (with Philo as a focal point).


Finding Adequate Terminology for "Pre-canonical" Literatures
Program Unit: Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
Robert A. Kraft, University of Pennsylvania

This presentation will be an exercise in attempting to create or find more adequate terminology to use in discussing the early ("pre-canonical"?) periods and their literatures. It will frame the questions and current approaches may suggest directions for future research.


Zechariah's Blood and the Destruction of the Temple: An Anthropological Reading of Lamentations 23
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Matthew A. Kraus, Wright State University

By examining a section of a petichta, this paper performs an anthropological reading of a rabbinic pericops in order to understand the texts social, historical, and literary context. According to Lamentations Rabbah 23, the priest/prophet Zechariah was unjustly stoned to death on the Temple mount, but his blood spurts uncontrollably until the arrival of Nebuzaradan, Nebuchadnezzar's general. This story raises a number of complex questions such as why is there so much blood, why does a rabbinic text suggest that the Temple was destroyed because of the unjust murder of Zechariah, and why does Nebuzaradan convert after the whole incident. Previous answers to these questions have proven unsatisfactory because the story is generally read in isolation. By applying anthropological, literary, and historical approaches to the story, this paper provides new interpretations of the Zechariah incident. An anthropological reading indicates that the prominence of blood reflects anxieties about sacrifice and control issues. Since Nebuzaradan, after failing to control the blood with sacrifices, ultimately controls the blood with words, I argue that the story performs a more general, rabbinic valorization of discourse over sacrifice. Support for this reading come from the whole petichta which is united by a lengthy exegesis of Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 as an allegory of the destruction of the Temple. The verbal parallels between Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 and the Zechariah story demonstrate, more broadly, that national disaster is to be controlled by discourse, particularly rabbinic discourse. The paper concludes by speculating that the parallels between the Passion narrative of the Christian Gospels and the Zechariah story should be understood as a rabbinic attempt to control Christian discourse.


Miniature Codices: The Database in General and Early Christian Background in Particular
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Thomas J. Kraus, Willibald Gluck Gymnasium

Having presented a rather general overview of my work on miniature codices so far last year in Washington D.C., I will specify the data collected, i.e. present the database of manuscripts/fragments that could belong to the category of "miniature codices (or formats)", roughly categorise them, address problems and certain issues involved in the work so far, and finally concentrate on those list entries that have a Christian background. Deductions from the database in that respect should provide some general and methodological but at the same time codicological and in some cases paleographical insights in the circumstances of producing and handling books in early Christianity.


"He that Dwelleth in the Help of the Highest": Septuagint Psalm 90 and the Iconographic Program on Byzantine Armbands
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Thomas J. Kraus, Willibald Gluck Gymnasium

There is one biblical text whose use on objects even surpasses the Lord's Prayer: Septuagint Psalm 90. It is found on papyrus and parchment manuscript fragments but also on walls (in tombs, on lintels etcetera), medaillons, rings, wood tablets, and on armbands. In most cases its verses serve an apotropaeic purpose in order to protect people from all kinds of evil powers and illnesses. Providing a brief overview of the database available to me (with about 80 items) and the reasons why this biblical texts fitted so well the purpose(s) it served, I will primarily focus on Byzantine armbands. These present a certain program consisting of short textual passages and iconographic details. With this at hand and in mind the application of the first (few) verses of Septuagint Psalm 90 to certain purposes can be traced and connected with our world of today.


Presentation of Septuaginta Deutsch (Part I)
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Wolfgang Kraus, University of the Saarland

The translation of the Septuagint into German will be published in summer 2007 by the German Bible Society. The presentation aims at the clarification of the scholarly decisions concerning the German project and the approach of the German project in comparison with other Septuagint translation projects, e.g. the New English Translation of the Septuagint and La Bible d'Alexandrie.


The Reception of Habakkuk 2:3–4 in the New Testament
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Wolfgang Kraus, University of the Saarland

1. Hab 2:3-4 MT/LXX/Qumran-Writings (1QpHab; 8HevXIIgr), 2. Hab 2:3-4 in Pauline Letters (Gal 3:11; Rom 1:17), 3. Hab 2:3-4 in Hebr 10:37-38, 4. Conclusions.


Deciphering the "Shema": A New Approach to Deuteronomy 6:4
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Judah Kraut, University of Pennsylvania

Despite its deceptively simple constituent words and centrality in Jewish liturgy, Deuteronomy 6:4 (the “Shema”) has long confounded biblical interpreters. A literal rendering of the verse yields an elusive statement – “Listen Israel Yah-weh our God Yah-weh one” – that appears muddled or redundant. Most exegetical solutions to Deuteronomy 6:4 belong to one of two major categories. The first would solve the syntactic problem utilizing customary rules of biblical Hebrew grammar; the second would recast the sentence into a statement exhibiting unique grammatical features. Neither approach, however, produces a compelling result: the standard solutions all encounter some syntactic difficulty, while the more radical interpretations appear forced or artificial. I would contend that the confusion stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the verse’s literary structure. Deuteronomy 6:4b represents an example of the AB/AC structure often referred to as “staircase parallelism.” If the verse is understood in this way, much of the difficulty disappears, and its semantic meaning – expressed in poetic syntax – becomes apparent: “Yah-weh our God is one.” Two closely comparable verses, Exodus 15:3 and Hosea 12:6, provide solid precedent for the attempt to locate staircase parallelism in our verse. A number of additional verses (e.g. Judges 4:18) demonstrate that biblical narrative – not just biblical poetry – makes use of staircase parallelism. I show, moreover, that staircase parallelism serves a communicative function well-suited to Deuteronomy 6:4. Throughout the Bible, staircase parallelism most often introduces a speech (or speaker). Deuteronomy 6:4-9 marks the beginning of Moses’s lengthy exposition of the Law; indeed, Tigay notes, “As the first paragraph of the Instruction that God gave Moses…it is, in a sense, the beginning of Deuteronomy proper.” Given its critical position introducing the main body of the book, the verse employs staircase parallelism as a rhetorical device that elevates and draws attention to its lofty message.


Papyrological Commentary on 2 Thessalonians: Outline and First Results
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Christina M. Kreinecker, Universitaet Salzburg

One of the next volumes of the Papyrologische Kommentare zum Neuen Testament will be on 2 Thessalonians. In addition to the analysis of the Greek vocabulary according to its papyrological daily background, use and meaning, it will contain oberservations on pseudepigraphy and comments on the themes of parousia and imminentism . In documentary and also magical papyri we find ideas of a kind of doomsday, or of some pessimism when being confronted with riots, war or insecurity. Thus, the papyrus texts provide us with a clear impression how easily common people could be infected by such pessimism, and that the writer of 2 Thess had a good reason to address it. The presentation gives a short overview of the Commentary and the results of the research thus far.


Bible Bending: Examining the Hows and Whys of Biblical Rhetoric
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Michelle Krejci, University of Sheffield

Bible bending is a phrase that describes how the Bible makes its way into social, cultural, and political debates. This presentation will outline why this approach is necessary and provide a practical example of looking at the Bible’s role in the public domain. The first section argues that biblical scholarship move away from examining how the public should understand the Bible to examine how the public uses the Bible. The presentation offers a critique of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza’s suggestion that biblical scholarship take an ethical turn, arguing that such a position preserves the Bible’s cultural captivity and moral hegemony. The second section provides a cursory look at how scholars might approach examining the Bible’s function in pop culture by looking at the Bible’s role in the news media. Drawing on examples from the commentary on Ted Haggard’s resignation from New Life Church, editorial responses to Keith Ellison’s decision to take his congressional oath over the Qur’an and global debates on polygamy, this section will outline some of the functions of the Bible. The presentation will be a call for cataloging these debates so that how and why biblical rhetoric works in public life can be more vigorously examined.


The Historical Books: Their Characteristics in the Septuagint and Its Revisions and in Septuaginta Deutsch
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Siegfried Kreuzer, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal, Barmen School of Theology

The (older) historical books in the Greek Bible continue the translation process of the Pentateuch, yet they bring also a variety of new aspects and new phenomena. There are new renderings like allophyloi for the Philistines, or he[!] baal for Baal and ta alse for Aschera. There is a translation technique that develops from a careful but – at least basically – “free” translation (as in Josh, JudgesA, and parts of Kgdms) towards an almost word-by-word translation (as in Chron and 2Esdr). Not the least there is the problem of the recensions, i.e. the kaige-recension with its special “translation”-technique and the Antiochene Text/Lucianic recension, supposedly rather late and at the same time in many regards close to the Old Greek. The paper will discuss these issues, suggest solutions and criteria, esp. for the problem of the recensions, and show how the phenomena and the problems are handled and presented in Septuaginta-deutsch.


Greek Glossary on Isaiah (Evr. IIA 1980) and Its Judeo-Greek Background
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Julia Krivoruchko, University of Cambridge

The manuscript Evr. IIA 1980 from the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg containing glossary on Prophets has been recently brought to the attention of biblical scholars by N. De Lange. Its publication will constitute a part of the project “Greek Bible in Byzantine Judaism” based in the University of Cambridge. The glossary to Isaiah constitutes the major part of the ms. (pp. 12-30 of total of 34). Its main text contains explanations both in Hebrew and Greek, while the rich marginalia are mostly in Greek. The material provided by the glossary is of no little exegetical interest and offers a good occasion for extensive comparison of lexical material between the ancient Jewish translations, including the three, up to the most recent Judeo-Greek versions of Isaiah, such as YBZ 3519.


Judeo-Greek Biblical Glossaries as Lexicographical Sources
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Julia Krivoruchko, University of Cambridge

Continuing the theme of later sources for biblical lexicography, this paper considers the Judeo-Greek Biblical glossaries, such of those from the Cairo Genizah.


Exorcize the Exorcists? Exorcism and the Exercise of Roman Authority
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Todd Krulak, University of Pennsylvania

Adolf von Harnack once noted that there is very little evidence outside of the gospels prior to Justin Martyr that the early Christians were at all concerned with the expulsion of demons. It seems unlikely that there is not some continuity of praxis in the century (roughly) between the production of Mark and Justin's discussion with Trypho, but it would seem that exorcism was not central to Christian self-definition. As one proceeds beyond the second century, the evidence of exorcism as a tool for evangelism continues to be minimal and, to the mind of Celsus at least, is an activity associated with those magicians in the marketplace who, for nominal amounts of money, peddle their sacred lore. The synoptic gospels paint a different picture of a movement greatly concerned with the removal of demons from their hosts, yet even in these texts there is little to indicate that such activities caught the eye of the Romans; in fact, Matthew 8.5 ff. and its parallel in Luke 7.1 ff. speaks of a Roman centurion who, because of his growing reputation as a healer, seeks out Jesus so that he might heal his servant (not an exorcism in this case, but telling that a Roman of some stature approached Jesus at all). It is the Jewish authorities who are portrayed as troubled by the success of Jesus and his followers as such feats attract crowds and adherents thereby subverting the influence of the Jewish leadership. This paper seeks to examine the premise of this session and suggests that exorcisms in the Christian traditions provoked very little response from Roman authorities as such actions, in themselves, provided very little threat to their power; it is only when, in circumstances like those surrounding Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, these activities contributed to an unauthorized movement, or when it could be lumped into the larger charge of “magic,” that Roman self-preservation comes to the fore.


“It’s a Small World”: Statue Animation and Platonic Cosmogony in Proclus’ Commentary on the Timaeus
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Todd Krulak, University of Pennsylvania

The Neoplatonist ritual of statue animation (telestike episteme), a process by which a divine image is “ensouled” thereby becoming in some sense alive (up to and including actual movement) and able to dispense oracles, has been the recipient of limited scholarly attention. Past discussions have tended to focus upon either the fantastical nature of the rite, speaking of the divinatory and mechanical aspects of the process, or, more recently, have sought to view the animated statue as a metaphor for the individual who is capable of being infilled by the divine. These studies all have contributed to an understanding of the telestic art and it is to be hoped that this paper will add further to the conversation. Looking at statements of Proclus primarily in his Commentary on the Timaeus, this paper seeks to understand statue animation as a ritual that does not occur in isolation, but rather serves as a communal act in which the Platonic cosmogony is remembered and reproduced. Proclus’ repeated comparisons between the role of the telestes, the ritual expert, and that of the Platonic Demiurge on the one hand, and between the cult image and the Universe on the other, suggest that the practice has implications that extend beyond simply the cultivation of oracular pronouncements. Indeed, it will be seen that the cosmogonic rehearsal found in statue animation can be viewed as a communal reminder both of the authority of Plato’s account and of the soteriological power of theurgy.


What's the Meaning of This?
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Robert Kysar, Emory University

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Between Fact and Fiction in Chronicles’ Construction of History: Interpreting the Past to Shape the Present and the Future
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Antje Labahn, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal

Does the portrait of history in Chronicles present fact or fiction? Maybe, Chronicles presents a mixture of both, fact and fiction. If this is the case, the question of the amount of fact or fiction in the book needs to be discussed, and more importantly, that of which criteria can be used to distinguish between the two. This paper points at a method of reading Chronicles as a construction of history, in which a certain perception of past reality is interpreted and shaped according to circumstances and structures of the present time of the community. As individuals experience life, they accept or neglect reality as they construct their past. Such constructions originate in the present and intend to shape the present as well as the future according to the basics of one’s attitude toward life. It will be shown that this model of constructing the past and interpreting reality is helpful to understand Chronicles. This approach sheds new light on book as it does not ask whether the picture of the past is true or unreliable, but rather takes it as a legitimate interpretation of past with an intentional aim to shape present and future.


Living Words and the Bread of Life
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Michael Labahn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

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John 21 and the Adoption of Sinners: Developing Meaning Between Johannine Repetitions/Variations, Relecturing John, and Memorizing Jesus
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Michael Labahn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

This paper will explain the origins and function of John 21 from the methodological perspectives of relecture and secondary orality, with special attention to repetitions and variations within the text. Although John 21 is a self-contained narrative unit possibly later added to John 1–20, it should be analysed with methods of innertextual analysis. Close attention to the phenomenon of literary repetition and variation, viewed within the framework of a relecture model of composition suggests that John 21 reflects earlier chapters in the book, adding new but not strange meaning to an earlier text that was still meaningful to its first readers. In the process of “re-lecturing” passages from John 1–20, the Fourth Evangelist incorporates additional traditional material, namely the miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1–14). The phenomenon of “secondary orality” suggests that a synoptic text (Luke 5:1–11) has been integrated into a re-reading and re-telling of certain Johannine passages. Through this process, the Evangelist forms a new ending for an old and still valued gospel. Is there any place for historical tradition? At first glance, the closing chapter of the Gospel of John does not seem to be very important for the quest for historical information about Jesus. From the whole chapter, the miraculous catch of fish may be an only exception, as some scholars view the story as a relocated, pre-Easter narrative. However, we have to understand it by re-memorizing Luke 5:1–11 through secondary orality and by re-lecturing John 6:1–15. Nevertheless, the message of the Historical Jesus, which challenged not only this contemporaries but also later Christian communities, is clearly present in the backdrop of John 21. Repenting Peter’s guilt as a part of the missionary outlook of John 21 is a creative reference to the historical Jesus’ adoption of sinners in the Fourth Gospel; John 4 and the Samaritan woman are another one.


St. Simeon the Stylite and the Destruction of Synagogues in Fifth-Century Syria
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Lawrence Lahey, Tulane University

My presentation will examine the Christian destruction of synagogues in districts near Antioch during the reign of Theodosius II during the years 422-24. A famous source in Syriac for the situation is a letter of Simeon the Stylite addressed to Theodosius, rebuking him for forcing the Christians to make restitution to the Jews. Although the letter is contained in a somewhat legendary Life of Simeon (which was published within 15 years of Simeon’s death), the letter’s genuineness seems supported by Theodoret of Cyrrhus’ description in his Church History of Simeon’s correspondence. The Life claims that Theodosius revoked his edict after Simeon’s rebuke, but the reality is probably that Theodosius’ edict was enforced along with similar ones (Codex Theodosianus 16.8.9-27). The situation is noteworthy because it is in direct contrast to the circumstances a generation earlier when Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, rebuked Theodosius I effectively in similar circumstances when Christians destroyed a synagogue. By considering the Syriac, Greek, and Latin sources, the reasons for and facts of 422-24 will be reconstructed. Finally, I will look to the contra Iudaeos sermons in Syriac of Jacob of Serug a half century later to glean information about Christian-Jewish relations in Syria not long after these tumultuous incidents under Theodosius II.


The Semantics of Voluntarism at Qumran and in the Bible
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
David A. Lambert, Emory University

From the very beginning of Scrolls scholarship, attention has been paid to an unusual term of self-designation employed by the sectarians: mitnaddebîm (or sometimes: nedibîm.) Appearing frequently in the Community Rule, it would seem to depict something about the process of joining the sect. The term clearly derives from the biblical root, N.D.B., as in the common sacrificial term, nedabâ, generally translated as “freewill offering.” A standard approach to mitnaddebîm has been to translate the term as “those who freely volunteer,” a translation that emphasizes an element of choice in joining the sect. Accordingly, it has been noted that this implied degree of freedom stands out in contrast with the general deterministic tenor of sectarian thought, and some have concluded therefore that the sectarians must have accommodated at least some notion of freewill. Actually, one might do better to translate mitnaddebîm as “those who feel impelled to join.” It is anachronistic to evoke a latter-day doctrine of freewill to account for the sectarian usage. The term tells us not about the degree of choice that accompanied admission into the sect, but the strength of desire to join the group. A distinction must be drawn between choosing and wanting, for the latter can be subject to its own special form of compulsion. For the sectarians, the term reinforced the certainty of their place within the sect: they all fully desired to live according to sectarian law. Choice in such a context would have seemed to them, at best, to be arbitrary and, at worst, capricious. What is needed is a typology of willingness to clarify this point. Biblical parallels (esp. Ezra 7:13 and Neh 11:2), equivalent Greek terms, and Mishnaic Hebrew will be adduced to further the argument.


Caring for Parents as a Wisdom Ideal
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
David A. Lambert, Emory University

The command in the Decalogue to honor one’s father and mother tends to be interpreted as a subjective requirement that children show respect to their parents. In fact, the primary emphasis probably lies with the objective manifestation of honor: children must support their parents with gifts of food and other forms of physical sustenance. This meaning of the root, k.b.d., appears throughout the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Prov 3:9) and calls into question whether “honor” is an adequate translation of this important precept. A concern for parental honor (in its physical form) is a hallmark of wisdom traditions throughout the ancient Near East, though it is relatively absent from Israelite wisdom literature. The Decalogue seems to preserve this ideal in something like a wisdom form. Exodus 20:12 and Deut 5:16 present the motivation to fulfill the command as based on a logic of reciprocity: enabling the elderly to live long will result in your being sustained on the land for a long time. This notion, that giving ultimately redounds to the donor’s material welfare, animates representations of charity throughout wisdom literature. The connection to wisdom is strengthened by the fact that the injunction to honor appears in the Decalogue along with other wisdom concerns all centered on avoiding the appropriation of another’s property: adultery, theft, false speech, and coveting. The second half of the Decalogue ultimately frames wisdom ideals as law. Another instance of honor as physical sustenance can be found in the wisdom-influenced narrative of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph returns the brothers’ money to them—an aspect of the narrative that is quite irrelevant to the overall plot—in order to meet the wisdom ideal of sustaining his father with charitable gifts. The same meaning and concern is attested in Ben Sira.


Artemis in Philippi: Women, Ritual, and Christianity
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Jason T. Lamoreaux, Brite Divinity School

Ancient Greco-Roman women would have had opportunity to participate fully in certain cults around the Mediterranean. Within this ritual milieu, certain rites were exclusively for women and some for men. This gender divide created certain inconsistencies between male and female cults as well as created a structure of power that placed men at the center and placed women on the periphery. In the Thracian city of Philippi, the worship of Artemis was particularly plentiful, as demonstrated by the abundance of Artemis iconography in and around Philippi. This study will look at the archaeological evidence through the lens of ritual anthropology, purity and pollution, and sacred space. The vast evidence for the Artemis cult in Philippi demonstrates that a large contingent of women participated in ritual activity. Furthermore, rituals from the domestic sphere will be examined in order to shed light on the religious life of women in the Greco-Roman world and, in particular, in Philippi. Once the model is delineated and the archaeological evidence examined, I will propose answers to the question: why would ancient women worshipers abandon the rites of a goddess and join a group of followers who are monotheistic under the authority of a male God?


Christ, Spirit, and Wisdom: Paul and Pop Spirituality
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

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Recovering the Christological Voice of Creation: Hebrews 1:2–3a
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

This paper will seek to address the problem of human exploitation of non-human creation by recovering an aspect of creation’s voice that has been long suppressed: the claim that creation itself in some sense bears the image of Christ. Hebrews 1:2-3a will be examined as part of a trajectory of NT texts in which the claim is made that creation exists by virtue of the creative agency of Christ, that creation is actively sustained by Christ, and that creation achieves its telos in Christ. It will be argued that certain strands of Hebrew wisdom traditions, particularly those in which it is asserted that God is known by examination of God’s creation, form the background from which these Christological statements developed. Two features of this connection with wisdom traditions are worth noting. First, as with wisdom, something of Christ is reflected in the non-human created order. Second, wisdom traditions do not dwell on the Imago Dei as traditionally conceived elsewhere in biblical traditions. These features enhance the view that creation itself bears its own imprint of divine image, and as such is as much the object of redemption as is human creation. Moreover, the coming of Christ into the world as servant in some sense reverses the role of human beings as rulers over creation. As human beings are renewed into the image of Christ, they become servants in the care of a creation that itself bears Christ’s image. Non-human creation, then, is worthy of the respect and care in the present that is focused on human beings, in anticipation of the redemptive destiny awaiting both. The rubric of suspicion/identification/retrieval will be used to develop this line of thought.


The Sisko, the Christ: A Comparison of "Messiah" Figures in the Star Trek Universe and the New Testament
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

As I have argued elsewhere (“Biblical Interpretation in the Star Trek Universe: Going Where Some Have Gone Before,” in Star Trek and Sacred Space, edited by Jennifer Porter and Darcee McLaren [Albany, NY: SUNY, 1999], 193-214), the topic of religion plays an important role in the development of the Star Trek vision of the universe. This is especially true in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9). What makes DS9 particularly intriguing is the presence of an outpost of the United Federation of Planets to a planetary culture rich in religious faith and expression, that of Bajor. The interaction of the “secular” Federation and the “spiritual” Bajorans makes for telling insights into the role of religion envisioned in the Star Trek universe. There is no more focal figure to this aspect of the Star Trek universe than Benjamin Sisko, who is a commissioned Star Fleet officer in command of the space station Deep Space Nine who has also been labeled by the Bajoran spiritual establishment as the “Emissary of the Prophets.” This paper will explore the handling of this pairing of roles in the person of Sisko to three ends. First, it will focus on how a “messiah” figure is understood within the framework of a secular, materialistic view of the universe as represented by the Federation. Second, it will draw comparisons and contrasts between this picture and the presentation of Jesus the Christ as understood within the New Testament. Finally, conclusions will be drawn regarding the significance of each of these depictions for their narrative world views.


The Unknown Apostle: A Pauline Agraphon in Clement of Alexandria’s Stromateis
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Brent C. Landau, Harvard University

Clement of Alexandria’s Stromateis is an elaborate tapestry of citations from biblical, extrabiblical, and classical sources. One of Clement’s chief goals in this work is to demonstrate that all human wisdom, be it Greek, Jewish, or Christian, stems from the beneficence of the one true God. As one piece of evidence for this claim, Clement cites a curious and problematic quotation that he attributes to the Apostle Paul (Stromateis 6.5). This statement asserts that one may read the Sibylline books for proof of God’s unity and, likewise, one may consult the Oracle of Hystaspes for a clear and unambiguous description of Jesus, his followers, and those who persecute them. This remarkable passage is found nowhere in the Pauline epistles of the NT, among the statements of Paul in Acts of the Apostles, or in any non-canonical writings about or attributed to the Apostle. Scholars of early Christianity have long used the term “agrapha” to refer to sayings of Jesus preserved outside the boundaries of the four canonical gospels, whether these sayings appear in patristic writings, fragments of lost gospels, or even in the Acts of the Apostles. However, no comparable designation or collection exists for the Apostle Paul, though this quotation is best characterized as a “Pauline agraphon.” This paper has three principle objectives: a) to interpret the content and argument of this enigmatic Pauline agraphon; b) to situate the saying within the larger literary context of Clement’s Stromateis and his particular theological agenda; c) to assess whether the statement coheres with sentiments attributed to Paul in other writings, and if not, to suggest a hypothetical milieu for this assertion that Christian revelation can take place through pagan channels.


Women’s Work? Martyr Cult Rituals and Their Arenas in Late Antique North Africa
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Shira L. Lander, The Ecumenical Institute, St. Mary's Seminary

In his formative work, "The Cult of the Saints", Peter Brown writes: “[T]he womenfolk of the leading Christian families achieved a new prominence through participation in Christian charity and church building associated with the cult of the saints. . . [guaranteeing Christian matrons] a public role in the Christianized city” (47). Martyr cult inscriptions and literary evidence from fourth and fifth century north Africa suggest that women were no more represented in the cult of the martyrs than men. Nonetheless, canonical legislation and ecclesiastical sermons specifically targeted women’s martyr cult activities for opprobrium and reform, leading previous scholars to assume that their role in these cults was more prominent than that of men. While it is true that women did participate in these martyr rituals, there is no evidence for their unique function as ritual experts. As martyr cult arenas became more formalized—transformed from necropolis tombs and private estates to cemetery and, later, urban basilicas—and Romanized elites gained increasing influence over these arenas, martyr rituals and their performers were subjected to the same scrutiny as activities in other areas of life. The general trend of Roman elites over this time period to discourage activities that detracted from the appearance of self-control and propriety, like dancing, also affected ritual practices in martyr cult arenas. The activities of women more often violated this new social standard than the activities of men, which explains the impression of their prominence; men were hardly exempt from critique and censure. This paper will examine north African martyr cult rituals in their various arenas to show that the movement from private space to more public space was accompanied by a decline in women’s involvement in these rituals rather than an increase, as Brown has suggested.


YHWH’s Mercy and Wrath: The Contribution of Exodus 34:6–7 to the Canonical Shape of the Torah
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Nathan Lane, Baylor University

There are four occurrences of Exod 34:6-7 or its parallels found in the Torah. This paper will argue that the parallels appear in significant places in the narrative where the covenant is either being (re)affirmed or greatly endangered. In the Decalogue of Exodus 20, a parallel is located in the giving of the second commandment as a reason why ancient Israel should not worship idols or images. In Numbers 14, Moses recited the credo to incite YHWH’s pride so that the Israelites might be spared. In the Decalogue of Deuteronomy 5, a parallel is again found in the rehearsal of the second commandment. All four of the appearances, including Exod 34:6-7, occur in texts that highlight YHWH’s intimate relationship with Israel. Exodus 20 records the initial giving of the Sinai Covenant and the “Ten Words” of the covenant. Exodus 34 contains the account of YHWH and Moses’ interaction after the apostasy of the Golden Calf. In this literary context, the credo is given as a reason why YHWH will forgive the nation. Numbers 14 catalogs the second major apostasy of the ancient Israelites. In this narrative, Moses convinces YHWH not to wipe out the people by quoting the attributes given to him in Exodus 34. Deuteronomy 5 contains the final significant parallel to the credo in the Pentateuch. This parallel occurs in the rehearsal of the Ten Commandments as the people reaffirm the covenant as they are about to enter the Promised Land. Special attention will also be given to how the credo is manipulated to fit the special different contexts of the narrative.


Paradise in the Pseudepigrapha
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Peter T. Lanfer, University of California-Los Angeles

A number of pseudipigraphal texts present a unique picture of the future paradise and do so through the combination of biblical interpretation and apocalyptic revelation. Especially in the books of Jubilees and Enoch the future paradise is imagined as a reconstituted Eden, while simultaneously fulfilling the roles of the temple and serving as the place of God's theophany. This paper will explore the role of biblical interpretation in these texts as well as examining the prophetic/apocalyptic component of the paradisical imaginings of the pseudipigraphal literature, particularly with respect to images of the Edenic Tree of Life and God's throne/theophany.


In the Second Degree
Program Unit: Qumran
Armin Lange, University of Vienna

As attested in particular by the Qumran library but also other sources, ancient Judaism wrote its literature to a large extent based on or closely related to earlier authoritative texts, i.e. in the second degree (for this term see G. Genette, Palimspests). Scholars described this type of literature either as pseudepigraphic or parabiblical. Both designations miss significant characteristics. The term parabiblical suggests on the one hand that literature in the second degree is particular to the Judeo-Christian cultures and on the other hand the existence of a bible and a closed canon. The term pseudepigrapha suggests that literature in the second degree is always a forgery, i.e. a text written under a false name. The earliest cases of Jewish literature in the second degree can already be found inside the Hebrew Bible, e.g. the reworking of 1Samuel-2Kings by 1-2Chronicles. “Parabiblical” literature did thus already exist before the Hebrew canon. Furthermore, the relation of e.g. the Homeric epics or classical Greek tragedy to archaic Greek myth resembles the Jewish literature in the second degree closely. Moreover, neither the Homeric epics, nor classical Greek tragedies, nor Jewish texts like 1-2 Chronicles claim false authorship. In this presentation, I will try to compare examples of Jewish literature in the second degree with ancient Greek and ancient Mesopotamian texts. Especially the Qumran evidence shows that Judaism participated with its literature in the second degree in a category of literature evident all over the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Near Eastern societies.


“Considerable Proficiency ” (Letter of Aristeas 121): The Relationship of the Letter of Aristeas to the Prologue of Ecclesiasticus
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Armin Lange, University of Vienna

The Letter of Aristeas is central to Septuagint Studies as it provides the only substantial report about how the (Pentateuch)-Septuagint was created. Since H. Hody (Contra historiam Aristeae de LXX interpretibus dissertatio, 1685) the legendary and pseudepigraphic character of the Letter of Aristeas has been widely accepted. Hody’s study also initiated an extensive discussion about the question when the Letter of Aristeas was written. The proposed dates range from the 3rd cent. BCE to the 1st cent. CE. Relative chronology could provide a new approach to this crux interpretum. Let. Arist. 121 describes the Septuagint translators in a way that resembles the praise of Ben Sira’s education in the Greek Prologue to Ecclesiasticus (verses 7-11). Does the Letter of Aristeas thus model the Septuagint translators after the blueprint of Ben Sira. Was the Letter of Aristeas therefore written after the grandson’s Greek translation gained considerable prominence and authority in Alexandrian Jewry, i.e. some time in the 1st cent. BCE? A 1st cent. BCE date of the Letter of Aristeas would also raise the question why the Old Greek translation which was well established by that time needed special legendary authorization.


What Makes the Bible Useful: The Ten Commandments and “Safeguarding American Ideals”
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Scott Langston, Tarrant County College

In recent years, the Ten Commandments have been the subject of numerous efforts aimed at restoring America’s moral foundation and reforming its society. While they often are portrayed as being synonymous with "Americanness," this has not always been the case. This paper will examine the Decalogue's use and development in furthering ideas about American identity and society. The paper will also explore the broader question of what makes a text useful for a particular situation. Beginning in the early years of the twentieth century, especially just after World War I, the Ten Commandments were used to articulate, defend, and critique particular understandings of American ideals. This marked a change in how the Commandments in America had generally been applied. Previously, Americans typically used individual commandments to address specific issues such as temperance or Sabbath observance. Many, however, came to combine the collective Commandments with particular understandings of the Constitution, democracy, and racial, economic, and social values that they equated with “Americanism.” Among these were Teddy Roosevelt (who often invoked the Commandments), Harry F. Atwood ("Safeguarding American Ideals"; 1921), M. Leone Bracker (in his artistic portrayals of each commandment in Pictorial Review; 1924-25), Cecil B. DeMille (in his movie, "The Ten Commandments"; 1923 and 1956), W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel (declaring the Commandments to be his platform in his successful bids for Texas Governor and U.S. Senator in the 1930s and 1940s), and Carey Daniel (“Ten Commandments for the Race Mixers” and “Ten Commandments for the Segregationists;” 1950s). These, and others, cast the Ten Commandments as reflecting American identity and, therefore, composing a necessary part of the American public and social fabric.


John Gone Epic: Reception and Transformation in the Paraphrase of John’s Gospel by Nonnus of Panopolis
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Kasper Bro Larsen, Aarhus University

The above-mentioned work, most commonly attributed to Nonnus Panopolitanus (5th century CE), is a Greek hexametric poem of twenty-one songs paraphrasing the Fourth Gospel. As such, it forms an outstanding example of the phenomenon of “reception through reproduction” in Late Antiquity. Since the renaissance, most commentators on this literary metabole have focused on identifying the author, appraising the features of language and style, and reconstructing the underlying version of the Gospel text. The present paper, however, examines the ideological and hermeneutical characteristics of the poem in order to point out its function as Fourth Gospel reception for audiences in a post-Constantinian context. As to its means of persuasion, the paraphrase employs two normative traditions: the canons of New Testament scripture and Homeric poetry, respectively. By clothing its Vorlage in such new garments, the paraphrase presents the Fourth Gospel as the ultimate epic and the genuine successor to the works of Homer and Virgil.


Breaking the "Spell of Identification": Ethics and the Evaluation of Biblical Characters
Program Unit: Character Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Stuart Lasine, Wichita State University

Diderot once compared the novels of Samuel Richardson to sacred texts, more specifically, to a gospel designed to separate family members. He assumes that readers identify with virtuous characters and draw away from those who are unjust and vicious. And since we evaluate literary characters in the same way that we evaluate real people, our judgments on characters in narrative reveal our own moral character, especially in situations of collective reading and discussion. In fact, Diderot says that he has to restrain himself from breaking off relations with people whose judgments of Richardson’s characters are opposed to his own. In this essay I will ask an uncomfortable question: what do our evaluations of biblical characters reveal about our own ethical posture? And a second, strange-sounding question: do we—or should we— 'separate ourselves' from those whose judgments on problematic characters like King David differ from our own? For example, should we draw conclusions about the moral character of readers who identify with David enough to excuse his crimes on the grounds that he is simply "all-too-human"? Is identification, or even empathy, a moral failing when faced with what Sartre would call the "facticity" of David's actions and their devastating aftermath? To address these unsettling questions I will examine the process of identification and narrative evaluation with the aid of insights garnered from moral psychology, social history, and literary theory (including intertextual analysis of 2 Samuel 11-12 together with texts by Dickens and Kafka).


Creating Christian Identities in Late Antique Rome
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Jacob A. Latham, University of California-Santa Barbara

In 590 CE, a plague swept through Rome, killing pope Pelagius. Even though not yet consecrated as bishop, Gregory I quickly took charge of this apocalyptic-seeming situation by instituting a dramatic penitential procession. In a homily, Gregory asked his audience to repent before it was too late. In this same sermon, directions were given for a seven-fold litany, letania septiformis, to be performed on the following Wednesday at dawn, after three days of prayer. The clergy gathered at Ss. Cosmas et Damianus; the abbots with their monks met at Ss. Gervasius et Protasius; the abbesses with their congregations at Ss. Marcellinus et Petrus; children assembled at Ss. Iohannes et Paulus; the lay-men came together at S. Stephanus; the widows congregated at S. Euphemia; finally, the married women convened at S. Clemens. From these seven different starting points, each of the seven corteges wound its way through the city to S. Maria Maior. This procession sought to represent Rome in its entirety even as it claimed Rome. The distribution of the procession-participants in this way not only reflected how Gregory I conceptualized Roman society, but also helped make this conceptualization real and effective. In order to participate, one had to accept, however provisionally, the identity given by the organization of the processions. The letaniae welded these social identities into specific forms of Christian subjectivity, forging a distinctly Christian collectivity by demanding that the participants perform their processional identities with contrite hearts and tears of devotion. In short, the letania septiformis fashioned a Christian ecclesiastical image of late antique social structure, even as it compelled its participants to accept this image and their place in it.


West Semites in First Millennium Babylonia
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Laurie Pearce, University of California Berkeley

Foreigners, both individuals and ethnic groups, appear in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts from the late eighth century BCE through the end of the cuneiform record. Until now, the Murašu archive from fifth- and fourth-centuries Nippur provided the most significant quantity of data identifying West Semites in Babylonia. The presence of individuals bearing West Semitic, and particularly "Yahwistic", names strongly suggests that some of these individuals and their community had roots in Judah. Until recently, the chronological gap between the end of the Judean kingdom and the earliest Murašu texts has prevented secure identification of individuals with Yahwistic names as having origins in Judah. New textual evidence now demonstrates the presence of a sizeable number of West Semites, in particular Judeans, in Mesopotamia in the years shortly after the collapse of the kingdom. The texts contain references to Judeans and even identify the town in which these individuals resided as the "town of the Judeans". This brief introduction to the onomastic data and consideration of the administrative content of the texts provide a new understanding of the presence of West Semites in Babylonia during the late first millennium BCE.


Water, Water, Everywhere: Jewish and Christian Bathing Practices in India
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Jonathan David Lawrence, Canisius College

Recent discoveries in Israel and Transjordan have prompted much discussion of the origins, development, and interrelation of Jewish ritual bathing and Christian baptism. One unresolved issue is the degree to which Greco-Roman bathing influenced Jewish and Christian practices. Since it can be difficult to definitively distinguish Jewish, Christian, and Gentile occupation at archaeological sites, another way to explore these connections is to consider how Jewish and Christian bathing practices developed outside the sphere of Greco-Roman influence. For instance, there were strong communities of Jews and Christians in South India in the early centuries of the Common Era. An examination of Jewish and Christian practices there offers a useful comparison to practices elsewhere. This paper will focus on the Jewish and Christian communities of Cochin, on the southwestern coast of India, as a case-study in the interaction between these communities and a larger culture which also emphasizes bathing rituals. Drawing on published reports, site visits, and interviews to be conducted in the Summer of 2007, it will examine the development of these practices how they have been influenced by their surrounding culture, and will consider some of the challenges and difficulties inherent in such an approach.


Bible-Trek, Next Generation: Adapting a Bible Survey Course for a New Audience
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Jonathan David Lawrence, Canisius College

Given the characteristics of the new “Millennial Generation,” we might ask if traditional survey courses truly fit the needs and expectations of this new group of students. For instance, a survey course relying on lectures to deliver countless factual details will likely frustrate students who wish to question “facts” and who expect their courses to be entertaining and relevant to their lives and careers. These challenges compound the difficulty instructors of survey courses face in balancing the desire to cover everything as completely as possible without overwhelming students with so much information that they miss the comprehension and opportunities for critical thinking we desire. This paper examines an Introduction to Old Testament which was narrowed to focus on five stories in order to emphasize close readings, interpretations, and analysis. It will discuss student responses, results, and the suitability for this new generation of students, as well as possibilities for adaptation to other areas of study.


Texts of Land, Sea, and Hope: Contextual Bible Study in the South West of England
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Louise Lawrence, Exeter University

This paper documents a research project which aimed to help diverse groups (urban; coastal; rural etc) in the south west of England to think about their relationships with their respective ‘places’ and read selected biblical texts from these perspectives. Grounded in Gerald West's contextual bible study method, the project also gathered oral histories and undertook social-scientific analysis of communities. The project selected four main 'stories' drawn from the Gospel of Luke and linked them to particular research themes as follows: Journeying and Home: Luke 15:11-32; The Sacred and Those 'Out of Place': Luke 2:41-52; Responsibility and Place: Luke 8:22-39; Spirit and Vision of Place: Luke 9:46-62. Each group within which we worked, differently ‘showcased’ dynamics of place and offered unique biblical interpretations from their diverse perspectives. Many interpretations referred to local histories, experiences and culture and involved a variety of mediums and activities (including mapping; poetry; drama) intentionally reflecting the cultural heritages of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset that have more often been expressed in painting, song, dance, folk tale, drama and festival than in ‘word’ alone. Although the majority of groups in which we worked were Christian, some were mixed including agnostics and others. This move was intentional, as place, rather than religion, was what primarily united participants in this study. However the benefits of such interactions for Christians involved in community should be obvious. Rowan Williams, writing at the turn of the millennium, urged Christians to concern themselves ‘as best as they can in those enterprises in their culture that seek to create or recover a sense of shared discourse and common purpose in human society’ (Williams 2000:37). ‘Texts of Land, Sea and Hope’, with its community interpretation of the bible and its prizing of local consciousness provides one concrete response to this call.


The “Jews” in Origen’s Commentary on John and the Homilies on John of John Chrysostom
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Richard A. Layton, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Gospel of John identifies the opposition to Jesus by the undifferentiated label of the “Jews.” This representation, as is well-known, contributed significantly to anti-Semitism, especially through liturgical and dramatic performance. This paper will investigate a less-examined subject: the function assigned to the Jews in two prominent Greek commentaries of late antiquity. Origen and John Chrysostom, moreover, are significant because they are frequently adduced as representatives for two opposed exegetical methods of allegorical and literal intepretation. Exegetical method has little direct effect on their appropriation of the rhetoric of Jewishness. Both exegetes deal exclusively with the Jews as constructed in the narrative world of the Gospel, even though both had access to substantial experience of Judaism from other sources. Moreover, the Jews mirror issues solely of concern to Christians. Nevertheless, line-by-line exegesis can also produce significant differences. For Chrysostom, the gospel offers a case study of communal strife in which the Jews collectively embody the vice of envy. The gospel primarily aims to “educate us for virtue” (Hom. 49.1), and envy is the characteristic vice of Satan (Wisd. 2:24) that emerges as the primary impulse for the murderous hostility to Jesus. Anxiety about socially destabilizing rivalry consequently controls the representation of the Jews in the homily series. Origen’s understanding of the Jews is shaped by dispute with an earlier commentator, Heracleon, over anthropological issues. For Origen, the heated exchanges between Jesus and various factions in John 7 and 8 express the irreducible freedom of the human self and the definitive role of moral choice in establishing identity. The quandary of the Jews in the Gospel models the uncertainty of moral progress faced by every believer, and the Jew does not become available to serve as the arch-representative of a reprehensible quality.


Therapeutic Exorcist and National Healer: Matthew's Jesus as Messiah
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Anthony Le Donne, Durham University

One of the ways that Matthew changes Mark's tradition most dramatically is in his portrayal of Jesus as exorcist and healer. This is seen most clearly in Matthew's account of the Beelzebul Controversy and his account of the Canaanite woman's request. This paper will argue that Matthew used these stories to combat the accusation that Jesus had foreign sympathies and was a doer of illegitimate "magic". Moreover, I will suggest that Jesus’ Temple action was a metaphorical exorcism of the Temple cult from Roman occupation. I will argue that in each of the three stories mentioned, the key issue for Matthew is that foreign nations are in proper deference to Israel’s messiah. This paper represents a refined section of my Durham University dissertation supervised by James Dunn and John Barclay and examined by William Horbury and Loren Stuckenbruck: The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology and the Son of David (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2009) forthcoming. The paper is less than 8000 words and can be shortened for presentation. The full paper can be attached to an email via pdf file upon request.


Messianic Duality in Matthew and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Matthew
Anthony Le Donne, Durham University

Our understanding of first century messianism has dramatically increased in the past 60 years due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Indeed, it is now debatable as to whether Qumran's dual messianism represents a religious anomaly among Jews of this period or the dominant expectation. This paper will suggest that Matthew's christological agenda included a motivation to address the messianic duality of his contemporaries. I will argue that Zechariah influenced both Qumran and Matthew and that this influence resulted in two different takes on messianic duality. For Matthew, this is seen most clearly in his portrayal of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. This paper represents a refined section of my Durham University dissertation supervised by James Dunn and John Barclay and examined by William Horbury and Loren Stuckenbruck: The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology and the Son of David (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2009) forthcoming. The paper is less than 8000 words and can be shortened for presentation. The full paper can be attached to an email via pdf file upon request.


The Hanan Clan: Epigraphic Evidence for Iron Age Canaanite Continuity in the Northern Shephelah of Judah
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Zvi Lederman, Tel Aviv University

A unique group of inscriptions from the archaeological excavations in the Sorek Valley shed important light on the issue of Canaanite continuity in the northern Shephelah during the Iron Age. The three inscriptions—a 12th century “Proto-Canaanite” ostracon from the 1930 excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh (Stratum IV, Late Bronze Age) and two incised inscriptions, one on a bowl rim from Tel Batash IV (10th century BCE) and the other on a fragment of a late 10th century BCE game board from the renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh by the authors—bear the name hnn. Since 1 Kgs 4:9 lists “Elon Beth-hanan” immediately after Beth-Shemesh in Solomon’s second district, the name of Hanan in the three inscriptions seems to be related to a clan of that name who dwelt in the region during the Late Bronze Age and continued to occupy it in the Iron Age. The continuity of Canaanite ethno-cultural entity in the northern Shephelah is evident not only from the material culture exposed over this region but may also be reflected in the biblical narratives. First, the northern Shephelah lacks traditions of conquest. Second, according to some traditions the tribe of Judah was formed from sections of mixed origins, including Canaanite elements in the northern Shephelah (Gen. 38). Third, in light of Judges 1:34 it was suggested that a Canaanite enclave stretched in Iron Age I from the Sorek Valley to Gezer. That members of the Hanan clan even became royal functionaries, thus epitomizing the peaceful integration of the Canaanite population of the northern Shephelah within the emerging state of Judah, is apparent from 1Chr 27:28 - "Over the olives and sycamore trees in the Shephelah was Baal-hanan the Gederite."


A Clergyman's Daughter Battles for the Bible
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Bernon Peng Yi Lee, Grace College

The Battles of the Bible, published by a Scottish publisher in 1852 under the cloak of anonymity, is a story about a young girl’s experiences of visiting her grandfather. Grandfather, a retired soldier, retells portions of the Hebrew Bible concerning armed conflict. His mode of exposition and interests reflect the author’s numerous evaluations of character and follow-up questions concerning content betray a concern for religious formation through biblical interpretation. The book, as stated in its preface, is directed at youth and religious educators seeking a tool for instruction. This paper examines the theological flavor of the piece and its method of communication: the literary artistry of the author. The investigation proceeds with an eye towards developments in the Church in Scotland in the earlier portion of the nineteenth century.


Calvin and the New Perspective: Covenant as Ground for a Nuanced View of the Law
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Gregory W. Lee, Duke University

The new perspective on Paul has challenged the Christian tendency to stereotype Judaism as a legalistic religion. While this movement has made important contributions to our understanding of Paul’s letters, it has also produced a general suspicion toward Protestant readings of Paul that is not entirely founded. John Calvin, a central figure in the Reformation, does not set up an antithetical relationship between Judaism and Christianity, instead grounding the Mosaic Law in God’s covenant of grace with Abraham, and even qualifying passages that pit Law against Gospel by appeal to Paul’s polemical context. Calvin’s view toward good works is also quite balanced: neither Old Testament nor New Testament believers can fully obey the Law, but God accepts their imperfect works on the grounds of God’s gracious promise. Calvin’s theology of covenant and his strong emphasis on the continuity between the Old and New Testaments necessitate this nuanced view of the Law. This is particularly evident in his treatment of circumcision as Old Testament analogue to baptism, and his position on the continuing validity of the Ten Commandments. Thus, the new perspective critique of Protestant readings of Paul may effectively be levied against 19th- and 20th-century German scholarship, but it cannot be unqualifiedly extended to Calvin. This exercise reveals the importance of dialogue between Biblical studies and theology. Calvin’s perceptive treatment of the Law derives both from his attention to the whole of the Biblical witness and from his concern to integrate his exegetical work with systematic concerns. The history of interpretation also checks us against potential overcorrection: the new perspective has rightly drawn attention to Paul’s ecclesiological concerns, but this should not trivialize the importance of justification by faith in the history of Western Christianity.


Neither in Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, but in Spirit and Truth
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Hyo Lee, Shenandoah University

It is reported that 911 occurred partly due to the hatred accumulated by America’s weighted support of Israel. This incident reveals that today’s world is largely divided between the Christians and Muslims, West and East, and even U.S. and the rest of the world, provoking hatred and violence among nations and ethnic groups. Likewise, the Gospel of John reveals a dichotomized world between the Jews and Gentiles (Samaritans), with the history of violent destruction of Samaritan worship center Mt. Gerzim by a Jewish ruler in 128 B.C.E. Noting this tension and Jesus’ proclamation in John 4:23, the paper intends to argue that John 4:16-22 reports the presence of an intense ethnic, territorial, and political tension while it further proclaims alternative ways that would unite different ethnic and cultural groups. This is done by negating any territory or ethnicity bound worship center but by proclaiming a space-less spiritual and mobile center of hagiography of spirit and truth. Through this reading, this paper seeks to propose an alternative perspective that would promote ethnic and religious reconciliation for today’s divided world.


A Politics of Meals: Community in Solidarity
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Jae Won Lee, McCormick Theological Seminary

A study of the meal setting as described in Romans 14. The function of the meal in defining community solidarity will be explored.


The First Lexicon of the New Testament (1514): Sources and Methodology
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
John A. L. Lee, Macquarie University-Sydney

The Complutensian Polyglot, the famous work of Spanish humanist scholarship, which presents the biblical texts in their original languages and early versions, also includes a complete New Testament lexicon. This pioneering and anonymous work, the first of its kind, has been little studied. In this paper some interim conclusions from a detailed study in progress will be offered on the use of sources and the methodology of the compilers. Questions such as the following will be addressed: how did the editors compile the list of words? How did they determine the meanings of the words? What importance did they assign to context? What are their methods of stating meaning? What sources for meanings were available to them?


Methods for Mapping Memory through Sound
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Margaret E. Lee, Tulsa Community College

The oral performances that ultimately produced the New Testament and other Hellenistic Greek texts were composed and transmitted through sound. Such performances are preserved in memory as clusters of sounds, and the mental images they evoke. Sounds therefore capture, invoke, create, and transform remembrances that inscribe oral performances on the wax tablets of the mind. A systematic method of mapping and analyzing sounds preserved in texts can identify units of transmission and the key images they invoke. In this way, sound mapping and analysis can identify for memory studies some elements of the traditioning process. This paper will illustrate a systematic method of sound mapping and analysis with specific methodological tools and textual examples. The paper identifies key methodological strategies for sound mapping and analysis, following up my presentation, "Mapping Memory through Sound," for this Consultation at the 2006 SBL Annual Meeting.


Sound in Performance: Methods for Mapping Sounds Preserved in Texts
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Margaret E. Lee, Tulsa Community College

The oral performances that ultimately produced the New Testament and other Hellenistic Greek texts were composed and transmitted through sound. Such performances depended upon the effective use of sound to engage memory. The textual artifacts of oral performances in Hellenistic Greek preserve these effective sounds, but hermeneutical methods based upon the modern practices of silent reading are deaf to the effective use of sound. A systematic method for mapping and analyzing the sounds preserved in the textual artifacts of oral performances can sometimes expand and often critique the conclusions of hermeneutical approaches based upon silent reading. This paper will illustrate a method of sound mapping and analysis with specific methodological tools and textual examples. The paper will demonstrate sound's basic dynamics: sound builds structure, trains the ear, and selects items for emphasis.


Competition between the Holy Scriptures of the Lord and the Oral Traditions: Examination of the Transfiguration Account in Acts of Peter (Second Century CE)
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Simon Lee, Harvard University

In a second century Christian apocrypha, Acts of Peter, there appears in Peter’s sermon an interesting discussion of the Transfiguration of Jesus retold or reinterpreted as his polymorphy. In the beginning of Ch.20, Peter enters a house church of Marcellus, a senator, and finds that they are reading the Gospel story of the Transfiguration in their worship service out of a scroll, which clearly indicates that they venerate the Gospels as their scriptures. Peter’s summary of the story in Acts of Peter 20 well betrays the basic emphasis of the synoptic version – revelation of Jesus’ divine majesty through the light! However, in the form of sermon, he presents as its real/spiritual meaning the polymorphy of Jesus where he appears in multiple form. While in the synoptic version, the Transfiguration manifests Jesus’ divine identity along with his teaching about discipleship, the Transfiguration in Acts of Peter manifests God’s ongoing care for His people. The community of Acts of Peter freely adapts the synoptic story to meet with their needs. In this interesting story, we find that while the community of Acts of Peter is clearly aware of the emerging canon of the New Testament as their scriptures, although its extent is not clear in our text, it still holds onto their interpretive oral traditions as if they are more authoritative than the written Gospels. This well explains what the situation of the formation of the New Testament Canon at the end of second century is like; and how the Christian apocrypha not only complements the Scriptures by keeping oral traditions of various churches, but also competes with them. At the end of the second century, the formation of the Christian Canon begins to appear in a written form and the canon list varies according to geographical and theological orientations of the churches. However, the oral traditions are often considered more authoritative than the written stories or are believed to contain real/spiritual interpretations of the written for some portions of the churches.


Pharaoh's Just Deserts: Divine Judgment and Poetic Justice in St. Ephrem's Commentary on Exodus
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Michael C. Legaspi, Creighton University

The portrayal of Pharaoh in the biblical account of the Israelite exodus from Egypt is not without its difficulties. Both the plagues and the event at the sea are lavish displays of God’s power; both result, at one level, from the obstinacy of Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s obstinacy corresponds in scope to Israel’s deliverance: thus, it too is titanic, superhuman. The origin of this profound obstinacy, the ‘hardness of Pharaoh’s heart,’ is understood in various ways, both within the book of Exodus and in subsequent tradition. Though known principally for his hymns and for commentaries on Genesis and the Diatessaron, St. Ephrem also wrote a less well-known “Commentary on Exodus,” in which the Egyptian rulers known generically as ‘Pharaoh’ figure importantly. Drawing on a number of interpretive traditions, St. Ephrem elaborates the biblical portrait of Pharaoh and locates him within a larger scriptural dynamic of ‘poetic justice.’ This concept is understood, for the purposes of this essay, as the fitting distribution, in a literary work, of rewards and punishments according to the virtue and vices of the protagonists. Though St. Ephrem is widely acknowledged to be a gifted, poetic interpreter of scripture, his careful attempts within the Commentary to identify the ironic failures of and just punishments upon Pharaoh must not be confused with modern attempts to vindicate the ‘literary artistry’ of the Bible or to commend the aesthetic properties of biblical literature. Rather, they are an outworking of St. Ephrem’s understanding of free will, and part of a more fundamental attempt to understand the unique scriptural contours of the relation between divine purpose and human freedom in the context of the Old Testament’s paradigmatic salvation-event.


Re-reading Xenophon and Aristotle: The First Aristotelian Treatise on Household Management and Its Use of Greek Tradition
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Karin Lehmeier, University of Giessen

There is no doubt about the Aristotelian background of the unknown author of the first treatise On Household Management that has been handed down under the name of Aristotle. However, the author seems to have used Xenophon's Oikonomikos, too. Re-reading both texts, the author expresses a third opinion in the Greek debate on the subject of household management.


The Galilee in the Fourth Century and the Cessation of the Talmud Yerushalmi
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Uzi Leibner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The absence of entire chapters from tractates in the Talmud Yerushalmi and the absence of editing components (openings, summatins, links, etc.), have led scholars to believe that this major work was concluded in haste, without serious editing. The circumstances that brought about the apparently sudden cessation in the compilation of the Talmud Yerushalmi during the second half of the 4th century, are vague. THe historical sources concerning the Galilee in the 4th century where most of this Talmud was composed are so few and fragmented, that we can not gain a reasonable historical picture. New data from a recently concluded comprehensive and systematic archaeological survey of the Eastern Galilee will be presented in the lecture. The data points to dramatic changes in the Jewish settled area during the 4th century. The process of diminution apparent in the last stages of the Talmud Yerushalmi till its cessation is surprisingly parallel to the decline in settlement and demography as attested to by archaeological findings. This demographic crisis together with Christian penetration into areas previously settled solely by Jews, are probably major reasons for other significant changes in the Jewish society during this period as well. These changes include, for example, the disappearance of the Rabbis as a class; the disappearance of the Patriarchate; the strengthening of local communities and the increasing usage of symbols of group identity and of epigraphy.


Re-visioning a Biblical Story through Libretto and Music: Pizzetti's Debora e Jaele
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Helen Leneman, University of Amsterdam

Both music and librettos are a form of midrash (creative re-telling), because they re-tell all or part of a story by creating a particular mood or feeling musically. The re-telling is in both the altered text and in the language of music. Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968) wrote both the libretto and music of Debora e Jaele from 1917-1921. In this libretto, motivations are completely reversed. Characters perceived in the biblical account as “good” and “bad” seem to be switched. Our previous presumptions about the story and its characters are challenged: the belief that Sisera is evil and powerful, and has no positive qualities; that Deborah and Jael never met; and that Jael and Sisera had had no prior encounters. The libretto and the music succeed in depicting three-dimensional characters with conflicting motives and feelings. The addition of dimensions to the characters amplifies the moral ambiguities found in the original narrative. Sisera becomes a dominant and central character of this opera. Pizzetti is offering a counter-reading, in which the “villain” becomes a kind of hero and the listener can understand why Jael succumbs to his charms. A recurrent theme in this work is the testing of and by God. The viewpoints of Jael and Deborah depict what Pizzetti described as “human” justice (Jael) and “divine” justice (Deborah). An encounter with this opera will alter forever our reading of this biblical story.


Contributions of Hebrew Script to Reading Artworks
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Harris Lenowitz, University of Utah

Hebrew script appears on the collar of the garment the Virgin wears and on the neckband of that worn by Christ in a diptych by Jan and/or Quinten Metsys ((Prado, ca. 1530) pictured and described in the catalog of the recent exhibit "Prayers and Portraits" at the National Gallery. The book describes the text on the Virgin’s collar as the “beginning words of Genesis.” On the right wing, Christ’s garment is “edged in Hebrew letters that are apparently purely decorative”. Ch. Müller, ("Urs Graf: Die Zeichnungen... " 332) (following centuries of commentary) describes the Hebrew appearing in a broadside of the Virgin, a songsheet with the notes and text of a hymn to her immaculate conception, as “fiktives”. Ruth Mellinkoff writes, in one of the few (less than a dozen) works that have given any serious attention to the appearance of Hebrew script in art, “”Hebrew or pseudo-Hebrew—the difference is not important here—was meant to symbolize Judaism” ("Outcasts", 97f). The works to be discussed in this paper are the diptych mentioned above; the songsheet by Urs Graf and another work by him, "Pyramus and Thisbe I". The Hebrew in the diptych derives from one branching of the history of the Tetragrammaton, and, like the Hebrew in the songsheet, is related to the “original” Gospel of Matthew. In the third work, the Hebrew inscription on the tombstone is almost not meaningful, but points towards a macabre reminder of the history of the Jews in Basel. This paper demonstrates that Hebrew script, even errant script, frequently makes up an important part of the artwork in which it appears and it focuses on one way the script does that: when read for linguistic meaning and associated with Hebrew texts, real or invented.


A Case of Psychological Dualism: Philo's Interpretation of the Instruction of the Two Spirits in QEx I 23
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität

The Instruction of the Two Spirits (1QS III,13-IV,26) is one of the best-known dualistic texts from Qumran, combining cosmic, ethical and psychological dualism. However, A. Lange and others have shown that it did not originate in the Qumran community, but represents a tradition taken up from outside. In his Quaestiones, Philo presents a wide variety of traditions, not all of which he agrees with. In QEx I 23, he takes up the tradition of the two spirits and interprets it in an emphatically psychological way. This paper argues that Philo is acquainted with the Instruction of the Two Spirits, but takes it up in a way that emphasizes the already existing psychological dualism and allows him to tone down the cosmic aspects which do not fit into his own view.


Luke Reading the Other Gospels
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Heikki Leppa, University of Helsinki

The cursing of the fig tree is a part of Mark’s and Matthew’s picture of Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus had no positive relationship to either one, he came to Jerusalem only to die. The cursing highlights the break between Jesus’ movement and Judaism, while Luke emphasizes just the opposite: continuity. Luke seems to cut the story of cursing the fig tree into two parts. Then he rewrote them getting the parable of a barren fig tree and the story of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. The way Luke handles Mark 3:21-35 is the following: he placed the story of the kindred of Jesus into another context than the Beelzebul episode. He removed the contrast between the family of Jesus and believers. He placed another saying about the mother of Jesus together with the Beelzebul episode. Luke also took the sting out of GThom 79 simply by cutting it into two pieces, separating them, and adding a few words. Luke kept the Jewish leaders responsible for the death of Jesus, but they did not arrange an illegal trial with false witnesses. If Luke posed the high priest in a slightly better light than Mark and Matthew, the picture of Jesus is also improved: even his archenemies did not think that he was a blasphemer. The fourth example is John's story of Martha, Maria and Lazarus. Martha and Maria had the same roles in Luke than in John, but in a different context. Luke's Jesus raised a son of a widow, not his friend. The annointing stories have common elements, but different message. And finally in John many believed in Jesus because of Lazarus; Luke's paraple of Lazarus ends: '...neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'


The Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Parmenides
Program Unit: Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic, and Patristic Reception
Alain Lernould, Université de Lille

An analysis of the present status quaestionis on the date and authorship of the Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Parmenides.


The Manumission Laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy: The Jeremiah Connection
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Mark Leuchter, University of Sydney

Many scholars have suggested that the slave manumission episode in Jeremiah 34:8-22 is a late text drawing from both the Deuteronomic and Holiness Code slave manumission laws (Deut 15:12-18 and Leviticus 25:39-46) at a time when they had obtained equally authoritative positions in the Pentateuch. This paper will support the view that Jeremiah 34 is based upon Deuteronomy 15, but will propose that it functions as a source for the Holiness author of Leviticus 25. Yet whereas the author of Jeremiah 34 attempted to amplify the Deuteronomic law, the Holiness author attempted to contradict it, and relied on a specific exegetical accretion in Jeremiah 34 to do so. This accretion – the miqqetz shevvah shannim formula in Jer 34:14 – was initially employed to qualify Jeremiah’s recitation of the Deuteronomic manumission law as a Levitical exhortation (cf. Deut 31:10). The Holiness author re-applies the exegesis in Jeremiah 34 for his own purposes, subordinating the Deuteronomic legislation to the Zadokite sacral calendar. This not only reinforces recent studies that place the development of the Holiness Code subsequent to the Deuteronomic legislation, but also provides some indication of the polemical culture of the exilic period. The sequence of composition suggests a specific relationship between prophetic collections and the developing Torah traditions fostered by these different ideological groups.


The Prophets and the Levites in Josiah's Covenant Ceremony
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Mark Leuchter, University of Sydney

The account of Josiah’s covenant ceremony in 2 Kings 23 and its parallel in 2 Chronicles 34 contain a fascinating admixture of commonalities and variants. Of the latter, the alteration of "prophets" in 2 Kgs 23:2 to "Levites" in 2 Chr 34:30 demands special attention. While some scholars have viewed it as part of the Chronicler’s emphasis on Levites and his ascription of prophetic status to them, the "Levites" notice in 2 Chr 34:30 possesses unusual characteristics that set it aside from the Chronicler’s usual approach to discussing Levitical activity. The present study attempts to determine alternate reasons for the terminological substitution, beginning with a fresh analysis of the relationship between Levite groups and prophets in the Josianic period in a variety of textual sources (especially in the book of Jeremiah). The evidence suggests that these prophets were all bound to regional priestly lines redefined as "Levites" under Deuteronomic criteria, and their activity involved appealing to their respective priestly kin groups to support Deuteronomic ideology. The Chronicler’s substitution of "prophets" with "Levites", then, reflects an exegetical clarification based on extant hermeneutical relationships between various canonical and extra-canonical literary works.


The Historic Present in the Gospel of John with Reference to Verbal Aspect and Discourse Function
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Mavis M. Leung, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

This essay studies John's use of the historic present, focusing on non-lego verbs. After a brief survey of the state of scholarship, general observations about the usage and discourse function of the historic present will be offered. What follows is a more detailed examination of several sample passages (e.g. 1:35-51; 13:1-30; 20:1-18), particularly those in which a cluster of historic presents is situated. The explanatory power of various theories in accounting for the phenomena in John will also evaluated, where it is prompted by the subject matter. The result of this study will demonstrate that while discourse function is helpful in understanding John's use of the historic present, it could not explain all the phenomena. The tense-choice could be prompted by lexical factor, Johannine idiosyncrasies, or simply by the aspectual value of the present tense.


Fostering a "Whole-Brained" Scholastic Experience in Classroom Teaching
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Barbara Mei Leung Lai, Tyndale Seminary

As a seminary professor who has journeyed through the difficult passage from modernity to postmodernity, this paper is an I-discourse, an appropriated personal journey. Speaking from my own experience of stepping outside my comfortable methodological locations and venturing into a foreign land (the interface of psychology and biblical studies) some time ago, I seek to spell out the different stages of this enriching experience, and the ways that it in turn transforms my classroom teaching. Drawing worked-out examples from my current writing project (on uncovering the internal profile of Hebrew personalities); publications and SBL/ISBL presentations in the past few years; and intentional course developments ("The First-Person Texts of the Old Testament"), I shall further demonstrate that new angles of vision in reading biblical literature and in character portrayal are often created through the employment of a psychological lens. Since the Bible is a soul book, engaging one's intellect, will, emotion/feeling and imagination in the task of interpretation is an invigorating necessity. Fostering a "whole-brained" educational experience is therefore, a mandate for teaching the Bible.


Scripture as Artifact: A Comparative Perspective
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Miriam Levering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

This paper looks at some of the recent work on scripture as artifact in Biblical religions in comparison with recent work on the same topic in the study of South and East Asian religions.


Zephaniah: How this Book Became Prophecy
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Christoph Levin, University of Münich

Recent years have provided us with a number of excellent commentaries on the book Zephaniah, e.g. by Klaus Seybold, Ehud Ben Zvi, Marvin A. Sweeney, Lothar Perlitt. So most of the material is well prepared for a new inquiry into the literary growth process that made this book the prophetical book that it is. This paper shall start with the present shape of the book and shall proceed step by step to get to the (non-prophetic?) core.


CAD: The Gateway to Expanded Context in Biblical Hebrew Lexicography
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Baruch A. Levine, New York University

Throughout my research in biblical studies, I have pursued a philological methodology, by which I mean a pattern of exegesis that starts with the smaller units of language, with words, and expands progressively, reaching outward to larger units—formulas, whole passages, chapters, books, religious institutions, et cetera. In so doing, my greatest need has been to be able to access textual information from the great cultures, kingdoms, and empires of the ancient Near East as well as from the smaller ones, usually closer at hand. The comparative method requires contextual information, and the CAD, in addition to listing the lemmas, refers the reader to source materials that reveal usage, register, periodization, and most of what a scholar is seeking. In this brief presentation I will cite three examples of how I have used the CAD to great benefit.


Mediterraneanization: Samson's Nazarite Vow and Religio-cultural Change
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
David Levinsky, Stanford University

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Theatricality and the Balaam Scene in Numbers 22
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Shimon Levy, Tel Aviv University

A consideraton of the Balaam scene in Num. 22 and its potential/actual theatricality. The core of the scene involves characters who "belong" to three categorically different "lifestyles:" an angel, a she-donkey and a prophet (with two servants). The description of the stage design is truly very dramatic, strongly suggesting the inevitability of (theatrical, actual) action.


The Effective Power of Words: Incantations in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Theodore J. Lewis, Johns Hopkins University

The genre of incantation is widespread throughout the ancient Near East and most frequent in the Judaism of Late Antiquity. In such light, the paucity of apotropaic texts in the Hebrew Bible is striking. Michael Fishbane once wrote that "No cultural assessment of ancient Israel can ignore this fact, and the analytical problems it provokes." And yet, the archaeology and especially epigraphy of Iron Age Israel (e.g. amulets, the Lamashtu plaque of the Judean Shephelah, the Khirbet el-Qom, Ein Gedi and other burial inscriptions, and new readings of the Ketef Hinnom inscriptions) reveals another story, one of a rich use of the effective power of words. After surveying these data, the paper will analyze ways in which effective words do indeed appear on the pages of the Hebrew Bible.


Children and Childhood in the Thought of John Chrysostom
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Blake Leyerle, University of Notre Dame

Building upon my previous work, this paper will begin by revisiting the information on children found in the homiletic corpus of John Chrysostom, before proposing that the concept of “childhood” be understood as restrictive category applicable to only a minority of sub-adult people. Slaves and the poor (always the vast majority in antiquity) would not have known a specialized time of life characterized by notions of fragility and the need for protection. They would have joined the work force from the earliest possible moment and their lives would have been largely if not entirely similar to those of adults. Only those from a privileged background had a “childhood.” The term “children” should accordingly be understood as a precise designation of those who would become cultural actors, if they lived. Thus when Chrysostom calls someone a child, he is identifying him or her as a site of cultural and social reproduction.


An Introduction to the Use of Advanced Data Reduction Approaches to Address Longstanding Issues in Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
James Libby, Decision Support Sciences

A wide variety of advanced quantitative methods and mathematical subdisciplines have emerged and matured over the last 30 years. These techniques include, but are not limited to; multivariate data reduction, multivariate data visualization, latent class analysis, causal modeling, information theory, Bayesian inference, hierarchical log-linear analysis and multinomial logit modeling. These eight methods, in particular, have demonstrated utility in solving problems similar to those in Biblical scholarship. In this paper we demonstrate two of these advanced methods, multivariate data reduction and multivariate visualization. These methods generate visually intuitive “grammatical landscapes” and also allow a platform for testing hypotheses related to authorship, style and genre.


A Conversation with Nicholas Wolterstorff's Divine Discourse
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Clayton Libolt, River Terrace Church

In the reading of Scripture and the preaching of the Word the Church has said historically that the listener is addressed by God. Not just by the preacher or the ancient text, but by God. What is the nature of that address? What warrant is there in supposing that there could be such an address? That God can speak through these means? A bit over a decade ago Yale philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff addressed these and similiar questions in his book, Divine Discourse, suitably subtitled, Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks. Marten Wisse says of the book that it "is rapidly becoming a classic for the field of theological hermeneutics." But most of the discussion seems to come from the side of philosophers and theologicans professionally interested in questions of hermeneutics, not biblical scholars and certainly not preachers and others whose work is applying the Scriptures to ordinary life. And even then, the central argument of the book seems rarely to be engaged. The book is cited as an obligatory piece of bibliography, but not take up for itself. It deserves better. This paper is an attempt to engage the core arguments of the book and to assess them. In the end, although the paper comes to somewhat different conclusions than Wolterstorff, it remains appreciative of the originality of his contribution.


"Above Top Secret": The Prophecy of Ezekiel, the Nation of Islam, and the Advent of the "Mother Plane"
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Michael Lieb, University of Illinois at Chicago

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1 Peter, the Septuagint, and the Eschatological Davidic Shepherd
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Kelly David Liebengood, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

First Peter commentators have long hinted at a relationship between the letter’s shepherd imagery (2.25; 5.2-4) and the shepherd discourse found in Ezekiel 34. Jobes’ remark in her recent 1 Peter commentary is representative: ‘Elements of this passage from Ezekiel [Ezek 34.11-13] correlate so well with elements of 1 Peter that it is tempting to conclude that Peter deliberately alludes to Ezekiel here [2.25] and elsewhere in his letter’. Neither Jobes nor her predecessors, however, explore their hunches further. Unable to resist the temptation to which Jobes refers, this paper will argue that 1 Peter 2.25 alludes not just to Ezekiel, but to a larger narrative—the Eschatological Davidic Shepherd tradition found in Ezekiel, but also in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Zechariah. Particular attention will be drawn to 1 Peter’s dependence upon the Greek (LXX) representations of this tradition, especially noting the role of LXX Zechariah 10.2 in explaining how 2.24-25 moves from the theme of “being healed by his wounds” to that of “straying sheep”, and finally to speak of being “returned to the shepherd and episkopos”.


Baptism in Paul: A Life Changing Experience?
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Bert Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Protestant Theological University

It seems that for Paul baptism was not just an initiation. Rather, he considered it the beginning of a new life. The language he uses in e.g. Rom. 6:3-4, 1 Cor 12:13, and Gal. 3:27 points out that Paul considered baptism to establish an almost physical bond between the believers and Christ. The result of this bond, among other metaphors expressed by the concept of the ‘body’ (1 Cor. 12:13), is a change in perspective on life. Those who are baptized live their lives ‘in Christ’ (en christoo — cf. e.g. 1 Cor. 1:2 where Paul speaks of the believers as those who are ‘sanctified in Christ’). From this perspective Paul can even say of himself that he no longer lives as a person, but Christ lives ‘in him’ (Ga. 2:20). This paper approaches Paul’s baptism language from a double perspective. On the one hand it applies Roy Rappaport’s theory of ritual to the Pauline communities, on the other hand it broadens the perspective by comparing Paul’s baptism language with initiation language used in pagan cults. By doing so I hope to answer these two questions: what are the special dynamics of Paul’s concept of baptism and what does his language tell us about the religious experience of first century members of the Christ movement?


Isaianic New Exodus: Failed, Delayed, or Fulfilled?
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Bo H. Lim, Seattle Pacific University

This study will examine the manner in which the New Exodus as announced by Second Isaiah was fulfilled. It will challenge the assumption that SI intended a complete and immediate cosmological transformation by examining the role Cyrus plays within the rhetorical argument of Isaiah 40-55. Much of the language used to describe Cyrus and the Servant initially have much in common. They are both called to establish the Way of the LORD which is initially depicted as a theophany. Cyrus initiates the New Exodus through his conquest of Babylon, release of the exiles, and support for the reconstruction of the temple. In doing so, he acts as an agent of Yahweh the Divine Warrior and Redeemer. Cyrus succeeds in this role and the New Exodus in a real sense is inaugurated with the return from Babylon. Ezra’s allusions to SI’s prophecy demonstrate that the post-exilic community believed the return from exile genuinely fulfilled the New Exodus salvation program. Similarly Haggai’s references to Isaiah’s prophecy and the shared theophanic phenomena in both books demonstrate that this same community believed the reconstruction of the temple fulfilled “eschatological” prophecy. Yet Isa 40-55 is not merely political persuasion; an eschatological vision is also cast. Cyrus plays a limited role in the establishment of the New Exodus as demonstrated by SI’s rhetoric. As the argument of SI proceeds, the Servant continues to play a pivotal role in Yahweh’s redemptive plan whereas Cyrus disappears from the scene. The New Exodus is projected into the future not because it failed to be consummated in the repatriation of Jerusalem or because it was delayed due to Israel’s rejection of Cyrus as Yahweh’s agent. The hope of the New Exodus is tied to the hope for the Servant.


Jonah’s Transformation and Transformation of "Jonah" from the Bakhtinian Perspective of Authoring and Re-authoring
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Sung Uk Lim, Graduate Theological Union

My paper aims to investigate transformation of both the prophet of Jonah and the book of Jonah in Chapter 2 through the Bakhtinian lens of authoring and re-authoring respectively. Jonah is transformed from a disobedient prophet to an obedient one in Ch. 2. At the same time, "Jonah" has been recreated or transformed throughout the history of translation. To delve into Jonah’s transformation, I will first make use of Bakhtin’s concept of authoring. According to Bakhtin, authoring is the process of constructing or drawing of self and others. By analyzing Jonah’s prayer as shown in Ch. 2 in terms of authoring, it can be concluded that Jonah’s understanding of God and himself in Ch. 2 is transformed in comparison with those in Chs. 1 and 3. Then I will proceed to the concept of re-authoring of Bakhtin throughout the history of translation of "Jonah." Given that translation is contingent on historical background, a translator cannot help redrawing a hero in a different way from the source text in the horizon. From the Bakhtinian perspective, it can be said that different translators re-author the text in their horizons. The concept of re-authoring will also show us that the text itself is polyphonic and diverse versions of translation are dialogical. Among other translations, I will focus on the Masoretic Text (MT), Septuagint (LXX), and Vulgate (V). By comparison of MT with LXX and V, we can observe that LXX and V re-author Jonah differently from MT in different horizons. The Hebrew text I will employ is traced back to the early 2nd century A.D. The Septuagint stems from the 3rd century B.C. The Vulgate was written between 390-405 A.D. Comparing the three translation versions, I will reexamine how different historical and linguistic horizons result in various re-authorings in the history of translation.


Jonah’s Transformation and Transformation of "Jonah" from the Bakhtinian Perspective of Authoring and Re-authoring
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Sung Uk Lim, Graduate Theological Union

My paper aims to investigate transformation of both the prophet of Jonah and the book of Jonah in Chapter 2 through the Bakhtinian lens of authoring and re-authoring respectively. Jonah is transformed from a disobedient prophet to an obedient one in Ch. 2. At the same time, "Jonah" has been recreated or transformed throughout the history of translation. To delve into Jonah’s transformation, I will first make use of Bakhtin’s concept of authoring. According to Bakhtin, authoring is the process of constructing or drawing of self and others. By analyzing Jonah’s prayer as shown in Ch. 2 in terms of authoring, it can be concluded that Jonah’s understanding of God and himself in Ch. 2 is transformed in comparison with those in Chs. 1 and 3. Then I will proceed to the concept of re-authoring of Bakhtin throughout the history of translation of "Jonah." Given that translation is contingent on historical background, a translator cannot help redrawing a hero in a different way from the source text in the horizon. From the Bakhtinian perspective, it can be said that different translators re-author the text in their horizons. The concept of re-authoring will also show us that the text itself is polyphonic and diverse versions of translation are dialogical. Among other translations, I will focus on the Masoretic Text (MT), Septuagint (LXX), and Vulgate (V). By comparison of MT with LXX and V, we can observe that LXX and V re-author Jonah differently from MT in different horizons. The Hebrew text I will employ is traced back to the early 2nd century A.D. The Septuagint stems from the 3rd century B.C. The Vulgate was written between 390-405 A.D. Comparing the three translation versions, I will reexamine how different historical and linguistic horizons result in various re-authorings in the history of translation.


Ramat Rahel as An Administrative Center in Judah during the Late Iron Age and Persian Periods
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Oded Lipschits, Tel Aviv University

Ever since Yohanan Aharoni began his excavations at the site of Ramat Rahel five decades ago, it became clear that this was a unique site. The overall plan, the impressive architectural remains and the numerous stamped jar handles all indicate that the site must have played an important role during the days of the Judean kingdom. The discovery of 256 Yehud stamped jar handles dated to the Persian and early Hellenistic periods suggests that the site maintained its function and its ancient prestige during the Persian period. But what exactly was done at the site? And whose authority does it reflect? These questions and others still remain unsolved. The new excavations at the site conducted by the Archaeological Institute of Tel-Aviv University and the Theological Institute of Heidelberg University have revealed many finds that illuminate the questions presented above. The lecture will present the new finds and will evaluate their importance for understanding the role of Ramat Rahel during the Iron Age and the Persian period.


Terms of Endearment: A (Very) Fresh Look at Biblical Law
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Diana Lipton, King's College London

Biblical scholars, like the legal theorists addressed by H.L.A. Hart in his monumental The Concept of Law, privilege the notion of law as orders issued by a supreme and independent ‘sovereign’ being who punishes the disobedient. I attend here to an aspect of biblical law that sits in stark tension with the sovereign model: law as quasi-erotic engagement. In ‘The Valediction: A Book’, John Donne tells his lover how to ‘anger destiny’ when he is gone: Study our manuscripts, those myriads/ Of letters, which have past ‘twixt thee and me,/ Thence write our annals, and in them will be/ To all whom love’s subliming fire invades,/ Rule and example found… Donne’s letters will not replace him. Rather, the exchange of letters between himself and his lover record their engagement, preserve their love in the face of destiny, and create a model for future lovers. Though imperfect, this comparison elicits a key feature of my reading here. Biblical law, especially Deuteronomic law, is not a soliloquy but a dialogue. With this in mind, I re-read Deut. 31-33, where the Torah will remind God of his relationship with Moses; discourage unilateral punishment; intercede for Israel in Moses’ absence (31:19, 26, reading the preposition ‘be’ as ‘with’, not ‘against’); record the dialogue between God and Moses; and exemplify for Israel the dialogic ideal of law (31:21b). My reading calls for a re-evaluation of: (1) the significance of love (Deut. 6:5) and even eroticism (Ps. 119:32, 97, 131) in relation to biblical law; (2) the relationship between biblical law and rabbinic legal texts, where engagement of this kind is central; (3) the meaning of shema be’qol; (4) the desirability of obedience – which arguably forecloses engagement – as a response to biblical law; and above all (5) the classic opposition of biblical law and compassionate love.


Monsoon Weddings: Ezra's Foreign Wives and Noah's Flood
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Diana Lipton, King's College London

Ezra's call for separation from foreign wives is linked to concerns both Deuteronomic (Ezra 9:12 cf. Deut. 7:3) and ‘priestly’ (Ezra 9:2 cf. Lev. 19:19). Yet Deuteronomic (D) and ‘priestly’ (P) texts diverge markedly on marriage and its metaphorical application to God and the land. D permits divorce (Deut. 24:1-4), reflecting its conditional approach to the land (Deut. 28:63,64). P’s marriage is an eternal bond, akin to its perspective on the land (Lev. 26:43-45), and ‘marital’ problems are addressed via rituals (Num. 5) or ritualised natural or political events (Lev. 26:21-26). And where D bans intermarriage, P prohibits incest (Lev. 18). I suggest that Ezra strives to reconcile these worldviews through a hitherto unidentified intertext, the Genesis flood narrative. Gen. 6:1-4 undermines the standard assumption that Ezra fears holy seed will be defiled by profane (e.g., Hayes, 2001, p. 129). If offspring are any guide, the sons of gods (holy) transmit their divinity to the daughters of men (profane), not vice versa. These unions produce gibborim; God limits human lifespan against the ascent of god-like beings (cf. Gen. 3:22), and the flood wipes them out. Ezra fears that intermarriage will weaken the claim on the land of the returning exiles (9:12b) by strengthening the people of the land. His solution, mass divorce (not expulsion), is ritualised through association with the flood. E.g., two of the five confusing dates in Gen. 8 match the dates of Ezra's divorce proceedings (Gen. 8:5,13 cf. Ezra 10:16,17); the raven, superfluous in Genesis, recalls Ezra’s mixed unions (hit’arbu, 9:2) and the key verbs of D’s divorce formula (Gen. 8:7 cf. Deut. 24:1,2); Ezra’s mysterious rainy season recalls the flood (Ezra 10:9,13 cf. Gen. 8:2). Construed legally, divorce is a harsh gesture. Ritualised as above, it both corrects and cleanses, like the waters of the flood.


Some New Lines of the Septuagint
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Robert J. Littman, University of Hawaii

Sinai 1 is a 12th century AD manuscript from the Monastery of St. Catherine’s of the Sinai. It is currently being edited by the present author. The manuscript contains most of Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. There is a strong possibility that this manuscript is a copy of Codex Sinaiticus, and was written in the Monastery. Codex Sinaiticus is missing the Pentateuch. There is a notation in the Codex Sinaiticus, “Compared and corrected against the Hexapla of Origen...The confessor Antoninus checked it. Pamphilus corrected the book in prison, through God’s great grace and magnanimity.” Sinai 1 contains a number of lines in Greek that are not present in any of the other 1900 Greek manuscripts of the Pentateuch. These lines are translations of verses that are in the Masoretic text, but absent from the Septuagint. This paper examines these lines and suggests that these lines were added from the Hexapla of Origen, being either lines composed by Origen himself, or perhaps present in one of the other columns of the Hexapla, such as the version of Aquila.


Qohelet's Iterations
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
David U. B. Liu, Duke University

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Purity and Polemic in Jude
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Darian Lockett, The King's College, New York City

Though much has been written regarding the polemical character of the Epistle of Jude specifically taking up the identity of Jude’s enemies, this paper will bring a new means of analyses (social categorization by means of purity/pollution rhetoric) to this older question. Few, if any, have considered how the purity language is functioning within Jude’s polemic, yet this paper will seek to understand first how the language functions to mark Jude’s opponents and then to observe how a broader ‘worldview’ may in fact find articulation through such language. Drawing on the work of Mary Douglas and the more recent work of Jonathan Klawans, this project seeks to view Jude’s polemic and ‘worldview’ through the lens of purity and pollution.


The Hermeneutics of Midrash and the Conception of Adam in the Seventeenth Demonstration of Aphrahat
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Dale Loepp, University of California-Berkeley

Although Aphrahat may not have been a “docile pupil of the Jews” (F. Gavin, opposed by J. Neusner) he does employ midrash as one of his hermeneutical approache to scripture, perhaps indicative of his contact with contemporary Jewish sources. This paper will focus on Aphrahat’s midrash on the conception of Adam in his Seventeenth Demonstration as a specific case in point, along with its possible parallels in Jewish midrashic texts.


In Review of Christ and Horrors
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
D. Stephen Long, Marquette University

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The Epistle to the Ephesians
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Fredrick James Long, Bethel College

Socio-rhetorical interpretation, weaving discoveries from cognitive science, conceptual blending, and the identification of traditional modes of discourse into the fabric of biblical exegesis, promises a new paradigm for biblical studies and new insights into much-studied texts. Papers in this session, presented by authors of commentaries in the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series, demonstrate the gains of socio-rhetorical interpretation for the genre of commentary and the ways in which this interpretive analytic opens up new directions for exploring a text.


The Parable of the Samaritan and the Inn-Keeper (Luke 10:30–35)
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Bruce W. Longenecker, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

In this paper I argue that, when the parable is extracted from its secondary frame (10:29 and 10:36-37), the parable focuses on the initiatives of two characters, not one. That is, the 'example story of the Samaritan', as Luke has it, bursts out into a true 'parable of the Samaritan and the Inn-Keeper'. This essay considers the role of the innkeeper as one who, like the Samaritan, serves a positive role within the story when it is extracted from its extant literary context. Unlike the story of the wicked tenants (Mark 12:1-12 et par.), with its association of characters whose efforts and devising result in an evil outcome, the story of Luke 10:30-35 depicts an association of characters whose efforts and devising result in a positive outcome. Rather than having an individualistic focus on a single “good” figure, the Samaritan story depicts an uncommon association of figures, a surprising collective, an unprecedented model of mutual service. In an exceptional partnership, the Samaritan and the innkeeper enter into a relationship involving personal vulnerability and loss on the one hand and mutual trust and cooperation on the other. It is from this risky, fragile and exceptional association that goodness flows to the benefit of the disadvantaged… But in Jesus’ Samaritan story, moments of empire-otherness transpire even (and perhaps especially) in coalitions between despised, suspect figures that fall outside the normal channels of institutional religion. In this, there would have been real offence, as the foundations of a prominent second-temple worldview (perhaps itself stereotyped) were being challenged, deconstructed, and refashioned… Consequently, it is not simply “the despised half-breed” Samaritan that serves as the model of “compassion and grace” in the story; it is that despised half-breed in association with the decadent scoundrel.


Recentering Esther: Identity Politics in Jerusalem at the End of the Persian Period
Program Unit: New Historicism and the Hebrew Bible
C. Shaun Longstreet, University of California, Irvine

This paper suggests the value of reading the Masoretic version of Esther as it might have been received from a Jerusalemite perspective, rather than only reading it as a program for explaining Purim and the lives of Diaspora Judaism. That Esther is burlesque, historical fiction, or comedy should not detract from underlying messages about Jewish identity. While the text pokes fun of the Persians, it is clear in the end that Jewish and Persian fortunes are tied together. Stressing the larger cultural venues of Esther can provide some indication as to how the Jerusalem literati read themselves vis a vis shifting imperial contexts. The use of dualities throughout Esther highlights the instability of identity that arises in the book. Esther herself sometimes reads as a gentile and gentiles present themselves as Jewish. The book plays with the idea that the Jewish people are part of a larger corporate body, easing anxieties of being part of the newly rising Greek empire, while also addressing concerns of those who saw themselves as part of the old empire; one can be a citizen in multiple ways. Reading Esther in the late Persian period, early Greek period, suggests ways in which Jerusalem authority figures sought to maintain their prestige. By placing themselves within the highest circles of the largest empire, they shored up their own hegemony over Judah. Furthermore, locating Esther in the Persian court situated later Jewish identity as Mesopotamian rather than Greek. Just as the writers of Genesis located their ancestry with a Mesopotamian Abraham, Esther reconfirmed that Mesopotamian locus of identity in the face of Greek conquest. This paper contends that the Masoretic version of Esther is less about explaining a religious holiday and more about Jerusalem identity politics in the later decades of the fourth century.


What Does Proecho Really Echo in Romans 3:9? (Re-evaluating Arethas and Photius' Ninth-Tenth Century Greek Interpretations)
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Bruce Lowe, Macquarie University-Sydney

Proechometha in Rom 3.9 is problematic. Depending on voice, it is today taken one of three different ways: “As a true middle, in the sense of ‘put forward in excuse’… As a true passive, giving the sense, ‘Are we (Jews) at a disadvantage’… [or] As a middle form with an active sense: ‘Do we have an advantage’” (Byrne, Romans, 119). In each of these cases the pro- prefix is ‘spatial’. While these three translations are sufficiently attested in ancient literature, there is nevertheless a fourth possibility. Ancient literature also attests to the pro- prefix being used 'temporally'; e.g. ‘having previously received hostile expressions of feeling from the Athenians’ (Hdt 9.4); and ‘consider what they have already obtained’ (P. Petr. 2.12. fr. 4). Such a usage in Rom 3.9 may then be translated: ‘Do we have [something] in advance?’ This essay will revisit this so-called ‘fourth possibility’, which has been all but forgotten since Arethas and Photius in the 9th-10th centuries, but which yields numerous advantages when applied to Rom 3.9. Firstly, it allows the answer to Paul’s question in 3:9 (ou pantos), to be translated naturally -‘Not entirely’. Second, this question and answer in Rom 3:9, now ties back to Paul’s earlier question of 3:1, in a non-contradictory way. Thirdly, several well attested textual variants are now accounted for as scribal attempts at clarity. Fourthly, a connection point with Paul’s use of echo in chapter 2 (c.f. Rom 5:2?) is also gained. And fifthly, Rom 3:1-20 can now be read as a more unified whole. This last point is of great relevance in current discussion, and will be touched on briefly at the end of the paper.


Reports from the Galaxy's Rim
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Kirk E. Lowery, Westminster Theological Seminary

This session focuses upon the outer perimeter of research in the Society's disciplines. There will be short reports by those who have gone "where no one has gone before," i.e., those among us who are "pressing the envelope" and "thinking outside the box." Extra time for questions and answers will be given.


Toward an Interdisciplinary Approach to Johannine Studies
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Francisco Lozada, Jr., Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

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Decoding the Epigraphy and Icons of an Egyptian-Inspired Hebrew Seal Impression
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Meir Lubetski, City University of New York, Bernard M. Baruch College

Studies of Hebrew seal impressions have centered almost exclusively on the epigraphic and onomastics aspects of engraved seals, while the treatment of the glyphs was confined to a bare description. True, a small group of pioneers showed a keen interest in attempting to illuminate the conceptual import of pictorial art, however, Egyptian icons on Hebrew seal impressions were considered pseudo-hieroglyphs that served as decoration or space fillers. Nevertheless, a fresh evaluation of Egyptian designs on Hebrew seals indicates that the Egyptian ideograms are not only meaningful but are essential for understanding the socio-cultural and religious background of a Hebrew living in the biblical period. Accordingly, this paper will offer an alternate approach by examining an Egyptian-inspired Hebrew seal impression from the 7th century BCE belonging to a person named Mnr. It will analyze the complex epigraphy that contains a mixture of Hebrew and Egyptian and explain its iconography. The seal is uniquely significant because it reflects the impact of Egyptian culture on the Hebrews during the late monarchical era. At the same time, it demonstrates the talents of the highly qualified Hebrew craftsmen.


The Judas Iscariot Trajectory in Primitive Christianity and Its Origin
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Gerd Lüdemann, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The Gospel of Judas belongs to the second stage of the Judas Iscariot trajectory. To fully place in the history of Primitive Christianity the first stage needs further. It was not until the early Christians tried to undergird the theological interpretation of the Passion story with "historical" details – partly to draw attention away from the embarrassing delay in Jesus' Second Coming – that they began to look for a concrete person who may have delivered Jesus to the enemy. They chose the disciple Judas, from Kerioth in southern Judea. After all, who could better symbolize the Jewish people (Judas/Judea/Jews) – the collective scapegoats for the church, accused from the beginning for their role in Jesus' death? And it must be remarked that, from this tragic point on, the theologically if not Biblically positive side of Jesus' act as the suffering Servant ("Jesus' blood shed for you") became distorted by the supplanting of a negative, and ultimately destructive interpretation to the verb paradidômi. Judas is transformed from one symbolic representative of the Twelve Tribes to the placard-bearing traitor, the Jew from Kerioth of Judea. Thus Judas and the Jews become, in one abysmal mistranslation and a self-serving cataclysmic theological decision of an insecure Institution, grossly stylized monsters – a grotesque miscarriage of justice whose significance can only be measured with inadequate reference to centuries of cultural abuse and horrendous mistreatment still under scrutiny today.


A Coptic Miniature Codex in Context
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University

This paper takes as its point of departure an unpublished miniature codex containing Sortes sanctorum in Sahidic, for which I am preparing the edition and commentary. I will argue that a careful study of the format of this small codex leads to a better understanding of its use and content. The insights gained from this case study, I will show, are wider applicable for some of these petite books.


How Religions Remember: Memory Theories in the Cognitive Study of Religion
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Petri Luomanen, University of Helsinki

The paper reviews memory theories presented within the recent cognitive study of religion in order to see if they can supplement social memory approach in Biblical studies. Memory functions have been central in two much discussed problems of cognitive study of religion. Cognitive scientists of religion have discussed the reasons for the ubiquity of supernatural concepts in religions offering the concept of ‘counterintuitiveness’ as an explanation for the formation and spread of supernatural concepts (P. Boyer, J. Barrett, I. Pyysiäinen) . Several memory experiments have shown that minimally counterintuitive representations are usually better recalled than ordinary concepts that do not violate categorical expectations (or violate them too much). Another problem field where memory functions have had a central role in recent cognitive study of religion is the study of ritual. H. Whitehouse and T. Lawson & R. McCauley have presented related theories of ritual transmission that apply memory theories in order to explain different ritual modes of religiosity (Whitehouse’s doctrinal and imagistic modes of religion) as well as the ways how the frequency of rituals and their sensory pageantry contribute to rituals’ persistence and transmission (Lawson & McCauley). The distinction between semantic and episodic memory—both aspects of explicit (or declarative) memory—has dominated the discussion while less attention has been paid to implicit (or nondeclarative) memory. In addition to introducing and assessing the above discussions of cognitive scientist of religion the present paper suggests that some seemingly contradictory assumptions in Whitehouse’s and Lawson & McCauley’s theories (for instance, so-called tedium-effect vs. ritual frequency’s consolidating effect) could be clarified by introducing distinctions made in the recent studies on implicit (or nondeclarative) memory. The study of implicit memory might also form a fertile ground for the interaction of cognitive approach and social memory approach since Paul Connerton’s concept of habit-memory (cf. Keightley’s article in Kirk & Thatcher [eds.], Memory, Tradition and Text) is to be regarded as part of implicit memory.


Politeness Strategies in Biblical Hebrew Directive Utterances
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Alexey Lyavdansky, Russian State University for the Humanities

Directive speech acts in the Hebrew Bible constitute considerable amount of utterances; they are represented by wide variety of illocutionary subtypes: requests, pleas, commands, suggestions etc. The task of translation includes decoding speakers’ intentions which determine subtypes of directives. One of the important parameters here are the politeness constraints or politeness strategies. They affect linguistic choice at several levels of expression: lexical, syntactical, and discourse structure level. It has been shown in earlier studies that the choice of some discourse particles, f.e. –na’ depends on the parameter of politeness. It is argued that the politeness is a kind of default feature, i.e. the polite utterances may be considered as unmarked. Thus the intention of impoliteness may be expressed by the lack of politeness markers, such as –na’. The default or unmarked characteristics of politeness explains some of the uses of –na’ in the contexts where the feature of politeness is absent or of no primary importance for the communication. The meaning of –na’ as an inferential marker will be also considered in the paper.


Rahab through the Ages: A Study of Christian Interpretation of Rahab
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
William L. Lyons, Florida State University

The story of Rahab plays a prominent role in the early days of the Israelite conquest of the “Promised Land” and has been told and retold for centuries. It offers a first glimpse of what would be the new home of Israel and foreshadows some of the tensions that would surround the capture and settling of the land. Beyond the anticipation of new land fermented during the lengthy wilderness sojourn, however, is the question of Rahab and her prominent position so early in the narrative. For centuries, Christian writers have struggled to make sense of this woman. Was she a common harlot, or some type of temple functionary? Did she remain a gentile after contact with the spies, or did she profess faith in the God of Israel? This study reviews a variety of Christian attempts to understand this enigmatic biblical figure. It considers the remarks of 1 Clement, Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Origen, Irenaeus, Augustine, Jerome, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Luther, Calvin, Phylis Bird and Alice Bellis, et al., and categorizes them according to Taconius’ four-fold sense of Scripture: Literal, Allegorical, Tropological, and Anagogical. The study demonstrates that no one type of biblical interpretation is more “biblical” than another. Rather, each exegete working through the centuries believed that they were interpreting the Bible, struggling to make the ancient story address the issues of his or her own day, and addressing issues that earlier writers overlooked. They also raise concerns common to their time that previous writers could not have known. Thus via multiple modes of interpretation the Bible could speak to people long ago, as well as, those of every subsequent age.


The Rhetoric of Desire and Choice in the Book of Proverbs
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Sun Myung Lyu, Vernon Hills, IL

The book of Proverbs is about rhetoric and persuasion: to be more specific, rhetoric of desire and choice. In the lectures (ch 1-9), the rhetoric is carried by the literary characters of the Lady Wisdom, Woman Folly, and the Loose Woman as they all strive to persuade, or seduce, their audience. In the saying collections (10-29), the primary rhetorical vehicle is a series of evaluative discourses with "better-than" proverbs as its most prominent example. While the sagacious voice in the book does dole out imperatives for certain moral choices, those imperatives are mainly programmatic in nature as they rarely go beyond underlining the importance of making right choices. By comparison, the heart of the rhetoric in the book notably suggests to its readers that there are better alternatives for uneducated and non-virtuous acts. Readers are often induced to have desire to concur with the voice through observing the juxtaposition of characters, either desirable or undesirable in nature. The rhetoric of desire assumes that there is a hierarchy of desires. To nurture good kind of desire in the reader, therefore, the book displays through characterization the happy state of the ideal person and declares the superiority of such lifestyle (“better-than” proverbs for instance). This rhetoric with its appeal to desire, rather than simple imperatives, sustains the staying power and persuasiveness of proverbs both as individual sayings and as an edited collection.


Feasting Fit for a King: The Role of Feasting in the Development of the Israelite Monarchy
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Nathan MacDonald, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

Although food is often viewed as a conservative element in society, it can also have a role in social change as recent work on feasting has sought to demonstrate. In this paper textual and archaeological data for the development of Israel from a segmentary society to a monarchy is re-examined. Whilst early proponents of the use of social-scientific methods made significant gains in their analysis of early Israelite society, their work had numerous gaps. One of these was the use of agricultural surpluses and how these were controlled and invested to drive forwards technological and social change. Recent anthropological and archaeological work on feasting allows this lacuna to be filled, whilst also highlighting the role food and feasting plays in the Old Testament literature that describes the early Israelite experience.


A Reassessment of the Different Editions of Ezekiel 7 in the Septuagint and Masoretic Text: Relating Ezekiel’s Composition-History to Its Inclusion in the Emerging Scriptural Canon
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Timothy Mackie, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Septuagint text of Ezekiel 7 preserves an edition of the judgment oracle that is in a different arrangement and shorter than what is reflected in the Masoretic Text. One broadly accepted explanation is that the discrepancies can be explained as an interpolation of a marginal variant along with the accumulation of unrelated glosses (Cornill, Zimmerli, Tov). More recently, Bogaert has argued that the Septuagint’s Vorlage preserves an earlier edition of the oracle, and that the differences can be explained as the result of intentional editorial efforts aimed at introducing a specific agent of YHWH’s judgment, namely, Antiochus IV as described in the visions of Daniel 7-11. Bogaert’s proposal has great explanatory power, although a number of important questions remain unresolved. Why did this particular oracle in Ezekiel attract editorial revision, and why was it specifically linked to the visions of Daniel? Did a scribe revise the oracle in light the events surrounding Antiochus IV, or was this more an exercise in inner-biblical interpretation? It is well known that much of the language and imagery of Daniel’s visions is dependent upon Ezekiel, particularly chapter 7. It is because of this pre-existing textual relationship, that later scribes sought to coordinate Ezekiel’s oracle with Daniel’s visions. The edition of Ezekiel 7 found in the MT is not the result of scribal updating in light of historical events as such. Rather, it is the result of a nascent “canon-consciousness”: two texts in the emerging scriptural collection exerting mutual influence upon one another’s text-form. In Ezekiel 7 reception-history and composition-history coincide. Such an example illuminates the ways in which Ezekiel’s oracles uniquely contributed to the emerging scriptural tradition, as well as how the book’s textual shape was decisively impacted by its inclusion within what would eventually become the biblical canon.


Psychological Roots of the Bible’s Humor
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Howard R. Macy, George Fox University

This paper will explore the Bible’s use of humor through the lenses of psychological understandings of the roots and uses of humor. The roots of humor include relieving tension, expressing hostility or superiority, recognizing incongruity and absurdity, and showing love. Humor functions to maintain psychological health, bond people to one another, to express joy, to critique and effect social change, and to create the disequilibrium that can lead to new insight. Acknowledging and correlating with these common ideas, the paper will illustrate how the Bible uses humor, from Abraham and Sarah to the teaching of Jesus.


Law, Death, and Job’s Compositional History
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
F. Rachel Magdalene, Augustana College

Scholars have devoted considerable time to the possible compositional history of the book of Job. Majority opinion generally allows that one early document, containing the prologue and epilogue, underwent a four-stage redactional process. Of late, a number of interpreters have questioned this view of the text. They challenge the use of a diachronic evolutionary paradigm to solve every literary problem in biblical texts, especially those within the book of Job. This paper will, therefore, take up once again the question of Job’s compositional history and dating. In particular, it will examine two aspects of the text that have not been studied as fully as possible. First, it will argue that when the legal materials of the book are compared against ancient Near Eastern trial records, using comparative legal historical and legal hermeneutical methods, the book manifests fewer literary fractures than previously thought and that many of the so-called literary fractures resemble the normal legal story-telling conventions of the ancient world. In fact, the book bears considerable resemblance in legal procedure and story-telling technique to that found in late Neo-Babylonian and early Persian period trial records. Second, it will examine Job's views of death and the afterlife in light of Israelite views of death and the afterlife in the Neo-Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenistic periods. After these analyses, the paper concludes that the book was probably written in the early Persian period and that only the Wisdom poem of Chapter 28 is not original to the book.


The Current State of Qumran Archaeology
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Sixty years after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls are now fully published and have been accessible to the public for years. Unfortunately, the material from Roland de Vaux’s excavations at Qumran remains unpublished and inaccessible. During the last decade we have witnessed a spate of alternative interpretations of the site of Qumran, most prominently those identifying it as a manor house (Yizhar Hirschfeld) or a pottery production center (Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg). In this paper I survey the current state of Qumran archaeology, including a consideration of the alternative interpretations and the larger trends that are defining the ongoing debates.


Was Qumran an Essene Community?
Program Unit: Josephus
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Although Flavius Josephus provides a detailed description of the Essenes, he does not associate them with the settlement at Qumran. Instead the identification of Qumran as an Essene community is based mainly on Pliny the Elder’s testimony and on the association of the sectarian literature from the nearby caves with the site. Some scholars argue that the discrepancies between Josephus’ description of the Essenes and the sectarian beliefs and practices documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls are so significant that the two groups could not be the same. These differences include the question of whether the Qumran sectarians included married members and women, and the fact that the word “Essene” does not occur in the Dead Sea Scrolls (although some scholars have suggested equating this Greek and Latin word with similar Hebrew or Aramaic terms). In this paper I present a review of this debate, focusing especially on the archaeological evidence. I hope to show that this evidence supports the identification of the sectarian community at Qumran with Josephus’ Essenes.


“Let the Peace of Christ Rule in Your Hearts”: Roman Imperial Military Iconography, Moral Transformation, and the Construction of Christian Identity in Colossians
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Harry O. Maier, Vancouver School of Theology

Roman imperial propaganda celebrated the Empire’s military successes as a Gospel bringing a divinely appointed order of moral regulation and ethical transformation to barbarians and conquered nations. Roman imperial iconologist Tonio Hölscher has shown how political iconography dramatized this achievement by offering up scenes of military victory in which representations of somber, self-regulated, victorious emperors contrasted with depictions of the vanquished in anguish and sorrow. While such iconography praised the emperor’s military prowess and moral superiority, it also made visible and helped to construct a series of ethical and social ideals all were to embrace. The sorrowful conquered now transformed through the application of Roman regulation were to conform to the moral and emotional self-control of their conquerors and so live in ethical harmony with a divinely appointed moral order preserved by imperial rule. Hölscher’s socio-semiotic iconographical study of Roman imperial conquest offers insight into the influence of Roman military art on Pauline portraits of unruly gentiles transformed through the rule of Christ to lives of obedience and self-control. That portrait is especially explicit in Colossians where Jesus’ death celebrated as a military victory secures the journey from the barbarian/Scythian life of immoderation toward one of regulation (Col. 3:5-17). Colossians belongs to an imperial situation in which a political visual culture centered on ideals of conquest and military regulation furnishes the backdrop for the social construction of Colossian ethical ideals and communal identity. If in the imperial order military victory leads to moral conquest and the transformation of once unruly peoples, in the church the paradoxical victory Jesus’ death represents similarly urges transformation, no longer by way of the threat of violence and the politics of force, but through love and forgiveness, in memory of the chains of the alternative Gospel propagandist and apostle to once unregulated gentiles, Paul.


In Review of Christ and Horrors
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Lois Malcolm, Luther Seminary

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Rais/zing Walls on la Frontera: Is there No Sin in Malintzin or a Bomb in Gilead?
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Robert D. Maldonado, California State University-Fresno

“But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.” (Gal 2:18). This paper weaves together several biblical themes focusing on issues of boundary and purity. This resulting cloth is brought into contact with contemporary concerns about the US-Mexico border. It is to be expected that borders are contested zones. If they were not recognized as markers between this and that they would not be borders. The paper adopts an explicit malinchista perspective. La Malinche (Malintzin) famously in Mexican lore betrayed the Aztecs to the Spanish conquerors. Things are always more complicated than lore lets on and this complication allows the figure of Malinche to reflect on contemporary issues of race, ethnicity, gender and identity. I bring Malinche into dialog with Pat Buchanan and the apostle Paul all of whom struggle mightily with issues of boundaries, purity, danger, and walls.


The Mark of Autobiography: Whose Context? Whose Culture? Why Me?
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Robert D. Maldonado, California State University-Fresno

This paper seeks to contextualize the Gospel according to Mark within Mexican-American identity hermeneutics (mestizaje) through the lens of autobiographical Biblical criticism. I examine two theoretical axes. First is the relationship between inculturation and incarnational theology. Given how Mark leans more to a quasi-adoptionist Christology, the Gospel provides an interesting case in which to study connections between culture and text that are independent of presupposing incarnation. This is operational at the level of the text itself (for example, between the culture of the Markan community and the broader Greco-Roman culture) as well as the hermeneutical level between the cultural context of the interpreter and the text. The second axis runs between inculturation and contextualization. The problem here is that neither culture nor text are monolithic. Whether one is trying to oppose culture and sacred text, with the former typically devalued in relation to the latter, or reconcile them, a value judgment is made as to which and whose parts of culture and context are appropriate. Autobiographical criticism complicates this because it tends to emphasize the particulars of one's personal and social location. Paradoxically, the personal voice may provide a way through the various complications by rendering the particularity of the valuations explicit and in the foreground. Concretely, I compare and contrast my reading of Markan apocalyptic with that of Tina Pippin (Semeia 72) and in opposition to (imagined and reconstructed) voices of our particular opponents (KKK and Yanqui ideologies).


The Identity of Jesus: Identity in Anti-introspective Cultures, Or: Who Do They Say That I Am: Tell Me Quickly
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Bruce J. Malina, Creighton University

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Text, Artifact, and Meanings
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Brian Malley, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Research in cognitive psychology suggests that text and artifact are distinct kinds in folk ontology, in the sense that they activate and are processed by different inference systems. I have argued in my ethno-graphic work that this distinction is also analytically necessary for an understanding of the Bible’s recep-tion. This paper summarizes the evidence for a text–artifact distinction and explores the relation be-tween both and the various phenomena that are called meaning, with attention to the social and cogni-tive processes that establish and shape this relationship.


Teaching Tip: A Biblical Calendar
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Carol J. Manahan, California Institute of Integral Studies

Early in their studies, Bible students learn the annual calendar of religious celebrations. The biblical text also provides many clues for situating other events in the yearly cycle. In a course on Peasants, Agriculture, and the Bible, students are introduced to the region's seasonal weather patterns, the timing of different crops, and the activities associated with their production and marketing. In this activity, students create a large circular calendar indicating the important religious rituals and weather cycles, in relation to our contemporary calendar. Then, drawing on their understanding of climate and food production, they locate the season for additional biblical events and stories. With cards for each quotation, they physically create a visual presentation of the seasons of the biblical stories, revealing underlying social and political adaptations to the natural environment. As students come to understand the importance of agricultural life and reliance on weather in biblical times, they expand their ability to consider the biblical stories in light of ecological relationships.


Inconsistent Consistencies and Improper Uses: Recent Approaches to Gender, Romans 1, and the Need for a Feminist, Postcolonially Queer Analysis
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Joseph A. Marchal, Grinnell College

One of the concrete effects of feminist hermeneutics in biblical studies has been an increased scholarly attention to the concept and deployment of gender. However, a “new” kind of gender critical reading has recently arisen, making few explicit or acknowledged links to feminism(s). One technique in these readings is to reconstruct certain ancient discourses of gender and/or sexuality as the appropriate contexts for understanding texts like the letters of Paul. Here, they might accurately observe how Paul repeats and reinscribes the ancient discourse and, occasionally, they will note the elite, imperial, male, and/or ethnocentric (or at least ethno-specific) trajectories of the discourse. Yet, such analyses are arrested in this moment and, in lacking adequate stances of assessment, suspicion, or resistance, they also ironically manage themselves to repeat and reinscribe such problematic power dynamics. This is unfortunate, since adopting a trans-disciplinary feminist approach that draws upon and remains accountable to postcolonial and queer analyses can decenter and resituate arguments like Paul’s in Romans 1 to other ends. An analysis that implements Spivak’s catachresis (or “improper use”) as just such a strategy of resistance, assessment, and redeployment can more fully consider the range of effects in such arguments. This kind of approach can demonstrate the inconsistencies in the rhetorics of these texts and interpretations and in the normalizing malestream paradigm of scholarly “propriety.”


The Corinthian Women Prophets and Trans Activism: Rethinking Canonical Gender Claims
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Joseph A. Marchal, Grinnell College

Over fifteen years ago, Antoinette Clark Wire posited that Paul and Corinthian women had different experiences of their status before and after joining the assembly of Corinth. More recently, it has come to the attention of queer theorists that trans folk have different experiences of their status than expected by the medical and psychological establishment, both before and after changes in and through behavior, dress, performance, and surgery. Though dissimilar in a variety of ways, these two dynamics are strikingly analogous in matters of being, becoming, and belonging. Most prominently, arguments about suffering, authority, and normalcy are key in both domains. Putting these two dynamics in contrapuntal conversation, then, could prove profitable for re-thinking what precisely is involved in gender, community, identity, and conversion or transition (for the first or the twenty-first century). In the end, this should demonstrate the additional and unexpected utility of feminist socio-historical modeling for feminist and/or LGBTIQ communities as well as the possibilities for a continually relevant practice of biblical studies.


Acts 2:1–13: Pentecost at the Crossroad of Jewish Eschatology and Graeco-Roman Universalism
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Daniel Marguerat, Université de Lausanne

My aim is to show how Luke combines what the scholars separate: Jewish eschatological hope of the gathering of the nations in Zion and Graeco-Roman ideology of universal Empire. Intertextuality can be perceived with the donation of the Torah on the Sinai (Exodus 19) as well as with the table of nations (Gen. 10); the latter echoes with Roman imperial propaganda. Luke presents Pentecost both as eschatological accomplishment and realization of imperial pretention.


Does the Gospel of Judas Rehabilitate Judas Iscariot?
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Antti Marjanen, University of Helsinki

The picture the canonical gospels paint of Judas Iscariot is gloomy and gets worse as the process of interpretation advances. In the Gospel of Mark, Judas hands Jesus over to his opponents but it is not entirely clear whether his act should be called a betrayal. In Matthew, Luke and John there is no doubt about it. Judas acts out of love for money in Matthew and Luke and as an agent of the Devil in Luke and John. The first reports of the newly published Gospel of Judas gave us to understand that the text provides a rehabilitation of Judas and makes him a paragon of the disciple of Jesus. My paper advances the thesis that the Gospel of Judas indeed portrays a different picture of Judas but that it is not a complete reversal of the canonical one. Judas is the disciple who best understands Jesus and to whom Jesus reveals his secret teaching. He is also the one who renders Jesus his last favor by delivering him to his opponents and thus helping him to be freed from his body. Thus, he is clearly more important than the rest of the disciples who completely misunderstand Jesus and who represent a non-acceptable form of Christianity. Nevertheless, it is not at all certain whether Judas belongs to the ”holy generation” of Christians who will dwell in the realm of light. The significance of Judas Iscariot in the Gospel of Judas does not seem to lie in the fact that he could be a role model for Christians who read the text. Rather, he is pictured as Jesus’ special disciple because, through him, the text can criticize the other disciples and the form of Christianity they represent.


Glorifying the Present through the Past: Herod the Great and His Jewish Royal Predecessors
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Adam Kolman Marshak, Yale University

This talk discusses the attempts by Herod the Great to enhance his legitimacy and glory among his Jewish subjects by connecting himself with past Jewish leaders including the Abraham, David, and Solomon. Herod’s goal was to position himself as a rightful successor to these men and, therefore, a magnificent Jewish king. During Herod’s early reign, he was primarily concerned with creating and maintaining his legitimacy. To this end, he depicted himself as a proper successor to the Hasmonean dynasty through a multimedia program that included architecture, coins and dynastic maneuvering. Association with the Hasmoneans brought Herod relative peace and security, but he also wanted a glorious reputation among the Jews to rival the status that he enjoyed among the Greeks and Romans. He achieved this status by inserting himself into Jewish history as a rightful and legitimate successor to the heroes of the Jewish past. In order to depict himself as a pious Jewish king who honored his ancestors, Herod built two massive enclosures at Hebron and Mamre, sites closely linked with Abraham. He also linked himself to David by building a monument to him and by commissioning a biography where Herod appeared as the new David, a king of humble origins who rose to power through his skill and charisma. Finally, Herod’s expansive rebuilding and enlarging of the Temple Mount enabled him to fashion himself as the new Solomon, a pious king and monarch for a glorious age. Through this multimedia appropriation of past sources of legitimacy, Herod positioned himself as a rightful and glorious Jewish king. Although not all of his subjects accepted these claims, he managed to acquire enough support to rule successfully for over thirty years and to pass on his kingdom to his chosen successors. Glorifying the Present through the Past: Herod the Great and His Jewish Royal Predecessors


Trophy Wives of Christ: Tropes of Seduction and Conquest in the Apocryphal Acts
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
John Marshall, University of Toronto

This paper re-examines the well-known trope of early Christian Acts literature in which the apostle seduces socially and politically elite women from pagan society to a state of chastity for Jesus. These women are depicted as literally forsaking their fiancés at the altar, new husbands in the bridal chamber, and established husbands in comically portrayed frustration in order to devote themselves to a “real man,” namely Jesus, under the guidance of the apostle. The postcolonial insight connects this literary formation to the wider ways in which conquest and colonization were figured as gendered activities and acted out in the possession of the elite women of conquered nations and through the gendered depictions of nations in relation to one another. The trophy wives of Christ are Christian transformations of the pagan iconography of conquest and seeing this suggests ways in which the early Christian depiction of evangelism modeled itself on the Greco-Roman paradigm of gendered political control.


Deuteronomy 32:43 and Textual Criticism: New Proposals for an Old Puzzle
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Phillip S. Marshall, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

This paper is a reassessment of proposals for the original reading of the Hebrew text of Deut 32:43 at the end of the Song of Moses. It introduces the problem by surveying several English translations of Deut 32:43 and taking note of the tremendous variations in the readings offered by each. Next, the the three extant witnesses which preserve the variations are discussed: 4QDeutq, the Masoretic text (MT), and the Septuagint (LXX). In the next section, the paper surveys the various reconstructions of the text by prior scholars: Albright, Skehan, Cross, Bogaert, and Rofé. Each proposal is examined and evaluated for how it has failed to live up to the principles of textual criticism, especially the principle that the primary reading should best be able to account for the variations arising from them. Finally, the author offers his own reconstruction of the text, supported by text-critical principles and theological considerations in the context of Deuteronomy. The author’s proposal is shown to account adequately for the presence of the other variants.


Qur’anic Noahs
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Erica Martin, Graduate Theological Union

The name ‘Noah’ is mentioned repeatedly in the Qur’an, usually in lists of prophets. In seven suras the Noah story is clearly presented, with varying detail and emphasis. Literary analysis of biblical texts often grapples with repetition and variance. The wife-sister episodes in Genesis and Jesus’ feeding the multitudes in Matthew are examples of what Janice Chapel Anderson terms ‘double and triple stories.’ In this paper, I offer observations about differences and similarities in the shape of the Noah story between suras, and explore connections between the presentations in terms of plot structure and verbatim repetition. I attempt to determine a ‘standard’ story-shape for the Noah/Flood tale in the Qur’an and discuss the sura that best represents that story-shape. Finally, I turn to the story of Noah as presented in writings of two major Qur’an interpreters, al-?abari (224-5 AH/ 839 CE – 310 AH / 923 CE), al-Qur?ubi (circa 600 AH /1200 CE – 671 AH /1273 CE) to determine how these writers understood Noah in the Qur’an. I examine al-?abari’s Ta’rikh al-rusul wa al-muluk (The History of the Messengers and the Kings) and Ibn Kathir’s Qi?a? al-anbiya’ (Stories of the Prophets) to determine the impact of variation and contradiction in the Qur’anic Noah story on the way these authors relate the flood narrative.


Tongues of Angels, Words of Prophets: Means of Divine Communication in the Book of Judges
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Lee Roy Martin, Church of God Theological Seminary

This survey of divine communication in the book of Judges observes that Yahweh speaks through a variety of agents and with a broad array of objectives. Yahweh responds to Israel's inquiries; he speaks through prophets; he speaks through the angel of Yahweh; he speaks directly; and he speaks through a dream that is given to an enemy soldier. Although the voice of Yahweh in Judges is virtually unnoticed by biblical scholars, the argument is advanced that divine communication is a prominent feature of the narrative and that it always signals a crucial point in the progress of the book.


Male Headship in Pauline Texts
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Troy W. Martin, Saint Xavier University

References to male headship in Pauline texts such as Eph 5:23; Col 2:19; and 1Cor 11:3 spark an intense debate between traditional and egalitarian interpreters. The former maintain that these texts specify the man as the ruler, controller, decision-maker, and leader of the woman, while the latter propose that man is the source of the woman but that both are equals in rule, control, decision-making, and leadership. The crux of the debate is whether head means ruler or source. Both sides in the debate advance lexical arguments, but neither introduces the ancient disagreement about the role of the head. This paper investigates this ancient disagreement in relation to Pauline anthropology and concludes that the use of head in these texts is less likely a reference to ruler than to source.


The Johannine Community among Jewish and Other Early Christian Communities
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
J. Louis Martyn, Union Theological Seminary

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The Newly-Created Moral Agent in Paul
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
J. Louis Martyn, Union Theological Seminary

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Making Africa Visible: Re-reading Some Wisdom Texts the Bosadi Way
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Madipoane J. Masenya, University of South Africa

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Hebrews 7:3, Melchizedek, and the Nature of Jesus' Priesthood
Program Unit: Hebrews
Eric F. Mason, Judson University

Hebrews 7:3 is a pivotal verse in the book’s presentation of both Melchizedek and Jesus, and one’s interpretation of its statements about Melchizedek’s lineage determines one’s understanding of what the author wishes to affirm about Jesus’ priesthood. Some interpreters have understood the verse merely as a comment that Melchizedek lacks a Levitical genealogy, thus Jesus also is a priest lacking a Levitical heritage (as discussed later in Heb 7:14). Other interpreters have understood the verse to assert that Melchizedek lacks a human genealogy of any sort and is an eternal, heavenly figure, thus Jesus too holds an eternal priesthood (something the author affirms frequently elsewhere in the book). While both of these readings have found support in Hebrews scholarship over the past three decades, I argue for the latter, appealing to a reconsideration of the Qumran portrait of Melchizedek as an angelic, priestly figure. Admittedly several elements differ in the presentations of Melchizedek at Qumran and in Hebrews, and certainly some scholars in the past have argued overzealously for too much of a relationship between Hebrews and the Qumran community. On the other hand, others have overemphasized the differences to the neglect of legitimate parallels. My thesis is that the author of Hebrews evidences some level of shared thought with the Qumran portrait of Melchizedek. Hebrews and the Qumran materials on Melchizedek provide the only examples in extant Second Temple period literature for a heavenly Melchizedek understood in light of Day of Atonement imagery, and this illuminates the interpretation of Heb 7:3.


"A New King Arose over Egypt Who Did Not Know Joseph": The Joseph Novella as Prologue to the Moses Biography
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Danny Mathews, Interpretation/Union-PSCE

A detailed literary and historical comparison of the depictions of Joseph and Moses in Genesis and Exodus have not received substantial attention due especially to the assumption of the independence of the Joseph narrative as a self-contained, coherent novella that now functions merely as a literary “bridge” connecting the ancestor and Mosaic narratives. The Joseph narrative has also been bypassed in recent attempts to investigate literary and thematic connections between the ancestor and Mosaic narratives. Moreover, not much attempt has been made, if any, in analyzing and comparing the royal portraiture of both figures. In attempt to initiate a new line of inquiry, this paper will argue that Exod 1:6–8 establishes a literary connection between the Joseph and Moses narratives and will present a summary of a detailed analysis of both accounts that reveals a number of striking literary and thematic connections and suggests some kind of literary interrelationship that serves a function far beyond a mere literary “bridge.” This paper, then, will establish in a more specific way Knierim’s brief suggestion of Genesis as a “prologue” to the Moses Biography. In particular, the numerious linguistic and conceptual connections between the Joseph and Moses narratives point toward an understanding of both as royal figures, who, in their own different ways, have been rescued and attained a high exalted status in Egypt in order to save God’s people. This paper will argue that any discussion of the composition of the Pentateuch must take seriously the portrayal of both as royal figures and will offer provisional suggestions on the origin, composition, and combination of the two accounts.


The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians
Program Unit:
R. Barry Matlock, University of Sheffield

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The Historical Plausibility of John's Passion Chronology: A Reconsideration
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Mark A. Matson, Milligan College

As is well known, one of the most distinctive features of the Fourth Gospel, and one that is most difficult to coordinate with the Synoptic Gospels, is the chronology of the passion week. John’s last supper is explicitly not a Passover meal, and Jesus is executed instead on the Passover. In the Synoptics, by contrast, Jesus’ last meal is a Passover meal, and so his death occurs on the first day of unleavened bread. Various attempts have been made to explain the differences and to evaluate the relative historical probability of both the Johannine and the Synoptic accounts. Such attempts have often turned to consideration of various Jewish calendars and to Jewish law. In this paper I will examine the data again, survey the main approaches, and evaluate them. The Johannine chronology appears to come from an independent source and appears to accord best with preponderance of the evidence, but the calendrical argument is a weak basis for such a conclusion.


Christian Maturity in Ephesians and Colossians: Distinctly Masculine or Gender-Relativised in Christ?
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
B. J. Matthews, Durham University

The significance of the topic of maturity within the theology of Ephesians and Colossians is often overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the topic of maturity in fact provides a level of theological coherence to both letters, and to some extent accounts for the relationship between the two. Both letters integrate the nature of Christian maturity into God’s eschatological plan for the cosmos, when ‘all things’ will be reconciled to (Col.) and united in (Eph.) Christ. Yet, maturity in Colossians is received through participation in Christ (1.28), whereas in Ephesians it is achieved through the promoting the growth and unity of the church (4.13). The variation in these articulations is intelligible in light the overall ecclesiological focus of Ephesians and christological focus of Colossians. Moreover, the two presentations of maturity can account for the subtle differences in the ecclesiological head-body metaphor, as well as the varying emphases of the intercessory prayers and paraenesis. However, one disparity that is not so easily explained is the gendered metaphor for maturity in Ephesians, where the corporate maturity of the church is likened to that of a ‘mature man’ (a!ndra te/leion). Most scholars take this as indication of the author’s entrenchment within his historic and social location, though some attempt to relativise the masculinity of this statement. Neither of these approaches satisfies the complexity of the issue. The cosmic implications of maturity in these two letters reveal that the author operates with an anthropology and cosmology common to the ancient world, where humanity was considered to be a microcosm of the cosmos. Yet, there are also indications in both letters of the subversion of gender as a marker of maturity. Thus, this paper will identify the theological resources available in Colossians and Ephesians that make a critical appropriation of the nature of Christian maturity possible for today.


Welcome
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Christopher R. Matthews, Weston Jesuit School of Theology

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Cognition and Conversation as Social Indicators in the Story of Judah and Tamar
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Victor H. Matthews, Missouri State University

This paper will examine the ways in which identity transformation, physical setting, and manner of speech contribute to the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. I will employ aspects of spatiality theory, cognitive linguistics, mental space theory, and the anthropology of clothing in my study. My basic premise is that conversations are constructed of more than an exchange of words. The mental back drop to the conversation includes socially recognized and agreed upon concepts or cognitive representations that identify the characters, the setting, and the language they employ. With respect to the persons involved, these concepts encompass their relative power relationships based on kinship, age, gender, rank, or social status, as well as the physical setting in which their conversation takes place, and various temporal factors such as the season of the year or the occurrence of a regularly scheduled economic activity. In addition to these cognitive elements, there are multiple socially-based triggers that provide cognitive keys or directives on how a conversation will proceed.


Social and Ethnic Transformation in the Story of Ruth and Boaz
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Victor H. Matthews, Missouri State University

Of particular interest in a social reading of the story of Ruth is the emphasis placed on membership in the community. Typically, a personal sense of identity in the village culture of ancient Israel is defined for each individual by his or her membership in a family, a clan, or a tribe and by age and gender. This recognition of membership within a specific group is further qualified by the location of the person’s home, village, or town; the geographical region within Israelite territory; and the geo-political relations with both the kinship group’s neighbors, as well as other tribes and nearby states. In the normal course of events, it would have been inconceivable for any person in this ancient society even to consider making a conscious decision on what his or her identity should be. Yet the story of Ruth and Boaz hinges on the question of ethnic identity and includes, using various legal means, a transformation process that ultimately establishes how Ruth is accepted into the Israelite community of Bethlehem.


Performance Criticism and Its Implications for Translation
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
James Maxey, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

As an emerging methodology Performance Criticism’s eclectic approach seeks to employ and transform several disciplines, including biblical translation. Bible translation in the past century has presupposed a print-bias ethos of the Bible’s composition, transmission, and reception. Performance Criticism challenges translation theories that separate form from meaning, remove language from its social contexts and functions, and purport non-ideological methods. As an extension of Performance Criticism’s eclecticism, this paper presents insights from anthropological research in folklore and other verbal performances with a view to their contributions to biblical criticism. Researchers of ethnopoetics are concerned with how to avoid loss when transcribing verbal performances. These potential losses can inform Bible translators as to how first-century performances of biblical compositions involved more than what has been contained in print translations. Although some performance aspects may be lost, biblical texts offer hints as to how they were intended to be rhetorically performed and received. Translations for performance should attempt to reflect these rhetorical intentions and effects. Whereas researchers of Performance Criticism have often limited discussions of translation to English, this paper looks at how Performance Criticism offers insights into biblical translation in one of the minority languages of central Africa: Vuté. Fifteen years of personal involvement in anthropological and linguistic research, along with considerable exegetical and translation consulting, has resulted in the publication of the Vuté New Testament. Nevertheless, given the low literacy rates, the majority of these people will only hear this translation. How might Performance Criticism enhance this translation? Limiting this study to passages from Mark’s gospel, what differences are evident in a performance-oriented translation script when compared with the recently published print-oriented translation?


All the Comforts of Rome: Augustus, Herod, and the Empire
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Byron R. McCane, Wofford College

This paper explores the relationship between Caesar Augustus and Herod the Great by examining similarities in the public architecture they each produced. At the same point in history that Augustus was creating public structures in Rome which symbolically celebrated the emerging empire, Herod was creating public buildings in Judea which symbolically incorporated his territory into that empire. In particular, both leaders used monumental architecture to make the empire seem irresistible, i.e., at once both attractive and overpowering. Augustus' refurbishing of the Forum Romanum, and his construction of the Forum Augustum, exemplify his positive presentation of the empire to the citizens of Rome. Herod's Temple to Augustus at Caesarea Maritima, along with his Court of the Gentiles in the Temple in Jerusalem, exemplify his effort to bring "all the comforts of Rome" to the people of Palestine.


Masoretic Insights into the Text of Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Carmel McCarthy, University College Dublin

The recently published Deuteronomy fascicle of Biblia Hebraica Quinta offers much masoretic data not readily accessible previously. Some of this data especially relevant to textual criticism will be analyzed


Toward a Polyphonic Understanding of Miracle Reports in the Gospels: A Baktinian Reading
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
James McConnell, Baylor University

Mikhail Bakhtin promoted a polyphonic concept of the novel in which multiple voices, or consciousnesses, compete to be heard. These consciousnesses are independent and must not be subsumed by the author into his or her own conception of the truth, while the opposition of these consciousnesses must be allowed to stand without being drawn into a system of thought in which everything coheres. It is the contention of this paper that this model is an excellent description of the canon of the Bible in general and the New Testament gospels in particular, and has applicability in the area of biblical theology. The thesis of this paper is that a dialogic reading of the miracle accounts in the gospels enriches a theology of miracles by allowing conflicting interpretations to stand in opposition and thus achieves a fuller revelation of Christ. To demonstrate this, a selection of miracle stories found in multiple gospels is briefly surveyed in order to ascertain the theological agenda endorsed by the gospel writer in question. These positions will then be compared in order to show their differences. Finally, these findings will be compared to Bakhtin’s thought and inferences drawn from that comparison.


What Do We Mean by "Canon"? A Look at Some Ancient and Modern Questions
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Lee Martin McDonald, Acadia Divinity College

The terms “canonical,” “non-canonical,” apocryphal,” and “pseudepigraphal” are often confusing when cited in contemporary investigations of ancient Jewish and Christian literature. They are all anachronistic terms that later Christian communities used to describe literature that did or did not eventually find acceptance into the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Initially most of those writings, if not all of them, functioned as sacred literature in one or more Jewish or Christian religious communities. This paper will focus on the meaning and validity of such distinctions for investigative research of ancient religious literature and will conclude with examples of writings that functioned or were cited authoritatively in early Judaism and/or early Christianity, but were not eventually included in the biblical canons that have survived antiquity. The examples will be from Sirach, Wisdom, 1 Enoch and Shepherd of Hermas. This paper is foundational to the proposed consultation on the function of apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature in early Judaism and early Christianity.


"I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life": Authority and Cognitive Semantics
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Kenneth McElhanon, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

This paper addresses the issue of biblical figurative language in the light of the influence that an Aristotelian philosophy of language has had on theological hermeneutics. It interprets the expression from John 14:6—I am the way and the truth and the life—on the basis of hermeneutical practices derived from insights into human conceptualization within cognitive semantics. Interpreting the saying in terms of the conceptual metaphors reveals a construal of truth as experiential rather than as propositional, as how one lives rather than just what one says. It is suggested that I am the way and the truth and the life is best understood as “My life exemplifies the faith-journey and how you are to image the Father through godly living so that you will receive life when you complete the journey.” The paper concludes with discussing the implications these hermeneutical practices have for biblical authority.


Greek Grammar
Program Unit:
Lane McGaughy, Willamette University

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Rethinking Eucharistic Origins
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Andrew B. McGowan, University of Melbourne

This paper will present highlights from recent articles by the author in which prevailing theories of eucharistic origins are challenged. At the earliest stages of development, there was great variety in the early Christian ritual meals, some of which were designated as "eucharist." This variety nevertheless maintained many of the features of the ancient banquet and its social function.


Memory Capacity, Gist versus Verbatim Memory, and Markers of Orality in the Synoptic Traditions
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Robert K. McIver, Avondale College

Many experiments demonstrate the limited capacity of working memory. As one of the consequences of this limited processing capacity, what is usually remembered from speech is the gist rather than the exact words used, although under certain circumstances verbatim memories can be formed. This paper reports on the results of experiments by Jacqueline Strunk Sachs, Wallace Chafe et al., and Robert K. McIver that show that narratives tend to be remembered in gist form, and recalled in short bursts (described as “minichunks” by Robert Bernardo), while retaining some of the exact phrases of the original. These types of characteristics when discovered between parallel accounts in the Synoptic Gospels might be taken to indicate a relationship based on human memory, rather than copying. Outside of such specialized forms as poetry, verbatim parallels could be taken as indication of either copying or memorizing from a text. Selected Synoptic parallels are examined to determine whether or not markers of orality are present, and the potential role of copying.


"Used as an Excuse": Biblical Women Facilitate Underhanded Dealings by Their Menfolk
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Heather A. McKay, Edge Hill University

In the Hebrew Bible stories of Sarai/Sarah and Dinah, male family members practise deceit upon other men for financial gain, and they do so by devious use of their womenfolk’s sexual/reproductive potential to manipulate the information they ‘give’ to their ‘victims’. As Goffman (1977) has shown, many human interactions take place within the ritual behaviours of ‘courtesy’ or ‘courtship’, but these acts may be of genuine or deceptive intent. With ambiguity built into them these interactions can provide ‘slippage’; they can be planned in deceptive mode by the would-be manipulator/s and read and reacted to as if genuine by the victim. The stories of the Despoiling of the Shechemites by Jacob’s sons in their extreme response to the deflowering of Dinah, and the Exploitation of Pharaoh and Abimelech by Abram/Abraham following his wife’s sexual availability when he presents her as his ‘sister’ will be analysed using insights from two theories of manipulation: Information Manipulation Theory (McCornack 1992) and Social Manipulation Theory (Peterson 2004). This will uncover the methods the conspirators practised against their victims and analyse the social ‘abuse’ of the women characters involved.


Who Can Stand before YHWH: The Ark and Mount Sinai in Chronotopic Perspective
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Cameron S. Mckenzie, Providence College

Robert Polzin, in his book Samuel and the Deuteronomist, argues that the entire ark narrative of 1 Sam 4-6 is motivated by the two Israelite questions at the end of chapter 6; “Who can stand before YHWH?,” and, “To whom will He go up from us?” Polzin further suggests that the appropriateness of the use of the ark to introduce the story of Israel’s kingship is made possible because the ark is able to represent the presence of YHWH within Israel, and Israel itself. Israel is defined by the YHWH present within the community. Among the various characteristics of chronotope, Morson and Emerson identify what Bakhtin calls chronotopic motifs, a particular sort of event, or place that serves as the locale for that event, which acquires a chronotopic aura “which is an echo of the generic whole” in which the given event usually appears. When these motifs are used in other contexts, they remember their past and carry the aura of the previous narrative context into the new situation. The resonances of covenantal time and space that are associated with Sinai and the way in which the narrative comes to a grinding halt at the foot of the mountain, suggest that Mt. Sinai be looked at as a candidate for the chronotope or the chronotopic motif. My paper will argue, however, that the debut appearance of the ark on the slopes of Sinai transforms it into a receptacle that can carry the essence of the Sinai event to other narrative contexts and hence the ark functions as a chronotopic motif. It is this chronotopic character of the ark that is exploited so effectively by the writer of Samuel in the introduction to the story of kingship in Israel, as outlined by Polzin.


Feminist Postcolonialism: Is Stalking Colonial Leopards in the Biblical Texts a Different Approach?
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Judith McKinlay, University of Otago

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Luke's Use of Mark and the Septuagint to Portray Jesus and Peter as Prophets
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Jocelyn McWhirter, Albion College

It is often observed that Jesus, as portrayed in Luke-Acts, resembles Moses or Elijah. While there is plenty of evidence to support these conclusions, that evidence does not, in my opinion, extend to theories that Luke-Acts is patterned after Deuteronomy or the Elijah-Elisha narrative. Moses and Elijah are just two of the many prophets who serve as models for Jesus and the apostles in Luke-Acts. The simplest explanation for references to Israel’s prophets in Luke’s Gospel is that Luke adds them to the narrative framework provided by Mark (and Q) in order to portray Jesus and Peter as prophets who, like all other prophets, will ultimately be rejected. Luke specifically refers to those prophets who display the characteristics he seeks to attribute to Jesus and Peter. For example, Luke seeks to portray Jesus as a prophet whose following will ultimately include Gentiles. He therefore expands Mark 6:1-6 by explaining what Jesus taught at Nazareth: that he will be a prophet like Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:8-16 and 2 Kings 5 in Luke 4:25-27). In order to depict Peter as a prophet whose encounter with Jesus leads him to repentance, Luke turns to Mark 1:16-18, narrating the call of the first disciples in terms that liken Peter to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5 in Luke 5:8). Since Luke aims to show that Jesus is a prophet who includes the marginalized, he constructs the story in Luke 7:11-17 by combining details from a legend about Elijah and the widow (1 Kings 17:17-24) and a resuscitation narrative from Mark 5:35-43. Luke also needs to relate that Jesus, like other prophets, foresaw the destruction of the temple. Prophecies concerning the temple in Mark 13:14-19 thus receive significant additions in Luke 21:20-24, as Jesus quotes from Hos 9:7; Jer 21:7; Ezek 32:9; and Zech 12:3.


The Spoils of War
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Sam Meier, Ohio State University

The division of booty from military enterprises was not a trivial matter in antiquity. The subject is addressed in a number of biblical narratives as diverse as the Midianite war (Num 31:9-54), Abraham’s success in retrieving abducted Lot (Gen 14:14-24), and the razzias of commanders such as Gideon (Judges 8:24-27) and David (1 Sam 30:16-31), among others. The widespread appearance of the subject in the Bible is hardly surprising in the light of its prominence as a cultural phenomenon throughout the Mediterranean and as a fundamental feature of war. Thus, the fair apportionment of booty is the issue that sparks the dissension that begins the Iliad, and the Qur’an lays down specific guidelines for the apportionment of battlefield spoil. The enumeration of plunder can be a highlighted facet of political propaganda in Egyptian sources, just as the dedication of spoils in Mesopotamia is a reflection of royal piety. This paper explores strategies for reading the biblical passages in the larger context of the ancient Near East, where booty and plunder is foregrounded as an intrinsically positive dimension of conflict (cf. Deut 6:10-11; Isa 53:12) and its apportionment an index of a victor’s virtue.


Ezekiel’s Women in Christian Interpretation
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Andrew Mein, Westcott House

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The Septuagint of Samuel: Observations in Exegesis and Theology
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Martin Meiser, Universität des Saarlandes

The Septuagint of Samuel (1 / 2 Kingdoms) is mostly a word-by-word translation; different renderings are very often caused by a different pretext graphically near to but not identical with Masoretic readings. Yet there are consciously inferred modifications resulting out of exegesis and theology. Exegesis in Septuagint is part of Early Jewish exegesis filling gaps within the narrative, clarifying historical problems and avoiding inner-Biblical antagonisms; theology of Septuagint is part of Early Jewish theology: Reflection on God tends towards a more transcendent notion; reflection of Jewish life in the past describes it as more concordant to Torah.


An Indian Commentary on the Book of Judith
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon, Gurukul Lutheran Theological College

The Book of Judith raises among many, issues related to faith, patriotism, female sexuality, violence and the relation to people of other cultures. Indian mythology has examples of women playing similar roles and using similar methods to avenge the enemy who are celebrated and worshipped by both men and women in India. This paper will explore the meaning and significance of the book of Judith in the light of some of these Indian traditions by employing the contrapuntal method (reading in juxtaposition) advocated R.S. Sugirtharajah.


Zion in a Synchronic Reading of Isaiah: An Analysis of Isaiah 49:14–20; 54:1–17; 57:3–13, and 60:1–22
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Roy F. Melugin, Texas Christian University

This paper argues that reading the book of Isaiah synchronically need not necessarily depend for its own conclusions on redaction historical analysis, even if the book is seen as the product of a lengthy history of growth. This is so because redaction history is generally a history-of-religions endeavor, while synchronic interpretation is concerned primarily with matters other than the historical unfolding of religious traditions. Indeed, synchronic approaches to texts are often more interested in how metaphorically-dense texts are related to one another poetically than in discovering an unfolding historical relationship between them. For example, how is the image of Zion as a maiden abandoned like a hut (sukkah) in a vineyard (Isa 1:8) related poetically to Zion’s being restored in the context of God’s sukkah (Isa 4:2-6)? Or what is to be made of the image of Zion as mother whose abducted children are unexpectedly returned to her (Isa 49:14-26) in relationship with the metaphor of Jerusalem as a woman who has never given birth (Isa 54)? Or how might the image of a fornicating sorceress (Isa 57:3-13) be understood as poetically related to the portrayal of Zion as favored by God in Isa 60? This paper’s vision of Isaianic poetry as performative and existentially transformational does not emphasize explanations of the book’s growth or clarifications of the chronological unfolding of aspects of ancient Israel’s self-understanding. The paper focuses instead on enabling readers to comprehend how seemingly disaccordant Isaianic texts might be read together poetically, rhetorically, and canonically.


The Transference onto God
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Dan Merkur, University of Toronto

Magical religious practices, which may be defined as instrumental uses of the divine, are devoted to gods and God, in Winnicott's terms, as "subjectively perceived objects," whose behavior is appreciated only in relation to the devotee; whereas the comparatively rare phenomenon of non-magical religion is devoted to "objective objects" who are conceptualized as independent agents. In a "bargain with fate," divine behavior is felt to be predictable because it is responsive to, and therefore contingent on, devotees' behavior; and cultic behavior is implicitly or explicitly magical, in that religious practices are means by which to control fate. Numbers 16-17 provides a paradigmatic illustration both of a bargain with fate and of a transferential conception of God. The Priestly narrative portrays God as a narcissistic personality, whose cult must either cater to the arbitrary demands of his narcissism or suffer his wrath. The therapeutic goal, at both clinical and religious levels of discourse, is to facilitate advance, in Winnicott's terms, from "object-relating" to "object-usage." When analysis of the transference discloses the transference onto God as a projection of interpersonal expectations that have their basis in early object relations, the divine can be conceptualized as a free agent--and as radically transcendent. The intervention, which is simultaneously psychotherapeutic and theological, replaces the concept of divinely ordained fate with a concept of divine grace, moves beyond the righteousness-reward syndrome into the possibility of gratuitous virtue, and interrupts the compulsively repetitive character of the cult.


Grinding to a Halt: Gender and the Technology of Flour Production in Roman Galilee
Program Unit:
Carol Meyers, Duke University

The study of Palestine in the Greco-Roman period usually focuses on political and religious developments related to the emergence of Judaism and Christianity, and it often draws upon archaeological materials. However, the technology involved in one of the most basic processes of human existence—turning grains into edible form by grinding or milling them—has been virtually ignored. That task was performed almost entirely by women in preceding periods. But new technologies of the Roman period—with machine milling replacing hand grinding—spread to the urban centers of Galilee (but not the smaller settlements) and involved a shift to commercial milling controlled by men. This paper examines the shifts in techniques of grain-processing in the first four-five centuries CE as represented in the grinding and milling tools recovered from Nabratein and Sepphoris, looks at textual references to grinding and milling grain in ancient Jewish written sources, and considers the effect of more mechanized procedures on women’s work and concomitant household power. It will argue that this shift had a significant impact on women’s lives: in some ways it was beneficial, but it also gave rise to negative views about women that were to have long-range consequences.


Dating "The Book of Ruth" by Theatrical Conventions
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Sheila Shiki-y-Michaels, New York, NY

Theatricality is a striking feature of “The Book of Ruth”. The plot advances through dialogue. Characters are sharply defined, sympathetic, recognizable types, & they are three, as in classic Greek drama. “Ruth” is a comedy, rural in character, ending in marriage. Some Biblical scholars proposed, in passing, that “Ruth” was originally performed. Others dismissed this, without explanation. Opinion also differs in dating “Ruth’s” composition: it may be a work of the fifth century B.C.E, or the seventh. I propose that we can date this redaction of “Ruth” as fifth century, because choruses of women appear in “Ruth” in the form they achieved in fifth century drama. Aristotle’s fourth century Poetics laid the rules of drama, using fifth century paradigms. He required unity of action: “Ruth” moves relentlessly to the goal of securing an heir to replace Ruth’s husband. Aristotle recommended—but did not require—that action be within a day. “Ruth’s” scenes cover a season, but, in my opinion, progress sequentially over 36 hours: from pre-dawn through the following afternoon. Homer declared that no border was closed to the artisan. Greeks worked everywhere in the East in the seventh to fifth centuries, B.C.E. Eastern cultural workers participated throughout the Greek world. East & West interacted copiously: but little attention is focused on the influence of drama—a very popular pastime—in framing Eastern stories. Choruses first appear in seventh century women’s competitive performances, such as “Partheneia” by Alcman. Actors—originally introduced to have dialogue with the chorus—later became commentators. By the fifth century, choruses had receded to the role of observers of action, rather than promoters of it. The chorus of this period is that which speaks in “Ruth”. I believe we many use this choral convention to date the writing of “Ruth”.


The Shape of Things to Come? Editorial Strategies in the Early Persian Period
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Jill Middlemas, University of Oxford

During the early Persian period, in the latter part of the Templeless period and the early part of the Second Temple period (otherwise known as the early Postexilic period), prophecy underwent a process of editing (e.g. on Hag and Zech, see Ackroyd 1951, 1952; Beuken 1967; Meyers and Meyers 1987; Mason 1977, 1990; Tollington 1993; on Trito-Isaiah, see P. A. Smith 1995; Koenen 1993; Lau 1994). This study analyzes the editorial additions to three prophetic books, Haggai, Proto-Zechariah (Zech. 1-8), and Trito-Isaiah (Isa. 56-66). Editorial additions functioned in several ways: to provide details about the prophet, to specify more clearly the addresses of the oracles, to expand a previous message, explain why predictions have failed to materialise, and to define necessary communal behaviour more clearly. This paper compares and contrasts the editorial strategies employed in the composition of Haggai, Proto-Zechariah, and Trito-Isaiah. In particular it draws attention to how the editorial additions functioned to convey or refract meaning. It closes with a consideration of the milieu of the editors and the relation of the editorial additions to societal concerns of the time.


The Significance of the Call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3) for a Canonical Reading of Scripture
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
J. Richard Middleton, Roberts Wesleyan College

In Genesis 12:1-3 God calls Abram to leave his homeland, clan and family in order to journey to a new land that God will show him, where he will become a great nation. This text/ event constitutes a pivotal shift in the book of Genesis from the primeval story (Genesis 1-11) to the ancestral story (Genesis 12-50) and sets in motion nothing less than the history of redemption recounted in the rest of Scripture. This paper will explore the pivotal character of the call of Abraham, especially its ultimate purpose (articulated five times in the book of Genesis) that Abraham and his descendants (Israel) should mediate blessing to all the families of the earth. This purpose of the call of Abraham/ Israel will be examined not only for its function as an intra-narrative ethical norm for judging the actions of the characters in Genesis itself, but also for its role in signaling a fundamental movement in the larger plot of the canonical macro-narrative of redemption, initiating what is, in effect, a major subplot of the canonical story. Three particular canonical connections of the call of Abraham/ Israel will be developed, namely 1) the grounding of this call in God’s original purpose for humanity and all creation, 2) the rearticulation of this call in the Great Commission and the ensuing Gentile mission that forms the fundamental backdrop of the New Testament, and 3) the fulfillment of this call in the eschatological vision of the book of Revelation.It will become clear just how pivotal the call of Abraham is as a hermeneutical clue for a canonical reading of Scripture.


Democracy, Love, and Resistance: The Civic Ekklesia in the Romance "Chaereas and Callirhoe"
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Anna C. Miller, Harvard University

“With a single voice the crowd shouted, ‘Let us go to the assembly (ekklesia)!’. . . Sooner than it takes to tell the theater was filled with men and women.” In this description, the people of Syracuse rush to greet two of their returning citizens, the protagonists Chaereas and Callirhoe in the romance by Chariton. With this dramatic crowd scene, Chariton ushers his readers into the last scene of his story, peopled with all the citizens of Syracuse and set in the civic assembly. This is an appropriate final setting for the romance, because the assembly setting speaks to the superiority of this city and by extension of the couple, Chaereas and Callirhoe. The location for a number of dramatic scenes Chariton describes in Syracuse, the ekklesia exemplifies the democratic government practiced by this classical city, a vivid contrast to the despotic rulers who control the territory where Chaereas and Callirhoe otherwise find themselves. This paper will explore the implications of this enthusiastic presentation of democracy within a first-century C.E. text. I will argue that this romance illustrates the active role democracy retained in imagination and practice of Greek cities during this period. “Chaereas and Callirhoe” also demonstrates the way that a classical democratic past might be used to obliquely critique empire. In this vein, the idealization of Syracuse during the time this democratic city resisted the imperial designs of Athens holds particular significance for a work written under Roman domination. The interplay of democracy and empire that provides the subtext of “Chaereas and Callirhoe” is also evident in the way that texts like Acts and 1 Corinthians portray the experience of early Christians. This paper will conclude with a brief consideration of themes that these biblical writings share with Chariton’s work of popular fiction, and how these connections might shape our understanding of first-century Christian communities.


Biblical Hebrew Ellipsis in Typological Perspective
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Cynthia L. Miller, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This paper compares the various types of ellipsis in Biblical Hebrew to ellipsis in a wide range of other languages. An examination of the syntactic phenomena from a typological perspective reveals ways in which the Biblical Hebrew data conform to cross-linguistic patterns. However, the typological perspective also highlights important questions about the Biblical Hebrew data.


Ethnic Argumentation and the Continuity/Discontinuity Problem in Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
James C. Miller, Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology

This paper explores the vexed issue of continuity/discontinuity in the argument of Hebrews through the lens of ethnicity and fictive kinship. Ethnic identity is a dynamic social construct, able to be reconfigured in order to meet challenges posed by the ever-changing circumstances of social life. As a somewhat malleable means of configuring identity, therefore, discourse about ethnic identity and fictive kinship readily serves as a useful tool for negotiating the confrontation of past identity with potentially disruptive new realities—an apt description of the rhetorical task of Hebrews. The paper proceeds in two parts. The opening segment summarizes recent studies of ethnicity as they relate to identity-formation and fictive kinship, especially in the Greco-Roman world. On the basis of this conceptual framework, the rest of the paper examines how Hebrews negotiates a distinct self-understanding for its audience that remains firmly rooted in past identity yet transformative of that past at the same time. Such an approach offers a fresh perspective on a longstanding, troublesome interpretive crux in the argument of Hebrews.


Social Identity and 2 Peter
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
James C. Miller, Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology

One of the current trends in New Testament studies concerns analysis of early Christian identity. Most of this work has focused on the lengthier writings of the New Testament. This paper, however, examines the shape of the communal identity that the author of 2 Peter, one of the shortest New Testament writings, works to foster among its auditors. An introductory section prepares for the analysis of 2 Peter by summarizing key issues in the study of social identity. The bulk of the essay uses four widely agreed upon dynamics shaping collective identity in order to examine the contours of the self-understanding maintained by the author of 2 Peter. These factors include the meaning of past and future events for the auditors, the audiences’ relationship to noteworthy individuals, labels used to depict in-group and out-group members, and norms of behavior and values that should/should not characterize their community. Throughout the essay, particular attention is given to the manner in which 2 Peter defines its audience over against false teachers and their instructions. A closing section summarizes the paper’s findings and highlights the significance of interpreting 2 Peter using the lens of social identity. Reading 2 Peter from this point of view offers a fresh perspective on what the author is trying to accomplish through writing this letter. Rather than focus on the theology of the letter per se or on specific behaviors advocated by the author in and of themselves, this study frames those issues within an overall understanding of the world constructed by the author and how the author situates the auditors within it. From this viewpoint, theology becomes part of world-construction and behavior becomes construed as the manner of life appropriate for such a people faced by particular circumstances within that world.


Classical Greek Demythologizing
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
James E. Miller, Madison, WI

Archaic Greek mythology became something of an embarrassment to the Greek intellectuals of the Classical period. In response they participated in one of the earliest known rounds of demythologizing, also known as rationalizing. This paper will cover such standard demythologizers as Palaiphatos -- Peri Apiston, Herodotus and even Plato. The paper will also examine less studied examples, in particular Elysion. Elysion (Elysium) is widely recognized for undergoing a drastic transformation between Archaic and Classical sources, but rarely is this placed in the context of the demythologizing trend of the period. This becomes important for understanding the New Testament and early Christian concepts of Heaven, as well as the problem of the resurrection.


New Cultural History and the Zion Hymns as Constructive of Identity
Program Unit: New Historicism and the Hebrew Bible
Robert D. Miller, II, Mount Saint Mary's Seminary

Traditional form-critical study of the Psalms has aimed at identifying the historical Sitz im leben of a given form’s origin. A New Historicist reading redefines this goal as a sociocultural Sitz for a form’s usage. This essay illustrates this for the psalms known as Zion Hymns. After first delineating the form along traditional lines and in historical context, approaches of New Cultural History are used to examine the objectification of social experience embedded in the form. The form itself is a linguistically circumscribed semantic field within which the construction of immense edifices of symbolic representations that appear to tower over the reality of everyday life was possible. The Zion Hymns are texts of poetic history-writing, systemically distorted communication intended to construct identity and reify institutional order in ancient Israel.


Women, Ritual, and Belief in the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Susan Miller, University of Oxford

This paper examines the influence of women characters in Greek tragedy upon the presentation of women in the Fourth Gospel. Scholars have noted the literary influence of dramatic conventions on the structure of the extended conversations between Jesus and a range of characters. Women such as Electra and Antigone are depicted in conversations with unrecognised male characters. These dialogues develop through the use of ambiguous language, and eventually the women reach a state of recognition of the identity of a stranger. A similar dramatic structure may be seen in the account of the Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary, and Mary Magdalene who come to recognise Jesus as Messiah and Son of God. The presentation of two sisters, including Electra and Chrysothemis, and Antigone and Ismene, may also be compared to the portrayal of the sisters, Martha and Mary. In the Greek tragedies the sisters display complementary responses to the same events, and Martha and Mary act in a similar way combining to convey a new understanding of Jesus to the gospel's audience. The plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides often depict strong women characters who face moral dilemmas during times of crisis. Electra and Antigone wish to carry out rituals associated with the burial of their father and brother. When their religious duties are threatened the women's steadfastness prompts them to take action in the public sphere. In the Fourth Gospel women also move from the private sphere of personal relationships to a public confession of faith. The death of Lazarus leads Martha and Mary to put their trust in Jesus, and recognise him as Son of God. Mary Magdalene visits the tomb of Jesus, and becomes the first witness to his death and resurrection.


Mary Magdalene: Conflicting Interpretations of Luke 8:1–2
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Susan Miller, University of Oxford

Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a key witness to Jesus' death and resurrection. In Mark, she is described as one of a group of women who followed and served Jesus in Galilee before accompanying him to Jerusalem. Luke also mentions the presence of women during Jesus' mission but adds that these women have been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, and notes that Mary was once possessed by seven demons. For some scholars Mary Magdalene is a foundational figure supporting the leadership roles of women in the church, and Luke's account of her affliction is an attempt to downplay her significance as a disciple. Church tradition, moreover, has identified Mary with the sinful woman who anoints Jesus because of the account of Mary's demon-possession. Mary Magdalene thus becomes an example of a sinful woman or a prostitute. Luke's description of Mary's demon-possesion is unusual because there are no accounts of the exorcisms of women in the gospels apart from the Syrophoenician woman's daughter that takes place at a distance. There are also no accounts of healed human beings becoming disciples other than the group of women mentioned in Luke 8. These features suggest that Luke's account may have some historical basis. A woman suffering from demon-possession is likely to have been marginalised in society, and this portrayal challenges the interpretation of the group of women as wealthy benefactors. Luke's account of Mary does not diminish her role as a disciple but identifies her closely with the other human beings who approach Jesus for healing, and aligns her with the marginalised groups of tax collectors and sinners. Mary Magdalene and the women are the only disciples present at the crucifixion, and their previous suffering enables them to bear witness to the suffering of Jesus.


Surrogate, Slave, and Deviant?: “Hagar” in Jewish Interpretive Traditions and Paul’s Use of the Figure in Galatians 4:21–31
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Troy A. Miller, Crichton College

Paul’s use of scripture is a subject that certainly has not suffered from a lack of attention within pauline scholarly circles. Quite on the contrary, works assessing Paul’s use of scripture have abounded. One such example of this is Paul’s use of Hagar (as well as Sarah) in Gal 4:21-31. Amidst the scholarly traffic on this passage, however, Second Temple interpretive traditions on “Hagar” largely have been neglected, with commentators often looking almost exclusively to the Genesis narratives. In light of this neglect, and because the Genesis Hagar and the Galatians Hagar in some places seem to bear little interpretive resemblance, an examination of these Second Temple texts and traditions is vital for “connecting the dots.” In this essay, I track the diachronic development of Jewish interpretive traditions surrounding “Hagar” in an effort to highlight the unique dimensions and nuances that appear and to measure the significance of these texts and traditions for Paul’s use of the figure in Gal 4:21-31. After a brief survey of the descriptions of Hagar in the Genesis narratives, I explore the use and shaping of the scriptural traditions in the re-written Bible tradition, especially in Jubilees, as well as in Josephus, Philo, and some possible early rabbinic traditions about the figure. In the final section, I note how these texts and traditions are instructive for our understanding of Paul’s use of the figure in Galatians, especially those places where they seem to shed light on our understanding of the emergence of the Galatians Hagar.


“When There Was No Judge in Israel”: The Deuteronomist’s Transformation of Israel’s Heroes into Judah’s Judges
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Sara J. Milstein, New York University

The overall character of the editing that gives shape to the book of Judges has not been sufficiently understood. Namely, the preservation of predominantly northern material by a Judahite, or Deuteronomistic editor, requires an adequate explanation. Save for the highly stylized sketch of “Othniel the Kenizzite” and three minor references in what are commonly termed the book’s “appendices,” Judah fails to play a role in the book. In contrast, the lopsided proportion of Israelite heroes who rally the people to war in exclusively northern settings highlights the preponderance of Israelite material in Judges. The current trend in scholarship identifies a downward spiral throughout Judges of increasingly inadequate leaders, pointing toward the unequivocal need for the monarchy. Yet this approach, which relies on a unified reading of Judges 2-21, fails to account for the nature of the Deuteronomistic additions in Judges. A close examination of Judges reveals that the Deuteronomist casts the Israelites in a negative light, yet preserves the Yahwistic reputations of their leaders. The Deuteronomist’s treatment of Gideon functions as an apt case study. Whereas other texts suit the editorial agenda, requiring little intrusion beyond the stereotypical framework, two details in Judges 6-8 necessitate theological revision: the origin of the name “Jerubbaal” and Gideon’s construction of the ephod. Regarding the former, the Deuteronomist creates a secondary, anti-Baal etymology to clear Gideon’s name of improper connotations. Regarding the latter, the editor effectively criticizes the Israelites’ use of the ephod while preserving Gideon’s Yahwistic intentions. This objective is confirmed in 8:35, in which the editor emphasizes the people’s failure to heed Gideon, despite “all the good that he did for Israel.” The Deuteronomist’s additions within the Gideon cycle reflect his overarching intention not to criticize the “judges,” but rather to elevate and disassociate them from the impious Israelites.


A New Consideration on the Use of Omniscience in the Biblical Representation of the Divine
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Françoise Mirguet, Harvard University

According to Meir Sternberg, biblical authors develop an innovative mode of story-telling—the omniscient narration—with the main purpose of introducing a new kind of character in the story: YHWH, Israel’s unique and omniscient God. “The very choice to device an omniscient narrator serves the purpose of staging and glorifying an omniscient God” (Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative. Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987, p. 89). In this view, literature is subordinated to ideology: the narrative mode appears as the most suitable vehicle to affirm (and impose) a theology. In this presentation, I propose to reconsider Sternberg’s affirmation, by closely examining the most patent use of omniscience in the case of the characterization of God: the representation of his inner life. Based on a research recently lead in the Pentateuch, I will show that the use of omniscience is actually restrained when the divine is depicted. In that sense, it is possible to discern several syntactical and narrative techniques by which an omniscient representation is avoided, and to observe that these techniques are of particular use in the portrayal of God’s inner life. Consequently, while biblical narration unmistakably exhibits omniscient features, this kind of literary posture does not appear motivated by the representation of the divine, but, on the contrary, significantly avoided for this purpose.


The Bible in the History of Peru
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Bill Mitchell, United Bible Societies

This paper examines aspects of the role of the Bible in the history of Peru , from the Conquest to the present-day. It points to the religious dimension as an autonomous entity in social life. This autonomy produced results that were different from those expected by those who translated, promoted, used or distributed the Bible. The appropriation of the Bible by those who are on the periphery undermines establish order and creates something new, unexpected and surprising.


Bridging the Great Divide Between Academy and Congregations
Program Unit:
Gregory Mobley, Andover Newton Theological School

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“Just the Not-Facts, Ma’am”: Counterfactual Historiography and the Queen of Heaven
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Mitchel Modine, Drew University

The debate on the reasons for the exile ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah and the devotees of the Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah 44MT offers much for the patient interpreter. While it is certainly not safe to assume that we have in this chapter anything approaching the actual words of the Queen’s devotees—or, for that matter, of Jeremiah—there is likewise no reason to assume that this chapter is entirely fictive. The key to ch. 44 is the fact that the Queen’s devotees are said to disagree with Jeremiah not in the respect that the exile represents punishment by an offended deity, but rather on the identity of the deity in question. Turning to the Temple Sermon in Jeremiah 7, one finds a polemic against the practices associated with the worship of the Queen of Heaven, such that here we are even less certain of being given an accurate picture of the devotees’ views. In other words, the ch. 7 polemic is against the worship of the Queen of Heaven because it supports the Yahwistic perspective. Nevertheless, I argue that the devotees’ position as represented in ch. 44 can perhaps be utilized in order to imaginatively construct how the Temple Sermon might have appeared had it instead supported the perspective of the Queen’s devotees.


Into Narrative and Beyond
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Francis J. Moloney, Salesians of Don Bosco

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Domus Ecclesiae: Embodied Experience and Liturgical Space in Ante Pacem Christiantity
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Anne Moore, University of Calgary

Yi-Fu Tuan, Jonathan Z. Smith, Edward S. Casey, and Christopher Tilley have reintroduced the importance of place within the context of religious studies. In particular, their examinations have emphasized the confluence of space, embodied experience, ritual, and identity in the creation of place. Ritual or liturgical sites are places of embodied experience and, as places of embodied experience, they become vital spheres of intellectual activity in the production of the meaning-making associated with identity. The key elements of embodied experience emphasize the movement through space, and the perception and sensational exploration of place. This paper will explore the domus ecclesiae of ante-pacem Christianity as ritual or liturgical sites that reflect, guide, and create specific forms of embodied experience. The domus ecclesiae have been analyzed in terms of the evolution of Christian liturgy, and architecture. However, these previous studies have not adequately addressed how the sites were experienced and how these experiences vary and suggest alternative views of place and identity. For example, the Lullingstone villa with its progressive series of vestibules leading to a fresco decorated prayer room produced a different experience than the Megiddo prayer hall with its single eastern entrance leading from a living complex for Roman legionnaires. Dura-Europos with its extensive renovations created an initiation site with the necessary liminal spaces for the transformative experience associated with the ritual of baptism. The focus for this study will be on how the specific location of domus ecclesiae, the physical structure of the rooms, the movement to, through and in the rooms, the architectural features such as doorways, windows, seating, furniture, and art are all components in the creation of a specific embodied experience. This will be an exploratory survey to investigate the archaeological record for embodied experience and what such a reading may contribute to the discussion on the formation of early Christian identity.


Cantankerous Grandmothers: Anna in the Protevangelium of James
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Anne Moore, University of Calgary

Research on the Protevangelium of James has focused on the text as a source for doctrines on the purity and virginity of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The other prominent female character of the text, Anna, is regarded as a necessary element of the plot because Mary must have a mother. Anna is required background for the birth of the Messiah’s mother. However, the narrative’s implicit characterization of Anna creates a rounded and realistic character. The text presents a formidable woman, whose actions are pivotal in the development of the story. The story’s characterization of Anna through the presentation of her thoughts, actions, speech, and interaction with other characters reveals her central role in the denouement of the plot. There is female agency in the birth of Mary; Mary’s birth is not simply the divine response to a prayer of a desperate barren woman. This focus on the female agency begins with Anna’s demand for a child, based on her understanding of God’s justice and her family’s demonstrative obedience, and it continues with Anna’s decisions and actions that protect Mary’s status.’ In other words, Prot. Jas. has a focus on human agency which results in a more realistic presentation in which the divine acts through human characters rather than upon human figures. The intertextual trajectory between the story of Hannah in Samuel, Anna in Prot. Jas, and Pseudo-Gospel of Matthew further highlights the dynamic characterization of Anna found in the Prot. Jas. The revisions of Pseudo-Gospel of Matthew reduce Anna’s agency and molds her into an archetype drawn from the book of Samuel. This reduction of Anna’s agency serves to highlight the significance of the rounded realistic portrait of Anna in the Protevangelium of James.


Revisiting the Conquest: Warfare and the Origins of Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Megan Bishop Moore, Wake Forest University

Traditional archaeological and historical perspectives on early Israel offered three potential explanations for Israel's genesis: conquest, peaceful infiltration, and peasant revolt. More current models note the indigenous nature of Israel, and attempt to understand how and why the community that understood itself as Israel formed from indigenous elements. Many of these latter studies focus on the concept of ethnicity and imply that Israel's self-identification as some sort of ethnic group preceded and helped bring about the coalescence of Israel. However, anthropological research suggests that ethnicity may develop alongside a polity rather than before it, making ethnogenesis a functional component of hierarchical organization. This paper will suggest that, as in the conquest model, warfare again take center stage as the explanation for the origin of earliest Israel. This assertion requires the consideration of the types of and reasons for warfare in early Iron Age highland Palestine, the evidence for warfare, biblical and otherwise, and the validity of proposing warfare as a singularly important factor in the state-formation process.


The Archaeology of the Ancient Near East: Israel as a Case Study?
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Megan Bishop Moore, Wake Forest University

At colleges and universities that do not have departments of Near Eastern studies, courses on the archaeology of the ancient Near East are frequently offered by religion departments. Often these courses must fulfill the stipulation, or at least the assumption, that the archaeology of ancient Late Bronze and Iron Age Palestine be a focus in order that the course be relevant to biblical studies. This paper examines the question of how a Near Eastern archaeology course can function as a religion course without sacrificing discussion of ancient Near Eastern peoples, places, eras, and other topics that are of little or no relevance to understanding the background of the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, it examines the possibility of using ancient Israel as a case study for that demonstrates some of the overarching issues archaeology addresses, including cultural change and the role artifacts play in illuminating the symbolic or mental structures in a society.


An SS Officer at the Foot of the Cross? Mark, Empire, and Judaism
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Stephen D. Moore, Drew University

This paper ponders the issue of whether or not Mark's Gospel paves the royal road to imperial Christianity, which is also the question of whether or not Mark's Jesus is effectively a new Romulus, the founder of a new Rome. Reflection on Mark's relations to empire will, however, be triangulated by reflection on Mark's relations to Judaism, the aim being to generate a reading of Mark that is at once postcolonial and post-Holocaust.


With the Sword of His Mouth: Graphic Depictions of Violence in Revelation and Other Post-70 CE Apocalypses
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Stewart Moore, Yale University

The phrase “apocalyptic violence” has become very common in current discussions concerning the relationship between fundamentalist religion and radical politics. This could suggest that apocalyptic literature is so thoroughly marked by literary violence that, in fact, the adjective “apocalyptic” implies violence. This paper compares depictions of violence in five apocalypses which responded to the trauma of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans: 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, the fifth Sibylline Oracle, and the Apocalypse of John. I especially focus on three targets of violence: Rome, the righteous and/or Israel, and “everybody else”. By so doing, we can see the various options available to apocalyptic authors in deploying literary violence for the purpose of exhortation or threat, rather than simply classing all such violence together in a single category as an aspect of “resistance literature”. First, where we might have expected to see extensive revenge fantasies regarding Rome, we find in every case that Rome only appears in brief, tightly focused pericopes within the much larger apocalypses. Second, all five texts have a paranetic function, in encouraging the righteous, and this seems to be the main focus of the pseudepigraphal apocalypses. Where the Apocalypse of John differs is in its graphic, pervasive description of world-destroying universal violence, to a degree far in excess of its contemporary texts, which threatens even most of his fellow Christians with a gruesome death. Thus we find that John of Patmos uses images of violence in highly idiosyncratic ways, suggesting a re-evaluation of the choices he has made in depicting world-destroying violence.


The Isaianic Roots of Paul’s Apocalyptic Gospel
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Rodrigo J. Morales, Duke University

Since the work of Ernst Käsemann scholars have debated the apocalyptic nature of Paul’s gospel. More recently, the revelatory language that Paul uses to describe his call and mission in Galatians has led some to suggest that even this epistle, which has no reference to Christ’s return or other events commonly associated with Paul’s eschatology, points to apocalyptic elements in his thought. Such a reading of Paul’s apocalyptic often goes hand-in-hand with a dismissal of any salvation historical elements in Pauline theology. The present paper will argue that the apocalyptic language found in Galatians has its roots in two oracles from the latter half of the book of Isaiah, suggesting that Paul’s gospel stands in some positive relationship to the promises of restoration for Israel. The paper will first argue that Paul’s appeal to the Galatians’ experience of the Spirit in Gal 3:1-5 draws some of its force from an allusion to Isaiah 53. Specifically, the “proclamation of faith” that serves as the basis for the reception of the Spirit corresponds to the “message” to which the prophet refers in Isa 53:1. This oracle appears in the context of two statements discussing the “revealing” of the “arm of the LORD,” a revelation that includes the message going out to the Gentiles (Isa 52:10). From there, the paper will move on to explore several other themes in Galatians that overlap with other terms and images in the Isaianic context (gospel, peace, Gentiles, Abraham’s seed) which suggest that Paul’s gospel, though founded on the cross of Christ, represents the initial fulfillment of the promises God made to Israel through Isaiah. Despite the general lack of explicit reference to Isaiah (with the exception of Isa 54:1 in Gal 4:27), Paul’s gospel is fundamentally Isaianic, and therefore combines elements of apocalyptic and salvation history.


The Profiling and Grouping of Greek Manuscripts: Test Passages from John 1–10 and 18
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Bruce Morrill, University of Birmingham

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Transcribing the Greek Minuscule Manuscripts
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Bruce Morrill, University of Birmingham

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The Politics behind Thomas Hobbes’s Early Modern Biblical Criticism
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Jeffrey L. Morrow, University of Dayton

The early modern political theorist Thomas Hobbes is one of the founders of the modern historical critical study of the Bible. Although his work was not as sophisticated as later nineteenth century historical critics, Hobbes laid the foundation upon which later historical criticism would build. This paper examines the political background of Hobbes’s biblical interpretation and criticism, thereby placing Hobbes’s work in its socio-historical context. Hobbes’s politics had a direct affect upon his biblical interpretation, and the socio-historical context in which he lived gave rise to his political theory. The Thirty Years’ War and the English Civil War provide the proximate backdrop for Hobbes’s political theory, and upon his biblical interpretation. Hobbes’s contemporaries, Baruch Spinoza and Richard Simon, would engage with his biblical interpretation, and thereby extend his insights in directions that would allow the historical critical project to thrive into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This paper examines Hobbes’s biblical interpretation in his political/theological work, Leviathan, against the socio-historical context within which he wrote it. Contemporary Bible scholars have by and large neglected to examine this connection between the advent of early modern politics and the origin of the historical critical method, and particularly Hobbes’s role in modern biblical interpretation. This paper seeks to contribute to contemporary discussions of biblical interpretation by examining the history of historical critical interpretation in its formative socio-historical context.


Genesis 1–3 in a Liturgical Context: The Role of Liturgy in Christian Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Jeffrey L. Morrow, University of Dayton

Ever since the eighteenth century works of Bernhard Henning Witter and Jean Astruc, Bible scholars have tended to read Genesis 1-3 as two separate accounts which were woven together in an editorial process. Although not explicitly theological, source criticism has led many theologians to interpret Genesis 1-3 in light of its hypothetical literary origins. Although I do not wish theologians to completely neglect the historical critical method, I think this method’s hegemony in the church and in the academy demonstrates one aspect of modern theology’s Babylonian captivity to the modern project in which the historical critical method originated. In an attempt to read Genesis 1-3 theologically as a Christian, I propose reading the text liturgically. Following the works of biblical exegetes like Gordon Wenham and Moshe Weinfeld, I argue for reading Genesis 1-3 as a literary whole that has liturgy and worship as its primary content. Weinfeld argues for the liturgical content and structure of Genesis 1, whereas Wenham argues for the liturgical content of Genesis 2-3, based upon parallels with the tabernacle and temple. If both are correct, then many of the source critical assumptions may prove superfluous. Following the insights of theologians like Jean Daniélou and Scott Hahn, I maintain that the Christian liturgy is the primary context in which Christians should interpret Genesis 1-3. I will use the Sacred Liturgy and Lectionary of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church as the particular Christian example for proposing a liturgical hermeneutic for reading Scripture. Genesis 1-3 will serve as the biblical example for this hermeneutic. Such a liturgical hermeneutic is a potentially rich means of reading Scripture theologically as a Christian.


The Revival of Lament in Medieval Piyyutim
Program Unit: Lament in Sacred Texts and Cultures
William S. Morrow, Queen's Theological College

It is generally recognized that performances of liturgical complaint prayer disappeared from the Jewish liturgical context during Second Temple times. The reemergence of complaining poems in Jewish liturgy during the Middle Ages is, therefore, something of a surprise. This paper will examine the content and context of one of the best known piyyutim of protest: Isaac bar Shalom’s poem written after the massacres of Jews in Germany during the Second Crusade: “There is none like you among the dumb.” This poem was recited on the first Shabbat after Pesach. A comparison will be made between the poem and biblical laments. The reemergence of the complaint prayer form during the Middle Ages casts light on the theologies that both favored complaining prayer and sought to exclude it from early Jewish liturgies. In essence, Second Temple Judaism and its successors in the rabbinic period emphasized the righteousness of their transcendent deity and the culpability of Israel for its long exile. There was no room for lament in such a theological paradigm. But this mode of thinking had its limits, which many felt broke down in the horrific persecutions of the crusades. Under these conditions, complaint prayer reasserted itself. The example of the poem by Isaac bar Shalom is instructive about the logic of lament in general, which often asserts itself when normal theological paradigms break down. The same phenomenon can be seen in First Temple times in both individual and collective laments.


“To Set the Name” in the Deuteronomic Centralization Formula: Assyrian Borrowing or Native Development?
Program Unit: Biblical Law
William S. Morrow, Queen's Theological College

A number of scholars derive the phrase lešakken šemô in the Deuteronomic (Dtn) centralization formula (e.g., Deut 12:11; 14:23; 16:2; 26:2) from the Akkadian idiom šuma(m) šakanu. The Dtn formula is certainly unusual, because the standard idiom for “setting the name” in West Semitic is sûm šem. A problem arises, however, with identifying possible routes of transmission. Various scholars believe that the well-attested Akkadian literacy of Bronze Age Canaan was a vehicle for the transmission of cuneiform texts to Iron Age Israel and Judah. But such a model needs to be abandoned on three grounds: archaeology, the politics of language usage, and the education of scribes in Late Bronze Age southern Canaan. Consequently, Akkadian influence on Deuteronomy must be limited to the Iron Age. But this poses a problem for a connection between the Akkadian and the Dtn phrases, as wide distribution of the idiom šuma(m) šakanu is not apparent from Neo-Assyrian monuments, the most likely source for such a borrowing. Two other considerations come to bear. First, the centralization formula is not used in ways that obviously recall Assyrian political instruments (unlike, e.g., the employment of the rhetoric of the Esarhaddon Vassal Treaties in Deuteronomy 13 & 28). Second, if the Assyrian background was so important, why was the idiom changed in secondary additions to the centralization layer (e.g., Deut 12:21; 14:24)? There is a case, therefore, for suggesting that the resemblance of the Dtn formula to the Akkadian idiom is accidental and that it was coined as a result of the engagement of the Dtn writer(s ) with native traditions. The paper will weigh the evidence for both Akkadian influence and inner-Israelite development and suggest which is the most likely.


Where Is Masculinity? Kingdom of Heaven and Construction of Masculinity in Matthew 19
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Halvor Moxnes, University of Oslo

This paper suggests that read in light of space theories (esp. H. Lefebvre, The production of space, 1991) Matthew 19 presents a confrontation between household as the “place” for masculinity and “Kingdom of Heaven” as an alternative place for an ambiguous male identity. In the context of the «spatial experience” of household, marriage and wealth Jesus’ response to the picture of patriarchal masculinity in individual passages is often interpreted at the level of «representations of space», i.e. at an ideological level where marriage and household is supported. But read as a narrative totality the chapter presents another picture. Compared to the synoptic parallels in Mark 10 and Luke 18, Matthew’s use of the common material shows two distinctive elements : the appreciation of eunuchs for the Kingdom (19:12), and the promise to the twelve “in the regeneration” of positions of judges over Israel, but without compensation for their loss of household positions (19:28-29, contrast Mark 10:29-30). This opens up for a reading from a third aspect of place, viz. of “Kingdom of Heaven” not at an ideological level, but at the level of imagination. As an “imagined place” the Kingdom of Heaven presents an alternative where traditional masculinities are challenged by eunuchs and infants. The result is not a new logical construction of masculinity, rather, it masculinity is destabilized in such a way that the most adequate modern terminology is “queer.” This raises the question of the social location of such an alternative vision.


Shifting Paradigms in Historical Jesus Research: From Unique Personality to Charismatic Movement
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Halvor Moxnes, University of Oslo

The history of the research on the Historical Jesus has traditionally been divided into different phases (e.g. First, Second and Third Quest) based on criteria internal to the discipline. This essay suggests an alternative division based on a major paradigm shift from Jesus as a unique personality to Jesus as part of a charismatic movement. The main paradigm for modernity at the beginning of the 20th century was an individualistic view of the human. The result has been a view of Jesus as a unique religious personality that characterized several periods of historical Jesus research, also the picture of him as a charismatic leader (cf. Weber). This picture is still dominant, but this paper argues that a picture of Jesus must reflect changes in the understandings of the human person. Cultural shifts in the last part of the century towards gender equality and larger emphasis on groups and collectivities (e.g. feminist and liberation movements) has influenced studies of Jesus. Among the examples to be discussed are alternative models of leadership (B.Malina) and a more inter-relational picture of Jesus (R. Horsley), not as the ultimate leader but as member of a movement (E.S. Fiorenza).


The Database of Greek Patristic Citations
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Roderic L. Mullen, University of Birmingham

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Myth-as-Reality and the Goddess Anat
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Kelly Murphy, Emory University

The question of myth-as-reality is a subject of much debate, and is especially pertinent to the reconstruction of Ugaritic society, a reconstruction which was initially accomplished largely by a dependence on the literary texts discovered there. This paper examines the role of Anat in the Ba'al Cycle, paying particular attention to her position as violent and independent goddess in relation to the role of real-life women in Ugarit. The impetus for choosing Anat for such a myth-as-reality case study rests in the role she plays in the Ba'al Cycle as a violent and independent goddess, characteristics which appear to make her exceptionally distinctive in an androcentric culture such as Ugarit. Anat’s character elicits the question of how “translatable” her role in the literary texts was into real-life gender roles in ancient Ugarit – or, to pose the question another way, whether the character of Anat was somehow based on real-life social realities of women in Ugarit. Furthermore, if Anat’s role was not reflective of female social roles at Ugarit, from whence did Anat’s depiction come? If her role in the text is wholly a mythological creation of its writers, what does this mean for the oft presumed dependence of myth on reality? This paper will argue that it is not always accurate to posit that the world of the deities is a magnified reflection of the human world, and that although her role as independent goddess does have some parallels with what might have been the reality for a small number of upper-class or royal women for the most part Anat appears as a larger-than-life mythic character whose role is not analogous to the role of women in Ugaritic society.


The Faithfulness of Christ in the Theology of Karl Barth
Program Unit:
Benjamin Myers, University of Queensland

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POxy 4009: Case Closed
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Matti Myllykoski, University of Helsinki

In 1993, Dieter Lührmann published a reconstruction of the more intelligible side of POxy 4009. He demonstrated – convincingly, I think – that this side, which he called recto, stems from the Gospel of Peter and consists of passages parallel to Matt. 10:6 par. Luke 10:3 and 2. Clem. 5.2–4. However, Lührmann considered it impossible (“ausgeschlossen”) to reconstruct the other side of the fragment. As far as I know, thus far no one has even tried to offer a plausible reconstruction. Against all odds, I would like to show that a full reconstruction of this less intelligible side of POxy 4009, lines 1–13, is possible and that it enriches our knowledge of the Gospel of Peter with a new periscope. It also demonstrates that the side reconstructed by Lührmann is actually verso, and that both sides together hint at the well-known anti-Jewish redactional tendencies of the author. Most importantly, however, the reconstruction of POxy 4009 recto raises vital questions concerning the present state of textual criticism and speaks for the freedom of the text of the Gospels in the second century.


Special Economic Zones as Latifundialization: A Rereading of the Parable of Tenants in Indian Context
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Raj Nadella, Union Theological Seminary-Virginia

Portraying the tenants in the parable as wicked, several scholars have traditionally interpreted this parable as an allegory about conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of his time. In recent years, however, a few scholars have challenged such interpretations and argued that the parable—especially the Markan and Lukan versions—should be read as a realistic story about the phenomenon of latifundialization in first-century Palestine rather than as an allegory. While agreeing that the parable be read as a realistic story, I bring the parable into conversation with the modern Indian context to show how it can shed light on the new form of latifundialization currently taking place at the expense of numerous underprivileged communities, especially indigenous communities. I argue that the Indian government’s recent initiative of creating Special Economic Zones for corporate houses—for the purpose of fostering economic boom—amounts to a new form of colonialism in the name of national interests. In my rereading of the parable, the Indian government becomes the landowner, who creates a vineyard—Special Economic Zones—by displacing poor peasants and then uses the might of the state to violently suppress peasant revolts.


Education and Transformation in 4 Ezra
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Hindy Najman, University of Toronto

In 4 Ezra, through the incorporation and reinscription of earlier and contemporaneous traditions, a new Ezra emerges, an Ezra who must learn how to negotiate destruction and become worthy of revelation. This emergence is accomplished by a series of transformations that may be called exemplary: they offer a model for emulation to the reader who strives for perfection in the face of destruction. Thus the recasting of Ezra serves an educational function.


“Let Me Give You a Gift!” The Economics of Polanyian Reciprocity in the Book of Kings
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Roger S. Nam, University of California-Los Angeles

Recent studies have recognized reciprocity as an important mechanism by which biblical figures could obtain honor and solidify social standing (Matthews, 1999; Olivier 1996; Simkins, 1999; Stansell, 2005). Although such reciprocal exchange derives primarily from socially embedded relationships, the biblical texts imply additional economic factors in such transactions. This paper analyzes the text of 1 and 2 Kings through the economics of Polanyian reciprocity. A close examination of the biblical text reveals that reciprocity often includes a pragmatic economic element associated with supply / demand in addition to honor / shame. Also, reciprocity was not the isolated means of exchange for the ancient Israelite economy, but rather worked in concert with Polanyi’s other categories of transfer, specifically redistribution and even market trade. This variegated portrayal of Israelite economic exchange fits the archaeological evidence for agrarian, clan-based economic structures in the Iron Age IIB southern Levant.


Ephrem, a "Jewish" Sage: A Comparison of the Exegetical Writings of St. Ephrem the Syrian and Jewish Traditions
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Elena Narinskaya, Durham University

This thesis seeks to reconsider the commonly held view that some of Ephrem’s writings are anti-Semitic, and that his relationship with Judaism is polemical and controversial. The outcome of the research highlights several key issues. First, it indicates that the whole emphasis of Ephrem’s critical remarks about Jews and Judaism is directed towards Christian conduct, and not towards Jews; and second, it considers Ephrem’s negative remarks towards Jews strictly within the context of his awareness of the need for a more clearly defined identity for the Syriac Church. Furthermore, this thesis examines discernible parallels between Ephrem’s commentaries on Scripture and Jewish sources. Such an exercise contributes to a general portrait of Ephrem within the context of his Semitic background. And in addition, the thesis offers an alternative reading of Ephrem’s exegetical writings, suggesting that Ephrem was aiming to include Jews together with Christians among his target audience. Further analysis of Ephrem’s biblical commentaries suggests that his exegetical style resembles in many respects approaches to Scripture familiar to us from the writings of Jewish scholars. A comparison of Ephrem’s writings with Jewish sources represents a legitimate exercise, considering ideas that Ephrem emphasises, exegetical techniques that he uses, and his great appreciation of ‘the People’– the Jews as a chosen nation and the people of God – an appreciation which becomes apparent from Ephrem’s presentation of them. The process of reading Ephrem’s exegetical writings in parallel with Jewish sources strongly identifies him as an heir of Jewish exegetical tradition who is comfortably and thoroughly grounded in it. This reading identifies Ephrem on a theological, exegetical and methodological level as a Christian writer demonstrating the qualities and features of a Jewish sage.


Evaluating the Contributions of Madipoane Masenya to the Study of African Women's Biblical Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Elivered Nasambu-Mulongo, Toronto School of Theology

Madipoane Masenya has distinguished herself as one of the very few African women who have written widely on African woman's interpretation of the Bible. Her works exemplifies in journals and books consider critical sources while being conscious of a woman's location in culture as significant in her interpretation of the Bible. Masenya has to overcome some of the mathodological and hermeneutical approaches prominent in both African male and western scholarship in order to construct a hermeneutics from an African woman's perspective. This paper discusses the contributions of Masnya to the study of biblical studies from an African woman's perspective. The paper looks at the methodological and heremeneutical issues she uses and how they are in conversation with dominant biblical scholarship both within African biblical scholarship and Western dominant readings. The paper keenly evaluates Masenya's methodological proocedures and its implications for the future of African women's biblical hermeneutics.


Antiochene "Theoria" in John Chrysostom's Exegesis
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Bradley Nassif, North Park University Theological Seminary

"Theoria" was a technical term of Greek patristic exegesis meaning, "insight, contemplation, deeper sense." Its precise meaning has been difficult to determine by scholars chiefly because of the different ways it has been used by various authors in the Schools of Antioch and Alexandria. In fact, only nine scholars have conducted extensive research on the meaning of this term in Antiochene exegesis over the past 150 years. This paper, therefore, will a) briefly survey the history of scholarship on Antiochene "theoria" from 1850 to the present, b) explore the various usages of the term by different authors within the School of Antioch, and c) examine how the term was specifically used in the New Testament commentaries of St. John Chrysostom -- Antioch's most illustrious biblical exegete. I will conclude with brief reflections on the relevance and problems posed by the use of Antiochene "theoria" in biblical exegesis today.


Teaching Parables: Teaching Tip
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Ryan Neal, Anderson University

Teaching “Introduction to the Bible” in a private, liberal arts setting can be relatively easy because typically the student body is sympathetic to a Christian worldview. Portions of this course, however, can be made difficult due to the student body’s presupposition that they have sufficient knowledge about the Bible and further academic investigation is either unhelpful and/or unnecessary. Compounding the matter is this generation’s preference (if not need) for greater visual stimuli. (As I’ve painfully learned, powerpoint slides, while helpful, only go so far.) Although it seems counterintuitive, these two pressures focus on one unit of the course: Jesus’ parables. Perhaps too slowly, I have stubbornly realized the ineffectiveness of my past attempts at visualizing Jesus’ parables. To visualize the relevance of parables, I now show a clip of Finding Nemo (Walt Disney & Pixar, 2003). Afterwards, I find the class to be more interested in the topic and the ensuing discussion. I use both the clip and portions of Jesus’ parables to discuss a range of topics related to interpretation: authorial intent, historical approaches (including the fourfold sense of scripture), the allegorical method, eisegetical errors, and exegetical fallacies, to name a few.


The Temple as Panopticon in Rabbinic Culture
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Rachel Neis, University of Michigan

This paper traces the way bodies in space become increasingly regulated under the auspices of the Temple. The Temple’s regulatory power to shape behavior and position bodies increases spatially and substantively as it moves from orienting prayer postures within and without Palestine to positioning the body when performing bodily functions. Specifically, the paper shows that in the earlier Rabbinic sources the Temple is used as an ocular focus and corporeal orientation point for prayer and that in the later sources it is used to regulate and choreograph toilet postures in reverse positioning. The Palestinian and Babylonian sources expand the reach of the Temple differently. In particular, in Babylonia the Temple (even the holy of holies) is imported through visualization techniques in prayer. Similarly, through the rules on bodily functions in the Temple vicinity, the Temple space is effectively expanded by extending its reach out of Palestine into Babylonian city life where it is internalized and its regulatory force is transmuted into localized concerns about modesty and exposure.


Autobiography as a Method and Motif: Towards Dalit Feminist Hermeneutics
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Surekha John Nelavala, Drew University

Context and experience shape one’s perception and have a strong influence on how one interprets the Bible. In the Indian setting, Dalit women’s context is characterized by a range of oppressive forces such as casteism, patriarchy and classism, along with the pervasive effects of globalization. Unfortunately, Dalit women have tended to be subsumed by both male-Dalit and caste-feminist movements. Challenged by the Dalit feminist cause, caste feminists have begun to speak for Dalit women, claiming the “Dalit feminist point of view.” The pressing question, however, is, who should speak Dalit feminism? In the interests of liberation should others “stand by” Dalit women or “speak for” Dalit women? With reference to this question, this paper attempts to discuss Dalit Feminist Hermeneutics that is methodologically autobiographical, experiential and subjective to Dalit women.


Cuneiform Perspectives on Daniel and the Development of the Genre Apocalypse
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Matthew Neujahr, Yale University

Over the last fifty years, a number of prominent assyriologists have argued various positions relating pieces of cuneiform literature to the development of the apocalyptic genre; these have ranged from claims of possible influence to assertions of direct literary dependence of Jewish works (Daniel in particular) upon cuneiform sources. This paper seeks to situate such claims within the discourse on apocalypses and apocalyptic literature as it has been developed in the discipline of religious studies, while keeping an eye on developments in the discourse on genre in literary critical circles


Envy and How It Grows
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Jerome H. Neyrey, University of Notre Dame

Everyone in antiquity envied, Israelites, Greeks and Romans. In what conditions was envy likely to appear? Who envies whom, over what and why? Envy, “a certain kind of distress at apparent success on the part of one’s peers in attaining good” (Rhet. 2.10.1), differs from emulation, wherein the sight of success in another prompts one to compete and do the same. Envy is wounded at this sight and seeks to harm the successful one, to stop him from having success, and to cut him down to size. Three factors contribute to understanding how and why envy grows: 1) the agonistic nature of ancient society, 2) the values of honor and shame, and 3) the notion of “limited good,” which is the focus of the next papers. Plutarch provides a crisp sketch of the matter; everywhere males are engaged in agonistic behavior: “The sensible man will guard against the envy and anger which in the marketplace is imposed by covetousness, in the gymnasia by rivalry (philonikias), in politics and public munificence (philotimiais), by eagerness for glory (philodoxias)” (Table-Talk 622B). Their rhetoric teaches them to write chreiai which challenge the wise man, seek to embarrass him, and steal his fame. Second, people in the ancient world were known for their “love of honor,” that is, their passion for worth, reputation, fame, admiration and the like. Augustine, looking back at Rome’s history, saw this with exceptional clarity: “‘They were eager for praise and sought unbounded glory and riches honorably gained” (Sallust, Cataline 7.6). This glory they most ardently loved. For its sake they chose to live and for its sake they did not hesitate to die. They suppressed all other desires in their boundless desire for this one thing. . .to win dominion” (City of God 5.12).


Reading "The Friend at Midnight" (Luke 11:5–8) from an Asian Perspective
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Thanh V. Nguyen, Catholic Theological Union

Friendship in Vietnamese culture is a very delicate matter. One must do everything for one's friend. It is never a burden but rather an honor and a privilege to be asked by a friend. One naturally responds without reservation; to act otherwise is considered shameful and might perhaps sever one's friendship. Excuses are unacceptable. A "no" is indeed unthinkable! However, when one reads the parable of the Friend at Midnight in Luke 11:5-8, one is shocked by the silly excuses of the friend inside and even more stunned that he refused to "get up and give him anything because he is his friend" (Luke 11:8a). If the man inside is a friend of the man outside, then, why did the friend inside refuse to act out of friendship? Furthermore, what would his refusal do to him, his family, and the community? Reading “The Friend at Midnight” in Luke 11:5-8 from an Asian perspective will show that the climactic focus of the parable is about honor and shame. This corresponds with the original meaning of the Greek word "anaideia" which means "shamelessness" and not "persistence" as traditionally translated, which had led to the misinterpretation of the parable. Furthermore, since honor and shame are the pivotal values of the first-century Mediterranean world, the most appropriate manner of acting and responding for the friend from within is naturally to avoid shame. His refusal to offer hospitality to his friend and neighbor so that he in turn may host the unexpected guest would definitely cause a scandal in the village, and by morning his reputation and his family's good name would be ruined.


The Danish Hymnbook: Artifact and Text
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Kirsten Nielsen, Aarhus University

“How the Bible Works” by Brian Malley focuses on the role of the Bible in an American Baptist Church. Under the inspiration from Brian Malley, I have analysed the role of the hymnbook in Denmark and found surprising similarities to the way the Bible works. The Danish Hymnbook is not only a text open for interpretation, it has some of the characteristics of an artifact: as text the hymnbook is defined by its meaning but identified by its physical characteristics, it is a category designating a set of hymns bounded by conventions of print and naming, hymnbooks are personal belongings often received as a gift on the day of confirmation (with the personal name printed in gold on the cover), and in the past, when somebody died, the Danish Hymnbook was placed under the chin of the deceased. The Danish Hymnbook is used in ritual contexts (singing a hymn together to a well known and loved melody seems more important than interpreting the text), and it is authorised by the monarch (the queen is head of the Danish church to which 83% of the population belongs). The hymnbook therefore marks an institutional boundary (the ten cathedrals in Denmark are reproduced on the first page) and a certain authority is ascribed to the hymnbook (quotations can be used as arguments in sermons). Although nobody would argue that the hymnbook is the word of God, the Bible is the most important intertext for the hymns which means that the authority of the hymnbook is clearly strengthened by its reuse of Biblical expressions. The Bible functions as normative not only for the contents of the hymns but also for the use of imagery (metaphors and metonymies) when speaking about God.


Of Animals and Nations: The Reception of Dietary Laws in P, D, and H
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Christophe Nihan, University of Geneva

While much scholarly attention has been devoted to identifying the logic behind the classification of unclean animals in Leviticus 11, little work has been done on the comparison between Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. This is all the more regrettable because these two chapters comprise the only real example of a parallel legislation within P and D, thus offering a unique basis for assessing both the differences and the interrelation between those corpuses. Besides, dietary laws are also briefly received in H, in the exhortation found in Lev 20:22–26 (v. 25). This paper will argue that the parallels between Lev 11 and Deut 14 are best explained by the assumption that the two chapters are separate elaborations upon a common source. Both P and D use the resources offered by the system of dietary rules as a means to (re-)define the relationship between Israel and the other nations after the exile, yet in quite distinct ways. In P, dietary prohibitions are part of a broader process which, against the background of the P account in Gen–Exod (especially Gen 1–11), systematically asserts the cultural superiority of Israel over other nations. In D, the system of dietary prohibitions illustrates on the contrary a conception of Israel’s holiness that sets Israel radically apart from the nations (see Deut 14:2, 21b, framing v. 3-21a), as in Deut 7 already. In H, finally, the reference to the dietary laws in the strategic exhortation of Lev 20:22-26, although it is coined in a language borrowing from both Priestly and Deuteronomistic traditions, develops a new, original conception transforming separation between clean and unclean animals into the model for personal and collective sanctification through observance of the Law, thus opening the way to the conception found in later Judaism, starting with the Letter of Aristeas.


Aseneth as the “Prototype of the Church of the Gentiles”
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Rivka Nir, Open University of Israel

The conversion of Aseneth, which stands at the center of "Joseph and Aseneth", forms one theological and artistic unit, expressing itself in three main symbols: the honeycomb, the "city of refuge" and the bees. My claim is that these symbols, their imaginary language and their symbolical meaning can be fully understood against the conceptions of virginity held by the early Syrian Church. The first part of the story concentrates on the process of Aseneth's Christianization, reaching its end in her partaking of the Eucharist symbolized by the honeycomb. After partaking of the Eucharist, Aseneth is transformed to the Christian Church, described as the heavenly Jerusalem, and symbolized by "city of refuge". The story then concentrates on the identity of those who will find refuge in this city: those who are attached to God because of "repentance" (metanoia)" (15: 7-11). From the description of the "metanoia" we can infer that they are virgins (btûlê) who were ready to give up earthly marriage in order to enter the heavenly "bridal chamber" and to find "rest". The ascetical character of these faithful is developed further in the symbol of the bees. The white bees with the colorful wings, golden crowns and sharp stings symbolize the baptized who have taken the decision of virginity, described in Syrian sources as taking the "crown" of the "contest". The difference between the bees and their queens reflects the different groups in the "convent" (Qyamâ) - the virgins and the saints. Their attachment to Aseneth’s mouth can be understood as their having a share in the diffusion of the “Word”. This story should be understood as a call to gentiles, not only to join the church but also to take a virginal way of life. To these virgins and saints the story promises resurrection and immortality in paradise.


The Poetics of Adam: The Creation of Adam in the Image of Elohim
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Paul Niskanen, University of Saint Thomas

The account of the creation of adam in the image of elohim in Genesis 1:27 is one of the most pored over texts in the Bible. While there have been significant developments in recent decades to the ongoing discussion as to what the text might mean, much ambiguity and many differences of opinion still remain. This paper approaches an old question from a new perspective. Rather than focusing on the terms “image” and “likeness” to gain a deeper understanding of this passage, this paper analyzes the poetical structure of Gen 1:27 both in and of itself and within the larger structure of Genesis 1. This analysis goes beyond the usual, rather simple, affirmations or denials of synonymous parallelism, intensification, or progression. In doing so, attention is drawn to the two terms being compared: elohim and adam. The indeterminate number of each (a plural form generally used as a singular, and a noun that is both singular and collective) and the addition of gender terminology in the description of adam contribute to the understanding of how the terms are poetically related. The alternating use of singular and plural pronouns for both God and human explicitly draws out a multivalence latent in the nouns themselves. The result is that poetry “says more than it knows” or perhaps more than any one answer to the age-old question of the imago Dei gives us.


Ancient Halakhic Homilies in the Writings of the Qumran Sect and of the Tannaim
Program Unit: Qumran
Vered Noam, Tel Aviv University

A comparison of sectarian texts with their Tannaitic counterparts reveals traces of ancient halakhic homilies shared by both literatures. Familiarity with this shared literary stratum sheds light on the development of Biblical commentary, on the one hand, and on the roots of the halakhic heritage of the Second Temple Era, on the other. The current lecture will illustrate three possible contributions to our knowledge of the history of halakha made by the revelation of basic homiletic material: Scholars argue constantly as to whether the halakha followed by the Qumran sect is early halakha, while that passed down in Tannaitic literature represents change and innovation, or whether the opposite was true: the halakha appearing in Tannaitic sources preserves "paradosis ton pateron" – ancient tradition, while the sectarian halakha represents a revolutionary trend. In the case to be presented in the lecture, the reconstruction of an ancient midrash makes it possible to reconstruct the direction of halakhic development as well. In another instance, one is able to discern how an ancient homily, identical in form both in the literature of the sect and in that of the Perushim, was reworked in separate and even mutually-contradictory halakhic directions. In this case, it is possible to identify the point at which the single, ancient halakhic root split into two separate branches. I will conclude with a rare example in which an ancient, long-lost Biblical version, differing from the Masoretic text, is revealed from both a Tannaitic midrash halakha and the Temple Scroll from Qumran. In this case, the Temple Scroll solves the riddle posed by an obscure Tannaitic homily, while the midrash halakha illuminates the source of a supplementary halakha in the literature of Qumran. These two sources, taken together, uncover a change in the Biblical text unrecognized until now.


Women as Israel and a Feminine David: Narrative Themes in the History of David's Rise and 2 Samuel 6:20–23
Program Unit: Biblical Law
John Noble, Harvard University

The books of Samuel have been understood in a variety of ways, but are they not first of all the stuff of Israel's public life, one version of history that describes the state's early days? If so, how can we account for the space and attention given to women in these public records? Simply put, what are all the females doing in the books of Samuel? Are they mere incidentals of the broader story, or may we find other functions, from literary, political, or theological points of view? Do women have some symbolic meaning in the books of Samuel? This paper addresses some of these important questions. Drawing on Tivka Frymer-Kensky's work on the narrative functions of women in the Hebrew Bible, I survey a few key passages from the "History of David's Rise" (HDR; 1 Sam 16:14 - 2 Sam 5:10), as well as 2 Sam 6:20-23, with a view to understanding a popular groundswell of women as supporters of David and stand-in representatives of Israel. The next section examines the extent of David's own identity in feminine terms, and his connection to the female supporters. Finally, I offer some conclusions about the effect of these literary themes in the HDR.


Rethinking Literary Function in the Emerging Hebrew Canon
Program Unit: Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
K. L. Noll, Brandon University

This thesis emerges at the intersection of disciplines. Redaction criticism and textual criticism demonstrate that the scrolls of the Jewish canon began as single manuscripts known to almost no one, gradually redacted, and ultimately circulated in multiple manuscript copies to an ever-increasing readership. Study of predominantly oral cultures sheds light on textual production among scribal “schools” that derived their content from the prevailing oral culture. If each discipline has produced sound results, then significant questions must be raised about the function of the literature in its earliest stages. Most biblical scholars assume (usually without comment) that biblical texts were composed as religiously authoritative texts and their content was disseminated among Jews (e.g., Deut 31:10-13; Neh. 8). Recent research by anthropologists observing processes of religious dissemination brings a third discipline to bear and calls the usual assumption into question. Using specific textual examples, I will outline an alternative perspective.


Reversing Paul's Reversal: Intertextuality, Isaiah, and the Gentiles in Paul's Eschatological Scenario
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Brent Nongbri, Yale University

According to one influential line of thinking, Paul’s work as apostle to the gentiles is best understood in light of prophetic expectations about the messianic age, especially the expectations of the book of Isaiah. Scholars who read Paul in this prophetic framework claim that Paul alters Isaiah's eschatological plans to better fit the facts of his current situation; Isaiah had expected the salvation of Israel to provoke the gentiles to turn to god, but Paul reversed this scenario, claiming that it is instead "the fullness of the gentiles" that brings about Israel's restoration (Romans 11:25-26). I agree this "eschatological pilgrimage" model is the best means of understanding Paul's work. I argue, however, that a freer approach to the intertextual echoes of Isaiah in Paul shows that Paul does not reverse Isaiah's plan. Instead, Isaiah's frequent references to what will happen "in the Day of the Lord" or "in the last days" allow Paul to collapse all of Isaiah into a single eschatological plan for "the Day of the Lord." A reader like Paul could easily read all of Isaiah in light of certain passages (such as Isaiah 10-11) that imply this eschatological scenario is not a two-stage affair at all but rather a three-step process: a remnant of Israel is lifted up, then the gentiles come in, then the outcasts of Israel are redeemed. This is exactly Paul's outline in Romans: The group of Jews who adhere to Paul's message constitute the saved remnant (Romans 11:7), Paul's gentiles now partake in the remnant's "spiritual blessings" (Romans 11:11 and 15:25-27), and when the full number of gentiles is achieved, the rest of Israel will be redeemed (Romans 11:14 and 11:25-26). Thus, Paul does not reverse the prophetic expectations but seems instead to be a rather clever reader of Isaiah.


Joshua the Warrior and the Pentateuch: Exodus 17:8–16 Retold
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Ed Noort, University of Groningen

Joshua, once upon a time an Ephraimitic chief on the ledge between Israel and Judah, slowly grew into the role of the commander-in-chief of all Israel and from there to be a field commander (Flavius Josephus), a prophet (Qumran), a teacher of the Torah (Pseudo-Philo) and a king (Samaritan Chronicles). More or less these images from the later history of reception have their starting points in the biblical text. Therefore it is surprising how Joshua is introduced in the Pentateuch. The figure of Joshua appears suddenly in Exod 17:8-16. There is no introduction or further explanation in contrast to Exod 33:11 or Numb 11:28. The final version of Numb 13:16 has him renamed by Moses, as a preparation for his second-to-Caleb role in the spy narrative of Numb 13f. He has to spend a lot of time in the waiting room between his installation in Numb 27 and the death of Moses in Deut 34. Most times he is Moses’ (cultic) servant, some times the coming man, only one time a warrior (Exod 17). These difficulties could be overcome by a source-critical model, but the role and the function of Exod 17,8-16 are unclear. The uncertainty to ascribe the narrative to the Elohist or to the Yahwist stress this unclearness. One thing is certain: the battle against Amalek foreshadows Joshua’s role in the book of Joshua. The narrative itself is a real mixture of old elements and an interpreting theology that understood the impersonal exercise of power (the ‘rod of God’) as a sign of direct divine intervention. These elements make it a story sui generis, on one hand related to the themes of the Hexateuch including the book of Joshua. On the other hand there is a poor relation with the other Joshua traditions in the Pentateuch. The paper tries to understand both sides of the problem.


Händel, Joshua, and Violence
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Ed Noort, University of Groningen

Some of the motifs of the book of Joshua like the 'Fall of Jericho' or the 'Sun standing still at Gibeon' influenced society far beyond the interpretation of Scripture alone. If we have a look at the main character, Joshua, it is clear that changing times changed the image of the book's hero. His role as a commander-in-chief is stressed by Josephus, his role as a prophet by the Dead Sea Scrolls, his task as a teacher of law by Pseudo-Philo, his being a king by the Samaritan tradition. Already in early times there was a rich variety in interpretations. In the last century the discussion of Joshua focussed on the problem of violence. The present paper wants to highlight several aspects of the use of the biblical text by choosing a different angle. I go back to the 18th century at the eve of historical-critical interpretation and study the way the text of Joshua is reworked and reused in the oratorio 'Joshua" from G.F.Händel. The libretto was written by Thomas Morell. Joshua was one of Händel's most successful oratorios, finished in August 1747. For the history of interpretation it is important that the political situation in which Morell wrote and Händel composed was that of a victory over a military threat. How text and music interpret the politics of their days and the biblical text as well in the need of public affirmation is a point of departure for further study of the history of interpretation of the book of Joshua in the eigtheenth and nineteenth century.


The Imaginative Effects of Ezekiel's Merkavah Vision: A Day in the Life of Hashmal
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Sally Norris, University of Oxford

The text of the book of Ezekiel abounds with unusual syntactic, lexical, and narrative features. Prominently placed within the inaugural merkavah vision is one such linguistic anomaly -- hashmal, a hapax legomenon which presents a formidable challenge to the interpreter. What or who is hashmal? The answer is not readily apparent. There are no extant occurrences of hashmal in a text independent of the merkavah tradition to assist with the query. Further, while many regard LXX as a reliable translation (hence, hashmal as electron), other ancient translations such as the Syriac suggest a radically different solution. Where, then, may clues to the meaning of the enigmatic hashmal be found? This paper will accompany hashmal as it navigates a path through Jewish and Christian tradition, uncovering an array of readings ranging from the mundane, to the metaphorical, to the anthropomorphic. In so doing, hashmal will become its own narrative, proving a compelling example of the Wirkungsgeschichte of Ezekiel’s merkavah vision.


Why Should Historical Criticism Continue to Have a Place in Johannine Studies?
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Wendy North, Durham University

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The Myth of an Essene Quarter in Jerusalem
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
R. Steven Notley, Nyack College

In the previous century, A. Jaubert championed the notion that Jesus abandoned the appointed day for Passover in the Temple and embraced the Essene solar calendar to observe the feast two days early. This novel suggestion was an attempt to reconcile the differing chronologies of the Synoptic Gospels and John. Still others built upon Jaubert’s thesis to advance the popular idea that Jesus ate the Last Supper in an Essene Quarter in the upper city of Jerusalem, in the vicinity of today’s Mount Zion (Pixner, Riesner). Identification of an Essene community in the upper city of Jerusalem stems largely from Bliss’ discovery in 1895 of an ancient gate on the southern edge of Jerusalem’s western hill. The Roman period gate may indeed be the one mentioned by Josephus (J. W. 5:145). Yet, it is quite another thing to assume that the gate marked a nearby Essene Quarter within the walls of the holy city. In fact, there exists not one shred or archaeological or historical evidence to indicate an Essene Quarter in first century Jerusalem. This study will address the evidence for an Essene Quarter in Jerusalem, including the purported Essene-style ritual immersion baths and the relevant passages from Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. It will demonstrate that there was neither an Essene Quarter in Jerusalem, nor could Jesus’ last meal have been celebrated within an Essene context.


Reading Salomé: Caravaggio and the Gospel Narratives
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Ela Nutu, University of Sheffield

There has long been established a dialogue between the Bible and Art, a two-way vista for exchange; creative co-dependency. Most audiences in twentyfirst-century Europe will have inherited the concept of Salome as the young woman whose ‘dance of many veils’ leads to one man’s infatuation and another man’s decapitation. This has less to do with the brief note on the dance that one finds in the Bible and more to do with the Salome’s artistic afterlives. By looking afresh at depictions of Salome that do not represent her as the femme fatale par excellence, readers of the Bible can be challenged into re-assessing their own understanding of the story of the Baptist’s death and the role that the young woman plays in it. This paper examines Caravaggio’s visual interpretations of Herod’s stepdaughter in light of the Gospels. How did the painter imagine the woman? Was this in step with the biblical text?


Judith and Medusa: Gaze, Text, and Identity
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Ela Nutu, University of Sheffield

This paper explores visual associations of Judith with Medusa in works of art and their histories. It examines visual representations of Judith by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) and Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665), in which the Medusa myth seems to have been appropriated as a benevolent omen, and sculptures by Donatello (1386-1466) and Cellini (1500-1571), whose Judith and Perseus were used to signify shifts in Florentine politics. By investigating cultural connections between the decapitated heads of Holofernes and Medusa, this paper also explores the role of gender in identity formation present in and around the Judith narrative and visual interpretations of it.


Mary in the Temple: A New Look at Jewish Women in the Protevangelium of James
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Megan Nutzman, University of Chicago

It is frequently argued that the Protevangelium of James was the work of a second century Christian whose knowledge of Judaism was problematic. I will challenge this conventional hypothesis and demonstrate that the Protevangelium of James reflects the complex milieu of the second century, a formative period for Jews and Christians as they struggled to define themselves in contrast to each other and to the rest of society. This paper will reexamine Mary’s association with the temple of Jerusalem, an aspect of the Protevaneglium often cited as evidence of the author’s ignorance of Judaism, and demonstrate its appropriation of Jewish motifs. While most modern scholarship has characterized the portrayal of Mary in the temple as one of naïve ignorance, reflecting later developments in Christian monasticism rather than the real conditions of Jewish life, this cursory dismissal overlooks a carefully constructed Jewish framework. The author incorporated three groups of Jewish women accorded special positions in the temple: virgins constructing the temple curtains, accused adulteresses, and female nazirites. By integrating these motifs into the Protevangelium of James, particularly in the account of Mary and the Jerusalem temple, and by tempering them with Christian themes, the author of the Protevangelium produced a work intended both to edify Christians and to refute Jewish critique.


Septuagint versus Targum: Defining Translation
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Alena Nye-Knutson, University of Virginia

The first translations of the Hebrew Pentateuch were into Greek and Aramaic, respectively. While the Septuagint is still now widely regarded as a "translation," the Targumim are often regarded as a separate generic category. This paper examines what work the genre "translation" does for modern scholarship through a careful consideration of the similarities and differences between these two bodies of texts. How is "translation" defined and how might modern and ancient notions of this genre differ? Ancient views as to the nature, purpose and authority of each of these ancient biblical versions will be considered, as will modern scholarly distinctions between the terms "translation," "exegesis" and "paraphrase." Finally to be considered are the historical communities responsible for creating and transmitting the Greek and Aramaic scriptures and how each of these translations shaped the religious inheritance of later Jewish and Christian communities.


What Readers Does the Scroll Imagine?
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Kathleen M. O'Connor, Columbia Theological Seminary

Using insights from the interdisciplinary field of trauma and disaster studies, this paper investigates the final shape of the book of Jeremiah and liturgical pieces scattered across the book as survival strategies for Judean readers after the multiple disasters of the Babylonian Period. The book's inchoate shape serves as a mirror of the interpretive disarray in the wake of the national disaster, and its liturgies invite the audience to enact and perform theological rebirth. The book itself is a moral act for the rebuilding of the community.


Into the Whirlwind: The Prologue and Chapter 17 of John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
John F. O'Grady, Barry University

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The Biblical World of Limited Good in Cultural, Social, and Technological Perspective
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Douglas E. Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University

This paper considers biblical values, especially economic values, within ancient Mediterranean expectations of limited good. Macrosociological, anthropological, and systems perspectives are marshalled to consider why cultural, social, and technological constraints mandated recurring limited-good expectations. As well, perspectives about Mediterranean social norms are offered. Limited-good expectations governed attitudes toward real-world wealth and power, as well as cultural values like honor and shame. Since honor was rooted in the cultural worth ascribed to families, honor generally shaped power and wealth. Power or wealth achieved by less-honored families were generally difficult to rationalize within this limited good world. Honor could be translated into inducement and coercion, but commercial gain of wealth or political achievements could not easily be translated into honor.


Consent as Rebellion: Thomas Hobbes's Biblical Critique of Political Consent
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Margaret S. Odell, Saint Olaf College

This paper addresses the curious place of Thomas Hobbes in the Western canon as a biblical interpreter whose political theory puts him outside the discipline of theological biblical interpretation, while his biblicism renders him archaic to political theorists. After assessing the place of Hobbes in both fields, I will examine one example of Hobbes’ biblically based political argument. Of particular importance is Hobbes’s interpretation of 1 Samuel 8, a long speech by Samuel that enumerates the abuses that Israel will endure under its human kings. Despite his call for careful biblical interpretation elsewhere, Hobbes apparently misses the irony and accusation inherent in the text while using it as a positive description of royal privilege. This reading is further supported by reference to other biblical texts that underscore the king’s absolute authority in all things. Yet, as Warren Zev Harvey and others have pointed out, Hobbes’s apparent defense of monarchy must be situated in the context of his understanding of the kingdom of God. By that account, Israel’s consent to a king constitutes rebellion against Israel’s prior covenant with God. Because consent is, in effect, rebellion, human beings get the government they deserve. Far from misinterpreting 1 Samuel 8, Hobbes thus recasts the irony of 1 Samuel 8 for his own time.


Navigating Ephesos’ Miniature Churches: The Interpretative Quagmire
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Ruth M. Ohm, Saint Patrick's Seminary

Several chapels in Ephesos present the interpreter with the challenge of negotiating the interplay between physical remains, textual evidence, and iconography. The chapels which share a similar plan, though situated in different immediate physical contexts, especially engage the question of worship praxis as expressed in diverse (non-liturgical) written sources. A cave chapel offers rich iconographic detail, but its unusual shape begs the question of its liturgical use. This paper offers an assessment on the chapels from Late Antiquity in Ephesos, and presses the methodological question of evaluating different forms of evidence.


The Necessity and Glory of Suffering in Romans 5:1–5: A Korean American Hermeneutic of
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Janette Ok, Princeton Theological Seminary

Relative to other ethnic minorities, second generation Korean Americans remain largely uninvolved in social and political action. This is due in part to systemic racism in the U.S. and the fact that many Korean Americans have lived in the U.S. for scarcely two generations, not yet achieving the full cultural and structural assimilation needed to resource and navigate mainstream social and political systems. It is also due to the fact that many second generation Korean Americans have not yet come to terms with their unique liminal existence, nor are they cognizant of how their pre-understanding of suffering effects their interpretation of biblical texts. This paper argues that for Korean American Christians, the general lack of presence and voice in the social and political arena is reinforced and spiritualized by their theological tendency to promote otherworldly faith and by their pre-understandings of suffering which they bring to biblical texts, most notably Romans 5:1-5.


Monstrous Births: A Queer Reading of Jesus' Passion
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Tania Oldenhage, Protestant Academy of Boldern

In recent years the revival of Hanna Arendt's notion of natality has led to a variety of innovative feminist discourses on the Bible in Germany. When birthing is understood as the capacity to bring something new into the world, biblical narratives and metaphors of birth gain surprising meanings. The focus lies not only on Jesus' birth (Andrea Günter 2004), but also on his death. In fact, comparisons between the suffering of Jesus and women's suffering during childbirth have a long tradition (Hildegard von Bingen) which arguably goes back to the New Testament itself (Acts 2:24). What would happen if the metaphorical link between Jesus' passion and women's labor received full theoretical attention? This paper puts the passion narratives into dialogue with feminist and queer thought on birthing. While I, too, am inspired by Arendt, I also draw from more contemporary theory, specifically queer readings of pregnant bodies (Shelley Parks 2006) and the concept of the birthing monster (Rosi Braidotti 2002, Rosemary Betterton 2006). Paying attention to the ways in which women's experiences of childbirth are discursively mediated and socially regulated, I offer a queer reading of the passion narratives in Mark and John. Thereby I bracket the assumption that pain is or should be (experienced as) tremendously meaningful. Jesus, according to the imagination of the gospel writers, follows particular social scripts of suffering, not unlike women who seek to conform to the norms directing the events in modern delivery rooms. In both cases, failures to conform are revealing. Read as a monstrous birth, Jesus' suffering on the cross furthermore touches on a profound theological mystery: What is it that is being delivered and that up to this point was to a large extent unknowable, but has raised powerful expectations, fears and fantasies?


The Mechanics of Composition on the Two Document Hypothesis and Farrer Theories: Similarities and Differences
Program Unit: Q
Ken Olson, Duke University

Recently there has been been an increasing interest in the physical or mechanical methods of ancient composition and how they are to be applied to the synoptic problem. In particular, F. G. Downing and Robert Derrenbacker have both emphasized the fact that ancient authors tend to follow on source at a time. An examination of the methods of composition hypothesized on the 2DH and on the Farrer theory shows that they are mechanically similar to each other (as opposed to those of, e.g., the Neo-Griesbach and Boismard hypotheses) in many respects. On both theories, Matthew expands Markan pericopes with additional material, and Luke alternates between following his Markan and non-Markan sources one at a time in large blocks without closely conflating different versions of the same material from his two sources. Luke sometimes substitutes a version from his non-Markan source (Q or Matthew) for that in Mark. Also on both theories, one of the evangelists extensively re-arranged the order of the sayings material in his source. On the 2DH, Matthew has re-ordered Q to construct his large discourses, while on the Farrer theory Luke has re-arranged the Matthean sayings material in order both to abbreviate the discourses and to avoid re-using Markan material or settings he has used in his Markan blocks. Nonetheless, there are at least two major differences between the compositional assumptions of the two theories. On the Farrer theory, the editorial work Luke must do on his non-Markan source is more extensive because that source is longer (i.e., Matthew is four to five times longer than Q). On the 2DH, Matthew closely conflates two versions of the same pericope in at least some of the Mark-Q overlaps.


Disability in the Prophetic Utopian Vision
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Saul M. Olyan, Brown University

This paper explores the role of disability in prophetic utopian texts such as Jer 31:7-9; Isa 29:17-21; 33:17-24; 35:4-10; Mic 4:6-7; Zeph 3:19. Though all of these texts model an ideal future, their treatment of disability varies.


Ludi and the Development of Roman Identity
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Eric Orlin, University of Puget Sound

Ludi have long been considered one of the quintessential Roman religious activities, but the significance of their development into that role has not received sufficient attention. The critical period in their development is the late third and early second centuries BCE, precisely the time when Rome evolved from a traditional city-state into a world power, and the conjunction of these two occurrences is hardly a coincidence. This period saw changes in the nature of the games as well as a dramatic expansion in the number of annual ludi on the Roman calendar. In keeping with the traditional Roman openness to foreign cultural elements, the Roman celebration of ludi incorporated both Etruscan and Greek elements; the latter in particular became more prominent as the Romans expanded their sphere of interest and began to position themselves on the Mediterranean stage. At the same time, however, the Romans needed to differentiate between their own practices and those of other communities in order to maintain a clear sense of Roman identity. They did so by marking the dance of the ludius as the defining element of the ritual; by investing this component with added significance, even while the Roman stage adopted many Greek elements, they effectively distinguished their ritual from Greek practice. The rapid increase in the number of annual ludi in Rome responded to the same need to define Roman practice, by establishing this ritual as a central feature of the Roman religious landscape; by 170 BCE ludi occupied seven times as many days as they had a century earlier, and participation in ludi came to be part of the definition of Roman citizenship. The growth of ludi thus formed an essential part of the Roman response to the challenges posed to Roman identity by her growing empire.


Response
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Andrei Orlov, Marquette University

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Enoch and the Anthropos: Restoration of the Glory of Adam in 2 (Slavonic) Enoch
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Andrei Orlov, Marquette University

It has been previously noted that in Sefer Hekhalot 48C Metatron appears to be depicted as a divine being first incarnated in Adam and then in Enoch, who re-ascended to the protoplast's heavenly home and took his rightful place in the heights of the universe. Scholars observe that Enoch thus becomes a redeemer figure--a second Adam through whom humanity is restored. It is possible that this theological motif of Enoch's restoring role was already developed in 2 Enoch where the seventh antediluvian patriarch is named as the "one who carried away the sin of humankind." It appears that the author(s) of the Slavonic apocalypse understand Enoch as a redeemer, i.e., the one who was able to "carry away" the sin of the protoplast by his ascension and transformation. One of the important aspects of this redemptive mission of the seventh antediluvian hero is the restoration of Adam's Body--the macrocosmic stature of the Anthropos that the protoplast had before his Fall. This presentation will investigate the tradition about the macrocosmic body of the protoplast found in 2 Enoch and Enoch's role in its restoration.


John 1:45–51 and Matthew 4:1–11, Mark 1:12–13, and Luke 4:1–13
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Andrei Orlov, Marquette University

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All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Masorah of Spanish Bible Manuscripts and Its Peculiarities
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Maria-Teresa Ortega-Monasterio, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas

There is a significant corpus of Spanish Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible dated 13th-15th centuries. These manuscripts do all contain masorah in its different categories: masorah parva, masorah magna and masorah finalis, being it ornamental or not. Some of the manuscripts include long masoretic lists as appendices or what might look as ornamental masorah. So far these manuscripts have been studied from a textual point of view, being critical editions of its texts or masorah, or textual comparative studies. However, studies on the specific characteristics of the masoretic contents and, moreover, comparison among the different manuscripts from this specific perspective, are scarce. In this paper I intend to analyse some of these masoretic lists, by comparing a selection of the most prestigious Spanish Bible manuscripts, their similarities and discrepancies. Furthermore, I will present under scrutiny some of the so-considered ornamental masorahs and its texts.


Summons: The Rhetoric of Attention-Getting Devices as Segment Markers in Proverbs
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Paul Overland, Ashland Theological Seminary

A theme recurring throughout Proverbs involves a) instructions directing the reader's attention toward wisdom and / or b) apothegms elevating wisdom's worth. A casual interpretation treats such instructions and apothegms on a par with other comparable forms. It is likely, however, that early readers recognized these passages as gateways calling attention not to their own theme (the worth of wisdom), but rather as a summons signaling that a distinct teaching was about to be uttered. Thus one ought come to attention. If so, this recognition may hone our detection of instructional segments and even relative prominence of one segment against another.


“I Have Told You the Mysteries of the Kingdom": The Significance of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Judas
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Louis Painchaud, Laval University

The notion of kingdom plays a central role in the Gospel of Judas and is a key concept for the interpretation of the text as a whole. In my paper, I will argue that the kingdom is not to be identified in this writing with the place of the kingless generation, but that it is a designation of the domination of the archons over the lower world, merely a synonym of the “error of stars”. I will survey the various occurrences of the word “kingdom”, of the adjective “kingless” and of the verb “to reign” and analyse them in their immediate textual and literary context as well as in the context of the related gnostic literature. Particularly significant in this regard will be the occurrence of the word “kingdom” in 35,26 and the reading of its immediate context.


The Signs of the Messiah and the Quest for Eternal Life
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
John M. Painter, Charles Sturt University

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KTU 1.23: Outback into Sown
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Grace Jeongyeon Park, University of California, Los Angeles

The most difficult crux in the Ugaritic ritual known as the "Feast of the Goodly Gods" (KTU 1.23) is the term mšt‘ltm in lines 31 and 36, an expression that has led scholars to posit a variety of incompatible translations. Straightforward grammatical analysis of this word may, however, provide the key to a better understanding of these lines and the text as a whole. Although Mark Smith, in his recently published edition of the text, de-emphasizes the role of the sexual acts in lines 30-76 as a fertility rite, I argue that mšt‘ltm and ’agn in lines 31 and 36 are in fact euphemisms for male and female genitalia respectively and that such an interpretation favors an overall interpretation of KTU 1.23 as a fertility rite. In the larger context, I suggest that the sexual intercourse and the birth of the gods in lines 30-76 mark the transformation of the uncultivated outback into the habitable sown: the field is called outback (mdbr) at the beginning but after sexual intercourse between El and his wives, and the conception and birth of the gods, it is referred to as the sown (mdr‘). Therefore I suggest that in symbolic terms the “same” place is converted from the outback into the sown through the act of intercourse that takes place in lines 30-76.


Scare and Scarcity: Reading Inter(con)textually of Spirit and Inheritance in Romans 8:12–17
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Rohun Park, Vanderbilt University

Paul’s eschatological realism relates to a new birth and living hope for the believers living in a system of evil, which exploits people with a sense of inequality, indebtedness, or immorality. The gospel of divine kinship represents extensive freedoms and inscribes their empowering effects in the midst of excruciating external circumstances. By turning to and participating in the heavenly kinship, the people of God revolutionize their mindsets, exit from the bondage, and bless themselves with a full, yet never-claimed, restitution. This essay uses the social memory of the Korean Grassroots Minjung as a contextual frame in order to reconstruct Paul’s teaching of divine adoption and inheritance. The positive encounter with the sacred vision would challenge the convictions of the Korean Minjung having faced the problems involving the contradictions, gaps, and silences in their own diasporic contexts. While employing a typology of scripture as the Corrective Glasses, reading with the Korean Minjung brings in a reflection on the God-Minjung encounter as a life-giving source, making possible full humanity and human capabilities.


Genesis 30:25–43: Transformation and Demarcation of Jacob's "Flocks"
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Song-Mi (Suzie) Park, Harvard University

The rather strange story of Jacob and the speckled flocks in Genesis 30: 25-43, a tale usually dismissed as reflecting so-called “primitive” notions of maternal impression, through its formal elements, communicates a message which, at the heart, concerns the very nature of Israelite identity. This essay examines the ways in which the formal elements of this story, most notably the numerous wordplays and puns, generate semantic correspondences and oppositions, which, in the end, convey and then attempt to diffuse the tensions involved in the seemingly oppositional ideas of divine election and “rejection”, particularity and universality, and free-will and predetermination, as they relate to the definition of Israel.


You are a Bible Child: Exploring the Lives of Children and Mothers through the Elisha Cycle
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Julie Faith Parker, Yale University

The children of the Bible are currently where the women of the Bible used to be: languishing in the shadows of scholarly obscurity. This paper seeks to focus the academic spotlight on some of Bible’s children. First, I will combine slides with a second-person narration that together invite the hearer to imagine her or himself as an eleven year-old girl as she goes through her daily routine in the highlands of Israel, circa 800 B.C.E. I then will offer further insights to the lives of biblical children by focusing on the stories of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2-8). Forty-nine cited children (all anonymous) appear in these chapters (see 2 Kings 2:24; 3:27; 4:1 ff.; 4:17 ff., 8:5; 5:2 ff.; 6:28 ff.), as well as a general group of “young ones” (8:12). While most readers barely notice these children, their presence in the narrative raises such stark issues as child slavery, child sacrifice, and child cannibalism, among others. What do these young characters have to teach us about life for children in ancient Israel? What do we notice about their mothers? Does the textual witness of these characters mirror reality or serve as a hyperbolic literary trope? This paper probes these questions and their striking implications, not only for biblical times, but also for our own.


Harry Potter Canon Discourse and the Biblical Canons
Program Unit: Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
Sara Parks, McGill University

This two-part panel proposes (and models) the use of "fan-fic" theory to discuss the nature, history, and functions of canonicity in the formation of Jewish and Christian Bibles. We propose that contemporary fan-fiction debates provide an engaging and surprisingly relevant starting point for theorizing what "authorship" is and does, and what "canonicity" is and does, in biblical canon history, especially in terms of power relationships controlling creativity and negotiating community boundaries. Envisioning the pseudepigrapha as ancient "fan-fic" uncovers examples of reciprocity between so-called canonical and non-canonical texts, and employing Reader Response theory to argue that the sole criterion for "canonicity" remains the reader, we aim to examine an anachronistic line that has been drawn too distinctly for too long. We will argue that using the Harry Potter phenomenon in this way provides a stimulating and enlightening "in" to the canon debates, with a new and penetrating spin.


The Bible as Icon: Myths of the Divine Origins of Scripture
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Dorina Miller Parmenter, Syracuse University

Undoubtedly the preeminent Western book, the Christian Bible, has influenced more people than any other book in world history. But the foundations and legitimizations of actions, morals, and beliefs that are derived from this book not only concern the messages gleaned from the text, but also the power and authority that have been accorded to the Bible as a sacred object. I am proposing that the Bible as both text and physical entity has been and continues to function as an icon—an image that mediates between the material and spiritual world and thus is a locus of religious power. Looking at the Bible as an icon helps us to understand the place of the book as a physical object, rather than ignoring its materiality through an exclusive focus on the text of scripture. The origins, authenticity, and efficacy of Christian portrait icons is established through what Hans Belting has called specific “legends of veracity” or “testimony by tradition”—myths that embody social understandings of how sacred images work that reflect, support, and sometimes override a philosophical understanding of images. Similarly, the Christian Bible, like other “Religions of the Book,” participates in a mythology of a prototypical heavenly book whose copy is revealed to humans. This paper will explore the impact of the myths of divine scripture on how the Christian Bible has been and is used in diverse forms of Christianity. It is my hope is that a careful and critical use of the term icon, applied to the status and function of the Bible in many different Christian contexts, will be useful for describing the interplay of the material and spiritual power attributed to the Bible that is generally not acknowledged.


Eve's Role as a "Help" ('ezer) Revisited
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Donald W. Parry, Brigham Young University

Twice the Garden of Eden narrative (see Gen. 2:18, 20) attests the Hebrew 'ezer ("help") to refer to the woman who was named Eve. Scholarly opinion varies widely regarding the meaning of 'ezer and Eve's status in the companionship with Adam. Major views range from older hierarchical models to more recently articulated egalitarian declarations: 1. 'ezer ("help") refers to one who is subordinate to Adam; 2. 'ezer ("help") by itself does not denote an inferior nor superior status; 3. 'ezer ("help") is one who possesses a status that is superior to Adam; 4. 'ezer should not be translated as "help," but as "companion" or "partner"; 5. 'ezer should not be translated as "help," but as "power." The chief objective of this paper is to reconsider Eve's role as an 'ezer in the garden story. To reach that objective, I will examine the lexical meaning of 'ezer in the context of the garden pericope and other scriptural passages, and analyze the attestation of 'ezer in poetic parallelisms.


The Figure of Judas in the Coptic Gospel of Judas
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Birger A. Pearson, University of California-Santa Barbara

In the first publication of the Coptic Gospel of Judas Jesus' infamous "betrayer" is presented as the "hero" of the gospel, a "thoroughly positive figure" and a "role model" (M. Meyer). he is presented as Jesus' "most intimate companion" and in some sense "on a par with Jesus." Jesus' reference to Judas in the text as the "thirteenth spirit" is taken to mean that, for Judas, "thirteen is the lucky number" (B. Ehrman). It is, of course, true that Judas, unlike the other disciples, has a prior understanding of Jesus' divine status. It is also true that Jesus' revelation of the "mysteries of the kingdom" is reserved for him alone. But there are some serious problems with the initial interpretation of Judas and his role, owing to ambiguities in the text, e.g., regarding Judas' status the "thirteenth," and his eventual fate. In this paper these ambiguities will be discussed, and an alternative interpreation of Judas' "heroic" role will be advanced.


The Ethos of God in Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Amy L. B. Peeler, Princeton Theological Seminary

It seems obvious to state that the author of Hebrews was a skilled rhetorician and that his letter highlights, if not focuses upon, God. What has not been so obvious is to examine the intersection of those facts—the confluence of theology and rhetorical criticism. This paper focuses upon one aspect of that intersection, namely, the theological use of ethos. Ethos, one of Aristotle’s technical proofs, is an important way for the speaker to convince the audience of his good character. Others have investigated the ethos of the author of Hebrews, but the ethos of God has yet to be examined in depth. Hebrews presents itself as an excellent specimen for the study of the ethos of God, because God plays such an important role as a speaker of this address. Moreover, the author needs to convince the audience of God’s trustworthiness, and particularly of God’s work in Christ. Consequently, the author’s presentation of the ethos of God is not only an interesting feature, but also a necessary element to understand the persuasive goal of this letter. Drawing from rhetorical handbooks and Greco-Roman speeches, this paper seeks to understand the rhetorical function of ethos and then to understand where and how this tool is used in Hebrews. By investigating the author’s theological presentation of several characteristics—God’s paternal nature, wrath, graciousness, and constancy—I will show how the author presents the ethos of God so that his readers might see God as appealing and worthy of trust.


The Meaning of the Book of Job
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
David Penchansky, University of St. Thomas

In 1966, Professor Matitiahu Tsevat published an article in HUCA with the above title. He asserts (and I agree) that the Book of Job refutes “the principle of retribution.” The book, he said, fell in the crack between the confidence of the early sages in God’s just governance of the world, and the “solution” to the problem of theodicy provided by belief in an afterlife which developed in the late Persian and Greek periods. I plan to revisit Tsevat’s article, and the issues he raises. Whereas Tsevat argues that Yahweh’s speeches provide a satisfying answer to Job’s questions, I argue that although Job concedes Yahweh’s superior power, Yahweh fails to answer Job’s questions, and that is key to the meaning of the book.


Sexualized Torture in Eusebius’ Martyr Narratives
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Elizabeth Penland, Yale University / Smith College

In his collection of martyr accounts, The Martyrs of Palestine, Eusebius presents the physical beauty of tortured subjects, contrasting the youth and perfection of several subjects with the dehumanizing and disfiguring acts they undergo. These paragons of youthful beauty are both male and female. The narrative function of the beauty of the subjects seems to be both as an erotic titillation for the viewer and also an intensification of the description of torture. There is also potential for the destabilization of gender roles in the text. To some degree, the male martyrs’ suffering seems to give them a feminine role and the feminine martyrs’ bravery a masculine one. However, as both young men and women function as erotic subjects, this degree of destabilization needs to be read with care. This paper will examine Eusebius’ accounts against the backdrop of sexualized torture in Greek and Roman sources. It will show how torture follows the cultural fault lines of gender and erotic attraction and that there is indeed a continuity of cultural juxtaposition of sex and torture in Christian material. Additionally, the ancient material can offer useful comparative grounds for the modern sexualization of torture.


Peculiarities of the Codex Vaticanus Manuscript of Isaiah
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Ken M. Penner, Acadia Divinity College

Codex Vaticanus has been commended for the excellence of its text for most books of the LXX, but its "hexaplaric" text of Isaiah is considered "less trustworthy" than that of the Alexandrian manuscripts. Appropriate as these value judgements may regarding text-critical issues, they obscure the value of Codex Vaticanus in other areas. This paper identifies patterns in the ways B deviates from what might be expected, not only in text-critical matters (by comparison with A and the critical editions) but also in matters of orthography, vocabulary, morphology, divisions, marginal notes, corrections, and translational idiosyncrasies. What explanations best account for these differences? What can they tell us about those responsible for the production of this text and those who received it as scripture?


Citation Formulae as Indices to Canonicity in Early Jewish and Early Christian Literature
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Ken M. Penner, Acadia Divinity College

That early Jewish and early Christian authors cited and appealed to writings that are not part of modern canons is indisputable. Readers of the NT are familiar with Jude 14 citing 1 Enoch 1:9, and many similar examples can be found in the writings of Church Fathers, the Rabbis, Josephus, Philo, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, it is not always clear what these early authors thought of the writings they cited. No one would argue they considered all the writings they cited to have equal status; for example, the citations of Epimenides and Aratus in Acts 17:28 do not carry the same authority as the citations of Joel in 2:17 of the same book. But to what extent did they distinguish between what was authoritative and what was not? In other words, to what extent did they conceive of the literature they used in terms of canon? This paper contributes to resolving this question by examining the phrases used to introduce the cited text, phrases such as "it is written," "as a prophet says," "the scripture says." This paper evaluates these citation formulae in terms of their utility for indicating the canonicity of writings cited by early Christian and Jewish authors, by identifying patterns of usage along geographic, chronological, and sectarian lines.


Refractions of Greek Daniel in the Gospel of Matthew
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Jonathan T. Pennington, Southern Seminary

The Gospel of Matthew is a richly intertextual piece of literature, reflecting the influence of multiple OT texts. This paper seeks to explore anew how the Greek versions of Daniel inform and are refracted in the First Gospel. Following a general survey of the many intertextual connections, this paper will focus on several particular instances of Daniel’s influence, including the heaven and earth contrast theme.


The Hebrew Sheol and the Emarite Shuwalu
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Eugen J. Pentiuc, Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology

The paper discusses the Hebrew Sheol in the light of Emar evidence. The personified Sheol in the Hebrew Bible is apparently the result of an intricate process of demythologization of the ANE concept of underworld, by which mythical elements are replaced by metaphorical traits. Even though the etymology of the Hebrew term Sheol is debatable, the Emar tablets provide a quite similar form, Shuwalu. This most likely North West Semitic form, preceded by the determinative (d), is found in two literary (religious) texts, Emar 385 and Emar 388, both dealing with the kissu festival. At Emar there are five deities to receive a kissu festival, three heavenly deities (Ishhara, Dagan and dNIN.URTA) and two deities of the underworld (Nergal and Ereshkigal). Noteworthy, in Emar 385:23, the divine entity Shuwalu is paired with the Mesopotamian god Nergal. Since, in the Mesopotamian pantheon, Nergal was ruling together with his consort Ereshkigal over the underworld, one may conclude that the Emarite Shuwalu was also associated with the realm of the dead. In the Emarite kissu ritual Shuwalu appears to be the North West Semitic replica of the Mesopotamian goddess Ereshkigal. In support of this hypothesis is the very presence of Ereshkigal a few lines below in the same tablet (Emar 385:26). The interpretation of Shuwalu as a replica of Ereshkigal seems attractive, though one must not forget that the Hebrew Sheol is written with a medial Aleph, while the Emarite Shuwalu has a medial Waw. This orthographic discrepancy between the Emarite and Hebrew forms may be accounted for a dialectical peculiarity. In support of this explanation does come the Syriac word shywl “Sheol” spelled with a medial Waw. Moreover, the Syriac form is a feminine noun fitting well into our proposed identification between Shuwalu and Ereshkigal.


“Everyone Can Be Some Body”: The Use of the Resurrected Body in Second-Century Social Critique
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Judith B. Perkins, Saint Joseph College

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Proper Names, the Article, and the English Translation of Kyrios in the Greek Exodus
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Larry Perkins, Northwest Baptist Seminary

In the Greek Exodus the translator normally did not use the article with proper names. However, those proper names that occur significantly in the text on occasion do have an article. This paper first investigates the occurrence of the article with proper names in Greek Exodus with a view to discerning the possible rationals for such usage. It then examines the usage of the article with KYRIOS and Pharao. These findings may require some modification of standard explanations. Finally I argue that the principle established by NETS for the rendering of KYRIOS may not be adequate because the translation “the Lord” does not convey effectively its function as a proper noun. Secondly, there are occasions in Greek Exodus when KYRIOS has the article and the NETS translator must discern whether the translator intended his rendering to be translated as “the Lord” in an exclusive or particularizing sense (e.g. 8:22). Or perhaps as in 5:2 the article may function in a deictic manner.


“Angered” or “Moved”? Mark 1:41 in Light of Mark’s Exodus Motif
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Nicholas Perrin, Wheaton College

When Jesus is about to heal the leper, he is said according to one line of textual tradition to be “angered” (orgistheis); according to another set of witnesses, he is “moved with compassion” (splangnistheis). Confronted with this notorious dilemma, text critics opting for the latter tend to be impressed by the strength of the supporting manuscripts, while those preferring orgistheis generally do so on the principle of lectio difficilior. This paper attempts to resolve the impasse by understanding the pericope, along with Mark’s other conflict stories, against the backdrop of the Exodus narrative. If, as certain evidence suggests, Mark is attempting to cast the healing as a kind of Exodus in miniature, this has implications which may well shed fresh light on the original word choice at Mark 1:41.


Qohelet and the French School: Levinas, Neher, Blanchot
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
T. A. Perry, University of Connecticut

The implications of these three writers for wisdom studies remains unstudied and is potentially vast. While the approach of each is distinctive (Levinas is philosophical, Neher veers to the prophetic and mystical, and Blanchot focusses on literary issues), their common ground becomes apparent in the Qohelet environment, notably around the concepts of totality (Blanchot's concept of dis-aster), the modesty of God, and the transcience that both conceals and reveals infinity.


You Plural: The Use and Abuse of a Pronoun
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Gerald Peterman, Moody Bible Institute

It is common for biblical scholars to claim that the use of the second person plural (pronoun or verb) mandates that the action or activity does not refer to individuals but only to groups. In my view this understanding of the plural is reductionistic; “there is no neat one-to-one correspondence between the grammatical alterations in a word’s form and the meanings thereby conveyed.” While the second person plural can indeed be used to urge group application, it can also include individual application. Only context can indicate which type of application is called for. I provide four arguments: First, this Second Person Plural Theory leads to a reductio ad absurdum. Second, if the theory is accepted, passages that contain abrupt shifts in number would become extremely difficult if not incomprehensible. Third, examples outside the NT do not verify the theory. Extra-biblical examples demonstrate that the plural can be used for both plural and singular application, depending on context. Fourth, authors who assert that the second person plural has exclusively plural application are inconsistent in their conclusions, at times asserting that the plural entails plural application, but at other times asserting that it has singular application.


The “World” in Imperial Cult Iconography and the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Janelle Peters, Emory University

The rhetorical imagery of Jesus and the “world” in the Gospel of John is in dialogue with the late first century Roman iconographic association of “world” and imperial cult. While Brown notes that John 16:33 imitates "secular victory proclamations," these victory declarations correspond to a more pervasive imperial aesthetic programme whose influence extended from elite frescoes to common terracotta lamps. Augustus inaugurated this imperial aesthetic programme as Victory on the Globe. The rise of imperial cult led to a conceptual shift in which Roman artists and viewers positioned the imperial family—past, present, and future—in the place of Victory on the Globe. The imperial family had overcome the “world” while still being in it. This shift began under the reigns of Caligula and Claudius and flourished in those of Titus and Domitian, around the time of the composition of the Fourth Gospel. Thus, John’s earliest audiences would have understood the “temporal omniscience” (Meir Sternberg) of Jesus vis-à-vis “the world” as mapping onto the Roman imperial cult’s temporally fluid relationship with the “world.” This approach has important implications for the discussion of John's level of acculturation to imperial culture. Roman imperial presentation of its liminal role in the “world” included depictions of its political and personal weaknesses. The imperial planisphere fresco which creates an apotheosis of the viewer, for instance, was located adjacent to one depicting Daphne turning into a laurel tree to escape the imperially associated god Apollo. Domitian defiantly deifies his infant son above the globe on the reverse of his coinage and yet depicts his more politically connected wife on the obverse. The Gospel of John adopts the imperial cult imagery and critiques it insofar as the gospel presents the imperium's political and personal frailties while portraying Jesus' only weakness as a lack of political connections.


Israel and the Nations in the Later Latter Prophets
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
David L. Petersen, Emory University

In this paper, I will examine the discourse concerning foreign nations in the final six books of the Latter Prophets. In so doing, I will compare the oracles concerning foreign nations putatively composed in the late monarchic period (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah) with comparable literature that emerged during the Persian period (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). The major differences between these two corpora may be attributed to their respective ancient contexts and to the changing role of the prophet in them.


Configuring the Language to Convert the People: The Greenlandic Bible Translations
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Christina Petterson, Macquarie University-Sydney

In 1766 the first of many editions of the translation of the New Testament into Greenlandic was completed and presented to the Danish king, Christian VII and the Greenlandic people. In his preface to the translation, missionary Poul Egede mentions the difficulties he encountered in conveying 1st century Palestine to Inuit language. Not only were there theological difficulties (for example God), but also culture specific terms, which were problematic (king, farmer) not to mention the translation of the specifics of nature: trees and various shrubs and bushes, vines and wheat (and their derivatives: wine and bread). Some words he constructed from the Greenlandic, others he simply did not translate, and kept the Danish word instead, for example: God, king and wine. The formation of scriptural Greenlandic was part of the colonisation process in that the language also was reshaped according to western practice and reconceptualized so that the signifying process became another. However, although the language is transformed through the colonisers’ codification and translation processes, some areas are less ‘overwritten’ than others. Just as culture specific the New Testament texts are to 1st century Palestine and through the translations into Danish to 18th century Denmark, just as culture specific is the Greenlandic language to Greenland. And as the areas in question are what we today call the Middle East, Northern Europe and the Arctic, each of them have varying natures, flora and fauna. Those elements specifically connected to the Arctic, for example ice, are not in the same sense touched by the discourse of the New Testament as for example are the concepts of the gift or revenge. This paper will discuss some of the cultural issues at stake in translating the bible and the significance of the bibletranslations in Greenlandic colonial history and culture.


John 12:24
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Jeffrey B. Pettis, Fordham University

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The Art of Beholding: Song of Songs according to Lexical Recurrences within the Hebrew Text
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Jennifer Pfenniger, University of Toronto

Strategies abound as scholars attempt to penetrate Hebrew Scripture in search of readily identifiable frameworks from which meaning can unfold. Song of Songs has experienced a plethora of such attempts. External controls, such as references to other extant proto-Semitic love songs as well as internal impositions, e.g., thematically sustained allegory of relationship between God and Israel or Christ and the Church, have found little success or agreement. Any concretely objectifiable message of Song of Songs, and even its inclusion within biblical canon, has remained a mystery throughout the centuries. My own approach to Song of Song’ siren-like appeal is simple—I propose that a straightforward cataloguing and grouping of the received Hebrew vocabulary will elucidate a fruitful and evident observation of theme and motif clusters. These vocabulary-based items of information then provide tools with which to identify and unfold the book’s voices, and subsequently, characters. I maintain that concrete discernment of dialogue between characters prefigures any understandable sense of narrative movement, including theme, motivation, content, and plot. Meticulous comparison and linking of Ancient word choice to voice allows distinctive characters (along with what they represent) to emerge authentically, culminating in dialogues between vocabulary-cluster-built persons. This methodology shows promise in revealing consistency of story and plot within a notoriously disjointed and difficult text.


Investigation of Ezra 4:12 in Light of Syntax of Aramaic of Ezra
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Robert R. Phenix, Jr., Saint Louis University

The MT consonantal text of Ezra 4.12 is almost certainly corrupt in three locations. Critical attempts to explain Ezra 4.12 have argued that the main problem of this verse revolves around the seventeenth and eighteenth words, MT K šwry ’škllw, Q šwry’ šklylw, ‘the walls will be completed’ or ‘the walls have been completed.’ This expression occurs in two conditional protases in Ezra 4.13 and 4.16. These two clauses have strongly influenced the standard approaches to this problem. However, the main assumption of these standard approaches is that the verb škll means ‘completed,’ as most commentators claim. The main deficiency of these approaches is that they do not weigh correctly the occurrence of škll in Aramaic texts of the Bible and other text groups, such as the Targumim. This paper proposes to evaulate the semantic as well as syntactic problems in light of a summary of ongoing research in the syntax of the Aramaic of Ezra, and provides comparisons with the Aramaic of Daniel, with other Aramaic dialects (Imperial, Dead Sea documents, PJA and CPA, and Syriac), as well as with "late" biblical Hebrew (such as Ezra-Nehemiah, Daniel, Chronicles).


The Sermons on Joseph of Balai of Qennešrin (Early Fifth Century CE) as a Witness to the Transmission History and Interpretive Development of Joseph Traditions
Program Unit: Midrash
Robert R. Phenix, Jr., Saint Louis University

This paper argues and demonstrates that there are Jewish exegetical traditions in the Sermons on Joseph of Balai of Qennešrin. These twelve memre or verse homilies written in Syriac in the course of the fifth century C.E. recount the story of the patriarch Joseph as found in Genesis 37, 39-50. Some bear resemblance to elements of midrashic collections, for example Bereshit Rabba, especially with regard to their emphasis on the efficacy of prayer. Others reflect aspects of the interpretation of the Joseph-story that were not carried in rabbinic collections. It can be shown that some of these later elements have similarities with parallels in Jewish piyyutim. Thus far, Balai’s verse homilies on Joseph have received attention primarily with regard to their rhetorical qualities. Hardly any study has been offered that addresses the relationship of this voluminous late antique witness to the interpretation history of the story of the patriarch Joseph with any prior or contemporary Jewish traditions nor with the subsequent reworking of the Joseph-material in Islamic lore. Given this dual desideratum, this paper investigates one of the main witnesses to the transmission history of Joseph traditions in Late Antiquity. In addition it promotes awareness of and demonstrates by example the relevance of a comparative approach to these seemingly disconnected literatures of Jewish midrashim, Jewish piyyutim, and late antique Christian poetry in Syriac for the successful exploration of the transmission history of Biblical traditions.


Jesus, Anger, and Impurity: Investigating Mark 1:40–45
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Vicki Cass Phillips, West Virginia Wesleyan College

This paper investigates the reading of Mk 1:40-45 preserved in the Codex Bezae and three Old Latin manuscripts. Studying this reading is significant for several reasons. One, it raises the challenging possibility that Jesus can be angry, not compassionate, toward someone in need. The Gospel of Mark has numerous passages in which Jesus behaves in less than compassionate ways (his rebuke of his disciples; his treatment of the Syro-Phonecian woman, among others). Not only does that challenge the usual notion of Jesus as compassionate, as Bart Ehrman has observed (1997), it suggests that Jesus, and those who read this text, believe it is right to be angry with the leper for coming up to Jesus. Ehrman suggests that Jesus is angry whenever his ability to heal is doubted. I want to explore an alternative, which is that Jesus continues to uphold purity principles, as do the readers of the text. Declaring foods clean is not the same as redefining the whole of purity.


Women as Gossips and Busybodies: Another Look at 1 Timothy 5:13
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Lloyd K. Pietersen, University of Bristol

Nearly all English translations translate the phrase phluaroi kai periorgoi in 1 Tim 5:13 as “gossips and busybodies” (ESV, GNT, NAB, NIV, NKJV and NRSV, for example), and the concluding phrase lalousai ta me deonta as some variation of “saying what they should not say”. This paper revisits the suggestion by Spicq, Hanson, Kelly and others in their commentaries on this passage that the former phrase has to do with working magic and the latter with the actual formulae used. I argue that the phrase “gossips and busybodies” has, therefore, been consistently mistranslated and that the apparent misogyny of this passage has to be seen in the context of very real opposition arising from what the writer views as false teaching and magical practices within the community.


Context is King in Lexicography - Or is It?
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Albert Pietersma, University of Toronto

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Prophetess of Doom: Hermeneutical Reflections on the Huldah Oracle (2 Kings 22)
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Michael Pietsch, University of Hamburg

Since M. Noth’s work on the Deuteronomistic History in the early 1940s the redaction history of the book of Kings is discussed within this overall hypothesis. Based on the suggested exilic date of the work, scholars have characterized its theological meaning as an "aitiology of doom". F. M. Cross, suggested instead a double redaction from the time of Josiah and in exilic times. Within these theories of the redaction history of the book of Kings, the literary analysis of the narrative in 2Kgs 22-23 always played a major role. This paper offers a fresh look at the Huldah Oracle (2Kgs 22,15-20) and its literary and hermeneutical function within the narrative of the reform of king Josiah, concluding that it is a later addition to an earlier, pre-exilic version of the narrative.


Exploring the Biblical Phrase “God of the Spirits of All Flesh” (Numbers 16:22)
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Dana M. Pike, Brigham Young University

The intriguing phrase ’lhy hrht lkl-bsr, “God of the spirits of all flesh,” occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible (Numbers 16:22; 27:16). While not attested in any First Temple era Israelite inscriptions, it occurs sporadically in Second Temple period documents (and the somewhat similar “Lord of the Spirits” occurs over one hundred times in 1 Enoch). After exploring specific lexical and contextual issues pertinent to the translation and interpretation of this phrase in the Masoretic Text and ancient Versions, I briefly overview the history of commentary on it. The major question, of course, is, what should be understood by the plural noun hrh(w)t? Presuming the phrase “God of the spirits of all flesh” in the Book of Numbers presupposes a concept that the redactor and at least some ancient Israelites would have understood in a particular way, I next explore whether it is possible to understand hrh(w)t as “spirits” that at some time would inhabit a body of mortal flesh (and thus were not just angels, as in some Qumran texts). This view of pre-mortal “spirits” is attested in certain later Jewish writings, and seems to provide a simple and plausible interpretation of this biblical phrase. While the concept lying behind this interpretation is not well attested in the Hebrew Bible, I explore its internal compatibility with other biblical passages. This study concludes with an overview of the interpretation and use of the biblical phrase “God of the spirits of all flesh” in the Latter-day Saint theological tradition. Given the Latter-day Saint doctrine on the origin and existence of spirits, it is surprising that church leaders have seldom employed this phrase in major church addresses as support for church doctrine. Current, official Latter-day Saint study aids, however, do utilize Numbers 16:22 and 27:16 for doctrinal support.


Apocalyptic String Theory: Death and the End in Recent Fantasy
Program Unit:
Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College

Fantastic apocalyptic scenarios abound in recent fantasy fiction and television. I will focus on Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy as it takes the reader through parallel universes and multiple apocalyptic fantasies. Then I will compare Pullman's vision to more popular culture excursions into the End (Jericho on CBS, 24 on Fox, and the ever-mutating Left Behind series). The recent reproductions and retellings of the biblical end have ethical implications and reflect a variety of political ideologies.


The Baal Cycle as a Succession Narrative
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Wayne T. Pitard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Scholars have usually viewed the story of Baal’s rise to power in the Baal Cycle as a parallel to the narrative of the Enuma Elish, in which Marduk also becomes king of the gods. Although numerous plot elements are identical within the two myths, the overall contexts in which the two gods take power are quite different from one another. This paper will examine the implications of the fact that in the Baal Cycle, the position to which first Yamm, then Baal ascend is one that is granted to them by a superior god, El. This is in contrast to Marduk, who becomes king in a power vacuum.


Hellenistic Schools in Jerusalem and Paul's Rhetorical Education
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Andrew W. Pitts, McMaster Divinity College

Over the past fifty years, through the work of scholars like Lieberman and Hengel, it has become clear that a rigid dichotomy between Hellenistic and Palestinian Judaism can no longer be maintained. There is plenty of evidence for a wide-spread knowledge of Greek among first-century Palestinians and this would have required some form of educational mechanism. This makes the existence of elementary Hellenistic schools in Jerusalem during the time of Paul a very likely possibility. Recent treatments of Paul's education by Murphy-OConnor, Witherington, Hock, and Martin have gone further, following Hengel's suggestion that rhetorical instruction may have been available in Jerusalem as well. Hock claims that it is likely that Paul benefited from a formal rhetorical education even if Luke's statement about Paul's having studied in Jerusalem with Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) is true, for Martin Hengel has assembled considerable evidence of rhetorical schooling in Jerusalem, where Paul may well have learned rhetoric and practiced it in the Greek-speaking synagogue(s). My concern here is to consider Paul's relation to the Hellenistic educational milieu of first-century Jerusalem through an investigation of papyrological, material and literary evidence and to address directly Hengel's assertion regarding rhetorical schools within the city. A recent consensus is emerging among classists that views Greco-Roman Egypt as representative of conditions throughout much of the Hellenistic world. A number of classicists researching Hellenistic education have shown that in relation to educational practices this allows particular expectations to be formed about Hellenistic cities, such as Jerusalem, for example. I weigh these expectations against the evidence for rhetorical schools in Jerusalem provided by Hengel and conclude that while (indirectly) papyrological, material and literary evidence suggest the presence of elementary and (possibly) literary Hellenistic schools in the city, the existence of a rhetorical school in Paul's time is much more unlikely.


The Citation of Authoritative Literature in Greco-Roman Historiography and in Luke-Acts
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Andrew W. Pitts, McMaster Divinity College

Jewish hermeneutical techniques, especially midrash and pesher models, have been employed as the primary interpretive base for understanding the use and interpretation of Scripture in Luke-Acts. Neither volume, however, fits nicely into the generic categories where these Jewish methods for interpretation are typically utilized. A consensus has begun to form that understands the collection as some form (perhaps multiple forms) of ancient history. These literary considerations provide warrant for investigating how authoritative sources were cited and interpreted in Greco-Roman historiography and analysis of how ancient citation techniques among the historians compare to the Lukan strategy. The paper begins with an investigation of history and historiography in antiquity. I briefly consider several recent views on the genre of (Luke-)Acts such as apologetic history, Deuteronomistic history, political history, and so on, as well as some other literary portrayals such as biography in order to locate Luke-Acts in its appropriate literary setting. I favor Balch’s later position, reflected in a recently emerging consensus, that the line between history and biography is not easily drawn and that while Luke-Acts seems to fit broadly within the domain of ancient historical literature, further literary designations for Luke-Acts within the historical genre are not as easily maintained. I then consider the use of authoritative citations in an assortment of ancient historical and historiographic (as well as some biographical, e.g. Plutarch, P.Oxy. 1176; Suetonius) literature—Greek (e.g. Thucydides, Herodotus, Xenophon, Polybius) and (some) Jewish (e.g. Protevangelium of James, Josephus, Philo)—as a basis for comparison with the implementation and interpretation of Scripture and other ancient sources in Luke-Acts. Particular attention is given to comparing the narrative-rhetorical citation techniques of contemporary authors with that of the author of Luke-Acts and the implications that this may have for the Lukan use of sources in the formation of the collection.


Review of Frances Flannery Dailey, "Dreamers, Scribes, and Priests: Jewish Dreams in the Hellenistic and Roman Eras" (Brill, 2004)
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Catherine Playoust, Independent Scholar

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John 3:1–15
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Catherine Playoust, Cambridge, MA

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Darwin on Genesis: Rethinking Darwin's Impact on the Interpretation of the Creation Story
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
J. David Pleins, Santa Clara University

As today’s creation-evolution debate spins out of control, the opportunity arises to rethink Darwin's impact on biblical interpretation. Although fundamentalists view this impact in the negative, a re-examination of the context within which Darwin's natural selection discovery arose suggests that Darwin sought to tackle riddles about human suffering, divine action, and the meaning of our humanness that biblical interpreters had inadequately explored as they reacted against or tried to embrace modern science and biblical criticism. Curiously, many of Darwin’s categories are framed by these same biblical and theological debates, continuing to affect how many read Genesis. Focusing in particular on Darwin's notebooks, this paper re-examines the role of the 19th century debates concerning biblical interpretation and natural theology in the framing of Darwin's "grand narrative."


The Voiced Text in the Hebrew Bible: From Epic Song to Biblical Narrative and Midrashic Exegesis
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Frank Polak, Tel Aviv University

The “oral tradition” is not an indefinite ‘black box.’ The extensive use of epic formulae and traditional themes in Ugaritic epic (Ba‘al; Aqhat; with partial connections to Old Babylonian epic poetry) points to a rich tradition of oral epic poetry, which has left many traces in biblical poetry (Judg 5; Exod 15) and narrative, especially the tales of the patriarchs, and the Samuel-Saul-David cycle. The oral connections of these and other tales are underlined by the prominence of the artistically highly developed dialogue. The written text of the tale is the residue of an oral performance, and still reveals traces of the performing voice, using spoken interaction, and gestures, as a game of speaking characters. I view the oral, performed text, its norms and conventions as societal and public, rather than as a private experience. The societal nature of the text is still revealed by the public reading of the Deuteronomic covenant (Deut 31:28-29) besides its status as written text. The written canonical text is to be read weekly in public in the synagogue, and oral tradition continues in legal and narrative exegesis in the Beit Midrash.


The Scribe Makes a Blurred Copy: Ezra, Mimicry, and Imperial Discourse
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Don Polaski, College of William and Mary

Most scholars agree that Ezra-Nehemiah asserts an essential harmony between the actions of the Persian king and the will of Israel’s God. The characterization of Ezra can easily bear this out. Here is a scribe, the classic imperial bureaucrat, assigned to enforce the law of God and the law of the king (7:26), as if there were no possible contradiction between them. Ezra’s own mild-mannered nature (not a man of action of the likes of Nehemiah) underscores that he seems to have found a comfortable place in colonial discourse. He is certainly no revolutionary. This paper claims that the postcolonial notion of mimicry complicates this picture of Ezra, showing Ezra to be an active negotiator of colonial space. According to Homi Bhabha, colonial discourse desires its subjects to reproduce its values. Yet these subjects remain ambivalent regarding the colonial project, always mixing complicity with it with resistance to it. Thus their mimicry may appear as mockery; the colonial subject is a “blurred copy” of the colonizer. Such mockery threatens to destabilize the colonial project. This paper will examine several elements in the book of Ezra as possible instances of mimicry: the way Ezra 1-6 locates a space for Ezra in imperial discourse, the oddly excessive imperial letter of chapter 7, the unprotected journey from Babylon to Yehud, and Ezra’s confession of communal sin (and slavery).


Derashah as Performative Exegesis in Tosefta and Mishna
Program Unit: Midrash
Nehemia Polen, Hebrew College

The practice of derashah in the early Rabbinic (tannaitic) period did not involve the systematic application of hermeneutic rules. It was rather a mode of communion with God through sacred text. To be doresh is to enter into this state of communion. Derashah is a mode of engaging Scripture, of relating to its elements in new and revelatory ways. Derashah always happens in a social context, which includes those who are present and participating actively or passively with the darshan; the verses in play, the Torah herself; and the Divine author whose Presence hovers above the activity and peeks through the words. The process of derashah is ritualized and requires boundary formation and spatial definition. In all of Mishnah-Tosefta, the phrase "darash be …" – that is, the word 'darash' or 'dorshin' or 'dorshu'--followed by the preposition 'be' (the letter bet, in the sense of 'in' or 'with'), and with a biblical text as the object of the preposition, appears in three contexts: Tosefta Sotah 7:9; Tosefta Sanhedrin 10:5 (parallels M. Sanhedrin 7:11); and Hagigah chapter two, linked to Tosefta Megillah 4:28. We shall demonstrate that in each instance, the one who is effectively 'doresh be' reveals and activates the power of the underlying text. This sets the stage for a new understanding of the most famous instance of 'doresh be', found in Mishnah -Tosefta Hagigah chapter two, and Tosefta Megillah 4:28. My presentation will be informed by recent work on the relationship of Tosefta and Mishnah (Hauptman; Friedman) as well as scholarship on early biblical exegesis, including Qumran exegesis (Fraade; Kugel). I have read and will draw upon the recently published essay by Mayer Gruber, "The Term Midrash in Tannaitic Literature," in Rivka Ulmer, ed., Discussing Cultural Influences.


Raising the Stakes: Witchcraft on Wikipedia
Program Unit: Computer Assisted Research
Elizabeth Ann Pollard, San Diego State University

The debate over the controversial open-source database Wikipedia is widely publicized. SBL Forum has hosted articles representing a range of opinions on the usefulness, or lack thereof, of Wikipedia for biblical scholarship and teaching. In 2006 alone, over fifteen articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education debated the validity and vicissitudes of this ever-expanding website. This paper, however, goes beyond editorial to present a new pedagogical use of Wikipedia in which students raise the stakes of their traditional classroom-based learning by contributing to, or creating new, Wikipedia entries of significance for religious studies, in this case witchcraft and magic accusations (and related topics) from the Greco-Roman period through Colonial America. This paper presents the assignment itself, the rationale behind it, desired student learning outcomes, assessment approaches (both rubric- and survey-based) used to evaluate student participation, an examination of successes and failures, and samples of student contributions and their reception on Wikipedia. This paper discusses the demographics of Wikipedia and their particular relationship to the treatment of religious studies topics on the site. Finally, this paper describes how this pedagogical innovation contributes to students' development of "twenty-first century skills," including digital age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity. Students contributing their own entries to Wikipedia learn to research and write about a specific topic and to recognize the relative value of various resources for research. When such contributions are combined with student participation in the discussion feature of Wikipedia, students get a feel for high stakes scholarly discourse, learning what historiography is by participating in the construction of it. Unintended consequences include a high sense of personal achievement among students and an army of well-educated Wikipedians who continue to duel Wikitrolls in a quest to improve the scholarly quality of the entries on the site.


Ideational Metafunction of Register
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Stanley E. Porter, McMaster Divinity College

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Lexical and Semantic Reflections on Pistis
Program Unit:
Stanley Porter, McMaster Divinity College

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Grammatical, Rhetorical, and Philosophical/Theological Commentary in Middle Platonism and Early Christianity
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Carol Poster, York University

If we claim to be doing “rhetorical criticism” of the Bible, we are, in fact, engaged in producing a form of rhetorical commentary. But what makes a commentary “rhetorical?” One way to define the notion of “rhetorical commentary” is in terms of how well it conforms to some antecedent notion of “rhetoric,” whether historical or theoretical. Another way to define “rhetorical” is by locating it within a system of differences, i.e. by examining its historical relationships with the related domains of “grammatical,” “theological,” and “philosophical” commentary. In this paper, I will survey the commentary traditions of the first through third centuries C.E. in order to abstract what appear to be the distinguishing features of grammatical, rhetorical, and philosophical/theological commentary. While most recent studies of ancient commentary delimit genre grammatically (e.g. by formal characteristics), my emphasis will be rhetorical (on purpose and method). I will use the three categories of grammatical, rhetorical, and philosophical/theological to distinguish among both the subject matter and the approach of the commentaries, leading to a nine fold categorization. I will conclude by showing how this analysis of ancient types of commentary can be used to clarify the nature of our own contemporary practices of rhetorical commentary and criticism.


The Ox, the Chariot, and the Glory: Islamic and Jewish Traditions on the Golden Calf
Program Unit: Midrash
Michael Pregill, New York, NY

Traditionally, Western scholarship on the Quran has seen Quranic narrative as heavily dependent upon rabbinic Jewish precursors. Since the establishment of modern Western scholarship on the Quran in the early 19th century, the Jewish influence on Islam, particularly on the Quran and the Prophet, has been taken as axiomatic. However, the relationships between biblical narratives, the midrash, the Quran, and the tafsir (classical Islamic exegesis of the Quran) are far more complex than has been generally realized. In the specific case of the Quranic Golden Calf narrative, the midrashic traditions generally identified as the prototypes for the Quranic version of the story are in fact conspicuously late and arguably dependent upon developments in Muslim tradition and not vice versa. This specific case provides us with an opportunity to rethink scholarly assumptions about the exchange of cultural and religious influences among monotheistic communities in the late antique and early Islamic periods.


The Reception of the Israelite Credo in the Twelve
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Martin Proebstle, Seminar Schloss Bogenhofen

This paper collects and analyzes the places in the Minor Prophets in which either small or substantial parts of the Israelite credo in Exod 34:6-7 have been taken up (Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Micah 7,18-20; Nah 1:3; cp. also Amos 3,2). I identify which parts of the credo are mentioned, how they are altered, in which contexts they are found and what (literary and theological) function they play. Also the question is pursued why specific parts of the Israelite credo are left out. Finally, I attempt to show how these references to the credo, although originating from a different theological outlook, create terminological and thematic coherence within the section of Jonah-Nahum, respectively Joel-Nahum.


Mapping the Simultaneity of Randomness: Announcement and Fulfilment in the Narratives about the Omride Dynasty
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Dagmar Pruin, Humboldt University

Prophetic announcements play an important role in the narratives about the Omride dynasty. History and divine word mediated by prophets are placed in a corresponding relationship that expands the meaning of the texts. My paper investigates the function of formal elements of "announcement" and "fulfilment" within the narratives about the Omrides and will place them in the literary-historical context. Here it becomes apparent that a quick attribution of the above mentioned elements to simply one historical period does not do justice to the complex literary genesis of the text. |


Paul and Postcolonial Hermeneutics: Marginality and/in Early Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Paul and Scripture
Jeremy Punt, University of Stellenbosch

The paper explores Paul's engagement with the Scriptures of Israel from the point of view of his (sense of) marginality, which invites a postcolonial perspective on his hermeneutics. It first briefly considers the deployment of postcolonial criticism in biblical studies, followed by a consideration of the value of postcolonial theory for Paul's hermeneutical strategy towards the Scriptures of Israel in particular. Four areas where postcolonial criticism can make a particular contribution to the understanding of Pauline hermeneutics receive special attention: the importance of acknowledging the influence of ideological concerns on Paul's hermeneutical strategy; the conceptualisation and portrayal of (textual and personal) "others" in the hermeneutical enterprise; considering how hybrid notions of identity within postcolonial hermeneutics carry important consequences; and, the interplay, confluence and (contradictory yet inherent) tension between operational marginality and hermeneutics - aspects of which are also demonstrated from the Pauline epistles. The argument is concluded in seeing Paul's hermeneutical challenge informed by the tension between center and margins, and his efforts to deal with this tension constructively without allowing the one to assume or assimilate the other.


Who Translates? On Formation of a Professional Interculture in Sixteenth-Century Missionary Mexico
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Anthony Pym, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Much cross-cultural communication may be seen as governed by professional intercultures, and Bible translation is no exception. These intercultures would be structured networks and relations where people of different cultural and professional backgrounds work together. As such, professional intercultures become the effective places where translation projects are carried out. It is far from clear, however, how such intercultures might develop, and why they should vary with respect to fundamental communication strategies. Here we shall investigate the development of a specific interculture developed by missionaries in Mexico in the mid-sixteenth century, specifically with respect to the Franciscan and Dominican strategies for communicating the Biblical message. Our sociological analysis will be based on a long report that the Archbishop of Mexico sent to Felipe II of Spain in 1575. The underlying proposal will be that the constitutive principles and necessary asymmetries of such intercultures are still to be found in the translating teams of today.


Bible Translation and the Philosophy of Dialogue: Making the Text Speak to the Future
Program Unit:
Anthony Pym, Universitat Rovira i Virgili

The ‘philosophy of dialogue’ (Buber, Marcel, Levinas, Ricoeur) has been related to translation ethics in a remarkably French tradition. The general approach underscores the need to open the self to the other, making translation an intimate dialogue in which one should ‘receive the other as other’ (Berman), ‘translate the text as a person’ (Laygues), and indeed then perceive that we, as translators, are ultimately ‘others to ourselves’ (Kristeva). The underlying ethical position implicitly speaks from a position of power, inviting greater awareness of the cultural other, and presupposing that the translator is an individual located in the receiving culture, interrogating in silence a text from the past. How might this tradition be related to the ethics of Bible translation? The spiritual underpinnings are clear enough in the imagined or real presence of the other (Buber's point of departure was the intimate dialogue of prayer); the call to dialogue may be seen as openness of the self to guidance by faith. At the same time, however, the more active dialogues of contemporary Bible translation surely occur on quite different fronts, between translators, informants, and consultants, all in the present. This is quite a different frame of dialogue, based on modes of presence that are perhaps more truly interactive, more collective, and certainly less regulated by the traditional ethics of translation. One might still pray for collegial guidance, but the aims and measurements of success tend not to meet with the standing tenets of the ethics of dialogue. We will attempt to assess to what degree the traditional ethics of backward-looking individual dialogue can be complemented by an ethics of forward-looking collective dialogue. If we take the standing concepts and flip them over, to talk about the future, what happens? Some priorities can be retained: we translate voices and intentions, not linguistic artifacts; we privilege long-term relations, not short-term gains, and we construct identities through negotiated difference, not superficial sameness. However, the specific values of this second frame, we suggest, must also meet up with humanistic priorities of promoting the long-term well-being of the receiving languages and cultures.


Conversations with Donkeys: Stubborn Sexuality and Unexpected Speech
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Hugh S. Pyper, University of Sheffield

'One does not say foolish things to a donkey' writes Helene Cixous in her essay 'Conversation with the donkey', alluding to the donkey which accompanied Abraham. In this paper, I propose to follow her suggestion in this paper and stage a number of conversations with biblical donkeys. After all, Balaam's ass is the only animal which carries out a conversation in the biblical corpus, apart from the serpent. The donkey carries a confusing range of symbolic freight. Discussing his film Au Hasard Balthazar, where a donkey is the main character, Robert Bresson points out that the donkey is not only a symbol of patience and submissiveness, but also an important sexual symbol. On the other hand it is also the symbol of stubbornness. The donkey often literally carries the biblical story, but it also brings an element of wilfulness to the biblical narrative connected with the untamableness of sexuality. Cixous uses the donkey to reflect on her writing, and in this paper, the interaction between human and donkey will be used to reflect on aspects of biblical narrative.


Defining Proficiency in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Jennifer Quast, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion

Assessment of language proficiency begins with the end in mind. Therefore, any assessment tool must have a clear sense of the goals to be achieved. In a recent survey, more than 90% of students and professors of Biblical Hebrew (BH) in Christian colleges and seminaries said that the most important reason for studying BH was to understand and/or interpret the original text of the Hebrew Bible. This presentation will suggest some standards for BH proficiency, specifically as they relate to reading comprehension and interpretation skills. These standards will then be compared to the “Five C’s” of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning, developed by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages): Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities.


"I Will Give Authority over the Nations": Psalm 2:8–9 in Revelatiom 2:26c–27
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Tze-Ming Quek, University of Cambridge

In the letter to the church in Thyatira, the “Son of God” promises to “everyone who conquers” the eschatological reward of sharing in the messianic kingdom (Rev 2.26c-27). This reward is rendered in a paraphrase of Ps 2.8-9. Commentators have long been occupied with the related questions of: 1) whether the exousia given to the “one who conquers” connotes “authority” to rule or “power” to destroy the nations; and 2) the relationship between the MT, LXX and the paraphrase in Rev 2.27. What seems to have generated little discussion is the rather startling application of Ps 2.8-9 to a corporate body – “everyone who conquers.” While it is true that the OT envisages that the saints would share in the rule of a messianic kingdom (Ps 149.5-9; Isa 60.14), what is happening in Rev 2.26c-27 is slightly different. Ps 2.8-9 was interpreted messianically in the first century (Pss. Sol. 17.24-25), and Ps 2.7 was widely construed as a messianic text in early Christianity (Matt 3.16-17 par.; Acts 13.33-35; Heb 1.5; 5.5) and perhaps Qumran (1QSa 2.11-12); i.e., they referred to an individual eschatological Davidide. Here in Rev 2.26c-27, Ps 2.8-9 is given a corporate application (cf. Midr. Ps 2.9). This paper attempts to account for this by comparing Rev 2.26c-27 with 4QFlor 1.18-21, where a pesher to Ps 2.1-2 interprets the singular “anointed” of Ps 2.2 as the plural “Chosen ones of Israel.” From readings of: a) royal ideology as expressed in Ps 2 and 2 Sam 7.10-14; b) the context of 4QFlor; and c) 4Q252; I will argue that the best explanation for this oscillation between the singular and the plural for both 4QFlor and Rev 2.26c-27 is not “corporate personality,” but an understanding of the Davidic covenant as a basis for corporate protection and security.


Puzzling over Prophetic Poetry: Isaiah 18
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Paul R. Raabe, Concordia Seminary

The interpretation of Isaiah 18 is much disputed and rightly so. Its poetry well illustrates the interpretive challenges that confront a reader of prophetic poetry. To what extent do the lines cohere with each other? How should the reader fill in the gaps between lines? How does one determine the referent of a given image? What is the interplay between the philological details and the interpretation of the whole? What role does the reader's imagination play in the interpretive process? The paper will reflect on these methodological issues by interacting with different interpretations of Isaiah 18.


Hear this Word that I Take up over You in Lamentation (Amos 5:1): Lamentation Themes in the Book of Amos
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Jason Radine, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

In this paper I will propose a much broader presence of lamentation themes in Amos than generally seen, and make some suggestions about how those themes can significantly alter previous understandings fo the book.


Curbing Phantasm: The Bible Moralisée
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Eva Maria Raepple, College of DuPage

The paper investigates the intricate word-image matrix between illustrated medallions, scripture, and commentary in one of the few examples of the Bible Moralisée. In the codex Vindebonensis 2554, each visualized biblical scene is paired with commentary images, arranged to depict a moralizing typology of the contemporary medieval life. Biblical text and commentary do not only supplement the visual exegesis but show an attempt to curb the potential of ambiguity in imagery. The matrix of textual visuality suggests equivalence between word and image. Yet as argued by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his work Phenomenology of Perception (2002, 2005), visible discourse is inconceivable outside from a human being who perceives. Life itself is the interlocutor between things or images and the human being. The allocation of truth in iconography is always already perceived through the lens of human existence. In consequence, the potential to evoke imaginative responses poses a risk to systematized theological teachings and textual exegesis. The paper argues that the moralized Bible provides an extraordinary example of a visual interpretation that limits ambiguity in imagery, consequently restraining imaginative responses. Instead, the complex exegesis facilitates a spatially systematized order that was thought to imprint a moral code for life on the memory of the medieval mind. While the overall work consists of 67 folios, in this paper only folio 2r will be discussed, an exegesis of Genesis 2:24-3:24. The story of the Fall carries an influential legacy regarding the disobedience of the human being against God. Folio 2r therefore offers a representative exemplar for a work that utilizes aesthetic qualities of the medieval image to communicate a moral code via magnificent beauty.


Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Illness: Rufus of Ephesus' De Melancholia and the New Testament
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen

Even though Rufus of Ephesus was one of the most prominent physicians of the 1st century CE, little is known of his life and works. This paper presents the general outline of his important treatise On melancholy, of which only Greek, Latin and Arabic fragments are preserved. Rufus’ essay discusses aetiology and diagnosis as well as therapy and medication of an illness which he describes in physical (humours), but also in spiritual and mental terms. He even links melancholy to intellectual and prophetic capacities. In conclusion, the paper will consider whether Rufus' concept of melancholy can be related to concepts of illness and/or inspiration in early Christian literature.


Redefining Ancient Hebrew
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Anson F. Rainey, Tel Aviv University

Conventional wisdom has classified Hebrew as a "Canaanite dialect." This concept must be challenged in the light of several differences between Hebrew and Phoenician (the Canaanite language par excellance) and similarities to TRansjordanian languages such as Moabite and Old South Aramaic (Deir Alla, Tel Dan, Zakkur). The basic features that define ancient Hebrew as a Transjordanian language are: consonantal structure, narrative prefix preterite, the verb "to be," the verb "to do, make," the relatie pronoun and other features. The redefinition of Hebrew as a Transjordanian language has a direct bearing on the ethnic and cultural definition of the newly arrived settlers in the hilly areas of the southern Levant in the twelfth-eleventh centuries BCE.


1 Esdras in the Hands of Josephus
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Tessa Rajak, University of Reading and Yale University

I begin with a review of the possible reasons for Josephus' incorporation of 1st Esdras in his Antiquities of the Jews, asking whether this is an authorial choice or whether other Greek versions are likely simply to have been unavailable to him. He clearly knew Ezra-Nehemiah traditions, but it is less clear in what language he had these. This is followed by a study of Josephus' adaptation of the book to his own purposes. 1) How is I Esdras integrated into Josephus' narrative? 2) The question of style: given the book's relatively sophisticated Greek literary character, this is an interesting test case for assessing Josephus' priorities in his 'rewritten Bible'. 3) Intepretive changes in Josephus. 4) Josephus as historian: his attempted solutions to the complex chronological problems presented by I Esdras and Ezra-Nehemiah, and the interweaving of material from the latter. I conclude with a hard-headed consideration of the potential gains for 1st Esdras scholarship of close study of the Josephan version.


Roman Stoicism and Household: Hierocles, Musonius, and the Christians
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Ilaria Ramelli, Catholic University of Milan

In this paper I would like to investigate the household theme in Roman Stoicism, especially in Hierocles and Musonius Rufus. I shall explore its relationship with the Stoic theory of oikeiosis, and clarify the development of the household conception in Neostoicism as compared to previous views [also briefly discussing G. Reydams-Schils' rich study on the Roman Stoics]. A glance will be cast, in this connection, at the high appreciation of Musonius' ethical thought on the part of early Christian authors, particularly Clement of Alexandria, who deeply admired his ethical thoughts concerning family.


Religious Experience “In Christ”: A Modest Pauline Appraisal
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Rollin Ramsaran, Emmanuel School of Religion

I seek to evaluate the Pauline idea of “in Christ” (and the related ideas of "Christ in /lives in /be formed in" a person). Does “in Christ” predominately indicate an individual mystical religious experience or a shared social religious experience, or both? After a very brief survey and discussion of the issues, I use Paul’s letter to the Galatians as a test case with particular attention to the sections containing Gal 2:4 (in Christ); 2:20 (Christ lives in); 4:19 (Christ formed in); and 5:6 (in Christ).


A Place at the End: Disability in Prophetic and Apocalyptic Eschatology
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Rebecca Raphael, Texas State University-San Marcos

The paper examines the role of disabled figures and tropes in major passages of earlier prophetic and Second Temple literature (emphasis on the latter), in order to determine if there is a shift in the representation of disability that fits with the overall differences between the types of eschatology. For the Second Temple literature, this investigation demands expansion of the category to "anomalous bodies," to include the monsters prominent in apocalyptic literature; the question then arises whether the monsters and the disabled figures are functioning in significantly similar ways. My tentative conclusions are that anomalous bodies of both types function as instantiations of metaphysical evil within the dualistic worldview of apocalypses precisely because these bodies transgress categories of "right" bodies. This metaphysical transgression goes beyond the prophetic association of disability with sin and injustice.


Whoring after Cripples: On the Intersection of Gender and Disability Imagery in Jeremiah
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Rebecca Raphael, Texas State University-San Marcos

This paper is for the panel Gender, Sexuality and the Body: The Transformation of Feminist Biblical Studies


Gnostic Authorship for the Anonymous Parmenides Commentary?
Program Unit: Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic, and Patristic Reception
Tuomas Rasimus, University Of Helsinki, Université Laval

This paper discusses the possibility that the anonymous Parmenides commentary may have been composed by Sethian/Classic Gnostics before they were rejected in Plotinus’ seminars. The commentary’s doctrine of the prefiguration of the Second One in the First One arguably finds its closest parallel in the Sethian doctrine (esp. Zostrianos and Allogenes) of the Triple-Powered One. Of the Platonizing Sethian treatises where this doctrine occurs, Zostrianos appears to be the earliest. But Zostrianos also seems to belong to a somewhat late phase in the debate between the Gnostics and Plotinus’ circle, in that it was likely written as a justification for already rejected ideas: the text appeals to Zostrianos, who was associated with Er, an influence to Plato himself. Thus the text in fact bypasses Plato’s authority in favour of a more ancient one. Such a shift must have been necessitated by harsh criticism from Plotinus and his associates concerning the correct interpretation of Plato’s ideas (including Parmenides) and his authority (cf. VitPlot16). If Zostrianos therefore served as a secondary justification, then earlier Gnostic formulations of the ideas it contains, likely also those concerning the Triple-Powered One, must have existed prior to the composition of that text. Could they be identical with what we find in the Parmenides commentary, whose close Gnostic parallels and Gnostic adaptation at least are clearly attested? By analogy, just like the Valentinians first offered easily acceptable teaching to possible new recruits and only later revealed the full framework of Valentinian mythology, it seems feasible that advocates of Classic Gnosticism also, after having been rejected by most Christians and Jews, and in seeking refuge in Platonic circles, first discussed ideas that were easier to accept, namely, their Parmenides commentaries, and only later offered the full Gnostic framework which was then, however, rejected.


The qatal in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Cristian Rata, Torth Trinity, Seoul, South Korea

This paper will discuss the qatal in the Book of Job. After analyzing all 506 qatals in the book of Job (38% of all finite verbs), my findings support the thesis that the verbal system in this book is primarily aspectual. The qatal (like the short yiqtol) expresses perfectivity, while the time is determined from the context – by analyzing the logic of the situation. Thus, the qatal is marked for aspect and it is used in the Book of Job to express the past, the present, and the future. Position in the sentence does not seem to be relevant, but the type of clause is relevant for certain usages. The evidence also shows that in certain contexts (usually in conditional or interrogational clauses and in clauses introduced by certain prepositions) a modal usage for the qatal is possible. The qatal can be used to introduce irreal hypothetical situations with modal nuances. The tendency for modal usage is more pronounced in cases where the qatal is preceded by waw. In most of these cases the preceding clause has a yiqtol as the governing verb. The weqatal is a subcategory of the perfective qatal.


“For...For...For...”: A Convergence of Relevance Theory, Functional Grammar, and History of Interpretation against Romans 1:16–17 as Letter Thesis
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Mark Reasoner, Bethel University

An examination of the function of gar in Romans through the lenses of relevance theory, functional grammar and markedness theory shows that Romans 1:16-17 does not function as the thesis of Romans. Works such as Diane Blakemore’s Semantic Contraints on Relevance (1987) and her Relevance and Linguistic Meaning: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse Markers (2002), when considered alongside S. R. Slings’ article “Adversative Relators” in A. Rijksbaron’s edited volume, New Approaches to Greek Particles (1997), highlight how the gar phrases in Romans introduce lower, explanatory levels of discourse. When these insights are combined with a consideration of pre-Luther interpretations of Romans, one can understand why no one considered Romans 1:16-17 the thesis of the letter before the 16th century. Luther’s discovery of Romans 1:16-17 and the solidification of these verses as the letter’s thesis in Melanchthon’s commentaries are critically examined on the way to offering another text in Romans that accounts better for the argument of the letter as a whole and fits better with what relevance theory and functional grammar would identify as the thesis of Romans.


True Testimony: Gnostic Martyrdom and Competing Christian Identities
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Pamela Mullins Reaves, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This paper examines perspectives on martyrdom in early Gnostic literature and traditions, particularly in relation to emerging and competing early Christian identities. Within the texts considered, propositions about true martyrdom coincide with descriptions of false martyrdom; these claims reinforce early Christian identity by crafting ‘others’ who require exclusion. The Testimony of Truth (NHC IX, 3), for instance, offers a scathing critique of death at the hands of persecutors—an act other, ‘foolish,’ Christians both celebrate and consider central to Christian identity. In doing so, the Testimony of Truth promotes an alternative view of martyrdom, one that challenges the need to suffer. To further inform an understanding of such intra-Christian disputes regarding martyrdom, this paper employs concepts of social identity theory. For certain Gnostic Christian traditions, I posit that individual Christian identity is primary and the larger group association is secondary. I will argue that these particular early Christian traditions prioritize independent and individual progress toward salvation, which minimizes the reliance on external, group-oriented demonstrations of faith, including physical martyrdom.


The Construction and Subversion of Patriarchal Perfection
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Annette Yoshiko Reed, McMaster University

Scholars have often noted the Hellenistic Jewish elevation of biblical heroes as ethical exemplars and as embodiments of specific ideas about Jewish identity. Focusing on the figure of Abraham, this paper will explore the dynamics of this process--as well as its limits. I will begin by considering how authors such as Josephus and Philo downplayed the biblical references to the shortcomings of Abraham and other patriarchs to elevate them into ideals comprehensible in Hellenistic terms. I will then turn to an intriguing example of the subversion of this tradition, namely, the Testament of Abraham. In this text, assertions of Abraham's perfection stand in a striking tension with narrative descriptions of his shortcomings (e.g. resistence of God's will; judgemental condemnation of others). Just as this text satirizes the genre of the testament, so its depiction of Abraham may offer a critique of the elevation of this patriarch to the status of an ideal model perfect beyond the capacity of emulation.


Romanizing Galilee: Marble, Identity, and Domestic Space
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Jonathan L. Reed, University of La Verne

The extent of Hellenistic and Roman influences on Jewish Galilee has been a much-debated question in scholarship on the historical Jesus and Second Temple Judaism, and archaeology has played a leading role. Excavations, surveys, and ceramic studies have been used to trace Galilee’s borders by delineating Jewish from pagan sites, and the archaeology of Sepphoris and Tiberias has shown the selective adoption of Hellenistic and Roman urban architectural features beginning with Herod Antipas. Several items in Early Roman domestic space, like stone vessels and ritual baths, differentiate the Galileans from surrounding Gentile, and they can even be construed as resistance to Hellenization and Romanization. At the same time, some houses in Sepphoris and Tiberias, as well as Yodefat and Gamla, show a selective adoption of stylistic features of the Roman house, such as mosaic floors, frescoed walls, and interior columns. Apparently, wealthy Jews in the Galilean cities no less than elsewhere sought to identify themselves with the emerging Roman urban elite across the Mediterranean after Augustus. This paper will examine the extent to which marble and faux marble fresco can serve as an indicator of the Romanization of Galilee, especially in light of their use in Herodian Palestine and the wider eastern Mediterranean.


Physical and Visual Features of Dead Sea Scroll Scriptural Texts
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Stephen Reed, Jamestown College

Thousands of fragments have been found near the Dead Sea which provide information concerning scriptural texts used in second temple Judaism. Most attention has been given to the text critical features of such fragments which focus upon the contents of such scriptural forms. Less attention has been given to the physical and visual characteristics of these texts. Emanuel Tov has assembled much information about the physical features of these texts and much of his work is found in his substantive work Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert. While Tov uses this data to provide insights concerning how scribes produced these texts and the forms of the scriptural texts used at that time, he has given less attention to how the physical features of these texts provide information relevant to the usages and functions of particular texts. My interest in this paper is to investigate how the physical features of the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls help us better understand the various usages and functions of scriptural texts in second temple Judaism. Of particular interest to me are the various excerpted and abbreviated texts including tefillin and phylacteries which were written for particular purposes different than "regular" or "continuous" scriptural texts found on scrolls. In this paper I would like to compare physical features of "regular" scriptural texts to these shorter excerpted and abbreviated texts and suggest how these differences help us better understand how scriptural texts were used.


Vindicating Womankind: Aemilia Lanyer’s Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Caryn A. Reeder, University of Cambridge

This paper examines Aemilia Lanyer’s exegesis of the passion of Christ in Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (published 1611), particularly focusing on the parallel she draws between Genesis 3 and Matthew 27. Through this comparison, Lanyer acquits womankind of original sin, instead denouncing mankind (represented by Pilate) as more sinful. Lanyer further contrasts the weak men involved in the passion story with the ‘vertuous Ladies’ of her acquaintance, including the Countess of Cumberland and her circle of educated women. The intertextual links between the passion poem and the introductory dedications reveal a vision for the transformation of society, a vision made possible by Lanyer’s novel interpretation of scripture.


Narrative Method and the Second Epistle of Peter
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Ruth Anne Reese, Asbury Theological Seminary

The study of narrative has a long history that begins with Aristotle and continues into the present. This method often focuses on such elements as plot, character, and setting and as such has been generally applied in the discipline of biblical studies to traditionally narrative texts such as the gospels. This paper will give a brief overview of the narrative method with special attention to the way in which letters are a piece of a larger narrative world and invite their audiences to participate in that narrative. This paper will then apply the narrative method to the Second Epistle of Peter. We will examine the narrative world of 2 Peter (plot, characters, and setting) along with the narrative voice of the author. Since 2 Peter is a real (rather than fictional) letter, such an analysis will highlight the narrative world of 2 Peter and then connect it with the Greco-Roman world in which it was written. This analysis will point out that the readers of the epistle have a choice of narrative worlds in which to participate and that the narrative world of the epistle is structured in such a way as to invite the audience into deeper participation in one particular iteration of the Christian narrative.


Divine Ritualizing and the Transformation of Paul in Acts 9
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Teresa L. Reeve, Andrews University

The narrator’s account of Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:1-20 is particularly rich in detail characteristic of rites of passage recorded elsewhere in Luke-Acts and in Greco-Roman narrative. This paper will examine the account from the standpoint of ritual studies to consider the validity of such an approach and what it can tell us about the narrator’s presentation of this event and its significance in the work of Luke-Acts as a whole.


Sectarianism in Qumran: A Comparative Approach
Program Unit: Qumran
Eyal Regev, Bar-Ilan University

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are regarded as representing a sect. In order to understand the society and religion of its members, the sectarian character of the groups behind the Community Rule, the Damascus Document, etc. should be studied in light of social-scientific models of sectarianism, which would clarify what a sect is and what type of sectarianism is reflected in the scrolls. These theories and models, however, present only a general characterization of sectarianism. In my Sectarianism in Qumran: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007) I have attempted to illuminate the laws, practices, rituals and belief-system of the yahad and the Damascus Covenant by comparing them to early-modern sects: the early Anabaptists, Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, Puritans, Quakers and Shakers, while discussing social boundaries, atonement, revelation, social organization, gender, attitudes towards wealth and mysticism. I have found a series of similarities and differences among all these sects which are related to their social character. Differences between the yahad and the Damascus Covenant were particularly significant. Many Qumranic phenomena that had been previously regarded as peculiar or strange, may be now explained in light of their parallels in the other sects. My paper will discuss the method of comparison and analysis and provide several examples of the fruits of such comparisons.


Imaging the Anointing in Mark 14:3–9
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Carrie Rehak, St. Mary's College of California

Not only my study in the field of art and religion, but also my work as a devotional and liturgical artist, prompt the questions I address in this paper. Commissioned recently to paint an image of the anointing of Jesus in Mark 14, I am led to ask: Who is this unnamed woman? Why does she anoint Jesus? Do depictions of the anointing exist, as it is described in this passage? Jesus says explicitly that “wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her” (14.9). Why then do we seem to have lost our collective memory of her identity and what she has done? Finally, how will I render this woman and her act? I pursue these questions by bringing Bakhtin’s understanding of “authoring” to a notion of “imaging” in an examination of representations associated with the anointing described in Mark 14:3-9.


The Politicis of Sacredness: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Narrative of "Inherent Human Dignity"
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Jenna Reinbold, Colgate University

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Reading History in the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Adele Reinhartz, University of Ottawa

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Unspeakable Names: Solomon's Tax Collectors
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Pamela Tamarkin Reis, Branford, CT

This paper deals with a lacuna in 1 Kings 4:7-20 that has excited much scholarly discussion. The names of five of Solomon’s twelve tax collectors are missing and only their father’s names are provided. In recent times, this omission has been explained variously — by stipulating that a scribe copied from a torn document (1925), by comparison to a since-exploded understanding of Ugaritic record-keeping (1950), by suggesting a biblically-unattested theory of patronymic nicknames (1990), and by relying on garbled oral transmission or a non-authorial censor (1995). I argue against these solutions and demonstrate that by listing only their father’s names, the biblical author censures these five and consigns them to oblivion. One need not resort to torn documents, Ugaritic records, and extrabiblical nicknames, nor is a non-authorial censor necessary. The Bible itself testifies; the suppression of the tax collectors’ names accords with other debasing effacements throughout the Hebrew Bible, each communicated by the tell-tale formula of namelessness combined with “son of X.” My analysis clarifies the discourtesy of identifying any man by his father’s name and not his own, whether in direct speech or in exposition, for I show that when the proper name is absent and the patronymic present, the individual’s identity is not only suppressed, it is maligned. Repudiation of the errant tax collectors also makes narrative sense, furthering the unfolding disclosure of Solomon’s avaricious rule. This interpretation solves two long-standing problems. It explains the absence of the five tax collectors' proper names and provides a rationale illustrating why it is invidious to omit any individual’s name and identify him only as son of X.


Performing Theory and Theorizing Performance: A Contextual Look at Performance Studies across the Disciplines
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, Miami University of Ohio

A discussion of the field of performance studies, providing a framework for the ways in which various scholars of the humanities conceptualize ritual, literature, and other significant social phenomenon outside the traditional theatre as performative.


Satan, Temptation, and the Fall
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
R. R. Reno, Creighton University

Modern biblical scholarship rejects as mythological and unwarranted traditional interpretations of Gen 3 that treat the serpent as a form of Satan and read Adam and Eve’s transgression as the original sin. Theological analysis shows that traditional interpretations arise out of logical pressures and intra-scriptural cues that must constrain and guide any cogent Christian reading of Gen 3. Tracing this analysis in some detail illuminates the criteria for a textually grounded, theologically sophisticated approach to scriptural exegesis.


Is "History" History?
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
David Rensberger, Interdenominational Theological Center

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Canaanite Cultic Law and Its Yahwistic Repainting in Leviticus 1–16, Shown by a Close Reading of the Chapter Leviticus 1
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Henning Graf Reventlow, University of the Ruhr

The understanding of the Pentateuch is mostly guided by the pre-supposition that its structure and contents are based on narrative foundations. This view, fails to be convincing in the Book Leviticus. Here narratives are virtually lacking. Instead one meets with rituals and cultic prescriptions. The paper wants to show, with a close reading of Lev 1, that the basis of biblical cultic law is pre-Yahwistic, only superficially repainted by introductions and short additions that add the names of Mose, Aaron with his sons and contain references to YHWH-belief.


Performance Criticism in Classics: Past, Present, and Future
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Martin Revermann, University of Toronto

This paper attempts to situate, in broad terms, the state of performative approaches to literature (notably drama) within the field of Greek literature. While the performative nature of (early) epic, “lyric” and dramatic literature has been acknowledged in principle within the discipline for a long time, studies which seriously and systematically applied a performance-oriented mind-set to the material did not start to materialize until the 1960s, with major impulses coming from Shakespearean scholarship and French structuralism. A certain textual and, ultimately, formalist bias persisted, and only recent years have seen the integration of more flexible methodologies (especially of semiotic and sociological nature) as developed above all in the (young) cognate discipline of Theatre Studies. A rather final portion of the paper will outline promising avenues for advancing this field of study within the discipline.


Plato's Parmenides among Greek Church Fathers: The Meaning of a Lack
Program Unit: Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic, and Patristic Reception
Jean Reynard , Institut des Sources Chrétiennes

This paper will focus on the meaning of the lack of Parmenides references among the Greek Church Fathers at the end of the fourth century. It's clear that it's difficult to find a clear use of this dialogue in their writings. Is it possible to consider this attitude as a mistrust towards Neoplatonic philosophers?


The "One Like a Son of Man" in the Old Greek of Daniel 7:13–14
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Benjamin Reynolds, University of Aberdeen

Examinations of the ‘one like a son of man’ in Daniel 7:13-14 usually focus on the Aramaic text of Daniel 7 and make reference to the Old Greek (OG) and/or Theodotion whenever there is a divergence. In contrast, this study is an attempt to examine the identity and characteristics of the ‘one like a son of man’ according to the OG translation. The portrait that appears from the OG indicates that the son of man figure is similar to the Ancient of Days without being identified with him and that the son of man figure has messianic characteristics. I offer four points as evidence of the son of man figure’s similarity with the Ancient of Days. (1) The son of man’s arrival is like the Ancient of Days. (2) He arrives on the clouds of heaven. (3) The son of man figure in the OG receives service that suggests cultic worship, and (4) those standing before the Ancient of Days approach the ‘one like a son of man’ and appear to stand before him. With regard to the messianic character of the figure, there are three arguments. (1) The ‘one like a son of man’ receives kingly authority. (2) He receives an eternal kingdom, and (3) a distinction is made between the ‘one like a son of man’ and the holy ones of the Most High. Thus, the ‘one like a son of man’ is interpreted less ambiguously in the OG than in Aramaic Daniel, and this interpretation suggests a possible link with the interpretations of this figure in later Jewish apocalyptic literature, such as the Similitudes of Enoch and 4 Ezra.


4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C and the Problem of Genre
Program Unit: Qumran
Bennie H. Reynolds III, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Many of the texts discovered at Qumran challenge established conceptions of genre in Ancient Israelite/Early Jewish literature. For example, 4QPseudo-Daniela-b ar and 4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C are both specimens of revelatory literature that defy easy classification with conventional types such as prophecies and apocalypses. While poor manuscript preservation is partially to blame, the texts’ form and content present the main issues. The situation is further complicated to the extent that some classical research methodologies, such as form criticism, are in a state of flux (or even limbo). This paper investigates the genre of 4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C not simply to classify the text but to partially map some boundaries of the socio-cultural “encyclopedia” its writer and readers would have possessed. I apply an incarnation of form criticism that takes into account recent achievements in genre theory: the generic-analytical approach. I give special attention to the text’s representation techniques and argue that its value for understanding the shape and evolution of the genre apocalypse in the Hellenistic period has been significantly underestimated.


Symbolism and Realism in the Book of Daniel
Program Unit: Semiotics and Exegesis
Bennie H. Reynolds III, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Since Friedrich Lücke’s ground-breaking study of early Jewish apocalypses in 1852, most interpreters have maintained that symbolism or symbolic language is a basic feature of all apocalypses. Surprisingly, experts in Bible and Early Judaism have rarely attempted to square their conceptions of “symbol” with those developed by leading semioticians. Some interpreters have specifically dismissed conceptions of “symbol” pioneered by A.S. Pierce as useless in literary applications. In this paper I use the Book of Daniel as a test case to apply semiotic theory. I contrast conventional understandings of the symbolic language of apocalypses with the symbol theories of Eco and Sebok.


Introduction
Program Unit:
Kent Richards, Society of Biblical Literature

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Schleiermacher and Romans
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Kurt Richardson, McMaster University

As a Protestant theologian of the early 19th Century, Friedrich Schleiermacher inherited a tradition of Pauline reception that he would reformulate through his hermeneutical, exegetical and dogmatic works. This paper identifies several turning points in Schleiermacher's reading of Romans from "On Religion," "The Christian Faith," and "Hermeneutics," and offers a set of observations for continuing critical and constructive engagement.


The Theo-politics of Nomos (Toward a Sapiential Legality)
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Patrick Riches, University of Nottingham

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“Lazarus and the Rich Man”: The Economics of (Mis)Reading a Parable
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Matthew S. Rindge, Emory University

Chrysostom, Erasmus, Luther and Calvin employ similar reading strategies in their interpretations of the parable, “Lazarus and the Rich Man” (Luke 16:19-31). Each interpreter amplifies the biblical text by attributing devious traits to the rich man and saintly characteristics to Lazarus. This paper explores the potential effects of this interpretive practice, arguing that these interpreters counteract the parable’s own rhetorical aims. In particular, I maintain that 1) the traits attributed to the rich man dehumanize him, thereby decreasing the likelihood that readers/hearers will identify with him; 2) the characteristics ascribed to Lazarus romanticize his poverty and suffering; and 3) the description of both these internal attributes diminishes the parable’s explicit focus on the economic status of Lazarus and the rich man. The net effect of these reading practices contravenes potential emphases of the parable whereby readers/hearers are invited to identify with the rich man; empathize with the suffering of Lazarus; and share their own resources with the poor.


Oppression and (Limited) Liberation: Constructing a Dialogue between Exodus and Paul Thomas Anderson’s "Magnolia"
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Matthew S. Rindge, Emory University

Drawing on the methods of Robert K. Johnston and George Aichele, this paper places the Exodus narrative into a mutually-critical dialogue with Paul Thomas Anderson’s film "Magnolia" (1999). Such a dialogue is warranted by the ubiquitous references to Exodus 8:2 throughout "Magnolia" and the (apparently anomalous) reign of frogs near the end of the film. Though I attend to ways in which knowledge of the Exodus narrative enriches one’s viewing of the film, the paper focuses upon how the film offers fruitful interpretive lenses for explicating Exodus. In light of the film, the Exodus narrative appears not as a story of liberation from bondage but rather as a transition from one oppressive system (under Pharaoh) to another (under Moses).


Nehemiah 5 and the Economic Conditions in Yehud
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Ken Ristau, Pennsylvania State University

Nehemiah 5:1-5 recounts a series of complaints, largely economic in nature, from the people under Nehemiah’s authority. The people complain that they are unable to provide food for their children; must pledge their fields, vineyards, and houses to get grain; need to borrow money, using their fields and vineyards as security, in order to pay the king’s tax; and, have lost their children and property to others. These complaints point to specific economic conditions and transactions that ancient Near Eastern sources, such as the texts in the Murašû archive or among the Elephantine papyri, can help to elucidate. In this paper, I will contextualize these complaints in light of those sources in order to define the types of agricultural and economic activities which they apparently presuppose and also relate those activities to the local, regional, and imperial economies. To the extent it is feasible within this paper, I also intend to relate this text-centered study of the economic situation in Yehud to material and archaeological evidence, or at least consider the potential for material and archaeological evidence to shed further light on this topic.


Note the Silence: Reading Psalm 137 through Messiaen and Bak
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Charles Rix, Drew University

The music of Psalm 137 has been silenced. Instruments have been put down in the wake of exile and human suffering. Mellifluous melodies evoking memories of a homeland have been rendered mute. Yet, Psalm 137 invites us to "note the silence". Following Mozart's insight that silence is the most important effect in music the Psalmist's silent instruments prompt us to consider whether or not the power of music to evoke both beauty and memory has been trumped by uncontainable human suffering. How can the instruments silenced by injustice and inhumanity be picked up and played again? To explore this question, I propose a reading of Psalm 137 through a hermeneutical lens constructed through the artistic languages of composer Oliver Messiaen and post-holocaust painter Samuel Bak. Specifically, I will combine the phenomenological principles of Messiaen's musical language in his holocaust work "Quartet for the End of Time" composed while imprisoned in Stalag VII, with the artistic language of Samuel Bak in his series of paintings portraying players in a string quartet set against a backdrop of a world shattered by the exile of the holocaust. I suggest the work of Bak and Messiaen provides a unique hermeneutical lens for observing how the musical silence "between the verses" in Psalm 137 performs as a space to resist to evil and imagine a future hope. Through the atonality of Messiaen's music and Samuel Bak's questions of "repairing the irreparable", we become participants in bodies of pain petitioning the Eternal to ease the pain of dislocation. Yet, as we "note the silence" in Psalm 137, we are invited to re-imagine picking up an instrument once again, albeit in a new and different world where the collective creativity of the human spirit will ultimately not bow to the threat of annihilation.


Moses and YHWH: Suffering Faces of a Text in Pain
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Charles Rix, Drew University

Exodus 32-34 is a text whose face writhes in pain. As YHWH engraves “Thou Shall Not Kill” on covenant tablets of stone, the faces of both the narrative and its characters are simultaneously engraved with murder, abandonment, rage, betrayal, loneliness, and fear. The text overflows with a pained knowledge of Moses’ relationship with YHWH in the covenant-making process, faltering even as it crests, to present us with a character uniquely privileged to see the glory YHWH, but from the back side. The narrative collapses under its own ideological weight, leading us elsewhere, into darker spaces, where a more ambiguous and problematic ethic is being worked out between YHWH Moses, Aaron, and the people. Through refracting Moses “face to face” turned “back to face” relationship with YHWH (33:11,20) through the phenomenology of Emmanuel Levinas, my paper suggests how we responsibly make meaning of a pained relationship which, on one level, lifts up a special covenant-mediating human-divine relationship between Moses and YHWH, and yet at the same time, overflow in excessively complicated intersubjective dynamics. In so doing, my paper provides of model for reading for the “face” instead of the “figure”, transcending the detachment of traditional critical approaches, and one which draws us in as reader-subjects into the suffering of all characters involved in text. My reading significantly complicates commonplace historical-critical explanations of the factures in characterization of Moses and YHWH’s relationship in Exodus 33 and subverts notions of ethics in the Hebrew Bible being defined by the imitation of God and other paradigmatic approaches. My presentation which will integrate the art of post-Holocaust artist Samuel Bak as a means of foregrounding suffering provides a means whereby Instead we as both listener/hearer/reader-subjects are drawn into the pain of ambiguity and limitations inherent in the working out of intersubjective responsibilities to the Other.


The Gospel of Luke
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Vernon K. Robbins, Emory University

Socio-rhetorical interpretation, weaving discoveries from cognitive science, conceptual blending, and the identification of traditional modes of discourse into the fabric of biblical exegesis, promises a new paradigm for biblical studies and new insights into much-studied texts. Papers in this session, presented by authors of commentaries in the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series, demonstrate the gains of socio-rhetorical interpretation for the genre of commentary and the ways in which this interpretive analytic opens up new directions for exploring a text.


Philo, Wealth, and Stoic Ethics
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Erin Roberts, Brown University

The question of whether Philo of Alexandria expresses a consistent ethical view of wealth has been a matter of dispute. Arguments against a consistent view proceed either by drawing attention to the discrepancy between Philo's own personal wealth and passages from his writings that portray wealth as something which should be avoided, or by highlighting the contradictory ways that Philo depicts wealth in his writings (sometimes disparaging it, other times praising it). Arguments for a consistent view maintain that what really matters to Philo is the will of the possessor of wealth or the measure of one's desire for riches; by turning the focus inward, these arguments ameliorate the two sorts of inconsistency mentioned above. The purpose of this paper is to reframe the discussion so that our evaluation of Philo's ethical consistency turns upon the question of whether Philo has a doctrine akin to that of the Stoic adiaphora, and, if so, whether he considers wealth to be contained therein. My argument aligns with those who claim that Philo's view of wealth is consistent, but I think that we have sufficient evidence to take the argument further. With attention to two Stoic paradoxes--"virtue is the only good" and "the sage alone is rich"--I explain how Philo portrays desire to be dangerous to virtue and consider how he proposes that one may overcome or control desire. I maintain that Philo views desire not so much as being dangerous to virtue as being indicative of the absence of virtue and that Philo supports the extirpation of passions from the human soul. Finally, I argue in favor of Philonic consistency because the literature points us toward the conclusion that Philo does have a doctrine of adiaphora which can be seen to underlie his views about economic wealth.


The Tabernacle Texts and Religious Experience
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Amy Cooper Robertson, Emory University

This paper examines the literary form of the tabernacle texts in Exodus (chaps. 25-31 and 35-40) and explores the ways in which the literary features unique to this pericope might be described – and ultimately better understood – using categories from the field of Ritual Theory. To the extent that these features of the text overlap with those characteristics of ritualized activity that set it apart from quotidian activity, I will argue that this pericope should be considered a “ritualized text,” and, further, that the effect of this literary style on the reader should be considered to be somehow akin to the effect of a ritual. That is, specific literary features of this text are evocative of an experience or mindset similar to that which comes out of an experience of ritual performance or sacred (ritualized) space. Arguably, if the reader were actually required to make the items described, the inculcation of such a mindset would be inappropriate. But whomever may have been construed as the audience of this text – and whoever became the audience over time – is clearly not the person making the items, and the purpose is clearly not (only) to communicate information about the contents of the tabernacle. The literary features of the tabernacle description highlighted in this paper allow the reader to experience the text – and, to some extent, the space it describes – rather than simply communicating information about its contents.


Hermeneutics
Program Unit:
James Robinson, Claremont Graduate University

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"Fill Your Stomach with It": Hierophagy as Religious Experience
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Nicolae Roddy, Creighton University

This paper takes a phenomenological approach toward identifying, analyzing, and defining the sensate and religious nature of consuming ordinary things for extraordinary purposes. These materials may include regular foodstuffs such as honey, bread, or wine; certain plants or herbs; words written on papyrus, parchment, or paper (bibliovoria); and so on. By establishing hierophagy (roughly, eating the Sacred) as a new category of religious experience in which the transformative aspects of ingesting organic materials within a sacred context can be discussed, it is expected that early Jewish and early Christian references to such practice can be better understood. The proposed paper will initiate the discussion by focusing on a diverse array of these references in biblical and non-biblical literature, with special attention paid to the Pauline epistles.


Elijah and Elisha on the Tip of Jesus' Tongue
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Rafael Rodriguez, Johnson Bible College

This paper reexamines the role of Elijah and Elisha in Luke's account of Jesus' inaugural sermon in light of recent theoretical and empirical work in social memory theory. The sociological study of memory has only recently begun to influence the practice of biblical studies, and its potential for raising new questions and providing new insights into the problem of reading the New Testament texts - not least the synoptic gospels - has yet to be explored. This paper questions the consensus that the Lukan Jesus' reference to Elijah and Elisha is intended to signal the beginnings of the gentile mission and the gospel's turn from Israel. Instead, "Elijah" and "Elisha" evoke in Jesus' speech larger traditions of both judgment and restoration of Israel. These traditions are central to the narrative of Luke-Acts as a whole, and Elijah and Elisha thus become important figures in the gospel's relevance not simply for the nations but for Israel, too.


The Greek-German Pentateuch in Retrospect
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Martin Roesel, University of Rostock

In this paper an attempt will be made to describe briefly some important features of the German translation of the Greek Pentateuch and to report on some of the new insights which have grown out of this work. The situation for the translators of the Pentateuch has been special insofar as we have had the opportunity to use some important tools for our research, first of all the “Notes” by John William Wevers on the books of the Greek Pentateuch and secondly the five volumes of the French project “Bible d´Alexandrie”. Thus in the notes to the German Pentateuch the reader will find references to Wevers' proposals to modify his critical text of the Göttingen edition of the Septuagint, so that one can gain access to the latest results of textual criticism. One important feature of the German translation is that we have tried to reflect the Greek language used of the translators, its characteristics and style as faithfully as possible. This led to unusual translations, such as “Truhe” (chest) for “ark” (gr. kibotos) in Exod 25:9(10) or “Verfügung” (decree/instruction) instead of the usual “covenant” (gr. diatheke) in Gen 6:18. This reflects the latest insights of lexicographical research. By means of an own glossary and a careful redactional process we were able to produce a very coherent translation. We have also kept intertextual connections which have been made by the translators but were not present in the Hebrew text; some examples will be given. Finally, some of the thematic treatises of the accompanying commentary volume will be summarized. Here some of the theological developments which have been introduced by the translators of the Greek Pentateuch are described, such as the expanded nomos-theology, the notions of God, the different depiction of the cult or the question wether or not the book of Deuteronomy has been translated earlier than Leviticus and Numbers.


Foreignizing Translation
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Lewis and Clark College

It is commonly stated that two alternatives exist n New Testament translation: formal or literal correspondence and dynamic equivalence. Unfortunately neither addresses the issue of the cultural otherness of the Bible. By contrast, this paper proposes and illustrates a “foreignizing” translation -- a deliberate attempt to stage a culturally alien reading experience that avoids the prevalent ethnocentrism common in Western translations.


Literacy in Ancient Israel: The Old Hebrew Epigraphic Evidence
Program Unit: Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Christopher A. Rollston, Emmanuel School of Religion

The nature, levels, and extent of literacy in Iron Age Israel have been the foci of a number of studies during recent years, with the majority of these studies concluding that literacy was high. Based on a reanalysis of the epigraphic evidence and the theoretical literature, however, it will be argued that previous scholarship has been much too sanguine in its assumptions about literacy in ancient Israel. There will also be some reference to discussions of literacy in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.


How Many Books (teuchs): Pentateuch, Hexateuch, Deuteronomistic History, or Enneateuch?
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Thomas C. Römer, University of Lausanne

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Creative Thinking and the Bible
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Mark Roncace, Wingate University

A commonly listed course objective is for students to improve their critical and creative thinking abilities. However, the strategies that instructors typically use and the textbooks they employ do little or nothing explicitly to cultivate those cognitive abilities. Teachers and textbooks focus on covering course content instead of using the material to develop their students into more dynamic thinkers. This paper will first provide a theoretical basis for employing strategies that have as the main objective the development of students’ creative capacities. When students are actively thinking about the subject—discovering and producing ideas—rather than passively absorbing it, they are much more likely to learn and retain the content. Furthermore, the skills that will help students to generate imaginative insights, new connections, original thoughts, and engaging questions about the biblical texts are the same skills that will benefit them in other academic and professional pursuits. The paper will then discuss some specific creative thinking activities and show some examples of student work generated using the strategies. The presentation will be particularly interested in hearing the audience’s response and feedback to this pedagogical approach.


Aspects of Athaliah: Heroine or Harpy?
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Deborah Rooke, King's College London

The biblical character Athaliah is the only queen who rules over either Israel or Judah in her own right. She is an enigmatic figure, whose minimalistic portrayal and bloody rise to power in the biblical text implies that her reign is illegitimate and that she herself is wicked and idolatrous. This paper will examine two linked dramatic treatments of her story from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with regard to their social settings. The first is the French playwright Jean Racine’s sacred tragedy Athalie (1690), a play which was intended as an edifying project to be performed by the pupils in a girls’ boarding school. In the play, the Queen’s character is significantly expanded from its presentation in the biblical text and she is developed into a complex human being who experiences, and evokes, a variety of emotions. The second treatment is the libretto of Handel’s dramatic oratorio Athalia (1733), written by Samuel Humphreys and based upon Racine’s play. Here, Athalia embodies the tyranny of absolutist rule within a metaphorical framework where the Judaeans represent Anglican Protestant Britons and Baal worshippers and tyrants represent Catholics and Catholic rulers. Although Athalia’s part is clearly based upon Racine in its outline, it has been cut down and is presented much more negatively than in Racine. The audience would not identify nearly so readily with this Athalia, nor are they intended to.


“One Food”: Early Rabbinic Commensality Regulations and Identity Construction
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Jordan D. Rosenblum, Brown University

Food rules create and destroy society. Through commensality restrictions, groups form distinct identities: those with whom ‘we’ can eat (‘Us’) and those with whom ‘we’ cannot eat (‘Them’). This identity is enacted daily, turning the biological need to ingest calories into a culturally significant activity. Early rabbinic (tannaitic) literature grasps the role that culinary and commensal regulations play in identity formation. Several texts reflect the concept that eating specific foods in specific ways creates group cohesion; not doing so, on the other hand, results in the disintegration of a group. One text in particular, Sifre Deuteronomy 354, connects the worship of one God and the consumption of “one food” with the maintenance of Israel as a collective whole. Through both theological and culinary monotheism – worshiping one God and eating one food commanded by the one God – Israel creates an identity. Further, according to this pericope, Israel’s neighbors envy this identity. Envisioned as lacking the group cohesion created by the dual concepts of monotheism and monophagy, they declare: “There is no better nation to cling to than [Israel].” By ascribing jealousy to non-Israelites, this text imagines the other nations as having recognized that the “one food” unites in a way that polyphagy (much like polytheism) does not. This paper explores the manner in which eating “one food” enacts and maintains a collective identity for Israel. In order for this concept to work, the laws governing the “one food” must be incumbent solely upon Israel. To accept these regulations, therefore, is an act of conversion. This understanding logically results in the notion that food is metonymic, a trend encountered in other tannaitic culinary discussions (e.g., pig, manna). Anthropologists have long noted that the verb “to eat” is invested with powerful political, cultural and religious meanings. The “one food” of Israel is no different. Utilizing an anthropological approach to rabbinic texts can therefore help us to better understand identity formation in rabbinic literature.


The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary: A Century of Lexicography
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Martha T. Roth, University of Chicago

The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Project began in 1921 under the direction of Daniel D. Luckenbill, modelled on the Oxford English Dictionary and the Berlin Egyptian Dictionary. Luckenbill and every editor after him (Edward Chiera [1927-], Arno Poebel [1933-], I. J. Gelb [1946-], A. Leo Oppenheim [1955-], Erica Reiner [1973-], and Martha Roth [1996-]), predicted that the project would be completed "within ten years." Now, with the final volume in press, we reflect on dictionaries and dictionary-making.


The Text of Philo’s De Abrahamo
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
James R. Royse, San Francisco State University

The treatise De Abrahamo is well-attested within the manuscript tradition of Philo, and is also included within the ancient Armenian translation of Philo’s works, which often confirms the readings of the better Greek manuscripts. In this paper I examine the place of De Abrahamo within the Philonic corpus, looking at both the Greek manuscripts and the Armenian version. Special attention will be given to the several places where Cohn judges that the Armenian alone has preserved the authentic text.


Omnipresent, not Omniscient:  How Literary Interpretation Confuses the Storyteller’s Narration
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Philip Ruge-Jones, Texas Lutheran University

Literary models of interpretation have played an indispensable role in biblical work for generations. Yet thinking of texts that were originally alive in performance as written narratives has led to misunderstanding of their structure and functioning in their original contexts. How might Performance Criticism open up to us dimensions previously passed over? This paper compares the different roles of the narrator in performance and in literature. A brief performance of a biblical text followed by analysis of the performance will show how the narrator is always present in performance even when narrating the lines of a character. It also will demonstrate that the narrator in performance is not displayed as having even limited omniscience, but rather comes across as a well-informed, astute observer. The storytelling narrator gains authority not by being “above it all” but by being engaged in a way that wins the trust of the audience.


Barabbas or Jesus: The Pilate Trial in the Aftermath of the Jewish War
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Philip Ruge-Jones, Texas Lutheran University

The four canonical gospels with the Pilate trials were written for performance immediate after the Jewish War in order to advocate a policy of non-violent resistance to Roman domination in the Jewish community. The evidence: 1) The Pilate stories present the choice of Barabbas over Jesus as a reversal of expectations for their audiences. In the post-war context the implication is that the crowd chose Barabbas/violence over Jesus/non-violent resistance. 2) The characterization of Barabbas as a lastes in this context was associated with the zealot groups that initiated and fought the war. Josephus’s use of the term corroborates its significance as code for the zealots. 3) The stories’ performance rhetoric is a rhetoric of implication: a highly sympathetic character in a story is experienced as doing something that is unambiguously wrong according to the story’s norms of judgment. This rhetoric appears frequently in the passion narratives: the disciples’ flight, Peter’s denial, the crowd’s role in the Pilate trial. The implication of this story in the post-war context is that “we” were involved in the rejection of Jesus and the choice of the war. 4) The absence of any historical evidence of the Roman custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover raises the possibility that the storytellers of the emerging Christian sect developed this story to set the rejection of Jesus by the people in the context of the choice for or against the war. 5) The composition of the gospels, especially Mark’s, in the immediate aftermath of the war was a response to the post-war situation.6) The gospel storytellers and the rabbis at Jamnia agreed that the Jewish community should adopt policies of non-violent resistance to Roman domination even as they disagreed about relationships with Gentiles, the maintenance of the law, and the systems for scriptural interpretation.


Joel 3:1–5 in Acts 2:17–21: The Discourse and Text-Critical Implications of Quotation and Variation from the Septuagint
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Steven Runge, Logos Bible Software

This paper will focus on the use of Joel 3:1-5 in Acts 2:17-21. Particular attention will be given to the discourse implications of departures from the LXX reading in the Alexandrian and the Western manuscript traditions. The primary objective of the paper is to describe the exegetical implications of these departures for the overall discourse of Peter’s speech in Acts. In other words, how do the textual changes attested in the NT traditions reshape the original structure and emphasis of the LXX version. Brief reference will also be made to the meaningful differences between the MT and LXX.


The Place of De Abrahamo in Philo’s Oeuvre
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
David T. Runia, University of Melbourne

Philo’s treatise De Abrahamo is called a bios and it describes the life of the first Patriarch. But at the same time it is part of a much larger work, known as the Exposition of the Law. The paper first explores the link between De opificio mundi (the opening treatise) and De Abrahamo (the next treatise). It then examines how the themes in the treatise reflect the larger agenda that Philo had before him when composing his lengthy Commentary on the Law.


Theologico-political Resonance: Carl Schmitt between the Neocons and the Theonomists
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Erin Runions, Pomona College

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Rethinking Limited Good: Anthropological Perspectives
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Sue Russell, Biola University

Recent studies in New Testament scholarship have increasingly used models from sociology and anthropology to understand the social and cultural settings of the original audience. One such model that has been applied in New Testament Studies is the “Image of Limited Good.” The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of the application of Limited Good to 1st century Palestine from an anthropological perspective. In order to do so I first discuss the anthropological study of peasant societies and the difficulty of application of generalizations about peasant societies across time and space. I then examine the use of “Image of Limited Good” as a generalized model for peasant societies in anthropological studies and its validity for understanding the dynamics of first century peasant communities in Palestine.


Becoming Christian in Asia Minor: Reimagining the Role of "Judaism" in Shaping "Christian" Identity at Philadelphia and Magnesia
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Will Rutherford, University of Edinburgh

Scholars in the field of early Christian-Jewish relations are increasingly focusing upon the processes and forces involved in the social construction of Christian identities, as this was worked out through the production of texts, ritual practices, scriptural interpretation, etc. Such sociological concerns are best answered through the kind of “thick description” of communities advocated by Geertz for modern ethnography, yet this is not possible for historical communities given limitations in data. However, a move towards “thicker description,” towards teasing out in increasingly greater depth textual and historical nuances by allowing individual literary texts to speak on their own merit, remains an important desideratum in investigating the social processes involved in the construction of Christian identities vis-à-vis Judaism and Jewish influences. This paper examines the role which the letters of Ignatius play in helping us reimagine the place of “Jewish” influences in the shaping of early Christian communal consciousness in two Anatolian communities. I offer methodological guidelines for solving classic interpretive conundrums in the Ignatian epistles and suggest a “thicker description” of the literary shaping of “Judaism” in Philadelphians and Magnesians. I then explore that shaping. Permitting these texts to speak on their own merit reveals two different “types” (i.e., literary constructions) of “Jewish” tradents within these churches. Lastly I suggest the diverse literary texturing of these missives is intentional and reflects the historical situation. Listening to the voices of individual texts reveals two diverse and thriving strands of “Jewish” countervoices active within the Christian communities of Magnesia and Philadelphia, respectively. Yet only the former should be characterized as “judaizing.” The method of “thicker description” reveals further how epistolary literature may be used to enlighten our understanding of the irreducible variety of early Christian religious experience respecting things “Jewish.”


The Silence of Jonah: A Postcolonial Reading
Program Unit: New Historicism and the Hebrew Bible
Chesung Ryu, Graduate Theological Union

In many western Christian readings, the book of Jonah has been frequently understood as the exemplary model of universalism - God’s universal love and redemption for all people without distinction. However, embedded in the inclusive claim of universalism is a working system of exclusivity. Moreover, the theme universalism in the book of Jonah has been used to chastise the natural responses of the weak (i.e. anger) to their marginalization and colonized status. Drawing upon the theoretic of Ronald Barthes, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Edward Said whose works critique universalism, this study suggests an alternative reading for Jonah’s anger and silence (Jonah 4:1-11). First, given the power differential between the Israelites and the Ninevites, this interpretation argues Jonah’s anger deserves acceptance not chastisement. Second, it contends that Jonah’s silence functions as the resistance on the part of the weak over and against the rhetoric of the strong which ignores unbalanced powers structures in human relationship in the name of universalism.


A New Ending for Mark?
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Marie Noonan Sabin, Bristol, ME

The ending of Mark has provoked three scholarly reactions: first, verse 16:8 is so abrupt and shocking that we must presume that Mark’s original ending was lost; second, the “Longer Ending” of verses 9-20, added later by an unknown hand, provides an ending that fits better with the New Testament canon and so should be used; third, the ending at 16:8 is unquestionably authentic and must be respected, whatever the cost. To my knowledge, no one has yet suggested that 16:8 is the best ending for both Mark and the canon. That, however, is what I would like to propose, but on the condition that we retranslate it. In the first part of the paper I propose a new translation of 16:8, one that considers the key words in terms of all their previous contexts, and takes into account Mark’s overall artistry and his pervading theology. These converge, I believe, to present a persuasive case for retranslating 16:8 so that it no longer seems shocking and unsuitable but appropriate and revelatory. In the second part of the paper I consider the variant endings. In particular, I look at the Longer Ending from three points of view: that is, how it affects our understanding (1) of Mark, (2) of the other Gospels, and (3) of the New Testament canon. In conclusion, I compare the far-reaching theological consequences of the ending that is chosen and ask for a serious consideration of the new translation I have proposed.


The Shadow of Abraham’s Camel: An Examination of Shared Traditions in Late Midrash and Early Islam
Program Unit: Midrash
Steven D. Sacks, Cornell College

One of the most contentious areas of contact between rabbinic and Islamic literature is found in the first work of midrash from the Islamic era, the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer (PRE). After they rejected its purported tannaitic origins, scholars such as Leopold Zunz, Abraham Geiger and Joseph Heineman identified this work’s intimacy with the Islamic era in historical references to the Islamic conquest, symbolic allusions to Ishmael, and shared interpretive traditions. As a landmark for rabbinic and Islamic interpretive traditions, PRE was seen as an entry point for the ‘influence’ of Islamic interpretation upon midrash on the one hand, and the first place to assess the entry of midrash into Islamic discourse on the other. Accordingly, these scholars struggled to assess the degree and significance of similarities between this midrash and Islamic literature, and were unsuccessful in several attempts to identify the influences, ideologies and literary styles represented in the work. In the present paper, I will reexamine the traditions about Islam and Ishmael in PRE in order to assess the contact and resonance of these shared traditions. My paper will address the frequently cited episode of Abraham’s visit to Ishmael in chapter thirty of PRE and several Islamic works, and analyze related episodes about Ishmael. In my discussion, I will reassess the contact between PRE and Islamic literature in the context of new insights into the work’s literary structure, and develop my conclusion on the basis of the work's semantic articulation of rabbinic and non-rabbinic traditions. In the framework of this episode, therefore, I will assess the meaning of these traditions for the identity of PRE in the comparison of rabbinic and Islamic literatures, and identify the work’s place within history of rabbinic interpretation.


Strategies of Africana Reading and Interpretation
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Rodney Sadler, Union-PSCE at Charlotte

I propose a panel discussion that would consist of editors from Biblia Africana and would focus on hermeneutical principles that we expect to govern the writing of the submitted articles. The panel would consist of four presenters (Randall Bailey, Madipone Masanye, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, and Rodney Sadler) who will have 15-20 minutes to present papers, afterwhich there will be time for dialogue. The panel will be chaired by Hugh Page; he will introduce the project and the panel. The goal of the panel is to produce four brief articles that will be combined as a preface to Biblia Africana providing guidance for would-be biblical interpreters.


Whose Text is It?
Program Unit:
Katharine Sakenfeld, Princeton Theological Seminary

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Revisiting 4QJeremiah-a,c vis-a-vis 4QJeremiah-b,d
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Richard J. Saley, Harvard University

It is generally held that 4QJer-a,c agree with the Masoretic tradition and 4QJer-b,d with the Septuagint tradition both with regard to verse order and textual content. While the first of these conclusions is established beyond doubt, the latter is open to question when the relevant texts are compared.


The Early Roman Empire: Human Capital and the Limits to Economic Growth
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Richard Saller, Stanford University

Roman economic historians are converging on the view that the early empire witnessed an "effloresence" of growth. The challenge is to gauge the level of growth and the implications for standards of living in the Roman empire. In the absence of quantitative data, historians must analyze the basic causes of growth to judge how far the Romans progressed. Economic theorists have emphasized human capital (training and education) as a basic cause of sustained growth. My paper will summarize the economists' discussion of human capital as a cause of growth and examine what is known of investment in human capital in the Roman world.


An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Ancient Religion and the Cambridge History of Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Program Unit: Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
Michele Renee Salzman, University of California-Riverside

The importance of studying ancient religion within a comparative yet historical framework prompted me to become the senior editor for the Cambridge History of Ancient Mediterranean Religions. As way of introduction to this panel, which includes contributors to both volumes of this forthcoming work, I will discuss the key theoretical and methodological issues raised by my goal of providing a comparative, historical history of the ancient Mediterranean religions. The scholarly response to the work of Jonathan Z. Smith is particularly relevant here. Considerations of how best to write a History of the Ancient Mediterranean Religions has led me to focus on religions within their specific geographical and chronological framework. Hence Volume I will begin with Sumerian Religion, the first case of a religion that can be studied via texts as well as artefacts, within a complex, urban society; Volume one will focus on the Near East and its religious diversity, highlighting key areas until the mid -fourth century after the death of Alexander the Great. Volume II will focus on the development of religious traditions after the death of Alexander the Great in the mid fourth-century and continue into the Roman Empire through the fifth century C.E. In order to meet the comparative goals of this work, the contributors were asked to discuss the same themes: However, it will be up to the editors to make explicit the central comparative elements raised by these individual essays.


The Barrio Virgin and Revelation 12
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
David Arthur Sanchez, Loyola Marymount University

Throughout contemporary East Los Angeles, murals of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe are omnipresent. This written and visual presentation seeks to explore the trajectory of resistance hermeneutics present in the work of Chicano/a artists and its connection to modalities of resistance embedded in the Book of Revelation. The primary thesis of this project is that people(s) on the margins of power consciously reinscribe the same imperial myths used to subjugate them. As we shall see in this highly visual study, this phenomenon is not restricted to historical moment, geographical location or cultural perspective. The explicit literary connection between the Barrio Virgin and the Queen of Heaven in Revelation 12 was made in 1648 by a creole priest named Miguel Sanchez in Mexico City. The artistic connection between the two is made by Spanish Counter-Reformation apologists who stipulated that all representations of the Immaculate Conception must be modeled after the Queen of Heaven in Revelation 12.


Non-Masoretic Literature in Early Judaism and Its Function in the New Testament
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
James A. Sanders, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center

An earlier SBL section focused on “Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity” that had a dual purpose: to trace the Nachleben of Scripture from its inception through Early Jewish literature into Early Christian and Formative Jewish literature; and to attempt to discern the canonical process by which some of that literature was included in later canons, Jewish and Christian. This new consultation and this paper will focus specifically on the function of the literature that did not make it into the Hebrew Bible and most other biblical canons from antiquity. How did it function from our perspective in the New Testament? This introductory paper will explore the interface of the two SBL sections, how they differ and how they need to relate.


Israelite and Judahite Scribal Culture in Epigraphical Perspective
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Seth L Sanders, Trinity College - Hartford

This paper is a response to the new volume by Karel van der Toorn from the perspective of epigraphic evidence for scribal trends, allowing a view of Israel and Judah from outside the Bible.


Childhood in Early Judaism
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Michael L. Satlow, Brown University

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X and Duqah in Some Calendrical Scrolls: Are We any Closer to an Identification?
Program Unit: Qumran
Stephane Saulnier, University of Notre Dame

Since the mid-1990 the particular phenomena recorded in 4Q320, 4Q321 and 4Q321a, the first termed duqah in the text, and the second never explicitly identified and termed X by scholars, have drawn the attention of various specialists. They have been identified, in turn, either as the full moon, the new moon, or phenomena occurring on or around those lunar stages in the synodic month. This paper considers once again the question of identification of said phenomena, paying particular attention to the double solar/lunar dating of X, as exemplified in 4Q320 1 I 6, and the single dating of duqah, as illustrated in 4Q321a I 2-3. It is argued that this double dating of the X-date, and single dating of the duqah-date, give scholars an important clue as to the identification of both dates in the 364-day calendar of 4Q320, 4Q321 and 4Q321a. The original argument presented here confirms in part a recent line of argumentation that connects these particular phenomena with Babylonian astronomy. The identification of a particular month-reckoning, not corroborated by other sources so far, may also find some support from the Astronomical Book of Enoch.


Sacred Space at the Gate: The High Places at the Gate of Et-Tell/Bethsaida
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Carl E. Savage, Drew University

The function of the city gate is one of those assumed facts about the organization of life in the ancient urban setting. Often this structure has been seen only in terms of a military or political function expressing power. However the archaeological work at Bethsaida may constrain such narrowly focused views of the role of the gate in ancient society. At Bethsaida/Et-Tell a very complete gate complex from the Iron Age II has been uncovered. The four chambered gate and its associated installations is one of the most complete gate complexes discovered in the neighborhood of Ancient Israel. This paper will described the “sacred precinct” that seems to have comprised the gate area. Its area was bounded by a series of stelae that seemed to have marked off the gate area from the surrounding urban precincts. And its chambers seemed not to have served a military function. Attention will be especially paid to the contents of chamber four of the gate and its associated three step high place and stele located in the plaza. Ceramic finds include a pitcher with inscription, a bowl with pentagram, tripod perforated cups and other apparent cultic vessels. The presence of these designated pottery vessels and a presumed practice of ritual will be discussed. Biblical references to gates, worship and high places will be examined to see how the textual references might both be illustrated the uncovered material culture and to aid in the interpretation of the significance of the material finds.


Genealogical Representation amidst Iran’s Conversion to Islam
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Sarah Savant, Aga Khan University

This paper reflects on genealogical representation as a strategy for presenting Islam as a universal faith to non-Arab Muslims. It specifically considers ways in which, amidst Iran’s conversion to Islam, genealogical representations incorporating the prophets drew on Islam’s theological resources to represent Islam as a religion as Persian as it was Arab in origin. The paper highlights for special consideration ways by which Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari and his sources sought to draw Persians into Islam through such representations. The paper also uses the genealogical materials to consider the general importance of classical sources for understanding Iran’s conversion to Islam.


II.B.17: A Manuscript Ascribed to the Scribe of the Aleppo Codex
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Harold P. Scanlin, United Bible Societies

Manuscript II.B.17 from the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg s ascribed to the same scribe as the famous Aleppo Codex. (A leaf of II.B.17 will be on display in San Diego during the SBL meeting.) Assuming the colophon is accurate, this manuscript provides a valuable glimpse into the scribal workshop of the Ben Asher masoretic school. Both these manuscripts from the 10th century are in very close agreement, especially in relation to the consonantal text, but there are a variety of differences that are of text-critical interest, including a more extensive consideration of kethib-qere variants and a 70 line rendering of the Song of Moses. (Deuteronomy 32) in II.B.17, instead of the 67 lines of Aleppo. These and other aspects of the textual differences between II.B.17 and Aleppo will be discussed. It is also worthy of note that another manuscript attributed to the scribe of Leningradensis is also extant. Thus, we are afforded another look at the work of the masoretes during the crucial 10th to 11th century period.


Respose
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Jane D. Schaberg, University of Detroit Mercy

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John 8:28 and 12:31–34
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Jane D. Schaberg, University of Detroit Mercy

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Princess as Political Pawn
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Aliza Schachter, University of Pennsylvania

The account of Solomon's marriage to the daughter of an unnamed Pharaoh is often utilized as one of the components in reconstructing a broad picture of the foreign policy of the United Monarchy. Israel under David and Solomon is depicted as a major power, and indeed the Biblical text is replete with details illustrating the political capabilities of David and Solomon in the sphere of international relations. As is often the case, however, the nature of the Biblical material limits our ability to gain a full understanding of these conventions, and a fuller picture can be constructed only on the basis of sources from the surrounding civilizations. While there are no contemporaneous 10th century texts to corroborate the details of the Biblical accounts, there are a variety of diplomatic texts from throughout the Near East that can serve as parallels to the diplomatic practice described. In particular, an Akkadian juridical text from Ugarit can help elucidate the episode of the unparalleled marriage of Solomon and the Pharaoh's daughter. An interesting detail of the marriage arrangement is the land grant of the city of Gezer given by the Pharaoh to his daughter, presumably as a dowry. While real estate is well-attested as an important element of dowries throughout the Near East, the text from Ugarit offers a precise parallel in that it records a town given to the daughter of the king upon her marriage. I believe that the details surrounding this transfer help clarify a difficult word in the Biblical text as well as provide insight into the overall political significance of the marriage.


The Textualisation of Israelite Religion in the Context of the "Orality and Literacy" Debate
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Joachim Schaper, University of Aberdeen

The history of the relation between orality and literacy in ancient Israel can provide us with a key to the understanding of a central aspect of the development of Israelite society, i.e., the 'textualisation' of Israelite religion and culture. However, textuality could not do without orality. Thus Deuteronomy and Joshua provide us with numerous references to the written Torah being brought to life through recitation, meditative murmuring and public readings. Many other biblical examples could be added. As one of the main propagators of the 'literacy hypothesis', Jack Goody, is fully prepared to admit, "orality remains a dominant form of human interaction, although itself modified in various ways by the addition of new means and modes of communication". This is especially true of ancient societies, with their strong residual orality. Ancient Judah was no exception. This paper explores aspects of the textualisation of ancient Israelite religion in the context of the history of orality and literacy in the late pre-exilic and exilic periods and compares them to similar developments in pre-classical Greece and Mesopotamia. It aims at uncovering the correlation between material culture - "new means and modes of communication" - and religious and cultural change.


Selling Eve: Genesis 2-3 and Advertising
Program Unit:
Linda Schearing, Gonzaga University

Nowhere is the interface of biblical interpretation and popular culture more evident than in the world of advertising. This presentation explores the visual interpretive history of Eve in print and television ads. Such ads not only reflect cultural assumptions about Genesis 2-3 and women’s bodies, but also serve to reinforce these assumptions. Of special attention will be ads that focus on the temptation motif and the logic/male and senses/female dichotomy.


The Ancient Economy Since Moses Finley
Program Unit:
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University

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Demography and Human Development in the Roman World
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University

Recent scholarship has greatly improved our understanding of demographic conditions in the ancient Mediterranean. In addition, Roman historians have finally begun to explore the relationship between demography and economic growth. At the same time, studies of human development or 'well-being' in the world today provide a broader and more inclusive framework for assessments of development in historical societies. My paper will combine a critical survey of recent progress in Roman demography with a preliminary exploration of the potential contribution of a human development perspective to the study of the Roman world.


Hebrews and the Parting of the Ways
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Kenneth L. Schenck, Indiana Wesleyan University

A broad Anglo-American majority believes Hebrews addressed a Jewish Christian community. By contrast, this paper argues that Hebrews likely addressed a primarily "Gentile Jewish" assembly after the destruction of Jerusalem. The relevance to the question of Jew/Gentile distinction and ethnicity lies in the false assumptions that have generally led to identifying the audience as Jewish, especially anachronistic distinctions between what is Jewish and what might be Gentile. First, there is the assumption that Hebrews is a polemic against reliance on Levitical means of atonement. Except for the peripheral issue of Hebrews 13:9-10, Hebrews never tells the audience not to rely on such atonement. Rather, it positively urges reliance on Christ. This bespeaks a situation where the audience needs consoled in the absence of a temple rather than dissuaded in its presence. It is a coping strategy to maintain a Christian Jewish faith. A second assumption is then that a Gentile Christian audience would have no investment in Levitical atonement or in such a pervasive use of Jewish Scriptures. On the contrary, we can imagine that most early Christians did not see Christ's atonement as the end of the Levitical system and that there were Gentile Christian communities more "conservative" than Paul's. The "beginning elements" the audience needs to get down (5:12) are things a Gentile Christian rather than a Christian Jew would need to review (cf. 6:1-2). We can wonder if the crisis of 70 was causing a Gentile assembly to question a Christianity that for them was inseparable from Judaism. The destruction of the temple brought their Judaism and thus their Christianity into question. Hebrews thus gives witness to a Gentile form of Christianity that had not parted from Judaism even post 70.


Marcion’s Antitheses as an Isagogic Text
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Eric Scherbenske, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Antitheses played a prominent role in transmitting the fundamental tenet of Marcion’s theology, the rejection of the Hebrew Bible, by juxtaposing statements from the Hebrew Bible with contradictory statements from his own canon. Despite the importance of this work, discussions of its genre have been limited. To be sure this is primarily due to the fact that Marcion’s Antitheses are no longer extant. The absence of physical evidence for the Antitheses notwithstanding, this paper argues that the available testimony about the Antitheses suggests that this tract had an introductory function and probably belonged to a genre similar to the isagogic text. In this capacity, the Antitheses introduced and laid the groundwork for proper initiation into Marcion’s faith and his New Testament canon containing the Evangelion and Apostolicon. Marcion’s utilization of the isagogic genre for promoting his interpretation of the books in his canon allows further insight into this genre’s adaptation in early Christianity and Marcion’s overarching hermeneutical goals in his Antitheses.


In Search of Wisdom: The Wisdom Tradition in the Hebrew Bible in the Light of the Ancient Near East
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Bernd U. Schipper, University of Bremen

Former research was used to construct a development of wisdom in Ancient Israel from a more basic and non-theological form ("Sippenweisheit") to a theological wisdom. In the light of Ancient Egyptian wisdom texts, especially demotic instructions like Ancheschonqi, this seems to be problematic. The lecture presents a new approach to the meaning of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and its possible development.


Between Tradition and Propaganda: Apocalyptic Literature from Ptolemaic Egypt
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Bernd U. Schipper, University of Bremen

Since the rediscovery of Demotic texts like the Oracle of the Potter or the Prophecy of the Lamb the question of apocalypticism in Ptolemaic Egypt arises. The paper deals with the interplay between the inner Egyptian literary tradition (e.g. the Prophecy of Neferti) and the change of Egyptian prophecy to political propaganda in Ptolemaic Egypt.


Transitions between Artifactual and Hermeneutical Use of Scripture
Program Unit: Scripture as Artifact
Marianne Schleicher, Aarhus University

This paper distinguishes between an artifactual and hermeneutical use of scripture in its study of how scripture is being used within Judaism in the Modern Orthodox congregation in Copenhagen, Denmark today. The first part of this paper examines the dominant artifactual use that can be detected in, e.g., the making, handling, and storage of scrolls where personal and cultural representations are imposed as external meaning upon scripture. The second part counters this examination by looking for those situations in or outside ritual where scripture is actually treated as a text with an internal meaning to be accessed. Where in the pattern of artifactual use of scripture do we find the transitions to a hermeneutical use of scripture and when do individuals and collectives return to the dominant artifactual use? Why does it seem so important for religions to offer both kinds of use?


The Necessity of Newness in Isaiah 65:16b–25: Why the Book of Isaiah Requires a New Creation
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Matthew R. Schlimm, Duke University

The image of God creating the heavens and earth anew appears in the Hebrew Bible only at the end of Isaiah (65:17, 66:22). Scholarship has not sufficiently explored why this unique image was chosen, how it relates to creation imagery throughout Isaiah, and how it serves a concluding function within the book as a whole. Utilizing a synchronic approach, this paper argues that creation themes in the book of Isaiah, despite their diversity, culminate in Isa 65:16b-25. These themes include the following: [1] God alone has created the world and therefore has no equal. [2] Faithfulness to God entails living in harmony with creation. [3] Exalting oneself (e.g., haughtiness) or objects (e.g., idolatry) above the Creator violates the moral order of the world. [4] Creation acts as a divine agent of judgment, and punishments often match the ways violations of the created order take place. [5] Violations of the created order affect not only those punished but also creation itself, which moves from a place of order to one of disorder, distortion, and desolation. [6] This distortion of creation necessitates God creating the world anew. In the course of showing how these themes culminate in 65:16b-25, this paper also interacts with the works of Beuken, Sweeney, and others, pointing to additional ways that Isa 65-66 serves a concluding function within Isaiah.


From Fratricide to Forgiveness: The Ethics of Anger in Genesis
Program Unit: Character Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Matthew R. Schlimm, Duke University

In recent decades, several scholars (e.g., Barton, Wenham) have emphasized the importance of narrative for Old Testament ethics. Many biblical narratives, however, still have not been mined for their ethical significance. This paper analyzes the moral insights that Genesis offers regarding anger. Though often ignored by modern biblical interpreters, anger relates directly to character ethics: this emotion often arises in response to a perceived wrongdoing and frequently can lead to additional wrongdoings. Furthermore, anger is a prevalent theme throughout Genesis, appearing in both shorter episodes (e.g., Cain and Abel, Gen 4:5-7; the herders of Abram and Lot, Gen 13:7) and longer narratives (Jacob and Esau, Gen 27:44-45; Joseph and his brothers, Gen 44:18). This paper surveys relevant texts, bringing what Genesis says about anger into conversation with both classical philosophers (e.g., Seneca) and modern theorists (e.g., Martha Nussbaum). It argues that the study of emotion needs to be thoroughly incorporated into the ethical analysis of biblical texts, and it offers a theoretical framework for doing so. It thus builds on previous work while moving in new directions, pointing to avenues for significant exegetical, theological, and theoretical advances.


The Emergence and Disappearance of the Separation between Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic History in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Studies
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Konrad Schmid, University of Zurich

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The Edition of the Majuscule Manuscripts
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Ulrich B. Schmid, Free University

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The Res Gestae Divi Augusti as Monument
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Emily A. Schmidt, University of California-Santa Barbara

Scholarship on the Res Gestae Divi Augusti has largely focused on the text of the document, namely the differences between Latin and Greek texts, Augustus’ intentions, and the constitutional ramifications of the document. The rhetoric of the Res Gestae does not depend solely on its words. Once displayed in cities across the Empire, its inscription in bronze and in stone changed the words, sentences and sounds of the text into a visible and tangible monument of Julio-Claudian and Roman authority in the midst of the civic and religious lives of the cities. As a monument, the text serves to define the relationship between subjects and ruler and to explain the unique position of Augustus and his heirs. The context of each location allows us to see the ways the Res Gestae functioned in different social locations. Treating the Res Gestae as both intangible text and tangible object allows us to see the ways the text functions to establish not only the Julio-Claudian dynasty, but the concept of dynastic succession as one of the defining characteristics distinguishing the Imperial period from the Republican period. This paper will suggest that the spatial location of the text and the social location of its readers work together to establish the authority and dynasty of the Julio-Claudian family, not simply the personal authority of Augustus. The locations of the Latin text in comparison with the Greek text are as significant as the differences in translation. The authority of Augustus and the Julio-Claudian family are constructed differently in the various locations by means of the location and monumentality of the text.


What if Israel Never Became a Woman?
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
John J. Schmitt, Marquette University

Israel’s supposed marriage to Yahweh is based on the presupposition that the Bible sees Israel as feminine, in at least some passages in the Hebrew Bible. What if none of the passages invoked (Hosea 2, Amos 5, Ezekiel 16 and 23, Second Isaiah, Jeremiah 3, etc.) really does depict Israel in that kind of gendered imagery? What if a feminine image for personified Israel was never created in Ancient Israel, even in the supposed covenantal marriage or the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs? This paper reviews varied analyses of those passages [using some previously published analyses and some yet unpublished] and moves on to the question posed in the title of the paper. Does this proposal/finding change anything in various aspects of biblical studies? Does it have implications for religious studies in general?


A Johannine Trajectory for the Lord's Secret Sacrament
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Paul G. Schneider, University of South Florida

Very early in the history of the Acts of John, someone added material that became chapters 94-102. Within this interpolation we are told that following the Last Supper, Jesus ordered his disciples to hold hands and form a circle, and with Jesus in the center, they began to sing. As they were singing the Lord performed a dance and commanded the disciples to join him. When they had finished, the Lord explained to them what they had experienced, ordered them to remain silent and after a final doxology, he left. Most scholars recognize the presence of a hymn or hymnic material in these chapters. But upon closer inspection what we have in these chapters is a sacrament with opening and closing doxologies, two major hymns, a liturgical dance, and mystagogical instructions. When it comes to the origins of this hymn-sacrament, scholars have turned to the Eleusynian mysteries, Mithraism, the Corpus Hermeticum, and most recently Valentinian Gnosticism. The sacrament does have close parallels to Valentinianism and also Sethianism, but could it be that its origins are Johannine? Although some scholars identify it with Johannine Christianity, their identification is based solely on the use of terminology and phraseology, with no consensus as to whether it had an actual cultic setting. This paper argues that the sacrament did have a liturgical function, and that its origins includes Johannine Christianity. The goal of this paper, then, is to trace a Johannine trajectory for the sacrament.


Reflecting on Thirty Years
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Sandra M. Schneiders, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

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Rethinking Inner-biblical Exegesis and Biblical Criticism in Light of Orality and Textuality
Program Unit: Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
William M. Schniedewind, University of California-Los Angeles

A discussion of how scholarship on orality and textuality can illuminate the way we do Biblical criticism and study inner-biblical exegesis.


“From the Wilderness to a Door of Hope”: Thematic (Re)conceptualization of the Wilderness in Liturgical Texts (4QBarkiNapshi and 4QWords of the Luminaries)
Program Unit: Qumran
Alison Schofield, University of Denver

The authors of the sectarian texts make liberal use of intertextual citations and allusions to the Bible, and no less is true of their appropriation of wilderness imagery. Some of their references to the wilderness are well-recognized from the Serekh material (cf. Isaiah 40:3), but this paper will examine lesser-known intertextual uses of biblical wilderness imagery in the liturgical texts 4QBarkiNapshi and 4QWords of the Luminaries. Within this liturgical context, the authors (re)appropriate select images and terminology, both from the Pentateuch (Ex 19:4; Dt. 32:11) as well as from a prophetic tradition extolling the wilderness (Hos 2), and by doing so, they could relive and reinvent the experience of the earlier wilderness generation, a community with which they themselves identified. Indeed, they envisioned themselves to be in the very position of Israel at Sinai, and both communities were understood to be ideal, in terms of receiving the revealed law and covenant. In the chosen texts, we find that they selectively recall from the wilderness narratives, especially those which idealize the wilderness wandering period, and thus shape their theological self-understanding as both exceptional and as part of the larger continuum of biblical history. The powerful images they reuse of God in the desert allow them to interpret the wilderness to be uniquely sacred space, the backdrop to divine providence and theophanic disclosure, and that some of these liturgical texts may have composed or enacted by some sojourning themselves in the desert would have added a new meaning to their conception of the wilderness as a symbolic medium, through which one could encounter the divine.


Biblical Feminisms: The Next Generation
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Susanne Scholz, Merrimack College

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Queer Eye for the Ascetic Guy? Homoeroticism, Children, and the Making of Monks
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Caroline T. Schroeder, Stanford University

A famous instruction about children in monasteries reads: “Do not bring young boys here. Four churches in Scetis are deserted because of boys.” From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, this apophthegm reveals the presence of homoeroticism in early Egyptian asceticism and anxieties about the homoerotic, especially erotic encounters with children. This paper will examine the construction of male sexuality in early Egyptian monasticism. The masculine ideal builds upon certain classical ideals of masculinity, especially the control of the passions, but purports to eschew classical models of eroticism in which the adolescent male represents the ideal sexual partner. However, many of these sources are designed to be recited or retold as edifying ascetic principles; despite their overt disavowal of sexual contact between men and boys, the retelling and rereading of these texts keeps homoeroticism and the representation of boys as sexually desirable objects alive in the ascetic imagination.


Domesticating Deborah: Disputes about Women’s Religious Leadership in Early Christian Interpretations of Judges 4–5
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Joy A. Schroeder, Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Capital University

In the first four centuries of Christianity, the biblical story of Deborah was usually interpreted in terms of the issue of women’s leadership. This paper will show how Deborah was used as precedent to support women’s religious authority and how her story was approached by those who were anxious about this authority and sought to limit it. Deborah’s name is invoked in prayers of ordination of female deacons—prayers which exhibit a consciousness of the ordinand’s gender not present in parallel prayers for male deacons. In such prayers, Deborah’s name is employed in defense of women’s diaconal ordination in contexts where it may have been disputed. There is evidence that women from the New Prophecy (Montanist) movement used the figure of Deborah to support their own prophecy, writing, and religious leadership in the worshipping assembly. In response, mainstream Christian authors argued that the biblical Deborah’s prophetic activity was “private counsel” rather than “public leadership.” Another means of side-stepping the plain meaning of the text was use of allegory, as Origen of Alexandria used allegorization of Deborah’s name (“bee”) to avoid the implications of a story about Israel being judged by a woman. Even in contexts where the threat of Montanism was less pressing, Ambrose and Chrysostom found ways to “domesticate” Deborah and mitigate her public authority, portraying her in a motherly or wifely role. This presentation is paired with Rachel Ben-Dor’s paper on Jewish interpretations of the same biblical text. At various points I will examine similar themes arising in Ben-Dor’s paper. We will note points of contact and divergence amongst Christians and Jews, particularly in five categories: the issue of women’s political and spiritual authority; public versus private religious leadership; the “domestication” of Deborah; concern about women spending time alone with men; and “praise and blame” of Deborah.


Creating Golgotha: A Rhetorical and Cultural Necessity
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Michael J. Schufer, Claremont Graduate University

Golgotha is a bit of a mystery. The origin of its name, its location, its function are all obscure. This is in no small part due to the fact that there is no evidence of it prior to the Gospel of Mark and it only occurs in text that bear the markan tradition. It is also absent from apocryphal Christian literature that addresses the passion accounts. Even archeology cannot ascertain a precise location. The question I wish to address is was there a Golgotha prior to the gospel of Mark or were there reasons for Mark to create it? The paper I propose argues that Golgotha is a literary creation by the author of the gospel of Mark to satisfy a rhetorical and cultural need. The paper begins by exploring the rhetorical requirements for composing a narrative as provided in the progymnasmata. Here the specifics for composition are given, one of which specifies that a required element of a narrative is its place of occurrence and characteristics of that place. There is a rhetorical need for Mark to provide the name and characteristics of the place where Jesus is executed. In a short statement about Golgotha, Mark provides both elements. There are cultural factors as well. Literature from Greco-Roman antiquity shows evidence of specific locations, particularly in large cities, designated for the execution of criminals. These readings shed light on Mark’s attempt to designate Golgotha as a specific site for executions. There existed in the Greco-Roman culture a cultural expectation that specific places were designated for executions. It is to this cultural expectation that Mark crafts the Golgotha site. The use of rhetoric and literary sources provide a basis to build an argument that Golgotha was created out of necessity.


Reflections on John and Qumran
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Eileen Schuller, McMaster University

This paper will review the relationship between the Johannine Literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls from the perspective of scrolls scholarship.


Numbers 24:24: An Ever-Evolving Oracle
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Brian Schultz, Fresno Pacific University

The final verse of Balaam’s oracle for the “end of days” begins with an incomplete sentence: “And ships from the hand/side of the Kittim.” While today almost all modern commentators and translators assume that the text should be reconstructed as “and ships [will go out] from the hand/side of the Kittim,” the critical apparatus in the BHS tentatively suggests a reading which would replace the ancient Egyptian loanword “ship” with a verb. An overview of how this verse was used in the Second Temple Period for messianic purposes, including in the Dead Sea Scrolls, provides a window into how the phrase may have evolved over time in order to fit an ever-changing perception of what the “end of days” entailed. This historical and intertextual survey confirms the BHS’ suggestion, and is further bolstered by the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and indirectly by the Targum Onkelos. In addition, it helps explain why the Septuagint departed from its reconstructed Hebrew source at this point with a change from the plural to the singular.


The Sabbath in the Torah Sources
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Baruch J. Schwartz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Most studies of the biblical Sabbath are historical: they aim to determine when and where the weekly cessation from labor originated and to arrange the texts in accord with a developmental theory. Few scholars have diverged from this, notably M. Tsevat, who attempted to find a common feature underlying all of the texts and thus to ascertain the “basic meaning” of the Biblical Sabbath, as distinct from the (in his view) secondary meanings assigned to it by the legal texts. This paper will consider the Sabbath laws from the strictly source-critical perspective, and will show that each of the three sources J, E and P has its own unique and independent view of the Sabbath, whereas the view of D is characteristically dependent upon that of E. The return to simplicity in the source-division, the acknowledgment of J, E and P as independent documents, the exercise of greater precision in assigning the texts to their respective authors and the avoidance of resorting to a ubiquitous and omnipotent “redactor” combine to provide solutions to a few of the critical and exegetical issues in Genesis 2, Exodus 16, 20 and 31 and Deuteronomy 5, and enable us to observe a little-known feature of J.


Theories of Justice
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Regina Schwartz, Northwestern University

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Pseudepigrapha among the Pagans? Exploring the Boundaries of Audience
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Sarah L. Schwarz, Haverford College

Recent scholarship has approached the pseudepigrapha, which often contain what appear to be both Jewish and Christian themes, as reflective of the Christians who preserved and transmitted them. This was in response to earlier efforts to study these texts as exemplars of early Judaism, perhaps indicative of Jewish ideas which predate the development of Christianity. However, little attention has thus far been paid to the possibility that, in addition to Jews and Christians, “pagans” could have been interested in pseudepigraphical material. In the flourishing marketplace of religious ideas in the late antique world, people sought efficacy over orthodoxy in their efforts to deal with the vicissitudes of daily life. From the rich evidence of amulets and spells, we see biblical figures joined with Greco-Roman gods, and it appears that the individuals who looked to these devices for cures thought more about their healing powers than their origins in the Bible or elsewhere. Texts such as the Prayer of Jacob and the Eighth Book of Moses, both preserved in the PGM, raise similar questions. The Greek Testament of Solomon provides further possible evidence of this phenomenon. While this text was once studied as Jewish, it contains several references to Jesus, including the rather startling notion that Jesus was just one thwarting angel among many, to be adjured for assistance against the corresponding demon. This notion of Jesus as a mere powerful angel is not totally alien to early Christianity, but it also seems possible that this case represents the effort of a polytheist to make use of Jesus’ efficacious power within the pagan pantheon. This paper will argue that expanding our vision of the audience, composers, and tradents of such material will enrich our understanding of the pseudepigrapha and their place in the world of late antiquity.


Beyond Victor Turner: Theorizing the Process in Pauline Baptism
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Jonathan D. Schwiebert, Washington University

In Wayne Meeks’s groundbreaking study The First Urban Christians, Pauline baptism was treated as analogous to rites of passage. With the aid of Victor Turner’s theoretical reflections, Meeks proposed that in Pauline baptism “reaggregation” retains many of the liminal characteristics of communitas, which properly belong to the “transition” phase of the ritual. Almost twenty-five years later, and almost forty years after Turner’s theory was first published, it is worthwhile to reconsider the theoretical basis for examining Pauline baptism as a ritual process. This paper contends that newer theoretical models better help us to grapple with the eschatological dimension of the Pauline process as well as its intimate relationship to communal meals in Pauline circles. This paper also argues that there is some instructive slippage between any ritual theory and what is occurring in Pauline baptism, which can function as an interpretive key to this somewhat idiosyncratic ritual.


Parables
Program Unit:
Bernard Brandon Scott, Phillips Theological Seminary

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Is the Bible Always Scripture? The "Low" View of the Pentateuch in the Letter of Aristeas
Program Unit: Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
Ian W. Scott, Tyndale Seminary

It is often presumed, when discussing the development of authoritative texts in Second-Temple Judaism, that these documents were uniformly considered “Scripture” in a strong sense. This strong definition of “Scripture,” though it is not usually spelled out, includes in practice the ideas that (a) the texts have some sort of divine origin; and (b) the texts are uniquely authoritative among human documents. Yet a careful reading of the Letter of Aristeas reveals that the Egyptian Jew who authored this text in the second century BCE did not subscribe to either position. Instead, the Pentateuch is treated in Aristeas as an enlightened cultural artifact. Its brilliance is attributed, not to direct inspiration of any kind, but to Moses’ unusual giftedness as a philosopher. Hence no claim is made about the uniqueness of Moses’ books. Rather, the texts are deliberately placed on par with the highest philosophical and religious achievements of the broader Hellenistic world. Granted, the author of Aristeas is not representative of the views of Second-Temple Jews in general. He appears to be part of the Alexandrian elite, writing to re-frame Judaism in terms which will be palatable in that social circle. It remains significant, however, that such a prominent, Torah-observant Jew did not consider the Pentateuch to be “Scripture” in the sense that term usually carries.


Not Just Housewives: Goddesses after the Old Babylonian Period
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Joann Scurlock, Elmhurst College

Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses, laments the "eclipse" of Sumerian goddesses as follows: "By the later periods in Mesopotamia, only Ishtar has any impact and persona. Other goddesses exist primarily as consorts, mere sexual partners for male deities". Admittedly most post-Sumerian goddesses were somebody's wife or daughter. However, being the beloved wife or daughter of a powerful man gave a woman his status vis-à-vis other males. This could make her an extremely powerful and popular intercessory figure with real staying power. Just ask Sîn's wife Nikkal or Assur's wife Mulissu (Mylitta) whose cult lasted well into her dotage. Moreover, there remained goddesses who had power through their own accomplishments. Gula, although wife of the warrior god Ninurta, was the patroness of medicine in her own right and remained every bit as important as any male divinity. Finally, Ishtar in the late periods was not a single goddess but a type of goddess, each having different powers and characteristics. Two of the five major cities of the Assyrian empire had Ishtars as their chief divinities. In sum, when viewed without the manure-colored glasses, Assyrian and other post-Old Babylonian goddesses were anything but "just housewives."


A Light to the Gentiles and a Gatherer of Israel: Tradition and Symbiosis in Galatians
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Love L. Sechrest, Fuller Theological Seminary

A close examination of Paul’s use of tradition from Isaiah 49 in Galatians 1 suggests that Paul understood himself as both “a light to the Gentiles” and one who “gathers the dispersed ones of Israel,” a description that is consonant with Paul’s comments about symbiotic interdependence in Gentile and Jewish salvation in Rom 11:11-15, 25-32. Further, re-examination of what are thought to be pre-Pauline traditions in Gal 3:13-14, 26-29; 4:4-6 reveal that the motif of symbiotic interdependence also appears in Galatians. There the motif of interdependence focuses on the way that Jewish freedom from full law observance facilitates Gentile acceptance of the gospel, and the way that faith ends the law’s guardianship because of the transforming power of baptism. Further, Galatians describes the advent of the spirit among Jewish people as the ultimate manifestation of God’s eschatological victory.


Race Traitor and Anti-Semite? Paul and the Jewishness of Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5:16–17
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Love L. Sechrest, Fuller Theological Seminary

This paper explores the radical nature of Paul’s vision of Christian community and the way that “naming” can become complicit in violence. In Paul, the phrase “new creation” refers to an apocalyptic transformation of identity in Christ that establishes a believer as a member of a wholly new people or ethnoracial entity. Not only does Paul describe his own identity in these terms, but he describes a similar transformation of identity with reference to Jesus in 2 Cor 5:16-17. In effect, Paul argues that when it comes to the significance of Christ’s death, he no longer identifies Jesus as a Jew. It is possible that far from stimulating reconciliation, this kind of radical claim precipitated violence from Paul’s contemporaries, both inside and outside of the Christian movement.


Latter-day Saints and the Five Books of Moses
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
David R. Seely, Brigham Young University

From the beginnings, Latter-day Saints are Bible readers and believers. Central to their faith is the Five Books of Moses. In addition to the LDS belief that the Bible is “the word of God,” the books of the Pentateuch form a significant element in LDS modern scripture in the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants. Thus the Pentateuch is central to Mormon belief and theology. Working from a comprehensive bibliography of LDS scholarship on the Old Testament, the purpose of this paper is to review LDS readings and scholarship on each of the five books of Moses from the time of Joseph Smith to the present. The paper will isolate, quantify and evaluate the themes of significance for LDS as reflected in the written scholarship and to a lesser degree the “over the pulpit” teachings by the authorities of the Church about these books. For each book, the paper will address three issues: (1) To evaluate the central themes and messages of interest to Latter-day Saints. (2) To investigate the kinds of scholarship that have been applied to each book and the specific passages. 3) Assess the trends in reading, understanding and scholarship of each book from the time of Joseph Smith to the present.


"Irrational Animals": Hybridity, Alterity, and Name-Calling in 2 Peter 2: A Postcolonial Reading
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Robert Paul Seesengood, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

2 Peter 2 uses ad homonym attacks against "false teachers who will secretly bring in destructive heresies." The author of 2 Peter argues these "arrogant," "base," and "deceitful" teachers espouse an un-holy mixture of esoteric teachings. The author assures us that they, and any who follow them, face God's sure destruction. Above all, they "deny the Master who bought them," are enslaved anew in lasciviousness, and have turned back to their former ideology as a "dog returning to his own vomit." Ironically, however, 2 Peter, in the very chapter that so roundly condemns its opponents, demonstrates an eclectic mix of theological influences. The "heretics" who offer an accommodating theology are condemned by arguments that employ Jewish Bible, Pseudepigrapha, and Greek cosmology. Using structures described by Homi Bhabha, we can refer to the theology of 2 Peter as "hybrid;" it is an eclectic mixture and mimicry of various theological and mythological strands, largely a compilation of both altern and sub-altern cosmologies in the religious and philosophical world of the early Empire. 2 Peter uses this hybrid theology to construct a central, new, "colonial" ideology that then attempts, itself, to enforce compliance; it uses, in other words, a theological structure composed by sub-altern hybridity, to manufacture a new sense of "alterity." Notably, it goes even further in its mimicry of the modes of colonial alterity: the opponents are, very literally, "dehumanized" and presented as spiritual rebels or "run-away slaves" worthy only of being "hunted down and slain." This paper will postcolonial methodologies to explore and develop these features of the argument of 2 Peter. It will, as well, explore the implications and effects of the argumentative patterns found in 2 Peter on Western expansion and colonial progress, focusing on the real experience of slaves and indigenous peoples in the settlement of the American South.


John 14:16, 15:26, 16:7, 1 John 2:1 and Matthew 17:1–8//Mark 9:2–10//Luke 9:28–36
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Alan Segal, Barnard College, Columbia University

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From Joseph to Daniel to Antiochus: The Literary Development of Daniel 2
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Michael Segal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This paper will analyze the narrative section of Daniel 2 in an attempt to better understand the process of its composition and the significance of each of its strata. This chapter describes the king’s decree to kill his dream-interpreters following their inability to reveal his dream and its interpretation, and Daniel’s subsequent success. Based upon certain contradictions within the passage, scholars have generally recognized the composite nature of this text. Additional evidence will be marshaled to bolster this claim, including the variation in the divine names according to the evidence of the Old Greek version. Furthermore, I suggest that the precise division of the source material has not yet been identified. Specifically, based upon an analysis of the expression ???? ??? ???? (v. 14), it will be posited that a supplementary section in this chapter can be limited to verses 15-24a. The earlier stratum of the story presents Daniel as a “second” Joseph, and closely parallels the story of Genesis 41. The secondary section will be analyzed in an attempt to identify its literary and historical context, with special attention given to the relationship between the description of God in 2:21 and the depiction of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Daniel 7:24-25. This connection has further implications for understanding the relationship between Daniel 7 and the rest of the Aramaic corpus in Daniel (chapters 2–6).


The Indispensability of Theories of Myth to Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Robert Segal, University of Aberdeen

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Reflections on Absence and Irruption
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Fernando F. Segovia, Vanderbilt University

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The Rhetorical Function of Comparison in Hebrews
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Timothy W. Seid, Earlham School of Religion

In my 1996 dissertation "The Rhetorical Form of the Melchizedek/Christ Comparison in Hebrews 7," I began forming the thesis that the rhetorical pattern throughout the book of Hebrews is synkrisis followed by paraenesis (some recent scholars argue for the term protreptic instead). In this paper I will show the way in which the author of Hebrews employs synkrisis and exhortation to encourage the audience to the goal of perfection as understood in the tradition of Greco-Roman moral philosophy. Scripture texts and Biblical figures are not a part of a midrash exegesis or rabbinic method of argumentation, but subjects for comparison and examples for moral persuasion. Most importantly, this approach shows that the author is not attempting to denigrate Judaism in order to prevent a supposed audience of Jewish Christians from lapsing back into legalism. Rather, the narrative framework of the (Greek) Bible is presented as the good thing God has done in the past, while the present work accomplished by Jesus represents the better work God has now made available. The former is inferior only in the sense that the people were not able to reach the goal of God's rest; in other words, the perfection attained through endurance, faithfulness, and moral progress. The exhortation and warning to the people of God is to remain faithful in their moral practice or suffer a greater consequence than the Israelites in the wilderness.


Series of Woes in Preexilic Prophecy: A Study on Syntax and Semantics
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Guadalupe Seijas de los Rios-Zarzosa, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This paper will focus on the study of the series of Woes in preexilic prophetic texts, from Protoisaiah, Amos, Micah and Habakkuk. My research is based on the formal analysis of these texts (i.e. a syntactical approach considering clause structure, the use of certain particles and of verbal forms), and on a semantic-based study of the literary devices and elements peculiar to this genre as well. Through this analysis I will try to detect whether there is a correlation between the form (syntax) and the meaning (semantics) in these texts.


Taxonomy and Transformation: Another Look at 1 Corinthians 15:38–41
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Turid Karlsen Seim, University of Oslo

In antiquity tales of transformation, such as those by Ovid and Apuleius. address questions concerning the ontological or ethical status of a certain taxonomic order. Which features carry continuity or reveal a continued presence in a different form? Are there taxonomic boundaries that were considered inviolable and did the Christians differ in the boundaries they perceived as absolute and across which transfomation was neither allowable nor possible? In 1 Cor 15, where Paul in very direct terms addresses questions pertaining the resurrected body, a much overlooked taxonomy of God’s work of creation, its categories and differences (v.38-41) is basic to his argumentation. In the paper I will examine the structuring principles of this taxonomy and the crucial role it plays in the overall argumentation of Paul in 1 Cor 15.


Liturgy and the Dynamics of Domestic Space in Late Antique Rome
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Kristina Sessa, Ohio State University

As is well known, the classical household had been a vibrant site of religious practice, while the earliest Christian communities first assembled in urban house-churches. Yet according to traditional historiographies of Romes Christianization, the private household ceased to play an active role in how post-Constantinian Christians practiced their faith and conceived their bishops authority. My paper challenges this narrative. It examines how a group of texts collectively imagined rooms of the private aristocratic household as spaces where Christian liturgical dramas (sacrifice, sin, and repentance) unfolded. The gesta martyrum were anonymously written in Rome during the fifth and sixth centuries, when the papacy first emerged as a civic institution. Almost certainly not written by bishops, they offer insight into how some Romans envisioned the place of the pope in the shifting dynamics of religion and authority that characterized both household and city. I pay close attention to how the authors of the gesta depicted specific rooms, such as the triclinium and the cubiculum, as ritual centers in the home, where elite pagans converted to Christianity and aristocratic Christian martyrs practiced their perseverance through exposure to domestic temptations. In light of the disjuncture between these sources dramatic dates (the pre-Constantinian era) and their date of production (the fifth and sixth centuries), I explore why the authors chose to (re)write Romes Christian history onto the material space of the household. I also consider how the imagined households of the gesta do and do not cohere with the archaeology of domestic and ecclesiastical space in Rome. I conclude that these texts played direct roles not only in the shaping of new models of aristocratic identity, but also in the forging of a relationship between the household and bishops.


In the Wake of the Goddesses: Theology, the Humanities, and the Education of Seminarians
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Diane M. Sharon, Academy for Jewish Religion

Tikva Frymer Kensky's book In the Wake of the Goddesses is a repository of theological ideas of enormous use to clergy-in-training. This paper will examine the book's use in both Jewish and Christian seminary contexts, including its use as a trigger for thoughtful discussion, as a convenient source of valuable perspectives on multiple biblical cultural contexts, and as an exemplar of the great themes in humanistic education.


Jeremiah among Ancient and Contemporary Readers: Reconfiguring Redaction Criticism as Witness to Foreignness
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Carolyn J. Sharp, Yale Divinity School

The purpose of this paper is to explore Jeremiah as a fruitful site for the problematizing and re-envisioning of redaction-critical methodologies, that is, reading strategies that take seriously the honoring of multiple voices in the Book of Jeremiah as an authored text shaped by a complex compositional history. Recent challenges to naive historicist views of the authorial subject and unsubtle notions of literary coherence have left redaction criticism, at least as traditionally practiced, increasingly peripheral within the guild of Biblical scholarship, derided as overly technical by some and dismissed as irrelevant by others. This paper will work toward a reconfiguration of redaction criticism as a disciplined attentiveness to the construction of foreignness (both readerly and textual). I will attend to ambiguities and aporia within Jeremiah 36 concerning the following motifs: the complicating roles of memory and mediation as prior to writtenness ("Baruch wrote on a scroll at Jeremiah's dictation all the words of the LORD that He had spoken to him," 36:4); the hiddenness of author and scribe/redactor (to Baruch: "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah," 36:19), the power and risks of abandoned writing ("leaving the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the secretary," 36:20); and the scandal of rewriting ("and many similar words were added to them," 36:32). Julia Kristeva's "Toccata and Fugue for a Foreigner" will be referenced at key junctures. Her insights underscore the hermeneutical possibility that the readerly experience of redaction is a recognition of existence in diaspora, with redactor and reader alike exiled from the constructed homeland of the text.


The "Word of God" in Luke-Acts and the Septuagint
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Scott Shauf, Bluefield College

One clear instance of biblical intertextuality in Luke-Acts is the frequent use of the phrase “the word of the Lord/God.” This paper explores the connections between this phrase in Luke-Acts (mostly Acts) and LXX historiography. Of special interest is how the use of this phrase is tied to the prophetic character of both sets of writings, and especially how the phrase relates to the theme of divine retribution in both. Surprisingly, Luke does not imitate the precise wording of the LXX in his use of the phrase. While both Luke-Acts and the LXX vary in regard to the use of theos or kurios, logos or rhema, and the presence of the article, Luke’s favorite logos tou theou is only used twice in the entire LXX. Luke-Acts also differs significantly from the LXX in terms of the contexts in which the phrase is used, as, for example, a comparison of the verbs that accompany the phrase demonstrates. Two related themes that do connect Luke-Acts with the LXX in terms of the use of the phrase are the idea of divine retribution and the link between the divine word and the prophets. Despite these connections, substantial differences remain between the way these themes themselves appear in Luke-Acts vis-à-vis the LXX. Divine retribution, for instance, is primarily an eschatological matter in Luke-Acts, unlike in LXX historiography. By examining the various differences and similarities among the writings, we can see how Luke has reconfigured these LXX themes and expressions to fit his story. In addition to the importance of eschatology, the relationship of the church in Acts to the people of Israel becomes a central factor in shaping Luke’s presentation of the divine word, a point especially seen in places where the divine word refers primarily to the church (e.g. Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20).


Romans 8:28: Remnants of an Attic Proverb?
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Frank Shaw, University of Dayton

Apparently the words of Romans 8.28 have escaped the attention of those who are working to document pagan influence on the New Testament. The old Wettstein, Boring et al. in their Hellenistic Commentary to the NT, the collaborators of the Studia ad Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti, and the editors of Der neue Wettstein nowhere mention any connection of Paul's words here with the greater Greek world, even though at least one commentator on Romans opines that Paul seems to be referencing a source that his audience would discern. NT textual critics have for some time recognized that our locus seems be a quotation of a Stoic saying. My research has revealed that it is likely a much older proverb, one dating back to fifth-century BCE Athens, found both in the comedian Aristophanes and in fourth-century Attic oratory. Furthermore, the modern discipline of paroemiology (the study of maxims) provides findings that are helpful in studying the transition of our expression from fifth-century Athens to Paul's time. The principles of this field of the study of proverbs and how they change over time should be of genuine interest to those scholars who attend the Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti consulta-tion and might well prove fruitful in their future research.


The Mythical Map II: Geographical Realism in Ancient Novelistic Narratives
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Chris Shea, Ball State University

The ancient novels were thought by the literary librarians of later times to be the descendants of the Athenian Xenophon’s writings—which is why they were assigned to the Xenophon of Ephesus, for example. But what kind of writing is this really? Can the novels be thought to possess the same kind of attention to realistic historical detail as Xenophon’s Anabasis or even the Cyropedia? This paper will put the geographical details of Xenophon’s writing alongside those of select ancient novels and of the canonical Acts to argue that (1) historical accuracy is not a primary value of the later works and that (2) historical realism, even with regard to easily researched background detail, is not a primary value of the later works. But if Xenophon the Athenian is not the intellectual father of the new Xenophons, at least in this matter, who were their parents? This paper will argue that this is an instance where the poets, particularly Apollonius Rhodius and Vergil, have taken the place(s) of the historians.


Reading Regional "Realities": Fourth Century Judaizers in Antioch and Edessa
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Christine Shepardson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

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Babel in Another Voice: Praising the Generation of the Dispersion
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Phillip Michael Sherman, Maryville College

The narrative of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) is about many things. A dominant strain in the interpretive tradition, however, has viewed the narrative as an account of hubris, rebellion against the divine and even as idolatry. Babel has served well as a metaphor for humanity’s inability to recognize its place in the divine economy and its attempt to continually confuse and confound divine limitation. There are, however, rare moments of positive (or semi-positive) interpretation of the builders of the Tower. This paper explores a number of passages contained in Genesis Rabbah (a 5th century compilation of rabbinic traditions) which present this alternative reading of the story of Babel. I attempt both to demonstrate the exegetical sympathy shown to the generation of the dispersion and to suggest possible reasons why such an irenic reading might gain a hearing in Genesis Rabbah given the standard interpretive canards launched at the Babelites.


After "After Theory" and Other Apocalyptic Conceits in Literary and Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Yvonne Sherwood, University of Glasgow

Within the field(s) of literary studies, a generic poststructuralism has long served as a kind of disciplinary lingua franca. At present, however, "high theory," epitomized by poststructuralism, is in a perceived state of decline in literary studies. What has taken, or will take, its place is still veiled from view. This paper will explore the complex ramifications of the "post-poststructuralism" and "after theory" debate for biblical studies.


Reading/Writing Jeremiah: Self-Conscious Scrolls and Subverted Desires
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Yvonne Sherwood, University of Glasgow

The question ‘What scroll does the (post-)modern reader desire?’ provokes two responses. Firstly, the model of reading that stresses the satisfaction of the reader’s desire does not fit well with prophecy. The prophet as author is like postmodern authors such as Donald Barthelme or Peter Handke, who seek to ‘offend’ the audience and use ‘lexically and sexually exhibitionistic terms’ to ‘get past the reader’s hardworn armour’. Thus prophecy as a genre forces us beyond reductive literary models based on harmony (both within the text and between the text and reader) and rhetorical seduction, generating new models of the literary in Biblical Studies. Secondly, the scroll of Jeremiah overlaps with contemporary genres of meta-fiction, in that it self-consciously objectifies itself and performs its own construction and reception. Jeremiah 36 enacts the production of the scroll as a theatrical event, foregrounds the role of a chain of ‘secretaries’, and overtly worries about the relation between speech and writing. In this way it anticipates (post-) modern problems for Jeremiah—not least the problem of exhuming the body/persona of the prophet from the corpus of the text.


Contested Reputations and Revealing the Eternal Plans of God: Communal Legitimation in Ephesians
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Minna Shkul, University of Wales Lampeter

Ephesians negotiates Jewishness in the light of a strong messianic conviction; remembering selectively, inventing traditions, silencing alternative voices and claiming to reveal eternal plans of Israel's God. It positions ‘Jesus Christ’ at the heart of a Jewish symbolic universe, and works out its various meanings with a community of non-Israelite Christ-followers in mind. Its key purpose is to provide social and ideological paradigms for the community addressed, and thus guide their values, beliefs and social processes, working out what following ‘Jesus Christ’ means to the group. However, despite of its rhetoric, Ephesians was a distinctive voice in social competition among alternative ideologies and other social influences. This paper explores how Ephesians engaged a variety of strategies in the task of communal legitimation in order to guarantee the survival and growth of the movement, proclaiming to be the authoritative voice for Israel’s God, despite of being, in all likelihood, a minority voice at the margins of Jewishness. This paper uses social-scientific theoretical insights in exploring how Ephesians explains and justifies the Christ-following community and its core values. This includes, for instance, turning figures with contested reputations into heroes and shaping social remembering; stereotyping and stigmatising outsiders; as well as using the language of ideological manipulation, claiming to know the mysteries of the supreme God and operating on his warrant, in his power.


Between Scripture and Tradition: The Marian Apocrypha of Early Christianity
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Stephen J. Shoemaker, University of Oregon

Early Christian apocrypha have often been defined in terms of the writings of the New Testament: they are conceived as rival texts in the same genres, whose pretensions to canonical status were denied by their exclusion from the canon. Nevertheless, this conception of Christian apocrypha fails to do justice to the diversity of the Christian apocryphal traditions themselves and their varied usage within the Christian faith. In many cases certain Christian apocrypha are better understood as a vital component of ecclesiastical Tradition rather than as failed scriptures. The Marian apocrypha of early Christianity exemplify this problem. The Protevangelium and the early Dormition apocrypha do not especially reflect biblical genres, nor do they seem to have been composed with the intent of joining the biblical canon. Nevertheless, despite their exclusion from the New Testament, these texts and their traditions possess an almost quasi-canonical status. Many of these Marian apocrypha survive in hundreds of manuscripts, and some have influenced the shape of traditional Christianity to an extent comparable at some level to the writings of the New Testament. This paper focuses particularly on a fourth-century Marian apocryphon, the “Six Books” narrative of the Virgin’s Dormition and Assumption, a work known from several Syriac manuscripts of the fifth and sixth centuries. This apocryphon, presumably never intended for the Scriptural canon, affords an early example of apocrypha in liturgical usage, not as rival scriptures but as an authoritative component of ecclesiastical Tradition. Included in the Six Books apocryphon is a brief liturgical handbook mandating the annual observance of three Marian feasts. As this liturgical manual stipulates, the Six Books apocryphon is to be read on each of these occasions, together with readings from the Old and New Testaments, presenting fourth-century evidence for the incorporation of apocrypha into the liturgy alongside of canonical materials.


"He Subdued the Water Monster": God's Battle with the Sea according to Egyptian Sources
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Nili Shupak, University of Haifa

The battle of god with the sea, which designates the conflict between the cosmic order and the chaotic powers, was a prevalent myth in the ancient world. Different versions of this myth from Babylonian, Ugarit, Mari and Hatti have long been known. Allusions to this myth occur also in the Bible (cf. Gen 1:21; Isa 27:1; 51: 9-10; Ps. 74:13; Job 7:12; 26:12-13; Hab 3:8-9, 15; etc.). The common view in research is that the Hebrew texts bear the imprint of the Mesopotamian or the Ugaritic versions, and lately even an impact of Asia Minor was mentioned. The aim of the present discussion is to demonstrate that a parallel myth, which unfortunately has not attracted the attention it merits, was known in ancient Egypt also. The Egyptian tradition is documented from the second millennium BCE until the Roman period, thus predating all other ancient Near Eastern versions, the oldest of which is from the 18th-17th century BCE. The Egyptian myth has been preserved fragmented in many sources (literary and iconographic). To reconstruct it one must collect and assemble all these scattered fragments as one whole piece. The present investigation proves that the tradition of god's battle with the sea was well known in ancient Egypt, and the possibility that it left its traces in the Biblical texts is not to be excluded.


Linguistic Analysis of Sêmeron in Luke 23:43
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Rodrigo Silva, Centro Universitario Adventista de Sao Paulo

Luke 23:43 is a Text of ambiguous reading, where the adverb can qualify to the first verb (to say) as well the second (to be). The eschatological understanding of the verse can be modified significantly, depending on how we read or punctuate the phrase: “Amen I say unto you today you will be with me in Paradise”. The majority of the versions connect the adverb to the second verb, but some connect it with the previous one; and a few ones prefer to keep the original dubiousness, leaving the text without punctuation or the adverb between commas. The purpose of this study was to analyze linguistically the syntax of the adverb sêmeron in Luke 23:43, searching to verify which is the most viable reading among those suggested. From an exhaustive analysis of the syntactic behavior of the sêmeron within other amphibologies similar to the one of Luke 23:43, we can find a linguistic argument that supports one of the readings. This study is based on the Greek texts of the LXX, NT, and Church Fathers. The problematic nature of the text was clearly noticed throughout the history of Christian Church. A major group of theologians, deeply indebted to platonic philosophy, defended and intermediate fulfillment of Christ’s promise. But diverge among themselves (and against the Jewish heritage of the New Testament) about some details of this promise Meanwhile another smaller group that understood the “today” of the promise as referring to the saying of Christ and not to the promise. Within such debate it is necessary to get the results of a linguistic study of the adverb in Greek that is free from all eschatological dogmatic concepts which for many centuries have guided the overall discussion in detriment to the need of the philological research that is crucial for Biblical Sciences.


Colin McCahon’s Biblical Interpretations
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Alice M. Sinnott, University of Auckland

Colin McCahon’s artistic interpretations of bible texts speak to the complex concerns that shaped each painting and compel the viewer to consider theological and cultural concerns addressed. His work highlights differences between written texts and the same texts portrayed in his paintings. Each piece he created communicates something of what engaged him in the text. The works do more than act as a non-verbal panegyric to McCahon’s talents. He explored and lived in the void between religious institutions and a secular world as they increasingly rejected each other. Struggling in the face of hostile opposition, he acknowledged that his work was autobiographical. During his lifetime (1919-1987) a radical change was taking place in the human quest for meaning and fulfilment. The truths, myths, and symbols of the past were losing their force, many seeing them as human in origin and relative to time and place. In this rapidly changing world, McCahon became passionately engrossed in creating new models of reality and expressions of meaning. His attempts shocked religious groups and offended many in art circles. Decades later, we can salute McCahon as a great artist who was ahead of his time. Many now consider him one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent artists. A Letter to the Hebrews and Ecclesiastes inspired McCahon’s final works. Copying from the New English Bible, he transcribed chosen passages on to loose sheets of a sketchpad. His paintings do not follow the texts as laid out in the Bible. Instead, McCahon adjusted them to suit his needs emphasising certain aspects and possible meanings. His last four paintings, drawing on the text of Ecclesiastes, are printed in distinctive, cursive white script on black, almost featureless backgrounds. On large unframed blackboards with white lettering, he describes what he sees as the futility of life.


The Place of Heaven within Acts, and Heaven Acting within the Narrative
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Matthew Sleeman, Oak Hill College

The geographical impulse of Acts has long been noted: but ‘heaven’ has a problematic position within existing understandings of the narrative-space produced within Acts. Heaven appears on no map, but it is the place where Jesus is, Jesus who was the protagonist in Luke’s first volume and who exercises a significant absent presence within Luke’s second ‘word’. This paper uses contemporary geographical theory to explore the contribution that heaven, understood as Christological space, makes to the Acts narrative. It traces the formative impact of heaven within Acts (especially, but not exclusively, Acts 1-11), and positions heaven within the wider production of space which the narrative communicates. This production of space is shown to be ‘theological’ on two counts. First, it communicates the narrative’s theology, being instrumental in presenting Acts’ understanding of God, Jesus and the Spirit. Second, it casts the theology of Acts as being played out in space. Places and spaces on earth are positioned by reference to heaven as the place where Jesus is. As such, the paper raises larger questions relating to how we can read Acts for its presentation of space, and not just (as has long been noted) for its portrayal of time.


The Notion of the Holy Tongue in Early Rabbinic Literature
Program Unit: Midrash
Willem Smelik, University College London

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The Problem of History in John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
D. Moody Smith, Duke University

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Ethical Exhortation, Identity Formation, and Authority: The Function of the Two Ways Form in Barnabas 18–21 and Ephesians 4:17–5:21
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Julien C. H. Smith, Baylor University

The presence of a Two Ways form of parenesis in Eph 4:17-5:21 has often been noted, but its function within the argument of the letter has not been adequately accounted for. It has recently been suggested that such ethical exhortation resonates with the cultural assumption in antiquity that vice must be eliminated before unity can be established, thereby bolstering Ephesians’ overall exhortation towards unity. This paper explores this proposal by analyzing the function of the Two Ways form in another early Christian text, the Epistle of Barnabas. It is assumed that the authorial audience of Ephesians would have been familiar with the Two Ways form of parenesis, given its prevalence in Jewish and Christian literature. The function of the Two Ways form in Barnabas may thus shed light on the cultural repertoire of the authorial audience of Ephesians. In Barnabas, the sociological function of the Two Ways imagery found throughout the letter is to strengthen group identity by fostering a strong sense of in-group awareness. That is, it sharpens the contrast between those who accept the author’s negation of Jewish identity through scripture, and those who do not. The Two Ways form (chs. 18-21) not only recapitulates this imagery, but serves to orient the exhortation to a common identity around the teaching authority of the author. These findings suggest that the Two Ways form in Ephesians may indeed support that letter’s call to unity. However, while the Two Ways form serves the pragmatic function of eliminating vice, it may also serve the sociological function of construing unity in opposition to outsiders. Furthermore, Ephesians’ authorial audience may have construed this call to unity as a summons to recognize the authority of its author.


Jeremiah as Frantz Fanon: How Prophets Inspire Exilic Theologies
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Daniel Smith-Christopher, Loyola Marymount University

This paper will explore the many ways in which Jeremiah, either the prophet's preaching or the resulting text, inspired a great deal of exilic and post-exilic theological developments, including textual traditions noted in Daniel, Tobit, and Baruch, and Prophetic Narratives such as Jonah. Parallels are drawn between Jeremiah's influence, and the interesting influence of Fanon as a 20th Century "Prophet" whose texts deeply inspired many lines of analysis in contemporary Postcolonialist and Cultural Studies.


Building Houses and Planting Vineyards: The Late Inner-biblical Discourse of an Ancient Israelite Wartime Curse
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Jeremy Smoak, University of California-Los Angeles

One of the more prominent biblical curses threatens Israel in the following words: “You will build a house, but not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but not drink its wine.” In early biblical literature, this curse plays a significant role in the biblical discourse over ancient Israel’s experience with Assyrian and Babylonian imperialism. For instance, several prophetic texts cite the curse alongside references to siege warfare, exile, and other military tactics associated with Assyrian and Babylonian warfare practices (Amos 5:11; Zephaniah 1:13; Deuteronomy 28:30). A survey of later biblical literature shows that the curse’s imagery continued to hold a significant place in the exilic and post-exilic periods. Several exilic and post-exilic texts transform the curse into a promise anticipating the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple (Jeremiah 29:5; Ezekiel 28:26; Isaiah 65:21). The present study traces the history of the curse’s imagery in later biblical discourse by relating its later history to certain processes during the exilic and early post-exilic periods. A study of the interrelationships between the various references to the curse’s imagery in these texts sheds light on the reasons behind the persistent importance of its imagery in later biblical discourse.


Is the Wisdom Tradition a Tradition?
Program Unit: Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Mark Sneed, Lubbock Christian University

I will draw on genre criticism and deconstruction to argue that the wisdom literature is a genre and not a tradition with its own particular worldview and distinctive theology, as current wisdom experts unanimously depict it. The wisdom literature will be shown to be a didactic genre that was used to train elite scribes. The wisdom literature certainly has its own distinctive traits but these were never intended to be studied in isolation from the other genres of the Hebrew Bible. In other words, the wisdom literature has an identity of its own only in relation to the other genres, not in separation from them. Thus, the lack of references in wisdom literature to important theological motifs found in the other genres is exactly what one would expect. I will also argue that the tradents of the wisdom literature were also the authors of the other genres of the Bible. Young scribes were taught to use an array of genres, not only sapiential ones. This parallels the use of didactic literature in Egypt and Mesopotamia.


Prayers of Lamentation in the Proto- and Apocalpytic Literature of the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
LeAnn Snow Flesher, American Baptist Seminary of the West at the Graduate Theological Union

There are numerous observable nuanced shifts in style, tone, and theology that one may note as s/he moves from the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible into the proto- and apocalyptic literature of the same. This study, a continuation of my 2006 SBL paper entitled "Isaiah 63:7-64:11(12) as Post-destruction God Lament: The Socio-Rhetorical Development of Remnant Theology in Third Isaiah," will seek to unearth and describe notable shifts in the use of lamentation in the proto- and apocalyptic literature of the Hebrew Bible. Special focus will be placed on the shift in God's culpability versus human responsibility as it plays out in the prophetic cries for human reform versus the apocalyptic hope for intervention as found in III Isaiah and Daniel.


The First Orientalist? Fantasy and Foreignness in the Book of Esther
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Elna K. Solvang, Concordia College, Moorhead

In Reading Women of the Bible, Tikva Frymer-Kensky instructs biblical readers to begin “with the effort to remove the traditional interpretations and read the stories in their richly enigmatic artistry” (xxii). This paper examines the “house of women” in Esther 2. This description of the young women competing to please the king and the erotic interpretations of this passage in art and commentary share the features of an orientalist fantasy. Where does this portrayal of women come from and how does it fit into the larger structure of the Book of Esther?


Inadequate Innocence, Audacious Inadequacy
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Angella Son, Drew University

Utilizing Heinz Kohut’s self psychology as an interpretive tool in identifying God as the Selfobject of Job allows us to re-vision the concept of God’s omnipotence and theology of atonement. Re-visioning the understanding of God’s omnipotence, we may add the dimension of “audacious inadequacy,” which I define as an ability to audaciously embrace the undesirable “not-self” as a part of the self for the benefit of others. Specifically, God embraces even violence as a part of Godself in spite of its opposing or negating force to God’s nature as love. This re-visioned understanding of the theology of atonement addresses the experiences of guilt and shame in restoring the human relationship to God. Job’s main struggle was not about reasons for his suffering, i.e., innocence or guilt, but rather about his sense of inadequacy. Innocence alone thus is inadequate in addressing one’s connectedness to God and inadequacy or sense of shame has as much, if not deeper, bearing on the restoration of one’s relationship to God. Heinz Kohut’s concept of selfobject will bring the utmost significance to the discussion and Carol Newsom’s treatment of the book of Job as polyphonic text provides the framework of the discussion at hand. Other psychological interpretations and commentaries on the book of Job will be dialogue partners brought in as needed to unfold the discussion. This project will contribute to the discourses on evil, suffering, and kenosis as well.


Mother, Goddess, Monster: Tiamat and the Monstrous Feminine in Mesopotamia
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Karen Sonik, University of Pennsylvania

Tikva Frymer-Kensky's In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth compellingly charts the development and decline of the Mesopotamian goddesses, following them from positions of relative strength and independent power in the third millennium to near total marginalization by the end of the second. The defeat of Tiamat, the dominating female figure of the late second millennium Babylonian composition Enuma eliš, at the hands of the young hero-god Marduk is characterized as the culmination of this process: “Marduk creates the world and organizes the cosmos as a divine state. We live in the body of the mother, but she has neither activity nor power.” While this description offers one vision of Tiamat’s place in the long decline of the Mesopotamian goddesses, her role throughout Enuma eliš, the mechanisms whereby she is transformed from protective mother to vengeful destroyer, and the question of her exact form and nature are issues of arguably greater interest. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of Tiamat as a multifaceted and nuanced female entity who belongs partially in the tradition of the Sumerian mother goddess and partially in the tradition of Frymer-Kensky’s non-domesticated woman. Philological and comparative literary considerations are introduced in an examination of her numerous and conflicting roles over the course of the epic: wife, mother, and non-domesticated woman; peacemaker and warrior; elemental being, goddess, and monster. Tiamat’s development, as well as the manner of her death, offers new insight into the themes with which Tikva Frymer-Kensky was especially concerned: the role and development of the goddess figure as mother; the extent to which goddesses both model and reflect human feminine norms; and the mechanisms whereby the Mesopotamian goddesses were supplanted by masculine deities.


Retelling and Misreading Jesus: Eudocia's Homeric Cento
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Brian Sowers, University of Cincinnati

Homeric centos, paraphrastic poems constructed by borrowing lines from Homer, played an important role in Late Antiquity. My study begins from the theoretical position that paraphrastic literature inevitably involves interpretation. Through a series of rereadings and misreadings of the Biblical account, Eudocia was able to fashion the canonical story line into a new and relevant narrative. My analysis of the structural and thematic revisions in the cento reveals for the first time how Eudocia's Homeric Jesus interacts with concerns of Late Antiquity and, in doing so, deviates conspicuously from the gospel tradition.


The Cult of Ceres in Roman Corinth: Evidence from Two Archaistic Relief Bases
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Barbette Stanley Spaeth, College of William and Mary

This paper proposes a new interpretation of two bases with archaistic reliefs, found near the southwest corner of the Forum of Roman Corinth. The bases, generally dated to the Augustan period, are carved on three sides with single-figure reliefs. The commonly accepted interpretation, first offered by Charles Williams, holds that the figures on one base represent the Greek gods Zeus Chthonios, Demeter, and Kore, and on the other they are Ge Chthonia, Dionysos, and Athena. Williams proposed that the connection among these divinities was that they were all associated with agricultural fertility, although he had a difficult time fitting the Athena figure into this interpretation. I propose that these figures are instead Roman divinities; on the first base are the Genius of the Colony of Corinth, Ceres, and Libera/Proserpina, and on the second base are the Fortuna of the Colony of Corinth, Liber, and Minerva. I provide artistic and numismatic comparanda for the identification of these figures and suggest that they represent the tutelary gods of the early Roman colony, linking the triadic Roman cult of Ceres, Liber, and Libera, with the traditional tutelary gods of the Genius and Fortuna of the city and the civic goddess Minerva. I discuss the significance of the ancient triadic cult for the colony, in particular its associations with the plebeian class, to which the freedmen who made up a major portion of the population of the early colony belonged. I suggest that the bases originally belonged to an open-air sanctuary, which stood just beyond the southwest corner of the Forum, near the two Augustan temples of Venus Genetrix and Clarian Apollo. These early shrines of the colony thus focused on divinities that were important to its population and emphasized its connections with Rome and the imperial family.


The Epigraphical Evidence for the Prevalence of Roman Cult in Ancient Corinth
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Barbette Stanley Spaeth, College of William and Mary

The current scholarly consensus on the cultural identity of Roman Corinth sees the Roman colony becoming progressively more Hellenized, until by the time of Hadrian the city was far more Greek than Roman. Even in the pre-Hadrianic period, scholars have argued, Greek influence was strong, particularly in the cults of the city. Many scholars believe that the Roman colonists retained, or perhaps more accurately, revived, many of the ancient Greek cults. These cults then gradually took over from the Roman ones, as the city became more Hellenized. Donald Engels in his book on Roman Corinth suggests that "after several generations in a Greek cultural milieu, the appeal of the gods of the Roman state may have waned for the descendants of the original Italian colonists." I argue, however, that this interpretation of the cult, and by extension, the cultural identity, of Roman Corinth, is insufficiently nuanced. In this paper, I re-examine the epigraphical evidence for the cults of Greek and Roman divinities in Roman Corinth in order to show the continuing importance of Roman religious conceptions. I consider the language of the inscriptions, the names of the divinities to whom dedications were made, and the titles of the priesthoods. I also show how the lack of recognition of interpretatio Graeca, the use of Greek names for Roman divinities and religious offices, has affected the interpretation of the epigraphical data. I demonstrate how a careful reconsideration of the evidence reveals that the overwhelming majority of the inscriptions from Corinth in the Roman period honor Roman gods served by Roman priests. This conclusion has significant implications for our understanding of both the cult and the cultural identity of Roman Corinth.


The Egalitarian Spirit in Ancient Israelite Law
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Kenton Sparks, Eastern University

Much has been made over the years of the egalitarian features in biblical law. In some cases, these features have been taken as evidence that early Israel was a simple society, whose character and features were perpetuated in Israel’s later emergence as a more complex society. In this paper I will explore the matter by considering the following questions: (1) To what extent is egalitarianism unique to Israelite law (in comparison with other ANE laws)? (2) How does the egalitarian spirit in Israelite law enlighten our understanding of the nature and development of Israelite identity? And (3) Does the egalitarian spirit of Israelite law have anything to teach us about the origins of ancient Israel?


Mad Rhoda the Slave Girl (Acts 12:12–16): Reading and Rereading Her Characterization
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Patrick E. Spencer, San Ramon, CA

The slave girl Rhoda in Acts 12:12-16 has received recent attention from several different scholars. Most recent interpretations, which envision intertextual connections with Greco-Roman narrative comical scenes involving slave girls, depict her characterization as hysterical, dishonorable, etc. A proleptic reading of the narrative (leveraging narrative and reader-response criticism), however, evinces a deconstructive element in the narrative discourse. Specifically, Festus' dismissal of Paul with the same terminology used to describe Rhoda's behavior (Acts 26:24)--namely, mainomai--prompts a reader to reread her characterization. While the reader may have dismissed her as "dishonorable" or "hysterical" at the end of the narrative in Acts 12:12-16, the reader is prompted to proleptically reassess her characterization with Festus' description of Paul in Acts 26. Through comparison/contrast, the reader places her behavior on the same level as that of Paul. Further, the positive reassessment of her characterization cascades to other characters and character groups such as the women at the tomb in Lk. 24 and others whose "testimony" and/or "actions" are dismissed as "dishonorable" or hysterical." The paper will cover the following areas: (1) characterization in Greco-Roman antiquity as an analeptic and proleptic activity; (2) overview of Rhoda's characterization in scholarship (with a focus on recent work); (3) reading and rereading of Rhoda's characterization (per the above); (4) fitting Rhoda into the overall Lukan characterization framework (from the lens of the four-fold character taxonomy established in Lk 8.4-18, per my Rhetorical Texture and Narrative Trajectories in the Lukan Galilean Speeches: Hermeneutical Appropriation by Authorial Readers, LNTS, 341 [London: Continuum] June 2007); and (5) implications for building characterization across Luke-Acts.


Reading Josephus Reading the Bible
Program Unit: Josephus
Paul Spilsbury, Canadian Theological Seminary

This paper intends to explore the complex process of writing a commentary on Josephus' biblical paraphrase (Ant. 1-11). Particular attention will be paid to the issue of whether the modern commentator is trying primarily to understand the person Josephus and his process of writing, or whether it is Josephus' written artifact and its relation to the Jewish Scriptures that is the primary object of study.


Famous Arena Lions in the Acts of Paul
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Janet Elizabeth Spittler, University of Chicago

The similarities between the stories of Androcles and the lion (in Aelian and Aulus Gellius) and Paul and the lion (in the Acts of Paul) are well known, and the conclusion that these stories are variants of the same basic tale is widely accepted. Paul’s baptized lion, however, is not the only prominent lion in early Christian narrative. Thecla, too, meets these beasts in the arena: a lioness protects Thecla from the attack of a lion and, to the great dismay of the women in the crowd, loses her own life in the process. Just as the story of Paul and the lion is a Christianized version of an existing and rather famous tale of a lion that recognizes and refuses to attack a former benefactor, I will argue that the story of Thecla and the lioness is another reworking of a famous tale from the arena – the story of the lion that is killed by another animal and mourned by the crowd. This story is given its fullest treatment in Statius’ Silvae 2.5, a poem of consolation dedicated entirely to the fallen beast. The adaptation of well-known animal anecdotes into narrative texts is a feature common to the apocryphal acts of the apostles and other Greek novelistic literature. I will conclude by indicating several other examples of the phenomenon (including instances in the works of Achilles Tatius, Philostratus and Lucian), highlighting the variety of methods by which authors incorporate these anecdotes into their own works.


Justified by Faith—But Whose? Another Option for the Pistis Christou Debate
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Preston M. Sprinkle, Aberdeen University

The meaning of pisteos Christou in Paul (Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16; 3:22; Phil 3:9; cf. Gal 2:20; Eph 3:12) is fundamental for his soteriology, and yet its interpretation has spark a heated debate among scholars throughout the last century. Some scholars say that pisteos Christou refers to the believer’s faith in Christ; thus, they render the genitive “Christou” objectively. Others say the faith is Christ’s own faith(fullness); thus, they render the genitive subjectively. This paper will propose a third option: the phrase pisteos Christou refers neither to human faith nor to Christ’s faith, but can refer metonymically to the gospel itself. In order to present this view, I will first survey some German scholars who have proposed a similar interpretation, and then present textual evidence for and against it. Two main arguments for this interpretation are: 1) Paul’s use of “faith” to refer to the gospel message in Gal 1:23 and 3:2–5, and 2) the references to the apocalypse and coming of faith in Gal 3:23–25, which is based on the pistis Christou construction in Gal 3:22. I will then briefly examine Rom 3:22–26 to see if this reading works in this passage. Some passages that, to my mind, present difficulties for this reading are Gal 2:16 and Phil 3:9. I will conclude by suggesting that, while not without its problems, this view should be considered as a possible option with the other two views for the pistis Christou debate.


Pistis Christou as an Eschatological Event
Program Unit:
Preston Sprinkle, Aberdeen University

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Herod’s Building Program at Caesarea Maritima: Evidence from the Archaeological Excavations
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Jennifer Stabler, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission

Several decades of archaeological excavations at Caesarea Maritima on the coast of Israel have revealed elements of Herod’s building program for the city. These include the temple to Roma and Augustus, Herod’s palace, a theater, an amphitheater/stadium, city walls, warehouses, and the unique man-made harbor. Herod imported many Italian building types to the East and laid out his new foundation at Caesarea on a Roman town plan. Herod built a harbor in a location along the coast where there was no natural harbor. According to Josephus, the temple was so large that it could be seen miles out to sea. Caesarea’s orthogonal street system was also a Roman import. Caesarea became one of the largest cities in Palestine and products from its expansive territory were shipped all over the Mediterranean world. Products from places as far distant as Roman Britain also found their way to Caesarea’s port. Herod built Caesarea to honor his patron, Caesar Augustus, and to cement his ties to Rome. This paper will discuss the major features of Herod’s Caesarea that have been identified in archaeological excavations.


Altar Asylum and the Divine Avenger in Amos 9:1–4
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Jeffrey R. Stackert, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Amos 9:1-4 is the final vision in the book of Amos and serves as the culmination of the prophet’s message of doom. This vision portrays the inescapable and complete slaughter of the Israelites at the hand of their own god. Such finality is underscored in vv. 2-4 by the deity’s commitment to pursue any fugitive who might escape destruction, a scenario envisioned through a series of merisms (sheol/heaven; Mt. Carmel/depths of the sea) that culminates in the execution of even that Israelite who has fallen into the hands of an enemy captor. Yet the full force of this vision’s doom is not perceived until the imagery of v. 1 (the deity standing on/beside the altar) is connected with that of vv. 2-4 (the deity pursuing the fugitive Israelite). What is the connection between these images, and what is the impact of their juxtaposition? This paper argues that the notion of altar asylum, as encountered in texts such as Exod 21:13-14, 1 Kgs 1:50-53, and 1 Kgs 2:28-32, undergirds and informs both the image of the deity at the altar and the image of the deity as pursuer of the fugitive. Briefly stated, the deity’s role is transformed in this text from protector to avenger, and in accordance with this change, the traditional refuge place—the deity’s altar—becomes the ultimate locus of danger. Moreover, fleeing from the deity (v. 4) is just as futile as seeking protection at YHWH’s altar (v. 1), for YHWH is the avenger who pursues Israel. The merism of up and down in vv. 2-3 is thus complemented and completed in the merism of near and far in vv. 1 and 4 through the use of asylum imagery.


The Mappe and the Bible: Imperialist Cartography and the Collective Memory of Jonah Imagery
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Simon Staffell, The University of Sheffield

This paper examines the depiction of Jonah in 16th and 17th century cartography, particularly that of the English cartographer, John Speed. It is suggested that the selection of this Jonah symbol can be seen in relation to the emerging imperialist worldviews and ideologies of 17th century England. Cartographic theory and collective memory theory are both used to consider how Jonah became a reified site of memory. Two 16th century sermons are analysed as potential ways into understanding how collective memories of Jonah were developing and becoming established. Using maps and the sermons it is suggested that, beyond only aesthetic value, images of Jonah came to hold particular ideological meaning. The memory of Jonah became linked to understanding England, the Commonwealth and the world and it is this memory that is evoked in the maps of Speed and others.


Angels and Antichrists: Popular Culture and Biblical Architectures of Enmity
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Simon Staffell, The University of Sheffield

This paper begins with the contention that the violent nature of war on terrorism inspired foreign polices involves a level of dehumanization and of forgetting common humanity. Derek Gregory has described the necessary ‘architectures of enmity’ that are involved in acquiescence to international violence. Here it is considered how architectures of enmity are constructed by representations of biblical imagination in popular literature and film. It is suggested that the neoconservative foreign policy agenda since the 1990s has involved a contest for civilizational memory. This contest for memory – remembering ‘us’ in a particular way – became bound up with scriptural frames. The Bush administration has taken up this charge to remember civilization in a biblical way. Foreign policy legitimation has been repeatedly tied to memory of mythical imagery: creation, calling, apocalypse, etc. It is suggested here that during the late 1990s, and into the 21st century, a reciprocal relationship has been established between these political uses of scripture, and scripture in popular culture – the Left Behind series and rapture culture are the most salient examples. The increased recognition of the economically lucrative nature of books and films developing biblical themes has mirrored their use in political discourse. A symbiotic relationship is thereby established: the books and films are increasingly popular because they appear to represent the reality of world politics, whilst politicians play on popular religious themes in their rhetoric in order to legitimate their foreign policies. The Bible in popular culture thus plays a crucial role in establishing architectures of enmity and dehumanizing ideology.


Isaiah 60–62 as the "Kernel" of Chapters 56–66: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives on Final Form of Trito-Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Gary Stansell, Saint Olaf College

Broad scholarly consensus understands Isaiah 60-62 as the “kernel” or Grundbestand of Trito-Isaiah. Many synchronic and diachronic approaches to Trito-Isaiah take this Grundbestand as a starting point for discerning the relationship between textual unit, the overall structure, and/or unity of chapters 56-66. This essay asks how both approaches differ in their understanding of the relationship of chapters 60-62 to their surrounding context. Further, it asks whether there is not appreciable agreement in their respective conclusions about the final structure of chapters 56-66.


Afterlives of Royal Psalm Lyrics
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Scott R. A. Starbuck, Whitworth University

Psalms composed and compiled in the monarchical and exilic periods evidence a variety of textual "afterlives" in intertestamental literature and the New Testament. These afterlives are not complete quotations of psalms. Rather, the afterlives evidence a propensity to isolate specific imagery or lyrics and then re-present the material in ways sometimes continuous but often discontinuous with its original function in the composition of the psalm or the redacted psalm. Through an examination of such lyrical recontextualization of elements of Psalms 2, 89, and 119 in Qumran texts (4Q236 and 2Q174) and the New Testament, this paper explores interpretive shifts in these psalms' traditum through an ongoing and multivalent traditio. Surprising, perhaps, is the tendency to both "idealize" as well as "communalize" lyrics. Given that the psalms examined are "royal psalm," the interpretive shifts and strategies outlined in the study provide an important window on the development of Second Temple messianism. But even more, these afterlives demomstrate the power and liquidity of psalmic imagery over psalmic form and original compositional intent.


Ideological Dynamics in Kings: Identity and Religious Practice
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Francesca Stavrakopoulou, University of Exeter

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Romans 9–11 in Karl Barth's Doctrine of Election
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Ekkehard Stegemann, Theologische Fakultät der Universität Basel

Karl Barth's interpretation of Romans 9-11 in his Church Dogmatic's (II, 2) chapter on God's election is one of the milestones of a new understanding of Paul's "doctrine on the Jewish People". First published in 1942 Barth's central argument was directed against Christian anti-Semitism. His main critique targeted a Christian supersessionism and the doctrine that God had rejected his people. Instad of this negative myth Barth formulated - as he thought on the basis of Romans 9-11 - a doctrine of election, in which the church and the Jewish people are partners in a double shape of God's community below the bow of the one and only covenant. He stresses with Romans 11 that God's gifts and the calling are irrevocable. Therefore the church has to respect Israel in her status of election. And therefore the church has to acknowledge, that salvation will not be achieved without Israel. But therefore the church has also to be in its existence a unique missonary to the Jews, although not an organisation of missionaries to the Jews. Barth, however, does still reflect anti-Judaic attitude. And he remains bound up with traditional interpretations of Romans 9-11 which are rooted in anti-Jewish hostile belief of Christianity. I'll try to show further that Barth joins a shifting of the apocalyptic frame of Paul's thoughts to an ecclesiological one.


Hebrews and the Discourse on Judeophobia
Program Unit: Hebrews
Ekkehard W. Stegemann, Theologische Fakultät der Universität Basel

Hebrews has been part and parcel of Christian anti-Judaic discourses. But the question, whether Hebrews was written as part of an anti-Judaic discourse has found controversial answers among scholars. A lot take Hebrews as an anti-Judaic treatise, and that although they admit, that “Judaism is not vilified in Hebrews” (S. Sandmel). But some argue vehemently against, and that although they admit, that Hebrews is speaking about a “new covenant”, which “has displaced the old and rendered it ‘obsolete” (C.M. Williamson). The point here is, that Hebrews does not speak about Judaism and Christianity, since there was not such an entity like Christianity. So one, if not the crucial point of the debate is, whether Hebrews undoubtable statement about a new, second, and better covenant which replaces and supersedes the old or becoming old and first covenant is in fact a statement which includes the classical anti-Judaic Christian claim that Christianity has superseded Judaism. If we take with Gavin Langmuir “anti-Judaism to be a total or partial opposition to Judaism … by people who accept a competing system of beliefs and practices and consider certain genuin Judaic beliefs and practices as inferior”, Hebrews does indeed speak about “competing systems”, namely the “old and the new covenant”, and the old one including its practices is indeed the “inferior” one. But for Hebrews the old covenant is not old and inferior because it is Jewish and the new one is not new and better because it is Christian but because “God has spoken to us in these last days by his Son”. The “competing systems” are heaven and earth, which are incompatible, although the rhetoric is grammatically the comparative. Samuel Sandmel has already pointed to the “Platonism” of Hebrews in connection with the question of anti-Judaism. But is Hebrews already “an exposition of the conviction that Christianity is the ideal religion, the realization of the Platonic ‘ideal’”? Or does this falsely presuppose that the “tipping over”, namely an overturn from an internal Jewish discourse to an anti-Judaic one, has taken place?


The Grammar of Social Gender in Biblical Hebew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
David E. S. Stein, Redondo Beach, CA

Most scholars of the Hebrew Bible accept that its grammatically masculine language at times functions in a gender-neutral or gender-inclusive manner. The same is said for “male” personal nouns such as ’ish: in some situations they refer to women as well as to men. This paper attempts to fill an apparent void in scholarship by systematically addressing the following question: To what extent do the Bible’s masculine language and “male” personal nouns allow for the possibility that women are in view? This paper’s approach is philological (inductive), taking the biblical corpus as a whole and distilling the rules of its linguistic system according to a plain-sense reading of the text. The investigation, which focuses on what the biblical text seems to expect of its readers, arises out of research undertaken in the author’s role as revising editor of "The Contemporary Torah: A Gender-Sensitive Adaptation of the JPS Translation" (Jewish Publication Society, 2006). After considering relevant observations in the standard grammars, the paper looks at the import of apparent maleness of three linguistic types: second-person singular address; third-person singular references; and so-called male nouns such as ’ish. It finds that such language does not specify social gender unless the the address or reference is either definite-particular or indefinite-specific. Often -- perhaps most of the time -- grammatically masculine language and so-called male nouns neither confirm nor deny social gender.


The Noun 'ish in Biblical Hebrew: A Term of Affiliation
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
David E. S. Stein, Redondo Beach, CA

This paper reports on an investigation of one of the most frequent nouns in the Hebrew Bible, "'ish" (and its functional plural, "'anashim"), in preparation for an article in the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew. A brief paradigmatic analysis locates "'ish" as a term of relationship, closer to "ben" than to "'adam" -- the latter of which has usually been considered a synonym. Building upon the work of the late Alison Grant, who found that our word's primary sense (in terms of frequency of usage) is "member of a group," this paper then posits that even when "'ish" refers to a particular individual, it makes a two-pronged reference: one that is direct (to the individual), and one that is indirect (to the group or party with which that individual is affiliated). That is, the word "'ish" serves to relate those two referents to each other. The paper then demonstrates this hypothesis via examples from a syntagmatic analysis of hundreds of instances where "'ish" appears without syntactic markers of affiliation and where its usage is conspicuous. That analysis has found that the text repeatedly employs "'ish" in a manner consistent with a term of affiliation. Such a reading generates meaning from the word rather than treating it as superfluous. Compared to the conventional views that various senses of "'ish" extend from a concrete meaning of "adult male" or "human being," this paper's thesis is simpler and thus to be preferred to the conventional views.


The Interdependency between Destiny and Humankind and Creation according to Romans 8:18–23: An Orthodox-Patristic Perspective
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Stelian Tofana, Babes Bolayi University

This paper primarily focuses on the interpretation of Romans by Maximus the Confessor, who while in the tradition of John Chrysostom opens new lines of interpretation. This paper first analyzes the theological concepts that Maximus the Confessor brings in dialogue with Paul's letter, namely his view of the rationality of creation and its relation to superme Reason. The the paper will analyze how the relation between human and nature in Pauline thought (Rom. 8:18-23); including the revealing of the children iof God and their glorious liberty, the groaning of the creation and redemption of our body) is understood in the Greek patristic-exegetical perspective of Maximus the Confessor( in particular, with reference to others).


Kila’yim: Hybridity versus Hierarchy in Inter-species Sex
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
David Tabb Stewart, Southwestern University

How do the biblical prohibitions concerning mixtures (kila’yim) in Lev 19:19 and Deut 22:10 intersect with interspecies sexual relations? Intermixtures that occur on the same “niveau” are regulated by the law of diverse kinds; sexual mixings between different hierarchic levels of the chain-of-being are labeled 'tebel', i.e., 'confusion'. The Holiness Code uses this term for two things: the human female initiating sexual relations with an animal and a father-in-law lying with his daughter-in–law. Laws covering these last, then, regulate “vertical relations,” of which Lev 18:23 is the parade example. The Rabbinic sages extend the rule of mixtures to interbreeding wild and domestic species—ones that at first blush might seem “close enough” on some horizontal axis to not constitute a mixture. The liminal case of the “wild man,” or primate, poses particular problems. Such is counted by the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud Yerusahlmi Kila’yim as “human” for some purposes and “animal” for others. An ape and a tamed monkey could not be “yoked” together like an ox and an ass; but for purposes of corpse uncleanness, the “wild man” can contaminate shelters like a human. The “wild man” precisely embodies the tensions between the two axes of relations. One outcome of all this might be that “sexuality” in the biblical landscape cannot be divided into the familiar binary of hetero- and homosexual, but rather offers a different ensemble. One needs a neologism like “hierarchiality” to describe such hierarchical sexual relations as bestial-human, human-numinal, and intergenerational incest.


"The Ostrich Leaves Her Eggs to the Earth" (Job 39:14): Queer Animals of God in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Ken Stone, Chicago Theological Seminary

The God-Speeches in Job challenge conventional piety by associating God with animals viewed as symbols of chaos, or perceived as acting in ways that threaten human social order. To the extent that these animals are thought to contravene social norms, including norms of gender and kinship, can they be read as “queer”? And might such a reading contribute to a queer reinterpretation of Job’s deity? In order to explore these questions, my paper takes its point of departure from an obscure passage in Job 39:13-18, where a bird most often taken as an ostrich is characterized in terms of, among other things, unconventional practices of producing its young. The association of ostriches with strange parenting practices in Lamentations 4:3 is sometimes cited as support for the conclusion that the animal in Job 39:13-18 is an ostrich, since the animal names are different in the two passages. In Deuteronomy 14:15, ostriches are included in a chapter on "abominable" (14:3) animals with language that recalls the Levitical horror at male same-sex intercourse (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; cf. 11:16); and the ostrich’s queer family behavior horrifies the writer of Lamentations, who compares the ostrich to Israelites eating their children. However, the book of Job explains the ostrich’s queer behavior in terms of the animal’s unusual creation by God (39:17) and enlists the ostrich along with numerous other animals in an explication of God’s creation as a wild and raucous space, which fails to cohere with the social schemes of intelligibility assumed by Job and his friends. The fact that this realm is associated so closely with God in Job 38-41 may hint at the notion that Job’s God, too, acts according to principles which human social wisdom neither fathoms nor predicts, and thus sometimes even in frightening and queer ways.


Israel's War Heroes, Can't Live with 'Em, Can't Live without 'Em: Dialectical Responses to Heroic Violence in the Editorial Structure of the Book of Judges
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Lawson G. Stone, Asbury Theological Seminary

A few studies (e.g. Stone 1991, Hawk 2006) have employed redaction criticism to explore how the tradents of the OT recontextualized warfare traditions to employ them for religious, theological, and spiritual purposes. This work has centered on Joshua. The proposed paper extends this approach to Judges. Scholarship has long recognized, despite variations, three levels of tradition in the book of Judges. A series of "savior narratives" was supplemented by a distinctive set of introductions and conclusions, often seen as deuteronomistic, followed by a series of interpolations typically seen as structurally non-functional "appendages." Debate has centered around (1) whether these stages are deuteronomistic or not, or how, and (2) whether the structure of the final form of the book is organically tied to its editorial history or must be construed or imposed by a reader. Seldom, though, have interpreters asked what cultural values actually drove the process by which the book of Judges developed. This presentation argues that a significant cultural and religious concern driving the development of Judges is how subsequent generations of readers appropriated the traditions of heroic violence found in the book. These heroes both entertained and troubled ancient editors and readers. This paper examines the deliverer stories in Judges in the context of heroic violence from the ancient Near East and in the broader heroic literature tradition of other eras to identify both the entertaining and didactic features of the literature. The paper then sets out how editors of more civilized times evince both an appropriation and distancing in order both to exploit and to contain the unsettling dynamism of Israel's premonarchic heroes.


Ambivalence and Justification: Problematizing Torture in Antiquity
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Kimberly Stratton, Carleton University

The torture of slaves constituted a normal aspect of legal procedure in ancient Greece and Rome, so much so that Aristophanes can satirize it in the Frogs. While the torture of slaves was accepted, Greeks and Romans were scandalized by the prospect of torturing free citizens; in Athens, this extended even to cases of treason and threats to national security, such as the scandal involving defacing of herms in 415 BCE. Torture clearly functioned to delineate social boundaries, affirming, through the physical de(con)struction of physical bodies, the superiority of one group (citizens) while legitimizing conceptions of slaves or foreigners as less than fully human and not subject to the same rights. Despite the general acceptance of torture and of cruel methods of capital punishment, some thinkers expressed concern over the gratuitous use of violence. Seneca, for example, in accord with his concerns as a Stoic philosopher, cautioned against methods of execution that were driven by anger while Cicero expressed concern over experimental methods of punishment, such as vivicombustion (but he saw nothing wrong with cutting out a slave's tongue). The Mishnah, as Beth Berkowitz reveals, also shows concern with limiting cruelty and humiliation while, nonetheless, continuing to enlist a discourse of capital punishment to legitimize rabbinic claims to power. Augustine, on the other hand, argues that it is just and merciful to torture heretics in order to save them from eternal torment. This paper explores the ambivalence and tension that surrounds the use of violence in ancient sources, seeking to understand the complex ways that torture and more broadly, violence, were problematized in antiquity. As these examples reveal, the connection between power and violence was patent. Determining the degree to which power was limited, qualified, or justified in different ancient discourses constitutes the focus of this paper.


Curse Rhetoric and the Politics of Identity in Early Judaism and Christianity
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Kimberly Stratton, Carleton University

By tracing the development of curses from their earliest appearance in ancient Near Eastern vassal treaties and Israelite covenant theology to their later operation in Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, I show how cursing functions in ancient scripture as a form of rhetorical violence, inserting a divisive wedge between communities and serving to reify particular identities. Specifically, I argue that by drawing on ancient vassal treaties and their use of curses to enforce fidelity as a model for Israel’s relationship with Yahweh, Israelite religion enshrined cursing (and punishment) as a fundamental aspect of its religious identity. Curses were regarded as effective and potent in the ancient world. To utter a curse or take one upon oneself in the form of an oath constituted a serious act. Misfortune was often and easily ascribed to cursing or to incurring a curse by violating a ritual prescription, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Post-exilic Judaism and Christianity took up this model and employed the violent discourse of cursing rhetorically to define sectarian boundaries and separate the world into the categories of ‘the wicked’ and ‘the righteous’. During the second-temple era, curse rhetoric became more dualistic and cosmic, creating ontological categories of the blessed and the cursed, the elect and the damned (i.e., 1 Enoch chs. 37-71). Curse rhetoric thus came to function in sectarian disputes and to bolster identity for one community or another (i.e., Community Rule, 1QS). In Christian literature curse rhetoric was employed to defend doctrinal positions and to enforce proper conduct in a fledgling community trying to carve its identity out of the complex social relations and demands of the Roman city, where it operated as a form of social control against other Christians (i.e., Revelation). The continued use of curse rhetoric in post-exilic Judaism and Christianity attests to the powerful hold that violence and suffering have on the human imagination. Moreover, cursing discourses played an important role in shaping these religious traditions at their origins.


The “Root of Jesse” in Isaiah 11:10: Post-exilic Judah, or Post-exilic Davidic King?
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Jake Stromberg, Oxford University

Isaiah 11.10 famously speaks of a day when the “Root of Jesse” would stand as a signal to the nations. Scholars have long understood the phrase “Root of Jesse” as a designation for that descendant of Jesse mentioned in v. 1, and hence as a reference to a future Davidic king. More recently, however, this understanding has been challenged by a growing body of opinion on the basis that it overlooks the obvious differences between these two verses. In this view, Isaiah 11.10 reinterprets the royal oracle in vv. 1-9 as the post-exilic community. Hence, “Root of Jesse” is seen to refer to Judah after the exile. The growing popularity of this view is due in part to the broad agreement that this verse is the work of a late redactor on the one hand, and that the Davidic promise underwent a process of democratization after the exile on the other. Beyond this, Hermann Barth has argued a more narrowly philological case for this view, and subsequently his piece has been cited approvingly in the work of several prominent scholars (e.g. Vermeylen, Clements, Childs). This rather narrow issue of interpretation carries with it broad implications for our understanding of this theme in both the final form of the book of Isaiah and the history of post-exilic Judean thought. This paper examines the arguments in favor of this recent interpretive trend, introducing philological evidence not previously considered. It then briefly brings the results of this analysis into dialogue with these important historical and hermeneutical questions.


Spirit Baptism and Empowerment: Self- and Peer-Perceived Performance and Community Expectations
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Kamden Strunk, Evangel University

The relationship between the Holy Spirit Baptism, Christian character and empowerment, and other demographic factors was investigated. The measures used were the Evangelism Effectiveness scale, which was developed for this study, and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory, which has 6 subscales. These measures were taken both by self-report and by peer-report. The results indicated significant correlation with gender, college classification, and with Holy Spirit Baptism and the measures used. The results also indicated significant interaction effects in 2 x 2 ANOVA’s. A multiple regression analysis also found that all three variables significantly contributed to the model. The findings partially supported the hypothesis that those who have received the Holy Spirit Baptism would score significantly higher on the measures than would those who have not. In a second study, community expectations were examined using participants from the same university as the original study. Participants were placed in one of three experimental groups to determine the difference in expectations of Spirit-baptized Christians, Christians, and non-Spirit-baptized Christians. The results showed significant differences on all measures in a MANOVA. The findings show that community expectations were significantly higher for Spirit-baptized Christian than non-Spirit-baptized Christians. The largest difference in expectations was on Evangelism effectiveness, though all differences were statistically significant. Expectations were then compared with perceived performance data from the first study. Expectations on Evangelism effectiveness were much higher than actual performance. Implications for church ministry and individual psychology are discussed.


Prayer for One's Descendants and Jesus' Prayer in John 17
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Loren Stuckenbruck, Durham University

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Review of Andrei Orlov, "From Apocalypse to Merkavah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha" (Brill, 2006)
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Kevin Sullivan, Illinois Wesleyan University

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John 6:35–65 and Matthew 16:17–23, Mark 8:27–33, Luke 9:18–22
Program Unit: New Testament Mysticism Project
Kevin Sullivan, Illinois Wesleyan University

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From Margin to Center: Joseph’s Navigation and Negotiation of His Own Identity and Its Implications for Asian American Identity
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Chloe Sun, Logos Evangelical Seminary

Possessing multiple identities, Joseph navigates successfully from a doubly marginal Hebrew slave and prisoner to become a powerful Hebrew-Egyptian, second only to Pharaoh. Three key elements stand out in Joseph’s identity: (1) His identity of multiplicity. (2) His navigation from a marginal status to the center stage, which involves both divine and human factors. (3) His negotiation between his Hebrew and Egyptian identity, between his ethnic and religious identity, between his public and private identity and between his past, present, and future. This paper aims to explore Joseph’s identity navigation and negotiation as a way to reflect on Asian American identity.


“Those Who Passed by Derided Him”: Scornful Laughter as a Moral Criterion
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Jesper Svartvik, Lund University

Students of the Bible are introduced not before long to the Deuteronomistic understanding of history as a system of rewards and punishment. However, this theology, in its strictest sense, is – rightfully – questioned for a number of reasons: (a) the idea is relativized, problematized and questioned already within the covers of the Bible, the book of Job being the premier example. (b) Everyone with experience of spiritual guidance knows that this theoology lays heavy burdens on the shoulders of lonely and fragile people. (c) But there is also a third reason: the handbook teaching of the Deuteronomistic understanding of history tends to draw our attention away from an influential idea which could be described as an inverted Deuteronomism. The credo of this understanding is: “I suffer, therefore I am right”, “I am persecuted, therefore God is on my side”, “the surrounding scorns me, therefore I am happy”, “I cry, therefore I laugh”, “they mock me, therefore I will one day mock them.” In other words, it is the other person’s scornful laughter which legitimized my theology. After all, did not Paul write in 1 Cor. 4.9 that Christians are made a théatron (“we have become a spectacle to the world”)? Whereas the motif of lacrymosa has been carefully explored in both Jewish and Christian traditions, what is being suggested in this paper is that a careful study of the role of laughter in the Bible and in the interpretation of the biblical texts furthers our understanding of the history of yester years and the challenges of the morrow.


"O dikaios ek pistews zesetai" in Intercultural Translation: "Living Justly" as Paul's Jewish Paideia to Roman Greeks
Program Unit: Paul and Scripture
Diana M. Swancutt, Yale University

Paul and his Roman Greek rhetorical audience lived in a complex interethnic echo chamber in which Greek, Roman, and Judean ethnic cultures collided. The meaning of scriptural phrases like "o dikaios ek pistews" and the identity and rhetorical function of Paul's interlocutor(s) in Rom 1-2 must be understood as complex enculturated moments of interethnic translation, the alchemy of Judean and Greek ideas and ideological engagements with their “others” within the larger frame of the Roman imperial gaze of both subject groups. In this paper, I argue that Paul deployed Israel's scripture to teach Roman Greeks how (and why) to be good Jews. I show that 1) Romans is a high-status, Greco-Roman protreptic speech, the first four chapters of which censure and educate his rivals in the gospel as the best way of life. 2) At crucial points, Paul punctuates this instruction of rivals with Israel's scripture in order to portray himself as the best teacher of Roman Greek believers--better than his Roman (1:18-2:16) or non-Christian Judean counterparts (2:17-4:25). 3) Heard in this rhetorical context, and in the heart of the Empire, Paul's scriptural instruction in "dikaiosyne" (1:16-17) is infused with imperial resonances of divine kingship, justice (iusticia), and fidelity (fides), which, when directed at Paul's Roman opponent (1:18-2:16), carry the counter-imperial claim that only the God of Israel, through his Son, the Davidic King, has brought true justice to all people. He alone is faithful and just, and thus, he alone enables all to "live justly," in faithful imitation of Christ's faithfulness (Rom. 15:1-6). The heart of Paul's good news to the Romans was, thus, a Romanized counter-Roman understanding of Israel's scripture that offered a Jewish Paideia in “just living” designed to call his Romanized Greek audience to (re)turn to lives of faithfulness to Israel's God.


The Ungraspable Inch: Trans Apocalypse?
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Diana M. Swancutt, Yale University

his interactive presentation engages the film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as a lens on the shifting political, theological, sex(ual) dynamics of transgender life. We wish to interrogate trans as an emerging identity category, asking whether and in what ways it is, or can be, an (American?) apocalypse of "gender," currently understood.


Myth and History in Ezekiel's Oracle Concerning Tyre (Ezekiel 26–28)
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Marvin A. Sweeney, Claremont School of Theology

This paper will examine the use of mythological motifs to give expression to historical events in Ezekiel's oracle concerning Tyre in Ezekiel 26-28. It will begin with a formal analysis of Ezekiel 26-28 in an effort to identify its portrayal of the downfall of Tyre, the Tyrian king, and the recognition of divine action in the world by Sidon, as part of a larger agenda to project the restoration of Israel to its land. The various components of Ezekiel 26-28 will then be examined for their use of mythological motifs from Mesopotamia, Ugarit, and Israel/Judah in an effort to understand how Ezekiel draws on mythology to give expression to its understanding of Tyre's downfall in 586-573 BCE and its implications for Sidon and Israel. Mythologies to be studied include the Descent of Ishtar to the Netherworld, the Baal cycle, the portrayal of creation in Genesis 1-3, and the portrayal of Israel's priesthood in Exodus 28, among others.


Israelite and Judean Religions in Comparative Perspective
Program Unit: Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
Marvin A. Sweeney, Claremont School of Theology

This paper will consider Israelite and Judean religions in comparative perspective, both in relation to the ancient Near Eastern cultural environment with which they interacted and in relation to each other. The two traditions are closely interrelated, although our perspectives on northern Israel are frequently obscured by the fact that most of the Bible comes to us through Judean writers who often presented the north from a biased and polemical perspective. Modern scholars frequently presume that the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah shared the same basic religious traditions and perspectives, but a growing body of evidence points to some very distinctive traits for each tradition. Both traditions appear to draw heavily from the religious conceptualization and practice of surrounding cultures, such as Canaan, Aram, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Northern Israel's cultic establishment is far less prone to centralization than that of Judah, due in part to Israel's larger territory and population and the relative instability of its monarchy. The two kingdoms also appear to have differing conceptualizations of the Deity. Whereas northern Israel appears to emphasize a non-hereditary priesthood, a greater cultic role of women, a somewhat different cultic calendar, and even the possibility of a divine consort for YHWH, southern Judah appears to emphasize the interrelationship between YHWH and the Davidic monarchy, a hereditary priesthood, and solar symbolism for YHWH's role as creator. Whereas Israel appears to be more heavily influenced by Canaanite and Aramean religions, Judah appears to be more heavily influenced by Egypt.


Linguistic Cues to Building Mental Spaces of Authority
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Eve Sweetser, University of California-Berkeley

Cognitive linguistics, and in particular the study of Mental Spaces (Fauconnier 1984, 1997), have brought new insights to the study of narrative viewpoint. Linguistic form cues mental space construction: analyzing this process allows us to see how textual structure (1) portrays particular characters’ viewpoints as authoritative and (2) claims narratorial authority over readers. Biblical texts show very sophisticated structure in both of these two arenas. Of course the most fascinating fact is that modern readers are still caught up by the authority of these texts – even though they can never replicate the readings of earlier reading communities. For example, one particularly salient device in both Hebrew and Greek scripture is human-Divine dialogue: “talking” to God. Whether this is Fictive Discourse (representation of characters’ mental and spiritual states “as if” they were conversation – as perhaps we might read the visions of Moses or Jonah), or literal discourse (as the disciples talk to Jesus), dialogic structure allows the characters to present Divine-human authority relations as apparently independent of the authorial/narratorial voice. It is worth pointing out that dialogic (as opposed to descriptive) manifestation of authority is a powerful device, not restricted to use at a particular period or in a religious text: Plato used it in depicting Socrates via his dialogues with hapless disciples, and Conan Doyle in his depiction of Holmes in relation to Watson. Devices such as these, then, can be understood as naturally affecting audiences now – even if not just the way they affected earlier readers. In this paper, I will present some basic Mental Space analyses of some of the Biblical devices for authority-building in texts – including some which are analyzed by my colleagues in this session.


The Visualization of "Knowledge" in Second Peter: A Study in Sociorhetorical Interpretation's Rhetorographical Blending
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Dennis Sylva, Saint Francis Seminary

Second Peter purports to convey the knowledge through which its recipients may effectively combat the teaching of false prophets and enter into the kingdom. This knowledge has been examined in multiple ways, including word studies, its relation to the teaching of the false prophets, and comparisons with portrayals of knowledge in classical and Hellenistic writings. What has been lacking is an analysis of the images used to convey the "knowledge" of Second Peter. These verbal pictures move at a lower level than does the argumentation and are more directly received and felt than is the rhetorically shaped discourse. Drawing on insights from the rhetorographical blending step of socio-rhetorical interpretation, this paper treats how the epignosis and gnosis of Second Peter are visualized and how the development of this imagery supports their appropriation, nuances their understanding, and bolsters their rhetorical functions in Second Peter.


Ham and His Offspring: The Genealogies of Africans in Muslim Cultures
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Zoltan Szombathy, Eotvos Lorand University

The genealogies of Black African peoples that appear in mediaeval Arabic sources were ultimately derived from Biblical sources, but underwent significant changes in the process. Mediaeval Muslim genealogists sought to place the Africans within the genealogical charter of the world’s peoples, and at the same time the genealogical myths concerning the Africans were sometimes utilised as the rationale for the enslaving of Africans. The genealogical arguments justifying slavery were resisted by African Muslim intellectuals, who used various methods to refute the racial implications of the myth of Noah’s curse against his son Ham, the basis of those arguments: they invented myths of Arab origin; they used a discourse based on the enumeration of the virtues of Black Africans (akin to the writings of Shucubi authors); they evoked the concepts of Islamic ethics, etc. The paper analyses these methods and their influence on African Muslim cultures.


Review of Jane D. Schaberg, "Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament" (Continuum, 2004)
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
James D. Tabor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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The "Procreation"-Festival to the Goddess Katahha in [Hattusha]: An Initiation Rite for a Hittite Crown Prince? (IBoT 1.29)
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Ada Taggar-Cohen, Doshisha University

H. G. Güterbock published in 1969 a partial translation of a two-side clay tablet written in Hittite cuneiform under the title “An initiation rite for a Hittite prince”. The tablet is almost fully preserved, except for several small parts, and it ends with a description of the prince lying in bed and served by 12 women, titled in the Sumerogram KAR.KID, which used to be translated by scholars as “prostitutes”. The kind of “initiation” the prince was going through has been left to the reader’s imagination, for the colophon states that this is an unfinished description of the festival. There was probably another tablet or more. The title of the text identifies it with the Sumerogram EZEN, translated “festival” or “ritual”. This ritual of several stages prescribed is celebrated to an ancient central Anatolian Hattian goddess, and according to this first tablet the last scene was on the fourth day of the festival. In this lecture a possible interpretation of this festival/ritual will be suggested in light of Hittite religious texts, as well as rituals from other cultures.


The Implications of the Resurrection for the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ
Program Unit: Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Luke Tallon, University of St. Andrews-Scotland

An investigation of the implications of the resurrection for Christology ought to account for the fact that it is the Messiah, the anointed one, who is resurrected. The anointing points us toward Jesus Christ’s threefold office of prophet, priest, and king. All three offices were acknowledged early on in the Church and became formally central in Reformation era dogmatics. A review of the current literature, however, indicates that Christ’s priesthood is anything but a hot topic. Two difficulties encourage this distaste for, or at least hesitancy to speak about, the priesthood of Christ: 1) the distance of moderns from the sacrificial cult, and 2) the distance of Christ’s priesthood from the Church. I will address both difficulties, but my first concern will be the distance theologians create between Christ’s priesthood and the Church, i.e., the absence of a doctrine of Christ’s continuing priesthood. My concern in this paper, however, will be to bridge the gap by addressing the relationship between the violence of the cult—so alien and distasteful to modern—and the continuing priesthood of Jesus. My starting point for this will be the three-fold nature of Christ’s priestly atoning, interceding and blessing and the way these distinctions allow the atoning or sacrificial aspect of the priestly office to be “once for all” and the interceding and blessing to be “forever”. Yet, Jesus Christ, as the resurrected one, does not cease to the one slain and an account of his continuing priesthood must not avoid the presence of the wounds in the resurrected body and their relationship to his eternal intercession blessing.


Legitimizing Legitimacy in Chronicles
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Nancy Nam Hoon Tan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Legitimacy to the Davidic dynasty and Jerusalem Temple are the two uncontested elements recognized by putative scholarship as playing important roles in the book of Chronicles. However, these are the very two elements stripped away from “YHWH’s kingdom” at the exile. One wonders then on what basis of legitimacy the community can acclaim for its own survival after this? Perhaps there is more to what constitutes the “legitimacy” than these two elements. This paper re-examines the idea of legitimacy in the book of Chronicles and explores how extensive it permeates the whole book. It proposes to interpret “legitimacy” as the theological framework of the book, closely tied in with the community’s consciousness of her identity as the “elected” of YHWH. And, it argues for a larger perspective of legitimacy than what earlier scholars have proposed, in particular, “prophecy / word of YHWH”, “land”, “statehood / kingdom”.


Textual Metafunction of Register
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Randall K.J. Tan, Kentucky Christian University

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The Voice of the Infinite Circle: The Vanishing Subject of the Elijah Cycle
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Jan William Tarlin, Capital University

"If we are all within the same circle, then all of this is One Body; there is no outside. Since there is no outside, there is no inside either.... If there is no outside, for the circle is infinite, then not only is there no inside, there is also no circle anymore." -- Bernie Glassman Roshi. Zen, particularly in its caligraphy, has long known that the circle is the vanishing point of both subject and object. An effect of a plot that moves in circles, spirals, and elipses, the voice that narrates the Elijah Cycle (I Kings 17-19, 21 and II Kings 1-2:18) speaks from that vanishing point. Like the Zen tradition, the Elijah cycle articulates something even more radical than the subjects (barred, multiple, schizophrenic, etc.) identified by post structuralist theory: a subject that is not even one.


Greco-Roman Meals and Performance of Identity: A Ritual Analysis
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Hal Taussig, Union Theological Seminary

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Headwords Redivivus: Why They Matter
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Bernard A. Taylor, Loma Linda University

Lexical headwords are more than a convenient schema to alphabetize entries. They convey important information at a glance. While the practise of using only classical forms is time honored, when applied to biblical Greek lexica it masks later developments in the koine language. This paper points out the pitfalls of the current method, and offers guidelines for maximizing their usefulness.


Julia Joanna Greswell: A Forgotten Hebrew Scholar
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
J. Glen Taylor, Wycliffe College

A number of heretofore unknown women in the nineteenth century were masters of biblical Hebrew. Julia Evelina Smith (1792-1886) for example, translated the entire Bible numerous times during her life. Helen Spurell published her translation of the Old Testament from an unpointed Hebrew text in 1885. In this paper, I will focus on the work of Julia Joanna Greswell, a forgotten female Hebrew scholar, whose Grammatical Analysis of the Hebrew Psalter (Oxford, 1873) was highly endorsed by experts in the field and was used by second-year Hebrew students at Oxford University. These examples show that even in the nineteenth century the field of linguistics was also a woman's domain.


Reading the Psalms with Nineteenth Century Women
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Marion Taylor, Wycliffe College

Lost from memory are the varied writings of nineteenth-century women on the Book of Psalms. This paper will examine women’s translations, commentaries, devotional books, sermons and prayers based on the Psalms with a view to recovering a forgotten aspect of the reception history of the Bible in the nineteenth century.


The Armenian Gospel of the Infancy
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Abraham Terian, St. Nersess' Armenian Seminary

Following a short review of the scholarship on the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy at the turn of the twentieth-century (Conybeare, Peeters, et al.), this paper reintroduces the apocryphal gospel as a sixth-century Armenian translation of a lost Syriac text. The paper differentiates between the three early and distinct Armenian translations from the Greek version of the Protevangelium of James and this later translation from an expanded Syriac text of the Gospel of the Infancy. It invites attention to at least four recensions of the latter translation as it highlights the distinctive characteristics of the Armenian version vis-à-vis the other versions of the Infancy Gospel(s), hitherto known in various other languages. It concludes with emphasis on the place of the document in the development of Mariology (and likely Nestorian responses detectable in a redaction of the document prior to its being translated into Armenian).


The Fourth Gospel in First Century Media Culture
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Tom Thatcher, Cincinnati Christian University

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Pneumatic Discernment: The Image of the Beast and His Number
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
John Christopher Thomas, Church of God Theological Seminary

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Sacred Time in the Pentateuch
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Alden Thompson, Walla Walla College

The paper will explore key legal and narrative Sabbath passages in the Pentateuch, suggesting that the aspect of physical rest is as important as the symbolic role that Sabbath plays as sign of God’s covenant with his people. This paper will also explore within the Pentateuch the two-fold nature of the Sabbath, a religious symbol with practical implications. The Sabbath was, on the one hand, a symbol of God’s covenant with Israel, but, on the other, it was also a gift providing rest for both humans and animals. In discussing key passages in the Pentateuch, I will examine the LDS understandings of those passages.


Response from a Fifth-Fourth Century BCE Perspective
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Alexandra Anne Thompson, University of Cambridge

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Properly "Phrasing" Verbal Instruction in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Jeremy Thompson, University of Stellenbosch

‘Phrasal verbs’ make up an important category of what modern researchers in second language acquisition refer to as ‘multi-word items.’ These researchers suggest that multi-word items should be taught to language learners at all levels in order to facilitate fluency and comprehension. Findings concerning phrasal verbs and other multi-word items have recently surfaced in the literature on Biblical Hebrew instruction; however, elementary grammars and vocabulary materials have not yet implemented them. In this paper, I will discuss what phrasal verbs are and why it is important that students learn them, demonstrate that current Biblical Hebrew instructional materials do not include them, and make suggestions for how Biblical Hebrew instructors should incorporate them.


Scripture, Community, and Conversation: Rethinking Theological Interpretation Canonically
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Richard Paul Thompson, Northwest Nazarene University

Considerable and appropriate scholarly attention has focused on the theology "of" or "in" a specific biblical writing or corpus in the last several decades. A basic premise behind much of this interpretive work is that the interpreter must protect the literary integrity of the given biblical writing in question by examining, for instance, the historical and rhetorical elements of that text. Thus, such studies have helpfully underscored or uncovered aspects of theology that lie behind a given text or within it and sought to correct earlier tendencies in some scholarly circles that considered matters like biblical theology with little regard for the unique contributions of the different biblical works. However, these recent approaches have tended to concentrate on the theology of/in a specific biblical writing predominantly as a historical entity with little regard for that same text as a canonical entity (i.e., as part of the Christian canon). This paper contends that such a consideration (i.e., the biblical texts as part of a sacred canon) necessitates that the interpreter also raise an additional set of questions that focus on response or reception issues within the context of the community of faith—questions with regard to theology that are appropriate both to the original and contemporary community. Given the canonical context into which these various biblical texts have been gathered, one must explore how the role of the Christian canon contributes potentially to the theological interpretation of Scripture. In particular, this paper offers that the claim of the Bible as sacred Scripture or Christian canon contributes to the theological interpretation of these texts by (a) assuming a significant role for the contemporary interpretive community, (b) invoking consideration of and reflection upon different canonical perspectives, and (c) instilling a general framework for theological conversation and practice.


“This Book Has Been Forged!” Interpolation, Mutilation, and Forgery in the Transmission and Publication of the Hippocratic Corpus and the Works of Galen
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Trevor Thompson, University of Chicago

Writing near the end of his life (c. 200 CE), Galen narrated a personal experience in the book-seller’s district of Rome where he had observed a man who purchased a text bearing the title, “Of the physician Galen.” A learned onlooker, moved by the strange title, requested to see the newly purchased volume. Upon reading two lines, he tore the writing in two and declared that the style was not of Galen and the work had been forged. This episode in conjunction with Galen’s perception of the poor education received by many physicians and philosophers of the day prompted Galen to compose a work entitled "On his own Books," in which the above episode is recorded. There he first described the process by which his works came to be mutilated and appropriated by others during his own lifetime. Galen then offered the titles and contents for each of his genuine works. As frustrated as Galen seems to be at the fate of his books, he should not have been and probably was not surprised at such an outcome in light of his own extensive work with the multiple-centuries old Hippocratic corpus. Using the criteria of style, word selection, anachronism, internal inconsistency, and incongruence with recognized Hippocratic thought, Galen was able to identify entire works, select portions, and specific passages as not of Hippocrates. Amidst ongoing discussions concerning interpolations and pseudepigraphy in the texts of the New Testament, Galen’s "On his own Books" and his detailed analysis of the Hippocratic corpus offers a provocative portrait of text production, transmission, and alteration and raises pertinent questions about the integrity of early Christian texts.


The Body and the Head in the New Testament (with Special Reference to 1 Corinthians and Colossians)
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Teun Tieleman, University of Utrecht

Studies on medical ideas in the New Testament have on the whole focused on the stories of miraculous cures. This paper addresses another side of Graeco-Roman medicine, viz. conceptions of the human body. Which anatomical insights can be found in these texts and what can be said about their provenance ? What do they tell us of the intellectual ambiance of their authors? Answers to these and other related questions will be sought by comparing anatomical passages from the Platonic Timaeus to Galen. Within the New Testament I will focus on the well-known image of the body as an organic whole with the head as its main, or most highly valued, part, as found e.g. at 1 Cor. 12 and Col. 1.15-20 and 2.19.


A Synchronic or a Diachronic Reading of Isaiah 40–55: Does It Differ?
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, University of Aberdeen

This paper focuses on the relationship between the textual history of Isaiah 40-55 and the geographical settings of its compositions. It explores the recent text-historical theories by, among others, Kratz, Van Oorschot and Albertz, that divide Isa 40-55 into textual layers largely dependent on their perceived geographical setting, whether Babylonian or Judahite. Other recent research (e.g. Barstad, Sherwin and Goulder) shows, however, that much, if not all, of Isa 40-55 presupposes a Judahite setting. The present paper combines these findings and, by also taking the results of rhetorical criticism of Isa 40-55 into account (e.g. Melugin), it proposes that a strong case can be made for regarding extended parts of Isa 40-55 as text-historical units. Accordingly, it is possible to read much of this material synchronically and diachronically with little or no difference between the two readings. In order to illustrate these findings, Isa 41:1-42:13 and 49:14-52:12 are used as test-cases.


Ezekiel the Man, the Prophet, the Priest, and the Watchman
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, University of Aberdeen

This paper discusses the way in which the book of Ezekiel presents the character of Ezekiel, focusing on his role as the ideal leader. The criticism of the religious and secular leadership of Israel (Ezek 8:7-18, 20, 28:11-19 and 34) serves as the background against which the characterization of Ezekiel as the ideal leader and priest (Ezek 3, 33) is contrasted. The paper will focus on issues of methodology: do we have enough evidence to differentiate between the author of the book of Ezekiel and the persona of Ezekiel that serves as its narrator? The present paper suggests that while the historical character of Ezekiel, identified here with the author of much of the book bearing his name, shares much with the literary persona within the book, his presentation of himself emphasizes that Ezekiel is the only present righteous leader, in comparison with the leaders and priest contemporary to him.


Reading the Wiles of the Wicked Woman (4Q184 1) in Its Manuscript Context
Program Unit: Qumran
Eibert Tigchelaar, Florida State University

Despite the fact that in the DJD edition 4Q184 (Wiles of the Wicked Woman) consists of 6 fragments, all scholars have dealt with frag. 1 exclusively. Many different explanations have been offered, but they all have ignored the other fragments. The questions to be answered are: do the other fragments belong to the same manuscript? If so, how should they influence our reading of 4Q184 1 -- the poem on the wicked woman as part of a larger composition? What kind of composition would that be? If one or more of those fragments should not be attributed to 4Q184, what does that mean for the interpretation of 4Q184 1. What could be the purpose of a single sheet poem? And, how should we re-assign and interpret the other fragments? This presentation is not only reflective, but concrete suggestions will be proposed.


Psalm Recitation in the White Monastery
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Janet A. Timbie, Catholic University of America

The early cenobitic monasteries in Egypt, such as the Pachomian and White Monastery federations, are known to have valued recitation of scripture, especially the Psalms. The Rule of Horsiesius prescribes the amount of scripture to be recited from memory by monks: "As for the one who will not recite more, (let him recite) not less than ten sections along with a section from the Psalter." The literature of 4th-5th century eremitic monasticism (Evagrius, Cassian, and others) also witnesses to the role of Psalm recitation. But it is difficult to find evidence that specific Psalms were recited in the early cenobitic communities. A discourse titled Righteous Art Thou, by Shenoute of Atripe (d. 465), head of the White Monastery near Sohag, offers important evidence of the recitation in Coptic of Psalms 38 and 44 (LXX). Shenoute charges that some monks combine abusive behavior with mere "lip service" in Psalm recitation: "You say with the tongue, 'Who now is my steadfastness? Isn't it the Lord?' " Ps 38.7 LXX. This discourse, therefore, lets us hear early Coptic psalmody and also compare the quoted text with other Coptic and Greek texts in order to identify any significant variants. Psalms were recited, yet the value of recitation was debated. Shenoute argues that some monks believed that psalmody conferred benefit apart from proper behavior and he aims to correct their error. The name or title of "monk", the monastic habit, and psalmody had emerged as the three identifying marks of a cenobitic monk by the fifth century. But the more some monks rely on these three identifiers, the more Shenoute must argue that they are ineffective and even dangerous without proper concern for others in the monastery. This paper will examine the discourse (Righteous Art Thou) for evidence of the practice of psalmody c. 400 and for the debate about the purpose of psalmody in the White Monastery.


The Shona Bible and the Politics of Bible Translation
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Lovemore Togarasei, University of Botswana

Although the translation of the Bible into African languages aimed to avail the Bible in Africans’ mother languages, it was not a completely objective process. As has already been observed, no translation is free from interpretation. Thus translation studies, examine “the literary and cultural history of translation practices with an emphasis on the role of the ideology of the translator in the praxis of translation” (W. Randolph Tate, 2006:381). This paper will discuss the politics of Bible translation focusing on the Shona Bible. The Shona language is spoken by over seven million people in Zimbabwe and some parts of Mozampique and Zambia. The paper will discuss the history of the translation of the Bible from the time the missionaries arrived in the 1890s to the time when the first complete Bible was translated in the late 1940s. It will discuss the political and cultural factors that influenced the way the Bible was translated. How did missionaries’ (the first Bible translators) ideology influence the translation? How did the translators address the dialectical differences in the Shona language considering that Shona has five dialects? How did Shona cosmology and spirituality influence translation? To answer these and other questions concerning the politics of biblical translation, specific biblical texts will be analyzed. The paper will also briefly look at subsequent ‘improvements’ to the Shona Bible to see how translators have responded to cultural and linguistic changes over the years of the use of the Bible among the Shona.


Paul’s Rhetorical Strategy in Romans 14–15
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Carl Toney, Loyola University Chicago

Paul is concerned with the unity of the Roman church, and he exhorts a group that he labels as the “strong” (Rom 15.1) to maintain their beliefs but curb their behavior when it can cause others “weaker in faith” (Rom 14.1, 2; 15.1) to sin. Paul primarily focuses upon the issue of eating as an example of an issue which his general exhortation applies. Along with his exhortation to the “strong,” Paul includes exhortations to three groups/people (the “weak,” an imaginary interlocutor, and himself) to help persuade the Romans to follow his exhortation of tolerance and flexibility. In Rom 14.1-3 his exhortation to the “weak” helps display his sympathy and concern for the views of the “strong.” In Rom 14.4-12, his apostrophe offers a neutral third party for the “strong” to weigh the benefits of his exhortation to abstain from judgment. Finally, by including his own views in Rom 14.14-21 as equally subject to his exhortation to the “strong,” Paul shows empathy for the “strong” in light of his own views, and softens his exhortation to them to change their behavior. Thus, Paul uses these three groups/people in his rhetorical strategy to convince the “strong” to maintain their beliefs but curb their behavior around those who they deem as “weak.”


Did Anything Good Come from Wikipedia? Engaging Students on the Internet Using Wiki Technology to Improve Your Class Notes
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Carl Toney, Loyola University Chicago

Session Two: millennial characteristics addressed--heightened technical skills and ability to access information and the educator as entertainer. The Web 2.0 wiki technology presents an enormous opportunity for creating a dynamic and collaborative set of class notes on the internet. Students benefit from wiki notes because it allows them to prioritize their learning by highlighting class material which they deem important. Stellar students benefit from the teaching moments of sharing information while struggling students benefit by receiving supplemented materials. In addition the learning environment is extended beyond the confines of the classroom. Professors benefit from wiki notes because they can evaluate students' abilities to assimilate information based on their contributions. Each student is given a unique identification, so professors are aware of each students' contributions. Dynamic feedback is created through editing of students’ notes. This also appeals to the professor’s role as facilitator because the professor becomes a fellow editor of a common pool of information. This paper will examine the benefits and challenges of using wiki class notes. It will assess a case study of class notes from one of my classes. Finally, it will also provide resources for implementation of wiki notes. For an example of wiki class notes see http://carltoney.wetpaint.com. If this topic is not suitable, then two alternative proposals would include: 1.) Using YouTube and MySpace video technology in the classroom. Small lectures can be placed in bite-sized formats for students. Students can create video projects. 2.) The improvement of class papers by putting them on the internet because students can incorporate pictures and videos. Professors can also edit and interact with these projects in a familiar format for students. The web design also creates an “entertainment” element.


Edwards' Ezekiel: The Interpretation of Ezekiel in the Blank Bible and Notes on Scripture
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
William A. Tooman, Edgewood College

The recent release of Jonathan Edwards' Blank Bible (2006) together with his previously published Notes on Scripture (1998) has provided historians of biblical interpretation with an unrestricted view of Edwards' interpretation of individual biblical books. This paper examines the hermeneutical principles governing Edwards' interpretation of the Bible as reflected in his writings on the book of Ezekiel. In many ways Edwards departed from typical practices in Protestant exegesis. He highlighted layers of meaning lying beyond the literal sense, layers which bridge the divide between the world of the text and the world of realia. This paper illuminates Edwards' mutilayered approach to the interpretation of Ezekiel by examining passages that were central to his dramatic and imaginative reading of the book.


What’s Love Got to Do With It? The Prophetic Construction of Gomer
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
G. Andrew Tooze, Pfeiffer University

To create a living symbol of the relationship between God and Israel, God commands Hosea to marry a “woman of harlotry” (1:2) and to “love a woman who has a lover” (3:1). This woman is Gomer, who in spite of her crucial role in the text, is without an identity. Gomer never speaks in her own voice and we only hear the prophet’s description of her. In this paper, I will do 3 things: 1. I will examine the biblical text to demonstrate how that text denies Gomer own voice and constructs an identity for her. 2. I will look at several films, including "Taxi Driver" and "Mona Lisa," in which a man who “loves” a “woman of harlotry” constructs her identity in ways that echo the construction of Gomer’s identity. Because these films echo what happens in the Book of Hosea, examining them allows us to then see Hosea and Gomer’s “loving” relationship from a different perspective. 3. I will ask questions about the implications of Gomer’s constructed identity. What does it mean that the symbolic recipient of God’s love is stripped of her identity? Can love flourish in relationship in which one partner is allowed to have only a constructed identity? This paper will conclude that there is a direct link between Gomer’s constructed identity and the abuse she suffers as a “punishment” for failing to live up to that constructed identity.


Condemnation of the Priests in Hosea and Malachi: An Intertextual Connection
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
G. Andrew Tooze, Pfeiffer University

This paper will identify an intertextual link between the books of Hosea and Malachi that is formed by the condemnation of the priests in Hos 4:4-11a and Mal 1:6-2:9. This intertextual relationship is one of several that allow Hosea and Malachi to frame the twelve books of the Minor Prophets and allow them to act as a unified Book of the Twelve. Hosea and Malachi are not the only prophets in the Twelve to condemn the priests. However, in the Twelve, only Hosea and Malachi denounce the priests as a group for sins committed in the context of their priestly duties. Amos 7:10-17 attacks Amaziah, a specific priest, and Mic 3:11 and Zeph 3:4 include the crimes of the priests in larger condemnations of the people as a whole, but these texts do not address the priests as a specific group, and they do not reproach the priests for their failure to teach torah properly. Only Hosea and Malachi indict the priests for this failure and they both promise the same punishment for the priests, humiliation and an end of the priestly line. The focus on the priests as a group and the emphasis on torah instruction makes Hos 4:4-11a and Mal 1:6-2:9 unique in their condemnation of the priests in the Twelve.


Doxa (Glory) and Mana: An Exploration of Concepts with Reference to the Use of Doxa in John’s Gospel
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Derek M.H. Tovey, St. John's College

Doxa (“glory”) and mana (a Maori word meaning “authority”, “power”, “psychic influence”, “prestige” etc.) are words or, better, concepts that are capacious and multivocal. This paper explores the semantic range of the concept of doxa and relates it to the Maori concept of mana. The paper specifically explores how connotations of mana as a socially and spiritually (divinely) derived authority, power and prestige may illuminate the concept of doxa in John’s Gospel and the Gospel’s presentation of the person and status of Jesus. A brief summary of the contexts in which doxa is used within the Gospel leads to a survey of the connotations of doxa and how these relate to those contained within mana. The paper suggests how each concept may mutually inform the other, and bear implications for inter-contextual enrichment, and one (possible) implication for an understanding of mana, that may serve as an instance of inculturation.


The Demise of the School of Shammai
Program Unit: Midrash
John T. Townsend, Harvard University

Throughout Rabbinic literature, wherever there is a dispute between the schools of Hillel and Shammai, the views of the house of Shammai (Bet Shammai) are treated with surprising respect, although the final ruling agrees with the school of Hillel (Bet Hillel). Thus, for example, the views of Bet Shammai, generally appear ahead of the rulings of Bet Hillel. Moreover, according to a voice from heaven (bat qol) pronounced over the two schools, “Both are the words of the living God, but practice (halakhah) is in accord with the school of Hillel (`Eruv. 13b [bar.]; cf. 6b). The reason for this honor along with rejection concerning the school of Shammai may date from the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70. While the leading Hillelite, Johanan ben Zakkai sought accommodation with the Romans, we know of at least one important Shammite, Eleazar b. Hananiah (Gk.: Ananias), (cf. Mekh. Bahodesh, 7:ll. 66-70 with Bets. 16a) who sided against Rome (Josephus, BJ 2:566, cf.: 409). After the destruction of the Temple, Bet Shammai was admired, but Bet Hillel survived. While the evidence for this conclusion is hardly conclusive, the interpretation does make sense of what we know about the school of Shammai. Another reason for rejecting the rulings of Bet Shammai may have had to do with the growing movement that followed Jesus of Nazareth. This movement tended to agree with the Shammaites, who may have been particularly prevalent in the Galilee. Out of ten instances in the New Testament which mention matters of dispute between the two schools, seven agree with the Shammaites, two with the Hillelites, and one where Paul and James disagree.


“What Is This Great Race?” The Meaning of “Genea” in the Gospel of Judas
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Philippa Townsend, Princeton University

The Greek word “genea,” which appears in the Gospel of Judas approximately forty times, is rendered as “generation” in the 2006 National Geographic translation; however, the most common meaning of this word is “race.” Reading “genea” as “race” enables us to place this text within the context of early Christian understandings of themselves as a race or people. Drawing on the work of, among others, Michael Williams (The Immovable Race, 1985) and Denise Kimber Buell (Why this New Race? 2005) this paper explores the theological and social implications of the use of ethnic language in the Gospel of Judas. It argues that the use of “genea” should not be interpreted as an indication of “Gnostic determinism,” but rather that the text is participating in the discourses about heresy that were beginning to develop in the second century, and which frequently deployed ethnic argumentation. Through its depiction of the disciples' confusion and lack of understanding about the “great and holy race,” the text stages early Christian controversies about social inclusion and correct religious practice. In particular, the gospel approaches the significance of sacrifice from various angles, and in so doing sheds a critical light on practices that many Christians were promoting as constitutive of membership in the people of God, including the Eucharist and martyrdom.


Being Jewish under Rome: Philo on Greeks and Egyptians
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Philippa Townsend, Princeton University

Most scholarship on Philo makes a sharp distinction between his attitudes towards Greeks and Egyptians. However, this paper argues that in Against Flaccus and Embassy to Gaius, Philo quite deliberately elides the distinction between Egyptians and Greeks in Alexandria, consistently referring to the Greek citizens of Alexandria as "Egyptians," with all the attendant connotations of extreme barbarism which that term consistently has in his work. While these texts have often been taken to show that the tension in Alexandria was between Jews and the native Egyptians, this reading suggests that Philo's complaint was actually with the Alexandrian Greeks. Further, this paper argues that the conflation of Greeks and Egyptians in these texts should be understood within a broader context in which Philo was concerned to undermine Greek cultural prestige in the eyes of the Romans. Drawing on evidence from On the Contemplative Life, among other texts, I will argue that in his depiction of Greeks, Philo plays on xenophobic anxieties within Roman society about the degenerative effect of Greek moral laxity, while at the same time attempting to bolster the status of Jews as moral exemplars within the Empire. This paper argues, then, that Philo's depiction of both Greeks and Egyptians can only be understood within the context of a conversation with Rome.


Gender Trouble in Corinth: Que(e)rying Constructs of Gender in 1 Corinthians 11:2–16
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Gillian Townsley, University of Otago

Queer theory closely scrutinizes gender behaviour labelled as ‘normal’ (or ‘natural’), often utilising the work of Judith Butler (1990, 1993). Her theory of “performativity” demonstrates that practices of “collective disidentification” unsettle the ‘normal’ and reveal the categories of body, sex, gender and sexuality as indeterminate. This paper proposes that a connection can be made between this notion of performativity and 1 Cor 11.2-16, one of the most difficult passages to decipher in the New Testament. Previous studies of this passage have focused primarily either on the surface matters of correct attire for worship that occasions Paul's arguments (hairstyles or head coverings?) or on the exegetical issues concerning Paul's vocabulary (what does he mean by kephale?). The result has been the spawning of countless articles, with scholars divided on every issue. This paper proposes that an approach is needed which examines more closely the gender issues fundamental to this text. The Corinthians, having been made “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3.28), are possibly seeking to blur any gender distinctions in their public worship, a site of authoritative “repetitive performance.” In response, Paul labels this behaviour “shameful” and by referring to what is “proper,” and to what “nature” teaches concerning what is “dishonouring,” seeks to prescribe heterosexually organised gender difference. Judith Butler’s notion of “performativity” might therefore enable a new que(e)rying of this passage.


A Looser "Canon"? Relating William Abraham’s Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology to Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Daniel J. Treier, Wheaton College

William Abraham's important book criticizes “a long-standing misinterpretation of ecclesial canons as epistemic criteria.” It also defines “canon” in such a way that Scripture is not the canon but rather one entity in a network of “materials, persons, and practices officially or semi-officially identified and set apart as a means of grace and salvation by the Christian community.” After describing Abraham’s viewpoint and appreciating its insights, this paper interrogates its propriety with respect to the function of “canon” in biblical interpretation. The nature of doctrine, denoting both a process and a product, suggests that, importantly, biblical texts mediate grace through regulating the church's teaching. While Abraham’s approach offers the opportunity to explore a more Eastern Orthodox perspective, biblical and historical considerations should moderate his critique of the Western heritage. A worked example can help us to see what it means to read Scripture “canonically”: with awareness that one of its gracious functions is providing a criteriological center by which to order various means of grace, and even their contributions to the church's teaching.


The Piercing of the Prophet in Zechariah 13:3: A Just or Unjust Execution?
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Bradley R. Trick, Duke University

The book of Zechariah has many difficult and obscure passages; the piercing of a purportedly false prophet in Zech 13:3 is usually not considered one of them. Scholars everywhere understand the piercing in this verse as a picture of the righteous zeal that will characterize the eschaton. The evidence, however, is hardly unambiguous. For instance, the accusation of false prophecy comes solely from the parents; the narrating author himself characterizes the pierced one’s activity simply as “prophesying.” This potential discrepancy suggests at the very least that the parents’ reliability must be established rather than assumed. Or again, while the rare verb daqar (“pierce”) could allude to Phineas as the righteous instrument of God’s judgment in Num 25:7-8, in the more immediate context of Zech 12:10 it refers to the (presumably) righteous victim of an unjust human judgment. This paper will argue that Zech 13:3 refers to the unjust piercing of a true prophet. It will begin by seeking to explain why scholars have so consistently understood the verse as the just judgment of a false prophet, a phenomenon that seems intimately tied to the reference to the removal of prophets in 13:2. Having established that 13:2 does not provide the proper interpretive context for 13:3, it will then turn to the wider context, arguing that both the preceding (12:10-13:2) and following (13:7-9) passages point to an unjust execution in 13:3. Finally, the paper will ground this conclusion in a careful analysis of Zech 13:3-6 itself.


Sacred Topographies: Monuments, Memory, and Religious Identity in Late Ancient Rome
Program Unit: Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
Dennis Trout, University of Missouri-Columbia

This talk explores the relationship between the evolution of late ancient Rome’s sacred topographies and the formation of religious identities in the city during an age of far reaching transformations. I will argue that both public monuments and the debates over them offer us important indices of identity negotiation at Rome in the centuries after Constantine’s conversion. During this time the emblems of a new sense of Roman-ness gradually replaced other markers that had long spoken of a different conception of Roman history and social identity. As martyria and churches altered the cityscape, for example, they promoted, in images and words, a version of civic beginnings and communal purposes linked not to the old gods, legends, and heroes but to a new set of founding figures, the martyrs and saints. Though the “old topography” long had its guardians at Rome, the changes introduced in the early fourth century and advanced thereafter, gradually recast Roman public memory—and with it religious sentiment. In short, this paper argues that any full appreciation of the “Christianization” of Rome in late antiquity will have to take account of the power of monumentalized spaces to establish or affirm communal identity. Many scholars have drawn attention to the power of monuments as “places of memory” while others have studied building programs as “propaganda.” This paper will draw upon this rich variety of material in order to provide a context for assessing the often elusive or fragmentary evidence for the late ancient city. Although comparative study begins by recognizing similarities (x is like y), it proceeds to the acknowledgement of differences. Therefore this talk will aim at suggesting both what is “common” and what is “particular” in the religious history of late ancient Rome, hoping thereby to illustrate the value (if not the necessity) of the comparative approach for the study of ancient religions


"Boule" in Septuagint Isaiah
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Ronald L. Troxel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The word "boule" appears 137 times in the translations of books from the Hebrew Bible. Thirty-two of those are in the book of Isaiah, at a ratio of 11.8 words per hundred. While Proverbs has a higher concentration of occurrences (18, at a ratio of 16.1 words per hundred), it uses "boule" largely for Wisdom's counsel or the guidance given by teachers. In LXX-Isaiah, on the other hand, the translator often uses "boule," even when there is no Hebrew equivalent in his Vorlage, to define a course of behavior humans have established, whether for good or ill. This paper will explore the translator's employment of this word and describe its significance in the translation's world of thought.


Philodemus, on Property Management
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Voula Tsouna, University of California, Santa Barbara

The paper will present certain central concepts of what, according to Philodemus, would be the oikonomia appropriate for the person who wishes to live the philosophical life.


Is Albright's Emendation of KTU 1.23:64 Correct? Revisiting the "Seven" Good Gods of Fertility in Ugarit
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
David T. Tsumura, Japan Bible Seminary

In his thorough study of KTU 1.23, The Rituals and Myths of the Feast of the Goodly Gods of KTU/CAT 1.23: Royal Constructions of Opposition, Intersection, Integration, and Domination, 2006, Mark S. Smith reviews the history of interpretation of the past 70 years of this difficult Ugaritic text and presents a fine synthesis of his own. Among other things, he interprets the Goodly Gods to be destructive divinities like Mot. However, his view is based on the motifs and themes in the Baal Cycle as well as on the Albright's emendation of line 64 as wl t$bcn . y aTt . itrH. But Albright's emendation of the edition princeps by Virolleaud is not well founded. On the basis of two photographs, one from CTA edition and the other my own, taken on Aug 17, 1977 at the Musée du Louvre (see UF 10, 389, n. 9), I will present the reading wld . $bcny . aTt . itrH. Based on this reading, I will explain my own interpretation of the text from literary and philological perspectives.


Vertical Grammar of Parallelism in Hebrew and Ugaritic Poetry
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
David T. Tsumura, Japan Bible Seminary

While the grammar of prose is characterised by a sequential (syntagmatic) combination of various linguistic elements, the grammar of poetic parallelism is characterised by "vertical grammar," in which the elements of lines have grammatical dependency on each other "vertically" as well as "horizontally". For example,2 Sam. 22:42 yi$cû we'ên mo$îac They looked, but there was none to save; 'el-YHWH welo' canam at the Lord, but he did not respond to them. Here, 'el-YHWH "at the Lord" (b) in the second line modifies vertically "They looked" (a) in the first line, while the clause "but he did not respond to them" (x') in the second line is a further specification of "but there was none to save" (x). I have already written on this subject. See my "Vertical Grammar: The Grammar of Parallelism in Biblical Hebrew" in Hamlet on a Hill: Semitic and Greek Studies Presented to Professor T. Muraoka on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, eds. by M.F.J. Baasten & W.Th. van Peursen (Leuven: Peeters, 2003), 487-97. In this paper I develop my theory further in Biblical Hebrew and apply it also to Ugaritic examples.


The Primordial Cloth and the Civilized Ox: Sacrifice and Labour in the Pentateuch
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Ayse Tuzlak, University of Calgary

In his essay “Domesticating Sacrifice,” Jonathan Z. Smith proposed that the supposed “primordiality” of the confrontation between a human butcher and an animal Other has made animal sacrifice very easy to romanticize. Too often, historians of religion have succumbed to the temptation to seek an irreducible tremendum in the encounter at the altar. Smith, by contrast, sees sacrifice as a product of “civilization”; it is for him “a quite ordinary mode of human social labour.” Provocatively, he suggests that sacrifice itself is no more than a “meditation on domestication.” In this paper, I will apply Smith’s arguments about the domesticated animal to certain elements of Israelite sacrifice that have resisted scholarly romanticization. I will take the furnishings of the tabernacle, including the materials described in Exodus 25-27 and Numbers 4, as a case study. Ironically, instructions about furniture and Levitical rules regarding animal sacrifice have both been taken by Christian scholars as evidence that Israelite religion is overly-domesticated; that is to say, that Israelite practice lacks the spontaneity and mystical union with the divine that supposedly characterizes true religion. The inverse relationship between architectural labour and animal slaughter can illuminate some of the paradoxes that have characterized scholarly approaches to the Bible over the past two centuries.


The Powers That Be: Antonin Scalia on Romans 13:1–5
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati

In a 2002 essay entitled “God’s Justice and Ours,” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argues, with reference to Romans 13, that “the core of [Paul’s] message is that government . . . derives its moral authority from God,” indeed that our government in itself has divine backing. In his decisions Scalia has indicated the extent to which this understanding of the Pauline text is his own: the message of the Decalogue, he has argued, “is that law is – and our institutions come from God.” The ambiguity here (law both comes from, and is, God) is intriguing, for Scalia can also describe both God and the presidency in equivalent terms – God is a “unitary God” and the president is a “unitary executive.” Where does he draw the line? And how might we distinguish between these apparently theocratic formulations and a more generalized ‘civil religion’? This paper will discuss Scalia’s use of Romans 13 in terms of the 2002 essay and his jurisprudence more generally. My approach is informed on the one hand by recent trends in political theology (for example, Giorgio Agamben’s critique of Carl Schmitt’s concept of sovereignty) and on the other by an awareness of the complexity of the theologico-political responses to Romans 13 in the history of interpretation. Given Scalia’s prominence in the Bush administration, I contend, his overly simplistic reading of the Pauline text requires careful, and critical, attention. I will conclude the presentation with brief comparative reflections upon Jonathan Edwards’ much more nuanced, indeed democratic, uses of Romans 13, in order (a) to clarify how Scalia’s exegesis distinguishes him from an American theological tradition with which he has sometimes been associated, and (b) to suggest alternative possibilities for religious approaches to politics in our post-secular age.


Joseph as a Prototype of the Enslaved: Philo De Ioseph and Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2.39–90
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Fabian Eugene Udoh, University of Notre Dame

John Byron, in his 2003 study, Slavery Metaphors in Early Judaism and Pauline Christianity, entitles his section on the representation of Joseph in both Philo (De Iosepho) and Josephus (A.J. 2.39-90): “Joseph as a Paradigmatic Enslaved Figure.” He concludes his brief study by noting that “Joseph, as a paradigmatic enslaved figure, represents the pattern of Humiliation-Obedience-Examination.” While one will readily agree that, in both Philo and Josephus, Joseph is a prototype of the enslaved, Byron’s work as a whole betrays negligible contact with the ideology and practice of slavery in the Greco-Roman world. This contact is certainly lacking in his analysis of the figure of Joseph. Byron, consequently, fails to show how Josephus and Philo might be said to see in the slave-Joseph “a prototype of the enslaved.” In this paper, I will examine the notions of slavery that underlie the presentation of Joseph by both Philo and Josephus. I will draw from the extensive literature of slavery (though there is no “slave literature”) by Greco-Roman authors in order to explore the ways in which Philo and Josephus assimilated, and perhaps flouted, the various modes by which the free negotiated and legitimized the social structure of slavery and the meaning it generated. In so doing, I shall seek to uncover in what manner, and to what end, the slave-Joseph is an exemplary slave. This paper will further the on-going discussion of slavery in first-century Judaism and early Christianity, particularly in the New Testament.


Before Animal Sacrifice: A Myth of Innocence
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Daniel Ullucci, Brown University

Meat has always been part of the human diet. Within Greek and Roman religions (as well as many other religious systems worldwide), animal sacrifice was one of the most omnipresent and socially significant religious practices. Yet, numerous Greek and Latin writers tell of a golden age when humans were not dependent on killing animals for food. In this idealized world, humans lived at one with the gods, and animal sacrifice did not exist. One classic example of this myth comes from Porphyry’s De Abstentia. According to Porphyry, humans were originally vegetarians. When famine struck, people fell to cannibalism. The eating of animal meat and the ritual of sacrifice, he claims, emerged only as a substitute to murder and eating human flesh. Other stories of a golden age without sacrifice are found in Hesiod, Herodotus, Ovid, and others. These passages have often been read through the lens of the later Christian position on sacrifice. According to this view, animal sacrifice was a barbaric and senseless act which was abolished and replaced by the pure sacrifice of Jesus. In fact, Eusebius is aware of the same version of the myth Porphyry tells and uses it to support his rejection of sacrifice. Largely as a result of this Christian lens, scholars have not asked what the myth of a world without sacrifice means in a world in which sacrifice predominated. This paper seeks to correct the above view by analyzing these texts as instances of created myth. It approaches each occurrence of the myth as an instance of position-taking by a player in the field of cultural production. The paper seeks to further a redescription of Greco-Roman antiquity by revealing the variety of ancient positions on sacrifice and their strategic use by competing cultural producers.


Tracing the Lines: Porphyry, Eusebius, and the Renewal of Platonism
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Arthur Urbano, Providence College

A crisis of leadership shook the world of Platonist philosophy in the first and second centuries C.E. The effects of this crisis continued into the third and fourth centuries. This paper will argue that both Neo-Platonists and Christian Platonists were crafting philosophical pedigrees, or lineages, in their debates and, particularly, in their biographical compositions, as a way of laying claim to the philosophical renewal that was taking shape in the third and fourth centuries. The construction of intellectual lineages also served to outline histories of philosophy that contributed to the collective identities of students in philosophical schools as well as of circles of Christian intellectuals. In particular, the writings of Porphyry and Eusebius of Caesarea demonstrate that the figure of Ammonius Saccas was at the center of a dispute between the intellectual heirs of Plotinus and Origen. This dispute was part of a larger cultural and intellectual competition over the shape of philosophical orthodoxy in Late Antiquity.


Ritual, Writing, and Early Jesus Traditions
Program Unit: Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Risto Uro, University of Helsinki

The oral dimension of early Christian texts has been emphasized in several recent studies. The studies on orality have greatly contributed to understanding the nature of the transmission of early Christian traditions and the interaction between orality and textuality in this process. What has received less attention in these studies is the role of ritual in the transmission and consolidation of early Christian traditions. This paper examines the earliest traditions attributed to Jesus and found in Q, Thomas, and Paul from the vantage point of ritual. The paper evaluates two theories of transmission, that of “informal controlled tradition” (Kenneth Bailey), and the “modes of religiosity” theory (Harvey Whitehouse). The first emphasizes the social gathering as the setting for transmission. The latter is a cognitively-inspired theory of ritual highlighting the significance of memory. The conclusion of the discussion is that there is not much evidence for rituals as the setting of the transmission of Jesus traditions and, consequently, the role of writing must have been greater than many theories of transmission assume.


The Secondary Law of the Didascalia Apostolorum
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Kevin M. Vaccarella, Florida State University

This paper presents an analysis of the term “deuterosis” within the Didascalia Apostolorum, a third-century Christian text presumably from Syria. Often understood as “secondary law,” deuterosis is described in the text as inauthentic regulations instituted by God as a temporary punishment upon “the People” after the golden calf event. Christ’s mission was to restore the original teachings of God by abolishing the secondary laws. The notion of purging traditional markers of Jewish identity from religious life has clear implications for the study of Jewish Christian relations. Previous scholarship has understood deuterosis as a polemic on the validity of rabbinic tradition, likely reflecting a degree of competition between Jewish and Christian groups. This explanation – which is not without merit – does not cohere with the function of similar terms in other Christian writings. In fact, the Didascalia should be grouped alongside other writings like the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and Ptolemy's Letter to Flora that argue for the existence of inauthentic material in the scriptures. Like these other writings, the Didascalia’s use of the term deuterosis is evidence of the author’s sense of rivalry over the issue of scriptural interpretation in an atmosphere of religious competition. This paper discusses the notion that the Didascalia utilizes deuterosis to distinguish the Didascalist’s community from Jews as well as other Christians. Furthermore, this analysis demonstrates that there was no common hermeneutical scheme among Syrian Christians. The analysis of the term deuterosis within the Didascalia illuminates a less noticed aspect of Jewish Christian relations in third-century Syria as well as how Christian identity was constructed.


The Doctrine of Creatio ex Nihilo in Pseudo-Clementine Literature
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Päivi Vähäkangas, University of Helsinki

God created the world out of nothing, out of non-being. This has been the firm conviction of the majority of Christian theologians from the third century onwards. The dispute concerning the origin of matter seems to have arisen around mid-second century. Earlier Christian texts do not explicitly interfere with the question on the nature of matter as pre-existent or not. Thus the contrast with the late second century polemics is remarkable. The view that the world was made out of nothing became rapidly almost universal within Christian circles. The issue is present also in the Pseudo-Clementine literature. It is worth noting that the discussion on the pre-existence of matter is missing in the so-called Basic writing (B). The earliest description of the creation of the world occurs in the Jewish-Christian source, composed in the second century and preserved in Recognitiones (R). All other references to the doctrine belong to the redaction of R and Homilia (H) and witness conflicting traditions. R is explicitly in favor of creatio ex nihilo whereas H promotes the Platonic view on the primeval matter which is coeval with God. The aim of this presentation is to analyze the development of these contradictory views and study what the diverging attitudes to this doctrine might reveal about the communities behind R and H. The starting point will be the ancient source of R, the oldest piece of information in the Pseudo-Clementine literature on the issue of creation. A brief survey will then be made on the origin of matter among Jewish and early Christian theologians. The next point will be to analyse on this ground the interpretations of creatio ex nihilo in the final versions of R and H and shed some light on their theological differences in general.


The Doctrine of Creatio ex Nihilo in Pseudo-Clementine Literature
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Päivi Vähäkangas, University of Helsinki

God created the world out of nothing, out of non-being. This has been the firm conviction of the majority of Christian theologians from the third century onwards. The dispute concerning the origin of matter seems to have arisen around mid-second century. Earlier Christian texts do not explicitly interfere with the question on the nature of matter as pre-existent or not. Thus the contrast with the late second century polemics is remarkable. The view that the world was made out of nothing became rapidly almost universal within Christian circles. The issue is present also in the Pseudo-Clementine literature. It is worth noting that the discussion on the pre-existence of matter is missing in the so-called Basic writing (B). The earliest description of the creation of the world occurs in the Jewish-Christian source, composed in the second century and preserved in Recognitiones (R) 1.27-71. All other references to the doctrine belong to the redaction of R and Homilia (H) and witness conflicting traditions. R is explicitly in favor of creatio ex nihilo whereas H promotes the Platonic view on the primeval matter which is coeval with God. This presentation aims to analyze the development of these contradictory views and study what the diverging attitudes to this doctrine might reveal about the communities behind R and H. The starting point will be the ancient source of R, the oldest piece of information in the Pseudo-Clementine literature on the issue of creation. A brief survey will then be made on the origin of matter among Jewish and early Christian theologians. The next point will be to analyse on this ground the interpretations of creatio ex nihilo in the final versions of R and H and shed some light on their theological differences in general.


Prophecy, Apocalyptic Literature, and Literary Predictive Texts: How to Read and Why?
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Kaisa Vaittinen, University of Helsinki

Ancient Near Eastern prophecy, apocalyptic literature and literary predictive texts have a lot in common. They share literary roots and employ the mantic wisdom as their intellectual background. Texts were often written in same social milieu and this leads to a situation where one kind of text is sometimes difficult to distinguish from another. It often seems that the ways of reading, and understanding the text arise from the reader's preconception on the text. This has produced questions on the role of creating generic categories and using them as a basis of analysis. Some considerations on literary genre, and comparative studies are viewed through the chapters 10-12 of the Book of Daniel.


The Heteroglossic Hebrew Heroes of Daniel 1–6
Program Unit: Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
David M Valeta, University of Colorado at Boulder

Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego are among the quintessential heroes of the Hebrew Bible. They have been perfect subjects for the Veggie Tales Video Series. While many scholars see these stories as discrete, positive court tales of the wise courtier in a foreign court, difficulties remain with such an assessment. It does not explain the many sub-genres and literary seams of the tales that have caused concern. It does not explain the presence of two languages in the book nor the number of comic elements. It also does not adequately connect the literature to its social world or the dark tone of the apocalyptic visions of Daniel 7-12. This paper rejects the monologic reading of Daniel 1-6 as a series of court tales that encourage advancement in a foreign court. Instead Daniel 1-6 is a type of Menippean satire, the goal of which is resistance to empire. The method is derived from Mikhail Bahktin’s understanding of genre, the pre-novelistic impulse, and Menippean satire. Daniel 1-6 is a work that brings older traditions, several sub-genres, two languages, and countless comic elements into a unified satirical piece of resistance literature that is consistent with the social world of the book and the attitude of judgment toward Antiochus IV found in Daniel 7-12. The heteroglossic Hebrew heroes of Daniel 1-6 are much more than paragons of virtue and moral faithfulness. The writer of these tales skillfully uses these hero stories to deconstruct the mighty images of king and empire.


Why is the Eucharist Referred to as a “Sacrifice” in Didache 14?
Program Unit: Didache in Context
Huub van de Sandt, Tilburg University

Did 14 deals with the Assemblies on the Day of the Lord and requires the community to “break bread and give thanks,” expressions which exactly correspond to “broken bread” in 9:3.4 and “to give thanks” in Did 9:1.2.3, and 10:1.2.3.4, respectively. The two expressions represent a hendiadys, denoting the singular rite of “breaking the bread with thanksgiving.” Did 14 therefore pertains to the Eucharist as described in Did 9-10. But why is the meal celebration referred to as a “sacrifice” three times in a row in Did 14? Does the term signify a critique of the Jerusalem cult? Is it a spiritualisation of the historical sacrifice? Is it a reference to the eucharistic prayers offered by the congregation? Does it mean that the Eucharist is considered efficacious as regards atonement? I argue that the Didache employs sacrificial language here not to suggest that the Eucharist or the eucharistic prayers or specific elements of the eucharistic meal are a substitute or alternative for the Temple sacrifice. On the contrary, the designation “sacrifice” is utilised here metaphorically to ascribe to the meal practice something of the holiness usually associated with the Temple. It serves to expand the Divine Service andTemple sanctity to non-sacrificial worship. A similar transference of sacrificial terms to the non-sacrificial Eucharist can be discerned in Did 9-10. In Did 9:5 the particular antonymy of holy thing(s) and dogs is specified in order to provide eucharistic food with the distinct features of a sacrificial offering in the sanctuary.


Qumran, Masada, and the Text of Ezekiel
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Rick Van de Water, San Francisco State University

This article intends to challenge the common assumption that the proto-MT character of the Ezekiel fragments found at Qumran and Masada upholds the antiquity and authenticity of the received Hebrew text of Ezekiel. What raises questions about that assumption is the material related to Ezekiel in the Qumran "sectarian" documents. When examined on its own merit, rather than through the eyes of the MT and later rabbinic tradition, Qumran merkabah exegesis can be shown to presuppose a text of Ezekiel that does not always represent a proto-MT. The same can be said of the direct citations of the text of Ezekiel in the "sectarian" documents.


Job 29: The Search for an Integration of Archeological and Semantic Data in a Cognitive Study
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Max van de Wiel, Tilburg University

This research focuses on Chapter 29 of the Book of Job, which is part of Job’s final conclusion. Based on the central view in the cognitive sciences, that semantic concepts result from mental processes and cannot be separated from their material, historical and cultural context, a combined archeological and semantic study of the city gate in Job 29 will be presented.


Myth, Fiction, Text: Reading "Religion" Between the Lines
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa

Invoking myth, inventing tradition, and entextualizing/authorizing tradition are age-old technologies for producing authority and replicating hierarchies of ‘power-dissipations’. This paper argues that these are related operations that, as an ensemble, construct what is called ‘religious tradition’. Drawing on a range of theorists, from Bruce Lincoln to Eric Hobsbawm and Fredric Jameson, it is demonstrated how myths of creation and the consequent procession (or issuing) of gods are recontextualized in various ‘religious’ contexts with a view to establishing authority and power-hierarchies. Particular attention is paid to the Isis/Osiris-Dionysus complex spanning the period from Hellenistic Ptolemaic Egypt to Late Antiquity, traversing discursive genres such as large-scale performances and mime, to philosophical discourse, novelistic fiction and epic poetry (i.e., from Ptolemy II Philadelphos to Nonnos), and highlighting the persistence of the topos of arrival of gods/divine mediating agency even in such seemingly ‘independent’ traditions as early Judaisms and early Christianities with their simultaneous anchoring of the discourse of arrival of divine mediating agency in illo tempore and in historical circumstance. This paper is about the recalibration of myth, the textualization of invented tradition, and the resultant establishment of authoritative discursive formations. Redescription of Graeco-Roman mythic invention through comparative work in this vein, also answers the theoretical question: What is myth good for?


Whatever Story Sings, the Arena Displays for You
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa

This paper explores the inter-place between ancient fiction, mythical discourse, and theatrical spectacle. Taking as its point of departure Achilles Tatius’s Leucippe and Clitophon, this paper demonstrates how on the most immediate level, this fictional narrative is a textualized spectacle of a mythical discourse. On the next level, the fictional narrative intersects with large-scale public performances of mythic events, relating this as well to the theatricality of Roman culture in general. It is argued, for instance, that in the early imperial era, mysteries should be understood as large-scale son et lumière tableaux vivants, that themselves operate in the same discursive space as other spectacle ‘performances’ such as triumphal processions. Inversely, given the re-registering of Egyptian mythic discourse since the through-set of Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynastic ideology with its identification of Isis-Osiris/Sarapis and Dionysus, the ‘spectacleization’ of the double myth of conquering Isis-Dionysus, especially as performed in the famed procession of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (which established itself as paradigmatic processional performance), traces a trajectory from public spectacle to myth (Sanchuniathon; Philo of Byblos), to myth-fiction as textualized spectacle – Achilles Tatius’s Leucippe and Clitophon, and Nonnos’s Dionysiaka. *Martial, Liber spectaculorum.


The People versus the State: Understanding Romans 13:1–7 in a Maximum Security Women's Prison
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Jessica Van Denend, Taycheedah Correctional Institution

This paper is about Romans 13:1-7 as it is received, grappled with, and lived out and under in Taycheedah Correctional Institute, a maximum security women’s prison in Wisconsin where I have been serving as intern chaplain. I hope to not only discuss the reception and use of this text, but to also make the case for the appropriateness of this interpretive act through the similarity and even convergence of the “life contexts” of the community Paul was addressing and that of the incarcerated women with whom I work. In particular, I want to suggest links between three aspects of the “life contexts”: the presence of infighting due to the stress of a pressure from above, the complicated reality of telling the truth under trial situations, and the insecurity of life in a place filled with powers and hierarchies. I would like to suggest that the women at Taycheedah are the latest in, to paraphrase Luise Schotroff, a long chain of members of a subjugated people grappling with declarations of loyalty towards imperial powers and structures. By holding these women up as a contemporary link in this chain, I hope that their understandings, their living of this text, might be a gift of interpretation back to the text itself. Thus the second part of this paper will include an exploration of three ways the women at Taycheedah have created life and meaning out of this text: finding unity under oppression, transcending the system, and understanding of the temporality of evil. Ultimately, I hope the paper might speak to the challenge of not only seeking to understanding the original context of the text, but also to knowing the places, like Taycheedah, like prisons, where the text is being lived out today.


Reconsidering the Biblical Hebrew Focus Particle gam
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Christo H.J. van der Merwe, University of Stellenbosch

Van der Merwe (1990. The Old Hebrew particle gam. St. Ottilien) is a syntactic-semantic description of gam in Genesis to 2 Kings. Van der Merwe (1993. Journal for Semitics 4, 181-199) is a description of the pragmatics and translation value of the particle in the same corpus. The results of these two investigations, which, concentrated on the use of gam in mainly narrative texts, were summarized in Van der Merwe, Naudé and Kroeze (1999. A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar. Sheffield). The purpose of this investigation is to reconsider these descriptions of the particle in the light of all its occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, as well as recent developments in the field of Biblical Hebrew (=BH) linguistics. The following questions will for this reason receive special consideration: Firstly, does a description in terms of the whole corpus provide a more nuanced profile of gam than the one that has been recorded in Van der Merwe, et al (1999); secondly, is it possible to speak of prototypical uses of gam; and thirdly, how must the interaction of gam with BH word order patterns by understood? In order to address these questions I commence with an overview of Van der Merwe, et al (1999). Next, I provide an update of the latter description. From this description of the particle it is be apparent that there are indeed patterns of use that are so frequency that they can be regarded as prototypical uses of gam while there are others that should rather be regarded as non-typical uses. Finally, I illustrate that gam as a rule does not primarily govern the word order patterns of clauses in BH. These patterns tend to be governed by the information structure of the text.


Comments on Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Karel Van der Toorn, University of Amsterdam

The author of "Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible" will make general comments, possibly including the issue of why such a book needed to be written.


"Is There a Fifth Servant Song?" On the Anonymity of the Servant in Second Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Annemarieke van der Woude, Radboud University Nijmegen

In his 1892 commentary, Bernhard Duhm selected four passages in Isaiah 40-55 as “servant songs”. As a result, there have been divergent attempts to identify this servant, be it an individual or a corporate personality. After a long period of broad acceptance, in the last two decades some have bidden Duhm’s assumption farewell, for several reasons. One is that the so-called servant songs cannot be understood properly apart from their literary context. Moreover, it proves difficult to maintain a sharp distinction between the servant as an historical and as a literary figure. My paper contributes to the discussion on the servant in Second Isaiah from the perspective of his anonymity. In Isaiah 40-55, the servant is the embodiment of the word of the Lord. In the course of these chapters, he looses all historical reference. Exactly because the servant develops into an anonymous character, his suffering can substitute the people’s suffering. The servant functions as a link between an actual Israel and a community of pious people, called “servants” (Isaiah 54,17). It is argued that the vocation of an anonymus at the beginning of Isaiah 40-55 in fact alludes to the servant’s appearance in the passages ahead. This relates to the double function of Isaiah 40,1-11 in this dramatic composition. The prologue presents elements that spread light on what follows, whereas actions in the course of these chapters clarify what was not quite clear at the beginning. The identification of the anonymous figure in Isaiah 40,1-11 as the servant, serves as an example. Resuming Duhm’s notion, Isaiah 40,1-11 indeed could be called a fifth “servant song”.


Herod as Tyrant: Assessing Josephus’ Parallel Passages
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Jan W. van Henten, University of Amsterdam

Many people, even scholars, have characterized Herod the Great as a tyrant (e.g. S. Sandmel, Herod, Profile of a Tyrant, Philadelphia, 1967). Herod’s image as a tyrant partly derives from the story about the massacre of the infants at Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-18), but there can be no doubt that Josephus’ elaborate descriptions of the life and career of the king have played a major role in the usually negative commemoration of Herod. Yet, how reliable is this negative portrait of Herod the Great? As is well known, Josephus, our primary source, tells the Herod story twice. And Josephus’ presentations of Herod as a tyrant in The Jewish War and The Antiquities differ considerably. How should historians assess this problem? The paper will very briefly discuss ancient stereotypes of tyrants and then survey all relevant passages about Herod the Great as a tyrant in Josephus, making comparisons between them. Finally the findings of the textual analysis will be assessed by focusing upon the different perspectives on Herod in both of Josephus’ narratives, stereotypes about tyrants as well as the criterion of plausibility.


Martyrs and Power: Barbarism in Multiple Perspective
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Jan W. van Henten, University of Amsterdam

Martyrdom continuous to play an important role in current social, religious and ethnic conflicts and helps to articulate various identity constructions (e.g. F. Khosrokavar 2002; J. N. Bremmer 2004; H.G. Kippenberg 2005). Martyrdom passages highlight complicated webs of power relationships to which both martyrs and oppressors contribute. This paper focuses upon one aspect of the nexus of martyrdom and power that is important for the analysis of torture: the miscommunication between martyr and oppressor. It will apply Brett Neilson’s approach to barbarism (“Barbarism/Modernity: Notes on Barbarism,” Textual Practice 13 [1991] 75-91) to ancient Jewish and Christian martyr texts. Barbarism, in Neilson’s view, holds within itself a double tension: it carries a persistent dichotomist logic and sustains existing power-relations; at the same time barbarism also disrupts power-relations, as it also implies acts of misunderstanding, confusion, stuttering, and thereby registers and produces processes of “discursive slippage, the repetitions and doublings, that the articulation of binaries can never completely close up.” The paper will focus on the prominent feature of dialogues in martyr texts, which are non-dialogues at the same time. The oppressor fails to communicate his goals, scorns his victims and uses excessive force. The martyrs despise their oppressor, refuse to talk to him or revile him, address their opponent in a foreign language, and sometimes even announce a terrible punishment for him. Torture is an important tool for the oppressor in the power game with their victims, but the martyr’s sustaining the tortures seems to reverse the power relationship between the two. Finally, the martyr figure itself may be considered barbaric, because being commemorated as a martyr legitimates the protagonist’s actions and elevates him/her to a level that cannot be criticized.


Man as the Image of God in Hellenistic Judaism
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
George H. van Kooten, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

The aim of this paper is to focus on the emergence of the philosophical notion of the image of God in Hellenistic Judaism. Many Jewish authors paraphrased the biblical creation story or simply referred to the fact that man had been created after God’s image without any further clarification. This category is represented by writings such as Sirach, the Testament of Naphtali, the Life of Adam and Eve, the Sibylline Oracles, Pseudo-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities, 2 Enoch and 4 Ezra. Other Jewish writings, however, do not understand the eikôn theou-notion in its original Jewish sense of exerting dominion over creation. (a) The author of 1 Enoch applies the notion of Adam as God’s image to Noah, who is pictured as an exalted patriarch and a specific divine agent. This author belongs to a Hellenistic-Jewish tradition in which patriarchs like Noah, Enoch and Moses are characterised as exalted, angelic or semi-deified beings. This tradition is partly Jewish and was facilitated by some remarks in Jewish Scripture, but according to some scholars also reflects the influence of the Hellenistic-Greek tradition of promoting a particular figure as a theios anêr, a divine man (C.H. Holladay, Theios Aner [1977]). The interplay between Jewish and Hellenistic traditions should be analysed carefully. Incipient spiritualization of the eikôn theou-notion is also noticeable in (b) the Wisdom of Solomon, (c) the writings of Pseudo-Phocylides and (d) the Sibylline Oracles: not man but his spirit is God’s image. At the same time a counter-movement emerged in some Jewish and Christian writings which emphasise that not (only) the human mind is God’s image, but the body. It is against this understanding of God’s image that the Platonist philosopher Celsus directs his anti-Christian polemic around 175 AD. Finally, also Philo of Alexandria will be touched upon. In this paper I want to argue that there is no independent Jewish development of the eikôn theou-notion apart from its encounter with Greek-philosophical notions.


The Godlikeness of the Human Mind as an Incentive to Morality in Hellenistic Philosophy
Program Unit: Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
George H. van Kooten, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

The theme of this paper proposal is man as the image of God (eikôn theou) and the godlikeness of the human mind as an incentive to morality. The development of the notion of man as God’s image seems to be a parallel development in Jewish and Greek-philosophical writings. Within Jewish Scripture, the idea that man has been created after God’s image is expressed in the Book of Genesis and in Hellenistic-Jewish and Christian writings. The parallel development in Greek thought can be traced through Plato, Aristotle, Stoa, Middle-Platonism and Neoplatonism. According to Plato, the cosmos is made in the image (eikôn) of the intelligible; the cosmos is an image (agalma) of the everlasting gods. Although Plato stops short of saying that man in particular is God’s image, this consequence is drawn in Greek philosophy. The aim of this paper proposal is to focus on the pagan development of godlikeness and to explore its ethical implications. I shall discuss the link which Greek philosophy established between the divine-cosmological mind (nous) and the individual human mind. This link was developed through the application of Platonic thought about eikôn and cosmos to the human mind, and through general Greek reflection on the presence of God within man and their suggeneia. The Greek traditions about the human mind as the eikôn theou become visible in remarks by philosophers like Lucianus of Samosata (Plato said that man was God’s image), Manilius (each person is, in a smaller likeness, the image of God himself), Musonius Rufus (man alone resembles God and is his copy) and Olympiodorus (the soul is an image of God). These traditions also involve the Stoic view that the human soul is consubstantial with the deity. A thorough investigation will be devoted to tracing these traditions, paying due attention to terms like eikôn, agalma, mimêma, imago and exemplum dei.


The Flesh of Jesus in the Gospel of Philip and the So-Called Eastern School of Valentinianism
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Bas van Os, University of Groningen

Einar Thomassen (The Spiritual Seed, 2006) argues that GosPhilip belongs to the Eastern School of Valentinians as it assumes that Jesus had a material body. In this paper, I will argue that (1) GosPhil does not assume that Jesus had a material body, (2) that the work does not belong to the Eastern School, and (3) that the Eastern School probably did not see the flesh of Jesus as material. At the core of my paper lies a comparison between §17-24 of GosPhil and Tertullian¹s argument in De Carne Christi and De Resurrectione. This leads me to a different reading of the sources. That reading does not require us to assume that Hippolytus had misunderstood the difference between the Eastern and Italian schools of Valentinians, as Thomassen argues.


John’s Last Supper and the Resurrection Dialogues
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Bas van Os, University of Groningen

The Gospel of John is seldom understood as containing the ipsissima verba of the historical Jesus. Nevertheless, there is an increasing appreciation of the historical and cultural setting in which the dialogues of Jesus are presented in the GJohn. The difference between the synoptic gospels and the GJohn in the passion narrative is very significant. Where the synoptic gospels show us a very frail and human Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, GJohn gives us a victorious high priest in the farewell discourse and prayer. In this paper, I aim to demonstrate the likelihood, that two or more post-resurrection discourses have been set into the narrative framework of the last supper. This has been argued and dismissed some 40 years ago, but at that time scholars could not take into account the Nag Hammadi writings in their understanding of the genre and form of the ‘resurrection dialogue’. I will argue (1) that dialogues of John 13-17, when understood in a post-resurrection setting, may have been seminal for the development of the genre of the resurrection dialogue, and (2) that, when we remove the elements that belong to the resurrection discourses, a narrative outline remains that is fairly compatible with the synoptic outline and can be used for historical critical analysis.


Codex Boreelianus Revisited: A Fresh Look at Codex F (09) after 160 Years
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Geert van Oyen, University of Utrecht

Codex Boreelianus is one of the rare examples of an uncial manuscript from around the turn of the first to the second millennium. Brought to the Netherlands around 1600 by Johannes Boreel, the codex which is kept since 1830 in the library of Utrecht University contains in its present state the four gospels starting with Matthew chapter nine. It has probably not been seen by anyone since that time and certainly no research has been done on it since 1845. A handout with a summary of some data about the codex and its trajectory will be distributed. Finally, through digital pictures the codex can now be made accessible to a larger public.


Assessing Proficiency in Biblical Hebrew: Seminary and the Pastor
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Miles V. Van Pelt, Reformed Theological Seminary

I have been asked (by Dr. Helene Dallaire) to serve on a panel that will work to assess proficiency in biblical Hebrew with specific attention to the standards and methods of evaluation in a variety of contexts (MA, MDiv, PhD, etc.) and at a variety of points in the process of such education (one semester, one year, complete program). Within this context, I will focus on seminary curriculum as it relates to the training of protestant pastors in the USA (though applications could certainly be broader). This short paper will begin with the end, or educational goal, in mind (standards). After identification and discussion of the goal (or standards), I will work to demonstrate how we might work to evaluate this outcome education based model as it relates to teaching biblical Hebrew.


Jewish and Syriac-Christian Biblical Interpretation: Communalities and Differentiation (Fourth-Seventh c.)
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Lucas Van Rompay, Duke University

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The Minor Versions and the Text of Ezekiel
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Harry F. van Rooy, North-West University

While working on the text of Ezekiel for the Oxford Hebrew Bible project, the resources to be used for reconstructing an older form of the text of Ezekiel than the one contained in the Masoretic Text remain a problematic question. It is generally accepted that the text of the Septuagint frequently represents a different tradition to the one contained in the Masoretic Text. Many of the differences between the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text are related to these two different traditions, with the result that the text of the Septuagint can frequently not be used for the reconstruction of a tradition underlying the Masoretic Text. The question thus arises whether the minor versions can serve a special function in the process of reconstructing the Hebrew text. The Targum is an expansive translatrion in the case of Ezekiel, making its use quite problematic. The Vulgate and Peshitta are, however, quite close to the Masoretic tradition. This question will be discussed in this paper, using examples from Ezekiel 1-5. The question is made more difficult by the possibility that, in instances where the Vulgate and/or Peshitta agree with the Septuagint, the Septuagint may have influenced these two versions. One will have to look first at instances where these two versions agree against the Septuagint and then at the instances where one of them disagree with the Septuagint, especially in instances where the Hebrew is problematic. The following examples will receive special attention: 1:1, 3, 6, 12, 14, 16, 26; 2:5, 7, 9; 3:1, 4, 6, 18, 22; 4:2, 12; 5:6, 11 and 15. The discussion will show the importance of these two minor versions, with special importance accorded to those cases where the Pesitta agrees with the Septuagint.


When Archaeology Meets Linguistics (Illlustrated in a Study of Genesis 28)
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Ellen J. van Wolde, Tilburg University

In archaeology, one adheres commonly to the language-world approach, in which meaning is studied as the relationship between linguistic expressions and states of affairs in the world. However, it is an error to suppose that words refer directly to the world at all. Rather, linguistic expressions refer to entities and relations in a mental space, that is, they refer to a mental image in the mind of its language users. In linguistics, one adheres commonly to the language-internal approach, in which meaning is studied language-internally in terms of relations between expressions within a language, defined by a word’s position in a paradigmatic and syntagmatic network. Entailment is fundamental to a paradigmatic linguistic research, because it underlies many paradigmatic relations, and it indicates that meaning is more than a language internal phenomenon. For example, writing in ancient Babylonia would not entail paper as writing material, but a stone tablet. Consequently, the mental image evoked by a word is much more than its relationship with other words in a language. In a cognitive approach, on the other hand, a word’s meaning is identified with cognition or mental processing in the broadest sense of that term, including both sensory and motor experience, as well as a speaker’s conception of the social, cultural, and linguistic context. Its basic assumption is that language does not associate a thing out there in the world directly, but arranges it as a mental entity stored inside a person’s mind. Therefore, a word’s meaning is considered to be both conceptual and contextual. Because of its conceptual character, meaning is dependent on construal, i.e. on the human capacity for conceptualizing the same thing, event or situation in alternate ways. Because of its contextual character, meaning is dependent on the situation of speech, including the speech event itself, its participants, and their respective spheres of knowledge in the speech event situation. A cognitive approach would entail, therefore, an integration of archaeological and linguistic studies. Such an approach will be illustrated in an analysis of Genesis 28, the Jacob-ladder story.


The Role of Institutional Objectives in Evaluating Proficiency in Classical Hebrew: Two Case Studies
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Donald R. Vance, Oral Roberts University

This paper examines two programs in Classical Hebrew, one undergraduate and one graduate, with an eye to how the institutional goals shape those programs and how those programs evaluate the progress of their students. The goals of these two programs are different but related. The undergraduate program endeavors to train students, with the aid of a lexicon, to read and comprehend the text with facility as well as to translate it. To this, the graduate program adds the placing of Classical Hebrew in its greater Semitic context through a study of the historical grammar of Hebrew and the study of cognate languages. This paper will examine the evaluation process of these two programs and suggest assessment procedures for programs whose goals include reading fluency, accurate translation, competent exegesis, and a knowledge of historical grammar.


The Charismatic World View of Proverbs
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Donald R. Vance, Oral Roberts University

This paper explores the technical vocabulary of the Book of Proverbs delineated in its opening poem (Prov 1:1–7) and argues that this reveals the purpose and world view of the book. The paper further argues that this world view includes at its core that wisdom is ultimately attained only by a personal encounter—direct experience, termed da'at—with God and that this idea recurs throughout the book. This paper details the idea of da'at as experience and argues that the charismatic experience of the supernatural realm is this da'at of Proverbs. Finally, the paper confirms this thesis by briefly noting the role of da'at of God in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes.


Read It as a Woman, Write It Like a Man: Gender and the Production of Knowledge
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Caroline Vander Stichele, University of Amsterdam

Reading as a woman is often understood as a way of subverting or deconstructing ‘stable’ notions of dominant cultural male identity. The problem with this approach, however, is that it simultaneously presupposes and thus reinscribes the binary opposition in question. Moreover, not taken into account is that, theoretically speaking, as a reading strategy open to any reader (at least in principle), the effects of taking this position will be very different, depending on the sexing/gendering of the actual reading subject, be it heterosexual or LGBT/queer. Still, how one reads can be a matter of choice between particular competing paradigms of interpretation in the field. How one writes, teaches, and interacts, however, is much more strictly prescribed and controlled by norms and power structures present in the guild. The conditions/modes of the production of knowledge tend to reproduce hegemonic discourses, which serve the interests of those in power, while those who advocate change usually end up being incorporated in the system (if they are incorporated at all). The result of this process of assimilation is that critical voices are either neutralized by being absorbed or ignored. In so far as this is a structural issue, it applies to other ideology-critical approaches in biblical studies as well. In this paper I suggest that sites of knowledge are not just institutional, but that institutions produce particular kinds of methods that discipline the reader in very specific kinds of gendered reading and writing practices. I argue that gender-critical engagements make it possible to analyze both the relationship of power and ideology in identity formation and how those elements are connected with patterns of persuasion. I also discuss the problem of reifying the (often binary) identity markers one seeks to subvert while criticizing dominant strategies of interpretation used for the production of knowledge in biblical studies.


The Contribution of the Hebrew Bible to the Historical Understanding of Nineveh, Asshur, and Babylon
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
David S. Vanderhooft, Boston College

During the centuries of Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian political interference and dominance in the southern Levant, the cities of Nineveh, Asshur and then Babylon came to serve as ciphers for repressive centers of power. This is best reflected in the myriad allusions and traditions concerning these cities in the Hebrew Bible, from the allusions to Nineveh and Babel in Genesis 10 and 11, to the court tales of the book of Daniel. To what extent, though, do the mostly laconic biblical references to these cities contribute to the historian’s appreciation of their particularities in the ancient world? The paper tries to answer this question in two parts. First, it catalogues a few instances where biblical references to Nineveh, Asshur and Babylon may reasonably be understood to enhance or broaden knowledge about these cities gained from native cuneiform traditions or archaeological research. Second, it explores how the native Mesopotamian traditions about these capital cities find reflexes in the biblical portraits of them. The respective rulers of these Mesopotamian royal cities devoted substantial energy to their material and literary glorification. The principle historical contribution of the biblical record lies in demonstrating how these energies paid dividends: a remote, subjugated population reflected and refracted particular images and assumptions about these capital cities in their own literary works. In several cases, especially in such prophetic texts as Isaiah 13-14, Ezekiel 17, Jonah, Habakkuk 1-2, and Jeremiah 50-51, these reflections illuminate our historical understanding of these imperial cities.


In Those Days
Program Unit: Qumran
James C. VanderKam, University of Notre Dame

Among the scrolls found in the caves at Qumran, several speak of expectations regarding what will happen in the last days. The paper will examine what is said in several texts on display, such as the Messianic Apocalypse (4Q521), about the decisive events and characters of the future.


Literary Questions Between Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 Esdras
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
James C. VanderKam, University of Notre Dame

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"Family Values" in the First and Second-Century Greek East of the Roman Empire
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Zsuzsanna Varhelyi, Boston University

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The Didache as a Christian Enchiridion
Program Unit: Didache in Context
William Varner, Master's College and Seminary

What use was made of the Didache in the first centuries of its existence? The patristic references to the Didache are generally well known. Setting aside the controversial idea that Barnabas employed the Didache and also the disputed Clement of Alexandria and Origen references, I concentrate on the fairly certain Eusebius and Athanasius. Eusebius dies not tell us of the function of Didache around 330 C.E. Athanasius, however, recommends the reading of the book for “those who have recently come to us” – i.e., catechumens. Building on the use of the Didache in Athanasius, I propose that the Didache 1:1-6:2 by the fourth century was used literally as a handbook for catechumens. My case is based on two other often overlooked patristic references to the Didache and the only other manuscript scrap that we posses of the book. Didymus the Blind, Athanasius’ successor (late fourth century) refers to the Didache three times as the “catechetical book.” Nicephorus in the early eighth century describes the length of the “Teachings of the Apostles” at that time as being 200 stichoi. The final piece of evidence for my proposal is the scrap of Oxyrhynchus papyrus which I propose is evidence of a literal enchiridion, possibly the first Christian handbook, that was literally placed into the hand of a catechumen by the fourth century, at least in Egypt.


St. Paul and the Jews in John Chrystostom's Commentary on Romans 9–11
Program Unit: Romans through History and Cultures
Vasile Mihoc, Theological School Sibiu

In the spirit of the Seminar on Romans Through History and Cultures, this paper anayzes John Chrysostom's commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans, focussing particularly on Romans 9-11. Elucidating the contextual concerns that influenced his interpretations, but also the theological perspective which form his interpretation of Romans the paper will underscore how this interpretation is grounded in Paul's text, even as it chooses to see as most significant certain dimensions of the letter which are often viewed as less central in Western readings.


A Happy Tragedy: Luke's Jericho Exchange as a Retelling of Euripides' Bacchae
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Katherine Veach, Vanderbilt University

Luke’s account of Jesus in Jericho differs from those of the other gospels, primarily in that only Luke records the encounter with Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10). Additionally, Luke redacts Mark’s story of blind Bartimaeus, moving Jesus’ interaction with an (unnamed) blind beggar to before he enters Jericho. I term the passage composed of these two pericopae the Jericho Exchange, and I propose that Luke structured this story of Jesus’ sojourn in Jericho based on Euripides’ Bacchae. The Bacchae tells the story of Pentheus, the young ruler of Thebes, and his reaction to the advent in Thebes of Dionysus and his religious rites. Pentheus rejects the divine figure’s presence in his city, and as a result, he is eventually cast down from his perch in a tree and dismembered by Dionysus’ maenads. Zacchaeus, on the other hand, is welcoming of the divine figure of Jesus. When Jesus orders him to come down from his seat in a tree, Zacchaeus does so obediently, welcoming Jesus into his home joyfully. Standing on the ground in front of Jesus—not lying upon it, dismembered—Zacchaeus is told by Jesus that salvation has come to his house that day. A variety of other similarities between the two works exist, including word choice, chronology and literary themes. By arranging the elements and themes of the Jericho Exchange as he does, Luke is purposefully evoking the Euripidean plot, then offering a better (i.e., Christian) version. This passage offers Zacchaeus as an antithesis to Pentheus. Read thus, the Jericho Exchange is not a scattering of parts to be evaluated individually; it is an elegant and holistic narrative crafted by Luke to illustrate both the proper reaction to Jesus and the proper reaction by Jesus. The model is tragic, but the ending is happy.


Redistribution and Reciprocity: A Socio-economic Interpretation of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
Program Unit: Matthew
Erin Vearncombe, Toronto School of Theology

Matthew's parable of the laborers in the vineyard (20:1-16) has received attention from interpreters throughout Christian history. Modern interpreters still tend to treat the parable allegorically, contrasting the goodness of God with human notions of justice and reward. However, the allegorical method distances the narrative from its everyday character, which is basic to its structure as parable. In order for the narrative to function as a piece of realistic fiction, its socio-economic background must fully be taken into account. Socio-economic analysis reveals an interpretation of the parable based on the economic realities of Roman Palestine in Jesus’ day, centered on the concepts of redistribution and generalized reciprocity. The parable aims to demonstrate the possibility of a different kind of social “obligation,” one based not on debt but on reciprocity. A detailed examination of the figure of the householder based on contemporary writings on and by landowners, the situation of day-laborers and the nature of conflict in agricultural relations sheds light on the socio-economic background of the time and in so doing clearly demonstrates the value placed on reciprocity in opposition to redistribution in the parable.


Scribal Culture and the Transmission of Cuneiform Texts in Mesopotamia
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Niek Veldhuis, University of California at Berkeley

This paper explores the cuneiform scribal culture that forms one key analogy for van der Toorn's interpretation of the conditions that produced the Hebrew Bible.


The Judgement of Israel in Q
Program Unit: Q
Joseph Verheyden, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

The paper looks into the way Q has organised and formulated its material on Israel and its representatives. It is argued that this topic is not only dealt with at great length but also in a most polemical and even dramatic form, which reveals much of how the Q community has perceived the unsuccessful result of its mission.


A Muslim Rewriting of Psalm 2: Interreligious Resistance and Intrareligious Critique
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
David Vishanoff, University of Oklahoma

A close comparison of a Muslim version of Psalm 2 with its Biblical counterpart ?suggests that the Muslim author read the Biblical Psalm as fabricated Christian ?propaganda for the Crusaders’ Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. In composing his own ?version of the Psalm, therefore, he subtly modified and reorganized the Biblical Psalm’s ?vocabulary and themes, and added traditional material from Muslim sources, in such a ?way that the Psalm became a divine condemnation of the Crusaders’ aggression, and a ?call to both Christians and Muslims (as well as to the prophet David) to pursue a life of ?ascetic dependence upon God. This analysis suggests a hypothesis about the author’s ?identity, and illustrates how “someone else’s” sacred text may be reclaimed and ?redeployed as an act of both interreligious resistance and intrareligious critique?.


Statues, Space, and the Poetics of Idolatry in Josephus' "Jewish War"
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Jason von Ehrenkrook, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Josephus’ writings depict a rather tumultuous relationship between Jews and figurative art, especially statues. For the most part, the many depictions of conflict with sculpture – e.g. the eagle affixed to Herod's temple, the busts of Caesar attached to Pilate's military standards, and the near erection of Caligula's statue in the temple – are simply taken at face value as evidence that Jews during the Second Temple period interpreted the second commandment as a prohibition against any form of figural representation, regardless of context or function. I aim to complicate this picture a bit by shifting attention away from the referential value of these so-called aniconic narratives to their rhetorical function. Using his Jewish War as a test case, I wish to consider the poetics of idolatry in Josephus, the way in which these aniconic narratives are uniquely shaped to contribute to larger rhetorical themes within each of Josephus’ main compositions. More specifically, I argue the following theses in the paper: 1) statues in this text function as a kind of mapping device, as a means of constructing or imagining a (sacred) territory; and 2) the resulting sacred map, which is actually patterned after perceptions of statuary that were prevalent throughout the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, represents not the Jewish struggle against the forces of “paganism” or “Hellenism” but Josephus’ own attempt negotiate identity and navigate the complex cultural and political terrain of Flavian Rome.


The Road Ahead: Reflections on Johannine Scholarship
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Urban C. Von Wahlde, Loyola University of Chicago

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The Centrality of the Temple in 4QMMT
Program Unit: Qumran
Hanne von Weissenberg, University of Manchester

It is a well known fact that the legal topics of MMT mainly relate to the ritual purity laws and other regulations connected with the Temple, and therefore, for obvious reasons have Leviticus and Numbers are their main source texts. Deuteronomy is clearly not the main source text for the legal interpretation of MMT, even though references to the texts are found in the epilogue. Therefore, it would seem to be all the more important that the core of Deuteronomy, the basic commandment of cultic centralization (Deuteronomy 12) is cited twice in the halakhic section to argue the case; firstly when the correct procedure of slaughtering is described in DJD X B27-33, and secondly when the dogs are banned from the city of the sanctuary in order to maintain the purity of Jerusalem in DJD X B58-62. In this paper, it is suggested that the references to the maqom-formula in MMT are of particular importance, since they must reflect the attitude of the author(s) of the halakhic section toward the Jerusalem Temple. Apparently, the group responsible for the authoring of MMT, even though criticizing the current practices at the Jerusalem Temple, still considered it to be the only legitimate cultic place. The contents of 4QMMT as a whole reflect the importance of the Jerusalem Temple and a grave concern for the purity of the cult in Jerusalem as an expression of the covenantal faithfulness. Regardless of whether MMT was written by the members of the Qumran movement or not, the large number of first century BCE copies found at Qumran witness the significance of MMT for the community. Furthermore, these late copies indicate the continuous importance of the Jerusalem Temple for the Qumran community.


Towards an Ethic of Bible Translation
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Steven M. Voth, United Bible Societies

The study attempts to analyze the issue of ethics and Bible translation by looking carefully at specific real-life translation situations. Within the methodology of case-studies, two main realities are addressed: ideology and marketing. The study delves into the pressures and influences that these realities exert on the process of Bible translation. Bible translation is never totally free from these two impending pressures and thus the ethics of Bible translation is affected by these. In the final analysis the study seeks to propose a Bible translation ethic which is flexible but at the same time liberating. It proposes that human need must be placed front and centre in the development and articulation of any Bible translation ethic.


Bible Translation and Masculinity in Latin America
Program Unit: Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Steven M. Voth, United Bible Societies

The practice of translation is never a neutral enterprise. This maxim applies to Biblical translation as well. The present article addresses the issues of Bible translation and masculinity in translations of the Bible used in Latin America. Six Spanish Bible translations were analyzed. These come from different religious traditions and represent different theories of translation. It is no secret that males have dominated the practice of Bible translation and male ideology is certainly present in all of the translations studied. This study also presents a case study based on the most recent Bible translation published in Latin America. Based on the findings the study makes a plea for all translations to be revised bearing in mind the presence of what might be called a “masculine hegemonic influence” in Bible translation. It is our contention that translations of the Bible can be improved and thus be made more “gender friendly.”


Crossing Boundaries: The Exile of the Jews as a Formation Paradigm
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Robert Wafawanaka, Virginia Union University

This paper argues that the exile of the Jews after the fall of the nations of Israel and Judah was a moment of reflection and national formation. While exile was an external imposition upon the Jews and their way of life, it became a moment of serious reflection upon Israel's history. In this moment of reflection and crossing borders and boundaries, the nation of Israel was forced to reflect seriously upon its history and the reasons why Israel ended up in exile. Central among these reasons was the realization that Israel needed to return to its core and traditional values. Using the paradigm of this biblical text, the paper seeks to read the history of Africans in America crossing boundaries to a new land as a moment of reflection and formation. Africans in the new land were held together by their traditional values despite efforts to disrupt such due to the slave trade. Finally, the paper argues that this need to return to our traditional values and history gives African Americans a moment of reflection, orientation, and perspective.


"Now is the Day of Salvation": Paul and Isaiah as Heralds of the Gospel
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
J. Ross Wagner, Princeton Theological Seminary

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The Freer Logion and Early Eschatological Reflection
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Clinton Wahlen, Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies

The secondary nature of the Freer Logion as an interpolation in the longer ending of Mark which is itself also secondary is widely recognized. Rarely considered, however, are the primitive christological and eschatological elements that characterize the logion itself and which suggest a relatively early stage of Jewish-Christian reflection on Mark’s Gospel. This paper will explore how the logion’s references to Jesus as the dying and risen messiah, to his victory over Satan and the unclean spirits, and to future expectation culminate vital Markan themes, set within the context of the longer ending’s further development of these same themes. Rather than simply a curious footnote in the textual history of Mark, the Freer Logion sheds light on one early attempt to reconcile the difficult tension between the evident presence of the kingdom and its future manifestation in glory.


Second Sophistic and the Epistle of Jude
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Donald Dale Walker, University of Wyoming

In this paper I wish to compare and contrast the Epistle of Jude to the phenomena of the Second Sophistic. There are important similarities and differences that provide insight into this tiny letter. These comparisons focus the cultural location of the text's origin, while the contrasts bring its social context into view. In short, the epistlereflects the literary habits of educated people in general, while shifting the location of their aspirations and authorities.


Back to the Beginning: Yahweh as King, Moses as Mediator, and Psalms 104–106
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Robert E. Wallace, Shorter College

This project asserts that a reader encountering the canonical Hebrew Psalter can read from the beginning and capture a sense of plot. With a methodological emphasis on a contextual analysis of the Psalter, this project proceeds from the canonical shape of the Psalter as it has been received by faith communities. The turning point of the story is Book IV (Psalms 90-106). It is at this point in the story that the questions of the failure of the Davidic monarchy, which are raised in Psalm 89, are answered. Psalms 90-100 have a strong Mosaic voice emphasizing Sinai Covenant and Torah. Psalms 101-103 have a strong Davidic voice, which emphasizes the importance of Moses, Sinai Covenant and Torah. It is the thesis of this project that, when read canonically, Pss 104-106 can be interpreted as the culmination of the reorientation of the psalms of Book IV from David as king to Yahweh as king with Moses as mediator. This reorientation is ultimately demonstrated when comparing the doxologies of Book III and Book IV. In Ps 89:50, the psalmist wants YHWH to demonstrate the divine faithfulness so that enemies of the divine will have no reason to gloat. The psalmist of Ps 89 expects Davidic Covenant to be vindicated. In Ps 106:47, however, the psalmist wants YHWH to gather the people from the nations so they may give thanks to the divine. The focus on Moses and Torah has moved the psalmist from a patron-client relationship to a praise of YHWH which recognizes the divine position.


“Realizing” Paul’s Call: Caravaggio and Paxton’s Frailty
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Richard G. Walsh, Methodist University

Multiple accounts of Paul’s call/conversion exist in the NT. For Paul, the call is the apocalypse shattering his normal world and recreating him as the apostle to the Gentiles. For Acts, too, the call is a founding hierophany of the Gentile mission and is important enough to narrate three times, a repetition that eventually makes Paul the immediate recipient of personal contact with the risen Christ. That legendary trajectory corroborates Paul’s own mythic account of his divine authorization. Typically, artistic representations are equally mythological, providing clear visualizations of the divine agents responsible for Paul’s call. Caravaggio’s first version of the scene is of a piece with this tradition. His second version, however, differs significantly. While it includes “heavenly” light, it has no visible supernatural agents and its Paul, as is often the case with Caravaggio’s biblical characters, is a human, not a mythic apostle. Humorously, a horse, presenting its rear and a raised hoof to the viewer, dominates the painting. If Caravaggio’s painting humanizes Paul as it demyths him, Paxton’s Frailty vilifies apocalyptic visionaries like Paul simply by rendering their visions realistically. Telling the story of the God’s Hand Killers, Frailty educates important characters and its audience in the visions—presented with cinematic realism, but with increasing mythological elements—that generate the movie’s plot and characters. At the end of the film—as in the canonical treatment of Paul’s call—the visionary reality stands alone and unchallenged. What is sacred myth for the canon is, of course, religious horror for Frailty and its audience. If Caravaggio allows one to read backward in the canon and to demyth that tradition, Frailty reminds one of the horror inherent in apocalypse and the dangers lurking in any vision which stands unchallenged.


A Non-canonical Jesus in Paul?
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Luigi Walt, University of Bologna

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Civic Identity in Roman Colonies: Comparing Freedmen and Veterans
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
James C. Walters, Boston University

Recent studies of Roman colonies have emphasized that-far from being uniform-they reflect great variety in both their foundations and in their development. Careful analyses of local inscriptions and coinage have begun to show that the formation of a colonial elite in Roman veteran colonies differed from that of freedmen colonies in significant ways. Corinth and Patrai provide interesting case studies for charting the differing trajectories of freedmen and veteran colonies within the province of Achaia that may shed light on Paul's mission.


The First Letter to the Corinthians
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Charles A. Wanamaker, University of Cape Town

Socio-rhetorical interpretation, weaving discoveries from cognitive science, conceptual blending, and the identification of traditional modes of discourse into the fabric of biblical exegesis, promises a new paradigm for biblical studies and new insights into much-studied texts. Papers in this session, presented by authors of commentaries in the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series, demonstrate the gains of socio-rhetorical interpretation for the genre of commentary and the ways in which this interpretive analytic opens up new directions for exploring a text.


Two Verses Plucked from the Fire: Jude 22–23
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Tommy Wasserman, Örebro Theological Seminary

This paper discusses one of the textually most corrupt passages in the New Testament, Jude 22-23, in view of external and internal evidence. Specifically, the intrinsic evidence is examined. The immediate context and the intertextual connection to Zech 2:13-3:10 suggests an anticipatory eschatological setting before the throne of God. This interpretation will help us choose among the plethora of variant readings - the two verses are "plucked from the fire."


Revisiting Virtues as Children: 1 Timothy 2:15 as Centerpiece for an Egalitarian Soteriology
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Kenneth L. Waters, Azusa Pacific University

First Timothy 2:15 has been a crux interpretum in Pauline exegesis and related gender studies since its canonization. Controversy and confusion have always swirled around the statement "she shall be saved through childbearing." A recently published investigation (JBL 123/4) seeks to inform the discussion with a new understanding of the term teknogonia (childbearing) and its allegorical, literary-cultural, and soteriological contexts. While this investigation draws heavily upon the Greco-Roman background of the Pastoral Epistles, ongoing research reveals more that can be said about the metaphorical use of virtues as children in Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. We therefore have more justification for a new reading of this troublesome verse and its context.


Beyond the Marriage Metaphor: Jeremiah’s Use of Hosea
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Douglas Watson, Emory University

Jeremiah’s close association with the book of Hosea has often been noted, but few studies have explored in-depth the nature of that relationship. Points of connection between the two prophets include: the depiction of the people’s worship as sexual infidelity, a strong polemic against the worship of Baal, and the use of vivid metaphors and similes drawn from nature. In some cases, in fact, Jeremiah seems to be quoting Hosea almost verbatim. This presentation will argue that Jeremiah or at least the earliest redactor(s) of his oracles was familiar with some form of the book of Hosea. Employing traditio-historical criticism, I will examine the use of Hosea as an intertext for Jeremiah, showing the way that Hosea’s message was used by and reinterpreted for a later audience.


A Comparision of Rhetorical and Sociorhetorical Criticism in Relation to 2 Peter
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Duane F. Watson, Malone College

This paper compares two related approaches to 2 Peter. Classic rhetorical criticism, like that proposed by George Kennedy, is compared with socio-rhetorical criticism as currently developed by Vernon Robbins. The methodology, benefits, and limitations of classic rhetorical criticism are outlined. Then the interpretive analytic of socio-rhetorical criticism is outlined in order to demonstrate how socio-rhetorical criticism incorporates, reconceptualizes, and moves well beyond classic rhetorical criticism. Some specific portions of 2 Peter are examined to illustrate the major advance in interpretation that socio-rhetorical criticism is making.


The Hermeneutics of Salvation: Paul, Isaiah, and the Servant
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Francis Watson, University of Durham

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The Faith of Jesus Christ
Program Unit:
Francis Watson, University of Aberdeen - Scotland

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The Rhetoric of Sacrifice
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
James W. Watts, Syracuse University

The language of sacrifice pervades the rhetoric of contemporary politics, religion and popular culture. Fascination with the idea of sacrifice is also reflected in the large number of academic theories about its nature and origins. For the past century-and-a-half, scholars of religion, sociology, psychology, and anthropology have advanced theories to explain how sacrifice works religiously and why its practice and effects are so widespread. Yet attempts to apply it descriptively always fail to encompass the whole range of ritual and non-ritual behaviors called sacrifices. "Sacrifice" is a value-laden term whose meaning is determined by stories, not by rituals. Calling some act a "sacrifice" is a claim that the act is comparable to some paradigmatic action in a hero's, or villain's, story. It is the rhetoric of sermons and didactic texts that connect the term "sacrifice" to specific rituals. In these contexts, it is clearly an evaluative label, not a descriptive one, which undermines its descriptive utility for the analysis of ancient texts and rituals.


Performance Criticism: An Emerging Metholology in Hebrew Bible Studies
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
John D. W. Watts, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

The study of the Hebrew Scriptures is a rich area for performance criticism. The ground has already been prepared through the work of Form Critics and New Literary Critics. Using the understanding that the written work presumes an oral predecessor as well as oral transmission, it continues to understand that the written work was intended to be orally presented. Hearing the oral presentation of the text carries the possibility of meanings which visia; reading does not. The paper will suggest specific books that are ready for such application.


Rhetography in the Rhetoric of Jude: A Sociorhetorical Reading
Program Unit: Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Robert L. Webb, McMaster University

Within sociorhetorical interpretation as understood by Vernon K. Robbins, “rhetology” is understood as the use of argumentation in rhetoric, particularly as exemplified in the classical category of logos. On the other hand, “rhetography” is the use of language that evokes a response--usually pictorial or graphic--in the imagination of the hearer/reader. This paper seeks to set out a theoretical framework for rhetography and then apply it to the letter of Jude to demonstrate the significant role that rhetography plays in this letter’s rhetoric.


TekScroll: An Interactive Program for Learning Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Brian L. Webster, Dallas Theological Seminary

An overview of the interactive program on the CD to accompany the forthcoming Cambridge Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. The program includes grammar illustrations, parsing programs, practice readings and a vocabulary program. The grammar illustrations support chapter topics and include web-style moving graphics, e.g. nun transforming into dagesh forte or adding endings to base forms to create words. The parsing programs provide feedback on right/wrong answers and sometimes include hint options. They can be used in class or labs and allow students to practice and gain confidence before doing exercises. Students are ready for Practice Readings when they finishing reading a chapter of the Grammar because the Practice Readings use vocabulary from prior chapters. The vocabulary program, which includes sound, allows students to choose from several options, such as chapter and frequency.


Taking over Thomas: The Subversion of Judas Didymus Thomas in the Edessene Abgar Tradition
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Caleb Webster, Claremont Graduate University

At least by the third century C.E., the ancient Syrian city of Edessa has had a strong connection to the disciple Thomas. Some scholars have seen this as justification for locating the composition of certain texts such as the Gospel of Thomas in Edessa. Though this remains a point of debate, it is agreed that a Jesus movement that championed Thomas was present in the third and fourth centuries in the city. In this essay I argue that when an emerging proto-orthodox Jesus movement spread to Edessa in the third century it encountered this “Thomas Christianity” and, in an attempt to “orthodoxize” the earlier group, invented a rival myth of origins in the Abgar tradition. Using historical and literary critiques, I contend that proto-orthodox authors diminish Thomas’ importance in Edessa through the third century Correspondence of Jesus and Abgar and the later, more developed Doctrine of Addai. Thus, Thomas is relegated to a mere sender of the city’s apostle; his Johannine description (i.e. Doubting Thomas) is invoked to show the superiority of the faith of a non-disciple; and, some events in the Doctrine of Addai resemble the Acts of Thomas in a way that suggests the author is trying to replace one tradition with another. Such an understanding of the Abgar tradition allows us not only to understand its reason for composition more fully, but also gives us better insight into the rich history of Christianity at Edessa. More importantly, it offers a unique example of an “orthodoxizing” of an apocryphal tradition by a proto-orthodox third century author.


Giving up on Life: Jephthah’s Daughters
Program Unit:
Jane Webster, Barton College

Barry Moser, Bible illustrator extraordinaire, captures Jephthah’s daughter’s resolute expression of self-sacrifice. In the recent film, Pan’s Labyrinth, noble and imaginative Ofelia gives up her life for her little brother. Our young daughters believe that thin is beautiful as they waste away. This paper will consider the phenomenon of self-sacrifice both in Biblical literature and in popular culture.


Reading Nature before Reading Scripture
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Heather E. Weir, University of Toronto

In her first book, An Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature And Reading the Holy Scriptures (1780), Sarah Trimmer (1749-1810) introduced children to reading the Bible by first introducing them to the natural world. This paper examines Trimmer’s introduction to the reading of scripture through nature, and the effects her version of natural theology had on her interpretation of the Bible.


Notes on Nebuchadnezzar's 37th Year
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
David B. Weisberg, Hebrew Union College

Strassmaier's Nbk. 329 and Wiseman's CCK plates XX and XXI give copies of a fragmentary but important text from the British Museum describing an attack by Nebuchadnezzar II against the Egyptian king [Ama]sis, in Nebuchadnezzar's 37th year (568 B.C.E.). Since 1897, when H. Winckler turned his attention to the text, and into the present, the text has attracted the attention of scholars, especially since other evidence, such as from the Babylonian Chronicle, is not in our possession. This paper re-examines the text and the remarks of those who have commented upon it, and will attempt to offer some historical observations, based upon recent work.


The Concept of the "Inner Human Being" in Light of Philosophical-Medical Concepts and (Early) Christianity
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Annette Weissenrieder, University of Heidelberg

A broad discourse is underway on the great variety of connections between the ancient world and philosophy and (early) Christianity, especially in regard to New Testament anthropology. Yet to date, one aspect of this process of encounter has remained largely ignored: ancient medicine. This presentation seeks to use one image, the so-called 'inner human being', in order to interpret these possibilities for encounter more precisely.


Rethinking "Mimetic Rivalry" in First Century Judaism
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Steven Weitzman, Indiana University at Bloomington

One of the strengths of Rene Girard's approach to religious violence is his recognition that such violence is often fueled not by difference but by similarity. One of the weaknesses is the way his analysis of "mimetic rivalry" wrests the literary evidence it uses as support from the specific historical and cultural contexts in which it originally had meaning. This paper will argue for the importance of a more nuanced sense of context for understanding mimetic rivalry by looking at a particular case study: the rivalry between Jews and Samaritans in the first century. As Josephus depicts it, this rivalry seems to exemplify the mimetic dynamic detected by Girard, but a closer look at the evidence reveals ways in which Josephus' description, indeed his notion of mimicry itself, was rooted in ideas specific to the time and place in which he operated as a writer: first century Rome. More precise contextualization saps Girard's approach of its universal explanatory power, but it also suggests that mimetic rivalry may be a more complex and variagated phenomenon than scholars have realized.


Paradosis or Akoe? Or, Making a Tradition of an Ass
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Tennyson Wellman, University of Pennsylvania

Damaskios’ Philosophical History includes the puzzling account of Zenon the Alexandrian, a Jew who publicly joined the Platonist school and renounced his Judaism “in the traditional manner” by driving a white ass through a synagogue on the Sabbath. I will examine the resonances of this allegedly “traditional” ritual in a creative Late Antique environment situated between three religious identities whose overlaps and collisions were as significant as their differences. The social embedding of the event provides us with a range of actors involved: Zenon, his Jewish audience, his Platonist colleagues, the wider public (including Jews, Hellenophones, and Christians) and Damaskios’ omniscient post-fact narrator. In producing a new “traditional” ritual which resituated the boundaries between groups that often overlapped, Zenon, and Damaskios’ remembering of the event, drew on a repertoire of actions, symbols, and narratives to produce an event whose meaning was recursively rich and nuanced. The notion of “tradition” to which Damaskios refers is itself an ironic commentary on the relations between Christians and Jews, drawing on narratives of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, as well as common anti-Jewish calumnies to suggest the superiority of Platonic religious identities over Jewish ones. But Damaskios’ final comments on Zenon’s character demonstrate that the convert’s social realignment with a Hellenic identity was contested even by his new colleagues, and the ass is recast as a type by which the reader can better understand the man. This foregrounds the tensions between traditionalism and innovation in a diverse and contested field of cultural production, and the problematic interplay of identities in a single figure. Zenon's “traditional” ritual marked precisely the moment when his world was changing and requiring innovation to handle those changes.


Is It Law or Religion? Intersecting Texts from Deuteronomy and Sixth Century Mesopotamia
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Bruce Wells, Saint Joseph's University

Several laws in Deuteronomy were evidently motivated by the efforts to centralize worship under the Judean king, Josiah. But does this religious rationale explain those laws with no apparent connection to worship practices? Although recent scholarship has examined the issue from a variety of viewpoints, it has paid little attention to the numerous Mesopotamian legal documents (primarily contracts and trial records) from the time period when much of Deuteronomy was compiled and edited, if not composed. The period in question is the sixth century, BCE. A number of texts from this time (written in Neo-Babylonian Akkadian and dating to both the Neo-Babylonian and Persian eras) deal with legal concerns that also occur in several Deuteronomic laws. This paper will argue that these texts shed important light on the intellectual and cultural milieu in which significant portions of Deuteronomy's law was developed and that they point to legal, as well as religious, considerations that likely influenced the thinking of the book's authors. The paper will examine legal texts whose content intersects with that of Deuteronomy's laws on marriage (Deut 22:13-21; 22:22-27), judicial procedure (Deut 17:2-6; 19:15-21), and cities of refuge (Deut 19:1-13). The paper will not claim that there is a direct literary or textual relationship between the two sets of texts but that the thematic similarities between the two allows for a better understanding of both.


"They All Gather, They Come to You": History, Utopia, and the Reading of Isaiah 49:18–26; 60:4–16
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Roy D. Wells, Birmingham-Southern College

The addresses to Zion in Isaiah 49 and 60 include a section that opens with a call for the city to observe a coming gathering: “Lift up your eyes all around and see, they all gather, they come to you.” (49:18; 60:4 NRSV). The description of the gathering leads to a conventional theological response: “[all flesh / you] shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (49:26/60:16). In ch. 49, Zion is defined by the lack of her children. In the course of the narrative, children unknown to Zion come to her. The mighty ones who took away her children have been subjugated, and the replacement of her children is a consequence of this. The conclusion is a formulaic response to the triumph of the divine warrior. In chapter 60, what Zion lacks is implicit in what is brought – rich gifts honoring the temple and the altar. The children are included, but the offerings of exotic animals, expensive lumber, and precious metals are a part of a folkloristic transformation of the present order by the superposition of the divine order. The conclusion is Zion’s response to this transformation. The character of this gathering in the two chapters is quite different – and the metaphorical setting of the gathering in the two chapters is quite different. And these differences raise the question of the aptness of an exclusively synchronic or diachronic reading of the text of the book of Isaiah.


Hearing and Perceiving: A Comparison of Claims to Israel’s Story in Luke-Acts and the Writings of Justin Martyr
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Susan Wendel, McMaster University

Within a climate of epistemological competition, the Jesus movement emerged in the first century as a group who, in their own way, laid claim to the story of Israel as a means of forging their identity as the true people of God. Christ-believing authors appropriated the Jewish scriptures in diverse ways, which led to differing conclusions regarding their significance. The writings of Luke and Justin Martyr serve as examples of how this early Christian tradition developed in the first and second centuries. Luke presents the story of Jesus and the birth of the Jesus movement as the consummation of God’s plan. Likewise, Justin Martyr, who wrote only a few decades later, makes a similar attempt to depict the rise of the Gentile church as the fulfillment of scriptural promises. In their common attempt to lay claim to the story of Israel, moreover, both authors highlight the importance that the correct perception of the Jewish scriptures plays in delineating the true people of God. With an emphasis on Luke 8:4-15, 24:44-9, Acts 13:13-52, and 28:12-28, this paper will attempt to shed light on the importance that Luke ascribes to the correct understanding of the scriptures by contrasting and comparing his perspective with this same theme in the writings of Justin Martyr. This will require an examination of (1) their mutual use of metaphors of hearing and seeing, together with terms that denote knowledge and comprehension, to assert that their particular interpretation of the story of Israel was the correct one; (2) their respective descriptions of the requisites to correct interpretation; and (3) their references to this knowledge as a means of demarcating the true people of God.


Mbeki's Bible: The Bible in the South African Public Realm after Liberation
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Gerald O. West, University of KwaZulu-Natal

The Bible has played a significant role in the formation of South African society, arriving as it did with the colonial powers and then serving to undergird apartheid and to resource the liberation struggle. Throughout this formative history the Bible has played a public role. However, in the years after liberation (1994) the Bible appears to have withdrawn from the public stage, probably due to the reappraisal of the place of Christianity in our public life, the declaration of South Africa as a secular state with a secular Constitution, and a cross-sectoral sense that religion in general belongs in the private sphere. This paper analyses the shift of the Bible from the public to the private sphere and the impact of this on issues like unemployment, HIV/AIDS, and violence against women and children, given that the Bible remains a significant text for the vast majority of the South African population. The paper also investigates and seeks to interpret the signs that the Bible is making a muted return to the public stage, through the public speeches of the State President, Thabo Mbeki. Has Mbeki realised that it is strategic to harness the Bible for the public well-being of his people (in dealing, for example, with crime and corruption), or is the Bible simply another of the classic texts he loves to cite in his speeches?


“Why Are You Here, Elijah?” Divine Dialogue as Admission Torah in 1 Kings 19:9–18
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
April Westbrook, Vanguard University of Southern California

Throughout the years, scholars have been unable to agree regarding the purpose and related meaning of the narrative of Elijah at Mt. Horeb. Many theories have been considered, including the idea that this usually strong prophet is experiencing psychological collapse or divine disapproval in the narrative. Similar difficulty has occurred in regard to determining the specific form of this text, in that it exhibits some elements of a complaint form, yet is missing the most key elements of the form. This paper presents a new theory in regard to the form of 1 Kings 19:9-18 and its resultant impact on the purpose and meaning of the narrative, proposing that the dialogue between the deity and the prophet at Mt. Horeb is presented in the form of an “Admission Torah.” As a result, the prophet is understood to be at the holy mount with divine sanction as a representative of Israel. The interaction between the prophet and the deity is viewed to be purposed toward preservation of the covenant and of a faithful remnant at this critical point in the history of the Israelite monarchy and its covenantal failure.


Interpersonal Metafunction of Register
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Cynthia Long Westfall, McMaster Divinity College

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Mecca in the Bible
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Brannon M. Wheeler, United States Naval Academy

Recent scholarship has focused on exegetical connections among Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpretations of the Bible and Quran. Relatively little research has been done, however, on the ancient sources shared by both the Bible and Quran, and how Muslim scholars have utilized this common historical and archaeological record to link Islam with the biblical heritage. This paper examines the significance of Muslim reports regarding the tombs of biblical prophets in Mecca, and how these reports are set in the larger context of a biblical Mecca. Part one outlines the archaeological, documentary, and ethnographic evidence connecting tombs and cult objects in the ancient and late antique Near East with particular emphasis upon the Arabian peninsula. Part two investigates the larger historical connections drawn by Muslim exegetes between ancient concepts of prophecy and the image of prophecy found in the Quran. This evidence shows that Muslim scholarship was thoughtful and conscious in its inclusion of practices and beliefs from a wide variety of cultures and religious traditions, and that Muslim scholars used this inclusive character to argue for the ancient, Arabian origins of biblical prophecy.


Your Brother's Blood Cries out to Me: A Medieval Rus' Interpretation of the Cain and Abel Story
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Kelly Whitcomb, Graduate Theological Union

This study uses historiographic, literary and social-scientific methodology in an attempt to determine the author of the Russian Primary Chronicle's understanding of the Cain and Abel story. A literary comparison of the Old Greek Genesis version and the Primary Chronicle version of the story brings to light some theological differences between the editors of the Jewish version and the Primary Chronicle version. Next, the socio-historical context of Medieval Rus' as recently Christianized,as subject to Byzantium but maintaining relations with the West and as a loose confederation of principalities struggling with internal conflict is described. Finally, conclusions about the author's understanding of fratricide and capital punishment and the roles of God, Satan and humans in the Cain and Abel story and in Medieval Rus' are described in light of the literary and socio-historical study of the Primary Chronicle.


The Tearing of the Temple Curtain and Cultic Self-Sacrifice
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Mark F. Whitters, Eastern Michigan University

The tearing of the Temple curtain (Mark 15:38) and its literary parallel episode, the baptism of Jesus, provide a context for Jews and Greeks to grapple with the death of Jesus as a public cultic event. The first-century reader expected to see in this context sacrifice, priest, and shrine. By his voluntary death Jesus serves as sacrifice and priest, and both can imply a new or reformed public cult. Combining this cultic end of life with the baptism episode, the story of Jesus serves ipso facto as a sacrificial liturgy for the reader.


Transformation of the Academy and Publications
Program Unit:
James Wiggins, Syracuse University

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A Reassessment of Tikvah Frymer-Kensky's Asherah
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Steve A. Wiggins, Gorgias Press

Tikvah Frymer-Kensky's reconstruction of Asherah's place in ancient Israel is cautious and closely reasoned. This is the reason her observations have continued to be valuable. She realized in a way rare among scholars that sometimes evidence need not be forced into a preconceived notion to be of significant value. This paper will evaluate the main point of Frymer-Kensky's analysis of Asherah in Israel and the goddess's place in the cycle of nature. Although Frymer-Kensky's Asherah is a vague figure, hardly distinct enough to sketch with sharp outlines, she does play a role in the popular perception of regeneration in the natural world. As she avoids the hackneyed stereotype of "fertility goddesses" Frymer-Kensky indicates how Asherah may have fit into this thought world. By examining the primary sources concerning Asherah, this paper will hold Frymer-Kensky's position up against those sources and will evaluate if her approach has remained accurate in the light of the continued research on the goddess.


They Save Themselves Alone: Faith and Loss in the Stories of Abraham and Job
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Henrietta L. Wiley, Denison University

The two great patriarchs Abraham and Job are remembered above all for their wisdom and faithfulness. In this paper I explore parallels between the stories of these two favorites of God, with special attention to the loss of their families. The deity tests the faith of each man, despite the deity’s apparent confidence in his faith. Each loses his wife and children as a result, though in different ways, and each receives what I call a “consolation family” at the end of his story as a result of his faith and favored status. The notices of these consolation families, however, do not truly relieve the sense of the patriarchs’ desolation and isolation. Finally, I consider how these themes of faith, loss, and isolation depict Yahweh as a god whose jealousy ultimately deprives his favorites as much as it rewards them.


Identity and the “Ick Factor”: A Queer Reading of Numbers 31
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Henrietta L. Wiley, Denison University

Who is and is not “really” a gay man or lesbian? For a host of reasons, most would not turn to the Bible to find an answer to this question. And yet, contemporary gay men and lesbians often end up using notions of bodily purity and male potency--specifically the power of semen--that are consistent with similar biblical ideas. Contact with another man’s semen is likely to “mark” a man as gay, despite any protests he might make. A woman similarly marked is nearly always denied a lesbian identity. Using Numbers 31 as a comparative case, I will show how contemporary gay men and especially lesbians preserve patriarchal criteria for community inclusion by acknowledging and accepting the biblical understanding of, fascination with, and horror around semen.


Translating and Annotating the Septuagint of Isaiah in Septuaginta Deutsch: A Preliminary Evaluation
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Florian Wilk, Georg-August Universität-Göttingen

The Old Greek of Isaiah, probably composed by a Jewish scribe in Egypt during the second century BCE, constitutes a unique case among the Greek versions of biblical texts gathered in the Septuagint: This translation is aimed at disclosing the meaning and relevance of Isaiah’s prophecies against the background of contemporaneous history as well as in correlation with the Greek Pentateuch and other parts of the Scriptures. To this end, the translator has often rendered his Hebrew Vorlage in a rather free fashion, applying several techniques of scribal work which are attested in manuscripts from Qumran, Targums, and New Testament writings, too. The paper will describe the main characteristics of his interpretation and show in what way they have been made discernible in the German translation and notes.


"Authoritative Anthropology" (Matthew 8:9): A Playful, Political Perspective on the Healing of the Centurion's Slave
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Michael Willett Newheart, Howard University School of Divinity

In Matthew 8:9 a Roman centurion says that he is “a man under authority” (anthropos hupo exousian). But whose authority is he under? Jesus'? Caesar's? I suggest that in order to deal with aggression that Jesus-believers felt in the aftermath of the first revolt, they produced a parody, depicting a centurion requesting a healing for his slave, not from the usual imperial channels, but from a local healer. The parody was healing for Matthew’s audience. They felt like Rome's sick slave, but through community worship (which included the reading of this gospel) they were healed through the “distant” risen Jesus. He is the authoritative anthropos, the community claimed, and we are anthropoi under authority, under power, not of Rome but of the reign of the heavens. This paper is part of my larger project on the synoptic miracles, to which I give a poetic and political interpretation. I look at the miracle stories as part of a "poetic of resistance,” both to the Roman imperialists and their minions, the Jewish priestly aristocracy. They experience power by playing with the politics of their oppression!


Cleaning the Lepered Skins: A Pun-Filled Perspective on Luke 17:11–19
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Michael Willett Newheart, Howard University

Another opening, another show! Another annual meeting, another Newheart soul reading! As previous P&BS-ers (Psychology and Biblical Studies folks, of course; what were you thinking?) know, these readings always present a preponderance of puns, leading to much smirking, chortling, headshaking, eye-rolling, groaning -- and perhaps even a new understanding! This year the title features a pun (lepered skins, leopard skins--Get it?), and the subtitle predicts plenty of puns. Don't say that you weren't warned! So, what's going to happen in this paper? Absolutely nothing . . . but fun (I hope!). First, I will discuss the role of puns in my soul reading. Second, I will soul-read the story of Jesus cleansing the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19, offering a translation of the episode and then presenting a soul reading of it, which is playful, poetic, personal, political, and of course “punny.” Come along; bring your smirk!


John's Engagement with Sources
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Catrin Williams, University of Wales

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Jesus' Love for the Rich Man (Mark 10:21): A Disputed Response toward a Disputed Character
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Joel F. Williams, Columbia International University

Why did Jesus love the rich man (Mark 10:21)? Most commentators believe that Jesus’ response serves to characterize the rich man in a positive way. He saw in the rich man an admirable sincerity and earnestness in following God’s commands. This interpretation is set forward without argument and without any recognition of how awkwardly it stands next to Jesus’ following statements regarding the fate of the rich. Against the majority view, I would argue that Jesus’ response serves to characterize the rich man more negatively as someone who is needy and worthy of pity. Narrative criticism insists that how the story is told contributes to what the story means. In this passage, Mark offers an inside view, a narrative technique used repeatedly throughout Mark’s Gospel to display characters’ perceptions, thoughts, intentions, and emotions. Elsewhere in his Gospel, Mark makes use of inside views to present Jesus as responding with compassion toward the needy (1:41; 6:34; cf. 8:2; 9:22), which, when compared with the other instances of inside views in Mark’s Gospel, serves as the closest parallel for interpreting Jesus’ love toward the rich man. Narrative criticism also insists that events and characters must be examined in light of the story as a whole. Perhaps the most striking contrasting figure to the rich man in Mark’s Gospel as a whole is the wise scribe, who understands the centrality of a whole-hearted love toward God and others. The rich man is content with obedience to external commands, where obedience can be outwardly observed. Therefore, what is ultimately at stake in the interpretation of the rich man is the radical character of Jesus’ demands in Mark’s Gospel, which consistently call for complete devotion toward God and sacrificial service toward others.


Summation of Discussion
Program Unit:
Michael Williams, University of Washington

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Not the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
P.J. Williams, University of Aberdeen

This illustrated paper considers the history of the transmission of the opening verses of the Fourth Gospel and the ways in which the text was divided or not divided into segments by commentators (e.g. Ptolemy, Heracleon, Irenaeus, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Augustine, Cyril, Philoxenus), liturgical systems, and the scribes of early manuscripts (e.g. Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Greek, Latin, Syriac). There is then investigation of the division of the text in the period of print from 1495 (the first printing of John 1:1-14) to the present. It is found that systems that regarded John 1:1-5, 1:1-14, or 1:1-17 as a unit preceded those that regarded 1:1-18 as a unit and that these earlier analyses each have distinct exegetical advantages over the common modern position of viewing 1:1-18 as a unit. The reasons for the currently preferred division and its exegetical consequences are explored with the strong conclusion that John 1:1-18 should not be regarded as the prologue of the Fourth Gospel.


Editing the Syriac Versions: Problems and Programme
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
P.J. Williams, University of Aberdeen - Scotland

An assessment of the problems and plans for editing the Syriac versions.


The Pauline Peter of Acts 10 and 15: Theology and Purpose
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Robert Lee Williams, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

F. C. Baur perceived the Book of Acts to be engaged in reconciliation of opposing parties in his Tendenzkritik. In particular, Luke was “as far as possible harmonizing” “the Pauline doctrine” with “the antagonistic views of the powerful Jewish-Christina party opposed to him.” Some features of Acts suggest such harmonizing of Paul with antagonists. The tendency to characterize Paul as an observant Jew (Acts 21.23-26), indeed still a Pharisee (Act 23.6), is well recognized. The lack of mention of, but evidence for, knowledge of Pauline epistles in Acts is widely noticed in this respect. This latter feature contains a phenomenon less explored and meriting examination. Pauline ideas are spoken from the mouth of the primary spokesman for the Twelve, the apostle Peter. Richard I. Pervo’s statistical analysis shows that this juxtaposition of Peter and Pauline ideas is most pronounced in Acts 10 and 15, the Cornelius incident and the Jerusalem Council. Furthermore, the coincidence is most prevalent with Paul’s most radical letter, the one to the Galatians. For Luke’s Jewish Christian constituency concerned about Paul, evidence that the leader of the original twelve spoke forthrightly with perspectives parallel to Paul’s, indeed at the initiative of God himself (Acts 10.10-16; 15.7), would assuage their concerns and reconcile them to his perspectives. This study demonstrates two points, one about theology and the other about Luke’s purpose. Regarding theology, the argument will show that in Acts 10 and 15 Peter insisted on Pauline theology, specifically cancellation of kashrut, circumcision, and other legal observances in God’s people. Regarding Luke’s purpose, the paper will then show that Peter’s statements function at these points to conciliate the Jewish Christian objections to Paul.


"Falling down with Open Eyes": Balaam, Bestiality, and the Impossibility of Gentile Prophecy
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Robert Williamson, Jr., Emory University

As the paradigmatic representative of the phenomenon of gentile prophecy, Balaam holds an intriguing place in the history of biblical interpretation, particularly among Jewish interpreters. Judith Baskin has argued that rabbinic portrayals of Balaam become more negative and polemical as Christianity becomes an increasingly powerful political phenomenon. In making her case, Baskin examines interpretations of Balaam’s oracles in Sifre Deuteronomy and Numbers Rabbah. The present paper seeks to build upon Baskin’s thesis by extending the trajectory of her analysis forward in time to the portrayals of Balaam in the Babylonian Talmud and Zohar. Focusing on interpretations of Balaam’s fourth oracle in Num 24:16-17, which was understood by Christian interpreters as a prophecy of Christ, I will show that portrayals of Balaam in Jewish literature become increasingly vitriolic over time. Whereas Sifre Deuteronomy interprets Num 24:16-17 as a demonstration of Balaam’s status as a gentile prophet with stature equal to or even superior to that of the Israelite prophet Moses, by the time of the Talmud the same passage is used to portray Balaam as a stupid and sexually perverse gentile who has forfeited any share in the afterlife. By the time of the 13th century Zohar, the passage is interpreted to show that Balaam, and all gentile prophets along with him, are wicked diviners who receive their insights from fallen angels rather than from God, making all gentile prophecy inherently false. In making this case, I will examine the interpretive techniques of the rabbinic and kabbalistic interpreters, showing how their unique approaches to scripture enable them to deny the veracity of gentile prophecy through an intertextual approach to the Hebrew Scriptures.


"Set Me as a Seal upon Your Heart": Divinity and Femininity in Jewish Interpretation of the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Robert Williamson, Jr., Emory University

Feminist scholars of the Hebrew Bible have had an abiding interest in the Song of Songs, noting particularly the presence of a strong female voice as well as the book’s positive celebration of female sexuality. However, scholars have also drawn attention to the shadow side of the Song. As Cheryl Exum notes, the male character is an “elusive lover” who is “always off bounding over the hills somewhere,” expressing an autonomy which the Shulamite lacks. Further, Exum notes that the Song depicts a situation in which “bad things happen to sexually active, forward women,” particularly in chapter 5 in which the Shulamite is beaten at the hands of the night watchmen. I propose that feminist scholarship may find a productive conversation partner in the task of recovering the power and autonomy of the female character of the Song vis-à-vis her lover from a most unexpected source—ancient rabbinic and medieval kabbalistic interpreters. Because these interpreters identify themselves with the character of the Shulamite, who represents Israel in relationship with her lover YHWH, their concerns about the depiction of the feminine in the Song bear a striking resemblance to that of contemporary feminist scholars. Beginning with one of the most problematic passage of the Song, the abandonment and abuse scene of 5:2-8, I will demonstrate how rabbinic and kabbalistic interpreters employ their particular exegetical techniques to recover the Shulamite as a self-empowered female and her male companion as an attentive and endlessly fidelious lover. I will offer readings of the midrashic interpretation of Songs 5:2, in which Yhwh becomes the Shulamite’s heart, and the Zoharic interpretation of Songs 8:6, in which the feminine is inscribed as a seal upon the deity’s heart.


The Strategic Rhetorical Position of 2 Samuel 7 in the Deuteronomistic History
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
John T. Willis, Abilene Christian University

Scholars have approached 2 Samuel 7 from several perspectives: literary-historical, traditio-historical, historical, textual-critical, etc. L. Eslinger approaches this chapter from a rhetorical perspective, but by this he means the "inner" rhetorical aspect of this chapter with an emphasis on how each character in the chapter functions and interacts with the other characters. The present paper attempts to determine the rhetorical function of 2 Samuel 7 in the final form of Dtr. For example, the idea of Yahweh moving about in a tent and a tabernacle (v. 6) assumes the hearers of this narrative know the accounts of the role of the ark in the crossing of the Jordan (Joshua 3), the conquest of Jericho (Josh. 6:1-21), the battle against the Philistines at Aphek (1 Samuel 4), etc. Or, the reference to Yahweh taking David from following the sheep to be "prince" (nagid) over Yahweh's people (v. 8) presupposes a knowledge of Yahweh's rejection of Saul (1 Sam. 13:14), Samuel's anointing of David at Bethlehem (1 Sam. 16:1-13), the selection of David to be "prince" (nagid) over the ten northern tribes (2 Sam. 5:2), etc. 2 Samuel 7 also prepares the hearers of this work for events related later, as Solomon building the temple (2 Sam. 7:12-13; 1 Kgs. 5:17-19; 8:14-21); etc. Thus, 2 Samuel 7 plays a very strategic rhetorical role in Dtr.


Making the Case for a Different Orientation to Research on Scriptures
Program Unit: Signifying (on) Scriptures
Vincent L. Wimbush, Claremont Graduate University

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The Sanhedrin on Trial: A Comparison
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Barry Wimpfheimer, Northwestern University

Recent historical work on Jewish institutional life in the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods has called the historicity of an institutional Sanhedrin into question. In his book, The Monarchic Principle, David Goodblatt notes the dearth of references to the Sanhedrin in First Century (Greek) materials. In fact, Goodblatt limits the evidence for such a body to two texts: the trial of Herod in Josephus' Antiquities and the Passion narrative of the synoptic gospels, with each example fading as historical evidence under close text-critical examination. Goodblatt's association of these two texts and their invocation of the Sanhedrin as a real body suggests that a close comparison of the two may reveal more commonalities than just their reference to the Sanhedrin. In this paper I will compare these two trial stories with the commonly recognized parallel to the Herod story at Bavli Sanhedrin 19a-b. The purpose of the comparison is to suggest the importance of rituals and performance in the courtroom setting and the way these not only signify but actualize the power dynamics they appear merely to confirm. The comparative lens will allow for a close examination of the clash of various institutional and charismatic authorities that inheres in all three cases.


"You Are What You Wear": The Dress and Identity of Jesus as High Priest in John's Apocalypse
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Ross E. Winkle, Pacific Union College

The Epistle to the Hebrews, which is replete with cultic concepts and imagery, is the only New Testament document that explicitly portrays Jesus as heavenly high priest. Recognition of a high-priestly understanding of Jesus outside of Hebrews has been controversial, and opposition to such a view has been frequent and sometimes vociferous. The book of Revelation is similar to Hebrews in that it contains pervasive cultic imagery. But while John clearly utilizes high-priestly imagery, he does not—unlike Hebrews—explicitly identify Jesus as high priest. In 1981 John Baigent set forth four evidentiary criteria to determine whether Jesus was portrayed as high priest outside of Hebrews. Although his conclusion was negative, I intend to prove through just one of his criteria—distinctive clothing—that John does portray Jesus in such a role. Social scientists have concluded that dress not only communicates, but that it also communicates identity. Utilizing such social-scientific theory as well as the recent contribution by Dietmar Neufeld on the significance of dress in John’s Apocalypse, I will demonstrate that on several occasions John utilizes dress imagery to convey the role-related identity of Jesus as heavenly high priest.


Luke’s Use of the Septuagint and His Possible Use of the Works of Homer: Intertextuality, Formation, and Evaluation
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Mikael Winninge, Umea University

This investigation is an analysis of different claims for an intertextual understanding of some NT narratives. A major part of this contribution is an analysis of two NT texts, which have been interpreted as alluding to older texts, one of the from the Hebrew Bible and one from the works of Homer. First, Lk 10:25–37 will be analyzed as an echo of 2 Chr 28:9–15. Second, Acts 20:17–38 will be viewed as possibly modelled upon Iliad 6, the story about Hector’s farewell to Andromache. The question of the formation of Luke-Acts thus comes to the fore. As a second part of this investigation the criteria of two NT scholars will be scrutinized in view of the comparative analyses of the studied texts. The scholars in question are Richard B. Hays and Dennis R. MacDonald, who in their research have focused on the Septuagint and the Homeric texts respectively. Accessibility of the model is one criterion to be discussed, structural similarities and density of echoes are other criteria, just to mention three here. In my evaluation of different suggested criteria I will emphasize the necessity of also taking into account different text theories. An allusion is always an allusion in somebody’s mind. Historical hypotheses concerning the real author need to be compared with what the text as such reveals about an implied author. The implied readers are also important to consider. Moreover, a socio-rhetorical analysis can help decide whether a surmised allusion is plausible or not. Although evaluation is theory-bound, conclusions are possible.


The Exegesis of Exodus by Ephrem the Syrian
Program Unit: Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Karen S. Winslow, Azusa Pacific University

Ephrem the Syrian was well known as a teacher and hymnist of the fourth century Syriac-speaking church. He produced hymns and commentaries on the Bible and numerous other topics, many of which have survived and demonstrate exegetical acquaintance with Jewish traditions. For example, throughout his commentaries he uses qal vehomer (a fortiori) arguments, his treatment of Genesis appeals to Jewish traditions about Paradise, and he identifies Sarah with Iscah, her name in the Midrash: Sifre to Numbers. Aggadic traditions from the Targumim and Midrashim also abound in Ephrem’s Commentary of Exodus, which he calls a tûrgamâ, an “explanation.” Motifs developed in the Mekilta and Sifre to Numbers (both redacted 250-300 C.E.) and in the Targumim appear in Ephrem’s interpretation of Exodus. Whereas it is difficult to ascertain whether these are the result of encounters with Jewish teachers, literary influence via the mentioned Jewish texts and the Syriac Bible, the Peshitta, or if they emerged from the similar mentality and comparable modes of interpretation between Jews and Christians in that region, it is clear that Ephrem deliberately adopted Jewish traditions that were useful to his agendas. Nonetheless, Ephrem also innovates, presenting exegetical elements in his Commentary on Exodus not represented in Jewish Midrashim or Targumim. For example, when “Sephora” circumcised her son, she claimed that the commandment of circumcision should be sufficient reason for Moses’ release. An appeal to the power of the commandment of circumcision is similar to the emphasis of the Mekilta and Palestinian Targumim. When Ephrem’s Moses could speak, he defended his practice of sexual continence to Zipporah—he must “sanctify” himself for God who is visible to him all the time. Finding Moses’ sexual renunciation in Exod 4.24-6 and basing it on the visibility of God is Ephrem’s innovation.


Argument Realization in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Nicolai Winther-Nielsen, Copenhagen Lutheran School of Theology

How many nouns can a verb take, and how does their choice influence the meaning, morphology, and syntax of the verb? What about cases that are only expressed in prepositional phrases? Such questions are usually addressed in terms of predicate and arguments, and they need to be addressed in Hebrew grammar as well. This paper will briefly introduce the linguistic work of Beth Levin and Malka Rappaport Hovav published in Argument Realization (2005) and will illustrate the problem of argument realization for Hebrew verbs such as put and give. It will then bring more traditional approaches to Hebrew valency into play by discussing Michael Malessa's Untersuchungen zur verbalen Valenz im biblishcen Hebräisch (2006) and will relate his findings to the issue of argument realization in current lexical semantics. The paper will then present findings from a particular structuralist-functional linguistic theory which is especially well-suited to help linguists categorize verb classes and their argument alternations as an interplay between syntax and sematics. This theory, Role and Reference Grammar, will be used to show how its semantic metalangue can assist in explaining argument realization. The paper will share some solutions to questions that are usually dealt with as transitivity in traditional grammars. It will also address the question whether a new approach could give us a better understanding of the the verbal stems in Hebrew. This paper builds upon results gained from a research project on a Role-Lexical Module for Biblical Hebrew which was used as a tool to map Hebrew syntax to semantic representation (see http://lex.qwirx.com/lex/clause.jsp).


Pedagogical Problems in the Pastorals: 1 Timothy 2:8–15
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Ben Witherington, Asbury Theological Seminary

1 Tim. 2.8-15 is perhaps the most controverted of all texts from the Pastoral Epistles, but strangely the text has seldom been subjected to analysis taking into account the social status of those addressed—namely that they are men and women of reasonably high social status. Further, scholars have not yet adequately explored the rhetorical force of the passage and its inter-textuality with 1 Cor. 14.33b-36. Finally, the pedagogical assumptions of the passage need to be explored as well. Who should be teachers, who should be learners in this community? In this paper I propose to explore these subjects, using a socio-rhetorical approach.


Chaste Women in the Quran: An Examination of Q 4:24
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Joseph Witztum, Princeton University

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"Your Neck is Like the Tower of David": Biblical and Contemporary Flattery
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Lisa M. Wolfe, Oklahoma City University

For centuries readers have puzzled over the bizarre imagery in Song of Songs' love poetry. Throughout Song, the lovers portray one another's bodies with startling verse. These wasfs, or descriptions contain ancient flattery that strikes contemporary readers as uncomplimentary to say the least. This paper explores several of the most peculiar wasf metaphors in Song. History of interpretation and additional research on the poetry's language and socio-historical context provide greater understanding of these descriptions. In addition, this paper draws intriguing connections to similarly odd imagery from our own time. Perhaps strange-sounding sweet-talk is not so unusual after all.


Teaching Tip: Human Timeline: A Kinesthetic Exercise in Biblical History
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Lisa M. Wolfe, Oklahoma City University

This activity teaches biblical history through physical movement and student participation. Students' learning is then reinforced through repetition and discussion of the exercise. This presentation begins with a brief pedagogical statement on the importance of the timeline in teaching biblical history. Following that, I will invite session attendees to participate in the activity as though they were students. The presentation will be under fifteen minutes long.


The Meaning of Tsanterot (Zechariah 4:12)
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Al Wolters, Redeemer University College

Although Hebrew lexica and Bible versions since the sixteenth century have almost unanimously given the meaning "pipes" (or equivalent) for tsanterot in Zech 4:12, this is based on the erroneous assumption that this hapax legomenon is related to tsinnor (itself of disputed meaning). Nor is there any Semitic cognate which might help us to establish the meaning. A survey of the history of interpretation since antiquity reveals that more than two dozen other senses have been proposed for the word, none of which has carried conviction. On the basis of textual context, the techniques of olive production, and various hints in the history of interpretation, I propose that the word means "oil-pressers," personal agents who manually press out virgin olive oil. This in turn leads tothe hypothesis that tsanterot is in fact a ghost-word, and that it is an earlycorruption of tsahorot, related to the Hiphil of tsahar, "to press out oil."


Authentes and Its Cognates in Biblical Greek
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Al Wolters, Redeemer Univerity College

On the basis of a previously published semantic survey of authentes and its derivatives in ancient Greek (JGRChJ 1 [2000] 145-175) I propose to review and correct the way this word family has been understood in the lexicography of Biblical Greek. Specifically, I will offer corrections to the exegetical and lexicographical tradition with respect to authentes in Wisdom 12:6, authentikos in the Kerygma Petri, Fr. 9, authenteo in 1 Tim 2:12, and authentia in 3 Macc 2:29. I will argue that it is crucial to distinguish between two registers in Hellenistic Greek with respect to authentes and its cognates: an Atticistic register which has to do with kin-murder, and a Koine register which has to do with mastery.


Egypt 1898–1914: Christian Tafsiir, Muslim Biblical Criticism
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Simon Wood, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

This paper examines an instance of Christian-Muslim encounter and debate that took place in Egypt in the early years of the twentieth century. It explores the ways in which its protagonists deployed both their own and their opponents’ scriptures in upholding their religion and, frequently, asserting its superiority over that of their opponents. The Christian protagonists were agents of Protestant mission, including publishers of pamphlets such as Basha’ir al-Salam (The Glad Tidings of Peace), and Rayah Sahyun (The Standard of Zion), Niqula Ghibril, author of the book Abhath al-Mujtahidin (1901), and also the secularist Syrian Christian Farah Antun, publisher of Al-Jami‘ah (1901-10). The paper compares and contrasts readings of scripture in these publications with those of Muslim intellectuals who opposed them, including Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida.


Ben Sira on the Sage as Exemplar
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Benjamin G. Wright III, Lehigh University

Recently some scholars have invoked the notion of "exemplarity" to understand some of the ways that Second Temple Jewish works represent authoritative figures from Israel's past in the construction of Jewish self-understanding. This appeal is especially visible in, but not exclusive to, pseudepigraphic literature. Like some other Jewish writers, Ben Sira, in his Praise of the Ancestors, selects worthy persons from Israel's past whom he constructs as exemplars. Yet, elsewhere in his book, Ben Sira creates a continuity between himself as a scribe/sage instructing his students, the divine Lady Wisdom who is embodied in the Law, and divinely inspired persons, some of whom he later highlights. Particularly, in chapters 24 and 39, Ben Sira constructs the sage as one who issues authoritative and prophetic teaching. As such, he not only inherits and appropriates Israel's intellectual heritage, he paints a picture of himself as one who stands in a line with those to whom God has spoken and revealed his will. His relationship with Lady Wisdom, for example, situates him as more than an exegete who digests a fixed body of knowledge that has been transmitted to him. The scribe/sage, and thus Ben Sira himself, emerges as one who is divinely inspired and who reveals God's will. In this paper, I will ask if the divinely inspired sage, as part of Ben Sira's self representation, functions as an exemplar in any similar ways to those used for more ancient figures, such as Moses.


Syro-Canaanite Religions: A Construct of Metaphors
Program Unit: Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
David P. Wright, Brandeis University

This analysis brings together the main points of data about Syro-Canaanite religion, internally and in comparative You (the evil) shall depart at the voice of the t`(y-priest, like smoke through a hatch-hole, like a snake from a wall,perspective, under the viewpoint of conceptual analogy or metaphor (the terms are synonymous for the purposes of this paper). It builds upon earlier work on analogy in ritual (cf. Religionsgeschichtliche Beziehungen, OBO 129, 473-506; JBL 113 [1994] 385-404; RB 102 [1996] 213-236). Analogical conceptualization is significant as a means of generating, transforming, and maintaining a religious system. Overall, it creates a supernatural reality based on the concrete and "empirical" world of human experience. Thus supernatural entities are endowed, generally, with human form and emotions, visible in artistic as well a literary representations, such as the Ugaritic myths and legends. But this conceptualization goes far beyond mere considerations of anthropomorphism and anthropopathism. The society of divine beings is conceived along human lines (e.g., the divine council and even bureaucratic descriptions of the gods), cultic systems presume the human-like character of gods (sacrifices are meals, they appease or curry favor, temples are the gods' dwellings), and communication between humans and the gods follows expectations underlying human-human communication (petition, praise, prophecy, and divination). On a specific level, analogy is used to effectively concretize and alleviate the suffering of evil ("You (the evil) shall depart...like smoke through a hatch-hole, like a snake from a wall..."), and exists implicitly in ritual activities (e.g., ritual ablutions, based on mundane washing of real dirt). As a whole, analogy creates and sustains a religious system and makes its claims believable in the present. As an active and creative operation, it allows a given system to be rethought and reformed.


The Compositional Logic of the Talion, Miscarriage, and Slave Laws of Exodus 21:22–27
Program Unit: Biblical Law
David P. Wright, Brandeis University

The talion law of Exod 21:22-25 is generally viewed as a stratified composition. Its original core consisted of just the first miscarriage law in v. 22, perhaps also the second miscarriage law in v. 23(a). To this the talion list in vv. (23b)24-25 was added, perhaps in stages (e.g., vv. 23b-24 first, then v. 25). The slave law in vv. 26-27 is generally seen as earlier than the talion list of vv. 23b-25. The reasons for such conclusions include the stylistic differences in the talion law from casuistic law, the imperfect conceptual fit of talion to a case miscarriage, and the difficulty of interpreting the term ‘ason. This paper argues that the talion law is a coherent and unitary composition which is based on the Laws of Hammurabi as a source (Maarav 10 [2003] 11-87; ZABR 10 [2004] 93-142). CC bases its miscarriage law (vv. 22-23) on LH 209-210. CC replaces the unacceptable apodosis in LH 210, which prescribes vicarious punishment, with a summary of the nearby casuistically formulated talion laws of LH 196-201. CC expands the talion injuries beyond those expected for miscarriage, including a “wound” drawn from LH 206-208, to formulate a general rule. General application is marked by the emphatic verb form “you shall give” (meaning “you shall pay,” the equivalent cost). The rule requires compensation in all cases of inadvertent injury and death. This makes up for the temporary omission of compensation for inadvertent homicide from the homicide law of 21:12-14, as required by its source, LH 207. CC resumes the casuistic form of the talion laws of LH 196-201 as they pertain to slaves in vv. 25-26, because non-talion penalties apply. Stylistic and contextual irregularities in the Exodus text are due to revising and combining elements from the source text.


Paul's Counter-Imperial Theology
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
N. Thomas Wright, Church of England

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God in Public? The Bible and Politics in Tomorrow’s World
Program Unit:
N. T. Wright, Durham Cathedral

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Critical Approaches to the “Farewell Khutba” in Ibn Ishaq’s Life of the Prophet
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Peter Wright, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This paper argues that Ibn Ishaq’s rhetorical use of genre instances the authority accorded to Biblical forms by the early Muslim community. The genre in question is the “universal history” modeled by the Genesis-through-Kings saga contained in the Hebrew Bible. At the center of this saga stands the Deuteronomistic restatement of Mosaic law. At the center of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirah stands the restatement of Qur’anic legislation contained in the Prophet’s “Farewell Sermon.”The Sirah is, in effect, Muslim Biblical interpretation accomplished by means of rhetorical appropriation.


Caring for Women’s Needs: Legal and Economic Realities in Sixth-Century (BCE) Babylonia
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Cornelia Wunsch, School of Oriental and African Studies, University

This paper examines the evidence from Neo-Babylonian legal records dealing with women’s inheritance, maintenance, and claims to property. It looks at ways in which women were provided with income and support above and beyond their legal entitlement. Such provision could make use of cuneiform law's well-established framework for the transfer of property rights to real estate, prebends, and chattle under various circumstances and conditions. The paper also gives special attention to conditional and unconditional property transfers to married women for their own use (i.e., to be managed by them independently from their husbands) and to the position of foster children raised by women in wealthy households.


Midrash, Extra-Scriptural Traditions, and the Question of Esoteric Knowledge
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Azzan Yadin, Rutgers University

In this presentation I will chart a shift in the conceptualization of midrash and extra-scriptural tradition between Tannaitic and post-Tannaitic rabbinic literature. In Tannaitic literature, scriptural interpretation is not represented as an act that reveals hidden or esoteric truths, and this is true of both constitutive midrash (that claims to establish a legal decision) and supportive midrash (that anchors an accepted extra-scriptural tradition). In this, the rabbis differ markedly from both Qumran and early Christian exegetes. To the extent that there is a an esoteric truth to be revealed, and this is a minor extent, it is found in extra-scriptural halakhah (le-moshe me-sinai). In post-Tannaitic sources, however, this relationship is reversed. Midrash comes to be understood as, potentially, a revelation of esoteric truths, while halakhah is an open, exoteric field. This shift is most dramatically evident in the transformation of the figure of Rabbi Aqiva.


Paul’s Sexual and Marriage Ethics through the Lens of African Women's Cultural Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Alice Yafeh-Deigh, Princeton Theological Seminary

Using insights from Musimbi Kanyoro’s Introducing Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics and Mercy Oduyoye’s Introducing African Women's Theology, this paper seeks to engage aspects of the text of 1 Corinthians 7 with an African socio-cultural lens. The hermeneutical task is that of providing alternative interpretive frameworks for Paul’s sexual and marriage ethics, which are able to cross cultural boundaries and fully take into consideration the various sexual practices of African churches (monogamy, polygamy, and celibacy). Although 1 Corinthians 7 is recognizably one of the most studied and talked about texts in discussions surrounding Christian sexual and marriage ethics in the Christian West, and even though some attention has been paid to it by African theologians and church leaders, it has not been directly addressed as a primary subject of research from the perspective of African scholars, especially women scholars. The implications of such a lack of reflection on the part of African scholars results in (1) the prioritization of western cultural views (very often assumed to be the exclusive models of understanding and appropriating Paul’s discourse on sexual and marital issues) and (2) a lack of an African cultural hermeneutic that engages western views in constructive ways and proposes alternative models that wrestle with African context-specific issues. The resulting decontextualized interpretations, the concomitant intra-church discord, and tension with the wider socio-cultural environment have had enormous detrimental social consequences on both the society and the church.


The Emergence of Non-sexual Affection among Married Couples in the Second and Third Century Christian Literature
Program Unit: Early Christian Families
Mariko Yakiyama, Claremont Graduate University

This paper poses a question regarding from what period in history affection both sexual and non-sexual among married couples became the norm. It argues that early Christianity presented a new concept of affection among married couples based on respect for one another as brother and sister. This paper first explores the ancient practice of marriage in Greco-Roman and Egyptian cultures, one lacking in affection and concerned procreation only by examining evidence in literature and archeological findings from that period. Next, the paper examines the discussion of modern scholarship concerning when the concept of sexual affection among married couples emerged in Greco-Roman culture, influenced by the Augustan reformation which emphasized procreation among chaste married couples. New Testament Christian writings in the same era, however, present several diverse concepts of marriage not focusing solely on procreation, since their teachings are to some degree based on eschatological expectation. The main argument of this paper is based on the examination of three corpora written by Clement of Alexandria, the apocryphal Acts of John and Andrew. Significantly, the new ideal proposed in these writings all expect the couple to be sexually pure and to maintaining mutual affection. Clement of Alexandria thought that sexual conduct is engaged in by the married couple for the sole purpose of procreation. After the couple has produced an heir, they should renounce sexual activities for affection as brother sister. This ideal is also observed in The Acts of John, in which a wife convinces her husband to convert to Christianity with their relationship then becoming like that of brother and sister. Another apocryphal writing, Andrew, depicts an ideal couple as a sexually pure Adam and Eve. In conclusion, this paper insists that new concept of Christian marriage as sister and brother contributed to a change in the marriage form.


Bible Translation in Africa: An Afrocentric Interrogation of the Task
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Gosnell Yorke, University of South Africa

Bible translation enjoys a long and strong tradition in Africa. The process extends from Alexandria, Egypt, involving the Septuagint, mainly an inter-testamental translation of the Hebrew Bible and cognate writings into Hellenistic Greek, the lingua franca of the day, to the subsequent proliferation of translations into a number of the approximately 2000 indigenous languages scattered throughout the sub-Saharan or tropical regions of the continent. This subsequent proliferation came especially in the wake of what, for some, was the inescapable Eurocentric and, therefore, ideologically driven missionary invasion/colonization of the continent beginning in the late eighteenth century made possible by those who considered themselves the divinely called “bearers of the gospel”. It was a process which was later accelerated by the United Bible Societies (UBS), a worldwide organization which was established officially in the mid-twentieth century. Since then, the continent has undergone (and continues to undergo) a rapid postcolonial and political transformation such that, for some, it can no longer be “business as usual”. Instead, there is a steady growth in self-confidence expressed, for example, in the increasing volume of voices of those calling for a more Afrocentric critique and interrogation of the task. In this investigation, we will narrate, in deft strokes, the story of Bible translation in Africa, engage in some practical but preliminary probing into what an Afrocentric interrogation might entail, and, ultimately, provide some justification for a clarion call for a re-translation of the Bible to be undertaken by an international and interdisciplinary team of “Afro-scholars”—both female and male.


Marketing Martyrdom: De/Colonizing Philosophy as Faith in Fourth Maccabees
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Steve Young, McHenry County College

This paper places the non-canonical Septuagint text of 4th Maccabees on a spectrum of ancient Jewish and Christian attitudes toward philosophy as a category of Greco-Roman imperial culture. 4th Maccabees repackages heroic deaths from 2nd Maccabees as exemplary illustrations of the supremacy of "devout reason" (eusebia) over the emotions--a subject "most philosophical". By appropriating and yet Judaizing philosophy, I argue that 4th Maccabees illustrates the role of philosophy as a form of colonization of the mind in the early common era, as well as an opportunity for decolonizing resistance to Roman imperialism. In the book we see these competing tensions, whereby the expected mind-set of Roman colonizing predicts the reasonableness and naturalness--and thus compatibility with "philosophy" (as popularly received)--of colonial occupation, and yet the author's appropriation of philosophy to support resistance and even martyrdom posits philosophy as an anti-imperialist tool. As such, 4th Maccabees illustrates the complex dynamics of Jewish diasporic acculturation in mid-antiquity. The work may be seen then both as Jewish apologetic toward Greco-Roman culture (Jewish history recounts exemplary philosophy among us Jews), and as an internal appropriation of the dominant cultures values (philosophy provides appropriate categories for Jewish self-understanding and self-legitimation). Thus, the text negotiates both a positive appropriation of imperial culture's categories while valorizing the rationality of resistance to imperialism.


Some Aspects of Aramean and Luwian Religion in Light of Recent Discoveries
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
K. Lawson Younger, Jr., Trinity International University

This paper will investigate recent discoveries that shed new light on the religion of Syria in the Iron I and II period (ca. 1200 to 700 BCE). In particular, the new stela from Tel Amar/Qubbah will be presented with special interest paid to its religious connections. The paper will also analyze the bronze horse trappings from the region and their connections with the goddess Astarte. Finally, the significance of these artifacts for Israelite religion will be highlighted.


Q+ and the Preaching of John: Raising the Questions
Program Unit: Q
Linden Youngquist, Iowa Wesleyan College

Q+ is the theory that Q was longer than traditionally thought, based on the observation that a number of Q sayings suggest activities of Jesus not recorded in the version of Q posited by the IQP. For the theory to have merit, it must be based on good data and a sound method. Since the IQP suggests that the Q version and the Markan version of John's preaching overlap, an analysis of the rationale for this conclusion will lend support to the idea that Q knew more about Jesus' ministry than the IQP has reconstructed.


The Cultural Hermeneutics of the NRSV Translating Committee
Program Unit: Bible Translation
Colin Yuckman, United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington

Individuals approach the translation process with hermeneutics peculiar to their perspectives. The work of translation by committee, therefore, is often contentious and sometimes unwieldy. This paper attempts to look at one such group, the NRSV Translating Committee, and how it navigated the difficulties of team translation. Through a series of interviews and written accounts accumulated over the last several years, a picture can be drawn of what hermeneutical factors accompanied the translation process. Based on the gender, racial, ethnic and religious background of the individual contributors to the project, one can discern a kind of “cultural hermeneutic” in their collective approach. As one might imagine, such a hermeneutic betrayed certain biases and prejudices within the group, both intentional and accidental. Dedicated to the legacy of the late Bruce Metzger, who helped direct the Committee, this paper documents some of the hermeneutical issues and outcomes common to a collective translation (and translation revision) project, including power dynamics, the role of “inclusivity” voices, and latent hierarchies of authority.


Matthew's Birth Story: An Early Milepost in the History of Jewish Marriage Law
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Peter Zaas, Siena College

Matthew 1:1-1:18, is titled by its author The Book of the Birth of Jesus the Messiah. But in addition to announcing the birth of the Messiah, the birth narrative announces a new way of looking at Jewish marriage law, highly supportive of Pharisaic Torah observance. It marks the transition from Biblical marriage law to rabbinic, particularly as regards the legal understanding of betrothal, adultery, fornication, and divorce. Concealed within a document meant to be understood as anti-Pharisaic is a strong recommendation for the strict observance of Pharisaic law.


The Poetics of Vocabulary and Morphology in Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Naama Zahavi-Ely, College of William and Mary

This paper will focus on aspects of word choice and usage that characterize Biblical Hebrew poetry. Many have rightly pointed out repeated use of key words, and of phonetically-related roots used together (such as y-sh-b/sh-w-b/sh-b-h/sh-b-t, each with both figurative and literal meaning, and all with theological connotations). But I would like to suggest that, apart from intentional key words, there is a tendency in Biblical poetry to avoid repeating words. Both key words and avoidance of repetition are evident in larger poetic units such as Psalm 119. When words are repeated within the same poetic composition, they are often repeated with a difference; words with multiple meanings are likely to be used in their different meanings. One also finds a tendency to use varied morphology – to the consternation of some amenders who try to impose more grammatical uniformity upon the text. A variant of the same tendency is to use similar morphology with different meanings. At times one comes upon morphologically ambiguous forms that one expects to analyze one way, only to find the context pushing one to re-parse them into other, equally valid meanings. These poetic conventions must be taken into account in any speculation about textual history or proposed amendments: for example, the large number of hapax legomena in a book like Job may come about not because of any difference in its dialect, as speculated by some, but simply because it is a large poetic composition, and avoidance of repeating words would of necessity lead to the use of many less-common words. This paper will explore examples of these and other creative and sophisticated usages of words in Biblical Hebrew poetry.


Teaching the Biblical Hebrew Verb
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Naama Zahavi-Ely, College of William and Mary

The Biblical Hebrew verb system presents two categories of problems to English speakers. One is identifying verbs -- finding the root and stem (binyan); the other is understanding the use of Hebrew verbs. Root and stem are recognized unconsciously by Hebrew speakers, but students of the language have to find them consciously. Textbooks typically teach stems as paradigms in shlemim (regular) roots, then gutturals, and then weak roots where a consonant is missing. Yet weak roots are far more common than shlemim. Without them, one can’t read any Biblical text. The numerous paradigms provide overabundance of information, without differentiating between attributes that do and do not identify stems and missing root letters. Most meaningful variants, though, reflect the interaction of a small number of predictable rules with the basic pattern. As to usage, students expect verb forms to encode complex relationships of time, sequence, completion, and modality of action as in English and other European languages. This leads to complicated lists of rules about Hebrew verb forms. I suggest that Hebrew simply does not work that way. Biblical Hebrew expects most such information to be either context-dependent or encoded by means other than verbs. On the other hand, the actions encoded by Hebrew root/stem combinations are far more specific than those conveyed by most English verbs. In English, the same word can be a noun or a verb, and the same verb can be transitive or intransitive or even passive. In Hebrew, each verb encodes a specific kind of action -- transitive, intransitive, causative, passive, reflexive, even intentional rather than accidental. English speakers have to train themselves to expect far stricter constraints on meanings of verbs than a simple word-by-word translation into English indicates.


Do Mythological Constructions of Gender Mirror Human Constructions of Gender?
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Ilona Zsolnay, Brandeis University

In her book, In the Wake of the Goddesses, Tikva Frymer-Kensky asserts that religious texts from Mesopotamia depict a binary gender model, in which male and female deities played defined roles in order to bring about fertility. Because these roles were portrayed by divine figures, Frymer-Kensky argues, the goddesses of Mesopotamia “reinforced the cultural stereotypes about women and [made] these stereotypes sacred” (14). Conversely, she claims that the gender construction illustrated in the Hebrew Bible is singular, and the god of the Bible is depicted as a solitary being. Frymer-Kensky contends that, because this god has no partner, he is solely responsible for fertility; there is no example of separate male and female principles coming together as in the Mesopotamian texts. Frymer-Kensky sees this singularity as the paradigm for the depiction of humans in the Bible. She claims that in the Hebrew Bible there is only one gender represented in the human sphere because there is only one present in the divine, thus women and men are depicted in a similar fashion. Frymer-Kensky’s work on gender in the divine Mesopotamian and biblical worlds was pioneering; no scholar had yet attempted such an analysis of the ancient texts, but is the foundation of her argument correct? Is it so clear that the divine world of Mesopotamia had only two genders? Or that no gender distinctions are made in the Hebrew Bible? Further, do humans model their conduct on the behavior of the gods; are the behaviors of the gods modeled on those of humans, or are the actions of the gods merely predestined, allegorical representations of natural or political occurrences? This paper seeks to reexamine the conclusions reached by Frymer-Kensky in In the Wake of the Goddesses, and to determine whether or not such answers can be ascertained so clearly.


Getting the Big Picture: The Future for the Development, Dissemination, and Use of High Quality Digital Images of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Bruce Zuckerman, University of Southern California

With the publication of the DJD volumes now nearing completion, Dead Sea Scroll studies stand both at the end of one era and the beginning of another. At this point one can turn to any of the DJD volumes and get a pretty good look at just about any Dead Sea Scroll in print form. One can see further that at least a few plates in DJD have been put together and manipulated employing some manner of digital technology. There are also some further digital sources through which one can get fairly good digital images of Dead Sea Scrolls as well. The big question is this: what next? To what extent can digital technology aid scholars and researchers in getting—quite literally—a bigger, better picture of the Dead Sea Scrolls? What technologies are available today and what technologies can we look forward to in the future that will allow scholars to gain high resolution, primary image data of the Dead Sea Scrolls? In this illustrated presentation, we will survey the current state-of-the-digital-art in terms of what has been done, and what can and should be done as the Dead Sea Scrolls enter the technologically-driven 21st Century.

 
 


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