Search SBL
 







Meeting Abstracts

2015 Annual Meeting

Atlanta, GA

Meeting Begins11/21/2015
Meeting Ends11/24/2015

Call for Papers Opens: 12/17/2014
Call for Papers Closes: 3/4/2015

Requirements for Participation

  Meeting Abstracts


Arabic Versions of the Bible: A Status Quaestionis
Program Unit: Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Ronny Vollandt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

The historiography of biblical translation into Arabic, unlike the translation movement in ?Abbasid Baghdad, is in its infancy. Medieval scholarship about Arabic translations of the Scriptures—Jewish, Christian, and Muslim—continued in the Early Modern era in the printed editions and was eventually absorbed by biblical textual criticism, as part of the larger field of the history of biblical versions. Modern scholarship, as has been shown, doubted that the study of Arabic translations could provide insights into the Bible itself. After the early and influential attempts by Ignazio Guidi and Georg Graf to reconstitute the genre, scholarship stagnated in the twentieth century, and only recent years have seen something of a revival. In my contribution, I intend to survey the recent trends in the study of the Arabic Bible and will give an outlook on what still has to be done.


Reciting the Revolution: Dr Ali Shariati’s Liberationist Approach to the Qur’an
Program Unit: Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
Alexander Abbasi, University of Johannesburg

In the context of the build up towards the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Ali Shariati's critique against both outsider imperialist colonizers and insider authoritarian leaders, in addition to his strong gnostic tendencies, helped him to revitalize and awaken Muslim consciousness towards viewing the Qur’an as a revelation of revolution. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss Shariati’s approach to the Qur’an, which I argue was both political and liberationist in nature. I focus on his liberationist perspective, particularly in terms of the following topics: 1) the way in which Shariati’s usage of Islamic figures relates to the Qur’an 2) the way he transforms qur’anic words and language 3) Shariati’s view of the Qur’an as a revolutionary platform 4) and the Qur’an as a gnostic platform. Overall, Shariati’s approach towards and engagement with the Qur’an can be inferred by the ways in which he reinterpreted the place of Islamic figures. He argued that the Shi'i clergy wasted their time by blindly promoting such taqlid (tradition) as “the love of Ali” and “shedding tears for Hossein,” and spending most of their time writing on “trivial rituals” or “compiling reports on the imams.” For Shariati, there was much value to the lives of Muhammad, Abraham, Ali, and other Qur’anic and Islamic figures, especially in fighting for justice. Shariati lamented the depolitization of both well and lesser-known figures as he felt “personalities like Abu Dharr, Salman, Ammar and Hujr were the true followers of Mohammad’s struggle against idolatory, the nobility, despotism, ignorance, and capitalism” (Rahnema 1998: 200). For Ali Shariati the Qur’an unites all Muslims and is the model to build on for resistance. Shariati lambasts the hegemony within the Shi'i clerical class for only teaching the general population to recite the Holy Book and to be attracted to the beauty of its cover, but not to let it live through interpretation. Shariati focuses on reintroducing the Qur’an into Muslim society, and mentions the need for such initiatives as establishing general public Qur’anic studies centers, in addition to centers for studying the Hadith of the Prophet (Shariati 1986: 73). For Shariati the Qur’an is a revolutionary platform and basis for his progressive Islamic ideology.


What Do We Need to Be Saved From?
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Milton Acosta, Seminario Bíblico de Colombia

What do we need to be saved from?


The Term 'Liska' and Its Material Meaning: Reflections of Persian Time Meals and Offerings in 1 Samuel, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, and Ezra
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Klaus-Peter Adam, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

This paper investigates whether and how one can determine a Western influence of meal traditions in selected texts of the Hebrew Bible from the Persian period. It presents two lines of argument. First, it considers the evidence for one selected borrowed word in Hebrew, liska, ‘temple chamber’. Of Greek origin, liska is used in 1 Sam, Jer, Ezek, Neh, and Ezra. The paper seeks to illuminate its meaning in temple architecture as a designation for a chamber adjacent to the temple. Some traditions presuppose that in these cultic rooms wine was drunk, Jer 35:4-5, and meals were hold, 1 Sam 9:22; cf. 1 Sam 1:3-5; other passages suggest the chamber functioned as storage place for cultic vessels Ezra 8:29; 10:38; 10:40. The paper evaluates the relevance of the fact that a borrowed term designates a temple chamber that was used for communal drinking and eating. It considers whether culturally specific food practices were associated with this term. The second line of argument considers meal and offering scenes in selected narratives in 1 Sam 1-2; 9*; 16:1-13; 28:21-25. It asks whether one can ascertain Western influence in these descriptions of meal practices and on which methodological grounds this might be possible.


The Terminology for Enemies in the Psalms: A Lexicographic Conundrum Revisited
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Klaus-Peter Adam, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

The complex lexicography of the enemies of the individual in the Psalms has been presented in a variety of ways. Scholars arranged the rubrics for enemies along three dominant fields of metaphors which, naturally, partly overlap: Images from the area of war, images of hunting and chase, as well as various animal metaphors. Another possibility to portray the various facets of enemy terminology is to distinguish the various lexicographic fields of designations. For instance, terms used in combination with the generic ‘opponent’, Hebrew ’oyeb, on the one hand, can be distinguished from terms that are predominantly combined with the Hebrew term ‘rš’, traditionally rendered ‘the wicked’. Otherwise, one could list the nomenclature of the almost one hundred terms for enemies in alphabetic order or portray the terminology for enemies through the lense of conflict settlement procedure. This paper explores this last possibility and considers the roles of opponents. It takes its starting point with a description of the basics of conflict settlement between individuals and presents a phenomenology of patterns of inimical behavior in the Psalms. It starts out with the names of participants, the procedures of conflict settlements between individuals as its organizing principle. It then presents terms for the specifics of conflict settlement in the Psalms: The intrinsically collective nature of enemies; the terms for social defamation of an enemy; the typical oscillation between the rhetorical and physical character of assaults; the terms for ambushes, ruses and for persecution. This paper makes the point that the complex lexicography of the enemies of the individual in the Psalms may be best grasped when reading the texts in the framework of conflict settlement between individuals. As a consequence, I seek to present major aspects of enmity in the Psalms On the backdrop of a theory of private conflict settlement, that is, ultimately in relation to principles extent in parts of biblical law. For reasons of practicability, I will focus on the first and second David Psalter.


The African Joseph: His Contribution to Ancient Israel and Africa (Gen 41:41–45)
Program Unit: Genesis
David Tuesday Adamo, Kogi State University

Genesis 41:41-45 indicated that Pharaoh gave his ring, his garment of fine linen, a new name, (Zaphenath-parreah), a wife, and a royal authority. He made him ride on a chariot. He also made his people to shout and pay obeisance for him. What could be the reason for this action? What appears to be the main reason is to reward Joseph with African royal citizenship because of what he has done for the land. It is also probably to make Joseph’s authority more acceptable by Africans/ Egyptians. The purpose of this paper is to examine Genesis 41 critically and especially, each of Pharaoh’s actions in the light of African/Egyptian and biblical culture. Egypt as an African country not only geographically but also ethnically will be examined. The implication to ancient Israel and Africa will also be examined.


Where Is Ezra? Ben Sira’s Surprising Omission and the Selective Presentation in the Praise of the Ancestors
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Samuel L. Adams, Union Presbyterian Seminary

Commentators have long puzzled over the fact that Ben Sira extols Nehemiah in the Praise of the Ancestors (Sir 49:13) but does not mention Ezra. The assessment of Ezra as a “scribe skilled in the law of Moses” (Ezra 7:16) would seem to make this earlier figure highly appealing, especially since Ben Sira accentuates the prestige of the scribal vocation (Sir 38:34b-39:11). Moreover, the elevation of Ezra in later apocalyptic texts indicates his abiding importance as a hero of acclaim. This paper will review questionable theories for the omission, including the possible lack of availability of the book of Ezra, the more tolerant understanding of marriage in Sirach, and Ben Sira’s opposition to the prominent role of Levites in Ezra. More plausible theories about priestly factions will receive attention, including the question of Ben Sira’s bias towards Aaronids, and whether the author focuses specifically on “builders” in the latter part of chapter 49. Such inquiries will allow for a broader consideration of Ben Sira’s selective recitation in the Praise of the Ancestors and the intentionality of the larger presentation. Most commentators overstate the significance of the omission, since the litany of figures in this section is eclectic and reflective of popular legends. Our exploration will allow for broader conclusions regarding the goals of Sirach 44-50 and the merit of longstanding theories concerning this section.


Christology and Cognitive Science
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Grant Adamson, Rice University

Much of early Christian belief about Jesus in the second century and thereafter was the product of harmonization. Using historical-critical methods, we can train ourselves to see where the Pauline Jesus was harmonized with the Jesus of Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, etc. But as useful as those methods are, they do not provide sufficient theoretical framework for analyzing the harmonization process in detail and going beyond the inputs (Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, etc.) to the new structure and meaning that emerge when two or more inputs are combined. Blending theory, from the field of cognitive science and the subfield of cognitive linguistics, does. It allows us to recognize the creativity of early Christian thought such as in the harmonization process and the development of christology. I apply blending theory as a supplement to historical-critical methods and demonstrate its utility for christological studies in my analysis of a passage from the Letter of the Apostles dealing with the incarnation. There the Johannine prologue is combined with the Lukan infancy narrative so that the two heavenly descents of the divine Logos (input: John) and the angel Gabriel (input: Luke) occur as a single descent, and so that the virgin Mary conceives aurally while she listens to the word/Word of God that is simultaneously both spoken to her and speaking to her at the annunciation. Though this may be an elaborate instance of novelty, blending theory is no less useful for studying the general development of early Christian belief in the incarnation of a pre-existent Jesus through virgin birth, which is creatively Christian even without angelic transformation of Jesus into Gabriel or aural conception by the virgin Mary.


Jeremiah Dispels Diaspora Demons? Concerning the Possibility That Jer 10:11 Was Interpreted by 4Q71 and LXX as an Aramaic Magical Incantion against Evil Spirits
Program Unit: Qumran
James S. Adcock, University of St. Andrews

Jeremiah’s enigmatic Aramaic verse in 10:11 has continued to perplex generations of critical scholarship. 4Q71 and LXX Jeremiah suggest that 10:11’s original hymnic function has been replaced with a magical or apotropaic focus against demons, as suggested by Bernard Duhm originally. This is confirmed by Qumran demonology manifest in magical incantation texts such as 4Q286-87, 4Q560, 8Q5, 11Q11; apotropaic prayer material like 4Q510-11; 4Q444; 6Q18; and also pseudepigraphic material (1 Enoch, Jubilees). Correspondingly, a proper understanding of 10:11’s original Hymnic function allows one to suggest that the Masoretic poetic structure of the hymn has greater antiquity than that of 4Q71 or LXX 10’s Vorlage. Later Diaspora demonology could account for the changes from MT 10 to LXX 10 and 4Q71. Moreover, 2nd Temple period literature (Apocryphon of Jeremiah C; 1 Baruch; Epistle of Jeremiah) also provide a conducive environment for LXX 10:1-18’s alterations. Thus, early interpretations of Jeremiah demonstrate the logical mechanism of how LXX Jeremiah formed 10:1-16, which gave emphasis to verse 11 in its structural placement of verse 9 within 5, along with the incumbent minuses of 10:6-8 and 10 (4Q71). Jewish reception took essentially the same interpretation of 10:11, as confirmed in the epistolary genre described in Targum Jonathan, Midrash, and Rabbinic commentary. LXX 10:1-18 and 4Q71 both reflect the Epistle of Jeremiah’s explanation for the Aramaic language switch in 10:11 as an epistle addressed to the Jewish Diaspora. Likewise, LXX 10 and 4Q71 reflect a text form that corresponds to a popular emphasis of 10:11 as Jeremiah’s epistolary stricture against idolatry in the exile. Thus, Duhm’s proposal of a magical incantation as well as the context of the Epistle of Jeremiah give viable explanation for the abbreviated or rewritten form of LXX 10 and 4Q71 received by its exilic audience.


The Words of Jeremiah or the Words of God? Attempting to Make Sense of the Divine Name Variation in the Septuagint and Masoretic Texts of Jeremiah
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
James S. Adcock, University of St. Andrews

LXX and MT Jeremiah 1:1 famously differ in their introduction to the book. LXX 1:1’s plus of “the speech of God upon Jeremiah” presents the Vorlage’s special claim to a divine oracle in contrast to MT’s simple phrase of “the words of Jeremiah.” Our analysis of the divine name variation in MT and LXX gives confirmation of P.M. Bogaert’s theory of LXX representing an edition which emphasizes scribal transmission of God’s words rather than necessarily Jeremiah’s words. When Jeremiah’s divine name references are compared in LXX and MT, both texts demonstrate similar variation with the result that it is often difficult to distinguish whether the translator or the LXX Vorlage was responsible for the name differences. Pietersma has described LXX Jeremiah’s translation technique as the most complex in the LXX corpus. Our study of the divine names profoundly demonstrate Pietersma’s claims. It is very likely that some abbreviation of divine titles has taken place at the hand of the translator, since even MT’s longest divine title survives in LXX (e.g. LXX 51:7). But, where one finds the rare LXX plus material of divine titles, such names probably represent the LXX Vorlage’s edition’s special emphasis or theology. We find little Qumran confirmation for divine names in LXX, save only in 4Q70’s Proto-MT text’s confirmation of one LXX title (12:4). Thus, one must rely upon translation technique analysis with lack of much external controls, unless one assumes an unlikely hypothesis of a damaged Vorlage manuscript for moments of free renditions (e.g. LXX 39:8, 19). No Qumran documents support LXX’s shorter divine titles, so that it is difficult to dismiss translation abbreviation as a frequent phenomenon. Thus, LXX Jeremiah’s translation technique proves to be more complicated than simply a strictly literal one, since the lengthy book has sections of different trends.


Growth to a Hymn or Editing to a Sermon against Idols? What Can LXX Jer 10:11 Tell Us about the Two Editions of Jeremiah?
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
James S. Adcock, University of St. Andrews

Does Jeremiah 10’s textual variation represent evidence of MT expansive development from an ancestor common to the LXX edition? The answer is far from settled in our mind! MT 10:1-16’s antithetical hymnic structure gives a more sophisticated organization which proves to be a more original genre text form. LXX 10:1-16’s text, however, displays a coherence focused on a later interpretive understanding of verse 11, which indicates that the Proto-MT structure gave birth to the LXX perspective. The epistolary genre of later 2nd Temple Period texts related to Jeremiah like the Epistle of Jeremiah, 1 Baruch, and the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C demonstrate a cultural milieu which produced LXX 10’s text. 4Q71 and LXX 10 both betray later exilic concerns which narrow their focus on 10:11’s Aramaic verse, in contrast to the antithetically parallel hymn found in 4Q70 and MT. LXX has actually reversed the original intent of 10:11 as a war taunt against Judah’s idolatry to one against paganism. The abbreviation of LXX (4Q71) and its transposition of 10:9 within 10:5 reflect a textual improvement for the sake of a more compressed logical flow of thought towards 10:11’s aniconic emphasis. MT 10:1-16’s hymnic organization proves to be a more original text form in contrast to LXX’s flattened logical structure which restricts its message against idolatry’s gods in verses 5, 9, and 11. LXX 10:1-16 thereby produces a more conducive setting for LXX 10:11’s Diaspora letter, so as to allow 10:11’s aniconic sermon to be received as an exilic message. Moreover, later reception seems to have taken a similar interpretation, as confirmed in Targum Jonathan, Midrash, and Rabbinic commentary. Since Jeremiah becomes a very important Diaspora persona, it is not surprising that Jeremiah’s scriptural material (MT 10:1-16) was rewritten like Mosaic scriptures in the 2nd Temple Period.


“The Distaff of Silence”: A Gender Reading of the Esther and Joseph Narratives in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Rachel Adelman, Hebrew College

This paper engages in a close textual analysis of the dynamic analogies between the Joseph and Esther narratives, drawing on the methods of feminist hermeneutics and rabbinic midrash. While many scholars (Adele Berlin, Sandra Berg, and Michael Fox to name a few) have noted the parallels between these stories of the Hebrew/Jew who rises to prominence in a foreign court – I focus on the gendered aspect of their character development. As beautiful orphans, who “find favor in the eyes” of those who see them, both Esther and Joseph are feminine figures, tailored for their diplomatic roles precisely because they master the art of discretion. Though seemingly passive victims of their placement within the palace precincts, they rise to prominence through the combination of wile and concealed identity. The conventional reading suggests that Esther was planted within the Imperial court as a kind of mole, only later to reveal herself as a Jewess to undermine Haman’s decree of genocide against her people. Yet why does the Queen delay the revelation of her identity until the second feast? Joseph, too, conceals his identity from his brothers, behind the mask of ‘Egyptian’ viceroy within Pharaoh’s court. After a twenty-two-year absence, why does he further delay the reconciliation with his brothers and reunion with his aged father? The unmasking only occurs after the brothers’ second descent down to Egypt. The rabbinic tradition suggests that both Joseph and Esther inherit the trait of discretion, dubbed the “distaff of silence,” from Rachel, the matriarch (Gen. Rab. 71:5). What is the nature of this distinctly feminine metaphor? How does it play itself out in the narratives of deceit or discretion? And why is it linked back, in a kind of genetic essentialism, to the matriarch? Drawing on psychoanalytic/literary approach of Avivah Zornberg and Julia Kristeva, I explore the legacy that the matriarch as a marginalized figure bequeaths her children. Buried on the border, she calls to her children “who are not” to return from exile (cf. Jer 31:14). Over the arc of their stories, both Esther and Joseph are transformed from “object”, seen and acted upon by others, to “subject,” agents of their own narrative, through a stage of being “abject”, one “who is not,” outside of the purview of the eye of the beholder. They rise to prominence, endure and die in exile, and become emblematic of the power of discretion for the Jew in the Diaspora. I argue that the nexus between Hebrew/Jew and masculine/feminine are inversely related in the two narratives. And in the final revelation, for both Esther and Joseph, there is a complete break-down of essentialist gender categories. Esther writes. Joseph weeps. This paper represents a condensed version of the final chapter in my forthcoming book: The Female Ruse: Women’s Deception and the Divine Sanction in the Hebrew Bible (Sheffield Phoenix Press).


Reflexive Self-Awareness in Religious Belief? American Muslim Responses to Cognitive Dissonance
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Zaid Adhami, Duke University

In this paper, I examine the relation between “cognitive conservatism” and reflexive self-awareness in American Muslim religious belief. I ask: When people are reflexively aware of their doubts and cognitive dissonance regarding their religious beliefs, how are they able to sustain their convictions? In addressing such questions, I draw on insights from cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy, which I put in conversation with my own ethnographic reflections, drawing on extended interactions and conversations with a handful of ethnographic interlocutors. These young American Muslims discuss the ways in which they separate out an “analytical” perspective from a “faith” perspective. The latter is nurtured by and nurtures ritual practice and ethical disciplines. Thus their reflexive acknowledgement of the ambiguity of things they believe and the possibility of error is relegated to the peripheries of their consciousness, due to their “absorption” in ritualized practices and behaviors that become central to their religious lives.


The Qur'an in Light of Prosopography
Program Unit: The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism (IQSA)
Ghali Adi, University of Edinburgh

Epigraphic data from the formative period of Islam has been increasing exponentially over the last two decades thanks to the efforts of scholars like Frederic Imbert, Solange Ory, Robert Hoyland and Saudi archaeologists like al-Ghaban, Kilabi and al-Rašhid. It is thanks to these endeavours that a number of significant studies have examined the literary content and context of the Quran in this material genre, yet, as Robert Hoyland adumbrated in 1997: "... There are almost no studies… which consider...who wrote them and why…." (Hoyland 1997) Contrary to the idea that inscriptions contain “only proper names…of obscure persons who have left no trace of their existence…”(van Berchem 1915) this type of data could potentially provide a rich source of prosopographic information that could be of significant value to even the most sceptical of early Islamic historians. As part of my ongoing research into this dimension, I will aim to combine both approaches (literary and prosopographical) to see how such identified individuals, at least in a Hijazi setting, fit into a Quranic literary context. In addition to dating of the Quranic inscriptions, knowing the social and historical backgrounds of such individuals provides valuable information about how the Quran was viewed, how the Quran was cited and how this process evolved during the first two centuries of Islam. The data presented will include a number of edited and highlighted inscriptions that have been previously published and several unpublished inscriptions from sites such as Gabal al-Safinah. Examples provided may include figures of high standing, early narrators of hadiths and even the occasional not so famous son or grandson of a prominent scholar or companion. Analysis of this pool of data will hopefully highlight the rich potential of this undeveloped avenue and may provide insights into the geographical context in which the Quran was formed.


Kaige Readings in a Non-Kaige Section in 1 Samuel
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Anneli Aejmelaeus, University of Helsinki

Ever since the publication of Dominique Barthélemy’s Devanciers d’Aquila (1963), the so-called Kaige revision has had a permanent place in the text-historical discussion of Samuel – Kings. Certain sections of the Greek text of these books (2 Samuel 10 – 1 Kings 2 and 1 Kings 22 – end of 1 Kings), according to an earlier theory of Henry St.J. Thackeray attributed to a different translator, were described by Barthélemy as the produce of an early Jewish revision which corrected the Greek text to correspond more closely to the current Hebrew text, practically the proto-Masoretic text. The same phenomenon was found in the Nahal Hever Minor Prophets scroll and the B-text of Judges, and its characteristic features have been further defined in more recent literature. Within Samuel – Kings this discussion has so far mainly concerned the above-mentioned sections. Nevertheless, textual study of 1 Samuel has revealed that similar readings can sporadically be found also in a non-Kaige section, and in particular, in the B-text (Vaticanus and its satellites), which is the main representative of the phenomenon in the Kaige sections as well as in Judges.


Colonized Apostles: Paul of Tarsus and Pedro Albizu Campos
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Efrain Agosto, New York Theological Seminary

Recent "empire studies" of the the Apostle Paul reflect on him "as apostle to the nations," confronting or conforming to the Roman imperial order, depending on who one reads. Centuries later in another hemisphere, in a territory of the United States "empire," the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico sought to resist encroaching U.S. colonization in the first half of the 20th century under the vigorous leadership of its "apostle of independence," Pedro Albizu Campos. This paper explores these two "colonized apostles" as they confront their Empires both as impassioned missionaries for their communities and as martyred political prisoners.


The Other Rituals at the Epidauran Asklepieion
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Seeking healing at an Asklepieon famously involved incubation and some encounter with the god in a dream, resulting in healing or some instruction for a remedy for whatever ailed the incubant. However, the process of receiving healing from Asklepios involved much more than incubation. The process also involved extensive ritual offerings to other gods, the identities of which vary by location, although there is some overlap. At the height of popularity of the Epidauran Asklepieion in the 4th century BCE, a suppliant would expect to participate and perform a varied set of rituals as part of the incubation process. There was a period of decline in the Epidauran sanctuary between the middle of the 2nd century BCE and the renovation of the sanctuary by Hadrian and then Antoninus in the 2nd century CE. The negative political relationship between Epidauros and Rome could account for much of the decline, but the experiences of healing in the early decades of the sanctuary seem to have ceased in this period, given the lack of dedicatory evidence for healing. The decline of the sanctuary may have been perceived by ancients as Asklepios ceasing to heal at this particular sanctuary. In their desire to restore the Epidauran Asklepieion to prominence, neither Hadrian nor Antoninus focused on exclusive worship of Asklepios. They saw the complex ritual life of the sanctuary as integral to its rejuvenation—Hadrian by modeling it after the Pergamon sanctuary’s inclusion of various gods not seen at Epidauros before, and Antoninus by a restoration of the traditional cultic activity found at the sanctuary in the 4th c. BCE. This paper will flesh out this ritual activity at Epidauros and offer some initial thoughts about how these rituals may have worked together to effect healing for the suppliant. I will argue that this complex web of rituals—termed prothumata (ancillary or preliminary sacrifices)—created distinct and proper relations between the human individual and a defined community of divine figures, including Asklepios. Although incubation received all the headlines, the prothumata, as Hadrian and Antoninus saw, provided the ritual matrix within which the incubatory encounter with Asklepios fit best.


The Relationship between Historical Development of Qur'an and Historical Development of Its Exegesis
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Mohammad Hasan Ahmadi, University of Tehran

The historical philology and hermeneutical interpretation of the Qur'an, should be based on a triangular field: (1) view of the Qur’an’s emergence in Late Antiquity (as an interpreted Bible), (2) the historical development of the Qur'an (the Qur'an emergence from a real historical event); and (3) the historical development of the Quran Exegesis. The third one -which the paper will discuss- is often ignored by scholars in the Qur'anic scholarship today. What I mean by that is: the scholarship preconceptions of the Qur'an in its continuous developing process. Rather than imagine the emergence of the Qur'an isolated from historical development of Exegesis, we have to imagine a sort of twin birth of scripture and its exegesis. The Quran - Unlike other divine books – has emerged as an interpreted text by the prophet (16:44). This track was followed by The Muslim exegetes later on and gradually developed during past centuries. Thus scholars have to deal not only with the text of Qur'an but with its developing exegesis as its late subtexts. Both the rethinking of the Muslim exegetes -as it mirrors the contextual meaning of the text- like investigation into the Text's traditional understanding can complete -together- the philological meaning. If the text itself can disclose the logic behind the historical progression then the exegetical texts can disclose the philological meaning of the Qur'anic text. If there is a close relationship between the Qur'anic text and the community, then there is such a close relationship between text and exegesis from the very beginning centuries. Then the resulting separation of the Qur'an from its historical development of Exegesis is no academic trifle from a philological perspective. More ever one might claim that the modern discipline of philology has developed by classical Muslim exegetes of the Qur'an too.


A Luhmannian Perspective: Communicating Damascus
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
John Ahn, Howard University

Niklas Luhmann’s social theory is ambitious, complex, layered, grand, paradoxical, scientific and radically different. His theory is prolific and widespread in German speaking circles. On the same stage with Habermas (his most fierce critic), Bourdieu, Giddens, and Foucault, his 1,200 page work Die Gesellschaft der Gesellchaft (The Society of Society) parses and surpasses Talcott Parsons, George Spencer-Brown, Thomas Luckmann, Emile Durkheim , Edmund Husserl among others, evolutionarily evolving with “autopoiesis” (Humberto Maturana and Francesco Varela), “meaning,” and “sub-systems.” Risking oversimplification, his approach is a systems theory or a societal system (Gesellschaftsystem) with sub-systems that are independent of each other– educational system, cybernetics system, economic system, legal, political, social, organizational, and religion. In a Systems Theory of Religion, he radically replaces religion’s concern and center on humanity and anthropology with “society” and “communication” (utterance, information, and understanding). Yet, he is interested in the form of religion and argues for “the code” that unlocks the paradoxes. He rejects the social theory that individuals comprise society and order. He rejects the notion that sociologists can truly comprehend the actions, including communicative action, of others. Rather, “Society exists only when individuals communicate.” And only those that are part of that society or group can understand that society/group. “Social systems cannot observe themselves from the outside.” This paper has three parts. (1) First, after introducing Luhmann’s general theory: communication, evolution, and differentiation in three separate dimensions: Sozial (social), Zeit (temporal), and Sachdimensionen (functional), (2) I move to the “speeches” (Laut [sound] and Sinn [meaning]) against Damascus (in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, etc.[OAN]) as communication media and (3) conclude with the form of the society communicated (mass media) in the Damascus Document, endeavoring to provide some insight into how a systems theory approach offers a truly fresh social reading, namely, as Luhmann argues, a modern society is not structurally superior to earlier types.


Why Be an Angel When You Can Be a Goddess? Jewess Magic in Antiquity
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Mika Ahuvia, University of Washington

Scholars tend to assume that late antique ritual practitioners could only have been male. The assumption has been that only men were literate and that therefore, scribal magic could only have been a man’s line of work. This is treated as self-evident despite the fact that there are known and published examples of ancient Jewish Aramaic incantations written in the first person feminine. In this paper, I argue that there is good reason to take the feminine authorship of these incantation texts seriously. Furthermore, I explain how recognizing the feminine perspective of these texts can help us understand the logic and religious vocabulary of the incantations. In this presentation, I will focus on one fascinating Jewish incantation from Babylonia and place it into its ancient Jewish Babylonian context. Previous scholars have focused on its philological background and have provided the foundation for contextualizing this incantation further. This incantation is one of the few incantations written in Talmudic Aramaic and is also written in the first person singular feminine. Although this practitioner appeals to Babylonian goddesses alongside the Jewish God, I argue that it must be understand in the context of the limitations and possibility afforded Jewish women in the late antique religious imagination. When one considers the general patterns of adaptation of ritual techniques in late antiquity, I will argue that the choices made by this female Jewish practitioner come into view.


Two New Handbooks of the Septuagint: Purposes and Future Prospects
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
James Aitken, University of Cambridge

A discussion of two new LXX handbooks.


Symbolic Conversations and Characterizations: A Comparison and Contrast of the Samaritan Woman in John 4:1–42 with the Syrophoenician Woman in Mark 5:25–30
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Adesola Akala, University of Durham

A close examination of the narrative portrayals of the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-42 and the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 5:25-30 reveal symmetric and diametric characterizations that advance the narrative and theological strategies of the gospel writers. The aim of this presentation is to show how the gospels of John and Mark accomplish a similar narrative strategy by using the conversations these two women have with Jesus. Using principles of symbol theory, this paper explores the significance of the symbolic characterizations of the two similar yet dissimilar women. The Samaritan woman, intentionally sought out by Jesus, is initially reserved but eventually engages in a theological conversation laden with symbolism that leads to Christological self-revelation, thus opening the door for the inclusion of the Samaritans in the Messianic mission. On the other hand, the Syrophonecian woman intentionally seeks Jesus out but is initially rejected; she argues with him and overturns his symbolic terminology to receive her request, thus opening the door for Gentile inclusion in the Jewish Messianic blessings. Both women are symbolically positioned in their geographical locations and engage in symbolic conversations that contain similar themes such as water/bread/food, personal rejection/reception, family/relational crisis, and ethnic exclusivity/inclusivity. Although the two narratives vary in length, plot, socio-historical context, and setting, a close reading of both texts reveals a common underlying purpose. As sociocultural outcasts on many levels, the vivid characterizations of these two women create suspense and defy hearer-reader expectations. As symbols of individual and communal inclusion the Samaritan woman and the Syrophonecian woman respectively enhance the narrative plots and theological agendas of the gospels of John and Mark.


The Biblical Concept of Marriage as Practiced in an African, Socio-cultural Context: The Ewe of Southeastern Ghana a Case in Point
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Dorothy BEA Akoto, Interdenominational Theological Center

This paper considers the Biblical concept of marriage and its practice in various socio-cultural contexts as very challenging. In light of this the paper proposes that marriage can be divided into three distinct components of 1. Pre-Marriage, 2. Marriage Proper and 3. Post-Marriage. Each of these stages makes unique contributions to the marriage. The paper employs passage from various parts of the Bible to substantiate its argument and concludes that this paper makes a valuable contribution to Academia by proposing a new understanding to the concept as not limited to Stage 2 but as beginning with stage 1 and ending with stage 3. As a beginning proposal, it acts as an introduction to the topic and invites further contributions from scholarship.


Enslavement and Eunuchs: Matthew 19:12b in Narrative and Historical Context
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Jennifer S. Alexander, Vanderbilt University

As Glancy argues, New Testament scholars have downplayed the issue of slavery in the Roman Empire (2010). They have also been slow to address enslavement in Jesus’ parables (2000). Her insights may be extended to slavery in other New Testament contexts, and in particular Matthew 19, a chapter embedded in Matthew’s larger narrative context of households and discipleship. While Glancy helpfully directs attention to the problematic issue of slavery in the first gospel, and though she does address eunuchs in other contexts (2006), she neglects Matthew’s man-made eunuchs of 19:12b. Glancy is not alone in this regard. Even those scholars who have devoted studies to Matthew’s distinctive verse about eunuchs or have treated Mt 19:12 in commentaries, have done little more than offer a one- or two-line declaration to the effect that “eunuchs who were eunuchized by people” were typically slaves (cf. Kartzow and Moxnes). Some commentaries fail to do even this much (e.g., Talbert, Evans, Senior). The focus of inquiry remains squarely on Matthew’s third group of eunuchs: “those who eunuchized themselves for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens” (19:12c). To date and to the best of my knowledge, no scholar has devoted a study exclusively either to Matthew’s first group of eunuchs (“those who were engendered thus in mother’s womb”) or to the second. For the Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom Section, I propose to focus exclusively on the latter by situating these eunuchs in broader narrative and historical context. A careful comparison of this second group, including conceptions of their status, gender, and kinship connections, will be made with their counterparts in the LXX and other Greco-Roman texts. I focus especially on eunuchs who worked in high-level positions for powerful kings and elite landowners/householders like those Matthew presents. In such positions, eunuchs enhanced the social standing of sovereigns. They often exhibited a high degree of autonomy as they served and protected the interests and bodies of their slavemasters and, in some cases, gained an intimate knowledge—whether they desired it or not—from mundane personal activities (e.g., sleeping, eating, bathing), to desired lovers and marriage partners, to military and political activities. This also sheds light on Matthew's placement of 19:12 in its immediate narrative context which, I will argue, is not coincidental. The Matthean Jesus speaks about eunuchs immediately before he instructs his disciples about children and just after he challenges Pharisees about God’s will concerning marriage, divorce, and remarriage. Here I explore Matthew's connection between non- procreative children and enslaved eunuchs, both of which groups the evangelist associated with the kingdom of the heavens. This paper will demonstrate that Matthew’s eunuchs of 19:12b advance the evangelist’s larger program of disrupting earthly households and a traditional cycle of human reproduction to prioritize and glorify God’s household and God's masculine status as the ultimate pater familias.


Babies and Building Blocks: A Re-constructive Reading of God’s Household in 1 Peter
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Amy Lindeman Allen, Vanderbilt University

This paper re-reads 1 Peter’s haustafel from a childist perspective concerned with children both absent and present. It re-imagines 1 Peter’s haustafel as a model for the Christian family based on growth and interdependence, rather than power and submission. In this model, God is pater familias, mimicking patriarchy in order to bring about a reversal in which elders imitate infants. This is argued in three parts: (1) attending to children and the ideologies that govern their relationships; (2) uniting the metaphors of infants and building blocks; and (3) re-imagining an alternate model of household relationships.


Textual History and/as Reception History: Textual Variation in the Greek Manuscript Tradition of Revelation 4–5
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Garrick Allen, University of St. Andrews

It has long been observed that the textual history of the book of Revelation is anomalous in comparison to other NT works in numerous ways. Instead of a condition to be lamented, this situation offers a unique opportunity to explore the early reception of this work within its own manuscript tradition, a tradition that is particularly amenable to reflection on the relationship between textual history and reception history. This study investigates Revelation’s early reception by examining the ways in which textual variation and paratextual features in its manuscript tradition constitute acts of reception. This discussion requires three steps. First, I outline trends in the studies of the textual culture of the late Second Temple period, a period in which scribal intervention is manifest, and argue that a similar, yet muted phenomenon remained an undercurrent in the development of the Greek tradition of Revelation. Second, I examine this theory using concrete examples of textual variation in Rev 4-5 preserved in witnesses dating before the 7th century CE. These test cases highlight the various factors that motivated and regulated textual change and suggest that many of these changes reflect interpretive or explicative intent, a desire to preserve Revelation’s relevance and increase its clarity. Finally, the study concludes with some reflection on what this data means for the on-going production of the Editio Critica Maior of Revelation.


The Cretan Quote of Titus 1:12: Why Paul Appears to Be Such a Bigot
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Isaiah Luke Allen, Asbury Theological Seminary

Conventional readings of Titus 1:12-13 present real grammatical and contextual problems. Taken at face value, the apostle Paul addresses Titus and quotes Epimenides, a (5th-6th Century BCE) Cretan poet, in a descriptive and highly disfavorable moral assessment of the Cretans that Paul himself shares. This paper exposes some of the literary-contextual, grammatical, and semantic problems with this reading and suggests an interpretation that coheres with the NT portrayal of the canonical Paul and Titus, the grammar of the passage, and the context of the argument in the letter to Titus. Rather than being a bigot, Paul is exposing and attacking bigotry in the church.


Logos and LEGOs: Everything's Not Awesome—The Brick Bible Controversy
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Spencer L. Allen, University of Pennsylvania

In 2001, Brendan Powell Smith posted his retelling of six stories from Genesis using only LEGO bricks on his website (thebricktestament.com) and biblical texts. By 2015, his website included more than 400 biblical stories and over 4500 photographs, boasting that this project is “the world’s largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible.” Smith has also published several critically-acclaimed picture books, including 2011’s A New Spin on the Old Testament, 2012’s A New Spin on the Story of Jesus, and five short children’s books. Smith’s success stems from a mix of the visual playfulness that permeates his work and the revival of the LEGO brand, which now includes clothing, several amusement parks, video games, animated series, and 2014’s wildly popular The LEGO Movie. Despite Smith’ successes, his Brick Bible project has not been without controversy. In many ways, this controversy resembles some of the criticism that surrounded R. Crumb’s 2009’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated: All 50 Chapters. Specifically, too many people expect a Bible picture book to be a children’s book; they do not imagine it as a graphic novel intended for adult audiences. Whereas Crumb’s cover cautions its audience with visual and verbal cues, Smith’s New Spin volumes offer no such warning, and its cover art is as inviting to children as an official LEGO box. Although thebricktestament.com notifies its readers that it is a “sprawling website best suited for those with the maturity to read the entire Bible,” and identifies stories containing (plastic toy) nudity, sexual content, and violence, Smith’s New Spin volumes lack the sexually explicit poses found on the website. However, his self-editing for publication did not prevent his detractors from complaining that his books are too sexually graphic, and Sam’s Club refused to carry the Old Testament volume in 2011 for precisely this reason after receiving complaints from the public. Another reason that Smith’s work has been condemned by various faith communities is his avowed atheism. Because of his nonbelief, Smith has been labeled as an outsider. One Catholic writer argued that his “skewed perspective on matters of faith...makes a pretty good case against faith,” and several evangelicals have written similar responses. Others complain that Smith’s interpretation of scriptural chronology or theology differs from their own, or as one blogger noted, “most stories are (literally) accurate, but missing the heart of Jesus.” In response, Smith dismisses these critics, claiming that he only desires to increase people’s knowledge of the Bible and not to change anyone’s beliefs. This paper examines Smith’s Brick Bible as graphic novels geared for educating adults and evaluates his claim that he has let “the Bible speak for itself.” It also considers the criticisms leveled against his work by evangelical writers, who also argue that their readings or interpretations let “the Bible speak for itself,” and by Catholic writers, who come from a tradition wary of (over) literal interpretation. The paper concludes with a brief overview of Smith’s children’s books and how they stack up against his detractors’ concerns.


Ishtar-of-Arbela’s Mythological, Mystical, and Prophetic Independence from Ishtar-of-Nineveh
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Spencer L. Allen, University of Pennsylvania

In her 2004 study of Assurbanipal’s Hymns to the Ishtars of Nineveh and Arbela, Barbara Porter argues that the seventh-century (B.C.E.) Assyrian king revered two distinct and independent goddesses. Specifically, Assurbanipal identifies them as Lady-of-Nineveh and Lady-of-Arbela, although they are usually called Ishtar-of-Nineveh and Ishtar-of-Arbela in Neo-Assyrian documents. In addition to using feminine-plural verbs, adjectives and possessive pronouns, Assurbanipal identifies the Ninevite goddess as “the mother who bore him” (SAA 3 3 r. 14), whereas the Arbelite goddess is “my creator” (r. 16) to distinguish them. Despites the king’s claims and Porter’s analysis, students of Assyrian theology often regard these two ladies as mere localized manifestations of one singular Ishtar entity rather than independent divine entities. However, as demonstrated in Allen’s 2015 monograph The Splintered Divine, Assurbanipal was not the only Neo-Assyrian who recognized that the Ninevite goddess was separate and distinct from her Arbelite counterpart. An abundance of Sargonid period royal inscriptions, international treaties, administrative documents, personal correspondences, and ritual texts reflect a theology similar to the king’s, indicating that a significant portion (if not a majority) of the population recognized or revered multiple independent Ishtar goddesses. Just as international and succession treaties distinguish these two goddesses, so do mystical and mythological texts that were never intended for distribution or a popular audience. For example, the so-called Mystical Miscellanea (SAA 3 39), an esoteric text that only initiated readers were permitted to read (r. 26), identifies the Arbelite goddess as Marduk’s mother (l. 22) and the Ninevite goddess as his wet nurse (l. 19), a notable reversal of the roles played in the kings’ lives. Not only are they differentiated here, but the mythology underlying Mystical Miscellanea’s explicit syncretisms and Enuma elish’s implicit syncretisms in ll. 19-23 necessitate these goddesses’ differentiation for polemical reasons: Nineveh and Assyria must be superior to Babylon and Babylonia. Other esoteric texts, with mythological overtones building upon Enuma elish while simultaneously distinguishing the Ninevite and Arbelite goddesses, are the Assyrian and Ninevite versions of the Marduk Ordeal (SAA 3 34 and 35, respectively). Indeed, these two inscriptions also differentiate other localized Ishtar goddesses, including the goddess known as Lady-of-Babylon and yet another separate Ishtar goddess who lacks a localized epithet. Finally, a series of prophetic texts demonstrate that Assurbanipal was not the first to imagine Lady-of-Nineveh as the royal matron and Lady-of-Arbela as the royal wet nurse (e.g., SAA 9 1.6); prophets had already made this distinction during his father Esarhaddon’s reign. Because these esoteric compositions treated Ishtar-of-Arbela as a distinct and separate goddess from Ishtar-of-Nineveh (and from other Ishtar goddesses), we can conclude that the authors of such creative and speculative texts shared the same theology and mythology as the king, his courtiers, and the lay Neo-Assyrian population. Moreover, this is a theology and mythology that students of Assyriology tend to downplay or deny.


“Thus I Purified Them from Everything Foreign”: Purity Traditions and Postcolonial Perspectives in Ezra-Nehemiah
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Andrea E. Allgood, Brown University

The treatment of persons classed as foreign and the issue of intermarriage in Ezra-Nehemiah has received much attention recently, especially because these themes are seen to be integral to how the authors of these texts navigated the construction of a postexilic Israelite community. This paper builds on the work of scholars such as Saul Olyan by focusing on the types of purity ideologies utilized in Ezra-Nehemiah, especially those relating to intermarriage and alien persons. The paper argues that the ways in which purity rhetoric is applied in these texts can be better understood if one takes into account the postcolonial perspective of the authors of these texts. After briefly exploring the difficulties involved in a postcolonial examination of the purity discourse in Ezra-Nehemiah, this study suggests that the ways in which the authors of these texts utilized purity traditions allowed them to couch the issue of “Self” and “Other” in specifically Israelite terms, even though the situation is negotiated in a colonized environment, possibly even through the lens of imperial authorization. In this way, Ezra-Nehemiah’s strategic implementation of purity traditions reflects the situation of colonialism, which, as David Chidester summarized, “represents a complex intercultural encounter between alien intruders and indigenous people.” Because the protagonists of Ezra-Nehemiah are the quintessential arbiters of what is “insider” while they themselves arrive from a foreign land, authorized to do the work of “indigenous” social formation as the agents of the colonizer’s imperial apparatus, the nature of how insider/outsider and native/foreign play out in these books is unusual and complex. This speaks to the kind of negotiated power dynamics and cultural give-and-take observed by Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak to erode the dichotomies of Self/Other and imperialism/resistance in order to form a third space where “culture” actually happens. The purity ideologies employed in Ezra-Nehemiah speak to a larger intra-Israelite discourse on the ramifications of a colonial existence, articulated in this case through a specifically Israelite lens (priestly purity traditions), and negotiated with an awareness that “Us” and “Them” were fluid categories in a postcolonial situation.


The Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew and Tannaitic Tradition
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Tobias Ålöw, Göteborgs Universitet

At the center of the Gospel of Matthew one finds “the Kingdom of Heaven”. This expression is unique to Matthew, not only relation to the rest of the New Testament, but also to all preceding literature. It is not found in the Hebrew Bible, not in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and not in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Neither is it found in the later texts by Josephus and Philo; and it appears only occasionally in early Christian literature. However, it occurs on numerous occasions in the rabbinic literature, but this material has only been dealt with – primarily by Dalman, Billerbeck, Moore and Kuhn - in a partial and methodologically insufficient manner. Though there is a chronological problem attached to the use of rabbinic literature in relation to the New Testament, the rabbinic sources provide, for all intents and purposes, our only comparative material to Jesus’ talk about the Kingdom, and some evidence – especially when it comes from the general cultural continuum of Mediterranean antiquity – is better than no evidence at all. Accordingly, this paper explores the uses of the corresponding Hebrew expression "malchut shamayim" in Tannaitic tradition, and their relevance for the interpretation of the Matthean phrase "he basileia twm ouranwn".


Hagar and Ishmael: The Importance and the Meaning of Their Stories
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Yairah Amit, Tel Aviv University

More than on source criticism, this paper will focus on the important place that the stories about Hagar and Ishmael – coming after the Covenant between the Parts and before the Binding of Isaac – have in the final editing of the book of Genesis. Moreover, there are aspects of quantity and quality. The quantitative aspect shows that two whole stories are dedicated to Hagar and Ishmael, who are not mentioned in grammatical singular anywhere in the Bible, differently for example from figures like Ammon or Moab. The qualitative aspect shows that the Hagar and Ishmael stories are a continued effort to present them positively. Therefore this paper will trace the varied poetic means used to shape these characters in a positive way. Finally, the most interesting question is why or what was the author-editor's purpose, and this paper will try to suggest the answer.


Multiple Narratives of God, King, and People in 2 Samuel 7: On More and Less "Deuteronomistic" Versions of the History of Israel
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Sonja Ammann, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin

2 Sam 7 contains terminology and ideas generally considered "Deuteronomistic", that is to say, 2 Sam 7 shares this terminology and ideas with texts within Deut-Kgs which are part of a larger historiographic project or redaction. At the same time, 2 Sam 7 contains elements which are otherwise unattested within Deut-Kgs and show closer ties to the Latter Prophets, priestly and sapiential traditions. Some of these elements—such as the priestly material—clearly post-date the emergence of a historiographical project shaped by "Deuteronomistic" ideas. Therefore, 2 Sam 7 provides a good example to investigate later developments evolving from a "Deuteronomistic" narrative of Israel's history. Various conceptions of history are expressed in this text, each with its particular scope and structure, and its particular configuration of the roles of God, the rulers and the people. In this paper, I examine how the historical schemes within 2 Sam 7 relate to their immediate literary context on the one hand, and to the larger framework of biblical narratives of the history of Israel on the other hand. This investigation sheds light on the literary history of 2 Sam 7 and contributes to the exploration of "Deuteronomism" as an evolving historiographical discourse.


"Let Us Celebrate the Festival": Paul’s Placement of Jewish Ritual Language in 1 Corinthians 5:1–8
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Chang Seon An, Boston University

'Let Us Celebrate the Festival’: Paul’s Placement of Jewish Ritual Language in 1 Corinthians 5:1-8


Jericho on the Road to Regime Change in Jesus’ Encounter with Bartimaeus
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Craig E. Anderson, Azusa Pacific University

Commentators have noticed the remarkable nature of Jesus’ abrupt entry and immediate departure from Jericho in Mark 10:46. Its significance rests both in its function as a structural pivot within the book and within its ostensibly arbitrary nature in the narrative – i.e. Jesus seems to enter Jericho simply for the sake of entering Jericho. Understandably, interpreters responding to this notice typically read this pivotal verse as a reference to the Israelite conquest of Jericho featured in Joshua 6. Although, it is admittedly reasonable to acknowledge that Mark 10:46 makes an intertextual reference to Joshua 6, the Elijah-Elisha narrative in the Book of Kings offers a better reference point for Mark 10:46 than the Book of Joshua does. There are numerous points by which Mark 10:46-52 shows dependency upon 2 Kings 2-10. First, as we have already seen, the reference to Jericho in Mark 10:46 accords with 2 Kgs 2:4-18. Second, although blindness has no role in Joshua, the curing of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52 corresponds with Elisha blinding and opening the eyes of the Arameans in 2 Kgs 6. Third, the double reference to “son of David” reflects the Book of Kings, not Joshua – although Joshua pre-figures Josiah, he does not bear direct connections to David himself; however, through the presentations of the kingships of Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah, the Book of Kings focuses upon “sons of David” as the nation’s saviors. Fourth, Bartimaeus’ response of throwing off his cloak in Mark 10:50 anticipates other people spreading their cloaks before Jesus in Mark 11:8 within Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This has no parallel in the Book of Joshua; rather it serves as a notable allusion to the people spreading their cloaks before Jehu’s triumphal entry in 2 Kings 9:13. As such, these data indicate that, although Mark’s allusions may be peripherally tied to the Book of Joshua, they bear much more substantive links to the Book of Kings. This is hermeneutically relevant as these allusions emphasize the fact that the Markan narrative focuses not so much on territorial conquest, but rather on regime change.


Are Idols Real? Demons, Christians, and Rabbis
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Sonja Anderson, Yale University

In 1 Corinthians, Paul deploys the kind of biblical rhetoric that simultaneously affirms and denies the reality of “idols”: they are both nothing in the world (8:4) and yet are conduits to demons (10:20). When we look slightly later, however, the apparent “metaphysical contradiction,” recently analyzed by Emma Wasserman, seems to disappear. Virtually all ancient Christian apologists claim that demons dwell in or around pagan statuary, and that demons are the reason Christians should shun such imagery. By contrast, rabbinic literature, most notably tractate Avodah Zarah, lacks any association of idols with demons. This is striking given the otherwise conventional demonology of rabbinic texts: demons look frightening, they make people sick, and the world is filled with them. It is also striking given the association of idolatry with demons in Jewish apocalyptic literature such as Jubilees. How should the difference between rabbinic and Christian (and other Jewish) texts on this issue be understood? My paper will suggest that demons filled an apologetic need felt by gentile Christian communities and that the rabbinic silence on demons and idolatry was a component of the so-called parting of the ways.


Apocalyptic Jesus = a Violent Messiah? Revisiting Q’s Apocalyptic Idiom
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Olegs Andrejevs, Carthage College

Owing to its pre-gospel roots, the synoptic sayings gospel Q is understandably viewed as one of the likeliest sources for the words of the historical Jesus. In the decades following the publication of John S. Kloppenborg’s influential “Formation of Q” it became possible to employ Q’s evidence to construe the historical Jesus as a sage. This construct is based on the allegedly sapiential orientation of the document’s earliest layer (Q1). Unfortunately, the scholarship that has focused on the pursuit of the “sapiential Jesus” has frequently approached its quest as a zero sum situation where any hint of the apocalyptic was viewed as an interference with that goal. No doubt, this overly categorical approach has had much to do with the desire to see the historical Jesus as exclusively a peaceful teacher of wisdom. One of the practical consequences of this was that Q’s apocalyptic sayings became unnecessarily viewed as a blemish on Jesus’ otherwise stellar resume of a nonviolent messiah. Those sayings were then suppressed accordingly, either by being isolated to the document’s redactional layer (Q2) where they were read as a Church construct or through creative interpretation that labeled apocalyptic material sapiential. The few objections that have been raised against this practice in recent decades, including notably the observations made by Dale C. Allison, Jr., have been largely ignored or brushed off. Q1 became the New Quest’s black box and the retrieved image of a sapiential messiah had to be defended at all cost. But does Q’s apocalyptic idiom, such as it is, equal violence? Aside from the issue of accuracy in the quest for the historical Jesus, this is obviously a pressing question in today’s world when apocalyptic idiom is in fact frequently understood by various religious groups to constitute a call to violence. In this paper I attempt to reinforce the view of the early Judeo-Christian apocalyptic discourse as (a) eminently non-violent politically and (b) oriented toward eschatological justice rather than divine violence. Among other factors, I show that the resemblance of Q’s apocalyptic thought to that of the Enochic book of Parables is not complete and that Q’s Son of Man is not a carbon copy of the Enochic one. Here, I engage the figure of Q’s John the Baptist for a number of tradition-historical considerations. Finally, several important adjustments are made to Kloppenborg’s Q1 compositional layer. Based on those adjustments, I list form- and literary-critical arguments suggesting that in Q’s earliest layer the document’s author(s) presented Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet whose message was devoid of the incendiary element frequently associated with that genre.


How to Survive an Execution: The Trauma of Crucifixion, Incarceration, and Contemporary State-Sanctioned Killing
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
William A. Andrews Jr., Chicago Theological Seminary

Reading the Bible through the lens of trauma studies highlights the presence of both victims and perpetrators in biblical texts. This awareness is heightened when one reads the texts with a group of which many members are at once traumatized and traumatizers. One such gathering is the religious studies class I teach inside a maximum-security prison. The trauma of the crucifixion and its ongoing effects on the earliest Christians resemble the circumstances endured by the incarcerated and the condemned inside US prisons, as well as the loved ones they leave behind. This paper applies trauma theory to a comparative reading of the Gospel accounts of the trial, torture, execution, and death of Jesus with particular attention to ways these texts are appropriated by contemporary prisoners living through similar experiences. This approach provides insight into the horror of crucifixion and the US justice system while also suggesting indications of Post-Traumatic Growth in the early Christian communities behind the texts and in contemporary communities affected by incarceration.


Probing the Jewish Setting of Matt 11:25–30
Program Unit: Qumran
Joseph Angel, Yeshiva University

While some scholars view Matthew 11:25-30 as espousing a “Wisdom Christology,” others note that the description of Jesus as “gentle and humble in heart” is more evocative of the image of Isaiah’s servant (e.g., Graham Stanton). In this case, however, one need not choose one option over the other. Rather, the passage exhibits a convergence of wisdom and servant traditions, similar to that associated with the Son of Man in the Parables of Enoch. This paper argues that the convergence of eschatological revelation of divine wisdom with the image of the servant in Matthew is illuminated by Qumran traditions associating the apocalyptic revelation of divine wisdom specifically with an eschatological priestly figure who encounters hostility from rival teachers, rejection by the people, and is cast in the image of Isaiah’s servant (4Q541 9; 1QH 12; Self-Glorification Hymn). This is especially apparent in the light of comparison with 1QH 12, which is characterized not only by the Hodayot form and the application of the servant imagery, but also the motifs of thanksgiving for the gift of revelation, mediation of revelation to an elect remnant over against the majority of faithless Israel, contrast of the harmful nature of Pharisaic teaching over against the salvific nature of the Teacher’s divine instruction, hostility and rejection from the people at large, and announcement of destruction for non-believers. While direct literary dependence cannot be demonstrated, the constellation of similar form and motifs suggests that traditions about an eschatological priestly teacher of the kind expressed in the Qumran texts indeed lie beneath the portrait of Jesus in Matthew. It is argued that Matthew’s utilization of this tradition probably does not stem from an intention to portray Jesus as a priest, but rather to enhance the portrait of the ideal Messiah and Son of God.


Ruins, Zion, and the Animal Imagery in the Septuagint of Isaiah 34
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Anna Angelini, Lausanne University

For a long time, the “free” character of the translation of the Septuagint of Isaiah has been considered to represent a reinterpretation, in the sense of an actualization of older prophecies as historically fulfilled in the time of the translator. Since Seeligman’s work (1948), scholars have underlined the fact that a “contemporizing” interpretation of oracles offers an explanation for the divergences between the Greek and the Hebrew, as well as a better understanding of the Greek itself (Hanhart 1983; Koenig 1982; Van der Kooij 1998). Troxel (2008) has recently criticized this “contemporizing” (Erfüllungsinterpretation) theory. He explains divergences between the translation and the source-text by linguistic and contextual reasons, and claims that they are motivated by the translator’s interest in offering an understanding of Isaiah’s text to his Greek readers. In my paper, I will explore the Septuagint version of Isaiah 34 as a test case, through a systematic comparison between the Greek and the Hebrew text. This chapter deals with Edom’s destruction and the description of a landscape of ruins, peopled by strange animals with demonic features, among whom the mention of Lilith constitutes the strongest mark. Important changes occur in the translation from Hebrew to Greek, increasing in the second part of the oracle (vv. 11-17): they considerably transform the animal scenario, the nature and the function of the described landscape. I will explore these differences in the broader context of the chapter. Against this background, I will argue that some of the divergences between LXX and MT can be explained by the fact that in the LXX, unlike in the MT, part of the oracle of Isaiah 34 is addressed against Zion, and not against Edom (v. 8). Such a modification implies a shift in the final meaning of the text, making it an unique case among other oracles about ruins in the Hebrew Bible (cf. especially Isaiah 13), and creating a link to the beginning of chapter 35, which is focused on Zion’s restoration (see Van der Kooij 2011). I will conclude by evaluating to what extent and in which measure we are dealing here with an exegesis that can be defined as “actualizing”, or if the divergences are due to the “alexandrian” features and method of the translator, as highlighted by Troxel.


Augments in Biblical Hebrew: A Neglected Area of Study
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Matthew Anstey, Charles Sturt University

This paper provides a morphophonological study of augments(that is, the material between noun/verb and pronominal suffix)in Biblical Hebrew, according to the Tiberian tradition, from a synchronic perspective. The study of augments has been largely neglected, resulting in shortcomings in the description and analysis of their phenomena in introductory and advanced grammars. The predominant presentation of augments as belonging to the pronominal suffix will be shown to be erroneous; rather, it will be argued that they belong to the lexical base. The implications of the research for both the study of Biblical Hebrew morphology and the teaching of Biblical Hebrew will be explored.


"Write Them on the Tablet": Using Pen Tablets for Online Hebrew Teaching
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Matthew Anstey, Charles Sturt University

This presentation will demonstrate the use of a digital pen and tablet to write Hebrew script for online learning. Three uses will be demonstrated: (1) permanent online lectures recorded with Adobe Captivate; (2) live online lectures with online students connecting with Adobe Connect; and (3) personalised video responses to specific student questions. Guidelines will be provided to show how this technology can be best utilised, and made compatible for both desktop and mobile access. This technology revolutionizes online learning as it allows the presenter to "write" Hebrew for students as if using a whiteboard. An example of (3) can be seen at https://vimeo.com/120536790


Integration Strategies of Pentecostal Churches in the African Diaspora
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Bernard Appiah, University of Birmingham

*


And on the Seventh Day, He Sat Down: The Qur'an, the Sabbath, and the Throne of God
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
George Archer, Georgetown University

In many passages, the Qur?an tells us that after making the cosmos in six days, God took to His throne. This act of divine sitting is a powerful reformulation of the well-known narrative of Genesis 2:2-3: “On the seventh day He rested from all His work […] and made it holy.” While the Qur?an often cites the creation in six days, it never includes the biblical lore’s account of the seventh. This paper will argue that the Qur?anic rejection of the day of rest is a consequence of the Qur?anic affirmation of soul-sleep. Like many Syriac Christian sources, the Qur?an posits the dead in a sleep-state as they await the final Resurrection. However, unlike those sources, the Qur?an uses soul-sleep as a way of rejecting the cults of the dead: saints and the divine Christ most especially. If the dead are sleeping, they cannot hear prayers or intercede with the living — they are out cold. The opposite trend to this claim about the dead is that God never sleeps or dies. God is always active, alive, aware, and powerful. However, how can this be reconciled with that claim that God’s work as the Creator required a day of rest (yawm al-sabt)? Simply put, the Qur?an fixes the tension by putting God into the most powerful kind of rest possible: sitting in state on a throne. God’s rest in the Qur?an inverts the connotations of the biblical lore, while keeping the traditional cosmogony in place. Unlike the Jewish sabbath which suggests that God grows tired, or the Christian sabbath that suggests that God passes into the sleep of death, the rest of God in the Qur?an proves that He never grows weary, and unlike false objects of worship, He never succumbs to death.


Reexamining the ‘Fathers’ in Deuteronomy’s Framework
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Bill T. Arnold, Asbury Theological Seminary

Deuteronomy’s framework contains seven occurrences of the patriarchal name-formula (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), five of which are used appositionally to modify “fathers.” The influential theory of John Van Seters and Thomas Römer takes these as late insertions in the text made necessary during the post-exilic period when the ancestral traditions of Genesis were first bound to the Moses-exodus narrative. Israel’s “fathers” in Deuteronomy, therefore, did not originally denote the patriarchs of Genesis but the exodus generation. Recent critiques of the theory have been narrowly oriented diachronically (Biberger) or synchronically (Hwang). This reexamination of the name-formula identifies Deut 1:8 as a crux interpretum for the insertion theory, as others have suggested, and explores further its role in Deuteronomy 1-3. The paper reviews the issues, reconsiders the pertinent data, and proposes a specific hypothesis that eschews a “redaction-versus-rhetoric” dichotomy. The result is a new perspective on the use of the patriarchal name-formula in Deuteronomy.


Initiation, Vision, and Spiritual Power: The Hellenistic Dimensions of the Problem at Colossae
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Clinton E. Arnold, Talbot School of Theology (Biola University)

For most of the history of interpretation of the Colossian “philosophy,” scholars have suggested that the author of the NT letter to the Colossians was polemicizing against some form of syncretistic teaching. This was often thought to be Gnosticism or a proto-Gnostic teaching with substantially Hellenistic contours. In the past forty years, however, the pendulum swung in the direction of Judaism as the source of the rival teaching. The change was stimulated by the 1973 work of Fred Francis who argued that “worship of angels” (Col 2:18) did not mean that angels were objects of worship, but that the leaders of the factional teaching at Colossae were advocating a Jewish-oriented visionary experience of worshipping with the angels around the heavenly throne. He, and many who were to follow him, began arguing that the other aspects of the teaching that were once thought to reflect Hellenistic (or local) religious features could be explained purely on the basis of Jewish texts. This trend in the interpretation of the problem at Colossae has been particularly popular in American and British scholarship. In this paper, I will argue that there is one aspect of the rival teaching that remains an insurmountable obstacle for the view that the Colossian “philosophy” is an entirely Jewish issue. That is the presence of the rare term embateuo in Col 2:18 where it occurs in a context expressive of visionary experience. The direct relevance of the repeated appearance of this term in a handful of inscriptions at an Apollo sanctuary cannot be easily dismissed. The term is used there in a technical sense for the higher stage of mystery initiation ritual (for “entering” the oracle grotto) for people who came to consult the oracle. The fact that there is also inscription evidence of delegations from the Lycus Valley coming to consult this famous oracle further underlines the relevance of the embateuo inscriptions. This crux text along with other aspects of the rival teaching are best seen as reflecting Hellenistic religious influence. Nevertheless, one cannot dismiss some of the Jewish aspects of the problem at Colossae. It is my contention that these variegated elements represent a syncretism that best coheres around an interest in spiritual power of a shamanistic kind.


Humanity's Native Son: A Postcolonial Reading of Luke 8:26–39
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Elizabeth Arnold, Emory University

In looking at biblical literature through a post-colonial lens, Leo Perdue explains in his book Reconstructing Old Testament Theology, colonial oppression of an indigenous population by a colonizing external power is identified by military and/or economic control. The single greatest tool of colonization is language, both impeding the people’s voice and native tongue and imposing the imperial language on the people. Finally, evidence of a people being colonized is a dehumanization of the native people. The presence of all three—military/economic control, silencing of the mother language, and dehumanizing conditions—composes the image of a native culture that has been hijacked in order to serve the colonial masters. A post-colonial reading therefore investigates how each of these is exposed with an effort made to retell or reclaim the story of the people, their language, and their human dignity. In my paper, I argue that Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’ Temptation by Satan (Luke 4:5-7) presents Satan as the figurehead for imperial oppression on the culture of all humanity, not merely the Jewish culture that was dominated by the Greco-Roman forces. I will then exegete the story of the Gerasenes’ Demoniac in Luke 8: 26-39 as the model of the post-colonial story. First, I connect the man’s poverty and possession by demons named after an army battalion to Perdue’s definition of colonial occupation. Second, I link the man’s inability to speak for himself and the demonic ventriloquism to the imperialistic repression of language. Third, I will discuss the inhumane living conditions of the man as the proof of dehumanization. Each one of these situations is reversed by Jesus in this pericope with ample textual and linguistic evidence. In addition, the people who witness this miraculous transformation and fearfully oust Jesus can be described as “native collaborators” with the colonial masters (demons). In short, this particular narrative provides the prime demonstration of Edward Said’s description of the effects of colonization: “The object of this consolidated vision is always either a victim or highly constrained character, permanently threatened with severe punishment, and…excluded ontologically.” Finally, just as Jesus’ ministry begins with Satan’s imperialistic statement of ownership, it ends with a connection to the intended human culture: Eden. On the cross, Jesus states that he will be in pa?ade?s? (Luke 23:43). This same word pa??de?s?? is used in the Septuagint’s account describing the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:8). Luke 4:5-7 and 23:43 provide the contextual bookends for the story of the demoniac’s exorcism. Jesus begins with an understanding of the colonial occupation and moves toward a renaissance of the native culture.


Everyday Life in a Roman Town like Colossae: The Papyrological Evidence
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Peter Arzt-Grabner, Universität Salzburg

Although the great majority of papyri and ostraca have been excavated in Egypt, finds from Palestine, Libya, Jordan, Syria, Bactria, Crete, Italy, Dacia, Britannia and even Switzerland show that the material from Egypt allows for reconstructing the general private, business and administrational life throughout the Roman Empire, left aside that local and regional differences can be found everywhere. Thus, what we, generally, find about marriage and family, slavery, taxes, business relationships etc. in papyri and ostraca from Egypt, can be transferred to the average city life in Asia Minor. This paper aims at drawing a picture about what everyday life might have looked like in the Lycus Valley, namely in Colossae, and at taking the household and house church of Philemon, as described by Paul in his letter, as the entity that is to be compared with, no matter if this household has to be located in Colossae or elsewhere.


Is Ghulat Religion Islamic Gnosticism? (1) The Shi'ite “Extremists” of Early Islamic Iraq
Program Unit: The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
Mushegh Asatryan, University of Calgary

The contribution is the first part of a collective project, which studies whether (or to what degree) the religion of an 8th-9th century Islamic group called “extremist Shi'ites” (“Ghulat” in Arabic) were influenced by (or borrowed from) the Syro-Mesopotamian Gnostic traditions. Throughout the 20th-21st century, scholars of early Islam have routinely referred to the religion of this group as “Gnostic,” implying a direct connection between their doctrines and those of the Syro-Mesopotamian Gnostic traditions. This approach has suffered from two shortcomings. First, the teachings of the Ghulat were poorly known due to the scant information about them: they have chiefly reached us from heresiographic accounts — necessarily biased and skewed —, and from just two known original writings by the “extremist” Shi'is. Second, the sources on the Ghulat were in works on Islamic history not sufficiently examined. Our contribution thus aims at rectifying both shortcomings. Due to a recent publication of a large number of original Ghulat writings and the discovery of two manuscripts, we now have forty one titles of Ghulat treatises, surviving in their entirety or in partial quotations of later authors. I will begin my paper by arguing for the existence of a unified “Ghulat Corpus” by showing that the presently known Ghulat writings were produced, circulated, and read in the same religious and social milieu, and contained a limited, continuously recycled, inventory of cosmological themes. I will then delineate the major theological and cosmological teachings of the Ghulat Corpus, including, among others, the notion of the “great chain of being” leading the virtuous upwards to the divine realm and the sinners downwards into the world of metamorphosis; the notion of God’s incarnation in human flesh; and the teaching about “shadows and phantoms,” luminous spiritual beings created before the universe. By presenting the main contours of the Ghulat religion, this paper serve as a foundation for the second paper of the project, where Dylan Burns studies whether and to what degree early Shi'i “extremists” were in fact Gnostic.


Drama in the Classroom
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Rose Aslan, California Lutheran University

This method can be used to encourage students to practice close reading and to understand text by acting it out. I have used it in my Islam courses, but it can be used for any course accompanied by a text that tells the story of a specific event. The professor assigns five short chapters/episodes that each narrate a short part of a longer historical narrative. This activity allows students to engage more deeply with and develop empathy for historical figures from their readings. Students get to know one another better through improvised drama, gain a better understanding of the reading, and connect with a topic which would normally be alien and strange for them. Students use their creativity and imagination to teach their classmates about the contents of the narrative.


Where Has All the Romance Gone? Blending Theory and the Divine Conjugal Metaphor
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Gillian Asquith, Melbourne School of Theology

A certain genre of popular Christian literature presents salvation history as a divine romance and exhorts the individual believer to pursue an intimate relationship with God in marital terms, appealing to the divine conjugal metaphor of God as husband for its biblical warrant. This perspective is bolstered by the suggestions of some scholars that the divine conjugal metaphor demonstrates an essential marital nature to the relationship between God and Israel. This paper will apply Blending Theory of Metaphor to the prophets’ use of conjugal imagery and show that both of these views are based on an inadequate understanding of metaphor. The mapping of implicit elements from the central input spaces of the metaphor into the blend results in an emergent structure that provides the conceptual framework for understanding conjugal imagery. In this case, the socio-theological significance of marriage and the prohibition of Deut 24:1-4 combine to render the conjugal metaphor a powerful expression not only of Israel’s apostasy but of God’s unprecedented forgiveness. Exegetical comments on Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel will show that language describing God as husband always appears in the context of God as cuckold; imagery of Israel and God enjoying a current, functional, marital relationship is absent. The metaphor does not develop the marital characteristics of God’s relationship with Israel, but rather uses the covenantal basis of marriage to focus on Israel’s idolatry and God’s response to it.


Jonah's Prayer (2:3–10): An Integral Part of the Book of Jonah
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Elie Assis, Bar-Ilan University

Most scholars of the Book of Jonah believe that the poem in 2:3-10 is a late interpolation to the book and is not an integral part of it. This opinion is based on various points, the main and strongest being that the poem is a prayer of thanksgiving and not a lament. A prayer of lament is what is expected when Jonah is trapped in the belly of the large fish. Even scholars who interpret the book synchronically often agree that the psalm is a latter addition. Yet, according to this consensus, it is unclear why the editor did not select a poem better suited to the context of the narrative. The question of the origins of the poem will be investigated in the context of the book as a whole. An analysis of the aim of the Book will shed new light on the form of the poem and its place in the composition as a whole. In this paper, I will claim that poem is an integral part the Jonah story, and that there is no reason to attribute it to a separate author, and that only such an approach adequately explains the unique features of the poem. An analysis of the rhetoric of the poem will reinforce this conclusion.


A Digital Corpus of Literary Papyri
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Rodney Ast, University of Heidelberg

This presentation introduces the Digital Corpus of Literary Papyri, a new initiative funded by a DFG-NEH Bilateral Digital Humanities Program grant that aims to create the infrastructure for an online corpus of literary and subliterary papyri on the model of the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri (www.papyri.info).


Biblical “Land” Texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Wilderness Experience as Lived at Qumran
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Kenneth Atkinson, University of Northern Iowa

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain many interpretations of biblical “Land” texts that use Moses’ wilderness experience and the promise of land to emphasize strict separation from the temple priests. Moses is invoked as an authority in these documents to urge Jews to remain faithful to God’s commandments (CD 5:21-6:1; 1QS 1:3). They particularly highlight Moses’ denunciations of transgressions committed by the priests and the people (i.e., 4Q390 2 I, 2-3; 2Q21 I, 1-2; 4Q504 1-2 II, 7-11a). What is unique is that the Dead Sea Scrolls use these biblical texts from the Exodus sojourn to portray their current situation as a modern-day wilderness experience to urge pious Jews to move to the desert. Like Moses and the Israelites of the Exodus period, the Qumran community too lived in camps (1QM 3:13-4:17) where they sought to fulfill the Torah (4QMMT C 6-32). But what is unique for the Qumran community is that their literal interpretation of the biblical land texts required them not only to isolate themselves from the temple priests to maintain ritual purity, but to construct an actual altar at Qumran to fulfill Moses’ commands regarding the proper treatment of the land. The first portion will explore the biblical “Land” texts from Qumran to highlight how they emphasize the wilderness tradition. It will show how the Qumran community envisioned themselves living in the wilderness on the verge of entering the Promised Land. As such, they were not obligated to observe those laws that were to be implemented upon entering the Promised Land, especially those connected with the temple sacrifices. Part two briefly highlights the archaeological evidence put forth by Jean-Baptiste Humbert and Jodi Magness that the enclosure to the north in the Qumran settlement (loci 130-135), which contained numerous animal bone deposits and ash, was a sacrificial courtyard in the late first century B.C.E. However, this section will propose that the interpretation of the biblical land texts reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls suggest that the Qumran sectarians did not use this altar for sacrificial offerings since they believed that the Israelites had made none when they lived the wilderness (Jer 7:22; Amos 5:25). Rather, the Qumran sectarians revived the biblical laws pertaining to “desired meat,” whose blood must be returned to the land (=ground). This theory perhaps best explains the archaeological evidence, as well as the content of such texts as the Temple Scroll (LIII 1-6) that describe laws pertaining to the eating of “desired meat” in the wilderness.


Bonhoeffer, Qoheleth, and the “Natural Joy of Bodily Life”
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Tyler Atkinson, Bethany College (KS)

This paper will argue that Bonhoeffer’s treatment of Qoheleth’s carpe diem chorus in “Natural Life” both enhances the theological reading of Ecclesiastes on eschatological grounds and challenges contemporary ethicists to sing the refrain in protest against the degradation of marginalized bodies. After situating Bonhoeffer’s use of Ecclesiastes within the broader argument of “Natural Life,” the paper will look at the reception history of Qoheleth’s chorus, drawing attention to Luther’s radical interpretive turn as the basis for Bonhoeffer’s own reading in the context of the church struggle in Nazi Germany. It will show that Luther’s interpretation is paradigmatic for Bonhoeffer’s in both its ethical orientation and its eschatological emphasis. Finally, it will propose that this ethical-eschatological reading of Qoheleth’s chorus both enhances and challenges the theological interpretation of Ecclesiastes as it compels readers to protest attacks on rights (in the Bonhoefferian sense) to bodily life.


Seeing the Invisible, Knowing the Unknowable: Philo's Assent to God
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Harold Attridge, Yale University

Much of Philo's philosophical exegesis of Jewish scripture revolves around the issue of how mortal man can encounter God. He argues that the sacred text both describes and enables the quest for that One Who Is. His treatment of the theme involves classical images of the movement of the soul to God as well as references to his own personal experience. Evocative imagery and erudite argument combine to foster an philosophical "mysticsm" in the receptive reader.


The Fourth Gospel: Genre Matters?
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Harold Attridge, Yale University

This paper will explore the significance of the generic affiliations of the fourth gospel in the light of the ways in which ancient Greek and Roman authors played with the conventions of genre in defining the place of their own work in the literary landscape of the time. Like his classical contemporaries, the author of the Fourth Gospel positions his work within an array of literary types, while distinguishing his approach as a dramatic narrative from that of other gospel writers inclined to pursue a more "historicist" approach to the story of Jesus.


Methods of Translating Plant Metaphors in LXX Isaiah
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Benjamin Austin, Providence Christian College

Gideon Toury points out that metaphors cannot always be translated literally due to difficulties both in the source text and the target language, and describes six methods that could be used to translate metaphors. (Toury, Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond, 82-83.) This paper will discuss examples of these six methods (and some more subcategories) as found in LXX-Isaiah’s translation of plant metaphors. It will also attempt to explain why each method is adopted. The first method examined is translating metaphors with the same metaphor. The expectation for the LXX, generally, is to render literally, but this category is rarely used in LXX-Isa. Where it is used, sometimes a metaphor is rendered literally but the context is changed. In some places the metaphor is preserved in translation but is adjusted to help with its interpretation. When LXX-Isa translates a metaphor with a different metaphor, it is sometimes due to lexical or textual reasons. Other times the metaphor is changed by a metonymic shift. Sometimes a unique metaphor is changed into a more conventional metaphor that occurs more often in the OT. Some metaphors are exchanged for more vivid metaphors. Sometimes the translator change the tenor but the vehicle is maintained. The LXX-Isa translator will sometimes translate metaphors with non-metaphors. Some Hebrew idioms, dead metaphors, and metonymies are rendered non-metaphorically. Some puns or homonyms are rendered also in ways that remove a possible metaphor. The most drastic way of rendering a metaphor with a non-metaphor is to interpret the meaning of the metaphor and so to translate what the metaphor is thought to express. In a few places a non-metaphor is translated as a metaphor, usually by way of substituting one word or because of the perceived meaning of an individual word. In a few places multiple metaphors are merged, to better suit Greek rhetorical sensibilities. Similarly, some metaphors are omitted completely, to cut down the amount of imagery in a passage. Sometimes metaphors are translated with similes. This is often done when a simile is implied in the Hebrew, or where there is some Hebrew particle which may have been confused for a comparative marker. In a few places it seems to be done due to specific exegetical considerations related to the passage in which they occur. Cataloging metaphor translation methods helps demonstrate the versatility of a translator, but can by no means give us a full picture by itself. It is important to attempt to understand the issues related to each individual metaphor in the passage in which it occurs, since sometimes the same problem is dealt with differently and since the context may have produced translation issues more important than issues related to the metaphor. It is noteworthy that dead and conventional metaphors, which should be the hardest to translate, are often rendered literally. Original metaphors, on the other hand, should have been easiest to translate literally, but are often rendered in unexpected ways by LXX-Isa.


On The Bad Jesus (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015)
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Hector Avalos, Iowa State University

Did Jesus ever do anything wrong? Judging by the vast majority of books on New Testament ethics, the answer is a resounding No. Writers on New Testament ethics generally view Jesus as the paradigm of human standards and behavior. But since the historical Jesus was a human being, must he not have had flaws, like everyone else? The notion of a flawless human Jesus is a paradoxical oddity in New Testament ethics. The promotion of a flawless Jesus shows that New Testament ethics is still primarily an apologetic enterprise despite its claim to rest on critical and historical scholarship. The Bad Jesus : The Ethics of New Testament Ethics (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015) presents detailed case studies of fundamental ethical principles enunciated or practiced by Jesus but antithetical to what would be widely deemed ‘acceptable’ or ‘good’ today. Such topics include Jesus’ supposedly innovative teachings on love, along with his views on hate, violence, imperialism, animal rights, environmental ethics, Judaism, women, disabled persons and biblical hermeneutics. After closely examining arguments offered by those unwilling to find any fault with the Jesus depicted in the Gospels, The Bad Jesus concludes that current treatments of New Testament ethics are permeated by a religiocentric, ethnocentric and imperialistic orientation. But if it is to be a credible historical and critical discipline in modern academia, New Testament ethics needs to discover both a Good and a Bad Jesus.


Humans Left Alone: The Book of Esther and the Vicious Cycle of Scapegoating
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Vanessa Avery, Sacred Heart University

The biblical Book of Esther presents a tale driven by conflict, secrecy, rivalry, and violence, and God is nowhere to be found. Despite the sense of joy, charity and security in exile the Book of Esther has often brought to Jews, this book has also been a springboard for animosity and hatred. Indeed, God is not present in the book; the violence is abominable; and the characters are unsavory. Jews and Christians alike have questioned its inclusion in their religious life. The theory of Rene Girard provides a different way of understanding this scripture and why it might have been included in the canon. This paper shows that the book of Esther reveals Girard’s “scapegoating mechanism,” which unfolds through the basic structure of the “persecution text” in three stages: 1) the onset of crisis; 2) aggressive rivalry and lynching; and 3) an interdiction or ritual to memorialize the violence. This paper details how the Book of Esther plays out this pattern in cycles, gradually “revealing” the pattern by moving from silent to redeemed victim. In this way, the Book of Esther brings the reader from what Girard would call “the pagan to the biblical.”


Song of Songs and the Garden of Eden
Program Unit: Megilloth
Orit Avnery, Shalem College and Shalom Hartman Institute

Much has been said about the themes linking the Song of Songs with the Garden of Eden, including among others the temptation, the trees, sexuality, and desire. I intend to deepen the comparison of the two texts by exploring the theme of sleep. In the Garden of Eden, God brings sleep upon Adam, and while Adam sleeps God takes “one of his sides” and creates the woman. The text in Song of Songs is often vague regarding whether the protagonists are awake or asleep, and whether events take place in reality or in a dream. Who is asleep in the Song of Songs? What happens during sleep? What is the relationship between sleep and wakefulness? An examination of these questions will help us reach thought-provoking insights regarding the relationship between the gardens featured in the Song of Songs, and the primordial Garden of Eden.


The Rhetorics of Smell in the Words of Isaiah and Its Socio-moral Background
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Yael Avrahami, Oranim Academic College

TBD


'Loud Snap . . . Blackness Dumped on Thetan’: Scientology and the Western Esoteric Tradition as a Comparative Model for Enochic Literature
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
William Babcock, Duke University

Even a superficial perusal of New Age literature at the local Barnes & Noble will reveal not only a number of thematic parallels between this popular genre and many pseudepigraphical ascension texts, but also possibly discover direct references to such material. The enduring popularity of the Enochic tradition within Western esotericism suggests a number of points of contact which might prompt new understandings of these texts’ shared rhetorical strategies, as well as the pre-modern communities responsible for their production, circulation, and interpretation. The Enochic corpus has often been assumed by scholars like Paul Hanson to derive from economically marginal sectarian communities. However, following April DeConick’s provocative re-imagining of early Christian Gnostic writings as a kind of 'ancient New Age', I want to question models like Hanson’s as an adequate explanation for the development and popular distribution of the Enochic writings. Olav Hammer’s Claiming Knowledge offers a sophisticated schema of esoteric traditions which can provide a starting point for (re-)assessing the Enochic literature, including the following, Emphasis upon personal, emotional experience as the primary means to knowing, versus either mainstream humanistic scholarship, or empirical evidence gleaned from experimental lab science. The establishment of a ‘cultic milieu’, an esoteric discourse in which there are ‘movement texts’, authoritative interpreters, and a distinctive ‘U-shaped’ view of history. The use of the religious traditions of other cultures, in addition to mainstream scientific discourse, as significant Others in the construction of a sectarian worldview. Drawing upon Hammer’s typology, I will offer a case study for how this schema can be used to connect ancient and modern esoteric literatures, like the Church of Scientology, in a fruitful comparative dialogue. Incident II is a space opera cosmogony revealed to upper-level initiates. In addition to representing a key step in the Scientology technology of spiritual self-actualization, this narrative also critically reshapes auditors’ preceding experiences of space opera past lives into a coercive charismatic discourse. 2 Enoch likewise contains all the significant elements of Hammer’s typology. Following Hammer’s analysis of 1st person narratives in esoteric ‘movement texts’, 2 Enoch engages its audience in a manner similar to the auditing process. Enoch, as the authoritative interpreter, potentially stands in for the charismatic leaders of esoteric communities, the Patriarch’s voice offering these elites a literary vehicle whereby dream experiences are funneled into a hierarchical religious discourse. Structural similarities between Incident II and 2 Enoch may also stimulate re-evaluation of the latter’s social context. Might it be representative of a tradition not only engaged by a socially marginal, physically isolated, sect of survivalists, but also an elite cadre of eccentrics that controlled a less privileged initiate class through the manipulation of their unique version of the esoteric tradition? Does this relationship to the dominant culture by readers of 2 Enoch potentially help to explain, per DeConick, the tenacious influence of this literature up to the present day?


The Muses’ Birdcage: Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and Alexandrian Intellectual Competition
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Ashley Bacchi, Graduate Theological Union

The emergence of Alexandria as a center of intellectual activity, supported by the Ptolemaic court, created a sense of scholarly competition. Timon of Phlius describes the competitive environment: “In Egypt of the many tribes, many bookish scribblers are being fed, endlessly wrangling in the Muses’ birdcage.” Recent studies have revealed the complexity of Hellenistic literature by acknowledging that authors were participating in an intellectual milieu that encouraged displays of traditional material such as Homer and Hesiod in innovative yet often subtle and sometimes obscure ways. The practice of intertextual reference would be a battleground of wits, a platform on which to demonstrate to fellow intellectuals how clever and well read their poetry was in comparison to others. The author of Book III of the Sibylline Oracles was participating in this competition of wits, demonstrating his knowledge of Greek tradition by creatively inverting references to present his own unique voice. This paper will address three previously unnoticed subtle allusions to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus, and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo in Book III. The Jewish author used these references to demonstrate his familiarity of traditional hexameter models as well as acknowledge current trends in Hellenistic poetry. The author proves that he can play on the highest level and use his Jewish monotheistic tradition for creative inspiration. The Jewish author confidently inverted and subordinated allusions to Greek religious tradition to align the tradition with his own theological sensibilities. The creativity of the Jewish author reflects a complex hybrid identity that draws inspiration from both Greek and Jewish tradition to form innovative poetry that could hold up to any of the other scribes in the Muses’ birdcage.


Priestly Mourning Prohibitions in Leviticus 10
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Kurt Backlund, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Following the deaths of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10, verses 8-11 contain a prohibition against the priestly consumption of alcohol during cultic service. This injunction is often seen as an interpolation, but a convincing explanation of its textual placement and its relation to the surrounding context remains elusive. No attempt to clarify the meaning of these verses and their relation to the surrounding text has been met with widespread acceptance, as is shown by a review of past treatments. This essay examines several biblical passages which deal with the topics of alcohol consumption, liturgical practice, and death by fire. These passages demonstrate that the injunction against drinking is not an implicit comment on the reason that Nadab and Abihu were killed. Some extra-biblical texts are also considered, particularly those dealing with the well known marzeah institution. This phenomenon of inebriated communion with the divine seems to be occasionally conflated with mourning for the deceased. That this was the case in Israel is shown by the two biblical passages which contain the Hebrew word marzeah; one of which concerns a situation of mourning, while the other refers to a life of drunken indulgence. The syntax of Leviticus 10 is then examined in contrast with Isaiah 7. This exercise demonstrates the narrative continuity of Leviticus 10:8-11 with the surrounding text. Ultimately, this essay suggests that the prohibition against priestly drinking in Leviticus 10:8-11 proscribes drunkenness as a mourning rite, and should be read hand in hand with the other restrictions on priestly mourning in the immediate context. This conclusion is in keeping with the common biblical imposition of higher demands on the priesthood than on the general Israelite population.


What Is Mary Doing in Acts? Reception History within the Synoptic Tradition
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Jo-Ann Badley, Ambrose University

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is among the disciples in the upper room according to Luke (Acts 1:14), but she does not have any further narrative role in Acts. As well, the birth narratives have no part in the theology or themes of Acts; in the words of Richard Pervo, the “Christology of Acts is based on the resurrection, without reference to the events and empowerment of Luke 1-2” (Hermeneia, 2009, page 19). When historical critics consider the upper room account, if they notice Mary at all, they are concerned about Luke’s accuracy when he represents the events of the early church. From all these perspectives, Mary is incidental to Acts. In this paper, I argue that Mary’s presence in the upper room is not incidental to Luke’s overall story. The upper room account, part of Luke’s introductory material to his second volume, provides perspective for the reader of Luke’s gospel account—his first volume. That is, Mary’s presence in the upper room—after the resurrection, waiting with the faithful disciples for the promised Spirit—provides a point of view point for Luke’s readers of the infancy story. Without the Acts reference, the story of Mary in the gospel account is dissonant; the willing servant of the birth story cannot even reach her son (Luke 8:19). With the Acts reference, Mary’s story becomes a paradigm of the agenda Luke announced at the beginning of his first volume: to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled to produce confidence in his reader (Luke 1:1-4). I argue that Mary’s presence in Acts makes sense of Luke’s patterns of redacting the Mary material from Mark’s gospel, which scholars have long observed, and of the tradition of double paternity which is a more recent discussion.


A Diptych of Destruction: Watchers and Sodomites in Second Temple Literature
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Jeremiah Bailey, Baylor University

Jude 5-7 forms a grammatically tightly knit unit which pairs a tradition of deliverance—the exodus from Egypt—with two traditions of judgment. These two judgment traditions concerning the Watchers and Sodom receive a great deal of attention in the Second Temple literature and could have easily been chosen by the author of Jude at random. There is, however, evidence that the two traditions were already frequently linked together in the literature. There appear to be two main ways that these stories came to be associated with one another: First, the traditions seem to stick together because they are both stories of divine judgment. They thus provide fertile ground for prophetic warnings about eschatological judgment. Ezekiel, for example, draws together traditions of divine punishment such that the plagues in Egypt, the flood, and the destruction of Sodom all coalesce into a promised future judgment: “I will judge him [Gog] with plague and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, his troops and the many peoples who are with him a torrential downpour, hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:22 NRS). A similar tradition of combining the flood judgment with the Sodom judgment must be behind Luke 17:26-30 wherein the “days of Noah” are compared (?µ????) with the “days of Lot.” The references are not mere echoes. Luke explicitly mentions both flood and the raining down of sulfur in order to connect these judgments to that on the last day. Second, the stories are linked by their mutual concern with transgression of sexual norms. Jubilees 20:5 is a particularly poignant example: “And he told them of the judgment of the giants, and the judgment of the Sodomites, how they had been judged on account of their wickedness, and had died on account of their fornication, and uncleanness, and mutual corruption through fornication.” Similar examples can be produced from T. Naphtali, 3 Maccabees, and others. That the stories are linked in the tradition in this way should be no surprise since the story of Sodom is also a story about human beings attempting to have intercourse with angels. In light of this evidence, Jude 6-7 can be viewed as unit of tradition that is received already assembled by Jude and passed on by it.


“What Do You See?” Zechariah 4:1–5:4 through the Lens of Conversation Analysis
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Sarah Lynn Baker, University of Texas at Austin

The two visions in Zechariah 4:1–5:4 participate with Amos and Jeremiah in a formal dialogue pattern initiated by mâ ’attâ ro’ê “What do you see?”, but they transform this visionary tradition in accordance with the post-exilic prophet’s distinctive style. As a number of scholars have noted, the verbal exchange between the prophet and the divine messenger in Zech 4:1–14 diverges sharply from the traditional question-answer-explanation sequence (Amos 7:7–9, 8:1–3; Jer 1:11–19, 24:1–10). Even Zech 5:1–4, while conforming to the expected three-part structure, shows a marked difference in how the explanation relates to the prophet’s description of what he sees. In this presentation, I will apply the tools of conversation analysis to the dialogues of Zechariah 4–5 and their predecessors in Amos and Jeremiah. While most conversation analysts focus on naturally-occurring speech, either in “institutional” (formal) or informal contexts, some have recognized that written texts—particularly those grounded in an oral tradition—are a specific type of institutional context in which conversation analysis can prove fruitful. A close examination of the adjacency pairs (e.g., question-answer sets) in these dialogues will demonstrate how conversation analysis can give us a more precise linguistic tool for describing the strategies and rhetorical effect of Zechariah’s unique revision of a traditional prophetic form.


Reinventing Hagar and Ishmael in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Carol Bakhos, University of California-Los Angeles

This paper is submitted as part of the session proposal, "Hagar and Ishmael from different perspectives (Gen. 16, 21)." I will explore the ways in which Jewish, Christian and Muslim exegetes have employed Hagar and Ishmael to serve theological as well as political purposes. I will focus primarily on the late antique and medieval periods, and will argue that even in the Islamic tradition, Hagar and Ishmael serve as markers of exclusion.


"Do Not Handle, Do Not Taste, Do Not Touch" (Col 2:21): Rediscovering Ourselves as Community, in Order to Re-imagine Our Interconnectedness with Creation
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Vicky Balabanski, Flinders University

From earliest childhood we are taught not to handle, not to taste, not to touch things that are unclean. Whereas in biblical tradition this reflected the fear of sacred or ritual contagion, contemporary cultural discourse warns us for reasons of hygiene and health against the microbial world. Yet the boundaries of the self are inseparable from the miniature cosmos of living creatures for which we provide a home: some 100 trillion microbes. Most microbes are commensals (literally, one who eats at the same table), some of which assist in digestion of food and defense against pathogens, and are indeed essential to our health and well-being, yet these organisms have been presented to our thinking as a threat, linked to notions of purity, pollution and danger. Just as the early Christians needed to learn to re-conceptualize purity and pollution in an interconnected world whose Creator had declared everything good, we too need to befriend our bodies – including the unseen, internal reality -- and learn to recognize ourselves not just as individuals but as thriving, diverse microbial communities. Against a background of changing biblical attitudes to purity, pollution and contagion, this paper develops a theology in which all things, visible and invisible to the human eye, are recognized as being created and sustained in Christ (Col 1:15-20). The method of suspicion, identification and retrieval will be utilized, given the challenge of perceiving microbiota as worthy of theological discourse. As we begin to think of ourselves as part of a great community of being, we can conceptualize on a personal level what it means to live as community – not just with other humans or other creatures we encounter – but with our selves, including our constituent members. Scientists are just beginning to understand the role of microbes in human health. So also do we need to engage in spiritual and cultural discourse which leads to greater interconnectedness, and thus to greater wholeness. If we can begin to grasp the significance of the lives we share with our own internal community, we may be better able to grasp our interconnectedness with our biology, our humanity, and the Earth as a whole.


Alienation and Exile in the Ascension of Isaiah
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Matt Baldwin, Mars Hill University

Recent scholarship has tended to insist on the literary unity and Christian provenance of the Ascension of Isaiah and has persuasively shown that its story of Isaiah’s persecution and death at the hands of a Beliar-possessed Manasseh (Asc. Isa. 1-5) presents Isaiah as a type of Christian martyr avant la letter. Asc. Isa. 2:7–11 narrates the exile of Isaiah and his band of prophets from Jerusalem into the wilderness, and Asc. Isa. 3:13–4:22 presents a harrowing vision of eschatological persecutions and difficulties including the alienation of those who believe in the “ascension to the seventh heaven” even from the leadership of the churches in the last days. Pointing to these narrative complexes, contemporary scholars have with increasing confidence “discovered” in them an allegorical history of the community that first produced and used the work; the narratives are claimed to be a veiled history of a sectarian community of Christian ascetic prophets, a community in conflict with Jews, or conflict with Roman authorities, or conflict with emergent proto-orthodox church hierarchies. Such readings tend to ignore the theoretical difficulties of transposing pseudepigraphic fictions into historical evidence; extending allegorization with hypothesis and speculation, their reconstructions take on the appearance of fact without being able to assume the force of “history,” and offer no way to resolve the differences found among these reconstructions. As a way out of this impasse, this presentation argues that we should treat composition of Asc. Isa. as a form of Christian myth-making and world construction. The visionary prophet Isaiah is the paradigm of Christian witness, and his flight from Manasseh—which echoes a wide variety of comparative narratives and motifs (from, e.g. Septuagintal, Pauline, and apocalyptic literatures)—establishes a pattern for Christian faithfulness in a hostile cosmos. The world of the text interpellates subjects as believers in continuous exile, inhabiting this world beneath the firmament that is ruled by the ever hostile forces of Beliar, “and as above, so also on earth” (Asc. Isa. 7:10). This mythological cosmos constructs believers who—even apart from any particular historic sectarian context—can ascend above this demonic world order by resisting it and preserving the truth of Isaiah’s vision, though they must first endure the strife which characterizes the age prior to the eschaton. Critically reassessing the allegedly “historical” element of the pseudepigraphical story, this paper argues that, rather than presenting a veiled true story of an historical community of prophetic practitioners, the story in Asc. Isa. should be seen as a rhetorical invention that is best described as a “proto-gnostic” (without meaning to imply any essentialist account of the later “gnosticism”) cosmological myth.


"I Am God and Not a Human": The Tension between Divinized Ethics and Humanized Ethics
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Samuel E. Balentine, Union Presbyterian Seminary

An argument can be made that all forms of divinized ethics – ethics based on transcendent sources – have been effectively dismissed in the modern world. What is required instead, according to some legal scholars, is “humanized ethics” – ethics rooted in human needs and values (e.g., J. Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, 2000). This of course is not a new thesis; its roots can be traced through Schopenhauer (On the Basis of Morality) to Homer, who scorned the justice of the gods because they can be influenced by humans (Illiad, IX, 497-501). This paper argues that a similar tension between divinized ethics and human ethics is present in first person divine speech in prophetic texts such as Isaiah 55:8-11, Hosea 6:4-6 and Hosea 11:8-11 (cf. Num 23:19; I Sam 15:29; Isa 31:3), where the decision to be either merciful or wrathful involves a collision within God between the moral claims of external commandments and internal imperatives. Why does God want or need to distinguish between divine and human compassion? What are the assumptions about the moral character of a God who may or may not choose to act like humans, who may or may not choose to act like God? Do God and humans share a basic moral norm (O. Kaiser, "Einfache Sittlichkeit und theonome Ethik in der alttestamentlichen Weisheit," in Gottes und der Menschen Weisheit, 1998)? Put differently, if Hosea 11:9 is the “answer” to a divine dilemma – “I am God [or `a god’] and not a human” – then what were the metaethical “questions” about divinity and morality assumed by both the ancient “author” and the readers of the text?


Choosing between Moses and Abraham: A Rhetorical Analysis of Mic 7:14–20
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Libby Ballard, Baylor University

Mic 7: 14-20 references the stories of Israel’s beginnings, moving backwards through time from the arrival at the promised land (v. 14), through the exodus narratives (vv. 15-19), to Abraham (v. 20). Mic 7:20 is the only mention of Abraham in the Book of the Twelve, and he only appears six times in the major prophets (Isa 29:22; 41:8; 51:2; 63:16; Jer 33:26; Ezek 33:24). In light of the few passages that bring together the ancestor narratives from Genesis and the exodus narrative, Pentateuchal scholars such as Konrad Schmid (2010) have argued that these two stories existed as competing origin stories and were only later put in their current chronological order. In this paper, I will examine those arguments and the rhetorical function of the allusions to Israel’s origin stories, particularly their placement in reverse order. I will argue that this passage invites readers to re-imagine a future for God’s people that begins again like Abraham. God’s people can choose to view themselves as enslaved in Egypt, waiting for a New Moses to lead them out in a New Exodus in which Yahweh defeats the oppressors. Instead, this passage invites them to see themselves as like Abraham, living in peace with the other peoples in a land that God has promised to give them one day in the future. This invitation applies both to past Micah readers and present, as each wrestle with the problems of living in a multicultural world.


The (Mis)Foreignization Problem in Hebrew Bible Studies
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Debra Scoggins Ballentine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

When biblical authors label particular practices such as child sacrifice and goddess veneration “foreign,” this is a rhetorical move whereby the particular author negatively categorizes phenomena that he rejects. Nonetheless, many passages feature Judeans doing such “foreign” practices for Yhwh, in Jerusalem, at the temple, as genuinely Judean things to do. While many scholars have recognized this tension within the primary sources, others tend to reproduce ancient authors’ vested stances, taking polemical portrayals at face value, overlooking the rhetorical work biblical authors accomplish with the categories “foreign”, “Canaanite”, and “other gods.” I term strategic use of the label “foreign” in primary texts: “foreignization.” We may then critique scholarly misunderstanding of “foreignization” as well as misguided use of “foreign” when attempting to explain difference among cultic preferences as “mis-foreignization.” Consider Jeremiah 44, where Jeremiah (and Deuteronomistic editors) incorporates the Judean women’s statement about honoring the Queen of Heaven (Jer 44:15-19) into Jeremiah’s threats against them, as an admission of guilt. However, the passage preserves an alternative explanation for destruction that resembles broadly attested ancient West Asian theological apologies for political defeat, as exhibited in the Moabite Mesha Stele, the Babylonian Cyrus Cylinder, as well as biblical explanations for the destructions of Israel and Judah. These frame communal calamity as the result of the patron deity’s disfavor regarding actions that his people purportedly have done or failed to do. Attributing destruction to the patron deity guards divine reputation, precluding the alternative conclusion that destruction resulted from a rival god defeating the patron deity. This shared theological logic is one of many examples of continuity between biblical and non-biblical theo-political phenomena. Such continuities were previously de-emphasized in line with claims that Israel and Judah were utterly distinct from their neighbors. One biblical explanation for calamity is that Judeans honored “foreign” and “other” gods, unacceptable according to requirements of exclusive covenant loyalty to their deity as suzerain. Jeremiah 44’s Judean women credit the Queen of Heaven for communal calamity, explaining that Judean misfortune and destruction occurred only when they stopped honoring her, as Jeremiah prefers. If one invokes the concept of “foreignness” (or similarly “monotheism”) to explain the debate in Jeremiah 44, this distances Jeremiah from his fellow Judean interlocutors within the narrative and distances the conceptual world of this text from its ancient cultural milieu. We must recognize that the “foreignness” of veneration of the Queen of Heaven is contested within the text. The Judean women state that they and their husbands have honored the Queen of Heaven for generations. Even if these characters are “unreliable witnesses,” their testimony would remain verisimilar for Jeremiah’s imagined audience. Veneration of the Queen of Heaven would then be a long-held, traditional, even mainstream Judean cultic practice, not “foreign.” The rhetorical practice evident in primary texts that utilize labels such as “foreign,” Canaanite, “other,” barbaric, heretical, etc. warrants critical analysis. Moreover, in revising problematic category-based explanations, we facilitate comparative analysis and attain fuller reconstructions of what potential social and religious dynamics the biblical anthology preserves.


Circumcising the Mouth of Moses: A New Comparative Method for the Fields of Assyriology and Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Amy L. Balogh, University of Denver & Iliff School of Theology

Comparisons between texts from the Hebrew Bible and ancient Mesopotamia are often critiqued as methodologically problematic. Here, I offer a method of comparison that addresses those critiques. This method eliminates arguments for textual dependence, embraces both similarity and difference, supports the voice of the scholar, and focuses in a way that engages both texts deeply. The result is a contextualized and fruitful re-description of both objects. The key to this approach is what Jonathan Z. Smith calls a “third term,” the “with respect to” that is the subject of comparison. This third term is analogous to the subject of conversation between two individuals, and this conversation is mediated by a third-party — the scholar. To demonstrate the benefits of this method for the fields of Assyriology and Biblical Studies, I compare Moses and idols with respect to status change. How does Moses become the mouthpiece of God? How do idols become manifestations of the divine? How might these processes of status change illuminate one another, without postulating textual dependence? To answer these questions, I compare the Mesopotamian Mis Pi ritual and incantation texts, which detail the process by which an idol was inducted into the community of the gods, to the exchange in which Moses protests “I am uncircumcised of lips” and Yahweh responds, “See, I have made you god to Pharaoh” (Exod 6:28-7:1). In comparing the language of the circumcision of Moses’s mouth and the Mis Pi ritual, I find that both processes are cast as purifying, symbolic (re)births. These births enable both Moses and idols to act as conduits of the divine word. Furthermore, it is this very word that both the Pentateuch and the Mis Pi consider to be the source of life itself.


Did Jesus Expect to Die? A Test Case in Allison’s Methodology and a Response to His Critics
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Michael Patrick Barber, John Paul the Great Catholic University

Recent explorations in Jesus research have given much attention to the implications of what might broadly be described as “social memory theory” (e.g., A. Kirk, T. Thatcher, A. Le Donne, C. Keith). Yet P. Foster and Z. Crook have criticized the way such approaches have been applied. This paper enters into this debate by revisiting the question of whether or not Jesus anticipated his demise, building upon the method and arguments of Allison’s, Constructing Jesus (2010). This paper will respond to recent criticisms of Allison’s method by showing that his argument relies on more than a mere appeal to the general trustworthiness of early memories about Jesus via “recurrent attestation”. Although rightly critical of the standard “criteria of authenticity”, Allison actually makes his case for the eschatological character of Jesus’ message by highlighting other indicators of historical plausibility. Among other things, Allison holds that the impression that Jesus was motivated by eschatological concerns is believable because (1) it is plausible within a Jewish setting (e.g., pp. 76–78); (2) it makes sense of the effects of his ministry (e.g., pp. 48–53), and (3) because it provides a helpful hermeneutical framework for understanding various other elements of the Jesus tradition (e.g., traditions regarding the twelve; cf. pp. 67–76). Following Allison’s method, this paper argues that there are good reasons to believe the passion predictions found in the Gospels likely reflect Jesus’ own expectations. Of course, that Jesus believed he would meet a violent end is affirmed throughout our sources. An appeal to social memory theory could suggest that such views did not originate ex nihilo but in some way convey impressions left by Jesus. Yet there are further reasons for tracing their origin back to Jesus: they are plausible within a Jewish setting, make sense of the effects of his ministry, and explain other aspects of the Jesus tradition. In particular, such predictions are consistent with Jewish eschatological texts that envision a period of eschatological tribulation during which the righteous will suffer (e.g., Jer 30:1–9; 12:1–3; Zech 13:8–9; 4Q171 II, 9–12; 1Q33 I, 11–12; cf., e.g., B. Pitre) as well as traditions that link the death of Jewish martyrs to hopes for the eschatological vindication of Israel (e.g., 2 Macc. 7:32–33, 37–38; 4 Macc. 1:11; 17:22; 1 En. 47; T. Moses 9–10). That such perspectives inform early Christian texts seems clear (e.g., the work of C. Pate and D. Kenard). Notably, while also holding an eschatological outlook, Paul seems to have anticipated his own sufferings (1 Thess. 3:4), interpreting himself as a sacrificial offering (Phil 2:17). In particular, Allison has shown how he relates Christian suffering to eschatological tribulation traditions (Rom 8:19–25; cf. Col 1:24). The most plausible account of the data is that Jesus “keyed” his coming death to such traditions as well. In sum, this paper demonstrates that recent memory research has much to offer Jesus studies, though its application must be carefully supplemented with other considerations.


Jesus’ Vow at the Last Supper in the Synoptic Gospels: A Study in Divergent Narrative Strategies
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Michael Patrick Barber, John Paul the Great Catholic University

In the three accounts of the last supper in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus insists that he will not drink of the fruit of the vine until a future moment involving the kingdom (Matt 26:29//Mark 14:25//Luke 22:18). While the language of the vow itself differs in slight ways in the three accounts, what is most noticeable is Luke's unique placement of the saying. Whereas Jesus’ vow follows the eucharistic words over the bread and the cup in Matthew and Mark, in Luke it precedes them. This paper seeks to explain the rationale for the different placements of the saying against the backdrop of the larger narratives of the three gospels. In sum, the vow can be seen as serving different narrative functions in Matthew and Mark than in Luke. As we shall show, a close examination of the vow’s purpose in Matthew and Mark reveals that it is likely related to another distinctive aspect of their account. Specifically, while Matthew and Mark report that Jesus was offered a drink immediately before his death (cf. Matt 27:48//Mark 15:36), Luke only mentions that Jesus was offered a drink earlier during his passion, remaining silent about whether or not Jesus actually drank from it (cf. Luke 23:36). This scene in Luke has a parallel in Matthew, though Matthew’s version of it adds that Jesus refused to drink at this time (Matt 27:34). However, when he is offered the drink immediately before his death in Matt 27:48//Mark 15:36, Jesus makes no similar protest. We shall then revisit the question of the precise language used in this scene. Are the Matthean and Markan accounts best read as depicting Jesus partaking of the vinegar or does it depict the interruption of the attempt to provide him with a drink? Finally, we shall examine how the vow of Jesus in Matthew and Mark seems to relate to the episode of the request of James and John, which involves a conversation about the disciples' future drinking of the cup from which Jesus will drink (Matt 20:22–23//Mark 10:38–39). As we shall argue, these various episodes do not seem unrelated. In fact, the different placements of the vow of Jesus at the last supper seems to relate to narrative interests that seem to diverge in the Matthean/Markan and Lukan accounts, which this paper will attempt to explicate.


P.Oxy. 7.1007 Christian or Jewish?
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Don Barker, Macquarie University

P.Oxy. 7.1007 (British Library, inv. 2047) is one of only two fragments of the LXX on parchment dated to before the fourth century (with P.Oxy. 11.1351) This page from the codex presents a unique combination of Jewish and Christian abbreviations of the sacred name. The treatment of kurios suggests the text was copied by a Jewish scribe, the use of the nomen sacrum for Theos suggest a Christian context. This paper will explore the various options and possibilities for the social context of the codex.


Christians and Torah Observance in Second-Century Perspective
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
James W. Barker, Western Kentucky University

This paper takes up the perennial question of why (most) Christians do not observe (much) Torah. Early in the second century, Ignatius of Antioch provided the earliest attestation to the Gospel of Matthew. According to Matthew, Jesus instructs his disciples not to break even the least of Torah’s commandments (5:19), and the gospel ends with an exhortation to make disciples of Gentiles, who should obey everything Jesus commanded (28:19–20). According to Ignatius, however, it is absurd to profess Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism (To the Magnesians 10.3). This paper asks how Ignatius could read Matthew’s gospel and not observe Torah. I explain Ignatius’s reception and interpretation of Pauline texts as a definite factor, and I suggest his reception of Johannine texts or traditions as a possible factor. I also contrast Ignatius’s rejection of Jewish practice with Justin Martyr’s argument in the mid-second century (see esp. Dialogue with Trypho 46–47). Despite Justin’s strong anti-Judaism and supersessionism, he assumed a surprisingly moderate position allowing Christians to keep as much Torah as they wanted, as long as Torah observance was optional, not mandatory. The paper offers a pedagogical application for raising the question of Torah observance when teaching New Testament and Early Christianity. The paper concludes by applying Ignatius’s and Justin’s teachings to a contemporary case study for Jewish–Christian dialogue, namely whether Christian churches should host Passover Seders.


Where Does My Hope Come From? The Rhetorical Significance of Exod 34:6–7 in the Book of the Twelve
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Joel Barker, Heritage College & Seminary

Where Does My Hope Come From? The Rhetorical Significance of Exod 34:6–7 in the Book of the Twelve


Augustine and the Construction of Martyrs’ Identities
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Heather Barkman, University of Ottawa

Augustine’s writings about martyrs are informed by the Donatist conflict. As both Catholics and Donatists looked to martyrs to help to construct their identities, the rhetorical attempts to claim some martyrs as one’s own (while rejecting others) were significant points of debate in the competition for who could rightfully claim the title of “the true church.” This presentation will explore the way Augustine discusses three specific martyrs: Castus, Aemelius, and Crispina. These martyrs are particularly useful for examining the role that religious competition plays in the construction of identity as Augustine changes their depiction from the way they appear in earlier sources. In particular, I will explore the changes in agency that these martyrs exercise (or do not exercise) in the successive representations of their martyrdom, and the reasons their agency is redirected or suppressed in Augustine’s discourse. The Decian martyrs Castus and Aemelius were used by both Cyprian and Augustine as examples of Christians who became martyrs only after initial failure. Although Cyprian and Augustine describe these martyrs as true penitents and full martyrs, they use different rhetorical language. Further, Augustine’s discussion of these particular martyrs draws attention to one of the defining characteristics of the Catholic/Donatist conflict: the acceptance or rejection of the penitent lapsed. Thus, Augustine’s method of elevation of these martyrs speaks to broader themes that he wished to promote within his congregation. So too with Crispina. Her Passio, which appeared shortly after her death in the Great Persecution, was used by both Catholics and Donatists. Augustine refers to Crispina in five of his sermons, but he describes her in much different terms than those used in the Passio. As with Castus and Aemelius, Augustine’s divergence from the earlier representation can be shown to have rhetorical significance, both for the Catholic-Donatist conflict and for Augustine’s views on the role of women. Ultimately, these specific comparisons will allow for a close examination of Augustine’s use of rhetoric to construct martyr identities that fit within his social and temporal context. This will provide more nuanced insight into the role that martyr rhetoric played into Augustine’s battle against his religious rivals, the Donatists.


Reading Isaiah with Paul: Who Are Mother Zion's Children?
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Gregory M. Barnhill, Baylor University

Paul’s use of the “heavenly mother Jerusalem/Zion” image and citation of Isa 54:1 in Gal 4:26-27 has provoked a variety of explanations in the history of the interpretation, but many interpreters have ignored the role of Isaiah 40-66 in explaining the “heavenly Jerusalem” as “our Mother” imagery. By reading Isaiah 40-66 with the question “Who are Mother Zion’s children?” in mind, the implicit inclusive relationship of Mother Zion to the nations becomes more explicit. An exclusively Jewish conception of the children of Zion transforms through the course of Isaiah 40-66 into an inclusive conception of the children, redefined around the “servants of Yahweh” (Isaiah 56-66), who are spiritually conceived and redefined around an ethic of faithful obedience rather than ethnicity. These ideas form the background of Paul’s employment of Mother Zion, as he redefines the people of God on the basis of faith and spirit in Galatians, not Jew and Gentile. The apocalyptic categories found in Galatians indicate that Paul’s view of the people of Yahweh has been transformed in line with the implicit eschatological vision found in Isaiah 40-66, which makes the nations into legitimate children of Yahweh. These ideas come to a climax in 4:21-31, where Paul uses allegory to redefine the children of Yahweh as spiritually conceived and participants in the new creation. Through reading of Isaiah with the concerns of Paul in mind (its apocalyptic and eschatological themes) and considering the intertextual relationship between these two texts, one can see why the Zion narrative and the expansion of Mother Zion’s offspring to include Gentiles is the background for Paul’s use of Isa 54:1 in Gal 4:27, as well as how Paul uses Isaiah to speak about his own contemporary situation.


The Shema in John and Jewish Restoration Eschatology
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Lori Baron, Duke University

This paper is drawn from a section of my dissertation on the Shema in John's Gospel. The Fourth Evangelist does not only portray Jesus' equality with God in terms of the Shema (e.g. 10:30), he also draws upon interpretations of the Shema in the OT prophets (Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah) to characterize the Johannine community as eschatological Israel restored. The prophets envision Israel regathered as a unity under the one God; John uses similar language and themes to demonstrate that Jesus' disciples now fulfill that role. This is a rhetorical move that effectively reverses the socio-historical situation of the Johannine community, which has been excluded from Jewish communal life in its particular locale. Johannine believers in Jesus are portrayed as God's restored people, while the Johannine "Jews" are "cast out" from the eschatological covenant community. The paper concludes by exploring the anti-Jewish potential of this reading.


To Serve God and Not Mammon: Reading Matthew 6 as Missionally Located Formation for Economic Discipleship
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Michael Barram, Saint Mary's College of California

In a 2014 SBL session devoted to “Poverty in the Biblical World,” I argued (1) that traditional readings of Matthew 5–7 have generally overlooked its rather concrete economic context and dynamics and (2) that in light of such issues, the Sermon seeks to form not only the concrete economic behavior of the Christian community, but also, and perhaps most importantly, the kinds of economic reasoning characteristic of those faithfully gathered around Jesus. This paper extends that work, focusing on the formative function of Matthew 6 (and 6:19–34, in particular), reading it specifically from the perspective of a consciously missional hermeneutic. Attending to the argumentative connections between 6:19–24 and 6:25–34, the paper argues that 6:24 serves a critical function relative to the concrete missional witness of the Christian community. In several ways, the concerns of this paper dovetail well with the theme, “Biblical Formation of the Congregation for Missional Witness.” First, the argument focuses upon the formative dynamics of Matthew 6, emphasizing—unlike individualistic readings of the Sermon—the need for communities to embody concretely the implications of Jesus’ teaching. Second, the paper exemplifies the benefits of attending to the hermeneutical nexus of a missional reading. It highlights two of the fundamental “streams” described by Hunsberger (2008) as characteristic of a “robust” missional hermeneutic, namely, streams two and three. While many understand “missional hermeneutics” primarily in terms of a grand, salvation-historical arc or missional meta-narrative evident on the ‘surface’ of biblical texts—and across the canon as a whole (stream one), the current paper seeks to demonstrate the interpretive force of the formative or equipping function of biblical texts (stream two) and of contemporary, missionally located readings of such formative texts (stream three). In other words, the present paper seeks to highlight the formative function of Matthew 6 both from an historical, exegetical perspective (i.e., the equipping function of the text) as well as from the hermeneutical vantage point of North American Christianity today (i.e., some of the implications of the text for contemporary, located readers). In this sense, paper moves decidedly beyond the descriptive task of stream one to the hermeneutical task that begins to emerge in stream three. Third, Matthew 6 would not be found on most lists of traditional “mission” texts (e.g., Matthew 28:16–20; Acts; 2 Corinthians 4–5; 1 Peter) to which those predisposed to finding “mission” in the Bible might instinctively turn. For that reason, it provides a useful ‘test case’ for the hermeneutical legitimacy and value of a missional reading. Fourth, the paper will also incorporate brief reflections on formation for mission from the author’s experience in leading a yearlong adult study of biblical texts oriented toward economic discipleship and justice, such as Matthew 6:19–34, in the context of a learning community at First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, California. In short, the paper will argue that Matthew 6 functioned—and should continue to function—as critically important missional formation for the Christian community in trying economic times.


Exilic Afterlives
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Jennifer Barry, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Athanasius of Alexandria is frequently cited as one of the pillars of the Christian faith. It is often noted by his ancient—and contemporary—biographers that this legacy is tied directly to his experience of persecution. His frequent battles with emperors and heretics, however, were not the only reason his reputation spread well beyond the borders of Alexandria. In this paper, I argue that Athanasius’ identity as an exile became a popular trope that circulated within pro-Nicene Christian literature at the turn of the fourth century. In particular, his third exile takes on a literary life of its own. Many authors will use the story of his flight into the desert and triumphant return to legitimize subsequent episcopal exiles. Specifically, I examine how Athanasius’ exile is easily invoked to bolster support for John Chrysostom during the Johanine controversy. John’s biographer Palladius of Helenopolis insists that those who question John’s exile are no better than the enemies who persecuted Athanasius. Ultimately, Palladius uses Athanasius’ exile to shame John Chrysostom’s accusers and re-write the bishop’s legacy as an orthodox one.


Having All Things in Common—Only in Your Dreams?
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Scott Bartchy, University of California-Los Angeles

According to the Acts of the Apostles, the pre-66CE Christ-followers in Jerusalem rejected private ownership in favor of holding their possessions in common--as an essential witness to their conviction that Israel's God had raised Jesus from the dead. This Lukan claim is analyzed: (1) in light of biblical anticipations of a good life in an economy characterized by general reciprocity (koinonia) and the sharing of limited goods (including honor) in a sibling-based society ruled by Israel's God; (2) in view of Paul's both urging his converts to practice isotes (redistributive exchange) and his collection for the famine-stressed Christ-community in Jerusalem.


Inquiring of YHWH in the Book of Ezekiel
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Penelope Barter, University of St. Andrews

In the Book of Ezekiel, the elders sit before the priest-prophet three times (8.1; 14.1; 20.1), with a progressive revelation that they have come to "inquire" (drsh) of Yhwh through Ezekiel. What is not revealed, however, is the nature of their inquiry and why it angers Yhwh, who refuses to be consulted by them, but ultimately responds with an oracle (14.3-4; 20.3-4). We will firstly investigate the use of the expression in the Hebrew Bible, arguing that the locution has a wide range of uses and connotations. Although the term is often defined as Deuteronomic (Levitt Kohn, 2002), the term is frequently found in prophecy, poetry, and prose outside DtrH, and is used in various contexts, including idolatry, law, and divination. The second part of the paper will establish which of these many interpretations of “inquiring” of Yhwh are utilised in Ezekiel, with particular attention to the linguistic links to Exodus 18, which offers a lens through which to interpret both the elders’ request and Yhwh’s anger, and furthers our understanding of Ezekiel’s prophetic role.


The Novelist and the Chronicler: The Reception of Issachar in Literature
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Penelope Barter, University of St. Andrews

Issachar is hardly the most memorable of Jacob’s children in the popular imagination, yet the quiet reception of this character throughout the centuries stands as testimony to a continued interest in Leah’s fifth son. However, when the biblical Issachar is received in literature, it is not through the quirky account of his conception and naming, but rather primarily through the description in Jacob’s blessing of Issachar as “a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds” who “bowed his shoulder to bear burdens, and became a slave at forced labour” (Gen 49.14-15) and the claim of the Chronicler that the sons of Issachar were “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do” (1 Chron 12.33 [32]). This paper explores this phenomenon in selected novels, plays, and poetry from 1691 to 2013, and assesses its impact on our reading of the biblical Issachar. Recurring themes in the use of the character and name include connections between Issachar and messianism and linking biblical descriptions of Issachar and his tribe to contemporary political events, including in satire.


Old Testament Origins and the Question of God
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Craig Bartholomew, Redeemer University College

Old Testament Origins and the Question of God


A Biblical Theologian's Response to Philosophical Criticism
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Craig Bartholomew, Redeemer University College

I will respond to Gericke's proposal that philosophical criticism ought to be a form of biblical criticism.


Lawgiver-Response and Rhetorical Stratagems in the Deuteronomic Legislation
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Assnat Bartor, Tel Aviv University

One of the main topics of my narrative reading of biblical law is rhetoric. Because narrative reading, as opposed to legal reading, does not focus on norms, foundational principles, or the policies enacted by the law, but rather attends to characters and events, how they are described, which textual and rhetorical elements serve to elaborate the law's content, and the communicative processes through which the lawgiver transmits the law to its audience. The Deuteronomic lawgiver does not only seek to prescribe and prohibit, but also to influence the consciousness and awareness of its audience. He exposes his addressees/readers to the legislative process and invites them to respond to the substance of the laws; to contemplate and to feel, rather than just obey. My paper will focus on lawgiver-response and rhetorical stratagems mainly in the laws of warfare (Deut 20-21).


Preaching Paul's Letters as Narrative: Philippians and Empathetic Imagination
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw, East Texas Baptist University

The last several decades of scholarship on homiletics have seen preachers emphasizing, to varying degrees, the importance of preaching the form of the text. The inclination to match sermon form to text genre has served as a catalyst to revolutionize preaching in many aspects. Fred Craddock’s inductive approach, which uses the exegetical process of interpretation as a schematic for sermon preparation, grows out of this concern. Thomas G. Long delves even deeper into this interest when he encourages preachers to ask, “How can people best hear the material in this sermon?,” rather than, “What is the most orderly way for this material to fit together?” (The Witness of Preaching, 96). Although Long and Craddock’s approaches build upon a commitment to be faithful to the form of the text, the focus on hermeneutics and communication that they both display undermines a strict adherence to matching sermon form to text genre. The epistolary genre, for example, is reflective and propositional in nature, but is not strictly deductive. Paul’s letters are an intersection of several plots—Paul’s narrative, the narrative of the church to which he writes, and God’s narrative. In this paper, I suggest a form in which to preach Paul’s letters that both encompasses solid hermeneutics (à la Craddock) and shapes the material in a way that people can best hear it (à la Long). It does not adhere to a strict separation of narrative and epistle but instead immerses hearers in the narrative world of Paul and presents his epistles in the way his original hearers would have experienced them. This method involves empathetic imagination, reconstructing the city and situation of an epistle’s recipients and creating an identity for the sermon hearers to adopt. It leads the congregation to put themselves in the shoes of an ancient Christian and imagine what a passage might have meant to that original hearer. After describing this sermon form, I will briefly illustrate how it works in a sermon series on Philippians by presenting an introduction to the series.


Biblical Study Aids in the Donatist Tradition
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Alden Lee Bass, Saint Louis University

Augustine’s reliance on Tyconius’ hermeneutical arguments in the Liber Regularum (and his reluctance to admit it) for parts of De Doctrina Christiana is well known. Less well known is the Donatist contribution to biblical study aids in the fourth and fifth century. These study aids fall into two categories. First, the paratextual material found in Donatist editions of the Bible such as summaries, titles, and section headings (capitula). These elements were taken over from early Greek manuscripts and modified to fit Donatist theology. For instance, Codex Amiantinus preserves these headings for Jeremiah: 6) De falso baptism; 7) De aqua aliena hoc de falso baptism; 8) Non prodesse baptisma haereticorum. These summaries were not used liturgically, at least not in any immediate way, but for the purpose of biblical study; certain series of capitula were eventually incorporated into Carolingian and medieval Bibles. The second category consists of the study tools preserved in the “Donatist Compendium,” an early fifth century bifolium now residing in Marburg. The Compendium contains 11 distinct documents, including biblical chronologies, lists of miracles, and interpretations of names. The most extensive work is the Liber geneaologus, the Donatist historical chronology spanning the time from Adam to the Donatist persecutions. Present also is the much-discussed stichometry lists for the works of Cyprian and the Old and New Testaments. Bischoff called this work, which we now known to be Donatists, “the oldest document of the Christian booktrade.” The Donatist contribution to ancient biblical criticism has been noted in passing, mostly by textual scholars, but no work has these study aids in the larger context of the Donatist theological and social agenda. The African church split in the early fourth century over the accusation that some bishops had surrendered the sacred books during the Diocletianic persecution. Those who came to be known as the pars Donati viewed such actions not simply as a moral failure, but as a betrayal of the Holy Spirit. The book itself was considered by these African Christians to be quasi-divine as a cultural product, saturated with the Holy Spirit of God. Thus, the Donatist movement seems to have attracted those with the highest possible view of scripture, which in turn resulted in careful, text-based study-aids. These aids would not only have been used polemically (as in the capitula cited above), but simply to expound the Bible, veneration of which lay at the heart of the movement. Like the hermeneutical work of Tyconius, the labor of Donatist biblical scholars, despite its far-reaching influence, has gone largely unnoticed.


Christology of Divine Identity? Septuagintal Dialogues in the New Testament as Trinitarian Critique
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Matthew Bates, Quincy University

In the study of Christian origins Richard Bauckham and N. T. Wright (among others) have adopted the terminology “Christology of Divine Identity” as a way of speaking about how Jesus correlates with the God of Israel in NT and early Christian texts. This paper will problematize the identity category by analyzing assumptions about person and time in NT and early Christian interpretations of “divine dialogues” in the Septuagint. It will be argued that there was continuity between first-century and third- and fourth-century practices of Christian scriptural interpretation that compelled the developing church to prefer “person” language in speaking about how God is differentiable. As such the notion of divine persons in fellowship beyond the ordinary boundaries of time is not alien to the first-century, but exegetically presupposed. Accordingly, it is suggested that the category “Christology of Divine Persons” is to be preferred over “Christology of Divine Identity.”


The Rising of a Disembodiment of Creation by the Doctrine of creatio ex nihilo: Alternative Readings of Gen 1:1–3 (21) in Ancient Jewish Texts of the Second Temple Period
Program Unit: Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
Michaela Bauks, Universität Koblenz - Landau

For a long time scholars thought that Jewish authors from the Hellenistic Diaspora developed a concept of creation from a formless matter, they might have been influenced by Platonic philosophy or not. Starting point of the reflection was the notion of divine creation ??? ?? ??t?? in 2 Macc. 7:28, where creation is connected with resurrection. However the studies of G. Schmuttermayr (1973), G. May (1978) and recently B. Schmitz (2010) have revised the hypothesis that the idea of creation ex nihilo arose during the intertestamental period in a Jewish context. In addition, the textual evidences have been much more broaden: the providence of God and, especially, the separation between light and darkness are discussed in several Qumran writings with references to Gen 1. Though there is no debate about creation ex nihilo, there are allusions to the motif of creation from matter within some few eschatological, sapiental (e.g. Meditation on Creation A-C; 4Q303-305) and liturgical works (e.g. concerning calendars). Apocalyptic texts, such as 4 Ezr 6:38-54 and 2 ApocBar 24:16-19; 29:1-8, provide evidence for creation by speech, and deal with chaotic or dualistic elements by referring to Gen 1:21. A Hellenistic influenced sapiental writing emphasizes the creative role of the cosmos for salvation from “chaos” and dead (Wis. 1:14; 5:17, 20; 9:1-3 [cf. Jub 12:4]; 11:17 etc.). A particular case of Hellenistic influence encounters in Gen 1:2 LXX, in Jos. Ant. I: 27-33 and thereto we find controversial readings in the targumic material.


The Question of Ethiopian Late Antique, Medieval, and Later Literary Heritage with a Look at the TraCES Project
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Alessandro Bausi, University of Hamburg

An area of ancient written culture from the first millennium bce, the Ethiopian highlands have been home to a complex literary tradition (predominantly in Ge?ez) that has no parallel in sub-Saharan Africa. Its emergence was determined by late antique culture (Byzantium including Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and the Red Sea), Mediterranean cultural encounters, and the African background. The earliest known texts were translations from Greek, later works were adopted from Christian Arabic (esp. Copto-Arabic) literary tradition, in addition to a rich local written production. The complexity of literary history is fully reflected in the changes in grammar, lexicon and stylistic means of the Ge?ez language. During the years 2014-2019, the ERC-Advanced Grant TraCES project intends for the first time to analyze in detail the lexical, morphological and stylistic features of texts depending on their origins using the achievements of linguistics, philology, and digital humanities. An annotated digital text corpus of critically established texts is being created. Frequency and collocation analysis will reveal changes in grammatical and lexical choices across centuries. Novel ways of visualization of textual features and intertextual relationships will be offered to provide insights into the structure, history and evolution of texts. The resulting new understanding of the history of the Ge?ez language and of the Ethiopian creativity and literary activity will help establish features and criteria that may be helpful in determining the origins of texts when the direct ‘Vorlage’ is missing. The literary transmission and dissemination processes will be analyzed by contrasting and connecting Ethiopian late antique and medieval heritage with its parallels and antecedents in Near East and Mediterranean, contributing to our understanding of the cultural networks of the Christian Orient. A number of valuable research tools will emerge as by-products of the project. (S. https://www.traces.uni-hamburg.de/en.html)


Late Antique Relics from the Ethiopian Highlands: The Ethiopic Version of the History of the "Episcopate" of Alexandria and Other Texts
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Alessandro Bausi, University of Hamburg

As an interesting example of how the TraCES scope might be applied in practice, the case study of the ‘History of the Episcopate of Alexandria’ and other lesser known texts will be briefly introduced. The case-study is concerned with texts transmitted in a multiple-text manuscript that is preserved in a small church in an isolated area at the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea, an area which was once the cradle of Christian civilization in the northern highlands of the Horn of Africa. The manuscript contains a series of palaeographic and linguistic features which put it into relation with the Abba Garima Four Gospels books, as well as to other ancient biblical manuscripts, that probably make it the oldest non-biblical Ethiopic manuscript. The example appears to be interesting and fruitful for questions of textual and cultural history as well as of language.


Deuteronomy's Brotherhood Ethic and Nehemiah 5
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Richard Bautch, St. Edward's University

Invited panelist


Lewis vs. Bultmann: Myth as Fact or Fiction?
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Leslie Baynes, Missouri State University

In April 1941 Rudolf Bultmann delivered his essay “New Testament and Mythology,” which proclaimed that no denizen of the 20th century could use electric lights, modern medicine, and the wireless and still believe in the New Testament world of angels and demons. In May 1941 C. S. Lewis published his first imaginative letter between the demons Screwtape and Wormwood. Both works to no small degree shaped their authors’ legacies. The war between their respective nations ended in 1945, but their intellectual skirmishes about the role of the supernatural in Christianity, the genre of the gospels, and other topics continue to this day. Lewis reacted strongly against Bultmann’s scholarship in The Screwtape Letters and the essay “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism,” but he did not always fully grasp it because of his lack of expertise in the field. On the other hand, some of Lewis’s critiques of Bultmann were perspicacious, foreshadowing the guild’s later reassessment of his work. This paper examines Lewis’s use and evaluation of the biblical scholarship of his day. Since the subjects Lewis critiqued continue to be debated by today’s biblical scholars, investigating how he both confirms and challenges the assumptions of standard biblical scholarship is a worthwhile task, one that provides a helpful bridge between academic biblical scholars and the broader constituency that reads Lewis’s work.


The Violence of the Kingdom in Q
Program Unit: Q
Giovanni Bazzana, Harvard University

The paper will take into consideration "violent" behaviors that are ascribed to God and to human beings towards the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the Sayings Gospel Q. By comparing selected Q passages with the phrasing of documentary papyri, the paper will show how such violent imagery depends on the legal terminology with which the village scribes who composed and circulated the text where acquainted. Moreover, the paper will consider how violence is employed by Q to construct both divine and human agencies in the process of bringing about divine sovereignty. In conclusion and with specific reference to the rather enigmatic Q 16:16, the paper will show that violent imagery is deployed in Q as a means to convey a specific articulation of human participation in a theological political scenario that is consistent with the bureaucratic ethos of the local administrators that stood behind the document.


From Holy Grail to The Lost Gospel: Margaret Starbird and the Mary Magdalene Romance
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Mary Ann Beavis, St. Thomas More College

Although her work is little known to academic biblical scholars, the writings of Margaret Starbird have been, and continue to be, very influential in informing popular understandings of Mary Magdalene, including her portrayal as Jesus’ wife in The Da Vinci Code, and, most recently in Simcha Jacobovici’s and Barrie Wilson’s The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Secret Text that Reveals Jesus’ Marriage to Mary Magdalene (2014). Despite Starbird's key role in shaping popular ideas about the Magdalene, her immensely popular writings are little known to biblical scholars. This paper will trace the influence of Starbird's books on the reception history of the Magdalene since the publication of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (1993), particularly in shaping the modern legend of the romance between Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Additionally, the paper will evaluate Starbird’s key claims and interpretations of the biblical and extra-biblical evidence, both appreciatively and critically, from the perspective of a professional biblical scholar.


The Mithraeum as a Mechanism for Getting Down from Heaven and Back Up Again
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Roger Beck, University of Toronto

The philosopher Porphyry tell us that the shrine and meeting place of the Roman cult of Mithras (now called a "mithraeum") was designed and furnished as an "image of the universe" in order to "induct the initiate into a mystery of the soul's descent and exit back out again" ("On the Cave" 6). Despite good archaeological evidence that some mithraea were indeed designed symbolically as microcosms, Porphyry's statement about the mithraeum's function in enabling a "mystery of the soul's descent and exit back out again" has generally been discounted. My paper will argue, to the contrary, that a cognitive approach to the apprehension of symbols in a context of this sort validates Porphyry's assertion.


Is the Hebrew D-Stem Factitive/Resultative? An Examination of Virtually Every D-Stem Occurrence and Corresponding G-Stem in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
John C. Beckman, Harvard University

The biblical Hebrew D stem (piel) seems to be inconsistent from verb to verb, both in its meaning and in its relationship to the G stem (qal). For example, the D stem has a higher valency than the G stem for some verbs (e.g., q-d-sh G ‘to be holy’, D ‘to make holy’), whereas for other verbs, the G and D stems seem to be interchangeable (e.g., sh-b-r can be glossed ‘to break’ in both the G and D stems). Several scholars (Waltke and O’Connor 1990, Jenni 1968, and Goetze 1942) propose that the D stem is factitive/resultative, meaning that it describes the subject causing a passive undersubject to enter a state without describing the process. Thus sh-b-r, which means ‘to break’ (process) in the G stem, means ‘to make broken’ (resultative) in the D stem. By developing criteria to detect this distinction and then examining every occurrence of every verb in the Hebrew Bible (except for a few high-frequency verbs that were sampled), this paper demonstrates that the D stem has a process meaning far more often than a resultative meaning, contrary to the factitive/resultative hypothesis. Furthermore, the factitive/resultative hypothesis cannot explain verbs that lack a direct object in the D stem.


'Let Us Make Them in Our Image': The Historical Context and Contemporary Effect of 'Whitewashing' Ancient Egypt
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Meghan Alexander Beddingfield, Princeton Theological Seminary

Ridley Scott’s 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings lightly marketed itself as “sensitive” to the issue of race, yet the result falls in line with Hollywood’s corporate racism while maintaining historical inaccuracy. Most of the racial controversy around Scott’s film focuses on the unfair job opportunities within Hollywood and film creators’ acquiescence to fulfill American cultural, racist norms rather than challenge them from a standpoint of industry power. Yet, two aspects of the film that have received too little attention are the historical context of debates about the racial categorization of ancient Egyptians and the specific ways in which the White, male perspective of the film imposes itself on "other" viewers. This paper will begin with a contextualization of the irony of 19th century constructions of ancient Egyptian racial categorization and transition to how Scott reifies White supremacist ideologies in Exodus (2014). By analyzing the white male lens through which Exodus (2014) portrays history, this paper will delve into the emotional and religious displacement experienced by the "other" viewers, who do not ascribe to the normative position of white masculinity in the film.


Marcion’s Evangelion and the Two Source Hypothesis
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Jason BeDuhn, Northern Arizona University

The gospel included in Marcion’s scriptural canon offers the earliest datable extensive witness to the text of Luke, and therefore provides evidence crucial to probing the compositional history of the Synoptic Gospels. This paper surveys that evidence with regard to its implications for the viability of the Two Source Hypothesis. One challenge to the hypothesis is the presence of the so-called Minor Agreements, textual commonalities Luke shares with Matthew but not Mark, and which are not thought to derive from their other supposed common source, the hypothetical Q. The absence from Marcion’s Evangelion of a significant number of the Minor Agreements reveals them to be later harmonizations of the text of Luke to Matthew. Are the remaining Minor Agreements found in the Evangelion to be explained in the same way, as an earlier phase of textual harmonization? Previous scholarship has also identified a significant set of textual agreements between Luke and John in the Passion narrative, likewise lacking in Marcion’s gospel text. Should we regard such harmonizations as a product of copyists or redactors, or can we sustain the distinction, particularly at very early stages of textual transmission? The evidence of the Evangelion, therefore, in some ways addresses challenges to the Two Source Hypothesis, while in other ways adding new complications. Can the clean simplicity of the hypothesis survive what Marcion’s gospel has to tell us?


The Difficulty with Diagnosing Lamed Objecti
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Peter Bekins, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

In Biblical Hebrew the grammatical object is variably marked by the specialized preposition ’t. Old Aramaic featured a similar system using the cognate form ’yt but a new system emerged in Imperial Aramaic in which the dative preposition l was reanalyzed as an object marker alongside its regular use as a dative. This development was paralleled to some extent in Biblical Hebrew, but it is not clear how wide the phenomenon was as it is often difficult to differentiate cases of lamed objecti from true dative arguments. The diagnosis is often based on distribution—if there are arguments realized elsewhere as accusatives, then an equivalent argument marked by l is generally considered to be an accusative as well—but this method does not account for the possibility that case marking may vary in certain contexts. This is compounded by the fact that we often do not have a large or diverse enough set of examples to recognize such patterns with any particular verb. This paper will discuss the relationship between transitivity and argument realization from a functional-typological perspective, outline common uses of the dative to mark verbal arguments in Biblical Hebrew, and explore some of the semantic and pragmatic factors that may trigger variations between accusative and dative marking.


Wisdom and Worldview
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
David Beldman, Redeemer University College

Wisdom and Worldview


Islandspacing in Acts 2: Identity and Mimicry in the Diasporic Ingathering at the Feast of Weeks
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Camilla Belfon, University of Denver

This paper sets out to interpret the events surrounding the ritual feast of weeks (or Pentecost/Shavuoth) according to Acts 2 using critical post-colonial theory. These worshipers have traveled from coastal and island regions across Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Sea to memorialize this authentically Jewish feast that marks their identity. I will compare the significance of the anomalous event that transpires in Acts 2, the so called “Day of Pentecost” to similar ritual and cultural experiences Caribbean islanders, more appropriately, diasporic Jamaicans, might experience. While the more traditional historiographical approach may have some benefit in suggesting what the redactor might have had in mind at the time the text was written, such a dialogue with the text has historically had only one kind of reader in mind, coming from one kind of demographic, which continues to empower a homogeneous, Eurocentric epistemology. My approach through a post-colonial reading bears in mind coastal and island people whose identity has been formed by diasporic movements, as in Acts 2. How can Acts 2 be understood from the perspective of the subaltern individual who identifies with both island and inland geographic spaces? The cultural description the late Stuart Hall provides is helpful here. As a Jamaican islander, I have been first shaped by the amalgam of Présence Africaine and a Présence Européenne in addition to a handful of other cultures that colonialism has formed in me. Secondly, as a naturalized American in-lander, the Présence Americaine progressively re-frames me.[1] As a product of this ambivalent hybridity, I speak and subconsciously relate to a blend of English dialects, American, British and Jamaican in addition to what linguists call Jamaican Creole, or Patois. I am fluent in Spanish fluently and understand other languages for research purposes. Living in the United States as a child, I would look forward to returning home every year during the celebration of Jamaica’s independence. August is a High Holiday season that is felt strongly in the island as an ingathering of expatriates return largely from England, Canada, the United States, and other Caribbean nations. Likewise, the text of Acts 2 is located in a complex cultural network. The variety of languages we learn about in the text, from pantos ethnous (every nation) gather together in a prescribed geographical space hearing each other speak in idia dialecto (each one’s own dialect). The text, in v. 9 informs us that this diasporic ingathering, although transient for the purposes of the annual Feast of Weeks, largely find its origins in island and coastal regions. Out of the events of Acts 2, a unique new cultural identity is formed, to again migrate. Using space theories of Philip Sheldrake and Edward Soja’s thirdspacing, how might we understand the location of this ingathering as well as the participation of the pantos ethnous in the dramatic events narrated in Acts 2?


Affect and Embodiment in the Body of the Pythia
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Brigidda Bell, University of Toronto

This paper examines the figure of the Pythia in historical and literary perspective, examining the somatic markers that have historically accompanied the performance of her body in ritual display. Affect and embodiment theories bring the body and its experience into the foreground of analysis, allowing for the examination of descriptions of the tactile and the sensuous in reports of ritual practice and religious experience. This paper is interested in the ways that the body of the Pythia is written so as to affect its audience. In each given text, it is through the presence and manipulation of the body of the Pythia that the author impresses the reality of her experience of Apollo onto the reader.


Some Thoughts on LDS Scholarship from the Perspective of a Religious Educator
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Dan Belnap, Brigham Young University

Though it may be tempting to see LDS scholarship as a monolithic structure, the truth is it is more a spectrum, and within that spectrum is the Church’s Educational programs, and even specific, Religious Education at Brigham Young University. For those so employed, the distinction between Religious Education and Religious Studies may be subtle, but an important one. Yet finding the balance between our place within the academy and our responsibilities as religious educators can be challenging. In this presentation I’ll seek to explore this dynamic while suggesting that the time may be right to present good, critical studies that present the unique contribution that LDS approaches to scripture and ancient history have in the greater realm of the academy.


The Case of Innocent Blood: The Relationship between the Cities of Refuge and the Ritual for the Unsolved Murder (Deut. 21:1–9)
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Dan Belnap, Brigham Young University

Recognizing the difficult nature of Deuteronomy 21:1-9, the ritualized solution to unsolved manslaughter in rural space, both Ziony Zevit and David Wright tackled the pericope from two different perspectives. Zevit approached the text from a traditional historical perspective while Wright approached the pericope with comparisons to similar rites found in the ancient Near East. This study seeks to extend the conversation by elaborating on the significance of the rite as one of witness, namely that those who participated, and the communities they represented, are not be held accountable for the unaccounted manslaughter. The emphasis of the witnesses that the surrounding communities are not be responsible for the violent shedding of innocent blood is similar to the function of the cities of refuge suggesting that the ritual process may be seen as creating a temporary space that functions as a liminal space in which the social laws concerning the spilling of innocent blood may be suspended, similar to the city of refuge.


Proper Household Relations in Whose Basileia? Examining Ephesians’ Subtle Revisions to the Household Code of Colossians
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Lisa Marie Belz, Ursuline College

Traditionally, Ephesians and Colossians have been read in support of each other as letters written by Paul. Nonetheless, a naïve reading of these two epistles alongside each other blurs some significant differences between them. Examining the earliest text of Eph. 5:21-6:9, this paper highlights the carefully nuanced revisions which the author of Ephesians makes to Col. 3:18-4:1, demonstrating both the author’s resistance to the imperial household relationships in view in Colossians and the author’s insistence that relationships in a Christian home conform to Paul’s own instructions, as found in his genuine letters, on how the baptized must treat each other.


Judges 19:2 in Hebrew and Greek Traditions: How the Woman’s Departure Illustrates a Tradition’s Tendency
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Jason Bembry, Milligan College

In the story of the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19, Greek versions disagree when explaining why she left the Levite at the beginning of the story. The MT says “she played the harlot against her husband and left”, the LXX B says “she went from him and she departed”, the LXX A says “she became angry and she departed”, and Josephus’s account depicts her departure as a result of unrequited infatuation. I argue that the LXX B reflects the oldest account which merely reports her departure. LXX B and Josephus reflect a later stage of the story whereby the departure is given some explanation. The MT marks the latest version of the story in which the concubine’s sexuality has become suspect. I suggest that the MT attempts to ameliorate the horrific nature of a rape and murder of an innocent person by blaming the victim. I connect the suspect sexuality of this character with the depiction of Balaam and Jezebel. Although Balaam and Jezebel are condemned in the biblical traditions, it is clear that the negative portrayals of each have been augmented by later tradents. Balaam is initially good but he is blamed in the Priestly strata (Num 31:16) for the sin at Baal Peor (Numbers 25), where “the people begin to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.” Jezebel is condemned for sorcery and harlotry in 2 Kgs 9:22, although no other text depicts her harlotry. The concubine, like Balaam and Jezebel, dies at the hands of Israelites. All three are associated with the Hebrew root znh in the contexts of their death. These examples demonstrate a clear pattern among the late tradents of the Hebrew Bible who seek to justify the deaths of these characters at the hands of fellow Israelites.


Philo as Historian: His Testimony on the Beginning of the Jewish Settlement at Rome as a Case Study
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Miriam Ben Zeev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

While dealing with Roman policy towards the Jews of Rome, Philo states that Augustus "was aware that the great section of Rome on the other side of the Tiber was occupied and inhabited by Jews, most of whom were Roman citizens emancipated. For having been brought as captives to Italy, they were liberated by their owners and were not forced to violate any of their native institutions" (Philo Leg. 155). The question is whether this passage, which is often taken at face value, may be taken as historically reliable. While Philo's positive evaluation of Augustus' policy towards the Jews is corroborated by literary and epigraphical material, the other statements of this passage raise a number of questions: when and in which circumstances Jewish prisoners of war reached Rome; whether they constituted the first bulk of the Jewish settlement; whether all or most of them were liberated by their owners and whether this means that they automatically became Roman citizens. A survey of contemporary Roman sources suggests that Philo’s statement depicts a reality much more rosy than it probably was and cannot be taken at face value. However, this does not mean that Philo consciously lied to his readers, as some scholars assume. After all, he was not a historian but rather a politician, whose political agenda was more important for him than factual accuracy. His statement on the beginning of the Jewish settlement at Rome, therefore, is probably to be seen as an example of factual inaccuracy that betrays political and apologetic aims.


Chronicles’ Reshaping of Memories of the Ancestors Populating Genesis among (Late) Persian Period Literati
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Ehud Ben Zvi, University of Alberta

Reading and rereading Chronicles could not but make some impact on the social construction of memories about the ancestors of Genesis. Reading Chronicles and identifying with the message of conveyed by the Chronicler (i.e., the implied author/communicator) led, inter alia, to processes of drawing attention to or away from some mnemonic events and characters, reshaping and at times re-signifying implicit or explicit mnemonic narratives, and, on the whole involved an exploration of the potential roles and functions of such memories both among the literati of the period and for the ideological Israel, which they construed and with whom they identified. This paper will address these matters and the light that some mnemonic choices about ancestors made in Chronicles may shade on the social mindscape of the mentioned literati.


The Many Faces of Pharaoh in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Shirly Ben Dor Evian, Tel Aviv University and University of Lausanne

The Hebrew Bible refers to the Egyptian king in many different units and references. The references are not uniform in their terminology or in their treatment of the Egyptian royal institution. The most common term in use is “Pharaoh,” appearing on its own or with the additions “king of Egypt” and sometimes the Pharaoh’s proper name. The term “Pharaoh” is therefore employed as a substitute for the proper Egyptian name (e.g. Og king of Bashan, Pharaoh king of Egypt). This evolvement of the Egyptian term pr-’A from a title to a proper name, can be traced to ancient Egyptian texts from the late 22nd Dynasty and onwards. This study will therefore present the Egyptian etymology of the term pr-’A followed by a survey of the different biblical occurrences with special regard to the variations in the terminology. Finally this study will suggest that different terms can be ascribed to different phases of the biblical text, reflecting different attitudes towards Egyptian kingship.


Jerusalem and Alexandria: Greek Text Criticism and Judean Biblical Texts
Program Unit: Qumran
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa

The wide variety of biblical texts attested at the Qumran library is still awaiting full explanation. What was the reason for the creation of this variety? What are the intellectual-religious reasons for creating each of the texts? Were there political and societal factors behind each text-type? Why do sites other than Qumran display more consistency with (proto-)MT? Curiously, in the intellectual world of Alexandria one can find abundant considerations and criteria of textual criticism. A well-established discipline of textual criticism produced academic editions of the text of Homer, but as we know today Jews also took part in a similar discussion. Jewish Bible exegetes in Alexandria debated the validity of various corrections to the text of the Bible in Greek. The idea of the present paper is to apply the explicit Alexandrian argumentation to the abundant Judean data. Such a move had been initially suggested by Saul Liebermann. In a previous study I suggested viewing the pre-Samaritan text type as an ‘academic’ text in the Hellenistic tradition. Presently I suggest examining the roots of the (proto-)masoretic text as representing a conservative, so-to-say anti-academic approach to the biblical text. Such an opinion is attested among Jewish-Alexandrian authors. If true, it would be meaningful for understanding the way Judean intellectuals participated in the critical literary activity of the Greek world.


Competing Temporalities in Early Jewish Apocalypses
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa

At the heart of early Jewish Apocalypticism lie two fundamental temporal schemes: the astronomical-calendrical template of the Book of Luminaries and the plan of history in the Apocalypse of Weeks. While the former pays meticulous attention to the minute particles of time, the latter is concerned with large and not necessarily accurate year cycles. Two additional paradigms dominate the early apocalyptic scene, both of them deeply historical but only vaguely temporal: the Animal Apocalypse and the Four Kingdoms Model (Daniel 2, 7). The present paper interrogates whether there was ever an attempt to compromise these conflicting temporalities. The Qumran texts 4QOtot and 11QMelchizedek, as well as passages from the Hebrew part of Daniel, will be considered in that respect. If the answer is negative, the question remains whether and how the followers of the great apocalyptic seers explained the gaps to themselves. In a way, it is the ancient Greek philosophical question of Unity and Plurality again: how do the smallest components of reality correspond to the large-scale blocks which construct the same reality? Answering this question is prone to disclose several unusual insights about Time in Jewish apocalyptic literature.


A Novel Visualization of Biblical Texts Aligned at the Word-Level
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Drayton C. Benner, University of Chicago

Biblical scholars are frequently engaged in comparing texts that are very similar to one another, either because one is a translation of the other or because there is a relationship of literary dependence between the two. A variety of print reference works have been dedicated to showing biblical texts that have been aligned, usually at the verse or sentence level. A variety of software packages and web-based tools show biblical texts that have been aligned at the verse or sentence level. In addition, the LXX has been aligned to the Hebrew Bible at the word-level, as have several English translations with both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Word-level alignments between the Hebrew or Greek text of the Bible and a translation of it have traditionally been visualized either with an interlinear display or a reverse interlinear display. Both of these visualizations have strengths, but they both also have a prominent weakness: only the text on the top line is presented in order, while the other text is presented out of order. In the computational linguistics community, the common approaches to visualizing word-aligned texts do present both of them in order, though they have other weaknesses that make it difficult for one to see the alignment clearly. We will present a way of visualizing word-aligned texts that allows readers to read both texts in order while simultaneously seeing the alignment quickly and clearly. This novel visualization will be shown for three different types of word-level alignments. First, it will be shown for the existing word-level alignment of the Hebrew Bible and the LXX. This visualization will be released in digital format for scholarly consumption at the meeting. Second, it will be shown for a word-level alignment between the Hebrew Bible and an English translation as well as the Greek New Testament and an English translation. Finally, it will also be shown for parallel passages within the Hebrew Bible.


Cross-Cultural Intertextuality, Orality, and an Indigenous African Provenance of Gen 8:6–17
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Berekiah Olugbemiro, University of Ibadan

Justin Ukpong posited that a “concern to link the biblical text with the realities of African contexts, and the methodological implications that this entails” constitutes one of the distinctive features of African Biblical Hermeneutics. Critical studies on the Primeval History (Genesis 1-11) spearheaded by Herman Gunkel, had concluded that Israel appropriated it from myths, derived from shared cultural milieu of the Ancient Near East, circulated in oral form but later preserved in ancient texts, like the Gilgamesh Epic. Consequently, majority of works on Gen.1-11 focused on its Ancient Near Eastern context, and Ancient Near Eastern texts; to the neglect of its correlations with oral traditions from other regions of the world like West Africa, probably because of cultural divergence, and lack of ancient written text from those regions. This necessitates a theoretical basis for utilising resources from distant cultures, and employing oral texts as hermeneutic tools in analysing the Biblical text. Nigel Nicholson proffers intertextuality as a critical tool that “can provide a model for articulating the relations between fixed texts and informal oral traditions”. Cross-cultural intertextuality therefore, is applicable in articulating the relations between the Biblical text and ancient West African oral traditions, if adequate consideration is given to the fundamental orality underlying both the Biblical text and the extant forms of ancient West African myths. In this paper, I analysed the cross-cultural intertextuality between Gen.8:6-17 and an oral text from ancient Yoruba culture of South-Western Nigeria with the axioms of orality. The analysis reveals that the motifs of deluge, birds, and expanding dry land are shared heritage among the Hebrew and the Yoruba, implying either that their ancestors must have experienced the same event, or they descended from a common ancestral source which directly experienced the event. Keywords: Cross-cultural Intertextuality; Deluge; Orality; Primeval History; West African Oral Traditions.


Trito-Isaiah and the Reforms of Ezra-Nehemiah: Coordination or Conflict?
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Ulrich Berges, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Regardless of how Old Testament scholars delimit the Trito-Isaianic chapters and determine their relation to the Book of Isaiah as a whole and its different major sections, two aspects are generally accepted: On the one hand the pragmatics of Trito-Isaiah cannot be understood apart from the pragmatics of the entire Book. This position is maintained especially by diachronic approaches which understand Trito-Isaiah as the redactor of Proto- and Deutero-Isaiah. On the other hand there is a broad consensus that the literary core as well as the main body of Trito-Isaiah date from the 5th century BCE. Considering this dating, the issue of Trito-Isaiah’s relation to the postexilic Reform movements which are tied to the names and books of Ezra and Nehemiah arises automatically. Is Trito-Isaiah – and thus the Book of Isaiah as a whole – to be understood rather as a prophetic propaganda in favour of Ezra/Neh or as an objection to them? The answer to this question highly influences the identifcation of the circles of prophetic tradents (Trägerkreise) in charge of Trito-Isaiah and of the whole Book.


Redemptive vs. Non-Redemptive Suffering: Christian Theological Narratives as Spiritual Boot Camp
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
John Berkman, University of Toronto

*


Paratextuality and the Aramaic Psalm Titles
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
AJ Berkovitz, Princeton University

Psalm headings are a productive site for exploring issues relating to paratextuality. While they are generally viewed as later additions to individual Psalms, subsequent transmitters and translators often understood them as integral to the original composition. The Psalm body composition, which may have initially generated the titles, is now read in light of them. This paper will explore the relationship between Psalm headings and body composition in the Aramaic Psalter. This will be, to my knowledge, the first such in-depth study. Instead of merely cataloging the various translations, we will explore their implications. We will uncover two opposing literary trends in dealing with the paratextual header. First, we will demonstrate the relative uniformity in the translational choice of certain headings. Some of these instances show little concern for and even clash with the body composition. We will then explore a counter trend in which content from the title influences translational and interpretive choices in the body composition and visa-versa. This will demonstrate that headings of the Aramaic Psalter are not fully partitioned independent units. Are these two trends reconcilable? To what degree did the translator(s) think of them as titles or part of the composition? What do they tell us about text-titles in the ancient world? How might the Aramaic Psalter been performed or studied, and what role would the titles play? In addition to proving a useful site to think with about paratextuality, such study may further help establish the date, location and redactional history of the Aramaic Psalter.


Introducing: The Tiberias Project - A Web Tool for the Text Categorization and Analysis of Hebrew Scriptures
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Joshua Berman, Bar-Ilan University

Scholars have struggled for more than two centuries to parse the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures and to identify the different authors, genres, and editorial layers of the text. While the issue is foundational to nearly all aspects of the critical study of the Hebrew Bible, the field as a whole lacks a consensus concerning a methodology to tackle these critical questions. Many have tried to parse the texts on the basis of different styles. The quest, though, for any quantifiable, controllable measure of what "style" is, remains elusive. As a result, most of the proposed authorial and editorial divisions of the biblical texts are made on the basis of content, even as scholars sense that different biblical writers employed different styles. Meanwhile, over the last decade, a handful of computational linguists have achieved unprecedented results working in the sub-field of text-categorization, also known as authorship attribution. Results published in 2011 by a team of scholars led by Moshe Koppel demonstrate that it is possible to apply these algorithms to the Hebrew Bible and to achieve highly significant, controllable, verifiable results. We are in the beta stage of producing a web-based application for the categorization and analysis of Hebrew Scriptures along lexical, morphographic, and syntactic lines. In this presentation we will demonstrate Tiberias’ capacity to provide scholars the full panoply of measurable textual features and state-of-the-art machine learning methods to provide reliable statistical evidence confirming (or falsifying) user-provided hypotheses about distinct stylistic threads in the entire biblical corpus. The tool goes far beyond anything available to biblical scholars today. The tools available today, at best, can provide statistical analysis about a single word or phrase, but nothing about the statistical significance of a variety of elements when found in a given text. The tool will give biblical scholars new capabilities with which to consider a range of critical questions: How many authors may have produced this text? Are two disparate texts written by the same author? Does this text reflect an earlier stage of ancient Hebrew or a later one? Does this psalm more closely resemble the linguistic profile of one genre or another? Note: A 3-minute “trailer” video on the Tiberias Project is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjx99KTMto


Juxtaposed Conflicting Compositions (Genesis 1–2, 4a-2, 4b-2, 24; Exodus 14–15; Judges 4–5): A New Kingdom Egyptian Parallel
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Joshua Berman, Bar-Ilan University

One of the hallmarks of twenty-first century scholarship of the Hebrew Bible has been increased interest in the empirical compositional strategies exhibited in cognate literatures as a lens through which to understand the growth of biblical literature in ancient Israel, as exhibited in book-length studies by David Carr and Karel van der Toorn. In this study I look to the cognate literature to gain perspective on a long-standing compositional conundrum within the Hebrew Bible: the presence of conflicting accounts that are juxtaposed within the received version of the biblical text. This phenomenon is exhibited most clearly in the paired accounts of creation in Genesis 1-2,4a and 2,4b-2,24 and in the narrative vs. poetic accounts of both the splitting of the sea (Exod 14-15) and Barak’s defeat of Sisera’s army (Judg 4-5). Within cognate literature one may point to several examples of events that are told quite differently in two different compositions. One example concerns the Assyrian compositions that depict the war between Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria and Kashtiliash IV of Babylon. A prose account is found in the royal building inscriptions of the Assyrian king, while we also have a poetic rendering of the event, known as the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic. While these compositions differ in significant regards, they are nowhere found together physically and it is rightly assumed that they were never meant to be read together and were composed at different times for different audiences and for different purposes. To date no example from the cognate literature has been produced that reveals two differing accounts of the same event in juxtaposed fashion. It is in this context that I draw attention to the compositions found in the Kadesh Inscriptions of Ramesses II. Here we find that the pharaoh commissioned two differing and even conflicting accounts of the Battle of Kadesh and had them carved side by side at several monumental sites across Egypt. I will begin my presentation by examining the discrepancies between the two texts and the approaches that Egyptologists have proposed to explain the juxtaposition of these differing accounts. I then turn to examine the implications of this mode of literary composition for our understanding of juxtaposed conflicting compositions in the text of the Hebrew Bible.


Yoke of the King or God: A Convergence of Metaphor and Metonym
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
David Bernat, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Hebrew word for “yoke,” ol, often takes a concrete or literal usage, referring to the device that binds pack animals and chariot horses (eg Num 19:2). However, the term is also used metaphorically, in political or theological contexts, to connote submission to, or dominance by, a king, nation, or deity (eg 1 Kg 12:4ff; Is 9:3; Jer 5:5). The submissive entity is portrayed as a pack animal while the dominant power is analogous to the human master. The animal who accepts the yoke accepts the mastery. In like manner, Israel is seen to accept the mastery of the conquering Assyrians, or of God and the divine commands and statutes. The use of the ol metaphor is greatly expanded in Rabbinic literature and Jewish liturgy, where it becomes a core theolegomenon. The Akkadian semantic equivalent, nir, and less commonly, synonyms such as absanu, have identical usage patterns, on the literal and metaphorical levels. In an example of the latter, Tiglath Pileser I (Annals) asserts “I imposed the heavy yoke of my lordship (nir belutiya) upon him in for all time.” In a theological context “The Babylonian Theodicy” contains the epigram, “he who bears the yoke of his God (nir ili ) never lacks food, however sparse.” Note also that the Aramaic cognate of Akkadian nir is typically found in the Targumim when translating Biblical ol. However, in an anomalous and happy linguistic coincidence, nir in Mesopotamian writings is also used metonymically to represent dominance and submission in political and theological spheres. The nir is the yoke found on the king’s battle chariot, and stands, by way of synecdoche, for his military might. Thus, Sennacherib’s campaign accounts typically display narrative patterns such as “I turned my yoke to NN.” As he directs his chariot, so are directed the totality of his forces. In the same vein, we find the expression, “NN submitted to my yoke.” Here, the readers is meant to envision the conquered king, in a gesture of abject submission, bowing down directly in front of the Sennacherib’s chariot. Occasionally, the metonym is used with one remove. The enemy is said to submit to the yoke of Ashur – The Assyrian king’s triumph is, by extension, the victory of his patron deity. Applying contemporary theoretical frameworks, the proposed paper will flesh out the connection between the Akkadian nir metaphors and metonyms, and in turn, their relationship to the Biblical and later Jewish usage of the ol metaphors. This research is an outgrowth of my work on circumcision metaphor and metonymy the the Bible and Jewish literature, in their Ancient Near Eastern contexts.


How and Why Does Cedar Purify? An Inhabited Approach to Ancient Ritual Texts
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Sarah Berns, Brown University

In this paper, I explore how an “inhabited” approach to ancient ritual texts, focused on bodily habits and spatial habitats, might illuminate the use of cedar products for purification in ancient Israel and Ancient West Asia more broadly. What does a sick man’s cedar amulet have to do with the Ugaritic Baal cycle, or the blob of resin placed in a diviner’s mouth with Assyrian timber procurement? I take Leviticus 14’s ritual of purification for a person healed from skin disease and the Mesopotamian incantation collection Šurpu, which purifies to relieve the ill effects experienced by an oath-breaker, as examples of a much broader practice of purification with cedar, attested in ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, and Syria-Palestine. Reading with attention both to the sensory experiences produced by these rituals and to the material, ideological, and mythical resonances invoked by discussions of cedar ingredients, I argue that these rites worked by placing patients’ bodies within physical and imaginative geographies. In short, the use of cedar dissociated patients’ bodies from locations characterized by impurity, sickness, and ill fortune, and instead associated them with locations characterized by purity, divinity, health, and well-being. This ritual process of location served to transform both individual bodies and regional geographies. Even as they rendered people pure, rituals with cedar defined spaces as pure or impure, divine or human, sick or healthy, powerful or powerless, and as sources of or destinations for extracted natural resources. When we attend to the cedar-laden rites that made sick or cursed men and women well, the artificial distinctions between physical environment, mythic tropes, and individual bodily experience recede. In their place emerges a more holistic picture of the complex and potent relationship between people and cedar forests in the ancient eastern Mediterranean.


Reading the Genesis Apocryphon: The First Decade
Program Unit: Qumran
Moshe J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University

In the case of a text such as the Genesis Apocryphon, which has been classified and read in so many different ways since its initial publication, and whose textual remains were not all published simultaneously, the history of its interpretation can and often does become a virtual and vital part of its interpretation. Although it was one of the first seven scrolls to be discovered in Cave 1, it was not published until almost a decade after its discovery, a decade during which Qumran studies began to develop and during which the other six scrolls were published and began to be analyzed. But the Apocryphon was quite different from the other six scrolls. To begin with, it was written in Aramaic, whereas the others were all written in Hebrew, and it clearly belonged to a genre different from all of the others. Only five of its twenty-two (later realized to be twenty-three) columns were published because of its poor physical condition. So it offered a challenge to its early readers and interpreters, perhaps beyond the ones presented by the other “new” scrolls discovered in Cave 1, the Hodayot, the War Scroll, the Community Rule and the Habakkuk pesher. This paper will trace the ways in which the Genesis Apocryphon was read and interpreted from its initial publication by Nahman Avigad and Yigael Yadin in late 1956 until the appearance of the first edition of Joseph A. Fitzmyer’s now standard commentary in 1967. We shall see how the initial hypotheses and presuppositions of those early readers of the Apocryphon affected how they interpreted it. What did they call the work? In what context and against what historical and literary background did they read it? To what literary genre did they assign it? To what degree did scholars’ religious orientation, Jewish or Christian, affect their approaches to it? All of these elements and others played a role in the stance that scholars adopted toward this new text. We shall see that the attempts to classify the Apocryphon proceeded from somewhat unsophisticated initial attempts to more subtle and complex ones. As we trace the paths that earlier scholars walked down in attempting to understand the text, the processes and strategies which they employed in reading the Apocryphon, and the lenses through which they examined it, we actually begin to understand the work more fully. Even some of the false starts made by those readers of the Apocryphon in the 1950s and 1960s can sometimes aid in our attempt to read and interpret the Apocryphon today.


A New Perspective on the Kinship between Jews and Spartans in 1 and 2 Maccabees: The Issue of Ancestral Territory
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Katell Berthelot, CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research)

Previous discussions about the kinship between Jews and Spartans referred to in both 1 and 2 Maccabees have focused on the issue of the historical reliability of the sources and the historicity of the diplomatic relationship between Judea and Sparta. The arguments put forward by Erich Gruen in favor of a negative conclusion are in my opinion wholly convincing, but the reasons for the invention of such a kinship still remain debated, as recently emphasized by Jan Bremmer. Fictitious letters documenting a kinship that was not acknowledged by the other side (Sparta) could hardly be used as a real diplomatic tool by the Hasmonean dynasty. The reasons that prompted the invention of the Judaeo-Spartan kinship, which goes back to the period before the Maccabean revolt, rather lie in the realm of representations. The image of the Spartans as brave, disciplined, faithful to their ancestral laws, etc., certainly played a role (as Josephus’s Against Apion still shows), but is that a sufficient explanation? Why was this kinship needed at all, and how did it make sense for the Jews themselves, beyond the idea of Abraham as a culture hero? This paper aims at re-examining the issue of the kinship between Jews and Spartans in light of the claims made by Spartans and Jews to their ancestral territory. I shall compare the traditions known as the myth of the Return of the Herakleidai on the one hand and the biblical traditions pertaining to the “Promised Land” on the other, and show that the Spartan myth and the way it legitimates Sparta’s property right over a given territory may have played a role in the invention of the Judaeo-Spartan kinship among the Judean elites of Jerusalem during the first half of the 2nd century BCE.


Hosting Jesus: Revisiting Luke’s ‘Sinful Woman’ (Luke 7:36–50)
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Dorothea Bertschmann, University of Durham

The narrative of the sinful woman anointing Jesus’ feet is for many the paradigmatic story of repentance and forgiveness, highlighting in particular the woman’s tears as a sign of contrition. For others, particularly socio-historical contributors, the emphasis is the radical inclusiveness of Jesus’ fellowship meal with ‘sinners’, an offensive gesture to many contemporaries (cf. the studies of Dunn, Neyrey, Bloomberg and others). Both rightly perceive Jesus as the dominant actor of the scene in Luke 7:36-50, offering salvific goods to the woman, but they somehow underemphasize Jesus’ reinterpretation of the woman’s actions as the laudable gestures of a host. Exploring ancient and anthropological notions of interactions between guests and hosts (Pitt-River, Arterbury), this paper argues that her hospitality is at the heart of the narrative, controlling any notions of gracious forgiveness or care for the marginalized. The Pharisee establishes an initial exchange of hospitality with Jesus, which is put at risk by the appearance of the woman. The woman’s provocative behaviour threatens to dishonor Jesus and indirectly his host. Jesus, however, does nothing to mend the initial cycle of hospitality. Instead he opens an alternative cycle, transferring the key function of the host from Simon to the woman. This rearranging of relationships is strangely and widely overlooked by exegetes, even while the activities of the woman are correctly read as hospitable actions. This paper will argue that far from being merely at the receiving end, the unknown woman is imaginatively and provocatively reconstructed as the powerful giving actor, who does not endanger the hospitality setting but actually upholds it. Though the woman is mute (cf. Corley’s criticism) her actions speak loudly and make her the central character, who becomes paradigmatic for the proper hosting of God’s messenger.


‘Revenge Is Mine, I Will Pay Back’: Has Mercy Not the Last Word, after All? Reading Rom 12:19 as a Hidden Discourse of Justice and Mercy
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Dorothea H. Bertschmann, University of Durham

Romans has been described as a text, which moves ‘from wrath to justification’ (A. Lincoln), where God’s righteousness is increasingly expressed as overflowing mercy, or, as Paul often prefers to render the biblical eleos: Grace, charis (chp.5). Whatever the mechanism behind God’s saving act in Christ, it is clear that the divine dikaiosune is not demonstrated in a just and fitting rendering of judgment, which would lead to the destruction of human beings under the conditions of sin. Instead, God has locked up everybody into disobedience, ‘so that he might have mercy on all’ (Romans 11:32). This mercy leaves no room for justice in the symmetric and retributive sense, indeed, some recent interpreters of Paul emphasize that this concept of justice, and its correlate, the divine wrath, have been radically abandoned by the Christ event (D.Campbell). For such meta-readings the mentioning of both God’s wrath (orge) and God’s vengeance/revenge (edkikesis) in both Romans 12:19 and Romans 13:4 is potentially troubling. At first glance ‘revenge’ looks like an alien concept for Paul, who, unlike many apocalyptic texts, seems no-where to ‘delight in the torture of the wicked’ (C. Beker). How can Paul still speak of wrath and, worse, revenge post Christum? And why is the admonition to act mercifully towards enemies backed up by a reference to God’s vindictive justice? This paper will argue that Paul’s specific discourse of dikaiosune deliberately sharpens up the punitive aspects of God’s justice, the ‘wrath’, which will befall both disobedient Jews and Gentiles “without distinction”. In contrast, the divine wrath has soteriological aspects in many OT and Jewish texts, functioning as an integral part of God’s covenant faithfulness and being deployed on behalf of a wronged party over against its oppressors. Divine justice cannot be pictured without this salvific anger on behalf of the oppressed party. Universal mercy comes dangerously close to divine injustice seen from that angle. Since for Paul the universal mercy in Christ triggers a universalizing of orge, there is not easily space for the positive aspect of vindictive justice. Romans 12.19 can be seen as bringing an aspect of divine justice to the fore, namely God’s partisan wrath on behalf of his wronged people, which had no room anymore in Paul’s tight construction of mercy and justice. By linking his appeal to peaceful non-resistance with a reference to God’s vengeful activity, Paul can be seen to hold together God’s universal mercy and God’s partisan justice together in most intriguing ways.


Reading Galatians in Late Antiquity: An Ethno-History
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Todd Berzon, Bowdoin College

“O foolish Galatians, who has ensnared you?” Nearly three and a half centuries after Paul had reproached the Galatians for their spiritual regression and their apparent return to the works of the law, Jerome, writing in Bethlehem ca. 390 C.E., examined anew the underlying cause of Paul’s anger. Galatians 3:1a, Jerome explains, “can be understood in two ways: either that the Galatians…are called foolish because they have started in the spirit yet have finished in the flesh,” or that they are called foolish because of their ethnicity, since “each and every provincia possesses its own character.” To prove the latter point, Jerome unfurls a winding, digressive ethno-history of the Galatians, which he constructs in order to explain the underlying reasons for their arrogance, stupidity, and senselessness. By his reckoning, then, the error and obstinacy of the Galatians was as much a result of their own blood as it was an affirmative choice of the flesh over and against the spirit. This paper analyzes a series of late antique commentaries on Galatians (by Jerome, Augustine, Marius Victorinus, and Ambrosiaster) with a view to investigating the connection between theological disobedience and ethnic constitutions or national dispositions. Through the interpretive history of Galatians, I attempt to trace the exegetical connection between Christian heresy and genealogical diversity. For Jerome and other late antique interpreters, the Galatians were an ethnographic plaything—a canvas upon which they could propose a correlation between Christian error, on the one hand, and ethnic mentalities, on the other. The differences (haereseis) that Paul naturalized in 1 Corinthians 11.19 were reimagined in late antiquity both as heresies and as heresies of ethnological origin. On the reading of these Paul interpreters, Paul was transformed from an apostle for Christ into a theological ethnographer and heresiologist.


Spatializing Heresy in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Todd Berzon, Bowdoin College

The Theodosian Code is replete with laws that proscribe heretical places of worship and assemblies, and that authorize the confiscation of property from churches and even individuals discovered to be heretics. A law from 389 C.E. went further still by seeking the removal of the heretics from the whole world: “If any person whatever should disturb the world under the name of Manichaeans, they shall indeed be expelled from the whole world but especially from this city (Rome), under threat of judgment.” The legal opinions of the Code described heresy in both specific and general geographic terms. While heretics resided in particular cities city, heresy itself was supra-spatial; it was neither conceptually nor practically confined to particular locations or ecclesiastical spaces. And with new heretics continually sprouting, mapping and controlling heresy was a constant challenge for an imperial church desperate to maintain the appearance of unity. In this paper, I investigate the development of an expressly spatialized discourse of Christian heresy in the Theodosian Code. I argue that efforts to legislate heresy in spatial terms served both to reify its seemingly uncontrollable, ephemeral, protean nature, while also distinguishing heresy as a public contagion from heresy as a private (and in at least one case permissible) mental condition. To legislate heresy in the language of space and place was thus an attempt to regularize it, to subject it to conditions that could be usefully legislated against, maybe even with a modicum of tolerance in a narrowly defined “private” realm. But the Code presents more than an ideology of control and imperial domination; rather, it reveals a protracted struggle to define the very terms of heretical control. The Code, following the discourse developed by late antique heresiology, codified the Christian effort to manage the unmanagenable.


Using Bible Software to Teach Translation Theory
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Bryan Bibb, Furman University

Undergraduate students often have only a rudimentary understanding of why there are so many Bible versions. An instructor using biblical software can quickly reveal the many important differences in translation, but it is also important to help students understand why translations are different, i.e., what theoretical and practical factors have shaped each version. This presentation will demonstrate techniques developed in a course titled, "The Digital Bible," in which students use Accordance and free online tools to explore the underlying methods and assumptions behind particular translation decisions. One common motif in treatments of introductory exegesis is the contrast between "formal correspondance" and "dynamic equivalence" approaches to translation, popularized by Eugene Nida and now usually presented as a spectrum between two poles. Students are taught, for instance, that the NASB is one of the most "literal" Bibles and the Message is the most "dynamic," and they are asked to decide which version is "correct." However, translation theory in recent decades has moved beyond these two categories in order to emphasize that all translation is interpretation. Translators participate in power-laden interpretive frameworks, and all translations function within a web of reader expectations and needs. Students should recognize, for instance, that every translation of controversial passages related to gender (e.g., Ezekiel 23, 1 Timothy 2) is constrained by particular social, political, and theological goals and assumptions. By using tagged texts, lexicons, translators' notes, etc., students can gain a richer understanding of the translation process and why it matters to interpretation. Rather than casting one translation as more "accurate" or "faithful," this exercise shows how translation is always already an interpretive act.


Yahweh as the Priest of Human Sacrifice in Isaiah 30:27–33
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Bryan Bibb, Furman University

The richly metaphorical description of God's judgment of the Assyrian king in Isaiah 30:27–33 is a challenge for both translators and interpreters. The text describes Yahweh in theophanic language, with attendant elements of fire, smoke, and thunderstorm. As the deity arrives in anger and overwhelming displays of power, the people hold a religious festival around a central act of ritual: Yahweh's killing of the Assyrian king on the tophet, the altar of human sacrifice. A metaphorical passage such as this challenges notions of "literal" versus "dynamic" translation. All attempts to render these images in English fail, but for different reasons. A formal translation that preserves the original imagery is difficult for modern readers due to their lack of historical domain knowledge. A dynamic translation that unpacks the "meaning" of the metaphors softens the shocking literalism of the text. Bodily metaphors for Yahweh's theophany are difficult enough, but in fact, no English translation has captured the essential nature of the metaphor as a whole, i.e., Yahweh as the high priest performing a human sacrifice. Most versions either transliterate "Tophet" or render it loosely as "the burning place." How does this metaphorical shift change the meaning of the text? When tophet is pictured as a funeral pyre, the metaphor slips into a less precise conceptual domain: Yahweh is angry, the people rejoice, and the Assyrian king dies. However, when "tophet" is translated as "altar of human sacrifice," Yahweh's anger is one element of a classic theophany, the people's rejoicing has the technical elements of a worship event, and the king's death occurs through a pagan ritual of human sacrifice. Why, then, do translators make this choice? In modern religious contexts, this passage is surprising, counter-intuitive, and inconsiderate. Translators have been unwilling to convey fully the significance of this metaphor because of the conceptual boundary between orthodox theology and heterodox abomination. Surely the Lord cannot be part of such a scene! In English translations of Isaiah 30:27–33, he is not.


Road Work Ahead: Does mille yad Really Refer to Priestly Ordination?
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Michael Biggerstaff, Ohio State University

The Hebrew phrase mille yad is commonly understood to refer to the ordination of priests. However, of the eighteen occurrences of the phrase, only thirteen occur in contexts explicitly mentioning priests. The remaining five, which comprise over one-quarter of occurrences, are devoid of explicit connection to priests, thus requiring scholars to nuance the idiom to fit these contexts. Additionally, even in Exodus 29, whose prescription for the ordination of priests preserves four occurrences of the phrase, the standard meaning of the phrase mille yad complicates the image of ordination by requiring Aaron and his sons to be ordained multiple times. Thus half of the occurrences of the phrase are infelicitous to the standard meaning of priestly ordination. The goal of this paper is to hang in front of each of those eighteen occurrences a metaphorical sign saying, “Caution: Road Work Ahead.” Ideally such a sign would cause readers to slow down and further evaluate the context of each occurrence of the phrase. In order to do so, this paper seeks to elucidate the complications surrounding the commonly accepted interpretation of the phrase mille yad. This will be accomplished by an examination of the occurrences of the phrase outside ordination contexts and then proceed to Exodus 29. As the Akkadian phrase qatam mullu has often been adduced in support of the standard interpretation, I will also briefly evaluate its relevance. I then conclude with a suggested interpretation of the phrase that clarifies three of the previously problematized passages.


Holy Places, Holy Fragrances: The Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea as Sensory Pilgrimage Map
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Mark Glen Bilby, Claremont School of Theology

The Narrative or Declaration of Joseph of Arimathea is one of several texts to be included in a forthcoming CCSA critical edition by G. Aragione. Earlier scholars have postulated a highly varied range of theories about its date (e.g., Ehrman and Plese, 4th-12th; Frey and Outtier, 4th-6th). Its similarities to other Pilate Cycle literature—a collection of eclectic texts that have also proven difficult to date—have preoccupied previous scholarship. What has gone overlooked is the underlying purpose and lived setting of the Narrative as an experiential (and/or vicarious) pilgrimage map. This analysis will explore the pilgrimage and sensory dimensions of the Narrative and argue for a corresponding late 4th or early 5th century Palestinian provenance.


Conceptions of Scripture in the Second Century: Irenaeus and Non-canonical Christian Texts
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
D. Jeffrey Bingham, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Scholars have long been interested in Irenaeus’s understanding of the authority of Hermas due to his introducing it as ??af?. Opinions have been diverse, ranging from his seeing it as Scripture, on the same level as the Prophets and Apostles, to his counting it as merely an edifying writing. A recent article by Steenberg has brought the question to the forefront again. Steenberg renews the argument for its status as Scripture in the thought of the bishop of Lyons. However, there has never been a full accounting of how we are to understand the authority, not only Hermas, but also of other early Christian texts referred to by Irenaeus as ??af? and those authored by Christians he believed were associated with the apostles, particularly 1 Clement, Papias’s Exposition, and Polycarp’s Epistle. This article, attempts to set forth such an accounting. It argues that Irenaeus has an understanding of the term ‘Scripture’ that includes the Prophets and the Apostles, in first, foundational place, but also includes those writings of Clement, Papias, Polycarp in second, derivative place. For Irenaeus, then, ‘Scripture’ was a term of broad meaning, but his prejudice for the foundational nature of the Prophets and Apostles remains clear. It is this bias which he passes on and which guides future principles of canonical definition.


Heresy and Catholicity in Economic Perspective: Irenaeus on Money
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
D. Jeffrey Bingham, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Proposal for the third project. Economic considerations played an important role in early attempts of Christian self-definition. In second-century Lyons, there was an economical dimension to Christian polemics and the attempt to identify the “other.” “Heresy” is costly. “Catholicity” is free. As Irenaeus penned his polemic against his opponents toward the end of the second century, these would have been his convictions. From the root of all error, that charlatan Simon, who coveted the powers of the apostles for purposes of monetary gain, to that deceiver and seducer, Marcus the magician, false teaching comes with a love for money and at a price (Acts 8:9-11). On the other hand, the Church’s doctrine, the apostles’ teaching, comes without cost. To these two perspectives, issues of secrecy and openness are attached. The “heretics” must pass along their teachings in hiding only to those with the wherewithal to trade. The Church, however, speaks its doctrines in public without regard for the hearer’s ability to make compensation, for what has been received without cost is distributed without cost (Matt 10:8). The Church is like a rich man, whose treasure, the water of life, is available to all who will draw from his wealth (Rev 22:17). For Irenaeus, there is little role for money within orthodoxy. The love of it is associated with perverse teachings while generosity is associated with the truth. The riches of righteousness are the concern of the Church’s members as they marvel at the unity of history that possesses grace in both economies, but in different degrees. As God has no need of money for he is self-sufficient, they have no need of loving it, for he gives all that is necessary within his ordering of all things.


An Introductory Survey of the Ethiopic Books of Maccabees
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Yonatan Binyam, Florida State University

The Ethiopic Biblical canon, broadly conceived, does not include the four books of Maccabees that are traditionally present in the so-called deuterocanonical lists of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. There is, however, a completely different text known as Mäqabeyan that exists in several manuscripts. Aside from Josef Horowitz’s 1906 article entitled “Das äthiopische Maccabäerbuch,” and the article by Alessandro Bausi in the Enclyclopaedia Aethiopica, very little work has been done on this important text. In this presentation, I attempt to provide an introductory survey to the Mäqabeyan. First, I present a survey of the known manuscripts of the Ethiopic Maccabees, which today are located in various places including Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, British Library in London, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Vatican City, National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, University Library in Cambridge, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Collegeville, Ethiopian Manuscript Imaging Project in Oregon, and the Ethio-SPARE project in Hamburg. Secondly, I highlight the uniqueness of the Ethiopic Maccabees, which is the only native Ethiopian biblical text of which we know. It is also unique for not being translated from Greek in the Aksumite period, and for its relationship to the Hebrew Yosippon via an Arabic intermediary. Additionally, I discuss the brief history of research on the text and also provide some details about the canonicity of the text within the Ethiopian tradition.


Rebuffing Solomon: The Intertwinement of Culture, Exegesis, and Art in the Drama Theory of the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Elisabeth Birnbaum, Catholic Private University Linz

The variety of interpretations of the Song of Songs is not only due to the exegete’s methods or biblical hermeneutics. Instead, it is the openness of poetry that requires numerous preliminary decisions in very sensitive and intimate areas (e.g. the concepts of love, the relations between man and woman, God and sexuality). These decisions are pivotal for the interpretation, but they often remain unconscious and hidden. Artists, musicians or writers who – without noticing – take the same culture-bound decisions may agree with the exegete’s interpretation and based on this interpretation create new (literary) works with a certain impact on the writer’s and the exegete’s culture, thus completing the circle. My paper wants to provide a case-study on this circle of mutual influence and impact. It focuses on the interpretation of the Song of Songs as a drama in exegesis, literature and music. This so-called „drama theory“ was highly regarded for about a hundred years (appr. between 1820 and 1920). Because of this limited period of time, it is especially suitable for a case study on culture-bound interpretation. The drama theory was first developed (though there had been a few isolated predecessors) in 1771 by T. J. Jacobi who claimed the Song of Songs to be the story of a love triangle between Solomon, a young shepherd and the beautiful though humble country-girl. So „he was the first in Germany who showed that Solomon was not the object of the Shulamite’s affections, and that the beloved was a humble shepherd from whom the King endeavoured to separate her.” This became the predominant view in the first decades of the 19th century, in Germany as well as in America and England. Christian Commentators such as Umbreit (1820), the „celebrated“ Ewald (1826), Hirzel (1840) or Friedrich (1855) endorsed this view as well as rabbis like Herxheimer (1848) and Philippson (1848) who, as Ginsburg states, „by virtue of their high position and great learning, may be regarded as representing the view now generally entertained by the Jews respecting the Song of Songs.“ So Ginsburg rejoices that since 1856: „In this opinion of the superiority of virtuous love to all the temptations of royalty, the Jew and the Christian, the Englishman and the German, are beginning to unite.” Since at least 1857 (and more than 20 years before Herder’s famous plea for the „literal sense”) the story of the humble maid who rejects the alluring rich king Solomon began to inspire librettists and playwrights such as Paul Heyse or Ernst Hardt. At the end of the 19th century it was a favourite subject of both musical and non-musical stage-plays. Rubinstein/Rodenberg’s opera „Sulamith“ (1883), Mackenzie’s oratorio „The Rose of Sharon“ (1888) or Roman Wörner’s drama „König Salomo“ (1913) are only a few examples. So in the story of this interpretation that was supported by the romantic era and influenced itself the reception of the book in the late romantic, the interlacement of culture, exegesis and arts becomes manifest in a most impressive way.


Loss of Initial /n/ in Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest-Semitic Context
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Øyvind Bjøru, University of Texas at Austin

The initial nasal of primae nun verbs in the Qal imperative and infinitive construct in Biblical Hebrew is manifest in some verbs, e.g., ntôš (Prov 17:14), but absent in others, e.g. sa? (Gen 13:14). This has been attributed to either the thematic vowel of the verb, or the imperative being clipped from the prefix conjugation. In this paper I will argue that there is no basis for the association of this phenomenon with the thematic vowel, and that the clipping hypothesis is untenable. There is rather a phonetic condition that can account for the loss of /n/ in these forms. A voiceless fricative following the /n/ disconnects the nasality from the consonant and ultimately deletes it. The phenomenon is brought about by speakers reanalyzing the [+nasal] feature as the common spurious nasalization that occurs in vowels preceding voiceless fricatives. The same phenomenon can be seen in English five, goose from Proto-Germanic *fimf, *gans. This process is reconstructed to Proto-Northwest-Semitic, and its outcome can therefore be seen in Ugaritic and Aramaic, in addition to Biblical Hebrew.


Affecting Pink: Chagall, the Song of Songs, and the Senses
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Fiona C. Black, Mount Allison University

This paper wrestles with the 5 paintings in the series _Cantique des Cantiques_ by Marc Chagall. These allusive, highly symbolic pieces present appealing glimpses into the Song, but like the text itself, consist of a series of sense-impressions, resisting narrative logic, and prompting the reader to think seriously about the practice of viewing/reading, when easy interpretation seems thwarted. Indeed, how should the paintings be understood, beyond that they represent a pastiche of images? Part of the difficulty has to do with the fact that the paintings seem to force a sensate encounter--visual to be sure--but also olfactory, gustatory, and auditory. The question, then, is how to put a sensate reading on the table in the determination of the paintings' meaning, and subsequently when considering their significance for the text. How does one smell or taste a painting? Could it be in the same way one encounters a text like the Song? Perhaps a clue might come from medieval artists, in the form of another puzzling, yet affecting set of images. Using the medieval tapestry La Dame et la Licorne--an allegory of the senses, and perhaps based on the Song, if Richard Kearney is to be believed--to think with, along with some theoretical work on affect, the paper reads Chagall's work allegorically and with the senses, taking the works back to the Song itself, and the practices and challenges of reading it.


The Meta-Historical Jesus: Or, What Has the Historical Jesus Done for Me Lately (and How Did He Do It?)
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Stephen D. Black, Codrington College

While there has been a concern for method and criteria within the study of the Historical Jesus, there has not been an equal interest in its “metahistorical” aspects. Working with the theory of Hayden White, this paper will explore the historiography lying behind the various Historical Jesus’s. The histories of Jesus, like all history, follow certain rules of formation, which determine the shape, ideology, and mode of the history. Hayden White considers four basic elements of history that I will argue are immediately relevant to current representations of the historical Jesus. They are emplotment (the narrative shape given the history), ideology (the attitude the historical narrative holds towards the social status quo), argument (the structure of logic used to explain what the historical narrative means), and trope (the structural form that guides the historical narrative). After explaining these four elements, I will use them to analyze modern (re)constructions of the historical Jesus. Primarily, I will compare and contrast how the cynic/sage Jesus and the apocalyptic Jesus are emplotted, what their ideological orientations are, the general nature of the argument used to explain their respective relevance, and the tropes informing their respective narratives. In brief, I will argue that the “cynic/sage Jesus” is typically emplotted as a romance or satire; its ideological orientation is anarchism; its argument is contextualist; and its trope is irony. I will argue that the “apocalyptic Jesus” is emplotted as a tragedy; its ideological orientation is radicalism; its argument is typically mechanistic or contextualist; and its trope is metonymy. While all of this may not help us get any closer to the actual historical Jesus, it will help us better understand the major historical Jesus proposals in front of us. History is typically not merely an exercise in that which is archaic; typically it possesses a latent agenda. This model can help us discern what ideological preoccupations are embedded within the various proposals concerning Jesus.


Paul and Rome: The Thematic Relationship between the Acts of Paul and Luke’s Acts Reconsidered
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
Ben C. Blackwell, Houston Baptist University

As a second century text by an unknown presbyter, the Acts of Paul (APaul) like other Acts of that time period focuses on the life and ministry of one of the central figures in early Christianity. This text recounts Paul’s missionary travels and ultimately his martyrdom before Nero in Rome. Though Paul is the protagonist, the APaul shows little engagement with Paul’s letters; however, a growing number of scholars think the APaul shows some knowledge and use of Luke’s Acts (LA). Nevertheless, there is no consensus regarding the nature of the relationship between the APaul and LA, other than the fact that the (significant) differences between the two point to the Presbyter’s very different purpose. This is most clear when the Presbyter recounts Paul’s martyrdom before Nero, which many see as a complete about-face from the quasi-apologetic purpose of LA. Accordingly, Harry Tajra concludes: “The image [of the Paul of faith from the APaul] bears little resemblance—indeed it is quite alien—to the image of the historical Paul as he is understood from his own Epistles and from the canonical Acts.” By focusing on the conflict with the Rome in the martyrdom, Tajra and others have, however, missed the rhetorical and theological similarities that unite the two accounts. As a result, this essay will build upon Kavin Rowe’s analysis in World Upside Down and show how Paul’s martyrdom in the APaul reflects virtually the same values with LA, namely that 1) Jesus is “Lord of all” and the coming Judge, 2) Christians should thus be engaged in worldwide mission by proclaiming the resurrection, and 3) following Jesus in martyrdom is a subversion of the power of the Roman state. Therefore, while the narrative details vary significantly, the two texts share similar perspectives regarding Christ, the church’s mission, and engagement with the Roman Empire.


The Rhetorical Theory of Tafsîr of Najm al-Dîn al-Tûfî (657–716/1259–1316)
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Khalid Yahya Blankinship, Temple University

While the Hanbalî scholar Najm al-Dîn al-Tûfî has often been cited in modern scholarship for his rationalistic contributions to usûl al-fiqh, his exegetical theory laid out in his book al-Iksîr fî ‘ilm al-tafsîr does not appear to have been so widely recognized. While many earlier Qur’ân commentators and some other scholars wrote methodological introductions to tafsîr (exegesis), including al-Tabarî, al-Râghib al-Isfahânî, Ibn ‘Atiyyah, Fakhr al-Dîn al-Râzî, and al-Qurtubî, and exegetical principles were also extensively elaborated in usûl al-fiqh works, al-Tûfî nevertheless made a unique contribution by emphasizing the rhetorical features of the Qur’ân’s language, including figures of speech, similes, and metaphors. He was preceded in this mainly by the famous rhetorician ‘Abd al-Qâhir al-Jurjânî, whose contribution has been highlighted by Margaret Larkin in her book The Theology of Meaning and even more in her article “The Inimitability of the Qur’ân: Two Perspectives,” but it is al-Tûfî who systematically applies the rhetorical categories, which he rearranges in his own way, to the Qur’ân. In applying rhetorical categories as major tools for interpreting and understanding the Qur’ân, al-Tûfî moves far away from the common, popular impression that the Qur’ân only has one meaning, an idea strongly supported by Ibn Hazm of the Zâhirî school, and one which has reappeared in strength in recent times. This idea is based on an unstated and often unrecognized underlying theory of language that there is a one-to-one correspondence between words and meanings, that a text necessarily means only what it says, no more, no less. While most medieval exegetes recognized categories of ambiguity, such as mushtarik, mujmal, and mutashabih (rendered by Muhammad Hashim Kamali as difficult, ambivalent, and intricate), they nevertheless strove always to limit their impact on varying interpretation. By introducing rhetorical categories and structures, al-Tûfî greatly widens the interpretive possibilities.


Non-standard Features in Codex Leningradensis B19a and Other So-Called Standard Tiberian Manuscripts
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Samuel Blapp, University of Cambridge

The BHK, BHS and nowadays also the BHQ are critical editions of the Hebrew Bible based on National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, I Firkovitch B19a aka the Leningrad Codex (L). The BHS and its digital version (Westminster Hebrew Morphology) are also the most commonly accepted reference tools for scholars of the Hebrew Bible. L has achieved this status because of its completeness and accuracy. It contains all the books of the Hebrew Bible and was vocalized according to manuscripts from the great Masoretic school of the Ben Asher family. This school is generally seen as representing the Standard Tiberian Hebrew vocalisation of the Bible. A closer examination of L, however, shows that it contains some Non-Standard features. In my paper I will present some of these examples, which will include the ?a?af vowels in closed syllables as well as an examination of the relation of the consonantal text to the Masorah Parva. In order to situate L in the Tiberian masoretic tradition I will compare these examples to further manuscripts of the same tradition such as the Aleppo Codex (A) and others. Subsequently, I will show that the A too already exhibits some Non-Standard features. Therefore, one of my main conclusions will be that the Standard Tiberian tradition itself shows a wide variety of subgroups, even down to the level of individual manuscripts. Furthermore, I will point out that the consonantal text of L and A differ in some cases, which questions the status of L as being the sole point of comparison for most linguistic and philological studies of the Bible.


A Patchwork Quilt: Pieces of Daniel among the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Amanda Davis Bledsoe, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

The book of Daniel is one of the top-represented works among the Dead Sea Scrolls. If one correlates attestation with the popularity a work enjoyed, then this is especially remarkable in that these manuscripts come very soon after its estimated date of composition (within about 50 years). In this paper, I will examine the current status of research on the Dead Sea Daniel manuscripts. I begin by discussing the form of Daniel attested in these fragments and how the evidence problematizes earlier text critical methods applied to their reconstruction. I consider two aspects of this question: (1) the presence of a “Book of Daniel” at Qumran; (2) the relation of the manuscripts to the different editions of the book (MT, OG, Th). I offer several examples where the earlier publications of these fragments were incorrectly presented in order to align with the Masoretic version of the book when the proposed reconstructions clearly do not fit in the allowed space. I conclude by looking at the status of Daniel at Qumran and its relation to other works of the Dead Sea Scrolls (dependence, influence, reception), and show that the actual picture is quite different than previously thought.


Make Heavy the Heart: An Egyptian Idiom in Aramaic
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Seth A. Bledsoe, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Philological studies of the Aramaic Book of Ahiqar, a text dating to a fifth-century B.C.E. settlement in Elephantine, have often pointed to linguistic and stylistic features reminiscent of Old Canaanite, Akkadian, and even Old Persian. Recognition of an Egyptian influence on Ahiqar (despite the provenance of the papyrus), however, is considered to be quite minimal, if not absent entirely. Yet, this paper will show that there is at least one expression in Ahiqar which directly corresponds to an Egyptian one. In TAD C1.1.82 we find the following: “Make heavy (your) heart” (Aram. hwqr lbb). The immediate context of the expression in Ahiqar aids in determining its meaning, where it clearly has to do with discretion in one’s speech. Scholars have previously linked this peculiar idiom with similar imagery in Hebrew literature, namely with the Pharaoh’s “heavy heart” in the book of Exodus or with a unique expression in Proverbs 25:17. Others have looked to a passage in the Babylonian Counsels of Wisdom for inspiration which reads “let your lips be precious,” noting that the Aramaic verb y-q-r can also carry the meaning “to be precious.” Each of these examples has some formal, semantic, or lexical resemblance, but none matches the Aramaic text on all levels. However, there is an Egyptian idiom that is almost an exact parallel to the one in Ahiqar, but to my knowledge no scholar has brought them together. In both the Instruction of Amenemope and the Instruction of Any we find the construction dns jb.k “make heavy your heart” (with some variation on this construction occurring in other contexts). While admitting some minor differences, we can nevertheless trace a one-to-one correspondence between the idiom’s use in Ahiqar and in the Egyptian witnesses with respect to form (imperative), lexical constituents (heavy/heart), semantic meaning (discrete in speech), and connotation (positive). I argue, therefore, that in Ahiqar we have an Egyptian idiom that has been adopted into Aramaic and, moreover, one that bears a much closer resemblance to its use in Egyptian Instructions than in the Hebrew or Akkadian texts. This conclusion has implications both for how we perceive Ahiqar as a composition but also more broadly for our understanding of the interaction of Aramaic and Egyptian language and literature in the mid-first millennium B.C.E.


Femineity in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Kamila Blessing, Blessing Transitions Consulting and Mediation Services

Femineity, meaning womanliness, is here used to express both the presence of the female in the gospel and the female aspect of the Deity portrayed by John. Jung and others have maintained that every person has both a male and a female aspect; we propose that we use this principle as a lens through which to interpret John. Doing this, we find just as important as the male theology of Son and Father is Jesus' attention to the women one on one, the female aspect of the disciples, the female aspect of the story as a whole, and in particular the female aspect of Jesus himself. When Jesus, from the cross, says Behold your mother, followed by the issue of blood and water from his own body, it is Jesus himself who is named (by Jesus and by the Evangelist) as Mother. We might also speak of the Holy Spirit (or the creator) as midwife to the new creation. This is the point of the image of the new birth that is so prominent in John. Along the way to making that point there are several other themes, including: the one to one conversations between Jesus and women will be seen to develop an image of the true believer (one who delivers children for God); and after the resurrection appearances, the disciples' hearts become the womb into which the Spirit must enter and grow for the new creation to be born into the world. These images would have been clear to the First Century hearer of the story and deserve to be articulated for the reader of today. The Femineity is as significant for the gospel message as is the Son of God. Note: this presentation will expand upon a previous paper and hope to stimulate discussion toward further publications.


Wrestling with God: The Role of Prayer in the Life of Moses, the Paradigmatic Prophetic
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Daniel I. Block, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Wrestling with God: The Role of Prayer in the Life of Moses, the Paradigmatic Prophetic


A New Jewish (?)/Christian (?) Inscription from Egypt
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Lincoln H. Blumell, Brigham Young University

This paper presents an examination and analysis of an unpublished Greek epitaph from Egypt. The epitaph commemorates a woman who is identified as a “Jew” (Ioudaia) and who was remembered for showing love to orphans. Yet, while the deceased is identified as a “Jew,” she is also styled as an “Ama,” a title that otherwise only occurs for Christian holy women in late antique Egypt. Thus, this epitaph resists a straightforward classification as it employs terminology that seemingly straddles religious categories.


A New New Testament Papyrus in the J. Rendel Harris Collection
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Lincoln H. Blumell, Brigham Young University

This paper will present on the discovery of a previously unknown New Testament papyrus in the Rendel Harris Collection at Birmingham. The papyrus was discovered earlier this year by the author while cataloging this collection. The papyrus contains a non-continuous passage from the Book of Acts and this presentation will seek to elucidate this papyrus and its contribution to New Testament papyri.


Mis-placed Bodies: The Interpenetration of Body and Place in Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Elizabeth Boase, Flinders University

To be human is to be embodied, and to be embodied is to be emplaced. The experience of being embodied and the experience of being emplaced are inseparable – to be is to be in place. Within the book of Jeremiah, there is an interpenetration of body and place that blurs the boundaries between human, city and land. The prophetic body is fortified (1:18-19) and the fortified city is embodied. The land calls out in groaning and lament. Drawing on insights from cultural geography and trauma theory, this paper seeks to explore the power of mis-placed bodies for a community whose place of knowing and meaning making has been decimated and destroyed.


The Book of Haggai and the Twelve
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Mark Boda, McMaster Divinity College/McMaster University

This paper reflects on the role of the book of Haggai within the Book of the Twelve in conversation with the work of Martin Leuenberger.


The Builders in Nehemiah 3 and the Craftsmen’s Charter in a Cuneiform Tablet from Persian Times
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Daniel Bodi, Université Paris 8 Vincennes à Saint-Denis - University of Paris 8

The paper will compare the list of builders in Neh ch. 3 with a Neo-Babylonian cuneiform text, dating from the time of Cyrus II (539-530 BCE). The latter has been described as the “Craftsmen’s Charter” by its first editor. It represents a contract between the representatives of the Persian administration and several groups of artisans designated under the generic term ummânu “experts.” The text enumerates the artisans by groups, which may indicate the existence of corporations: “carpenters” (nagaru); “metal engravers” (kubšaru); “jewelers” (kutimu). Among the jewelers one finds sons of “oblates” (širku). Limits were imposed to their works and punishments entailed if the artisans did not respect them. The biblical texts found in Neh 3 lists “jewelers” (Neh 3:8,31), “perfumers” (Neh 3:8), “merchants” (Neh 3:31-32), “corporation of snake-charmers” (Neh 3:12) and “oblates” (Neh 3:32; 11:21). Both texts describe projects of building and reparation. Moreover, both enterprises were carried out under the auspices of the Persian administration. While the Neo-Babylonian contract regarding the reparation of Eanna, a cultic complex in Uruk/Warka comprising several sanctuaries, may be precisely dated to 534 BCE, the list in Neh 3 stems from ca. 445, and deals with the reparation of the citadel, the temple complex and the walls of Jerusalem, called “the Holy City” in Neh 11:1. C. Schultz compared this Neo-Babylonian text with lists found in Neh 7 and Ezra 2. These latter two lists, however, deal with the people who came back from exile and do not mention artisans. Therefore, I argue that the list in Neh 3 represents a better analogy to the Neo-Babylonian contract allowing a fruitful comparison.


The Book of Which Covenant? Intertextuality, Josiah's Reform, and the Enneateuch
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Peter Boeckel, Southern Methodist University

Since the dawn of modern biblical studies, scholars have widely accepted that the account of Josiah's reform in 2 Kings 23 invokes the Book of Deuteronomy. Although valid in many ways, this interpretive tradition is also problematic. When it becomes incorporated into diachronic reconstructions, such as the Deuteronomistic History hypothesis, the result is neglect or dismissal of potential connections between 2 Kings 23 and other parts of the Pentateuch, for example, of what looks like a strong link between 2 Kings 23:2 and Exodus 24:7. To address this issue, the present paper explores the intertextual status of the account of Josiah's reform while eschewing diachronic assumptions.In addition to the above-mentioned allusion to Exodus 24:7, specific attention is given to four different areas of Josiah's reform. First, with regard to the cultic centralization, Deuteronomy appears to be the primary text of reference, but the contrast with the altar law of Exodus 20:24-26 may be exaggerated. Second, in the report of Josiah's campaign against Baal, Asherah/the asherim, and illegitimate cultic vessels, the described burning of the asherim (2 Kgs 23:6) parallels Deuteronomy, the cutting down of the same objects (2 Kgs 23:14) reflects Exodus, and the mention of vessels in a cultic context aligns more closely to the concerns of Exodus-Leviticus than to those of Deuteronomy. Third, the destruction and defilement of the high places has parallels in both deuteronomic and non-deuteronomic texts, but it is significant that Deuteronomy never mentions the high places as such. Additionally, the concern with defilement of the high places reflects the theology of Exodus-Leviticus much more than that of Deuteronomy. Finally, with Passover, the closest parallel is undeniably Deuteronomy, but a synchronic reading must grapple with the fact that even in that book the festival recalls the exodus tradition.


Punctuated Progress: Narrative Organization in a Sixth-Century Version of the Syriac Life of Symeon the Stylite and Pilgrimage Performance at Symeon’s Cult Site
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Dina Boero, University of Southern California

In late antiquity, the Syriac Life of Symeon the Stylite (for which our earliest extant version dates to 473 CE) did not exist as a single, stable text; rather, it displays a complex process of textual transmission, in which scribes produced manuscripts for and within specific communal contexts and revised the contents of texts in conjunction with cult practices related to Symeon. This is demonstrated by three different versions of the Syriac Life of Symeon which survive from the fifth and sixth centuries. Each of these versions presents diverging accounts of events, narrative arrangements, and descriptions of the saint. This presentation focuses on the unique narrative organization of a previously unstudied version of the Syriac Life of Symeon found in British Library Additional Manuscript 14484, ff. 134-152 (sixth-century). I propose that this version of the text was composed for an intended audience of pilgrims and was meant to be read within the context of pilgrimage performance at Symeon’s shrine. In this version of the Syriac Life of Symeon, groups of miracles are punctuated by increasingly intense visions and ascetic renunciations. This intensification of visions and renunciations prepares Symeon to complete acts of intercession more difficult than his previous miracles. In this way, ascetic performance and visionary experience underlie the gradual development of Symeon’s intercessory abilities as a holy man. At the same time, this unique, and ultimately teleological, ordering of the narrative mimics the pilgrim’s progression through the saint’s shrine. Just as each prayer practice transformed Symeon, so also the pilgrim is transformed by his prayer and punctuated movement through the site, ultimately culminating in seeing the column and partaking in Eucharistic liturgy. The scribe’s presentation of Symeon’s life is intricately connected with the performance of devotion to the posthumous saint.


Purity, Perfection, and Beatific Vision: The Upward Journey to Christ in Gregory of Nyssa
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Hans Boersma, Regent College

Gregory of Nyssa regards biblical interpretation as a means to facilitate the ordered ascent (anagogy) of the soul into the life of God. As such, Nyssen holds that biblical interpretation and spiritual progress are closely linked: both are marked by anagogy. Anagogy, for Gregory, is not one of four meanings (i.e., the eschatological meaning) of the scriptural text (which the term commonly comes to denote in the Middle Ages). Rather, he understands all spiritual reading of the biblical text as anagogical in character. This paper traces how Gregory links the themes of purity, perpetual progress (epektasis), and beatific vision in the biblical figures of the pure in heart, Moses, and the bride in Canticles. Gregory believes—rightly, I argue—that such an interpretive approach is based on identification with Christ, encourages a life of virtue, implies a limited valuation of this-worldly and material goods, and leads the soul to seek the beatific vision as her proper end.


The Construction of Jewish Identity in Philo’s Defense of Sabbath Observance
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Dulcinea Boesenberg, Creighton University

One of Philo of Alexandria’s better-known statements on the Sabbath comes from his treatise On the Migration of Abraham. Philo condemns those Jews who investigate the symbolic nature of the laws but neglect the observance of the command when “they ought to have given careful attention to both aims” (89). Though Philo agrees with the interpretations of these extreme allegorists, as they have been styled by modern scholars, he argues for the necessity of Sabbath observance, claiming that those who neglect the command act as though they are “disembodied souls” (90) rather than part of the Jewish community. For Philo, Sabbath observance is one way in which the Jewish community is defined and distinguished from other peoples. For example, Philo notes that unlike other nations, the Jews know all their laws because they devote one day each week to studying them. While it is certain that for Philo the Law of Moses is given to the Jewish nation in particular, what the Sabbath teaches is advisable for all peoples. Throughout his corpus, Philo explains various benefits of Sabbath observance, benefits which are presented as desirable not only for Jews, but for others as well. When the Jews cease from work one day each week, not only is their energy restored so that they might work harder the other six days, but they are also able to devote time to learning the virtues which their ancestral Law teaches; therefore, they emulate the perfect balance of the active and the contemplative lives. This paper will examine the ways in which Philo constructs Jewish identity through his articulation of the benefits of Sabbath observance, giving attention to his vision of Judaism as both particular and universal. On the one hand, Sabbath observance distinguishes the Jewish ethnos from their neighbors in that they alone abstain from work on this day to devote themselves to the study of wisdom. On the other hand, Philo uses his descriptions of the benefits of Sabbath observance to convince his Hellenistic Jewish audience that through this ethnically particular practice, they are both acquiring and exhibiting universally lauded virtues. Such a claim requires understanding the Jews’ ancestral laws as in accord with the law of nature, and thus universally applicable.


The Memory of “Peter” in Fourth-Century Rome: Church, Mausoleum, and Jupiter on the Via Praenestina
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Douglas Boin, Saint Louis University

As the author of the pseudepigraphic letter 1 Peter saw it, writing c. 80–90 A.D., many early Christians lived as “sojourners” in an empire that was not really their own. How were Christians supposed to navigate this foreign land? Speaking in the guise of the apostle Peter, the author advised them not to draw attention to themselves, to show respect to everyone in their daily interactions and above all, to “honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2.17). Despite the apoplectic protestations of their peers, many Christians did just that by taking part in Rome’s imperial cult. Behind our louder sources, from the text of Revelation (L. M. White in J. Brodd and J. Reed, 2012) to the writings of Tertullian (Boin 2014, JECS), Christians can be seen participating in festivals and sacrifices for the emperor. My paper builds on this research and advances our understanding of this complicated phenomenon. Here, I begin by analyzing the reception of 1 Peter 2.17 (“Honor the emperor”) in early Christian writers. Many Christians writing before the so-called Edict of Milan in 313 A.D.—among them, Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Tertullian, and Cyprian—not only demonstrate an awareness of the text. They also avoid any acknowledgment of verse 2.17. All the while, they use snippets of the larger text to advocate separation from Roman culture as the essential marker of Christian identity. Seen in light of other Christians who are known to have taken part in imperial festivals, this appeal to Peter as a voice of cultural resistance can now emerge as a highly “selective” social memory of certain writers within the Christian movement. This background also opens up new avenues for research after 313 A.D. One archaeological site in Rome, the fourth-century circus-form church and mausoleum on the via Praenestina, is discussed here by way of example. There, at the modern Tor de’Schiavi, amid the ruins known as the Villa of the Giordiani, a painting of Jupiter was discovered in the vault of the mausoleum. Given the presence of Jupiter in manifestations of emperor worship throughout Roman history, the church and the burial on the via Praenestina may now emerge as a highly visible expression of a fourth-century Christian desire to “honor the emperor,” just as many Christians and Romans had been doing for centuries.


Teaching the Cultural Background of the Bible
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Sean Boisen, Logos Bible Software

Learning about ancient worldview and cultural practices is an essential component of understanding biblical literature. The Lexham Cultural Ontology (LCO) is a novel classification of concepts relevant to the cultural world of the Bible. Using a model similar to Yale's Outline of Cultural Materials ([OCM]) but adapted to biblical studies, the LCO identifies, describes, and organizes over 1100 different concepts. We have annotated passages throughout the entire Hebrew Bible and New Testament with concepts from the LCO to make it easy to find information on the cultural background of thousands of different biblical passages. Additionally, we have annotated more than 20 important secondary sources like the Amarna Letters, the Context of Scripture, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, etc. (millions of words in total) with the same concepts. This links biblical passages to relevant examples from the historical context of the Bible. These resources are integrated for search, reading, and study as part of Logos Bible Software's digital library for biblical studies. This new and unique resource can be used in classroom teaching to aid understanding the scope and structure of cultural practices across the biblical text and other ANE literature. For example, a discussion on "interpersonal relations" could begin in a top-down fashion by displaying and defining more specific concepts in the hierarchy (age roles, family relationships, tribal relationships, inter-ethnic relations, etc.). This could be followed by drilling into biblical examples of a particular concept like "age roles" and discussing their significance in a bottom-up fashion, then broadening into other examples in Philo or Josephus. After demonstrating this process, students could then work on their own to explore the secondary literature on another concept under interpersonal relationships, and comment on the related texts. This presentation will demonstrate how the Cultural Ontology in Logos Bible Software could be used in a classroom setting to: * find relevant cultural concepts for a biblical text * discover other examples (both in biblical and secondary texts) of the same concepts * find reference information to help understand more about the cultural concepts * show the relationships between concepts (more general or specific, or domain relationships like ), other topics in biblical studies, and lexical senses of specific terms [OCM]: http://hraf.yale.edu/online-databases/ehraf-world-cultures/outline-of-cultural-materials/


Was All the Qur’an First Meant to Belong to the Qur’an?
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Anne-Sylvie Boisliveau, Paris-Sorbonne Université

This paper presents some of the conclusions of a long research on the development of self-referentiality in the qur’anic text according to its main hypothesis of chronological development. This research differentiates a text a which is the main text, from a text ß which is any part of the text commenting on the Qur’an (self-referential text that brings authority to the text recited by the prophet). By doing so in a period-by-period analysis, several interesting points can be observed. The most striking one is the different development of texts a and ß and their interplay and mutual support. One point is the well-organized use of the duality of a and ß texts in order to persuade the reader/listener of the authority of the whole text. Another point is that the analysis leads one to wonder whether, from a technical point of view, the ß text was meant to be part of the vulgate at an early period.


A Spy in Our Midst: Qohelet and the Slippage of Identity
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Thomas M. Bolin, Saint Norbert College

A common prop in espionage thrillers is the hideaway where the agent keeps multiple passports under different names for any needed quick identity-change. The authorial voice in Qohelet offers an equally slippery identity which has always challenged readers. In conversation with Brennan Breed's new study on reception history (2014) this paper discusses a variety of the partially revealed and constructed identities in Qohelet.


The Whole Theatre: An Analysis of the Latin (IRT 321) and Neo-Punic (IPT 24a) Inscriptions of the Theatre at Lepcis Magna
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Catherine E. Bonesho, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The situation of Roman North Africa during the imperial period provides excellent data for bilingualism. Among the bilingual inscriptions found in that region are those featuring parallel texts in Latin and neo-Punic. Analysis of the correspondences between co-textual inscriptions in these languages can illuminate both ancient bilingualism and the process of translation in the ancient world. Recent studies fronting the phenomenon of bilingualism have typically pointed to the discrepancies in information between two parallel texts and the maintenance of formulaic conventions to argue that Latin and Neo-Punic co-texts are “bi-versions”—that is, parallel but unrelated versions. This is the case, for example, in Wilson's discussion of the dedicatory inscriptions on the lintel of the Theatre of Lepcis Magna in Latin (Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania [IRT] 321) and neo-Punic (Iscrizioni puniche della Tripolitania [IPT] 24a). However, by analyzing these texts as products of both cultural and cognitive processes using Descriptive Translation Theory, and by incorporating a visual analysis of the inscriptions, one finds that the two inscriptions are, in fact, similar in content. I argue here, in correspondence with Descriptive Translation Theory, that the use of a source text does not necessarily preclude adherence to the target culture’s literary conventions. This argument invalidates the assumption that the use of conventions appropriate to a certain target language implies that text’s conceptual independence. Although neo-Punic genre conventions are maintained in IPT 24a, the Latin syntax is maintained in the neo-Punic text and it is unlikely that these are independent texts; rather, the neo-Punic should be understood as a translation of the Latin inscription. Taking into account the natural divergences in Latin and neo-Punic epigraphic conventions, it thus becomes possible to argue that the Latin text (IRT 321) acts as the translational source text for its neo-Punic counterpart (IPT 24a). It is important to remember the secondary status of the neo-Punic in relation to the Latin inscription in no way detracts from the fine quality of the neo-Punic inscription.


The Prologue to Sirach and the "Book" of Sirach in a Chain of Text Traditions
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Francis Borchardt, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong

Among prefatory writings in the scriptures and parascriptures of the peoples of Ancient Israel and Judah, the translator's prologue to the book of Sirach has probably been studied more than any other. Frequently, research has focused upon the process of scripturalization/canonization, or alternatively upon the attitude toward translation displayed in the text. This paper sets out where these previous directions of research have ended by focusing on the prologue's ideas concerning the relationship between the translation of Sirach and the texts of ancient Israel. The paper will argue that the author of the prologue understands his work to be a link in a chain of "auxiliary texts" extending from the Torah through the work of his ostensible grandfather Ben Sira. In order to prove its thesis the paper will place the prologue to Sirach in the context of a genre of prefatory writings most extensively investigated by classicist Markus Dubischar, which introduce what Dubischar has termed "auxiliary texts", building upon Wienold's idea of Verarbeitungstext and Foucault's idea of texte second. Dubischar observes that these auxiliary texts are meant to preserve a valued tradition by correcting problems encountered throughout the process of transmission. This paper will show that the translator's prologue understands the Greek Sirach to be just such a text, and further sees the other texts within Israel's literary tradition in a similar vein.


Skype in the Biblical Studies Classroom: Using Social Media Platforms to Construct Practical Contexts for Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
C. Jason Borders, Huntingdon College

For the Spring 2015 Semester, I have designed a seminar entitled, “Justice, Nonviolence, and Luke’s Gospel.” This is a 400 level seminar designed for Religion Majors in their senior year. The seminar will introduce the student to the concept of nonviolent justice, as expressed in the Gospel of Luke and the Christian tradition. Student interest in the course is academic as well as practical. Students are interested to know, intellectually, the roots of Christian nonviolence as a viable alternative in the cause of justice. Further, students are searching for voices and movements as models to employ this peculiar alternative in their vocational aspirations. In designing the course, I knew that students were interested in having honest dialogue with one another. For sustained conversation, in and out of class, I created a closed Facebook Group called Dikaiosyne. There, we challenge and encourage one another around issues and ideas we encounter during the semester. Beyond the use of Facebook, however, students were interested in having candid dialogue with the world, especially with leaders/scholars/teachers around the globe working in ministries and vocations of peace and justice. My students were/are concerned to know how they may live lives of nonviolent justice, who may be employing such strategies in their vocations, and how those strategies might work. As the course gradually took shape, I chose Skype as the tool to enlarge the scope of the classroom to take these questions seriously. My decision to employ Skype as a learning tool allows me to consider, further, the social construction of knowledge in the classroom. How can nonviolent justice work? Skype had the potential to allow students to work with live contexts so that learning becomes the creative process whereby students generate additional questions and solutions for themselves. Contexts created by this social media platform could open up new possibilities for biblical interpretation, as well. To that end, I began working to arrange a series of Skype conversations for the Spring 2015 Semester. My students are/will be traveling the world engaging persons who have spent their lives engaging others in the pursuit of justice. Over the course of the semester, we will be meeting persons in Tanzania, Israel, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Russia (TBA). Achieving high quality Skype video calls requires that certain technological considerations be addressed: speed and reliability of internet connection and computer hardware, audio input and output, webcam reception and video playback, location lighting, etc. How one plans to invite participants, conduct the video call, and possibly record the conversation should also be considered. We have recently held our first Skype discussion with a high degree of success. With the setup we have configured, I anticipate that future conversations will be equally as successful. For the Teaching the Bible with Technology section, I would like to present and demonstrate my findings on the use of Skype in the classroom, the technological requirements necessary for my context, and the opportunities for biblical interpretation within the practical context made possible by this social media platform.


Iconographic Illiteracy in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Christina Bosserman, Catholic University of America

This paper will explore the possibility of “iconographic illiteracy” in the Hebrew Bible. Several observations have been made in iconographic studies and related literary studies: 1) There is evidence that the biblical writers share much of the larger conceptual world of the ancient Near East, as reflected in the many iconographic studies that seek to illuminate biblical texts with close readings of iconographic materials in their historical context, and 2) There is evidence for possible re-writings of ancient Near Eastern myths that offer uniquely Israelite interpretations, and may even offer anti-Mesopotamian / Egyptian interpretations (e.g. Genesis 1-3). Both of these assume iconographic/mythic “literacy” of the biblical writer. An additional observation that I would like to explore with this paper is evidence for “iconographic illiteracy” in some biblical texts. I will discuss examples (as time allows) of biblical texts that fill foreign iconographic "constellations" with new content. One example is the so-called "Adam and Eve" seal. It is clear that 19th century scholars were iconographically illiterate when they suggested that Mesopotamia had an “Adam and Eve” myth based on the almost identical constellations of the Mesopotamian image and biblical narrative. Is it possible that the composer of Genesis 2-3 was similarly illiterate, being exposed to the visual motif of the “Adam and Eve seal,” but oblivious to its native conceptual context? A few factors will certainly arise. First, there is the historical matter of what foreign images could have been widely known in Israel, and therefore have reasonable odds of inspiring the biblical author, detached from any awareness of the image's conceptual context. Second, how would one determine “iconographic illiteracy” rather than the intentional re-writings described above? Answering this question will require close readings of both the text and the visual data. For example, interpreters of the biblical Adam and Eve narrative have often been puzzled by the role of the tree of life in Genesis 2-3. It both introduces and concludes the narrative, yet the central portion of the narrative with its singular focus on the tree of knowledge leaves many commentators with the impression that the inner narrative thinks there is only one tree. An iconographic interpretation is aware of the images available to the author of Genesis 2-3, offering the possible explanation that the tree of knowledge narrative was inspired by the visual Mesopotamian motif that has only one tree. Space restrictions for this proposal prohibit a fuller discussion, but a second possible text to be discussed in the paper is what I call the “death shepherd” in Psalm 49, which may be a similar iconographically illiterate interpretation of Egyptian Osiris iconography. I am currently a PhD candidate, and this paper could fit both the text/image interface in a unique way and the PhD dissertation section. As of now, this topic has not been developed into a formal dissertation proposal, but may be by the end of the summer. Thank you for considering my paper.


Ignoring Infant Cries: Religious and Medical Influence on Infant Neglect
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
David A. Bosworth, Catholic University of America

Infant cries induce stress in those who hear them. Caregivers may respond with empathy and caregiving, or with neglect or abuse. The decisions caregivers make are significantly informed by their “attributions,” or what they think infants are like and why they cry. These attributions derive in significant measure from cultural context. Influenced in part by the doctrine of original sin, Christian religious leaders sometimes encourage infant neglect and abuse by attributing to infants manipulative intentions that they do not possess. Also, widespread modern Western ideas about infant cries reinforce these religious teachings (e.g., Dr. Spock) by claiming infants who are comforted become ‘spoiled’ and cry more. Both religious and medical authorities encourage parents to ignore their infant’s cries for the good of the infant. This advice is wrong. Infant weeping has been extensively studied, but these findings rarely inform advice for parents about infant weeping. The present paper will describe traditional Christian and modern Western teaching about infant crying and contrast this advice with empirically grounded science and biblical depictions of infant care. Research shows that babies cry less when caregivers respond to their distress compared to infants whose cries are ignored. Furthermore, infants suffer significant long-term harm from neglect. Biblical and ANE texts provide some insight into infant care practices. Pharaoh’s daughter responds to the cries of a Hebrew infant (Exod 2:5-10), and God also models this attentiveness (Gen 21:17; cf. Ps 27:10; Isa 49:15). Biblical texts present unanswered infant cries in order to illustrate disaster so catastrophic that parental capacity to love collapses and children suffer (e.g., Lam 2:11; 4:3-4). Mesopotamian incantations to soothe crying babies express both the stress and frustration of infant caregivers, and indicate the empathetic care that adults extended to these infants. Biblical and ANE texts seem to assume an attitude similar to that expressed by a Bedouin mother: “We Bedouin can’t let an infant cry.”


Deities as Mothers and Fathers: Evolutionary Psychology and the Study of Ancient Texts
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
David A. Bosworth, Catholic University of America

Scholars in biblical studies and theology have long been interested in God as a parental figure (father and/or mother). Remarkably, this research has not been informed by attachment theory. Attachment theory is well-established scientific theory that describes the child-parent relationship across multiple species that is thoroughly integrated into evolutionary theory and provides an excellent example of evolutionary psychology. Many species have an innate attachment system, or set of behaviors that facilitate the survival of the young through parental caregiving. Attachment theory has been expanded to describe the human-divine relationship within the psychology of religion (e.g., Lee A. Kirkpatrick, Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion), but these insights have not yet been applied to biblical studies. The present paper will briefly describe attachment theory and its role in the psychology of religion, then illustrate how these insights can be applied to reading ancient texts. Prior research on deities as parents has been limited to texts in which explicit parental imagery appears and has ignored attachment theory in favor of no theory or poor theory (e.g., Freud’s ‘oral fixation’). However, the dynamics of child-parent relationship are thoroughly described by attachment theory and these dynamics are present beyond the narrow limits of explicit parental imagery. The paper will focus on method and how attachment theory illuminates the relational dynamics encoded in Hebrew and Akkadian prayers and prophetic texts and how these texts speak about relationship with deities. The paper will include attentiveness to gender. In Akkadian and Hebrew, deities may be described as paternal or maternal independent of their gender (e.g., Shamash as mother, Ishtar as father). However, child-parent dynamics persist across gender lines because the attachment system in humans informs how people think about and relate to deities.


Weakness and Imperfection in Early Christian Healing Practices: The Illusion of Inclusion
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Pieter Botha, University of South Africa

The historical interpretation and theorising of healing practices in Greco-Roman antiquity and especially in early Christianity are delimited by conventional assumptions concerning suffering and the “healthy body”. In early Christianity the care of others operated in the ambit of eschatological restoration and the discourse of philanthropy did not escape the devaluing of the body. By investigating the pseudo-Clementine Homilies (dealing with Jn 5-10) and selections from the apocryphal Gospels, this study aims to show that practices of social inclusion, and “being good” remained sites of conflict and oppression. Disability studies as theoretical framework provides a meaningful correction to conventional historical study of conflict among groups and between classes, and to reveal how religion not only reinscribe status, privilege and power, but obscures (and legitimate) denigration, abuse and exclusion.


Invention and Impoverishment: John Muir, Technology, and “Godful” Ecology
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Nicholas Bott, Stanford University; Palo Alto University

This paper examines the role invention played in the development of John Muir’s ecological hermeneutic, and its continued applicability in our technological economy. The son of a Campbellite frontiersman, Muir grew up clearing land and growing crops and learned from an early age how poor agricultural practices impoverished both land and laborer. He was also a gifted inventor, finding success early in his career increasing efficiency and improving productivity in large machine shops. After a factory accident nearly left him blind, however, Muir experienced a “conversion.” Declining a position as a partner of the shop, Muir “bade adieu to all [his] mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of [his] life to the study of the inventions of God.” Muir’s repentance from technological invention and subsequent turn toward the beholding of the divine inventions of nature represent both a pivotal moment in his life and a hermeneutical imprint on Muir’s meditations on nature. After his conversion experience, Muir’s latent suspicions toward anthropocentric understandings of nature and his growing identification with the Earth and the non-human world cast a shadow over his writings and letters. Muir’s use of Scripture is anchored in principles of suspicion, identification, and retrieval to develop his “Godful” ecological hermeneutic. Muir wants to correct the impoverishment of the mechanical and rediscover the wonder of divine invention. This identification is most clearly on display through his use of Scripture in the description of and reflection upon natural phenomena. Finally, through Muir’s retrieval of “Godful” ecology the impoverishment of the non-human world is understood as the result of a previous impoverishment – that of human invention dulling the senses of humanity. Human invention is doubly impoverishing, starving our bodies of the “pure air” through which we were made to thrive, and perhaps more important for Muir, desecrating the holy temple of divine invention. Through Muir’s life and writings the contrast between human and divine invention play a critical role in the principles of suspicion, identification, and retrieval clearly present in the development of his “Godful” ecological hermeneutic.


Women's Speaking Justified: Margaret Fell and Quaker Biblical Intepretation in the Seventeenth Century
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Nancy R. Bowen, Earlham School of Religion

In her 2012 Willson Lectures at Earlham School of Religion, Rosemary Radford Ruether argued that early Quaker (Religious Society of Friends) interpretation of Scripture to justify Quaker women’s participation in public speaking and proclamation was a radical paradigm shift that paved the way for future arguments of women’s full inclusion in public ministry. A central figure in the early years of the Society of Friends was Margaret Fell, who was convinced to join Quakers in 1652 after a visit to her home of Swarthmoor Hall by George Fox, the leader in that movement. Although we don’t know what formal education she had, Fell was clearly literate and well versed in the Bible. Like many Quaker women through history, she was a prolific writer of letters and tracts. Her most important tract was published in 1666, “Womens speaking justified, proved and allowed by the Scriptures, all such as speak by the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus. And how women were the first that preached the tidings of the Resurrection of Jesus, and were sent by Christ’s own command, before he ascended to the Father (John 20:17).” The title alone gives some indication of the hermeneutical moves Fell made to justify women’s public speaking. The tract is close to 7,500 words and is a masterful study of the biblical text, beginning with Genesis 1-3. Fell engages head on the counter arguments, including 1 Cor 14:34-35 and 1 Tim 2:11-12. This paper will give a summary of Fell’s tract, “Women’s Speaking Justified,” and identify some of the key ways that Fell made her argument, including her understanding of the nature of Scripture, demonstrating Ruether’s thesis of the importance of this tract, which very few people outside of the Religious Society of Friends are aware of, for future arguments regarding women’s roles in the Church.


Apocalyptic Reverberations in the Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Lisa M. Bowens, Princeton Theological Seminary

In New Testament studies, as well as in discussions of Jewish apocalyptic discourse, distinctions exist between apocalyptic, apocalypticism, and apocalyptic eschatology. Apocalyptic is generally used to denote a type of literature, apocalypticism refers to a pattern of thought or movement which endorses the “conceptual structure” of apocalypses, and apocalyptic eschatology emphasizes the end of history. Apocalyptic literature itself has been designated as “crisis literature” and as a “form of protest against society.” Although the New Testament contains only one example of the apocalypse genre, i.e. Revelation, it is commonly recognized that an apocalyptic worldview permeates the New Testament documents. This paper will explore Martin Luther King’s use of apocalyptic in his sermons and writings. It will, therefore, examine his relationship to the various distinctions mentioned above and analyze whether or not these distinctions hold for his exegetical and hermeneutical lenses. In addition, this paper will investigate how King uses apocalyptic imagery and language to depict the crisis of the African American in the United States and to protest the status quo.


Mapping the Terrain: Tracing Paul’s Martial Imagery in 2 Cor 10–13
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Lisa M. Bowens, Princeton Theological Seminary

In 2 Cor 10-13 Paul utilizes military language to shape the Corinthians’ perspective regarding their current situation, the presence of the servants of Satan in their congregation (11:15). Through the use of martial imagery Paul attempts to depict for his audience the contours of the apocalyptic cosmic struggle in which they are engaged. The presentation of this paper proceeds in three phases. First, it begins with the warfare motif in the opening verses of ch 10 and traces the use of this imagery throughout the remaining chapters of the letter. Second, it relates the military motif of these last chapters to previous chapters of the epistle. The third and final segment concludes with several important implications: (1) The significance of Paul’s use of military language for shaping the Corinthians’ vision of an existing cosmic conflict and (2) The recognition that Paul does not leave battle language behind after chapter 10 but this theme persists throughout chapters 10-13.


Abraham and the Rhetoric against Titus in an Expansion of Tg. Isa. 10:32
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Samuel Boyd, University of Chicago/University of Colorado

Pinkhos Churgin argued over a hundred years ago that Tg. Isa. 10:32 has a midrashic addition based on b. Sanh. 95b. More recently, Leivy Smolar and Moses Aberbach have argued that Sennacherib in this addition is framed in the Targumic account, if not also in the Sanhedrin material, in a manner evoking Titus and his attack on Jerusalem. These studies have shown that there are many peculiarities concerning the addition in the Targum. In fact, this addition itself has many versions, at least one of which, mentioning Abraham, was based on the Targum Yerushalmi as seen in Codex Reuchlianus and has been examined by Bruce Chilton. While many of the variations in details are minor between these two texts and while their relationship to each other remains unclear, the framing of the reference to Abraham in the Targumic addition differs from that in b. Sanh. 95b, a difference that has gone unexplored and yet is significant. In this paper, I review the evidence for seeing the story of Sennacherib in Tg. Isa. 10:32 and b. Sanh. 95b in light of Titus and the Roman attack against Jerusalem. Further, I explore the additional material regarding Abraham in Tg. Isa. 10:32 as present in manuscript B. M. 2211 and Codex Reuchlianus on the basis of this implicit reference to Titus. This information in the Targumic material creates an allusion to another nefarious king, Nimrod. The significance of Nimrod in this context is heightened by the connection between the death of Nimrod and the death of Titus in b. Gi?. 56b. This examination, therefore, adds another basis through an intertextual link for reading this common midrashic material in light of Titus and the Roman attack on Jerusalem. By making reference to the story of Abraham and the fiery furnace in Tg. Isa. 10:32 in B. M. 2211 and in Codex Reuchlianus, the Targumic story not only positions Sennacherib, Nimrod, and Titus as archetypal evil kings, but also calls to mind their inevitable destruction in eschatological terms through evoking Gog and Magog.


Violence to Earth: Oppression and Impoverishment of Earth Community in Habakkuk
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Laurie J. Braaten, Judson University (Elgin, Illinois)

The prophet Habakkuk’s concern for the suffering among the human members of Earth Community is clearly evident to any reader. Habakkuk cries out on behalf of people who are oppressed and impoverished at the hands of the powerful. He entreats the LORD on behalf of those in Judah who are mistreated by the unjust (Hab 1:2-4). The prophet expresses horror (Hab 1:12-13) at the prospect of the Babylonian empire being raised up by the LORD (1:6), which will only further intensify cruelty toward weak humankind (‘adam, 1:14-15, see 1:5-17). Yet Habakkuk is given a vision which assures him that ultimately the LORD’s faithfulness will prevail, and the innocent/righteous (tsadiq) will be liberated (Hab 2:4). Out of the prophet’s trust in the fulfillment of this vision grows a series of prophetic woes denouncing the abuses of oppressive leaders and announcing their ultimate demise (2:6-20). On the one hand, the woes are congruent with the anthropocentric concerns articulated in the rest of the book. For example, they denounce the powerful who build estates by taking advantage of the poor (2:6, 9-10; cp. 1:2-4), and condemn those who plunder nations (2:8; cp. 1:9-10; 15). But on the other hand, the woes also contain explicit references to abuses characterized as violence committed against Earth (vv 8, 17). Furthermore, in Hab 2:17 the plundering of the forests of Lebanon (a common imperial practice and subject of royal boast) is condemned, along with the resulting (homelessness and) death of its nonhuman inhabitants. The verse continues with a chiastic structure which essentially likens this deforestation and destruction of animals to violence against cities and their populations. Considered together, this verse expresses a concern for Earth Community as a whole, and not just Earth’s human inhabitants. These are a few of the most obvious results yielded by reading Habakkuk with an ecological hermeneutic. The current paper will further engage in such a reading with a focus primarily on Hab 2:6-20. It will proceed with the suspicion that references to Earth have been ignored or missed due to the anthropocentric concerns and biases of readers. It will examine and develop the aspects in Habakkuk which promote the intrinsic value of Earth. One example of a passage where Earth implications are missed is the enigmatic Hab 2:15. We will demonstrate that the verse contains a condemnation of imperial debasement and impoverishment of Earth, as the conclusion of the section suggests (v 17). Our reading will retrieve the voice of earth (Hab 2:11) which laments human destruction. This voice (which we identify in Hab 2:12-20) acknowledges the LORD’s pervasive presence in Earth and offers resistance against empire building as self-serving idolatry which destroys Earth Community. Finally, we note that the point where Habakkuk begins to articulate concerns for Earth begins after the well-known vision in Hab 2:4. Is it possible that with this vision came an expanded awareness of the extent of Earth’s suffering righteous to whom God’s faithfulness extends?


The Life of a Blog from Cradle to Maturity (?)
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Christian Brady, Pennsylvania State University

When I began blogging over 12 years ago I initially tried to create a focused blog, two actually, one for my university administrative related posts and the other for biblical and rabbinic studies posts. (I even briefly had an anonymous blog, but abandoned that rather quickly.) While I still maintain a “work” blog as dean of our college, within a year “Targuman” became a blog that was more eclectic. I wrote then that I had decided “to simply post that which is of interest to me. Sometimes scholarly and theological at other times Mac related or political. Who knows?” Now as I look back over a dozen years much has happened: the birth of our son, Katrina, a major shift in my career and location, ordination(s), and the death of our son. Along the way I have published over 2,800 posts ranging from SBL announcements to comics to technology podcasts to text criticism and theological musings. In this session I would like to reflect on the development of a very personal blog, the impact of this virtual community on my own growth academically and theologically, and the importance of transparency in maintaining an online presence.


Teaching Theology with Laughter, Song, Rap, and Dance via the Play "Funny Bone Finds a Home": A Musical Featuring the Body of Christ
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Robin Gallaher Branch, North-West University (South Africa)

Funny Bone finds a home: A musical featuring the Body of Christ: is both a play and a thoroughly researched teaching tool. On stage are unusual but recognizable members of the Body of Christ. This paper, based on my musical, examines the concepts of unity/disunity, snobbism/classism, pride/humbleness, and individuality/community in the teachings of Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. Set in modern times, the play incorporates songs and dances. The one act comedy contains seven characters mentioned by Paul: Heart, Hand, Ear, Nose, Eye, Foot, and Unpresentable Parts. Piano Player and Funny Bone round out the cast. Published in 2013 and containing 234 footnotes, the play featured nonagenarians and octogenarians in its opening performance. The plot is simple. Funny Bone writes to Head and asks for a meeting. She wants to be recognized as a member of the Body of Christ. After all, she has gone on many mission trips with the assembled members and loves each one. Her friends decide to consider her proposal to see if it lines up with Scripture. In the process, the members showcase themselves, brag about how the Lord has used them, and proclaim their accomplishments in songs. While doing so, they reveal their strengths and weaknesses. Head leads, as expected, but in an egotistical, grating way. Everybody knows that Hand both steals and creates. Nose (who exhibits a very objectionable personal habit!) wisely encourages forgiveness among his colleagues. Ear hears too much and tells all. Foot wanders frequently but usually wants to follow Jesus. That beloved softie, Heart, exhibits mercy. Eye, a visionary, knows he does everything better than anybody else and decides he’s better off going it alone. Unpresentable Parts, a new believer who likes flashy clothes, feels isolated and unwanted. As these members of the Body of Christ listen to each other, they learn things that make them mad. True to their names, Foot and Hand start kicking and shoving. Mayhem prevails. Funny Bone calls for order, separates the combatants, and starts teaching. She explains the great principles in Paul’s letter and applies them—in a rap, no less!—to the present situation. This paper argues that Paul intentionally uses humor to teach theological principles. He instructs the Corinthians on their need to honor all people and their different ministries and functions in the church. His writing uses imagination as a teaching tool. Coupling kindness with authority, Paul no doubt makes his beloved Corinthian congregation smile as they recognize others—and themselves!—in his letter. Laughter defuses tensions and encourages learning. Employing a light touch instead of a heavy hand, Paul gives people breathing room, enabling them to grow in ways that foster love, repentance and acceptance. These principles preach today.


Garden Variety: Genesis 3 as a Dramatic Teaching Tool
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Robin Gallaher Branch, North-West University (South Africa)

Drama teaches biblical texts, I have found. Some of my most successful teaching sessions in introductory, undergraduate Old Testament classes have involved direct student involvement. I have written several plays that engage the students dramatically. One concerns Genesis 3, the chapter taking place in the Garden of Eden and known to Christians as The Fall. Using the NIV text verbatim, I have broken down the chapter to six speaking parts and numerous silent ones. The speaking parts include the narrator, the Lord God, the walking serpent, the woman, and the man. The sixth part reads my italicized directions for blocking and emotions. Non-speaking parts include the plants used for covering; the tree of knowledge of good and evil; the tree of life; the animals that present themselves for slaughter; the cherubim; and the flaming sword. The entire class—often 30 students—is engaged. The non-speaking parts have plenty of personality; for example the trees flap their leaves, and the animals come willingly to the Lord God to be killed. A favorite episode is when the Lord God curses the serpent and it falls to its belly and slithers away between the plants. A flaming sword flashes around at the end, closing the show. I group those students left without a speaking or acting part in a loose category called wind and bird sounds. These sounds herald joy, concern, warning, sorrow, and other emotions associated with the chapter; students enjoy whistling, puffing, moaning, and chirping. The drama and discussion questions take a class period. The students are invited to act out their parts according to their own interpretations. A memorable dog once jumped into the Lord God’s arms! The class session, although different with each group, always combines much laughter and a sober reflection on what humankind has lost. Pausing on the text and requiring physical involvement in it enable the students to remember it. This paper will demonstrate the teaching tool of dramatization by using Genesis 3. Surely the Bible presents a plethora of Old Testament and New Testament passages inviting similar dramatic re-enactments and encouraging imagination within the bounds of the text.


From Blog, to Book, to the Larger Scholarly Discussion
Program Unit: Blogger and Online Publication
Rick Brannan, Faithlife

In 2013, Lexham Press published the two-volume "Greek Apocryphal Gospels, Fragments, and Agrapha." This collection of apocryphal material includes introductions, translations, and transcriptions or editions of most available apocryphal gospel material in Greek. While the volumes were under preparation in 2011–2012, several blogs reported the inclusion of a new apocryphal material represented in P.Oxy. 5072. To evaluate, I wrote a blog post with a provisional transcription and translation. This formed the basis of what made it into the books, and the work was published in 2013. Since then, mention of the "Greek Apocryphal Gospels" books, only available digitally, have bubbled up in the larger scholarly discussion. This paper talks about the inclusion of P.Oxy. 5072 in the books, the reception of the material, and the role of blogs and online resources in the process as well as in the reception and discussion of the material.


(Re)Signifying Creation: Viewpoint in Job as a Basis for a Christian Environmental Ethics
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Alexander Breitkopf, McMaster Divinity College

(Re)Signifying Creation: Viewpoint in Job as a Basis for a Christian Environmental Ethics


Theoretical Observations on the Isis Cult in the Early Imperial Period
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Frederick E. Brenk, Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome

Regarding categorization, Jonathan Z. Smith described the Isis cult as a “diaspora” version of a “homeland” religion (Smith 1978, xii-xv, cf. Woolf 2014, esp. 73-74; cf. Bricault and Versluys forthcoming; on methodology in general, Rüpke 2011, Scheid 2003, 6-29). Mithraism, however, may have been created in Rome for foreigners (Beck 1998 and 2006), and was only loosely connected to real Persian religion (Gordon 1996, III 95-96, 111). What came to Greece, and then Italy, was not exactly Egyptian religion but a Hellenistic version, created in Alexandria, even if with the help of Egyptian priests (for Egypt, Bricault and Versluys 2010). The models “oriental religion” and “fringe religion, “often fit poorly, since they fail to distinguish between the religion on entry and when well-established. Isism appealed early as chic to the Roman upper classes, partly because of its royal and Alexandrian origins (cf. Versluys forthcoming). Though the cult was initially persecuted, allegedly for abuse of women, but also for proselytism, the cult and Egyptian culture continued to appeal to upper-class Romans (cf. Beck 2006, Rives 2007, chs. 6 and 7, but better, North 2003, 215; see Melton 2004, 29, for modern parallels). For political reasons, the glorification of the conquest of Egypt, Augustus, and more so the Flavians, promoted aegyptiaca (Orlin 2008, Bülow-Clausen 2011, Capriotti Vittozzi 2014). Under Augustus, Egyptomania flourished, for political reasons, and especially under Nero and the Flavians, the Isis cult received official recognition, thus hardly remaining a fringe or foreign religion. Also, the models besides often lacking chronological distinctions, underplay local ones (not so, however, in Gordon 1996, III, 109-110). The Temple of Isis at Pompeii was minuscule compared to the Isaeum Campense in Rome. It was much less Egyptian, evidently more restrained in animal worship, which was repulsive to most Romans, and probably appealed to a lower clientele (Roullet 1972, Lembke 1994; for Pompeii, Moorman 2007, 2011, Sampaolo 1998, Adamo Muscettola 1992; for animal worship Smelik and Hemelrijk 1984). The “Oriental” cults are often described as “mystery” or “salvation” cults. The Isis cult is especially portrayed this way by Apuleius, who even stresses individualistic aspect. Social aspects, however, have often been neglected (on mysteries, salvation, conversions, and brainwashing, see Gordon 1996, III 93, Sfameni Gasparro 2011, Harrison 2012; modern aspects, Anthony and Robbins 2004). Gasparini (2014) has analyzed social and political connections in the Pompeian temple. The leading donors, in particular, important freedmen, besides being socially connected, seem to have formed an influential local political faction, thus combining religion and politics. Entry into a fringe religion might secure advancement in other ways. The Isis cult in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, described by Harrison as corrupt (2000, 2012; contra Finkelpearl 2012), at least exploits the gullible. Lucius, though not “brainwashed,” is taken advantage of, a constant accusation against fringe religions. Yet, besides learning discipline and finding a community, he becomes a successful lawyer despite his shaved head. Evidently the new-found connections would have propelled his legal career.


On Scholarship and Related Animals: A Personal View from and for the Here and Now
Program Unit:
Athalya Brenner, Universiteit van Amsterdam

No abstract is provided for the presidential address.


Has the Vita Abercii Mislead Epigraphists in the Reconstruction of the Inscription?
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Allen Brent, King's College - London

The reconstructed text of the fragmentary Abercius’ Epitaph has lead to an ongoing debate amongst scholars (from, for example, Ficker, Dieterich and Harnack originally, and more recently Dinkler, and from De Rossi and Dölger to Wischmeyer and Guarducci) regarding the character of the verbal imagery employed, whether it can be categorized as ‘Christian’ or as ‘Pagan,’ and the context of that imagery on a stone shaped like a Pagan bwmo/j and decorated with a corona. The methodology (that this paper will seek to challenge) has generally been a kind of ‘tit-for-tat’ exchange amongst the parties, seeking on the Pagan interpretation for isolated textual and iconographic references, and on the Christian for equally isolated and individual New Testament and early Patristics allusions. This paper seeks to show how the fourth century, legendary Vita Abercii is not merely a transliteration of the Epitaph but a legend that has reshaped the original words and their meaning. If the legend involved a fourth century Christianization of the original Hellenistic culture of Hierapolis by giving a Christian interpretation of several of its artifacts originally Pagan, why, we shall ask, is prima facie Abercius’ bwmo/j shaped tomb to be excluded from that category?


Imperial Authority and Exclusive Politics
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Mark Brett, Whitley College

The ethnocentric tendencies in Ezra-Nehemiah have been frequently condemned in biblical scholarship, even in studies that present themselves as generally descriptive and historical in scope. Postcolonial studies, on the other hand, have sometimes defended the legitimacy of defensive social postures among minority and subaltern groups when their cultural survival is at stake. In conversation with the work of Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Daniel Smith-Christopher, this paper explores the issues from a postcolonial perspective, and asks whether native administrators in Yehud adopted the rhetoric of imperial authorization in defending an ethnocentrism “from below,” and/or whether their nativism created new social divisions within the Yahwist polities at the time.


The Politics of Divine Naming in the Ancestral Traditions
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Mark Brett, Whitley College

In Priestly memory, the ancestors did not know the name Yhwh (Exod 6:2-3), yet the non-P traditions held that the ancestors were unapologetic in their use of Israel’s national name for God. A key question arising is why the late editors of Genesis would have juxtaposed these contrary views, without explanation. Our inquiry will investigate this question with a particular focus on the narrative of Genesis 24 and the politics of the Persian period.


The Eclipse of Daniel’s Narrative: The Limits of Historical Knowledge in the Theological Reading of Daniel
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Richard S. Briggs, University of Durham

This paper uses Hans Frei's famous image of the "eclipse" of biblical narrative to explore the question of how far it is true that we either do (or do not) need to situate the book historically in order to grasp its theological point(s). While historical-critical discernment plays an inevitable part in any disciplined imaginative engagement with the text, the difference this makes to theological reading varies from case to case according to the ways in which specific texts interact with history. A range of such cases is considered, including attention to the unusual complexities of Daniel 11's complicated relationship to what did and did not happen to Antiochus Epiphanes.


The Textualization of Prophecy: The Lachish Letters in Light of Evidence from Mari, Nineveh, and Literacy in Judah
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Will Briggs, Baylor University

Since the discovery of the Mari archives, scholars have made a number of attempts at drawing various parallels between the Mari prophetic texts and the biblical prophetic corpus. The increase in interest surrounding the Neo-Assyrian prophetic texts and the Lachish letters has made the comparative task as it regards prophecy even more difficult. In light of these difficulties in the comparative enterprise and the conversations surrounding the phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient Near East and in Israel/Judah, this study examines the relationship between prophecy and writing found in the Mari archives, the Nineveh archives, and the Lachish ostraca. This examination sheds light on the textualization of prophecy in Judah before the fall of Jerusalem, acknowledging that the demands of scribalism significantly reduce the possibility that these texts preserve the ipssissima verba of the original prophecies. This situation leads to a more thorough investigation of the Lachish letters themselves, particularly in relation to the use of oral and literary conventions therein as they pertain to prophecy in ostraca 3, 6, and 16. Through this method, this paper demonstrates three primary conclusions. Firstly, state officials in Judah significantly concerned themselves with prophetic messages, as is the case at both Mari and Nineveh. Secondly, there were multiple forms in which prophecy became textualized in Judah with the biblical prophetic corpus and Lachish letters displaying different methods of textualization parallel to that of the Nineveh archives and the Mari archives, respectively. Thirdly, through their use of both orally and textually-influenced vocabulary for messages (dbr and spr), the Lachish letters demonstrate a society in which orality and literacy operated side by side, without the latter subsuming the former. The importance of these observation lies in that they display a more complete picture of prophecy in Israel and Judah before 587/6 BCE. Furthermore, they militate against an understanding of prophecy in Israel that is solely based on prophetic books in the Bible, as has sometimes been the case in the study of the phenomenon of biblical prophecy due to the highly redacted form in which the biblical prophetic collections have come to us today.


Syrian Models of Ascetic Practices in Ethiopian Monasticism
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Antonella Brita, Universität Hamburg

to be supplied later


Competing Jewish Traditions and the Formation of the Gospel of Matthew
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Edwin K. Broadhead, Berea College

The Gospel of Matthew has long been considered the most Jewish of the gospels, or at least of the Synoptics. Almost without exception, scholars credit this ethos to the editorial work and theological design of an author named Matthew. The nature of the Matthean community is then reconstructed in the light of this literary design. In contrast to this scholarly norm, I will argue that the Jewishness of the Gospel of Matthew is due primarily to the competing, conflicting traditions that have been gathered into the composition of this gospel. After delineating six lines of tradition (sources), I will consider the larger question of how and why the dialectical engagement of such traditions and their tradents provides the primary dynamic behind the composition and transmission of the Gospel of Matthew. I will argue that most, if not all, of these traditions (sources) are sponsored by Jewish followers of Jesus, and I will contend that the resulting narrative remains fully within the world of 2nd Temple Judaism, even in its vision of the future. Finally, I will give consideration to 1) the consequences of this compositional process for the purpose and identity of the Gospel of Matthew, both in terms of sociology and theology, and 2) the consequences for our understanding of the role of Jewish Christianity as a foundational and enduring movement.


Preaching the Epistle of Straw: Luther’s Homiletical Hermeneutics and James
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Amanda Brobst-Renaud, Baylor University

Discussions of James customarily begin with Luther’s indication that James is an “Epistle of Straw.” The image of the reformer tormented by works-based righteousness and his anti-Pauline reading of James are well noted and oft-rehearsed. Many interpret Luther’s sharp quotes in his preface to the New Testament as reflective of reformer’s disdain of works-based righteousness, which is among his favorite polemics. The tendency to focus on these components of Luther’s thought and writing fail to take into account his understanding of the Christian in society, particularly as revealed in Luther’s sermons, in which we find his thought is not as opposed to James as we – or perhaps he – thought. It is here we find that Luther’s biblical interpretation in his “Preface to the New Testament” diverges from his hermeneutics in preaching. Whereas Luther’s emphasis and polemics on “justification by faith alone through grace apart from works of the law” are myriad, Luther’s sermons and concern for the Christian in society echo the words of James. By focusing on Luther’s quote from his “Preface to the New Testament,” scholarship has overlooked some key convergences in Luther and James’ thought and the ways in which Luther’s homiletics mitigate – or perhaps challenge – his indications of James’ role within the New Testament canon. This paper will place James and Luther into conversation, considering the ways in which their thoughts cohere with one another despite the assertion that James is a “Gospel of Straw.” This presents a problem both for those who might want to ascribe to Luther an antinomian or anti-works position and those who might want to hold that Luther thought that faith – by itself – is an indication of reception of the Gospel and Christ.


Prophetic Intercession: What Do We Think the Prophets Were Doing?
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Marian Broida, Gustavus Adolphus College

Biblical prophets not only transmitted messages from the deity to the people—they also interceded with the deity on the people’s behalf. But what did such intercession entail? This paper analyzes biblical depictions of prophetic intercession, looking for evidence of a possible ritual dimension. Biblical accounts suggest that prophetic divination and intercession were often combined in a single encounter between the prophet and the deity. Such accounts reflect one of two perspectives: encounters between the prophet and those seeking help, and encounters between the prophet and God. Certain terms in Amos 7:2, 5 suggest that the prophet’s intercession may have been expected to yield a yes/no result, like priestly intercession and divination. Other commonly-used expressions in prophetic intercession may reflect a degree of ritualization. Yet in general, the Bible emphasizes the spontaneous and dialogic nature of prophetic intercession. Sacrifice is rare (and generally not conducted by the prophet); other manual rites are few and nonstereotypic. In contrast, the Bible stresses the legal and ritual dimensions of intercession by priests, e.g. in Lev 16, the Day of Atonement Ritual. This contrast between prophetic and priestly intercession corresponds roughly to the distinction between asking the deity to change his mind vs. purifying a ritual patron from evil—two aspects that are sometimes combined in intercessory rituals from elsewhere in the ancient Near East. By its nature, prophecy is the means of divination most akin to ordinary communication. Based on biblical accounts, Israelite prophets appear to have relied more on perceptions of their intimate relationship with the deity, as opposed to technical or ritualized methods, both when transmitting the divine will and when interceding against it.


Mark as a Source for Mark
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
E. Bruce Brooks, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Mark contains material of different ages. It treats the Gentile Mission as both an irrelevance (The Syrophoenician Woman, Mk 7:24-31) and as a prerequisite for the Last Days (Mk 13:10). It treats Jesus as both a healer (The Leper, Mk 1:40-45) and as God (the forgiving of sins, Mk 2:5-10). Why? Either Mark was combined on one occasion from diverse material, or it was compiled over a period of time, and continually updated itself by adding material to reflect the latest ideas about Jesus (his increasing divinization) and the continually receding date of the Return. The latter can be shown to be the case, since the more advanced passages show the standard signs of interpolation. Then Mark is not an integral, but an accretional text. If so, then its earlier layers were available to its later layers as literary sources capable of further development. I here note three examples of seeming internal development: (1) TheWoman with a Flow of Blood (Mk 5:24-34, a development of Mk 6:56); (2) The Feeding of Four Thousand (Mk 8:1-9, a development of the Five Thousand in Mk 6:34-44), and (3) The Ambition of James and John (Mk 10:35-44, a development of the anonymous dispute over priority in Mk 9:33-34). It is easily shown that in each case, the more developed form is an interpolation. The third has the further advantage that, as a prophecy ex eventu, its terminus a quo is the year 44. This gives us one firm date within the span over which Mark was composed, and that date correlates well with references to Paul in Mark, the fact (Koester Ancient Christian Gospels, 52f) that much of Paul’s knowledge of early Christian tradition seems to come from Mark, and with everything Acts tells us about the real life relation between Mark and Paul. Clarification of the nature of Mark thus helps us locate it within the chronology of Christian writings, a chronology in which Mark, or its earliest layers, seem to occupy the very first place.


Bishops versus Radical Egalitarians: The Synod of Gangra (343 CE)
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Bernadette J. Brooten, Brandeis University

In this paper, I employ feminist intersectionality theory to interpret the interrelationship among gender and legal status among the fourth century followers of Eustathios of Sebaste who supported enslaved persons’ efforts to self-emancipate. I will argue that this is related to their rejection of traditional gender roles, of gender differentiation in dress, of marriage, of partaking in the Eucharist from married priests, of venerating martyrs, and of meat-eating, and to their desire to control their own church funds for their charitable and other activities. Female Eustathians apparently cut their hair short, and community members wore the pe??ß??a???, which caused considerable scandal. Thirteen bishops gathered around 343 in Gangra, Paphlagonia, to anathematize the Eustathians for encouraging enslaved persons to withdraw from their owners and other transgressions. The Synod of Gangra’s twenty canons and the accompanying Synodical Letter contain some biblical allusions, and later canon lawyers suggested scriptural texts that would support the canons. I will argue that the Eustathians could also have mounted a plausible theological and biblical case for their radically egalitarian positions. In order to arrive at what may have been the scriptural arguments on both sides, I will first establish the most likely date for the Synod of Gangra as 343, which allows the identification of Bishop Basil as Basil of Ankyra. Basil’s On the True Purity of Virginity helps to understand the dilemma faced by the Gangran bishops. They agreed with the Eustathians to a high degree in their biblical interpretation, which complicated their desire to anathematize them. Analyzing Basil and the precise wording of the Gangran canons, as well as ancient translations and western and eastern canon law commentators, I will suggest which canonical and extra-canonical texts each side may have used. In their canons, the Gangran bishops allude, i.a., to Acts 15:20 and parallels (meat is allowed); 1 Cor 11:2–16 (women’s hair, veiling, and submission); and 1 Tim 6:1–2 and Tit 2:9–10 (enslaved submission). The Eustathians, however, could well have appealed to Gal 3:28 (all are one in Christ); Acts 4:34–35 (communal property); 1 Cor 7:20–22 (construing µ????? ???sa? as “use your becoming free”); and the Acts of Paul and Thekla 9–17; 25; 40 (rejecting marriage, short hair, and male clothing). Epiphanios of Salamis (ca. 315–403) describes the biblical justification for a less hierarchical understanding of the church given by Eustathian Aerios around two decades after the synod. Aerios argued that the New Testament does not sharply distinguish between bishops and elders (Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 4:14). I will then suggest why this particular configuration of practices would accord with assisting enslaved persons to escape slavery when other highly ascetic writings, such as the Acts of Paul and Thekla and the Passion of Andrew, support slavery. Gender-bending does not per se lead to compassion with enslaved persons. In closing, I will point out several ways in which Eustathios or his followers had an impact on Basil of Caesarea’s, Makrina’s, and Gregory of Nyssa’s practice and thought on slavery.


The "Messiah" according to the Aramaic Meturgeman of the Isaiah Targum
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Adam Stewart Brown, McMaster Divinity College

This paper will investigate why the meturgeman intentionally added the word “Messiah” to Isaiah Targum Jonathan (ITJ) 4:2, 9:5, 10:27, 11:1, 11:6, 14:29, 16:1, 16:5, 28:5, 43:10, 52:13, and 53:10. The thesis of this paper is that the insertion of “Messiah of YWY” originated in ITJ 4:2 as a literal interpretation for the metaphorical use of “branch of YHWH” in Isa 4:2 of the MT. Once this interpretive move was made a series of interpretive decisions in the proceeding verses followed. We can track and chart the relationship between all of these verses in this order: 4:2; 11:1; 14:29; (9:5, 16:1, 16:5, 28:5); 10:27; 43:10; (52:13, 53:10); and 11:6. Isaiah 4:2, 11:1, and 14:29 are linked by the Hebrew words “branch,” “branch”, and “root.” The meturgeman then interpreted “staff” in 14:29 to metaphorically mean “ruler”. Isaiah 9:5, 16:1, 16:5, and 28:5 are all linked thematically with Isa 14:29 because of their use of “prince of peace,” “ruler of the land,” “judge,” and “crown of beauty and a diadem of glory” respectively. Together, these first seven verses congeal an understanding of Messiah as eschatological leader. The meturgeman then returned to Isa 10:27, having seen in this verse a perfect consolidation of eschatological messianic power. The victory of the Messiah then became, in the mind of the meturgeman, the validating witness to the eternal sovereignty of God in Isa 43:10. Therefore, the Messiah naturally fills the role of “my Servant” in Isa 43:10, 52:13, and 53:10. The only remaining verse is Isa 11:6. It is difficult to know where to place this verse in this overall schematic and it seems at first that this one verse might sink the entire hypothesis. However, the theme of ITJ 52:13 and 53:10 is the prosperity of the Messiah and the prosperity of those who will see the kingdom of their Messiah. Isaiah 11:6 captures this theme by illustrating what this prosperity will be like.


Satan: The Author of False Teaching in the Pastoral Epistles
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Derek Brown, Lexham Press

The Pastoral Epistles reveal a number of intriguing developments within the Pauline tradition. One area which has not received sufficient attention is the references to the devil within Pastoral Epistles. Both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy mention the malevolent figure— whether by the well known term satanas (1 Tim 1:20; 5:15), diabolos (1 Tim 3:6, 7; 2 Tim 2:26), or even ho antikeimai (“the opponent” or “the enemy,” 1 Tim 5:14; cf. 1 Clem. 51.1; Mart. Pol. 17.1)—but the collective importance of these references is rarely discussed in scholarly literature. The present paper will explore the nature of the allusions to Satan within the Pastorals by considering their function within their epistolary context, the theology of Satan which they imply, and their relationship to references to Satan in the other Pauline letters (both undisputed and disputed; see Brown, The God of this Age: Satan in the Churches and Letters of the Apostle Paul [Mohr Siebeck], forthcoming 2015). It will be argued that although the Pastoral Epistles sometimes reflect, or perhaps mimic, the earlier Pauline references to Satan (e.g., 1 Tim 1:20; cf. 1 Cor 5:5), the references to Satan in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy aim to establish a direct connection between false teaching and Satan that is intended to warn and prevent the readers of the letters from subscribing to teaching that would separate them from the truth of the gospel and the community of faith.


The Textual History of the Prayer of Jonah in the Ethiopic Manuscript Tradition
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Jeremy R. Brown, Catholic University of America

Jonah 2:3-10 was not only transmitted in Minor Prophets manuscripts in the Ethiopic manuscript tradition. This passage also was copied as the Seventh Biblical Canticle within the Ethiopic Psalter. For this study, we have transcribed more than 60 transcriptions of the canticle from codices that span the extant manuscript tradition and we will employ these to examine the textual development of the Prayer of Jonah across the centuries. We will identify manuscript families and their date ranges. We will then compare the textual history of the Seventh Biblical Canticle with the development of the text within Old Testament manuscripts. We will utilize the fifty manuscripts of Jonah that have been transcribed for the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project and examine if similar revisions and alterations occurred in both the Psalters and the Minor Prophet manuscripts. We will also consider possible influence from the Psalter upon later revisions of the Minor Prophets. Lastly, we will compare the data from the Ethiopic manuscripts with the canticles tradition in Syriac and Arabic.


Healing Words: Spoken Words, Hip Hop Poetry, and Psalms of Lament
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Sharon A. Brown, Moravian Theological Seminary

This paper will explore how the contemporary forms of expression, spoken word and hip hop, can be used as a method to engage today’s young people and meet their pastoral needs during crisis, much like how the lament Psalms function in both the ancient Israelite and contemporary contexts for people who are in pain. Oftentimes teens and young adults are at loss for words to express their deep emotions. Spoken word/hip hop offers an outlet for their feelings and in effect can be considered a 21st century form of the Psalms of Lament. In my work with young adults I have come to understand the power of spoken word as a healing and transformative modality that is aligned with and connected to the Psalms of Lament in the Hebrew text. A powerful component of this work is when students shared their work at the spoken word café ---it was the place where they “owned their voice and personal transformation” and inspired others to “speak their truth.” I will illustrate how a spoken word group of students from different backgrounds met over a two year period and wrote about their personal experiences with traumatic situations, anger, and loss. Their “psalms” shared in a “safe place” allowed them to recapture a sense of “wholeness” and experience the healing power of community lament. Just as ancient Israel psalmists struggle with issues of marginality, injustice, and brokenness, as seen in Psalms like 22 where the Psalmist cries out in pain in the midst of injustice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” or in Psalm 55 as the singer expresses the experienced hurt when a faithful friend turns into the betrayer, so the contemporary writers and spoken word artisans (today’s psalmists) sing out their pathos. When hip hop artist Tupac Shakur writes “ I beg God to make a way for our ghetto kids to breathe--Show a sign--Make us believe--Cuz I aint mad at cha!” And spoken word writer Kashi Johnson speaks “Speech is my hammer—bang the world into shape, Now let it fall” or my student says “Disappointment is like a bombshell When it hit's your body... it sends a multitude of shrapnel and confusion your way “ they are lamenting in the lineage of these ancient Israelite Psalmists. Historically, spoken word poetry can be traced to the Ancient Greeks and was revived during the Harlem Renaissance. It continued to be part of culture of those who were marginalized and oppressed during the civil rights movement and made its way into popular culture in the late 80’s. Contextually, the structure of spoken word/hip hop mirrors that of the psalms. More important, both forms of lament provide an outlet for the expression of pain, anger, resistance, hope, and justice; each offering the architect/psalmist of the lament a process for self-expression, reconciliation, healing and, most importantly, a vehicle for using his or her voice individually or collectively to “speak truth to power.”


The Memory of Jesus through the Sabbath: Exploring Jewish-Johannine Dialogues in the Diaspora
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Sherri Brown, Creighton University

Asia Minor is likely the formative center for Johannine Christianity in the decades following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Traditionally, Ephesus has been identified as the locus of its developing social and religious life and relationships in this new diaspora setting. Although the Johannine community would have sought fellowship in the Jewish synagogue, they also would have found themselves in dialogue and, soon, conflict with these same kinspeople about not only their belief in Jesus as Messiah but also their developing high Christology. This same sort of good news would not have been a problem in the nascent Gentile churches of the region. This distancing from mainstream traditional Judaism and simultaneous pull toward the Hellenistic Gentile mission through the shared memory of Jesus who is the messiah who is both divine and human is a strong undercurrent of the Gospel of John. This paper explores how this undercurrent rises to the surface in the Fourth Evangelist’s shaping of traditions about Jesus’s actions and teaching on the Sabbath. The sign and discourse of John 5 focus on the feast of the Sabbath and John’s understanding of Jesus’ authority to work as God works on the Sabbath. The Evangelist’s composition of the sign, the ensuing trial process, and Jesus’ response in John 9 is more subtle: the spotlight shines elsewhere—on the response of those he encounters to Jesus—yet he is careful to set the entirety of the scene on the Sabbath. John and his community live in this memory of the Jewish Messiah and his revelation of God on the Sabbath, but, like Jesus before them, find themselves at odds with their own people, now in the diaspora. The implications of this marginalization through belief in the Word of God in Jesus are far reaching for both the Johannine community and developing Christianity.


The Use of Reference Works in Mesopotamian and Qumran Commentaries
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Bronson Brown-deVost, Brandeis University

The use of reference works is one of the hallmarks of the Mesopotamian commentary tradition. Most frequently these texts use various lexical lists such as Malku and An = Anum to explain difficult words, and bilingual lists such as Ea A = naqû, Aa A = naqû to form more complex word associations. But the use of literary resources sometimes plays a role in the exegetical process as well. Sometimes this involves using one passage of a base-text to explain another passage in that same base text, as when a comment to Enuma eliš VII 57 quotes VII 67 (BM 54228 [82-5-22, 379] rev.). Other times the commentator may use a different literary composition to this end, as when an albeit obscure comment to Sa-gig 4 quotes Enuma eliš 4:101 (CT 51, 136 obv. 13–14). The Qumran commentaries use quotes in their interpretations as well. Sometimes a pesher may quote one passage from its base-text in an explanation for another: the interpretation of Isaiah 21:11-15 in 1QpIsa E quotes Isaiah 21:2. But the pesher interpretations may also quote from external sources, both with source citation, as when 4QpappIsa C cites Zechariah (4Q163 f8–10:8), and without source citation: 1QpHab quotes from Isaiah 13:18ba (1QpHab 6:12) and 4QpHos A quotes Jubilees 6:35 (4Q166 2:16). What is more, the pesharim have further developed this hermeneutic in two important ways: 1) The commentary text itself may be structured so that multiple passages from the base-text are linked together to create an exegetical chain of sorts, as is done in 4QpIsa B, which moves from one comment on Isaiah ?–5:14 to the next on 25b–30, and from one on Isaiah 5:?-5:30 to one on 6:9–?. 2) A related passage from another literary sources may be updated to explain how the base-text applies to a contemporary context, as when the comment to Habakkuk 1:9b–10a in 1QpHab takes the Chronicler's explanation for the fall of Judah in 2 Chronicles 36:16 (a narrative text that describes the events of Habakkuk's time) and updates it to apply to a contemporary context. The pesher to Habakkuk indeed does frequently apply the text of Habakkuk to a contemporary context and to an apocalyptic eschaton with what seems like little regard for the original meaning and intent of the base-text itself. Nevertheless, that is not always the case, for the pesherist was able to relate the book of Habakuk to the historical time period when Habakkuk was active, as described in the narrative of Chronicles. Moreover by situating the text of Habakkuk within a historical context, the pesherist was beginning to engage in an approach to texts that could be construed as similar, albeit in a primitive and imperfect way, to the modern historical critical method.


"Make Me a Sanctuary, That I May Appear in Your Midst": The Structure of Leviticus 8–9 in Light of the Vorlage of LXX Exodus
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Brandon Bruning, University of Notre Dame

Literary critics dispute the integrity of Leviticus 8-9, not only on synchronic but also on diachronic grounds. While it is widely recognized that Leviticus 8 reports the seven-day ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests in the newly established Tabernacle, rites commanded (Exodus 29) along with the instructions for the Tabernacle's manufacture and assembly (Exodus 25-31), at least three points lead to diverging analyses: (1) the contents of Leviticus 8 do not all match Exodus 29 but incorporate material that corresponds also to Exodus 40, (2) the sometimes exact, sometimes varied repetition of the formula "as Yhvh commanded (Moses)" can be found seven times (or more, depending on the counting and the textual witnesses), suggesting a literary structure in Leviticus 8, and (3) there are questions about the relationship of Leviticus 8 to Leviticus 9, which describes the "eighth day" not explicitly so called in Exodus 29 in which Aaron and his sons also perform some of the rituals of Leviticus 1-7 and at least two more exact iterations of the fulfillment formula appear. Curiously, on this last point, the relationship of Leviticus 9 to 8, the report of the first truly Aaronid priestly sacrifices concludes with the appearance of divine fire, just as Exodus 29 promises a theophany in the regular ministration of the fully-functioning, legitimately staffed cultus. (a) Setting aside the anointing of the sancta in Leviticus 8 that recalls Exodus 40, not Exodus 29, and (b) considering that the repertoire of sacrifices in Leviticus 9 incorporates more elaborate instructions from Leviticus 1-7 just where Exodus 29 would have required only the daily sacrifices, Leviticus 8-9 taken together serve as a more complete report of the execution of the commands in Exodus 29 than is often recognized. The aim of the commands (Exodus 29) and their execution (Leviticus 8-9) alike is not merely the seven-day ordination of the priests and purification of the altar, but a fully functioning, legitimately staffed cultus as the means by which the divine presence is manifest to Israel. Not only content, but structure of Lev 8-9 may retain more integrity than often recognized: across MT Lev 8-9 there are seven exact repetitions of the fulfillment formula ("as Yhvh commanded Moses"). There are also seven inexact repetitions of it that cluster together at the end of Leviticus 8 and the beginning of Leviticus 9--that is, between the first five and the last two exact iterations. This disruption in the form corresponds to the point where Moses fully transfers authority for the priesthood to Aaron. Do these observations justify reading Leviticus 8-9 as a unit? The claim becomes more convincing when compared to the structure of Exodus 35-39 in the LXX and its Hebrew Vorlage. There the manufacture of the Tabernacle subdivides into seven sections, each marked by a variation of the fulfillment formula. After the second, thus at the beginning of the next five, comes a section with seven exact iterations: these mark the making of the priestly vestments, commanded in Exodus 28 (and introduced by 28:1 as if they were part of the inauguration of the priestly service, rather than the manufacture of the sancta). Thus in LXX Exodus 35-39 the division 2/5 with seven exact iterations within seven inexact is the inverse of the structure of Leviticus 8-9, with its division 5/2 with seven variations within seven exact iterations. The point of division in LXX Exodus' report of the manufacture also comes at the point where Moses transfers authority for the manufacture of the Mishkan to Bezalel and Oholiab and their workshop, just as the division in Leviticus' report of the inauguration comes at the point where Moses transfers authority for the priestly service of the Mishkan to the Aaronid priesthood at the conclusion of their seven-day inauguration/ordination. Moreover the cluster of exact repetitions of the formulae within Exodus concerns the making of the priestly garments (per Exodus 28), just as the exact repetition throughout Leviticus 8-9 concerns the inauguration of the Mishkan's priestly service (per Exodus 29). This exact repetition distinguishes the execution of the instructions for the operation of the Mishkan (Exodus 28-29, as set off by Exod 28:1) from the execution of instructions for its manufacture (in Exodus 25-27, 30-31). Thus the Hebrew text translated by LXX Exodus 35-40 helps identify a skillful and intricate literary pattern in the execution report of the manufacture-and-inauguration of the Mishkan that spans (LXX*) Exodus 35-39 (manufacture) and Lev 8-9 (inauguration); these two sections are (or were?) two symmetrical halves of a single execution report that corresponds to the commands for manufacture (Exodus 25-27) and inauguration (28-29) of the Mishkan (followed by 30-31). This structure is summarized even better, not coincidentally, by the Hebrew underlying LXX Exod 25:7 than MT 25:8: "Make me a sanctuary


Neither Women nor Mirrors: A Masoretic Miscue, an Alexandrian Error, and the Formation of the Tabernacle Account
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Brandon Bruning, University of Notre Dame

MT Exodus 38:8 reports that Bezalel made a water-container and its stand of bronze, using “mirrors of the serving-women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” As some commentators observe, the consonantal text allows “visions” rather than “mirrors”; “mirrors” is unique in the Pentateuch, and the Tabernacle Account begins with visual instructions (e.g. 25:9 MT) and concludes its instructions: “See! I have called Bezalel…” (31:2). Is the water-container made not with materials donated by the women but in accordance with their visions? The problem of female cultic specialists in P is not resolved by ascribing to them Moses-like instructions for the Tabernacle; the mystery only deepens with the contextually logical reading “visions.” The corresponding phrase in LXX reads, “mirrors of the women who fasted at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting”--then continues, “on the day it was set up.” Thus the manufacture of the water-container cannot precede the Tabernacle’s assembly in LXX 40, nor is it mentioned there. By contrast MT 40 supplies commands for its placement and anointing; awkwardly, MT 40:30-32 follows the placement of the water-container with a long explanation about the ritual uses of its water. This purpose for the water does appear in LXX Exodus--not in LXX 40, but in the report of the manufacture of the water-container in LXX 38--immediately following the verse the translator took to refer to women whose mirrors supplied the bronze. These verses conclude a chapter in LXX Exodus unlike anything readers of MT encounter: a register of Bezalel’s achievements (LXX 38). Except for incense and anointing oil, listed just before the water-container, Bezalel’s oeuvre catalogue in LXX 38 is strictly metallurgical. Yet LXX 36 (priestly vestments) and 37 (the Tent and Court) also include metalwork. What distinguishes the items in LXX 38? They are shown to Moses--the Tent’s furniture (Exodus 25), its three-sided frame (26), and the Altar (27)--just as he is shown Bezalel (31). These visions must be realized prior to the Tabernacle’s assembly (40)--except the water-container and spice compounds needed only once it is set up. The water-container and spice compounds are also juxtaposed in Exodus 30 between instructions for the half-shekel census and the “showing” of Bezalel (31). The words that both the Greek translator and a later editor (whose rearrangement of the Tabernacle Account underlies MT Exodus 35-40) construe as “serving-women” and their “mirrors” instead collect the oddly placed commands in Exodus 30 as “visions for the troops.” “Troops” anticipates the outcome of the census in Numbers: the organization of the camp around the Tabernacle and Levitical divisions “serving at the entrance...” By citing the Exodus 30 commands as “troop-visions,” the redactor who attributes the spice compounds and water-container to Bezalel acknowledges the principle by which Bezalel’s other deeds appear together in the form of Exodus that underlies both the LXX translation and the edition preserved in MT.


Christological and Trinitarian Exegesis of Daniel 7 in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Bogdan G. Bucur, Duquesne University

This presentation focuses on the reception history of Daniel 7 in early Christian literature and later Byzantine hymnography. Two broad strands of interpretation—Christological and Trinitarian—can be discerned in this material. The same holds true for the reception history of the Song of the Three Youths and of theophanic texts such as Genesis 18, Isaiah 6, and Habakkuk 3:2, all of which patristic exegesis often connects with Daniel 7. My paper proposes (1) a survey of the exegetical, doctrinal, and hymnographic productions illustrating the rich reception history of Daniel 7 in early Christianity; (2) an attempt at categorizing this material; and (3), finally, a discussion of the ways in which today’s interpreters can make sense of this multi-layered exegetical tradition, characterized by diverse modes of symbolization and diverse ways of appropriating the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture.


Performative Exegesis in Anastasius the Sinaite’s Homily on the Transfiguration
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Bogdan G. Bucur, Duquesne University

Building on Austin’s understanding of performatives as “simultaneously saying something and doing something by talking about saying and talking about doing,” scholars speak of “performative utterances” and “performative exegesis” in the religious literature of the Ancient Near East, in biblical and parabiblical writings. “Performative exegesis,” then, would be a ritual reading of the sacred text in which the latter is used as a script to be performed and re-enacted, so that the reader is united with the rhetorical “I” of the sacred text, enters the world of the text, and experiences that which the text describes. The seventh-century homily on the Transfiguration penned by abbot of St. Catherine’s monastery, Anastasius the Sinaite, is counted among the most beautiful productions of its genre. This work discloses the meaning of the Transfiguration by weaving together several theophanic texts—chiefly, the theophany at Bethel and at least three Sinai-events—in order to, as it claims, mediate the experience of the prophets Moses and Elijah, and of the apostles Peter, James, and John, to its Christian audience of pilgrims celebrating the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. Scripture exegesis allows the speaker to make oblique references to his own ecstatic experience, and to set himself up as a model and mediator of how the audience should consume the text by experiencing it. The rhetorical and exegetical movements of the homily spring from the writer’s understanding of the sacred text as encapsulating the paradigm of ecstatic experience. This paradigm, although veiled by human language and locked away in a constellation of Scriptural accounts, is accessed and reproduced by the inspired exegete, who then mediates it to the hearers by means of performative and mystagogical exegesis.


Poimandres, Kmeph, and the Laughing God: A Hermetic Scheme of Creation
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Christian H. Bull, University of Oslo

In his defense of Egyptian theurgy, The Response of Abammon to Porphyry (De mysteriis), Iamblichus provides an account of creation that he attributes to the Egyptian Hermes. In this cosmogony the first principle is the pre-noetic Kmeph, who conceives himself as the noetic Ikton. From this first nous derives the demiurgic nous, which is called Ammon, Ptah or Osiris according to its activities, and the demiurge derives matter from materiality, which has been separated from God’s essentiality. This emanatory protology bears strong structural similarities with that found in the Poimandres, where the myth of creation is presented as a revelation. Here the enigmatic figure Poimandres is seen as the primal, luminous nous of authentia, “the sovereign power,” and a second, demiurgic nous derives the elements from dark and moist Nature, which has broken away from the first luminous nous. A third Hermetic account of creation can be found in a Greco-Egyptian magical papyrus, the so-called Leiden kosmopoiia (PGM XIII), where God laughs the universe into being in seven consecutive laughs. Especially the hypostases that result from the first four laughs correspond to the scheme of creation found in Iamblichus and the Poimandres. The present contribution aims to demonstrate the common dependence of these Hermetic accounts of creation on a Neopythagorean numerological scheme, possibly from the Pythagorean Hypomnemata, known from the first century BCE, or a similar source. However, we shall also see that the protologies of Iamblichus and the Leiden kosmopoiia substantially correspond respectively to Roman-era inscriptions found in the temples of the god Amun in Thebes and the goddess Neith in Esna. This supports the hypothesis that there was a real connection between Hermetism and the Egyptian temples, and that the Egyptian elements in the Hermetica were not merely orientalizing décor, as earlier scholarship would have it.


At Play in Potential Space: Reading King Qohelet’s Building Experiment with Winnicott
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Mette Bundvad, University of Copenhagen

This paper explores the royal fiction in the book of Qohelet, 1:12–2:20, and its relationship to the cosmological poem which precedes it in 1:4–11. Interpreters struggle to read the two texts together: are they connected in a meaningful way or do they provide two independent entry-points into the book? There are also problematic elements in the royal fiction when read on its own. It is, for example, difficult to explain why a large part of the king’s experiment with wisdom takes the form of a magnificent building project (2:4–8). Are we simply meant to read this passage as a depiction of kingly might, giving credence to Qohelet’s claim that he is the richest and wisest king of them all, or does the building experiment play a more integral role in his exploration of humanity’s conditions of life? I show that a psychoanalytic/spatial reading of the two passages can cast light on these issues, allowing the introductory poem and the royal fiction to enter into a meaningful dialogue with each other. I argue that the king’s building project may productively be read as a counter-space to the cosmic space of the initial poem, established to protect his identity in the midst of a hostile cosmos. To understand the character and purpose of the king’s spatial project, I bring in Winnicott’s psychoanalytic work. Winnicott discusses the relationship between the inner reality of the individual human being and the external world in spatial terms, making him an ideal conversation partner for a study of the function of the different kinds of space in the book of Qohelet. His concept of potential space, an in-between space which mediates the relationship between the inner psyche and external reality, provides a particularly useful analogy to the way that space is utilized in the royal experiment.


Early New Testament Manuscripts and the Implications for Textual Criticism
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Alan Bunning, Purdue University

Over the centuries, New Testament textual criticism has often been operating in the dark, relying on outdated apparatuses that only display a limited number of variants, cite a limited number of witnesses, lack the context of where manuscripts start and stop, conceal the state of the manuscripts’ conditions, do not distinguish between the importance of witnesses, and on top of that, they contain errors! The Center for New Testament Restoration (CNTR) attempts to address these concerns by providing all known references to the Greek New Testament on extant manuscripts dated before 400 AD. In addition to the major continuous texts, a second category containing quotations, amulets, inscriptions, etc. has also been included. Individual electronic transcriptions of each manuscript have been made, along with a complete collation showing the word-by-word alignment. Associated metadata including the description, contents, date, provenance, location, and publication has also been collected for each artifact. This corpus of data is significant because it reveals the most complete picture of the early New Testament sources to the general public and enables new types of advanced statistical data analysis, including the algorithmic computer generation of a base text. This data is currently hosted on the CNTR website and will be made available for free download using the TEI XML format.


Effective Death Traditions, Imitation of Christ, and the Suffering of Christians in the New Testament
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Justin Buol, University of Notre Dame

As New Testament authors grapple with understanding the significance of Jesus’ death, they cast it in diverse terms and imagery: as sacrifice, ransom, atonement, noble death, exemplary model, and so on. One of these themes that has particular currency in many books of the New Testament is the portrayal of Jesus’ suffering and death as a model for Christians to follow. This paper surveys a handful of such passages (e.g. Mark 10:45; Luke 23:26; John 15:12-13; 21:15-19; Acts 7:54-60; Heb 13:13; 12:2; 1 Pet 2:21; 3:17-18; 4:1, 12-16; 5:1-4) to understand precisely what about Jesus’ suffering is being offered as a model in each case. After this overview, analysis is given to two particular aspects of Jesus’ death as model: (1) who is supposed to follow Jesus’ model, and (2) whether the suffering of Christians who follow Jesus’ model has beneficial effects for others. Both questions are essentially concerned with the extent to which Jesus’ death is imitable. In answering the first question, special focus falls on places where leaders are supposed to enact Jesus’ example. Answering the second question requires some attention to effective death traditions from the Greco-Roman world (such as certain practitioners of the Roman devotio ritual, Greek pharmakos rituals and their mythic forebears, as well as the Maccabean martyrs) and the beneficial effects of Jesus’ death in the New Testament. This analysis finds diverse perspectives on the beneficiaries of Christian suffering in the New Testament: sometimes no beneficiary is indicated, or rarely God is the one affected, but for the most part it is the church who receives tangible effects from Christian suffering and death.


Mark's Jesus: Spirit-Filled Charismatic and Deified Human
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Delbert Burkett, Louisiana State University

The present paper addresses the question of whether Mark’s Jesus is in some sense divine or identified with God. Interpreters of Mark’s gospel commonly see Mark as representing a “low” christology, in which Jesus is a human being, not a divine being. This perspective, however, continues to be challenged by interpreters who find in Mark a “high” christology, in which Jesus is a divine being or in some way identified with God. The present paper examines this issue. It supports the thesis that Mark’s Jesus is a human being to whom God grants divine power and prerogatives. It supports this thesis by paying attention not only to the narrative world of Mark’s gospel but also to its cultural and religious context in Second-Temple Judaism, the Greco-Roman world, and early Christianity. The examination proceeds diachronically in the order of Mark’s narrative, so that Mark’s christology is unfolded in the order in which Mark presents it as well as the order in which a reader encounters it. In the process, the paper examines aspects of the story in which some interpreters have found Jesus identified with God--such as Jesus’ claim to forgive sins, his ability to calm a storm, and his power to raise the dead--and it finds this identification unjustified. It concludes that two moments in Jesus’ story are key for understanding his relation to God. The first is his baptism, at which he receives the Spirit of God. This event must be understood in the context of Jewish traditions about the Messiah and early Christian traditions about baptism. At this point, the man Jesus is anointed as the Messiah, adopted as God’s son, and imbued with the power and prerogatives of God. The second is his ascension, at which he sits at the right hand of God. This event must be understood in the context of Greco-Roman traditions concerning apotheosis. At this point, God bestows on Jesus a place of authority in the divine realm and shares with him his own name. In Mark’s christology, a god does not become a man, but a man becomes a god.


A New Interpretation of Line Five of the Amman Citadel Inscription
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Andrew R. Burlingame, University of Chicago

Since the discovery of the Amman Citadel Inscription in 1961 during excavations directed by Rafiq Dajani and the Jordanian Department of Antiquities and Siegfried Horn’s publication of the same in a brief presentation in 1968 and a lengthier editio princeps in 1969, the importance of the text for the study of Ammonite language and paleography have been virtually universally acknowledged. Despite its and length and its apparent cultural significance, however, the fragmentary state of this text has hindered its interpretation. While numerous studies have significantly enhanced our understanding of the text, an increasingly agnostic trajectory has characterized the scholarly disposition toward line 5 of the inscription in particular. Though this line is perhaps the best preserved of the entire text, most scholars have ultimately resorted to emendation or the proposal of a variety of morphological or lexical interpretations of questionable probability in an effort to interpret this line. More recent studies have despaired of any meaningful interpretation whatsoever. The present study is designed to contribute to our understanding of the Amman Citadel Inscription at precisely this point. I would like to call attention to several data of potential relevance, which have not yet been introduced into the discussion of the interpretation of this problematic line. Specifically, while a number of scholars have recognized a denominative verb in the line-initial sequence {tdlt}, these treatments have depended on improbable semantic analyses. I propose that this verb in fact means “to outfit with a door” and point out the generally overlooked instance of this verb in the Temple Scroll (11Q19 33.13), where it appears to have precisely the semantic value envisioned here. Furthermore, by reconsidering Cross’s 1969 syntactic analysis of the end of the line in light of the corrected reading offered by subsequent collations, to which Cross had no access at the time, I believe we are in a better position to identify the morpho-syntax and semantics of the entire line. By recognizing in {kbh} a noun with 3ms suffix, and by connecting this noun to possible Akkadian and Ugaritic cognates, I propose that the addressee is in this line instructed to equip with a door “the interior of its [the structure’s] sanctuary.” I hope to illustrate that these proposals allow us to arrive at a more philologically satisfying reading of the line. This reading may, in turn, allow us better to understand the function of the inscription within its historical context, while simultaneously shedding new light on related philological questions in Northwest Semitic studies.


The Sword and the Servant: Reframing the Function of the “Two Swords” of Luke 22:35–38 in Narrative Context
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
David A. Burnett, Criswell College

The “two swords” passage of Luke 22:35-38 has plagued interpreters for centuries. Scholars have attempted to explain this passage by suggesting that Jesus was either not speaking literally of buying swords, alluding to future persecution of the disciples, preparing them for bandits along the way, preparing them for the time of trial to come when he is gone, etc. Many of these interpretive positions seem to be out of step from Luke’s narrative portrayal of the mission and ethic of Jesus and his disciples. In recent scholarship the dominant approaches to solving the interpretative issues associated with this enigmatic text have tended to focus myopically on the pericope itself apart from a thorough treatment of passage within its narrative context. This study will provide an explanation of Jesus’ command to buy a sword within the immediate context of the narrative as a prophetic announcement of the disciples’ denial in the same way he announces Peter’s denial in the previous section. This will be demonstrated in two ways: 1) arguing for Luke’s positioning of the unique “two swords” pericope (Lk 22:35-38) within a wider chiastic structure of Lk 22:31-62 and 2) demonstrating that in Luke’s employment of Isaiah 53:12 in the immediate narrative context, he understands the transgressors that Jesus is to be counted with are not the criminals that he is crucified next to, as traditionally understood, but with his disciples who brandish the sword. This reading is consistent with the non-violent martyrological ethic of the Jesus movement in Luke-Acts and has profound implications for early Christian ethics in the context of Roman imperial domination in the first-century as well as for contemporary Christian ethics today.


Religion in Iron Age Jordan
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Joel S. Burnett, Baylor University

This paper will introduce a panel session on religion in Iron Age Transjordan. The primary aim is to establish a context for papers that follow in the session, which may focus on specific archaeological sites or specific forms of religious evidence. I will offer an overview of archaeological, epigraphic, and biblical evidence relating to religious beliefs and practices east of the Jordan during this period (ca. 1150-550 B.C.E.) with attention to geographic, historical, and economic contexts and in relationship to social and political identity both east and west of the Jordan. Basic questions to be addressed include how the archaeological and epigraphic evidence from Jordan relates to biblical evidence, how that evidence relates to national identities, and what roles religion played in both contested and cooperative relationships among Iron Age kingdoms and their populations east of the Jordan.


Alchemical Metaphor in the Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1)
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Dylan M. Burns, Freie Universität Berlin

Among the most difficult—and fascinating—of the Nag Hammadi texts is the Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1). Particularly mysterious are its opening pages, which describe the repeated descents and ascents of a savior-figure, who liberates spiritual light from the darkness with which it was once mixed. This liberation is described as, among other things, a series of obscure reactions between light, darkness, fire, heat, and weight—images whose meaning and motivation have yet to be explained by modern research. This paper seeks to demonstrate that the metaphors used in this and other parts of NHC VII,1 derive from the contemporary metallurgical practice of tincturing, a practice which occupied a central role in the development of Greco-Egyptian alchemy. The talk will also address the greater question of framing research into Gnosticism, alchemy, Egyptian magic, and esotericism.


Is Ghulat Religion Islamic Gnosticism? (2) Syro-Mesopotamian Gnostic Traditions
Program Unit: The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
Dylan Burns, Freie Universität Berlin

Is Ghulat religion “Gnostic”? This contribution will elaborate how mythological and doctrinal ideas associated with the infamous Shi’ite “Gnostics” known as the Ghulat have strong parallels with Sethian Gnosticism as well as Manichaeaism and Mandaeanism. These themes include interest in identifying authority-figures as reincarnations of primeval patriarchs and savior-prophets, belief in the reincarnation of human souls, speculation about the celestial liturgy and doxology, and interest in the transformation of the self into a divine being with a divine body. Meanwhile, other characteristics of Ghulat thought that seem vaguely “Gnosticizing” at first glance simply recall more general themes in ancient religious discourse. Finally, characteristics of Ghulat myth that have been held by scholars to be of distinctly Gnostic provenance—the accounts of the fall of the shadows or humans, or the creation of the world by the Prophet-cum-Demiurge—are not be Gnostic at all, but quite idiosyncratic. Thus, while much of Ghulat thought is original, much is indebted to Sethian Gnostic and related traditions from the Roman East. At the same time, despite this indebtedness to these Gnostic sources, Ghulat thought should not be characterized as strictly “Gnostic” or even “dualistic,” and therefore its designation, common to the secondary literature, as a kind of “Islamic gnosis” is a misnomer. Rather, the phenomenon of Ghulat religion might be best described as an original “Islamicization” of a variety of ancient religious traditions, many of them stemming from Gnostic and Manichaean sources we know to have circulated in late antique Syria and Mesopotamia.


Fasting on the Sabbath: An Ancient Jewish Stereotype Deconstructed
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Joshua Ezra Burns, Marquette University

A number of ancient Roman authors expressed the belief that Jews fasted on the Sabbath day. Modern commentators have yet to offer a convincing explanation of this apparent misconception. Most have simply attributed it to ignorance. Some have inferred confusion with the traditional prohibition against cooking on the Sabbath. Others have posited that Roman Jews actually did fast on the Sabbath. Assessing the empirical advantages and disadvantages of these theories, I propose an alternative explanation. Specifically, I contend that the belief that Jews did not eat on the Sabbath was born of the fact that Jews did not shop for food on the Sabbath. At a time when most food was prepared for consumption on the day of its purchase, the weekly disappearance of Jews from the Roman marketplace signaled to observers outside their community their abstinence from eating. I therefore conclude that the perception that Jews routinely fasted on the Sabbath, though likely mistaken, was the result of a benign cultural misunderstanding. I shall base my thesis on two arguments: 1) Roman Jews, like other Jews, avoided conducting financial transactions on the Sabbath, 2) Roman Jews, like other Romans, normally obtained their foodstuffs from vendors in the macellum, or market, where they would have interacted with non-Jews as a matter of course. My evidence for the former will draw upon comments by Philo (Legat. 158) and Josephus (Ant. 16.163, 168), among other data drawn from the Old and New Testaments and rabbinic literature. My evidence for the latter draw upon the treatment of Claire Holleran, Shopping in Ancient Rome (2012), with data specific to Jewish participation in Roman marketplace culture culled from a catacomb inscription (ILS 9432).


Ancient Biography, Matthew’s Genre, and the Development of the Canonical Collection
Program Unit: Matthew
Richard A. Burridge, King's College - London

The biographical gospel genre (Burridge, What are the Gospels? (CUP 1992; second edition Eerdmans 2004) is widely accepted. However, significant implications of this genre have received less attention, particularly regarding genre theory and the way groups of ancient lives inter-related in composition and interpretation. Reviews of Watson’s Gospel Writing (Eerdmans 2013) note its curious absence of consideration of gospel genre. The four canonical gospels display the features and conventions of Graeco-Roman Lives, different from those in other so-called ‘gospels’. This paper explores whether the gospels’ biographical genre explains both their development and their later recognition as canonical, distinguishing them from other ‘gospels’, lacking this biographical genre.


"Sprinkle the Place with This Water”: Christianization and Islamification of Religious Space in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Adam Bursi, Cornell University

The blessedness inherent in holy places, in the bodies of holy men, and in the relics of their bodies, was understood in late antiquity as a portable commodity that could be moved from place to place via physical contact, as we see for example in the phenomenon of pilgrims’ eulogiai. This portability of blessedness was even transferable to new spaces through a relic sacralizing the space of its new resting place, physically separated from the original holy man, shrine, or even the original relic. In sanctifying spaces, the placement of relics could be used not only to add holiness to an otherwise neutral space, but also to symbolically (and, in all likelihood, literally in the minds of many late ancient observers) cleanse a space perceived to contain a pagan or heretical past. For example, the first attested translatio of relics—the movement of a Decian-era martyr named Babylas from Antioch to a sanctuary in the Antiochene suburb of Daphne—is associated with the repelling from Daphne of a previously powerful oracle of Apollo. The placement of relics became a mandated component of church dedications at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 and the Venerable Bede’s eighth-century Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum cites a letter from Pope Gregory the Great describing the installation of relics as an official part of the ritual process for converting pagan temples into Christian church spaces. In these descriptions, the installation of holy water, altars, and relics serves to symbolically remove the pagan past and to repurpose such spaces for Christian usage. This paper will examine a similar ritual for the conversion of religious space described in an early Islamic hadith that deals with the conversion of Jewish/Christian biya’ (“churches, prayer spaces”) into Muslim masajid (mosques). Specifically, this hadith narrates the usage of an Islamic contact relic—the Prophet Muhammad’s used ablution water—for the cleansing and repurposing of heterodox religious space, a Christian prayer space. This “Islamification” of religious space displays an interest in using religiously powerful objects for the transformation of space similar to what see in the “Christianization” of pagan temples through saints’ relics. Like Christian relics, divided and translated to new spaces for the sanctification of new spaces, Muhammad’s used ablution water offers a transportable embodiment of his authority to be brought to a distant location for the establishment of a new Muslim religious space. Instead of a Christian martyr’s relic sanctifying a church, a contact relic from the Muslim prophet allows this religious space to become a masjid. Christian space becomes Islamic space through the presence of a specifically Islamic relic and Mu?ammad’s body itself serves as a boundary marker, distinguishing Christian from Muslim space and identity.


The Animal World, Horror, and the Unimaginable in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Sean Burt, North Dakota State University

This paper seeks to investigate the horrific in The Book of Job's whirlwind speeches, particularly the animal questions in Job 38:39–39:30. Drawing on the work of scholars who have explored the whirlwind speeches in Job (Timothy Beal, William P. Brown, Davis Hankins, others), this paper engages with current theoretical and philosophical work on horror (including that of Eugene Thacker, Dylan Trigg, and Graham Harman). In the animal speeches, the character of Job encounters a fragmentary, seething creation that is indifferent to humanity, that simultaneously overflows and remains inaccessible. These speeches present the reader with a vision of the cosmos that could be characterized “Lovecraftian,” following the fictional universe of the writer H.P. Lovecraft. In the Book of Job, creatures, indeed even Job’s own body, have lives of their own. Animal life has its own autonomy insofar as it is unassimilable and unable to be mastered by humans. In other words, the horizon within which humans meet the cosmos is not one of sublimity or wonder, but of horror. Further, the book does not simply grant non-human life its own autonomy, but it also suggests that the precondition for considering and understanding the cosmos is acknowledging it as unimaginable.


Revisionary Interpretation of Homeric and Biblical Myth
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Austin Busch, SUNY Brockport

The category of Scripture cannot be limited to authoritative writings, but must also incorporate the conventional hermeneutical practices uniquely (at least in degree) associated with the writings that these practices, in fact, canonize: a combination of exhaustive editorial activity, consistently rehabilitative interpretation, frequent literary transposition into innovative contexts, etc. By this account, Homeric epic is no less “scriptural” than the Hebrew Bible in Greco-Roman antiquity—for polytheists, especially, but in a sense, for Christians and Jews as well. Dennis MacDonald’s analysis of New Testament narrative’s employment of Homer in its own way confirms this observation, challenging biblical scholars to work with a broader understanding of canonically authoritative writings than they normally employ. I embrace that challenge by arguing that early Christians acknowledged and negotiated Homeric epic’s status as Scripture in various ways—not merely by rewriting Homer, as MacDonald demonstrates, but also by adopting conventional strategies for interpreting Homeric myth to the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. As a case study, I will demonstrate that Gnostic interpretations of Genesis, which have long troubled scholars of ancient Christianity, quite straightforwardly adapt interpretive models from Second-Sophistic readings of Homer. Analogously, I will argue that certain Second-Sophistic readings of Homer adopt models from early Christian interpretations of the Gospels. My study ultimately suggests that scholars of the New Testament and early Christianity would be better served by acknowledging that the category of “Scripture” was more fluid and porous in antiquity than today, and that it as frequently served strategies of religious appropriation as it did those of religious exclusion.


The Western Text of Acts Evidenced by Chrysostom?
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Gunnar Büsch, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Ever since Fred C. Conybeare’s article “On the Western text of Acts as evidenced by Chrysostom” (1896), James Hardy Ropes’ “The Text of Acts” (1926) and finally Boismard/Lamouille’s “Texte Occidental” (1984) it is generally agreed that Chrysostom’s Homiliae in Acta Apostolorum and the biblical text contained in them were passed down in two forms, an early rough version and a later smoothed-out recension. The former is commonly supposed to contain larger amounts of ‘Western’ readings. It is also agreed that Chrysostom’s text still is in desperate need of further investigation, especially as we still lack a critical edition that adequately incorporates both text forms. Preparing the patristic evidence for the ECM of Acts, we had to revisit the questions related to the earlier tradition of Chrysostom’s homilies as represented by two Oxford manuscripts, New College 75-76. This paper will discuss supposedly ‘Western’ readings in these manuscripts and present a re-evaluation of the evidence.


“Chaining Out” on Deuteronomy: Fantasy Theme Analysis of Prayers in Ezra-Nehemiah
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Aubrey E. Buster, Emory University

Ernest Bormann (1972) has analyzed the phenomenon of group communication by means of Robert Bales’ account of the dynamic process of group fantasizing. Bales’ research provides an account of how dramatizing communication creates social reality for people. Analysis of these group fantasies provides insight into the group’s culture, motivation, emotional style, and cohesion. While we do not have access to the audience reaction of Ezra or Nehemiah’s provocative public prayers, we do possess the tools to analyze the respective fantasy themes of each presentation. These are the themes of language that, once accepted by the group, become self-perpetuating, characterizing the drama which the group understands itself to be enacting. In my paper I identify and analyze at least four fantasy themes present in the penitential prayers of Ezra-Nehemiah: 1) the chosenness of the community; 2) the promise of land; 3) divine provision in times of difficulty; 4) obedience to divine commandments. The speakers of the prayer effectively provide a motivation for the community to get on the bandwagon, to “chain out” on the Deuteronomic fantasy. The result is just such a commitment, as demonstrated in Nehemiah 9: “Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests” (Neh 9:38).


Jesus Prays the Shema as Ezekiel’s Prophesied King: A Reassessment of Johannine Oneness
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Andrew Byers, St John's College, University of Durham

The prayer for oneness in John 17 has been understood as evidence of an historical schism that threatened the integrity of the Johannine community, giving rise to the influential interpretative tradition in ecumenical dialogue in which Jesus’ prayer is treated as a foundational text for building the unity of the church. This paper proposes a reappraisal of the Johannine oneness motif by attending to a strategically employed pattern of intertextual references. By the time Jesus prays “that they may be one, as we are one” in John 17:22, the concept of oneness has undergone a careful, complex development within the Gospel’s sequence. Approaches that understand “one” as signifying a unity of social harmony do not sufficiently take this prior intertextual development into hermeneutical account. Demonstrating that Johannine oneness draws alternatively from prophetic texts in Ezekiel and from the language of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, I will build the case that the prayer for believers to become “one” as Jesus is “one” is with the Father is not intended to address an internal threat of church division but an external threat of rejection and persecution from a Jewish socio-religious context. The social crisis evoked by Christology among Johannine Christians would have been severely distressing for them as Jews finding themselves at odds with their communal identity and scriptural traditions. In the collective self-understanding underlying the Gospel, however, it is not Johannine Christians who have parted ways with Judaism; on the contrary, it is the polemicized “Jews” that have parted ways with the “one” God who cannot be known apart from the revelation made available in Jesus, the “one” divine Shepherd (10:16). The oneness motif in John 17, therefore, is intended not as a call to social unity but as an expression of social identity. The evangelist’s intertextual appropriation of these two sets of scriptural texts is intended to show that Johannine Christians’ experience of group extraction and subsequent resocialization into a new collective entity does not amount to a departure from the “one” God of Israel.


More Than Symbolic Blackness: Some Hermeneutical Reflections on Ethnicity and the Interpretation of Luke-Acts
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Gay Byron, Howard University

Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Difference in Early Christian Literature was one of several books published during the first decade of the twenty-first century charting a new direction in New Testament interpretation that foregrounded questions of ethnic identity, literary theory, rhetorical strategy, and theological meaning. Whether scholars called it “ethno-political rhetoric” or “ethnic reasoning” or color-coded language,” there was consensus that ethnicity matters and reading for ethnicity opened a new window onto the world of the early Christians. While Paul claims there is “no Jew or Greek,” Luke and several of his contemporaries demonstrate in their writings that Judeans, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Canaanites, Cretans, and other ethnic “others” are central for the creation of a type of Christianity that advances the interests of those who resonated with the dominant discourses and values of the empire. After providing an overview of how New Testament critics have already explored the terrain of ethnicity, this paper will outline some new directions for interpreting ethnicity in Luke-Acts that move beyond minoritized perspectives and invite a broad spectrum of hermeneutical entry points.


One Grave, Two Women, One Man: Complicating Family Life at Colossae
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Alan Cadwallader, Australian Catholic University

A recently discovered inscription from the necropolis of Colossae adds a further complication to the varieties of family structure evident at Colossae from published and unpublished epitaphs and from New Testament textual witnesses. The concentration of the paper will be on the inscription for Meniandros and his extended family found on a bomos in the Colossian necropolis, here released for the first time by kind permission of Professor Ender Varinlioglu. Comparison with other inscriptions and stelai reliefs from Colossae reveals that the actual structures of family life recorded at Colossae were quite varied, even given the limited materials available for interpretation. The implications for assessing the levels of adherence to the promoted imperial models of family life will be explored, with special attention to an evaluation of the rationales for material and textual displays of compliance, such as in standardized funerary banquet reliefs and the household code in the letter to the Colossians.


"The Word That Was from the Beginning": Syriac Etymology in a Digital Age
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
David M. Calabro, Brigham Young University

Abstract: Although Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum (2nd ed., 1928) and Sokoloff’s revision of the Lexicon Syriacum (2009) include etymologies, and the Thesaurus Syriacus of Payne Smith (1879-1927) includes some information related to etymology, Syriac scholarship still awaits an in-depth etymological dictionary that makes use of the resources available to modern Semitists. In this presentation, I will point out some advantages of a digital dictionary and text corpus in producing an in-depth etymological dictionary. For example, digital technology makes possible the interlinking of the lexicon and corpus, ultimately allowing etymological options to be relatively easily compared with geographical, chronological, and dialectal data. In addition, a digital lexicon in which etymologies are tagged by category of semantic change allows research on the typology of semantic shifts. An etymological lexicon of Syriac that makes use of digital technology will also be useful in related Semitic and Afroasiatic fields, since tagged comparanda can be instantly sorted to generate partial etymological lexicons of whatever languages are included in the Syriac lexicon’s comparative scope. I will show how a typical etymological entry that optimizes these possibilities would look, using examples from the in-progress Oxford-BYU digital corpus and lexicon project.


To See the Invisible One: Moses and Hermes in the Greek and Demotic Magical Papyri
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Jared C. Calaway, Illinois College

The Greco-Egyptian Magical Papyri that date from the first four centuries CE are exemplars of the fluidity of the exchange of religious ideas and practices. They contain love spells, exorcisms, and instructions for calling upon and having a vision of a deity. The most significant figure in Greco-Roman Egypt to provide such mediation was Hermes Trismegistus in the collections of Hermetica and the magical papyri. Other than Hermes Trismegistus, however, Moses is one of the most invoked figures in the Greek and Demotic magical papyri. Many treatises are associated with Moses and the revelation of the divine name, the source of his power, such as the “Eighth Book of Moses” (PGM XIII.1-343; XIII.343-646) and “The Tenth Book of Moses” (PGM XIII.734-1077). Moses’ moment on Sinai and the revelation of the divine name becomes paradigmatic for any practitioner – not only for Jews and Christians, but also for others seeking a divine encounter. He was invoked as a common exemplar, whose authority circulated beyond Jewish and Christian sub-cultures, becoming a cross-religious figure. By acting as Moses did, one could even call oneself Moses, taking on Moses’ identity to call down God upon the mountain and to have a vision of the invisible (PGM V.109-116; PDM 125-132). Moses became the magus par excellence. As the most commonly invoked mediators, were practitioners who used Moses and Hermes competitors or do we find confluence? Some traditions identify the two as the same figure, given their similar functions; others suggest they were rivals, largely for the same reasons. In addition to social interactions among practitioners, to what extent did the actual practices in the passages invoking Moses and in those invoking Hermes coincide and diverge? And how did these practices relate to or diverge from broader Moses visionary traditions among late antique Jews and Christians, who, too, sought to see the invisible One?


Spatiotemporality in Hebrews, 4 Ezra, and Revelation
Program Unit: Hebrews
Jared C. Calaway, Illinois College

In general, scholars have divided themselves among those who study space and those who study time, treating them as discrete, yet complementary categories. This is true in the academe broadly, in biblical studies, and in the study of Hebrews specifically. Concerning Hebrews, scholars focusing on the spatial cosmology tend to prefer a Platonic or Philonic reading, while those with a temporal perspective prefer a more apocalyptic/eschatological stance. More recently, however, a handful of scholars have begun to note the sophisticated spatiotemporal interactions that occur throughout Hebrews. Applying insights by critical theorists such as Henri Lefebvre and M.M. Bakhtin among others, this paper will explore some of the sophisticated relationships of space and time that extend throughout Hebrews with special attention to traditions of rest/land, tabernacle, and the camp, and how these spatial categories map in complex ways onto temporal categories of Sabbath, present, and future ages. This paper will provide a differential reading of the spatiotemporality of Hebrews by drawing in roughly contemporary apocalyptic works, particularly 4 Ezra and Revelation, which also have strong interests in the relationship between past, present, and future ages and the spatial categories of land/rest and temple/tabernacle, but map these relationships in different ways. This analysis, therefore, will take some initial steps to show what distinctive contribution Hebrews gives, while also seeing how it participates in spatiotemporal speculation of its own historical time and place.


Prophetic Corpus: Jeremiah’s Body in Biblical and Postbiblical Tradition
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Mary Chilton Callaway, Fordham University

The prophet’s body is a constant presence in both biblical text and post-biblical tradition, yet it remains elusive. The first part of the paper explores the unusually prominent role of the prophet’s body as both subject and object. Jeremiah is the subject in poetic descriptions of inner turmoil as bodily distress: pain in the gut, wildly beating heart, fire in the bones. Describing emotions in terms of their physical manifestations is a well known feature of ancient Near Eastern poetry, from Sumerian lament to Babylonian epic. The somatizing of the prophet’s inner distress in the poetry of Jeremiah represents a highly developed subjective aspect of this long established tradition. On the other hand, in the biographical narratives Jeremiah’s body is repeatedly described as the object of others’ actions, including assaults, imprisonment and kidnapping. The paper argues that in juxtaposing the prophet as both subject and object in this way, the final form of the Jeremiah tradition creates a new discourse about the prophetic body as the locus of the divine word. The second half of the paper shows how this complex trope of Jeremiah’s body began to shape the way the book was received and elaborated in Second Temple Judaism and then in Christianity. The developing Jeremiah tradition is characterized by new stories that highlight the prophet’s physical presence as locus of divine power, typically in miracles. The most enduring aspect of Second Temple reception, which persisted into early modernity, is the tradition that Jeremiah was stoned to death by his countrymen. This very influential tradition shifted the emphasis from the older trope of Jeremiah’s body as locus of divine word to the new model of martryred body as site of holiness. When the Jeremiah tradition later becomes embodied in codices, an illustration of the prophet’s body assaulted by stones often introduces the reader to his words. Examples of these illustrations will accompany the presentation.


“He Had neither Form nor Beauty”: The Physiognomic Curiosity of the Negative Descriptions of the Physical Appearance of Jesus
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Callie Callon, Queen's University

In ancient physiognomic consciousness there was almost a universal consensus that a person of good moral character would have an attractive appearance that testified his or her virtues. Moreover, it was understood that figures who were either divine themselves or favoured by the divine would have a corresponding impressive physique. Some early Christian authors who operated with an otherwise typical physiognomic mind frame in other works nonetheless do not object to - and sometimes actively promote - the lacklustre physical form of the “Suffering Servant” as applied literally to Jesus to describe his physical appearance. This is a rather curious tension, and at odds with their contemporaries such as Philo and Josephus who demonstrate discomfort with and an attempt to refute traditions about the physical shortcoming of Moses. In view of this a reason why these early Christian authors deviate from the practices of their contemporaries requires a potential explanation. In this paper I suggest that these early Christian authors utilized the idea of a physically unimpressive Jesus for particular rhetorical gains that they thought trumped the stigma of an unattractive authority figure.


The Study of the Theology of Prayer in the Old Testament: Retrospective
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Phillip G. Camp, Lipscomb University

The Study of the Theology of Prayer in the Old Testament: Retrospective


Greek Prepositions and New Testament Exegesis
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Constantine R. Campbell, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

This paper will explore key issues and complexities for understanding prepositions in the exegesis of Greek text.


Reframing 2 Thessalonians: Paul's Response to the Gaian Crisis
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Douglas Campbell, The Divinity School, Duke University

Recently I have argued that many of the basic scholarly judgments about Paul's letters need to revised (Framing Paul, Eerdmans, 2014). Moreover, I suggest that many of our techniques for evaluating authenticity need to be refashioned. I suggest in this paper that this new approach suggests the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians, alongside 1 Thessalonians. The indications are, furthermore, that these letters were written early within Paul's missionary career, while some hints suggest their location during "the Gaian crisis," which unfolded principally through 40 CE, as the emperor planned to erect a statue of himself, portrayed as Zeus/Jupiter, in the Jerusalem temple. Paul's engagement with the emperor cult was consequently very direct in this instance. Indeed, it was threaded into his eschatology.


Answering Our Question about Strategic Atheism
Program Unit: Westar Institute
John D. Caputo, Syracuse University

*


Doubling Claimants
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Kenneth Cardwell, Saint Mary's College of California

The Question of Tribute (Mk 12:13-17) and The Decision of Solomon on the Disputed Child (I Kings 3:16-28) bear a superficial resemblance. Each places two contending parties before a judge. The judges ( a king and a “king”) render judgment at the place where a temple is about to be built. The contending participants in both accounts employ a language full of antitheses stated and restated. Jesus’s “Bring me a denarius” chimes with Solomon’s “Bring me a sword.” Solomon’s judgment causes those who heard of it to hold him in awe. Bystanders at the judgment Jesus rendered were also amazed; but the pithy saying about Caesar and God was not the cause. It was and is rather the onlookers’ and readers’ recognition of the coin’s dual claims that did or should provoke amazement. The coin displays the image of a Caesar, and on the same face an inscription makes a claim about his divinity. No sword can separate one from the other. Every person refusing to pay Caesar his coin fails to render to Caesar what is his. Every person paying the coin will render something of God’s to Caesar. Unlike the child, who has two claimants but is owed only to the one mother, the coin has two claimants and is owed to both. The case is made that on this reading, Mark’s passage meets most of the criteria for literary mimesis. If only barely.


Was Paul Happy? A Contextual Reading of Phil 3:1–4:1 in Conversation with North American Psychology and Its Limitations
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Greg Carey, Lancaster Theological Seminary

Happiness, understood as a state or process of human flourishing, has reemerged as a prevailing interest in North American philosophy and psychology. A participant in the Pursuit of Happiness project hosted by Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion (see Brent A. Strawn, ed., The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness), the author draws upon Phil 3:2-4:1 as a case study for investigating the insights and limitations of happiness as construed in a Western postindustrial society. In this textual unit Paul reflects on his disavowal of one set of values and relationships for the sake of the gospel, and he invites his hearers to follow him on the path. Polemical in nature, Paul’s project aims to dissuade hearers from adopting an alternative set of values. Although joy constitutes a major theme in Philippians, Paul appeals to that value only indirectly in this unit, and he never invokes language that corresponds to happiness, yet he promotes one life path over another and reflects upon its rewards. Contemporary psychology would underscore the role of progress, community, and even afterlife hope in Paul’s argument, but it would struggle to account for the mystical language heavenly participation and that of knowing and being known by Christ. The paper also examines the relationship of suffering to happiness.


Archive, Imitation, and the Search for Identity in Ezra 1–6
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Laura Carlson, Yale University

This paper examines the concept of archive in Ezra 1-6 and its relationship to community reconstruction in the postexilic era. I will argue that the archive functions as a symbol within the text of effective yet arbitrary imperial power; simultaneously, the text itself functions as a virtual archive through its configuration of correspondence and other “source” material. I argue that both dimensions of archive in Ezra 1-6 constitute a case of mimicry of imperial styles of text collection and citation. This imitation ultimately exposes the postexilic community’s vexed relationship with empire, being at the same time dependent on its resources, shaped by its symbols, and resistant to its values.


Shared Theodicies of Pharaoh’s Evil in the Wisdom of Solomon and the Mekhilta De-Rabbi Ishmael
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Reed Carlson, Harvard University

Many receptions of the Exodus story (including a well-known passage from the Passover liturgy) seek to project Pharaoh as a “type” beyond the framework of his narrative and group him with other villains in Jewish history. The hearer is thus reassured that the God who acted to save in the past, will do so again, even in the face of total annihilation. This is more than a pastoral message of assured deliverance. This view also charts an arc through time, linking those who seek the destruction of God’s people on a phenomenological plane. Pharaoh’s evil is not entirely his own. This essay explores constructions of evil in two receptions of the Exodus story: the Wisdom of Solomon and the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. I argue that both works express the phenomenological view of evil stated above while at the same time intentionally try to avoid specific personifications of cosmic evil. This latter emphasis is at odds with the chaoskampf and apocalyptic traditions both works are heir to and must occasionally make use of. Rather, the problem of overwhelming evil is solved through God's just punishment. In many cases, interpretive impulses present in Wisdom can also be identified in a more mature form in the Mekhilta. The essay outlines these two themes broadly in both works. First, it explores cosmogonic issues, showing first how Wisdom accommodates certain features of ANE chaoskampf traditions, latent in the biblical texts, into its Hellenistic worldview. Of special interest is Wisdom’s view of death as invasive to creation and whether or not diabolou is to be understood as a person in 2:23-24 (cf. 1:16). Similarly, the Mekhilta receives traditions of supernatural evil both from the Bible and interpretive tradition, but redirects their efficacy as most manifest in human behavior. Thus Baal Zaphon is seen as an idol that inspires Pharaoh (Beshalla? III:10-15; Pisc?a XIII:25-27) and God is envisioned as punishing the guardian angels because of the evil of their assigned kingdoms (Shirata II:111-119). Likewise God personally strikes down the firstborn in the tenth plague rather than using an agent (Pis?a XIII.9-11). Second, both works hyperbolize Egypt’s evil actions (e.g. Wisd 12:4-6; Wisd 19:13-16; Beshalla? II.221-30; Beshalla? VI.76-105) as well as God’s corresponding excessive punishment (e.g. Wisd 17; Beshalla? VII.109-21; Pis?a XIII.28-38; Pis?a XIII.98-106) and thus operate out of a tight causal understanding of lex talionis (e.g. Wisd 12:23; Beshalla? I.109). While Wisdom is more sensitive to skepticism regarding the justice of God’s actions (Wisd 12:15; 18:19b) the Mekhilta is unrelenting (Beshalla? II.195). Thus, God’s vengeance is its own justification: The God of the Universe would not be so consistently merciless were it not justified. The essay concludes by outlining some implications of the study for the study of wisdom literature more broadly, including the possibility of a genetic relationship between these works (a shared Sitz im Leben of persecution is the more likely explanation for most of these parallels) and the ways that apocalyptic traditions were received and transformed in later wisdom and midrashic literature.


Creation and Head Coverings: Another Look at 1 Corinthians 11:15
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Stephen C. Carlson, Australian Catholic University

Paul’s teaching about head coverings in 1 Cor 11:2-16 has been called one of the most obscure passages in the entire Pauline corpus. Paul begins his case for female head coverings with a headship argument (vv.3-5a), which turns into an argument based on shame (vv.5b-6). Then Paul continues on to a reflection on creation (vv.7-12), followed by an appeal to common-sense (v.13), nature (v.14), and finally to contemporary practice (v.16). Tucked towards the end of this argument is the head-scratching explanation in v.15 that “she was given hair for a covering.” This comment has perplexed exegetes over the centuries because it seems to undercut Paul’s point in the passage. If a woman is given hair for a covering, why would she need a veil? Shouldn’t the (long?) hair suffice? Consequently commentators have proposed a variety of ingenious solutions ranging from redefining the issue as modesty in appearance to redefining the term “covering” as a testicle. I propose that, when Paul appealed to nature in v.14, his mind returned to creation and addressed a flaw in his application to Adam and Eve: they were naked and had no need for any covering before the fall. Verse 15, then, is meant to patch that hole in the argument: “for she—Eve—was given hair for a covering.” Though this fixes one counter-argument, it has the effect of marginalizing the applicability of creation for the issue of head coverings, hence his final appeal to contemporary practice. As we continue to work through gender issues today, we should keep in mind that even Paul’s favorite argument from creation has its limits, and here Paul knew it.


The Polysemy of Pálin
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Stephen C. Carlson, Australian Catholic University

Polysemy presents a particular challenge for lexicographers because polysemous words have a number of distinct but related senses. Though having antecedents in Wittgenstein, polysemy as a specific field of research within lexical semantics did not come into its own until the contributions of Lakoff and Langacker in the late 1980s. By contrast, the major dictionaries for Hellenistic Greek, especially the Bauer lexica, date back to a time before polysemy was better understood. As a result, they do not structure their lexical entries based on prototypical meanings and their cognitively motivated extensions. The iterative adverb pálin is a case in point. The Bauer lexica subdivide the semantic field for this word, primarily based on its glosses into German and English. Their first entry corresponds to the glosses back/zurück; their second entry corresponds to again/wieder; their third entry to various discourse glosses such as on the contrary; and their fourth entry pertains to two problem cases. This paper explores the polysemy of pálin based on modern linguistic literature and identifies six distinct but related senses for pálin: 1. counter-directional, in the direction opposite from which one came (Mark 7:24, 2 Cor 1:16, Gal 4:9a); 2. restitutive, returning to a position or state in which one had been in before (Mark 11:3, John 10:17, Rom 11:23, 1 Cor 7:5, Gal 1:17); 3. repetitive, repeating a previous action (John 10:31, 20:19, Acts 27:38); 4. contrastive focus (Luke 6:43, 1 Cor 12:21); 5. scene-shifting (Mark 2:1, John 4:3); 6. argumentative listing (Rom 15:10-12, 1 Cor 3:20, Heb 1:5). This paper concludes with a brief examination of some problematic instances of pálin within this framework (Mark 15:13, John 18:40, 2 Cor 2:1, and 1 John 2:8).


A Review of Eng and Fields, "Devotions on the Hebrew Bible" and Some Further Thoughts
Program Unit: Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium
M. Daniel Carroll R., Denver Seminary

n/a


The Captives' Audience and (Dis)Interested Elite: Social and Economic Unrest in Nehemiah's Jerusalem
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Charles Carter, Seton Hall University

Invited panelist


Gospels, Synagogue Conflicts, and Horizontal Violence
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Warren Carter, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

That the Gospels of John and Matthew construct violent (sometimes verbal, sometimes physical) interactions between Jesus-followers and synagogues is indisputable. Conventionally this violence has been understood as reflecting and expressing religious differences and disputes, even separations, between the two groups. This paper, understanding the gospels as involved in the task of negotiating Roman imperial power, employs the notion of “horizontal violence” (Frantz Fanon; Paulo Freire) to offer another explanation for the violence between these groups. This notion of horizontal violence observes that violence between groups often occurs in contexts where vertical pressure is exerted by colonizing or imperializing powers. Oppressed peoples and groups negotiate such power, at least in part, by mimicking it in attacking similarly oppressed groups rather than engaging in direct and non-winnable confrontation with oppressors. Utilizing this notion of horizontal violence enables readers of Matthew and John’s Gospels to understand the conflicts with synagogue communities constructed in the Gospel narratives as another strategy for negotiating the imperial world. Two implications follow. Dynamics of horizontal violence reflect and express vertical imperializing pressures. And purported Gospel contexts comprising synagogue conflicts and negotiations of imperial power are interrelated.


John, Jesus, and the Roman Empire
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Warren Carter, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper will explore some of the interactions between John’s Gospel and the Roman Empire. How does the world view of John’s Gospel construct the Roman Empire (imperial structures and personnel)? How does it construct Jesus? How do these constructions interact?


Ezekiel's Sandbox: The Creation of Virtual Worlds in Ezekiel and Video Games
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Corrine Carvalho, University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN)

When looking at the book of Ezekiel through the lens of spatial categories, many studies have focused primarily on the ways in which the spatial aspects of the book create, reflect or re-inforce social hierarchies. This is especially the case for chapters 40-48 which wed the descriptions of ritual and urban space to social categories. The book of Ezekiel utilizes spatial metaphors throughout the text, however, and these metaphors serve a variety of rhetorical purposes. To be sure, they all include social meaning, but they also create space in which the reader is invited to play. One of the more popular forms of video games today are called “sandbox” games, where the player creates the virtual world within which the game ensues. In fact, in a game such as “Minecraft,” space-creation is the essential activity of the game whereby the tensions that provide the game’s motivation are resolved or heightened by the creation of virtual space. This paper will explore the function of the creation of virtual space within gaming culture as a lens through which to examine the functions of Ezekiel’s virtual worlds as sites of audience formation. Special emphasis will be given to the crafting of the city as a cauldron (24:3-14), the roles of the world of the dead in chapters 32 and 39, before re-examining the built ritual space of 40-48.


The Myth of the Good Victim: Reading the Hebrew Bible in Rape Culture
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
M. L. Case, The University of Texas at Austin

The past two years have seen an explosion of controversy surrounding how institutions of higher learning handle cases of sexual violence on their campuses. Many colleges and universities have been investigated for Title IX violations or have failed to report campus violence under the Clery Act in a timely manner. Public inquisitions of rape survivors, seen through the pervasive practice of victim-blaming made even more ubiquitous through social media, indicate that we live and work in a rape culture. In this paper, I investigate how rape stories in the Hebrew Bible help us respond to this environment which simultaneously romanticizes a hypothetical “perfect” rape victim and vilifies actual victims of sexual violence in the real world. Looking specifically at the rapes of Dinah (Genesis 34), the Levite’s pîlegeš (Judges 19), and Tamar (2 Samuel 13), I explore how these narratives both problematize and support this myth of the good victim, the standard against which contemporary rape survivors are judged. Rather than ignore these stories which may be unpleasant to read, they can help us address campus climate and cultural attitudes toward sexual violence in a real and meaningful way.


Filling the Qur'anic Gaps: Citations of Genesis and Matthew in the Works of Ibn Barrajan (d.536/1141)
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Yousef Casewit, American University of Sharjah, UAE

Abu ?l-Hakam Ibn Barrajan was hailed as the “al-Ghazali of al-Andalus” for good reason. He authored the most extensive Andalusian works of Sufi Qur’an commentary and theology during the intellectually formative 12th century, and certainly left his mark on later generations of Muslim scholars. Having lived at the end of the Almoravid dynasty (r. 1062-1147), this pioneer of Andalusian mysticism represents a particularly unknown yet crucial development in the Andalusian intellectual and exegetical traditions. Despite his unmistakable importance for the formation of qur?anic exegesis in the Muslim West, Ibn Barrajan’s works and legacy remain terra incognita. Ibn Barrajan is the earliest qur?anic exegete known to date to use the Arabic Bible extensively and non-polemically in his quest to understand the divine Word. He freely incorporated biblical materials, especially from Genesis and Matthew, into his works to explain the Qur?an and fill gaps in his understanding of biblical figures and narratives. This paper assesses Ibn Barrajan’s mode of engagement with the Bible on the basis of my recently completed critical Arabic edition of the author’s 1000-page Qur’an exegesis entitled Idah al-hikma bi-ahkam al-‘ibra (“Wisdom Deciphered, The Unseen Discovered”; Brill, June 2015). I examine the different strategies Ibn Barrajan employed to resolve perceived incongruities between narratives of the Qur?an and the Bible. I argue, (1) that the Bible enjoys the same degree of interpretive authority in his works as Prophetic reports (?adith), and that there are instances where the Bible not only complements but also challenges his understanding of the Qur?an. Ibn Barrajan’s openness to the Bible rests on his hermeneutical principle of ‘Qur?anic hegemony;’ that is to say, his reasoning that since the Qur?an is God’s final and untampered divine revelation, it can serve as the ultimate litmus test with which all other scriptural passages, including Bible, are to be judged and mined for wisdom. The Qur?an proclaims itself to be the conclusive revealed book of God which confirms, clarifies, safeguards, and according to many, abrogates previous revelations. Taking these teachings to heart, Ibn Barrajan substantiates his approach to Biblical scholarship by means of the Qur?an. Pushing the premises of this principle as far as they will go, he argues that biblical materials and ?adith reports are to be assessed uniquely on the basis of their alignment with the Qur?an. His far-reaching hermeneutical principle of qur?anic hegemony was probably partly inspired by the scripturalist-literalist writings of the ?ahiri scholar Ibn ?azm (d. 456/1064). When culled together, the biblical passages in Ibn Barrajan’s extant works occupy approximately twenty full pages in modern print and are almost certainly taken from a Latin-to-Arabic Andalusi translation. It will also be argued, on the basis of a close examination of Ibn Barrajan’s biblical quotations, that the Mozarab Bible used was translated into Arabic directly from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.


Biblical Proof-Texts in the Qur'anic Exegesis of Ibn Barrajan of Seville (d. 536/1141)
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Yousef Casewit, American University of Sharjah

Abu?l-?akam Ibn Barrajan was hailed as the “al-Ghazali of al-Andalus” for good reason. He authored the most extensive Andalusian works of Sufi Qur?an commentary and theology during the intellectually formative 12th century. A true pioneer, Ibn Barrajan is likely the earliest qur?anic exegete to use the Arabic Bible extensively and non-polemically in his quest to understand the Qur?an. He freely incorporated biblical materials, especially from Genesis and Matthew, into his works to explain the Qur?an and fill gaps in his understanding of biblical figures and narratives. This paper assesses Ibn Barrajan’s mode of engagement with the Bible on the basis of my recently completed critical Arabic edition of the author’s 1000-page Qur’an exegesis (A Qur?an Commentary by Ibn Barrajan of Seville: I?a? al-?ikma bi-a?kam al-?ibra, “Wisdom Deciphered, The Unseen Discovered,” Brill, June 2015). I examine the different strategies Ibn Barrajan employed to resolve perceived incongruities between narratives of the Qur?an and the Bible. I argue, (1) That the Bible enjoys the same degree of interpretive authority in his works as Prophetic reports (?adith), and that there are instances where the Bible not only complements but also challenges his understanding of the Qur?an. (2) Ibn Barrajan’s openness to the Bible rests on his hermeneutical principle of ‘Qur?anic hegemony;’ that is to say, his reasoning that since the Qur?an is God’s final and untampered divine revelation, it can serve as the ultimate litmus test with which all other scriptural passages, including Bible, are to be judged and mined for wisdom. His far-reaching hermeneutical principle of qur?anic hegemony was probably partly inspired by the scripturalist-literalist writings of the ?ahiri scholar Ibn ?azm (d. 456/1064). (3) I demonstrate, on the basis of a close examination of Ibn Barrajan’s biblical quotations, that Ibn Barrajan’s Arabic Bible translation was a Mozarab text that was translated into Arabic directly from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate. When culled together, the biblical passages in Ibn Barrajan’s extant works occupy approximately twenty full pages in modern print, and a close examination of these passages confirms beyond reasonable doubt that Ibn Barrajan had a copy of a Latin-to-Arabic Andalusi translation of the Bible.


The Significance of the Eschatological Restorative Imagery of James 1:1: Wisdom, Eschatology, and Apocalypticism in James
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Helen Cashell-Moran, Trinity College - Dublin

The letter of James’ sapiential discourse does not exclude an “apocalyptic” eschatology, however, the degree and manner to which it does so is open to question. This paper takes as its point of departure James 1:1 where one might find eschatological apocalyptic implications in the twelve tribes of the Diaspora. Indeed, this opening address sets the context for our broader assessment of “wisdom” and “apocalyptic” in the document. One of the ways this opening has been understood, among several, is as the twelve tribes representing the ideal and restored end-time community. This paper contextualizes this idealized address among similar traditions related to restoration before turning to implications. Ideological future restoration of the twelve tribes is encountered in Isa 49:6; Sir 36:13 and 46:10, and in Ezek 37:15-28 where this imagery is linked to a Davidic messiah who will bring about the reunification of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. References to the idealized twelve tribes in 4 Ezra 13:1-3 and 2 Baurch 1:1-5 are also accompanied by a messianic expectation. A renewed interest in the eschatological restoration of the twelve tribes of Israel is viewed as characteristic of Jewish and Christian literature of the Roman period. Jesus’ promise to the twelve apostles in Matt 19:28 and Luke 22:30, that they will be seated on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, is indicative of this. This association of the twelve tribes with messianic expectation suggests an explanation for the contested presence “Lord Jesus Christ” in James 1:1. How the introduction of James is interpreted may signal the extent to which eschatology shapes the author’s thought world. Reward and punishment are set within an otherworldly framework. There is the “crown of life” in 1:12, and the righteous and sinners are described as separated in the coming judgment (5:1-11). Those who are poor will be rich in the world hereafter (2:5), whereas those who are rich in earthly terms will perish (1:11). Only God decides who will be judged (4:12). This apocalyptic view of the world has implications for how one conceives of the portrayal of revealed wisdom in James (1:5; 3:13-18), and consequently this wisdom may be seen as serving the addressee to understand and find their rightful place with the apocalyptically-defined cosmos.


Zechariah's Joshua as an Archetypical Figure of Collective Prejudice
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Jeremiah Cataldo, Grand Valley State University

Using recent trends in ritual and prejudice studies as an optic for analyzing Zechariah, this paper will focus in particular on Joshua as a fraught literary symbol of restoration. Joshua, the embodiment of salvation, is an archetypal figure that embodies the semblance of the minority community's (remnant) collective prejudice. This understanding of Joshua, we will show, is consistent with Zechariah's emphasis upon the restoration of the remnant. This investigatory avenue helps better expose the anxieties that shaped the early monotheistic community: the community's prejudice against the "other" helped shape its own monotheistic ideals.


Learning from the Scribes: Using Variant Readings and Marginal Comments as Interpretive Tools for John's Apocalypse
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Jeff Cate, California Baptist University

John’s Apocalypse was transmitted through hand-written copies for fourteen centuries before the age of printing dawned. Whether intentional or accidental, changes occurred in the text as new copies were made. These variants readings—regardless if pertinent towards establishing the initial text or not—are significant because they provide insight as to how texts were understood or misunderstood by readers. The variant readings and marginal comments can become a pedagogical tool for modern readers to see interpretive issues that arose in the minds of ancient scribes and readers of these texts. Textual changes in John’s Apocalypse can be shown that affect how protagonists and antagonists were understood in conflict. In chapters 1-3, several seemingly minor changes heighten the authority of the son of man speaking to the recipients. In other places, manuscripts cast antagonists such as Jezebel in a more negative light. Marginal comments show how scribes and readers struggled to interpret difficult apocalyptic symbolism such as that of “the beast.” Manuscripts and their peculiarities can function as an effective pedagogy to visible illustrate critical issues to be considered in an apocalyptic text. The audience will participate in sample exercises. Session takeaway will consist of a handout with teaching and resource suggestions.


The Elevation of the Sabbath by the Holiness Writers: The Juxtaposition of the Sabbath with the Sanctuary and Its Further Development in Relation to the Holy Land and People
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Moon Kwon Chae, Baylor University

While there were a number of inquiries into the origin, development, ancient practice of the Sabbath and its relationship with creation, temple, and tabernacle during the 20th century, only a few researches argued for a special connection between the Sabbath and the Holiness Code (HC; Lev 17-26). Israel Knohl was among the first to recognize that the Sabbath is greatly emphasized in the HC. The special concern of the HC for holy time has received relatively less attention than the holy land. In the HC, however, the holy time is greatly elevated and the special concern for the holy time is developed by their elevation of the Sabbath and its juxtaposition with the sanctuary. In this paper, I will develop Knohl’s observation that H emphasizes the Sabbath by focusing on the Sabbath regulations within the HC and the most significant Sabbath texts outside the HC: Exod 31:12-17 and 35:1-3. The literary analysis of Exod 31:12-17 and 35:1-3 will not only show that H wrote these two texts, but it also shows how H greatly elevated the Sabbath to the level of the sanctuary by juxtaposing the Sabbath regulation with the commandments of the tabernacle. The elevation of the weekly Sabbath also shows H’s expansion of the holy time as the holy place is expanded from the tabernacle to the entire land of Jerusalem and the holy people from the priestly classes to all residents of the land. In particular, Lev 25-26 shows H’s further developments of the Sabbath (holy time) in relation to holy land and holy people as a proper way of worshiping YHWH.


Poetry as Commentary in the Danielic Court Tales
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Michael Chan, Luther Seminary

The poetic speeches found in the court tales of Daniel (MT: Dan 2:20-23; 3:31-33; 4:31-32; 6:26-28; Old Greek: 2:20-23; 3:26-45; 3:52-90; 4:1-9, 11-14, 33-34; 6:26-27; Theodotian: 2:20-23; 3:26-45, 52-90, 100; 4:7-14, 31-32, 34; 6:26-27) function as theological commentary on the narratives (cf. Towner, 1969). Typically placed in the mouths of Daniel, his friends, or the king, these poems reflect on topics such as divine sovereignty (Willis, 2010), judgment, and revelation. This paper not only analyzes the formal features of these poems, but also seeks to understand what, in their respective versions (MT, OG, TH), these poems are trying to accomplish and how they affect the literary texture of the court tale narratives more generally. Questions considered include: What do these poems clarify in the narratives and what do they obscure? What theological and textual problems do these poems attempt to address? And what problems do they create as a result of their efforts?


Phinehas: A Source for High Priests in the Second Temple Judaism
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Dongshin Chang, Univ. of Manchester

In Numbers 25, God promises a “covenant of perpetual priesthood” (Num 25:13). Intriguingly, the promise is not given to Levi or Aaron, who might occupy the pinnacle of the list of priestly nominees.1 No one else but Phinehas received the promise, which was offered as a reward for his zeal for the LORD. Phinehas’ zeal and the subsequent reward seem to have become significant motifs for priestly covenant accounts in some of the late Second Temple period’s Jewish texts.2 In this short paper, first, I want to demonstrate that the Phinehas tradition is widely used by many Second Temple period Jewish documents in regard to building particular priestly traditions (or claims). The Phinehas tradition is used sometimes directly (e.g. 1 Maccabees and Ben Sira) and other times indirectly (e.g. Jubilees and Aramaic Levi Document). Moreover, the Phinehas tradition seems to have been used at times in relation to a “father” motif and in other instances in relation to a patriarchal covenant—the “covenant of Jacob.” The developments of the “father” motif or patriarchal aspect based on Phinehas’ priestly covenant tradition are probably linked to possible priestly disputes among Levitical, Aaronic, and Zadokite priesthood institutions in the late Second Temple period (as Olyan has argued). Therefore, by reading the father motif and patriarchal characteristics of particular priestly traditions, I also want to present the way in which some Second Temple Jewish writers composed priestly claims based on the Phinehas tradition and how their compositions shed light on the possible priestly disputes in late Second Temple Judaism.


The Korean Translation of "Two Stones" in Exod 1:16
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Sok-Chung Chang, Catholic Kwandong University

This study is to reconsider the translation of "two stones" in Exodus 1:16 from the perspective of textual criticism. In most of Korean Bibles this word is not even translated into Korean. The problem is not a wrong translation but a non-translation, which the responsible translators should avoid doing it at all times. Various Korean translations of the Bible translate the Pharaoh's command to the Hebrew midwives like "you should look at them closely, if it is a boy, kill him..." As a result, those translations do not deliver the hidden sign of 'secrecy' originally embedded in Pharaoh's command of killing Hebrew male infants. According to those translations, all the midwives had to do was to look at a child closely and find out that infant's gender. In this context, when those midwives were asked by the king their answer is hardly understandable to the readers. It is because the late arrival of the midwives does not justify the inability of killing male infants no matter how well the interpreters defend the translated texts. In contrast to Korean Bibles, most English Bibles translate the word "two stones" as BHS writes it in v.16. Therefore, their translations go as follows: "when you see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him..." We know that the word "two stones" could be translated in several ways because the scholars are not sure about its exact meaning. Literally, it means 'two stones' whatever it actually means in the context of Ex 1:16. I intend to compare several leading scholars' interpretations of this word and analyzed their arguments in this study. LXX does not translate this word and simply says "they are at the point of giving birth" as if the word is not there. It is possible that Korean Bibles follow the LXX translation as they had been doing before. When the English translations reveal the existence of the word "two stones" , they show the secrecy hidden in the Pharaoh's command of killing the infants. The first measure the king commanded in order to reduce Israel's population was to make them work more. The command itself did not have any secrecy but it did not work at all. This second measure focused on the secrecy because the king feared that Israel might become furious about this command of killing their babies. The fact of the matter is that the midwives had to kill the infants secretly. Therefore, this crucial secrecy was delivered to the midwives in the command by using the word "two stones" . As BHS has it in the text, the Korean Bibles should translate the word in order to let the readers know the secrecy of the king's command and understand the shrewdness of the midwives' answer.


Israel's YHWH Worship in Judges
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Sok-Chung Chang, Catholic Kwandong University

"The people worshiped the Lord all the days of Joshua" (Judg 2:7). This sentence does not necessarily assume Israel's exclusive worship of YHWH. Israel did not know YHWH (v.10); the Israelites worshiped the Baals (v.11) and the Astartes (v.13); they abandoned YHWH (v.12, 13); they did not listen even to their judges (v.17); they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them (v.17). Othniel defeated Cushan-rishathaim and the land had rest forty years and he died (Judg 3:11). The change of Israel's attitude in serving YHWH is not even mentioned: from idolatry to monolatry. What would be the purpose of YHWH's raising up a deliverer for the Israelites? It is certainly to defeat the enemies but it cannot be the main reason. It should be to make Israel worship YHWH alone. Why isn’t there any mention of Israel’s exclusive worship of YHWH? In the case of Ehud, so many verses were allotted to describe how many Moabites he killed (v. 29) and the land had rest eighty years (v. 30). Not a word about Israel's serving of YHWH is in the text. It seems to me that the writer is more interested in the condition of the land, that is, whether the land had rest for some years. He does not even care about Israel's exclusive worship of YHWH. The invasion of other nations was ignited by Israel's serving other gods. Is the expression of the land's rest the sign for Israel's exclusive worship of YHWH in the land? The writer might use this expression instead of describing Israel's attitude of worshipping YHWH. This paper will deal with this expression relating to Israel's YHWH worship throughout the Book of Judges.


The Whence and Whither of Those Born of the Spirit: John 3:8 and the Correlation between Son of God and Children of God
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Blaine Charette, Northwest University (Washington)

The Whence and Whither of Those Born of the Spirit: John 3:8 and the Correlation between Son of God and Children of God


Aseneth, the Samaritan Woman, and the Trope of Travel
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Ronald Charles, St. Francis Xavier University

Women play an important role in conquest strategies both in the ancient and in the modern world. This paper will illustrate that reality through the stories of Aseneth and the Samaritan Woman. I will argue that through the trope of travel these ancient women are made to be the mouthpiece of particular theological agendas. In Joseph and Aseneth the mythical uniqueness of Israel is reinforced through the conversion of Aseneth. Her conversion, it can be proposed, has implications that go beyond the individual. She is “a prototype and representative of a whole company of proselytes.” In Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the well (John 4:4-42), the nameless Samaritan Woman is confronted with the savior of the world (4:42), who told her everything she ever did. Through proselyting her neighbors she opens up her whole village to Jesus’ grand theological discourse.


God as Nursing Father: Tracing an Image from Isaiah through the Hodayoth and Odes of Solomon to Patristic Writings
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
James H. Charlesworth, Princeton Theological Seminary

An unperceived but startling image appears in Odes of Solomon 19. God, the “Father,” is described with “breasts” that are “full” with milk [4 times in the first three stichoi]. In numerous international congresses, no Jew or Christian could discern the origin of this symbolism. One may discern some background in Anobius’ Adversus Gentes and “the full-breasted Ceres” who nurses Iacchus. This metaphor, as so many others, simply follows nature. Conceivably, the image began with Isaiah 60:4 but the meaning is ambiguous. In 1 Thess 2:7-12, Paul imagines himself “like a nurse;” but that is a simile for caring for children. Origen and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus seem to develop the image, but they could be influenced by the Odes. The image now is apparent in the new Princeton edition of the Hodayot, Hymn 22. The deep link between the Odes and the Hodayot becomes more intriguing.


Big Tent, Smaller Tents, Blue Tent, and the Specter of the Red Tent: What Do We Do and Does Anyone Outside of the Tent Know We Are Doing It?
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Ipsita Chatterjea, Independent Scholar

To address the impact of the “big tent” on secular studies of religion and sacred texts, we want to consider evidence regarding the status of the field in Howard’s “Citation by Citation, New Maps Chart Hot Research and Scholarship's Hidden Terrain.” In the first graphic, http://chronicle.com/article/Maps-of-Citations-Uncover-New/128938/, Biblical Studies cites Classics and does so enough to map, Religion, or the Big Tent does not. While the data can be contested for various reasons, we do identify as interdisciplinary and should discuss our subfield’s “brand.” Beyond this graphic, social scientists articulating qualitative research standards identified religion as “a new frontier,” as if analytical scholarship on religion did not exist. As analysts, our issues are paralleled across the social sciences specifically the problematically formulated binary between activist and empirical scholarship. With recent examples, I will outline how people in the tent have talked about or are structurally allowed to ignore “us” while reasserting a notion of the big tent; arguably this is part of a dynamic identified by Lincoln. We want to articulate how we have long aligned with the wider social sciences. Social scientists advocated critical theory informed, historically attenuated, empirically grounded practice long before a recent reassertion. That consensus maps with J.Z. Smith, Riesebrodt, Lincoln, Taves, Lynch and others and has manifested in theory-attentive, descriptive historical scholarship that has grown to address research design more explicitly. We want to clearly articulate how we use theory and method in research design: accountability to representation, falsifiability and existing secondary literatures; the use of theory to denaturalize dominant narratives and our research questions; how we define, acquire, delimit and make claims about data; scale and the purpose of our communications with the people we understand to be our potential audiences.


Teaching Biblical Hebrew in an International Setting: An Approach through Language Typology
Program Unit: Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium
Kevin Chau, University of the Free State

n/a


Conflicting or Mutually Dependent Perspectives? Interpreting the Flesh, Sin, and the Human Plight in Paul
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Stephen Chester, North Park Theological Seminary

Recent discussion of Paul has moved beyond a simply binary opposition between 'New Perspective' and 'Lutheran' approaches with new scholarly voices asserting that the 'New Perspective' is not radical enough in rejecting previous approaches. It remains too dependent upon Christian theology in general and Augustinian/Lutheran approaches in particular, and so fails accurately to reflect Paul in his first century context. This paper explores that contention in relation to Paul's anthropology, especially his use of the term 'the flesh' and its relationship to his use of the term 'sin'. Their treatment in both early Protestant and New Perspective exegesis of key texts in Romans and Galatians is explored. Despite some differences in detail, 'New Perspective' exegesis does continue to depend in very significant ways upon the exegetical conclusions of the Reformers. Yet precisely this dependence upon the exegesis of the Reformers leaves 'New Perspective' accounts of Paul's anthropology in disagreement with other significant figures in the history of interpretation, most notably Augustine. While correct in their assertion of continuity between the 'Lutheran' approach and the 'New Perspective', those advocating a more radical perspective underestimate the complexity of the relationship between contemporary exegesis of Paul and that of previous eras. The rhetoric of conflicting or dependent perspectives masks a more complicated reality.


Text and Paratext in Documentary Papyri from Roman Egypt
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Malcolm Choat, Macquarie University

As the history of the book intersects with that of other types of scribal productions on antiquity, so does the use of paratextual features in nonliterary paradigms inform the use of such scribal techniques in ancient books. Many scribes produced and copied texts in both the literary and documentary sphere, and the many paratextual features familiar from the former occur in the latter, including word spacing and other features of textual division and punctuation, marginal signs and notations, titles, and other elements which effect the text’s presentation. In arguing that practice across the spectrum of ancient scribal activity must be taken into account to properly understand paratext in the ancient world, this paper addresses the use of paratextual features in ancient scribal practice by examining their use in documentary papyri from Roman Egypt. In examinations of New Testament papyri (including texts on associated material, e.g. parchment), such features are often taken as lectional aids, and seen as reflecting features (e.g. sense pauses) within the text which can be witnessed in later manuscripts. The possibility of documentary influence and the likelihood that scribes were reflecting features found in their exemplars have also been raised. Testing of these hypotheses is hampered by the paucity of situations in which we possess both exemplar and copy of any particular literary papyrus and the lack of certainly that any of these manuscripts were actually read aloud (even if various factors strongly suggest that many of them were intended to be). In order to advance our understanding of how these elements may have been transmitted between texts, and how they may have functioned within a text, this paper concentrates on papyrus documents on which exist in duplicate copies, concentrating on those which may have been read aloud, asking what we can learn from such texts about the use of paratextual features in the ancient world.


External and Internal Displacement: Reframing Notions of Exile, Space, and Place in Jeremiah 29 and 42
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Diandra E. Chretain, Graduate Theological Union

The exile to Babylon is a crucial element in the book of Jeremiah that illustrates diverse and conflicting ideological perspectives. On the surface Jeremiah 29 and 42 delineate two supposedly incompatible exilic ideologies. However, these exilic perspectives contain crucial parallels that reconcile the conflicting differences in these texts. This paper demonstrates how the contrasting pro-golah and pro-Judah elements in Jeremiah 29 and 42 do not render these chapters as incompatible, rather similar concepts of estrangement from the homeland serve as the foundational ideology of both chapters. A critical analysis of Jeremiah 29 and 42 through diasporic notions of "space" and "place" illustrate that exile from one’s homeland is not merely a physical ordeal that requires a geographical relocation, but a group can undergo an exilic experience even if they remain in the same territory. "Space" is the representation of a specific geographical location, while "place" is established through the cultural, political, and religious perspectives that groups formulate and sustain in order to develop their collective identity within a particular space. Even though the golah and the remnant in Judah reside in different "spaces," they mutually experience exile through the loss of sovereignty over their "place," and as a result they are faced with the difficult task of reconstructing their group identities in the midst of alienation. Examining Jeremiah 29 and 42 through the lenses of "space" and "place" demonstrates that whether the Judeans live in the land or relocate to Babylon, both groups undergo the same inevitable fates: both groups become the subaltern “other,” lose authority and power over Judah, and must exist as a collective without the stability of their territory.


The Axial Age and Cult Criticism in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Line Søgaard Christensen, Aarhus Universitet

This paper will discuss one of the recent trends in social-scientific theory, namely, the idea of the axial age, referring to a major shift in human thinking around 500 B.C.E. The concept of an axial age has gained an established, although not uncontroversial or uncontested, position in various academic fields, including historical sociology, cultural sociology, and the history of religion. Robert N. Bellah – who stands in the tradition of such sociologists as Émile Durkheim and Max Weber – has formulated a fruitful cultural evolutionary model, depicting the development of religion and different cultural versions of the axial phenomenon. Bellah’s book, Religion in Human Evolution (2011), describes a religious evolution moving from a tribal phase, through an archaic phase, and lastly to the axial phase. His chapters on the axial age cover developments in India, China, Greece, and Israel. With regard to Israel, he focuses primarily on Deuteronomistic topics such as the covenant, the Torah, and the monarchy. Relevant in relation to Bellah’s model is German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk who also understands the axial age as a pivotal moment of cultural evolution. His anthropological model describes humans as self-training beings. A human being has, according to Sloterdijk, the potential to recreate itself and its life conditions perpetually through self-shaping and repeated exercises ? in short: through “anthropotechnics”. In my paper I will discuss whether the notion of the axial age in Israel is to be linked exclusively with Bellah’s topics or whether there may be more essential axial phenomena in the Hebrew Bible. Here I wish to call attention to the development of ritualistic actions in the Hebrew Bible. Even though the majority of the texts belong to a cultic sacrificial mentality, certain texts oppose this thought. In my opinion, the strong prophetic cult criticism is a decisive example of a cultural evolutionary transition from an archaic religion to an axial religion. In addition, the prophetic critique may well be an early instance of a conscious form of “anthropotechnics”.


Spotting the Bronze under the Silver: The Art of Money Changing and Early Christian Interpretation
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Michelle Christian, University of Toronto

Versions of the curious saying, "be approved moneychangers," circulated widely among early Christian writers, who identified their own interpretive practices with the ability to discern true from counterfeit coin. This paper, intended for the third project, first explores the saying's economic context by examining evidence for those figures (e.g. dokimastai, nummularii, trapezitai) entrusted with controlling and testing currency in the Roman world. It then discusses how this specific economic activity became a suggestive analogy for interpretation by considering its cultural status as an art or techne, that is, a trade requiring specialized knowledge and skill.


The Aggareion and Non-violent Resistance: Matthew 5:41 as a Subaltern Strategy for Social Change
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
John Christianson, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

In this paper I take up Walter Wink’s helpful argument that Jesus’ statement about aggareion in Matthew 5:41 is not meant to encourage passive acquiescence, but to provide a means of non-violent resistance for those who suffer from oppressive Roman practices. I argue, however, that Wink’s binary of oppressor/oppressed risks romanticizing the members of Matthew’s audience because it overlooks aspects of subaltern identity, especially in regard to gender, status (free/slave), and agency. In contrast, the postcolonial perspective of hybridity offers a more robust reading that accounts for the complex allegiances of subaltern people, and their potential course of action upon hearing Matthew 5:41.


The Vorlage of the Formula Quotations in Matthew’s Infancy Narrative
Program Unit: Matthew
Woojin Chung, McMaster Divinity College

Matthew’s use of Scripture in his infancy story of Jesus raises a host of questions. Not only his enigmatic employments of citations that R. T. France calls a “minefield littered with exegetical corpses,” but also the sources of his non-Septuagintal quotations, are notoriously difficult to locate. However, the discussion of the origin of Scriptural citations can yield insights to the sources that Matthew may have used, which also throws light on further examination of F. Watson’s recent proposal. Breaking with the current scholarly consensus that Matthew and Luke independently wrote their Gospels without having knowledge of each other’s work, Watson argues that Luke composed his infancy story of Jesus based on Matthew’s narrative in a creative way. This fresh approach, however, is dealt with a laconic manner that eventually undermines the significance of the distinctive features and exegetical strategies of Matthew and Luke. Especially, the origin of the citations as well as the way Matthew uses Scripture in his infancy narrative are radically different from Luke that it is hard to conclude that Luke’s story was secondary to Matthew’s. In this paper, I will trace the origin of Matthew’s formula quotations with a critical assessment of the contributions of K. Stendahl, R. H. Gundry, G. M. Soares-Prabhu, and other contemporary scholars such as M. J. J. Menken and A. M. O’Leary, and perform a comparative analysis of the Scriptural citations and allusions of Matthew and Luke in order to demonstrate that Watson’s recent proposal is unsatisfactory.


Rethinking P.Hev/Se 13 and P.Yadin 18 and the Social and Legal Contexts of Mark 10:12
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Wally V. Cirafesi, McMaster University

Scholarship on Mark’s Gospel has traditionally understood the divorce logion of 10:12 as a later addition and/or as indicative of Mark’s Roman origins and audience, since Josephus (Ant. 15:259–60) seems to indicate that, while Jewish law prohibited women from initiating divorce, Roman law in fact permitted it (e.g., Brody 1999; France 2002; Doering 2009). Furthermore, later rabbinic halakha also seems to restrict women in this way (e.g., m. Yeb. 14:1). Thus, the saying attributed to Jesus is understood to have little, if any, basis within the context of first-century Judean social practices. However, a number of studies within the last decade or so (e.g., Instone-Brewer 2002; Crossley 2004; Loader 2005; Collins 2007) have departed with the traditional view and have suggested that Jewish women in the first century did indeed possess the legal right to initiate divorce. Evidence for this position is typically gathered from the marriage contracts among the Elephantine papyri, Josephus on the Herodian marriages of Salome and Herodias, and the second-century document P.Hev/Se 13 (a divorce bill or waiver of claims). Both of these views, however, are faced with a range of methodological problems that are not fully acknowledged by New Testament scholars and, I suggest, do not provide an adequately nuanced interpretation of the ancient data. Through a reassessment of some of the documentary evidence from Na?al ?ever (P.Yadin 18 and P.Hev/Se 13), I propose that, while the divorce logion of Mark 10:12 as it stands in modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament seems to cohere with the legal situation of Jews in first-century Roman Judea, it does not seem to cohere with what Jewish women would have normally practiced. A fundamental distinction is made between Jewish women initiating divorce, which was legally allowable, and Jewish women initiating separation, which was potentially the more common practice. This distinction is supported by, and facilitates an explanation of, the rise of the variant reading exelthe for apolusasa in some manuscripts of Mark 10:12.


Abigail’s Hospitality: Breaking the “Frames of War” in 1 Samuel 25
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Juliana Claassens, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

As part of larger project on female resistance in the Old Testament, this paper will focus on the fascinating account of Abigail resisting the very real threat of violence that threatens her household when David vows to kill all the male members of Nabal’s household because he and his men had been refused sustenance. I propose that what is particularly interesting about this narrative account of female agency that is told in 1 Samuel 25 is that Abigail’s act of resisting violence comes through acts of hospitality, by her decision to offer a feast of food to the hungry, to the landless, to the marginalized (cf. 1 Sam 22:2 that describes the men who gathered around David as “everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented”). Engaging Judith Butler’s work in Frames of War, this paper will investigate the nature and the extent of Abigail’s resistance, inquiring about the factors that make it possible for this woman to step outside of her predetermined societal role and to resist the reality of violence that permeates her world. Moreover, this paper will reflect on the ongoing significance of narratives that outline acts of (female) resistance. I propose that the narrative of Abigail’s hospitality that saved her whole household, offered the community of 1 Samuel, as well as later generations who find themselves in situations of violence themselves, hovering on the brink of annihilation, the opportunity to reflect on questions such as: How does one survive in a hostile world? How may one go about transcending violence?


From Fear’s Narcissism to Participatory Imagination: Martha Nussbaum on Religion, Law, and Justice
Program Unit: Bible and Emotion
Juliana Claassens, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

Many laws, both ancient and contemporary, are born out of a deep-seated fear for the wellbeing and safety of one’s own as well as one’s loved ones. For instance in Deuteronomy 7:1-5 one finds the infamous herem law in which God commands that when Israel enters the Promised Land, they are to utterly destroy the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The Israelites are further commanded to “make no covenant with them and show them no mercy” (v2). Moreover, in v 5 the Israelites are ordered to “break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.” Whether this violence occurred in the way it is commanded in this text is a much debated question. Yet its intention to divide ethnic and religious groups is clear, and, as Ferdinand Deist has shown in his article, “The Dangers of Deuteronomy: A Page from the Reception History of the Book,” has implications also for the way the Bible has been read in Apartheid South Africa. Moreover, the unfortunate ways in which religion and law come together is also evident from another law many centuries later when a national referendum in Switzerland in November 2009 with 70% of the vote passed a bill that would add the following law to the Constitution: “The building of minarets is prohibited.” In all of these instances (also the way in which Deuteronomy was interpreted in Apartheid South Africa), one could argue that what is responsible for these laws is a primitive narcissistic fear that is concerned only with the self, drawing sharp boundaries between “us” and “them.” Martha Nussbaum argues in her book, The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age, that what is necessary for overcoming the narcissistic notion of fear is for a society to embrace the following three principles: (1) Political (and I would add religious) principles that express equal respect and dignity for all people (2) Rigorous critical thinking that criticizes inconsistences which as Nussbaum formulates it, “noticing the ‘mote’ in someone else’s eye which failing to note the large plan in one’s own eye” (3) Developing an empathetic or participatory imagination, in which one is able to consider how the world looks from the point of view of a person of a different religious or ethnic background.


Sensing Scripture in a Medieval Illustrated Prayer Book
Program Unit: Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts
Anne Clark, University of Vermont

Bibles were not the only, or even the primary way, that medieval people engaged Scripture. One striking Scriptural medium is a twelfth-century prayer book that portrayed salvation history and personalized it for its reader, by a carefully designed program of paired pictures and prayers. This book (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek CLM 935), was created for a woman, as indicated by the noun and adjective endings in the Latin prayers and by the comprehensive use of images, a means of devotional engagement increasingly associated with women’s spiritual practices. On almost every opening in the book, there is a full-page painting on the verso and a full-page prayer on the recto. The sequence begins with creation and includes major scenes from Genesis, then shifts quickly to the focus on Gospel events in the life of Jesus. The book is unusual for its extensive portrayal of scenes in the public career of Jesus, with much attention to women as recipients of his miracles. This paper examines the ways that the paired texts and images were designed to evoke a multi-sensory devotional experience for the user of the book. Some of these dynamics were common to the personal use of any book in this period: the feel of the parchment with its tactile reminder of flesh or the kinetic engagement of turning pages. Other dynamics were more peculiar to the devotional purpose of this particular book: the portrayal of angels singing in heaven as a trigger to shift from physical hearing to spiritual hearing; the prayers that reposition words with specific sensory correlates from Jesus’ passion (wound, spear, vinegar, etc.), into the life of the reader. This paper also incorporates recent neurological research that reveals a subliminal level of empathic response to art. Thus in some cases, the pictures in the Munich prayer book can be seen to work in tandem with the words of the prayers to push the reader to see herself in the biblical roles depicted and described. Yet sometimes the pictures and the prayers seem to diverge in their messages, leaving the reader perhaps to wonder which senses to trust. The issue of gender will run throughout this analysis, with attention to medieval ideas about the particularly sensual nature of women, and the types of religious practice most suitable for women.


The Gods Must Be Crazy: Iron Age Religion at Tall al-`Umayri, Jordan
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Douglas R. Clark, La Sierra University

The site of Tall al-`Umayri, Jordan, part of the Madaba Plains Project, boasts an occupational history primarily from the Early Bronze Age through the Hellenist Period (ca. 3000-150 BC), most of this time span producing important cultic remains. Especially significant finds illustrating religion/ritual activities at `Umayri come from the Late Bronze Age, the transitional period between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, and Late Iron I/Early Iron II. And they come in the form of cultic architecture and furnishings; standing stones; ceramic vessels and figurines; and faunal remains. This presentation will explore archaeological architecture and artifacts from `Umayri related to ancient religion and will seek to understand them sociologically and in the context of Iron Age religion elsewhere in the region. By time period, the following finds will be explored: Late Bronze Age Temple Complex – By way of setting the context for religion at `Umayri in the Iron Age, the paper will briefly examine the extremely well preserved temple from the 14th century BC. Its architectural layout, while unusual, clearly points to public cultic functions in at least three of its five rooms. Particularly noteworthy in the main sanctuary are a votive altar and a cultic niche encasing five standing stones (strongly suggesting a dominant female deity), numerous ceramic cultic vessels and mud figurines. Transitional Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Shrine – As part of the emerging western neighborhood of `Umayri from ca. 1200 BC, religious architecture and artifacts demonstrate the central role of religion at a time of tremendous flux in the region. Building A enclosed a central household shrine with altar and standing stone resting in a pillared, stone-paved room, as well as a possible cultic niche with seven fallen “standing stones.” Building B, the best preserved “four-room” building in the southern Levant, produced the lower portion of a bronze figurine of a male deity. The additional three buildings (C, D, and E) revealed no other tangible cultic remains. Late Iron I/Early Iron II Remains – A courtyard sanctuary was excavated from this period, consisting of a possible altar, bench stones, and two layers of paving cobbles, the upper one likely a repair. From between the floor layers emerged sherds from several model shrines, having respectfully been deposited there. In addition, a large number of figurine fragments appeared in the vicinity, some almost life-size and some likely from later periods. Late Iron II Gate Shrine – The easternmost acropolis field of excavation revealed a standing stone and libation bowl at a partially preserved gate entrance to the city. Otherwise, cultic architecture and artifacts were quite limited. Thus, `Umayri is characterized by cultic remains of varying types which speak to the diversity of cultic expression and practice at the site over the centuries.


Constructing a Stemma for Nicetas of Heraclea’s Johannine Catena
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Michael Clark, University of Birmingham

Nicetas of Heraclea’s catena of the Gospel of John remains unedited and unpublished in its entirety, and largely unexamined. The current paper presents a text-critical study of the Gospel of John as it is preserved in all known extant manuscripts of the catena (Gregory-Aland 249 317 333 423 430 743 869). Using genetically significant readings, overall levels of agreement between witnesses, and, in the case 333 423, paleographic evidence, I propose that the witnesses of the catena are related as follows: 1) 249 333 423 are descendants of a lost common ancestor, ß; 2) 333 was the exemplar used by the copyist of 423; 3) 317 869 are descended from a lost common ancestor, ?; 4) 430 is an independent witness with an idiosyncratic text; 5) 743 has a high degree of contamination from the majority text and an unclear relationship with the other witnesses.


Ritual Reading and Affective Shaping: John Cassian and Late Antique Technologies of the Self
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Niki Clements, Rice University

At the center of John Cassian’s late antique ascetic program stands the Latin category of *affectus*, a multivalent term denoting its English cognate affect, as well as emotion, state of mind, and disposition. The centrality of *affectus* puts the lie to readings of Cassian, typified by Michel Foucault, which privilege the intellectual, interior dimensions of the human person as the locus of “the self.” Far from this view, affective awareness integrates the bodily and cognitive activities of the person, which in turn, enables the cultivation of ethical dispositions that shape the religious and inter-social self. Cassian’s affective reading practices—notably of the Psalms—stage this dynamic, where high-repetition, high-arousal ritual practices prove powerful precipitates of progress in the ascetic life. To best frame the affective in Cassian, I draw on research in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive science of religion, while also challenging some of its categories.


“Your Son Is Dead and My Son Lives!” (1 Kgs 3:22): Painting, Poetry, and Polemic in the North French Hebrew Miscellany
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Ruth Clements, Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The North French Hebrew Miscellany (NFHM) (Brit. Lib. Add. Ms. 11659) is a Hebrew manuscript dating to the late thirteenth century; it includes a treasury of diverse texts ranging from liturgy to legal texts to poetry, and an extensive program of artistic decoration. The manuscript was written and decorated at a time of increasing persecution for the Jews of France, framed by the burning of the Talmud in Paris in 1242 and the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306. Among the full-page miniatures is a representation of the judgment of Solomon (1 Kgs 3:16–28). The two mothers, positioned to the left of Solomon, are interestingly differentiated. One stands, clothed in red, wearing the headgear of a well-to-do woman, gesticulating with a knowing smile; the other, blue-robed and wearing a simple snood, kneels with troubled expression and hands up in supplication. The painting is placed near the beginning of the manuscript’s third series of images, between portrayals of fantastic beasts and seemingly out of sequence with the representations of biblical scenes that follow later in the series. Recent research on the NFHM has highlighted the connections between the artistic program and the anti-Christian polemic in some of the texts; I suggest that in this case, attention to one particular text can provide clues to the enigmatic features of the image. One of the many piyyutim included in the collection is a well-known poem, Tzama Nafshi (My soul thirsts), written by the twelfth-century Spanish commentator and philosopher R. Abraham ibn Ezra. One stanza of the poem opposes “the true mistress” to “the handmaid,” and puts in the mouth of the handmaid the assertion of the (deceitful) mother in 1 Kgs 3:22: “Your son is the dead one and my son is the living one!” This verse is generally interpreted as a rather obvious symbolic mapping of Sarah and Hagar (as Judaism and Islam), onto the judgment scenario, with the vindication of Judaism in view. Such a reading is not impossible; however, verses added to the poem (found in the NFHM), one very early in its circulation and one which may have come from the pen of the scribe of the NFHM, suggest that the Church is actually the object of this polemic. I argue that in fact, ibn Ezra’s imagery inverts the Christian appropriation of Sarah as the “true mistress,” rooted in turn in Paul’s allegorical deployment of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians 4. Language in some of the piyyut commentary included in the Miscellany seems to reflect the same association. I argue that both the miniature’s portrayal of the two women in the judgment scene and the placement of the image in relation to the overall program reflect the same midrashic and anti-Christian deployment of the story as that found in ibn Ezra’s poem. Both image and text thus participate in the NFHM’s subversive message that the true children of the “true mistress” will ultimately be vindicated against the claims of the false one.


Wisdom and Revelation
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Richard J. Clifford, Boston College

In traditional societies “wisdom” is what smart people revere and practice because it guides them to live successful lives and avoid trouble. This practical wisdom is gleaned from experience (especially the experience of the older generation and office holders) and is primarily found, written in scribal style, in the proverb collections of Proverbs. Though Proverbs teaches experiential wisdom, it also regards wisdom as a divine gift to be prized and received. The sages seem not to have made the modern distinction between revealed versus experienced-based wisdom: wisdom is both a divine gift and the fruit of experience. Proverbs 2 teaches paradoxically that one should pursue wisdom with all one’s energy in order that God might bestow it as a gift. In Proverbs 1-9, both the father (sometimes with the mother) and Woman Wisdom (who dwells with God) address youths and the general population with the same intent of enhancing and furthering life. Even the skeptical Qoheleth counsels humans to accept the (pre-determined) moments from God’s hand and so to find joy in the moments. One might go further and suggest that one strand of biblical thought assumes that wisdom is with God and is mediated to humans through the ordinary hierarchical institutions of that society—the king (or royal scribes) and the fathers of families.


Petition and Performance: Justin Martyr's Apologies and Second Century Greek Literary Culture
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Brandon Cline, Brite Divinity School

This paper is situated within a larger project that analyzes Justin's First and Second Apology (hereafter, simply the Apologies) in light of their subjective appropriation of the forms and practices of the Roman administrative system of petition and response. In this wider project, I argue that the Apologies perform the genre of the administrative petition, but they perform it multiply, as complex and many-faceted literary creations, manipulating generic conventions and weaving together multiple discourses in a way that both points to and transcends the conventions of administrative petitions. This simultaneous invocation, hybridization, and, at times, subversion of the petition form lies at the heart of Justin's literary project. Taking its start from the essentially eclectic nature of the Apologies, the present paper focuses specifically on hybridity as a crucially important aspect of Justin's persuasive program, and one that situates him firmly within the wider currents of Greek literary culture in the second century (i.e., the Second Sophistic). Justin's eclecticism--far from a personal idiosyncrasy, a sign of inferior style, or the result of a simple lack of mastery--is, upon further examination, integral to his literary self-fashioning, which performatively elaborates cultural and literary codes in a way perfectly intelligible in the context of second century literary culture. This paper demonstrates the nature of the Apologies' generic promiscuity, especially their interweaving of administrative, apologetic, and protreptic discourses; it examines Justin's performance of these various generic modes as a philosopher, paying special attention to the relationship he constructs between himself as petitioner, his addressees as supplicandi, and his various opponents; and it provides a broader contextualization of his hybridizing strategy within the Greek literary world. It will conclude by suggesting a reading of the Apologies as a kind of monumentalizing performance of voiced injustice and Christian transparency, understandable against the backdrop of the publicness of the petition system and the public performance spaces of the ancient city. It therefore contributes to our understanding of the Apologies as sophisticated literary creations that participate in and manipulate both the Roman imperial system of petition and response and the hybridizing self-fashioning current in contemporary Greek literary culture.


Monasticism and the Disabled Body
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Brent Cline, Spring Arbor University

*


The Scandal of a Male Bible
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
David J. A. Clines, University of Sheffield

The Bible is a male book, written by men, to be read by men. That means that it is permeated by characteristically male values and ideals, some overt, others rarely noticed. Among these values are: the glorification of strength; the valorization of strength in action, which is violence and killing; the importance of size; the quest for honour; exclusionary holiness; womanlessness; totality thinking; binary thinking. (Among the biblical examples of male thinking I will show how Mary’s Magnificat is almost entirely composed of male language.) These embedded values continue to influence Bible readers, often subconsciously. They are most potent when they affect the language of religion, and shape the picture of the Bible’s deity. The scandal is twofold: it is that the Bible is deeply compromised by its ubiquitous adherence to specifically male values, and that its masculinity is rarely assessed, noticed, or mentioned, even in our much more egalitarian world.


The Holy and the Clean: Category Confusion in Semitic?
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
David J. A. Clines, University of Sheffield

It is generally recognized that the correlative of Heb. qodeš “holiness” is hol “common”, and that of tahôr “clean” is tame “unclean”, as Lev. 10.10 has it: “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean”. The categories are totally distinct, except that they overlap at one point: a person or thing must be “clean” in order to be “holy” (however, being clean does not make a person or thing holy). When we read of Bathsheba at 2 Sam. 11.4 that she was “making herself holy (mitqaddešet) from her [ritual] impurity” there is an apparent confusion of categories: she is washing in order to become ritually “clean”, not to become “holy,” and in fact she cannot become “holy” since women are never regarded as “holy” in the Hebrew Bible. This paper explores other similar examples in the Bible, and investigates whether such apparent confusion occurs also in other Semitic languages. In Aramaic and Syriac, it appears, the root qdš mainly means “make holy, sanctify”, but sometimes, against expectation, “make clean, purify” (Payne Smith gives “be clean” as the principal sense, though in almost all quotations “be holy” is the obvious meaning), in Akkadian (CAD) it commonly means “purify”, in Ugaritic and Arabic it always means “sanctify”. The confusion extends to lexicographers also, and the paper will conclude with a study of the treatment of anomalous cases of qdš in Hebrew lexica.


Does Any Fragment Count? Considering the Digital Culture from a Papyrological Point of View
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Claire Clivaz, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics

Every intellectual adventure has a starting point. Digital Humanities are today well anchoraged in the Swiss academic landscape, but when I started to focus my attention on this growing research trend and involved an interdisciplinary team of colleagues in this adventure, I started from papyrological evidences and research. Six years later, I would like in this paper come back to this apparently surprising starting point. In a masterful small essay, the French writer Pascal Quignard has drawn the praise and the complexity of the “fragment”, inspired by the work of La Bruyère (Une gêne technique à l’égard des fragments, 1986). In our emerging digital culture, the “fragment” sounds again to be a quite usual form of textuality, a form so well known in papyrology. Indeed, by its so often fragmentary aspect, a papyrus is an object proper to disrupt and deconstruct the careful categories established by the Modern Age. Papyrology has always lead researchers to «visualization», beyond a textual perception of it: it has always mattered to see the papyrus, to compare its writing with another one, in order to date it. Such elements draw the general background that has lead papyrology to get the digital country before other Ancient fields, as I begun to argue it in a 2011 article. I will develop this general background and observe in which ways some DH projects are dealing with the notion and perception of the «fragment», such as SAWS for example. Finally, I will considering the specific case of the small P126 (PSI 1497). It challenges our common modern and pre-digital notion of the “text” of the Epistle according to the Hebrews (see Clivaz 2010): to “take the digital risk” of the fragment impacts what we know about and read in Hebrews.


Funny Martyrs: Examining the Function of Humor in Early Christian Martyr Texts
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
Stephanie Cobb, University of Richmond

This paper asks whether martyrdom can ever be funny. Certainly early Christians took the martyr texts seriously as examples of faithful endurance, but did their heroes and heroines also make them laugh? And if so, how does the martyrs’ humor function—literarily and socially—in the midst of torture?


The Textual History of the Greek Book of the Watchers: Contextual Clues from Translation and the Value of Variant Readings
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Kelley Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward's University

This paper examines extant Greek versions and manuscript traditions of the Book of the Watchers, a work esteemed by many early Christians. The focus of the study concerns the nature and significance of the Greek witnesses, with attention to the textual history of the Book of the Watchers (BW). Building on the work of William Adler, Erik Larson and Luca Arcari, variants, tendencies in the translation and relation to other translations are explored through examination of two principal Greek versions preserved among Christians. The first and most extensive recension is from the Akhmim Codex, a collection of texts buried in the grave of Coptic monk. This Greek manuscript contains BW 19:3-31:9 and then BW 1:1-32:6, which follow the incomplete texts of the Gospel of Peter and Apocalypse of Peter. Of special interest to this study is the translation found in the Akhmim manuscript, which makes reference to “titans,” “Tartarus,” and “sirens”; a question we take up is whether the translation, in which some observe Septuagintal conventions, is pre-Christian. The second Greek version is preserved in excerpts conveyed by Byzantine chronographer, George Synkellos. These correspond to BW 6:1-9:4; 8:4-10:14; 15:8-16:1. Synkellos apparently derives his information concerning Enoch from fifth century CE chronographers Panodorus and Annianus. While the text of Synkellos exhibits revisions or interpolations that could fit Byzantine ethos of the chronographer, at times the textual evidence from Synkellos agrees with the fragmentary Aramaic text recovered in Cave 4 at Qumran. Additional witnesses, while not as extensive, also contribute to the study of Greek recensions. The Epistle of Jude (verse 14) includes a citation of BW 1:9, that differs somewhat from the Akhmim copy. Further, a recently rediscovered Greek manuscript P.Gen. inv. 187 shares language reminiscent of BW 17:2-5. Paleography dates the papyrus to the third century CE. While some of the Greek agrees with the Akhmim manuscript, there is also agreement with an Ethiopic recension of BW. In sum, examination of these four textual traditions sheds light on the translation of BW and its transmission among diverse Christians.


Trashing the Bible: Using Critical White Studies to Re-evaluate James and Paul and Vice Versa
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
K. Jason Coker, Albertus Magnus College

In Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America (1999), the race theorist Thandeka, asks a blistering, but important, question, “When did you learn to be White?” The nature of the question assumes whiteness to be socially constructed and performative. Other scholars of critical race theory, in particular John Hartigan, Jr., use the category of “White Trash” to further deconstruct whiteness as a racial ideology. The “trashing” of whiteness becomes a failure to perform, which critically marks whiteness and further exposes the socially constructed nature of race in general, but whiteness in particular. Using these propositions to construct a reading strategy, I would like to explore the way the Letter of James and some of the Pauline letters construct competing identities. James’s insistence on purity and perfection as key components of negotiating identity significantly contrast with Pauline notions of “becoming all things to all people” (1 Cor. 9:22). The binary between purity and hybridity within these competing modes of identity negotiation make these writings an interesting, if not important, site to use critical race theory as a mode of inquiry. Specifically, how does the purity/hybridity binary in the biblical text refract under the lens of the white/trash binary and vice versa? With race and racism being profoundly in the public eye over the past year, my greatest, however naïve, hope is that this paper would be an intervention at some level where issues of whiteness and power critically intersect with biblical texts in ways that seek justice and peace. Rather than seeking the answers for modern ills in the ancient text, I want to use the James/Paul debate as an example of how identity (religious or racial) is constructed so that we are more critically aware of how identity and otherness functions as social control. The violence in the rhetoric of the biblical text, then, may function as a negative example of how to move forward in racial discourse, or as a sad mirror for the ways racial difference continues to be negotiated.


The Lukan Beatitudes in the Canonical Choir
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Rachel Coleman, Regent University

The Lukan Beatitudes in the Canonical Choir


Professors of Religion and Their Strange Wives: Diluvian Discord in Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Matthew A. Collins, University of Chester

The summer of 2014 marked the tercentenary of the death of Matthew Henry (1662–1714), a leading figure among early 18th-century dissenters and author of the six-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1707–1714/25). This monumental work, which by 1855 had already been published in 25 different editions, attempted a peculiarly practical approach to the biblical text and continues to be widely used and readily accessible even today in both print and online versions. The theme of foreign (or “strange”) wives and Israelite intermarriage is one which occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible and, accordingly, throughout Matthew Henry’s commentary upon it. Where it appears, the practice of intermarriage is characterised by Henry as (at best) unwise and (at worst) a very real threat to both social and religious cohesion. In this paper, I intend to explore how Henry deals with the issue of “strange wives,” why he believes they continue to pose a threat, and (in view of the overall intention of his commentary) what “practical observations” he offers to his reader as a result. In doing so it will be argued that Henry’s commentary traces a thematic thread from the ante-diluvian age to the post-exilic period of calamities resulting from mixed marriages between “professors of religion” and their “strange wives.”


The Identity and Significance of the Hellenes John 12:12–43
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Mary L. Coloe, Yarra Theological Union

Using Narrative Critical methods I will argue that the "Hellenes" in John 12 are Gentiles, not Greek-speaking Jews. I will give strong consideration to the narrative context particularly the OT citations in this passage from Zephaniah and Zechariah. These citations correct the crowd’s acclamation that Jesus is the King of Israel and extend Jesus’ significance to the entire cosmos. The cosmic dimension engages Jesus in a final struggle with ‘the ruler of this world’ which will draw all things/people (panta/s) to him.


In the Great City of the Ephesians: Contestations over Apostolic Memory and Ecclesial Power in the Acts of Timothy
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Cavan Concannon, University of Southern California

The fifth-century Acts of Timothy (Acts Tim; CANT 295) describes Timothy’s tenure as the first bishop of Ephesos, beginning with his arrival and installation alongside the apostle Paul and culminating with his martyrdom during the Katagogia, a festival in honor of Dionysos. The narrative of the Acts Tim has posed a number of puzzles for scholars, from its presumption that the disciple John authored all four of the canonical gospels to the small amount of space devoted to Timothy himself. In this paper, I argue that the peculiarities of the Acts Tim make sense when we pay attention to the broader imperial and ecclesiastical context in which the Acts Tim was produced. On the one hand, the Acts Tim fits within a longer history of contestation among cities over claims to apostolic traditions and even apostolic bodies. Though strange in its literary structure, the Acts Tim makes possible the interweaving of apostolic traditions associated with Paul, John, and Timothy, while also narrating the foundation of Timothy’s (bodiless) martyrium (the body having been removed to Constantinople in 356). On the other, the Acts Tim also fits within broader ecclesiastical contestations of the late fourth and early fifth centuries, in which Ephesos ultimately lost much of its ecclesial authority in Asia Minor as a result of the rapid rise of Constantinople. Produced during a period of Ephesos’ decline among the major episcopal sees of the east, the Acts Tim is one among several attempts to recast and solidify the apostolic origins of the Ephesian church as it resisted the encroachment of the imperial city’s ecclesial authority.


“Honor Flits Away as though It Were a Dream”: Statues, Honor, and Favorinus’ Corinthian Oration
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Cavan Concannon, University of Southern California

On his third visit to Corinth in the early second century, Favorinus of Arelate found himself confronted by a quandary. On an earlier visit, the Corinthians honored the famous sophist and philosopher by erecting a bronze statue of him in front of the city’s library (possibly the building modern archaeologists call the Southeast Building of the Corinthian Forum). For reasons that remain unclear, the Corinthians later decided to take the statue down. Confronted by this affront to his honor, Favorinus delivered (or, at least, fantasized about delivering) the stinging rebuke of the Corinthians that has come down to us as his Corinthian Oration, found among the collection of Dio Chrysostom’s speeches. In the oration, Favorinus stands in front of the library alongside his fallen statue and conjures it back into existence to defend it in a mock trial before his Corinthian audience, gathered in the Forum. Switching between characters, Favorinus defends his statue and (by extension) himself by lampooning the Corinthians, their city, and the very practice of representing honor in statues. Statues are not safe repositories of honor because they can be destroyed, desecrated, and even misidentified. Ultimately, Favorinus suggests that it is the fallen statue conjured in the sophist’s own speech that transcends the vagaries of history and remains forever a true symbol of Favorinus’ paideia, honor, and virtue.


John, Gender, and Genre: Revisiting the Woman Question after Masculinity Studies
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Colleen Conway, Seton Hall University

The paper brings gender construction into conversation with genre for the interpretation of the Gospel of John. I argue that considering gender in John alongside ancient biographies leads (again) to such a strong picture of a manly/divine Jesus that it raises again the question of what purpose the female characters serve in the narrative. On the other hand, when we consider the Gospel in light of other ancient genres a more complex picture of gender dynamics emerges. Because both Greek drama and the Greek novels feature women in prominent roles, paying attention to how gender functions in these genres presents new possibilities for reading the role of women in John.


Caleb Reproved, Achsah Approved: The Function of the Caleb-Achsah Vignette in the Structure of Judges 1:1–2:5
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Mary L. Conway, McMaster Divinity College

The Caleb-Achsah narrative is virtually identical in Joshua 15:13-19 and Judges 1:9-14; however, the pericope differs significantly in its co-textual and contextual placement. Its position in Joshua is relatively isolated—an intimate family anecdote which is linked to the surrounding allocations of tribal territory only by the announcement of Caleb’s portion—but in Judges it forms an integral part of the complex structure of the first introduction and contributes significantly to the book’s themes. Incorporating methodologies such as discourse analysis and literary analysis, this paper will argue that the first introduction of Judges is structured by the source of Israel’s strength and moves through four stages: 1. Yahweh’s strength gives the land to Israel, 2. Yahweh is with Israel, his strength available to them, 3. Israel grows in its own strength and disobeys Yahweh, and 4. Yahweh rebukes Israel and withdraws his strength. The Achsah-Caleb narrative fits between stages 1 and 2 when Judah’s campaign is stalling. Caleb is anxious for victory and makes a vow to give his daughter to the warrior who conquers Debir. In spite of the fact that Caleb is a competent and successful leader, this vignette serves as a negative comment on Caleb’s vow and his lack of trust in Yahweh’s strength. In spite of Israel’s covenant with its God, he did not trust Yahweh to give him success but, like Jephthah, took inappropriate steps to obtain it. Achsah, on the other hand, acts in a way that implicitly reproves her father’s actions. As early as the first introduction, this pericope suggests the incipient inadequacy of Israel’s leadership which will escalate in the judge cycles that follow.


The Greek Biblical Odes: Origins and Second-Temple Background
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Jeremiah Coogan, University of Oxford

(For Open Session) Through a close reading of the earliest attestations for the odes of the Greek Bible, this paper reconsiders the origins of the collection and challenges the consensus that tradition originated in Christian liturgical practice (Schneider 1949) or in traditions of prayer (Harl 2014). Drawing on observations from scholars who have noted significant parallels in content between the first Christian attestation of the odes in the oeuvre of Origen and the tannaitic ten songs midrash, the paper notes the way in which the early sources, both Christian and rabbinic, read the odes as a cohesive and unified narrative. Rather than being a liturgical anthology of independent hymns and prayers, the biblical odes re-narrate biblical history using the words of scripture itself. Nonetheless, the shaping of the odes tradition attested in sources from the third century CE and later does not exclude a common core of texts in earlier liturgical or theological traditions around which the odes took form. Rather, when the original author or authors approached such an enterprise, certain texts would have demanded inclusion, texts that were already central to the ways that Jews or Christians were telling the story of scripture and locating themselves in it. Liturgically significant texts such as the Song of the Sea and the Song of Moses would be natural building blocks for a larger exegetical re-narration of the biblical story. The paper thus briefly surveys the extent to which Second Temple sources, including the OG biblical tradition and interpretations dependent upon it, suggest an antecedent core tradition which provided the starting point for the narrative elaboration of the tradition witnessed by Origen, the Mekhilta, and their respective successors.


Ambiguity, Polysemy, and Contextual Variation in the Qumran Aramaic Lexicon
Program Unit: Qumran
Edward Cook, Catholic University of America

The distinctions among ambiguous lexemes – whether they are examples of homonymy, polysemy, or vagueness – can often be hard to spell out, and the existing tests for polysemy (such as those outlined in e.g., Geeraerts 1993) sometimes give conflicting results. This presents special problems for lexical semantics, and especially for lexicography. Some different approaches to these problems, especially as they bear on the composition of a dictionary of Qumran Aramaic, are here explored in some detail, particularly with reference to words for human physical (e.g., yd, r' š) or mental (e.g, rwh., npš) features.


Resurrections of Greco-Roman Figures and the Resurrection of Jesus
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
John Granger Cook, LaGrange College

Although James George Frazer’s concept of “dying and rising” gods has gone out of favor, some scholars continue to argue that several Greco-Roman deities experienced resurrections. In this essay, I will review the evidence for the “resurrections” of Osiris, Dionysus, Adonis, and Attis. My goal is to compare the vicissitudes of the Greco-Roman figures with certain formulations of Paul and the Gospels concerning the resurrection of Jesus. The comparison will serve to illuminate the problem of analogy and genealogy that is still current among historians of religion.


The Shocking Severance from Sheol of Ezekiel’s Utopia
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Stephen L. Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary

Cosmic geography alters dramatically in the concluding visionary chapters of Ezekiel’s book. The cosmic structure in Ezek 38-48 morphs. There occurs a sharp severing of the temple’s old interconnections with the netherworld and a radical intensification of the shrine’s nexus with heaven. The new cosmic map is unique, differing substantially, for example, from reality’s structure in Third Isaiah. Isaiah 56:3-5 retains mortuary memorials in the temple, assuring eunuchs that they will not lose their ongoing membership among the living after death. Ezek 43:6–9, by contrast, insists that all temple precincts be completely untainted by death’s defiling uncleanness (cf. Ezek 44:25, etc.). So too, the cosmic deep is present in Zech 1:8, but its iconography, the bronze sea, has no place whatsoever in Ezekiel (see 40:28-47). Only fresh, living waters now flow from its old locale south of the altar (Ezek 47:1). According to Ezek 39:11, the passage to the netherworld is now clogged with the crush of enemy departed souls. On the other hand, Ezekiel’s utopia greatly strengthens the shrine’s nexus with Heaven. It provides earth with a powerful and perpetual interconnection with living divine reality. The temple of Ezek 40-48 is something entirely new in Israel, not a return to an ideal past but a veritable experience of transfiguration on earth.


Reflections on Deuteronomy, Dearth, and Debt
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Stephen Cook, Virginia Theological Seminary

Abstract not submitted


Epistemic Novelty and Philological Elasticity: The Problem of New Knowledge and the Stream of Tradition
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Jeffrey Cooley, Boston College

The epistemology of scribes in the ancient Near East was fundamentally traditional. Physical documents handed down by previous generations of scribes, copied and recopied, were the primary means of knowing not only the past, but the contemporaneous world as well. The stream of tradition was the font of knowing all things at all times. Nonetheless, scribes were not statically unresponsive to changing cultural needs. Ancient documentary traditions could be adapted to new contexts and concerns. Recent scholarship has shown that Babylonian scribes asserted the validity of ancient documents as a way of knowing their world, but they also recontextualized that ancient knowledge by means of translation and commentary (Gabbay, “Deciphering Cuneiform Texts through Ancient and Modern Conceptions of Literal Meaning,” 2009). In Mesopotamia, old documents in a dead language were translated into a living one, and they were re-envisioned in the process. They were also hermeneutically manhandled into contemporary linguistic and cultural relevance. In contrast, Judah’s invention of vernacular documentation in the Iron Age (Sanders, The Invention of Hebrew) meant that Judean scribes dealt with opaquely novel documents and documentary styles. It also marked the loss of older, venerable, but ultimately foreign writing traditions. Nonetheless, they, too, asserted that older was better, and drew from a native stream of tradition like their Mesopotamian counterparts. One course of that stream was the remembrance and veneration of the (written) names of eponymous ancestors (Radner, Die Macht des Namens, 2005). Judean scribes employed their philological training to adapt the ancient and commensurately valid data of names to invent meaningful and contemporaneously relevant documents. Thus, like their Babylonian contemporaries, they both conceded to the font of the stream of tradition, while at the same time managed its course and, indeed, capitalized on its epistemic momentum.


Death and Disaster: 2012 Meets Noah
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Laura Copier, Universiteit Utrecht

In this paper a comparative analysis is made of Roland Emmerich’s film 2012 and Aronofski’s Noah using Rick Altman’s work on genre in film as our theoretical lens. The use of genre in both film theory and biblical studies will be explored, more specifically the genre of the disaster film and that of apocalyptic literature. They will be put in tandem in our analysis of 2012. Next, we will apply the same approach to Noah, thus allowing an reading that moves away from the interpretation of Noah as Bible epic. To substantiate our point we will offer a comparative reading of 2012 and Noah focusing on the way the issues of death and disaster feature in both films.


Love, Friendship, and the Ascent through the Beautiful to the Good: Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Kevin Corrigan, Emory University

This paper will trace Plotinus’ explorations of eros and ascent in the Enneads (primarily, because of time restrictions, in such “middle” works as 3 8 (30) and 6 7 (38)), in relation to two issues in the thought of Plato and Aristotle: first, with reference to Plato’s and Aristotle’s treatments of love and friendship primarily in the Lysis, Alcibiades I (which I think is genuinely by Plato), Republic, Symposium, Phaedrus and Nicomachean Ethics/Eudemian Ethics; and, second, with reference to the paradeigmatic ascents of Republic 7, Symposium (“greater mysteries”) and (much less noticed) Metaphysics 12, 7. I will argue for a striking, if often overlooked hermeneutical resonance between Plato and Aristotle, on the one hand, and Plotinus and later Neoplatonism, on the other.


The Social Location of Q: The Problem of a Greek Q for the Oppressed in the Galilee
Program Unit: Q
Wendy Cotter, Loyola University of Chicago

The social location of Q has been posed as the Galilee where midlevel scribes, perhaps in Tiberias, prepared it in support of the oppressed workers. The problem here is that Q has been proven to be a Greek composition. If Jesus taught in Aramaic, and the workers speak Aramaic, why would this enormous effort be done in the language of the oppressors? The paper will propose that the evidence on Q supports a situation of listeners who do not understand Aramaic, yet belong to the oppressed. The paper will suggest that the evidence more strongly supports the location of Antioch.


The Image of Assyria in Isaiah from the Perspective of Trauma Studies
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
J. Blake Couey, Gustavus Adolphus College

In discussions of the Hebrew Bible’s response to traumatic events, the sixth-century BCE Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem and subsequent exile appropriately receive considerable attention. It should not be forgotten, however, that biblical texts contain memories of earlier experiences of collective trauma, including the various Neo-Assyrian incursions in the late eighth century BCE that resulted in the conquest of Israel and the political subjugation of Judah. Pre-exilic texts from Isaiah 1-33 represent some of the earliest attempts to process and interpret these experiences. This paper will examine Isaianic depictions of Assyria (e.g., Isa 5:25-29; 10:5-15) in conversation with trauma studies, with special attention to the use of language typically associated with YHWH to describe Assyria, and the oft-discussed reappropriation of motifs from Assyrian propaganda for YHWH. Typically, these features are understood as part of a rhetorical strategy to assert YHWH’s superiority over Assyria and thereby discredit Assyrian claims of preeminence. While this explanation has merit, matters become more complicated when these texts are interpreted as “trauma narratives,” that is, as symbolic representations of traumatic events that allow their victims to negotiate their meaning at a safe distance. From this perspective, the slippage between Assyria and YHWH in these texts reveals the community’s struggle to determine responsibly for its suffering, which it attributes simultaneously to Assyria and to YHWH. The notion of a divine plan by which YHWH uses Assyria to punish Judah for its offenses (e.g., Isa 10:5-15; 14:24-27) partially reconciles these multiple impulses to assign blame, but Isaiah’s emphasis upon the incomprehensibility of the divine plan (e.g., Isa 28:21) also preserves some of the tension and ambivalence that necessarily remain in the community’s understanding of its trauma.


Re-structuring for Engagement: An Experiment in Changing How Class Time Is Allocated in Old Testament Survey
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Melinda Cousins, Tabor Adelaide

In the context of increasing numbers of students with little familiarity with the biblical text and poor skills in reading and interpreting texts, the time allocated in class in an Old Testament Survey course was restructured. Students were required to read 15-20 chapters of the OT text per week. Moving from 3 x 1 hour lectures, the new class format included discussion groups based on students’ pre-reading of significant sections of the OT text, critical reflection on contemporary interpretations of the text, inductive learning through Q & A, and the teaching of interpretive and study skills. Challenges for the teacher included trusting students to learn through participation and helping students overcome barriers to reading texts. Student feedback indicated greater levels of preparation and engagement with the class, as well as self-discovery of the relevance and transformative power of the text. For this workshop-style session, this presentation will provide a snapshot of how the in-class time was re-structured, modelling a variety of content delivery methods to SBL audience members. 1. Infographics will set the context of Bible literacy in Australia today. 2. A handout will provide the necessary methodological framework and practice details for participants. 3. The class format will be spoken about including an overview of the challenges faced by the teacher and the positive responses from students. 4. Short youtube clips will be shown as examples of the contemporary interpretations of texts used in the class.


Name and Glory: Associative Concepts in the LXX of Deutero-Isaiah
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Joshua Coutts, University of Edinburgh

In Deutero-Isaiah, divine glory (doxa) and the divine Name, i.e. onoma used in reference to YHWH, are featured together as the central issue at stake in the trial speeches, and are summative of divine eschatological revelation. The significance of these concepts is likely to have generated the emphasis placed on glory and the divine Name in John’s Gospel. Yet in this paper, I wish to draw attention to a third aspect of glory and Name language in the Greek LXX of Deutero-Isaiah: It’s function to associate God with a distinguishable “servant” figure. Through a survey of Name and glory language in the “Servant songs,” I will propose that this language itself functions as the locus of the most explicit association between YHWH and the Servant, which may well have facilitated John’s christological interpretation of Jesus as the one who is uniquely given the divine Name to reveal it (John 17.6, 11-12).


The Death of Tragedy: The Form of God in Euripides’ Bacchae and Paul’s Carmen Christi
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Michael Cover, Marquette University

Scholarship on Phil 2:6–11, the carmen Christi, has long wrestled with the question of “interpretive staging.” Against which religious, cultural, or political matrix was the song’s dramatic Christology composed and heard? Recent studies of Phil 2:6–11 continue to trace its genealogy primarily along two lines: the Hellenistic/Roman apotheosis narratives of heroic and imperial cult or the philosophical and angelological speculation of Jewish wisdom literature and apocalypses. While not disputing these two primary matrices, the following study suggests a third backdrop against which the carmen Christi would have been heard in Philippi: Euripidean tragedy. In particular, echoes of Dionysus’s opening monologue from Euripides’s Bacchae in the carmen Christi—recognized previously by Ulrich Müller—suggest that Roman hearers of Paul’s letter might well have understood Christ’s kenotic metamorphosis as a kind of Dionysian revelation—albeit, one which departs significantly from Euripides’ tragic grammar. The plausibility of this position is supported not only by intertextual analysis of Philippians and the Bacchae (itself composed in Macedonia), but also by a study of Dionysus in the Roman religion and politics, including the Bacchic inscriptions catalogued by Pilhofer at Roman Philippi, the popularization of the Bacchae early on in the Latin paraphrases of Euripides by Pacuvius and Accius, and the phenomenon of cultured emulation of Dionysus, from Alexander the Great to Mark Antony. In light of these studies, the echoes of the Bacchae in Paul’s carmen Christi—at least at the level of the letter’s reception—emerge as more than literary enculturation. Rather, they accomplish a new integration of the letter’s Jewish and imperial-cultic transcripts. In particular, I will suggest that for the Philippian church, Jesus’ Bacchic portraiture supports (in its own mythic register) a theology of the Son’s pre-existence, while simultaneously establishing him, in his veiled economic parousia, as a Dionysian antithesis to the imperial Apollonian kyrios Caesar—an image cultivated by Octavian and his successors. The Bacchic Christology of the Philippians hymn does not leave the Dionysian typos intact, however, but simultaneously upends it as well.


Scholasticism and the Form of Medieval Biblical Commentary: Divisio Textus in Thomas Aquinas’ ad Ephesios
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Eric Covington, University of St. Andrews

The systematic development of medieval theology has long been recognized as one of the distinguish marks of the emerging scholasticism of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Peter Lombard’s Sentences and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae are prime examples of how scholasticism influenced the very form of medieval theology. Less recognized, though, is the impact that scholasticism had on the form of biblical commentaries. This paper proposes to examine one particular way in which scholasticism introduced a new form within the composition of biblical commentaries: the divisio textus. Using Thomas Aquinas’ Lectura ad Ephesios as a test-case, we will examine the way in which some scholastic commentators divided and subdivided every passage of a biblical text in order to demonstrate its relationship to a single, unifying theme. Influenced by a renewed philosophical vigor in the High Middle Ages, these divisions were then used to communicate the commentator’s particular interpretation of the logic and theological significance of the multivalent and inexhaustible sacred scripture. In Ephesians, for example, Aquinas suggests the main theme of the letter is the origination of church unity and then sees two main subdivisions contributing to this theme: confirming the church in good habits (Chaps 1–3) and strengthening the church to a higher good (Chaps 4–6). Both of these sections are further subdivided, illustrating how each aspect of the letter contributes to the single unifying theme. In the conclusion, we suggest that the scholastic movement introduced a new form for biblical commentary that, though quite distinct from the grammatical-syntactical and discourse analyses of modern commentaries, would become something of a precursor for the continued orderly analysis of the biblical texts in academic commentary.


Why Does Paul Think Hagar = Sinai (Gal 4:24–25)?
Program Unit: Greek Bible
James R. Covington, University of Chicago

Though much progress has been made in the past century on discovering why Paul equates Hagar with Sinai in Galatians 4.24-25, little attention has been given to trying to read the Hagar stories of Genesis allegorically, as Paul suggests. This paper shows how productive such an allegorical reading actually is for understanding Paul's historically puzzling argument. While the extensive presence of exodus themes in the Hagar stories allows Paul to make a legitimate connection between Hagar and Sinai, he is able to leverage the significant differences to support his argument in Galatians 4.21-31.


Telling the Flood Stories in LXX-Genesis
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
James R. Covington, University of Chicago

In modern times, the flood narrative in Genesis 6-9 has been a proof-text for the methodological value of source criticism in studying the Hebrew Bible, just as it has been a lightning rod for heated debate about the integrity of the narrative. While it is not the intention of this paper to offer a new source-critical investigation of this often-studied passage, it aims to show that the text’s integrity (or lack thereof) has been a prime issue for biblical interpreters since the beginning. In particular, it aims to demonstrate that the translator of LXX-Genesis employed a handful of translation-technical strategies to smooth over contradictions and redundancies in his Vorlage (esp. lexical collapse, lexical differentiation, and variation in verb tenses), and that he often deviated from his normal translation practices in order to do so.


The Old Is Good? Antiquity in Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae and the Writings of Luke
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
J. Andrew Cowan, University of St. Andrews

The Old Is Good? Antiquity in Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaicae and the Writings of Luke


Translator as Author: The Old Greek Translator of Job
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Claude E. Cox, McMaster Divinity College

This paper attempts to access the mind of the translator of Job by examining those instances the OG has no correspondence in the source text. Since these pieces of text cannot really be called “translation,” they belong uniquely to the translator. In the LXX corpus this is a rare phenomenon and, as such, provides an unusual opportunity to examine what is, in effect, non-translation Greek in a translated document. If this foray is successful, the examination should allow us to access the translator’s mind with respect to vocabulary, grammar, rhetorical features, and religious thought.


“Through Others”: The Dirty Work of Heavenly Intermediaries in Philo, Plutarch, and Early Christianity
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Ronald Cox, Pepperdine University

Philo of Alexandria and Plutarch compare well in their filling the gap between God and humanity with intermediary powers, daemons, and unembodied souls. They reflect a common Platonic inheritance in depicting these spiritual forces as “interpreting and transmitting human things to the gods and divine things to humans” (Plato, Symposium 202E). This paper describes and compares the characteristics and roles of these mediating forces in Philo and Plutarch, focusing especially on how for both authors certain “unseemly” aspects of the powers and daemons compensate for divine transcendence. It then considers whether the “powers and authorities” spoken of in Pauline literature might be situated among such company.


Shamanism as a Cross-cultural Interpretive Tool: Jesus, Paul, and Early Christianity
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Pieter F. Craffert, University of South Africa

The argument of this paper is that Jesus and Paul were not shamans but if you want to grasp what they were up to and understand the dynamics of their lives, there is probably no better cross-cultural model available than shamanism or the shamanic complex. In the first part of the paper shamanism is presented as an biopsychosocial phenomenon which appear in identifiable patterns of human experiences, behaviour and conduct across cultures. As such it is presented as a neurophenomenological entity. That means, it links phenomenal experiences found cross-culturally with neurological functions. Put differently, it treats shamanism as a (neuro)biologically based phenomenon that finds expression in world-wide manifestations of culturally diverse but recognisable patterns. Alternate states of consciousness (ASCs), or what Winkelman calls “a biologically based integrative mode of consciousness” lie at the root of shamanism as identifiable world-wide pattern of human experience and conduct. Shamanism as a biopsychosocial phenomenon offers an interpretive tool for analysing a whole range of embodied experiences often associated with figures such as Jesus of Nazareth and Paul. In the second part of the paper the interpretive potential of shamanism defined in this way is utilised in order to show how central features attributed to Jesus of Nazareth and the apostle Paul are illuminated when seen through this lens. Shamanism offers one way of understanding and describing many of the extraordinary, if not unbelievable, aspects of the early Christian tradition as embodied experiences and neurocultural phenomena. This include visionary and soul travel experiences, spirit possession or fulfilment, dying and rising experiences and healing and exorcism activities.


Please Be Patient: Jewish Narratives of Embracing Pain and Finitude
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Jonathan Crane, Emory University

*


Reading the Gospels Canonically in Late Antiquity: Eusebius of Caesarea’s Canon Tables as a Hermeneutical Key to the Fourfold Gospel
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Matthew R Crawford, Australian Catholic University

The canonical fourfold gospel that spread throughout the Mediterranean basin and beyond during late antiquity was not usually transmitted as a bare text, but typically included various paratextual features, including most prominently the Eusebian Canon Tables. This apparatus represents a sophisticated cross-referencing system invented by Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century, though building upon the earlier work of Ammonius of Alexandria. Eusebius’ system proved to be astonishingly successful and was soon being copied in gospel codices from Ireland to Ethiopia, and from Ravenna to Armenia. Indeed, one could say that it was not just the fourfold gospel, but specifically Eusebius’ edition of the fourfold gospel that became central to the diverse Christian traditions that emerged from the fourth century onwards. The significance of this observation lies in the potential of the Eusebian apparatus to function as a hermeneutical key to the fourfold gospel by guiding the reader to an intertextual reading of the four. This paper will explore the way this intertextual approach ties the Gospel of John more closely to the other three gospels by highlighting points of comparison between John and the Synoptics. The Eusebian Canons thus enable a canonical exegesis which respects the irreducible diversity of the four accounts, while also highlighting their underlying unity as a witness to the single Jesus presented therein.


Deuteronomy in the Temple Scroll and Its Use in a Critical Edition
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Sidnie White Crawford, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

The paper will present a text-critical exposition of the portions of Deuteronomy found in the Temple Scroll, and discuss how they will be used in constructing a critical edition of the book of Deuteronomy for the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition series.


What Religion? Whose Identity? Methodological Considerations in Constructing Christian Identities
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
David Creech, Concordia College - Moorhead

The work to describe and map out the varieties of Christianities in the first and second centuries is beset by numerous thorny methodological questions. This paper seeks to lay out some of the problems with talking about “religion” or “religious identities” as descriptive categories in the Roman Empire. Drawing on the work of J.Z. Smith as applied by students of early Christianities such as William Arnal and Karen King, the contemporary, political nature of the categories will be underscored. In short, the paper asks: Is our work describing ancient identities as much about describing contemporary identities as it is about reconstructing the past? What questions should we ask and what controls can we put in place to avoid reifying categories that did not exist?


The Biblical Citations of the “Untitled Text” of the Bruce Codex
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Eric Crégheur, Université Laval

Being one of the least researched Coptic Gnostic texts, the incomplete treatise known as the “Untitled Text” of the Bruce Codex (Bodleian Library MS Bruce 96) is usually quickly categorized as a late witness of the so-called “Platonizing Sethian” treatises, a modern category which is represented in the Nag Hammadi library by four tractates (“Allogenes”, “Zostrianos”, the “Three Steles of Seth”, and “Marsanes”). Notoriously difficult to interpret, the “Untitled Text” presents a series of hymns addressed to a metaphysical Primordial Principle. One of the many puzzling aspects of the treatise is the important number of direct biblical citations found in the text, close to 20, ranging from the Old to the New Testament. This paper aims to thoroughly look into these citations, from the Coptic text of the quotes, to their place and their role in the treatise. Finally, considering that the number of biblical citations, or even allusions, found in the four Platonizing Sethian treatises of Nag Hammadi is quite low, if not completely absent, we will examine what impact the presence of biblical material in the “Untitled Text” can have its traditional categorization.


An Analytic Theologian's Response to Jaco Gericke’s Thesis
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Oliver Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary

This will be a response to Jaco Gericke's argument for philosophical criticism as a form of biblical criticism.


The Chaoskampf Motif and the King of Mount Zion: Isaiah 24
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Lacy K. Crocker, Baylor University

Since Herman Gunkel wrote "Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit" in 1895, the battle between Marduk (storm god) and Tiamat (sea) in the Enuma Elish has been known as Chaoskampf (“chaos battle”). Gunkel’s work demonstrates parallels between the Babylonian creation account and the Hebrew Bible, particularly YHWH’s battle with the dragon and the sea. According to Dan Johnson, the pattern of Chaoskampf includes threat (some form of chaos), victory, and restoration. Johnson refers to Chaoskampf as an overriding theme that ties together the composition of Isa 24—27. I intend to build from Johnson’s work, focusing on the elements of the Chaoskampf motif in Isa 24 and giving specific attention to the phrase “for the windows of heaven are opened” in Isa 24:18. This phrase has parallels in both the Noahic Flood account (Gen 7:11) and the Baal Cycle (CAT 1.4 VII 25–28), which I will examine using a comparative methodology. The Chaoskampf motif intersects with the Zion tradition in Isa 24. Here, Zion functions as the mountain where YHWH triumphs over the flood of chaos waters and where YHWH defeats the kings and the nations. I will argue that the intersection of the Zion tradition with Chaoskampf in Isa 24 heightens the message that YHWH creates chaos against those who violate his covenant and that he reestablishes harmony by asserting his dominion and kingship over the kings of the earth.


Tillich’s Discourse on Political Theology
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Clayton Crockett, University of Central Arkansas

*


Childbearing as Reward and Punishment for Women in Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Sonya Cronin, Florida State University

The scandalous story of David's adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah has rightly captured the attention of readers throughout the ages. The biblical text leaves no doubt regarding David's culpability. He is guilty. Where the text seems to be silent is in regard to Bathsheba's role in this drama. While some commentators deem that the text does not give enough information to ascertain anything about Bathsheba, many commentators have discerned clues that suggest Bathsheba is equally culpable. These readers suggest that her bathing on the roof was designed to attract David's attention. As the wife of a simple soldier, Bathsheba had set her sights on a bigger prize; she was aiming to elevate her social status by entrapping David and becoming the wife of the king. These same commentators suggest that Bathsheba's manipulative plotting paid off and her true motivations seen at the end of the David narrative when Solomon is made king, and Bathsheba becomes the next queen mother. While this is definitely a possible reading, this requires reading the text with certain blinders on, assuming the overall story portrays the characters as being in charge of their own fate, and that the narrator and architect of the story are not in charge of a much bigger picture. Instead, I propose an alternative possibility. Using the story of David and Michal in 2 Samuel 6, and Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13, a pattern can be seen which sets the David and Bathsheba story into a larger context of sin, violation, and recompense. When evaluated in this larger context, it is not hard on the smaller scale to see that text asserts Bathsheba's complete innocence, and on a larger scale that reward and punishment are dealt to women in Hebrew Bible in the form of childbearing.


Potential Anti-Judaism in Gospel of John: How Biblical Interpretation Affects Homiletics
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Sonya Shetty Cronin, Florida State University

In the past fifty years, the issue of anti-Judaism in the New Testament has been a growing concern. While all the gospels and various letters in the New Testament have content that fuels debate in the area of anti-Judaism, the Gospel of John is especially problematic, because of its devotional nature and prominence in the daily life of the Church and because of its blanket use of the term ?? ???da??? for the enemies of Jesus. While best translated “the Jews,” in order to avoid fostering a modern anti-Jewish sentiment that could be picked up from the text, many modern commentators/interpreters of the Fourth Gospel avoid the general use of the term “the Jews” and instead translate ?? ???da??? as “Jewish leaders,” “Jewish Authorities,” “Judeans,” or in other substitute terms. This transfers as well into the realm of homiletics as preachers knowingly and unknowingly give sermons based on such translations and commentaries. As a result, the hearers of these homilies may never know the interfaith controversy and the persecution history at stake in their beloved texts. The texts come to them "pre-sanitized," fostering an unfortunate ignorance among the laity and even some ministers. New Testament scholar Raymond Brown, who wrote on the Gospel of John for 38 years, slowly came to an awareness of the potential anti-Judaism in the text. While an active member of the academy, Brown was also a Catholic priest, meaning that he could not simply dismiss unsavory portions of the Gospel of John as invented claims of a first-century Jew-hater. Instead, he had to navigate between his religious convictions that held the text as authoritative with historical merit, and his modern sensibilities that over time could not ignore the grave possibilities available when a religiously authoritative text could be read as fostering anti-Judaism. Opposed to deliberately softening translations, Brown instead advocated that scholars should translate accurately, protecting neither the text nor those who would hear/read it, but then ministers should explain the text and preach forcefully against the adoption of anti-Jewish attitudes that one might find in the text. Using the Gospel of John and the issue of anti-Judaism, this paper will explore the relationship between biblical interpretation and homiletics, and focus particularly on Raymond Brown’s understanding of this problem and the validity of his proposed solution.


Economy Scales, Honorific Inscriptions, and Paul's Corinthian Patrons
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Zeba A. Crook, Carleton University

This paper offers a critical assessment and appreciation of Bruce Longenecker's economy scales (2009, 2011) for assessing the economic location of Pauline patrons in Corinth, and considers how inscriptions from voluntary associations can supplement Longenecker's scales.


The Rhetoric of Identity in the Deuteronomistic Framework of Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Carly Crouch, University of Nottingham

This paper identifies several broad shifts in the character of Israelite identity during the exilic period by focusing on the rhetoric used by the deuteronomistic framework of Deuteronomy. The paper's primary objective is to contribute to our understanding of the development of Israelite identity, thought and theology, particularly with regard to the book of Deuteronomy. It aims also to offer a more sophisticated perspective on the question of whether Israelite identity during this period merits the term 'nationalist'.


King Solomon and the Biocolonialism of the Ancient Empires
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Brad Crowell, Drake University

King Solomon is portrayed in the Deuteronomistic narrative of 1 Kings 9-10 as a ruler who became wealthy by exploiting the subjected territories of his United Monarchy. From rare timber to unusual animals, Solomon displayed exotic elements of the natural world in his palace and temple to signal his prestige and power. This paper will use theories related to biocolonialism and postcolonialism to analyze this major but neglected ecological theme in the narrative of Solomon and its parallels among the records of other ancient Near Eastern empires.


Parochialism or Scepticism in Nazareth? Reconsidering Jesus’ Conflict with His Own People (Luke 4:16–30)
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
Monique Cuany, University of Cambridge

Jesus’ encounter with his hometown in Luke 4:16–30 is widely held to play a programmatic role in Luke’s double-volume work. In particular, the conflict described in the second part of pericope seems to anticipate the rejection of Jesus by his own people and his forthcoming death, just as the allusion to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha beyond Israel seems to foreshadow the extension of the Christian movement to the Gentiles which becomes so important in Acts. The passage has thus played an important role in assessing Luke’s view of the Jewish people. Despite the hermeneutical importance of this episode, however, its narrative logic continues to perplex interpreters. Indeed, as is well-known, the passage depicts a crowd apparently appreciative of Jesus’ “words of grace” suddenly turning into a murderous mob against him apparently as a reaction to his mention that a prophet is no welcomed in his hometown and his allusion to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. A common explanation of the pericope is that it is the clarification of the focus or the scope of Jesus’ ministry which greatly offends the population. According to this interpretation, Jesus refuses to give in to his hometown’s narrow and parochial understanding of his mission when they press him to benefit his own people with the proverb “Physician, heal yourself!.” Rather, Jesus answers with a statement asserting that his ministry must focus, or at least be extended to, others, just like the ministries of Elijah and Elisha were addressed to Gentiles. It is thus the narrow-mindedness or parochialism of Nazareth which is exacerbated by Jesus’ allusion to Elijah and Elisha’s blessing of Gentiles and causes their anger. Alternatively, some exegetes argue that the rage of Jesus’ hometown was caused by Jesus’ self-claims and their unwillingness to believe in them. The present paper challenges those common interpretations of the pericope and makes an alternative proposal to explain the conflict in Nazareth. To do so, it is divided into three parts. The first part re-examine the common explanations of this passage and demonstrates that they fail to offer a coherent reading of this pericope. The second part then re-examines the meaning of the proverb “Physician, Heal Yourself” in the context of ancient parallels, and shows that—unlike what has been asserted—its usage in antiquity does not support the common interpretations of this passage. Finally, in light of the preceding analysis, the last part of the essay offers a new interpretation of the sequence of thought in Luke 4:22–30, highlighting the function of the proverb in the narrative, and showing how it coheres with Jesus’ allusion to the ministry of Elijah and Elisha. It then concludes by tentatively suggesting another explanation for the offense taken by the crowds in Nazareth. It shall be argued that the proverb “Physician, heal yourself”—while not reflecting the parochialism or scepticism of the inhabitants of Nazareth—nonetheless captures the very essence of the dilemma between Jesus and his own people.


Art Therapy and the Biblical Exile: Detained Refugee Central American Children and Youth Draw Their Homeland and Journey Experiences
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Gregory Cuellar, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

This paper explores the benefits of an art therapy project for Refugee Central American children and youth, who have been released immigration detention. The project is called Arte de La´grimas: Refugee Artwork Project. Since August 2014, project members partnered with Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley to set up art stations at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Relief Center and the McAllen Central Bus Station in South Texas. With each participating child artist, group members initiate art activities that incorporate two major exilic themes in prophetic literature, homeland and journey. Art-making with a view toward these two biblical exilic themes open up a healing space in which prophetic visions of home and laments of family separation serve to counter, albeit momentarily, their traumatized memories of violence and victimization. In the end, this paper intends to examine the role of exilic oriented art therapy, as seen in the biblical exilic themes of journey and homeland, in addressing the trauma and mental stress of detained undocumented immigrant children.


More Than Words: A Conceptual Approach to Wealth and Poverty and the Rich and the Poor in the Book of Proverbs
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Elizabeth Currier, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Interpreters who read the book of Proverbs observe tensions in the ways statements within it characterize wealth and poverty and the rich and the poor. Many conclude that these statements are inconsistent, some that they are incoherent. The most common strategy of accounting for the apparent tensions has been to determine that different sayings originated in different social locations. A less common approach has been to identify either sub-discourses or lexical fields that have different things to say about wealth and poverty and the rich and the poor because each sub-discourse or lexical field is concerned with, and geared toward, different matters. I suggest in this paper that a conceptual approach leads to greater clarity regarding statements in the book of Proverbs that mention wealth and poverty and the rich and the poor. I use the interpretive framework developed by Ronald Langacker to arrive at greater clarity in this discussion. Axiomatic in his approach is that linguistic meaning is more than what is said (or written): “an expression’s meaning is not to be found ‘in its words’” (Langacker 2010: 97). It “involves both conceptual content and a particular way of construing that content” (Langacker 2008: 44). Words are prompts for the elaborate processes of meaning construction (conceptualization) we undertake whenever we hear or read something expressed in human language. In order to make sense of words, conceptualizers must access relevant background knowledge, properly construe conceptual content, and implicitly apprehend the context in all its dimensions (linguistic, physical, social, cultural). Importantly, relevant context includes the discourse surrounding an expression and the speech event itself. I characterize the sayings in Proverbs as literary speech events and argue that conceptions evoked throughout the book are factors in the ways that wealth, poverty, the rich, and the poor are construed in its collections. These other conceptions figure critically in determining which cognitive domains the producers of Proverbs most probably intended to activate and thereby use to shape and render their sayings coherent. The speech-event nature of Proverbs is equally important because, as Langacker explains, “the speaker and hearer are always part of the conceptual substrate supporting an expression’s meaning” (2008: 78). The speech event itself, in other words, and certain conceptions associated with it, are each a cognitive domain and, as such, also figure critically in the meanings of expressions. We gain insight into sayings in Proverbs by keeping in mind the schematic conception of the speaker and hearer as teacher and learner, and then theorizing about the nature and intent of their interaction. I submit that the teacher, schematically conceived, intended for the hearer, also schematically conceived, to learn from the examples of onstage saying-participants by objectively construing himself (the learner) as either one of the focal participants or as a bystander who is supposed to come to a right judgment about onstage actions and events.


Magdalene, Mother, Martha’s Sister, or None of the Above? The Mary in the Dialogue of the Savior
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Anna Cwikla, University of Toronto

The name “Mary” is used to refer to a number of female characters in the New Testament gospels most notably Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, and the sister of Martha. A woman named Mary appears in a number of non-canonical texts such as those found in the Nag Hammadi codices including the Gospel of Thomas, the Sophia of Jesus Christ, and the Dialogue of the Savior. In these texts, however, the Mary character is never explicitly identified with any of the “canonical” Marys. Most scholars have traditionally associated the unspecified Mary with Mary Magdalene. Recently, some have challenged this assumption arguing that the mother of Jesus is just as plausible, as well as Martha’s sister, often called “Mary of Bethany.” Another explanation that has been proposed is that this unspecified Mary is meant to represent a composite figure incorporating at least two of the main canonical Marys. These theories seem to imply that the non-canonical texts were familiar with the stories and characters of the New Testament gospels. Not only this, they also imply that the authors or final redactors attentively adhered to the characterizations of the disciples in the New Testament. Instead of granting the canonical gospels a priori status, I argue that one possibility that has not been seriously considered is that the unspecified Mary of the non-canonical texts need not be referring to any of the New Testament Marys. I suggest this based on onomastic data from ancient Palestine as well as fourth century Egypt which indicates that Mary was a very common name for women. Given the popularity of the name Mary, it is worth considering that the final redactors of the fourth century Coptic texts found at Nag Hammadi did not intend to refer to any of the canonical Marys, but just used what was a common name for women at that time. In order to examine this hypothesis, my paper will use the Mary of the Dialogue of the Savior as a test case to see if she embodies or is associated with any of the characteristics that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, or Mary of Bethany have in the New Testament gospels. I will also consider the ways in which the other two named disciples of the Dialogue of the Savior, Judas and Matthew, are represented in the text in comparison to Mary.


Morality after Empathy? Current Trends in the Cognitive and Neuroscientific Study of Empathy and Their Implications for Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Istvan Czachesz, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

This paper surveys current trends in the cognitive and neuroscientific study of empathy and considers how they inform the understanding of the role of empathy in biblical literature. Inspired by the work of Frans de Waal, the pioneering monograph of Thomas Kazen (2011) examined the role of empathy in the ethical dimension of biblical law. The first part of this paper will extend Kazen’s approach, exploring how multi-layered (de Waal) and multi-dimensional (Decety) models of empathy stand up against empirical evidence and how the complexities of textual transmission and readers’ perspectives factor into the use of empathy in the creation and application of biblical laws. Examples from the New Testament (Golden Rule, Good Samaritan) will be added to the previously discussed Pentateuchal materials. The second part of the paper looks at the limitations of empathy as a basis of moral behavior and considers recent arguments against the universalistic approach advocated by de Waal and evolutionary science. (1) Recent developments in the study of the Theory of Mind (Goldman/Shanton 2015) suggest that our understanding of other people’s thoughts and emotions (as well as our understanding of the past) is largely determined by our momentary cognitive and emotional state. (2) Social relationships (between organisms) can be analyzed as opportunities for exploitation rather than altruism (Jones 2007) and empathy in this framework is part of Machiavellian intelligence. (3) Morality as understood in the Western world is possibly a fairly recent cultural phenomenon, related to the spread of literacy (Decety & Cowell 2014). These challenges to the conventionally assumed connection between empathy and morality will be illustrated using selected examples from the Gospels and Pauline epistles. Finally, the question will be raised as to how far biblical literature can be considered a source of moral values in light of the foregoing analysis.


Literacy and Law in the Documentary Finds from the Judaean Desert
Program Unit: Qumran
Kimberley Czajkowski, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Among the documentary finds from the Judaean desert were the archives of two Jewish women: Babatha and Salome Komaise. The papyri record the various legal transactions of these two women, their families and their contacts. They date mostly from c.94 C.E. to August 132 C.E., just before the outbreak of the Bar Kokhba revolt. The community that is attested lived in the small village of Maoza on the south coast of the Dead Sea, an area which was first part of the Nabataean Kingdom but was later incorporated into the province of Roman Arabia in 106 C.E. The documents therefore provide invaluable information about a Jewish community’s experience before and after the creation of the province. Moreover, the laws and traditions in evidence in the two archives are remarkable for their diversity, exhibiting elements of Jewish, Nabataean, Roman and Hellenistic law, sometimes within a single document. The operative law of the documents has consequently provoked much debate, with staunch advocates for both a Jewish and a non-Jewish legal framework. This paper will consider the impact of illiteracy on these women’s control over their documents’ contents. Both women appear to have been illiterate; furthermore, many of their documents were written in Greek and not in their native language of Aramaic. Thus, although they obviously prized their documents highly and took great care to preserve them, it is highly likely that they were not able to read their contents without assistance. While we should certainly not make them powerless or mere passive bystanders in their own legal transactions, we must explore the ways in which their illiteracy may have affected their legal transactions and choice of law, considering how they could still exercise power over their legal lives and the papyri that evidence them. Such considerations might influence our assessment of the parties’ control over the ‘operative’ law of their documents. This, in turn, has wider implications for the operation of law within the Graeco-Roman world, including the neighbouring province of Judaea, where similar issues of language capability and choice could have played a vital role. Indeed, it will be suggested that literacy levels in various languages should be an explicit consideration in any study of the operation of law in Jewish communities in the ancient world.


Afterlife Exiles: Death and Dying in the Sierra Leonian Diaspora
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
JoAnn D'Alisera, University of Arkansas

*


Material Gods
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Mary R. D'Angelo, University of Notre Dame

“You that abhor idols, do you rob temples?”(Rom 2:22NRSV; ho bdelussomenos ta eidola hierosuleis?) Paul’s rhetorical question has been confusing to interpreters. The two preceding examples make sense: “you who preach not to steal, do you steal? You who say do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?” But it is not easy to see how robbing temples undercuts, rather than affirms, one’s abhorrence for idolatry the word hierosulein has a rather broader range of meaning than “rob temples”; it also means “to commit sacrilege.” Even so, it is hard to see how abhorring idols discourages sacrilege. The suggestion that Paul spoke metaphorically, castigating the Jews for idolatrous regard for the law is not particularly helpful. Jewett proposes instead Philo’s counsel that Jews should not speak disparagingly of idols, lest their worshippers be provoked to retaliate by insulting the deity (Spec 1:53), or lest they themselves to make light of the name “God” (Mos 2.253). This paper will suggest that Paul’s example reflected a relatively common experience of Jews contesting the material world of the Empire. Cups and utensils, often of metal, frequently bore images and symbols of the gods, a problem both for Jews who bought them for use, and for those who were collectors and sellers of scrap. They had to be “desecrated” before purchase, not by Jews but by the gentile vendor. The rationale, though not entirely clear, seems to be that even to desecrate them might imply Jewish affirmation of the idol’s power. Despite the later date of the Mishnah and Tosefta and their location in the land of Israel, they illuminate an issue and a solution likely to have exercised first century Jews of the diaspora.


Susanna's Choice: Susanna and Lucretia as Companions and Foils
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Mary R. D'Angelo, University of Notre Dame

Feminist and conventional readings alike have compared Susanna to other heroines and even heroes from antiquity; Judith, Esther, Joseph and David are especially prominent in the list, but Ruth, Persephone and still more exotic figures have also been invoked. This paper suggests another heroine for comparison: Lucretia, hailed by Valerius Maximus as dux Romanae pudicitiae. The two narratives offer some striking similarities. Both appear in multiple versions; both are stories about rape and especially the threat of rape; both focus on the dilemma presented to the heroine and the choice she must make; both women are matronae and married; both rapists (the judges, Sextus,) possess social and political power; both husbands are rather exiguous (Joakim, Collatinus); both fathers (Helkiah, Lucretius) play at least as important a role as the women’s husbands; in both stories, sexual predation is an index of political corruption; both women become exempla of chastity. Both stories affirm political change; in both that change constitutes an internal shift of power; both women are championed by a hitherto untried youth (Daniel, Brutus) who is not the woman’s husband; both endorse the youth’s emerging career and signal (or imply) the passing of leadership to a new generation. There is of course a radical contrast between them as well; for Lucretia, the only solution requires her death; Susanna triumphs over the fate she herself expected. Yet from the perspective of most interpreters Susanna does not emerge as a feminist heroine. This paper accepts that judgment, but also argues that, if Lucretia’s role is to affirm the patriarchal control of female fertility as the internal other, Susanna’s gender functions not to assert the sexual status quo (though it is assumed), but to represent the vulnerable yet victorious self, and the conviction that all Jews, including women, children and slaves, should know the law and practice the virtue it teaches.


Cultural Influences on the Representation of Bible Characters in Selected Christian Nollywood Films
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Adekunle Dada, University of Ibadan

The Nigerian film industry, popularly called Nollywood, is ranked as one of the emerging popular artistic media in the world. Christians in Nigeria have also seized the opportunity of this medium to produce films for evangelical activities. However, existing studies on Nollywood and the role of Christianity have paid little or no attention to the representation and portrayal of biblical characters in Nollywood films. This paper, therefore examines the cultural influences on the representation of Bible characters in selected Christian Nollywood films. This is done with a view to determining the extent of cultural influences on the representation of Bible characters in these films and the impact of such on the process of internalization of the messages of these films by selected audience in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria. The Bible remains a principal reference point, especially on issues bordering on faith and life of some Christians in Nigeria. However, many Nigerian Christians do not have the time or are not adequately equipped to read the Bible, while the films act as their vital source of information on the Bible. A research into the reception and impact of these films is therefore apposite. The theoretical framework of the paper is performance criticism, which analyzes the performance event as site of interpretation that includes the dynamics of performance, the influence of place and circumstance, and the experience of an audience.


Rereading Gen 2:22–24 in the Context of African (Yoruba) Kinship and Family
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Adekunle Dada, University of Ibadan

Contemporary interpretations of Gen. 2: 22-24 are often done from Western individualistic perspective, with no attention paid to the African concept of kinship and family. The consequence of this is marital conflict between spouses and their relatives which, some of the times, leads to divorce. Among the Yoruba, like most other Africans, marriage goes beyond the union of two individuals; it is a union of families and also a means of extending the frontiers of kinship. A man, for example, is said to marry into the family instead of leaving the family to start an independent family unit. Therefore, this paper explores how this text can better be interpreted in the light of the African (Yoruba) understanding of kinship and family. Two principal words in the selected text -leaving and cleaving- are often interpreted to mean a total break from the extended family kinship. Does the text actually advocate a break from the extended family tradition as being promoted in some interpretations? What are the real life consequences of the interpretations that neglected the traditional African (Yoruba) concept of marriage? How can the text be interpreted using African cultural and epistemological resources to address the problems arising from the misinterpretations and misapplications of the selected text? Finding answers to these questions will be the focus of this paper. It must however, be noted that the paper is premised on the African cultural hermeneutics which reads the Bible from a premeditated Africentric perspective.


A Hitchhiker's Guide to Midrash: Fanfic Canons and Interpretive Communities
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Krista Dalton, Columbia University in the City of New York

The maxim “Respect the Canon” is one of famed fan fiction writer, Valis2’s rules for writing fan-fiction. And if you were to peer down the rabbit hole of fanfic blogging, larping reddits, and gamer youtube channels, the theme of “the canon’s” endurance appears throughout the various mediums. The first creators of “the world,” a setting for iconic characters, magic, and lore that structure the imagined domain, set the “canon” for modern sci-fi and fantasy genres. The offspring of this imagined world generate fanfic texts and role-playing in a tightly knit interpretive community. What is striking about the endurance of fanfic canons is the reverence fans have for the canon and its characters. This reverence is one facet of a kind of Durkheimian “collective effervescence” that generates from a collective interpretive community deeply invested in the world of the canon. As Gavia Baker-Whitelaw writes, “At the core of every fandom are fanfiction writers who are drawn to explore those specific storylines. They don’t want to write original fiction. They want to linger a little while longer in the world they love” (DailyDot). Using this framing of fanfic canon and interpretive fan communities, we can appreciate the late-antique Jewish enterprise of midrash in a different light. Traditionally scholars have approached ancient midrashic writers as authors invested in biblical religiosity, studiously pondering, “how their interpretations reveal the real sense of Scripture” (Fishbane, The Midrashic Imagination, 2). However, fanfiction offers another perspective. In fandom communities, while the canon provides the framework, massive extensions and creative projects flourish within the bounded rules. These projects are not invested in preserving the original creation but are directed toward the fan community as a wholly new form, often with just as enduring a legacy. In this sense, canon is sacred, but not so sacred it cannot be touched. Some scholars have begun to problematize the bounds of the biblical canon, demonstrating that our modern Bible canon box is a relatively late invention. Still, how should we think of ancient midrash, which functions from a sense of scriptural precedence? In my paper, I will develop a reading of midrash through the lens of fanfic canonicity. I will consider the rules of scriptural canon and the enduring characters whom “crossover” and collide in specifically fanfic ways (think: Harry Potter travels to Isengard). As well, I will develop the way midrash is specifically invested in resolving apparent contradictions in scriptural texts, a common practice of fanfic communities. Ultimately, I will consider how midrash is a strategy of identity formation, or group bonding, around a common narrative with iconic characters without presuming a modern sense of holy sanctity. Fanficdom’s reverence for canonicity, a reverence held loosely between a wand and a quill, offers an interesting way of thinking about religious reverence for a text.


Religion, Cultural Evolution, and Axial Age Transitions: Investigating the Queen of Heaven in the Iron Age Mediterranean
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Megan Daniels, Stanford University

In the last decade, several scholarly and journalistic works have emerged concerning religion’s role in society, with studies demonstrating religion’s social benefits neck and neck with those detailing its detrimental effects and delusional premises. In this paper, I examine how situating religion as a significant component in cultural evolution can elucidate its role in social development, particularly for periods of significant social, political, and economic transformations. I demonstrate my argument through presenting a long-term analysis of the myths and rituals surrounding deities worshiped across the Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds as the Queen of Heaven. I focus in particular on the Queen of Heaven’s specific manifestations in the Iron Age Mediterranean (ca. 1000-500 BCE), contextualized against her broader evolution as a deity connected to political power and economic prosperity. I adopt two major theoretical orientations from social psychology and sociology to apply to the evolution of the Queen of Heaven and her role in social development: 1) theories put forth, most recently, by Ara Norenzayan (Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict; 2013), that see religions focused on “big gods” as integral to growing social complexity through their ability to engender social cooperation and cohesion; and 2) the seminal study by Robert Bellah (Religion in Human Evolution; 2011) that situates religion as a powerful medium through which societies across Eurasia articulated novel worldviews with far-reaching socio-political implications in the Axial Age (ca. 800-200 BCE). The Queen of Heaven, worshiped over several millennia from Mesopotamia to Spain, took numerous names – notably Aphrodite and Hera among the Greeks – and was connected to multiple domains, particularly kingship and divine sovereignty, but also warfare, seafaring, sexuality, and prosperity. I begin my paper with an overview of the evolution of the Queen of Heaven’s socio-political associations through her manifestations in Bronze Age literary (Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Linear B) and iconographic sources. I use this overview to contextualize her appearance in the Iron Age, focusing on votive iconography from the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Naukratis, a trading port in the Nile Delta given to the Greeks by the Egyptian pharaoh in the sixth century BCE (Herodotus 2.178-179). Through relating the cross-cultural associations apparent in the worship of Aphrodite at Naukratis to her epithet at this site, "pandemos" (“All the People”), I argue that the cultural evolution of the Queen of Heaven reveals a medium through which increasingly complex Mediterranean societies articulated and enacted ideas of sovereignty in the Axial Age while simultaneously fostering social cohesion with one another across cultural, ethnic, and political boundaries. The application of models from sociology and social psychology as outlined above can thus allow us to articulate specific mechanisms in the evolution of religious worship that both reflected and structured growing social complexity. Finally, such approaches can help us move away from treating religion as an isolated category of analysis and instead move us towards approaches that consider how the evolution of religious systems factored into broader social, economic, and political shifts in human history.


Modeling “Magic”: Evaluating Archaeological Approaches to the Ritual Functions of Near Eastern Terracottas
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Erin Darby, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Owing to their polyvalence and ephemerality, figurine rituals remain difficult to detect in the archaeological record. In many cases all that remain are the figurines themselves. In the case of Judean Pillar Figurines (JPFs), for example, the figurines are rarely found in “official” contexts or with other religious objects, such as incense stands or altars. They are not inscribed with a name of a goddess or a devotee and their iconography remains largely ambiguous. In the absence of data, interpreters are left to use either the iconographic form of figurines or ethnographic analogy to hypothesize about the type of rituals in which figurines were used and the people who wielded them. These models are particularly problematic when used to describe “magical” rituals, and may actually impede our understanding of the complete ritual nexus in which ancient Near Eastern figurines might have functioned. In contrast, this paper will draw upon a wealth of ancient Near Eastern textual sources that describe figurine rituals, using these descriptions to test modern interpretive inferences based on excavated figurines. The paper will address the populations using figurines, figurine function, and ritual type. The sources in question date to the period during which figurines experienced a resurgence in popularity throughout the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean basin – the eighth through sixth centuries B.C.E. When compared with interpretations based on iconography or ethnographic analogy, these texts provide a more solid basis for models that seek to identify which aspects of figurine iconography or find context are truly indicative for the interpretation of “magical” functions. The comparison of text and artifact will also help us identify whether the term “magic” is appropriate in the ancient Near Eastern context.


Kinship and Leadership in 1 Timothy: A Study of Filial Framework and Model for Early Christian Communities in Asia Minor
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Daniel K. Darko, Gordon College

This paper examines kinship framework and language in the directives for leadership in early Christianity communities of Ephesus, aiming to curb the influence of false teachers and bolster mutual support in the membership. It investigates direct appeal to responsible household management, portraits of natural and fictive kinship, and group dynamics couched in filial parlance in the leadership correspondence (1 Timothy). The Greek text will be examined carefully against the background of Greco-Roman conventions on kinship and use of kinship lexemes in relation to leadership. The study of the household code alongside other references to kinship in the prism of Christian leadership will lead to new and perhaps alternate insights regarding how we read the institutional structure of the house churches, even the notion of monarchical leadership. The manner in which fictive and natural kinship are utilized will receive critical attention in the quest also to answer the question: Does fictive kinship override natural kinship or are there interface of the two to harness group identity and group dynamics?


Love Aquatic in the Time of Pestilence
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
John C. Darnell, Yale University

Imagery and vocabulary in the New Kingdom love poetry reveal bucolic settings, often indicative of private events on the periphery of larger riverine festivals. In this aquatic and festive milieu, tensions between the two human protagonists, with themes of separation, role reversals, and transformations of the lovers and the physical accoutrements of their encounters, are consistent with the time of the coming of the inundation waters and the return of the wandering goddess. The poems echo the rituals and settings of aquatic festivals, and a number of depictions of such celebrations contain allusions to the events and encounters that appear within the poems. The transcendental metaphysics of love that Fox has so well explained for the Song of Songs is present within the Egyptian Love Poetry as well, although seen clearly only when the songs and their parallel festival iconography are viewed together.


The Search for Priestly Law Genre within Ancient Mediterranean Context
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Guy Darshan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Numerous scholars—such as Rolf Rendtorff and Baruch Levine—have compared the priestly legal texts in the Pentateuch to ancient Near Eastern ritual texts. However, rather than being belong to the genre of descriptive or prescriptive ritual texts, the priestly legal material more generally corresponds to the casuistic law codes, which was dedicated in the ancient Near East to civil law. In this paper, I would like to adduce some of the affinities these biblical passages exhibit in form, genre, and content to some of the casuistic Greek “Sacred Laws” inscribed on stone and other materials throughout the eastern Mediterranean basin from the sixth century B.C.E. onwards. An examination of related Northwest-Semitic and Punic texts, as well as potential precedents from the Hittite world further contributes to our understanding of the Sitz im Leben of the Pentateuchal priestly law.


An Audience-Oriented Approach to Paul’s Use of Scripture in Galatians: Reader Competence and Differing Target Audiences
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
A. Andrew Das, Elmhurst College

Many literary theorists define an allusion as an author’s intentional use of a source text as opposed to an echo that may or may not be intended. An author-oriented approach to Paul’s use of Scripture, as advocated by several specialists, is understood to circumvent problems of the original audience’s competency. Gentile readers in the Roman world may not have been knowledgeable enough in the Jewish Scriptures to grasp biblical allusions, whether sophisticated or not. That does not prevent Paul from alluding to and echoing the Scriptures as he sees fit. Nevertheless, literary theorists have further explained that an author alludes for the sake of an audience, that is, with the intention of being recognized by an audience. Stanley Porter’s definitions, especially his cline from formula quotation to echo, offer a methodological starting point. Some distinguish an allusion from an echo as intended by the author and/or for the sake of the audience. At a minimum, an echo is subtler, weaker, and perhaps even subliminal. Many proposed allusions or echoes in Galatians are of a weaker character. This paper will analyze Paul’s quotations as well as allusions that have garnered a greater consensus among commentators and specialists. The paper will also assume the usual distinction between Paul’s gentile Galatian audience members and a group of Jewish Christian rival teachers. The paper will then offer an analysis of the quotations and select allusions from the point of view of the Galatian audience. Each of Paul’s quotations, formulaic or direct, may demonstrably function as a proof-text for the rival’s own Law-observant perspective, even those in Gal 2:16 (Ps 143:2), 4:27 (Isa 54:1), and 4:30 (Gen 21:10). The formulaic quotations, in fact, offer some of the strongest evidence for the rival position. Since Paul does not quote Scriptural texts that are, on the face of them, supportive of his own position or that he might have shared in his teaching in Galatia, the Galatian audience appears to have been introduced to the Scriptures by the rivals. Paul’s allusions, on the other hand, function differently. They frequently appear to target the rival teachers themselves in an ad hominem fashion, and not the gentile Galatians. The apostle appears to be differentiating among audience members on the basis of their competence with the Scriptures.


Bulls, Horses, Gods, and Goddesses: The Religious Iconography of Israel’s Neighbors
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Michele Daviau, Wilfrid Laurier University

Diversity in the religious practices of the peoples of ancient Israel and Judah has been exhaustively documented by Ziony Zevit. Yet with each site excavated in the region, more elements of that complexity are revealed. The same is true of Israel’s neighbors, especially Ammon, Moab and Edom to the east. This paper is an investigation of the iconographic traditions represented in plastic art, with a focus on anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images and their distribution across the social landscape. Both the representation of deities and their attribute animals and the concentrations of these images in one or more town, temple and shine sites point to shared religious beliefs and ethnic cohesion. Like Israel, a considerable amount of variety is seen in and among what we consider to have been individual yet related kingdoms, revealing cultural complexity in religious belief systems. A certain amount of shared imagery between sites in Moab and Judah, especially with Jerusalem, Horvat Qitmit and ‘En Haseva, adds to this complexity.


'Warning' or 'Turning' in Isa 8:11 and the Qumran Communities
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Brian W. Davidson, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

In 1969 the United Bible Society launched the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project. As an aid to their translators, six scholars were commissioned to analyze roughly 5,000 of the most significant text critical problems in the Hebrew Bible. Dominique Barthélemy drafted the committee’s “final report” in his four-volume Critique textuelle de l’Ancien Testament. This paper is a critique of the committee’s conclusion regarding weyisserenî in Isaiah 8:11. Should one read weyisserenî as a verbal form of sûr (to turn) or ysr (to warn)? The committee preferred the "mediating" reading of Symmachus, a hiphil wayyiqol 3ms from sûr, a reading which stands between that of MT and 1QIsa-a. After surveying the textual evidence and discussing the prominence of Isaiah 8:11 among the Qumran communities, this paper concludes that weyisserenî should be read as a qal w?yiqtol 3ms of ysr. Accepting ysr as the more original reading allows one to better explain the rise of the other readings. Furthermore, Isaiah 8:11 was prominent in the writings of the Qumran communities, and this textual problem again raises the issue of how the sectarian nature of the Qumran communities might have impacted the transmission history of the Hebrew Bible.


Women’s Bodies and the Interrogation of National Liberation: Reading Judges with Beloved in Light of a Black Nationalist Liberation Discourse
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Steed Vernyl Davidson, McCormick Theological Seminary

Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the book of Judges in their own way both represent failed or at best stalled nationalist narratives of liberation. Morrison uses the house “124" as a signifier of black nationalist aspirations. As a way station on the Under Ground Railway, “124" provides a site for black struggles from slavery and the freedom to thrive. In the novel that same site of liberation witnesses the deformation of black women’s bodies whether through infanticide, remembered physical traumas, mental instability, or spectral body transformations; all part of the legacies of slavery. The novel Beloved ruptures the black nationalist discourse to focus attention on black women’s bodies and the way the violence that attends those bodies interrupts liberation. In Judges the quest to achieve possession of the land from the Canaanites advances slowly with spotty military victories. The vision of liberation hardly materializes in the book, especially for women. That the book ends with the abduction of women from Jabesh-Gilead/Shiloh to ensure the territorial integrity of Benjamin and by extension ancient Israel indicates the limits of liberation particularly as it relates to women’s bodies. This paper uses the notion of the failed nationalist liberative discourse present in Beloved to interrogate the nationalist discourse present in the book of Judges or the one customarily thought to exist in the book. This examination takes place in the context of the scholarly framing of Judges as a part of the historical narrative of the Deuteronomistic History that either provides justification or criticism of the monarchy in general or the Davidic monarchy more specifically. By attending to the fate of women’s bodies in the book of Judges in the way that Morrison forces readers to do with black women’s bodies in Beloved, this paper shows how Judges may not serve the authenticating function for a particular national formulation for the monarchy. Rather women’s bodies in Judges - whether as killers, seducers, sacrificed, dismembered, or abducted - disrupts the notion of the nation founded upon the ideal of liberation. The paper goes further to draw insights from various critiques of black nationalist liberative discourse from thinkers such as bell hooks to explore alternative conceptions of community discourses that may be present in the book of Judges.


The Moral Vision of the Bible: A Hebrew Bible / Old Testament Approach
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Eryl W. Davies, Prifysgol Bangor - Bangor University

Any attempt to provide a clear and systematic account of the ethics of the OT and NT is bound to prove a complex and challenging task. The paper will examine some of the methodological problems encountered by OT scholars who have sought to construct an ‘ethics of the Hebrew Bible’ and consider the extent to which these problems are encountered by their NT counterparts. It will consider whether the historical-critical and the literary-critical approach have been successful in broaching the subject of biblical ethics and how both OT and NT scholars have sought to discern a moral coherence within the Bible.


Hekhalot Mysticism and Jewish Shamanism: Where Do We Stand Now?
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
James R. Davila, University of St. Andrews

In 2001 my monograph Descenders to the Chariot: The People Behind the Hekhalot Literature was publish by Brill. The Hekhalot literature is a corpus of Jewish mystical texts composed mainly in Babylonia and Palestine in the Geonic era, but which drew on traditions from late antiquity and perhaps earlier, and which continued to be shaped when transmitted to Europe in the Middle Ages. The texts present Tannaitic rabbis as practitioners of a form of mysticism (“Merkavah mysticism”) in which they undertook ritual and ascetic practices that led them into visionary states in which they could ascend to heaven to see and participate in the angelic liturgy around God’s throne-chariot (the Merkavah) or call down angels from heaven who could reveal the secrets of Torah and other mysteries to the practitioners. The meaning of this literature was and is debated, with some taking it as entirely fictional exercises in scriptural exegesis and others arguing that it (also) described an actual visionary praxis. Descenders to the Chariot presented a case for the latter viewpoint. In this volume I drew on anthropological data concerning Siberian, Inuit, Native American, and Japanese shamans, as well as the anthropological theoretical literature on shamanism, to argue that the descenders to the chariot — the practitioners described in the Hekhalot literature — displayed significant parallels to the shamans of other cultures and could be profitably compared to them. I argued that like shamans, the descenders to the chariot (1) were elected at least partly through their heredity; (2) engaged in a recognizable complex of ascetic and ritual techniques that promoted altered states of consciousness; (3) endured an experience of initiatory disintegration and reintegration; (4) traveled to a multi-tiered otherworld via a world tree or world ladder; (5) focused much of their efforts on the control of helping spirits; and (6) served their human community by various means. I found an especially useful typology of practitioners in the work of Michael Winkelman and concluded that the descenders to the chariot were very similar to his “shaman/healer,” a type of shamanic practitioner found in complex agricultural and pastoral societies. My central conclusion was that the instructions and rituals in the Hekhalot literature were recognizably of the type used by shamans to generate visionary experiences and that the visions described in the Hekhalot literature were of the type reported by shamans. Although the literature is pseudepigraphic and the illustrative stories it tells are fictional, it is a literature of instruction that preserves rituals that were used by actual magico-religious practitioners. In the fourteen years since the publication of this volume a number of scholars have engaged with the arguments and conclusions of Descenders to the Chariot. The purpose of this paper is to review the responses, along with my own reflections, and evaluate where the case for the Hekhalot literature as the literary residue of a quasi-shamanic intermediary movement stands today.


Dangerous Audience Scenes in the Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia as Background to Dingiršadibba Prayers
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Ryan Conrad Davis, University of Texas at Austin

Annette Zgoll (2003) has persuasively argued that both the actions and wordings of Akkadian šuilla prayers, and incantation-prayers in general, are formatted to resemble an audience with a human ruler. In making her argument, Zgoll relied primarily on the audience scene described in the Akkadian folktale “Poor Man of Nippur.” But the dingiršadibba prayers, normally directed towards personal gods, are different in structure and content than šuilla prayers and require a more nuanced explanation. In šuilla prayers, the addressed deity is often a third party to a problem between the supplicant and his personal gods. Dingiršadibba prayers, however, concern a direct confrontation between an offended deity and the perpetrator. The goal of these kinds of audiences for the supplicant was survival, rather than having a specific petition granted. In my paper, I will adapt Zgoll’s observation more particularly to dingiršadibba prayers, using descriptions of dangerous audience scenes, not only from Mesopotamian literature, but from the Hebrew Bible as well. The conventions of audience scenes are remarkably similar throughout the ancient Near East, and narrative descriptions of many dangerous audience scenes in the Hebrew Bible provide important data for understanding the strategies implemented in dingiršadibbas for navigating such encounters. These examples from the Hebrew Bible provide parallels to the social context that dingiršadibba prayers are meant to address. Such biblical narratives include Absalom’s reconciliation to David (2 Samuel 14), Jacob’s encounter with Esau (Genesis 33), and Shimei’s audience with David (2 Samuel 19). These examples not only help us to understand how individual dingiršadibba prayers are formatted, but Absalom’s reconciliation is also illuminating when examining the use of dingiršadibba prayers in larger rituals, such as the bit sala? mê and ili ul ide rituals.


Beyond Male and Female: Same-Sex Imagery in Malachi 2
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Stacy Davis, Saint Mary's College (Notre Dame)

Malachi 2.10-13 is often interpreted as a complaint against idolatry. The passage, however, may also contain an atypical form of the prophetic marriage metaphor, in which God is male and Israel is female. In honor of the work of Dr. Randall Bailey and placing African American biblical hermeneutics in conversation with queer theory and masculinity studies, I propose to read the passage in Malachi 2 as an example of the queering of the heterosexual marriage metaphor. God's personification as male and the lack of Judah's personification as female suggests a same-sex marriage metaphor. My argumentation will be based on the Hebrew text and the application of theory and conclude with implications for the text's use in marginalized communities. If this passage in Malachi 2 need not be read in heteronormative terms, then more opportunities for religious discourse about broader views of marriage and intimacy that are not limited to a gender binary become possible.


"More Than a Slave" (Phlm 16): Christianization and Pro-slavery Rhetoric in the Antebellum South
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Stacy Davis, Saint Mary's College (Notre Dame)

The Torah makes a distinction between Hebrew and non-Hebrew slaves. The former live in a temporary state of slavery, unless family ties formed during their six years of servitude prove stronger than their desire for freedom. The latter are slaves in perpetuity, according to Leviticus 25.44-46. Christian slaveowners in the antebellum South and their northern allies used that distinction to justify the enslavement of Africans. Yet, unlike in the Torah, which says next to nothing about the religious lives of Israelite chattel, U.S. slaveowners insisted upon the religious instruction of their slaves. My paper will examine this emphasis on catechesis and conversion and the ways in which that emphasis problematized the justification of African slavery on the grounds of ethnicity. Since the "foreigners" were also "brothers and sisters in Christ," Christian slaveowners had to use all of their rhetorical and exegetical skills to hold both views simultaneously.


Manuscripts, Monks, and Mufattishin: Digital Access and Concerns of Cultural Heritage in the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Stephen J. Davis, Yale University

The Yale Monastic Archaeology Project (YMAP) currently sponsors work at two monastic centers in Egypt: the White Monastery near Sohag in the south, and Wadi al-Na?run (ancient Scetis) in the north. The study of manuscripts at these sites has presented exciting possibilities—and has raised complex challenges—related to digital access and cultural heritage. Accordingly, this paper will consist of two main parts and two areas of focus. First, I will report on our work at the White Monastery, where excavations in December 2011 yielded the discovery of manuscript fragments in the monumental Church of St. Shenoute. This discovery served as a catalyst for a series of research steps that began with archaeological analysis and photo-documentation supported by the local inspectors (mufattishin) representing the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and that culminated with the digitization of the fragments and their publication online at Yale’s Egyptological Institute website. Second, I will report on my work cataloguing the Coptic and Arabic manuscripts in the library at the Monastery of the Syrians in Wadi al-Na?run, a project started in December 2013. In the case of the Monastery of the Syrians, the goal of digitization has been complicated by monastic concerns related to cultural heritage and the control of manuscript content in the digital age.


The Destination of Paul’s First Journey: Asia Minor or Africa?
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Tom Davis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

The results of experimental archaeology related to ancient seafaring, new studies of eastern Mediterranean trade networks and recent archaeology on Cyprus, shed new light on the itinerary of the first Pauline missionary journey and the related question of the departure of John Mark from the mission team as related in Acts 13:13. It is now clear that Nea Paphos normally was used as a port of departure for ships sailing to Alexandria and North Africa, not Asia Minor. If Perga in Pamphylia were the original intended destination, then the travelers should have sailed from Lapithos or Kyrenia on the north coast of Cyprus. This paper will propose that the original intended destination of the missionaries was Cyrene and that the change in itinerary, driven by the results on Cyprus, lead to the departure of John Mark. This model will help better understand Luke’s literary enterprise, Paul’s missionary purposes, and the development of early Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean


Making a Greek, Syro-Phoenician Woman a Canaanite: Matthean Alterations of Mark 7:24–30 and Deuteronomistic History
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Kathy Barrett Dawson, Duke University

Some commentators (e.g., Hagner, Harrington, and Davies and Allison) stress the parallelism between the centurion’s request for his paralyzed servant (Matt 8:5-13) and the Canaanite woman’s request for her demonized daughter (Matt 15:21-28). Thus, Matthew upholds God’s election of and faithfulness to Israel while simultaneously praising the great faith of the two Gentiles, a faith that results in Jesus granting the Gentiles’ requests and authorizing the Gentile mission. However, recent works have challenged such a limited reading (e.g., Glenna Jackson maintains that the story describes the acceptance of the woman as a proselyte in the synagogue, and Musa Dube reads the story as an example of imperialist values and women’s oppression). I propose that each Matthean alteration to the Markan story contributes to the meaning of the whole. The identification of the woman as a Canaanite should be understood in conjunction with the woman’s verbal plea: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David” (v.22; cf. Mark 7:25). In contrast to equating the woman’s cry with the centurion’s request for healing solely on the basis that the two characters are Gentiles, her words, unique for a Gentile in Matthew, should be understood as the exact opposite of the Deuteronomist’s stipulation that the Israelites must not show mercy to the Canaanites (Deut 7:2). By deleting “Let the children first be fed” (Mark 7:27), the Matthean Jesus gives no indication that the Gentile “dogs” might be fed subsequent to the children. Finally, in Matthew the woman’s return home is not described (cf. Mark 7:30); we are simply told that the daughter is instantly healed at Jesus’s command (v.28). In Matthew the Gentile mother is a “Canaanite” because, as Niels Lemche has demonstrated, the term is representative of Israel’s enemy in the Deuteronomistic History and the rest of the Pentateuch. The demon-possessed daughter in the Matthean account is an allusion to the rationale behind the Deuteronomistic command to utterly destroy the indigenous peoples during the Israelite conquest of the land. The Deuteronomist warrants such genocide on the basis that Israelite intermarriage with the daughters and sons of pagans would result in the worship of foreign gods. The mere existence of the Canaanite mother and daughter is representative of Israel’s failure to obey the Deuteronomistic command as the story is described in the biblical tradition. The Matthean Jesus initially ignores and then rejects the woman’s plea because, in keeping with the tradition, his mission is solely for “the lost sheep of Israel” (15:24). Jesus’s hesitation highlights the community’s fear of religious defilement. However, Jesus reforms the tradition by highlighting personal intention and faithfulness and goes far beyond merely authorizing a Gentile mission. The woman is not to remain as she was with the exception that her daughter is now demon-free (cf. Mark 7:29-30). Rather, the Canaanite woman can now eat from the master’s table without becoming a proselyte to Judaism (contra Jackson). The primary message is the destruction of previous differences that included or excluded one from the Kingdom of God.


From Atlanta to Africa: Class, Globalized Gospels of Success, and the New Black South
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Keri Day, Brite Divinity School

Charismatic and Evangelical Christianity has led out in providing religious and “biblical” logics that reinforce and support economic exploitation and class injustices, impacting global cities around the world from Atlanta, Houston, Miami, and Dallas to Accra, Lagos, and Seoul. Charismatic Christianity merges materialistic, market-driven ideas of success with notions of Christian identity built on favor and wealth, what I refer to as globalized gospels of success. These globalized gospels of success (also known as prosperity gospels) have taken deep roots in the Black South and is also present around the globe. This paper explores this global gospel of success, its reinforcement of class injustices, and prospects for resistance in the “New Black South.”


The na?aš in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:4b–3:24): Malevolent or Benevolent?
Program Unit: Genesis
Wilson de A. Cunha, LeTourneau University

In her recent study of the Garden of Eden story, Ellen A. Robin argues that the serpent should not be seen as a villain as the history of interpretation has made him to be (105-109). She further claims that, differently from the perspective of modern readers, the ancients did not view snakes in a negative light, citing Num 21; 2 Kings 18 in support (111). The present paper will tackle the question as to whether the na?aš in the Garden story was meant to be taken as malevolent or benevolent. The paper will be divided into three main sections. The first will show that the serpent had, indeed, become a villain in the history of its reception in both Jewish and Christian sources. However, even here, in some sources, the serpent can be seen in a positive light (see gnostic texts). The second part will also briefly show that, in the mythology and iconography of the Ancient Near East, the serpent can be seen either in a positive or negative way. As such, Robin’s claim would be partially correct. This mix representation of the symbol of the serpent shows how complex the presence of the na?aš in the Garden was for the ancient audience, while also testifying to the literary skills of the ancient author. The third section will show that, despite the ambiguity of the symbolism of the serpent, the ancient author did cast the na?aš in a negative way: (a) through what Eve says: “the serpent deceived me” and (b) in the punishment of the serpent: “you will strike his heel.” With another recent study (see Ziony Zevit, What Really Happened in the Garden?), this paper will show that to “strike the heel” points to the serpent malevolent motivations.


Eusebius of Caesarea and the “Drink of Immortality:” The Reception of LXX Isaiah 25 in Eusebius’ Commentary on Isaiah
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Wilson de A. Cunha, LeTourneau University

This paper will focus on the reception of LXX Isaiah 25 in Eusebius’ commentary on Isaiah, paying especial attention to his hermeneutical framework. For Eusebius, LXX Isa 25 is a prophecy that predicted the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in heaven. There, death will have no power over “those who will be found worthy” of the promises because they will participate in God’s symposium whose main drink will be the “drink of immortality” (See comments on vv. 1, 6-8). However, LXX Isa 25 is also a prophecy that predicted and was fulfilled during the reign of Constantine, when persecution was stopped and Christianity became an important religion in the Empire (see comments to vv. 2-5). As such, Eusebius read LXX Isa 25 both as already fulfilled and as not-yet-fulfilled. The paper will be divided into three main parts: (1) LXX Isa 25 in its own literary context (2) Eusebius Interpretation of LXX Isa 25 (including his use of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion); and (3) Concluding Thoughts on Eusebius’ Hermeneutical Framework.


Biblical Lexicography and the Semantic Structure of the Target Language: The Case of 'Akh
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Reinier de Blois, United Bible Societies

No lexicographer can write entries without a proper semantic analysis of the available data. This is a fact that few people will dispute. Ideally, all passages where a given lexeme is found should be studied in context in an effort to determine its lexical and contextual meanings, which are then rendered in some form in the language used by the intended audience of the dictionary. The key question that will be addressed in this paper is the following: How important is the semantic structure of the language of the audience for the semantic analysis presented in a dictionary? This question never received much attention in traditional lexicography of Biblical languages until David J. Clines addressed it in his introduction to the first volume of the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, where he claimed that “our perception of senses is often dependent on the semantic structure of the English language.” This paper wants to discuss this issue in detail, and the author wants to use examples from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew -- for which he is the editor -- to illustrate how too much attention to the structure of the target language can blur important semantic distinctions in the source language. Special attention in this discussion will be given to the Hebrew particle 'akh.


The ‘Sign from Heaven’ and the ‘Bread from Heaven’: Echoes of the Manna Tradition in Mark 8:10–13
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Mateus de Campos, University of Cambridge

The pericope about the Pharisees’ demand for a sign from heaven in Mark 8:10-13 has called the attention of a number of exegetes for its somewhat cryptic meaning and elusive literary function. At a first glance, the story seems to sit quite uncomfortably in its literary context, breaking a natural transition from the feeding of the multitudes (8:1-10) to the rebuke of the disciples’ lack of understanding thereof (8:14-21), neatly established by the shared motif of “bread” (a?t??). The awkwardness of the arrangement is accentuated by the puzzling narration of the events. In an apparent trivial trip, Mark has Jesus cross the sea only to be confronted by the Pharisees, returning immediately after to the “other side”. In addition to its odd placement and plot function, the request itself is also enigmatic and has been diversely interpreted, with the prevailing opinion that the expression ‘from heaven’ functions as a simple circumlocution for ‘from God’, meant merely to identify the sign’s divine nature. The present study proposes that a greater clarity can be obtained both in relation to the request and the function of the episode when they are approached in light of the traditional development of theme of the giving of the manna. It will be argued that the giving of the manna constitutes a unique sign of divine agency in Israel’s religious experience and that Mark’s articulation of the Pharisaic request within that framework stands in continuity with his Christological concerns in the narrative. We proceed first by evaluating the internal elements in the Markan narrative in light of the development of the manna tradition and then by showing how such a reading makes better sense of Mark’s literary arrangement and discourse.


Qur'anic Premises in Rhetorical Analogy: The Case of al-Ma'mun's Mihna
Program Unit: Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
Vanessa De Gifis, Wayne State University

Strategic references to the Qur’an in rhetorical argument is a vital way for politicians to construct analogies between paradigmatic characters in the Qur’an and people in their own social milieu in order to persuade an audience of the moral value of particular political attitudes and actions. My paper examines Qur’anic referencing in letters attributed to the Caliph al-Ma’mun (r. 813-33) promulgating his famous reform policy known as the mihna (test), ostensibly to enforce the doctrine of the createdness of the Qur’an. The letters, most fully preserved in al-Tabari’s History, are rich with Qur’anic references, not only verbatim quotations of doctrinal proof-texts, but also paraphrastic allusions to scriptural characters and themes that situate the mihna policy as a whole in the salvific worldview of the Qur’an. In the course of my presentation, I will argue that Qur’anic referencing in political rhetoric essentially functions as analogical (qiyasi) exegesis by establishing likeness between referents in the Qur?anic text-context and referents in the political-rhetorical context. The goal is to secure the audience’s assent, if not to any literal likeness, then to the imaginative relationship established in the analogical figure and to the conclusion that emerges from it. Working from classical Arabo-Islamic rhetorical theories (e.g. al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd), I explain the two basic classes of rhetorical analogy—the example (mithal) and the enthymeme (?amir)—and their structure and significance in Qur’anicized rhetoric. An example implies that if two particular subjects are alike in one respect, then they should be alike in other respects as well. By confirming a particular with another particular via a universal common to both, a rhetorical example using the Qur’an can give us insight into perceived “universal principles” in the Qur’an, a crucial—if elusive—hermeneutical category for many Qur’an exegetes. Examples are basically validated through the logic of enthymeme. An enthymeme is an abridged syllogism in which one of the two premises (usually the more “universal” major premise) is omitted. Most grammatical techniques for integrating Qur’anic references into political speech, especially meddling with the internal grammar of a Qur’anic verse, result in condensed forms of enthymeme, because of the linguistic interweaving within a single utterance of major premises (with referents from the Qur’an text) and minor premises (with referents from the political circumstance). The effective meaning of the Qur’anic reference is thus inextricably bound up with circumstance in which it is uttered. In the mihna letters, Qur’anic proof-texts are given to demonstrate al-Ma’mun’s knowledge in interpreting the scripture, while more allusive references are made to analogize his role as caliph with the Qur’anic paradigm of the rightly guided leader, the deviance of those targeted in his test with the errors of the Qur’anic disbelievers, and the mi?na itself with the prophetic mission to correct error and enforce right guidance.


The Iconography of ‘Coastlands’: A Historical Perspective
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Izaak J. de Hulster, University of Helsinki

This paper provides a historical perspective on the interpretation of the ‘coastlands’ as mentioned in the Hebrew Bible through iconography. Iconographic exegesis studies pictorial sources in order to illuminate the ‘biblical world’, e.g., its conceptualization of the earth. Ancient images with a geographical interest, such as the so-called ‘Babylonian world map’ (now in the British Museum, BM 92687) and other examples of ancient Near Eastern iconography inform our understanding of ancient cosmography, a useful background for a historical reading of the Hebrew Bible texts about the ‘coastlands’ (also ‘islands’, or possibly mountain-islands). This approach makes aware of “the specific geography that these texts have in mind” (quoting the call for papers) but also leaves space for exploring the texts’ use of this geography with regard to figures of speech (cf. merism) and symbolism. The paper mainly focuses on the islands in the Isaian corpus and round off with how this cosmographic imagination fosters the (symbolic) geographical dynamics of Isaiah 66:18-21.


Literature Studies, Liberation Theology, and Impulses for Contextual Biblical Methodologies
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Izaak J. de Hulster, University of Helsinki

This 'theory-framed' paper takes its starting point in the concept of 'rereading', as developed within literature studies, seminally so by Matei Calinescu ("Rereading", 1993). This concept of 'rereading' (not to be confused with the historical-critical concept of 'rélecture') has hardly been employed in biblical studies (maybe the only true example is Karolin Lewis, "Rereading the 'Shepherd discourse'", 2008). Biblical studies' use of 'rereading' seems to have been developed against the background of the hermeneutics of liberation theology. Nevertheless, the most common use of 'rereading' is simply linked to its dictionary meaning, maybe with the exception of the work of Ehud Ben Zvi who has developed his own use. After surveying the use of 'rereading' in literature studies and biblical studies, this paper contours a hermeneutics of rereading contributing to contextual theology with emphases on the prevailing actuality of Scripture, the aspect of community in biblical interpretation, and the attitude of attentive (slow) reading.


The Bronze Snake according to Philo of Alexandria in Legum allegoriae II, 79–81
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Ludovica De Luca, Università degli studi Roma Tre

Philo of Alexandria in Legum allegoriae II, 79-81 interprets the bronze serpent of Num 21, 4-9 as *logos sophrosunes* ("character of temperance"). The snake in LA II, 79-81, as *ophis Euas* ("serpent of Eve"), on the one hand, is the vice, but on the other, as *ophis Mouses* ("serpent of Moses"), is the image of virtue. Philo considers the snake of Numbers according to both the ethical and the noetical level. As *logos sophrosunes* the bronze serpent corresponds to the intelligible virtue. It is the *idea* ("idea") that must be looked at so that we can have a moral model to imitate, to eliminate every vice. The mosaic snake, like an ethical and noetical mirror, shows a new possibility for the Israelites to embrace the faith in the sign of temperance. The exegesis of Philo of Num 21, 4-9 is imbued with elements of the Greek-Roman World and the Jewish Tradition. His exegesis returns back in the interpretation of some ecclesiastical authors, that considered the snake of Numbers in relation to Jn 3, 14-15. Authors like, Tertullianus, Origenes, Gregorius Nazianzensus, Gregorius Nyssenus and Ambrosius, largely repeat the ethical and pharmacological aspects of his exegesis. Furthermore, the interpretation of Philo leaves a trace in the Physiologus and in the fantastic imagination of the medieval bestiaries, in which animals become moral models to follow. Over the centuries the intelligible character of the bronze snake of the Philonian exegesis will not be recalled again, which thus remains an innovative and isolated interpretation. The interpretation of Philo has contributed to the development of the ethical and pharmacological character of the mosaic snake. Moreover, it fostered the positive image of the snake, that divided between good and evil, becomes the representation of temperance as moderation. To look at the *sophrosune* means to avoid the vice and to embrace the virtue.


Hopeful Responses: Visions of War and Peace as Keys to the Formation of Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Rodrigo F. de Sousa, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie

The present paper seeks to explore the role of the Isaianic visions of a peaceful future in the composition of the Isaiah scroll. The main argument of the paper is that the reality of war was one of the most influential factors in the formation of Isaiah, and thus the relationship between visions of war and peace provides significant clues for the interpretation of the book and fresh insights regarding the history of its reception. The Book of Isaiah is well known for its awe-inspiring images of a future of lasting peace. They have been instrumental in the construction of eschatologies, apocalyptic visions and political utopias. A survey of these images will reveal that they represent different historical moments in the growth of the Isaianic tradition. Yet, their form, content and placement in the book indicate that there are unifying themes, motifs and ideological underpinnings that bring them together. The paper will present a broad synopsis of the visions of future peace in the different sections of the book, suggesting a rationale for their placement. Closer attention will be given to elements of chapters 33-34; 59:15b-63:16; and 65-66. The analysis will take into account and evaluate recent proposals as to the significance of these sections for the composition of the book, such as those of Beuken (1989), Gosse (1990; 1994; 2001, 2008), Gregory (2007), Lynch (2008), Stromberg (2009), and Schuele (2014). Visions of future peace in Isaiah have often been described as “eschatological”, and much work has been devoted to ascertaining whether this is an adequate category to designate some or all of these texts. An important element of our proposal is to offer a different angle to approach the imagery of peace. Rather than starting with the question of eschatology, we begin with the basic observation that all the visions of future peace in Isaiah appear in contrast to equally powerful visions of wartime violence. The imagery of war is here taken as part of the cultural memory shared by the different Isaianic authors, who may or may not have lived through actual conflicts, but who have a perception of the reality of war derived from their cultural milieu. Whereas the visions of peace represent imagined scenarios, the images of violence represent ever impending possibilities, and are closely linked with the actual social experiences of the authors and redactors. The Isaianic visions of peace are “hopeful responses” to concrete experiences and cultural perceptions of violence in contexts of war. The volatile and violent contexts of those responsible for the growth and transmission of the Isaiah tradition led to the ascription of great significance to the hope of a peaceful future and led to the placement of the peace visions at key junctures of the scroll. It is expected that this study will contribute to a renewed understanding of the formation of the Isaiah scroll and of the origins and development of eschatology.


“Betray Not the Fugitive”: Isaiah 15–16 and the Plight of Refugees
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Rodrigo F. de Sousa, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie

The plight of war refugees is one of the most significant problems related to human rights in the contemporary world. The reality of displacement resulting of conflict is an issue that concerns governments, humanitarian bodies, and societies. The phenomenon is not new. Throughout history, humankind has been plagued with war, and with its inevitable consequence of forceful relocation of populations. Isaiah 15:1-16:14 is one of the clearest references to the suffering of refugees in antiquity. The section deals with the displacement of the Moabite population in the aftermath of conflict (15:1-9), contains an apparent description of the exchange between the refugees and rulers of Judah (16:1-5), moves on to a prophetic injunction on the humiliation of Moab (16:6-12), and concludes with a short additional note (16:13-14). The oracle betrays certain ambiguity in Judahite perspectives with regards to what in modern terms would be construed as “war ethics”, “human rights” and the status of “aliens” (particularly those pertaining to antagonistic nations, as was the case with the Moabites). These ambiguities run through the entire Book of Isaiah (and the rest of the Hebrew Bible). An in-depth study of the oracle yields important insights into Isaiah’s political and ethical perceptions. Yet, this is arguably one of the least studied passages in the Isaianic corpus. Our approach starts with an exegetical study of the text, focusing on the portrayal of the Moabite refugees and placing their situation in its proper historical and ideological context. This analysis serves as the basis for a broader observation of key points in Isaiah’s ethics. Following recent studies, we affirm that Isaiah’s ethical perspectives cannot be traced to a particular code, and derive from various legal, cultic, Wisdom, and prophetic traditions, with the book of Amos often pointed out as a significant source, sharing a similar social milieu to that of the earliest Isaianic texts. It is also argued, with Barton (1981), that Isaiah’s ethics is somewhat akin to the latter theological and philosophical concept of Natural Law. The study of the passage and the exploration of Isainic ethics will be carried out in critical dialogue with the recent theoretical concepts of “involuntary migrants” and “environmentally displaced people”, as developed by Roger Zetter, and my own personal experiences and interaction with African and Haitian refugees.


The Righteous King in LXX Isa 32:1–8: Hope and Ideology in Translation
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Rodrigo F. de Sousa, Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie

The portrayal of the righteous king in LXX Isa 32:1-8 displays some noteworthy differences from the Masoretic version of the same passage. In this paper, I attempt to highlight and explain these differences. My starting point is a comparative analysis between the Greek and Hebrew versions of the oracle, having established that the Hebrew is similar to a proto-Masoretic text form. The analysis will deal with lexical and syntactical choices, reading strategies of the translator, and intertextual relationships between LXX Isaiah 32 and the LXX of the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Amos. After the analysis, the paper deals briefly with shifting perceptions of kingship from biblical times to the Second Temple period, in order to identify notions that might have influenced the translation. It is our contention that the deviating rendering of LXX Isa 32:1-8 has been shaped in line with theological and political tendencies which can be perceived in different strands of early Judaism. This study also serves as a contribution to an ongoing debate in the field of LXX Isaiah, namely, the proper understanding of what “actualizing” interpretation means. It is well known that two diametrically opposing views have become standard. On the one hand, the approach of authors such as Arie van der Kooij, who sees a high degree of theological and ideological transformation and an effective attempt to recreate independent oracles in Greek. On the other, the view championed by authors such as Ronald Troxel and J. Ross Wagner, who eschew the idea of actualizing interpretation altogether. The present analysis of Isaiah 32:1-8 indicates that both extreme views have problems that need to be addressed. In fact, it shows that an alternative model for understanding the phenomenon of actualizing interpretation needs to be developed. This model flows from the exegetical work with the passage, but also takes into account some recent developments in literary theory, critical studies and anthropology.


A Mystical Perspective on the Christophany in Revelation 1
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Pieter G.R. de Villiers, University of the Free State

This paper investigates the mystical nature of the Christophany in Revelation 1 in the context of recent research on Jewish and Christian mysticism. After a brief overview of relevant research, It analyses the mystical portrayal of the exalted, divine nature of the Christophany in Revelation 1 within the book as a whole. It explains how the Christophany is developed in terms of prominent mystical characteristics that relate, firstly to the appearance and, secondly, to the function of the Son of Man. The mystical nature of the Christophany is, firstly, discussed in depth in terms of the glorious appearance of the Son of Man. The glory accorded to Christ, ascribes the divine kavod, characteristic of mystical texts, to him. This is not only evident from his glorious appearance (Rev. 2:13-16), but also from the worship of the Son of Man as divine in Revelation 1:6 and other parts of the book (e.g. Rev. 5:12). In this regard the paper will analyse how carefully the author portrays the Son of Man as Son of God when he uses the title in a key position in Revelation 2:18 and in language similar to Jewish mystical prayers and Hekhalot hymns. The paper then, secondly, focuses on the function of the Son of Man as revelatory figure. It explains the Christophany in terms of the mystical revelation of hidden knowledge (Rev.1:19; cf. 6:6 and 10:7, 11). In both the commissioning visions in Revelation 1 and 10, the visionary is given privileged information by Christ as an angelic figure and the mighty angel. This mystical revelation authorizes and characterizes his book as a prophetic writing that determines the fate of its readers (Rev.22:19). The paper will argue that the mystical nature of the book as revelation of hidden knowledge, is confirmed by the following parts of Revelation: John ascends to heaven to receive hidden knowledge (Rev.4:1). The vision of Babylon in Revelation 21:10 (cf. 17:7) is portrayed as a mystery that eludes human understanding and that can only be explained by a divine figure. Finally, in Revelation 10:4, the mystical nature of this knowledge is emphasized when not all privileged information is made known to the readers. Only John is given insight into it. In some cases aspects of the revelation are inaccessible to all readers. The Rider on the white horse has a name written on him “that no one knows but he himself” (Rev. 19:12). Closely resembling this hidden name is the new name that the one who conquers in Pergamum receives on a white stone “known only to him who receives it” (Rev. 2:17; cf. also 14:3b). The paper concludes with an explanation of the historical function of this mystical picture of Christ within its first century context and what such an anlysis contributes to the study of mysticim in Late Antiquity.


Love and Law in the Letter to the Romans
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Pieter G.R. de Villiers, University of the Free State

The reception history of the letter to the Romans indicates how often readers of the letter are preoccupied with its theme of justification by faith. As a result its pronouncements on love are treated as a subsidiary motif and then mostly approached from an ethical perspective. The focal point of this approach is the practical exhortations in the last chapters, and, especially, Romans 13:8-10 about love as fulfillment of the law. Dunn’s theology of the Pauline letters, for example, extensively discusses the role of love in Pauline ethics, but otherwise hardly refers to other important dimensions of love. This relative lack of attention to love in the letter as a whole is also affected by equally limited attention in scholarly research to love in the New Testament. The paper will investigate love as a central motif in Romans as background for his comments on love as fulfillment of the law. The paper will, firstly, research its references to love (Rom.1:1-7; 5:5, 8; 8:28, 35, 37, 39; 9:13; 12:9-10; 13:8, 10; 14:15; 15:30), taking into account other words from the semantic field of love, affection and compassion (as found in Louw & Nida’s Lexicon). It will, secondly, investigate the divine nature of love, analyzing love as a foundational aspect of the divine character, but also as divine action that has an originary character which qualifies and drives God’s salvific actions (Rom.1:7; 5:5; 8:37; 15:30). This will include an investigation of the Christological nature of love (Rom. 5:8, 8:39, cf. 8:32, 34 and 35). In a third section, the relational nature of love, flowing from its divine nature, will be investigated, revealing how love is about the divine outreach to and bond with humanity. The intimate, reciprocal nature of love (Rom.8:28), is a formative factor on Christian identity. In its transformative power (Rom.8:39) it has major implications for the lived experience of believers. The indestructible, powerful presence of love with its resting, secure and irrevocable nature brings about an experience of peace, of joy and of celebration (Rom. 11:25-36), but also represents, complements and completes the law as covenant of love (Rom.13:8-10). The relationship of love and law will be discussed in the final part of the paper. It will investigate how comprehensively and radically Paul portrays the law and its commandments in terms of love (Rom.12-13) and how his ethical instructions about love as fulfillment of the law is to be understood in terms of the seminal place of love in the letter as a whole. This analysis will apply recent scholarly criticism of the distinction between indicative and imperative, with its tendency towards moralizing love. The commandment to love does not merely follow upon and is based upon love, but is the necessary reflection of being conformed to the likeness of God’s character and actions in the divine Son (Rom. 8:29), that is, to having been renewed into a self-giving love to one’s community, but also to enemies (Rom. 12:10; cf. 1-2, 9, 13, 14-21).


Slavery and Sonship in Basil of Caesarea’s De spiritu sancto
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Chris L. de Wet, University of South Africa

The aim of this paper is to investigate the intersection between slavery and sonship, as metaphors, in Basil of Caesarea’s De spiritu sancto. The metaphor of slavery, and the difference between being a slave and a son, is used extensively by Basil to argue against the pneumatomachi for the divinity of the Holy Spirit. What aspects of ancient slaveholding are used by Basil in the treatise, and to what ends, and—most importantly—what could the effects have been for real, institutional slaves in the early church? Maintaining the distinction between slave and free was an important strategy in early Christian doctrinal disputes; this investigation hopes to shed some important light on the interplay between the metaphorical use of slavery and kinship language and the social realities of slaveholding in the formulation of early Christian doctrines and creeds.


The Preacher’s Diet: Regimen, Sexuality, and Masculinity in the Homilies of John Chrysostom
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Chris L. de Wet, University of South Africa

The aim of this paper is to explore the fourth-century bishop John Chrysostom’s recommendations on dietary regimen, which, in turn, have implications for the sexuality and masculinity of his audience. I am specifically interested in masculine self-fashioning by means of regimen, as a subset of a larger project on the formation of masculinity in Chrysostom’s works. In the presentation, I firstly aim to highlight, albeit briefly, how Greek and Roman medicine informed the preacher’s dietary prescriptions. Secondly, I will examine more closely the diet Chrysostom gives to men (and women) in his congregation, by looking at the topos of the true Christian symposium ever-present in Chrysostom’s works. Finally, I will investigate the issue of fasting and gluttony as strategies for affirming or denying masculinity, particularly with a focus on the effect of both on the soul, whose state had very real and material effects on the health of the body – in both sections the link between eating and sexuality will be extrapolated. Thus, the first section of the paper highlights the influences on Chrysostom’s thought regarding dietary regimen, the second section of the paper focuses of the qualities of food (as related to sexual desire and/or self-control), while the third part looks at the quantities.


Up, Down, In, Out, and Back Again: Sensory Motor Schema and the Ascent of the Soul
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
April D. DeConick, Rice University

The greatest contribution that cognitive studies is making to historical studies is its focus on the universality of the human brain and body as an evolved organism interacting in concrete ways with the environment. How might some of these universal interactions of the human being with the environment explain religious phenomena like the concept of the ascent of the soul? This paper will explore how we mentally build integrated systems of concepts through which we come to understand and communicate about our world using sensory motor schema, intuitive, and reflective arenas of cognition.


Shamanism and Gnostic Ritual
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
April D. DeConick, Rice University

Gnostic rituals developed to as ceremonies to (1) awaken the spirit from unconsciousness, (2) to purge the soul of its demons, (3) to mature the fledgling spirit into an adult divinity, and (4) to integrate the mature spirit with its transcendent root. All in all, Gnostic groups were offering therapy for the separated spirit or divided self, a psycho-religious cure. In this paper, Gnostic therapeutic rituals of ascent and demonic purge will be examined in light of what we know about shamanic practices in the Mediterranean world.


The qdeshot in Hos 4:14 and the Myth of the Sacred Prostitute
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Jessie DeGrado, University of Chicago

Over the past two centuries scholars have pointed to the parallelism of zonot and qdeshot in Hosea 4:14 as evidence for the existence of cultic prostitution in Israel. Understanding qdesha in this manner allowed these scholars to interpret Hosea 4:12-14a as a condemnation of a syncretistic sex cult that had infiltrated Israelite worship. More recently, however, Mayer Gruber and Joan Westenholz, among others, have surveyed the biblical and cognate evidence and found no evidence for the existence of sacred prostitution in any ancient Near Eastern society; nevertheless, neither scholar has offered a compelling alternative translation for qdesha. In this paper I argue that the misunderstanding of qdesha as cultic prostitute arose because the Hebrew word possesses a semantic range that includes both priestesses and prostitutes. In particular, I assert that qdesha is used to designate women who operate outside of the patrimonial household. These women are set aside (the base meaning of the root qof-dalet-shin), either given over to the service of a deity or employed in another professional context. Consequently, the indictment of men who sacrifice with qdeshot functions on two rhetorical levels: the prophet offers a critique of a specific cultic practice while strengthening his personification of Israel as a wayward woman who has gone astray from her husband.


Further Research on the Recensions of the Ethiopic Song of Songs
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Steve Delamarter, George Fox University

At the 2014 annual SBL meeting, Delamarter and Jarod Jacobs presented a study of the textual history of the Ethiopic Song of Songs, performed as part of the work of the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament (THEOT) project. That work was based on the knowledge that there was a longer and a shorter recension of the Ethiopic Song of Songs and that the Song was copied in at least three different types of manuscripts (Psalters, biblical manuscripts containing the Solomon corpus, and Lectionary for Passion Week, Gabra Haymamat). Thirty-two manuscripts were transcribed with some representatives from each of the recensions and types of manuscripts. A picture emerged that was clear enough to discern the general contours of the textual history and to clarify some general trends. At that point we could confirm the existence of the longer and shorter recensions and the transmission of those recensions in the three types of manuscripts. But through the process we became aware of the development of the second recension across time. Further, we became aware of the transmission of the Ethiopic Song in forms of manuscripts beyond the three we had known, and it became clear that in order to sort out the rest of the story about the developments in the various strands of the transmission history across time, we would have to increase our sample sizes nearer to thirty manuscripts for each manuscript type in the study. So we designed a follow up study with the goal to produce the data that would clarify with some precision the individual lines of transmission for the two recensions and also that would clarify in precise chronological terms the differentiation between the recensions and the patterns of usage of each in the Ethiopian tradition. In this presentation we will tell the story of our research on more than 100 manuscript, the methods by which we proceeded, and the results achieved.


Using Computer Search Tools in Masorah Research
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
David Delauro, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

This presentation will focus on computer based search tools for researching the Masorah.


Similarities between Paul and the Stoics on Ethics
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Will Deming, University of Portland

There are number of similarities between Paul's vision of ethical living and that of the late Stoics. These include: the sinfulness of all humanity, the instantaneous change from sinner to saint or sage, the impossibility, or near impossibility of living ethically through one's own efforts, the necessity of actions, the insufficiency of actions, and the need for precepts and repeated admonitions rather than written laws. This paper explores how these individual similarities function within Pauline and Stoic ethical systems, and concludes that while Paul and the Stoics worked with a similar pool of assumptions, they arrived at different, but equally idiosyncratic, understandings of the ethical life.


The Abecedary as a Literary Device in Biblical Poetry
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Aaron Demsky, Bar-Ilan University

Biblical poetry was meant to be recited orally. It is therefore of interest that the abecedary, suggesting a written composition, is found in nine alphabetic acrostic psalms and was the primary factor in shaping the structure of the Book of Lamentations. It is most reasonable to assume that the authors of these later books were literati able to blend both the oral and written media. The Psalmist has even used scribal imagery for expressing this duality, capturing the idea of the textualization of biblical poetry: “My heart is astir with gracious words; I speak my poem to a king; my tongue is the pen of an expert scribe” (Ps 45:2); “He put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God…; then I said I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me." (Ps 40: 4, 8). In this paper, I will concentrate on Lamentations 1-2 and show how, in addition to the alphabetic acrostics, the poet has composed two intricate chiastic laments that were inspired by the elementary at-bash writing exercise. In his hands, the abecedary became an aesthetic literary device that gave new poetic expression to the national trauma caused by the destruction of Jerusalem.


Religiones Antiquae: Reviving Nostra Aetate to Expand the Scope of Salvation History
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Christopher Denny, Saint John's University

*


Switchback Codes: Paul, Apocalyptic, and the Art of Resistance
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Arthur Dewey, Xavier University

*


Children at the Intersection of Sacrifice, Prophecy, and Inner-Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Heath D. Dewrell, Princeton Theological Seminary

Child sacrifice in ancient Israel is a topic that has produced an enormous amount of scholarly literature. Most of this work has understandably been devoted to exploring the alleged practice of child sacrifice itself. Numerous articles and monographs have been devoted to the questions of whether children were ever sacrificed in ancient Israel; if so, whether they were sacrificed to Yahweh or to some other deity; how often such sacrifices would have occurred; what purpose they might have served; and so on. Less attention has been paid to the rhetoric of those Israelites who opposed the practice. While a blanket opposition to child sacrifice might seem natural and even obvious to modern readers, such condemnations in a society which had a history of practicing such rites, at least in some circumstances, calls for our attention. This paper examines the strategies employed in the oracles of both Ezekiel and Jeremiah, which unequivocally reject any legitimacy for the practice of child sacrifice. It will demonstrate that, although both collections of oracles condemn child sacrifice, their rhetoric differs significantly. In particular, the question of whether Yahweh ever commanded that children be sacrificed is addressed in both Ezekiel (Ezek 20:25-26) and Jeremiah (Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35). Interestingly, although both prophets agree that Yahweh has no desire for child sacrifice, they disagree as to whether he ever commanded it. This paper will show that their differences can be attributed to the different streams of tradition in which the Jeremiah and Ezekiel material participate, and at root spring from different conceptions of what constitutes authentic Yahwistic law. In this way, the lives of Israelite children came to hang on questions of biblical interpretation.


Why Bother with Redeeming Gentiles? The Project of Justifying the Oppression of the Righteous in the Second Age
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
Genevive Dibley, Rockford University

With a few notable exceptions, gentiles in early Jewish texts, when they are mentioned at all, are generally portrayed as the dross of humanity. The spawn of wayward forbearers, they existed outside the clearly defined boundaries of the covenant and so lay, by default, beyond its life-giving benefits. This, of course, did not preclude a sufficiently motivated gentile individual from renouncing their gentileness and, conforming to the strictures of Torah, becoming Jewish. The handful of gentile converts in the Hebrew Bible, however, does little to dispel the established taxonomy of gentiles as wicked trash. While the prophets repurposed the gentiles as the unwitting tools of divine chastisement for the moral discipline of Israel and faintly sketched the idea that those who survived the winnowing of the final judgment would benefit secondarily in the world-to-come from the excess of Israel’s eschatological blessing – there is simply nothing on par with the sweeping first century reform which saw the integration of gentiles sans becoming Jewish within the community of the righteous as practiced by in the early church. Those seeking explanation for this phenomenon beyond an appeal to messianic epiphany have theorized that gentile inclusion in the nascent church was an attempt to resolve an acute pre-existent theological tension within the culture existing between the tenants of absolute monotheism and ethic-nationalism. That the inevitable evolutionary arc of monotheism fated ancient Jewish religious theorists to resolve the question of the continued existence of gentiles in effect granting them some form of amnesty. This paper will contend, however, that Paul’s argument for gentile qua gentile inclusion in the early Jesus following movement is better explained not as a theological imperative but as the realization of an apocalyptic apologetic aimed specifically at justifying the oppression of the righteous in the later Second Temple period. The redemption of gentiles who remained paradoxically gentiles – a redemption verified by their acceptance in the community – was rather bound intricately to the eschatological hope that the redemption of gentileness would make possible the advent of the final judgment and thereby the salvation of the righteous. Far from being the grand edenic telos closing the circle of history, the redemption of gentileness as a category of being was for Paul a means to a very classic Jewish end.


Using the Graphic Novel to Surface Students' Latent Midrash
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Genevive Dibley, Rockford University

One of the critical challenges in teaching biblical and pseudepigraphical literature is how to help students, particularly undergraduates, become aware of their own interpretive biases. Often such self-awareness is difficult to achieve as students raised in biblically based religious traditions feel themselves to be thoroughly familiar with the text as they have heard countless sermons and teachings on the Bible. They are further, unwittingly hamstrung in literary-critical studies by inherited systems of theology causing them to alternately read into passages what is not there, anticipate and insert the arguments of much later authors or miss altogether critical interpretive details of a passage. On this account, such students have little inherent ability to appreciate the midrashic genius of the early Jewish apocalypticists who so adroitly exploited the textual gaps inevitably left by the biblical authors. They are slow to grasp the methodologies of the apocalypticists and therefore miss the significance of their import for the composition and reception of the New Testament. In an attempt to speed the process of self-discovery I have experimented with having students compose graphic novels on key biblical passages. In surfacing their own midrashic interpretations, this experiment has resulted in a much deeper engagement with the text and earlier, more profound appreciation for the contribution of the apocalypticists.


New Testament Narrative Criticism and the Preacher: The Beginning of a Discussion
Program Unit: Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Frank Dicken, Lincoln Christian University

This paper seeks to bring insights from New Testament narrative criticism to the preaching of New Testament narrative texts. While homileticians are increasingly sensitive to the genre conventions of the biblical writings and seek to propose creative homiletical methods for preaching narratives, the work of narrative critics is rarely, if ever considered in the formulation of these methods. The paper will proceed with an overview of NT narrative criticism. Next, the paper will highlight the differences between this discipline and the homiletical methods for preaching narrative texts proposed by scholars. Finally, the paper will offer several benefits of appropriating narrative critical insights for the task of preaching.


Forbidden Vistas: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah”
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Linda A. Dietch, Drew University

In “Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,” which is part of the permanent collection at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, Henry Ossawa Tanner permits us to see with him what Lot’s wife saw. The painting depicts Genesis 19:23–26 as Lot and his family are entering Zoar in the early morning as God rains destruction upon the plain. The canvas is filled with a tumultuous and dark greenish-blue sky over a rolling terrain of neutral earth tones. Human figures appear small and indistinctly in the right corner. Great expanses of sky and land suggest the artist’s vantage point is far from the destruction, yet the perspective and tones convey a sense of awe rather than terror. In contrast to many other renderings of this moment, which use the warm and hot tones of fire and brimstone, the artist’s cool palette creates a strikingly somber and reflective scene. Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first African-American artist to be recognized internationally after moving to Paris to, in part, escape the racist climate in the United States. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, to an AME minister, he spent most of his formative years in the Philadelphia area, where he studied with Thomas Eakins, and later moved to Georgia. In this paper I will be using W. E. B. Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness and his findings on the role of religion in the African American experience to better understand Tanner’s devotion to biblical themes and his sensitive portrayal of them.


Aramaic Tobit at Qumran
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Devorah Dimant, University of Haifa

Six (rather than five) copies of Tobit have turned up among the Qumran scrolls, five of them in Aramaic. What is the story of Tobit and his son Tobias doing at Qumran? It does not concern a biblical, prophetic or eschatological figure, as do other Aramaic texts from the Qumran library. The paper will try to answer this question by examining Tobit in the light of various aspects of the Qumran manuscripts.


Doing Gender Differently: Scribal Masculinity and the Court Tales of Daniel
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Brian Charles DiPalma, Emory University

The court tales of Daniel are often overlooked in feminist biblical scholarship. With the exception of the brief appearance of the queen in Daniel 5, these short stories portray an all-male environment. Given the tendency of feminist biblical scholarship to focus on narrative texts with female characters, the absence of research on gender in the court tales of Daniel is partly explainable. In this paper, I address this gap in scholarship by answering this question: How are Daniel and his colleagues represented with respect to assumptions about masculinity in the socio-historical context in which the stories were composed? They have been defeated in war and exiled to serve in the court of a foreign king. Moreover, none of them marry or produce sons that could perpetuate their name. Thus, Daniel and his companions appear to deviate from a culturally pervasive construction of masculinity that entailed martial prowess and producing sons. However, I argue that scribal masculinity, which is attested in the ancient Near East and other portions of the Hebrew Bible, is crucial for understanding gender and the court tales of Daniel. I show that a scribal masculinity is produced in a negotiation with a culturally pervasive construction of masculinity in a way that reproduces widespread gendered ideologies. So, for example, whereas a more common construction of masculinity entailed displays of power through martial prowess or physical violence, a scribal masculinity was produced through powerful displays of knowledge. This exchange accepts an equation of masculinity with power and reproduces unequal categories of gender in the process. Thus, even as it deviates from a common cultural construction of masculinity, it is not necessarily subversive. Quite to the contrary, it is differently invested in the reproduction of gendered inequality. From this perspective, I contend that Daniel and his colleagues are differently masculine rather than non-masculine.


Cakes for the Queen(s) of Heaven: Women’s Worship in Phoenicia and Israel
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Helen Dixon, North Carolina State University

Recent decades have seen a growing scholarly literature on women’s religious behavior and the worship of female deities—sometimes mistakenly conflated—in Israel and Judah during the 9th-5th centuries BCE. While similarities between these southern territories and the northern coastal city-states of Phoenicia have been noted with respect to figurine types, domestic shrine construction, and even burial practices, explicit discussion of Phoenician women still often centers on literary constructions like the biblical Jezebel. At the same time, data from the past quarter-century’s excavations in Lebanon, including finds like the favissa of over 800 terracotta figurines from Beirut, have gone understudied and may now be brought to bear on larger questions of gender and worship in the Iron Age Levant. This paper offers a dedicated examination of Phoenician women’s religious practices and roles, and compares this newly emerging picture with the religious reconstructions of their Israelite neighbors. A basic understanding of gendered space and identity will first be offered, incorporating Phoenician inscriptional and other northern Levantine archaeological evidence alongside mortuary remains (from the author’s database of all known homeland Phoenician burials). Despite the difficulties in interpretation associated with figurines and other small votive evidence, a range of plausible interpretations of the Phoenician varieties will then be discussed. Finally, cross-regional comparisons will be undertaken, questioning in the process whether women from either side of the northern Israelite border would have had much to quarrel about.


God of Wrath and Mercy: Is Paul's God the 'Old Testament God'?
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
Thomas Dixon, Princeton Theological Seminary

It may be a hackneyed misconception that the “Old Testament God” is wrathful while the “New Testament God” is loving, but the notion subtly persists even in scholarship. While many have been quick to highlight the love of God in the Old Testament, fewer have addressed the prevalence of the wrath of God in the New Testament. This problem is particularly relevant to the study of Romans, in which the term ???? appears more times than in any other NT book. C. H. Dodd famously argued that Paul’s concept of God’s wrath describes “an inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe” (Romans, 23). The punitive measures in Rom 1:18-32, e.g., are not God’s direct actions but rather God’s permission of sin’s natural consequences. Others have functionally followed suit, distancing Paul’s God from any semblance of personal punishment, a picture which stands in conflict with many accounts of God’s judgment in the Old Testament. But are there only two options: either Paul abandons the God of his Jewish scriptures for a more removed and therefore merciful God, or he uses wrath to describe the merciless belligerence of a “stormy Jehovah”? This paper argues that both pictures are distortions – both of Paul and of his Jewish scriptures. On the one hand, God’s wrath in Paul does indeed resemble many depictions of the “Old Testament God”; on the other hand, this wrath is not merciless in either case. This essay examines selected portions of Isaiah and the Psalms to explore how, both in these texts and in Romans, the wrath with which God punishes often promotes a greater goal of mercy: God’s wrath is not devoid of mercy but, somehow, consonant with it. A proper understanding of wrath in Romans then sheds light elsewhere, not least on Paul’s apparently enigmatic discussion of vessels of wrath and mercy in Romans 9-11.


Aniconic Non-images in Iron Age Phoenicia and Israel: Theoretical Considerations and Comparative Avenues
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Brian R. Doak, George Fox University

The question of whether the Iron Age Phoenicians employed aniconic representational techniques has significance not only for the many under-explored aspects of Phoenician religion generally, but also for the question of whether aniconism can be considered a broader trend among the Semitic populations of the ancient Near East. Indeed, past research on aniconic phenomena is often motivated by a desire to understand the larger context of the Hebrew Bible’s proscription of divine images (e.g., Exod 20:4; Deut 5:4–8)—does this most famous of image-prohibitions represent a kind of religious or intellectual parthenogenesis, or is it one vigorous form of a broader West Semitic trend toward aniconic cultic expressions? In this paper, which will largely take the form of a visual presentation, I argue that the Phoenicians did participate in an iconographic program that moved toward divine symbols, abstract forms, and even purely aniconic expressions. In particular, I highlight two areas for discussing putative forms of Israelite aniconism in light of the Phoenician examples: (a) on a terminological level, defining “aniconism” requires a rigorous theoretical and ritual-contextual framework, without which aniconisms cannot be compared between Phoenicia, Israel, and other groups; (b) examples of miniature shrines in terracotta and inscribed on stelae provide an instructive test case for assessing whether we can truly speak of aniconism when no anthropomorphic figure appears inside the shrine (e.g., the Qeiyafa model shrines), and a consideration of the ritual use and political contexts of these shrines allows us to assess the object in light of the iconic or aniconic needs of the ancient worshipper.


Rachel Weeping: Intertextuality as a Means of Transformation of the Reader’s Worldview
Program Unit: Bible and Emotion
Sébastien Doane, Université Laval

Literary texts commonly invite affective responses in readers, which, in turn, influence their construal of meaning and shape their worldview. Using affective stylistics, a form of reader-response criticism developed by Stanley Fish, I propose to examine the emotional aspects of the complex intertextual appeal to Rachel’s tears in Matthew’s story of the massacre of the children of Bethlehem (Mt 2.16-18). Matthew’s fulfilment citation makes intertextual links with different emotionally charged situations. Matthew quotes Jeremiah (31.15) who comments on the Babylonian exile by evoking the memory of Rachel, a matriarch whose death during childbirth on the road to Bethlehem is narrated in the book of Genesis (35.16-20). In addition, there is a strong resonance with the book of Exodus (1.15-22) which narrates Pharaoh’s massacre of Hebrew boys. Each of these inter-texts emerges from contexts of suffering under foreign empires. What effects do these inter-texts produce in Matthew's readers? How is this affective appeal to Rachel’s tears meant to impact the reader’s response to Matthew’s story? One hypothesis is that the story of the Bethlehem massacre uses many levels of intertextuality as a rhetorical device to solicit an emotional response powerful enough to influence the reader’s world view. This narrative would, then, be an implicit critique of the abuse of imperial power. The complete barbarity of the situation invites the reader to seek justice elsewhere than from the negatively portrayed king. The reader of Matthew’s gospel eventually sees that like the other children of Bethlehem, Jesus was executed by the religious and political leaders in Jerusalem. In the end, there is an astonishing reversal. A new and unexpected life comes from a situation where there was nothing but certain death. Through the use of intertextual echoes, Matthew harnesses the affective punch which earlier narratives had produced in his audience in an effort to transform their worldview.


“The Person Who Receives Blessing . . . Must Also Suffer Much”: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wilhelm Herrmann, and a Hermeneutic of Suffering
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Chris Dodson, University of Aberdeen

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Wilhelm Herrmann both use encounters with suffering as hermeneutical tools for relating the Old and New Testaments. They do so in differing ways, however. For example, Bonhoeffer’s account is concerned with the suffering of others; Herrmann draws his interpretation from how these two texts explore one’s own experience of suffering. This paper explores their two accounts for ways in which they are parallel or divergent, in order to explore how they might work together towards a hermeneutic of suffering that accounts for the suffering of all, highlighting the this-worldly redemption upon which Christianity must insist.


Good Grief: Parental Bereavement in Biblical Literature and Its Late Ancient Reception
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Maria E. Doerfler, Duke University

Childhood mortality rates in the biblical -- and, more generally, the pre-modern -- world were notoriously high: as many as half of all children did not live to see their tenth birthday. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, there are few explicit testimonies concerning parental grief over such deaths: ancient burial grounds offer at best ambiguous evidence for children's commemoration, and letters and speeches directed at those who had suffered bereavement encourage stoic self-possession in the face of tragedy. The latter was the case for ancient Christians as much as for their Jewish and Greco-Roman counterparts; indeed, the developing understanding of God as all-knowing and wholly just urged the further suppression of mourning in the face of divine wisdom, as sermons and treatises by, e.g., Gregory of Nyssa and Jacob of Serugh attest. In sharp contrast to such discourses of parental equanimity, however, stood homilists' treatment of bereavement or anticipated bereavement experienced by biblical characters. The stories of Eve and Adam, parents to the first prematurely deceased child as well as his murderer, of Job and David, and of the mothers of those infants killed by Herod in Matthew 2:16-18, reverberate through ancient Christian homily and hymn as the stories of parents' grief, outrage, and wrestling with divine providence. In the process, the biblical characters in question served as vehicles for expressing and, at times, appeasing the affective experience of bereaved parents in their exponents' communities. This paper examines one of the most productive and provocative accounts of the (near) death of a child: the Akedah, the "binding of Isaac" in Genesis 22, and the concomitant experiences of Abraham and Sarah. Early Jewish and Christian interpreters midrashically expounded themes of parental grief only incipient, or, in Sarah's case, entirely absent in the biblical text; in the process, their narratives came to legitimize and on occasionally liturgically subsume those of families confronting the death of a child in antiquity and subsequent eras.


Ambiguities within Psalms 47 and 72: Women’s Voices as Intertextual Clues
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Denise Dombkowski Hopkins, Wesley Theological Seminary

When Ps 47 praises God’s universal sovereignty, it does not escape the particularism of the conquest (v 3) and God’s choice of Jerusalem/Zion (v 8) and Israel (v 4). A “compliant” reading (Seibert) of Ps 47 joins Israel in its raucous praise, while a “conversant” reading recognizes the tensions between universalism and particularism within the psalm. The story of Rahab in Josh 2; 6 viewed through the lens of postcolonial criticism can help to surface the tensions of such a conversant reading. Created as ‘Other’, Rahab “provides the ‘Us’ of Israel with an identity” (J. McKinlay). Rahab’s voice is co-opted (M. Dube) to proclaim what Israel wants to hear, just as Ps 47 assumes that all of the nations of the world will gladly accept God’s universal sovereignty. What would Rahab say “off the [Israel’s] record” about this? The ambiguity of Rahab’s situation can shed light on the debate over the translation of Ps 47:9ab and expose Israel’s fantasies about power and desires for self-validation. Several audiences overhear the words of royal psalm 72. Addressed to God (v 1), the psalm is overheard by the king who is pressured rhetorically to fulfill what is expected of him. Also overhearing this prayer are the king’s subjects, both peasants and the elite. The superscription, “Of Solomon,” along with the description of gift-bearing rulers in vv 10-11, 15 (cf. 1 Kgs 10) invite us to imagine that a special member of the elite audience, the Queen Mother Bathsheba, also overhears this prayer for her son, Solomon. Paying attention to how Bathsheba might receive the words of Ps 72 in light of her experience with King David in 2 Sam 11 and 1 Kgs 1, as well as in the aftermath of Solomon’s bloody ascent to his father’s throne, can help readers to surface and enter into the contradictions inherent in the royal ideology of the psalm. Several ironies revealed in the idealistic hyperbole of the language of Ps 72 contribute to destabilizing the surface meaning of the text as “untrustworthy” (C. Sharp). The complexity of Bathsheba’s portrayal mirrors the complexity embodied in Ps 72 itself.


The Electronic Version of the Keter
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Christopher Dost, Alliance Theological Seminary

This presentation will be a demonstration of the electronic version of the Keter and its application for research in the Masorah.


Offering All the Life They Have: Reading Luke 21:1–4 in Dialogue with Earth's Impoverishment
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Elizabeth Dowling, Australian Catholic University

Interpretations of Luke 21:1-4 range from highlighting the widow’s exemplary giving of her whole life to critiquing a system that exploits the vulnerable. In this paper, I will read this Lukan passage, informed by the context of the historical gendering of Earth as female. A dualistic western association of women with Earth and men with reason/culture has reinforced a structure of oppression of women and Earth. As has been well documented now, such a structure is not only patriarchal. It must be understood as reinforcing a range of dualisms based on race and class, for instance, as well as gender and species, in a network of domination. [See, for example, Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (London: Routledge, 1993), 42-43]. The Lukan story of the widow and her two coins (21:1-4) is, on the one hand, a story of all that have been exploited and impoverished by oppressive systems. Both the widow and Earth are vulnerable to unjust practices and can be exploited until they have nothing more to give. Considering both the widow and the coins, Earth’s resources, this paper will weave together strands of gender, class and material structures of domination and exploitation. But there is more to the widow of 21:1-4. She cannot be wholly subsumed under the label of “victim”, having little or no agency herself. She actively gives her “life”, as Jesus will later do, with her actions prophetically highlighting the inadequate response of the rich. As with Earth, the widow is a subject rather than an object. This paper will argue that such an understanding of the widow and Earth cuts across the stereotyping inherent in the dualistic systems of domination.


Southcottians and Shiloh: Genesis 49:10 and the Morphology of a Messianic Hope
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Jonathan Downing, University of Bristol

In 1814, a 63 year-old self-styled prophet scandalised London society by proclaiming that she was to give birth to miraculous child, and fulfil the enigmatic promise of Genesis 49:10. In the KJV, this text promises the emergence of a figure called “Shiloh” who shall bring about the “gathering of the people”. It subsequently became an important apocalyptic proof-text for the prophetic communities which make up the movement known as the Southcottian Visitation, whose geographical reach extended to America and Australasia in the 19th century. The exposition of Genesis 49:10's promises by prophetic claimants within the group's history formed the basis for individual and community identity, and provided a focal point for groups' praxis, their view of history, and eschatology. This paper explores how reflections on this text by successive communities in this religious sub-culture can show us how messianic and apocalyptic interpretations of biblical texts adapt to shifting historical contexts. By examining the interpretation of Genesis 49:10 in three distinct stages of the movement – from its founder, through prophets that emerged in the mid-19th century, to early 20th century readings of the text – I demonstrate how a sacred text within a prophetic movement becomes a palimpsest, with successive and competing interpretations becoming layered onto the text over the course of the movement's history. In the case of the Southcottian Visitation's interpretation of Genesis's “Shiloh” prophecy, this raises important hermeneutical questions: the gender identity of the messianic figure; the negotiation of rival translations of the text; the interaction between competing interpretations within a single movement. I argue that prophetic movements such as the Southcottians use the apparently “failed” interpretations of previous authoritative readers to creatively re-engage with apocalyptic promises to forge new readings and new prophetic identities. This has important ramifications for understanding how texts can become “apocalyptic”, and how they can continually invite and engender interpretations throughout their history, and how this interpretative activity – often within religious subcultures – is a vitiating force in their textual and cultural afterlife.


The Role of Ambiguous Inscriptional Evidences in the Historical Reconstruction of Jewish Diaspora Communities
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Luke Drake, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Inscriptional references to the term sunagoge have often been used as the primary evidence for the presence of ancient Jewish Diaspora communities because the synagogue, as a monumental building, served as the Jewish communal space par excellence throughout antiquity. In this paper, however, we argue that the Greek term sunagoge is not a reliable means of identifying an ancient Jewish Diaspora community, since the meaning of sunagoge was flexible and dependent upon the context in which it was used. Scholars have drawn problematic conclusions concerning the nature and presence of the Jewish Diaspora synagogue through erroneous translations and interpretations of inscriptional and sources containing the word sunagoge. This a priori assumption has lead to further untenable conclusions concerning the nature of Diaspora Judaism and the relationships between Jews and Gentiles in the Mediterranean world. In this paper, we categorize all known sunagoge inscriptions according to a simple numeric scale (1-5), which organizes each inscription according to positive Jewish or non-Jewish elements within the surviving material (designated as the JNJ score). A JNJ score of 5 indicates a Jewish inscription (strong evidence); a score of 4 indicates a potentially Jewish synagogue inscription (weak evidence); a score of 3 indicates an ambiguous reference to a synagogue (no evidence); a score of 2 indicates a potentially non-Jewish synagogue inscription (weak evidence); and a score of 1 indicates a definite non-Jewish synagogue inscription (strong evidence). Having obtained JNJ scores for the inscriptions, we organize the data temporally and geographically, and reproduce the results visually through a set of infographics. We conclude with an analysis of our findings as well as a discussion of how this study informs and disrupts current conversations concerning ancient Jewish communities in the Diaspora. (co-authored with Daniel Schindler and Bradley C. Erickson)


Basil's Origenism: Education by the Scripture
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Volker Henning Drecoll, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Even if according to Basil words do not contain the whole content of perceptions or thoughts, the biblical wording is the decisive instrument of the Holy Spirit for the education of the believers. The paper aims to deal with this pedagogical impact of the Bible, in which Basil is heavily dependent upon Origen's hermeneutics. Basil adapts not only philological methods of Origen's exegesis, but also inherits the persuasion from Origen that no detail in the biblical text is meaningless. Therefore he looks for the sometimes hidden hints to theological, anthropological and ethical teachings in the biblical text. He does not simply assume a verbal inspiration, but a direct influence of the Holy Spirit on the mind of the human authors, thus taking into account the historical context and the variety of language in the diverse biblical books. This makes Basil an important forerunner of an exegetical methodology that deals with the verbal sense of the biblical texts (subsumed later under the label „Antiochene exegesis“ – but, of course, this category has to be questioned). Behind the language use of the individual biblical authors, however, Basil recognizes a complex language use of the Holy Spirit and a plan of God that can be observed by the diverse readers and listeners of the Bible and its exegesis (in homilies and theological works). Only the subjugation of oneself to this intention of the Holy Spirit in a methodologically controled manner avoids using Scripture as base for arbitrary own assumptions (that result in being heretical). That’s why Basil rejects allegorical interpretations, but aims to detect a deeper sense that makes the biblical text fruitful for the listeners viz. readers of his works. This can be compared with the methodology of Origen who was more confident of a spiritual layer of Scripture that leads to the highest topics of theology. Thus, the interesting relationship of Basil's exegesis to Origen on the one side, to the so-called "Antiochene exegesis" on the other side can be elucidated more precisely. Within Basil’s work, the deep link between antiheretical and exegetical works can be focused.


Aramaic Inscription Sefire III: What Kind of Treaty Is It?
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Jan Dušek, Univerzita Karlova v Praze

The Aramaic inscription “Sefire III” from the mid-8th century BCE was very often considered to be a vassal treaty concluded between Bar-Gayah and Mati’el, like the inscriptions on the other two stelae (Sefire I and II). This was the position held by the epigraphers who wrote about these texts; among them the authors of the editio princeps André Dupont-Sommer and Jean Starcky (“Une inscription araméenne inédite de Sfiré,” Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth 13 [1956], p. 23-41), and also by Émile Puech (“Les traités araméens de Sfiré,” in J. Briend [ed.], Traités et serments dans le Proche-orient ancien, Paris, 1992, p. 88-107). This seems to be also the opinion of the eminent historian Edward Lipinski (“Re-reading the Inscriptions from Sefire,” in: idem, Studies in Aramaic Inscriptions and Onomastics I, Leuven, 1975, p. 24-57). André Lemaire and Jean-Marie Durand (Les inscriptions araméennes de Sfiré et l’Assyrie de Shamsi-ilu, Genève – Paris, 1984 p. 56-58) considered the treaties to be a series of renewals of vassal treaties of the Assyrian kings (suzerains) with the kings of Arpad, Attaršumki and Mati‘’el (vassals). In the German scholarship, Herbert Donner and Wolfgang Röllig qualified all three stelae from Sefire as “Staatsvertagstexte der Könige Bar-Gaja von KTK und Mati’rel von Arpad” (KAI 222-224). Martin Noth was of a different opinion (“Der historische Hintergrund der Inschriften von sefire,” in M. Noth, Aufsätze zur biblischen Landes- und Altertumskunde, Neukirchen – Vluyn, 1971, p. 161-210). For him, the stela no. III should not be qualified in the same manner as the other two stelae, because at least one of the contracting parties of the treaty was different from those who concluded the treaties on stelae no. I and II. The inscription Sefire III has been reexamined by the author of the present paper in the context of his work on a new corpus of Aramaic inscriptions of the Iron Age. In this paper I would like to propose a new interpretation of the character of the treaty on the stela “Sefire III” which sheds and interesting light on international relations of the kingdom of Arpad in the eve of the Assyrian context of the region in the early 2nd half of the 8th century BCE.


Christ in the Bathhouse: A Chi-Rho Graffito at the Roman Fort of ‘Ayn Gharandal
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Carrie Duncan, University of Missouri - Columbia

During the 2010 excavation season of the 4th century CE Roman fort at ‘Ayn Gharandal (ancient Arieldela) in southern Jordan, work uncovered a large number of graffiti and dipinti on the walls of the fort’s associated bathhouse. Among them, to our surprise, was a crudely sketched chi-rho. The discovery of this symbol immediately raised the question of whether our fort, and the Roman military in southern Jordan, served as a social location for Christians in the 4th century. The fort and bathhouse at Gharandal were built some time between 293 and 305 CE, just at the time of Diocletian’s purported purge of Christians from the army and the last great persecution of Christian civilians, and occupied for a single century. The formal inscriptions in the officers’ headquarters of the fort itself speak to Gharandal as a location of official Roman religiosity, with references to Rome, Jupiter Ammon, and a priestess or other traditional religious official. Does the difference between the fort’s formal inscriptions and the bathhouse’s chi-rho graffito reflect the slippage between state sanctioned and individual religiosity? Or does this difference stem from the tumultuous religious changes witnessed during the 4th century, with the fort’s official inscriptions reflecting the proclivities of Diocletian at the time of its founding and the chi-rho signifying the opportunities made possible by Constantine’s Edict of Milan scant decades later? Surveys of Roman military sites on the Kerak plateau, north and east of Gharandal’s location in the Arabah valley, conclude that there is little evidence for significant Christianization of the army until the 5th or even 6th centuries. The situation in the Arabah appears to differ. Evidence from tombstones indicates that the local population, from among which the soldiers at Gharandal were likely recruited, were already converting to Christianity in significant numbers by the 4th century. The cities of Petra and Aila (modern Aqaba) were Gharandal’s primary trading partners, and each was the see of a 4th century Christian bishop. Finally, the accounts of Diocletian’s purge of the army and associated military martyr texts, regardless of their historical accuracy, testify to the compatibility of military service and Christian identity – at least for some. This paper argues that the Gharandal chi-rho, in conjunction with other archaeological, historical, and literary evidence, signals that the Roman army in southern Jordan was a viable social location of early Christians. The Roman military’s one hundred year occupation of Gharandal offers a unique opportunity to witness the changing religious landscapes of a turbulent century.


The Epistolary Narrative Preface of the Pseudo-Clementine "Homilies"
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Patricia Duncan, Texas Christian University

The lengthy, fourth-century Christian novel known as the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies begins with three relatively brief documentary fictions: an epistle from Peter to James, an anonymous account of the reading of the epistle by James, and an epistle from Clement of Rome to James. The first two documents, especially, have often been regarded as vestiges of an earlier version or source of the novel, and it has been pointed out that they appear to be somewhat ill-suited to the final version of the work. This paper argues, however, that the three opening documents (the Epistula Petri, the Diamartyria, and the Epistula Clementis) together serve a number of critical functions in the framing of the novel as we have it. Perhaps most importantly, these prefatory documents put in place an esoteric conceit that is essential to the complex pedagogical project that will unfold through the extensive homilies and discourses of the Apostle Peter woven into the twenty books of the narrative proper. The first letter, I would argue, also serves to set the novel in the context of the particular early Christian controversy reflected in the so-called Incident at Antioch described in Gal 2, and together with the account of its reading, the Epistula Petri betrays deep suspicions about the ability of any text to preserve truth (a suspicion manifest also in the Homilies’ well-known doctrine of “False Pericopes” in the scriptures of the Jews, for instance). The mock proposal found in the Diamartyria for the safeguarding of the written transcript of Peter’s teachings serves only to heighten the serious import of the pedagogy in right reading that will be effected through the patently fictional (at least insofar as it is a recognizable adaptation of the genre of the Greek romance) narrative of the Homilies. When the second letter, the Epistula Clementis, is juxtaposed with the first, a broad geographical and temporal gap opens, waiting to be filled in by Clement’s narration of his travels with Peter. When we fail to take all three of the prefatory documents fully into consideration, it is impossible to see the full arc of the Homilies’ revisionist historical fiction.


Cyprian in the Homilies of Augustine
Program Unit: Contextualizing North African Christianity
Geoffrey Dunn, Australian Catholic University

With the discovery of a new homily in Erfurt in 2007, the number of homilies Augustine preached on the feast of Cyprian now numbers 12 (Serm. 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 313A, 313B, 313C, 313D, 313E, 313F, and 313G). Cyprian is a figure of great importance for Augustine as someone who, in Augustine’s De baptismo contra Donatistas, needed to be rescued from the Donatists’ claims that they were the living embodiment of his legacy rather than Caecilianists like Augustine. This focus is not evident in these homilies, where Cyprian himself could be little more than a launching pad for preaching on any topic at all, or where the Carthaginian bishop’s conversion and martyrdom could be presented as of imitative value for the local community. This paper will examine the images of Cyprian presented in Augustine’s homily, particularly 313E, where the Donatists are the object of Augustine’s preaching and where something more akin to what is found in De baptism could have been expected.


Romans 1, Queer Theory, and the History of Sexuality
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Ben Dunning, Fordham University

This paper explores how Greco-Roman protocols of gender have functioned in scholarly interpretations of Romans 1:18-32 that seek to place this much-debated text within the history of sexuality. Here I am especially interested in scholars’ selective engagement with theoretical resources loosely falling under the rubric of “queer theory” in order to pursue various historicist, political, and theological projects. I begin with a brief glance at representative scholarship that has ignored the relevance of ancient gender ideology (Hays) before turning to a concise overview of readings that take more seriously the notion that sexuality does indeed have a history, thereby necessitating attention to the specific cultural logics, sexual politics, and gender hierarchies that underwrite its articulation (or lack thereof) in a particular time and place (Brooten, Martin, Moore, Swancutt). I then consider the recent work of Kyle Harper, which presents itself as participating in this project and building especially on the work of Brooten. I argue that Harper’s idiosyncratic reading of the evidence presented by Brooten works to minimize the degree to which specifically ancient, historically-sedimented concepts of gender and status inform the deep logic of Paul’s thought. In this way (while not stated explicitly), on Harper’s reading, Romans 1 effectively “invents” the category of homosexuality – a development analogous in theoretical terms to the radical rupture of the event à la Badiou and Žižek. In opposition to this reading, I build instead on Joseph Marchal’s compelling proposal that a more robust engagement with queer theory provides resources for unpacking the complex interrelations of identity and difference that necessarily attend the interpretation of the Romans passage. I suggest in particular that the Derridean mode of philosophical argument that undergirds some strands of queer theory might be profitably mobilized to situate the passage within a larger Pauline anthropological system—a framework in which, crucially, the system’s desire for full coherence proves impossible on its own terms. Thus queer historiography might approach Romans 1 in a way that neither renders the text’s violence entirely foreign nor denies our convoluted inheritance of that violence (thereby acknowledging Heather Love’s insight that “the cross-historical touch . . . may be as much a mauling as a caress”), while at the same time locating the text genealogically in a Pauline tradition of anthropological speculation that proves queerly “open” in its very failure to deliver the closure that it promises.


The Maccabean Martyr Tradition and the Epistle of James
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Bryan R. Dyer, McMaster Divinity College

The account of the martyrdom of seven Jewish brothers, their mother, and teacher Eleazer before the Greek king Antiochus IV was a powerful narrative that circulated in the Second Temple period and was recorded in the literature of that time (2 and 4 Maccabees). Early Christians undoubtedly knew the tradition and presented the martyrs as exemplars of dying for one’s faith in a world that was hostile against them. The author of Hebrews clearly refers to this tradition and one can trace its influence on other New Testament writers. The goal of this paper is to argue for the Maccabean Martyr Tradition as a plausible background for the author of the Epistle to James’ comment in 5:10–11a: “As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance” (NRSV). To do so, this paper offers a linguistically informed approach to identifying an allusion in a text. The result of this paper places the Epistle of James squarely within its first-century Jewish context and the tradition of using the Maccabean martyrs as exemplars of endurance and suffering.


Bible and the Arts for the Biblically and Visually Illiterate
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Bobbi Dykema, Strayer University

Panel presentation on the theme " Teaching the Bible and the Arts in the Undergraduate Classroom."


"Ignatius" on Ignatius and the Construction of the New Paul
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
David L. Eastman, Ohio Wesleyan University

This paper focuses on the reception of Ignatius as a "New Paul" by the fourth-century redactor and expander of the Ignatian epistles. The analysis will highlight the ways in which this pseudo-Ignatius employs Pauline imagery, language, and themes in constructing a version of Ignatius that looks even more like the apostle than the vision that had been cast by the bishop himself.


The Innovation of Death: The Rhetoric of Martyrdom and Christian Identity
Program Unit: Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
David L. Eastman, Ohio Wesleyan University

This paper examines the impact of martyrdom literature on the formation of Christian identity in the early centuries. Although the earliest Christian writings provide examples of those who die for the faith (e.g. Jesus and Stephen), death is not presented as the exemplary Christian experience. With the development of martyrological literature, death as the highest good is introduced into Christian rhetoric and forever alters the sense of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and the perception of those both inside and outside the Christian community.


Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Popular Exegesis: Window to Biblical Women and 19th Century Woman Question
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Amy Easton-Flake, Brigham Young University

When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a series of biographical sketches of women of the Old and New Testament for the Christian Union her work became part of the growing body of women’s exegesis. While Stowe’s weaving of religion into her novels has long been noted and discussed, her earlier non-fiction work in evangelical presses and later work on the Bible has been largely ignored. What makes her a particularly interesting nineteenth-century exegete is that her work stands at the intersection of what male biblical scholars were producing for the academy and what male and female popular exegetes were producing for consumer audiences. Consequently, the first part of this paper analyzes how Stowe adapted and popularized a range of hermeneutic tools such as historical criticism, anthropology, and typology as well as how she weaved in popular nineteenth-century scientific theories and rhetoric to enhance rather than detract from the Bible’s divinity. Perhaps most intriguing about Stowe’s biblical portraits is that we can see in them Stowe’s plan for the advancement of women. As one of the most prominent women in nineteenth-century America, Stowe’s views on the woman question were highly sought after by the press and those intimately involved in the various woman’s movements of the day. Since Stowe never aligned herself with or became a spokesperson for any of these movements, her answers to the woman question are best ascertained through her 1870s publications, such as My Wife and I and Woman in Sacred History. This conference paper examines how Stowe re-interprets biblical women to raise the status of wives, mothers, and housekeepers, while simultaneously extending the boundaries of traditional domesticity and establishing multiple paths of progressive womanhood. Her exegesis, as my paper argues, is an interesting mix of biblical women’s narratives and nineteenth-century gender norms and cultures, which can only be understood within the context of the nineteenth-century woman question and growing concerns about the relevancy and veracity of the Bible. Through a close analysis of her biblical interpretations, we learn much more about Stowe’s world and the use she found in the Bible than we do the biblical women she tried to bring new relevancy and life to in Woman in Sacred History.


“The Mountain Was Burning with Fire”: The Burning Horeb in Illustrations of Late Antiquity and the Biblical Exodus Story
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Ruth Ebach, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Many pictures show Moses and the burning bush as it is described in the narrative of Moses’ Call in Exod 3-4. Nevertheless, already in late antiquity different illustrators started to add burning stones to the scenery. The paper deals with a carving on the church door of Santa Sabina in Rome, which presents several Old and New Testament-scenes since the 5th century to the broader public. One division shows events of Moses’ life in a sequence. In one scene, God calls Moses in front of a burning stone structure. In current research, several scholars interpret these stones as an altar and assume an integration of a cultic dimension. However, by comparing this iconographic aspect with the same scenery in the labeled illustration of the “Christian Topography” probably written by Cosmas Indicopleustes (“the Monk”) in the 6th century, it seems to be more plausible that the stones represent a burning mountain. Moreover, these illustrations link this burning mountain with the giving of the Torah. Looking for the textual basis of such a tradition does not lead to the Sinai-pericope in the Book of Exodus, but to the Horeb tradition in Deut 4; 5; and 9. According to these texts, Moses gets the tablets, while the mountain is burning with fire. Thus, the illustrator visually combines the story of Moses’ Call in Exod 3-4 with the account of the transmission of the Torah in Deut 4-9 and links both the starting point and the destination of Moses’ task. Remarkably, Cosmas’ illustration shows a chronological differentiation by showing Moses during the Call and at the mountain in different clothes, but links the two episodes by a crossing over of these elements in his picture. Thus, the composition underlines the differentiation of time and the duration of the story and therefore creates a frame around the Moses-narrative in the whole Pentateuch. The redactors of the growing Pentateuch, created a similar type of canon-orientated composition by linking Exod 3-4 and Deut 4-9 through parallel formulations regarding the description of the burning object (bush and mountain). Therefore, the growing of the biblical texts itself as well as its reception in some early Jewish texts like Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and Pirqe de Rabbi Eliezer, and the early pictorial reception create a broad and integrative view on the life of Moses by linking main aspects of the Mosaic traditions.


The “Semitic thiasos”: Reconsidering a Model
Program Unit: Qumran
Benedikt Eckhardt, Universität Bremen

The emergence of private, voluntary forms of corporate organization (thiasoi, hetaireiai, etc.) can be seen as a characteristic feature of Mediterranean cities in the late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. It was also one of the elements of civic life that survived the Roman conquests. The relationship of this Graeco-Roman phenomenon to ancient Near Eastern forms of corporate organization has often been discussed, including the possibility of Greek influence. One of the concepts developed in this debate is the “Semitic thiasos” (“thiase semitique”). Information about this particular type of social formation includes formal aspects such as leadership and ideal size, but more importantly extends towards conclusions about the groups’ general character. It has been argued that Semitic thiasoi are marked by a “theocratic” form of organization that sets them apart from their Greek counterparts: according to this model, they were brought together by gods, not men, and their internal jurisdiction was based on religious instead of secular norms. The “Semitic thiasos” as a type is thus characterized (and distinguished from Greek and Roman associations) by the individual’s submission not to man-made statutes voluntarily agreed upon by members, but to a God-given social order. However, in contrast to Greek and Roman clubs, no “Semitic thiasos” has left a nomos thiasoton or lex collegii. The basic sources used for modeling the “Semitic thiasos” are honorific decrees issued by Syrian merchants on Delos, evidence relating to the Palmyrean marze?a, and very ambiguous lists of names from Dura Europos. To fill the gaps, important information has been taken from Jewish sources. The Qumran scrolls give important insights into the rules and regulations of the ya?ad, a late-Hellenistic Jewish movement that has often been compared to Greek and Roman associations. Rabbinic literature contains information about “fellowships” (?avurot) that have also been explained against the backdrop of non-Jewish associations. In a synthetic reading of Hellenistic and Roman evidence from the Aegean islands, Syria and Judea, all deviations of this material from Graeco-Roman patterns could be explained with the common Semitic background of all the groups in question. Based on a collection of all the data on private associations in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East carried out for the Copenhagen Associations Project Inventory, the paper presents a re-evaluation of this model. Faced with problems of taxonomy and postulates of historical interrelations, it is necessary to properly contextualize the epigraphic evidence, without a priori assuming a coherent Semitic, un-Greek type of associations. At the same time, the case for a more or less unified world of “Graeco-Roman associations” that reaches from Spain to Syria, recently put forward by a number of scholars, is also weak. If we take into account not only the formal structure of the groups, but also the question of group-society relations, differences between the Judean ya?ad, the Palmyrean marze?a and the Greek thiasos cannot be overlooked.


Two Likely Instances of Hidden Ancestor Polemics in Genesis Reflecting Persian Era Religious Debate
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Diana Edelman, University of Oslo

Abraham’s purchase of a family tomb site at Machphelah (Genesis 23) and Jacob's burial of the foreign gods under the tree near Shechem (Gen 35:1-4) provide two likely examples where the multivalent theme of the promised land in Genesis involves a dimension of hidden polemic asserting that YHWH controls land inheritance, not the family ancestors. This would address a larger polemical topic concerning YHWH’s existence as the sole divinity and the controller of earth, of communication between the realm of the living and the dead, and of entitlement to land. Genesis 23 has not generally been acknowledged to address the issue of ancestral divinization and worship. I argue there is a rhetorical emphasis on "the dead" who need to be buried out of sight, without the creation of subsequent teraphim images, in a tomb that becomes a multi-generational family burial site for descendants of the "promised" blood-line, male and female. The three male heads of the family worship YHWH as the god of their father or forefathers, leaving no room for the forefathers to be considered gods themselves. Jacob’s burial of the foreign gods under the oak near Shechem in Gen. 35.1–4 has been linked explicitly but not uniquely with Laban’ s stolen teraphim (images of family gods) in the history of scholarship. I add an overlooked rhetorical strategy as part of that linkage; Rachel and Leah claim their father has treated them as "foreigners," which anticipates and so reinforces the connection of the "foreign gods" with the images of the dead family ancestors. In both cases, the rejection of the cult and power of the ancestors seems to be expressed via the mechanism of a hidden polemic because of the sensitivity of the issue among early Jewish populations resident in "the homeland" and in the Diaspora.


Joshua 24: A Diaspora Oriented Overriding of the Joshua Scroll?
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Cynthia Edenburg, Open University of Israel

No Abstract


" . . . And Clothed Me with Joy" (Ps 30:12): Emotions in Psalm 30
Program Unit: Bible and Emotion
Sigrid Eder, Catholic-Theological Private University Linz

This paper follows the analysis of the textual manifestations of emotions established and worked out in the study of Simone Winko with the title of “Kodierte Gefühle” (Encoded Emotions), specifically with regards to her distinction between explicit and implicit emotions. Explicit emotion words in the text surface are the ones such as “happiness” or “anxiously”, whereby implicit or connoted emotions can be expressed by all textual elements. Implicit emotions can be triggered through neutral expressions without mentioning any emotions at all. Only by additionally knowing the context in semantics and syntax (e.g. imperatives, repetitions etc.), can certain elements be identified as connoted emotions. Implicit emotions can also be expressed through verbal images, especially through metaphorical language, and are much more inherent in poetic texts than explicit emotions are. Verbal images, figurative language and metaphors are characteristic elements of the psalms, which touch the full range of human emotion in all its heights and depths. Among the book of psalms, psalm 30 stands out at first sight because of its high number of explicit emotion words. In this individual prayer of thanksgiving, the psalmist describes his/her deliverance by God by means of the rescued perspective of joy, which frames the entire psalm. Thus, explicit as well as implicit emotions of Psalm 30 will be analyzed with special focus on the emotion of joy. The paper aims to contribute both to the theoretical discourse about emotion analysis in the Bible, as well as to the study of emotions in the book of psalms.


Putting Him on a Pedestal: (Re)collection and the Use of Images in Plato’s Phaedrus
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Bryn Mawr College

The Greek tradition presents a number of curious stories of the hopeless passion of an individual who attempts to sexually assault a statue, and, in the Phaedrus, Plato provides a curious description of how the dark horse of the soul tries to sexually assault the image of the beautiful beloved, only to be restrained by the reverent awe of the soul’s charioteer, who falls back, stunned by the vision of the beloved as by a divine image. Plato uses this image of two ways of treating an image as an illustration of how – and how not – to treat images in general, whether they be the image of beauty presented by the beautiful beloved or even images of wisdom and justice presented by the writings of a philosopher. In every case, the image must serve as a reminder, a stimulus to recollection and a track that marks the path that memory and reason must follow to arrive at truth, rather than something to be enjoyed as an end in itself. The proper treatment of an image is thus itself an image of the process of recollection, and the ritual actions of adornment, sacrifice, and following in a procession that are appropriate to the treatment of statues of gods become images, not just of how the lover should treat the beautiful beloved, but of how the orator should compose a speech and of the way the philosopher should treat all the images of divine truth that appear in the world. The graphic image of the horse sexually assaulting the boy is likewise an image of what can go wrong when an image is used not as a reminder but as a source of pleasure in itself. In the Phaedrus, then, Plato plays with the problematic status of images, employing some of his most vivid and memorable images to illustrate how images may be used philosophically in the process of recollection. Both the worship paid to the beloved icon and good speeches employ images and mnemonic associations to lead the follower, step by step, toward the truth. While Phaedrus fixes his desire upon the images, both the beloved boy and the speeches, Socrates uses these images as signs on his philosophic path, reminders of whence he has come and whither he is going.


(Not) Baptizing Thecla: Early Interpretive Efforts on 1 Cor 1:17
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
Ben Edsall, Australian Catholic University

Paul’s reticence to baptize Thecla is a perennial crucx interpretum within the Acts of Paul. If one takes the Acts of Thecla as a self-standing piece, then the problem can perhaps be somewhat contained to a peculiarly passive presentation of Paul, though it would still stand out among other ancient portrayals of the apostle. Within the ‘final form’ of the Acta Pauli, the problem becomes even more acute: why did Paul not baptize Thecla if he was happy to baptize others, including women? While not excluding the contributions of themes such as self-control or interpretive overtones between Acta Pauli and, say, Gal 3:28 (so Glenn Snyder; cf. Peter-Ben Smit), I argue that Paul’s ambivalence toward baptism – refusing to baptize Thecla while baptizing others – is the author’s attempt to narrate the ambivalence suggested by Paul in 1 Cor 1:17 – ‘For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel’. As this famous phrase follows Paul’s own vacillation regarding the number of Corinthians he had baptized (1 Cor 1:14–16), the tension within Acta Pauli, reflects the tension within Paul’s own letter. This explanation is strengthened by comparisons with other early interpretations of this passage by, e.g., Origen and John Chrysostom. These readings emphasize the importance of Paul’s role as a teacher while down playing the importance of the role of the one who baptizes someone who has already been instructed. In doing this, they appropriate Paul as the archetypal teacher of the church, the catechist, whose teaching enthralls the nations with the gospel, just as it enthralls Thecla. The argument here, then, is that Paul's putting off Thecla's baptism, her theological/moral infatuation with Paul and her own auto-immersion all function within the framework of interpreting Paul's curious disowning of baptism as part of his calling within a larger project of appropriating Paul as the arch-teacher.


Solomon’s Kiss from Origen to the Later Middle Ages
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Mark Edwards, University of Oxford

This paper will survey Christian interpretations of the biblical verse, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (Song of Songs 1.1), from Origen (who takes the kiss to mean the direct communication of the true sense of scripture by the Logos) to Thomas Gallus (for whom it signifies intimate communion between the soul and the Word in a state of concentrated suspense). Other commentators will include Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Elvira, Honorius of Autun, Bernard of Clairvaux and Rupert of Deutz. The shift in understanding of the song will be shown to exemplify a more general shift from an Origenistic or Dionysian concept of the “mystical” as the true sense of the scriptures to the mediaeval concept of “mystical states” which may be cultivated by ascetic discipline and subjected to philosophic introspection. The paper will conclude with some remarks on the relation between the erotic and sexual in Platonism and in Christianity.


The First Advent of Christ in Victorinus of Pettau’s Commentary on Revelation
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Robert G. T. Edwards, Wycliffe College

Though little is known of the life and ministry of Victorinus, bishop of Pettau in the late third century, his are among the earliest Christian Latin-language biblical commentaries now extant. His commentary on Revelation has received attention, both in antiquity and in modern times, primarily for its chiliastic interpretation. More Recently, Dulaey (Victorin de Poetovio, premier exégète latin, 1993) has drawn attention to Victorinus’ idea that the book of Revelation is recapitulative of the biblical narrative. This is what my paper will follow up on: namely, how Victorinus interprets the first seven chapters of Revelation as a recapitulation of the first advent (i.e. apocalypsis) of Christ. Thus, my paper will investigate the revelatory/apocalyptic function of the first coming of Christ in Victorinus’ interpretation, especially focusing on his use of the canonical Gospels as interpretive keys for these early chapters of Revelation.


Living and Dying a Christian under Islam: Martyrologies and the Islamification of Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Jessica Lee Ehinger, University of Oxford

The purpose of this communication is to discuss a martyr tradition from the early eighth century, the stories of sixty martyrs executed by the Muslims in Palestine. The various version of this story share several important features - the martyrs are singled out for execution due to their particular role (as either soldiers or Byzantine citizens on pilgrimage), marking them out as different from the general Christian population of the Near East; their allegiance to Byzantium is stressed, but the stories remain otherwise silent regarding their sectarian identity, and their Muslim persecutors remain relatively neutral characters, apparently requiring their conversion for legal reasons, rather than due to personal or spiritual conviction. In this way, these stories present an important perspective on how the Christian Near East of Late Antiquity adapted to the rise of Islam and the emergence of Muslim rule.


Hot Jesus, Tragic Superstar, Suffering Son of God: How Jesus Films Aim to Shape Our Moral Imaginations
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Rebekah Eklund, Loyola University Maryland

Jesus films shape the imagination of their viewers, in relation to the identity and mission of Jesus, in both intentional and unintentional ways. The capacity of film to shape its audience connects to recent scholarly interests in several areas: mimetic studies in relation to the theme of participation in Christ (so Susan Eastman, et al.); ethics and the performance of Scripture (so Nicholas Lash, Kevin Vanhoozer, et al.); and virtue ethics, including recent work on liturgy as ethics (so Sam Wells, Stanley Hauerwas, and the intelligent critiques of Jennifer Herdt). Jesus films represent a particularly powerful example of the capacity of films to shape the moral imagination because of their subject matter: their representations (and therefore interpretations) of Christ himself. They are also an interesting example because they themselves are portions of the biblical text. Thus they serve as a case study for the ability of both film and scripture to shape the moral imagination. In this paper I make several relatively modest and interconnected claims. First, Jesus films simply are not capable of shaping their hearers in precisely the same ways that the gospels do. They are irreducibly different media. However, the first corollary to this claim is that they always shape their hearers with respect to the mission and identity of Jesus, and that they can choose to do so in ways that cohere more closely to the gospels or that disrupt the gospels’ aims. I offer as one example the way that the portrayal of Jesus’ ethnic and racial identity (whether he is white and in what way he is Jewish) has the capacity to have a significant effect on the moral imagination of the film’s viewers. I use material from a variety of films (including The Passion of the Christ, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Gospel of John, Son of Man, Godspell, and the mini-series Jesus of Nazareth) to explore the question of Jesus’ mission and identity. If the viewer is meant to identify with Jesus’ mission to redeem the world through his suffering, or to model self-sacrificial love, this inevitably suggests different responses on the part of the viewer than the suggestion that Jesus either misunderstood his mission or failed to complete it. For the final example, I suggest that the tendency to portray Jesus on screen as Caucasian/western European may have the unintended effect of allowing white Western viewers to identify more closely with Jesus but also to distance themselves from Jesus’ identification with the poor and oppressed (as reported in the gospels). To evaluate this claim, I explore the South African movie Son of Man, the forthcoming film Killing Jesus, and the recent controversy over Jesus’ “sexy” portrayal in the 2014 film Son of God. Finally, I use Adele Reinhartz’s essay on the Jewishness of Jesus in film, alongside responses to Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, to explore how anti-Semitism itself—and anxiety over anti-Semitism—has shaped not only the films themselves but also how viewers have responded to the films.


Law and Tradition in the Long Seventh Century (570–705): Between Qur’an and Church Canon
Program Unit: The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
Emran El-Badawi, University of Houston

This paper posits the “long seventh century” (570-705) as an incubation period, within late antiquity, for the articulation of later Islamic law and tradition in the 9th century. 570 CE marks the approximate birth date of the prophet Muhammad, the articulator of the first Near Eastern scripture in Arabic—the Qur’an. 705 CE marks the death of the Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, under whom Arabic language becomes the official language of administration in the region, and under whom Islamic identity begins to crystalize. This paper demonstrates that during this period the Qur’an is one among a handful of other interconnected sources of Near Eastern law and tradition, what I broadly dub “church canon.” This paper will explore about a dozen qur’anic terms and phrases, especially references to bodies of law and tradition in the long seventh century. These include discussing ‘ilm and dars (Q 3:79) and its relationship to ta’wil al-ahadith (Q 12:6; 101); discussing al-nubuwwa wa al-kitab and rahbaniyyah (Q 57:26-27); and discussing the relationship between al-kitab wa al-hukm wa al-nubuwwah (Q 3:75-79; 6:74-93; 57:26-27; 45:16-18) and shari‘ah (Q 15:18). I will argue that these references are part of a larger discourse on family law, the center of which are women (widows?) and orphans. I will also argue that these references are extremely precise and may point to Syriac or Greek texts, including the Didascalia Apostolorum, Syro-Roman Law Book (SRLB) and memre and madrashe of Syriac Christian authors. This paper also builds on the theories of Holger Zellentin, Garth Fowden, Fred Donner, Patriacia Crone and Ali Mabrouk. Assuming later Islamic law and tradition build upon Christian and Roman (as well as Arabian) legal discourse, then it is integral to understanding the Qur’an’s masterful reference to and typology of church canon in the long seventh century.


The Media Matrix of Mark and Matthew: From Gospel to Book
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Nicholas A. Elder, Marquette University

Socio-linguists recognize that the acts of speaking and hearing markedly differ from the acts of writing and reading. The distinctive psychodynamics of speaking and writing, in particular, produce notably dissimilar syntax and grammar. This is because writing fills in the existential void that is left when a physical speaker is absent. The different mental processes that are at work when a text is composed by speech and when a text is composed by writing have often been overlooked in discussions of early Christian media forms. If the psychodynamics of speaking are found in a written narrative, we must reckon with the possibility that that particular narrative was composed as, or during, a speech act. In contrast, when the psychodynamics of writing are found in a text, our first assumption must be that the text was conceived literarily. The conception of a text is then significant for determining what kinds of interpretive methodologies, whether oral and/or written, are most useful for understanding that text. With reference to the synoptic tradition, this paper demonstrates that multiple unique features of Markan syntax, on the one hand, are representative of oral psychodynamics. Both the Matthean redaction of Mark and the unique Matthean pericopae, on the other hand, demonstrate markedly literary psychodynamics. While the written form of Mark’s gospel established what Jan Assmann called an ‘extended situation,’ Matthew has syntactically altered Mark’s text and composed his own pericopae in a manner that improves upon Mark’s novel ‘extended situation.’ These syntactical concerns make sense of the titles in Mark 1.1 (euangelion) and Matthew 1.1 (biblos), which, I argue, are paratexts that serve as media markers for the hearers and readers of these documents. The linguistic differences between the two texts also possess explanatory power concerning Matthew’s rise to prominence over Mark in the first few centuries of earliest Christianity and the development of the gospel genre from its oral-kerygmatic framework to its literary framework.


On Transcription and Oral Transmission in Aseneth: A Study of the Narrative’s Conception
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Nicholas A. Elder, Marquette University

Because writing/reading and speaking/hearing are fundamentally different linguistic and social affairs, socio-linguists have noted that these acts produce markedly different syntax, grammar, and meta-aspects in any given narrative. From this socio-linguistic perspective, narrative and performance critics have developed criteria for determining whether a text is (more) orally or literally conceived. These criteria have been used to demonstrate the performative and folkloristic nature of variegated texts in different times, languages, and cultures. This perspective, however, has not been consistently applied to pseudepigrapha studies. This paper, then, interprets the Jewish narrative Joseph and Aseneth using this oral-performative methodology. It demonstrates that certain syntactical elements of the narrative, such as the paratactic and additive use of the coordinating conjunction, the presence of only one new idea in each clause – usually accomplished by using variegated forms of the ‘to be’ verb, – and the visible and descriptive nature of the text, all point to its oral origins. Based on these observations, this paper suggests that Joseph and Aseneth had an oral tradition that preceded, and likely also proceeded, the written versions that are now extant. Approaching the text from this oral hermeneutic solves a number of the text's enigmas, which are explored in the second half of the paper: the question of which manuscript recension is original; whether or not the narrative is written in the vein of the Hellenistic romance novels; the presence of Semitisms in the text, despite the general consensus that the text was originally composed in Greek; and the lack of wordplay on Aseneth’s name in 15.7 in the extant Greek witnesses.


The Augustinian Captivity of Rom 5:12
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Mark A. Ellis, Faculdade Teológica Batista do Paraná, Brazil

In spite of modern scholarship’s recognition of Augustine’s dependence upon a faulty translation and unsupportable grammatical arguments in his exegesis of Romans 5:12, widely respected writers such as Cranfield, Moo and Shreiner continue to dedicate a significant portion of their commentaries on this text to defending the idea of Augustine’s doctrine of original sin. This paper will argue that the Augustinian interpretation misunderstands the purpose of Romans 5:12–21 within the argument of the epistle, and misdefines death in physical terms in order to gain proof of universal guilt due to Adam’s sin. This paper argues that Romans 5:12 is the initial verse of a transitional paragraph which takes the reader into Paul’s presentation of why those who have been justified should pursue personal righteousness, Rom 5:12 serving as both a recapitulation of his conclusions regarding universal sinfulness in Romans 3:23, and an introduction of spiritual death. This paper is divided between an explanation of the Augustinian interpretation of Romans 5:12, the presentation of Romans 5:12 as a transitional paragraph which introduces the theme of spiritual death, and a brief consideration of whether the idea of original sin can be established elsewhere in Romans.


Adam and Eve’s Labors and Marriage Ideals in Early Christian Relief Sculpture
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Mark D. Ellison, Vanderbilt University

The image of Adam and Eve, popular in early Christian iconography, appears in a variant form on about thirty fourth-century sarcophagus reliefs: Adam and Eve stand to either side of Christ-Logos, who hands them symbols of their labor (typically a sheaf of grain for Adam and a sheep for Eve). Though this image differs from the more popular portrayal of Adam and Eve on either side of a tree, covering their nakedness and looking ashamed, it has been interpreted along the same theological lines as a reference to sin and the Fall; the assigned labors symbolize punishments for transgression, a view based on patristic commentary on Genesis 3:16–19. This paper questions that interpretation, which fails to consider discontinuities between text and image and assumes that patristic literature represents (completely) the intentions and perceptions of sarcophagus patrons and viewers. Re-reading the sarcophagi in light of the patronage of aristocratic, married Christians enables an appreciation of how the image of Adam and Eve’s labors could represent and evoke marital ideals such as partnership in the division of labors and divine formation of the married relationship. Visual and literary evidence supporting this interpretation includes: (1) comparable iconography in images of Christ extending power or blessing to figures on either side of him; (2) early Christian texts and art using Adam and Eve as exemplars for married Christians; (3) the division of labors between spouses as a traditional ideal of marriage in Greco-Roman literature and art and in early Christian texts. The image of Adam and Eve’s labors was new visual vocabulary serving traditional aims of funerary display; it presented sarcophagi patrons as upholders of the social and spiritual order, and as spouses joined and defined by divine action at the center of their relationship.


The Sensation of Love: Song of Songs 4:9–16 and the Simulation of Emotion
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Barat Ellman, Fordham University

The Song of Songs is clearly love poem. But as scholars have observed, the book is less a narration of events in the love story of its two protagonists, than it is a series of declarations of love. In a sense, it is a poem about love itself, a poem that imitates the experience of love. In a 1980 article entitled “Beauty and the Enigma,” Francis Landy offered an astute explanation of how the language of the Song makes possible that act of imitation. Combining two functions, an “intellectual, referential” function and an “emotive” function, the Song “communicates in language what is beyond language.” Song of Songs, Landy says, “tries to recreate sensations, to make words ‘say’ something instead of just signifying.” The sensory immediacy that results contributes to the Song’s capacity to create a world where, in Cheryl Exum’s words, “love is always already in progress and consummation is simultaneously anticipated, enjoyed and deferred. Conjuring up the beloved—and letting the beloved disappear so that the conjuring can begin again—this is the game the lovers are continually playing.” Concentrating on Song 4:9-16, verses which form a brief poem in praise of the enchanting power of the female beloved on the male love and which give voice to the attraction the male lover feels for the object of his love, this paper will demonstrate how the Song’s language, imagery and formal structure combine to recreate for the reader the sensuality of a sexual attraction that is experienced visually, aurally and aromatically and that, together, produce tension and release bound up in sexual attraction and fulfillment.


The Mechanics of Death: Philo’s and Plutarch’s View on the Death of the Human
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Julian Elschenbroich, Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel

This paper examines how Philo and Plutarch, two main representatives of Middle Platonism in the 1st century, envisaged the processes taking place at the end of man’s life on earth. The question is not only, whether and how the concept of a tripartite anthropology (body, soul and mind) shapes the transition from life to death and afterlife, but also, if and how God or divine intermediates are involved in this process of seperation. Comparing their views on the „mechanics of death“ might contribute to a more accurate picture of the intersection of anthropology and theology in 1st century Platonism. Finally, some considerations will be given to the question how this discusssion may enlighten Paul’s thoughts on the transition from life to afterlife.


Trauma and Counter Trauma in the Book of Esther: Reading the Megillah in the Face of the Post-Shoah Sabra
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Sarah Emanuel, Drew University

Sociologist Kai Erikson defines collective trauma as a blow to one’s collective identity and social life. “It is a form of shock . . . a gradual realization that the community no longer exists as an effective source of support and that an important part of the self has disappeared.” We catch glimpses of a culture’s memories of trauma and survival of them in an array of discursive formations, including narrative. By naming, shaping, and giving words to traumatic experience, storytelling becomes an act of processing – an act that seeks to make sense of and survive the many haunting associations and dissociations that, paradoxically, signify events that exceed categorized signification. Though typically not utilizing trauma theory, scholars indirectly describe the book of Esther as taking part in this process. As Timothy Beal writes, Esther is a book “about living beyond the end,” often doing so by utilizing humor to lampoon the powers that be. However, rather than simply undermine the enemy via subversive jest, the Jews eventually turn the tables completely as they call for a mass annihilation of Jewish foes. As such, the creation of a new Jewish identity – one that appropriates Amalekite power and force – becomes another glimpse of the culture’s attempt to process, survive, and counter trauma. These tactics become even clearer, however, when cross-read intertextually with the celebration of Purim throughout the Shoah followed by the construction of the Israeli sabra and IDF culture post-WWII. Whereas the celebration of Purim functioned more regularly as hidden resistance, the establishment of the Israeli sabra created space for both revenge fantasy and revenge reality against any and all lingering “Amaleks.” Though differing in strategy, context, and, arguably, productivity, these responses nevertheless illustrate a range of survival strategies employed in the face of communal suffering. Reading the book of Esther alongside these examples of counter trauma exposes Esther’s use of humor and appropriation of enemy ideology as articulations of post-traumatic wish-fulfillment. In short, by reading Esther as haunted by the Holocaust and the creation of the post-Shoah sabra, we may better recognize the range of survival tactics employed in the text.


Old Testament Worldview and Early Christian Apocalypses
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Matthew Emerson, Oklahoma Baptist University

Old Testament Worldview and Early Christian Apocalypses


African Women in the Book of Genesis: The Wife of Abraham, Hagar (16), the Wife of Joseph, Asenath (41 and 46), and the Wife of Potiphar (49)
Program Unit: Genesis
Doris Enede, Kogi State University

The book of Genesis specifically identified these women as Egyptians. However, since there are still some controversies as to whether ancient Egyptians were Africans, Romans or Europeans, this paper will examine the ancient Egyptians records and scholars’ opinions in order to establish the Africanness of the above women. It will also do the various analysis of the above three passages. After the brief examination of various references to the above women in Christian, Islamic and Judaistic literatures, this paper will examine each of the above woman’s contribution to Africa and ancient Israel.


The Nameless African Wife of Potiphar: An African Reading of Genesis 39
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Doris Enede, Kogi State University

The majority of scholars, especially Western Scholars’ reading of Genesis 39 is that of condemnation of Mrs Potiphar’s actions of seducing the young handsome Joseph and sending him to prison. This writer believes that such condemnation is due to lack of understanding of Mrs Potiphar’s vision in the light of African cultural values. The purpose of this paper is to examine critically Mrs Potiphar’s action in light of African cultural and religious values, especially when a woman is childless because of impotence of her husband and her duty is to protect her husband’s shame. Could this be the spirit behind Mrs. Potiphar’s so called seductive action? After discussing the Africanness of the ancient Egyptians this paper will also examine the probable justification of Mrs Potiphar’s action in light of African culture and tradition and her contribution to ancient Israel.


On Not-Knowing When Knowing Is All You Know
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Peter Enns, Eastern University

Careers in biblical studies are a paradox. We are trained and therefore value and strive for mastery of knowledge of Scripture to understand better a God who is beyond our knowing. This talk explores the wisdom--and even responsibility--of accepting the counterintuitive challenge of modeling true intellectual vulnerability in our writing and speaking as a deliberate means of encouraging intellectual and spiritual growth.


Love by Order? The Concept of Love in Law Texts in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Erbele-Kuester Dorothea, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

In debates about the underlining principle of an Ethics in the Old Testament those who stress ethical rules are grounded in the obedience to God´s will oppose those who stress that the motive clauses of the laws refer to God´s deeds and human experiences. Love as a virtue does not seem to have a central place in these motivations. However, prominent texts in the Tora, due to their compositional place, their rhetoric and their reception history, engage with the concept of love (esp. Dtn 6:5 and Lev 19). The paper shall investigate the role love plays within ethics - especially ethics as expressed in the genre of law texts in different literary layers. Along the classical text Dtn 6:5 the very notion of love implied in this exhortation to love God shall be highlighted. Love has to be experienced with the heart (ratio), the nefesch (desire, inner person) and the physical or creative power. Different aspects of the concept of love shall thus come to the core, as well as the role that the senses play in this specific moral action (motive) according to the legislative texts. Finally the relevance of the concept of love within the larger frame of an Ethics of the Old Testament shall be pointed out.


De facto Canonicity in Ethiopia
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Ted M. Erho, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

The precise nature of the biblical canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has been a subject of discussion within the academic community over the past few decades. Unfortunately, this discussion has largely been carried out under a misguided presupposition, namely that a defined de jure canon exists within Ethiopian Christendom. In reality, and perhaps uniquely among Christian traditions, no formal canon of either Old or New Testament writings has ever been officially enacted by the Ethiopian Church to date (though recently the Patriarchate in Addis Ababa has given some consideration to beginning such a process). Lists variously adduced in this regard, especially those numbering eighty-one items, have largely been taken over from other sources, primarily Copto-Arabic ones, and merely represent hermeneutical mathematic gymnastics by one author or another to arrive by whatever means necessary at the required figure. However, although a de jure Ethiopian canon has yet to be proclaimed, comprehensive analysis of the Ge‘ez (classical Ethiopic) manuscript tradition reveals a fairly distinct segregation of scriptural and non-scriptural writings, allowing for the delineation of a de facto canon instead. Since Ethiopian biblical pandects are excessively rare, impeding the straightforward inclusion or exclusion of a work on such a basis, this paper will statistically compare and map the manuscriptal companions of both universally (e.g. Genesis and Isaiah) and non-universally (e.g. 1 Enoch, Jubilees, 4 Ezra, and the Ascension of Isaiah) accepted writings. Even though such an analysis establishes the contours of a canon with relative certainty, evident alterations to this corpus in the fourteenth century and the scarcity of earlier Ge‘ez manuscripts jointly caution against simplistically foisting it upon Ethiopian Christianity of the first millennium.


Recent Excavations at Ancient Smyrna
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Akin Ersoy, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi

Ancient Smyrna, a major port city on the west coast of Asia Minor, had an important Jewish population during the Imperial period. It also hosted a nascent Christian community mentioned in the book of Revelation as one of the Seven Churches. Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, was martyred in the city’s stadium in 156 CE. This presentation will review the excavations at the civic agora that I have led since 2007. First, the city’s history and its archaeological excavations to date will be reviewed briefly. A map of major archaeological monuments still extant in modern Izmir will be shown. Then the major monuments revealed in the agora excavations will be discussed such as the basilica and bouleterion. The restoration and conservation of the agora finds will likewise be covered. I will close by discussing the challenges of preserving and presenting an archaeological site situated in a major urban environment. Smyrna emerged as a major Christian center in the Late Roman period, and our excavations have brought to light interesting aspects of the material world of this community.


The Artist Speaks: Dio Chrysostom's Defense of Images in His Twelfth Oration
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Philip Erwin, Graduate Theological Union

In his Twelfth (Olympic) Oration, Dio Chrysostom addresses a crowd in Olympia, which has gathered for a festival in honor of Zeus. On this occasion, Dio delivers a speech on the sources of humanity’s conception of the divine, which soon slips into a hypothetical account of a speech of Phidias in defense of his sculpture of Zeus before a tribunal. Phidias’ apology steers Dio’s oration into an exposition on the status and role of images in relation to knowledge of the gods, Zeus in this case. This essay examines the ways in which Dio Chrysostom defines the general relationship between speech and image through Phidias’ apology. In particular, it is argued that, for Dio, words and images participate in the same economy of representation; speech does not simply (re)produce and order/arrange sound, but engenders images that become implanted in the mind of the hearer. On this particular point, this essay posits that Dio’s Twelfth Oration responds directly to Platonic critiques of graphic/visual representation as inimical to philosophical contemplation of the truth.


"At That Time Jerusalem Shall Be Called the Throne of the LORD": Jeremiah 3:17 and the Relation between Israel and the Nations in Aggadic Midrashim
Program Unit: Midrash
Johanna Erzberger, Institut Catholique de Paris

Jer. 3:17 is one of the most frequently cited passage from the book of Jeremiah in aggadic Midrashim. By linking Jer. 3:17 and Isa. 54:2 with Gen 1:9, GenR 5, LevR 10 and PRK 20 discuss the functioning of the sanctuary in light of the order of creation, and the order of creation as reflected in the sanctuary. While using an almost identical traditional piece of interpretation that links the above mentioned intertexts, these Midrashim contextualize this tradition in fundamentally different ways. This different contextualization of the passage in these Midrashim touches the potential tension created by the linking of the gathering of the nations in Jerusalem according to Jer 3:17 and the stretching out of the sanctuary as well as Israel’s descendants possessing or inheriting the nations according to Isa 54:2-3. The Midrashim differ regarding the definition of the relation between Israel and the nations. The paper analyses the function of an exemplary exegetical tradition in the contexts of different Midrashim and argues for the meaningfulness of its broader context.


Ezra-Nehemiah and the Construction of Community
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

The “identity politics” in Ezra-Nehemiah continue to generate controversy, both when read in the context of postexilic Judah and in terms of a biblical text with contemporary applications. This paper will examine the issues as part of a broader biblical and cultural conversation in the ancient world, in dialogue with Mark Brett and Daniel Smith-Christopher, and in relation to current studies about mixed marriages and the shaping of communities in multi-cultural settings in the Modern and Postmodern world. A special lens includes the impact of colonialism and postcolonialism on past and present interpretations.


The Birth of the Maccabean Ethnic State: Ethnic Groups Not “Empire” in the Meaning of 1 Maccabees
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Philip Esler, University of Gloucestershire

A torrent of current research into biblical and extra-biblical texts construes them as reactions against, or even subversions of, the Ptolemaic, Seleucid, or Roman “empire.” In Apocalypse Against Empire Anathea Portier-Young has interpreted 1 Maccabees along these lines. It is submitted, however, that inadequate attention has been given to modeling what the putative group entity “empire” means in such scholarship. Such inattention runs counter to another, and far more credible, interest in biblical studies at present—that which focuses on identities, group and personal, and employs social-scientific ideas to sharpen our understanding of them. I will argue that 1 Maccabees does not present the Maccabean revolt as a victory against the Seleucid “empire.” Rather, the text is plausibly interpreted as the narrative of an ethnic group’s triumph against an onslaught by other ethnic groups that threatened its survival. As in many ethnic conflicts, moreover, indivisible possession of the ethnic homeland was central to the struggle and victory meant the creation of an “ethnic state,” where an ethnic group establishes a polity in its homeland.


"All That You Have Done…Has Been Fully Told Me": The Power of Gossip and the Story of Ruth
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Philip Esler, University of Gloucestershire

Exegetical studies using social-scientific perspectives on gossip undertaken by Richard Rohrbaugh, John Daniels and Marianne Kartzow have proven extremely illuminating in relation to New Testament texts. In this paper, I will pursue a similar approach on a text from the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Ruth. When Boaz first meets Ruth he says to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law … has been fully told me” (2:11), and what he has learned has clearly been in Ruth’s favour. Boaz can only have gained such information through what we call gossip. In this paper I will first review the current state of social-scientific research into the nature of this phenomenon. I will then apply this to the several passages in the text of Ruth that depend upon its occurrence. This exercise will reveal the truth of anthropologist Robert Paine’s dictum that “gossip is a catalyst of social process” by uncovering the remarkable extent to which the plot of the book is propelled, and character developed, by gossip.


The New Isaac: The Characterization of Jesus as the Fulfillment of the Patriarch Isaac
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Mitchell Alexander Esswein, Princeton Theological Seminary

Nils Dal (“The Atonement: An Adequate Reward for the Akedah?” in Jesus the Christ, 1991, 137–151) argues that the ‘Aqedah served as a strong foundation for understanding Christ’s sacrifice in Rom 8:32 and other New Testament texts. In this paper, I argue that various themes found in Second Temple texts concerning Isaac’s near-sacrifice have their parallel in the Fourth Gospel. Within this developed tradition surrounding Isaac, he became a willing sacrifice (Jth 8:26–27; 4 Macc 13:12; 16:20; Ps. Philo, Biblical Antiquities 32:2–3; Josephus, Ant. 1:232). Jesus, too, announces routinely how he alone has the authority to hand over his life (John 2:21-22; 3:14-15; 18:21-30; 10:11-21; 12:7; 12:27-36). The atoning sacrifice of Christ had already been noted in the Apostolic period, “…He was in His own person about to offer the vessel of His Spirit a sacrifice for our sins, that the type also which was given in Isaac who was offered upon the alter should be fulfilled” (Barn. 7.3). This is logical since an Isaac typology is the only means by which an adequate theology of atonement could arise within Christianity. The Suffering Servant of Deutero-Isaiah could serve as a backdrop, but this figure also developed associations with Isaac. The only legend in Jewish literature that has a father sacrifice an only son is Abraham and Isaac, which is similar to how John describes the Father’s sending of his only Son into the world (John 1:14, 18; 3:16; 1 John 4:9–10). Lastly, both Isaac (Jub. 17:15–18:19; Palestinian Targum on Exod 12) and Jesus’ (John 13:1; 19:14) Passions both occur during Passover, which is 14 Nisan. The connections between Jesus and Isaac are considerable, and I will systematically lay out these associations in order to reveal that John’s theology of atonement is partially dependent upon an Isaac typology.


Weapons for War
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Bryan Estelle, Westminster Seminary California

This paper applies Michael O’Connor’s methodology to a section from the Baal cycle (KTU 1.2 IV, 6-27). The content of this part of the Baal cycle contains a possible debate, Kutharu’s speech, and the preparation of two weapons for battle against Yamm. This paper argues that this section of the Baal cycle contains 52 lines. I claim that this kind of analysis demonstrates that there are no “strict” phonological rules regarding the prosody; rather, syntax should govern the explanation of the poem. Finally, a number of observations come out of this analysis. For example, although the repetitions do not agree with the apparent narrative sense units, this paper claims that sensible patterns and coherence are noted when O’Connor’s methodology is applied to this text. Other implications are discussed as well.


The Gospel according to William Blake: On the Use of Biblical Apocalyptic Imagery in “The Everlasting Gospel”
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Rebecca K. Esterson, Boston University

William Blake’s "The Everlasting Gospel" is an exercise in contradictions. As he works out an alternative vision of the nature of Christ in this iconoclastic and fragmented poem, it becomes less and less clear what kind of a messiah Blake has in mind. His Jesus is at once forgiving and vengeful, meek and unapologetically proud, chaste and impure, violent and gentle, fully in the flesh and fully transcendent. Furthermore, Blake’s dependence on, and hostility toward, his biblical heritage confuses his final message. Even where he is obviously ironic “it is hard to see how the irony is supposed to work,” as one scholar laments. While Blake’s Gospel is dissonant and at times lighthearted it is by no means unserious. His concerns are ultimate ones, his message urgent. This is made evident by the poem’s dependence on the imagery and language of the biblical book of Revelation: the promised final judgment on humanity. By drawing out the apocalyptic allusions in "The Everlasting Gospel," this paper will attempt to illuminate something of Blake’s convictions as expressed in this poem. These convictions, while contrary in many respects to the religious norms of his day, are no less religious in their concern for ultimate things. The paper will respond to and build on the scholarship of scholars Morton Paley, Karen Shabetai, Randel Helms, Jeanne Moskal, and others in interpreting the poem in light of Blake’s context and unique aesthetic. It will consider the particular temperament of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Christian eschatology, the discursive use of figures such as Rome and the Jew, and Blake’s anti-authoritarian position regarding the Church of England. Blake is a product of English utopianism, critically judging the church itself, and envisioning the possibility of a post-biblical/pre-biblical new age. His work does not describe the end of time, or any literally chronological scheme of events. Rather, his “end” is in the present tense. His Last Judgment is the event of being awakened from a deep sleep, entering a new age and a new consciousness. "The Everlasting Gospel" is a trickster gospel; it follows a literary path to truth rather than a linear one. Blake finds in the book of Revelation both the narrative absurdity and the vivid imagery needed to retell the gospels in apocalypse terms. Inspired by the everlasting gospel mentioned in the book of Revelation, which is preached to everyman, his is the sacred text for the ritually impure: the leapers, the prostitutes, the poets. His messiah is about serious business. He is neither humble nor gentle in persecuting injustice. His followers are kept from their sleep. His mission is a revolution of consciousness. The gospel according to William Blake is an apocalypse, ushering in the age of the liberated, enlightened spirit. That he attempts to liberate himself from the very biblical tradition that brings him such a vision is an irony that only such a gospel can celebrate.


7 Fallacies of Conflict Resolution: An Application of Matt 5:23–26 in Ecclesial Practice
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Douglas Estes, South University - Columbia

Conflict resolution is an integral and necessary part of ecclesial practice in today’s society. Unfortunately, since it tends to fall outside the sphere of traditional spiritual disciplines, and has some difficulty in reconciling with the traditional practice of church discipline in everyday situations, conflict resolution remains an important but thorny topic in practical theology. In this paper, I introduce the practical and biblical need for effective conflict resolution, starting with a close reading of Matt 5:23–26. This reading argues for the primary principle of biblical conflict resolution, person-to-person peacemaking. Next, I identify seven conflict resolution fallacies that people commonly engage in to avoid person-to-person peacemaking, and why these fallacies occur. Following each fallacy, I use examples and suggestions for improving conflict resolution skills in each scenario. I conclude the paper with a summary of how these fallacies work in conjunction with each other—to the detriment of healthy ecclesial practice—and in contrast with Matthew 5.


Cyprian and Urban Life: A Development of Church Hierarchy: Construction or Consequence
Program Unit: Contextualizing North African Christianity
Alexander Evers, Loyola University Chicago

In the 3rd century AD, Cyprian of Carthage played an essential role in the development of the hierarchical structure within the Church in Roman North Africa, as well as the Roman Empire at large. His principal model for this was urban life in the cities of the African provinces. In analysing the language that Cyprian used, in combination with the archaeology of the cities of Roman Africa, one can clearly detect a cross-fertilisation. The question arises, whether Cyprian was providing a blueprint of his own construction towards the organisation of the Church, or whether he was merely consolidating existing practices – his work a consequence of earlier developments.


A Comparative Vocabular Analysis of the Pentateuch Targums
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
David L. Everson, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy

Though fully tagged text files of the targums have been available for some time now and despite the ongoing publication of relevant lexicographical works, there is currently no thorough comparative analysis of the vocabulary of the Pentateuch Targums. For this paper, I will conduct such an analysis. That is, once an exhaustive comparison of the vocabulary lists is completed, in addition to identifying words that are unique or common to the respective targums, I will also identify tendencies within the data, paying special attention to vocabulary within expanded passages and the so called Kaufman effect. The implications of the data with regard to dialect geography and (non-)literary dialects will also be discussed.


Teaching the Bible in the Arts as an Upper Level Undergraduate Class
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
J. Cheryl Exum, University of Sheffield

Panel presentation on the theme "Teaching the Bible and the Arts in the Undergraduate Classroom."


Cognitive Time-Travel in Paul’s Mythmaking
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Jennifer Eyl, Tufts University

This paper builds on earlier work, in which I have attempted to redescribe and theorize the practice of reordering historical sequence for ideological purposes. I have argued previously that anachronism is a constituent feature of mythmaking. This paper applies such theorization specifically to the apostle Paul and the way he discursively constructs the supremacy of theos (his word for the Judean god), and Christos. Paul’s letters are thick with claims that the new deity he is proselytizing, Christos, is not new at all. By arguing that Christ’s first-century appearance on earth was long foretold—and, indeed, part of a timeless master plan—Paul can assert the validity and supremacy of the Judean deity and his divine son over and against other deities who have birth narratives (and therefore, must “begin” at some point in time). The paper will focus on Romans 1:1-7 as just one example where Paul claims that Christ’s appearance for the salvation of Gentiles was long foretold. The paper uses cognitive science to explore the mechanism by which humans are prone to place things wildly out of order intentionally (to locate the existence of things long before they actually exist, and vice versa). In particular, Kurt Stocker’s “The Time Machine in Our Mind” serves as a framework for understanding this ability, which can then be applied to Paul’s strategies of anachronism. Usually categorized under the umbrella of “prophecy,” Paul’s claims are an example of the human cognitive ability to rearrange time. This paper will seek cognitive explanations for prophetic time-rearranging. Stocker’s study offers a “comprehensive conceptual account for the imagistic mental machinery that allows us to travel through time” (36) and notes that the neural correlates of mental time travel are equally stimulated, whether “true” or “fictive” sentences are heard. I argue that cognitive approaches to chronological (re)arrangement can help us to better understand Paul’s practices of mythmaking.


God, the Lord, and Angels in the Sahidic Testament of Isaac
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
John W. Fadden, Saint John Fisher College

In this paper, I explore the different divine identities (e.g. God and the Lord) and agents (i.e., the various angelic beings) found in the narrative of the Sahidic Testament of Isaac. I posit that their usage reflects a late ancient Egyptian monastic context. First, I argue that the Lord’s identity, while somewhat ambiguous in the narrative, would be understood as the Son of God/Christ figure throughout Testament of Isaac while God’s identity would be understood most often as the Father God/God of Abraham figure. The narrative’s identification of God and the Lord would be familiar for readers an Egyptian monastic context of the fourth and fifth centuries and their reading of scripture. Isaac was intimate with the divine, including the Lord/Son of God/Christ in his time which makes him an appropriate exemplar for the monastic readers in their context. Second, I argue in its representation of the relationship between the angels and Isaac, Testament of Isaac reflects an Egyptian monastic context in which angels participate in a monastic’s ascetic practices. Finally, in Testament of Isaac’s portrayal of Isaac in relation to God, the Lord and angels, Egyptian monastic readers would discover an Isaac who would be a relevant model for their ascetic lives. I suggest that the deployment of divine identities and divine agents in the Sahidic Testament of Isaac is crucial to the narrative and is apt for the Egyptian monastic context in the fourth and fifth centuries. Any future discussions of an earlier context than Egyptian monasticism for Testament of Isaac as a narrative whole would need to account for these divine figures.


By the World Forgot: Sabbatians and the Manipulation of Memory in Fifth Century Constantinople
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos, Brown University

In their Ecclesiastical Histories Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen describe an affair that occurred in Constantinople in the early 380s. A former Jew by the name of Sabbatius had converted to Christianity and become a Novatian presbyter. He then convinced his fellow Novatians to abandon their bishop and follow him in observing the Jewish Passover. The incident resulted in seventy deaths when a demonic panic descended upon the assembly and caused its participants to trample each other. Although Sabbatius escaped, the site of the massacre was destroyed to allow for the construction of an imperial forum, and the Sabbatian community disappeared. Several oddities surround the Sabbatian affair. Not least of these is the paucity of evidence for this group in Constantinople. Early mentions of the group are rare, and the first narratives about the massacre are these same accounts from Socrates and Sozomen, written eighty years after the event. The thinness of attestation raises intriguing questions about whether the incident occurred at all and how the Sabbatians fit within the religious politics of Constantinople. Equally interesting is the way that the narratives about the Sabbatian massacre adapt contemporary anti-Jewish rhetorical tropes. Throughout their histories, Socrates and Sozomen frequently portray Jews as the instigators of violence, riots, and murder—but only in cities other than Constantinople. The Jewish population of the city, in contrast, is largely invisible in these texts, save when they appear as irenic counterexamples to violent Christian heretics. For these authors, it is Sabbatius and his followers who fill the role of the violent outsider in Constantinople. Where, then, were the city’s Jews? Why substitute the Sabbatians, only to erase them, too, from the narrative landscape? This paper complicates narratives about the Christianization of the late antique city by examining the relationship between the Sabbatians and Jews in these fifth-century accounts. Drawing upon conversations about the construction of collective memory and spatial politics, I argue that Socrates and Sozomen were participating in a larger imperial project to define Nicene orthodoxy and to assert Constantinople’s position as a thoroughly Christian city. As such, their narratives played with the religious boundaries dividing Christians and Jews in order to characterize the Sabbatians as a heretical, quasi-Jewish sect that threatened the security of the city. I propose that the memory of the Sabbatian massacre and its attachment to an imperial forum constituted a damnatio memoriae against groups that looked “too Jewish,” without actually blaming local Jews for violence. The damnatio suggested that Christian groups that fell outside the parameters of imperially-sponsored Nicene Christianity presented a danger to the city. The incident consequently served a double purpose for those interested in the Christianization of the city: it reinforced the boundaries between Christians and Jews while warning against attending festivals led by the “wrong” types of Christians.


Reading Material Culture of Ancient Prayer
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Daniel K. Falk, Penn State University

The vast majority of surviving evidence for ancient prayer is textual of some kind, such as descriptions of prayer and prayers embedded in literary works; dedicatory and funerary inscriptions; graffiti; collections of hymns; sealed texts; and so on. For the most part, scholarship on prayer focuses on disembodied prayer texts, with little regard to the significance of the different media, and so it is frequently the case that completely unequal phenomena are brought into comparison, and more apt analogues are ignored. Emphasizing that prayer--as a set of phenomena--is not a “text,” and that the textual component is only part of what constitutes prayer (and not necessarily the most important part), this paper turns attention to the material culture related to prayer in antiquity as an understudied source of data. In theory, there is a very significant difference between a textualized prayer, and a liturgical manuscript that constitutes a material artifact of prayer practice. Is it possible to distinguish between these in practice? This paper will survey the range of material culture of prayer practice in the ancient Mediterranean world, and attempt an initial taxonomy for the purposes of cross-cultural comparison.


Messianic Judaism: Jewish and/or Christian?
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Zev Farber, Project TABS - TheTorah.com

*


The Gift of Fear
Program Unit: Hebrews
Douglas Farrow, McGill University

Douglas Farrow Hebrews Section SBL x David Moffitt Mar 23 (1 day ago) to me, amy.peeler Dear Amy and Craig, Douglas Farrow just sent me the abstract for his paper in the Hebrews section entitled "The Gift of Fear" (see below). He will have to leave SBL on Monday afternoon and has asked that the session not be scheduled later than Monday morning. Hope all is well! Best, David The Gift of Fear Post-Copernican man peers into the heavens and sees grandeur and mystery but no throne of God. Neither does he recognize any purification of ta epourania. Consequently he does not understand the shaking of either earth or heaven. There is no fear of God before his eyes. He lacks the gift of fear, which (as Thomas says) exists preeminently in Christ. The kind of fear he knows is rather the kind that leads to despair, that belongs to what Kierkegaard called the sickness unto death. The lack of the former and the presence of the latter are transforming western law and culture in its own pursuit of a better country. Hebrews, then, is a tract for our times. The paper explores the theme of godly fear that is fundamental to its ethos and ethics, as counterpoint to the confidence motif, the two being mediated by the document’s ascension theology.


The Bounded Landscape: Israelite Perceptions of Space in Bible and Archaeology
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Avraham Faust, Bar-Ilan University

While massive defensive walls were characteristic of many cities in antiquity, rural settlements were in many cases unfortified. In Iron Age Israel and Judah, however, both cities and villages were surrounded by a boundary wall which separated the nucleated settlements from the surrounding areas. These villages differ from most villages that existed in the region during the Bronze Age, and also from Iron Age villages in neighboring cultures. While the existence of boundary walls can teach us a great deal about community organization and social relations, in this paper I would like to address the question why did the Israelites bounded the landscape, creating such a clear dichotomy between inside and outside, and between human habitation and the surrounding areas? Notably, a similar perception of space, including a sharp dichotomy between places of human habitation and the countryside, is reflected in the (biblical) Hebrew language as well as in various texts, and this seems to fit nicely into an analysis of other traits of material culture. Thus, the archaeological evidence, when examined in tandem with the period's textual sources, enables us to gain some important insights into ancient Israel's world-views and perceptions of space.


Traces of Reading in the Writing of Early Qur'anic Manuscripts
Program Unit: The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism (IQSA)
Alba Fedeli, University of Birmingham

Early Qur’anic manuscripts are mere fragments without the additional information concerning the historical context in which they were copied, about the conventions of their writing process, or the conditions of their later use. Nevertheless, in a few cases it is possible to propose conjectures about the mechanism behind both the writing process and elements added by later users, i.e. the later scribal hands. Thus, inks, erasures, and later corrections/additions can reveal the process of copying from written exemplars as well as elements of the tradition of reading the manuscripts themselves. This paper aims at presenting an interesting case in which an additional ink can reveal the perspective of a reader who added his notes to a copy of the Qur’anic text. A manuscript scattered in Birmingham, Saint Petersburg and Doha shows traces of corrections and later interventions by readers. Sometimes, it is evident that corrections were done by the original scribe cancelling or adding letters and words immediately as he worked. A second stage in the process of writing is the result of correction activity seen in the additions made in black ink. A third stage is seen in further additions in red ink. The red ink has been used not only for adding letters to the consonantal skeleton, but also for indicating vocalization by means of dots. Did the third hand make his additions in red ink with the purpose of correcting the text and its subdivisions? Was he decoding them? Was he reading/reciting the text? These are questions that will be explored as these additions are examined.


The Coptic Lexicon of the Coptic Biblical Texts
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Frank Feder, Universität Göttingen

The translation of the Coptic Bible from the LXX and the Greek New Testament is regarded as the first and most important creation of the Coptic Christian Literature. Grammar, morphology, and lexicon of these translations, as well as the huge amount of Greek loanwords, are believed to be the most typical and classical form of the Coptic language. Therefore, almost all Coptic Grammars have been based predominantly on examples from the biblical texts. However, since we have particularly among the first known attempts of biblical translations into Coptic several dialectal versions a comparison between them offers an insight into the variety of the Egyptian-Coptic language in Late Antiquity.


Defilement and Moral Discourse in the Hebrew Bible: An Evolutionary Framework
Program Unit: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Yitzhaq Feder, University of Haifa

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of disgust and notions of pollution in shaping the moral discourse of the Hebrew Bible. Modern psychological research has devoted considerable attention to both “physical”/“bodily” disgust and “moral” disgust, finding both similarities and significant differences between them. Of particular interest is the plausible evolutionary hypothesis that physiological disgust provides the phylogenetic basis for social or moral disgust. To a considerable extent, these distinctions are comparable to the different categories of pollution which have been identified in the Hebrew Bible, specifically the distinction between so-called “ritual” and “moral” impurities. It will be argued that the evolutionary framework employed for the study of disgust can shed light on the role of pollution beliefs in shaping moral discourse in ancient Israel. Some key questions to be addressed include: Is moral disgust/ pollution “metaphorical” (and what are the implications of such a designation)? How do biological constraints serve as motivating forces governing this role of pollution beliefs in moral discourse? In other words, how are we to explain the phenomenon characterized by Louis Dumont as “the eruption of the biological into social life”? Finally, what are the limitations of the evolutionary framework? These considerations will then be applied to a test-case: the narrative describing the “defilement” of Dinah (Genesis 34) and the violent response of her brothers in decimating the village of Shechem. In previous research, the different views of intermarriage reflected in the text have been interpreted as reflecting an ambivalent author or multiple literary sources or layers. In many cases, these interpretations are more indicative of the moral and political biases of the reader than the ideology reflected by the text. These issues can be elucidated by the Moral Foundations Theory of Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues. As will be shown, this theory can clarify the divergent moral voices expressed in the story as well as the correlation between pollution, ethnicity and violence reflected in it. It can also shed light on the moral dispositions of modern readers of this disputed text.


Reassessing Josephus' View of Kingship
Program Unit: Josephus
Jacob Feeley, University of Pennsylvania

In this paper, I argue that although Josephus had serious and sophisticated reservations about monarchical rule as a form of government, he also had a concept of the ideal king, and that a key component of this concept can be found in his discussion of kings and virtue. Josephus’ views on kingship, therefore, are nuanced and complex. Scholars (e.g., Spilsbury, 1998; Mason, 2003; Rogers, 2009; Eckhardt, 2013) who have addressed Josephus’ view of kingship tend to characterize him as anti-king. Typically, they base their claims on two sections of Antiquities (e.g., Ant. 4.222-23 and Ant. 8.35-44) in which Josephus interprets two well-known “anti-monarchical” Biblical passages (Deut. 17.14-20 and 1 Sam. 8.4-22), and expresses a preference for a priestly-led politeia over a monarchy. Much of Josephus’ negative and positive views of kingship are embedded in his numerous narrative accounts of kings’ actions. These accounts, underutilized for assessing Josephus’ complex view of monarchy, offer penetrating critiques of kingship. Josephus draws extensively from the Greek and Roman concept of tyranny and, in doing so, exposes the flaws of monarchical rule. These same accounts, however, emphasize a set of standard Greek and Roman royal virtues as key determinants for “good” kings. Josephus’ discussion of these royal virtues indicates that he had a concept of ideal kingship, and thus could envision monarchical rule as beneficial. The first section of my paper develops and elaborates upon previous scholarly assessments of Josephus’ anti-monarchical stance. I argue that Josephus’ pro-priestly bias was not the only factor that accounted for his ambivalence towards kingship. As I demonstrate, Josephus was fully aware that kings easily turned into tyrants because they had unlimited power and therefore were “unaccountable” (anupeuthunos). Moreover, Josephus drew extensively from Greek and Roman conceptions of tyranny in his narratives of kings, which attests to his awareness that monarchical rule was a fundamentally unstable and unreliable form of government. The second section demonstrates that despite Josephus’ misgivings about kingship, he had a concept of ideal kingship in which the Classical virtues played a key component. I illustrate this with Josephus’ discussion of two royal virtues: clemency (epieikeia, philanthropia) and generosity (philanthropia, philotimia, euergesia, megalopsychia), both important royal attributes in Hellenistic and Roman discussions of kingship. I provide a selection of examples in which Josephus repeatedly emphasizes the importance of these two virtues for kings, and also demonstrates how these virtues enable kings to govern in the interests of their subjects. The virtues I discuss form just one component of Josephus’ broader view of kingship, but they demonstrate that Josephus had a well-developed concept of the ideal king. My findings show that Josephus’ views of kingship are more nuanced than have previously been recognized. He was not only opposed to kingship because he favored a priestly-led politeia; he understood the fundamental weaknesses in monarchical rule. On the other hand, it is too simplistic to label him anti-monarchic, since he thought seriously about how kings could effectively and responsibly govern their subjects.


Egypt and Israel: From Ramses II to Ramses VI
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Peter Feinman, Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education

This paper seeks to understand the history of Israel from its origins in the time of Rames II to the withdrawal of Egypt from the land of Canaan in the time of Ramses VI. It seeks to bring together the archaeological evidence which would contribute to the story even if the Bible did not exist combined with the biblical texts about the same events. To do so, it draws on the works of: 1. Nadav Na’aman who commented on the 350 years of Egyptian imperialism in the land of Canaan an wondered about the Israelite reference to it 2. Donald Redford who stated that after the Battle of Kadesh, Canaanites knew that Ramses II could be beaten but ignored the Canaanites in Egypt. 3. Richard Friedman who suggested that the violent Levites participated in an exodus from Egypt but ignored the warriors from the beyond the river who were in Egypt. 4. Mark Leuchter who posited the Songs of Deborah and Sea derive from early Israelite history. 5. Adam Zertal who identified Mount Ebal as a place where early Israel met. 6. Jacob Wright who stressed the importance of songs of commemoration but ignored the early history of Israel and Ebal. The intention is to propose an historical reconstruction for the emergence of Israel in history consistent with the archaeological information in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE.


Redefining Affliction (inuy): The Role of the Senses of Taste, Sight, and Touch and the Relationship between Them in a Babylonian Talmud Aggadic Midrash
Program Unit: Midrash
Yonatan Feintuch, Bar-Ilan University

A biblical verse in Deuteronomy defines the years of the Israelites’ wondering in the wilderness using the term affliction (inuy), and referring specifically to the Israelites’ feeding on the manna during those years (Deuteronomy 8:16). An aggadic exegesis of this verse by two amoraim serves as the starting point of a lengthy aggadic-midrashic unit in the tractate Yoma in the Babylonian Talmud (spanning roughly four pages in the standard printed editions of the Babylonian Talmud (74b-76a)). Most of this aggadic unit consists of a collection of midrashim on the manna that was provided to the Israelites in the wilderness. At first glance it appears difficult to pinpoint one consistent organizing principle in this lengthy talmudic unit, apart from the fact that most of the material in it belongs to the genre of aggadic midrash, and expounds various biblical verses relating to the manna. However, a closer reading of the first few passages (74b-75a) allows one to identify that they carry a few more specific common themes, in addition to the manna, and that the various senses – especially sight, taste and touch, and the relationships between them, play dominant roles in the discussions and exegeses in those passages. This paper discusses those passages and the attiuted toward those senses that are mentioned in them. In this paper I would like to claim that at least the abovementioned opening passages may be read together as one thematic unit, in which the different senses play a larger role in creating a wider picture – defining the concept of affliction – with regarding to the experience of eating the manna, as well as in the context of another physical activity – sexual relations. Furthermore, I claim that in the even wider context, that of the talmudic sugya in which these midrashim are embedded, these midrashim, put together, redefine the concept of affliction on Yom Kippur, vis-à-vis a very different definition that arises from a proximate halakhic midrash that precedes the aggadic midrash in the sugya, and expounds, inter alia, a similar verse from the same chapter in Deuteronomy (8:3). I will begin my discussion of the abovementioned texts by briefly outlining the wider talmudic context of the lengthy aggadic unit and the circumstances of its embedment in its present location in the Babylonian Talmud. Next I will closely examine the abovementioned aggadic-midrashic passages, and will discuss the role that the various senses play in each passage, and in the general context of the unit, with respect to the shaping of the experience of eating the manna. Finally, I will present the role that the exegetical discussions under discussion play in the wider context of the talmudic sugya, defining the concept of affliction, in the wilderness and on Yom Kippur.


The Enlightenment, Deism, and the “Painful Prick” of the Second Advent Expectation
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Tucker Samson Ferda, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

New Testament scholars have only begun to investigate the impact of Enlightenment rationalists and Deists on the so-called Quest of the Historical Jesus. But it is being increasingly realized that the modern Quest did not exactly begin with Herman Reimarus in 1778, as Albert Schweitzer had proposed. Instead, Reimarus and other early questers were shaped in important ways by earlier discussions, and sometimes unwittingly. This paper contends that that is perhaps nowhere more evident than in their reception of an earlier disdain for certain apocalyptic or eschatological traditions in the New Testament, such as the notion of the Second Advent of Christ. In their polemic against orthodox Christianity, thinkers such as Charles Blount, Anthony Collins, Thomas Woolston, Matthew Tindal, Thomas Morgan, and Peter Annett, among others, all had disparaging things to say about the Second Advent idea. And they all voiced their opinion with a similar interpretive technique: they attributed the Second Advent traditions in the New Testament to the disciples of Jesus, who either misunderstood or blatantly misrepresented their master’s true intentions. Moreover, these thinkers would often link the doctrine of the Second Advent with what they called “carnal Jewish messianism,” politicism, and violence—all things that they believed were far from Jesus’ ethical message of the Kingdom of God. I submit that the 19th century Quest, knowingly or not, simply repeated these arguments, and even in current scholarship, I argue, it is common to find descriptions of the Second Advent idea that highlight the violent or militant nature of it. This paper also discloses a palpable irony to this history of interpretation: many of these pre-Reimarus rationalists and Deists were interested primarily in the Christian doctrine of the Second Advent. That is, they were not interested, as later critics were, in the reconstruction of Christian origins for its own sake. Thus, most understood and criticized the Second Advent “doctrine” as it had been constructed via harmonizing various New Testament witnesses. It is precisely this harmonization that makes sense of the common characterization of the violent or militant return of Christ: a notion which is not found in the Synoptics, but rather Revelation, where Christ, with his robe dipped in blood, returns to earth on a white horse to strike down the nations and tread the winepress of God’s wrath (Rev. 19:11-16). Thus, the later Quest for Jesus, which expressly forbid (at least in word) uncritical “harmonies” of New Testament texts, was nevertheless influenced in its understanding of the Second Advent by a prior harmonistic interpretation.


Space for Moral Agency in the Book of Ruth
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Danna Nolan Fewell, Drew University

As moral agents, the characters in the book of Ruth operate under pronounced circumstantial constraints. Examining how characters’ speeches project a ‘self’ that ‘answers the glance of the other’ (Monika Fludernik), and utilizing Michel de Certeau’s notion of narrative’s spatial syntax, this paper examines how geographical, social, and bodily spaces encourage and discourage certain self-identifications and actions and how the crossing of, and tactical behaviors within, these spatial boundaries inform our perceptions of moral agency. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of ‘event-ness’ also contributes to our understanding of how the book’s plotting of human behavior invites further moral reflection.


From Paul's Letter Collection to the Euthalian Apparatus: An Archival Perspective on Pauline Paratexts
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Gregory Fewster, University of Toronto

Several recent studies evidence a renewed interest in the Euthalian apparatus of the Pauline letters. The goal of this paper is to contextualize the emergence and ideological function of these paratextual materials. Building off the recent work of Eric Scherbenske, who argues that Pauline paratexts contribute to direct the interpretation of a canonized Paul, I propose that a canonized Paul is best considered as a particular moment of what I call Paul’s letter archive, a category benefitting from some recent and important shifts in archival theory and textual scholarship. Paul’s letters as an archive provides a material and conceptual site to evaluate the dynamics of three archival moments: collection, corpus, and canon, which have formerly received insufficient articulation. I argue that each of these archival moments comprise differing construals of authorship, authority, and textual unity. Euthalian paratexts perform a canonical function for the interpretation and use of the Pauline letter archive and my analysis attempts to foreground this canonical function in relation to the dynamics of collection and corpus.


The Ritual Process in 1 Corinthians 5
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Finny Abrhaam, Graduate Theological Union

Rituals can be grounded in many things, including but not limited to matters of the human bodies, the environment, cultural traditions and social processes. Rather than affirming one’s social status, rituals have the ability to transform a person by taking the subject across social boundaries. Arnold van Gennep, a premier in the field of ritual studies, argues that rituals are “rites of passage” or a “transition” that is required for the transformation of a person. Rituals not only draw boundaries around social spaces, they clearly identify those spaces as being in or out, good or bad, sacred or profane, clean or polluted, etc. In this paper I will attempt to do a ritual analysis of 1 Corinthians 5 to show that Paul’s rhetoric of punishment for the sinner follows a three stage transformative process (both for the sinner and the community) of separation, liminality and aggression, as proposed by Victor Turner. Following an analysis of Paul’s use of punishment language in 1 Corinthians, I will use Victor Turner’s model of ritual process to argue that Paul’s rhetoric of punishment can be seen as a ritual of transformation for the sinner and the community from impurity to purity.


Rereading the Qur'an—Challenging Traditional Authority: Political Implications of Contemporary Qur'an Scholarship
Program Unit: Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
Rahel Fischbach, Georgetown University

My paper explores how historical-critical approaches to the Qur'an are tied to a liberal secular political vision for society. As a case study, I will focus on the Lebanese thinker Wajih Qansu whose recent work al-Na?? al-dini fi'l-Islam offers a rigorous critique of the interpretative framework in which traditional Qur'an interpreters operate. By partially deconstructing the Qur'an, Qansu hopes to develop a fruitful reformed interpretation of the text. Based on print media, interviews, and broadcast media, I will situate his work in the broader framework of contemporary discussions about applying historical critique to the Qur'an among Muslim thinkers, principally among traditionally trained Shi'ite clerics. Qansu’s view that the Qur'an is a “drama of revelation” posits the Qur'an “as text,” a claim that has become particularly in vogue in (Western) Qur'an scholarship. My paper seeks to question this hermeneutical turn. What would be the “text” of the Qur'an? Its linguistic structure, its material constitution, a kind of meta-text which refers to its overall meaning? What is implied in reading the Qur'an as text, and, moreover, as a historical text? For Qansu, the deconstruction of the Qur'an serves to arrive at a more authentically Islamic Qur'anic meaning; the tool for liberating the Qur'an is history. Simultaneously, his approach implicitly challenges the monopoly of the traditional clerical establishment over Qur'anic interpretation who react accordingly. I will demonstrate that the political implications of Qansu's hermeneutics are the main reason for traditionally trained clerics to reject such a reading of the Qur'an. I suggest that to read the Qur'an as literature or historical document presupposes not only a change in epistemology and method, but a change in how language and speech are viewed, and how subject and object relate to each other in that process.


The 'Truth' of the Body: Jeremiah's Authentication as a Prophet by His Suffering
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Georg Fischer, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck

Jeremiah’s suffering exceeds everything that is reported about the trials of other prophets: he is imprisoned, beaten, tortured, in danger of death … His book, at the same time, describes more than any other biblical scroll conflicts with his colleagues as prophets: Pashhur, those in Babylon among the exiles, Hananiah, and others not mentioned by name, as in Jer 6:13–14; 14:13–18; 23:9–40, etc. These two foci of the Book of Jeremiah may be linked: Jeremiah’s suffering seems to have a specific role, namely to ‘prove’ the authenticity of his predication and divine commissioning against the claim of his prophetic colleagues. Jeremiah’s body thus becomes a ‘battlefield’, he is caught in the ‘crossfire’ between God’s protection (e.g. his assurance in Jer 1:19) and human attacks. This emphasis on the physical dimension of prophetic existence in Jer appears to be a new feature; it is probably based on the Servant Songs of the Book of Isaiah.


Binoculars or Microscope: The Different Perspectives of Ezekiel and Jeremiah on the Fall of Jerusalem
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Georg Fischer, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck

The only two prophets who are explicitly said to have lived through the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE are Ezekiel and Jeremiah. They present this event, however, in two markedly different ways, taking very distinct viewpoints. Ezekiel, who is informed about it only about five months after the event, describes the capture of Jerusalem from afar, as if through binoculars. Jeremiah, an actual participant in the events, scrutinizes the reasons for them, and the background to them, in great and precise detail, as if through a microscope, extensively relating the various positions and happenings. These diverse presentations mirror the respective characteristics of the Books of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and they reveal much about their theologies, too.


Mythic Cartography: The Righteous Loci of the Latin Apocalypse of Paul
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Amy Marie Fisher, University of Toronto

Despite its relative obscurity in today’s world, the Latin Apocalypse of Paul (Vis. Paul) was extremely popular in both early and Medieval Christianity, translated into numerous languages, existed in multiple recensions, and delineated the form of a Christian apocalypse for hundreds of years. As such, this archetype’s depiction of the heavens is the ideal case study for explicitly Christian depictions of the heavens in antiquity. In this paper I look at the way mythic sites from the past are redeployed in Vis. Paul as sites for the emplacing of righteous souls. This redeployment marks a departure from earlier descriptions of the mythic sites of the heavens as proof of the veracity of the prophecies that an adept received in the heavens. One sees in Vis. Paul a move away from the careful mapping of the heavens and the various mythic topoi of the past for a focus on the places of people who were contemporaries of the apocalypse. The apocalypse, then, is not a display of the wonders of heaven, but a pedagogical tool to catalogue all the sorts of righteous Christians in the world and their locus in the hereafter.


Early Greek Economic Thought
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
John Fitzgerald, University of Notre Dame

Beginning with Homer and Hesiod, various authors offer insights into early Greek economic practice and thought. This paper provides an overview of the major findings regarding early Greek economic performance and theory.


Ezekiel 7:3–11: An Oracle of Texts
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
John P. Flanagan, Universiteit Leiden

This paper will examine the textual problems associated with Ezekiel 11:16-19. Emphasis will be given to the individual readings of each text witness and their contribution to understanding the MT. A text-critical methodology will be proposed in which each of the translations will be understood as versions in their own right. Ezekiel 11:16-19 will also be examined for its contribution to both the textual development of Ezekiel and the book’s literary growth.


Why You Should Love Your Enemies: Examining Motive Clauses in 'Counsels of Wisdom'
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Denise Flanders, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

The biblical book of Proverbs contains the admonition to do good to one’s enemies. Proverbs 25:21-22 says, “If your enemy hungers, feed him bread, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” As commentators often note, a strikingly similar proverb is found in the Egyptian text The Instruction of Amenemope. In §2 5.1-6 it is advised that if an evil person is drowning, the one witnessing it should help him; “Raise him up, give him your hand; leave him in the hands of God. Fill his belly with your own bread, that he may be sated and ashamed.” It is generally accepted that the book of Proverbs has in some way been influenced by Amenemope and this passage provides an example. However, the motif of returning good for evil is not exclusive to these two texts. It is found elsewhere in both the Bible (e.g. Lev 19:18; Ex 23:4; Matt 5:44-48; Rom 12:17-21) and Egyptian wisdom literature (e.g. Papyrus Insinger 23.6 and The Instruction of Ptahhotep 74-77). Furthermore, outside of the biblical and Egyptian texts, a lengthy admonition to return good for evil is found in an Akkadian wisdom text, a text which merits more attention than it has thus far received. The “Counsels of Wisdom” is one of a few number of preserved Mesopotamian collections of proverbial instruction and admonition. It is written in Akkadian and may date to the Kassite period (16th – 12th century BCE). In it, the author exhorts the hearer (“my son”), “Do not return evil to the man who disputes with you; Requite with kindness your evil-doer, maintain justice to your enemy, Smile on your adversary,” (lines 41-44). Unlike in Proverbs and Amenemope, however, the motivation given for such an action is not revenge; the hearer should do good and not evil to his enemy simply because “(Evil) is not agreeable to the gods, Evil is an abomination to Marduk,” (lines 47-48). This paper closely examines the motivation given in “Counsels of Wisdom” for doing good to one’s enemy and engages it in a comparison with the reason given for the same action in Proverbs 25:22. Additionally, it investigates the reasons provided by the author for doing anything which is advised in “Counsels of Wisdom.”


Commitment Mechanisms in the Book of Daniel: Fostering Loyalty in Antiquity and the Terrorist Present
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Frances Flannery, James Madison University

Concentrating on the Book of Daniel, this paper shows how commitment mechanisms function to inspire loyalty in both peaceful and violent apocalyptic groups, whether in antiquity or in the present day. A sustainable community requires the loyalty of its members. The study of commitment mechanisms in utopian communities can shed light on how group leaders foster loyalty in apocalyptic communities. Kanter (1968, 1972) postulated that commitment mechanisms adhere members’ self-identity to social organizational levels (continuance, cohesian, control), while Burke and Reitzes (1991) argued that such mechanisms bind self-identity to ideology. Both may be true. In part one of this paper, I show that Daniel contains a fictionalized account of actual commitment mechanisms that worked to secure loyalty in the Jewish diaspora to a utopian ideal of Judaism. We can postulate the effect of these commitment mechanisms because while “all we have is text,” it is an apocalyptic text that succeeded in becoming canon through a rabbinical process that rejected all other apocalyptic textual contenders. In part two of this paper, I look at some surprising, modern theological interpretations of the book of Daniel conducted by terrorists. Groups surveyed include the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord, a Christian identity terrorist group that conceived of the Oklahoma City bombing, and some contemporary Muslim apocalyptic interpreters who are favored by Al Qaeda. These interpreters not only use updated, violent theological interpretations of Daniel to secure the loyalty of their members, they also draw on the same commitment mechanisms that appealed to ancient audiences.


Prophet Books in House-Based Scribal Schools
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Daniel Fleming, New York University

Although much Mesopotamian writing has been found in palaces and temples, it has become clear that training in the scribal craft often took place in private houses, where the skill was transmitted in an intimate circle of family and apprenticeship. The household setting of cuneiform schooling is especially visible in the Old Babylonian edubba or “tablet house,” but similar situations are found elsewhere, as with the diviner’s archive at Emar in Late Bronze Syria. The house as location for schooling and the production of texts by master scribes has not drawn the attention it merits in discussion of biblical composition and transmission. In particular, this social framework could help explain the peculiar phenomenon of books defined by the name and work of individual prophets while displaying evidence of work by different hands across considerable time, maintaining the importance of coherence in a single document. This character is most striking in the long books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, where both the complexity and the unified result are equally present. My goal is to offer a first elaboration of this hypothesis, with particular reference to Isaiah and Jeremiah. Both books are the products of learned scribes, sophisticated in their application of language and literary form, launching projects of social and religious opinion-making through an innovative written vehicle. We find in them repeated reference to teaching and learning, once in Isaiah 8:16 with explicit reference to the prophet’s students. It may be that early production and reproduction of the Bible’s long prophet books took place in individual house-based schools that maintained identification with the founding figure – and identified their work with the maintenance and constant renovation of the house book.


Rethinking Abigail of Carmel: From Woman of Valor to Shrewd Diplomat
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Erin Fleming, Johns Hopkins University

David’s wife Abigail has been interpreted as a representation of the “woman of valor” (’ešet ?ayil) described in Proverbs 31:10-31 while her first husband Nabal is regarded as the proverbial fool. The story of David’s marriage to Abigail is presented as a moralistic tale in 1 Samuel 25; however, the view of Abigail as an ’ešet ?ayil falters in several areas. For instance, Proverbs 31 downplays beauty (31:30) whereas Abigail is described as both intelligent and beautiful (1 Sam 25:3). Also, even though Abigail saves her household from David’s retaliation, Nabal hardly praises Abigail’s actions (cf. Prov 31:28), nor does he earn a good reputation because of Abigail (cf. Prov 38:23). Instead of the ‘model wife,’ in 1 Samuel 25 Abigail is depicted as an astute and effective diplomat who persuades David to change his course of action and also predicts his future kingship. My paper will ultimately focus on the complex web of distinct gender, class, and potentially ethnic relationships that underlie the story of David’s marriage to Abigail. Abigail’s position as the widow of a wealthy, powerful Calebite benefits David and advances him on his rise to power. As David’s wife, Abigail prepares him for kingship by providing him with wealth and an alliance to a powerful clan located near Hebron, where David is declared king (2 Sam 2:4). Within the larger David narrative, it is surprising that though Abigail’s constituency is not connected to Saul or Israel, David’s marriage to Abigail seems to set him up to dominate the south. Rethinking the portrayal of Abigail of Carmel within the David narrative will provide insight into conceptions of gender, class, and ethnicity present within the biblical writers’ historical-cultural remembering of King David.


Accusations of Sexual Misconduct in the David Narrative
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Erin Fleming, Johns Hopkins University

Three times in the David narrative a person is accused of a sexual, or sexually-charged, offense: Ishba‘al, king of Israel, accuses his military commander Abner of having sexual relations with Rizpah, his father Saul’s former consort (2 Sam 3:6-11); David’s wife Michal publicly denigrates David after he leads a cultic procession, implying that he has exposed himself indecently (2 Sam 6:16; 20-23); and King Solomon accuses his half-brother Adonijah of attempting to usurp the throne when Adonijah requests marriage to David’s former “attendant” Abishag (1 Kgs 2:13-25). In each episode, the accusation is initially presented in sexual language but responded to in political terms. That these situations are inherently political is not lost on any of the characters within the narratives, and in each case the accusation arguably represents an attempted power check against the (supposedly) offending party. Moreover, each accusation is set shortly after a significant shift in power has occurred, and the outcome of each accusation has considerable political consequences within the David narrative. This paper will argue that these three episodes about accusations of sexual misconduct serve the strategic literary purposes of the David narrative by providing explanations for political fallout between particular characters while simultaneously defending the moral stature of the kings David and Solomon. Through stories of sexual accusations, the writers of the David narrative choose to represent the past in a particular manner, and a literary analysis of these texts provides a better understanding of the historiographical nature of certain portions of the overall David narrative. An examination of accusations of sexual misconduct in the David narrative elucidates conceptions of political hegemony and royal ideology in ancient Israel and Judah as preserved in the historical-cultural remembering of the most celebrated biblical king.


Neo-Apocalypse-Noir: Using Film Noir to Reapproach the Book of Revelation’s Genre
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Michelle Fletcher, King's College - London

Whether the book of Revelation is really an apocalypse is still a contested issue. Whilst it lies at the heart of scholarly apocalypse understanding, it does not sit comfortably alongside other apocalypses: it is different. This paper offers a lens to understand and explain its difference by using Film Noir as a generic comparison. Film Noir is one of Hollywood’s most notorious and recognisable genres: a group of films awash with dark streets, moody lighting, sex, violence, drifters, and Femme Fatales. However, as Richard Dyer points out “the makers of Detour, Double Indemnity, Gun Crazy and The Postman Always Rings Twice did not know that they were making Film Noirs.” This categorisation was retrospectively placed upon a body of films to construct the genre as we understand it today. This paper brings the theory surrounding Film Noir’s retrospective categorisation into dialogue with the scholarly awareness of apocalypse. It will begin by asking how modern scholarship developed an awareness of apocalypse as a literary genre, given that the concept was not discussed prior to the nineteenth century. This will reveal the central role played by the book of Revelation. It will then show how the construction of Film Noir came about by re-viewing past films through the lens of Neo-Noir. Next, Revelation will be brought into dialogue with Neo-Noirs such as Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) and Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat (1981) to show how these texts act as lenses through which past texts are viewed in a fresh light. In doing so venetian blinds, saxophone music and Femme Fatales will explain afresh Revelation’s presentation of apocalyptic sensibilities, combined forms, and revealing/concealing dialectic. This will show that Neo-Noirs and Revelation act as both genre definers and defiers through their exaggeration, cutting, and foregrounding of past texts. Ultimately, it will conclude that whenever the destruction of the world is declared key to apocalypse it is more than likely this is because scholarship is forever coloured by the neo-apocalypse-noir that is Revelation.


"De/coding the Apocalypse": Contemporary Artistic Insights into the Past, Present, and Future of the Book of Revelation
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Michelle Fletcher, King's College - London

What new insights into the Apocalypse can be gained by interdisciplinary collaboration? This paper discusses the outcome of a collaborative project which focused on uniting biblical scholarship and cutting edge artistic practices to re-present the Book of Revelation for the digital age. "De/coding the Apocalypse" was the result, an art exhibition which visual artist Michael Takeo Magruder produced in in dialogue with King’s College London’s Theology and Religious Studies department. Displayed in London’s Somerset House, the exhibition presented five installations exploring Revelation through leading edge technology including virtual reality, real-time data, 3D printing, computer-generated barcodes and video games. However, this was not a predictable ‘visions of the future’ exhibition, but something far more slippery, described by the artist not as “destruction” but as “an unveiling” of the text. Each room was based upon a scholarly essay on an aspect of the Book: its reception history, cultural heritage, use of HB texts and theology. The insights into the text offered from this were ground-breaking, as Takeo’s artistic creations fused advanced technological systems with traditional artistic forms ranging from painting and sculpture to engraving and weaving, creating a tension between the past of the text and the future it looks into. One of the five scholars involved in the realisation of the exhibition will present the paper, giving a ‘hands on’ reflection of the academic and artistic processes. Each room and the scholarship behind it will be discussed. The paper will then move onto the interpretative insights which this experience has provided for scholarship on Revelation, and how such visual re-imaginings can alter how we view the Apocalypse. Finally, a review of the importance of such collaborative projects will be offered, outlining the tensions and the creative processes behind the end result. An introduction to the exhibition can be viewed here: http://www.crane.tv/apocalypse-now.


Echoes in the Praetorium: Place, People, and Prospects in Phlm 1:13
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Michael Flexsenhar III, The University of Texas at Austin

Since the 1990s scholars have increasingly argued that Paul wrote Philippians from Ephesos. Other scholars have maintained that he wrote from Rome, interpreting the term praetorium (Phil 1:13) as a reference to the “Praetorian Guard.” On the basis of textual, historical, archaeological, and epigraphic evidence I argue instead that praetorium in Phil 1:13 refers to a provincial, administrative building, not the “Praetorian Guard” or their barracks (Castra Praetoria) in Rome. The verse, therefore, does not suggest a Roman provenance for Philippians. But scholars arguing for an Ephesian provenance have also overlooked other possibilities for understanding praetorium as a building. Thus, I incorporate architectural and topographical plans showing the several types of buildings that the term praetorium could indicate, describe their variations and flexibility in function, and explain the implications for Paul’s civic and social context when writing to the Philippians from Ephesos, or from elsewhere in Asia Minor.


Charging Abel: A Reworking of Dale Allison’s Allusion in Matt 5:21–24
Program Unit: Matthew
Dallas Flippin, Marquette University

In 2005, Dale Allison used reception history and intertextuality to propose that Matthew 5:21-24 is an allusion to Genesis 4:1-16, the Cain and Abel pericope. Allison’s reading of Matthew 5:21-24 identifies Cain as the person at the altar who needs to reconcile with his brother. Allison concludes that the allusion provides rhetorical support for Jesus’s enlarging of the penalty for anger, causes the reader revulsion from what Jesus condemns through an association with Cain, and identifies the person at the altar as the guilty party. Unfortunately, Allison’s proposal for the allusion has not received apt consideration. The paper seeks to revive and augment Allison’s proposal through an analysis of point-of-view in Matthew 5:23-24. The paper maintains Allison’s claim that the text is an allusion to Genesis 4, but reorients the perspective and purpose of the allusion. Reading the allusion from the perspective of Abel, and not Cain, renders the point-of-view of the account more intelligible and suggests a more significant outcome. Jesus’s expansion of the prohibition of murder to include anger does not only indict Cain for murder and for anger. In addition, Matthew portrays Jesus as charging Abel to make peace proactively with Cain, his angry brother. This reading suggests that Matthew 5:23-24 exemplifies the characteristic of a heightened ethic throughout the Sermon on the Mount.


The Qur'anic Conditional: Syntactic Evidence for the Periodization of the Qur'an
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Adam Flowers, University of Chicago

Of the many types of syntactic structures utilized by the Qur’an, the conditional statement is perhaps its most versatile; it is found in early Meccan through late Medinan suras and in discourses ranging from apocalyptic to legal. Among the varying ways in which the conditional statement is constructed in the Qur’an, a common type of conditional syntax consists of a protasis initiated by the particle idha (“when”); this idha- initiated conditional occurs over one hundred times in the Qur’an. Through a comprehensive catalog and analysis, the first section of this paper argues for a three-stage chronological development of the idha conditional, both in terms of its syntax, from multiverse to single-verse compositions, and the discourses in which it is employed, from apocalyptic to factual to legal. The second section of this paper explores the implications of this previously established three-stage chronological development for the periodization of the Qur’an. It argues that the evolution in the Qur’an’s usage of the idha conditional statement corroborates the division of the Qur’an into Meccan and Medinan periods of revelation, for the shift to and exponential increase in the use of the conditional in legal discourses corresponds to the shift from the Meccan to the Medinan period. Additionally, attention is given to the chronological development of specific genres of Qur’anic discourse and how further analyses of individual syntactic structures can contribute to the understanding of the chronological development of the Qur’anic revelation.


“He Was Not the Christ”: A Proposed Emendation to Josephus’ Testimonium Flavianum
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Michael Flowers, University of Manchester

In the so-called Testimonium Flavianum Josephus makes several interesting statements about Jesus, among which is: “He was the Christ.” This statement is usually seen as an interpolation by a later Christian copyist. After all, Josephus nowhere else indicates that he regarded Jesus as the Messiah. In fact, this statement has led some to dismiss the entire passage as a Christian interpolation. Yet there are good reasons for seeing the Testimonium as being at least largely Josephan in origin. It occurs in all extant manuscripts and is quoted as early as Eusebius. Several of Josephus’ idiosyncrasies come through in its style and vocabulary. One would also be quite surprised if Josephus, writing from Rome in about 94 C.E., had written nothing about Jesus or Christianity (aside from the passing remark about James in Ant. 20.200). Finally, an Arabic version omits many of the most patently Christian words and phrases, suggesting that the original Testimonium had suffered from Christian editing. Origen claims that Josephus “did not accept Jesus as the Christ” (Comm. in Matth. 10.17). This has often been taken as proof that the phrase “He was the Christ” was not original to Josephus. But the question should be asked what prompted Origen to say this in the first place. He would have hardly said it if he thought Josephus’ writings contained no references to Christ at all. Silence would have been interpreted as silence, not outright rejection. Nor is it likely that Origen and others would have refused to quote the Testimonium because it only contained neutral historical data about Jesus and Christianity. A neutral Testimonium would have still been apologetically useful (or at least interesting enough to quote) and would not have necessarily been interpreted to mean that Josephus “did not accept Jesus as the Christ”. I propose that Origen knew the Testimonium in a relatively neutral form similar to the Arabic version, except that it contained the following statement: “He was NOT the Christ.” This would explain why Origen says that Josephus “did not accept Jesus as the Christ” and why he and other early authors avoid quoting from the Testimonium. It would explain the abrupt reference to “Jesus, who was called Christ” at Ant. 20.200, a statement which seems to recall a previous use of the word “Christ” in connection with Jesus. It would explain the alternative readings in Jerome, Agapius, and Michael the Syrian. Finally, it would explain how such an obviously Christian statement could make its way into the textual tradition; for it was not a complete fabrication but only a slight modification of something that already existed. The alteration would have naturally led to a further Christianizing of the Testimonium, probably by the same scribe. Its propagation would have been ensured by the fact that it was so serviceable to early Christian apologists and so agreeable to the Christian copyists responsible for preserving Josephus’ writings.


Oral or Written? The Concept of Ezekiel’s Prophecy in the Call Narrative
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Friedrich-Emanuel Focken, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

Ezekiel’s call narrative in Ezek 1-3 develops and illustrates the concept of his prophecy contained in the book that carries his name. The call narrative takes up a complicated position between Ezekiel’s – fictive? – oral and written prophecy: It describes Ezekiel’s call to be an oral prophet. But first of all, the call narrative shows that Ezekiel will not succeed as an oral prophet: Already before Ezekiel begins to speak to the Israelites, Jhwh informs him that they will not listen to him. Jhwh generally states that this is not his concern. Instead, Jhwh commands Ezekiel to stay in his house where only few hearers will be able to listen to him. Ezekiel will be bound with cords and his tongue will stick to his palate. Only at times will Jhwh enable him to speak Jhwhs words to visitors (Ezek 2-3). Secondly, the call narrative depicts a scroll symbolizing the words of Ezekiel’s prophecy as a written text. The scroll contains the genres of lamentation, clamor, and woe. Ezekiel eats the scroll, which tastes sweet as honey (Ezek 2:8-3:3). Thirdly, the call narrative is the introduction into the book of Ezekiel as a written text. In my paper, I will analyze the position of Ezekiel’s call narrative between Ezekiel’s oral and written prophecy. I will focus on the older call narrative consisting of Ezek 1*; 2; 3:1-11, 12-13*, 14-15, 22-27. Different phrasings and motives of these verses occur in the contexts of the Gola-oriented dates in the book of Ezekiel. These parallels make it probable that the older call narrative originally was a part of the Gola-oriented version of the book. This version dates back to the second half of the sixth century B.C. In this period the function of Ezekiel’s call narrative is not to inaugurate the oral prophet but to introduce the written book. On the one hand, the call narrative uses the oral prophet inaugurated by Jhwh to legitimate this book. On the other hand, it plays down the degree of reception of Ezekiel’s oral prophecy in order to enhance the interest of the first readers in the book. They truly are among the first persons who are able to receive Ezekiel’s prophecy. After Jerusalem’s downfall in 587/6 B.C. proved the correctness of Ezekiel’s announcements, the readers of the Gola-oriented version were familiar with the historical background to adequately accept Ezekiel’s prophecy as a word of Jhwh. The enigmatic scroll depicted in the call narrative – containing the genres lamentation, clamor, and woe, but sweet as honey – is their appetizer tempting them to read or hear the rest of the book.


Is Influence of Versions on the Greek Text of the NT Possible?
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Hans Foerster, Universität Wien

The versions of the New Testament are translations from the Greek text. The text is translated from the language of origin into the target language. Thus, in principle, there is – or at least should be – no versional influence on the Greek text. However, the question has to be raised under which conditions such an influence might be at least thinkable or even possible. The intention of the paper is to describe an instance where versional influence on the Greek text of one specific passage of the New Testament is actually beyond any reasonable doubt. This example will be used in order to describe the linguistic and perceptional environment in which such an influence can arise. This might help to identify other areas where influence is detectable. The main versions to be used in this context are Latin and Coptic, however, these observations might also be pertinent to other versions.


The Semantic Web of sêmeion and Papyrology
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Hans Foerster, Universität Wien

The word sêmeion is one of the most difficult words in the Gospel of John – if not in the entire New Testament. The paper will argue that close attention to the use of this word as attested in papyrological sources might help to better understand the use of the word in the vernacular. The language of the New Testament might be closer to the vernacular than usually perceived. This, in consequence, seems to be of influence for a possible newly accentuated interpretation of the use of this word in the New Testament. It is obvious that this concerns quite a few passages in the Gospel of John.


The Diachrony Debate: A Tutorial on Methods
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
A. Dean Forbes, University of the Free State

Traditional approaches to the linguistic dating of Biblical Hebrew (“BH”) have produced many innovative results. In part because of inattention to the deleterious effects of textual noise and to the attendant problem of the overfitting of textual features to restricted texts, the results have unfortunately exhibited limited generalizability. Nonetheless, traditional research has led to useful—and improvable—contributions. Among these are Hurvitz’s set of constraints determining the admissibility of evidence (especially “accumulation”) and several detailed studies of “pilot corpora.” In recent years, approaches to strengthening and/or illuminating the results of traditional studies of diachrony in BH have been suggested. There have been proposals to consider, in addition to dates, other independent parameters in analyses, including “text type and genre, poeticality, orality, dialect, writer demographics, scribal influence, cultural status, and whether a text is a translation from another language” (Herring, van Reenen, and Schøsler, 2001, 1). Consideration of proposed conditioning variables has typically involved only marginal analyses, wherein a candidate parameter is assessed solely in its own right. Recently, a stalwart from innovation theory, the s-curve, has been taken up by a few BH diachrony aficionados. Concurrently, the methods, results, and inferences associated with traditional analyses have been questioned at length, principally by Young, Rezetko (and Ehrensvärd). In their recent opus, Rezetko and Young assert that “trying to date biblical writings…is not a legitimate objective of historical linguistics” (Rezetko & Young, 2014, 249, n. 10). As readers evaluate the arguments in their book leading to this conclusion, it is critical to understand the methods involved in their work. In the remainder of this paper, I address their methods as simply as possible. First, I consider Rezetko’s and Young’s stance regarding historical linguistics in BH and the place of linguistic dating therein. Next, I examine Rezetko’s and Young’s methods vis-à-vis the proper execution of historical linguistic investigations. Finally, as time allows, I suggest some possible ways ahead based on statistical methods designed to deal with signals embedded in noise.


Eschatology and Ethics: Basil of Caesarea's Use of Matthew in His Homilies on Wealth and Poverty
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Coleman M. Ford, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

The socio-ethical thought of the fourth-century Cappadocian fathers is a stream that continues to provide an abundance of fresh insight for readers today. Basil of Caesarea (c. 329–379) has consistently been tapped to represent a Christian perspective on wealth and poverty in late-fourth century Greco-Roman context. His homilies paint a detailed picture both of the problem (the greed and vanity of the rich), as well as the solution (a call for the wealthy to care for those in need). Though much has been discussed on Basil’s socio-ethical commitments, surprisingly little has been said regarding Basil’s theological presuppositions in his homilies on poverty and wealth. Specifically, many contemporary entries on Basil regarding his social ethics neglect to engage the eschatological facet of his teaching that arises from his use of various gospel texts. For those who have noted the eschatological connection in Basil’s social ethics, there is a considerable lack of exegetical and theological discussion. This raises some necessary questions. What were the foundations for Basil’s social ethics? Is Basil’s social paradigm driven by circumstance, theology, or something else? How might understanding Basil’s theological commitments better inform our understanding of his overall ethical paradigm? Finally, what themes emerge from Basil’s use of Scripture in regards to his ethics? I will argue that Basil’s social ethics thoroughly integrates the concept of the eschatological Kingdom of God as understood through the gospel accounts, primarily the gospel of Matthew. Contrary to modern social historical readings, Basil is motivated primarily by theological concerns, namely, the eschatological Kingdom of God. The theme of the Kingdom of God provides a compass to navigate successfully through Basil’s homilies on wealth and poverty. A more well-rounded portrayal of Basil’s social ethics will begin to emerge through an analysis of select homilies and an evaluation of secondary literature.


Employing the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies to Better Define Ancient Jewish Christianity
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Deborah Forger, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Over the years the term “Jewish-Christianity” has been employed to encompass a wide and often conflicting set of beliefs, practices, persons, and ideologies, underscoring the inherent subjectivity of the term. This paper considers how attending to early Christian exegetical practices might help to better illumine the notion of Jewish Christianity. In particular, I contrast how two fourth century CE Christian compositions, the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies (PsCl H) and John Chrystostom, made sense of Jesus’ troubling actions as told in Mark 7:24–30 and parallels. In the passage, when a distraught gentile mother approaches Jesus to solicit his aid in alleviating the torments of her demon-possessed daughter, Jesus first ignores but then ultimately humiliates here, insinuating that she was less than a human, no better than a dog. My analysis reveals that John Chrysostom and the author(s)/redactor(s) of PsCl H interpret this passage in quite different ways. While the exegesis of the prominent Gentile church leader, Chrystostom, distances Jesus’s actions from the subsequent Jews who live after him, the interpretation of the author(s)/redactor(s) of PsCl H reveals the opposite effect. Namely, for PsCl H, the gentile woman receives Jesus’s aid only after she has “converted” to a form of Judaism. I argue that these different hermeneutical responses reflect not only the concerns of the two respective authors, helping to underscore the Jewish nature of PsCl H, but also, and more significantly, that they provide a unique window into the specific way that certain Jews, in the 4th century CE, expressed their faith in Jesus. Since this expression is different than the modern construction of Jews being saved through Moses and gentile through Jesus, I further reflect upon how the PsCl H expression of Jewish Christian might inform contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue related to the interpretation of sacred texts.


Facing the Dark: The Hidden Face of God at the Jabbok River (Gen 32:22–32)
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Noel Forlini, Drew University

The identity of Jacob’s assailant at the Jabbok River (Gen.32:22-32) has traditionally been attributed to God. On the surface, the narrative strains against its own intertextual echo—“You may not see my face—for no one may see me and live” (Ex.33:20). Nevertheless, elements of the narrative militate against making definitive statements regarding the face Jacob sees. For example, the polynomialism involved obscures his identity. Jacob’s assailant is referred to as Elohim, as ish, and also referenced in the place label, Peniel. The assailant refuses to disclose his name, in Derridian terms, “saving” his name and therefore his identity (Gen.32:29). Moreover, whatever “face” Jacob sees is hidden in the darkness of the night. In this paper, I apply Derrida’s notion of krypto and Samuel Terrien’s work on the “self-concealing God” to demonstrate the duality of a God hidden in darkness and also in plain sight. The episode at the Jabbok accords with Hebraic theology regarding divine hiddenness—God engages in active and sustained hiding, which emphasizes divine freedom and sovereignty.


Homilies in Circulation: Producers and Readers of Syriac Homily Collections in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Philip Michael Forness, Princeton Theological Seminary

The fifth and sixth centuries witnessed the flowering of Syriac homilies. Syriac stylists composed large corpora of homilies, and translation efforts led to an influx of homiletical materials from Greek authors. They remain key texts for understanding late antique biblical exegesis, the spread of complex ideas to wide audiences, and cultural exchange between Greek and Syriac communities. This presentation will address two questions about this genre: (1) How did late antique Syriac communities understand homilies? (2) Why were homilies preserved in such great numbers? Research on the sociology of reading in antiquity guides the approach taken to these questions, by focusing on the perspectives of the producers and readers of late antique manuscripts. Over fifty homiletical collections survive from the years between 400 and 700. The organization of these collections and their colophons serve as evidence for how producers of manuscripts thought about homilies and how readers encountered them. This analysis reveals categories that suggest common understandings of the value and purpose of homilies which led to their careful preservation. After presenting the findings on the manuscripts, the presentation turns to topics that apply more broadly to understanding readership in late antiquity. First, it examines differences and similarities between the organization of translated homilies and homilies written in Syriac. Second, it considers diachronic developments in reading practices of Syriac homilies. This final section has implications for understanding the transfer of knowledge from Greek to Syriac and the development of a unique, yet interdependent Syriac tradition in late antiquity.


“Unite the Pair So Long Disjoined”: Theological Instruction and Qualitative Research
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Benjamin K. Forrest, Liberty University

This presentation will model the potential use of Atlas.Ti, a qualitative research data analysis software, for teaching in the field of practical or pastoral theology. Qualitative research has typically been relegated to a research methodology appropriate primarily for social science research; however, in recent years practical theologians have started to embrace the value of qualitative research methods for assistance in understanding complex relationships between people and their world. Using Atlas.Ti can equip theologians interested in exploratory research methods that seek to analyze intuitive relationships between theological constructs and the way that these constructs are described, lived, and experienced in the real world. Specifically, this presentation will demonstrate how Atlas.Ti can be practically used by presenting a hypothetical study exploring the conversion experiences of women whose husbands are in the midst of ministry preparation.


Recent Trends and Future Prospects: Will We Get Any Further?
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh

This is an invited main paper, reviewing recent trends in historical Jesus research with regard to historiography, methods, and the use of criteria. The paper challenges current tendencies and suggests possible ways forward.


Greed Is Idolatry: A Proposal for Reading Eph 5:3 and Col 3:5
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Stephen Fowl, Loyola University Maryland

Ephesians 5:3 indicates that the greedy person is an idolater. Similarly, Col 3:5 identifies greed itself as idolatry. Although a number of texts from the OT and Hellenistic Judaism indicate that greed is often a precursor to idolatry, this is not what Paul says in Eph and Col. He identifies greed (or the greedy person) with idolatry. Moreover, he does so as he is discussing several other vices, none of which are identified with idolatry. Further, taking the term pleonexia in its conventional sense of desiring more than one is due, does not readily help one understand the connection to idolatry that Paul assumes in these two letters. Nevertheless, Paul’s identification of greed with idolatry is offered without any real explanation, as if he assumed its ready intelligibility. This paper will try to explicate a way of relating greed to idolatry that makes sense of what Paul claims, displaying a form of theological reasoning that can lead one to identify greed with idolatry. To do this, I will offer an understanding of greed within the context of a doctrine of creation as a gift of fellowship with God. Grabbing for more than is offered in creation, as the first humans do, effectively rejects God’s offer of fellowship in favor of something that it not God. Hence, greed becomes idolatry. On this account, the appropriate alternative to a greedy response to God’s offer of fellowship is thanksgiving. Although, I cannot demonstrate that Paul himself operated with this specific account of creation, it is striking that Paul’s identification of greed with idolatry in Col 3 is embedded in a context that is rich with reflections on and instructions about thanksgiving, a context that seems to be assumed, but less explicit in Eph.


Decentering Paul, Contextualizing Crimes
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Arminta Fox, Drew University

Interacting with previous scholarship on Roman imprisonment and Paul’s letters (Cassidy 2001; Wansink 1996; Rapske 1994), this paper uses a feminist decentering approach to consider the ways discourses of freedom and captivity function within Paul’s letters. This approach to Paul’s constructions of himself and others as both apostle and prisoner challenges common binaries in the American criminal justice system that focuses on individuals rather than understanding crimes within a context of complex socio-political dynamics. In several places throughout the letters of Paul, Paul identifies himself or other apostles as a prisoner (Philem 1:1, Ph 1:12-18, 2 Cor 6:5, 11:23, Col 4:3, 18, Eph 3:1, 4:1). In one example from Romans 16:7, Paul sends greetings to his kinsfolk in the Roman community, Andronicus and Junia. This male and female pair is identified as a set of prominent apostles who spent time in prison with Paul. What happens when we think these factors together? How does an identification as a “prisoner” relate to the identification as a “prominent apostle”? Prisons construct boundaries, and are designed to separate certain individuals from the rest of society. Prisons separate criminals from the innocent, and captives from the free. They separate men from women, and adults from the young. There is no third space in the eyes of the criminal justice system. Because of these divisions, forming partnerships with inmates is an unusual experience. In Drew Theological School’s Partnership for Religion and Education in Prisons (PREP) program, theological school students cross the boundaries and create a third space in the classroom. My experiences with this complex partnership challenge the assumptions society holds about prisoners and prisons. The women in these classes are not merely criminals, but are thoughtful, caring, and creative individuals. Most of them were victims of crimes before they became perpetrators. Seeing the humanity of these women in such a dehumanizing place can be constructive for interpreting Paul’s prisoner rhetoric. How might the multiplicity of identity markers, as both prisoner and apostle, mentioned in Romans 16:7 and throughout Paul’s letters, challenge assumptions about prisons and their boundaries? Feminist scholarship has challenged scholars of Paul’s letters to decenter Paul and turn the focus onto early Christ communities as sites of complex debate and perspectival difference (Schüssler Fiorenza, 2007; Johnson-DeBaufre and Nasrallah 2010). Rather than being treated as either a hero or a villain, Paul must be placed within a network of others who are negotiating various discourses of empire, race, gender, class, etc. Such an approach can also be constructive for reconceptualizing captive prisoners today. As the complex problem of mass incarceration continues to devastate American lives and society, the individuals who are caught committing crimes are vilified or, in particular moments, idealized. This paper’s interpretation of Paul’s imprisonment rhetoric asserts that the boundaries upon which the current criminal justice system is based should be re-examined. In particular, rather than vilifying or idealizing particular individuals in the wake of crimes, these individuals and their actions should be placed in broader social systems and power dynamics.


Rereading My Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Michael Fox, University of Wisconsin-Madison

My paper speaks about the aims of my Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs. I summarize my approach and findings and give special attention to one song (“The Stroll,” in pChester Beatty I) as an example of the way I identify and read complex, the muli-stanza songs. I consider what we can know about the relationship between the Egyptian Songs and the Song of Songs. Was the Song a descendent of the Egyptian songs, or did it receive motifs from various traditions, including Egypt, or were the similarities engendered by common topic? Literary comparison, even if there is no demonstrable “genetic” relationship,” can enhance our understanding of both groups of the songs.


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

This paper will argue that Wisdom Literature (including Egyptian) does not include revelation as a source of knowledge prior to Ben Sira. By “Wisdom Literature” I mean, first of all, didactic texts, such as Proverbs, Qohelet, and Amenemope, a genre which is well titled “Ethical Instructions” in New Kingdom Egyptian texts. Even when the Wisdom is broadened to include Job, revelation is not a source of knowledge. The absence of revelation is not due to an ideology held by authors of Wisdom but not others, but only to the constraints of the genre and its uses.


Voluntary and Involuntary Sin and the Allegory of the Soul in Philo
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Michael Francis, University of Notre Dame

In numerous passages in his exegetical works, Philo displays a pronounced interest in the distinction between voluntary and involuntary sin. Sometimes the interest appears to arise quite readily from the subject matter of the scriptural text itself. In many cases, however, the text in question shows no evident concern with the intentions of the human agent, or even the idea or phenomenon of sin. The latter cases are, quite predictably, most prevalent in Philo’s allegorical exegesis, and emerge, in a variety of ways, in relation to Philo’s programmatic concern to interpret scripture allegorically as an account of the experiences and ethical progress of the individual human soul. What motivates Philo’s interest in the distinction between voluntary and involuntary sin as it emerges as a function of the allegory of the soul? This is the question addressed in this paper. We will proceed in two stages. First, we will consider the primary ways and issues in relation to which Philo’s concern with the distinction between voluntary and involuntary sin is evident in his allegorical account of the career of the soul. We will give particular attention to Philo’s understanding of the constitution and plight of created humanity, and the psychology of human action. We will also address the ways Philo maps the distinction between voluntary and involuntary sin onto a range of characters named in the pentateuchal narrative—and, so, relates it to a spectrum of dispositions of the individual soul. Second, we will consider the significance of these findings, and that in light of the primary scriptural and extrascriptural influences on Philo’s conceptualization of different kinds of wrongdoing, and so offer an explanatory account of Philo’s allegorical concern with the distinction between voluntary and involuntary sin.


An Ancient Winery Complex at Jezreel
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Norma Franklin, University of Haifa

The Jezreel Expedition was founded in 2012 with the aim of surveying, excavating and documenting the site of greater Jezreel in the longue duree. A LiDAR scan was commissioned and a three-four square kilometer area to the west, north, and east of the tel was surveyed. More than 360 features were documented and amongst them there were 57 agricultural installations, several of which were tentatively identified as oil and wine presses. One particularly impressive installation was recently excavated and recognised as an early winery. is there a connection between it and the story of Naboth in 1 Kings 21?


Finding Lazarus in a Demoniac's Tomb
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Daniel Frayer-Griggs, Duquesne University

The Johannine narrative concerning the raising of Lazarus (11:17-44) exhibits a number of rarely observed lexical and conceptual links to Mark’s story of the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20). Both Lazarus and the demoniac are found in or among tombs; both of the afflicted, at one time or another, have their hands and feet restrained; both narratives contain references to “a loud voice”; both have Jesus issue the command to “come out”; and both events elicit mixed responses where some are inspired to belief while others reject Jesus. At the same time, there are such obvious differences between the two narratives that they cannot be understood as variants of the same story. This paper analyzes the aforementioned similarities (and others), deems them too numerous to be mere coincidence, and proposes a source-critical thesis that accounts for both the similarities and differences between these texts.


Reading Ezekiel on the Way to Jerusalem
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
Daniel Frayer-Griggs, Duquesne University

At three points in his Gospel, Luke makes apparent intertextual allusions to Ezekiel 20:45-47 (LXX 21:1-3). These include Jesus’ setting his face towards Jerusalem (9:51); his desire that the fire he came to cast on earth would already be kindled (12:49); and his words regarding the green tree and the dry tree (23:31). Each of these evokes the imagery of judgment by fire, while the first and the last roughly frame Luke’s travel narrative, concluding in Jerusalem as Jesus goes to the cross. As such they contribute to a better understanding of Luke’s theology of judgment as it relates to the destruction of Jerusalem as well as to Jesus’ death there. This paper analyzes the ways in which these intertextual allusions function within Luke’s narrative movement towards Jerusalem.


The Image of YHWH’s Universal Reign as Moral Compass for the Traumatized “Servants of YHWH” in Third Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Christopher Frechette, Saint Mary's University (San Antonio)

Addressing the effects of both collective and individual trauma involves interpreting the persons and events involved in the trauma, and such interpretations often carry moral implications. Processing collective trauma often involves assigning causality for the group’s suffering through negotiating contested notions of who committed certain moral violations that precipitated the suffering; when moral violations are established, moral lessons may be drawn that then shape the new social identity of the violated group. Traumatized individuals may experience moral disorientation in a variety of ways, ranging from unreasonable self-blame for the traumatic events and a diminished felt sense of dignity, to a breakdown of belief in any moral order; as individual survivors engage in interpreting past trauma they often require trusted others who can serve as a moral compass. The book of Isaiah develops the image of the universal kingship of Yhwh, and in Third Isaiah (Isa 56–66) this kingship is portrayed in terms analogous to an empire, with Jerusalem as a center dominating the other nations of the world. A central voice in Third Isaiah is that of “the servants of Yhwh,” who as a group were persecuted within the larger Jewish community and identified themselves with “the servant” of Second Isaiah (Isa 40–55). Many scholars consider Third Isaiah largely a product of the fifth century BCE, when a segment of the Jewish population in Judea was trapped in severe economic hardship by political and economic structures and was excluded from participation in the Jerusalem Temple. The present paper explores how passages in Third Isaiah that can be associated with “the Servants of Yhwh” would be consistent with the perspective of such a group. Moreover, it discusses how the group’s circumstances may be considered traumatic in that many members of this group would have experienced overwhelming suffering, and the group’s sense of identity within Israel would have been in crisis because of its relationship to the Temple establishment. Finally, it proposes that Third Isaiah employs the image of Yhwh’s universal reign in order to address the effects of such trauma in several ways. By strategically both affirming and contesting the common assumption that material wellbeing signals divine reward for right behavior, the text associates the present suffering of the servants with the favor of Yhwh as manifested in the wellbeing accorded to the servants in an unspecified future. By affirming in specific moral terms the group practices of the servants and condemning the oppressive practices of their opponents, the text establishes the identity of the servants as members of Israel in right relationship with Yhwh. By portraying the divine punishment of the servants’ oppressors as consistent with Yhwh’s larger plan to destroy oppressive empires, the text would have contested the felt lack of dignity and doubt about the possibility of a just moral order that the servants’ overwhelming suffering would have prompted.


Reconceptualizing the Development of Genesis 17 within the Priestly Work
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Aron Freidenreich, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Scholarship has reached remarkable consensus regarding Genesis 17, concluding not only that it derives from Priestly origins but also that it is central to the Priestly work. At the same time, however, two fundamental problems have been observed in the chapter, suggesting its lack of uniformity. First, Genesis 17:1-8 appears to present an unconditional covenant, yet these verses are followed by the imposition of a circumcision stipulation upon its human recipients in 17:9-14. Second, Genesis 17:23-27 emphasizes Ishmael’s circumcision in fulfillment of his covenantal responsibilities, even though he appears to be denied membership in the covenant immediately beforehand in 17:15-21. Thus Genesis 17 presents an inconsistent perspective on both the nature of the covenant (conditional versus unconditional) and the extent of its participants (inclusive versus exclusive). Because the circumcision requirement and fulfillment are implicated in both conflicts, the most common scholarly determination is that Genesis 17:9-14 and 17:23-27 represent foreign intrusions. In that case, an originally unconditional covenant that was initially limited solely to Isaac’s line was expanded to become more embracing of other Abrahamic peoples while simultaneously demanding more of its participants’ ritual performance. In this paper, I assert that this solution to the chapter’s incongruities, despite its popularity, misconstrues the text’s development and consequently misinterprets the Priestly writers’ developing views on both the Abrahamic covenant and Ishmael’s status therein. Removal of the circumcision aspects of the chapter, I will demonstrate, leaves a core text that still contains the same inconsistencies whose goal it was to avoid. Moreover, a reconstructed base text consisting of Genesis 17:1-8, 15-22 yields an unbalanced and incoherent presentation of the covenant. Rather than relegating the circumcision aspects to a secondary position, I propose that it is instead Genesis 17:15-21 that comprises the later addition to the chapter. I will argue that it is in fact these verses that create the problems in the covenant’s exposition and in its scope, directly contradicting not only Genesis 17:9-14 and 17:23-27 but also 17:1-8. The Abrahamic covenant from its very foundation entailed human responsibilities in addition to divine promises, and it initially encompassed all of the nations that would descend from Abraham, including Ishmael. It is the secondary insertion of Genesis 17:15-21, with its reference to Sarah and prediction of Isaac’s birth, that deliberately undermines that original presentation. By introducing a matrilineal requirement to the covenant’s recipients through Sarah in addition to Abraham, this passage excludes Ishmael and restricts the covenant’s inheritance entirely to Isaac and his descendants. This new exclusive outlook on the participants in the Abrahamic covenant contrasts sharply with the view expressed in the remainder of the chapter. But it also stands in opposition to the more positive and embracing perspective on Ishmael seen in multiple other loci in the Priestly passages of Genesis, demonstrating a distinct shift in Priestly tradents’ stance toward foreigners as the Priestly work was updated over time.


Discourse Markers in Lexica and the Benefit of Functional Descriptions: A Case Study of De
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Chris Fresch, University of Cambridge

Historically, Greek and Hebrew lexica have not been able to provide the most helpful analyses of discourse markers (e.g., Greek DMs: de, oun, ei/ean me, alla, idou, men; Hebrew DMs: we'attah, wayhi, hineh, ki, laken). This is due to the fact that discourse marker is a functional category, comprised of linguistic items that narrow or explicate the relations between discourse contents and that instruct the reader on how to build his or her mental representation of the discourse. Instead of considering the function of a given discourse marker and how it contributes to the building of a reader's mental representation, however, lexica tend to rely on translational glosses that reveal an imposition of the semantics of surrounding contexts onto the particle. This practice is problematic for a number of reasons. First, it does not consider the function of the marker itself. Moreover, because of the reliance on the semantics of context to determine the meaning of the discourse marker, many markers will receive two, three, or four glosses that differ widely in function. This creates the picture that a given discourse marker has multiple semantic meanings rather than a core pragmatic function. Second, without a discussion of what these markers pragmatically accomplish within a discourse, a translational gloss suggests functional equivalence between the Hebrew/Greek discourse marker and the marker(s) provided in the target language. Lastly, at best, it hinders the reader's ability to understand the structure of the discourse; at worst, it leads the reader astray in his or her understanding of the discourse. Drawing on current functional linguistic work on discourse markers, this paper investigates the Greek particle de — how its function has been described by linguists in recent years (e.g., Runge, Levinsohn, Buth, Bakker, Sicking) and how it has been treated in lexica (e.g., BDAG, Muraoka, Louw & Nida, Danker). I propose that this kind of linguistic work can benefit future lexica as it facilitates more precision in lexical analysis by relying less on translational glosses and by offering functional, discourse-pragmatic descriptions for discourse markers. The paper concludes by making mention of recent linguistic studies on various discourse markers (both Greek and Hebrew) that significantly contribute to our understanding of how the markers function and, therefore, that may be of benefit to lexicographical work.


Imperial Herod? The Temple of Apollo in Rhodes and the Temple of Jerusalem’s Herodian Stones
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Richard Freund, University of Hartford

Herod the Great’s massive building projects featured a distinctive style of stone framing which is associated with the Temple of Jerusalem but now has been found in other sites that include Rhodes. Where and why Herod chose this type of framing for some of his building stones is a matter of some debate. The issue that I will explore has implications for the direction of cultural influences in the decorations used in and around the Temple of Jerusalem. Was Herod adding an element that was distinctly imperial for his building or was he having his builders innovate a new decoration style to make his building distinctive? The issue is important for a variety of reasons not the least of which is an unusual reference in Josephus Flavius’ writings regarding one of the buildings attributed to Herod in Rhodes: the Temple of Apollo. In the Antiquities 16.5.3, Josephus writes of Herod: “But what [was] the greatest and most illustrious of all his [Herod’s] works; he erected Apollo’s Temple at Rhodes, at a great expense and gave them a great number of talents of silver to rebuild their fleet.” Indeed, at the Acropolis of Rhodes sits the Temple of Apollo and it has a series of framed Herodian stones around the outside of the enclosures of the Temple. The paper will explore this and other buildings in the region which are associated with Herod the Great.


Mary of Nazareth and Nazareth Archaeological Excavations 1997–2015
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Richard Freund, University of Hartford

The past two decades has seen a number of new Nazareth excavations that are directly and indirectly associated with ancient canonical and non-canonical literary and post-Nicean episodes from the life of Mary, mother of Jesus. In this paper I will survey the information that can be gleaned from the site excavations of the Antiquities Authority of Israel at Sisters of Nazareth Convent, my own university's Mary's Well and Bathhouse project, a project at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation and most recently at the so-called: “Mary's Cave.” Many of these sites are located in traditional religious pilgrimage sites in Nazareth but some are not. The question is what can be learned about the historical Mary of Nazareth from a comparison with the discoveries made at these archaeological sites. The paper will include a power-point of some of the architecture, coins, glass, pottery, and mapping of the locations in relation to one another (and to the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation) in modern Nazareth.


Miracle Stories, Semeia Narratives, and the Gospel as a Significant Story: Genre Bending and Epistemology in John
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Jörg Frey, Universität Zürich

As is well-known, John labels his miracle stories 'semeia'. Although it is difficult or even questionable to define a genre 'miracle story', we can observe that John's 'semeia narratives' are not simply tales of past events but deliberately narrated in a manner that points readers to other elements in John's story, esp. the passion and resurrection story, to various symbolic dimensions, and in general to an understanding of the episodes in the light of the entire Jesus story, or in the post-Easter retrospective. From that point of view, they can be characterized as a revelation of his glory, of his true Christological identity, and of his life-giving power. These interpretive links are embedded into the narratives or added in lengthy discourses or dialogues. They all contribute to a reading of the Johannine miracle stories in steady consideration of their Christological and soteriological significance, not merely as episodes of the time and ministry of the earthly Jesus. From John 20:30-1, the question raises whether the term 'semeia' only refers to the miracle stories in John 2-11 or whether other narratives such as the resurrection stories, are also included. A brief look at other Johannine narratives, e.g. the entry in Jerusalem or the footwashing, can show that they are also designed as significant stories that point to the whole of Jesus' ministry or its salvific and ethical meaning. This fits into John's epistemology that urges readers to perceive the whole of Jesus' ministry in the light of its final soteriological meaning, or in the perspective of the post-Easter insights. The semeia narratives as significant narratives are part of the literary strategy that shapes the gospel in its entirety.


The Sabbath as Revelation of God
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Mathilde Frey, Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies

This study analyzes the subject of divine revelation in the context of the Sabbath. I will examine the Creation Sabbath in Gen 2:1-3, where God is the only subject in the text. God completed his work, God ceased from all his work, God blessed the seventh day, and God sanctified it. Human duty to the Sabbath is not expected. What does the Creation Sabbath suggest about God and his relationship to the human being? Based upon the Creation Sabbath's perspective about God, what is then the relationship of the human being to the Sabbath?


The Role of the Governor's Meals in the Provincial Economy
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Lisbeth Fried, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Invited paper


Paulus Tragicus: Staging Apostolic Adversity in First Corinthians
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Courtney Friesen, University of Oxford

In 1 Cor 4:9, Paul writes that God has “displayed” the apostles as condemned to death, “for we have become a theater for the cosmos.” This is followed with three (ironic) antitheses contrasting the apostles, who were foolish, weak, and dishonored with the Corinthians as wise, strong, and honored. This presentation will propose a fresh and hitherto unconsidered perspective on Paul’s “theater” in view of tragic drama. The argument will proceed in three stages. First, I shall situate Paul’s theater in the context of mid-first-century Corinth, by attending, on the one hand, to the city’s venues of public performance, and, on the other, to the context of Paul’s Corinthian correspondence, with its central theme of wisdom and foolishness, power and weakness. Second, I shall survey past and current identifications of Paul’s theater metaphor, ranging from the commonest interpretation in view of Roman arena spectacles to Larry Welborn’s more recent proposal of mime performances. Along with these tangible modes of theater known to the Corinthians, scholars have drawn attention to the similarity between Paul’s metaphor and Stoic writings where spectacle functions as a symbolic venue in which the sage develops and displays his or her virtue. Without denying the value of these earlier approaches to Paul’s metaphor, I suggest that new insight emerges when the conception of theater is expanded to include tragic drama. By way of comparison, the Stoic Epictetus evoked tragedy in warning his pupils against misplaced obsession with externals in a manner not unlike Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians. Third, therefore, I shall briefly survey examples from drama in which the downfall of the tragic hero is closely connected with contestations over wisdom and political power. Such theatrical reversals bear striking similarities with Paul’s emphasis that God would “put to shame” the wise and powerful. In his distinctly apocalyptic mode, this would occur at the judgment, that closing dramatic moment, as in the deus ex machina, when the deity appears above the stage to deliver his final verdict.


Dying Like a Woman: Philo on the Tragic Death of Polyxena
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Courtney Friesen, University of Oxford

In the treatise That Every Good Person is Free, Philo compiles an extensive and diverse list of individuals as exempla in support of the thesis that the virtuous person is free even if enslaved. Among these, he includes the tragic heroine Polyxena who, in Euripides’ Hecuba, dies willingly rather than go into slavery. For Philo, this female tragic death functions as an a fortiori demonstration that all the more unassailable must be the freedom of the masculine subject. This mode of argument relates to Philo’s so-called “gender gradient,” whereby he depicts advancement in virtue as a move from the feminine to the masculine. This presentation employs Philo’s appropriation of the exemplum of Polyxena as a means of interrogating his gendered construction of virtue. On the one hand, Philo’s reading of Euripides anticipates the thesis of Nicole Loraux’s Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (org. 1985) that suicide on stage blurs the distinction between masculine and feminine by moving the agency of women beyond its conventional limitations and passivity into the realm of male kleos. On the other hand, Philo’s argument participates in a wider interpretative tradition of this tragedy. Several other ancient authors—e.g., Pliny the Younger, Galen, Lucian, and Clement of Alexandria—also evoke the dramatic death of Polyxena. A survey of these literary appropriations reveals that Philo’s is not a unique application, but rather reflects conventional reading strategies. What emerges, then, is that Philo’s engagement with Greek literature proceeds from within an intellectual tradition that had pre-established moralizing applications of classical texts.


The Customs House Inscription at Ephesos (IvE 1a.20) and Paul’s Jerusalem Collection: Exchange, Surplus, Ideology, and the Divine
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Steven J. Friesen, University of Texas at Austin

A customs house inscription from the mid first century CE was excavated in 1929 (IvE 1a.20). It has entered New Testament studies as an alleged example of an association with a demographic profile similar that of contemporary Pauline assemblies in that region. In this paper I first show that the inscription does not refer to an association nor is the demographic profile anything like that of the Pauline assemblies. A more profitable comparison is provided if we examine reciprocity and the use of ideology in this inscription and in Paul’s instructions regarding his collection for Jerusalem. More specifically, I analyze where and when the divine realm is invoked in these ideological statements about the redistribution of material and nonmaterial resources. I conclude that in both the customs house inscription and in the Pauline letters, the divine realm is invoked in two situations: in relation to the generation of surplus value; and in relation to significant gaps between ideology and practice.


Instructive Violence: Educated Children as Victims and Aggressors in Late Antique Latin Martyr Poetry
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Diane Shane Fruchtman, DePauw University

Building on the insights of affect theory, queer theory, and literary-rhetorical analysis, this paper explores two contrasting /ekphraseis/ about anonymous young boys in the martyrological poetry of Prudentius (fl. 405). In one, a child is martyred, suffering graphic violence at the hands of Roman persecutors; in the other, Roman children are the persecutors, viciously (and gleefully) attacking their Christian teacher Cassian with their wax tablets and styli. The passages are parallel: they share imagery, vocabulary, and distinctive narrative elements (including striking moments where the martyr uncharacteristically expresses the extent of his pain); both simultaneously presume and manufacture the reader’s emotional attachment to the children, using what the reader is assumed and encouraged to feel about children to heighten the affective drama of the scene playing before their eyes; both explore the effect of an educational model on a child’s character; and both draw from traditional accounts of childhood to offer the reader models with which to compare the victimized or victimizing children. But these parallels in fact highlight the distances between the narratives, showing, as would a mirror image, the inversion of the two and providing common ground for comparison. The literary elements leave the reader with contrasting lessons about children as religious actors. The cultivated emotional attachment to childhood is used to different effect—in one case to generate sympathy, in the other revulsion. The educational models are gendered differently, with a domestic and maternal education in the case of the martyr and a schoolroom-centered, male-dominated education in the case of the persecutors. And the accounts of childhood draw from different traditions: the child martyr story draws from and re-invents biblical models of childhood, including stories about Isaac and the Maccabean martyrs, while the story in which the children are the aggressors draws from and re-invents Roman educational commonplaces about disgruntled students and the role of corporal punishment in the schoolroom. These two contrasting visualizations thus show Prudentius using representations of childhood violence to delineate Christian values. Exploring these two poles of representation will not only give us a departure point to explore the imaginal limits of violence toward and by children in Latin Christian late antiquity, it will also provide a window into the type of Roman Christian community identity that Prudentius sought to cultivate through his poetry.


From Prophet to Waiter: Habakkuk’s Cameo Appearance in the Apocryphal Additions to Daniel
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
David J. Fuller, McMaster Divinity College

In the collection of apocryphal additions to Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon, the prophet Habakkuk is flown in from Judah by an angel to deliver food to a starving Daniel in the lions’ den. Not only is this incident somewhat bizarre, it raises the questions of why the HB figure of Habakkuk in particular was chosen to fill this role, and how this episode in Bel relates to the HB book of Habakkuk. This apparent lack of cohesion has led some scholars to assert that the appearance of Habakkuk in Bel and the Dragon was a late interpolation that simply lacks a meaningful literary purpose. For the investigation of this issue, the approach to intertextuality pioneered by Michael Riffaterre is particularly valuable, as it provides a set of categories that classify different ways that texts can symbolically point to other texts, and either import or creatively transform their original meaning. It is the intention of the present study to use Riffaterrean intertextuality to demonstrate that Bel 33–39/Dan 14:33–39 LXX (primarily in the Old Greek rather than the Theodotion text) describes the delivery of provisions to Daniel in the den using a sophisticated blend of allusions and echoes to various texts from the LXX, resulting in a creative story that summons up an array of images relating to the prophetic provision of food in a time of need, for the purpose of informing a first-century BCE Jewish audience that God was with them just as he was with their forefathers, and that the fulfillment of ancient prophecies of restoration was imminent.


Quotations of the Minor Prophets in the War Scroll
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Russell E. Fuller, University of San Diego

This paper will analyze quotations of and allusions to the Hebrew text of the Twelve Minor Prophets found in the War Scroll (1QM). In addition to issues surrounding the identification of biblical quotations and allusions, the paper will also consider the use of quotations and allusions for the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.


The Representation of Definiteness in Qumran Aramaic: Unsolving the Son of Man Problem
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
William Fullilove, Reformed Theological Seminary

As recently pointed out by Edward Cook, the small sample size of Qumran Aramaic (QA) limits its usefulness for activities such as the back-translation of New Testament Greek into a proposed Aramaic source text. Nonetheless, as noted by Dr. Cook, certain high-frequency features of the language can be validly analyzed to represent the state of Aramaic in Palestine more generally. This paper examines one such feature, the determiner system, analyzing the relationship of nominal state and definiteness for the entire QA corpus. The results indicate the connection of the emphatic state with definiteness remained strong in QA. This casts doubt on the argument that the Aramaic phrases bar enash and bar enasha were equivalent in first century C.E. Galilean Aramaic, as has often been claimed in debates about the “Son of Man Problem” in New Testament scholarship.


Smoke and Mirrors: Paul and the Politics of Class Conflict in 1 Corinthians
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Amanda Furiasse, Florida State University

Contemporary rhetorical theory has demonstrated the propensity for contradiction within metaphor. Rather than disable constructive discourse, metaphor’s generative matrix of perpetual contradiction can facilitate social concord through the union of oppositions. Because this rhetorical tactic can effectively unify two seemingly opposing claims, contemporary politicians often use this strategy to resolve class conflict. Modern speakers and authors did not invent this tactic, but ancient authors typically employed this rhetorical strategy to quell class conflict. This paper argues that Paul in particular used this rhetorical tactic in his metaphor of the body politic in an effort to resolve class conflict in Corinth. While Paul’s body metaphor has been at the center of New Testament scholarship, previous work on the topic neglected the important role that contradiction plays in his metaphor. While scholarship typically argues that his body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12 is intended to subvert social asymmetries, I contest this claim and argue that the purpose of the metaphor is to justify existing social asymmetries and thereby resolve social unrest in Corinth. Drawing on Bruce Lincoln’s theory of symbolic inversion, I demonstrate how his body metaphor uses contradiction to unify two contradictory claims. I argue further that this union of oppositions has the intended effect of mystifying and naturalizing the existing status hierarchy. Naturalizing the existing status hierarchy ultimately enables Paul to blunt growing concerns over social inequities between members. Examining Paul’s metaphor through the lens of Bruce Lincoln’s theory of symbolic inversion, I conclude that Paul’s body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12 does not subvert the existing hierarchy, but the underlying intent of the metaphor is to legitimate and naturalize the existing status hierarchy.


Luke 4:18–19 and Salvation: In the Context of Marginalization of Women within Pentecostal Church in Botswana
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Rosinah Gabaitse, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Luke 4:18-19 and Salvation: In the Context of Marginalization of Women within Pentecostal Church in Botswana


Versional and Patristic Evidence in the Apparatus of ECM Acts
Program Unit: Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Georg Gäbel, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

The Editio Critica Maior includes versional and patristic material in addition to the Greek evidence. It is not, however, a comprehensive multilingual edition. While all available versional and patristic evidence is made use of, that evidence is carefully sifted and examined in order to find potentially relevant material. The resulting pool of versional and patristic variants is then subjected to rigorous scrutiny in accordance with criteria developed specifically for this edition. This paper will describe the process which leads to the inclusion of versional and patristic evidence in the critical apparatus (or exclusion from it). This will include specific conditions and challenges of individual versions, the criteria for inclusion in the apparatus, different ways of representing versional and patristic information in different parts of the apparatus, and the importance of similarities between versions such as Old Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic for the question of the (formerly) so-called „Western“ text.


In Search of Common Ground: The Overlapping Ethics of Wisdom and Apocalypticism, with James and 2 Enoch as a Test Case
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Timothy A. Gabrielson, Marquette University

Wisdom and apocalypticism have remained, in the eyes of many scholars, incorrigible opponents. Those who disagree with that assessment have generally noted their shared interest in attaining knowledge or have pointed to the many works that indulge in both sapiential and apocalyptic themes, but it is rare to find sustained focus on ethics as the point of comparison. A juxtaposition of the morals of James and 2 Enoch, however, shows how similar the goals of wisdom and apocalypticism can be. There are numerous similarities between their ethics — the use of the imago Dei to prohibit slander, concern for paying day laborers, an absolute ban on oaths, and more. In most cases neither work is dependent on the other. Rather, these connections demonstrate that ethics is important, and generally neglected, common ground for apocalypticism and wisdom.


The Kabod YHWHs as a Key Concept of the Book of Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Judith Gaertner, Universität Rostock

In the final redaction of the Book of Isaiah (Jes 56:1-8.65f) the main theological ideas of Isaiah meet and thereby enable us to retrospectively describe the composition of the Book of Isaiah. This is due to the fact that the final redaction takes up already existing lines of composition within the Book of Isaiah and raises their profile regarding a Großjesajabuch. This is particularly notable in the use of the word kabod, which is introduced as early as in chapter 6 and then significantly shapes the whole concept of the theology of Isaiah (Is 8; 30; 40; 60). The unique point concerning Isaiah – for example, in comparison with processes of redaction in the Twelve Minor Prophets – can be found in the fact that the tradents of Isaiah operate from the beginning to the end of the book with one word in order to reformulate central aspects of their respective ideas of God. In the paper this process of the composition of the Book will be presented from the end of the book Is 66:12 to exemplarily demonstrate the techniques, aims and requirements regarding the literary formation of the Book of Isaiah.


Saved by the Blood: A Womanist Reading of Zipporah
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Wil Gafney, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

Zipporah appears in the sacred literature of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. While her primary narrative is found in the Hebrew Bible it is elaborated upon in the Hadith, Midrash and patristic discourse. Womanism, itself an intersecting black feminist hermeneutical framework has been rightly critiqued for being presented as normatively Christian. In truth womanists and black feminists represent a variety of religious, non-religious, ethical and humanist perspectives. This paper will explore the intersection of gender and ethnicity in Zipporah’s body in the text and the intersection of race and ethnicity in the world in which she is interpreted. And, I will examine the way in which Zipporah’s performance of ritual circumcision inscribes gender in male flesh using her flesh, her hand.


Epic Law? Parallelism and Other Poetic Constructions in the Holiness Legislation (Leviticus 17–26)
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Jason M. H. Gaines, College of the Holy Cross

In a short line of striking simplicity and beauty, the prophet Micah tells us what God expects from mortals: “Only to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). The poetic nature of this line is beyond serious question. In comparison, the preamble to the sexual purity laws in Leviticus reads, “My rules you shall observe, and my laws you shall keep, walking by them: I am YHWH your God” (Lev 18:4). If this verse occurred in another context, readers might identify grammatical parallelism, poetic word-pairs, marked diction, and even a “what’s more” heightening literary construction. Situated in a law collection, though, few would call this verse poetic. This paper will examine the compositional style of the Holiness Legislation (HL) in Leviticus 17–26, arguing that it contains many significant examples of literary devices usually associated with poetry. Specifically, HL’s use of parallelism and sentence-level chiasmus will be discussed. Types of parallelism in HL to be explored include correlative (“You shall not insult the deaf, and before the blind you shall not put a stumbling block” [19:14a]), euphemistic (“I will set my face against the person who eats the blood, I will cut him off from among his people,” [17:10b]), explanatory (“You shall fear your God; I am YHWH” [19:32b]), and reformulating (“The nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother, you shall not expose. She is your mother! Do not expose her nakedness” [18:7]). Other ancient Near Eastern law collections will also be discussed, showing that the compositional style of HL is unusual in its repeated use of poetic devices. Identifying a characteristic compositional style for HL can help answer whether Holiness material exists outside of Leviticus 17–26, adding another element to the criteria of vocabulary and ideology commonly used to identify Holiness additions outside of HL.


Reconstructing Ancient Borders: Galilean Archaeology and the Jewish Nature of Matthew's Gospel
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Aaron M. Gale, West Virginia University

This presentation seeks to fuse together two methods of scholarly inquiry (biblical criticism, archaeological research) in order to show how the biblical scholar and archaeologist may both benefit from a close, fruitful dialogue that yields possible exciting new insights into the world of the Bible. It can be argued that some biblical scholars do not take advantage of the constant flow of incoming cogent archaeological data that can shed light on the nature of the various Old and New Testament communities and their corresponding cultures. Conversely, it may be said that some archaeologists do not devote time to relevant methods of biblical inquiry. Using Matthew’s Gospel as a test case, I will attempt to show how recent archaeological evidence may complement and augment a literary analysis of the text as it pertains to two areas of study: the economic status of the Matthean community and its prevailing Jewish inclinations. In particular, I will examine archaeological evidence related to Jewish urban identification and economic production in Galilee in order to provide a brief picture of first century life in the region. Textually, I will focus on specific passages in Matthew pertaining to wealth and/or religious inclination, including 5.17-18; 12.1-8; 18.23-35; 19.16-22, and 20.1-16. Ultimately, I will place the two spheres of study side-by-side in order to ascertain whether it is plausible to theorize that the Matthean community was a wealthy, urban Jewish Christian community located in Galilee that still adhered to the laws of the Torah.


The Meaning of "pistis" in the Framework of the Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Israel Muñoz Gallarte, Universidad de Córdoba (España)

One of the most enduring and controversial questions in Semantics and Linguistics of the New Testament is still, beyond all doubt, the meaning of the Greek lexeme pistis. Indeed, the last and current decades have seen how a good number of researchers have dealt deeply and successfully with such an issue like that, as, for example, Desta Heliso (2007), G. Van Kooten (2012), and the numerous members of his research group, namely "Overcoming the Faith-Reason Opposition: Pauline Pistis in Contemporary Philosophy". However, in my view, by delimiting the problem excessively in the philosophical and rhetorical milieus of these ages, the works have been tending to ponder only the differences between the fideistic and the philosophical meanings of the term and, consequently, forgetting the need for a previous semantic analysis as unavoidable step. In order to fill this gap, my paper will try to elucidate the meaning of pistis by using the categories and analysis’ method of the Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament. Therefore, to begin with, I will offer an overview of the appearance of the lexeme pistis in context; secondly, I will try to trace the basic meaning and the secondary or contextual meanings of the lexeme; thirdly, the contextual causes of this change of meaning will try to be established. The final section will draw the emerging conclusions.


What “Rest” Remains? A Close Reading of Hebrews 4
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Erhard H. Gallos, Andrews University

The topic of “rest” in Hebrews has received considerable attention most recently. However, the existence of competing understandings of the religio-historical provenance of “rest” has not led to a consensus regarding its meaning. This paper takes the initiative of not imposing foreign religio-historical constructs on the “rest” motif, but defines both terms katapausis and sabbatisomos etymologically and from the usage in the LXX. Also, the structural relationship between Heb 4 and 10 becomes important in understanding “rest.” This paper proposes that various semantic, syntactical, and formal cohesions between Heb 4 and 10 shed crucial light on the “rest” motif. The temporal dimension of “rest” becomes pivotal in understanding Hebrews 4.


Remember, but Do Not Remember: The Trans-generational Imprint of Trauma in Isaiah 40–66
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
David Garber, Mercer University

As explorations of the exilic literature through the lens of trauma theory have continued to emerge, questions regarding the nature of hope and/or recovery from the trauma of Jerusalem's destruction have arisen. Moreover, the complex composition history of the exilic and post-exilic prophets lead to questions of how the traumatic event leaves its imprint on succeeding generations. This paper will investigate how the late exilic and post-exilic material in the Isaiah tradition informs our understanding on the preservation and nature of traumatic memory and its implications for generations of a community that did not initially experience the traumatic events.


Teaching Jesus in the Context of Jewish Studies Taught at a Two-Year Public College
Program Unit:
Zev Garber, Los Angeles Valley College

I proposed to discuss my methodology of Revelation and reason in presenting Torah and Jesus related issues in lower division Judaica. The intent is to remind SBL membership of the Wisdom of and about Moses and Jesus: Teaching and the rest is commentary.


Of Image, Earth, and Dust: Genesis Creation Topoi in Second Temple Texts and the Lowliness of Humanity in the Hodayot
Program Unit: Genesis
Jeffrey Paul García, Nyack College

Ancient interpreters were so keenly aware of the divergent qualities of Genesis’ creation narratives (1-2:3; 2:4-25) that topoi—the “image of God” and “from the ground”—developed in the Second Temple period and were utilized to describe unique human characteristics either innate or given by God. These literary threads were also employed to acknowledge a unique relationship between God and humanity. In particular, the unique language of Gen 2:7, “of the dust from the ground” (????? ?????????????), was expanded with synonymous phraseology, “out of/from earth” and from “dust/clay.” While the use of the “image of God” in Second Temple, early Rabbinic, and early Christian texts has garnered some attention, Rabbinic literature and the New Testament have received the lion’s share. Additionally, neither the second topos, “out of/from earth” or from “dust/clay,” nor the interplay of both to characterize humanity have gained no attention. Moreover, this study contends that the importance of these topoi were so compelling that they were rhetorically used in the Hodayot to emphasize the lowly state humanity. There-fore, the purpose of this study is to examine their employment in several Second Temple texts (Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon, Testament of Naphtali [TNaph], 4 Ezra ) with the additional objective of exploring the manner in which they highlight and intensify the baseness of humanity exhibited in the one of the closing hymns of the Hodayot (20:7-22:42).


Knitting the Safety Net: The Evolution of the Soup Kitchen (tamhui) in Rabbinic Judaism
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Gregg E. Gardner, University of British Columbia

Classical rabbinic texts envision a comprehensive safety net to support the poor. A prominent feature is the soup kitchen (tamhui), which was initially envisioned as an alternative to hospitality and evolved into a means to provide immediate relief to all those in need (in contrast to the charity fund or quppa, which provided only for locals). How did the soup kitchen evolve in classical rabbinic texts? This paper undertakes a close reading of classical rabbinic sources (e.g. Tosefta, Talmuds) to trace the development of the soup kitchen from early to later rabbinic texts (e.g. Tannaitic to Amoraic). I find that the soup kitchen would come to play an increasingly larger role among the Amoraim or rabbis of the fourth-fifth century C.E., eclipsing the charity fund in importance. These developments, I find, should be understood as the product of fundamental shifts in the socio-economic structure of the rabbinic movement – which evolved from a movement of well-off elites to one of greater diversity as it began to include the poor among their ranks. The result was the formation of legal discussions and narratives that depict encounters between “rich” and “poor” that are meant to generate trust in the poor and emphasize the importance of accommodating even the strangest requests in a timely fashion. These developments will be compared to contemporaneous Christian approaches to poverty and the poor. Moreover, as these classical rabbinic discourses form the foundations of all subsequent Jewish approaches to philanthropy, this paper will also address modern implications of the development of the soup kitchen.


Domesticating the Holy: Ancient Israelite Artefacts in Late-Antique Judaism
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Gregg E. Gardner, University of British Columbia

Artefacts, relics, and other forms of material culture play important, but often overlooked, roles in religious traditions. They concretize religious expression and foster connections with people and events from long ago and far away. This can likewise be seen among late-antique (third-seventh centuries C.E.) Jews, who connected to their biblical past (1000 B.C.E.–70 C.E.) by depicting the objects used in the Jerusalem Temples in material form and authoring narratives about them. This paper explores how the material culture of the Israelite and Jewish pasts were treated by late-antique Jewish sources. It examines depictions of cultic vessels (e.g. menorah), in mosaics, funerary art, architectural features, and other archaeological finds. Of particular interest are depictions of the menorah on household ceramic oil lamps – themselves repositories and producers of light. These artefacts will be read together with discussions of the Temple vessels in classical rabbinic texts (Talmud, Midrashim). I find that late-antique Jews domesticated and democratized the holy objects that were once the exclusive domain of the Jerusalem priests. They did so in reaction to and competition with the rising interest in religious relics among Christians. Challenging disciplinary boundaries between textual and material studies, this paper contributes to our understanding of ancient Judaism and scholarship on the roles of material culture in religion traditions.


The Infinitive Absolute in Light of African Linguistic Phenomena
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Randall Garr, University of California-Santa Barbara

A recent issue of Linguistic Typology carried an article on a linguistic phenomenon, attested in a variety of African languages, that bears uncanny resemblance to the infinitive absolute construction in Biblical Hebrew. Called the “Cognate Head-Dependent Construction,” it has two elements: a finite lexical verb form (cognate head) and an etymologically related noun or non-finite verb form (cognate dependent). The two forms may share a transparent root, or one may stand in a derivational relationship to the other. Further, the construction is not obligatory; the non-finite verb form is not necessary to the meaning of its clause or sentence. Drawing on the methodology and findings of that article, this paper is restricted to the prepositive, or tautological, infinitive absolute construction. It begins with an iconic observation: The infinitive absolute construction is reduplicative. It is not surprising, then, that the construction has been interpreted as emphatic or intense; hyperbolic discourse fits this category well (e.g., Gen 37:8). The paper then discusses two pathways for interpreting this reduplicative structure. One involves event plurality (e.g., repetition) and scalarity (e.g., the extent or degree to which the event is realized). The other involves predicate focus, especially as that focus interacts with – i.e., conforms, contrasts, or opposes – conversational presuppositions. This paper, then, hopes to specify what is conventionally meant as the “emphatic” or “intense” infinitive absolute construction.


Under Sin: Finding the Antecedent for Paul's Charge in Rom 3:9b
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Joshua Garroway, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

In Rom 3:9b, Paul claims that he “previously charged that all, both Jew and Greek, are under sin.” But where? Theretofore Paul has not said anything at all about sin, much less that everyone is under it. Interpreters assume that Paul is referring to the arguments in 1:18-2:29, even if nothing as yet has been couched in terms of sin. This already problematic view is further challenged by recent scholarship suggesting that Paul’s indictment in 1:18-2:29 is directed primarily, perhaps even exclusively, at Gentiles. This study aims to unfasten the tenuous connection between Rom. 3:9b and Paul’s preceding argumentation by proposing that proaitiaomai need not refer to a charge levied beforehand in the selfsame letter. Paul’s own usage of the pro- prefix with verbs of communication--and other Greek usage--demonstrates as much. In 2 Cor 7:3, 2 Cor 13:2, 1 Thess 3:4, and Gal 5:21, such prefixed verbs refer to advice given not previously in the letter, but on previous occasions. Likewise in Eph 3:3, pseudo-Paul probably refers to something he (or Paul) wrote in a previous epistle. One need not look far to find a previous occasion on which Paul charged that all humanity is under sin, for in Gal 3:22 he says exactly that: “scripture has imprisoned everything under sin.” Thus, when he says in Rom 3:9b that neither Jew nor Gentile has an advantage because he has previously charged both with being under sin, Paul refers either to the charge levied in Galatians—a letter with which some Romans may have been familiar—or, as is more likely, to a charge Paul levied numerous times in numerous places during his preaching career. Then Paul buttresses that claim--introduced in Romans for the first time here--with a scriptural catena, indeed possibly the very "scripture" to which he alluded in Gal 3:22.


'The Odd Man In': Reassessing Jonah's Entry into the Twelve
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Roy E. Garton, Baylor University

Jonah as a writing is the quintessential “odd-man out” stylistically and theologically within the Minor Prophets, leading many to conclude that its entry into the Twelve only occurred at the final stage of the corpus’ development. Yet Jonah itself appears to have developed over multiple stages, with the clearest of these stages being the insertion of the prophet’s psalmic prayer (Jonah 2:2-10) since the surrounding narrative reads quite well without it. Yet where was this earlier form of Jonah (i.e., without its psalm) in relation to the developing Twelve? Did such a Jonah circulate independently, or was it already bound to one of the precursory collections that eventually fed into the Twelve? This paper looks at several connections between MT Jonah 1, 3–4 and MT Nahum 1 ¬– connections which suggest that Jonah may not have been as independent as scholars widely presume.


The Phoenician/Luwian Bilingual Inscription of Azatiwada: The Use of Subordinating and Volitional Verb Forms
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
John Gee, Brigham Young University

In this paper we will explore the contributions the Luwian versions make in better understanding the Phoenician verbal system, as well as how Phoenician syntax can help us better understand the Luwian verbal system and its categorization of the Imperative and Indicative moods. We will examine the use of subordinating and volitional verb forms in both the Phoenician and Luwian versions of the inscription, and look at several examples taken from the Luwian corpus which support our claims. We will describe syntactic constructions and morphologically marked verbal forms which are used to convey non-indicative moods, and we will define the function of subordinating forms used in connection with volitive moods in the inscriptional material. We will demonstrate that rather than variant forms of the Luwian Present Indicative, that subordinating and volitional verb forms were marked and employed, and that Phoenician supported the same type of volitive expressions used to convey elements of wishes and modality. We will also highlight how these elements help define syntactic boundaries within the Phoenician expressions of blessings within the inscription.


"Put off Thy Shoes from off Thy Feet": Sandals and Sacred Space
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
John Gee, Brigham Young University

In Exodus 3:5 Moses is commanded to remove his sandals to stand on holy ground. Bronze Age Egyptian temples show scenes where humans either are wearing sandals or not. Sandals are shown in specific contexts and places and bare feet are shown in others. The usage in various contexts is consistent. These contexts relate to sacred space as the Egyptians understood it. This illustrated paper will examine the use of sandals in Egyptian temples and how the patterns of sandal use interact with the few mentions in the Hebrew Bible. It will also shed new light on an episode in the Egyptian daily temple liturgy.


Mediation for the Mediator: The Encounter of Mal’ak and Prophet in Zechariah’s Night Visions
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Michaela Geiger, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal-Bethel

The night visions (Zech 1:8–6:8*) form the core of Zechariah’s writing, before being combined with Hag 1-2* and then being included in the nascent Book of the Twelve (Schart, Woehrle). Within this basic layer Zechariah is not communicating immediately with God, but the "messenger who talks with me" acts as intermediary between God and prophet: He allows the prophet to see the visionary scenes and interprets them. Regarding the prophetic literature as a whole this mediation process marks a decisive turning point. Zech 1:8–6:8* is the oldest record introducing a prophet who requires the mediation of a mal'ak to receive the divine message. Given the commotion of faith in the exilic period the night visions are groping towards a new relationship with God in an "interplay of veiling and unveiling" (Lux) which holds a future for Jerusalem and Judah. The different messenger figures simultaneously draw attention to the distance between heaven and earth, protect the prophet resp. Jerusalem and Judah from God's wrath (Zech 1:12.15; 6:8) and gradually overcome the separation from God. Some later texts refer to this distribution of roles between the prophet and the mal'ak (Num 22:22-35; 1Ki 19:3-8; 2Ki 1:1-18; 1Ch 21:18 as well as Dan 8:15-26; 9:20-27; 10:4-21), unlike the subsequent redactional layers of the Book of the Twelve. Within Zechariah especially the "word redaction" (Woehrle), also responsible for the composition of the Hag-Zech-corpus, emphasizes the immediate contact between God and prophet by introducing the “Wortereignisformel” (“the word Yhwh’s came to Zechariah“; Zech 1:1.7; 7:1; 8:1 etc.). Also Haggai and Malachi revise the idea of a mediated prophetic contact to God by calling the prophet Haggai himself "mal’ak yhwh" (Hag 1:13), whereas Malachi („my messenger“; Mal 1:1) carries the description of his role even within his name. The encounter between mal’ak and prophet in Zechariah’s night visions mark a turning point in the portray of the prophet and, as I will specify in my habilitation, also in the development of the mal'ak yhwh.


The Development of the Mal’ak Yhwh and the Composition of the Ancestral Narratives
Program Unit: Genesis
Michaela Geiger, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal-Bethel

The messengers of God appear in key passages within the ancestral narratives of Abraham and Jacob. But the respective figures differ distinctly from one another: They reflect the formation of the Pentateuch as well as the developing concept of the mal'ak yhwh – which I examine in my habilitation under narratological, redaction critical and tradition-historical aspects. In both narrative cycles the herein described redaction-critical process starts with a clear but disparate idea of the mal’ak yhwh, which motivates the introduction of further messenger figures. Within the Abraham narrative, the earliest mal’ak forms part of the basic layer of Gen 16 (Vv. 1.2.4–8.11–14; cf. Fischer): An apparently human mal’ak meets Hagar at the well and promises her the end of her distress and the birth of a son (Gen 16:11). The second Hagar tale (Gen 21), which is inserted later, transforms the mal'ak into a superhuman figure calling Hagar from heaven (Gen 21:17.18). The tale of Gen 22:1-19* seizes on the motif, but now the messenger of God speaks with God’s voice (Gen 22:11.12). The further appearances of a mal'ak in the Abraham narrative are connected to different concepts of the divine messenger: The promise of a protecting mal’ak in Gen 24:7.40 refers to the messenger of the Exodus in Exo 23:20-23 and therefore presupposes the Pentateuch. But Gen 24:7.40 exceeds Exo 23:20-23, since it “transfers the concept of a guiding angel to the realm of family religion" (Köckert). The addition of the mal'akim in Gen 19:1.15 (Blum) finally ties in with the perception of the mal’ak as a guest (Jud 6:11-24*) and with the group of mal'akim in Gen 28:12; 32:2. In the Jacob narrative the earliest mal'akim occur in plural (Gen 28:12; 32:2). They have no message directed to Jacob individually, but make him aware of the respective place: At “Bethel” Jacob recognizes the gate of heaven (Gen 28:17) while he comprehends “Mahanajim" as the location of God's camp (Gen 32:2). The divine speech in Gen 28:13-15, which is inserted along with the combination of the Abraham and Jacob narratives, connects the appearance of the mal'akim with the divine promise to Abraham and Isaac as well as with Jacob's life. The latter applies also to the appearance of the mal’ak in Gen 31:11, which, unparalleled in the Hebrew Bible, occurs within a dream. The last mentioning of a messenger in Genesis (Gen 48:16) resumes the ancestral narrative (cf. Gen 48:15 with 24:40) and opens it towards the Book of Exodus. The mal’akim in the ancestral narratives belong to different layers and represent several types of messengers. Nevertheless, under a canonical perspective a harmonious picture is created, which shows the messengers of God as reliable companions of the patriarchs and matriarchs und underlines the coherence of the ancestral narratives altogether.


A Loan to God: Wealth, Charity, and Usury in the Qur’an
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Andrew Geist, University of Notre Dame

Wealth in the Qur'an is a fickle substance. Gold is not an adequate currency to cover thevcost of one's redemption at the judgment (Q ‘Ali ‘Imran 3:91), and the possession of wealth is itself a sort of "test" (Q Taghabun 64:15). Usury (riba), the principle purpose of which is the increase of wealth, has "no increase with God" (see, e.g., Q Rum 30:38–39; Q Baqarah 2:276). Conversely it is charity (?adaqa and zakat) that produces a real profit: ?adaqa and zakat are called a "loan" (qar?) to God, in whose hands the funds multiply (see, e.g., Q ?adid 57:11, 18). One of the surprising effects of such a loan to God is that it atones (kaffara) for sins (Q Ma’ida 5:12; cf. Q 2:271). How may we understand the relation of these concepts to one another, and what might this say about the traditions with which they are in conversation? The concepts of wealth, charity, and usury in the Qur'an are embedded in the worldviews of the Bible, early Judaism, and Christianity. Wealth's inability to save from death makes it unworthy of trust (Psa 49:6–7; cf. Prov 10:2, 11:4, 28). One can, however, through charity, loan to God with the hope of repayment (Prov 19:17). Almsgiving likewise funds a heavenly treasury in the New Testament (Luke 12). Where the Qur'anic passages draw from the Bible, however, it is likely through Christian and Jewish mediators of that tradition: Jacob of Serugh's homilies proclaim wealth a "trap and snare," but also recommend being "rich toward God" through charity. Likewise, several of Ephrem's hymns praise the charitable for sending their wealth ahead to heaven, a deed by which saints have incredibly become God's creditors. Jewish sources likewise define the significance of almsgiving as an investment with an enduring principle in heaven and interest that pays in this world. In other cases the Hebrew zakah ("to be pure"), like Qur'anic zakat, appears in reference to almsgiving. In this broad linguistic and religious context, we can also understand the peculiar statement in the Qur'an, that charity––as a loan to God––has an expiatory, atoning (kaffara) function. Q Tawbah 9:102–103 notably employs verbs of cleansing (?ahhara and zakka) to talk about the benefits of charity. It seems probable that this draws upon a linguistic and religious development in the Second-Temple period wherein expiation in the Hebrew Bible began to reflect language of the clearing and satisfaction of debt claims. ?adaqa and zakat, then, should be understood as developments of Jewish and Christian theologies of wealth.


Wealth in the Šamaš Hymn and Psalms
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Andrew Geist, University of Notre Dame

The Akkadian Šamaš Hymn contains a unique section describing economic behavior (lines 99–125), in which Šamaš repays the honest merchant and lender with life and wealth, while illicit gain turns out to be no profit at all. I would like to suggest that in this scheme the hymn implies a certain metaphysics of wealth wherein various economic acts are akin to deeds of piety. On the damnable end the composition holds up examples of the deceitful merchant and creditor (ummânu). Their attempts at duplicitous gain in each case fail when each is "deceived concerning profit." Such wealth has an illusory quality. The hymn conversely commends deeds of gracious lending, weighing in another's favor, and lending with a generous measure as surer means to gain, emphasized through repeated use of wataru ("increase"). More importantly, these deeds please Šamaš, who extends the generous merchant's life (bala?a uttar). "Extra life" is typically a reward for sacrificial piety, with the implication that economic generosity in the hymn is an act of piety. Furthermore, the reward of an extended life in the Šamaš Hymn itself may have a financial coloring, since bala?a ("life," "to live") has the sense of financial solvency in certain credit and investment contexts. This point helps us to understand the mechanism by which economic deeds convert material wealth to "extra life" via a divine sort of repayment. The relationship of wealth and piety in the Šamaš Hymn may also have a bearing on the relationship of illicit gain and economic mercy to piety in the Hebrew Bible. Specifically, there is the depiction of trust in wealth in Psalms 49 and 52 and piety and generosity in Psalms 37 and 112. In the former two there is a deep connection between wealth's illusory quality and the deceptive manner of its appropriation. The wicked person explicitly places his trust in the wealth he has gained by falsehood, a wealth due to fail him when he dies. That misplaced trust is itself an impiety, eclipsing his fear of God. Psalm 49 in particular may also recall the Šamaš Hymn's notion of life as a properly divine sort of commodity, since it considers life in terms of its redemption price. Psalms 37 and 112 likewise connect to the Šamaš Hymn when they describe how generous lending attends piety. That is, the God-fearer lends generously, a deed of piety which results in material blessing (i.e. wealth) and a full life. In both the Šamaš Hymn and these examples from the Psalms, wealth is a more than incidental substance. It is a special medium for piety or impiety. Such a reflection on wealth's real value vis-à-vis the divine permeates biblical literature to a greater extent and more explicitly than Mesopotamian literature. Nevertheless, the Hebrew Bible may owe a certain conceptual debt to the Šamaš Hymn's notion of wealth's role in piety, even if it is the Bible that totally elevates pecuniary matters to a level touching on the divine.


Sample Translation and Commentary on Philo De Plantatione
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Albert C. Geljon, Christelijk Gymnasium Utrecht

In Plant. 46–58 Philo offers an allegorical exegesis of Exod 15:17–18, in which Moses prays that God may plant his people in the mountain of his inheritance. In these verses God is presented as planter and the notion of ‘planting’ is the connection with the main biblical lemma of Plant., Gen 6:9, where Noah is said to plant a vineyard. Philo interprets the mountain of God’s inheritance (klèronomia) as the cosmos because what comes into being is the allotment (klèros) of its maker. He also refers to an interpretation of others allegorists who say that God’s allotment is the good. In Philo’s exegesis the noun klèros, which has several meanings (‘lot’, ‘inheritance’ or ‘part’), plays a key role. All the several meanings are involved. The tribe of the Levites is called God’s klèros, and later on Philo discusses the portion of the Levites at considerable length (§§62–72). In the commentary the structure of this section is laid out. Attention is paid to theological and philosophical ideas, for instance the doctrine of the divine powers and aspects of Stoic ethics to which Philo refers. Furthermore, linguistic aspects are discussed, since Philo often employs words that are rarely used.


Watch Your Step! Excrement and Self-Regulation in Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Mark K. George, Iliff School of Theology

Governmentality studies draw on Michel Foucault’s understanding that the power of government is not restricted to that of political entities and structures but also includes shaping and directing the conduct of individuals, groups, and peoples. This theoretical understanding of government provides a means of understanding Deuteronomy 23:12–14 (MT 23:13–15), which commands Israel how to organize its military camp space for toilet purposes. “You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. Because the LORD your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you” (NRSV). This is an unusually precise, if rather mundane, practice to address, given that Deuteronomy presents itself as Moses’ last words to Israel before entering the land promised to it by God (Deut 1:3, 5). Scholars regularly claim Deuteronomy, with its stress on centralization, outlines the political organization for Israel. If so, why address toilet practices in the military camp? Why this aspect of military camp life rather than, say, dining practices or storage of weapons and materiel? The editors of the NRSV categorize this pericope under the heading “Purity of the Military Camp”; while the preceding verses address purity, this pericope does not. The camp is to be holy, but the motivation for this toilet practice is so that the deity does not see anything indecent (Deut 23:14 [MT 23:15]). So what is going on here? My argument is that the command about excrement demonstrates the extent to which governmental control, in Foucault’s sense of the term, is effected in Israel. Centralization manifests itself even in the smallest acts of human existence.


Queering the Sacred, Sacralizing the Queer: The Bible and/as Gay Literature at the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, 1986–2001
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Lynne Gerber, University of California-Berkeley

On Easter 1992, in the midst of the AIDS crisis, Jim Mitulski, senior pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco (MCCSF), preached a sermon about resurrection power. He drew on John 20, a traditional Easter text, but his second source was decidedly more contemporary: an except from Cancer in Two Voices by lesbian writers Sandra Butler and Barbara Rosenblum. Mitulski used the pairing of sacred Christian text and emergent LGBT literature to urge the largely gay congregation to see the Christian resurrection story as their own, a story specific to gay and lesbian people living through AIDS. MCCSF is a significant site where sexual and religious identities intersected. Located in the Castro neighborhood, ground zero of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco, the church became an important community center in that seemingly secular community, hosting community forums and organizing responses to the AIDS crisis, housing dozens of recovery meetings, and conducting hundreds of AIDS funerals. It also became a congregational laboratory for the development of gay liberation and queer theology by its clerical staff and the many gay-positive leaders and theologians that preached from its pulpit. The church is a rich historical case for studying efforts at mutually constructing sexual and religious identities, liturgies, and canons in a time when Christianity and homosexuality were widely viewed as irreconcilable. Drawing upon a newly available archive of sermon transcripts, this paper will analyze Jim Mitulski’s construction of a queer Christian canon consisting of both biblical texts and lesbian and gay literature in sermons delivered at MCCSF between 1986 and 2001. It will pay particular attention to how the pairing of Christian and LGB texts was used to maintain a gay- and sex-positive position in the face of AIDS while using AIDS as an opportunity to both draw upon the Christian tradition for spiritual sustenance and to challenge its adequacy in the face of the crisis. It will demonstrate how Mitulski tried to build a queer canon, not just by queering biblical texts but by sacralizing queer ones through the juxtaposition with traditional biblical materials.


Analytic vs. Continental Varieties of Philosophical Criticism
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Jaco Gericke, North-West University (South Africa)

Given the existence of five major currents in philosophy of religion, one might conclude that there are presently at least five types of philosophical criticism possible. Classically, however, philosophical criticism was and is most often associated with "analytic" philosophy of religion (and to some extent with comparative philosophy of religion). This leaves the question as to what remains for the exegetical methodology to be in terms of relations with the so-called "continental" currents in philosophy of religion, i.e. hermeneutics, deconstruction, critical theory and feminist perspectives. The discussion to follow seeks to provide a typology and evaluative assessment of what seem to be the potential and pitfalls of each variation within the theory of an enlarged view of this new form of biblical criticism.


The Compositional Horizon of the Verb “yarash” (Qal and Hiphil) in Deuteronomy and Joshua: A Re-evaluation
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Stephen Germany, Emory University

Over thirty years ago, Norbert Lohfink proposed the existence of a Deuteronomistic conquest narrative spanning from Deut 1 to Josh 22 (DtrL, “deuteronomistische Landeroberungserzählung”) that was composed during the time of Josiah and thus preceded the formation of the larger, exilic Deuteronomistic History (DtrG). According to Lohfink, the use of the verb “yarash” (Qal and Hiphil) is a characteristic element of DtrL and most likely reflects Josiah’s expansionist policies in the late 7th century. While Lohfink’s notion of an originally independent DtrL composition has not found widespread acceptance (though it has recently had a limited revival among some scholars), subsequent research has continued to assume that the verb “yarash” reflects Deuteronomistic usage, broadly understood. This paper will demonstrate, in contrast, that most of the occurrences of this verb in Deuteronomy and Joshua are in fact found in post-priestly compositional contexts, suggesting that the characterization of the verb “yarash” as Deuteronomistic only addresses part of a larger picture. It will argue, furthermore, that the concepts of the possession of the land and the dispossession of its former inhabitants expressed by the verb “yarash” should be associated not with Josiah’s expansionist efforts in the 7th century but rather with the circumstances of the Persian period following the return from exile—a possibility that Lohfink in fact raised but dismissed prematurely. Finally, on a broader methodological level, this paper seeks to reiterate the insufficiency of investigating the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua solely or primarily within the context of the so-called Deuteronomistic History, for in doing so, the degree to which these books also developed within the horizon of a Hexateuch (both pre- and post-priestly) risks being overlooked.


To Kill or Not to Kill: The Confluence of Ancient and Modern Theological Responses to the Moral Problem of Cherem
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Justus T. Ghormley, University of Notre Dame

The account of Israel’s conquest of Canaan in Joshua 6-11 is perhaps one of the most difficult passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. In particular, the divine decree of cherem in Deut 7:2 and its enactment within these chapters of Joshua have presented a formable moral problem to ancient and modern readers alike. For their part, modern biblical scholars and theologians have employed a variety of hermeneutical strategies in the attempt to remove or at least mitigate the ethical offensiveness of the account of Israel’s conquest. In all such attempts, modern interpreters must confirm or deny the validity of the following three premises: 1) Joshua 6-11 and Deut 7:2 are Scripture, i.e. revelatory of the nature and character of the God of Hebrew Scripture; 2) Deut 7:2 and Joshua 6-11 are to be interpreted literally; and 3) the God of Hebrew Scripture is just and good. Most hermeneutical strategies affirm only two of these three premises. For example, some in accepting the first two premises conclude on the basis of these two that the third is false. If Joshua 6-11 reveals who the God of Hebrew Scripture is, and if this text is to be taken literally, i.e. as an enactment of divinely-inspired genocide, then—logically, it would seem—the God portrayed in these passages would neither be just nor good. Of course, there are some who try to affirm all three premises. And there are others who—in seeking to maintain the justness and goodness of the God—either reject Joshua 6-11 and Deut 7:2 as Scripture or deny the literal meaning of these passages. Of particular interest are those who take the latter route. For they, often unconsciously, place themselves within an ancient interpretive tradition otherwise largely repudiated by modern scholars, namely the tradition of allegorical interpretation. This diachronic confluence of hermeneutical strategy should not surprise; for ancient readers like their modern counterparts found depictions of violence in Jewish Scripture—such as cherem—to be problematic. Moreover, in antiquity as today, interpreters had to take a position on the truthfulness of the same three premises described above. The basic hermeneutical solutions to the moral problem of cherem that are employed today were already available to ancient readers. In light of this observation—that hermeneutical strategies do not change with time—it would not be unreasonable to assume that the “Deuteronomistic” compilers and revisers of Deuteronomy 7 as well as of Joshua 6-11 were also aware of these strategies. In fact a close examination of the redactional layers of Joshua and Judges suggests both that the compilers of these books were aware of the problematic nature of the command and execution of cherem and also that they sought to address this moral problem in a manner similar to that of later interpreters from antiquity and modernity. Like many of these later interpreters, the compilers—through their compositional intentionality—invited their audience to read the text of Joshua 6-11 in a non-literal fashion.


Wish Fulfillment or Real Presence? The Old Testament’s Trinity
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Mark S. Gignilliat, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Is the Trinity materially present in the Old Testament’s textual witness? Answering this question remains an enduring challenge for hermeneutical instincts shaped by modernity’s heightened historical consciousness. Certainly Moses was not a Trinitarian, was he? This paper affirms Brevard Childs’s claim that the early church’s struggle to come to terms with Trinitarian logic was not a battle against the Old Testament but was a battle for it. Or in other terms, the characterization of Yhwh in the Old Testament in relation to his Word, Wisdom, Spirit, and Angel (mal’akh) is a narratival dynamic necessitating an external hermeneutical grammar. The Trinitarian distinctions derived from the church’s speculative theology, distinctions such as person and substance or names pertaining to essence and relation, provide a hermeneutical rationale for the Old Testament’s own internal logic regarding the singularity of Yhwh and the sharing of his singular identity in differentiated personae. Drawing on such diverse figures as Augustine, Aquinas, John Owen, and Benjamin Sommer, this paper will argue for the insoluble relationship between Trinitarian doctrine and Old Testament exegesis regarding the divine name and identity.


Disposal of the Flesh of the Sin/Purification Offering: Explicit, Implicit, and Conjectural Explanations for Ritual Instructions
Program Unit: Biblical Law
William K. Gilders, Emory University

According to sacrificial instructions in the book of Leviticus, Aaronide priests are to consume the flesh of ???? (“sin” or “purification”) offerings from which blood was not taken into the tent of meeting, while the flesh of such offerings from which blood was taken into the tent shrine is prohibited for consumption and must be burned (Lev 6:17-23 [Eng. 6:24-30]; 10:16-18; 16:27). While the instructions clearly indicate that treatment of the blood is the defining criterion for different treatments of the flesh of ???? offerings, they do not explain why it is the criterion. In this paper I will address the various ways interpreters have tried to fill this explanatory gap, with particular attention to distinctions between textually explicit data and the extrapolation of implicit conceptions. For example, does textual evidence support the conclusion that the treatment of the blood affects the condition of the flesh, rendering it either dangerously holy or dangerously impure (or a volatile combination of the two conditions)? Why is Aaronide consumption of some ???? flesh apparently obligatory rather than simply optional? How is the act of eating the flesh related to the act of burning it? I will also consider the relationship between the explicitly stated reason for a ritual rule and its functional effects—specifically, were the rules about the treatment of ???? blood and flesh deliberately conceived in order to prevent priests from benefiting from offerings made on their own behalf (as James W. Watts has recently affirmed); if so, why was this motivation not made explicit? The paper will conclude with reflection on the ritual instructions’ emphasis on sacred space, which appears to provide the key for understanding the special defining role assigned to the manipulated blood.


Gerîm as gôyîm in 4QOrdinances A: Restoring Lacunae in the Slave Law of 4Q159 fr. 2–4 and 8 1–3a
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Yonder Moynihan Gillihan, Boston College

Lacunae in the slave law of 4Q159 frustrate attempts to reconstruct its commands, logic, and purpose. I argue that the best clue to its purpose and contents comes in an analogous slave law in 4QDf, which focuses on the redemption (????) of an enslaved Israelite. Assuming ???? to be the theme of the law of 4Q159 brings an external control to bear on its interpretation and allows a greater degree of confidence in the restoration of crucial lacunae in its first line. The reading that results seems superior to previous proposals insofar as it shows consistency with other sectarian halakhic and eschatological texts, e.g., MMT and the Eschatological Midrash and repeats the ancient habit of interpreting the slave laws of Deut 15 through those of Lev 25. Further, my proposal affirms Moshe Weinfeld's longstanding speculation that the presentation of laws in 4Q159 is at least partially governed by the order of laws in Deuteronomy.


Inspired Interpretation of Inspired Texts: The Habbakuk Pesher's Doctrine of Exegesis (1QpHab 7:1–5a) in Hellenistic-Roman Context
Program Unit: Qumran
Yonder Moynihan Gillihan, Boston College

This study aims to identify a possible source of the interpretive doctrine that stands behind the exegesis of Scripture in the pesharim of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I focus on the Habbakuk pesher's explanation of how God revealed the true meaning of Habbakuk's oracles to the Teacher of Righteousness, a much later reader, and not to the prophet (1QpHab 7:1-5a). It is possible, I argue, that the Covenanters appropriated a method for interpreting inspired texts from a doctrine on the philosophical interpretation of poetic texts preserved in a number of Plato's dialogues and elsewhere. In brief, the doctrine identifies two moments of divine inspiration that are necessary to gain full understanding of a poetic text. In the first moment the gods inspire poets to write but do not give the them understanding of their own words. In the second moment the philosopher, whose soul intimately communes with the gods, reveals the divine meaning of the poets' words. This "double inspiration" doctrine is, to be sure, very different in the pesharim and Plato, but the similarities in hermeneutical principle and practice—especially the requirement that the inspired interpreter be highly learned and able to deal directly with the actual words of a written text—justify bringing analysis of Greek and Roman doctrines of interpretation into conversations on textual interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls, early Judaism, and early Christianity. My study concludes with reflections on the implications of this kind of interdisciplinary work for the humanities in general. By bringing Qumran into conversation with Classics, we not only enrich the study of the DSS but of the Greco-Roman world as well: Qumran scholars, after all, curate one of the most valuable collections of evidence for the study of the eastern Mediterranean world in an age of profound transformation. Social, intellectual, and political history, as well as concepts of the sociology of knowledge, stand to be enriched by the dialogue.


Two Sides of the Same Coin: Blending Distinct Perspectives through Parallelism
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Catholic Private University Linz

Parallelism usually focuses on one fact, action or message, which is presented it in two different ways. Thereby the contiguous lines of parallelism superimpose an at least slightly divergent view of the same event or message. Adele Berlin calls the effect of such a perception a “binocular vision”. Such emphasis on the point of view goes beyond a mere description of parallelism as a poetic phenomenon and includes its cognitive dimension. Recently, various studies on biblical anthropology also address the cognitive-noetic dimension of parallelism emphasising the multidimensional aspects of perception and thinking it initiates. In this way, parallelism opens a space were dynamic insights might unfold. Following this approach my paper will focus on one specific form of change between perspectives, were, on the one hand, an event is presented as a result of an action, and, on the other hand, the same event is shown from the perspective of someone who experiences this action. Because many of such examples express “cause” and “effect”, they are usually subsumed under the category “subordination”. Yet, the explicit change between an event or a causal agent and the perspective of the affected yields more than an assessment of a causal or consecutive argument may provide. If an event is presented from two distinctly different perspectives, the diverging estimations, explicit emotional responses, or new conjunctions (may) challenge the anticipated images evoked by the first or second part alone. In this way the recipients are presented two distinct sides of the same coin, and it is their task to correlate these images. Based on psalms 90–106 I will describe the performance of this specific variety of presenting diverging perspectives through parallelism. For this purpose, I will first analyse the syntactic and semantic structures of the examples whereby special attention will be given to evaluations, emotions and also metaphorical images. Subsequently, I will focus on the interaction of the different perspectives. For that the theory of “blending” will be applied to outline the interaction and consolidation of the distinct perspectives.


Solomon: A Mirror of Political Criticism
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Catholic Private University Linz

Throughout centuries king Solomon has been used as a model for contemporary rulers. On the example of this biblical king positive and negative aspects of sovereigns and their reign have been demonstrated. Therein Solomon’s exemplary reign of peace, his great wisdom but also his power is acknowledged, however, critically. With this critical emphasis the reception of king Solomon continues a tendency already present in the biblical stories. Despite all his glory Solomon’s image in 1 Kings also includes a critical evaluation. Later, the self critical references to Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes and the open critique in the book of Sirach continue this trend thereby building the basis for further receptions. Regardless of whether political poems, historical novels or even adventure stories from the realms of light fiction make use of king Solomon, the critical element often is one of the most important features. On the example of the biblical stories of Solomon authors present a critique of rulers or regimes of their own time. Thus the image of king Solomon always depends on the actual political situation and political discourses. From the image of Solomon as a fallen king to a totalitarian sovereign, from the master of demons to a ruler of little relevance, the reception history of this biblical king mirrors actual political conditions at the time. Furthermore, such literary images join the political discourses and in this way they also shape and influence political opinions. In this paper I will show how the biblical image of Solomon’s rule is used to initiate or participate in critical political discourses. First I will present a short overview on the history of this tradition and then I will focus on selected examples from the 20th/21st century. Thereby I will chose political novels and poems from the context of totalitarian regimes (e.g. from the former GDR) but also historical novels, poems and examples from light fiction expressing less radical critique of political leaders presented in the image of Solomon. These works will be discussed in the context of their own time in order to estimate their contribution to the political discourse. Short side glances on contemporary exegetical and church-related interpretations of Solomon’s reign and their interaction with current political trends will add further insights to the influence of images of Solomon on political discourses.


Juxtaposition and Reinterpretation in the Book of Joshua
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Rachelle Gilmour, University of Sydney

This paper analyses the significance of the juxtaposition of episodes/stores in the Book of Joshua and proposes that this is an interpretative key both for the final form of the book, and for its earlier stages when redactors brought the various episodes together. It argues that pericopes in the narrative are re-evaluated and given a new interpretation based on their new contexts. The literary features that promote this reinterpretation will also be examined. The primary examples I will focus upon are the allusions to the exodus story in Joshua 3-5 which are brought to the fore by juxtaposition; the undermining of Joshua 6 by juxtaposition with Joshua 7; the interpretive effect of repetition in Joshua 7:26 and 8:29; and plot reversal in Joshua 9-11. I will conclude by showing how disparate stories are brought into dialogue with one another by juxtaposition, resulting in a comprehensible, if complex, message in the final form of the book.


Does the Study of Rhetoric Still Matter for the Integrity of 2 Corinthians?
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Mark D. Given, Missouri State University

The number of proponents of the literary integrity of 2 Corinthians has increased in recent years and rhetorical criticism is often identified as a contributor to this trend. However, many scholars remain unconvinced and one might wonder if rhetorical criticism has anything more to offer. One weakness of previous rhetorical-critical defenses of the letter’s integrity has been an excessive formalism, a fact now increasingly acknowledged by rhetorical-critical scholars themselves. This paper will assess the strengths and weaknesses of previous applications of ancient rhetorical theory to 2 Corinthians and offer a way forward. Any defense of the integrity of 2 Corinthians must make sense of the letter’s structure and, above all, account for chaps. 10-13. Young and Ford were the first to realize that chaps. 10-13 are a peroration but, ironically, rhetorical scholarship has consistently weakened the force of this insight. Initially the idea was dismissed because of an over-reliance on ancient rhetorical handbooks and a serious misunderstanding of what the handbooks say about perorations. Later, rhetorical scholars granted that chaps. 10-13, or some portion thereof, could be a peroration, but muddied the waters with overly formalistic analyses of the passage. This paper will build on my forthcoming article on the disposition of Romans to offer a new comparative argument concerning the disposition of 2 Corinthians. By avoiding formalistic defects in rhetorical-critical readings of 2 Corinthians and keeping rhetoric and theology together, I will demonstrate the rhetorical and theological integrity of 2 Corinthians.


Alienated Identity in Acts of Thomas
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Jennifer A. Glancy, Le Moyne College

Acts of Thomas is structured around narrative disruption of identity, in multiple senses of the word. Most fundamentally, identity refers to selfhood or personal identity—what makes a person unique. Concern with identity extends beyond questions about selfhood to include questions about both spatiotemporal continuity and the relationship between individual and group identity. Exposition of Christian identity in Acts of Thomas implicates these multiple senses of identity. Supplanting corporate identification according to geography, language, and race/ethnicity, Acts of Thomas constructs an alienated, exilic identity dependent on relationship with Jesus and expressed through polymorphy of various kinds, identity epitomized, not without ambiguity, as radical twinning with Christ. What do I mean by an alienated, exilic identity? In Acts of Thomas, we confront "those differences that make us more than we are, recognizable perhaps for a moment in our path of becoming and self-overcoming but never fixed in terms of how we can be read (by others), or how we classify ourselves, never the basis of an identity or a position, ever a fractured identity and multiple positions" (Elizabeth Grosz, Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections of Life, Politics, and Art, p. 91).


Radical Gratitude and the Mission of God: Nourishing Celebration and Inclusivism in Local Congregations in Light of the Festival Calendar (Deut 16:1–17)
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Mark Glanville, Trinity College - Bristol

The festival calendar of Deuteronomy (16:1-17) offers a radical vision for a community of thankfulness, of generosity, and of inclusion for the vulnerable. This text invited ancient Israel into seasonal rhythms of celebration in light of the harvest, namely through Passover-Massot, the feast of Weeks and the feast of Booths. A missional reading highlights how the festival calendar aimed to shape the Old Covenant people as a contrast society (Gehard Lohfink) of thanksgiving and generosity. A three-part movement characterizes Deuteronomy 16:1-17, of (1) the divine gift of land and its produce, which results in (2) thanksgiving with celebration, which in turn produces (3) generosity and inclusion for vulnerable people, namely the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. “The concept of Israel rejoicing together ‘before Yahweh’ is the supreme expression of its election as Yahweh’s people and the culmination of deliverance from Egypt” (Gordon McConville). This paper offers an exegesis of the festival calendar, highlighting themes of thanksgiving, feasting, and justice. It then unpacks these three themes in turn. It takes time to explore practically, in light of the presenter’s own journey as a missional pastor, how thanksgiving, celebration, radical generosity, and inclusivism may be brought into the life of the local congregation. The study foregrounds the importance of thanksgiving as the beginning of missional activism, illustrating Peskett and Ramachandra’s observation that, “Mission is about being. It is about being a distinctive kind of people, a countercultural . . . community among the nations.” The missional implications of Old Covenant feasting in light of the Lord’s abundance will also be explored. Local congregations may be a source of joy and celebration within their local communities. Practical ways in which worshipping communities may foster diversity and may share their lives across socio-economic barriers will be addressed. This paper dialogues both with scholarship on Deuteronomy and also with scholarship on mission, in particular recent dialogue upon a missional hermeneutic.


The Bible Online Learner as an Effective and Open Source Biblical Language Learning Environment for Seminaries and Faculties of Theology
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Oliver Glanz, Andrews University

On the basis EU funded EuroPLOT project an open-source and open-access web-based platform “Bible Online Learner”/Bible OL (http://bibleol.3bmoodle.dk/) was developed. Bible OL allows for corpus-based teaching and learning of Biblical Languages. In lated 2014 the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Coumputer at VU University gave open access to its feature-rich database. Any language instructor can now for the Biblical Hebrew class quickly construct exercises that focus on any chosen linguistic level (alphabet, vocabulary, morphology, phrase analysis [subject, object, predicate, etc.], clause types, clause relations [attributive, adjunctive, etc.]). Nicolai Winther-Nielsen will describe the latest achievements by the Global Learning Initiative (http://global-learning.org/) which supports collaboraton among developers, partners and teachers. He will present three new or updated features are being developed during 2015 in collaboration with programmers Claus Tøndering and Judith Gottschalk. First, the learning outcomes of students are documented in a skill optimizing application called Learning Journey; teachers can monitor the learning curve of students and give informed feedback on performance on regular bases, and students can compete with each other. Second, a new application will help students determine lexical meaning in context. Third, In early 2015 the syntactically analyzed Greek Text of the Global Bible Initiative was implemented for the open source Nestle 1904, and he will invite colleagues to join in the development of new courses for Greek. He emphasize the need to join forces in supporting settings where poverty or persecution restricts language learning and he will invite students to participate in a competition to support global learning. Oliver Glanz will show how the architecture of Bible OL allows to partner with scholars, resaerch teams and institutions to further improve corpus based learning. A good example is the cooperation with shebanq.ancient-data.org (receiver of the Digital Humanity Awards 2014) and Andrews University. Oliver Glanz will demonstrate three major results of this collaboration. First, due to the same database implemented in the query site SHEBANQ and the learning site Bible OL the user can compose very detailed exercises. Second, due to SHEBANQ enabled queries all different verbal classes (e.g. i-nun, iii-he, etc.) were detected and integrated in Bible OL. This allows Hebrew instructors to filter out any verbal class that student are not yet prepared to analyze. At the same time the instructor can select those classes that have been covered in the teachings so far and present them as exercises to students. Third, through the implementation of the Bible OL in several Hebrew courses at Andrews critical data can be generated that allows for measuring learning efficiency. Statistical analyses show that the average student performance has significantly increased through Bible OL. The subjective experience of more than 100 students that joined Bible OL based Hebrew classes supports the statistics. The great majority of students regards the combination of the Bible OL, a corpus-based approach and a Hebrew Reference Grammar as clearly outperforming the pedagogical efficiency of textbook-based, classical teaching methods. A short overview on how the BOL can be integrated in a Hebrew course will given.


SHEBANQ in the Exegesis Classroom: Teaching Exegetical Research with the Receiver of the Digital Humanities Awards 2014
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Oliver Glanz, Andrews University

In March 2015 the SHEBANQ project did receive the prestigious Digital Humanties Award of 2014 in the category “Best DH Tool or Suite of Tools”. With funding of CLARIN, the ETCBC developed in cooperation with the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences a web-based service under http://shebanq.ancient-data.org/. The service allows for open access to the richly annotated Amsterdam Hebrew database. The user can interact with SHEBANQ on five levels: (a) reading the Hebrew Bible in its plain format (MT) or visualizing any chosen selection of linguistic annotations (morphology, phrase information, clause information, etc.); (b) querying the Hebrew Bible on all its linguistics levels; (c) saving queries as annotations to the Hebrew text and making them publically available if so chosen; (d) hyperlinking ran queries with a persistent identifier (pid) as references in scholarly publication; (e) exporting query results as spreadsheet for further processing in Excel or similar programs. In my presentation I will demonstrate how SHEBANQ can be used in the classroom as a tool for teaching exegetical methodology. I will show how SHEBANQ can help the student to translate his/her exegetical question into a query that transcends the usual limitations that come with word based searches. After students have been introduced to SHEBANQ and learned how to run syntactical queries it has not been seldom that students communicate that they rather use SHEBANQ for Hebrew queries than their personal BibleSoftware installations. My presentation I will first give a short overview on the functionalities that come with SHEBANQ. Second, I will demonstrate the taught process from question to query. Finally, I will explain what SHEBANQ features have been proven to be most useful in the classroom setting.


Genealogy Lists as a Window to Historiographic Periodization in the Book of Chronicles
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
David A. Glatt-Gilad, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

This paper will take note of three aspects of historiographic periodization that permeate the genealogy lists in Chronicles. The first is the tendency of the lists to compress past and present - a phenomenon that corresponds well with the Chronicler's desire to emphasize the timeless dimension of certain ideals, among them his view of Israelite identity as encompassing all of its ancient constituent elements. The second is the mention of particular kings in the genealogy lists (Saul, David, Solomon, Jotham, and Hezekiah) in connection with events or actions that suit the positive tenor of their reigns, as reported in or alluded to later on in the Chronicler's continuous historical narrative. The third is the chronological centrality of the Davidic period in the genealogical lists of priests and levites - a phenomenon that implicitly underscores David's key role in the history of the cult, as spelled out on numerous occasions throughout the Chronicler's historiography. When taken together, the above three points demonstrate the value of probing the Chronicler's genealogy lists in terms of how they can contribute to appreciating the Chronicler's unique historical outlook.


Joseph of Nazareth in the Protevangelium of James
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Justin M. Glessner, DePauw University

Without dismissing the importance of prior critique of gendering of Mary in the Protevangelium of James (PJ), I offer here an aligned study concerned with other questions related to some of PJ’s secondary (more implicit) gendered concerns. Joseph makes a substantial and significant appearance in this work as well, and, as has rarely been acknowledged or put to critical reflection, Joseph is never far from the narrative center (even when he is). PJ’s complex and gendered reception of Joseph both preserves and shapes canonical traditions about Joseph with Mary and Jesus. Similar to his showing in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 1-2), every single one of PJ’s tales that feature Joseph (PJ 9-19) are narrated from his (not Mary’s) point of view. As suggested by James H. Liu and János László with regards to prototypical in-group characters in ‘historical’ narratives, Joseph’s point-of-view characterization in PJ feasibly plays a key role in mediating collective memory and putative in-group identity, intimately bound up with the processes of male self-fashioning. My findings expose the political mechanics behind Joseph’s colorful reception in PJ and open interpretive possibilities for rethinking normative views of manliness in early Christianity and beyond.


The Significance of the “Midrash of Shemhazai and Azael” for the Study of the Qumran Book of Giants
Program Unit: Qumran
Matthew Goff, Florida State University

J.T. Milik in his justly famous The Books of Enoch (1976) published the editio princeps of the Book of Giants fragments from Qumran. In the same book he also published an edition of a late rabbinic text known as the “Midrash of Shem?azai and Azael.” He discerned that this midrashic work has a significant amount of material in common with the Book of Giants fragments. In this paper I explore this under-utilized midrashic resource for understanding the Book of Giants. I examine the rabbinic sources for the “Midrash of Shem?azai and Azael,” which are not fully represented in Milik’s edition. Milik, though his opinions on these two texts and the relationship between them are at times unpersuasive, was fully correct that this midrashic text can help us better understand key details of the Qumranic text, which are often unclear, due to the highly fragmentary condition of the text. In my paper I discuss the major instances in which this is the case. My chief conclusion is that the “Midrash of Shem?azai and Azael” suggests that in Book of Giants at least some of the giants do not perish in the flood, whereas a leading view today holds that in this work all the giants die in the flood.


The Cruciform Faith and Freedom in Galatians: A Dialogue with Chinese Churches
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Menghun Goh, Vanderbilt University

This essay argues that Paul’s notions of freedom, faith, and law are cross-oriented and thus cannot be objectified. Consequently, believers’ relationships with God, spirit, Christ, and others need to be vibrant; they cannot be systematized. These cruciform notions are highlighted by my Chinese yin-yang correlational worldview, which is not unlike the biblical worldview that is proprioceptive and communal (for instance, the values of honor and shame). The problematic that I am addressing are the individual-centered biblical interpretations in Chinese churches that are shaped by the Western traditional theology that values autonomy, even though Chinese cultures are group-oriented. The Western lens through which Chinese churches engage the Bible alienates them from their heritage and makes them incorporate foreign problems embedded in such a lens. Foregrounding the communal and religious dimensions of Galatians, I want to stress that believers are not independent, but are always already interconnected with others. This dynamics of text and context in our interpretation also points to the need of a cruciform orientation in Chinese cultures that tend to overemphasize seniority in one’s relationship with others. Now if believers are called to freedom (5:13) and that “Christ freed us with respect to freedom” (5:1), then faith and law cannot contradict freedom. Note that as Paul does not qualify freedom, our notions of faith and law cannot be objectified. The communal and religious aspects of faith that cannot be objectified can be found in phrases like “through faith,” “in faith,” and “out of faith.” Such an interconnectedness is highlighted when those who believe out of faith (like Abraham) are the children of Abraham (3:6-7) and are blessed together with him (3:9). For Paul, this blessing of Abraham is a promise sustained by faith in, through, and out of the faith of Christ (3:14, 22). While believers are children of God through faith in Christ (3:26), the correlation between the children of Abraham and children of God is not a one-to-one correspondence. Rather, the correlation is figurative (4:24). This figurative correlation in Paul’s narrative of law and promise is significant. It signals that the law is not negative in itself. In saying that the entire law is summed up in “Love your neighbor as yourself” (5:14; cf. 6:2), Paul points to a paradoxical notion of law. Just as the law does not oppose the promises of God (3:21) but leads believers to Christ to be justified out of faith (3:24), it lets Paul died with respect to itself so that he might live with respect to God (3:19). The law, as such, exposes believers to its own limit; after all, it was introduced 430 years after God’s promise given to Abraham (3:17). Indeed, since the law was given after Israel was called and liberated from the Egyptian bondage, it should serve faith and freedom. This non-objectifying feature of freedom, faith, and law not only can help us navigate through Galatians, it can also empower Chinese churches to engage its own culture and Western traditional theology analytically and hospitably.


Qoheleth’s Gospel in Ecclesiastes: Eccl 3:1–15, 7:15–22, and 11:1–6 Considered
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Elaine Wei Fun Goh, Seminari Theoloji Malaysia

Qoheleth’s Gospel in Ecclesiastes: Eccl 3:1-15, 7:15-22 and 11:1-6 Considered


Aramaic Dialectal Awareness in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Binyamin Y. Goldstein, Yeshiva University

In Late Antique Mesopotamia, Aramaic was the lingua franca, spoken from the Mediterranean to India. Over this broad geographic range there existed an equally broad range of dialectal variety. In this paper, we will examine several Christian and Jewish primary sources which testify to a perception of distinct dialects of Aramaic. Moreover, this awareness seems to have developed over several centuries, with the perception of the dialectal division becoming more and more defined. Although the distinct features of each dialect remained essentially static through this period, perception of their dissimilarity developed slowly. Discussion of this dialectal awareness has several exciting implications, shedding further light on Jewish-Christian interaction in Late Antique Mesopotamia as well as on Late Antique linguistic theory.


On Some Small Collections within Isaiah 1–39 and Their Composition
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Ronnie Goldstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The paper will attempt to deal (by close reading of diverse passages) with some examples of the place of small collections and compilations within the composition of the book of Isaiah, and especially with the dislocation and relocation of sources, as part of the different redaction phases of Isaiah 1-39.


Questioning God: Cain and Abel as Hominis Sacri – An Agambenian Reading of Gen 4:1–16
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Julián Andrés González, Southern Methodist University

The proposed study posits that an interpretation of Gen. 4:1-16 grounded in Giorgio Agamben’s notions of homo sacer, state of exception, and sovereign power offers a fruitful theoretical and critical framework to the reading of the story of Cain and Abel, and can adequately account for the intervention of God in the tale. I examine early Christian and Jewish interpretations as well as a sample of contemporary readings from the field of biblical scholarship. The analysis illustrates their inattentiveness to God’s intervention in the life of the brothers. In addition, it offers an Agambenian reading to demonstrate political advantages of reading Gen. 4:1-16 in the context of contemporary notions of violence and migration. The study makes the character of God the center of analysis and sympathizes with Cain in order to argue that the shift of emphasis opens up the symbolic world of the text to new and relevant meanings. These meanings become pertinent by overlapping the Agambenian reading of Gen. 4:1-16 with social realities that inform the construction of strong identities, yet they as well conceal the problematic character of the other who disrupts the social order. Therefore, the study shifts the focus of interpretation of the story and insists on the public-political responsibility of biblical scholarship. The study argues that once the character of God is included in the interpretive task, God’s incomprehensibility as the reason for his intervention in the life of the brother needs reevaluation. Under the Agambenian framework, Cain and Abel are examples of hominis sacri. Questioning God in the story then upsets the traditional readings of the narrative, creates symbolic bridges to demystify the intervention of God, and promotes the discussion of issues of violence and migration in contemporary societies.


What Does Thomas Have to Do with Q? The Afterlife of a Sayings Gospel
Program Unit: Matthew
Mark Goodacre, Duke University

Francis Watson's Gospel Writing fills the void left by the absence of Q with a sayings gospel genre instantiated by Thomas. But does the absence of Q require an appeal to Thomas? If Thomas is a second century work familiar with the Synoptics, how far can it help with reflections on first century Christian origins? In the aftermath of Watson's work, is there still a future for Sayings Gospels?


"Strange, Restless, and Unfamiliar": The Character of the Fourth Gospel in the John, Jesus, and History Project
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Mark Goodacre, Duke University

This paper addresses the scholarly receptions of the John, Jesus, and History project. It will highlight emerging themes in such receptions and reflect on the relationship between these themes and the diverse articles included in the first three volumes of John, Jesus, and History.


Leviticus 22:24: A Prohibition on Gelding for the Land of Israel?
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Elaine Goodfriend, California State University - Northridge

Lev 22:24 is found in a passage enumerating various physical blemishes which exclude an animal from being offered as a sacrifice. Lev 22:24A lists four kinds of genital mutilation which are prohibited for sacrificial animals. However, the second half of the verse adds, "And in your land you shall not do [thus]," which is understood by most modern commentaries as a reiteration for emphasis of the first half of the verse. In contrast, ancient commentaries and some moderns understand the clause as a general prohibition on castration for domesticated animals in the land of Israel. This issue has several important ramifications for life in ancient Israel. First, the prohibition of castration would have led to an excessive number of intact males, which cannot be utilized for the purposes of plowing and pulling because they are unmanageable. (For the purpose of insemination, one male can supply the needs of tens of females.) As a consequence, more (male) animals would have available for sacrifice and consumption. Therefore, while most scholars assume that ancient Israelites rarely ate meat, this may not have been the case. This interpretation is also relevant for understanding the Israelite attitude to animals, especially those of the flock and herd. Further, an examination of the terminology for bovines in Biblical Hebrew is important for understanding Exodus 21's legislation on “the goring ox” (or is that “the goring bull”?). This paper, after careful examination of biblical law in general and H in particular, will confirm the interpretation of ancient exegetes that Lev 22:24B served as a ban on animal castration.


The Purpose of Calling and the Groaning of Creation: Re-considering the Grammar and Context of Romans 8:28
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Haley Goranson, University of St. Andrews

Empathy for the natural world is steadily increasing. Evidence for this is seen in the secular arena, as well as within traditional theological readings of the bible. ‘Ecological hermeneutics’ is no longer an altogether unfamiliar phrase. And, yet, readers of the bible remain trapped by anthropocentric perspectives which have dominated and continue to dominate hermeneutical landscapes, particularly those within popular Christianity in America. One well-known text which serves as a perfect example of such human-centered perspectives is Romans 8:28: ‘We know that all things work together for good for those whole love God, who are called according to his purpose (NRSV). No less than a handful of elements of 8:28 are disputed among scholars: the subject of the verb, the textual omission or addition of 'ho theos', the presence of 'panta', to name just a few. Though these and other elements of 8:28 are disputed, what is never disputed and is purely assumed is how one should render the dative participles: ‘those who love God’ and ‘those called according to [God’s] purpose’. In the majority of translations, the datives are read as datives of advantage or the indirect object: ‘to the advantage of or for those who love God’. But this is to miss Paul’s point. The datives can just as easily be read as datives of instrumentality or association, so that ‘good’ is not brought about to believers but through or in cooperation with believers. That the datives should be taken in this way is evident on the basis of (1) 'synergei', which most accurately means ‘work with’ or ‘cooperate with’, (2) Paul’s use of 'panta' and its relationship to the wider context, most specifically the relationship between believers’ glory and creation’s groaning in 8:19-22, and (3) the covenantal significance of believers’ ‘calling’ and God’s purpose for them. When the grammar of 8:28 is re-evaluated in the light of the wider context (8:17-30), a context framed by believers’ glory in 8:17 and 30, then 8:28 is no longer clearly about God promising to bring a believer through suffering and unpleasant circumstances to their own personal ultimate end of salvation or eternal life with God. Romans 8:28 is not about the good of the believer. It is about what God is doing through the believer or with the believer on behalf of the entire cosmos. It is about Christians fulfilling their ultimate purposes as God’s people, those renewed in the new Adam, taking up their adamic duty as God’s representatives to the creation and intercessors to God on behalf of creation. It is about God bringing redemption to ‘all things’ through those already redeemed in his Son. This re-reading of Romans 8:28 will demonstrate to those already empathetic to ecologic concerns that even their presuppositions and longings for spiritual assurance and encouragement remain in force, even in creation-focused texts such as Romans 8.


'Rule(s)' as Tools: The Functions and Features of the Rule of Faith as Hermeneutical Criterion in Patristic Exegesis
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Joseph K. Gordon, Marquette University

A number of patristics scholars, including Frances Young, Eric Osborn, Paul Blowers, Prosper Grech, Lewis Ayres, and others have recently drawn attention to the functions and features of the regula fidei/kanon tes pistes, or "rule(s)" of faith, in early Christian hermeneutical reflection on and engagement with scripture. Osborn, in particular, has demonstrated the similarities between the Christian employment of the "rule(s)" and the epistemological functions of kanoni/regulae in antecedent Greco-Roman philosophy. Starting especially from Osborn's work on the potential philosophical context of the "rule(s)," the present essay will provide a historical examination of the functions and features of the "rule(s)" in the writings of Irenaeus, Origen, and Augustine, to identify commonalities and developments in the use of the rule as a hermeneutical criterion for Christian engagement with scripture. Through my examination of the use of the "rule(s)" in these figures I will argue that the "rule(s)" represent accounts of 1.) ecclesially received judgments constitutive of Christian faith which are born in worship and employed for catechetical and polemical needs, 2.) which insist upon the synthetic and sequential relationships of divine and human actors in the redemptive activity of the Son and Holy Spirit in history, 3.) have a consistently realist cast--that is, they are not merely grammatical guidelines for Christian speech but refer to the actuality of God's action in history--and 4.) exhibit and remain open to further development and specification as specific theological questions arose in the Christian communities' ongoing reflection on the relationships between the Father, Son, and Spirit and the constitution and nature of the Son and the Holy Spirit. The "rule(s)" then, bear witness to Christian self-understanding on the move which are antecedent to the two-Testament Bible and which specify the actual content of scripture--to quote Augustine, the rule provides in concise fashion the res to which scripture refers. A number of contemporary theologians have proposed the utility of the "rule(s)" or of creedal affirmations for Christian engagement with scripture today. My presentation will conclude with a critique of some of these recent approaches and will suggest principles for responsibly and adequately understanding the actual historical employment of the "rule(s)" in the early church and for appropriating the "rule(s)" in the service of Christian hermeneutics and exegesis of scripture in our own time.


Syntactic Stylometry on the Basis of Ancient Greek Treebanks
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Robert J. Gorman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

This presentation aims to familiarize the audience with new methods of generating and exploiting corpora of syntactic data on ancient Greek, as evidence in stylometric investigations. The basic input is drawn from the major treebanks of ancient Greek (AGDT and PROIEL), and therefore I will briefly introduce new features in Arethusa, one of the most important treebanking platforms. The bulk of the discussion will focus on the application of treebank-derived data to research questions. The proximate research goal is to identify syntactic fingerprints in order to distinguish authorship and to characterize aspects of text reuse in Greek prose, especially where surface features such as vocabulary may be misleading. Because data are lacking for a range of Greek prose authors, the first step, which is well advanced, is to prepare syntactic trees of representative writers, particularly historians. The second step is to extract syntactic information from this corpus in a usable form. The most straightforward approach seems to be to convert dependency relationships into “syntactic words” (sWords). To do this, one may trace the dependency path between each leaf node and the sentence root and record the dependency label for each edge. A chief advantage of recasting dependencies as syntax words is that they are both human readable and suitable for immediate computational analysis: with trivial modifications such files can be put into standard text-processing software to produce type-token ratios, word frequency histograms, etc., providing detailed syntactic information about individual authors. Next I examine the results of applying various computational models of pattern recognition and prediction to the corpus of syntax words. Here, I will show that we can computationally distinguish between different authors on this basis. The presentation will conclude with illustrations of abstract value by concrete results: I will discuss syntactic constructions that significantly distinguish, one from another, various works and authors in AGDT and PROIEL, as well as exploring questions of authorship and text reuse.


The Necessity of Appropriate Fear: The Two-Fold Function of Q 12:4–5
Program Unit: Q
Shane Patrick Gormley, Loyola University Chicago

John Kloppenborg’s analysis of the stratigraphy of Q stands as one of the most comprehensive and consistent approaches to the composition and genre of Q as we are able to reconstruct it. His work, along with that of Ronald Piper and others, have highlighted the integrity of independent collections of aphoristic sayings within the “formative stratum” of Q. Each collection, or “cluster,” contains “hortatory sayings, topically arranged,” some being “prefaced with programmatic pronouncements” and concluding with warnings or sanctions “that underscore the gravity of the discourse” (Kloppenborg-Verbin, Excavating Q, 145-55). Within one of these clusters, delineated by Kloppenborg as Q 12:2-7, 11-12, sits the saying about the necessity of appropriate fear: “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna” (Q 12:4-5). In Kloppenborg’s analysis of this cluster, he concludes that 12:4-5 is the “kernel” around which other sayings have been added. Piper argues that the saying of 12:4-5 is the beginning of a collection of sayings, stretching at least as far as verse 9. Christopher Tuckett suggests that these verses are themselves a later interpolation into another collection of sayings. This paper reexamines the saying of Q 12:4-5 within its immediate context. I agree with Kloppenborg’s delineation of the original cluster, but I do not find 12:4-5 to be key to the cluster’s composition. Instead, I argue that the saying of Q 12:4-5 is included within this cluster in order to bolster the significance of the cluster’s programmatic statement in 12:2-3: “Nothing is hidden that will not be exposed, and hidden that will not be known. What I say to you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.” This “bolstering” accomplished by Q 12:4-5’s two-fold function: first, it quells inappropriate fear of humans, epitomized in the synagogue of Q 12:11-12; second, it instills in the listeners an appropriate fear of God, the one who has, though his envoy, called his audience to participate in the revealing of things once hidden and cryptic (12:2-3). The listeners are to take seriously the mission with which they have been tasked, and the double-saying on fear admonishes them not to allow their fear of humans (inappropriate fear) to outweigh their fidelity to God or their devotion to their task (appropriate fear).


A New Project in Targum Digitization
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Leeor Gottlieb, Bar-Ilan University

During the past generation we have witnessed the development of powerful electronic tools which aid us in the research of the Bible and its ancient translations. The texts of all the known central biblical Targums have been morphologically tagged and are available worldwide through CAL as well as various commercial software platforms. These tagged texts allow students and scholars to perform a wide range of advanced searches that undoubtedly facilitate studies and enhance our understanding of the Targums and particular words therein. While morphological tagging has opened – or at least accelerated – research possibilities, it has not fundamentally changed our grasp of translation technique because the morphological information regards each text as an independent, stand-alone composition and not as a translation linked to a source text. In this paper I wish to present a project I am currently developing which strives to link every Aramaic word in the Targum to its corresponding Hebrew equivalent in the biblical text. Such a database will allow scholars to track and assess the translation technique of a given unit in the Targum, or compare different Targums to each other on a large scale. This database will also present before its users expansive elements in the Targums which do not stem from a Hebrew equivalent in the source verse. This new tool will build upon the digitization achievements of the last generation and add to them by tying thus far independent Targumic texts to the Hebrew base text and to each other on a word for word basis.


To What Extent Did the Shoah Really Influence the Redaction of Nostra Aetate §4?
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Therese Andrevon Gottstein, Institut Catholique Paris

*


A Tale of Two Kitabs: A Radical Reconsideration of Qur'anic Scripturology
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Mohsen Goudarzi, Harvard University

This paper proposes that the key Qur’anic term kitab is not a generic label for all scriptures but rather a designation for comprehensive scriptures. In other words, kitab is a technical term in the Qur’an’s revelation discourse, denoting a book but also connoting the characteristic of comprehensiveness. Furthermore, I argue that the Qur’an considers only itself and the Torah to be comprehensive scriptures—to be kitabs. A corollary of this view is that only the Torah and the Qur’an provide self-sufficient paradigms for religious conduct. Thus, inter alia, the Gospel falls within the Torah’s paradigm, functioning as a supplement to the latter, not its substitute. In addition to necessitating a thorough reassessment of Qur’anic scripturology, the “two-kitabs” hypothesis has significant implications for Qur’anic worldview as a whole. The paper notes some of these implications as well as the potential chronological development of Qur’anic scripturology. First I discuss a few significant, yet rarely examined, attestations of kitab that suggest it is an exclusive appellation for the revelations of Moses and Mu?ammad. A prominent example is the passage that has the jinn describe the Qur’an as “a kitab sent down after Moses” (Q 46.30). Second, I analyze a number of Qur’anic verses that seem to have the opposite implication. These are passages that appear to suggest that Prophets other than Moses and Mu?ammad received kitabs, or that imply kitab is a generic label for all revealed books. I argue that these passages can in fact be reconciled with the two-kitabs hypothesis. For instance, Surat Maryam has the infant Jesus say: “I am God’s servant. He has given me the kitab” (v. 30). I argue that this kitab is not the Gospel, but rather the same kitab mentioned earlier in the Sura as having been given to John the Baptist (v. 12)—that is, the Mosaic kitab, the “inheritance of the House of Jacob” (v. 6; cf. Q 40.53, Deuteronomy 33.4). The third part of the paper discusses the Qur’anic phrase ahl al-kitab, which under this hypothesis would mean “People of the (Mosaic) kitab.” I note that the application of this label to Christians is consistent with a conception of Christianity as a primarily Israelite/Jewish movement—supported by several other Qur’anic passages. The revised scripturology thus has a direct bearing on the question of Jewish-Christianity in the Qur’an. This research project also affords us a window onto the chronological development of Qur’anic conceptions. If we adopt the common approach to chronology advocated by Angelika Neuwirth, we can chart coherent transformations in the vocabulary and themes associated with kitab. The so-called Meccan passages emphasize the historical teachings embedded in Mu?ammad’s kitab, while Medinan texts are primarily concerned with its legal rulings. The latest Medinan passages witness the introduction of al-tawrah and al-injil into scriptural vocabulary, and thus present a subtle shift away from the focus on the Torah-Qur’an correspondence. However, while giving the Gospel a more significant status, these passages still preserve the two-kitabs paradigm and the distinction of the Mosaic and Mu?ammadan revelations.


Aaron's "Silence" upon Hearing of His Sons' Death by Fire
Program Unit: Bible and Emotion
Naomi Graetz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

It is considered weakness for leaders to express emotion. Crying is a sign of breaking down and therefore not acceptable. David's advisers criticize his all too human sorrow on the death of his son Absalom (2 Samuel 19:2-8). Like David, Jacob is inconsolable and weeps and mourns and rents his clothes and goes into deep mourning when he hears of his beloved son Joseph's death (Gen. 37:34-35). Both David and Jacob refuse to be comforted. In contrast Aaron is silent (va-yidom Aharon) on hearing of the death of his two sons Nadav and Avihu (Lev. 10:3). Moreover, Moses orders him not to show outward signs of mourning and to carry on normal work, for not to do so, would lead to his death. Aaron seemingly follows these orders. It is his wife, Elisheba the daughter of Amminadab, who is allowed to mourn in rabbinic literature: "when her sons entered to offer incense and were burnt, her joy was changed to mourning" (Leviticus Rabbah 20:2). One of the few commentators to address Aaron's emotions is Nachmanides, the 13th century medieval Jewish scholar. His comment on Numbers 10, states that the verse “And Aaron was silent” actually "means that he had cried aloud, but then became silent." Nachmanides uses as a prooftext the verse from Lamentations 2:18: “Give yourself no respite, your eyes no rest (tidom)” to show that Aaron did express normal emotions. Was Aaron affected in any way by "bottling up" his emotions? This paper will first compare the emotional reaction of David and Jacob to their sons' deaths and then will contrast and examine Aaron's stoic behavior by looking at the psychological and midrashic literature on the efficacy of crying as an expression of emotion.


The Effect of the Conquering of Laish on Future Generations
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Naomi Graetz, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Many episodes in the Book of Judges depict a state of lawlessness. There is a downward spiral in the entire book culminating in the civil war of Judges 19-21 in which only 600 men of the tribe of Benjamin survive. This number correlates with the 600 military men from the tribe of Dan who totally destroyed the peaceful town of Laish (in Judges 18) without giving any advance warning to this non-Israelite settlement -- a clear violation of the Deuteronomic law (Deut. 20:10-5) that states that in dealing with cities that are "at a great distance from you" Israelites are to first make an offer of peace. This act of violence is echoed in the sacking of Shechem (Gen 34: 25-29), by the brothers, Simeon and Levi, when the newly circumcised males in the city are resting securely (bt?). Although neither text overtly criticizes the perpetrators' actions, one can read into the texts that there is disapproval of both the Danites' and the brothers' actions. By looking at both texts intertextually, this paper draws a tentative conclusion that underlying both texts is a negative attitude to the violent nature of conquest which results in total destruction. I posit that Jacob's blessings/curses to his sons Simon and Levi (Gen. 49:5-7) and Dan (Gen. 49: 16-18) serve as further intertextual support to this view. Although many commentators feel that the blessing of Dan refers to Samson (who is from the tribe of Dan), this paper argues that Jacob's death-bed statements can refer equally to the conquest of Laish by the tribe of Dan in Judges 18. If this is the case, perhaps we can understand that Jacob is alluding to the non-acceptability of unprovoked aggression and the corrosive effect of violence on future generations.


An Examination of Paul's Use of Ps 51:4 in Rom 3:4 and Its Implications on Rom 3:1–8
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Michael T. Graham Jr., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

In Rom 3:4, Paul offers a citation from Ps 51:4 (Ps 50:6 LXX) that poses an interpretive difficulty for scholars. The problem centers on how Paul uses Ps 51:4 within the argument found in Rom 3:1-8. Scholars propose two views. The first view holds that Paul is affirming God’s right to judge the Jews (Thomas R. Schreiner, Douglas J. Moo, Mark Seifrid, William Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam), while the second maintains that Paul is affirming God’s faithfulness despite Israel’s unfaithfulness (N. T. Wright, Robert Jewett, James D. G. Dunn, Joseph A. Fitzmyer). In this paper, I propose a third option. I will argue that Paul is alluding to the Davidic Covenant when citing Ps 51:4 in order to account for the judging and saving features of God’s faithfulness in his current dealings with Israel and the Gentiles. I will defend my thesis by demonstrating that first, Paul has a covenantal context in mind in Rom 3:1–8. Second, his selection of the Psalms as the means through which he alludes to the Davidic covenant further strengthens his argument. Third, seeing this allusion best answers the three questions posed by the interlocutor in vv. 1, 3, and 5.


"I Think" vs. "The Thought Tells Me": What Grammar Teaches Us about the Monastic Self
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Inbar Graiver, Tel Aviv University

In view of the importance of the mind (nous) in the Eastern theological tradition and the central role of thoughts (logismoi) in early monastic asceticism, this paper explores the early monastic language of thinking – the ways in which thinking was "semanticized" or construed in language. While there is a large cross-linguistic variability in the ways of talking about thinking, "think" is a universal linguistic concept. Linguistic interpretations of this basic human activity may lend us an insight into early monastic perceptions of the self and the process of self-fashioning. Whereas modern interpreters of ancient texts tend to focus on the referential function of language, this paper looks at the language itself. In particular, I examine the language of thinking employed by monks in verbalizing their thoughts for the discernment of an elder – a procedure appraised by Foucault as a distinctively early Christian contribution to the history of the self. Surprisingly, in verbalizing their thoughts late ancient monks didn't use the common Greek verbs expressing "I think." Instead, the most common formulation is "the thought tells me" (ho logismos legei moi). Additional ways of representing thinking use the same pattern. This unique linguistic interpretation of thinking, I argue, worked in subtle ways to support the ascetic process of self-fashioning: As monks learned over time to construe themselves in terms of this language, a transformation of identity took place. While the role of the traditional ascetic practices in bringing about what Hadot described as "a profound transformation of the individual's mode of seeing and being" has received much scholarly attention, the role of language itself in this process has been neglected. The paper shows that by looking at language itself, we can trace the ways in which this transformation actually worked, and how it was continually constituted in different habits of speaking.


The Orientation of the Temple of YHWH in Elephantine: Reflecting the Concept of Sacred Direction?
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Gard Granerød, MF Norwegian School of Theology

The paper discusses the thesis proposed by Bezalel Porten about the orientation of the temple of YHW in Elephantine. According to Porten, the temple was intentionally oriented toward Jerusalem. Moreover, according to Porten, the physical orientation of the temple of YHW toward Jerusalem also reflected the “sacred orientation” of the Judaean community in Elephantine. To the knowledge of the author of the paper, Porten’s theory has never really been discussed in the history of research on Elephantine. The present paper attempts to scrutinise Porten’s theory under three rubrics: 1. The concept of sacred direction in biblical texts (texts from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the Apocrypha), 2. The Elephantine Judaean temple theology (based on the documents of the Judaeans in Elephantine), and 3. The longitudinal orientation of the temple in the light of the general orientation of the ancient town (the archaeology of the ancient town of Elephantine). The present author’s conclusion is that Porten’s theory about the orientation of the temple of YHW being intentionally oriented toward Jerusalem is unlikely from the perspective of all three rubrics mentioned above.


The Psalter, Worship, and Worldview
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Jamie Grant, Highland Theological College

The Psalter, Worship, and Worldview


Stylistic Criteria in Nöldeke's Chronology of Qur'anic Material in the Context of 19th Century Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Michael Graves, Wheaton College (Illinois)

A major concern of biblical studies and western Qur'anic studies in the 19th century was to reconstruct the process by which the texts were written and to assign dates to the various units of text. One important criterion for establishing a chronology of textual development was literary style. It was thought that differences in style could be used to identify different authors, and that it was possible to separate earlier from later material by describing how style evolved over time. Such thinking was employed in 19th century studies of the Pentateuch and Isaiah, and it was also employed in the seminal work of Nöldeke-Schwally, The History of the Qur'an (Geschichte des Qorans). Many modern Qur'anic scholars (e.g., A. Neuwirth, C. Ernst, N. Robinson, R. Farrin) continue to regard Nöldeke-Schwally as a viable framework for understanding the chronology of the suras of the Qur'an. Similarly, biblical scholarship continues to operate with conceptions of the composition of the Pentateuch and Isaiah that bear genetic similarities with the 19th century theories of Wellhausen and Duhm (despite some major paradigm shifts in Pentateuchal studies). This paper will reconsider the specifically stylistic criteria used by Nöldeke-Schwally in reconstructing the chronology of the Qur'an, and will compare this analysis with related studies from the same period on the Pentateuch and Isaiah. The main questions will be: What are considered to be characteristics of early style rather than late style? What is the basis for thinking that we can recognize early stylistic features and how style evolved over time? Which styles are evaluated positively? Which are viewed negatively? How does the evaluation of styles impact judgments about chronology? How are stylistic criteria used to identify interpolations? This paper will attempt to describe some key assumptions common among 19th century oriental scholars about religion, aesthetics, and history that underlie important elements of the literary theories of Nöldeke-Schwally and 19th century biblical criticism. In the end, these assumptions may not be entirely suitable for understanding the Pentateuch, Isaiah, or the Qur'an; rather, they are distinctively 19th century ideas that reflect the situated nature of this scholarship. It will not be argued that 19th century scholarship was without merit. On the contrary, these studies made great contributions, even in the midst of their comments about style. It will be suggested, however, that it is not advisable to adopt 19th century literary chronologies of these biblical and Qur'anic texts without seriously rethinking their appeal to style in identifying early and late material.


Jerome's Epistle 106: Text-Critical and Exegetical Studies in the Psalter
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Michael Graves, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Jerome's Epistle 106 is a remarkably extensive (42 pages in the CSEL edition) discussion of the differences between the LXX Psalter and Jerome's hexaplaric revision of the Psalter (the so-called "Gallican Psalter") using insights from the Hebrew text. Jerome presents this "letter" as a response to 178 questions on textual difficulties in the Psalms put to him by two individuals named Sunnia and Fretela, who are generally thought to be Gothic monks living in Constantinople. Unlike many of Jerome's letters, which imitate classical models, there is little in the prior history of Latin epistolography to explain what Jerome is doing in this letter. Numerous basic questions surround its composition: first, some have argued that this letter is not a letter at all, but is simply a treatise that Jerome wrote to display his knowledge, and that Sunnia and Fretela were likely invented by Jerome. Second, the date of the letter is not clear; most locate it somewhere between 404-414 (Cavallera I: 291-292), but precise dating has been allusive. Third, the genre of the letter is uncertain; for example, whereas Alfons Fürst describes Epistle 106 as a text-critical tractate (Hieronymus: Askese und Wissenschaft, 119-120), Andrew Cain classifies it as an apologetic letter (Letters of Jerome, 209-210). Each of these questions will be addressed in some way in this paper. Yet, these questions will be taken up as part of a broader consideration of Jerome's exegetical purpose in the letter. Jerome had written his Hebrew Questions on Genesis ca. 391 at the start of his iuxta Hebraeos translation project, in part to demonstrate to Latin readers what benefits could come from returning to the Hebrew. Why, at the end of or after the IH translation (completed in 405), would Jerome devote such attention to his hexaplaric Psalter? Recent studies have shown that Jerome did not simply abandon the hexaplaric revision after his turn to the Hebrew (see Adam Kamesar, Jerome, Greek Scholarship, and the Hebrew Bible). This paper will suggest that in Epistle 106 Jerome capitalized on an opportunity to re-interpret the significance of the hexaplaric revision in light of the complete IH edition, construing the earlier attempt as a success for its limited aims, but now ultimately superseded by the Hebrew-based version for those who want to know the real meaning of the text. In addition, this paper will offer some key examples of Jerome's philological analysis of the text of the Psalms, and will explore what Epistle 106 as a whole contributes to our understanding of the Hexapla in Jerome's day.


C.S. Lewis and the Historical Jesus in the Screwtape Letters
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Patrick Gray, Rhodes College

In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, the demon Wormwood discusses the usefulness of “the Quest for the Historical Jesus” for accomplishing his nefarious purposes. The Quest’s usefulness for him amounts to a critique of sorts on the part of the author. This paper gives a close reading of this particular “letter,” situates it in the context of mid-century New Testament scholarship, and examines its relation to themes found in Lewis’ broader corpus.


When Bodies Meet: Fraught Companionship and Entangled Embodiment in Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Rhiannon Graybill, Rhodes College

This paper will use Donna Haraway’s theoretical work on “companion species” to offer a new perspective on the mutually implicated bodies in Jeremiah. The prophet’s obsessive references to his bodily suffering in the first half of the book are largely replaced, in the second half, with narratives of the prophet’s actions and conflicts. Here, however, the body remains a central problem, as Jeremiah’s body is acted upon, and acts out against, the bodies of kings, rival prophets, ruined scrolls, and layers of text. While it is tempting to approach this prophetic body through the symbolic relations of language and flesh, this paper will instead argue for approaching the body through companionship, entanglement, and significant otherness. Haraway’s theorization of interdependence, conflict, and co-becoming offers a new model for understanding the individual and compounded bodies of prophet, scribe, king, and nation in Jeremiah’s prose narrative. I will read the bodies in the narratives of Jeremiah, with a special emphasis on the bodies of Jer. 36-38, as experiments in (fraught) companionship and mutual embodiment, offering an alternate framework for imagining the body in and of prophecy.


Whose Justice Is It Anyway? Analyzing a Matrix of Identity Geopolitics in the Parable of the Widow and the Judge (Luke 18:1–8)
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Bridgett Green, Vanderbilt University

Whose Justice Is It Anyway? Analyzing a Matrix of Identity Geopolitics in the Parable of the Widow and the Judge (Luke 18:1-8)


"Does Not Nature Itself Teach You?" Theological Meditations on a Troubled/Troubling Text
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Chris E. W. Green, Pentecostal Theological Seminary

*


A New Appraisal of Abigail's Brave Actions in 1 Sam 25:2–42
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Samuel Greengus, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

The long history of ancient Near Eastern laws limiting women's access to marital property offers a new perspective on Abigail's bold actions in 1Sam 25:4–42. These restrictive laws, attested over many centuries, evidently represented deeply rooted customs. Examples are to be found among the Old Babylonian and Middle Assyrian laws; and the later continuity of these restrictions is attested in formal law statements preserved in the Mishnah (for Palestine), Talmud (for Babylonia), and Syriac-Roman lawbooks (Syria). We are looking particularly at laws limiting women's legal rights to dispose of marital property in commercial activity, specifically, sale and deposit. While similarly explicit restrictions are not preserved among the extant biblical laws, we nevertheless believe that these restrictive norms were likewise operative in Israelite society and look to find them in the narrative describing the interactions between Abigail, her husband Nabal, and David. Assuming the presence of such norms may provide a deeper understanding of Abigail's story and why it was retold in the Hebrew Bible.


Quoth, Doth, and Thy: The Translated Bible in Popular Culture
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

Bible translations constitute a recognizable, if not recurrent theme in popular culture. Through comic strips (collected over four decades), images (some more artistic than others), television and movie presentations (primarily comical), Bible translation, as a phenomenon, and Bible translations (such as the King James Version [KJV]) appear in multiple contexts and media. Often it involves the difficulty of fully understanding the “antiquated language” of KJV (and its contemporaries) or the shock of encountering updated, sometimes jarring wording (as in The Message and its contemporaries). In this sense, the visual and the textual complement and comment upon each other. So it is that in addition to their status as popular culture, these representations also have educational value, which varies considerably among exemplars.


Stumbling through the Book of Joshua: Is a Roadmap Possible?
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

The middle chapters of the book of Joshua are filled, for the most part, with place names, many of which are found nowhere else in the biblical text. It is tempting to skip over those chapters, as many readers do. However, textual critics, among others, are not allowed such latitude. What sorts of aids are available to help us navigate through this territory? And what types of results are we likely to come up with? These are among the issues we discuss, centering our analysis on specific examples and sites.


Teaching the Historical Jesus: One Text, Many Contexts
Program Unit:
Leonard Greenspoon, Creighton University

Within the past few years, I have taught courses relating to the historical Jesus at Spertus Institute in Chicago, where the class consisted primarily of graduate students who are Jewish, and at Creighton University, to an undergraduate class made up of Christians, mostly Roman Catholics. In our effort to locate Jesus within the Jewish environment he inhabited, we looked at many of the same New Testament passages in both pedagogical contexts. Neither the Jewish graduate students nor the Christian undergraduates had much experience in this type of analysis, so the starting points were not as dissimilar as I might have thought. Their reactions to the material we covered did vary, but not to the extent or in the ways I would have predicted. Having surveyed in-class experiences on the part of different groups of students, I will hazard one or more predictions as to how this material, and our approach to it, might affect (in positive ways, I hope) the future academic, religious (spiritual), and general lives of these individuals—and their teacher.


Ahab’s Death Twice Told: The Identity of the “King of Israel” in 1 Kings 22
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Kyle Greenwood, Colorado Christian University

First Kings 22 appears to depict two opposing conclusions to Ahab’s life. According to 1 Kgs 22:33–37, the “king of Israel” was lethally struck by an Aramean’s arrow. Upon his death the “the king” was subsequently buried in Samaria. Three verses later, however, Ahab “slept with his fathers.” The discrepancy in the manner of death for Israel’s king has led commentators to assume that the Deuteronomistic Historian conflated two separate narratives, and assigned a non-Ahabite tradition to the unnamed king in 1 Kgs 22. According to J. M. Miller, this phrase “appears elsewhere in his history only in the cases of those kings who died a natural death” (J. M. Miller, 1966; M. White, 1994). Simon DeVries presses the implications by stating that the phrase “has to mean that he died in peace and honor, and therefore cannot apply to the king of v. 37” (1985). It is thus argued that verses 37 and 40 cannot refer to the same king. In reassessing the prevailing thought regarding the identity of the unnamed king in 1 Kgs 22, this paper will consider three specific areas of inquiry. First, it will consider other examples within the Deuteronomistic History in which unnamed kings play a prominent role in the narrative. Second, it will reexamine the lexical evidence within the Deuteronomistic History regarding the usage of the phrase “slept with his fathers.” Third, it will reckon with the historian’s portrait of Jehosphaphat, particularly as it pertains to his alliance with this king. Ultimately, this paper will argue that since Ahab did not die as a result of a palace coup, and because he was an ally with the pious Jehoshaphat, the historian, in fact, identifies the “king of Israel” throughout 1 Kgs 22 as Ahab.


Not All Blessings Are Equal: Post-Nostra Aetate Catholic Interpretations of the Biblical Blessings to the Jews and to the Nations
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Adam Gregerman, Saint Joseph's University

*


The Role of Jewish Priests in Early Synagogue Leadership and Liturgy
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Matthew Grey, Brigham Young University

Traditionally, scholarship on early Judaism has assumed that the socio-religious influence of priests was largely restricted to the cultic sphere of the Jerusalem temple, while other groups (including scribes, Pharisees, and proto-Rabbis) were popular leaders of Jewish communities and institutions in areas outside of Jerusalem. However, a growing corpus of epigraphic, literary, and archaeological evidence suggests that, before 70 C.E., the socio-religious influence of Jewish priests extended well beyond the Jerusalem temple cult and that, after 70, much of that priestly influence persevered within some circles of the Jewish community. In particular, priests seem to have been much more involved in early synagogue leadership and liturgy than was previously assumed. This paper will consider the evidence for priestly leadership in some synagogues and the role priests played in facilitating divine worship in synagogue settings during the Second Temple (pre-70) and late Roman (post-70) periods. Evidence for priestly involvement in synagogues can be found in funerary and dedicatory inscriptions, in the writings of Philo, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Mishnah, and in the surviving features of some early synagogue buildings. This confluence of evidence suggests that, in many Jewish communities, priests presided over synagogue activities and provided divine mediation in synagogue liturgy through their offering of prayers, the exercising of their legal rights to read and teach the Torah, and their bestowing divine beneficence upon congregations in the form of the priestly blessing. Such activities reflect the extra-temple functions of priests before 70 C.E. and the continuation of those functions for centuries after the temple’s destruction. They also show that, while some Jewish circles after 70 shifted their religious focus to the leadership of lay Torah scholars (such as the early Rabbis), others continued to view hereditary priests as the mediating link between God and the Jewish community.


Like Sees Like: Platonic Theories of Vision and Jesus' Polymorphic Body in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
David P. Griffin, University of Virginia

An important but poorly understood aspect of early Christian reflection on Jesus was the notion that he was a polymorph—that is, Jesus’ body could assume different forms, and it appeared in multiple shapes that could be perceived either successively or even simultaneously by different people. As part of the Christian tradition, the textual phenomenon of a shapeshifting Jesus begins as early as the Transfiguration and post-resurrection narratives in the canonical Gospels, and it figures prominently in several apocryphal Acts, Gospels, and patristic sources, most notably in Origen. One need not dig too deep into these sources before we discover the importance of visual metaphors that are woven into the discourse of polymorphism. In this paper I will examine the theories of vision from antiquity that inform this tradition, devoting particular attention to Plato and Philo’s works. I contend that many early Christian texts that feature a polymorphic Jesus reflect a Platonic way of speaking about vision, which is, in Martin Jay’s terms, a “participatory” understanding of sight. I develop this argument in three movements. First I examine the metaphors Plato uses in Republic Book 7 and Timaeus 45a-e to articulate theories of vision (and, by extension, knowledge). The passage from the Timaeus speaks of vision as the active emission of light rays from the eyes and the passive entry of light into the eyes, the sensation of “seeing” resulting when the active and passive sources of light match. This is a principle of similarity. Republic 7 represents a narratization of Plato’s theory of sight in the famous Allegory of the Cave. As an already thoroughly researched text, the cave allegory is of interest here as it seems to inform a passage in Philo that reflects the way Plato metaphorizes the discourse on vision through narrative. Thus, the second movement of my argument briefly analyzes Philo’s On Dreams 1.238-241, in which the Alexandrian exegete explains Jacob’s vision in Genesis 31 in terms of the Logos’ ability to appear to people in many different forms according to their capacity to see, using imagery highly evocative of Plato’s cave allegory. I contend that Philo’s discourse on how one perceives the Logos operates on the same visual principle of like sees like. In the third movement of my argument, I apply this analysis to an odd argument in Origen’s Contra Celsum 2.67. Origen claims that before the resurrection, anybody could see Jesus, although individuals perceived him differently according to their intellectual and moral capacities. However, the resurrected Christ did not appear to everyone. He mercifully did not appear to those who killed him because, if he had, they would have been blinded like the men of Sodom. I argue that this passage in the Contra Celsum on perceiving Jesus’ resurrected body is constructed using the solidly Platonic principle that like sees like. Because Philo had already woven this principle into his biblical exegesis, it was not so great a leap for Origen to apply like sees like to Jesus, the Logos made flesh.


Bringing Ancient Texts to Life for Tech-Savvy Students
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Tyler J. Griffin, Brigham Young University

Students today are digital natives. Most have spent significant time immersed in video games, smart phones, tablets, and countless computer technologies. These students are inherently comfortable and capable of navigating complex visual and spatial environments while processing vast amounts of information. Most academic teaching today, however, relies heavily (and at times, exclusively) on textual and logical argument to engage the learners. This can lead to an inordinate focus on what we are teaching while disregarding who we are teaching. Much more could be done to bridge this technological gap between academic teaching styles and current learning preferences. Immersive technologies can be used in academic settings to increase a “sense of time and space” for the students. These tools make it easier for the students to visualize what they are reading about. For instance, we could show students a 2D map of ancient Jerusalem with arrows proposing a route that Jesus followed during his final 24 hours or we could show them a virtual fly-over of the various sites in a 3D immersive environment. We could show them a diagram of Herod’s Second Temple or let them walk through it much like they would navigate a video game. If a teacher today wants to engage learners at a deeper level in ancient stories, these immersive technologies become an inviting portal for them. This presentation will “practice what it preaches” by showing many examples of how various forms of interactive tools and apps can be used to enhance the teaching of a variety of pericopes in the New and Old Testaments. While some of the tools demonstrated are available for sharing, others are available for purchase as an app, and others are not yet accessible for distribution. This will also be an opportunity to find other academics who have the interest and means to help contribute in designing and developing similar teaching tools to be shared. The goal of the presentation is not to minimize non-visual teaching practices that have proven effective. The presentation will (1) demonstrate a vision of how new immersive technologies can be used to engage our learners at deeper levels with ancient texts, (2) show how these tools can be used for teaching a variety of passages from any number of theological or academic contexts, (3) help highly verbal teachers learn how to better connect with more visual students in their classes without having to become a computer expert, (4) show where many of these helpful resources can be found, and (5) find others who are willing and able to contribute in efforts to develop and effectively use such teaching tools to increase our effectiveness in bridging the many gaps that exist between our students and the ancient world they read about in the pages of the Bible.


Reading Resurrection in the Additions to Daniel
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Jennie Grillo, Duke University

It is well known that Daniel, the Three Jews and Susanna were taken as emblems of deliverance in early Christian writings and visual representations. This paper examines in more detail the theological construals of resurrection in some of those readings, and considers the interplay between text and image in their production of meaning.


Intertextuality and Canonical Criticism
Program Unit: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Marianne Grohmann, Universität Wien

Intertextuality as a theoretical framework for describing the relationship between texts in the Hebrew Bible and their ongoing interpretation has both common and different interests with canonical criticism. On the one hand, the concept of intertextuality enables the inclusion of the different Jewish and Christian contexts of reading and the perspectives of different canons. In addition to the historic analysis of echoes, allusions and citations, it adds the mutuality of the reading process. Different canons make different intertextual links possible. On the other hand, the concept of intertextuality, especially in its wide sense, stands in tension with the notion of a canon. By calling into question the borders between canonical texts and their interpretations, it undermines the concept of canonical boundaries and challenges the distinction between text and commentary. This paper addresses basic theoretical questions in the intersection between intertextuality and canonical criticism. It reads texts from the book of lamentations in intertextual relationship to other parts of the Hebrew Bible canon and post-biblical interpretation. It focuses on examples of rabbinic intertextuality which finds a balance in this tension between canonical criticism and intertextuality: Having a special interest in and sensitivity for the interconnectedness of texts, the rabbies use texts from different parts of the Hebrew canon and bring them together in a new text.


A Mujerista Reading of Judges 19
Program Unit: Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Corinna Guerrero, Graduate Theological Union

Exponential violence has increased against Latina bodies along the US-Mexico border as girls and women flee economic and political impoverishment, disenfranchisement, and warfare. I propose a Mujerista reading of the controversial and violent passage Judges 19, in which an unnamed woman is impassionedly dismembered. In the paper I will define the boundaries of a Mujerista biblical interpretive framework with attention to: (1) liberation of the Latina woman in her daily life; (2) contemporary sexual abuse, decapitations, dismemberment, and death of Latina women at the US-Mexico border; and (3) the option to reject or recover reading Judges 19 as and for Latinas. I will present and synthesize rejection and recovery readings of Judges 19 in order to present a spectrum of readings that may be in service of liberating Latinas from terrorizing Scriptures and drawing awareness to the growing threat of sexual and physical violence against socially and politically vulnerable women in our society.


Faith without Works Is…Apocalyptic? Apocalyptic Wisdom between James and Paul
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Andrew Guffey, Virginia Theological Seminary

Was James truly a work of anti-Pauline polemic? Scholarly assessments diverge widely. Those who uphold the claim that James is a work of anti-Pauline polemic cite especially James 2:14-26 as a clear example of the letter’s refutation of Pauline teachings. Those who deny that James is (directly, at least) an example of anti-Pauline polemic highlight the apparent difference in meaning the key terms “faith” and “works” convey in Paul and in James. The difference some interpreters highlight between Paul’s construal of faith and works and that of James can been attributed to reconstructions of an apocalyptic Paul and a sapiential James. This paper seeks to problematize that schema, arguing that the neat division between the soteriologies of Paul and James collapses under the recognition that the neat division between apocalypticism and wisdom does not hold. The apocalyptic soteriology of Paul (esp. in the letters to the Galatians and Romans) is not without sapiential elements, and the wisdom influence in the letter of James (including its discussion of faith and works) is not without apocalyptic coloring. Thus the tension between the letters of Paul and the letter of James should not be conceived as a fault line between soteriologies funded by, respectively, apocalyptic and wisdom traditions. The paper further suggests, with special reference to Adamic and Enochic models of theodicy, that the tension between Paul and James in fact reflects a tension within apocalyptic-wisdom traditions themselves.


“Jealousy” and the Juridical: A Reexamination of the Hebrew Root QN’
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Erin Villareal, The Johns Hopkins University

This paper provides a reanalysis of the Hebrew root QN', which is traditionally translated as “jealousy,” “zeal,” “envy,” or “anger.” Many scholars have noted the ambiguous character of QN’ and have claimed that its meaning is context dependent. In addition, previous studies have often examined divine QN’ and human QN’ separately, with the intention of distinguishing its meaning from a “religious” verses a “secular” context. Instead, it will be argued in this paper that human and divine QN’ inform each other. Both describe and are triggered by a similar phenomenon, which is defined by a legal and social contract and the boundaries set by this contract’s expectations. In most cases, these boundaries deal with the maintenance of exclusivity in social and religious relationships, and when invoked, signifies a concern for the breach in the social contract, causing a disruption in legal or religious obligations. Thus, the traditional understanding of QN’ as a word primarily dealing with “jealousy,” “anger,” “envy,” or “zeal” will be challenged. I will propose instead that this term expresses social obligations that may even carry legal force. These bonds may be reflected both in human relationships and in the relationship between a god and his people.


Where’s the Beef? Paul, Poverty, and Love in 1 Corinthians 8
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Judith Gundry, Yale Divinity School

It is well known that the majority in the Corinthian ekklesia belonged to the poorer echelon of Hellenistic society (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26). Further, it is well-known that expensive meat was consumed only on special occasions (weddings, birthdays, funerals, and celebrations in honor of a god) by most inhabitants of the Roman Empire. We can thus infer that the majority in the Corinthian church consumed meat only on special occasions, and that at least in some of these cases, participation in pagan sacrificial meals in an idol’s temple would have been implied. Paul’s discussion in 1 Corinthians 8 of participation in such meals – which he prohibits on the ground that it demonstrates lack of love for the “brother” with a “weak” conscience – can thus be interrogated for its implications about the life of poor in the Pauline communities. Scholarship has neglected this economic dimension of Paul’s discussion in 1 Corinthians 8, however. In this paper, I will explore how poor, former polytheists may have been dependent on participation in pagan sacrificial meals to have meat in their diet, and seen such participation to be innocuous in the light of their monotheistic belief that “there is no idol in the world” and “there is but one God” and “there is but one Lord” (1 Cor. 8:4, 6). I will also explore the economic implications of Paul’s objection that this “knowledge” – leading to the consumption of meat in pagan sacrificial meals – causes the “brother” to “stumble” and “be ruined” (1 Cor. 8:9-11). Does Paul suggest that the poor Corinthian Christ-followers put the avoiding the “ruin” of the one without knowledge above their own carnivorous desires? And if so, is the body of Christ to provide an alternative communal meal for these poor with food and drink to overcome the shame of poverty (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-34)?


Walled City, Waning Sovereignty: The New Jerusalem and the Process of Unbelonging
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Lindsey M. Guy, Drew University

The New Jerusalem looms large at the end of Revelation – overwhelmingly large, even farcically so. As it descends out of the heavens for its (or her) wedding day, the city captivates the narrator, who is foremost taken by its high and opulent walls. This paper argues that the walls of the city are not security measures but insecurity measures, protecting the singular and normative power structure within. Through a critical reading of the construction of the city and the beings who remain outside its walls, we may find possibilities for critique of monolithic authority and spaces for alternative configurations of belonging. Wendy Brown argues in her 2010 book Walled States, Waning Sovereignty that states’ construction of literal barriers is a response not of heightened security, but of increasing irrelevance and permeability in an age of globalization. Assertions of state sovereignty paradoxically affirm its weakness: “While [the walls] may appear as hyperbolic tokens of such sovereignty, they reveal a tremulousness … or instability at the core of what they aim to express – qualities that are themselves antithetical to sovereignty and thus elements of its undoing.” Understanding the New Jerusalem as also existing in a post-national world – for Babylon/Rome has been devoured and crushed under the new empire – causes its walls to signal something more urgent than the city limits. As feminist political philosophers have argued, the disjunctions between “citizen” and “human,” and between “human” and “non-human,” reveal the ways in which state power is predicated upon violent exclusion. The state authorizes normative bodies, leaving the anomalies outside to demarcate the foreign, perverse, and Other. Assuming exclusionary practice indicates the state’s weakness, this paper thinks with those excluded from the New Jerusalem: “outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators.” They are only “outside” relative to the state-defined “inside,” and it is this “outside” that provides a potent political rhetoric for the state but also reveals its instability. With a critical re-imagination of these “outsiders” enacting performative resistance, the scene deconstructs itself as a revelation of the limited and fragile nature of sovereignty: God needs the outsiders more than they need Him. Feminist scholars such as Judith Butler and Sasha Roseneil have suggested as feminist political resistance a stance of unbelonging, a deliberate removal of oneself from a state that does not incorporate them anyway. The sorcerers and fornicators, who themselves “unbelong,” cause John’s gaze to flicker momentarily from the city. But in this moment, the city and its projected sovereignty are put in perspective, compared with the figures who stand before it. In their unbelonging, these outsiders cast doubt on the power and authority of the coming kingdom, revealing it to be too fragile to accommodate heterogeneity and too embedded within an imperial system to radically re-imagine belonging. But in measuring the height of the New Jerusalem’s wall according to the scale of the outsiders who stand in its shadow, readers may find a critical religious-political belonging – or unbelonging – outside the boundaries of a singular, normative authority.


A Cross-Cultural Reading of Disability and Illness in Sacred Texts: A Subversive Vision in Job and in Zhuangzi
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
SungAe Ha, Graduate Theological Union

In this paper, I will explore a subversive view of disability and illness in sacred texts from two different religious and cultural traditions, namely, the Judeo-Christian tradition and the East Asian Daoist tradition. For this cross-cultural study, I have selected some texts from the book of Job and from the Zhuangzi because both sacred texts address not only socioeconomic and political contexts of disability and illness but also ideological conflicts surrounding these issues. Like other minority issues, such as gender, class, and race, the issues of disability and illness are a point of conflict, in which other minority issues intersect. Like other minority issues, these have a long history of religious, cultural, and social prejudices and discriminations. One of the most common myths about disability and illness is that they are the result and the mark of God’s/Heaven’s punishment or curse. Thus, how major religions and sacred texts read disability and illness and how we reread religious traditions and sacred texts in this regard have a tremendous significance in destroying the oppressive myth that undergirds discriminations. In the Bible, Job is the figure who struggled and protested most thoroughly against the myth that his illness and disabled body were the result and the mark of God’s punishment. Hence, I will explore how the issues of disability and illness are closely connected to socioeconomic and political structures of poverty and social injustice, undergirded by religious and cultural ideologies and traditions, in the book of Job. While Job’s physical illness has explicit textual references, the symptoms of his mental illness caused by the shock of the horrible disaster are implied by his own confessions of his mental status as being fraught with stress, fear, hallucinations and nightmares. It is commonly witnessed that extreme poverty can cause one’s physical or mental crisis and illness/disability, and vice versa. Poverty and disability/illness intersect and reinforce each other, forming a vicious circle. Zhuangzi portrays a diversity of mutilated or deformed characters as having high virtue in chapter five, The Sign of Virtue Complete (???). Zhuangzi’s view of disability has a sociopolitical implication as he finds true humanity in a number of mutilated criminals punished by the state. According to Zhuangzi, the very mutilation of the outer form is a sign that there is something unique about that person, namely the uniqueness engendered by the life of Heaven (Zhuangzi, ch. 3). Therefore, disability in Zhuangzi, far from being defective, opens a crack in the sociopolitical and ethical order through which we can see the real. The mutilated or deformed characters in Zhuangzi share some commonality with Job in that they are rejected by the realm of humans but are affirmed by Heaven/God. Hence, I will explore how the ideology of “difference” that undergirds religious, cultural, and social prejudices and discriminations against disability and illness as well as other minorities is subverted by the concept of “uniqueness” in both Zhuangzi and the divine speech in the book of Job.


Utilizing Cross-Textual and Cross-Cultural Readings as a Hermeneutical Tool for Asian Women
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
SungAe Ha, Graduate Theological Union

Contextual readings of the Bible, particularly in the form of cross-textual or cross-cultural interpretation, have been one of the prevalent approaches in Asian and Asian American interpretation of the Bible. From the Asian reality of having multi-faith traditions and multiple and pluralistic scriptures and classics, which form the backbone of Asian cultures, a methodological question arises: how to relate the Bible to other scriptures in Asian religious and cultural traditions. Hence, the biblical texts have been read alongside Asian religious, cultural, and sociopolitical texts as a way of appropriating the Bible, since the Bible and the Christian faith were introduced in Asia. The term “texts” here includes not only written texts like scriptures but also oral tradition and political or social events that raise fundamental faith questions. These texts of Asian resources, whether written or not, are not passive contexts against which the biblical text has to be read, but ‘living’ texts that address questions to the biblical text and provide religious/theological messages that have to be addressed. In this way, reading biblical texts alongside Asian religious, cultural, and sociopolitical texts should go beyond a mere comparison of drawing parallels between similar ideas or contrasting different concepts. Reading the Bible alongside the living texts of Asian resources can evolve around three ways of reading practices: reading the texts of Asian resources in light of the biblical texts and their (Western) Christian interpretations; reading the biblical texts and their Christian interpretations in light of the texts of Asian resources; reading that incorporates both ways. Given Eurocentric bias in biblical studies and the Western Christian tradition as well as the history of the colonial use of the Bible, the second methodology of re-reading the biblical texts from the perspective of Asian resources can contribute to challenging Christian colonialism that utilizes Asian resources in the service of the claim of Christian superiority over other religions and cultures. However, there is a danger in this way of reading practice because not only the biblical and the Western Christian tradition but also Asian religious, cultural, and scriptural traditions can be read patriarchal and utilized to reinforce patriarchal traditions. Hence, it is essential to reread first Asian resources from the context of Asian women’s experiences and struggles for liberation before utilizing the second and the third ways of reading practices. Given that the authority to appropriate texts and resources has been claimed and exercised through history, either in the East or in the West, by established scholars’ guilds composed mainly of male elite groups to serve the status quo, depatriarchalizing both Asian resources and biblical texts through cross-textual and cross-cultural readings is a legitimate strategy to challenge Western, modern, traditional, and/or male-centered interpretations of scriptures that have prevailed both in the East and in the West and have had much influence on Asian women’s lives as well as Christian churches all over the world.


Mere Christianity for Mere Gods: C.S. Lewis and Theosis
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Myk Habets, Carey Baptist College

C.S. Lewis’s articulation of a doctrine of theosis is often asserted but has rarely been examined for its biblical and theological sources, coherence, and promise. This paper offers a survey of the way Lewis constructs and articulates theosis within his works of theology and fiction, highlighting how he articulates this doctrine using the theme of Transposition. This discussion follows Lewis’s articulation of the art of Transposition, through the concept of the ‘grand miracle’, to finally wrestle with the ‘weight of glory’ we currently experience. Applying the concept of ‘Transposition’ to Lewis’s doctrine of theosis allows an investigation into possible ways in which a discussion of theosis may be extended. Lewis’s use of Scripture will be a key focus of the discussion.


Taking the LEAP: Biblical Studies across an Integrative General Education Curriculum
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Susan E. Haddox, University of Mount Union

My institution recently revised its general education curriculum with the AAC&U LEAP Essential Outcomes at its core. We are currently in the final year of implementation of a four-year curriculum, which aims to introduce essential knowledge at the lower levels, facilitate integration of knowledge at the upper levels, and incorporate the development of intellectual and practical skills at every level. Bible courses that previously fulfilled a broad “religious studies” general education requirement now play roles at two different places in the curriculum and must meet specific outcomes, including building foundational skills in written and oral communication. My Biblical Texts and Contexts course fills a requirement in the Foundations, which are intended to meet the first LEAP outcome of knowledge of human cultures and the world, in addition to developing and assessing several of the LEAP intellectual and practical skills. An introduction to Bible is an excellent course to address many of these outcomes, but doing so has required a lot of specific planning of assignments and activities. Most of my upper-level Bible courses fit into a junior-level Theme requirement, which integrates ideas and perspectives from different disciplines around a common idea or topic. The implementation of this aspect of the program is essential to teaching students skills of integration, but carries with it a number of challenges. Two of my theme courses are the Deuteronomistic History, which is part of the War and Peace theme, and Paul and the Epistles, which contributes to the Personhood and the State theme. The theme shapes the content and emphases of the courses, as well as some student assignments that facilitate and assess integration. These courses also incorporate LEAP intellectual and practical skills, especially written and oral communication. In addition, they attempt to touch on personal and social responsibility outcomes, which have proven to be some of the most challenging outcomes to incorporate effectively into the curriculum. In this paper, I will share some of the challenges and successes I have faced in tailoring my biblical studies courses to the LEAP-based curriculum.


“In His Manhood He Strove with God”: Masculine Embodiment in Hosea
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Susan E. Haddox, University of Mount Union

While the bulk of scholarly attention to Hosea has focused on female embodiment in the form of the wife in the marriage metaphor, references to masculinity and male embodiment take up much more space and attention in the text as a whole. Within the marriage metaphor of the first three chapters, the prophet’s body figures strongly, representing not only himself, but also standing in for that of YHWH. The prophet performs a range of masculinities. At times, he is potent, fathering children, detaining and stripping the wife, providing grain and wine, pursuing legal action. At other times the prophet is impotent and cuckolded in the face of the wife’s straying, refraining from sexual intercourse. In the remainder of the text, the prophet himself remains behind the words, though hints about prophetic sentinels who hew with words peek through. In contrast the male audience is imagined and embodied in a variety of ways. The male bodies in Hosea lust, fornicate, drink to excess, eat, and sacrifice. They move landmarks, commit adultery, and assassinate kings. They also stumble around in sickness and impotence, and waver between helpless infancy and old age. There is tension in the text between the masculinities that the men in the implied audience want and attempt to perform and those that the prophet imposes upon them. This paper will apply concepts from cognitive anthropology, specifically the work of James Fernandez, to explore how the prophet uses metaphors to reconfigure the implied audience’s masculinity and thus to move them in social space. Cognitive rhetorical analysis shows that metaphors drawn from many different image fields serve to flesh out the potential masculinities within Hosea. The masculinities of the implied audience are contrasted with that of YHWH, who is placed in the most favorable sector of social space, and consistently, but not exclusively, portrayed as supremely masculine. I argue that the rhetoric of the text intentionally challenges the masculinity of the elite rulers as part of its critique of Israel’s domestic and international political intrigue.


Perennial Ritual: The Prophet Adam, Founder of Islam
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen

This paper will discuss the role of Adam as a prophet and a founder of Muslim ritual, according to Muslim Islamic sources. When discussing the Paradise narrative in Muslim tradition, modern scholarship often tends to emphasise difference the "egalitarian" view of the Qur’anic narrations of the story, and the tradition’s "misogynist" approach. This is because in the Qur'anic Paradise story Adam and his (unnamed) spouse are simultaneously tempted to eat of the forbidden tree, whereas the extra-Qur'anic sources reflect several biblical and extra-biblical themes concerning Eve, such as Eve the temptress, negation of feminine characteristics and legitimisation of patriarchal order. This scholarly view thus makes two assumptions: one, that the fall from Paradise is the main theme of the Adam and Eve stories in Islam; and two, that the Qur'an's view of Eve is more egalitarian than that of medieval extra-Qur'anic literature. The current paper questions both these assumptions, which emerge from the application of a biblical prism to the Islamic texts. Through discussing Qur'anic material, commentaries to the Qur’an, and Stories of the Prophets literature, this paper argues that the focus of Muslim sources when discussing the Paradise narratives is not Eve and transgression, but Adam and ritual. Rather than the transgression in Paradise as such, these sources are far more interested in Adam’s life before, and particularly after, his expulsion from Paradise, to the extent that certain Islamic sources completely omit the transgression scene from their discussion of Adam's life. These sources mainly emphasise Adam’s role as the first prophet, who was also a foreteller of the prophet Muhammad, the first performer of the Muslim rituals ("the pillars of Islam") and founder of these practices in Islam. The function of this literature is, therefore, to portray Adam as the first Muslim; and Islam as the primordial tradition, which rituals were ordained and practiced since the creation of humanity.


Eve and Sons: Ambivalent Motherhood
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Zohar Hadromi-Allouche, University of Aberdeen

Eve, the primordial woman, is generally perceived as the paradigmatical mother. But what sort of a model does she suggest? The Qur‘an and its commentaries offer more than one answer to that question. Through an examination of Eve‘s parenthood and relationship with five of her sons, this paper will demonstrate the ambivalent construction of Eve‘s motherhood, and hence (due to Eve‘s role as the archetypal woman) of women in general. Although Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur’an, her presence there has been assessed already by the earliest other Islamic sources available to us, such as Ibn Is?aq (d. 767 CE), who identified Adam‘s spouse with Eve. Whereas the Bible derives Eve’s name from the etymology “mother of all living”, it is notable that a Muslim etymology explains the name in that Eve was created from a living being. This latter etymology reflects on the perception of Eve’s role as a mother and a giver of life. The current paper will aim at demonstrating how Eve’s image as a mother has been constructed within the context of the Qur’an and extra-Qura’nic literature. Tafsir and Muslim traditon tells us of Eve’s numerous children. The discussion will focus on five of Eve’s (biological and adopted) sons, who have their own narratives: Cain, Abel, Seth, ‘Abd al-?arith and Khannas. These narratives are detailed either in the Qur’an itself, or in the tafsir and additional extra-Qur’anic literature. Each son will be presented within their Qur’anic (and/ or Qur’anic exegetical) context (e.g., Q 5:27, 7:189–190, Q 114); and the implicatin of each such case on the construction of Eve‘s motherhood will be analysed. The paper will conclude by a summary of how the image of Eve’s motherhood (and hence, motherhood in general) is portrayed through these narratives.


The Unity of the Bible? Really?
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Scott Hafemann, University of St. Andrews

What happens when we do not read the Bible with one of the many "dialectical" or "diversity" theories that dominate biblical theology hermeneutically, but instead ask whether the canonical editing of the Scriptures reflects a fundamental uniformity both theologically and in terms of its Heilsgeschichte? Can a "one-covenant" reading of the Christian canon do justice both to the multiplicity of its covenants and historical epochs and to its eschatology? Can we speak of the unity of the Bible, really? If so, then what is "new" in the "new covenant"?


What Kind of Love Is It? Egyptian, Hebrew, or Greek?
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Anselm Hagedorn, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin

The paper will take another look at the (possible) cultural background of the Song of Songs. Taking M.V. Fox’s observation that “[t]his Song is … post-exilic and probably Hellenistic, and we have no way of even speculating reasonably about the earlier forms from which it supposedly evolved” (Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs [1985], 190) as a starting point we will consider the interpretative value as well as the possible modes of literary transmission of the comparative material. It will be argued that the growing internationalism of the late Persian and Early Hellenistic period provides the best background for the origin of such a collage like the Song of Songs. Like Qoheleth, then, the Song of Songs represents a distinctly Jewish attempt to participate in the international intellectual life of the time.


Ignatius of Antioch and the Drug of Immortality
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Andrew Hagstrom, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In his letter to the Christians at Ephesus, Ignatius of Antioch (CE 35-110) expressed the wish that they “may obey the bishop and the presbytery … breaking one bread, which is a medicine that brings immortality (f??µa??? ??a?as?a?), an antidote that allows us not to die (??t?d?t?? t?? µ? ?p??a?e??) but to live at all times in Jesus Christ” (Eph. 20:2). In other words, for Ignatius, the bread of the Eucharist, which he elsewhere identifies as the actual flesh of Jesus, is a drug and an antidote that brings eternal life to those who partake. I argue in my paper that Ignatius, by drawing on the traditional medical and religious understanding of pharmakon, infuses the Christian Eucharist with a more nuanced meaning and thereby makes it more palatable in a world that was still immersed in paganism. The paper, then, focuses on the meaning of pharmakon in Greco-Roman culture and how this ties in with Ignatius’s treatment of the word in his letters. I focus in particular on how pharmakon was understood as a drug. This entails an attention to Galen and Hippocrates’ understanding of drugs and their effect on the human body. I also suggest an association between Ignatius’s “drug of immortality” and known ancient drugs, namely, Theriac and Athanasia. Both of these were antidotes or cure-all drugs mentioned by Hippocrates and known to have been used around the time of Ignatius. I draw attention to verbal parallels between the way these drugs are talked about and the way the drug of immortality is discussed by Ignatius. Next, I consider the other side of this medical process – namely, Jesus’ role in the administration of the drug. For Ignatius, Jesus not only administered the drug, but also embodied it. As I point out, this was not a completely foreign idea in Greco-Roman culture at large. The gods Asclepius and Isis, in particular, were also associated with medicine and healing, though they were not thought to embody the medicine. I spend some time looking at verbal parallels between the passage under discussion in Ignatius and a passage in Diodorus Siculus’s History, which describes a “drug of immortality” allegedly discovered and administered by the goddess Isis. Lastly, I consider the role of pharmakon in the moral health of the community. Unlike a real known drug, it does not bring healing or prolonged life in the present. Immortality is only achieved after death. In the present, the drug of immortality brings moral well-being. In this context, I briefly consider references to pharmakon as an instrument of moral or political redemption in classical literature. I also consider the role of the pharmakoi (a derivative of pharmakon/a meaning “druggists”), or scapegoats, in the yearly festival of Thargelia in classical Athens. In the same way that these pharmakoi were thought to morally purify the community, I suggest, Ignatius’s drug of immortality (the very embodiment of Jesus) was thought to purify the community in which it was partaken.


Sound Matters: The Role and Function of Pronunciation in Ancient Performance
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
T. Michael W. Halcomb, Conversational Koine Institute

Within the arenas of ancient oratory, praise and mockery often surfaced as soon as a performer opened his or her mouth to speak. This is because the topic of pronunciation, specifically regard to orthoepy (i.e. proper pronunciation—or a lack thereof—was an important component of delivery. Yet, even beyond the formal realms of rhetorical practice and into the venues of everyday speech, pronunciation was still judged to be significant. While this paper will touch briefly on the latter, its focal point is on the former and, as such, seeks to offer insights on the role and function of pronunciation in ancient performances.


Benjaminite-Judahite Tensions in Persian Period Yehud
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Erin Hall, Tel Aviv University

Many scholars hold that the shift in power from Jerusalem to Tell en-Na?beh/Mizpah had a negative impact on Benjaminite-Judahite relations in the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods. Although several researchers focus on anti-Benjaminite rhetoric in the Bible as proof of intertribal tensions, few studies incorporate Yehud's stamped storage jar systems into their reconstructions. My research addresses this issue by analyzing the distribution of m(w)?h, lion, and yehud stamped storage jar handles with an eye to the changing geopolitical status of Jerusalem, Tell en-Na?beh, and Ramat Ra?el. It then turns to instances of anti-Benjaminite rhetoric in the Bible to explain why Benjamin declined in the post-exilic period as Ramat Ra?el continued to thrive. The results are considered in conjunction with the history of Benjaminite-Judahite relations in the centuries leading up to Alexander's conquest of Yehud.


Co-designing a Survey Course with Learners to Achieve Learning Transformation
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Taylor Halverson, Brigham Young University

“What do you teach?” is a common question in the halls of Higher Education. Typical responses run the breadth of topics in human learning. However, a better response is “I teach students” or even better yet, “I help students to learn.” This presentation will explain and demonstrate core principles of co-agentive design. Co-agentive design is a process of teaching and learning design whereby the teacher and learner constructively create the learning experience. Participants will then actively explore how these principles can be meaningfully applied to Bible Survey courses where neither content coverage or student-focused learning are sacrificed.


Displacement, Diaspora, and Exile in Biblical Narrative
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Martien Halvorson-Taylor, University of Virginia

This paper examines the influence of ideas about displacement, exile, and diaspora upon Israel’s recollection of her more distant past. Early pre-exilic narratives of Israel’s beginnings were redacted during and in response to Israel’s experience of exile, so that, for example, earlier Abraham and Joseph traditions were reshaped to draw on the realities of the Babylonian exile and the related Diaspora; these reworked traditions, in turn, informed narratives, such as Esther and Daniel, that took exile and diaspora as their explicit subject. The stories of Israel’s origins, particularly those of Abraham and Joseph, and its accounts of post-exilic and diasporic existence exerted a reciprocal influence on each other; and thus Israelite history came to be narrated as a series of exiles and returns, in which current dislocations were understood in terms of primeval patterns, and ancestral stories were revised in light of current dislocations.


Land Tenure, Labor, and Debt
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Gildas Hamel, University of California-Santa Cruz

Rents, debt payments, and taxes played a crucial role in the re-allocation of the product of land-based labor in ancient agrarian societies. This paper looks at three aspects of this allocation in the Hellenistic and Roman period. First, it examines land tenure as an organized system of household-based labor done by seasonal workers, some slaves, sharecroppers, fixed-rent tenants, and petty landowners. Second, it revisits the question of the evolution of tenancy versus small and large landownership on the basis of selected textual and archaeological evidence. In this regard, particular attention is given to the function of debt and reciprocity ethos. Finally, consideration is given briefly to three ideological aspects: the role of temple and torah in enforcing contracts, the vocabulary of faith and fidelity, and the theme of the son and absent father.


The Role of the Divine Warrior: Isaiah 42:13–17 in Light of the Comparative Literature
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Matthew Hamilton, Carson-Newman University

This project seeks to identify and analyze the relationship between Isaiah 42:12-17 and its ancient Near Eastern counterparts found in comparative literature. This study sets out to identify and define those relationships as intentional, yet more than mere borrowing. The intertextual relationships between this biblical text and comparative texts are intentional allusions and/or echoes that subvert the foreign literature in order to create new meaning. Texts within the Hebrew Bible, and specifically Isaiah 42:13-17, allude to numerous ideas and themes from the surrounding ancient Near Eastern culture. This is done to correct a perceived wrong; the ancient material expressed a misunderstanding of the way Yahweh's world worked, and the author of the biblical text sought to correct that misunderstanding. First, I will apply H. Wayne Ballard's method of locating specific uses of the divine warrior motif, which he utilized in the Psalms, within the book of Isaiah. In his The Divine Warrior Motif in the Psalms, he used eight semantic groupings in order to locate the motif within a the Psalms, of which I have identified numerous vocabulary used within Isaiah 42. I will then apply the methodology used by Richard B. Hays and Christopher B. Hays to determine if a specific allusion or echo might exist between those biblical text and ancient Near Eastern texts. Richard B. Hays developed seven criteria for recognizing echoes between the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible, and Christopher B. Hays has applied those same criteria to the intertextual relationships between the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern comparative literature. Based on the applicability of these seven criteria to the text, I will analyze whether or not an intertextual relationship exists, and explain the relationship in light of current scholarship. I will seek to move beyond the major interpreters of Isaiah to explain the theological implications of reading Isaiah 42 intertextually, instead of as a mere product of borrowing.


Translation as Interpretation in the Psalms of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Hannibal Hamlin, Ohio State University

*


De Iside et Osiride and the Greek Creation of Egyptian Religion
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
James Constantine Hanges, Miami University

This paper will argue that Plutarch’s treatise on Isis and Osiris is largely a social product with only tenuous connections to anything that might be identified as historical realities. Using postcolonial critique as its prism, this paper argues that Plutarch has created his story of religious innovations in the process of cultural viewing, a process that involves the casting of his glance toward the ambiguous other, in this case a multifaceted Egyptian cult and its devotees, that projects Plutarch’s values and assumptions onto the other. This process of viewing entails a simultaneous reflectivity in which Plutarch’s act of creative imaging not only creates the other but reconstructs his own sense of self in his act of viewing. Since Plutarch’s viewing lens, his assumptions about and stereotypes of Egyptian cult, is a social construct produced by his social location, Plutarch has created his Egyptian cult, its history, and its functionaries in the process reshaping his own image, his own identity against the image of the other he has created.


Making the Right Hole Appear in the Right Place: Eccl 4:17–5:6 in Text and Tradition
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Davis Hankins, Appalachian State University

For many attempts to read the book of Qohelet as a whole, Qoh 4:17-5:6 (Eng. 5:1-7) is a central passage. It tends to frustrate readings that emphasize the irreligious character of the book, as it mentions sacrifice, vows, and speech to God; for those that describe Qohelet’s God as transcendent and, especially, as transcending any moral principle, this text says both that God is in heaven and that God can respond to an offense with punitive action. According to most readings, this text responds primarily to a sense of the fundamental incommensurability between human and divine zones. Verse 1c seems to state plainly that this is the issue: “God is in the heavens and you are on the earth.” Beyond this, the general portrayal of human ineptitude (unknowing, earth-bound, afflicted, foolish, mistaken, the object of God's anger) serves, so the argument goes, to underline the contrary hugeness of God. Yet our reading reveals a surprising alternative. Qohelet’s response tries to steer a course that neither achieves its orientation through reference to some transcendent God, nor pretends that it has overcome such fantasies by acknowledging the limitations of humans to ever know or approach something like the divine. Vows and sacrifices can efface the distance between word and deed by acknowledging it or, even worse, determining it as a distance separating human beings from some God beyond them. Qohelet counsels instead to fear, to keep one’s eyes looking down and one’s ears to the ground, aware that dangerous fantasies and costly sacrifices often emerge in the gap between words and deeds. Our paper concludes with a brief survey of the reception history of Qoh 4:17-5:6, highlighting various ways in which readers seek to close this very gap that Qohelet insists is always open.


Mary of Bethany: Her Leadership Uncovered
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Mary Stromer Hanson, Denver Seminary

S24-324 Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys A new reading of Luke 10:38-42 is long overdue. I agree with G.B. Caird: “Few stories in the gospels have been as consistently mishandled as this one.” A comparison between the two sisters results in the eventual compromise: Martha is important, but Mary is the preferred. Did not Jesus himself state preference for Mary’s choice? This paper offers a brief survey of prior interpreters who hint of an alternative interpretation. With additional exegesis and examination of many textual variants, a new story emerges that does not force a choice between spiritual and practical service. Indeed, Martha’s worries are of much greater consequence than serving food on that day. Mary is evangelizing in Galilee and is causing Martha concern for her safety. She implores Jesus to bring her back home to help with the diakonia. This interpretation suggests that Mary of Bethany attracted her own following, therefore explaining her greater prominence in John 11:31,45 and her position of church leadership often eclipsed by the Magdalene.


Masculine Domination and the Anthropology of Biblical Commentary: The Case of Philo of Alexandria
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
James E. Harding, University of Otago

The symbolic violence of what Pierre Bourdieu called masculine domination (cf. Bourdieu 2001 [1998]) is everywhere in evidence in the biblical texts, which bear the scars, unconsciously inflicted, of this violence by virtue of their genesis and transmission in societies in which masculine domination was taken as natural. These scars have been, and continue to be, examined in the works that constitute the Jewish and Christian scriptures, thanks to the important advances made by various forms of feminist exegesis. Important work has also been, and continues to be, done on the way a largely unrecognised and unexamined androcentric epistemology governs much biblical commentary, both ancient and modern. How, though, is the commentator constituted as a subject, and how is this process marked in respect of gender? In this paper, my concern is with one ancient instance of how the scriptural commentator was constituted as a subject, that of Philo of Alexandria. It is not simply a matter of how Philo’s exegetical work reflects the assumptions of a patriarchal society, or of an individual exegete who is the product of that society, still less of the brute fact (as if there could even be such a thing) that Philo happened to be a man: it is a matter, rather, of the relationship between how Philo understood the nature of male and female, and how he understood the nature of scriptural exegesis. In particular, it is a matter of the relationship between, on the one hand, Philo’s symbolic interpretation of “mind” (nous) as corresponding to man and “sense perception” (aisthesis) as corresponding to “woman” (Opif. 165; cf. QG 1.25), and, on the other hand, his understanding of scriptural exegesis as accommodating literal and allegorical senses. Philo’s predominant preference for the allegorical over the literal sense, especially in QG, reflects a concomitant preference for soul and mind over body and the senses, and, by extension, entails a tacit assumption about the commentator: he must be constructed as male.


"Apocalyptic Rhetoric" in the Pastoral Epistles
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Mark Harding, Australian College of Theology

The Apostle Paul is rightly termed an apocalypticist not only because his message originated in an apocalypse (Gal 1:12, 16), but also because he continued to receive visions and revelations. He imparted these to his hearers. The post-Pauline authors of Ephesians and Colossians mediate Paul’s apocalypticism chiefly through the discourse of “mystery.” Although it has been fashionable to downplay the apocalypticism of the Pastoral Epistles (PE), the letters do subscribe to this worldview. In the PE, Paul’s apocalypticism is encountered not only in their espousal of apocalyptic eschatology but also in their discourse of the finality of the mystery and revelation uniquely received and authoritatively mediated by the Apostle. This discourse—rooted as it is in revelation—is aptly termed “apocalyptic rhetoric.” This is a term that was first applied to the rhetoric of the New Testament Apocalypse by Adela Yarbro Collins and Barry Brummett in the early 1980s. The term can be applied to the rhetoric of the PE, although the PE (like the Pauline corpus as a whole) are letters and not apocalypses. In this discourse, the authority of the Apostle in the highly contested context of the PE is grounded in the epiphany of Christ and the moral and creedal implications that are in accord with that epiphany and to which his ministry, and the ministry of those he commissions, finally, infallibly and exclusively bears witness. The apostolic “deposit” vouchsafed to Paul and through him to his delegates and their successors is full, perfect and sufficient, such that teaching that is not in accord with it is a betrayal of the Pauline heritage. In this way, the PE are testimonies of the power of speech grounded in revelation and mediated by a writer who uniquely articulated the apostle’s authority.


Tattooing as a Violent Art in the Ancient Mediterranean
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Christina Harker, Yale University

This paper examines the role of drawing on others’ bodies as an expression of violence and domination in the ancient Roman context. Tattooing was used as a way to mark runaway slaves and was a violent display of ownership in Greece and Rome. This contrasts with the use of tattoos as self-identifying cultural marks in other ancient cultures (ancient Britons, Thracians, and Scythians were known by their tattoos). In the paper, I survey examples of the tattoo as a label of ownership on the bodies of slaves in Greece and Rome (e.g., Diogenes Laertius, Xenophon, etc.) and theorize the inscription of owned bodies as an enactment of permanent violence against the personhood of the Other. I also examine instances where tattooing expressed the dominance of a ruler over free people, as in Suetonius and 3 Maccabees, to discuss the ancient Hellenistic and Roman tattoo as creating alterity and subordination in the act itself. In these situations, the tattoo functioned as a symbol of the ruler’s absolute power. Both of these typical aspects of ancient tattoos tie into how tattoos expressed ownership in cultic settings, as seen in examples from Egypt, in Revelation, and in Paul’s writing.


Thinking about Prayers and the Practice of Prayer from the Past to the Present
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Angela Kim Harkins, University of Birmingham

This paper explores the different ways that integrative approaches associated with emotion studies can help to shed light on the experiences of religion in the past. In a general and programmatic way, we will discuss the methodological issues of comparing religious experience cross-culturally, specifically with regard to describing the contrasting understandings of emotion and subjectivity in the experiences of prayer. A selection of prayer texts and texts describing prayer from the ancient and modern period will be discussed.


The Iconography of Beheading in Roman Imperial Art: Some Ramifications for Christianity in Its Representation of Suffering
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Felicity Harley-McGowan, Yale University

In Roman art, a strong tradition of the public depiction of battle had existed from the third century BCE, wherein symbolic and allegorical compositions were used to depict and proclaim Roman victory. As this practice evolved, the vanquished were the recipients of increasing attention: represented as captives, bound, humiliated, and brought to servitude at the feet of Roman trophies they became ‘abstract symbols’ of Roman power. Within the frame of imperial art, prominent representations of the beheadings of captives (or the decollated heads themselves) functioned to glorify the peace-making efforts of the Roman army; they asserted the glory not only of the Emperor, but of the army itself, and of the Empire. This paper will argue that while early Christian art made use of the idioms developed in Roman imperial depictions, there had to be a fundamental shift in the viewer’s perception of the vanquished for Christians to be able to visualize situations where suffering was integral to a story. The body of the enemy-captive (de-humanized, defeated, and held in contempt), had to be transformed into the body of the sacred-hero (humanized, victorious and celebrated) for the iconography of the victim to have a new purpose. Through examination of the iconography of beheading, the paper will propose that in effecting a reversal of the iconography’s meaning, image-makers in the fourth century realized the creation not only of a new image for Christian patrons, but an entirely new genre of imagery: Christian suffering. This genre would come to dominate Western visual culture, and at its centre would be nailed the dead Christ, as the central and defining image of the Christian faith.


Rhetorical Renunciations of Extravagance: Ambrose’s Educated Simplicity
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Andrew M. Harmon, Marquette University

Late-antique Christian denunciations of worldly extravagences were often themselves exemplary in their eloquence. Ambrose is our case in point. This paper briefly explores some sources and themes dominant in Ambrose’s education, before analyzing two of his letters. The first is one of his earliest (Lent, 379 CE) to a certain bishop, Constantius, newly appointed in northern Italy. Ambrose warns Constantius of the trappings of the world and doublespeak and yet advises him to take up persuasive methods in sermon preparation and preaching. The second letter, dated 395 CE, takes up the conversion of Paulinus of Nola, who, while noble in birth, social rank, and wealth, had taken up the practices of the faith. Because of the impress of his conversion, Paulinus gave away his property and said farewell to his former life, unloading the heavy burden of home, country, and kindred in order to serve God. Paulinus’s wife, Therasia, followed suit, imitating her husband’s zeal. Ambrose equates Paulinus’s luxury with his nobility, exemplified by wealth and rhetorical excess. Worship of the dei ueri precludes these fineries. Paulinus could not serve two masters; by loving the One, he must hate the other. As much as these letters might tell us about Constantius and Paulinus, they tell us even more about the perceived struggle of fourth-century Christian minds. In one corner were the trappings of the world, the lure of wealth, and the elitist education that perpetuated its acquisition. In the other were the Christian virtues and their promise for proliferation among the lower classes, fostered and evidenced by simple, straightforward speech and living. Ambrose was caught between these two poles. Hailing from a notable family of social standing and imperial administration in Trier, he was keenly familiar with both the importance of public performance in matters of civic dispute and the specific educational formation this performance entailed: his classical education demanded the sort of persuasion driven by eloquence that Paulinus supposedly disowned. Yet, his abrupt appointment to bishop forced him into a position that was distinctly for the people, that stressed rusticity and frank speech. These competing goals heightened the necessity of public presentation, of showing when and where Christian virtues outstripped their rivals. What resulted was often a verbose underselling of Christianity for the masses. Despite his explicit distance from his past, Ambrose is never free from his educational formation. More importantly, given the fact that Ambrose utilizes his training against itself, this paper argues that it mattered less that Ambrose was truly struggling and more that he appeared to struggle.


Cyprian and His Plague: Taking the Pandemic Seriously
Program Unit: Contextualizing North African Christianity
Kyle Harper, University of Oklahoma

Cyprian gave his name to the pandemic disease that sporadically ravaged the Roman Empire from at least 249-270. Yet, until recently, this disease event has received relatively little attention from historians of the third century. The author has recently published a study (forthcoming, Journal of Roman Archaeology) for the first time bringing together the testimony for the Plague of Cyprian. Despite the famously poor evidentiary base for the mid-third century, there is an astonishingly thick and detailed record of an empire-wide pandemic, possibly of hemorrhagic fever, sweeping across the empire, with major demographic effects. Comparative evidence suggests that severe demographic shocks can have major spiritual and cultural effects. This paper will look more closely at the leadership of Cyprian and ask what a hypothetically significant empire-wide disease event would mean for his leadership and the expansion of Christianity during his tenure as bishop.


Why Mary? The Gospel of Mary and Its Heroine
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Judith Hartenstein, Universität Koblenz - Landau

Mary (Magdalen) is clearly the most important disciple in the Gospel of Mary. About half of the extant text is direct speech of Mary and the whole gospel is named after her. Is there any reason for this central position of Mary and what impact does it have for the interpretation of the text? In my paper, I will examine the titles of second century gospels and the roles of the persons named. Some of them are similar to the Gospel of Mary but the comparison highlights its special features as well. Moreover, I will analyse whether older or contemporary traditions connected to Mary Magdalen can be found in the Gospel of Mary. Apart from the ascend of the soul the transmission of words of Jesus is relevant here. The Gospel of Mary might present a distinct form of Jesus tradition. In general, the evaluation of the relation between Mary and the content of her gospel will help to place the Gospel of Mary within early Christianity – and to get a clearer picture of the ideas associated with the name of Mary.


The Limits of Trafficking in Augustine's Letter 10*
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Midori E. Hartman, Drew University

Augustine was not opposed to the institution of slavery; he used the language of slavery when engaging scripture and advocated for proper relations between masters and slaves. When confronted with the reality of rampant human trafficking in North Africa, he turned to Roman law to defend personal freedom against trafficking that he believed exceeded the limits of acceptability. In Letter 10* to his friend Alypius (428 CE), Augustine did not abide situations that would reduce or erase one's free status and bodily integrity (Glancy 2006). Yet his argument for limits hinged on the fact that there must be those who do not qualify, for example, the so-called “true slaves” or those whose services are sold by their parents for up to twenty-five years (2,7). This paper examines Augustine's confrontation with the “disease” of trafficking in Letter 10* as a legal issue in order to explore who benefits or loses within his logic of acceptable trafficking. I focus upon two categories of people: A. the traffickers (mangones) and B. those who remain tolerable figures of trafficking. I argue that Augustine's attentiveness to the humanity and citizenship of the traffickers (5) and his desire to shield them from the full extent of the law (4) means that the mangones ultimately benefit as figures within the law even as they break it in pursuit of immoderate gain. However, the traces of those who are not within the law and therefore cannot be illegally trafficked—“true slaves,” legal child labor, even barbarians—populate the text in resistance to Augustine's emphasis on the rights of free people. This focus calls us to consider the ways in which contemporary narratives about human trafficking exclude people from being considered within the law and how we hold perpetrators of violence accountable within and beyond national borders.


Pesher and Hypomnema: The Dead Sea Scrolls Commentaries in Their Hellenistic-Roman Context
Program Unit: Qumran
Pieter B. Hartog, KU Leuven

This paper argues that the development of commentary-writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls reflects the Hellenistic-Roman background of their composers and the prominence of “commentary” as a type of scholarly literature in the Hellenistic-Roman world. The first part of this paper compares the “running” Pesharim from Qumran with Greek papyrus commentaries (hypomnemata) on the Iliad. Thus, it surveys the similarities and differences between the physical features, the structure, and the hermeneutics of these two collections. The second part of this paper addresses the context in which these similarities and differences must be understood. It argues that the Pesher exegetes were aware of and influenced by Greek traditions of commentary-writing not through having had a thorough Greek education, but through various more indirect means of knowledge transmission.


The Aqedah in the Bavli: An Analysis of Sanhedrin 89b
Program Unit: Midrash
Matthew Hass, Harvard University

A prominent trend in recent scholarship on rabbinic biblical interpretation is to trace the development of individual exegetical motifs and traditions. However, when focusing on isolated traditions, scholars rarely place rabbinic midrashim within their broader literary and rhetorical frameworks. Thus, the new meanings created by the redactors of rabbinic compilations through their juxtaposition of different traditions are often underappreciated. My paper examines the midrashim on Genesis 22, commonly referred to as the Aqedah, which are found in Bavli Sanhedrin 89b. I show how the editors of the Talmudic sugya presented a unique picture of the Aqedah by juxtaposing specific midrashim within a particular halakhic context. Through strategic changes to received Palestinian traditions, the Bavli’s redactors direct the reader’s attention to the heavenly struggle between God and Satan, and to Abraham’s role as God’s soldier in this battle. Satan is about to emerge victorious, when Abraham remembers the rabbinic halakhah that is under discussion: One may only accept the prophecy of someone who is an established prophet. Since Satan does not fall into this category, his arguments, while convincing, must be disregarded. In this way, Abraham is presented as the model rabbinic Jew, who follows the dictates of the rabbis even in the most trying of circumstances. Additionally, the foundational status of the Aqedah now supports the legitimacy, and indeed indispensability, of the rabbinic project. The midrashim, while originally devoid of legal content, thus become an essential component of the sugya’s halakhic discourse.


Midianites, Melanesians, and Myths of Superiority: Numbers’ Game and Polynesian Arrogance
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Jione Havea, Charles Sturt University

This paper interweaves the unexplained discrimination against the Midianites in the book of Numbers with the myth of whiteness that colors Polynesians’ demeaning arrogance over Melanesians. Was the prejudice against the Midianites racially motivated? To what extent was it driven by skin-color? What (oral) scriptures prompted Israelite biases against the Midianites? What influence did the bible and the White Christian mission have in the fairer skin-color Polynesians’ debasing view against the darker skin-color Melanesians? How might the bible be used to reconcile such racial and color biases? I will show that the bible was used to instigate racial discrimination (in the case of Polynesians, as well as among White settlers to Australia) and argue that to use the bible in processes of reconciliation requires that it be read as an unravelling (or deconstructed) text. Herein is a multi-plying argument. The bible can be a solution to the problem it helped create only if it unravels itself. Since the bible unravels itself, it can be used in race-based reconciliation processes.


Politics and the Promised Land
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago

no abstract


Saviors and Savages: Hybrid Types at the Frontiers of Conquest and Identity
Program Unit: Bible and Film
L. Daniel Hawk, Ashland Theological Seminary

The Indigenous Helper and the Indigenized Invader play pivotal roles in the conquest narratives of biblical Israel and modern America. Both narratives articulate a charter for the nation and reflect a working out of national identity over against the indigenous Other. Rahab and Achan, both of whom assume Canaanite/Israelite identities, appear at the outset of Joshua and take on complementary roles. Rahab the indigenous prostitute protects the vanguard of the Israelite invasion and through her confession (2:9-11) expresses indigenous acquiescence to it. Because of this, she and her family are spared, although assigned a place outside the Israelite camp. Achan the pedigreed Israelite, on the other hand, illustrates the threat of indigenous presence. When he hides Canaanite plunder in the camp, the nation takes on the semblance of Canaan on the battlefield. He and his family are killed and entombed under a pile of rocks, linking them symbolically with the king of Ai and with the Canaanite towns reduced to rubble (7:26; 8:29). Corresponding roles in American national mythology took shape during the 19th Century, primarily in the figures of Pocahontas and Simon Girty (the White Savage) and under the influence of the frontier motif that crafted American identity. The types, however, have been reconfigured in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, as the United States renegotiates is national identity through the retelling of its narrative of origins. Attention to the way the types coalesce and play out in three selected films suggests that America’s mythic infrastructure has become increasingly ambivalent as the nation comes to terms with its violent origins in the land. “Little Big Man” (1970) reveals an inchoate attempt to address the conquest through a veiled association with the War in Vietnam. “Dances with Wolves” draws on the myths of the Vanishing American and the Noble Savage and concludes with the indigenized whites (John Dunbar and Stands with a Fist) safely distant from the fate that awaits the Lakota. In “Avatar,” the types are turned on their heads via the medium of fantasy, yet remain tethered to the core trope of the White Savior.


Contrapuntal Reading and the Grammatical-Historical Method: Provocations and Possibilities
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
L. Daniel Hawk, Ashland Theological Seminary

Evangelical exegesis has been broadly configured by the grammatical-historical method, which locates the meaning of a passage in the author’s intention and seeks to discern the intended meaning through a close reading of the text within its historical context. Postcolonial reading strategies expose the method’s instantiation of the Western intellectual tradition (e.g. objective analysis, a single meaning, principle and application, exegesis as exploration and discovery) but also open new trajectories for re/forming evangelical exegetical practices toward a diverse, global discourse. The potential of this enterprise can be illustrated via an interrogation of evangelical commentaries on the book of Ruth.


"O Lord, Is This Not What I Said?" Soundings in Reception History of Prayers in Exodus
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Ralph K. Hawkins, Averett University

'O LORD, Is This Not What I Said?' Soundings in Reception History of Prayers in Exodus.


The “Low-Life” Mockers of Job: Job 30:1–8 as an Extended Animal Metaphor
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Lance Hawley, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Commentators have puzzled over Job 30:1-8 on account of the apparent discontinuity between the disparaging tone of 30:1-8 and Job’s sympathetic attitude toward the poor in other Joban texts (Job 24:1-12; 29:12-17; 30:24-25; 31:16-22). With seeming unanimity, commentators interpret Job 30:1-8 as a portrayal of Job’s enemies, those who mock his suffering, as extremely impoverished people who live in the desert. The corresponding claim is then, as Newsom says, “What makes these people so contemptible is their abject poverty” (“The Book of Job,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, 544). However, if the text is understood as an extended animal metaphor, human poverty is not the issue at all. My argument is that Job evokes the conceptual metaphor JOB’S MOCKERS ARE DESERT ANIMALS, projecting features of the source domain DESERT ANIMALS onto the target JOB’S MOCKERS in order to portray these cruel people as desperate scavengers who are despised by civilization. It is not that Job’s mockers actually live in holes the desert, survive off of roots of broom root, or make braying sounds among the desert weeds, but that the author excessively makes a simple point that these low-life mockers are completely uncivilized. The text makes best sense as a collage of desert animal conceptual domains including WILD DONKEY and, perhaps, WILD DOG or JACKAL. Besides providing a new interpretation of Job 30:1-8 on the basis of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and observational studies of animal behavior and plant life, this paper comments on the issue of “mixed metaphor.” Combining features of various animals may strike one as imprecise, but metaphor binding and mixing within metaphor clusters is typical. Extended metaphor is often expressed without complete intentionality, inner-consistency, or exactitude, especially with regard to the source domain. Mixed metaphor “works” when the binding is external to the single clause. In other words, conceptual metaphors may shift as arguments progress and meaning planes switch from one clause to the next. Moreover, while the multiple expressions in Job 30:1-8 may vary with respect to the specific signified animal, they share a “cognitive root” in DESERT ANIMALS, providing perceptible coherence to the metaphor cluster. The crucial point is not the identification of specific animals or even their particular behaviors, but the more general character of desert animals as wild, uncivilized, and bothersome. The particular animals that I suggest serve for source imagery in Job 30:1-8, the wild donkey and wild dog, are prototypical desert animals that epitomize destitution, wildness, and marginalization. In the book of Job, DESERT ANIMALS serves as a source for portraying MARGINALIZATION, whether the intended evocation is sympathy, as in Job 24:4-8, or scorn, as in Job 30:1-8.


An Analysis of the Attributive Participle and the Relative Clause in the Greek New Testament
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Michael E. Hayes, St. John's Lutheran/Concordia Seminary

Many New Testament Greek grammarians assert that the Greek attributive participle and the Greek relative clause are “equivalent.” A survey of those assertions reveals a lack of comprehensive and original research with respect to this grammatical “rule.” James W. Voelz originally asserted that the two constructions were equivalent. In recent times, however, he has made exploratory observations concerning the restrictive nature of attributive participles and the possible nonrestrictive nature of relative clauses, thereby questioning the notion of equivalence. His observations have served as an impetus to reassess these grammatical constructions especially with respect to the restrictive/nonrestrictive distinction. The present work puts forth the findings of an analysis of every attributive participle and relative clause in the Greek New Testament. The linguistic categories of restrictivity and nonrestrictivity are thoroughly presented. Multiple restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses (both attributive participles and relative clauses) are analyzed and general tendencies are noted. The Accessibility Hierarchy provides a helpful framework for accurately comparing the two constructions, focusing the central and critical analysis to the subject relative clause and the attributive participle. The analysis of the present work leads to the conclusion that with respect to the restrictive/nonrestrictive distinction these two constructions could in no way be described as “equivalent.” The attributive participle is primarily utilized to restrict its antecedent except under certain prescribed circumstances, and when both constructions are grammatically and stylistically feasible, the relative clause is predominantly utilized to relate nonrestrictively to its antecedent. As a result, this study serves as a call to clarity and correction for New Testament Greek grammarians, exegetes/commentators, and modern editors and translators of the Greek New Testament.


Hope and History in Isaiah 24–27: Reassessing a ‘Proto-Apocalyptic’ Text
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Christopher B. Hays, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

Although the designation of Isaiah 24-27 as a “Little Apocalypse” has largely been abandoned, it has long and widely been accepted that the chapters display ‘proto-apocalyptic’ features, notably eschatological and universal perspectives. This has been one of the pillars supporting the dating of some or all the section as late as the Hellenistic period. However, recent studies of apocalyptic(ism) suggest that there is, increasingly, uncertainty about Isa 24-27’s place in that conversation. Since other pillars of the chapters’ dating have been shown to be quite unstable, this paper now explicitly re-opens the question of the section’s relationship to apocalyptic and eschatology. Surveying the history of the conversation, especially from Plöger to Hanson to Cook, it also assesses the viability and future of the category of “proto-apocalyptic” itself.


Gradations of Unholiness: The ‘Circles’ of Ezekiel’s Underworld
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Christopher B. Hays, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

Recent studies of Ezekiel 32 have paid increasing attention to the fact that not all of the dead in Ezekiel’s underworld are equal. This paper argues that these distinctions among the dead are a reflex of the book’s Priestly emphasis on holiness and order. A recent volume presented numerous essays on “Ezekiel’s hierarchical world.” This paper shows that even the underworld made up part of that “tiered reality.”


What Hath Babylon to Do with Jerusalem? Isaiah 54:13 in Light of the Contrast between Lady Babylon and Lady Zion
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Nathan Hays, Baylor University

Despite a growing scholarly consensus that Lady Zion in Isa 54 literarily contrasts with Lady Babylon in Isa 47 (Spykerboer, Steck, Biddle), scholars have not noticed the role that Yahweh’s teaching of Zion’s children plays in this rhetoric of antithesis throughout Isa 47–54. Isaiah 54:13 contrasts Zion’s children instructed by Yahweh with the educated elite of Babylon from Isa 47. Yahweh’s instruction ensures that Zion’s children will never again go astray and thereby guarantees the permanency of Zion’s restoration. By contrast, Lady Babylon places her confidence in the instruction of Mesopotamia’s educated cadre of enchanters and diviners, but their instruction proves ineffectual and even contributes to Babylon’s inevitable fall (47:9–15). Lady Babylon’s reliance upon her educated elite is thus misplaced, but Isa 54:13 encourages Lady Zion to understand that the education of her inhabitants will bolster Zion’s stability. In this way, Isa 54:13 contributes to the motif of the permanency of Zion’s restoration that pervades and unifies Isa 54 and highlights the central place of Yahwistic education in the polemic against the Neo-Babylonian Empire throughout Deutero-Isaiah.


Trauma, Remembrance, and Healing: The Pastoral Effect of Joining the Wisdom Tradition and Historical Reflection in Psalm 78
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Rebecca Poe Hays, Baylor University

The way a text follows, bends, and breaks generic conventions can have a significant impact on the effect the text has on its readers. While wisdom and history generally stand divorced from one another, Ps 78 unites the two genres. Recognizing patterns reminiscent of Judith Herman’s trauma therapy approach in Ps 78 illuminates the way wisdom and history function together in this psalm. Herman’s classic model for trauma recovery involves moving the traumatized through three stages: reestablishing safety and stability, remembering and mourning the trauma, and reconnecting with reality. In Ps 78, the initial wisdom elements establish a sense of safety while historical review prompts the audience to remember its past trauma—in which the audience was not always an innocent victim—and reconnect with reality. The linking of wisdom and history within Ps 78 has the effect of creating a safe space in which a traumatized community can reflect on their past, recover emotionally, and reorient themselves to the reality of their covenant relationship with God. While proposals for the original context into which Ps 78 spoke range from the tenth century BCE to the postexilic period, the functionality of this psalm transcends its original context because it reflects a traumatic past still relevant to readers struggling to understand a God who allowed or even caused atrocities against God’s people.


“As It Is Written”: The Text of the Bible in the Syriac Narrative Poems on Joseph
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University

This paper proposes to examine the relationship between the corpus of Syriac narrative poems on Joseph and the text of the Syriac Bible. It will do so by tackling three questions: What is the function of particles and phrases suggesting quotation in these poems? Are these poems textually significant for scholars primarily concerned with establishing a critical text of the Peshitta of Genesis? What do these poems tell us about attitudes to the text of Syriac Bible?


The Digitization of Jesse Payne Smith’s Compendious Syriac Dictionary and the Development of JPS 2.0
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

This paper will report on the project thus far and talk about ways in which the digital dictionary will be developed beyond the print version (semantic tagging, improved etymologies, corpus linkage giving citations and usage information, etc.).


Christian Heresiology in Context: Religio, Superstitio, and Roman Rhetoric of Difference
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Robert D. Heaton, University of Denver / Iliff School of Theology

Robert M. Royalty’s recent book The Origin of Heresy examined Jewish and early Christian materials in attempt to account for precursors to the later patristic discourse known as heresiology, a worldview of religious truth and falsehood that disallowed others from claiming a particular identity and separated “orthodoxy” from “heresies.” Though Royalty observed that Christian heresiology might have also imitated Roman ideology (156), his study did not endeavor to explore Roman political writings—even those that prominent Christian heresiographers, such as Tertullian, can be shown to have known—for further clues that could elucidate the genre. From a survey of the use of the Latin terms religio and superstitio in Cicero, Tacitus, Pliny, and several others, this research indicates that elite Roman discourse increasingly began to use superstitio, a term well-established to indicate religious oddities circulating in Roman society, against foreigners, and particularly against those foreigners perceived to pose a threat to its sociopolitical life. This Roman rhetoric of difference bears an important telic similarity to Christian heresiology: both demarcated the boundary between an in-group and various out-groups, marking the latter as insufficient in thought or deed while bolstering a dominant identity rooted in righteousness, virtue, and absolute truth. By examining Roman writings diachronically from the 1st century BCE to the early 2nd century CE, this research identifies an emerging discursive trend among philosophers and historians of the Roman imperium while simultaneously proposing a wider cultural basis for the origin of Christian heresiology than is normally permitted. It also explores whether we can posit a definitive “genealogy” for heresiology, given the manifold influences upon the numerous early Christian theologians setting out to define orthodoxy.


Crafting a "Big Picture" Assignment: Interviews as Teaching Tool
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Brent Hege, Butler University

Student interviews of classmates, faculty and staff can provide valuable material for critical reflection on course themes and texts when writing a final paper. I will share my rationale for and reflections on such a “big picture” assignment for a First Year Seminar on Faith, Doubt and Reason in which students interview five people on campus and use those responses as material for critical engagement with the definitions of these concepts and their interrelation in the course texts and discussions. I will reflect on the outcomes of this assignment over seven years of teaching the course, propose strategies for using this assignment in a variety of Religion and Theology courses, and suggest ways that such an assignment might positively impact recruitment efforts for Religion and Theology programs.


How to Use the Dotan/Reich Thesaurus of the Leningrad Codex
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Tim Hegg, TorahResource Institute

This presentation is a demonstration of the new Dotan/Reich Thesaurus of the Masorah of the Leningrad Codex.


The Q Group in Galilee and Syria
Program Unit: Q
Christoph Heil, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz

In a first step, the present paper argues that there are enough distinctive signs of social formation in Q (e.g., rules for discipleship, experiences of persecution, rituals like prayer) to presuppose a group behind Q. Then the scholarly consensus will be defended that the Q group developed in the same Galilean villages and towns where Jesus preached and performed. This thesis is especially argued against Julius Wellhausen, J.M.C. Crum, Marco Frenschkowski and Eckhard Rau who locate the composition of Q in Jerusalem. The Galilean provenance of the Q group is further defended against those who argue that there is not enough evidence for an early Galilean Christianity to situate Q there. Finally, against the majority in Q research, the paper will support the thesis that the Q group fled to Southern Syria when the Romans invaded Galilee in 67 C.E. Accordingly, the final redaction of Q took place in Syria.


A Mixture of Error and Purpose: Pseudepigrapha among the Writings of the Church Fathers
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Uta Heil, Universität Wien

In contrast to the New Testament (e.g., J. Frey et al. [eds.], Pseudepigraphie und Verfasserfiktion in frühchristlichen Briefen, Tübingen 2009; S. E. Porter/G. P. Fewster [eds.], Paul and Pseudepigraphy, Leiden 2013), research on pseudepigraphy among the writings of the “Church Fathers” is not very intensive. Although many non-authentic ancient Christian writings are known, these texts are more or less ignored in most cases. In general only rediscovered “lost writings” of “heretics” (e.g., the writings of Marcellus of Ancyra and Apollinaris of Laodicaea handed down under the name of Athanasius of Alexandria) have been taken into consideration, but more with the aim to get an authentic voice of those persons and not with an interest in the problem of pseudepigraphy itself. The history of research by Martina Janßen (Unter falschem Namen, Frankfurt am Main 2003) also concludes that the main questions are still unanswered. The overview of Wolfgang Speyer (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft I/2, 1971) is only a first step as well as the miscellany edited by Javier Martínez García (Mundus vult decipi, 2012). This paper tries to widen the horizon regarding ancient Christian pseudepigrapha. A starting-point is the book by Bart D. Ehrman (Forgery and Counterforgery, Oxford 2013) who insists on describing pseudepigraphy as forgery and deceit. However, he also mentions some other categories: plagiarism, falsifications, fabriciations, false attributions, problems of anonymity and of homonymity, and fiction. Are those categories adequate and sufficient for describing the emergence of pseudepigraphic writings attributed to “Church Fathers”? Is it convincing that pseudepigraphic writings are in most cases polemical and apologetic forgeries? To put Ehrman’s categories to a test, a special look will be taken at the pseudepigraphic writings attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria. In addition, the interdependence between author and authority will be taken into consideration for a better understanding of these pseudepigraphic writings.


Imperial or Christological Art? Constantine’s Churches in the Holy Land
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Uta Heil, Universität Wien

Under Constantine the Great, sole ruler of the Roman Empire since 324, the famous churches in the “Holy Land” were built which soon became the main destinations for pilgrims: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Eleona Church at the Mount of Olives, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and finally the church in Mamre. Although there was much research, the reason for the decision of the emperor still remains unclear and a matter of debate. Was this just an expression of his might as a successful ruler of the whole empire? Or are these buildings part of anti-pagan and/or anti-Jewish measures? Or did he want to demonstrate his Christian faith and his support for the Christian church in public? But what inspired him, who has never been in Jerusalem in person? Questions remain, because these buildings were an innovation without precedent. Some recent publications tried to answer these questions with explicit theological interests of Constantine himself (Martin Wallraff: an expression of the Jesuanism of the emperor; Klaus Bieberstein: the Nicene Creed in stone; Jeanne H. Kilde: a proof for physical ascension; Katharina Heyden: a symbol for the unity of the church). These interpretations require a critical revision on the basis of archaeological evidence and in respect to the belief and “theology” of Constantine. The paper deals with these latest theological interpretations of the imperial church-building-program of Constantine in the “Holy Land”. The focus will be on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the first church of Constantine in the “Holy Land”. Important is more interdisciplinary research and more caution concerning an exaggerated theological interpretation of architecture. At the very most, these church buildings meant for Constantine a proof for the truth of Christianity.


The Lexical Semantics of thriambeuein in Greek Literature: Building the Interpretation of 2 Cor 2:14 and Col 2:15 on a Firm Foundation
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Christoph Heilig, Universität Zürich

The meaning of transitive thriambeuein has puzzled interpreters of the New Testament for a long time. Although, surprisingly, there has not been any detailed work on the lexical semantics of this verb, there are many suggestions in the literature including some that do not see any connection to the rite of the Roman triumphus. These proposals include the neutral meaning ‘to make sb./sth. known’ (Field/Egan), the broad ‘to lead sb. in a religious procession’ (Findley/Duff), and the more negative ‘to expose sb. to shame’ (Marshall/Gruber). However, these proposals cannot offer the necessary lexical support. A clear connection to the Roman triumph is maintained by Hafemann, who thinks the meaning is ‘to lead sb. to death’, namely captives to their execution. However, Hafemann does not offer an analysis of the usage of the verb either but only analyses the concept of the triumphus. Breytenbach was the first to take into account the actual usage of transitive thriambeuein to a significant extent. He concludes that the meaning is: ‘to celebrate a triumph over sb.’ - without including the actual presentation of that person in the procession. However, there are occurrences of the word documented in the TLG that Breytenbach has not taken into account. More importantly, Breytenbach did not pay any attention to paradigmatic relations of transitive thriambeuein. Hence, his analysis of the components of the semantic range of this verb remains deficient. This strange situation of a multitude of suggested “meanings” and the clear lack of detailed lexical analyses is reflected in all the dictionaries of Ancient Greek. In this paper, I will present the results of an in-depth analysis of a) the usage of thriambeuein up until the 3rd century CE as well as b) an analysis of its semantic components in light of semantically related paradigmatic options in the same corpus. As a result, for the first time a definition of transitive thriambeuein can be offered that is actually rooted in an appropriate lexical analysis. I will close with an outlook on its discourse meaning in 2 Cor 2:14 and Col 2:15.


The Function of Paul’s Triumph Metaphor: Solving the Crux of 2 Cor 2:14
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Christoph Heilig, University of Zurich

It has long been noticed that 2 Cor 2:14 is crucial for understanding Paul’s apologia. This importance stands in stark contrast to the lack of detailed analysis of the historical setting of Paul’s use of the verb thriambeuein. There have been influential studies on this issue, but they focused on the conceptual level of the rite of the triumphus (Hafemann) or did not take into account the lexical material sufficiently (Breytenbach). Building on methodological considerations of Chapters 3 and 7 in Hidden Criticism? The Methodology and Plausibility of the Search for a Counter-Imperial Subtext in Paul (WUNT II, 392; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015), I will offer a lexical analysis that for the first time takes into account a) the usage of thriambeuein in Greek literature up to the 3rd century CE as well as b) its semantic components in light of semantically close paradigmatic options in the same corpus. This will allow us to place our interpretation of the metaphor in 2 Cor 2:14 on a much firmer foundation than was possible before. These considerations will be supplemented by taking into account indications from the immediate literary context. Taken together with the results of the lexical analyses, they point in a direction for the function of the metaphor that is generally not recognised by commentators. Though not new data in itself, the evidence from the literary context is re-assembled differently in light of the semantic result. Making a new contribution to this issue, I will then refer to the concrete historical context of Paul in order to shed light on Paul’s usage of thriambeuein. It will become apparent that the exegesis of this passage has not taken into account the historical reference of Paul’s metaphor. This is all the more surprising since an analysis of archaeological remains, numismatic and epigraphical evidence, and historiographical reports shed much light on how the metaphor must have functioned in the discourse between Paul and the original readers of his letter.


Libations in the New Testament: About a Forgotten Ritual
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Jan Heilmann, Technische Universität Dresden

Libations can be seen as forgotten rituals in the texts of the New Testament. In the last decades, New Testament scholarship has drawn only little attention to this topic. It is significant for instance that there is no entry “libation” in the relevant encyclopedias such as the Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum and the Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4th edition. References to libation rituals in the Greek text of the New Testament are often concealed by the translations – not only in German and English translations but also in the Latin Vulgata. Moreover, depending on the completeness of my overview survey of the literature in Classics there are currently no comprehensive studies analyz-ing the complex and diverse practice of pouring out libations on the one hand and describing the ex-act relation to the ancient concept of “sacrifice” on the other hand. From this perspective, it seems to be appropriate to give an overview of the relevant passages in the NT that refer to a libation ritual. A short draft for systematizing libation rituals in the Greco-Roman world obtained on the basis of an-cient sources should serve as heuristic tool for the analysis of the New Testament data. The paper includes some methodological reflections on the relation of texts and the specific ritual of pouring out libations during meals as well as considerations on theological implications of libations in New Tes-tament texts. In this regard, the question has to be asked if the particular liquid (e. g. wine or water) is given a specific significance. In sum, the paper has three main goals: 1) to explain why references to libations in the New Testament texts were often ignored by scholarship as well as in the history of reception; 2) to outline perspectives for the interpretation of the references to libations in the New Testament and to determine the relation to early Christian meal practice; 3) to name questions for further research.


The Inward Groaning of Adoption (Rom 8:12–25): Reimagining the Pauline Adoption Metaphor for Women in the Adoption Triad
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Erin M. Heim, Denver Seminary

The aim of this paper is to focus on recovering the voices of women whose voices and experiences have been papered over through irresponsible and oppressive applications of the Pauline adoption texts. To do this, I will focus on the dialectic between displacement and belonging, which is present both in the stories of women in the adoption triad, and in Paul’s text in Romans 8:15-25. In the United States, adoption is fast becoming a common alternative means of establishing a family, where approximately 2-4 percent of the country’s children are adopted. While there is certainly a growing amount of both scholarly and popular literature on adoption from a pro-adoption theological perspective, the voices of women in contemporary adoption triads are noticeably absent in theological literature. Moreover, although it is often cited as a theological exemplar for modern adoptive families, there are no women present in a straightforward reading of the Pauline metaphor of adoption either. Rather, the texts draw on a kyriarchal image (huiothesia = adoption by a Father to sonship) to communicate an aspect of the believer’s life in Christ (Gal 4:5; Rom 8:15, 23; 9:4; Eph 1:5). When the metaphor is mapped onto contemporary contexts, the kyriarchal framework of the text silences the stories of women in contemporary adoption triads. Though it is easy to romanticize adoption as a modern Cinderella story, this paper contends that both the Pauline text in Romans 8 and the personal narratives of adoption triad members plead for theological reflection that gives space for feelings of loss, grief, and displacement alongside affirmations of belonging, joy, and hope. This paper argues that the text in Romans 8:12-25 can be reimagined in ways that speak to the experiences of adoption triad members, and in ways that empower triad members to speak their narratives into the larger theological conversation surrounding contemporary adoption.


The Firstborn among Many Brothers and Sisters: Identity Formation and the uiothesia Metaphors in Romans 8
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Erin M. Heim, Denver Seminary

The Firstborn Among Many Brothers and Sisters: Identity Formation and the uiothesia Metaphors in Romans 8


Contrast or Comparison? Rethinking Dominant Group Identity Categories in Galatians
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Ryan Heisch, University of Aberdeen

Contrast or Comparison? Rethinking Dominant Group Identity Categories in Galatians


Future Philology
Program Unit:
Ronald Hendel, University of California-Berkeley

*


Substitutes in Hell: Schemes of Atonement in the Ezra Apocalypses
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Meghan Henning, University of Dayton

From 4 Ezra to the Latin Vision of Ezra apocalyptic authors make claims about the relationship between human life and divine activity, claims that are likely related to the historical context in which each apocalyptic author writes. This paper will examine the distinct theological perspectives that are available in the various Apocalypses associated with Ezra. In particular we will consider each apocalypse's view of atonement, and the relationship between each work's theological reflections and its unique "lived context." Finally, after considering each of the Ezra apocalypses from a diachronic perspective we will also consider whether there are substantive theological connections between each unique instantiation of the Ezra apocalypse that allow us to speak of an "Ezra tradition."


Behind Every Holy Man Is a Narrator: The Narrator’s Role in Shaping the Reader’s Opinion in the Gospel of Luke and Lucian’s Alexander the False Prophet
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
James C. Henriques, University of Texas at Austin

There is little reason to doubt that the comedic skewering provided by Lucian of Samosata in his Alexander the False Prophet played a pivotal role in the sharp decline of Alexander of Abonoteichus’s nascent religious movement, much in the same way that the gospels contributed to the rise of the early Jesus movement. A modern comparison between Jesus and Alexander would likely draw little attention. Yet few (if any) modern scholars have bothered to examine the influence ancient author/narrators wielded in the success or failure of the movements surrounding ancient miracle workers. Authors of mundane non-fiction, such as Lucian, are faced with the hurdle of convincing their readers (ancient or modern) that the events contained within their narratives occurred exactly as described. This hurdle increases exponentially for authors attempting to recount events considered by both reader and author as miraculous or supernatural, as is the case with the gospels. If the narrative is too realistic, miraculous events become implausible, and vice versa. Resolution of this paradox is achieved through a set of narrative techniques referred to in this paper as the “dialectic of the miraculous.” The purpose of this paper, then, is to illustrate how the author of a gospel, namely Luke, employs this dialectic. This goal is accomplished by contrasting Luke’s gospel with the work of another author who is skeptical of his purportedly miraculous subject matter, in this case Lucian. The Gospel of Luke, with its prologue addressed to a named reader, as well as its reputation as the most culturally and stylistically Greek of the gospels, is a perfect gospel representative against Lucian’s Alexander. This paper examines the ways each author, serving double-duty as narrator, interacts with both his audience and his subject to affect the reader’s opinion of his subject. Among other literary methods, special attention is paid to the way each author employs narrative voice to build trust with his audience and further convince them that his interpretation of the miraculous deeds performed by his subject is the only interpretation (whether it be debunking or confirming). This comparison reveals that it is indeed an uphill battle for authors of miraculous non-fiction such as Luke. These authors skirt a fine line between the impossible and the possible. If they are to foster and maintain in their readers a sense of belief regarding their subjects, they must accordingly utilize a set of literary tools quite different than, and with far more precision, the tools employed by authors of non-miraculous non-fiction.


Apotropaic Autographs: Evaluating the Epigraphical and Magical Tradition of the Abgar Correspondence
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Andrew Mark Henry, Boston University

This study traces the development of the apocryphal correspondence between King Abgar of Edessa and Jesus from a Christological treatise in the 4th century CE to a magical and epigraphical tradition in the 6th century CE. Inscriptions bearing this correspondence have been discovered in Ephesus, Philippi, and Ankara, and although scholars have long agreed on their apotropaic function, none have situated these inscriptions within the magical tradition that developed out of the Abgar legend in Late Antiquity. Faced with a vast repertoire of available apotropaic strategies, what is it about the Abgar legend that would impel someone to create epigraphic forms of it? Why would an Ephesian in 6th century choose it over other options? This study will answer these questions by arguing that the Abgar legend developed from a Christological treatise to a vibrant magical tradition due to the notion that it preserved the original autograph of Jesus. Furthermore, these inscriptions’ respective contexts in Late Antique urban settings suggest that individuals came to recognize, and even favor, Jesus as a viable civic and domestic protector. This phenomenon, therefore, not only represents a distinct shift in the interpretation of the Abgar legend but also a novel reconsideration of Jesus’ role in civic religious practice in Late Antiquity.


Shubhalmaran’s Missing Apocalypses
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Jonathan Henry, Princeton University

Recent publications about the writings of Šubhalmaran of Kirkuk have begun to illuminate the theology, exegesis, and ideals of this obscure 7th century metropolitan bishop. At a time and place in which Jewish, Byzantine, and other unique apocalyptic texts and traditions circulated, Šubhalmaran’s extant sermons yield a number of rich insights into the preservation and use of traditions such as these. In particular, the current paper queries Šubhalmaran’s characterization of the Man of Sin and his virgin mother in a homily that employs an intriguing array of sources. I seek to show that Šubhalmaran does not rely upon Revelation, but rather upon pseudo-Daniel and pseudo-apostolic traditions, many now missing, but some preserved for us both in Greek and Syriac texts. In showing the relationship between Šu??almaran and these other texts, I will note a number of intriguing trends that parallel ideas found in Sefer Zerubbabel and Sefer Eliyyahu, both Jewish apocalyptic works from a similar time and place. All of this gives us additional understanding about the library and eschatological concepts of a regionally-influential bishop just before the rise of Islam, after which the apocalyptic landscape would largely change.


How Do the Pseudepigrapha Change the Way We Read Early Jewish Literature?
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Matthias Henze, Rice University

A methodological examination of how reading the so-called Pseudepigrapha changes our view of early Jewish literature more broadly.


Using the Stanley Parable to Teach Narrative Reading of the Gospels
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Seth Heringer, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

One of the challenges of any course that covers the Christian gospels is getting students to read them as individual narratives. Only by doing so can the students start to think about compositional, redaction, and narrative criticism in meaningful ways. For example, if the gospels all tell exactly the same story, then there is no reason to study how they were created or how their authors shaped source material. Professors can just repeat that each gospel needs to be read on its own terms, but this presentation will demonstrate that a more potent method is to use the computer game The Stanley Parable to show the power an author has in shaping a narrative, making students more aware of how authorial choices have shaped each gospel. The Stanley Parable was created to be a commentary on the tropes and assumptions of video games, but it can easily be adapted to teach narrative theory more generally. During the game, the player is presented with a series of choices, for example, walking through the door on the right or the left. An ever-present narrator guides the player to the “correct” choices. Immediately it is clear, however, that the player has the agency to ignore the narrator’s instructions, upsetting the fixed narrative and forcing the narrator to adjust the story on the fly to incorporate new sets of circumstances. Although the surface commentary is about blindly following instructions and living within the rules of video games, it parallels similar characteristics of narratives. For example, the individual gospel accounts can be thought of as individual narrators guiding the reader through the “correct” story that they desire to tell about the life of Jesus. They force the reader’s attention to certain times and locations in the life of Jesus, ignoring other times and places that could have been included, and sometimes are, in other gospels. Some readers will not realize that the story is being guided and shaped by authorial choice. The Stanley Parable, however, highlights the hand of the narrator/author by making clear that other choices could have been made; another story could have been told by weaving together different events into a different whole. The Stanley Parable makes this shaping apparent, and does so with humor and in an engaging modality, leading students to see the power authors have in shaping stories. As they appreciate how stories are shaped by authors, they are more interested in learning what is unique about each gospel story so they can better see where it has been shaped by the author. Students are no longer walking through the narrative unaware, but search for the places where choices have been made, where the author has taken them through the left door rather than the right, and wonder why that choice was made.


Bible Literacy, Public Discourse, and the Challenge to the Liberal Arts
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Gary A. Herion, Hartwick College

The continuing impact of religious and biblical illiteracy on American culture, the urgent need for a more civil public discourse, and the crisis of confidence in the value of the humanities urge us to reevaluate how we expose undergraduates to the Bible. The Liberal Arts Bible Project, still in its exploratory phase, invites us who teach undergraduates to begin exploring together models for a new college edition of the Bible that responds to this situation in a non-sectarian way.


Mythical Parody and Gruesome Death: Representations of Executions in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
John J. Herrmann, Jr., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

*


Embodying Hope: The Function of Jeremiah and His Companions in the Later Baruch Literature
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Jens Herzer, Universität Leipzig

In the corpus of Jewish-Hellenistic texts, the later writings under the name of Baruch (2 and 4 Baruch) reflect the impact of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE in very different ways. Both deal with expectations about the future of the Jewish people. For 2 Baruch the time of the prophets has definitely ended, and thus Baruch becomes the main character. In 4 Baruch, however, Jeremiah is transformed from the prophet of doom into a teacher of the law and in this role – in a specific relation to his companions Baruch and Abimelech – embodies the hope for the people’s restoration. The paper will focus on the embodiment of prophetic representation in the Jeremiah tradition and the function of these different “bodies” within the controversies about the future of the Jewish people after the catastrophe.


“Like an Innocent Lamb”: Accusations of Ritual Murder in English Martyrological Narratives
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Michael Heyes, Rice University

This paper will explore the Othering of the Jewish community in three narratives from medieval England that deal in the supposed crime of Blood Libel: Thomas of Monmouth’s The Life of William of Norwich, Matthew Paris’ The Life of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Prioress’ Tale.” In particular, I am interested in the way that the Jews and their motives are depicted in each of the narratives: in William’s Life, as perpetrators of a depraved Passover ritual to reclaim their “fatherland;” in The Life of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln, as ritual reenactors of Christ’s death for the purposes of insulting Jesus and performing magical operations; and in Chaucer, as the murderers of the infant Christ who are driven by demonic lusts. These depictions will be placed against the backdrop of historical events to further inform the development of anti-Semitic sentiment in pre- and post-expulsion England.


An Investigation into Some African Endogamous Models of Development
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Komi Ahiatroga Hiagbe, Global Theological Seminary, Ghana

*


Seeing and Believing: The Genre of Anagnorisis and the Johannine Signs
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Jill Hicks-Keeton, University of Oklahoma

This paper offers a fresh analysis of the literary function of Jesus’ signs in the gospel of John by reading them in conversation with the anagnorisis microgenre found frequently in ancient narratives and in light of the gospel’s rhetorical goal of cultivating belief through signs (20:30-31). Arguing against the common notion in Johannine scholarship that the gospel disparages belief based on signs, I show that scholarly paradigms that devise hierarchies of belief-types inaccurately impose a classificatory system that is foreign to the genre of anagnorisis and its grammar in antiquity. In the gospel of John, I argue, signs receive affirmation, and seeing signs is a legitimate and welcome means of recognizing Jesus and of believing. Taking seriously the Johannine connection between anagnorisis and belief thus offers a more accurate paradigm for understanding the function of the signs in the gospel’s final form.


Using 'Genius' to Teach Close Reading in Collaborative Learning Contexts
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Jill Hicks-Keeton, University of Oklahoma

In this presentation, I will demonstrate the ways in which the online knowledge base Genius, a crowd-source software program that allows users to upload and annotate portions of text, is useful for teaching skills of close reading and textual analysis within biblical studies. I will model how to use the program, including the Educator mode specifically designed for classroom use, and then show and assess the finished products uploaded to Genius by my own students in a Bible and Literature class – the results of a semester-long collaborative learning project which required them to use Genius to analyze, annotate, and interpret biblical and post-biblical texts.


Some Noteworthy Linguistic Features in Septuagint Genesis
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Robert J. V. Hiebert, Trinity Western University

The Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint series (SBLCS) seeks to elucidate the meaning of Old Greek texts as they would have been understood by the original translators (and presumably their first readers/hearers) at their point of production, as distinct from how they may have come to be construed throughout the course of their reception history. Septuagint Genesis evinces a diverse range of interesting decisions by its translator in the representation of the meaning of its underlying Semitic source text. Sometimes those meanings overlap, sometimes there are divergences. This paper will explore a number of representative examples.


Expansionism and Endogamy in the Entry to the Promised Land
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Andrew W. Higginbotham, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

The modern legal process of eminent domain, of the seizure of land from an occupant and the transfer to a new possessor, seems to have a parallel in the biblical text of Deu 2-3. Alternately, the 19th century concept of manifest destiny, of a cultural prerogative to expand into the territory of native but ethnically distinct peoples, could be used as a lens for God’s commands to Israel. A hybrid of the two ideas will be used to explore how the consanguineous relationships between Israel and some of her soon-to-be neighbors (Edom, Moab, and Ammon) protect those nations against Israelite incursion. The alternate construction of these people as exogamous rivals in Deu 23 (and other places) will be used as a foil for this study. Further comparisons arise from the favor shown to Caphtor (Philistia) in Deu 2-3, though not from the Abrahamic line, and the disfavor for Amalek, though a scion of the Esavite line, throughout the Pentateuch. The goal of this study is to explore the notions of nationhood and rights that arise from the familial links of the various Levantine nations. In other words, what barriers against (or impetus toward) war and conquest do ethnic boundaries play in the text of Deuteronomy?


Wisdom and the Building of the Tabernacle: Hokmah and Hakam in Exodus 25–40
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Lance Higginbotham, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Wisdom and the Building of the Tabernacle: Hokmah and Hakam in Exodus 25–40


Do Not Look at His Appearance, for I Have Rejected Him: Bodily Language and Reversal in 1 Samuel
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Ryan Stephen Higgins, The Jewish Theological Seminary

Human beings have a tendency to anthropomorphize, creating from the human body a universally analogical framework. In language, anatomy abounds. Semiotically, the body has a language all its own; its movements are indexical of certain meanings. Socially, acceptance is governed by physical normalcy. This is all as true of the ancient world as it is of the modern, yet the narratives of the Hebrew Bible contain few descriptions of their characters’ physical bodies. While Homer’s audience is always sure of the color of his heroes’ hair, in this respect the biblical narrators are typically reticent. They construct a literary world that is, in Erich Auerbach’s assessment, “fraught with background.” In the biblical books of Samuel, however, those terms relating to the parts, appearances, adornment, movements, and positions of bodies are uncharacteristically frequent. The constellation of these terms can be called “bodily language.” This paper will take a literary approach to interpreting the bodily language in the first half of Samuel. It will argue that the abundance of bodily language is purposeful, and that the writers and redactors of Samuel most often employ it in service of their major theme: reversal of fortune. Hannah’s Song in 1 Samuel 2 articulates this theme, and David’s Lament in 2 Samuel 1 recapitulates it. Between them, the narratives of Eli, Samuel, Saul, and David bear it out. This paper will demonstrate the consistency of this theme and of its expression through bodily language, even across originally disparate literary units in 1 Samuel.


Prophetic Ritual in the Egyptian Royal Cult
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
John Hilber, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

Revelatory settings described in diverse Egyptian texts, including binary oracles, dream reports, communication with the dead, narratives, seer consultation, wisdom contests, and funerary rituals, offer evidence of the socio-religious prerequisite for prophecy; however they do not qualify as messenger speech. On the other hand, first-person, divine speech delivered by human agents in rituals of the Egyptian royal cult (coronations, building inscriptions, and victory celebrations) qualify as prophecy. Drawing on ritual theory, this paper explores the relationship between these rituals and prophetic speech performance.


The Relationship of Prophecy and Wisdom in the Ancient Near East
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
John Hilber, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

The Relationship of Prophecy and Wisdom in the Ancient Near East


Solomon's Temple Prayer (1 Kgs 8)
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Ted Hildebrandt, Gordon College

Solomon's Temple Prayer (1 Kgs 8)


Textual Division in Early Gospel Manuscripts Part II: Matthew, Mark, and Luke, with Some Further Reflections on the Numbering System in Vaticanus
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Charles E. Hill, Reformed Theological Seminary

In a paper read at the 2014 meeting I introduced the evidence for scribally-produced textual division (at the paragraph or section level) in some early Gospel manuscripts, focusing on the Gospel of John. The major result was the observation that the paragraphs in P75’s Johannine text, marked out by (punctuation), space, and ekthesis, and the primitive numbers set in the margins of Vaticanus’s Johannine text, are genealogically related and reveal a template for sectional divisions in the text of John that was preserved in at least one portion of the textual tradition. The present paper extends the investigation, asking whether any similar relationship exists between the numbers in B and the indicators of sense division in the non-Johannine Gospel papyri. In particular, analyses of P74 and P4 in Luke, P64, 67, in Matthew, and P88 in Mark will be summarized. This paper will also offer further information and reflection on the early numbering system in Vaticanus.


Paul and the Narratable Divine Identity
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Wesley Hill, Trinity School for Ministry

Recent discussion of Pauline God-talk (e.g., F. Watson; D. Campbell; R. Bauckham) has focused on the inability of traditional theological categories of "substance" and "nature" to do justice to the dynamics of Paul's discourse, in which divine action and agency, particularly as displayed in the Christ event, are more determinative for Paul's portrait of God. Focusing on Paul's use of *kyrios* with reference to God the Father and not only Jesus Christ, against the backdrop of the Septuagint, this paper will suggest that Paul's narration of God's agency prepared the way for subsequent theological treatments of "substance" and "nature," while also requiring those categories to be understood in light of the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. This paper will seek to demonstrate that Paul's understanding of God is both "narratable" and "metaphysical," insofar as the so-called immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity are held fruitfully together in Paul's language about God.


Teaching with Spiritual Impact: An Analysis of Student Comments Regarding the Spiritual Influence of Religion Classes
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
John Hilton III, Brigham Young University

Recent research has indicated that some students desire outcomes that could be categorized as "spiritual" as part of their college experience. But what does that look like in practice? Between 2010 and 2014, 2,500 religion courses were taught at a private university. One of the questions in the university course evaluation given at the end of each course pertains to how students rank the spiritual impact of the course. We analyzed the student comments from the highest and lowest rated sections (representing the top and bottom 2.5% of all courses). In total, 2,450 comments coming from 112 different sections were coded. In examining student comments, several themes emerged in terms of what leads to and detracts from achieving course outcomes students identify as spiritual. In addition, we utilized computer software to identify key words from the higher and lower scoring classes and explored their use by students. This presentation will include specific descriptions of how these findings can be applied in religious education.


Purity and Self with and without the Temple
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Martha Himmelfarb, Princeton University

Book review of Mira Balberg's Purity, Body, and Self in Early Rabbinic Literature (Berkeley: UC Press, 2014)


Jeremiah 7 and 5 Ezra: An Underrated Connection?
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Veronika Hirschberger, University of Regensburg

Fifth Ezra is a pseudepigraphical writing which refers to numerous biblical and non-biblical texts. Although there have been studies on the relationship between 5 Ezra and e.g. 1 Baruch, Matthew, and 4 Ezra, there has yet to be a comprehensive intertextual profile for the text of 5 Ezra. Furthermore, an additional text, which could be a key for the understanding of 5 Ezra, has been thus far overlooked: 5 Ezra shows clear connections to Jeremiah 7. Many of these connections are common phrases, the number of which is only comparable to what we find between 5 Ezra and 1 Baruch. Both texts deal with God’s wrath over Israel’s sins, depict damage on account of the people’s wrongdoing, and pronounce their rejection by God. The similarities between these two texts suggest that Jeremiah 7 could be a key for the intertextual world of 5 Ezra, and more useful for its understanding than apocalyptic texts like 4 Ezra. Moreover, considering Jeremiah 7 as a main intertext for 5 Ezra changes our concept of 5 Ezra as a Christian apocalypse and prompts us to connect it closer with the prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible. This paper seeks to illustrate the connecting lines between both writings and considers the consequences of such intertextual references for the understanding of 5 Ezra. Additionally, given the structural relations between 5 Ezra and 1 Baruch, the paper will examine whether and to what extent the text could be seen in the Jeremianic tradition. Detecting such a relation could also change the rather one-sided understanding of 5 Ezra’s message as proclaiming the abolition of Israel through the Christians, a thesis which fails to account for the distinct reverence for and use of texts of the Hebrew Bible. Considering this intertext will help us come closer to the world of this pseudepigraphical writing, which thus far eludes definite comprehension and continues to challenge research.


Real or Perceived Scribal Habits? Assessing the ‘Singular Readings Method’ with Codex Sinopensis (O 023)
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Elijah Hixson, University of Edinburgh

By assuming that the singular readings of a New Testament manuscript represent the tendencies of its copyist, a popular method used for determining scribal habits suffers from two flaws: it wrongly includes singular readings copied from the parent text, and it wrongly excludes non-singular readings created by the scribe. Codex Sinopensis (Paris, BNF, supp. gr. 1286; O 023) is one of three sixth-century purple codices copied from a common exemplar; the other two manuscripts are Codex Rossanensis (S 042) and Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus (N 022). These three manuscripts are in a unique position to test the singular readings method of determining scribal habits against a control. Because of this rare relationship, the actual scribal activity in Codex Sinopensis can be determined by observing the total number and type(s) of deviations the scribe made from the parent text, which is ascertained from the readings of all three manuscripts where Sinopensis is extant. The singular readings method itself can be tested by comparing the actual scribal activity to the results of a modified singular readings method, in which both the singular readings of Sinopensis and those sub-singular readings found only in Sinopensis and its two siblings are included in the data pool. This modification enables the method to include rare readings copied from the exemplar that would be normally included as singular readings for manuscripts that, unlike Sinopensis, do not have two extant siblings. Thus, with Sinopensis, one can detect both real scribal habits—all the places where the scribe did not follow his or her exemplar, and perceived scribal habits—those as measured by the singular readings method. When one compares real and perceived scribal habits, it becomes clear that in the case of Codex Sinopensis, the singular readings method fails to provide an accurate picture of scribal activity.


“In God’s Way”: A Path-Breaking Metaphor in the Qur'an and Its Biblical Genealogies
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Thomas Hoffman, Københavns Universitet

Though often conferred a central role in academic titles on Islam (such as John Esposito’s Islam: the Straight Path or, more recently, Robert Hoyland’s In God’s Path) the concept and conceptualization of the ‘path’/’way’/’road’ (sabil, ?ira?, ?ariq, minhaj) and its associated semantic concepts (Îajj, Îijra, Îuda, jihad etc.) is a desideratum in Qur?anic studies, not least in regard to its Biblical, Near Eastern and Late Antique sources. Annemarie Schimmel’s very short and general Das Thema des Weges und der Reise im Islam (Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996) is symptomatic for Stand der Forschung. Symptomatic also is the striking absence of any Biblical references in Dmitry V. Frolov’s article “Path or Way” in Encyclopaedia of the Qur?an despite the obvious prominence of way and path-imagery in the Biblical literature (canonical and apocryphal, rabbinic and patristic) and its impact on theological thinking and practices, most markedly in Christianity. In this paper I attempt to outline the literary and metaphorical genealogies of the concept of the ‘way’/ ‘path’ as it appears in the Qur?an. It is thus my general hypothesis that the different lexical instantiations of the concept of ‘way’ or ‘path’ betray a Biblical genealogy. Secondarily, I hypothesize that the Christian use of the ‘Way’ (Gr. hodos) as a self-designation of Christianity (esp. in Acts, e.g. 9,2; 19,9, 23 etc) provided important metaphorical stimulus for the emerging religious identity formation in Qur’anic proto-Islam.


Mother Zion or Mother Church? The Use of Baruch in 5 Ezra
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Karina Martin Hogan, Fordham University

The figure of Mother Zion is developed in the apocryphal book of Baruch (1 Baruch 4:5-5:9) by consolidating scattered references in Isaiah 40-66 to Jerusalem as the mother of the exiled Judeans (esp. Isa 49:18-23, 54:1-3, 60:1-4 and 66:8-12). A significant number of early Jewish and early Christian texts appropriate and use the Mother Zion figure to different ends; examples include Ps Sol 11, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and Gal 4:21-5:1. In the second century, a few early Christian exegetes interpret Isa 54:1 as referring to the Church, and Origen connects Paul’s “Jerusalem that is above” (Gal 4:26) with the preexistent heavenly Church. It is not until the third century, however, that the figure of Mother Church (Mater Ecclesia) becomes commonplace, first in North Africa. This paper argues that 5 Ezra (1 Esdras 1-2), a Jewish-Christian prophetic text, precedes and anticipates the development of the Mater Ecclesia figure, rather than being influenced by it. Despite 5 Ezra’s supersessionist tendency, the “mother” figure remains identified throughout 5 Ezra with the city of Jerusalem and Mt. Zion, as in Baruch. Theodore A. Bergren has recently argued that “5 Ezra seems to have originated as a radically revisionist, Christian supersessionist reading of the apocryphal book of Baruch.” He believes that the structure of 5 Ezra comes from superimposing the dualisms of Paul’s allegory in Gal 4:21-5:1 upon the structure of the entire book of Baruch. I think that 5 Ezra’s dependence on Baruch is limited to the use of the Mother Zion figure from Bar 4:5-5:9 and that the Galatians allegory was a much less significant influence on the author of 5 Ezra than Bergren believes. Instead, the author of 5 Ezra combines allusions to the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22 with Baruch’s Mother Zion figure, while claiming that God has taken away the “kingdom of Jerusalem” from Israel and has given it to a new people, presumably the Christians (5 Ezra 2:10-11). Yet 5 Ezra for the most part avoids explicitly Christian vocabulary, cloaking its supersessionism in the language of the Israelite prophetic tradition. I do not think there is enough evidence to place the composition of 5 Ezra in North Africa in the third century, as Bergren tentatively does, based on the presumed influence of the Mater Ecclesia figure in Tertullian and Cyprian. I think it is more likely to have been composed in the second century, although the character of the Latin text is consistent with either composition in Latin or translation from Greek in a North African context. It is possible, therefore, that 5 Ezra’s limited “christianizing” of the Mother Zion figure may have influenced the development of the Mater Ecclesia figure in North Africa in the third century.


The Rhetoric of PIETAS: First Timothy and the Negotiation of Roman Imperial Pietas
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Chris Hoklotubbe, Harvard University

This paper provides a postcolonial reading to 1 Timothy that attends to how the author negotiates the imperial situation in his appeal to piety (eusebeia) within the context of instructing the community to offer prayers on behalf of imperial authorities (1 Tim 2:1–2) and how women and widows ought to behave within the household of God (1 Tim 2:9–15). Scholars including Mary Rose D’Angelo and Angela Standhartinger convincingly argue that 1 Timothy’s instructions on prayer and admonitions for women to marry, bear children, and remain subordinate to their husbands accommodate to conservative social values promoted in imperial legislation and propaganda. However, scholars like Ben Witherington and Phillip Towner insist that these passages are not indicative of accommodation, but rather a missiological approach that Christianized secular virtues and even resisted imperial culture. I argue that a postcolonial optics is helpful for moving beyond a dichotomy of accommodation/resistance and allows us to better observe how both elements are present within the author’s negotiation of imperial social values and Christian doctrine within the scope of his construction of a hybrid Christian identity and piety. This paper will also succinctly contextualize 1 Timothy’s appeals to piety within the prevalence of rhetorical claims to piety (pietas/eusebeia) that occur in Roman poetry, monumental inscriptions, and coins in order to clarify the cultural significance of this virtue for how both elite Romans and provincial subjects, including the author of 1 Timothy, conceptualized imperial power and their relation to it. I argue that both claims to piety that pervaded the imperial propaganda of Trajan and Hadrian as evidenced in coins, reliefs, panegyrics, and building campaigns as well as elite Roman discourses that contrasted Roman pietas against foreign superstitio textualized the structures that comprised the imperial situation of 1 Timothy’s and illuminate its rhetoric of piety.


Acts, Christians, and the Third Race: Harnack Revisited
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Carl Holladay, Emory University

This paper explores how the term “Christians” (Acts 11:26) and other nomenclature used in Acts to characterize followers of Jesus fits within Harnack’s famous excursus “Christians as a Third Race” (Mission and Expansion, 266-78). Some questions addressed: To what extent does Acts envision Jesus’s disciples as distinct from Jews and pagans? How does Luke’s language of differentiation, e.g., church and synagogue, function in Acts? Is Acts correctly depicted as standing midway on the arc between early Christian preaching and early Christian apologetic? And how useful is the language of “race,” e.g., genus tertium, in describing Luke’s conception of early Christianity?


Debt in the Early Roman Empire
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
David Hollander, Iowa State University

It is well known that debt was a frequent source of political and social conflict under the Roman Republic but the history of debt in the early Empire, aside from the financial crisis of 33 CE, has yet to receive much attention. Though the evidence is diffuse, this paper will argue that high levels of indebtedness continued to be a serious problem both at Rome and in the provinces at all levels of society.


Surprising Secrets and Hidden Proclamations: Gethsemane and the Empty Tomb
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Laura C. S. Holmes, Seattle Pacific University

At least since the publication of William Wrede’s Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien in 1901 Markan scholarship has been puzzling over the meaning, boundaries, and significance of the messianic secret. Wrede’s assessment of the theological origins of the messianic secret is at once both too narrow and too broad. The content of the secret is too narrow because it is a messianic secret, only concerned with Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. Wrede’s work is also too broad because he finds many places in the Gospel where secrecy is a theological theme, but the issue is not Jesus’ messiahship (e.g., 10:46-52). Stemming from this thematic legacy (highlighted by Juel and others), this paper argues that hiddenness and secrecy are broad themes in the Gospel of Mark that cannot be separated from their opposites, revelation and proclamation. Considering two episodes where all four of these concepts are present (14:26-52 and 16:1-8), this paper contends that uniting hiddenness and secrecy with revelation and proclamation produces not a Gospel of scattered “secret epiphanies” (Dibelius) but instead a Gospel where both secrecy and proclamation are at the heart of Christology and discipleship. Concealment and revelation in Gethsemane and at the empty tomb occur in three ways: through Jesus’ words, Jesus’ actions, and the actions of other characters. When Jesus proclaims that all will fall away (14:27), it appears that his words are fulfilled when he is arrested (14:50). Yet, Mark’s Gospel hides Jesus’ female followers from his audience, and they do not fall away until 16:8, when they keep the secret they should proclaim. The neaniskos’s proclamation collides with the women’s silence, revealing the fulfillment of Jesus’ words (16:4-8). In both of these episodes, however, Jesus himself withdraws from others (14:35-36) or is absent entirely (16:1-8), emphasizing that hiddenness has as much to do with presence as it does with (messianic) identity. Finally, characters like the two neaniskoi, one shamefully streaking and one angelically proclaiming, indicate the interplay between hiddenness and revelation in these texts. Mark’s Gospel not only surprises its audience in secrecy, but also sparks proclamation.


Questioning the Status Quo: Freedom to Debate in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Laura C. S. Holmes, Seattle Pacific University

In an upper-division undergraduate theology course on the Gospel of John, my students and I challenged the accepted state of Johannine ethics by using a series of debates. The students taking this class are mostly junior and senior theology majors. For this class, I used the experience of our urban university community—hosting a tent city of people experiencing homelessness—as a jumping off point for a particular project. I told the students (with support from various sources) that the Gospel of John is not the Gospel that one turns to for inspiration about social justice (Luke) or activism (Matthew), and therefore it is assumed that John would have little to say to such a community. Instead, John gets relegated to other-worldly descriptions like “the spiritual Gospel.” The students were eager to explore whether this neglect of John was appropriate. They divided into groups and chose one of six topics (Economic Justice, Racial Justice, Gender Dynamics, Violence/Non-Violence, Immigration, and the Value of the Body). After reading John as a whole, each group had to propose (1) a case study related to their topic and (2) a text from John which addressed their topic. I responded to their proposal with encouragement and critique, and also with a rebuttal text that refuted or challenged their original argument. Each group split into two teams and staged a debate. One surprising result of this assignment was how it opened the class up for discussing topics, in the words of one student, “that no one else in my life talks about.” Results of these presentations ranged across the affective domain from personal stories, to words and prayers of confession, to one student merging his presentation on immigration with activism at the state capital in another class. Each debate is followed by questions from the class and discussion that are meant to extend the issue both into the Gospel of John (are there other texts that the debate should have considered?) and out into the world (does the value of the body take into account mental illness?). Letting the students set the agenda of discussion by staging these debates fosters an environment that makes them aware of these issues in texts where they would otherwise not have seen them (e.g., what does the man born blind in John 9 have to say about racial justice?). Furthermore, students exercise skills in listening and empathy as they try to understand the other side of the issue in the debate. Lastly, because students observe and experience these concerns outside the classroom, these debates have broken down the false walls between classroom and life, meaning that they engage the affective dimension of the students’ learning. Such a pattern of debate and discussion, with similar themes, would be easy to modify for other contexts.


Dating the Martyrdom of Polycarp
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Michael W. Holmes, Bethel University (Minnesota)

At the “Inventing Christianity” section meeting in Baltimore (2013), I suggested that Marcion of Smyrna, in the work commonly known as the Martyrdom of Polycarp, sought to inculcate a particular vision of Christian identity as it related to the increasingly contested topic of martyrdom. In arguing that case, it proved necessary to give attention to the hotly-disputed question of the date of the composition of MartPol. In the present paper I propose to revisit that foundational topic in light of subsequent discussion. This is a topic particularly appropriate for consideration in a section whose foci include the analysis “of early Christian texts in dialogue with Hellenistic materials,” inasmuch as one of the central methodological questions re the date of MartPol involves the evidentiary weight to be given to the document’s Hellenistic context vis-a-vis intra-Christian trajectories and developments.


And the Word Became Words: The Inscription of the Divine Word on Jeremiah the Prophet in Jeremiah the Book
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Else K. Holt, Aarhus Universitet

The importance of writing is one of the hallmarks of the so-called axial age (Jaspers, Bellah, Assmann, Lang), the period in which the majority of the Old Testament books were shaped in their current form. This is not least important in the case of Jeremiah where writing plays an important part, and the writing down of the prophetic words are expressly emphasized (e.g. Jeremiah 29; 36; 45; 51:64). In this paper I will discuss the inscription of the divine word on Jeremiah, the prophet, who serves as the incarnation of the word; the inscription of the covenant on the hearts of the house of Israel (Jer 31:33); and the impact of writing on the shape and shaping of the book of Jeremiah. My thoughts are based on three methodological preconditions: 1) The figure of Jeremiah is not a representation of an historical person, but of a literary persona, Jeremiah, the prophet. 2) This literary persona serves as a representation of the divine word. 3) The inscription of the divine word in a book/books serves to preserve and authorize the word for later generations of readers. Especially the last statement might seem trivial. Nevertheless, scribal activity has played a minor role in the discussion of the theology of Jeremiah, and thus calls for consideration. Such reflections also open up for the cross-disciplinary discussion of the “afterlife” of Jeremiah in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity.


Psalm 109 and the Legal Meaning of Prayer
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Shalom E. Holtz, Yeshiva University

One account of the semantic history of the Hebrew word ???? posits a development from the meaning "plea (before an adjudicator)" to the meaning "prayer." Biblical evidence points in this direction, and Y. Feder has recently confirmed it based on a parallel semantic development in Hittite. The occurrence of the word ???? in Psalm 109:7 figures prominently in the discussion. Here, the word apparently refers to a plea or petition directed towards a human, rather than divine, authority. Studies of biblical prayer, such as those S. Blank and M. Greenberg, have drawn on this usage to advance an essentially legal interpretation of prayer in the Hebrew Bible. For the most part, however, scholarship has focused on the word ???? itself, rather than on wider context, including the remainder of the verse. This presentation adopts the legal meaning of ???? and situates it within the broader context of Psalm 109. It points to contextual factors that support this interpretation of the term. At the same time, it considers the implications of this interpretation for the exegesis of other parts of the verses in which the word occurs (109:4, 7), as well as for the understanding of the entire psalm.


A Hybrid Agency in the Making of Hellenistic Judaism: 2 Maccabees as a Test Case
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Sung Soo Hong, University of Texas at Austin

The present study analyzes the complexity of agency in the formation of Hellenistic Jewish identities, paying special attention to how it was possible for some Hellenized Jewish writers such as the authors of the Letter of Aristeas and the book of 2 Maccabees to remain convinced of their cultural purity and regard Hellenism as a foreign culture. Whereas Hellenism has often been conceived as an extrinsic entity which exerts influence on the Jews or is manipulated by the Jews in accordance with their ideological purposes, this study argues that both the force of Hellenization and the initiative of the Jews should be considered as joint agents in the formation of Hellenistic Jewish identities and that the Jews were often unaware of the permeation of Hellenism into their cultural norms. As an analytical tool this study critically makes use of the concept of “the vegetarian Bible” that Homi K. Bhabha proposed in his analysis of the cultural norms of the colonized. This concept elucidates how colonial discourse surreptitiously permeates the cultural norms of the colonized and how the hybridized norms function as a site of authority shaping the responses of the colonized to colonial power. An applied exploration of this notion will corroborate that the author of 2 Maccabees was likely to be unaware of the hybrid nature of his Ioudaismos and that for this reason the author was able to critique the kings and officials of the Seleucid Empire with a sense of cultural purity and superiority. In order to assess the hybridity of the author’s cultural norms, the author’s concepts of civility and barbarism will be examined with reference to the occurrences of the terms barbaros, blasphemos, asebes, and their cognate words in the book. [286 words]


Journeying through Heaven, Hail, and Hell with Jimmy Hendrix and Hollywood: Engaging Students in Apocalyptic Texts with Music and Movies
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Renate Hood, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

Apocalyptic texts employ visual language. Typically, a celestial character discloses a transcendent reality to a human recipient while subjected to otherworldly journeys. Grasping the nature of the apocalyptic elements while identifying key characters, events, and plot movement proves difficult for students who are generally unfamiliar with the genre. Connecting visual imagery with forms of musical or cinematographic expressions enables students to analyze the text and follow the flow of the narrative. In this presentation, I will give examples from my classroom of students using sequences of music pieces and music videos, and line-ups of movie clips to express responses that apocalyptic scenes evoke. Audience participation in this session will consist of a brief discussion time and an opportunity to use visual and auditory media samples to engage select scenes from the Apocalypse of John.


“Either a Forgery or a Damn Fine Original”: Cyprianus plebi Cartagini and the Origins of Donatism
Program Unit: Contextualizing North African Christianity
Jesse Hoover, Baylor University

In his anti-Donatist writings, Augustine sometimes insinuates that parts of the Cyprianic corpus – in particular, those most problematic for the Caecilianist position – may in fact have been forged by his opponents. One such alleged example was identified in 1899 by Giovanni Mercati: the letter Cyprianus plebi Cartagini, contained in a single manuscript (Codex Parisinus 1658). Cyprianus plebi Cartagini was clearly not written by the third century bishop and martyr; and as it was primarily concerned with setting out rules for dealing with traditores, Mercati deemed it a Donatist fabrication, and a poor one at that. Mercati’s identification proved influential: the letter has been deemed pseudo-Cyprianic ever since. In this presentation, I will offer a translation of this short letter and a new interpretation of its provenance. My argument is that Cyprianus plebi Cartagini is not in fact a Donatist forgery, but rather a long-lost witness to the origins of the Donatist controversy. Its attachment to Cyprian, I believe, is evidence of medieval misattribution rather than intentional fakery. By reclaiming this letter, we may be able to add one more Donatist primary source to our rather limited collection, one which likely dates to the beginnings of the schism.


W.H.C. Frend on Jewish Martyrdom and Persecution?
Program Unit: Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
William Horbury, University of Cambridge

A striking feature of Frend's work on 'martyrdom and persecution in the early church' (to quote the title of his 1965 book on the subject) was what might be called, from a traditional ecclesiastical standpoint, his view from the margins; he gave what was at the time unaccustomed prominence to 'heretical' as well as 'orthodox' suffering and persecution, and, again in an unusual way, he set all these aspects of early church history within the history of Jewish martyrdom and persecution. This broad scope was highlighted in the last words of his subtitle: 'from the Maccabees to Donatus.' Yet the attempt to sketch Jewish martyrdom and persecution in relation to early Christianity attracted some of the sharpest criticism levelled at his work. In this paper his approach is reconsidered against the background of trends in study when he wrote, and subsequent treatments of early Christianity in the setting of Jewish history.


Teaching Biblical Art Using an Art Historical Method: Take What You Want
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Heidi Hornik, Baylor University

Panel presentation on the theme: Teaching the Bible and the Arts in the Undergraduate Classroom


Historical Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew: Observations from the Perspective of 4QReworked Pentateuch
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Aaron D. Hornkohl, University of Cambridge

In their 2014 monograph, Historical Linguistics & Biblical Hebrew: Steps Towards an Integrated Approach, Robert Rezetko and Ian Young articulate a thoroughgoing critique of the accepted historical linguistic approach to ancient Hebrew, criticizing Hebraists for (a) a failure to take seriously the problematic textual nature of the extant sources; (b) routinely privileging the medieval Tiberian Masoretic evidence over other, often earlier sources thereof; and (c) relying on statistics reflecting groups of books rather than individual compositions. Among other things, they propose the use of cross-textual variable analysis, according to which multiple versions of an individual composition are compared linguistically. Based on such an examination of MT Samuel vis-à-vis the relevant DSS manuscripts they conclude that “biblical manuscripts are reliable as evidence for the basic and common linguistic forms of ancient Hebrew, because these are quite stable in the textual witnesses, but do not provide evidence of the distribution of less common linguistic items in the biblical writings, because these were highly fluid during the editing and copying of the writings” (406–7). They then ambitiously declare: “[t]his conclusion undermines much of the work that has been done on the history of ancient Hebrew” (407). Their study of MT and DSS Samuel, with its detailed application of potentially fruitful methodologies to the analysis of ancient Hebrew corpora, constitutes a valuable contribution to the field of Hebrew historical linguistics. It seems premature, however, to construe their results as necessitating the radical shift in our understanding of Hebrew linguistic history that they propose. Critically, it is questionable whether the characterization of the linguistic relationship between MT Samuel and the book’s DSS manuscripts (like the one previously explored by Kutscher between MT Isaiah and 1QIsa a) should be taken as generally representative of the relationships between Masoretic and DSS versions of biblical compositions. On the basis of a comparison of the biblical material found in 4QReworked Pentateuch a–e (4Q158, 364–367) and parallel MT passages (with reference to other pertinent DSS manuscripts and the Samaritan Pentateuch), the current study presents the results of a cross-textual variable analysis of a not insignificant cross-section of the Torah, presenting clear evidence of non-coincidental distributional patterns of diachronically meaningful linguistic features against the background of more general linguistic stability. Crucially, when versions of biblical passages differ with regard to diachronically significant features, it is most frequently the later Masoretic version that preserves the classical features, the DSS versions the characteristically post-exilic alternants. Though these results may or may not typify the relationships between the respective versions of other MT and DSS biblical texts, they call into question the extreme pessimism often voiced concerning the feasibility of obtaining reliable results in the face of the transmitted nature of the sources in historical linguistic studies of ancient Hebrew. Arguably, they also demonstrate the relative reliability of the Masoretic versions of biblical texts as linguistic artifacts that reliably preserve both the general contours of First- and Second-Temple Hebrew as well as much in the way of linguistic detail.


The Slender Man: A Trans Hermeneutic of the Apocalypse
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Teresa J. Hornsby, Drury University

In 2009 The Slender Man was born on the internet. This monster has become a paranormal terror that exists in the shadows, stalks children, and appears in dreams before victims disappear. His origins are ambiguous; he is faceless and nameless. His construction has been the result of thousands of online users creating fake documentary footage, photos, news items, etc. I argue here that The Slender Man is the product of a new apocalyptic fear, and the manifestation, as all monsters are, of our social anxieties; it is a vestige of Kristeva’s abject: the horror of the real. Kristeva’s abjection is that which cannot be subsumed into order; it cannot be categorized for structure and security. But this is the essence of our postmodern horror: our “realities” are contingent upon an imaginary, dualist paradigm that depends upon a two-(and only two) gendered system; it is upon that imagined dualism that all order stands. To break the imaginary two-gender paradigm is to destroy the foundation of all order. The second century horror, John’s Apocalypse, expresses - violently, grotesquely - the very real terror of that time and that place: a dissolution of boundaries and their subsumption into an evil system. Their resolution is found, partly, in ambiguous sexuality and trans bodies, i.e., a seepage of the abject into the fantasy (a la Pippin), yet this horror ends in genocide because the narrative refuses the reality of ambiguous bodies and clings to the fiction of gendered duality. I will suggest that the 21st century horror, The Slender Man, similarly appears as a product of apocalyptic terror and an expression of instability, yet there is something new here. The Slender Man represents a very “real” monster that exists among us; as a personification of the neo-liberal capitalist, it has sponsored genocide, the destruction of whole civilizations, and the slavery of millions. Horrific indeed. What I propose here is that the production and reception of The Slender Man are signs of hope. As opposed to John’s Apocalypse, The Slender Man’s mythos thrives upon ambiguity (not dualism), yet the evil emanates not from its ambiguity and dynamism, but from a familiar (and actual) source of fear: a faceless white man in a business suit. The hope here is that there seems to be an ideological shift away from placing all of our terrors upon ambiguous bodies, i.e., those who visibly defy precise, yet imaginary categories, such as “male” and “female,” or “us” and “other.” The Slender Man narrative maintains the ambiguity and refuses to collapse back into the binary construct. I undertake here a “trans hermeneutic” of this new apocalypse, the tale of the Slender Man. The exegesis will 1) identify the threat of the old apocalypse (hierarchical dualism) that ultimately brings about genocide; 2) explore the ways in which the trans body’s apocalyptic representations simultaneously threaten and redeem; and 3) the means by which we thrive: the demise of the constructed, two-gendered hierarchy.


The Moral Vision of the Bible: A New Testament Approach
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
David G. Horrell, University of Exeter

This presentation will offer some methodological reflections on approaches to NT Ethics, assessing what kinds of perspectives are possible, how these might be similar and different for NT texts as opposed to those from the OT/Hebrew Bible, and how the approach taken depends on the kinds of questions we are interested in asking and the agenda and location of our inquiry. The publication of a new edition of my work on Pauline ethics, Solidarity and Difference, provides a point of reference for these reflections, which will therefore probe the rationale for the particular approach taken in this work, including the role of the OT/Hebrew Bible in relation to the NT, as well as considering what alternative approaches might have been possible.


Class Conflict: What the Gospels Are All About
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Richard Horsley, University of Massachusetts Boston

*


Seeing Double: John’s Gospel and the Women of Mark and Matthew
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Natalie K. Houghtby-Haddon, George Washington University

Should the label “synoptic” only be applied to Matthew, Mark, and Luke? Or might the author of the Gospel of John also know Mark and Matthew’s gospels, at least in part? This paper argues that John’s author did know Mark and Matthew, by tracing the editorial trajectories of two stories: Jesus’ encounter with a foreign woman (Mk 7:24-30//Mt 15:21-28//Jn 4:4-42), and the woman who anoints Jesus (Mk 14:3-9//Mt 26:6-13//Jn 12:1-8). Using a mix of rhetorical and literary analyses, and applying a model of the social imagination, the paper examines how John follows in the footsteps of Matthew by adapting these stories for his own purpose to tell his audience something about who Jesus is, and something about what the community which gathers in his name is like. Comparisons to relevant passages in Luke’s gospel (e.g., Lk 13:10-17; Luke 7:36-50) are also made to show how these women stories are used to imagine new social identities for the communities of Jesus.


A Miscarried Messiah: The Lukan Jesus as a Source for Liturgy when Coping with Miscarriage
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Melanie A. Howard, Princeton Theological Seminary

The pain of miscarriage is often a private pain. Parents who have suffered from a miscarriage may choose not to reveal this experience to others, and as this silence is perpetuated, the trauma of the experience itself can be exacerbated by a lack of its acknowledgement. Parents grieving a miscarriage may need an invitation to bring this pain to light. As a means of encouraging grieving parents to cope with this struggle, this paper suggests that the Gospel of Luke, especially in its presentation of Jesus as a rejected Messiah, can be used as a resource for constructing worship experiences and for creating liturgy that can benefit the healing process of parents who have experienced miscarriage. The paper proceeds in four steps. First, it recognizes and affirms the acknowledgement of scholars (cf. Robert Tannehill and Jocelyn McWhirter) that the Gospel of Luke presents Jesus as a rejected Messiah. Second, the paper considers how understanding Jesus as a rejected Messiah may impact a reading of his blessing of the barren wombs in Luke 23:29. Complementing this examination of Jesus’ blessing of the barren, an exploration of Luke’s use of the term “brephos” (unborn child or infant) in 18:15 suggests that the Lukan Jesus may be envisioned as a figure who invites both infants and unborn children, including the miscarried, to inherit the Kingdom of God. Third, the paper suggests ways in which the Lukan Jesus may be claimed as a figure of consolation for parents who have miscarried by viewing him as a rejected Messiah, an individual who welcomes the “brephe,” and the one who blesses the barren. Finally, the paper offers suggestions for how churches might compose and incorporate liturgy that would invite parents who have miscarried to identify the Lukan Jesus as a figure of hope within their circumstances.


The Bible and Art: Teaching an Undergraduate Honors Seminar
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
David Howell, Ferrum College

Panel presentation on the theme "Teaching the Bible and the Arts in the Undergraduate Classroom."


Naaman the Syrian and Ethnic Perspective in Luke-Acts
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
Justin R. Howell, University of Chicago

The speech in which the Lukan Jesus inaugurates his ministry ends in the words “Naaman the Syrian” (Luke 4.27). A comparison between 4 Kgdms 5.1-27 and Luke 4.27-28 shows that where Naaman in 4 Kgdms “became angry and went away” (5.11) and then “went away in anger” (5.12), in Luke “all in the synagogue were filled with anger” (4.28) when Jesus concludes his speech. In this first instance of Jewish opposition toward Jesus, the author appears to have transferred any negative qualities about Naaman onto those in the synagogue. Can we assume an ethnic distinction between Suros and Ioudaios? The fact that Jesus qualifies Naaman as “the Syrian” would suggest that we can. Yet, even within Luke 4.16-30, it is difficult to determine whether the emphasis is placed upon geography or ethnicity; for there is a geographical element within this scene (4.16, 23-24, 25-26). It is notable that Jesus says nothing about Elisha going to Syria, which does correspond to the account in the LXX where Naaman is healed of his leprosy in Israel (4 Kgdms 5.8-14). It therefore appears that the geographical contrasts in Luke 4.16-30 point also to ethnic distinctions between Jews and non-Jews. When non-Jewish authors use the terms Suroi and Ioudaioi, the usages often refer to persons from Syria and Judea, respectively, and not necessarily persons who identify with a particular race. Even Jewish authors, such as Josephus, can use the terms to designate Syrians and Judeans. Josephus does, however, indicate that Ioudaioi can inhabit Syria; but those Ioudaioi would seemingly not then be regarded as Suroi, even if they are “in Syria.” It appears also that to call persons Suroi is not merely to designate their provincial locale, but also to identify their “race.” And the same can be said about those who belong to the “race” of Ioudaioi. Can we identify the ethnic perspective of Luke and his intended readers? Throughout Luke-Acts, do the references to “Jews” (Ioudaioi), on the one hand, and to “Gentiles” (ethne), on the other, in either case imply that the group is ethnically different from the perspective of the author? An evaluation of the term ethne throughout Luke-Acts shows that only Jewish characters apply this term. The narrator in Acts also uses the term frequently. Is it significant that no Gentile character within Luke-Acts uses the term ethne? As a designation for non-Jews, ethne usually assumes a Jewish perspective. In attempting to identify the ethnic perspective of the author and his intended readers, it may be telling that the narrator of Acts refers to non-Jews as ethne. This evidence suggests that the author of Luke-Acts writes from a Jewish perspective, likely to an audience of Jewish Christians and God-fearers. In the synagogue of Nazareth, the controversy that erupts over the mention of “Naaman the Syrian” may point to disputes about how Gentiles were to be incorporated into the Jewish-Christian religious communities.


Reading the Parable of the Wise Slave (Q 12:42–46) against the Background of Agricultural Slavery in Antiquity
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Llewellyn Howes, University of Johannesburg

Last year, I presented a paper on “a day in the life of an ancient farm worker.” This year, I would like to continue down the same dirt road by presenting a paper on the same general topic as part of the second project of this program unit. The paper will look at a parable of Jesus that deals specifically with agricultural slaves in the ancient world. The parable of the wise slave is attributed to the Sayings Gospel Q by most New Testament scholars, appearing in both Matthew 24:45-51 and Luke 12:42-46 (e.g. Dodd 1958:158; Luz 2005:221). The parable assumes specific knowledge of the ancient institution of agricultural slavery on the part of its audience. Yet, biblical scholars and exegetes typically ignore the contextual background of agricultural slavery when interpreting this parable. This happens despite the insistent warnings by parable scholars that individual parables should first be understood on their literal levels of meaning, before any attempts are made to jump to their metaphorical levels of meaning (e.g. Crossan 1974:86-87; Van Eck 2015:5-9). The current intent is not to unearth the metaphorical message of the parable, but rather to contribute to our understanding of the parable on its literal level by taking its contextual references seriously. The examination draws upon papyrical (Roman Egypt) and classical (Jewish, Greek, Roman) sources.


Food for Thought: Reading Q 12:42–44 as Part of the Formative Stratum
Program Unit: Q
Llewellyn Howes, University of Johannesburg

On the level of the main redaction (or Kloppenborg’s Q2), the parable of the wise slave (Q 12:42-46) is undoubtedly about the unexpected return of Jesus and/or the Son of Man at the parousia. Yet, it is my estimation that verses 42-44 originally belonged to the formative stratum (or Kloppenborg’s Q1) as a parable in its own right, to which verses 45-46 were added by the main redactor. If so, Q 12:42-44 needs to be interpreted without the contaminating influence of subsequent redactional additions to reveal its original message at the level of the formative stratum. Such an interpretation reveals a wholly different message, surprisingly congruent with not only the remainder of the formative stratum, but also the socio-economic and politico-religious situation of first-century Galilee.


Pondering Micah’s Structure: A Syntactical Discourse Approach to Micah’s Problems
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
JoAnna Hoyt, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

The lack of agreement on Micah’s structure is well documented. Scholars are often divided on the division between oracles and even the purposes of the oracles. In an effort to solve Micah’s structural riddles, this paper analyzes Micah based on discourse types. Building on Longacre’s approach to discourse analysis, this study employs an analysis of discourse types founded upon the underlying syntax and utilizes Cook’s aspect-prominent approach to the verbal system. Such an approach to the prophetic discourse types brings a new perspective to the structure of Micah. For example, Micah 1:10-16 is largely considered a woe oracle and the wordplays on cities’ names are alternatively seen as either the route of Sennacherib’s attack on Judah, or as simply a literary device to express general lament over their situation. Yet, a syntactical discourse approach to the passage reveals that the structure does not fit a woe oracle, but rather fits the structure of a covenant lawsuit and presents a crescendo-ing list of judgments against the nation of Judah. In a similar way a discourse analysis of the hope (salvation) oracles in Micah 4-5 reveals a chiasm built on discourse structure. While others have proposed chiasms for these two chapters, this syntactical discourse approach to the chiasm provides improvements to previous proposals and offers new insights, such as the integration of elements of hortatory discourse at the pinnacle of the chiasm.


Making Men in Revelation 2–3: Reading the Seven Messages in the Bath-Gymnasium of Asia Minor
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Lynn R. Huber, Elon University

Modern scholars of Revelation often note the specificity of chapters 2 and 3, which consist of seven messages written to assemblies situated within the urban centers of Asia Minor. The seemingly “concrete” nature of these messages prompt scholars to look for connections between them and the material world of the assemblies that are addressed. In some cases these connections are historically problematic and more often than not fail to shed light on how these chapters function rhetorically and within the overall narrative. Drawing upon those who call for a more methodologically sophisticated understanding of Revelation’s relation to material culture, including Steven Friesen and Craig Koester, and scholarship on gender and archeology, in this paper I read chapters 2 and 3 in relation to the bath-gymnasium complexes of Asia Minor. This approach is suggested by the messages themselves, which include rhetorical elements that resonate within the culture of the bath-gymnasium, such as references to “the victor," promises of reward and the theme of endurance. The bath-gymnasium was a significant part of the social fabric of the Greek East, as Zahra Newby, Onno van Nijf and Fikret Yegül all demonstrate, serving as one of the primary ways that elite male identity was constructed. In particular, these structures, which combined the Roman bath with the Greek palaestra, offered young men the space and opportunity to cultivate masculine virtue, accrue social status and demonstrate civic loyalty. Reading Revelation 2-3 in the long shadow cast by the bath-gymnasium in Asia Minor, I argue that these messages should be read as part of Revelation’s formation of masculine group identity. In this way, attention to the material culture of Asia Minor suggests adjusting how we, Revelation’s interpreters, read these specific chapters in relation to the narrative as a whole and to the gendered discourses of the dominant culture.


The Iconography of Divine Empowerment and the Israelite King
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Henry M. Huberty, Emory University

A number of biblical texts witness a complex interplay between human agency and divine empowerment. In Psalm 18, for example, the locus of agency shifts dramatically between Yahweh’s action and that of the human king. At one point in the psalm, the king is powerless and must be rescued by the divine warrior. At another point, the king singlehandedly puts entire armies to flight. Clearly, Yahweh plays a crucial role in the king’s eventual success, but the grammar of divine empowerment in this psalm also reflects deep tensions about the king’s strength vis-à-vis that of the deity. The complexity of the relationship between human and divine power also appears in iconographic depictions of the king in the Ancient Near East. For example, numerous Egyptian sources depict the pharaoh victorious in battle. In virtually all of these images, the presence of a deity (or deities) undergirds a notion of divine empowerment. Yet, the different constellations of royal and divine images variously highlight or downplay the role of the deity in the king’s victory. Like the royal psalms, such iconographic representations were part of a sophisticated program of royal self-representation and display. They communicated the king’s glory and inculcated obedience in those who encountered the divinely empowered king. This paper explores the various modes of representing divine empowerment of the king in ancient Near Eastern art and biblical texts. Comparing pictorial and textual representations of divine empowerment reveals several distinct ways of answering the fundamental question of how divine favor inflects or determines human action.


Translating the Sacred
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Charles Huff, University of Chicago

The meaning of Q-D-SH in Biblical Hebrew, a debated subject, cannot be fully studied apart from its translation in ancient and modern languages. The work of Sherry Simon, Susan Bassnett, and other translation theorists who argue that translation undermines the binary opposition between original and translation helps clarify that what Q-D-SH means in modern scholarly imagination is tied up in what ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’ mean in English or what "heilig" means in German, etc., which is in turn tied up in the LXX’s "hagios" and the Vulgate’s "sanctus". Scholars are also grappling with definitions of the sacred/profane in religious theory, which often in turn rely on etymological arguments. With the premise that contact zones are multivalent, this paper will give a brief cultural history of the translation of Q-D-SH, showing its implications for theorists from Philo to Otto, and will then show how some contemporary scholarly treatments of Q-D-SH reflect and inform broader cultural and scholarly milieus.


Revolutionary Sacred Architecture: Akhenaten’s Sun Temples and Israel’s Tent
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Herbert B. Huffmon, Drew University

With revolutionary theology one anticipates revolutionary concepts of sacred space, and this expectation is realized in the sun temples built under Akhenaten (ca. 1348-1331 BCE) and in the concept and design of early Israel’s portable shrine, the tent/tabernacle, supposedly dating back to the 13th century. The basic concepts for these constructions are quite different, and the contrast with the standard sacred architecture of the latter part of the Second Millennium BCE is quite striking. What is similar is the independent attempt to give architectural expression to the revolutionary theologies in question. For the architecture of Akhenaten there is considerable archaeological evidence, but for the Israelite tabernacle there is only chronologically and conceptually elusive information in the Biblical tradition, with few parallels. A key statement is Nathan’s response to David in 2 Sam 7:5-7, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Is it you who would build a house for me as my residence? I have not resided in a house since the time I brought up the Bene-Yisrael from Egypt until the present. I have been going about in a tent and a tabernacle.’” God adds a comment about never having requested of any of those to whom he had entrusted the shepherding of his people, Israel, “Why have you all not built me a cedar house?” And the “Short Hymn to the Aten,” as an example, affirms of the Aten, “Your rays light up all faces, your bright hue gives life to hearts, when you fill the Two Lands with your love……When you dawn their eyes observe you, As your rays light the whole earth; Every heart acclaims your sight.” Israel’s tent/tabernacle and Akhenaten’s temples in Akhet-Aten reflect these respective theologies, departing from contemporary standards for religious architecture. With changes in theology, Akhenaten’s temples soon emptied and the tent became a “cedar” house.


Ecclesia contemplativa: On the Relationship between the Mystical and Eschatological in St. Bonaventure’s Anagogia
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Kevin L. Hughes, Villanova University

This paper will begin from Henri de Lubac’s assertion that the separation of the eschatological from the mystical senses of anagogia in the later Middle Ages is a key solvent in the dissolution of the coherence of the “fourfold sense.” As the “senses of Scripture” achieved finer formal distinction from each other in monastic and scholastic theology, and under the pressure of various Franciscan Joachimist eschatologies, Saint Bonaventure aims to reintegrate these two dimensions of anagogy in new ways. My paper will explore the ways in which he does this and will consider how successful his efforts were.


The Eschatology of Barnabas: Transforming Biblical Apocalyptic
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Kyle R. Hughes, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

The Epistle of Barnabas provides one of the earliest examples of Christian reception of biblical apocalyptic material. Though scholarly debate about the eschatology of Barnabas has focused on Barn. 15, this paper suggests that there are clues within the document’s epistolary frame that have the potential to resolve the puzzle concerning how the author of Barnabas wishes us to understand the eschatological views of the traditional material preserved in Barn. 15. In particular, this paper analyzes the use of “Spirit-language” in chapters 1 and 21 in order to shed light on how the author of Barnabas is alluding to apocalyptic texts such as Joel 3 and Revelation 20 to make his claim. This paper argues that the author of Barnabas, as is consistent with the larger purposes of his work, is concerned to transform the Jewish conception of an earthly millennium into a distinctively Christian eschatology. Comparisons with how biblical apocalyptic material is used in the contemporaneous document 2 Clement, which appears to share some eschatological ideas with Barnabas, are then analyzed in order to support this thesis. In so doing, this paper provides a window into not only the development of early Christian eschatology but also the second-century interpretation of biblical apocalyptic material.


Making Able the Disabled Christ: Reverse Kalokagathia in Phil 1:20–2:13 in Light of Disability Studies
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Douglas A. Hume, Pfeiffer University

This paper performs a narrative ethical reading of Philippians 1:20–2:13 in discussion with contemporary issues associated with disabilities and disability studies. The central argument of the paper is that when Paul claims that “Christ emptied himself and took on the form (µ??f??) of the slave, being born (?e??µe???) in the likeness of a human being” (2:7), Paul is engaging in a reversal of Greco-Roman concepts of physiognomy and kalokagathia, wherein slave’s bodies and interior dispositions were thought to represent alteriority in a discourse centered on the perfected bodies and virtues of the free aristocratic Greco-Roman male. Through a narrative ethical reading of the Philippians 1:20–2:13, the paper will place the narratives that undergird Paul’s letter to the Philippians in discussion with contemporary issues related to disability. Building upon studies that correlate Paul’s concepts of slavery and crucifixion with ancient figurations of disability (physiognomy), this paper will draw conclusions about how and why Paul is engaging in reverse kalokagathia, with an eye towards contributing to interpretative discussions in contemporary disability studies. Methodologically, narrative ethics proceeds through an examination of the text on three levels: the narrative analytical, representational, and hermeneutical. The first level, the narrative analytical level, will examine the story behind the letter (Paul’s reasons for writing the letter) as well as the meta-story portrayed within the letter (the Christ hymn in 2:6–11). The second level of examination, the representational, will explore the Greco-Roman philosophical and ethical concepts Paul is using in order to represent both narratives, his story with the Philippians, and the kenotic/exalted movement of the Christ story. It has been commonly accepted that Paul is engaging in the Greco-Roman ethical discourse on friendship to describe the relationship he has with the Philippians. In describing the story of Christ’s kenosis and exaltation, Paul is using the Greco-Roman friendship trope to encourage the Philippians to emulate Christ in their relationship with Paul and with one another. It is at this point that the paper will explore the representations of physiognomy and reverse kalokagathia assumed by Paul in the Christ hymn. Paul’s conclusion in 2:13 will be reinterpreted in this light. Just as God exalted Christ (2:9) who willingly took on the form of the slave, being born as a human being—hence taking on disability (2:7), so also God becomes the one who “makes able” (??e????) the Philippians to “make able” (??e??e??) one another (2:13). The hermeneutical analysis of this paper will put Paul’s narrative into discussion with a contemporary discussion of disability, particularly that of the work of Jean Vanier, the founder of the international L’Arche movement, a movement that has established intentional Christian communities of people with disabilities. The paper will place Vanier’s theological conception of friendship, particularly as it relates to the formation of communities of people of diverse abilities, in dialogue with Paul’s understanding of friendship, community, and reverse kalokagathia in Philippians.


Checking the Demon and Saying What’s to Be Said
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Edith M. Humphrey, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Narrative can be used as a powerful vehicle for the communication of the difficult and the mysterious; it can also be an objet d’art, a “joy forever.” The work of C. S. Lewis is a stunning example of writing that meets Keat’s criterion for beauty, even while it engages controverted areas of thought. We will consider two of Lewis’s most difficult and evocative works, Till We Have Face and The Great Divorce, demonstrating both the aptness of his fictive worlds for reflecting upon atonement and judgment, and the astonishing creativity of these pieces. To use Lewis’s own description of fiction, such writing can both “check the demon” of compulsive explanation, and say in the best way “what’s to be said” concerning significant and debated matters. With this dual focus, it neither devolves into pedestrian dogmatics nor abandons meaning for bare aesthetics.


Addressing an Immaterial Problem in a Material World: Damage Control in Priestly and Other Ritual Systems
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Michael Hundley, Syracuse University

*


Pilate: Am I a Jew?
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Laura J. Hunt, Prifysgol Cymru, Y Drindod Dewi Sant - University of Wales, Trinity Saint David

Pilate: Am I a Jew?


Mounted Riders in Ancient Ammon: A Reappraisal
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Regine Hunziker-Rodewald, Université de Strasbourg

In contrast to the more than 400 Iron Age II female terracotta figurines found all over Jordan, only a few male terracotta figurines have been recovered. Some of them represent mounted riders whose distinctive figurative marks (conical helmet, painted features, horses’ head-dress) represents a local adaptation of the characteristic outfit of Assyrian horsemen. The Jordanian riders all come from tombs around the citadel of Rabbat Ammon or from the citadel itself. The striking resemblance of the riders’ facial structures (model-made, red slip, painting) to female heads as well as the isolated terracotta drums (red slip, painting) that have been found in the same tomb close to the citadel of Rabbat Ammon indicates the reciprocal relation of the riders and the female drummers. Recently a new rider of the same typology has surfaced in Amman. The presentation of this artifact will be completed by a cross-cultural comparison with horsemen represented on Assyrian reliefs, attested west of the River Jordan and also mentioned in biblical texts. (This paper contains preliminary results of a research project in collaboration with Romel Gharib, Amman.)


Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Ulrich Huttner, University of Siegen

In Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley, Ulrich Huttner explores the way Christians established communities and defined their position within their surroundings from the first to the fifth centuries. He shows that since the time of Paul the apostle, the cities Colossae, Hierapolis and Laodicea allowed Christians to expand and develop in their own way. Huttner uses a wide variety of sources, not only Christian texts - from Pauline letters to Byzantine hagiographies - but also inscriptions and archeological remains, to reconstruct the religious conflicts as well as cooperation between Christians, Jews and Pagans. The book reveals the importance of local conditions in the development of Early Christianity


Tracking Optimality in Translation at Tell Fekheriyeh
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Jeremy M. Hutton, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This paper proposes a methodology for describing, explaining, and tracking the linguistic and non-linguistic shifts that occurred in ancient translations. I proceed from a standpoint informed by Descriptive Translation Studies [DTS], which is exemplified by theorists such as Gideon Toury, Andrew Chesterman, Kitty van Leuven-Zwart, and others. After briefly surveying pertinent theoretical points bearing on translations, I summarize the principles and methods of Optimality Theory [OT], as manifested in the works of Alan Prince, Paul Smolensky, and John J. McCarthy, for example. Using data drawn from the Akkadian-Aramaic bilingual discovered at Tell Fekheriyeh, and interacting with previous discussion of the texts, I demonstrate that the combined theoretical and methodological model provided by DTS and OT allows us to identify, describe, evaluate, and organize the norms constraining ancient translators. We may use the notational system resulting from this theoretical exercise to capture regularities and anomalies in ancient translations, outlining their respective ‘grammars.’


Textual Data for the Study of Religion in the Transjordanian Kingdoms
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Jeremy M. Hutton, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Drawing from my earlier work on religious traditions in Transjordan during the Iron Age IIB, I survey briefly a few of the ‘microreligions’ that have left epigraphic and/or archaeological residue in modern-day Jordan. I focus first on interpretive issues such as religious enclaves vs. religious patchwork patterns; to a large extent, this distinction may have to do with the scope of investigation, and not with the facts on the ground. I then move to examination of four instances of textual-archaeological intersection: (1) the Deir ‘Alla text and some short Ammonite onomastic inscriptions provide some evidence for the distinctness of El-worship from YHWH-worship in the Zarqa River basin and environs; (2) the Mesha stela provides extra-biblical evidence for the institution of the herem—and specifically for its application in cases of so-called “holy war”; (3) Mesha’s application of the herem against Nebo is suggestive of larger correlations between biblical texts concerning the ‘Levites’ and the archaeological situation obtaining in Transjordan; and (4) I propose an interpretation of some archaeological data from Kh. Mudayna, recently investigated by J. H. Boertian (in FS Steiner), which intersect with textual descriptions of certain rituals carried out by cultic specialists in the biblical text. These four snapshots of ‘microreligions’ in Transjordan allow some corroboration of social and religious institutions known from the biblical text, but also introduce reminders that, as Margreet Steiner has elegantly stated, “The situation is more complicated” (Van Bekkum, FS Steiner).


The Distinct Literary Profile of P’s Abraham Narrative
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Juerg Hutzli, Université de Lausanne

In the section Gen 11:27-25:9 the P-stratum forms a continuous narrative thread which is framed by the notice of Abraham’s birth and that of his death and his burial. It focuses on Abraham and his development to a “father of a multitude of nations” (cf. the promise of Gen 17). The genealogies of Ishmael, Esau and Jacob (all P)---which are, in the present arrangement of Genesis, partly separated from the Abraham narrative---nicely illustrate the fulfillment of the promise addressed to Abraham. In the narrative sections concerning Jacob, Esau and Joseph P has a different literary profile; it is very fragmentary: It neither contains an account about Jacob’s and Esau’s births nor a report about Jacob’s stay in Paddan-aram. At the same time the few P texts clearly presuppose the non-P accounts relating to those themes and respond to them (cf. Blum). Also in the section of the Joseph story only short and isolated P-texts occur which are again dependent on the non-P narrative thread (Joseph story). With regards to its uninterrupted continuity the Abraham narrative clearly stands out of all other sections of P’s ancestral narrative. This observation may lead to the assumption that the P stratum in Gen 11:27-25:9 (with the completing genealogies) originally formed an autonomous, self contained narrative (a proto Priestly Abraham narrative). What lends further support to this suggestion are several striking linguistic and theological features which are characteristic for P’s Abraham narrative but are absent from the following P-sections.


The Message of Qoheleth and Pentecostal-Charismatic Spirituality
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
David Hymes, Northwest University (Washington)

The Message of Qoheleth and Pentecostal-Charismatic Spirituality


Job the Disabled: Disability and Welfare in the Book of Job
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
S. Timothy Hyun, Faith Evangelical College & Seminary

References to the body in the book of Job have recently received some noteworthy attention. No one can deny that body images are prevalent throughout the book and play a significant role. It is not difficult for readers to perceive Job’s body in the book of Job. Interestingly, however, readers tend not to notice Job has different bodies in the prologue, the poems, and the epilogue as they seem to have been hidden. This paper rereads Job’s bodies through the lens of Bakhtin’s dialogism with Scarry’s study on the body and Schipper’s and Claassens’ studies on disability. Bakhtin’s dialogism, Scarry’s study on the body, and Schipper’s study on disability lead readers of the book to a new reading of each voice’s unique portrayal of Job’s physical condition. This new reading displays a development from Job’s sound/perfect body in the prologue to his injured body in the poems to his disabled body in the epilogue. The portrayal also reflects the notion that Job’s experience of the movement from his perfect body to his injured body to his disabled body is a social and cultural model/experience of disability rather than a medical model/experience of disability. Finally, through the lens of Claassens’ study on disability, readers perceive that the book of Job moves towards welfare for Job’s disabled body. Specifically, the prologue (Job 1-2) clearly displays Job’s perfect body being used as that of a priest and as that of a sacrificial animal, both of which are required to be blameless. The poetic section (Job 3-26) reflects Job’s injured body; injured as the result of war or through the image of warfare between Job and his friends and between Job and God. The epilogue (Job 42) portrays Job as a disabled man who accepts welfare in his society.


Hospitality for Legion: A Disability Interpretation of Mark 5:1–20
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Mary Jo Iozzio, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

The Gerasene Demoniac may be experiencing post traumatic stress from an encounter with Roman-occupying forces or not; my point is not to look so much to the cause of possession of this Gerasene by Legion but to consider the community's distance from him over the hospitality he receives with the Jesus encounter. The Gerasene presents at least three conditions, each traumatizing and disabling in their own ways: the first is isolation; the second is emotional/psychological/psychiatric distress; and the third is internalized oppression/self loathing. To unpack a disability interpretation of Mark 5:1-20 that points to liberation through hospitality, I examine the stigma associated with PTSD and mental disability, the social construction and medical models of mental disabilities, and from psychology studies reports of self suspicion by people with mental disabilities and/or PTSD. This and other scriptural passages that report healing miracles continue to vex people with disabilities, their caregivers, and their advocates in terms of the continuing presence of disabling conditions. These texts need to be redeemed from the suggestions of unworthiness or some other failure on the part of the person with disabilities or an associate so as to raise calls for justice to undo the artificial yet palpably real violence imposed on pwd who are not "healed" and to extend the welcoming hospitality and internally reconciling peace that Jesus gave.


“It Is Shameful Even to Mention What Such People Do Secretly” (Eph 12:5): The Function of Secrecy in Epiphanius’ Depiction of the Nicolaitans and the Gnostics
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Eduard Iricinschi, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Epiphanius’s Panarion 25 and 26 presents two heretical groups, the Nicolaitans and the Gnostics. Epiphanius sees them as intimately related to each other. He also describes them as being intensely preoccupied with knowledge provided through revelations, with elaborate mythologies, with biblical interpretation, and with writing most of these in what he regards as forged books. In Panarion 25-26, Epiphanius will attempt to falsify the above claims to special knowledge, the access to private revelations, and ownership of religious books by employing some strong rhetorical devices of heresiology. I argue in this paper that, in Epiphanius’ text, the accusations of ritual secrecy and of production of secret books aim to create heresiological “doubles,” or simulacra, of the rituals, hermeneutics, and sacred books of the groups he labels as “heretical,” with the clear purpose of delegitimizing their religious claims. Epiphanius accuses the the Nicolaitans and the Gnostics of producing fake secret religious books and of lending them authority through revelations from heavenly figures with the purpose of inventing mythologies and religious illusions.


Israel’s Justification in Greek Isaiah and Paul’s Doctrine of Justification in Romans
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Charles Lee Irons, Charles R. Drew University

It is well known that Paul made significant use of Isaiah in his Epistle to the Romans. Depending on the criteria, there are about 21 marked or unmarked quotations of Isaiah in Romans. Several major monographs have explored Paul’s use of Isaiah in Romans in depth, especially those by Florian Wilk and J. Ross Wagner. Wagner especially has shown that Paul’s use of Isaiah is particularly based on Greek Isaiah. While there are a number of Isaianic themes of importance to Paul (e.g., the language of “good news,” the inclusion of the Gentiles), my interest in this paper is the theme of Israel’s justification. “Righteousness” words (dikaiosyne, dikaios, adikos, adikia, dikaioo, to dikaion, and dikaios) occur 94 times in Greek Isaiah, and many of the occurrences are in connection with the theme of the eschatological restoration and justification of Israel. It was Israel’s lack of righteousness that triggered the Babylonian captivity. As a result, Israel was put to shame in the sight of the nations. But God promises that he will comfort his people, remove their disgrace, restore them to the land, and cause them to become again a righteous people. The vindication or justification of Israel will take place by a judicial act that includes both God’s judgment upon the nations that oppressed them and God’s causing the righteousness of his people to shine forth. Then shame will be turned into glory. In this paper, I survey that theme, and show that it is the backdrop of several passages in Greek Isaiah quoted by Paul in Romans in connection with his teaching on the justification of the ungodly: Isa 28:16 + 8:14 (Rom 9:33; 10:11); Isa 45:23 (Rom 14:11); Isa 50:8 (Rom 8:33-34); Isa 53:11-12 (Rom 4:25); Isa 59:7-8 (Rom 3:15-17); Isa 59:20-21 + 27:9 (Rom 11:26-27). This suggests that Paul’s reading of Greek Isaiah informed his doctrine of justification in Romans.


The Importance of Word Order for the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Bo Isaksson, Uppsala Universitet

The classical Hebrew verbal system represents one of the greatest problems of Semitic linguistics. The grammatical understanding of the Hebrew Bible traditional texts was forgotten already in the Middle Ages. Since then the biblical Hebrew verbal conjugations have remained a mystery (McFall 1982, 16). The theory that emerged among Jewish scholars was that the conjunction that was put before a finite verb had a ‘conversive’ function and thereby could transform this verbal form into another tense form. The verb for past tense, qatal, when it was prefixed, acquired meanings that are similar to the senses of the other finite tense form (yiqtol). By analogy the conjunction wa (allomorph of we) was seen as ‘converting’ yiqtol into a narrative past tense (wa-yiqtol). This “conversive theory” has been enormously influential on the subsequent scholarly discussion on the Hebrew verbal system and still dominates the textbooks on Biblical Hebrew. But seen in the perspective of the close relatives of Hebrew in Central Semitic and the second millennium Amarna Canaanite (Rainey 1996), we would rather expect Biblical Hebrew to behave as one of several first millennium daughter languages of early Canaanite. We would expect that Biblical Hebrew had three basic finite verb forms (not four), two with prefixed inflection (short and long yiqtol) and one with suffixed inflection (qatal). Very few scholars have dared to maintain this concerning Biblical Hebrew (among the few are Tropper 1988; Van de Sandhe 2008; cf. Huehnergard 2005, 165). In the period between the Amarna age, and before the Old Testament texts were created, a phonological change occurred in Proto-Hebrew and its Canaanite sister languages, which resulted in the loss of short final vowels. This in turn resulted in a subsequent morphological merger of the short and long prefix conjugations. Both yaqtul and yaqtulu became yaqtul. This change occurred in all adjacent Northwest Semitic languages, Aramaic, Phoenician, Hebrew; but not, as far as we can determine, in the earlier Ugaritic. The individual Northwest Semitic languages had to cope with this merger. The strategy that the speakers of Proto-Hebrew developed to retain the distinction between short form and long form was a limitation of word order. While word order in Amarna Canaanite was relatively free, Biblical Hebrew (even in archaic poetry) relegated the short yiqtol to first position in the clause, whereas the long yiqtol was used in other positions (such as after negation, or after a topicalized first element). Few Hebrew scholars have understood this restriction of word order in the light of a morphological merger (one of the few is Gzella 2011, 442; 2012, 101), and no one has tried to explain how the three basic conjugations of the Hebrew verbal system works in the light of this insight. It is the aim of the present paper to show how this word order constraint worked to uphold the distinction between the short and the long yiqtol in Biblical Hebrew. The corpus consists of Genesis and Exodus and the so-called archaic poetry of the Hebrew Bible.


Joseph Smith Reading the Apocalypse: God, Man, Angels, and Eternity
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Kent Jackson, Brigham Young University

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, never wrote a biblical commentary. But, like many of his Christian contemporaries, he preached out of the Bible. His sermons, indeed, are packed with allusions to and quotations from biblical texts, and the same is true of his published articles and private correspondence. Altogether, the biblical explanations gleaned from these sources provide a sizable corpus to examine his thought regarding the Old and New Testaments. But, as historian Philip L. Barlow has pointed out, Smith’s objective was “rarely to interpret and defer to the Bible for its own sake.” Nor did he “preach strictly from the Bible in Protestant fashion.” Indeed, if what attracted early converts to Mormonism was the familiar voice of the Bible in it, what they heard in their prophet’s teachings was a biblical message unlike anything they had heard before. This paper will examine several biblical texts, Joseph Smith’s interpretation of those texts, and the contemporary context that produced his interpretation of them. The passages will include those that he used to teach his doctrine regarding the nature God and humans, particularly Genesis 1:1, 26–28; 2:7; 1 Corinthians 8:5–6; Revelation 1:6. “We teach nothing but what the Bible teaches,” Smith said. And yet many of his interpretations are esoteric and very creative. As will be seen, the primary context from which he interpreted was his own sense of prophetic calling. And for him, that context empowered him to see things in the text that others did not observe.


Whose Body? The Subject of Conversion in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Andrew Jacobs, Scripps College

Review of Mira Balberg's Purity, Body, and Self in Early Rabbinic Literature (Berkeley: UC Press, 2014)


The Balance of Probability: Applying Corpus Linguistics and Inferential Statistics to Hebrew Language Studies
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Jarod T. Jacobs, Warner Pacific College

Recent years have brought about a plethora of linguistic studies on Hebrew. Many of the conclusions of those studies have been based heavily upon large datasets. Navigating such large linguistic sets of data is generally the realm of corpus linguistics (CL) and often times involves inferential statistics. Yet, a number of recent papers, articles, and monographs, have underutilised statistical tools. We often times find ourselves with a large amount of data and some descriptive statistical tools such as graphs and charts, but fail to truly engage the potential benefits of inferential statistics that CL requires. In this paper I will discuss two main statistical tools that I have found to be fundamental to linguistic studies involving large datasets: the Guassian Curve and significance tests. I will present a brief description of these tools and their general uses. Then, I will apply them to an analysis of the variations between the “biblical” DSS and our other witnesses, focusing upon variations involving particles with special attention to the he-locale. This paper will serve a dual function. First, it will present statistical tools that are useful for many linguistic studies. Second, it will develop a comprehensive analysis of the he-locale. I will argue that statistical analysis demonstrates that pluses of the he-locale are charactoristic of the plene “biblical” DSS and that the increased use of shammah in particular likely developed alongside fuller orthographic styles.


The “Anticipation Principle” in the Biblical Commentary of R. Joseph Bekhor Shor
Program Unit: Midrash
Jonathan Jacobs, Bar-Ilan University

One of the fundamental principles adhered to by the disciples of Rashi, proponents of the “peshat” (“literalist”) school of biblical commentary that flourished in northern France during the Middle Ages, was intertextuality – interpretation of the Bible from within itself. One of the direct ramifications of the quest to understand the Bible on its own terms, without any external aids, is the “anticipation principle” – one of the most important characteristics of the “peshat” school. While this principle is associated mainly with Rashbam, a comprehensive review of the biblical commentary of R. Joseph Bekhor Shor shows that his exegesis, too, recognizes the principle of anticipation. Rashbam’s commentary on the Bible was a source that R. Bekhor Shor consulted frequently, and a proper understanding of his attitude towards the principle of anticipation demands a comparison of his commentaries to those of Rashbam in this area. The comparison reveals that while on one hand Bekhor Shor accepts Rashbam’s principle, with some instances where he opposes its application, on the other hand his exegetical choices show evidence of independence and uniqueness.


The Interpretation of Genesis 1 in Theophilus and Other Early Apologetic Texts
Program Unit: Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
Anders-Christian Jacobsen, Aarhus Universitet

Theophilus from Antioch wrote his treatises during the second part of the second century when he was a bishop of Antioch. The most important of his work which has survived is his apologetic treatise directed against a certain Autolycus. The treatise against Autolycus contains a long passage where Theophilus interprets the creation story from Genesis chapter 1. This paper will present a new reading of Theophilus’ interpretation of Genesis chapter one and compare Theophilus’ understanding of Genesis chapter 1 with the shorter remarks on Genesis 1 which can be found in other early apologetic texts.


Jots and Tittles on the Cutting Room Floor: Movie-Making as Midrash
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Karl Jacobson, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd

As an approach to exegesis, the practice of midrash – the filling in of, and the interpretive exploration taking place within the gaps of biblical story – has found new and renewed application in film. Much of the content of the recent biblical epics Noah, and Exodus: Gods and Kings, is best understood as a form of midrash; and virtually all of Last Days in the Desert (2015) is set within the context of the biblical narrative, but tells a story that is new. My paper will explore the interpretive tensions, insights, and potential of movies as midrash, and suggest pedagogical and interpretive strategies for engaging both film and text in the classroom.


The Loud World: Silence and Speech in Psalm 65
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Elaine James, Saint Catherine University

Psalm 65 is a meditation of the value of poetry. It is a poem framed by a paradoxical claim: “silence is praise.” The Psalms generally delight in recommending praise, prayer, thanksgiving, and lament, while silence is described as the opposite of praise: “so that my soul may praise you and not be silent” (Ps 30:13). There is an inherent tension is the poetry of Psalm 65, which juxtaposes the “silence” of human response with the “loudness” of the created world. This can be traced through its poetic features, including the prominent rhetorical movement from human ritual practices (vv. 3-5) to the features of the established cosmos (vv. 7-9) and finally to the depiction of God as a farmer (vv. 10-14). Through this movement, it is the earth and its various creatures that “sing,” “shout,” and “roar” (vv. 6, 9). To the perception of the world’s “loudness,” the only appropriate human response is silence. Silence is thus not the cessation of lament, or even “an attitude of confident expectation,” as scholars have previously argued. Silence is rather a necessary posture that acknowledges the insignificance of human speech in the face of the abundant goodness of the created order. At the same time, these claims are made in the form of a poem of praise, so the “loudness” of the created world must be acknowledged and matched by efforts of the artistry of poetry.


Ancient Antecedents to Performance Criticism: Origen, Stoic Logic, and the Bible as Utterance
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Mark Randall James, University of Virginia

If performance criticism of the Bible has only recently emerged as a distinct field of study, this is in part because Biblical studies has tended to share modern assumptions about ‘meaning’ as something that can be abstracted from the event of linguistic performance. The structuralism of Saussure, for example, analyzes the significance of signs as a synchronic structural relation (langue) abstracted from the diachronic utterance of language (parole). Similarly, a good deal of Anglo-American philosophy has tried to analyze the semantic contents of sentences as ‘propositions,’ abstract entities that bear truth independent of any particular context-specific linguistic performance. Ancient readers and critics were often more conscious than their modern counterparts of the oral and performative dimensions of language. For this reason, performance criticism as a mode of studying ancient texts can benefit from a careful examination of the ways early readers of the Bible theorized about language and used this theory to analyze their own performances of the Scriptures. This essay undertakes this task in relation to one of the earliest Christian scholars to theorize at length about language: Origen of Alexandria. Recent scholarship has called attention to performative elements of his interpretive practice, rooted in the conventions of ancient paideia and oriented towards the training and transformation of Christian readers. Marguerite Harl, Bernard Neuschäfer and other scholars have called particular attention to the generally Stoic cast of his thinking about language and his use of Stoic technical terminology. In this essay, I argue that Origen deployed this Stoic theory to clarify performative features of Biblical texts. First, I sketch Origen’s broadly Stoic philosophy of language. As Origen recognized, the innovative Stoic distinction between the corporeal utterance and the incoporeal lekton (roughly, ’sayable’ semantic content) enabled one to analyze linguistic utterances (including texts) as scripts capable of being performed in multiple contexts and to make these performances knowable objects of analysis. While Stoic logicians originally used this distinction primarily to untangle the shifting meanings of sentences in the particular context of dialectical exchange, it was soon appropriated more broadly by ancient grammarians and rhetoricians, including Origen. Second, I show how Origen in his Commentary on John uses Stoic linguistics to reflect on performative features embedded in the Bible. Origen calls attention to context-dependent features of utterances such first- and second-personal pronouns, deictic terms, and imperatives, which he interprets as invitations to perform the Scriptural text. One central task of his exegesis is to make these performances intelligible by determining the context in which a Scriptural sentence can be appropriately spoken: what kind of person can utter these words, and on what occasions? The result, I suggest, is a kind of theologically constructive performance criticism: a mode of exegesis that aims not only to explicate the semantic contents of texts but to discover and teach the ‘grammar’ of Scriptural language as exemplified by but not exhausted in the Biblical texts.


A Cynic Background of Romans 1–2: Ps.Diogenes, Epistula 28, and Rom 1:19–32; 2:14–15, 17–29 in Comparison
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Torsten Jantsch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Recent studies have shown that Paul’s argument can be understood before the backdrop of ancient Greek philosophy. Troels Engberg-Pedersen argued that Paul’s argument in Romans should be explained on the basis of Stoic influence. Emma Wasserman asserted that Paul’s deliberation in Rom 7 can best be understood against the backdrop of Platonic language and thoughts. Other scholars, e.g. F. Gerald Downing, claimed that there are similarities between Paul and Cynic motifs. This paper will take up the latter thesis. It will show significant similarities between Paul’s argument in Rom 1:18-32; 2:14-15, 17-29 and the Cynic tradition. This is a neglected aspect in scholarly discussion. This paper will outline points of contact by a comparison of Rom 1:18-32; 2:14-15, 17-29 and the Cynic epistle Ps.-Diogenes, Epistula 28. We do not argue that Paul is dependent on this Cynic letter, but we will show that both texts have decisive assumptions and argumentative patterns in common. In a first section, we will outline structure and argument of Rom 1:18-3:20. History of research will show that particularly Old Testament and Stoic motifs are debated as backdrop of Rom 1–2, but not Cynic motifs. Then we will introduce Ps.-Diogenes, Epistula 28 as part of the corpus of Cynic Epistles. In a further section we will give a detailed outline of structure and argument of Ps.-Diogenes, Epistula 28. We will then show that many aspects of this pseudepigraphic letter are typical for the Cynic tradition. As a next step, we will show differences between Ps.-Diogenes, Epistula 28 and Rom 1–2 that can be explained by the different provenance of these writings. The most decisive part will show significant similarities between Ps.-Diogenes, Epistula 28 and Rom 1–2. The first similarity is that both texts are accusations, another one is the topic of true and false knowledge, a third and decisive one is the motif of moral perversion that leads to punishment which is seen as death. The vices that are criticized are very similar in both texts. Both writings share the argumentative pattern that a group of “outsiders” is deemed to be morally superior. In Ps.-Diogenes, Ep. 28, the accused group are the Greeks, in Romans 2:1-16, 17-29 the Jews, whereas the “outsiders” are the Barbarians and the Gentiles, respectively. This argumentative pattern implies that the accused group is not what it seems to be, but that the “outsiders”, Barbarians or Gentiles, are better exemplars of Greeks or Jews, respectively.


The Death of Josiah and Prophecy in Chronicles
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
David Janzen, Durham University

The Chronicler composes the story of Josiah’s death so that it can be construed as the result of disobedience to the Egyptian Neco’s prophetic-like oracle. The Chronicler has also composed this story so that it reminds readers of the death of Ahab earlier in the work: both kings disguise themselves to go into battle; both are wounded by archers; and both ask to be taken from the battlefield, only to die later. There is one other parallel between these two stories: both kings face an ambiguous prophetic oracle before they go into battle. Ahab’s four hundred prophets and Micaiah bring him two conflicting messages, while Josiah is confronted with a foreign king who claims to speak on behalf of an unnamed God. Josiah cannot truly know if the message he receives from Neco is actually from the God of Israel or not. If the Chronicler’s only desire in writing the story of Josiah’s death had been to explain his death in battle through the doctrine of immediate retribution, then he or she could have had a Judean prophet forbid Josiah to go into battle, or at least have had Neco clearly state that he speaks on behalf of YHWH. Since the Chronicler chooses neither of these obvious options, and instead composes a story in which the death of the good Josiah parallels that of the evil Ahab, his or her goal instead appears to be to have readers reflect on the ambiguity of prophecy, which is involved in the death of both kings. Ambiguous prophecy is a problem, the Chronicler suggests, for both the righteous and the wicked. The Chronicler’s story of Josiah’s death, therefore, works to reinforce the way the Chronicler is trying to limit prophecy throughout the book. Prophets are important in Chronicles insofar as they explain how history unfolds according to the doctrine of immediate retribution and the principle of relying on YHWH alone to grant victory in battle, which are both important aspects of Chronistic theology. Readers may trust prophets who explain events, past or future, according to these principles. But Chronicles warns in the story of Josiah’s death that when prophets address a matter that does not clearly address such theological ideas, readers will not know whether or not to trust this prophetic word. Chronicles thereby limits prophecy to articulating Chronistic theology, and since the book of Chronicles itself does precisely that, the work renders the prophetic office unnecessary. For the Chronicler, any careful reader of Chronicles should be able to do what true prophets do.


Sounds That Arouse Perception: The Rhetoric of Hearing in Colossians
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Roy R. Jeal, Booth University College

The biblical texts are visible to our eyes, but they were not often, as we well know, read by their first audiences in the way that we usually read them, that is, with our eyes, silently, individually, for personal study and analysis. They were composed, transmitted, and received primarily through the media of speech and hearing. The physical, written documents were the conveyances employed to move the spoken and heard words to and among audiences. Sounds arouse perception in the human mind that identifies and organizes what is heard so that understanding can occur. Understanding is conveyed and perceived not only in rational, deductive ways, but through bodily sensations that have intellectual, emotional, and behavioral effects. Humans are creatures who perceive subtle differences of sound, receiving some and filtering out others in order to find the most meaningful. They learn to do this without being conscious of it. Different sounds are perceived to have different meanings, but sound seems to be primary, perhaps not “beyond sight,” but before sight. The sounds can evoke other bodily senses such as vision, smell, taste, touch, location, and position. There is an essential orchestration of sound that by itself makes argumentation and conveys meaning. The Letter to the Colossians, like nearly all texts, orchestrates sound to have rhetorical force. This essay analyzes selections from Colossians to see the sense of sound at work.


Christ as King: Biblical, Hellenistic, and Imperial Kingship Discourse in Revelation's Hymns
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Justin Jeffcoat Schedtler, Augsburg College

Despite longstanding and widespread scholarly neglect of the role of the hymns in Revelation, in recent years they have garnered attention for their value in revealing the central theological and Christological tenets of the Apocalypse. As such, scholars have sought to identify antecedent material—hymnic or otherwise—with which to contextualize the forms, contents, and functions of the hymns. Scholars have surveyed a wide range of materials in this process, including antecedent hymnic materials in biblical texts (e.g., the Psalter, the Tersanctus in Isa 6:3, and Ezekiel), Jewish pseudepigrapha and apocrypha, as well as fragments found at Qumran. So, too, Revelation’s hymns have been considered in light of various liturgies of the Second Temple period, including the daily Minha prayer and Geullah benediction in temple worship, the Qedushah blessing in the synagogue, and early Christian liturgical forms. Most recently, Aune has suggested that the hymns can be viewed in light of hymnic praise of Emperors in the early Imperial period. Aune’s proposal is particularly interesting insofar as he suggests that the hymns’ theological and Christological proclamations functioned to challenge similar claims to authority made by the Roman Emperors, though no surviving Imperial hymns survive to corroborate his claim. I am interested in considering yet another, relatively untapped, source for considering Revelation’s hymns: non-hymnic kingship discourse in Second Temple literature and (non-Jewish) Hellenistic and Imperial literature. In particular, I will look at Davidic discourse in the Psalms and 1 Chronicles, as well as prophetic discourse of the coming Messianic king in the Pentateuch, Psalms, and various prophetic texts. I also consider relevant kingship discourse in the works of Theocritus and Callimachus, as well as various Imperial commentators as preserved in the literary record (e.g., Pliny, Horace) and in early Imperial material and inscriptional remains (e.g., the Priene Letter and the Res Gestae). In such texts, non-hymnic panegyrics for biblical messianic kings, Hellenistic kings, and Roman emperors, offer a rich context for considering especially the Christological hymns in Revelation, wherein similar motifs and images are appropriated for the purpose of extolling Christ as king. That is, non-hymnic kingship discourse appears to have been one source among many for providing the conceptual imagery for several important tropes in Revelation’s Christological hymns, e.g., the investiture of the Lamb, the co-enthronement of the Lamb with God, the worship of the Lamb as God, and the worldwide peace that ensues from the Lamb’s investiture. Finally, a study of the re-appropriation of such kingship discourse in the Christological hymns allows for a consideration of the ways in which the claims made about Christ in Revelation function to counter competing Imperial claims of the sovereignty of the Emperor. In this way, my study will be of interest not only for those interested in Revelation’s hymns, but also for those interested in the anti-Imperial agenda in Revelation.


Revisiting the Emperor Mystique: The Traditio Legis as an Anti-Imperial Image
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Lee M. Jefferson, Centre College

An early Christian artistic motif that is utilized to support the well-entrenched theory that Christian images prior to Constantine were relatively humble while post-Constantinian images exude glory is the traditio legis. Thomas Mathews challenged this theory in his book The Clash of Gods, calling such a theory the “emperor mystique.” Art historians fiercely rejected Mathews’ challenge. But examining his theory through the lens of the traditio legis illuminates the logic behind Mathews’ argument. The “handing of the law” is an image of Jesus seated giving a scroll representing the law to Peter, or Peter and Paul. An image of an enthroned Jesus seemingly represents a triumphal Jesus, and exhibits a strong influence of the imperial cult. This paper will argue, however, that the traditio legis is misrepresented by this entrenched theory. The focus of the traditio legis is not the enthroned Jesus at all, but rather the action that Jesus is performing. In giving the law, the image represents and reflects ecclesial authority, an interpretation that can be illuminated by the historical context of fourth and fifth century Rome. By examining several examples of the traditio legis the interpretation of the traditio legis as an image suggesting church hierarchy and authority can be realized.


Paul’s Messianic Political Theology and the Deconstruction of Sovereignty
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Theodore W. Jennings, Chicago Theological Seminary

In 1922 the famous political theorist Carl Schmitt wrote: “All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts not only because of their historical origin in which they were transferred from theology to the theory of the state, whereby, for example the omnipotent God became the omnipotent lawgiver, but also because of their systematic structure…”( Political Theology p. 36). It will be decisive for the development of political theology after Schmitt to determine which theological concepts are secularized as political ones. I will argue that Paul’s suggestions concerning a crucified messiah in 1 Corinthians 1-4 offer a counter paradigm to that of state or imperial sovereignty. While this text has in view primarily the internal political struggles of the Corinthian community, it also has far reaching implications for the development of a messianic political theology that stands in contrast to both ancient and modern ideas of sovereignty as a key political concept. This seems to be recognized by Schmitt much later in his career (Political Theology II) and becomes an important resource for Derrida’s musings about an end of the state and a god without sovereignty as suggested in the essays in Rogues as well as his seminar on the Death Penalty. Thus Paul may continue to be an indispensable resource for a radical rethinking of the political in our time. In dialog with Paul it will be important to attend to the ways this anti-sovereignty paradigm affects his notions of intra-communal relations, and of apostolic life. Attention must also be given to the Philippians hymn as both example and possible counter-example to the thinking of a messiah without sovereignty. Contemporary examples of a politics without sovereignty include the work of Alain Badiou and those thinkers (Zizek, Nancy, etc.) who contribute to “The Idea of Communism” as well as to grassroots political movements influenced by the model of militant non-violence. The point is not that Paul is a 21st century political thinker but rather that his writings offer significant resources for radical political thought in our time.


Two Versions of the Letter of Peter to Philip (NHC VIII,2 and CT,1)
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Lance Jenott, Universitetet i Oslo

An apocryphal Christian epistle entitled The Letter of Peter to Philip has been known since 1945 in a single manuscript from Nag Hammadi Codex VIII. In 2007, sections from another manuscript witness of this Letter became available from Codex Tchacos, and in 2010 even more fragments from this codex were made available in photograph form, which constitute nearly half the text. So far, however, these new fragments have not been published. In this presentation, I will present a transcription of the full text of the Letter of Peter to Philip from Codex Tchacos in synopsis with the text from NHC VIII and discuss the significance of variant readings between the two witnesses.


All (Human) Together in One Place? Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics and the Posthumanist Challenge
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Dong Hyeon Jeong, Drew University

Posthumanism is, among other things, a process of deconstructing human-animal hierarchy by questioning the presumptions of human superiority and “divinely mandated” human domination. Posthumanism’s mantra, however, that humans and animals are “equal” in the general scheme of identification is not a benign statement to accept for Asian Americans. With the orientalist history in which racist quips such as “you look like a monkey” were casually thrown at Asians Americans, the unfortunate negative signification of animals as tools for denigration had to be countered by Asian Americans as a means to fight back against orientalism. Asian American scholars, such as Kwok Pui-lan, recognize the dis-ease of entangling nature with Asians (especially Third World women). And yet, the necessity for minorities to be in touch with nature is crucial. Posthumanism impels this necessary connection to nature by jolting the discussions on identity, representation, and power; and throwing a nonhuman-monkey wrench in the perennial anthropocentric paradigm of “us humans versus them humans.” This paper will explore the potency of intersecting posthumanism with Asian American biblical interpretation in general and with select New Testament texts with the perspectives laid out by philosophers such as Jacques Derrida, and biblical scholars such as Tat-siong Benny Liew, and Stephen D. Moore.


The Khirbat Ataruz Temple: Architecture, Cultic Objects, and Interpretation
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Chang-Ho Ji, La Sierra University

The religious beliefs and practices of Iron Age Transjordan still remain much terra incognita. Ongoing excavations at Khirbat Ataruz, however, may add significantly to our knowledge of the issue where the excavations have uncovered a large Iron Age temple and other building remains dated to the late Iron I and early Iron II periods. The temple most likely came to an end due to the Moabite conquest of the site, as recorded in the Mesha Inscription. The evidence indicates that the temple was a multi-chambered sanctuary with three parallel rooms containing various cultic installations and a copious number of cultic objects. To the east and west of this main sanctuary area were two possible high places equipped with stairs and auxiliary cultic installations attached to the high places. The temple was also equipped with a “holy cistern” with a bull relief inside the wall. The temple and its courtyard contain at least several altars with remains of burnt animals bones and more than 300 cultic objects. Some noticeable artifacts from Ataruz include a “bull” storage jar, a terracotta bull statue, terracotta shrine models, a Moabite inscription column, several incense burners, a snake-motif decoration bowl, a bronze belt, and cup-and-saucers among many other cultic objects. Given the site’s potential ties with the Mesha Inscription, the discovery of a temple at Ataruz is likely to shed important light on the religion and history of Iron I-II Transjordan society, particularly in relation to the Iron Age kingdoms in the region.


On the Phenomenology of Hearing and Experience in Biblical Literature
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Job Y. Jindo, The Tikvah Fund

In this paper I wish to discuss the phenomenology of hearing as reflected in biblical literature. The subject is more complex and profound than meets the eye, as the act of hearing has diverse subcategories, and, furthermore, it constitutes one of the channels through which we as human experience and understand the meaning and function of the world and the self. I wish to consider if and how biblical literature can serve as a distinct source of insight for addressing the optimal relation to and among different categories of hearing. The nature of my discussion is thus taxonomical and normative. First, I will suggest five different kinds or levels of hearing, all of which can be identified in biblical literature: (1) total apathy (where the very presence of a sound or discourse remains unrecognized); (2) selective hearing (where the intended meaning of the discourse is misunderstood or rejected partially or totally); (3) unimpeded hearing (where the intended meaning of the discourse is properly communicated); (4) non-auditory hearing (where hearing is achieved through a sensual but non-auditory faculty); (5) meta-sensual hearing (where hearing is achieved through meta-sensual experience and, ultimately, self-transcendence). I will elucidate each of these categories through biblical examples, and then offer normative ramifications of this analysis. This paper is part of a work-in-progress that explores how biblical authors understood how they ought to exist as human—namely, their vision of humanity that shaped and affected their inner life and religious experience.


Superstitious and Hospitable Barbarians: Luke's Ethnic Reasoning in Acts 28:1–10
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Joshua W. Jipp, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

In his important work The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Willie James Jennings argues for “the emergence of spaces of communion that announce the healing of the nations through the story of Israel bound up in Jesus” as one necessary step toward facilitating a healed Christian social imagination (p. 293). In this paper, I suggest that a reading of the book of Acts that attends to the narrative’s use of ethnic reasoning may help to recover a more compelling, embracing, and welcoming Christian social imagination. In particular, I examine the narrative’s use of ethnic reasoning in Acts 28:1-10 in order to show how Luke: a) uses the designation “barbarian” to raise the trope of the inhospitable, uncultured, and superstitious barbarian only in order to subvert the ethnic stereotype of the Malta islanders; b) employs the social-cultural ritual of xenia (“ritualized hospitality/friendship”) to show the creation of fictive kinship relationship between those who worship Paul’s God (the God of Israel) and the Maltese; and c) respects the cultural and geographical spaces of those peoples who are incorporated into the this new people-group. Finally, I suggest briefly that these three components of Lukan ethnic reasoning are not isolated to Acts 28:1-10 alone but are, rather, confirmed through Luke’s narration of the ‘Christian’ movement’s expansion into non-Judean territory. His reversal of ethnic stereotyping, use of the ritual of ritualized friendship, and respect for the spaces of non-Jewish peoples suggests a broader Lukan strategy of ethnic reasoning that may hold some promise for healing a racially diseased Christian social imagination.


“Until This Day”: The Land as a Theological Resource in the Book of Joshua
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Mari Joerstad, Duke University

In his book Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache, Keith H. Basso discusses the Apache idea that “the land is always stalking people” (38). Basso argues that oral narratives create enduring bonds between people and places; these bonds form “a model of how two symbolic resources - language and land - are manipulated by Apaches to promote compliance with standards for acceptable social behaviour and the moral values that support them” (40). In this paper I will apply Basso’s insight to the phrase “until this day” in the Book of Joshua. I will argue that the phrase “until this day” inscribes Israelite identity onto the land itself. The land becomes a mnemonic device, replete with reminders that to be Israel is to be called to obedience, and that life in the land is only granted to those who “cling to the Lord”. My paper will approach this question by means of exegesis of stories that include the phrase “until this day”. I will look at two possible functions of such stories: 1) the way in which they shape identity and behavior for people who reside in the land, especially interpersonal behavior (with Israelites and non-Israelites, and 2) the way in which such stories make the land a portable theological resource, available to Israelites and Judeans in exile.


The Struggle and the Sacrifice: Exploring Exod 4:24–26 through Liminality
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Achitha John, University of Aberdeen

Exodus 4:24-26 is one of the most puzzling texts in the Pentateuch. A large part of this is due to the textual silences and resounding actions. One manner of interpreting this incident is through the anthropological concept of liminality. Drawing on Arnold Van Gennep’s description of the tripartite structure of a ‘rite of passage’ and Victor Turner’s analysis of the ‘betwixt and between’, Exodus 4:24-26 can be understood as a synthesis of a ‘ritual of status elevation’ and a ‘ritual of status reversal’. As Moses wrestles with the deity, Moses transitions out of death into life through Zipporah’s heroic act in her son’s circumcision. When viewing Exodus 4:24-26 as a portrait of both rituals of status elevation and status reversal, the text in its present narratival position forms the hinge for the identity of Moses. What appears to be a narratival pause or brief break in Moses’ journey undoubtedly alters his course. In this brief scene, opposing elements such as speech and silence, structure and fluidity, action and passivity and life and death are intricately interwoven in the unpredictable, undefinable moment of liminality. Having just been commissioned to deliver the people of Israel from Egyptian oppression and reassured that all those who sought to kill Moses have died, the life of Moses is in jeopardy once again. This time, however, YHWH seeks to kill Moses. The vulnerability of Moses expressed through the narrator’s use of ‘him’ and juxtaposed to the rather blunt naming of ‘YHWH’ as the attacker vividly depicts the subservience of Moses. During this period of liminality, Moses stands at the brink of mortal danger. Past promises are obscured by silence, and hope for Moses, and consequently the people of Israel, remains in question. Uncertainty pervades this moment. Although the Hebrew text does not give reason for YHWH’s violent encounter, Zipporah’s immediate act of circumcising her son saves Moses’ life. Here, blood is the catalyst. Transition embodied by the blood results in transformation. On the one side, YHWH enters the scene and seeks to kill Moses, and on the other side, Zipporah circumcises her son. Moses lies in the middle. Moses traverses the boundary between death and life through the shedding of blood. Though Moses is indisputably a central character in this rather difficult text, portraying Moses through status elevation and status reversal draws attention to the complexity of his liminal experience and accentuates the centrality of blood.


A Bloody Sacrifice: The Atoning Death of Joab in 1 Kings 2
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Benjamin J.M. Johnson, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

After the death of Abner, his newly acquired general, David, sometimes known as a "man of blood" (2 Sam. 16:8; cf. 1 Chron. 22:8; 28:3), cries out that, "these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too brutal for me!" (2 Sam. 3:39). The most prominent of these sons of Zeruiah is the enigmatic general Joab. Sometimes clever (2 Sam. 11:14-25; 14:1-24), often jealous (2 Sam. 3:22-39; 20:1-10), and always violent, he is quite literally at the center of much of the action of the narratives in 2 Samuel - 1 Kings 2. Joab's final narrative moment crystallizes his violent reputation as he is slaughtered on the "horns of the altar" in the "tent of the Yhwh" to "turn aside blood-guilt" (1 Kgs. 2:28-34). While David and Solomon claim his death is judgment for murdering Abner and Amasa (1 Kgs. 2:5-6, 31-33), numerous scholars suggest that there are other more powerful and unstated motives: Joab's complicity in the murder of Uriah, his murder of Absalom, his siding with Adonijah, or his continuing threat to Solomon's rule. However, the nature of Joab's death––slaughtered on the horns of the altar––and the prevalence of sacrificial language in his death scene, suggest that there may be more symbolically laden resonances in his death. The nature of his death and his nature as a man steeped in bloodshed may suggest that Joab is not portrayed purely as a victim nor purely as a villain, but as a necessary bloody sacrifice. The present paper offers a literary exploration of the character of Joab focusing on the sacrificial language that colors his death and asks the question of just what his death may be atoning for.


Missional Theology and Congregation Formation in the Torah
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Boaz Johnson, North Park University

Much work in the missional congregation formation has dwelt on the New Testament. This paper seeks to explore the theology of the Torah- more specifically the Book of Numbers, and its contribution to the development of a missional society.


The Mark of the Beast or the Seal of God: Pneumatic Discernment, Effective History, and Early Pentecostal Periodical Literature
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
David R. Johnson, Bangor University (UK)

*


Response: Methodological Considerations in Pursuing Bible and Philosophy
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Dru Johnson, The King's College (New York)

We respond to the papers presented with philosophical (Johnson) and biblical (Jones) perspectives.


The Meaning of Mark: Messianic Secret or Pastoral Exhortation?
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Earl S. Johnson, Jr., Siena College

Introduction: A brief review of Wrede’s ingenious theory of the Messianic Secret demonstrates that it does not cohere as a literary theme in Mark but consists of a number of disparate and conflicting elements, many found by Mark in the material in the tradition he received. Later interpretations by Ebeling, Schweizer, Tagawa, deTillesse, Juel, Marcus, etc., are helpful but suggest the need for a different assessment of Mark’s intentions. Section I, Examining Mark’s Pastoral Purpose as an Alternative: Many commentators have argued that Mark’s main purpose is to address pastoral or ecclesiastical concerns in the church (or churches) to which he writes. A review of some of these analyses provides a basis for this assumption: Taylor, Cranfield, Best, Garrett, Camery-Hoggatt, Gundry, Henderson, Dowd, Boring, etc. Section II, Second and Third Generation Faith Struggles-- Some Test Cases: In this paper it will be argued that Mark’s gospel is not written primarily to a congregation (congregations) suffering under persecution or the fear of apocalyptic disaster but to second or third generation Christians whose questions and struggles of faith are more commonplace. Some of them had not even been born at the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection and Mark does not respond to their questions and doubts in an epistle but designs a unique response (the first gospel) to meet their needs and bolster their faith and service. Mark’s consistent depiction of the blindness of the disciples and the enigmatic conclusion in which no one sees the risen Jesus force his readers to look for the answers to their questions and their new identity in their community of faith. A brief exploration of some recent anthropological and sociological studies about second and third generation faith responses offer new models which may also provide illustrations about the situation Mark and his readers faced. Texts examined will include 3:14-16; 4:1-20; 4:35-41; 5:1-20; 6:45-52; 8:1-26; 10:46-52, and 16:1-8. Which statement is key to Mark: “Do not tell anyone” or “You have eyes and do not see” ?


Narrative, Metanarrative, and the Letters of Paul
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Melanie Johnson-DeBraufre, Drew University

Paul is a central, even paradigmatic, character in both popular and scholarly versions of Christian origins and the development of Christian thought. However, the result is not a singular Paul; indeed, the history of interpretation suggests the opposite: Pauls abound. This paper explores the historical, ethical, and theological value of the multiplicity of stories within and around the Pauline letters. Considering how characters, plots, and intertexts become local and translocal places for diverse identifications and significations opens up an alternative approach to the largely orthodox and universalizing Paul that predominates among both Christian and non-theist narrations of the mind of Paul. The narrative character of social identity and values engenders a theological and philosophical orientation to biblical text—even letters—that embraces multiplicity and calls for an articulation and adjudication of complex, intersecting, and competing values and ideals.


Paratextuality of Pesher Habakkuk: Case with the Prophet and the Teacher
Program Unit: Qumran
Jutta Jokiranta, University of Helsinki

Pesher Habakkuk from Qumran Cave 1 includes many paratextual features such as marginal scribal marks, consistent vacat system and the divine name written in paleo-Hebrew instead of square script. These scribal and physical features have been explored by several scholars, e.g., Martin, Snyder, Tov, and Brooke. These studies reveal how several scribes worked with this particular manuscript, how the commentary sections were distinguished from the lemma sections but not the other way around, and what this meant for the performance of the text. This paper will build on these remarks but add some significant aspects of the division of the lemma sections, and the famous passage in Column VII in which an exceptional vacat gives reason to doubt that some reworking has taken place here. This would have implications on the way in which the roles of Prophet Habakkuk and of the “Righteous Teacher” were understood.


Embedded Written Documents as Colonial Mimicry in Ezra-Nehemiah
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Christopher M. Jones, Augustana College (IL)

In this essay, I argue that the authors of Ezra-Nehemiah are vernacular cosmopolitans, and that their use of embedded written documents constitutes a form of colonial mimicry. I use both terms (“vernacular cosmopolitan,” “colonial mimicry”) as articulated by Homi K. Bhabha. Bhabha describes minorities in contemporary Britain as “vernacular cosmopolitans,” people caught up in a globalized world that they themselves have little power to control. Bhabha uses the term “vernacular” to highlight the enforced particularity of minorities, in contrast to the cosmopolitanism of white British liberals who experience little tension between their idealized conceptions of universal human rights and their own horizons of potentiality. The subjectivities of vernacular cosmopolitans is necessarily hybridized and is constituted through acts of colonial mimicry, the attempted imitation of dominant cultural forms by marginalized people. Colonial mimicry, because it never fully displaces the forms of the subordinate colonized culture, is always incomplete, ambivalent, “almost but not quite.” My analysis of colonial mimicry in Ezra-Nehemiah focuses on two textual units: Ezra 7-10 (the narrative of Ezra’s mission to Yehud) and Neh 8-10 (the covenant renewal ceremony). Specifically, I study the role of embedded written documents in these texts. As vernacular cosmopolitans living on the geographical fringes of successive Persian and Hellenistic empires, the Judean authors of Ezra-Nehemiah would have experienced royal power through the medium of written imperial documents like edicts, inscriptions, and epistles and through the activity of the imperially-imposed court system. The Artaxerxes rescript in Ezra 7-10 mimics the form of an imperial edict to claim royal legitimation for the Judean Torah. It invokes a strategically literal “misreading” of propagandistic documents like the Cyrus cylinder that assert Persia’s generous support for local cultways. In so doing, it implicitly questions the universalistic pretentions of the Pax Persica. The covenant renewal document (Neh 10:1-40) is more directly subversive in its colonial mimicry. It follows a lengthy penitential prayer (Neh 9:5b-37) that treats Persian domination as Yahweh’s punishment for Israel’s disobedience to Torah. The embedded document in Neh 10 uses writing, a medium of official control, to assert local autonomy. It mimics the basic form of a binding legal document produced under the auspices of the imperially-sanctioned court system, but it lacks any reference to Persian imperial authority, and it binds the community to the conditions of its ultimate release from imperial domination (i.e., obedience to Torah). I conclude that Ezra 7-10 and Neh 8-10 both reflect the work of vernacular cosmopolitans using colonial forms of mimicry to legitimate Torah as the binding law of the Judean community, but in so doing they express very different relationships between empire and Torah: in Ezra 7-10, Persia sponsors Torah; in Neh 8-10, Torah overcomes empire.


The “Land” in the Syriac and Latin Translations of Pseudo-Clementine Recognition 1:27–71
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
F. Stanley Jones, California State University - Long Beach

The “Land” is a prominent theme in the early Jewish-Christian source preserved in Pseudo-Clementine Recognition 1.27-71. Its Jewish Christian author reiterates the promise of the Old Testament and heightens the claim via the use of the Book of Jubilees. The author asserts that Jesus himself taught the sanctity of Jerusalem. Jewish Christians are stated to have inherited the Land even in contrast to non-Christ-believing Jews. Rufinus of Aquileia, the translator of the Recognition into Latin in ca. 407 C.E., had previously lived on the Mount of Olives for over two decades. As an admirer of Origen, however, Rufinus apparently could not stomach the statements on the Land and Jerusalem he was supposed to translate in Recognition 1. Though he generally performed a literal translation of the Recognition and Constantine had already transformed Jerusalem and Palestine into a Christian Holy City and Land, Rufinus apparently altered the meaning of a number of passages that dealt with the Land and Jerusalem. This paper examines the alterations undertaken by Rufinus with respect to the Land, places them in the context of changing ancient Christian attitudes toward the Land (esp. Eusebius), and then compares the tendency displayed by the Syriac translator of the lost Greek.


How Far Can We Go? Versions of the Greek Bible and the Matthean Fulfilment Citations
Program Unit: Greek Bible
F. Stanley Jones, California State University - Long Beach

Research has long noted the presence of elements corresponding to various versions of the Greek Bible in the Matthean fulfilment citations, even if the most distinctive characteristic of these citations was seen in their apparently direct usage of the Hebrew text. Recent studies have taken up advances in the study of the Greek Bible to postulate that it is no longer necessary to suppose that Matthew’s citations reflect direct work with the Hebrew texts; instead, Matthew’s citations are to be explained simply on the basis of usage of the various versions of the Greek Bible or, more provocatively, on the basis of Matthew’s own particular version (Matthew’s Bible). This paper asks if this evolving consensus is justified. In the light of new knowledge regarding ancient versions of the Greek Bible, it re-sifts the evidence that the Fulfilment Citations constitute a unique corpus within the Gospel of Matthew and asks whether these citations display a unique textual basis and even a general outlook that differs from the author of the gospel. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications the Fulfilment Citations provide for the textual history of the Greek Bible at the end of the first century.


The Image of the Ideal King in the Psalm of David: An Analysis of 2 Sam 23:1–7 in Light of Ancient Near Eastern Parallels
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Jordan Jones, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Toward the close of David’s reign as sole king over the United Monarchy of Judah and Israel, he graces those who read of his memory with an ode to the justice and permanence of his rule in the land. This hymn in 2 Sam 23:1-7 gives David a testament like that of Jacob and Moses. The difference for David, of course, is his established kingship, a role not expressly held by the latter. The language and imagery in this “swan song” of David are not uncommon to other ancient Near Eastern (ANE) monumental royal inscriptions and hymns. By examining several cognate texts, one could conclude that the features of David’s hymn in 2 Samuel 23:1-7 are meant to present an image of kingship that transcends the religious context of David’s Yahwism to communicate a broader understanding of the role of kingship in the ANE. Essentially, this brief poem is presenting for its readers the image of the ideal king. To demonstrate this, one must identify parallel ideologies from parallel texts.


Chronicles in an (Un)changing World: The "Persian Context" in Biblical Studies
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Louis Jonker, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

Robert Rollinger argues the following (in Rollinger, R., 2014. Thinking and Writing about History in Teispid and Achaemenid Persia. In K. A. Raaflaub, ed. Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 187–212, here p. 187):"It is often assumed that with Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon in 539 Mesopotamian history came to an end and a new “Persian” epoch began ... . Yet this opinion causes difficulties because continuity and change appear side-by-side during this time ... Since the Persian Empire was a multiethnic and multicultural conglomerate ..., it is hard to define what may be regarded as genuinely “Persian”; any ethnic interpretation of the extant data seems problematic and anachronistic." Rollinger captures in this quote the present state of insight in the Persian Empire. Although the Persian Empire carried numerous unique features, one should not ignore the continuities with customs and peoples of former imperial regimes, as well as its incorporation of a diversity of ethnic and cultural identities. These insights warn against an “over-interpretation” of the uniqueness of the Persian period, a tendency which often emerges in biblical scholarship. It is, however, understandable that biblical scholars tend to overemphasize the novelty of the Persian period, and see a dramatic break with past conditions in this transfer of imperial power. Biblical writings like Deutero-Isaiah, Haggai, Ezra-Nehemia, as well as the ending of Chronicles indicate how dramatic an experience the transfer to the Persian period must have been for those who were exiled before by the Neo-Babylonians, as well as for those who remained in the land. What stood in the sign of continuity with the past when viewed from the imperial centre signified dramatic discontinuity from the perspective of those on the periphery who were uprooted by the imperial forces. This contribution will examine the implications of these views on Chronicles studies, and studies on related Old Testament historiographies.


Remarks on the Language of the Genesis Apocryphon
Program Unit: Qumran
Jan Joosten, University of Oxford

Despite intensive study, Qumran Aramaic in general and the language of the Genesis Apocryphon in particular still holds much that is obscure and mysterious. Illumination may sometimes be found in rather unexpected places: earlier and contemporary phases of Aramaic, of course, but at times also the later Jewish Targums, the New Testament, or other texts further afield. Seeking out the multiple connections of Qumran Aramaic may be frustrating and time-consuming, but it is also gratifying not least because texts that are brought into dialogue with it are themselves illuminated by the comparison.


Methodological Approaches to Orthodoxy and Heresy in Recent Scholarship
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
David W. Jorgensen, Colby College

More than eighty years after the publication of Walter Bauer’s magnum opus Rechtgla¨ubigkeit und Ketzerei im a¨ltesten Christentum (Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity), we are still struggling with how to responsibly and meaningfully write and speak about Christian orthodoxy and heresy in the period before the great ecumenical councils of the fourth and fifth centuries. One of the most salient features of Bauer’s legacy has been to complicate any discussion of “orthodoxy” and “heresy” as reified historical essences or theological parties. It is now widely (although not universally) recognized that “orthodox” and “heretical” are doctrinally-informed labels rather than neutral descriptors, and so may not be used to describe the various actors, texts, or doctrines in any history that aspires to conform to modern historiographic standards. Despite this awareness, it has proven difficult to speak of subsets of ancient Christianity (or ancient Christians) for which “heretical” and “orthodox” previously served as handy labels. Moreover, isn’t it the case that, as historians, we need to account not only for the diversity of early Christianity, but also the rise of orthodoxy – even in spite of its diachronic mutability? This paper surveys four current methodological strategies for recovering a vocabulary for these phenomena: (1) the notion of “proto-orthodoxy”; (2) the discourse analysis approach, a.k.a. the study of “heresiological representations” or “the rhetoric of heresy”; (3) the contrasting of “heresy” not with “orthodoxy” per se but with legitimate ecclesiastical authority, drawing on the sociology of deviance; and (4) the aggressive repudiation of the Bauer thesis, grounded in disputes with Bauer’s methodology and that of his interpreters. I assess the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of these approaches, and consider whether the pre-Nicene (or pre-Chalcedonian) period differs sufficiently from other periods in Christian history to warrant its own methodological framework for discussing unity and diversity.


Coffee-Hour Role Play
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
David Jorgensen, Colby College

This role-play is designed for MDiv students, and simulates a coffee-hour conversation between a ministerial intern and a congregant, the latter of whom has a question or concern about the topic currently being studied in the class. The activity is a good way to get everyone speaking about that day’s reading as a way of warming up the class for a more academic discussion. It also provides students with practice thinking on their feet, an important skill in ministerial formation, as well as allowing them to draw connections between their academic study of religion and the professional arts for which they are ultimately being trained. It can work with any size class and with the academic study of any theological material. Although this version is designed for ministers-in-training, I will describe ways to adapt it for undergraduates.


The Quest for the ‘Community’ of Q: Mapping Q within the Social, Textual, and Theological Landscape(s) of Second Temple Judaism
Program Unit: Q
Simon J. Joseph, California Lutheran University

Was there a “Q community?” There are many who think that any Quest for a “Q community” is a fool’s errand. To what extent are we justified in extracting a distinctive community or group from a hypothetical text? While the consensus among Q specialists is that Q was composed by Galilean “village scribes,” it remains unclear whether these scribes can (or should) be identified as belonging to any particular social location, group, or community. In this paper, I wish to revisit this vexing question, focusing on several soundings in Q that might allow us to better understand Q’s rhetorical-discursive and symbolic-religious interests vis a vis the central institutions of Early Judaism: the Torah, the Temple, and messianism. In this paper, I intend to identify several distinctive textual coordinates with which we can map Q’s authors, readers, and redactors within the social, textual, and theological landscape(s) of Second Temple Judaism.


A Preliminary Report on the Families of Manuscripts for the Ethiopic Book of Ruth
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Garry Jost, Marylhurst University

As part of the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project (THEOT), a team of colleagues in Ethiopia and USA has carried out a study on the Ethiopic book of Ruth. An electronic base text was produced from Augustus Dillmann’s Biblia Veteris Testamenti Aethiopica, and transcriptions were made of more than thirty manuscripts. Then, the texts were analyzed by computer scripts to identify variants and create a database of statistical information describing the shared variants among the manuscripts. This database was processed by computer scripts to 1) calculate percentages of agreement between each manuscript and each other manuscript, 2) generate a dendrogram (a statistical tool based on hierarchical clustering) to identify the families, 3) determine which readings are best able to identify a manuscript’s family, 4) determine the “family profile” for each manuscript, and 5) identify which manuscript best represents each family. In this presentation we will describe the manuscripts used in the study, methods involved in producing the electronic base text and the digital transcriptions of the manuscripts, and in identifying manuscript families. This study thus offers a contribution to telling the story of the textual history of the Ethiopic Book of Ruth. To better understand the scribal agenda behind these manuscripts, some of the features of the shared variants that determine to which family each of the manuscripts belongs are discussed with respect to the following areas: 1) linguistic (orthographic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical/semantic); 2) historical; and 3) theological. A brief discussion on future directions for our research will conclude the presentation.


Orthographic Variation in Ethiopic Obadiah: A Test Case in Methodology
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Garry Jost, Marylhurst University

The Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project (THEOT) has carried out studies on the textual history of a number of Ethiopic Old Testament books. These studies have normalized the following sets of sound-alike letters: hoi, haut, harm (h sounds); alph, ayn; saut, sat (s sounds) ; and tsaday, dsappa (ts sounds). Generally also considered the same are first and fourth order vowels for alph, and first and fourth order vowels for ayn. In order to investigate the orthographic history of the Ethiopic Old Testament, this paper focuses on those sound-alike letters, which have been previously set aside. The goal of this paper is to contribute to the larger discussion concerning the orthographic character of the Ethiopic Old Testament. For this study, we used Ethiopic Obadiah as a test case to develop the necessary methodology by extending the computer scripts used in other THEOT studies. We created an algorithm to generate three databases that specified the variants: one that contains only orthographic variants, another where the Ge`ez text is normalized, and a final one where it is not. At this point we used existing THEOT computer scripts to generate dendrograms (a statistical tool based on hierarchical clustering) for each database to identify the families of manuscripts. We then programmatically compared the three dendrograms to determine what connections there are between the orthographic character of the manuscripts and their textual history. The methodology was then adjusted to study orthographic change chronologically by comparing earlier manuscripts with later manuscripts. This study contributes to THEOT’s goal of telling the textual history of the Ethiopic Old Testament. A brief discussion on future directions for our research will conclude the presentation.


A Gender Agenda? Exploring the Politics of Biblical Art
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Christine Joynes, University of Oxford

What can the reception of the Bible in art contribute to our task of textual interpretation? My paper tackles this question by exploring issues of gender and identity, focusing particularly on representations of different women from Mark’s Gospel in art, and contrasting male and female artists’ portrayals of these women. Depictions of the infamous dancing daughter (Mk 6.17-29), are juxtaposed with less well-known images of Jairus’ daughter, the haemorrhaging woman, pushy mothers and the women at the empty tomb, to reveal the complex yet vital role that art has to play in challenging gender constructions from a variety of perspectives.


Minor Agreements in Luke 8:9–10 and Luke’s Source for the Verses
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Chang Wook Jung, Chongshin University

A number of the minor agreements occur in Lk 8:9-10 and its parallel passage in Mt 13:10-11,13 against the Markan parallel in 4:10-12. To enlist them, 1) the noun maqhtai,;(disciples) 2) the absence of ‘circular’ language, i.e., the expression which ‘puts Jesus or his disciples at the center of a circle.’; 3) O` de (avpokriqei,j) ei=pen;(and he said) 4) the infinitive form ????a? (to know); 5) plural form of ‘mysteries’; 6) participle + negative particle + verb in v. 10 in the i[na clause (purpose clause). This study investigates the minor agreements and the differences between Lk 8:9-10 and the parallel passages in Mark and Matthew and attempt to determine whether Luke was dependent of Mark and the so-called Q or another source. The study demonstrates that the minor agreements in this passage are too significant to be ignored or regarded as happening by coincidence. Accumulated evidence of minor agreements evidences that Luke and Matthew did not consult Mark as a source for the composition of the passage in Lk 8:9-10.


Quantifying Christianization of the Roman Empire: A Computational Replication and Extension
Program Unit: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Vojtech Kaše, University of Helsinki - Masaryk University

Although there is not too much primary data concerning Christianization of the Roman Empire, demographical, ecologic and economic estimations informed by social-scientific and cognitive theorizing enable us to evaluate possible trajectories of this process (Stark 1996, 2006; Hopkins 1998). Adding into the picture the estimations concerning seasoneal costs of travelling through the Roman empire around the year 100 CE (Scheidel 2014), this paper aims to replicate this process in an artificial computational environment while using the method of agent-based modelling. On the contrary to the equotion-based approach adopted by Stark and others, the agent-based modelling does enable us also to implement the factors which could confound the proposed process of gradual Christianization (e.g. massive conversions or a decline of Christian population after the periods of persecutions) and to consider their influence on the overall process. Further, potential extensions of the model is discussed, and, finally, its potential for the study of diffusion of early Christian religious innovations is introduced.


Rectifying Incongruity: Redescribing Paul and the Law with Roman Legal Fiction
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
David A. Kaden, St. Olaf College

Paul’s rhetorical strategy in Romans 2:25-29 appears to be to denigrate his implied Judean interlocutor, and thereby to elevate the status of Christ-believing gentiles. To succeed in making his case, Paul tries to destabilize the distinction between Judeans and non-Judeans around the issue of circumcision: he refers to “uncircumcised” people who “keep the requirements of the law” (v. 26; cf. Rom 8:4). But this creates tension in his argument: how can an uncircumcised person be reckoned as a law keeper when circumcision is itself a precept of Judean law (so Stowers)? Interpreters have done their best to ease this tension. Some have argued that Paul is accentuating the primacy of the law’s spirit or true intent over the law’s letter; gentiles keep the former by faith (e.g., Wolter, Barrett, Cranfield). Others have suggested that Romans 2 has in view righteous gentiles who observe part of Judean law (e.g., Nanos, Leenhardt). More extreme proposals include dismissing the passage as not Pauline (e.g., Sanders), arguing that it envisions a merely hypothetical scenario (e.g., Kuss, Wilckens), or suggesting that Paul has reduced the law to a set of moral provisions (e.g., Schreiner). Each proposal tries to evade the fact that Paul is speaking of full law observance by gentiles without circumcision (cf. Donaldson, Boyarin). But such observance is, strictly speaking, impossible (so Käsemann). Paul’s assertion that an uncircumcised person can be reckoned as a law keeper is problematic for many scholars primarily because the point of comparison is Paul’s relationship to his contemporaries in early Judaism. Paul’s views seem anomalous (e.g., Barclay) or even sui generis (e.g., Wright) when compared with this setting. This paper proposes a shift in focus away from examining Paul vis-à-vis Judaism, and toward a comparative reading of Paul that examines his treatment of law as part of a well documented, cross-cultural process in the study of religion known as rectifying incongruity (e.g., J.Z. Smith). The incongruity for Paul is the reckoning of gentiles as members of Abraham’s family apart from law, while still maintaining the importance of law for his Christ groups. When Paul asserts in Romans 2:26 that an uncircumcised person who keeps the precepts of the law will have his uncircumcision looked upon as if it were circumcision, he asserts what scholars of Roman legal history might refer to as a legal fiction (e.g., Ando); that is, gentiles are reckoned as if they were fully law observant without actually being so. This fictive observance accomplishes analogously what Roman jurists sought to accomplish by means of their use of the fictio, namely, to accommodate Roman law to the incongruities generated by conquest by treating litigants in newly acquired territories as if they were citizens (so Ando). The point of the comparison is not to suggest that Paul deployed legal fiction like a Roman jurist, but rather to argue that Paul’s accommodation of Judean law is not unique; it can be seen as part of a recognized cultural pattern known as rectifying incongruity.


Gender-Bending Jeremiah
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Amy Kalmanofsky, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

David J. A. Clines argues that biblical prophecy is “a masculine project,” and that prophetic masculinity fundamentally is tied to God’s masculinity. Though I agree that a prophet’s gender identity is tied to God’s masculinity, I argue that Jeremiah exhibits gender-fluidity. Jeremiah assumes a male perspective when he engages with Israel and enacts God’s rage and a female perspective when he engages with God and submits to his role as God’s prophet. I examine three related passages in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1, 15, 20) that manifest Jeremiah’s gender-fluidity particularly through their incorporation of body imagery. My analyses of these passages show that the feminine and masculine perspectives exist in tension with each other—both for the prophet who experiences them, and for God who interacts with them. At times the prophet resists his feminine nature, while God insists upon it. Other times, God urges Jeremiah to act like a man, but Jeremiah presents himself in the feminine position. Like Clines, I contend that Jeremiah’s gender fluidity is tied to God’s masculinity, and argue that to be intimate with God, Jeremiah must compromise his masculinity.


Observation in Rabbinic Literature of Late Antiquity
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Richard Kalmin, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

OBSERVATION IN RABBINIC LITERATURE OF LATE ANTIQUITY The rabbis of late antiquity certainly drew conclusions based on observation, even if their conclusions were often faulty and based on what would today be considered pseudo-scientific proofs. For the purposes of this study I am interested in cases where observations, even faulty observations, trumped or were quoted in opposition to biblical or rabbinic traditions, for example promises of reward, as well as instances where observations of reality are depicted as forcing a change in halakhah, medical practice, Jewish astrological assertions, theological conceptions, and the like. It is hoped that this will give us a window into changing rabbinic evaluations of reality-based observations, especially compared to the authority that rabbis conferred upon scriptural exegesis and rabbinic tradition. Finally, I am interested in cases where halakhot, aggadot, or medical cures are rejected because they are found to be based on a faulty foundation. That is, the earlier medical cure does not work, a promise of reward fails, or the halakhah depends on human or animal behavior or physiology, the nature of the cosmos, and the like, which prove to be false and are therefore rejected. We concluded that reality based objections and cures based on observation achieve literary expression in the Babylonian Talmud almost exclusively from the late-third and early-fourth century CE until the final editing of the Talmud. Subsequent studies will hopefully reveal whether or not these developments are part of a larger change in Babylonian rabbinic appreciation of the importance of the evidence of one’s senses and the observation of reality, and whether we find evidence of a comparable change in surrounding cultures. In addition, we concluded that the rabbis recognized that medical cures and halakhah belonged to different categories since they had unique futures that distinguished one from the other. For example, rabbis were willing to transmit multiple versions of cures, acknowledging that they did not always work and therefore supplying alternative cures in the event of failure. This was virtually never the case with regard to halakhah, with only one exception. Recent studies that have emphasized the inextricability of halakhah and aggadah need to take this conclusion into account and further nuance their claims, since at least in one area we find objective criteria by which to distinguish between the two realms, as well as proof that the rabbi


The "Law of Jealousy" in Num 5:11–31: The Issue of Jealousy and Presumed Guilt
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Jina Kang, Fuller Theological Seminary

The ritual in Numbers 5:11-31 describes a “bitter” ritual by which an accused woman’s guilt or innocence is presumably determined. The accusation of adultery against the woman is preempted by her husband’s suspicions when proof of that adultery is unavailable. The prerequisite for the enactment of the ritual and the overt function of the ritual, then, is to 1) determine the guilt or innocence of the accused woman and 2) to assuage the jealous suspicions of her husband. However, these two functions are overladen with rhetorical strategies to subvert the objective process of fulfilling the second function in order to fulfill the primacy of the first one. As a result, the ritual is enacted with the presumption of the woman’s guilt intended to assuage her husband’s unfounded and, perhaps even, imagined jealous suspicions. While many analyses of Numbers 5:11-31 focus on the woman and her presumed indiscretion, a rhetorical critical approach employed through the lens of feminist criticism intends to hold in tension the overt claims of the text and its subversive claims. The rhetorical strategies of the text subvert the function of the ritual to determine the woman’s guilt over and against the intent to offer comfort to a husband driven mad with unfounded suspicions. This is not a ritual concerning the so?a, for there may be none present, but a ritual for a husband looking for validation of (imagined) violation.


?araba Mathal ("He Propounded a Proverb"): The Ideology of Arabic Proverbs and the Biblical Book of Proverbs
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Benjamin Kantor, University of Texas at Austin

It has long been acknowledged that the comparative method can provide us with valuable insight into the book of Proverbs. Other ancient Near Eastern (ANE) wisdom literature in Egypt (e.g., Amenemope), Mesopotamia (e.g., Shuruppak), and Syria (e.g., A?iqar) dominated the scholarly conversation for some time. Eventually, the discussion expanded to include proverbs in modern oral cultures (e.g., African proverbs). However, what is largely lacking in the comparative approach to Proverbs is a wisdom tradition which far exceeds the ANE wisdom literature in quantity, namely Arabic proverbs (amthal) and maxims (?ikam). While the field should be grateful for Riad Aziz Kassis's relatively recent work, The Book of Proverbs and Arabic Proverbial Works (1999), there is certainly more to be gleaned from the Arabic literary tradition. In fact, the sheer vastness of the corpus not only provides a wealth of comparative material, but also contains a greater depth of discussion regarding proverbs themselves. This provides us with a clearer window into the ideology, role, and social function of proverbs in a language and society which does not vastly differ from that of ancient Israel. Accordingly, in this paper I will focus particularly on the ideology of proverbs in the Arabic literary tradition in comparison with the biblical book of Proverbs. By describing the ideology regarding proverbs (amthal) and maxims (?ikam) as expressed in a wide array of texts (proverb compilations, advice literature, poetry, letters, etc.) we can gain insight into the motivation for compiling and collecting proverbs (compare Prov 25:1), their didactic relevance, and most distinctly their actual role and status in the society. In these regards, the Arabic literary tradition can help us broaden our perspective and deepen our understanding of the ideology and status of proverbs in ancient Israel as well.


Sefer Mosheh or Sefer Morashah? Reconsidering "the Torah" in 4QMMT
Program Unit:
Jonathan Kaplan, University of Texas at Austin

*


How Song of Songs Became a Divine Love Song: A New Proposal
Program Unit: Megilloth
Jonathan Kaplan, The University of Texas at Austin

The origin of the interpretation of Song of Songs as a description of God’s relationship with his beloved community, either Israel or the church, has been an ongoing problem in the study of this short biblical work and its history of interpretation. Some have argued that it is inherent to the work’s composition. Others have located its transformation from secular love song to divine love song in the socio-political transformations that occurred in Jewish society during the Second Temple period. Still others have situated its development in the process of incorporating Song of Songs into the canon of ancient Israelite scripture. This paper examines the deficiencies of these earlier proposals and offers another option: the language and imagery of the Northwest Semitic combat myth in Song 8:6b-8:7a, which identifies love with YHWH as the victorious divine warrior, triggers the interpretation of Song of Songs as a divine love song. This argument receives additional support from the earliest interpretations of Song of Songs in 4 Ezra and Revelation, which interpret Song of Songs in the context of apocalyptic discourses that likewise draw heavily on the combat myth.


An Intersectional Approach to Metaphorical Slavery
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Marianne Bjelland Kartzow, Universitetet i Oslo

By re-reading New Testament text passages in which slavery language is put in the mouth of two young women this paper will explore the complex relation between slavery in metaphorical language and slavery as a social institution with effects on real peoples’ lives. First case is Mary of Nazareth, who calls herself a slave of the Lord (Luke 2:26-38) and second case is the Python possessed slave girl in Acts who cries out that Paul and his men are slaves of the Most high God (Acts 16:16-18). How are categories such as age, gender and class contributing to construct slavery, in real life or in metaphorical language? Relations between God and humans, Jesus and God or between believers are described by use of slavery language in biblical texts. It has been suggested that the frequent use of metaphorical slavery builds on the Hebrews suffering as slaves in Egypt, the experience of military prisoners, or the social institution of slavery in the Greco-Roman world. By help of recent metaphor theories and intersectional studies these suggestions will be tested and developed. How does it influence the meaning of slavery if young women or female slaves use such metaphorical language?


Dormition Urtext? Earliest Dormition Wall Painting Combines the Great Angel and Women with Censers
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Ally Kateusz, University of Missouri - Kansas City

In 2007 K.C. Innemée and Y.N. Youssef published a tenth-century wall painting of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in the monastery church of Deir al-Surian. This painting depicts Mary on her deathbed as seen in later Dormition iconography, but it contains unexpected variants. First, the central figure in the usual place of Christ is a great angel with large red-tipped wings. Second, instead of the twelve male apostles, six women with censers surround Mary’s deathbed. This early iconography thus combines key elements found in two ancient Dormition traditions; the oldest so-called “palm” Dormition narrative depicted Christ as a Great Angel and the oldest “censers” Dormition manuscript (published by Agnes Smith Lewis) depicted women bringing Mary censers. No published Dormition manuscript contains both the Great Angel and the women with censers, but I propose this painting may reflect an Urtext that did. Certain literary artifacts suggest that both traditions could have emerged from a single older tradition. For example, Stephen J. Shoemaker has shown that originally women were depicted with Mary when she died, but that later scribes replaced the women with men. In another example, the oldest “palm” narrative depicted the Great Angel giving Mary a secret book and telling her to give it to the apostles – and the oldest “censers” narrative depicted Mary giving books to women to carry to their homes around the Mediterranean. Later scribes, however, typically redacted the books. Finally, the oldest “censers” narrative said Mary set out the censer of incense to God, taught, disputed, exorcised, healed, sealed, sprinkled water, and led the prayer – but later scribes independently redacted these markers, diminishing the depiction of her church authority. The trajectory of this censorship could account for two Dormition text traditions rising from a single Urtext such as depicted in this wall painting.


“Lead Me Forth in Peace”: Rabbinic Rituals of Travel in the Roman World
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Fordham University

The Mishnah’s tractate on blessings (Berakhot) mentions the wayfarer’s prayer: “One who enters a fortified city should pray twice, once on his entrance and once on his exit” (9:4). The passage is followed by a more philosophical rendition, in which one is required not only to pray for one’s entry and exit, but also more generally for that which has passed and that which awaits in the future. Travel in late antiquity was often a perilous endeavor, and this set of prayers taps into the web of fears associated with even the most local of journeys: encountering natural dangers, human enemies, deviant religious practices, and competing intellectual ideas. The imagined origins of the wayfarer’s prayer develop in interesting ways in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. For example, the command to recite prayers of travel are attributed to Elijah, who advises Rav Judah, brother of R. Sala the Pious, to seek the counsel of God before leaving for a journey. The prayer also parallels prayers that were to be recited upon entering and exiting a Roman bath house. Drawing on previous scholarship on travel in the late antique Mediterranean by Lionel Casson on the practicalities of travel, David Frankfurter on pilgrimage, Philip Harland on religion and travel, Catherine Heszer on Jewish travel and specifically the “halakhah” of travel, and others, this paper traces the development of and the discussions surrounding the wayfarer’s prayer in rabbinic sources and places rabbinic rituals of travel in conversation with contemporaneous Greco-Roman rituals of travel.


Yahweh’s Promise to David and Textual Criticism
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Tuukka Kauhanen, University of Helsinki

Yahweh’s promise of an eternal kingdom for David (2 Sam 7:11b–16) contains a number of differences between the textual witnesses: Will Yahweh make a house for David or the other way round? Will the temple be built for Yahweh’s name or for Yahweh himself? Will Yahweh establish forever the throne of David’s offspring or the throne of the kingdom? Should Saul be mentioned in v. 15 or not? Finally, is the question of David’s kingdom or the kingdom of David’s offspring - and does it make any difference? The paper provides an analysis of the problems in light of all the attainable and, as yet, unpublished textual data in order to see how textual criticism contributes to the literary and redaction critical theories about the origin of the passage.


Diagnosing Kaige
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Tuukka Kauhanen, University of Helsinki

Certain textual phenomena found in a large set of witnesses for the Septuagint are widely recognized as kaige features, i.e., they were brought about by the kaige revision at about the turn of the era. As of yet there is not a complete list of such features and in individual cases it can be highly difficult to tell for certain if a reading is a kaige reading or not. This paper introduces a diagnostic approach for recognizing kaige readings in Samuel-Kings. I propose a set of criteria for assessing how well a given reading fits the supposed kaige tendencies. I will present statistical data of the frequency of the kaige readings in selected test chapters and assess how the estimations of the relative frequency of different types of secondary readings may affect the critical decisions.


Sacrifice in the Pentateuch: Four Views
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Robert Kawashima, University of Florida

As Wellhausen noted long ago, the Priestly Code has generally furnished “the normative scheme for modern accounts of” biblical sacrifice. Relatedly, scholars have tended to search for the common or central function of Israelite sacrifice, which is thought to constitute or belong to a single coherent system. What has been neglected as a result is the diversity of sacrificial forms, and their corresponding theologies, espoused by the Pentateuchal sources. Four in particular merit discussion. P’s sacrificial system, epitomized by the rituals performed on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), maintained the purity of the tabernacle and, more generally, of the camp or nation. If sacrifice according to the Priestly Torah is, as Israel Knohl has argued, unilaterally commanded by YHWH, without any reciprocal expectation of divine blessing, the so-called Yahwist views sacrifice as a human invention, an improvised response to God’s disappearance. Thus, Cain and Abel, YHWH’s neighbors to the east of Eden, spontaneously “bring offerings” to their parents’ former landlord (Gen 4:3-5); later, when YHWH has forsaken earth for heaven, Noah will similarly offer the first “burnt offerings” (Gen 8:20-22). In both cases, sacrifice constitutes what anthropologists call “gift exchange”: Abel’s offering wins YHWH’s “regard”; the smoke of Noah’s burnt offerings “pleases” YHWH, who in exchange vows never again to destroy all life. “The Binding of Isaac” (Gen 22) suggests yet another view. As in P, this sacrifice is demanded by God, but now it takes the form of a substitution, thanks to which human life is ransomed from an implacable divine negation. Finally, Deuteronomic law disenchants sacrifice altogether. It no longer functions as a metaphysical transaction — as purification, as ransom — nor as a reciprocal exchange — as though humans were capable of offering a gift that God might somehow benefit from or enjoy. It is merely and purely an expression of thanksgiving, a ritual of “rejoicing” (Deut 12).


A Perhaps Less Halakic Jesus and Purity: On Prophetic Criticism, Halakic Innovation, and Rabbinic Anachronism
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Thomas Kazen, Stockholm School of Theology

The development of purity halakah during the Second Temple period is a process full of complicated and contested issues. During this period, a number of practices and interpretations evolved, such as first-day ablutions and separate hand impurity, which were related to views that thought of impurity and purification as graded processes. Purity issues in the Jesus tradition can hardly be discussed apart from these developments. This is especially the case with the hand-washing narrative (Mark 7 / Matt 15). Today, many interpretations claim that Jesus defended biblical law against recent innovations. This paper suggests that some common assumptions about rabbinic discussions which are supposed to reflect recent developments, are anachronistic, and that certain practices assumed to be innovations at the time of Jesus, were not necessarily understood as such. When tracing the development of purity halakah from Qumran to the rabbis, we need to consider the way in which arguments and interpretations evolved over time along several axes, such as Scripture versus tradition and realism versus nominalism (cf. Daniel Schwartz, Aharon Shemesh, and others). The paper employs a methodology which applies such tools to the sources. The results suggest a level of halakic development in the late Second Temple period which does not support claims that Jesus defended Scripture against recent innovations. Jesus' stance could in fact be understood more along the lines of prophetic criticism than as a result of rabbinic halakic debate.


A Classless Sect? Q's Woes against the Pharisees and the Material Imprint of Jewish Elites
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
G. Anthony Keddie, University of Texas at Austin

If the Q source did not repeatedly name the Pharisees in its most sustained invective (11:39b-44, 46-52), one could safely suppose that its specific criticisms were waged against priestly elites. With its focus on the Pharisees’ preoccupation with tithing, purity of tableware, burial practices, and prestigious positions at banquets, synagogues, and marketplaces, Q’s indictment smacks of polemics against priestly elites like those in the Testament of Moses (7:3-10) and Tosefta (Mena?ot 13.21; cf. b. Pesa?im 57a). Moreover, archaeological evidence increasingly reveals the existence of galvanizing class distinctions in the first century CE that separated elites (including priestly elites) and non-elites along precisely these lines. While the elite Jewish material imprint evinces Eastern Terra Sigillata A tableware, varied oil lamps, domestic architecture with banqueting spaces, and ossuaries and monumental tombs for burial, non-elite Jews largely eschewed Eastern Terra Sigillata A, almost exclusively used Jerusalem-imported “Herodian” oil lamps, had much more modest houses, and buried their dead in trench graves. This corroboration of textual and archaeological data provides a substantial foundation for analyzing class distinctions in late Second Temple Judaea, in spite of the general distaste for class analysis among ancient historians in recent decades. In this paper, I follow an emergent group of scholars by adapting Pierre Bourdieu’s understanding of class distinctions as subjective and socially habituated, but economically overdetermined, for sociohistorical analysis of first century Judaea. In situating Q’s anti-Pharisaic polemic in its mid-first century Galilean setting, I contend that it testifies to a pre-Destruction local view of Pharisees as a contingent of the ruling classes. Whereas scholars often depict the Sadducees as economically and politically powerful, but the Pharisees as only religiously and socially influential, I maintain that Q and the archaeological record do not allow for such a neat bifurcation of power. After addressing several issues in textual reconstruction, I demonstrate that scholarship concerned with redescribing the Pharisees simply as a “sect” (i.a., Overman) or “retainer class” (i.a., Saldarini) cannot make sense of the socioeconomic critique in these woes. Rather, material evidence demonstrates that the class habitus Q objectifies is that of elites, thereby cautioning against a rigid separation between Pharisees and the aristocracy. The problem, however, is that there is no specific archaeological record of Galilean Pharisees before 70, and the sources of their wealth are difficult to determine. This paper proposes on the basis of Q, Josephus, and recent archaeological evidence that Galilean Pharisees were elites who lived in cities and in village mansions like those at Yodefat. I argue that most of their wealth must have derived from land tenancy. Through a critical analysis of Q’s description of Pharisaic tithing, I further suggest that Q alludes to collaboration and fluidity between the priestly elites and Pharisaic elites in the political-economic promotion of tithing from crop yields. Thus, Q’s depiction of the Galilean Pharisaic class habitus indicates a socioeconomic situation proximate to the priestly elites and implies Pharisaic concern with tithing and land tenure—two structures that facilitated the socioeconomic asymmetry from which the Pharisees benefited.


Economic Justice and Food Security in Romans
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Sylvia C. Keesmaat, Trinity College - Toronto

Power, privilege and economic control have shaped food systems and food access throughout history. Ancient Rome was no different. If, as is now widely accepted, the communities to which Paul wrote in Rome included those who lived at and below subsistence levels, what impact did this have on the common meals that these communities shared? Building on previous work that argues that Romans has economic justice as a foundational theme, this paper will explore questions of food access and economic justice in light of Romans 14 and 15. Not only does Paul use terminology from his scriptures in these chapters that evokes a context of economic want and exploitation, he also employs terms that are widely acknowledged to denote social status in imperial Roman society. When this language in Romans 14 and 15 is interpreted in light of Paul’s similar terminology earlier in the letter, we discover a complex and tightly woven argument that creates a delicate balance of countercultural welcome in the face of economic disparity and ethnic difference. Read in light of the poverty that shaped the lives of many of those whom Paul was addressing in Rome, we see that Paul’s argument moves beyond a narrow “theological” context and is rooted, rather, in the challenges faced by those for whom access to food was truly a matter of life and death.


The Thematic Exposition of Bible in Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer
Program Unit: Midrash
Katharina Keim, University of Manchester

Pirqei deRabbi Eliezer (PRE) has long been regarded as a curious appendix to classical Midrashim, different in form and content from earlier Rabbinic works. The text has been related to a range of intertexts, including classic Rabbinic literature, the Pseudepigrapha, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. This paper will argue that the Hebrew Bible is by far the most important of PRE’s intertexts, for several reasons. It is the only text that PRE explicitly acknowledges as a written text. It explicitly quotes from Hebrew Bible over 600 times, in ways that suggest it regards it as the supreme authority in religious life, and these quotations permeate the work. PRE structures itself in part on an exposition of topics and themes in Genesis and Exodus, which form the subtext of the work, though every other book of the Bible is quoted by it at least once, with spikes of interest in Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Proverbs. There are also numerous quotations from the Psalms, a fact that is consonant with later interest in that book as evidenced by Midrash Psalms and Targum Psalms. PRE keys thematic discourses into its Biblical exposition, a number of which concern the Torah itself. Given its centrality in Rabbinic theology, it is hardly surprising that Torah should be a major theme of a work such as PRE, and much of its teaching of the subject is traditional. However, PRE’s choice of traditions about the Torah and its treatment of these are instructive, and reflect the originality and creativity of the work. This paper will analyse three thematic discourses on Torah in PRE, concerning: (i) the role of Torah in the creation of the world; (ii) the conversation between God and Torah that took place prior to the creation of Adam; and (iii) the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. An analysis of these discourses will provide new insight into the breadth of PRE’s intertextual relationship with Bible, and will throw light on the dialectic within PRE between tradition and innovation.


Orality, Scribality, and the Concept of the Early Jesus Tradition
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Werner Kelber, Rice University

This paper seeks to draw attention to a seriously restricted concept of the early Jesus tradition, with the aim of recapturing its fuller media profile. A first part considers the oral factor, acknowledging the majority of speaking people as carriers and users of the tradition. A second part explores the scribal factor, reviewing the operations of the early papyrological tradition which have been the focus of text criticism. A final part will develop the historical, theological, and ethical implications of the expanded concept of the early Jesus tradition. 1) The paper will contend that the vast majority of the early followers of Jesus lived in the oral medium. Oral communication -- be it through informal channels of ordinary conversations or via recollections of Jesus – is what everyone in the early movement is bound to have practiced. In a real sense it was the people’s tradition. It is well understood that we cannot recover the voices which have fallen silent without leaving any physical traces. But we can raise consciousness about the existence of the speaking tradition in order to correct the concept of the early tradition and thereby learn to understand the papyrological tradition in its appropriate media context. 2) The paper will secondly examine text criticism’s conventional treatment of tradition. It will be contended that built into text criticism is a strategy of exclusionism. The text critical vocabulary abounds in terms such as scribal error, orthodox corruption, misreading, contamination, ignorant copyists, misunderstandings, misquoting, alterations, and many, many more. In most instances, the ultimate arbiter in discriminating between what is accep-table and what is unacceptable tradition is the archetypal text, the critical edition. Until very recently, the so-called original text in its ongoing constructed existence was the principal motivation for relegating the majority of variant versions to the netherworld of the critical apparatus. This paper therefore concludes that both the majority of speaking people and the majority of textual variants were excluded from the concept of the early Jesus tradition. Recently, John Dagenais, Kim Haines-Eitzen, Eldon Jay Epp and David C. Parker have challenged text criticism’s exclusionary procedures. Their argument has been that all textual variants ought to be considered on equal terms, and not with respect to their suitability for the standard text. 3) The historical implication of the unrestricted approach to tradition is that as historians we ought not to judge and marginalize large parts of the tradition, but to acknowledge and describe it in its vital fullness. Theologically, the paper contends that the roots of the depreciation of tradition in the interest of the biblical text lie in the Protestant Reformation’s rejection of tradition in favor of sola scriptura. It is finally contended that text criticism, often considered an esoteric sub-discipline reserved for the few experts, in fact raises an ethical question of some profundity: are we going to view tradition as an exclusive, or an inclusive force.


Moral Injury as a New Lens for Reading Biblical Warfare Texts
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Brad Kelle, Point Loma Nazarene University

The notion of moral injury has recently emerged as a diagnostic and interpretive category within contemporary psychology, military studies, and clinical literature. Moral injury refers to the deleterious effects of war participation on moral conscience and ethical conceptions—the wrecking of a person’s fundamental assumptions about “what’s right” and how things should work in the world that may result from a sense of having violated one’s core moral identity and lost any reliable, meaningful world in which to live. Work on moral injury has applied the category to the interpretation of various kinds of literary texts and war-related practices, with a special eye toward how this injury is experienced and what practices might lead to its healing. This paper explores how, if at all, the emerging category of moral injury may provide a new heuristic lens for interpreting biblical warfare texts. The paper will consider the different aspects of moral injury and how they can illuminate the responses to warfare and violence that appear in texts related to Iron Age Israel and Hellenistic Judaea. Moral injury may especially provide a new way to understand the portrayals of particular warriors and their actions, as well as the functions of various rituals related to warfare in the biblical texts.


Jesus as an Autonomous Miracle–Worker in Mark
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Andrew J. Kelley, University of Edinburgh

A wide variety of proposals offered attempting to understand Jesus as a miracle-worker in the first century from the popular "Theios Aner" archetype put forth by Wrede, Weeden, Perrin (among others) to Vermes' "Charismtic Holy Men." This paper is interested in how the Gospel of Mark depicts Jesus as a miracle–worker who performs his miracles without prayer or deferment of any kind – a characteristic which is relatively unique to Jesus. After a brief introduction, this paper will outline what it means for a miracle–worker to defer and will provide a relevant example from Philo's De Vita Mosis. It will then outline a number of observations that have resulted from a thorough study investigating miracle–working throughout both Jewish narratives and magical materials leading up to and contemporary with the Gospel of Mark. The time constraints prevent detailed discussion from select examples. These observations show that Human miracle–workers in the Second Temple milieu have a complex relationship with God. They partner together with him in a variety of ways to perform miracles, but throughout all of the literature, from the Septuagint to the condensed summaries in Sirach, Jubilees, and The Lives of the Prophets, to the more hellenized revisions offered by Josephus and Philo, God is always the source of miracles. So this partnership, typically, is one of hierarchy and dispensed power. The last section of the paper will examine three pericope in Mark where Jesus performs miracles autonomously (as he always does in Mark’s gospel), in distinction from other miracle–workers depicted in his time and from other characters in the Gospel of Mark itself who defer, or are told to defer, in order to perform miracles. In the first two cases, Jesus performs miracles without deferment and this autonomous miracle–working coordinates with other elements of the pericope to communicate more about Jesus' identity and unique authority in the Gospel. In the case of the healing of the paralytic (2.1-12), the miracle is connected to the forgiveness of sins, an action of Jesus often the subject of studies involving Markan Christology. In the case of the casting out of the demon at Gerasenes (5.1-20), the demon attempts to compel Jesus by use of what appears to be magical ritual setting the stage for talking about Jesus' identity in more syncretistic terms. In the final passage, Jesus as a miracle–worker is contrasted with the disciples as miracle–workers. Special attention is given to the fact that Jesus, who does not pray in order to perform the miracle, instructs his disciples to pray. A brief conclusion with some final yet tentative remarks about Jesus’ identity in the Gospel of Mark is provided.


A Case for Identity: Ezekiel 16, Juridical Diction, and Judahite Identity
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Joel B. Kemp, Boston College

Biblical scholars have noted the presence of juridical diction and legal images within the prophetic corpus of the Hebrew Bible, including the book of Ezekiel. In recent years, scholars increasingly recognize that Ezekiel is a valuable resource for understanding how Judahite identity evolved under Babylonian, and later Persian, hegemony. Although scholars acknowledge the presence of legal elements in Ezekiel and that the book is a valuable source for investigating Judahite identity, few have examined the relationship between the two subjects. Specifically, how these legal elements inform the rhetorical logic of Ezekiel’s project of identity formation has not been investigated fully. The purpose of this paper is to address this question through an examination of Ezekiel 16. Building upon the insights of scholars like Meir Malul, I contend that Ezekiel 16 uses juridical diction and legally significant imagery as part of its rhetorical strategy to make a case for a specific conceptualization of Judahite identity. Ezekiel 16 argues that the severe punishment of the ???? community is neither the result of divine abandonment nor evidence of the nullification of the covenant between YHWH and his people. Rather, it responds to those who may have argued that the punishment is evidence that the covenant was revoked with a review of Israel’s “legal history” to demonstrate the continuing validity and enforceability of the covenant. This covenant was and, in the aftermath of Babylon’s conquest of Judah, can be the mechanism by which Judahites could affirm an identity that was not a tenuous, fragile, and legally unprotected status on the margins of ancient Near Eastern society. Instead, this covenant is the means by which Judahite identity can be secure, prosperous, and even exalted under YHWH’s legal custodianship. Lastly, I assert that the legal framework of this chapter illumines from a different angle some of the troubling elements that have (rightly) disturbed many scholars. In particular, I argue that this legal framework provides a rationale for this chapter’s insistence that “the punishment fits the crime” and conceives Jerusalem’s silence as the legal response to the veracity of the charges delineated in Ezekiel 16.


Timothy in Ephesus? First Timothy, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Acts of Timothy Reconsidered
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Meira Z. Kensky, Coe College

This paper will analyze the way Timothy’s association with Ephesus is remembered and constructed in early Christian literature. While 1 Timothy imagines Timothy as an Ephesus-based administrator, and Eusebius tells us that the tradition holds Timothy as the first bishop of that city (Eus., Hist. Eccl. 3.4), other texts are ambiguous at best on this issue. The lack of a clear association between Timothy and Ephesus in the Acts of the Apostles is particularly striking. In addition to having ambiguous presence throughout Acts 19, Timothy is not located in Ephesus during the riot (19:23-41), and is also not named as present in the speech to the Ephesian elders in 20:17-38. Since many people think that Acts might have been written in Ephesus, Timothy’s absence during the Ephesian ministry is even more notable. Should we infer from Timothy’s absence that he was not really associated with Ephesus at all, and that this is a later invention by the author of 1 Timothy? The Acts of John, also set in Ephesus, is entirely silent not only on the presence of Timothy, but on the presence of any early Christian there before John, erasing the record of Pauline presence in the city. Ephesus is thus contested territory. And while the early tradition is ambiguous, the Acts of Timothy, a late addition to the corpus of Apocryphal Acts, details exactly how Paul ordained Timothy as Ephesus’ first bishop, and then narrates Timothy’s violent death during a pagan festival there. The text also talks about John’s activities in the city, and thus represents an attempt to harmonize early Christian traditions about this crucial center of early Christianity, who was working there at the same time, and what their relationship was to each other. Studying the way the Acts of Timothy paints its portrait of Timothy’s leadership and violent death in the city can shed light both on the memory of this crucial tradent as well as the memory of the city itself. What is gained in 1 Timothy by locating Timothy in Ephesus? And what is gained by having him die there in the Acts of Timothy?


The "Theology" of the Book of Haggai
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
John Kessler, Tyndale Seminary, Toronto

This paper will discuss the key theological motifs articulated in the Book of Haggai through an evaluation of various historical, exegetical, and redactional issues critical to its interpretation, yet still the object of ongoing scholarly debate. Illustrations will be given as to how one’s position on one or another of these disputed issues changes one’s perspective on the theology and intention of the book. In our analysis, special attention will be given to the recent major commentary by Martin Leuenberger.


The Historical Background of the Book of Haggai
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Rainer Kessler, Philipps-Universität Marburg

The oracles of Haggai are dated in the second year of the Persian King Darius. The text of the book gives few hints at the historical background. The temple lies in ruins, the economic situation seems to be difficult. Two persons are mentioned, Zerubbabel ben Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and Joshua ben Jehozadak, the high priest. They are said to begin the reconstruction of the temple. As the final redaction of the book is not identical with the original oracles of the prophet, the paper will have to scrutinize the validity of the book's historical information, especially in comparison with Ezra 1-6. However, original oracles and final redaction are to be dated in the Persian period. So the paper will look at reflections of Persian ideology within the oracles of Haggai. The reading of Haagai will be informed by the new commentary of Martin Leuenberger.


Haunting Empty Tombs: Specters of Empire and Jesus in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Matthew James Ketchum, Rutgers

This paper employs theories of haunting to read the Gospel of Mark alongside a variety of materials relating to the Roman Emperor. In so doing, I argue that the relationships between the figures of Jesus and the emperor are both more subtle and complex than is typically seen by empire-critical New Testament scholarship. Haunting names the ways that absences can be felt as presences, and how distinctions between life and death are not as clear as they may seem. The Roman Emperor was a figure frequently situated at the interstices of life and death. Their achievement of apotheosis colluded with the diverse practices of the Imperial Cult, which rendered the absent emperors present throughout the ancient Mediterranean. These transgressions of life and death are matched by countless stories of emperors driven mad by the ghosts of their slain enemies, or appearing as ghosts themselves to trouble the living. The exceptional figure of the Roman emperor embodied the very limits of the human, as his affective presence molded the shape of cities and daily life across the empire. The emperor and his image were thus an inescapable, haunting presence in the Roman Empire. Jesus’ death via crucifixion (Mark 15:24-37) is an obvious evocation of the spectral logic of imperial power, occurring in Judea but authorized by the emperor in Rome. The empty tomb story (Mk 16:1-8) likewise evokes comparisons with apotheosis tales of Romulus or the emperors. Scholars like Peter Bolt and N.T. Wright have argued against such comparisons, while Richard Miller more recently claims they are categorically the same. However, such categorical comparisons (relying on problematic cultural binaries like “Jewish” vs. “Greco-Roman”) do not capture the complexities at play. Indeed, an empty tomb is but one way in which questions of life and death surround figures like Jesus or the emperor. After all, scenes like Jesus’ walking on the sea where his disciples see him as a ghost (Mk 6:45-53) and his transfiguration (9:1-10) have been read my many scholars as post-resurrection stories inserted into the story of Jesus’ life by Mark. Given the remarkable absence of post-resurrection appearances at the end of Mark’s gospel, such potential glimpses earlier in the narrative are all the more striking. Haunting helps articulate these sorts of disruptions in linear time, as past and present mingle in the figure of Jesus. The resurrected Jesus thus haunts Mark’s gospel, while also signaling the subtle ways in which he mimics the emperor. The emperor was a constantly felt supra-human presence in the ancient world, embodying the porous boundaries between life and death. The representation of Jesus in the gospel of Mark bears the spectral marks of the emperor in this way. Both Mark's Jesus and representations of the Roman Emperor are thus haunted by the ultimately undecideable relationship between life and death.


Gaining a Hearing: Prayer, Purity, and the Reconceived Temple in 1 Peter
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Matthew Ketterling, University of St. Andrews

First Peter twice predicates the effectiveness of the recipients’ prayers on the demonstration of love for another person; the driving question for this paper is how the author is able to conceptually connect interpersonal relationships with prayer. In the first instance (1 Pet 3:7), husbands are commanded to “show consideration” to their wives with the expressed purpose (e?? t? + infinitive) that their prayers will not be hindered. In the second passage (1 Pet 4:7), recipients are commanded to be “serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of prayers” (e?? p??se????). This verse is expanded with a series of commands concerning interpersonal relationships, all of which are specific instances of the general command in 1 Pet 4:8: “Above all, maintain constant love for one another.” Commentators on 1 Peter often simply acknowledge the fact that interpersonal relationships affect prayer, but do little reflection as to why the author makes this connection. Achtemeier rightly connects these passages back to OT texts in which liturgical acts are invalidated because of improper conduct, e.g. Isa 1:10–17, though he does not discuss the topic further (1 Peter, 218). Andrew Mbuvi’s work, which explores the theme of the temple throughout the epistle, recognizes prayer as an aspect within the worship of the new temple which is premised upon the community’s conduct (Temple, Exile, and Identity in 1 Peter, 110-2). Mbuvi’s insight in connecting prayer to the temple serves as the launching point of the current study. Our working hypothesis is that because prayer is closely related to approaching the divine presence, the author of 1 Peter has reconceived of the levitical purity codes in light of the reconceived temple, that is the temple constituted by the “living stones” of new covenant members. Because the temple consists of new covenant members, the purity of the temple is maintained when the interpersonal relationships between the members are characterized by love. Thus, when the purity code is broken through relational strife, access into the sacred space through prayer is hindered. We will begin by briefly looking at purity and impurity in the OT, as well as passages in which prayer and the temple are connected. After this brief survey of biblical material, we will look at three Second Temple texts that bring together the strands of purity, temple, and prayer: Aramaic Levi, The Book of Watchers, and The Community Rule (1QS). By examining these texts, we will demonstrate that at least some Jewish authors before 1 Peter viewed access to sacred space through prayer as being regulated by ritual purity. Then, turning to 1 Peter, I argue that the author maps the experience of the Petrine community on the experience of the exodus generation: they are currently sojourning in the interim time between their exodus event and the coming inheritance to be revealed with Jesus Christ. Finally, we will turn to the exegesis of 1 Pet 3:7; 4:7, situating these texts within a broader narrative reading of the epistle.


The Apocalypse and Ecological Imagination: A Visual Investigation
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Micah D. Kiel, Saint Ambrose University

In Revelation’s depiction of the created order, the earth, sea, and sky—and all the creatures therein—are caught up in an eschatological drama. This eschatology has proved detrimental to the ecological imagination inherited by the modern world. John’s scenario, in which the earth is destroyed and God creates a new heaven and a new earth, obviates any need to care for the ecosphere. Such an attitude is not just a vestigial inheritance: it persists today in our politics and moral actions. My paper aims to ask: how did we get from there to here? To understand how Revelation shapes modern attitudes toward the environment, its history of interpretation becomes paramount. One way to begin to answer such a question is in the world of art. In the tenth through fifteenth centuries, illuminated manuscripts of Revelation became increasingly popular, often created as stand-alone documents for wealthy individuals. Manuscripts such as the Trier Apocalypse and the Bamburg Apocalypse will provide insight into how the ecological perspective in Revelation was interpreted in particular times and places. Another example, the opening image in the Douce Apocalypse (c. 1255 – 1270), shows the angel’s appearance to John on the island of Patmos. The Island is understandably surrounded by the sea, in which we find fish, a boat with a dog, and an island with a man hunting a rabbit. Understanding the kind of “visual exegesis” (Berdini 1997) in such a depiction will explicate the nexus of text, interpretation, and understanding of the environment. In the upcoming Fall semester (2015) I will be a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute in Minnesota, where I will be working closely with the Hill Monastic and Manuscript Library (HMML) in order to gain access to many of these manuscripts. Building on the work of scholars such as C. Rowland and I. Boxall (and others), I will examine key manuscripts in various times and locations. Some of these illuminated manuscripts, like those mentioned above, are ancient. Others, like the St. John’s Bible, will be quite modern. These artistic representations of Revelation will be explored in order to understand the use and impact of Revelation in terms of ecology. Such a perspective on its impact is inherently political. This is particularly true today, when overtly uncritical Biblicism shrouds the purview of our political leaders creating an inability to articulate a supple understanding and interpretation of the Bible as it relates to ecology. Exploring these manuscripts—thus accessing the use and impact of the Bible in various times and places—will situate us to be able to give an estimate about what Revelation can “do,” not just what it has “done.” Here I am eager to incorporate the work of B. Breed, whose book “The Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History” aims to ask not just what a text meant, but what it “means” and what it “can do.”


The Apocalypse’s Ecology among the Apocalypses
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Micah D. Kiel, Saint Ambrose University

The Book of Revelation is well-trod in the field of ecological hermeneutics. Interpreters do not miss its penchant for displaying the ecological consequences of eschatology on the canvas of the created order. The book’s problematic eschatology is also widely noted—the eventual creation of a new heaven and a new earth obviates the need for care of the earth today. What scholars who approach Revelation though the lens of ecological hermeneutics often have not done, however, is contextualize its ecological perspective in light of other ancient apocalyptic literature. Texts such as 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra, and Jubilees offer a panoply of references to the created order. 2 Baruch 6:5, for example, contains a speech directly to the earth: “Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the mighty God.” In this text the earth is personified and caught up the eschatological drama. The sea figures prominently in 4 Ezra 13. Understanding such texts on their own terms—why the author was apocalyptic and how creation functions in their scenarios—will help build a broader understanding of the role of ecology in ancient apocalypticism in general. Part of the reason apocalyptic texts often depict the created order in such negative terms is because of their own experiences of the degradation of the world around them—through poverty, war, or other forms of oppression. Their ecology then is more descriptive than prescriptive. With such information in hand, Revelation’s ecology, while still potentially problematic, can be re-examined to find some beneficial components for modern ecological concerns. While we rightly demur at the violent destruction of the earth, the book does testify to an inherent connection between the ecosphere and the destiny of humanity. A hermeneutical approach of recovery, accompanied by a broader contextual understanding of ecology in ancient apocalypticism, will help us to rethink the ways in which Revelation’s apocalyptic ecology may be retrieved today.


“And It Came to Pass, When Jesus Had Finished These Words . . . ”: Evaluating the Case for Luke's Direct Use of Matthew
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Jordash Kiffiak, University of Zurich

Did the redactor of Luke know and use Matthew? An important piece in the argument for Luke's direct use of Matthew is the similar way each Gospel closes the sermon on the mount/plain. Champions of both the Farrer Hypothesis and the Griesbach Hypothesis for solving the Synoptic Problem cite the parallel transitional phrase (Matt 7.28 // Luke 7.1) as a decisive aspect for answering the question of direct literary dependence. In Matthew not only are characteristic vocabulary and phraseology employed, but also the phenomenon in question constitutes the first of five such transitional phrases, which bring the five major discourses of Jesus to their conclusions. Therefore, the case for Luke's direct literary dependence seems so strong to some scholars that Mark Goodacre, for example, claims “We could hardly ask for a clearer indication of the way the wind is blowing....” Yet, despite the data's importance in the argument for Luke's direct use of Matthew, to date there has been no focussed, detailed investigation of the parallel phenomena. The paper, therefore, offers the first analysis of a wide variety of features. Linguistic elements such as word order, syntax, word choice, inflection, use of connectives, sub-unit division and prominence in the discourse are considered. At the same time the location and function of the transitional phrase within the larger narrative of each Gospel is analysed. Attention is given not merely to common turns of phrase in the two Gospels, but also to such issues as transitions between episodes and also larger sections in the narrative, characterisation and the development of plot lines. Are there commonalities of a significant qualitative and quantitative nature to make the case for direct literary dependence probable? Alternatively, how might the phenomena be explained on the supposition that both Matthew and Luke have access to a source that is no longer extant? The investigation has all the more significance as the Farrer Hypothesis, increasingly gaining support over the past two decades, has for many become the principal alternative to the Two Document Hypothesis.


Whose Offspring Are Worthy of Honor? Ben Sira's Honor and Shame Matrix as a Counter-Colonial Discourse
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Baek Hee Kim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

In the 1990s, some scholars paid special attention to the honor and shame matrix in Sirach along with contributions from cultural anthropologists who had engaged in an investigation of honor and shame matrix as social values central to the Mediterranean/Hellenistic world. Their investigations critically observed the influence of Hellenistic social values and norms, honor and shame in particular, to the Jews in Ben Sira’s age. The investigations revealed that the language and notion of honor and shame constitute the ideological ground for Ben Sira and also revealed that Ben Sira’s honor and shame ideology reflect how he responded to social, religious, and cultural tensions that the Jewish community experienced under the Greek empires. However, since their approaches to understanding Ben Sira’s use of honor and shame categories are primarily based on anthropological method, they largely overlook another relevant socio-historical circumstance of Ben Sira that can shed light on Ben Sira’s honor-shame ideology. This paper demonstrates that postcolonial approaches offer a slightly different insight to view the Jewish literature in that period. When we consider postcolonial criticism, it is not difficult to see that Ben Sira and the Jews in his time experienced colonization by the Greek empires and their cultural imperialism. We can acknowledge that some of the Jewish literature under the imperial context reveals not just in-between situation but it also conveys the implication of resistance against dominant foreign rule. This paper, thus, claims that Ben Sira’s wisdom teachings also had a specific function as a counter-colonial literature. As it concerns the imperial context of the text, this paper examines Ben Sira’s honor and shame complex with special attention to how Ben Sira received, utilized, and (intentionally) hybridized the Jewish wisdom traditions and Mediterranean modes of thought and argues: 1) we can understand Ben Sira’s teachings of honor and shame as a colonial hybrid; 2) Ben Sira’s use of honor and shame was one of the tools for his resistant program against the dominant Hellenistic culture; 3) his main idea, that true honor is achieved by obedience to Torah and pursuit of wisdom, both challenges against the Hellenistic cultural norm and advocates the values of his own religious and cultural traditions.


A Dragon, a Reed Staff, and a Towering Cedar in Eden: Egypt in Ezekiel 29–32
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Brittany Kim, Northeastern Seminary

In the HB Egypt functions both as the paradigmatic symbol of Israelite oppression, provoking YHWH’s miraculous deliverance, and as an on-again-off-again political ally to Israel and Judah in the face of threats from superpowers to the east. Since the Israelite prophets view alliances with Egypt as a threat to the people’s sole dependence on YHWH, they thus present a predominantly negative perspective on Egypt. Ezekiel is no exception, implicating that nation in Israel’s rejection of YHWH (e.g., 16:26; 20:7–8) and pronouncing devastating judgments on both the land and its people (e.g., 30:1–19). Nevertheless, the oracles against Egypt in Ezek 29–32 reveal a surprisingly complex portrait of that nation and its Pharaoh, offering a window into Israel’s attempts to make sense of national and ethnic otherness. This paper will first examine the depictions of Egypt in Ezek 29–32 against their backgrounds in the book of Ezekiel, the Hebrew Bible as a whole, and Egyptian literature and iconography, giving particular attention to the metaphorical portrayals of Egypt or Pharaoh as a dragon (29:3; 32:2), a reed staff (29:6), and a towering cedar in Eden (31:2–9). It will then discuss the significance and rhetorical aims of these portrayals, considering what they would have conveyed both to Egypt and to Israel.


Faith(fulness) of Christ within Paul’s Judaism
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Donald Kim, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Much of the ongoing discussions on the pistis Christou of Galatians and Romans are generally between the objective or subjective genitive cases of faith in, or faithfulness of, Jesus Christ in light of soteriology (Hays, Campbell, et. al.). Much of the discussion is already framed from previous discussions that have mounted. For instance, Stephen Westerholm’s response to justification takes his cues from the New Perspective, as set forth by Krister Stendahl, E. P. Sanders, and James D. G. Dunn. The New Perspective, on the other hand, is an attempt to provide corrective measures to the previous typecasting of Pharisees as legalists and to the judicial language of faith and justification. The purpose of this paper is to present a new paradigm for understanding pistis Christou that is consistent and congruent with a Judaism that Paul was putting forth in his time: a Judaism founded upon a divine faithfulness that is reinforced in these three Jewish ways of establishing reality: zakhor (remembrance), aggadah (narrative), and halakah (walk). The zakhor of pistis Christou remembers the Christ event as realized through the covenant faithfulness of the Jewish God. The aggadah of pistis Christou tells the story of Christ as the normative for faithfulness set by Christ for the ekklesia whose faith is in Christ. The halakah of pistis Christou presents the full realization of Christ in the aspect of living. Steering the focus of pistis Christou away from the usual discussions of soteriology, this paper aims to trace some rabbinical ways of reflecting on how narratives, especially the Christ narrative of faithfulness, shapes the mind and life of those oriented towards God.


The Jewish Origin of Glossolalia
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Dongsoo Kim, Pyongtaek University

The Jewish Origin of Glossolalia


Was Ezekiel a Messenger? A Manager? Or a Moving Sanctuary? A Beckettian Reading in the Inquiry of the Divine Presence
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Soo J. Kim, Claremont School of Theology

Was Ezekiel a Messenger? A Manager? Or a Moving Sanctuary? A Beckettian Reading of the Book of Ezekiel in the Inquiry of the Divine Presence Out of more than 40 divine commissions in the book of Ezekiel, only 3 were reported as fulfilled; 90% of the commissions are left as the record of the divine commands. Despite several strong warnings from God that Ezekiel must act as his faithful messenger, the book never shows Ezekiel’s actual performance with the reaction of the audience. Even when the book reports the arrival of the audience before Ezekiel, their communications were only one-way questions and answers. Strangely enough, YHWH never opens “the door of his chamber” to face the exiles. This is surely surprising data in comparison to the books of Isaiah and of Jeremiah, both of which contain prophets’ actual human confrontations. Furthermore, the book of Isaiah often presents the prophet as a performer who has already internalized the divine message. The book of Jeremiah frequently reports the scenes executing the divine prophecies, and sometimes the contents of the divine messages are not presented until the performance time. On the contrary, the book of Ezekiel demands that we distinguish between the perception of readers and the audience. As the reader, we experience what Ezekiel experienced so that we cannot deny the powerful presence of God. But we should admit that to the literary audience YHWH must be hidden or transcendent at best. Unfortunately, scholarship of the prophetic literature has not taken this matter seriously from the audience perspective, and has experienced shortage in drawing a balanced picture of the exilic theology. Based on this observation, this study argues that divine hiddenness in the book of Ezekiel comes from the matter of disconnection among sender, messenger, and receiver. Despite the ubiquitous divine speeches throughout the book, those speeches stop at Ezekiel, the messenger. This very ancient sacred book which shows the scenes of sender-messenger ironically resembles the postmodern existential play, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, for in the play we can only appreciate the messenger-receiver side. Gilles Deleuze named Beckett’s two waiting characters’ desire to stop waiting for Godot as ‘false movement’; the play ultimately shows nothing is certain—time, place, the existence of Godot, and even the identity of the messenger boy. A Beckettian reading of the book of Ezekiel allows us to apply the vacillating pendulum between the hope to see the face of God and the continuing frustration from the pervasive indeterminacies in the exilic situation as a key to understand Ezekiel as the manager who confines YHWH in his inner part. This study will take the exploration one step further by asking whether “the Ezekiel that God created” was a faithful messenger or a shrewd manager. In answering the inquiry of the divine presence, this study will challenge the scholarship by showing why and how Ezekiel himself becomes a moving “sanctuary” (11:16) in the midst of endless waiting and in the polluted foreign land.


Where the Juridical and Participatory Unite: Christ as a Hilasterion and the Cultic Dimension of Pauline Justification
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
John Kincaid, John Paul the Great Catholic University

In responding to our 2014 paper entitled, “Cultic Theosis in Paul and Second Temple Judaism,” N.T. Wright inquired about the implications of Paul’s cultic language in Rom 3:25 for understanding justification. In this paper, we would like to take the opportunity to respond to Wright’s question, namely, how does Paul’s teaching that Christ’s blood serves as a hilasterion relate to his view of justification? In order to accomplish this, we will first examine the multi-faceted nature of the place of hilasterion language in the faith of Israel, including its relationship to both atonement (e.g., Lev 16:13–14) and martyrdom (e.g., 4 Macc. 17:22). As for the former, we will draw on the work of J. Milgrom, R. Gane, and J. Sklar to suggest that atoning sacrifice should be seen as having both juridical and purifying dimensions. Moreover, as Gane demonstrates, the Day of Atonement serves to uniquely vindicate the justice of God. In terms of the latter, drawing on the recent work of D. Campbell, we will suggest that the martyrdom traditions are best understood against the backdrop of these cultic traditions. From there, we will turn our attention to Paul’s use of hilasterion in Rom 3:25. In particular, we will examine the it within the larger context of Paul’s argument in Rom 3:21-26. In addition, we will look at the hilasterion passage in view of Paul’s account of Christ’s death in the other undisputed letters, focusing on 2 Cor 5:21. Lastly, building on the work of S. Finlan, we will conclude by arguing that Paul’s manner of linking Christ’s atoning death to justification suggests that the juridical and participatory aspects of Pauline justification are able to be unified by means of viewing justification itself as cultic.


The Saving Righteousness of God at Philippi: Paul, Polycarp, and the Question of Dikaiosyne
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
John Kincaid, John Paul the Great Catholic University

At the center of the debate between adherents of the “old” Protestant perspective on Paul and the new perspective on Paul is the question of what constitutes “righteousness” in the Pauline corpus. Among the various passages that could be cited as central in this regard, one important passage is Phil 3:2-14. In fact, in the last essay found in The New Perspective on Paul, Dunn suggests that this passage is crucial in moving the discussion forward for “it provides the resources for rapprochement between the old and new perspectives,” for it holds “together what might otherwise be seen as disparate and even inconsistent elements of Paul’s theology” (469, 2008 edition). With this being said, it also raises two interconnected questions: how is one able to attain a right understanding of righteousness in this complex passage and how does this help address the current divide among Pauline scholars on this issue? In this paper I will attempt to answer these questions by asking them to one of the first “readers” of Paul on righteousness, namely, Polycarp of Smyrna, and that by means of his letter to the Philippians. At their request, Polycarp writes to the church at Philippi about the nature of “righteousness”, and as W.Schoedel and K.Berding have both suggested in different ways, Polycarp seeks to elucidate a properly Pauline understanding of righteousness. In my investigation of Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians, I will seek to demonstrate that Polycarp’s understanding of Pauline righteousness offers important guidance in regard to the nature of the saving righteousness of God, in particular, that Pauline righteousness should not be viewed in a competitive but complimentary relationship to both Matthean and Petrine soteriology.


The Garden a Prison: Sex, Gender, and Power in Eden
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Brad F. King, University of Texas at Austin

Despite the dearth of information about the religious communities that would have read the Apocryphon of John in antiquity, each of the four surviving copies are preserved in codices whose construction, contents, and concerns provide strong evidence that the tractate was popular among Egyptian monastic communities of the fourth—and probably fifth—centuries. Of further interest, these four copies attest to two versions of the text, one of which represents an extensive redaction of the other. Aside from extensive additions to the redacted version, the contents of all four copies are similar enough to infer that the redacted version is the product of an editorial program that adapted the tractate’s contents to the editors’ socio-religious ideals. Beginning with this premise, this paper demonstrates that the redacted version’s reconfiguration of the Adam and Eve narrative reflects a significant reconceptualization of the text’s approach to sex, gender, and marriage and, moreover, that this reconceptualization reflects an ongoing conflict over the status of women and marriage at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century. More specifically, I argue that the editors of the Apocryphon of John’s redacted version recast the relationship between Adam, Eve, and divinity in order to shift the earlier version’s more egalitarian social contract toward an androcentric model that (aside from its mythological underpinnings) would not have been out of place in a contemporary episcopal community.


The Origins of Syriac Dottology
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
George A. Kiraz, Gorgias Press

The Syriac dot is ubiquitous in Syriac and has many linguistic functions. It already appears in the first dated Syriac manuscript from 411 used for various things ranging from dotting the letters d/r, marking plurals, marking homographs and punctuations, etc. This paper intends to look at material composed prior to 411 and develop a theory for the origin of the Syriac dot.


SEDRA IV: Online Lexical Tools for Syriac
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
George A. Kiraz, Gorgias Press

This paper will discuss recent updates and tools that are provided through sedra.bethmardutho.org.


Can a Q Community Be Inferred from Q’s Literary and Theological Profile?
Program Unit: Q
Alan Kirk, James Madison University

This paper clarifies and analyzes the assumptions that often operate in inferring a distinct community from Q’s distinctive literary and theological profile. It finds that the inference from literary work to community often relies upon modern literary-critical assumptions that do not necessarily fit the media realities of the ancient world. Moreover, such arguments frequently operate with imprecise understandings of genre, sometimes failing, for example, to differentiate claims that Q is a gospel from claims about Q’s genre, and vice versa. The problematic, in other words, is driven - and rightly so - by the larger debate about what Q is able to tell us about Christian origins. The paper attempts to clarify what Q’s genre and ideological markers are in fact able to tell us about the tradent group, given ancient media realities and practices.


Idealized Human or Identified as God? A Narratological Assessment of Mark’s Christology in Conversation with Jewish Precedents
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
J. R. Daniel Kirk, Fuller Theological Seminary

Mark begins his Gospel with clear indications that the character and story of Jesus are to be interpreted in light of scriptural precedents. This cue to his readers provides strong reasons for assessing Mark’s Christology against early Jewish understandings of God and how God’s work might or might not be shared with other agents. In light of this, proposals by Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham have isolated key markers of God’s unique identity, recognized ways that such markers are ascribed to Jesus, and concluded in favor of an early divine Christology that might well be called proto-Nicene. In sustained conversation with these proposals (and the work of those who have followed them), this paper will engage in a narratological approach to Mark’s Jesus from the perspective of an informed Jewish reader in order to argue that Mark’s high Christology is best captured under the rubric of “idealized human figure.” First, the study will show how the crucial titles son of God and son of man develop in concert with each other and with the disclosure of Jesus’s mission to the reader. Together these key markers of Jesus’s identity show him to be a representative, suffering, and to-be-glorified ruler. Second, it will demonstrate how Jesus’s mighty deeds, including his power over the waters, work together to demonstrate that Jesus is the man specially empowered by God to rule the world on God’s behalf. Third, it will assess the possible divine connotations entailed in Mark’s allusions to the scriptures of Israel. In each instance, Jesus is in some sense identified with God; however, the paper will make the case that the significance of this conjunction is not to identify Jesus as God, but to identify Jesus as the idealized human figure through whom God is enacting dominion over the world.


Abba Bsoy: The Ge‘ez Life of a Desert Father
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Robert Kitchen, Knox-Metropolitan United Church

Anba Bishoy (320-417), a monk of great ascetical accomplishments in the Egyptian Wadi-Natrun, is the namesake of the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Bishoy, the patriarchal monastery in Egypt. While Bishoy exemplifies the ascetical ethos of the Desert Fathers in Scete, he was not mentioned in the traditional versions of the Apophthegmata Patrum. Instead, a lengthy hagiographical work describes his life, asceticism, and advocacy for the orthodox faith. The text, however, is in Greek – Paisios is the Greek rendering of his name – and no Coptic version is extant. The Greek life was translated into Syriac, and at a much later date into Ge‘ez, inevitably by means of an Arabic translation from the Syriac. The three versions are similar in content, but there are distinctions. The Greek is significantly longer than the Syriac, and the Syriac version longer than the Ge‘ez. The focus of the paper will be on the Ge‘ez version in order to examine the choices made in translation, what is omitted from the two earlier texts, and the distinctive characteristics of Ethiopian ascetical and monastic culture, especially with regard to the Syriac version.


Feminist Interpretation of Hebrews and Feminist Theology
Program Unit: Hebrews
Cynthia Kittredge, Seminary of the Southwest

Feminist readings of the Epistle to the Hebrews span the past decades and illustrate significant shifts in method and approach in the discipline of feminist biblical studies. The work of Ruth Hoppin (1969), Mary Rose D’Angelo (1992, 2012) and Cynthia Briggs Kittredge (1994) has brought critical theological questions to the text of Hebrews about suffering, and punishment, obedience, priesthood, perfection, solidarity, and community. A book length study in the Wisdom Commentary series by Mary Ann Beavis with Hye Ran Kim-Cragg (2015) excavates the submerged sophialogy of Hebrews from the vantage points of multiple disciplines for theological construction and critique. This paper will explore the most urgent theological questions that are addressed in recent feminist reading of Hebrews and will evaluate the impact of feminist biblical interpretation of Hebrews on constructive feminist theology.


Jeremiah the Skillful Scribe: Root Variation in Tautological Infinitives
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Sigrid K. Kjær, University of Texas at Austin

Previous scholarship on the three instances of incongruent tautological infinitives in the Book of Jeremiah has focused on the possibility of scribal error or confusion. This paper examines all three instances, comparing them with similar constructions found elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, along with the general use of tautological infinitives in Biblical Hebrew. On the basis of this comparison, new readings will be proposed. This paper argues that the instances of tautological infinitives where the root of the infinitive absolute and the finite verbal form are from different but similar sounding roots are not to be considered mistakes or examples of root confusion. Even though all examples are with so-called weak roots they represent deliberate linguistic variation, skilfully mastered by the author of Jeremiah. Based on the wide-spread use of infinitive absolutes with an adverbial function throughout Biblical Hebrew, this presentation will conclude that this is also the case with the anomalous tautological infinitives in Jeremiah.


Searching and Finding in Q
Program Unit: Q
Thomas Klampfl, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz

In a first step it will be argued that Q 11:9c “search and you will find” is a common proverb which was used by Jesus in the independent logion Q 11:9-10. This explains why in Gos. Thom. 92:1 only Q 11:9c is found although the Gospel of Thomas knows the whole aphorism Q 11:9 (Gos. Thom. 94). It will be suggested that the object of the act of searching was the kingdom of God (Q 12:31). In a second step the history of religion background of the sentence about searching and finding will be explored. (Old Testament, Qumran, Hellenistic philosophy, especially Epictetus [Diss IV 1,51] and Philo). The word “searching” is never used in connection with prayer in the Old Testament. This means that the application of the proverb Q 11:9c in Q 11:2b-13 to prayer is an innovation. The theological use of “searching” in the older parts of the Old Testament does not include the usual understanding of searching in the sense of asking for something unknown, but means to turn to God as an act (e.g., Ex 33:7; 2 Chr 20:4; Hos 5:6) or to search for God as a status (e.g., Ps 40:17; 105,4; Jer 29:23; 50,4). Searching for wisdom means to receive the traditions of the past (Prov 18,15). Only in the younger parts of Old Testament wisdom is something to be explored (e.g., Qoh 7:23-29; 8:16-18). The question to be addressed is to which tradition does the gnomic verse Q 11:9-10 belong. “Searching” is not an intellectual matter but embraces the whole existence and the kingdom is not a hidden reality but, according to the message of Jesus, open for everyone. In a third step the reception of Q 11:9-10 in Q and in the Gospel of Thomas will be explained.


Structural Seams in Surat al-Baqarah
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Marianna Klar, SOAS University of London

It has long been observed that there is a clear development of Qur’anic style, from rhythmically parallel verses to less structured material. In their discussion of saj?, medieval rhetoricians provide Qur’anic examples in which such rhythmically parallel verses are presented as discrete structural units. These verses are bound by the rules of accentual meter, and their final words exhibit end-rhyme and matching morphological form. While the end-rhyme and morphological form of the final words remain consistent, the individual verses within a saj‘ unit can be of consistent, of gradually increasing, or (occasionally) of very slightly decreasing length. The greatest variety is exhibited in units of the increasing pattern, but here it is agreed that the final verse can be no longer than twice the length of the preceding. Accordingly, the verses of later suras are too lacking in any sustained parallelism to be classified as saj‘. Yet, it will be argued, the presence of end-rhyme and matching morphological form within such suras can nonetheless be taken as an indication that the structuring rules of saj‘ hold a residual measure of sway. In the proposed paper, Surat al-Baqarah will be divided such that the outlier, long verses are viewed as later editorial interpolations. Within Q. 2:1-100, for instance, verses such as Q. 2:13-14, Q. 2:19-20, Q. 2:25-26, Q. 2:54, Q. 2:61, Q. 2:79-80, and Q. 2:93 can be removed from the fabric of their surrounding verses without disrupting the underlying narrative or thematic line. Other outlier verses such as Q. 2:74 are less easy to imagine as later expansions, though this again is not implausible. The seemingly erratic patterning of verse lengths at Q. 2:83-88 could be evened out by the removal of Q. 2:84-85 from the original trajectory of the sura. Most intriguingly, however, such a methodology would re-categorise Q. 2:143 as an outlier verse, adding a fresh angle to arguments that it be seen as a structuring principle behind the sura as a whole, and casting possible light on the editorial processes behind the long Medinan suras.


Purity and Politics: The Roman Landscape of Intra-Rabbinic Conflict
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Gil Klein, Loyola Marymount University

This paper discusses the spatial dimension of rabbinic impurity laws as expressed in Talmudic narratives of conflict in the late antique city. Rabbinic Judaism understands places wherein impurity collects as posing an especially severe threat to priests. The rabbis, however, also developed the principle that engagement with the Torah and the sages who embody it trumps the restrictions of ritual impurity and that priests may, therefore, be contaminated with impurity for the sake of Torah and its scholars. Not surprisingly, this principle was highly contested in rabbinic circles and often utterly rejected by rabbis of priestly origin. The Palestinian Talmud, for instance (y. Ber. 3:1, 6a), describes conflicts between priestly and non-priestly rabbis in the city of Sepphoris on occasions when the body of an important sage was placed in synagogues for eulogy. Another narrative from the same Talmudic passage recounts a conflict in a monumental archway, which has been contaminated by corpses transported in the city street. Priestly rabbis in these accounts are attacked both physically and rhetorically for challenging the superiority of Torah by refusing to enter the impure spaces. My analysis of such accounts in view of Sepphorean buildings highlights the liminality of entrances and passageways, pointing to the political dimension of transitional sites. As I argue, it is precisely on the threshold of the synagogue (a site imbued with priestly and cultic symbolism) and the archway (a monument that manifests imperial power and Roman religion) where the superiority of Torah over impurity must be asserted and a religious choice must be made. I conclude by suggesting that the rabbis mapped ritual impurity onto the urban topography as part of their effort to position themselves and their Torah in the city.


Historical Linguistics and Ancient Religious Texts
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Jared S. Klein, University of Georgia

In this paper I examine the historical linguistic theory and methodology appropriated by Rezetko and Young in their recent volume Historical Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew: Steps Towards an Integrated Approach (Atlanta: SBL, 2014). This critical evaluation will include a comparison with the historical linguistic analysis of another ancient religious text with a complex textual history, namely, the Rigveda.


Resilience Thinking and the Hebrew Bible: A Pragmatic Dialogue in Times of Ecological Crises
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Johannes Kleiner, Emory University

How can we read the Bible in the face of today's many environmental crises? This question is as timely as ever. It also prompts a related question: how can biblical interpretation fruitfully engage current environmental studies approaches that seek to mitigate these crises? The aim of this paper is to uncover biblical attitudes and virtues conducive to practical social-ecological measures addressing climate change, fishery collapse, salinization, etc. By introducing the concept of resilience thinking, a scientific model to understand and govern human-nature interactions, the paper highlights biblical tropes suited to promote a specific ecological management practice. This practice offers constructive ways out of one of today's biggest environmental challenges: the loss of resilience, i.e. the ability of complex social-ecological systems to absorb multi-scalar environmental change.


Libation for the New Covenant
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Matthias Klinghardt, Technische Universität Dresden

In the word over the cup according to Luke’s account of the Last Supper (Luke 22:20), the syntactically correct translation implies that the cup, not the blood, is poured out, thus indicating a libation. The paper explores the ritual form and social functions of sympotic libations and, by this means, establishes a coherent understanding of the cup and its interpretation as the New Covenant.


Why I Rule: The Justification of Usurpation in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Andrew Knapp, Eisenbrauns Inc.

In autocracies throughout history, and in ancient Near Eastern monarchies specifically, rulers have tended to remain in power due to some perception of their right to the throne (usually a divine and/or hereditary right). This makes usurpation difficult ideologically as well as practically—to gain the throne, a usurper must unseat the sitting monarch, whose legitimacy has already been established, then somehow persuade the members of the polity that the right to the throne has been transferred. Failure to do so could lead to further coups and a rapid demise of the new regime. In this paper I examine the rhetorical strategies employed by disparate ancient Near Eastern usurpers. I will show how usurpers from widely divergent areas of the ancient Near East, from the Hittite Old Kingdom to Persia, tended to justify their coups in the same ways: they claimed a divine mandate, asserted that a former ruler wished them to take over, showed how their predecessors had forfeited the right to throne, and more. Interpreting this rhetoric in concert both allows us to better interpret individual instantiations of such justificatory claims and provides important insights into ancient Near Eastern royal ideology. Additionally, this investigation allows for an interesting comparative study with the biblical narratives describing the accessions of the two rulers of the so-called United Monarchy—the David narrative coheres well with its ANE comparands, but the Solomonic Succession Narrative is almost completely devoid of the expected rhetoric.


Hagar, Ishmael, Israel
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Ernst Axel Knauf, Universität Bern - Université de Berne

The historical background of the Hagar-Ishmael-stories in Gen 16, 17, 21 and 25 will be elucidated. The majority of the "sons of Ishmael" is attested in Assyrian and Ancient North Arabian inscriptions, some also in the Greek and Roman litterature. The background of the Biblical texts are interactions between Israel and North Arabia from the 7th through 5th centuries BCE, not surprising for a text which was first read in public by Ezra in 398 BCE.


"There Will Never Cease to Be Poor in the Land": The Politics of Poverty in Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Douglas A. Knight, Vanderbilt University

No abstract submitted


The Judging Prophetess: Reading Judges 4–5 in Light of Deuteronomy 18:9–22
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Michelle Knight, Wheaton College Graduate School

The Judging Prophetess: Reading Judges 4–5 in Light of Deuteronomy 18:9-22


Early Jewish Court Tale Narratives in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Andrew Knight-Messenger, McMaster University

Court tales are a well-attested literary genre among the writings of the Jewish Second Temple period, as well as the ancient Near East more broadly. However, most studies on the early Jewish court tale genre have focused principally upon Daniel 1-6, Esther, the Joseph Story (Gen. 37-50) and Aikar, often treating other early Jewish examples of this genre in a merely cursory manner. Moreover, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, several previously unknown ancient Jewish court tale texts were discovered; however, several of these recently discovered court tales have only been published officially within the past decade. Consequently, they have received only a preliminary examination, and little work has been done to integrate research on these texts into broader portrayals of early Jewish thought and literature. The question, thus, arises: how should we understand the ancient Jewish court tale genre in light of the expanded corpus, which is now readily available to scholars? This presentation will examine recent scholarship on court tales, and will identify problems within earlier analyses of this genre, as well as offer some prospects for future study of the court tales.


Saints, Sinners, and Apostates: Moral, Salvific, and Anthropological Difference in the Shepherd of Hermas and the Apocryphon of John
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Alexander Kocar, Princeton University

What happens when the saved sin again? In this paper, I will consider and compare two early Christian texts, the Shepherd of Hermas and the Apocryphon of John, that both deploy salvific difference to account for the social and theoretical problems posed by sin after baptism. Both Hermas (Sim 8) and the Apocryphon (NHC II, 9; 27) use spatial metaphors representing higher and lower levels of salvation to differentiate between apostates and ordinary sinners; in so doing, these texts subdivide post-baptismal sinners into distinct and usable categories of persons. For both Hermas and the Apocryphon then, this salvific hierarchy enables greater flexibility for readmitting sinful community members while still maintaining important social and ethical boundaries. In the course of this paper, I will contextualize these two texts in light of competing views on repentance and apostasy, e.g., in the Letter to the Hebrews and the writings Ignatius. And finally, I will elucidate how both Hermas and the Apocryphon employ anthropological justifications to explain different types of conduct; in particular, I will examine how both Hermas and the Apocryphon construct persons – in particular sinful persons – in order to account for the possibility of their repentance but also the danger of their apostasy.


On Pots and (Sea-)Peoples: Colonial Encounters in Iron Age I Southwestern Canaan
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Ido Koch, Tel Aviv University

The Levantine Iron I is wedged between two periods of extensive record keeping – the Late Bronze Age with its myriad archives, inscriptions, and associated pictorial depictions, and the Iron II with similar types of records supplemented by assumed contemporaneous narratives embedded in the Hebrew Bible. From its very outset, archaeology of the Levant bridged the Iron I gap by extrapolating information described in these early or later sources and by deducing the meaning of the cultural developments of the era. The case of Aegean-derived pottery—one of the best-known phenomena in the archaeology of southwestern Canaanite Iron I— is a fine example. This pottery has been interpreted, based on its identification by typology and production technology, as Aegean; a selective reading of Egyptian sources and the biblical narrative has led scholars to assume that this Aegean pottery indicates settlement of the Philistines in southwestern Canaan. This, despite the progress in archaeological deliberations that emphasize a complex process that was responsible for the appearance of this type of pottery in the Levantine littoral and the flaws in the association of Pots and Peoples, the lack of any reference by these written sources to the settlement of the Philistines in the same period, and the progress in archaeological dialogs regarding transcultural exchanges in the Late Bronze/Iron I Mediterranean. Based on these factors an alternative approach is advocated, suggesting a colonial encounter perspective for the Aegean migration to southwestern Canaan and its place in the local society.


Archaeological Perspective on Food, Feasting, and Cultural Identity in Achaemenid Era Southern Levant in Light of Preceding Developments in Local Foodways
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Ido Koch, Tel Aviv University

This paper surveys developments in southern Levantine foodways during the Achaemenid era, exhibited in modifications in pottery consumption and animal exploitation. The accumulating evidence for continuation in indigenous behaviors despite the appearance of foreign elements in the local material culture is further compared with similar cases attested in the archaeology of southern Levantine foodways in the preceding periods, which are pointing to the shared features of such processes. Following previous studies, showing the role played by food in the establishment of social order and cultural identity, it is argued that these cases illuminate the preservation of social systems while negotiating with neighboring cultures and selectively appropriating a limited range of external traits.


SERIAL: How the Story of Balaam Resembles That of Adnan Syed
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Sara M. Koenig, Seattle Pacific University

Serial is a podcast from the creators of “This American Life,” based on true events: in Baltimore in 1999, high school senior Hae Min Lee was murdered, and her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was unanimously convicted by a jury for her murder. But each episode of Serial invites speculation as to Syed’s innocence or guilt, as producer Sarah Koenig narrates the actual—and conflicting—evidence of the events and of Syed’s character. The producers write, "What [Koenig] realized is that the trial covered up a far more complicated story, which neither the jury nor the public got to hear…all of it leads back to the most basic questions: How can you know a person’s character? How can you tell what they’re capable of?" Those “basic questions” can also be asked of the biblical character Balaam, who vows that he will only do and say what YHWH tells him to do and say, and in the narrative, ultimately blesses Israel. Balaam’s own testimony would suggest that he is righteous. But God’s anger is kindled at Balaam, and Balaam’s own donkey is a character witness to Balaam’s foolishness and blindness. Num 31 discloses that Balaam was connected to the sin of Ba?al Pe?or and justifies Balaam’s death sentence. Moses appears as a witness for the prosecution in Deuteronomy, bearing testimony to Balaam’s connection with the foreign nation Moab and conjecturing that Balaam wanted to curse Israel. While Balaam’s story is complicated in the Hebrew Bible, in the New Testament he is unanimously convicted as a false teacher, and one who loved gain from wrongdoing. Sketch artist Hieronymus Bosch paints Balaam positively in Christian reception history, while Rembrandt paints him negatively. This paper will place the stories of Balaam and Syed into conversation, a conversation which will illuminate the process of coming to judgment about someone’s character as evidence unfolds.


Religion(s) and Sacred Space(s) in Africa and Beyond
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Franz Kogelmann, Universität Bayreuth

*


Adoptionist Interpretations of Mark's Gospel among Ancient and Modern Readers
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Michael Kok, The King's University

While scholars are cognizant about not importing anachronistic conceptions about ontology back into first century Christian texts, proponents of an "early high Christology" insist that the earliest Christ followers envisaged Jesus as sharing in the divine identity (Bauckham 2008), as relating to his followers according to the pattern of Yahweh's relationship with Israel (Tilling 2012), or as receiving cultic worship in a distinctive binitarian devotional pattern (Hurtado 2003). In contrast, Michael Peppard's ground-breaking analysis of Markan Christology displays how biblical scholars continue to be influenced by Platonic categories and re-contextualizes divine sonship against the backdrop of imperial adoption practices (2011). The Roman imperial parallels he draws complement the scholarship on the intertextual links of Mark 1:9-11 with other biblical texts (e.g., Psalm 2:7), texts that suggest that Mark framed the baptism of Jesus as the moment when Jesus was elected or anointed for his messianic office as the Davidic king and the deity's son. Although some theologians label adoptionist Christologies as "low" from the vantage point of the Nicene Creed, Peppard rightly protests that the application of this metaphor by the early Christ congregations to the exaltation of Jesus was a remarkable development in light of how adoption was often the means by which complete control of the Empire was transferred to the most powerful benefactor in the Roman world (2011, 95; cf. Ehrman 2014, 231-232). Even those Markan episodes in which Jesus seems to carry out a divine prerogative such as walking on water (Mark 6:47-52; cf. Job 9:8; Psalm 89:9) can be interpreted as Yahweh extending his authority to the empowered human representatives who rule on his behalf (cf. Crossley 2010, 140-141; Kirk and Young 2014). I will argue that the Markan Jesus is the authorized agent of the god of Israel who has been chosen to rule after the impending eschatological reversal. Further, based on the findings of my monograph on the second canonical Gospel’s early reception history (Kok 2015), I will argue that second century Christians who held to a "possessionist Christology" (Goulder 1994, 108-113, 130-134) or a "separationist Christology" (Ehrman 1996, 140) saw an ally for their Christological convictions in Mark’s narrative, though their questions about the union of the divine Christ with the human Jesus or whether a divine being could suffer need to be kept distinct from the concerns of the first century Gospel writer.


Justin Martyr in Modern Historiography: A Case of Patristic Retrieval in the Twenty-First Century
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
Julia Konstantinovsky, University of Oxford

A key figure of the second-century Christian apologetics, Justin Martyr’s popularity in modern historiography has recently soared. The entire modern historiography, from Harnack to Chadwick to R.Williams to twenty-first-century post-holocaust feminist historiography of Virginia Burrus, cannot do without him. There is a sense in which Justin’s treatment at the hands of modern historians reflects the plurality of ways in which, in the words of C Taylor, the philosophical horizon of modernity has been changing. Bearing in mind the hermeneutical insights of Ricoeur, Gadamer, and Heidegger, we will critically evaluate modern historiographical engagements with Justin Martyr. Performing this task will enable us to trace historiography’s adjustments to accelerating changes of modernity. Finally, using Justin as a study case, we will be able to ask what kinds of hermeneutics of retrieval of ancient Christian apologetic material are especially relevant to the modern philosophical debate, and which are less so, equally what figures and writings are best ‘retrieved’ for the benefit of modern Christian theology – and which are perhaps best forgotten.


Echoes of How: Lamentations in Jewish Liturgy
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Jennifer Koosed, Albright College

Much of the Hebrew Bible is written after and in response to the Babylonian assault on Judah. Within this literature of trauma, there are texts that are even more explicitly tied to pain and suffering; foremost among them is the book of Lamentations (Eicha or "How"). As a response to one trauma, Lamentations then moves forward carrying the echoes of that trauma into a variety of other contexts. In ritual, Lamentations is canted in its entirety on Tisha b'Av, the commemoration of the destruction of the first and second Temple. Fragments of Lamentations also embed themselves in other parts of Jewish liturgy that seemingly have nothing to do with Jerusalem's destruction. After the Holocaust, Lamentations became a site of division and debate as Jews struggled to incorporate the experience into the liturgical calendar. This paper will analyze the meanings of Lamentations at the intersections of text, ritual and experience. Since the text and its ritual enactment are cultural products, I will employ a theory or trauma oriented around aesthetics and politics (rather than psychology and the social sciences); in particular, this paper will draw on the affect theories of Lauren Berlant, Jill Bennett, and Susan Sontag.


Pontius Pilate as Anti-Moses in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Paul Korchin, Briar Cliff University

The Mosaic motifs employed in Johannine christology are well known, but what seems to have gone unnoticed is John’s portrayal of Pontius Pilate as an anti-Moses figure: namely, as an incompetent intermediary who fails to bridge the gap between his divine and human constituents. The Fourth Gospel constructs this subtle and sophisticated polemic by depicting key episodes of Pilate’s judgments at the praetorium (John 18:28–19:15) as mirror-like inversions of Moses’ mediations at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:1–25). Whereas Moses faithfully negotiates the inauguration of the covenant between Yahweh and the Israelites, Pilate fecklessly bungles his adjudication of the legal proceedings involving Jesus and the Jews. Moses operates along a vertical trajectory by continually ascending and descending the mountain of God, while Pilate acts via a horizontal pathway by repeatedly exiting and entering his headquarters in Jerusalem. Whereas Moses facilitates Yahweh’s theophanic appearance to his chosen people, Pilate frustrates Jesus’ logophanic manifestation before his accusers. By rhetorically leveraging oppositions between sacred and profane space as well as divine and human speech, the Gospel of John casts the Roman prefect Pilate as a pale and pathetic imitation of Moses, the quintessential Israelite prophet who prefigures the Christic Logos.


Paul’s Ekklesia Associations: Counter-imperial or Pro-demokratia Communities?
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Ralph Korner, Taylor College and Seminary

My presentation will integrate epigraphic evidence and scholarship on associations (e.g., Ascough, Harland, Kloppenborg) and on the political culture of Imperial period Asia Minor (e.g., van Nijf, Zuiderhoek) for the purpose of more fully understanding the socio-political implications of Pauline associations self-designating as a civic entity—the Greek ekklesia (“assembly”). It has become clear that, generally, the citizenry (demos) of Imperial Greek cities had, to a large extent, lost the kratos necessary for the formal exercise of classical Athenian demokratia through their civic ekklesiai. Nevertheless, the civic ekklesia continued to play an important role in the construction of a political culture, especially in Asia Minor, wherein the influence of the demos became a positive factor in the spread of oligarchic munificence. This political culture included not only widespread festivals and monumentalism but also a ubiquitous “ekklesia discourse” (e.g., Salmeri, Miller), each of which continued beyond the 1st century CE. Associations became a mediating influence between the demos and the bouleutic/oligarchic elite through, for example, the establishment of networks of euergetism and patronage. Given that associations frequently adopted political terminology for their organizational structure (e.g., civic leadership titles), without undue negative reaction from the Romans, it does not seem likely that an association which also self-designated as an ekklesia (i.e., Pauline communities) would have raised Roman suspicions. It appears more probable, rather, that an ekklesia association would have been perceived as making a positive attempt, albeit an ostentatious one, at integrating itself into the grass roots “ekklesia discourse” of Imperial period Asia Minor


Problem Based Learning as a Method of Revitalizing Introductory Courses
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Ryan Korstange, Western Kentucky University

Problem based learning (PBL) is an innovative pedagogical approach which was developed in medical schools, and has been applied often in business schools. This pedagogical approach builds on active, interactive, and collaborative learning models - but extends them, and encourages students to practice higher order thinking skills by postulating creative solutions to the various “problems” that they identify and solve. In the contexts in which PBL is typically applied, the students learn by identifying ‘real world’ problems, after which their learning experience is centered around the construction of responsible and creative solutions to these problems. The exigencies of religious studies survey courses do not always accommodate the discussion of these ‘real world’ problems, but I propose that viewing the central questions being debated in the secondary literature as ‘propblems’ for students to solve will bring the benefits of PBL into our classrooms. and in so doing, student engagement, comprehension, and satisfaction will be increased. In my presentation, I will briefly explain PBL, and then explain to the group one problem based activity I have used in survey courses, which focuses on understanding different narrative voices in the flood story. After which, we will reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating PBL into survey courses, and perhaps brainstorm other “problems” worth considering with this pedagogical approach.


What’s in a Cross? The Role and Function of Cruciform Decorations in Syriac Incantation Bowls
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Nils H. Korsvoll, MF Norwegian School of Theology

As a unique, but also befuddling, glimpse into late antique magical practice, the Mesopotamian incantation bowls have received increased attention the past decades. While previous efforts mainly study their linguistic and textual features, more recently Erica Hunter and Naama Vilozny have described and analysed their decorative patterns. Both conclude that these are contextual artistic expressions, relying more on extant Mesopotamian demonology and apotropaia than the Jewish or Mandean religious affiliation expressed in the texts. What, then, of the crosses found in Syriac incantation bowls? Even though a Christian background is generally thought unlikely for the Syriac bowls, they still include a number of cruciform motifs. This paper explores these cruciform motifs, and then enquires first into their role and function within the incantation bowls themselves, before exploring the wider contexts the motifs might be drawing on. The results show some congruence between the motif and a bowl’s text and script, but it is still undecided whether these patterns are due to religious affiliation, place of production or some other circumstance.


Queer Iconoclasm and Queer Iconoclash: From the Christas to Madonna
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Anne-Marie Korte, Universiteit Utrecht

In the context of contemporary public debates on the rights of minorities, where freedom of speech and freedom of religion are often considered to be the central oppositional axis, feminist works of art that queer iconic Christian imagery seem to make paradoxical statements; not only by suggesting that both these rights could be affirmed simultaneously in the fight for gender, sexual and racial justice, but also by displaying an uncanny mixture of art and politics, religion and secularity, and of sincerity and mockery. In this paper I aim to clarify why at present precisely these ‘religiously embodied’ feminist works of art so easily fall prone to controversy and accusations of blasphemy. I zoom in on the queering of crucifixion scenes, comparing the Christa’s (late 20th century) with Madonna’s crucifixion scene (Confessions Tour, 2006). I will show that their visual strategies consist of respectively ‘queer iconoclasm/iconoclash’ (Bruno Latour).


Between Cult-Practice and Literary Production: Priests and Levites in the Book of Malachi
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Corinna Körting, University of Hamburg

Research on Malachi underwent an important shift during the last twenty years. While form and genre critic were dominating research during most parts of the 20th century (i.a. E. Pfeiffer, “Die Disputationsworte im Buche Maleachi,” 1959), at the end of the century questions of literary production, of Tradentenliteratur and intertextuality came into focus (cf. H. Utzschneider, Künder oder Schreiber, 1989; K.W. Weyde, Prophecy and Teaching, 1999; Th. Hieke, Kult und Ethos, 2006). Today, we can speak about a consensus among scholars, if not in detail so in general, when it comes to literality of the prophecy of Malachi. The whole book shows tight intertextual connections to older prophecy as well as the Pentateuch. It has to be read on the background of scripture, actualizing it for the contemporary religio-historical context of the Persian period. How does this fit with an apparently cultic milieu the book stems from? Mal 1:6-2:9 discusses the sacrificial cult; Mal 2:17-3:5 speaks about cleansing of the children of Levi and 3:6-12 mentions the necessity of tithing. The situation in Malachi is different in comparison with older prophecy and its Kultkritik. Although the critic of the priests and their way of conducting offerings is strong in Malachi, a good relation between the God of Israel and his people as well as their ability to communicate is still directly linked to the cult and cultic practice. Taking all these observations into account, it is necessary to continue a discussion about the Levites’ function as those collecting and reworking texts at the temple (cf. J. Schaper, Priester und Leviten im achämenidischen Juda, 2000) and their connections to the sacrificial cult. What can we say about the connections of cult and the growth of scripture on the basis of the Book of Malachi?


Grave-Marking and Wailing: Mortuary Responses to the Babylonian Crisis in Jeremiah’s Poetry (Jer 31:21)
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Ekaterina Kozlova, University of Oxford

Nowhere do ritual, politics, and the restoration of a group intersect as powerfully in the Hebrew Bible as in Jeremiah’s book of Consolation that deals with the cessation of Israel’s monarchy. This paper will explore the last poem in the book, Jer. 31:15-22, which recapitulates the history of the Babylonian invasion – from invasion to exile to manumission – and ritually marks each phase of the national crisis. Against the traditional ‘triumphalistic’ approaches to this poem that view the restored Israel in its repatriation as a victorious warrior (vv. 21-22), this paper will argue for a ‘ritual’ reading of Jer. 31:15-22. It will demonstrate that the need for a ritual response to the Babylonian crisis was so strong that Jeremiah prescribes mourning rites to Judah not only at the time of its demise (v. 15) but also at the time of its manumission from exile. In the manner of earlier materials, where the author conscripted the services of professional mourners (Jer. 9), Jer. 31, too, assigns mourning rites (the erection of burial markers (v. 21a) and ritual wailing (v. 21c, cf. the LXX)) to a female – a group of repatriated Judeans personified as Virgin Israel. Since the use of laments and concomitant mourning rites in the restoration of ‘collapse societies’ was well attested in the ANE, their appearance in the Book of Consolation as part of the poetic vision of Judah’s reconstitution is not surprising. As various manipulations of the dead in the ancient world were viewed as either acts of violence or acts of benevolence, this paper argues that the actions of Virgin Israel can be viewed as part of God’s benevolent scheme of Judah’s restoration and thus as the culmination of Judah’s mortuary responses to the Babylonian crisis.


The Sapientialization of Creation: Adam's Wisdom in Sirach, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Colossians
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Rony Kozman, University of Toronto

In Col 1:9–10, the author prays that his audience would be filled with “knowledge”, “wisdom”, and “understanding” and that they would be “bearing fruit and increasing in the knowledge of God.” A number of scholars have noted that the phrase “bearing fruit and increasing” imitates the scriptural language of Gen 1:28. With respect to the wisdom language of “knowledge”, “wisdom”, and “understanding”, interpreters typically suggest that it is either the mere use of stock Jewish wisdom vocabulary as found in the OT and early Jewish literature, or the use of specific scriptural texts such as Exod 31:3, 35:31 and/or Isa 11:2, 9. This paper proposes that underlying the wisdom and creation language of Col 1:9–10 is a widespread Adamic wisdom motif (surfacing in the HB/LXX, the NT, and other early Jewish and Rabbinic literature) in which Adam is portrayed as one endowed with wisdom. This paper has two aims. First, I seek to remedy the lack of sustained research on this widespread tradition by drawing attention to its presence and use in Sirach (17:1–32; 24:19–34), the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q504 frg. 8, I:4–15; 1QS 4:21–23), and Colossians (1:9–10; 1:15–20; 3:9–10). Second, I suggest that Colossians is significantly indebted to the Adamic wisdom motif (Col 1:9–10; 1:15–20; 3:9–10) which may have been deployed to counteract a tendency in the church at Colossae to find wisdom in sources other than Christ.


Too Many Hands? Isaiah 65–66 and the Formation of the Book of Isaiah
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Reinhard G. Kratz, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The paper addresses the argument of quantity often used as objection against redaction critical reconstructions of the growth of biblical books, and the book of Isaiah in particular. With Isa 65–66 as a test case the paper discusses different readings of these chapters, namely their „final form“, their presentation in the manuscript 1QIsa-a, and their redactional function within the literary history of the book. It is argued that what complicates the explanation of the literary evidence and increases the hypothetical character of any reconstruction is not the assumption of ’too many hands’, i.e. a gradual process of literary supplementation (Fortschreibung) but rather the presupposition of ’too many sources’, i.e. pieces of tradition coming out of the blue.


Trumpets and Brothels: Rabbinic Traditions in Jerome’s Translation of the Book of Numbers
Program Unit: Midrash
Matthew Kraus, University of Cincinnati

Although the possibility of rabbinic traditions informing Jerome’s translation of the Bible “according to the Hebrews”, the so-called Vulgate, has long been acknowledged, identification of these traditions remains a desideratum. Such identification involves challenging, but manageable source-critical issues. We now know more about Jerome’s more general methods from the works of Kamesar, Newman, and Graves. They indicate that Jerome’s grammatically informed rabbinic-recentiores philology provides a basis for incorporating unreferenced oral rabbinic traditions in his translation. This paper examines several renditions from the book of Numbers that reflect Jerome’s practices including his utilization of these Jewish traditions. For example, he distinguishes between trumpet calls in Num. 10:5-7 and offers a striking rendition of Num. 25:8 “and [Pinchas] went after the man of Israel into the inner room” as “he went after the man of Israel into the whorehouse [lupanar].” In addition to uncovering references in a biblical book that has not been examined, this paper proves that Jerome continued to apply the same approach to biblical translation as reflected in his Hebrew Questions on Genesis as well as his Latin versions of Genesis and Exodus.


Reconciling Josephus’ Perception and Conception of the Tiberian Synagogue in Vita 271–303
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Andrew R. Krause, McMaster University

Most synagogue scholars have correctly noted that the first-century synagogue generally takes on multiple uses, from courtroom, to community centre, to prayer hall. This is especially the case in the one scene of Josephus’ autobiography in which the synagogue—here termed proseuche, or ‘prayer hall’—is the setting: Vita 271–303. For many scholars, the diversity in the synagogue text in question is representative of first-century, Galilean synagogues in general. But how does such variance correspond with Josephus’ programmatic presentation and usage of the institution in the larger Antiquitates-Vita complex? How does the description of civic organization match with what we know about the governance of cities and towns during this period? How much can be generalized from this narrative in a historical reconstruction of the synagogue in the first century CE? In order to explicate the seeming inconsistencies, I will use the Thirdspace theory of Edward Soja as a heuristic model so that I might make sense of Josephus’ narratological articulation of his lived experience of the prayer hall in this autobiographical episode. I will argue that in Vita we find an identical conception, or religious geography, of the synagogue as in Antiquitates, despite certain historical and institutional inconsistencies with the descriptions found in the larger history. Specifically, the Galilean synagogue described in Tiberias shows all the descriptive elements of a public assembly, where civic business was conducted. However, Josephus still makes this institution the centre for the practice of Jewish ancestral customs and the Law. This synagogue thus displays many of the same associational traits as the Diasporic synagogues described in Antiquitates. These associational elements in a public assembly are necessitated by Josephus’ presentation of his ideal synagogue as a universal assembly point for all Jews in the new pan-Diasporic Judaism for which Josephus is advocating. However, this idyllic notion of the synagogue as an association should not simply be dismissed as a historical anachronism or rhetorical sleight of hand. In his autobiography, Josephus systematically presents himself as a reliable and trustworthy historian by not only showing good breeding and education, but also by presenting himself as a model citizen compared to his opponents. It is precisely in his treatment of his opponents that the synagogue comes into view in this text, in which we find the sole detailed treatment of Jewish institutions in this short work. We should be careful, then, not to read too much of this narrative as normative for synagogue practice at this time. Josephus presents a civil governance aspect to the synagogue, which is distinct enough within Antiquitates-Vita to lead us to assume that this is likely a realistic representation of first-century synagogues. For Josephus, the his ideally conceived synagogue is directly informed by the commonalities between the historical synagogue he found himself in during this episode in his life and the associational synagogue which typifies the pan-Diasporic Jewish communities he is presenting as his ideal in the larger historical programme.


Hexateuchal Redaction in Joshua
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Joachim J. Krause, University of Tübingen

Hexateuchal Redaction in Joshua


The Role of Wine in the Ritual of the Eucharist and Everyday Life
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Gisela Kreglinger, University of St. Andrews

The role of wine in religious rituals is ancient. Wine played an important part in the religious rituals and practices of the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. The Hebrew and Christian traditions continued to esteem wine highly and use it in their own religious rituals and practices. In this paper I shall argue that an exploration of the role of wine in the ritual of the Eucharist can open up new understanding of the importance of wine and food more generally speaking for Christian belief and practice. Catherine Bell in particular will be an important conversation partner in understanding the role of ritual and its possible relationship to the ordinary and everyday. The Eucharist, just like the Passover meal, involved a sacrifice. In understanding the role of sacrifice and the interrelationship between wine and blood, the importance of wine in the Eucharist becomes more apparent.


Poetic Structure and Polyphony in Hosea 7
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Jutta Krispenz, Philipps-Universität Marburg

Hosea 7 is one of the difficult chapters in the Book of Hosea: the text is disrupted at several places and in some instances an understandable text can only be obtained by using conjectures. Already the textual base is thus difficult to secure. Additionally the chapter –like others in Hosea- does not seem to follow a linear narrative or argumentative concept, but shows signs of discontinuity. This aspect could point to a text featuring more than one voice. At the same time the text displays traces of poetic forming: parallelism, wordplay and catchwords are poetic devices that can be found in it. Based mainly on a semiotic concept of "the poetic" as described by Jurij M. Lotman, the paper will first give an outline of the overall structure of the chapter. Then it will focus on the crucial verses 3-7, trying to use the structure of the text as a tool that helps to find a way towards discerning the more probable possibilities of reading the text from less probable ones. Finally the paper shall discuss, whether the multi-voiced character of the text as it stands is rather part of its poetic feature (the text would then be a polyphonic text in the sense of Mikhail M. Bachtin) or the result of an editorial process.


A Lukan House of Prayer (for All Nations?): Ethnicity, Spirit, and Temple in Acts
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Aaron Kuecker, LeTourneau University

Given Luke’s intense interest in the incorporation of non-Israelites into the reign of God, there is perhaps no more puzzling redactional issue in all of the Gospel of Luke than the truncated quotation of Isaiah 56:7b in Luke’s version of the temple cleansing. The provocative and climactic claim of the Isaianic (and Markan) declaration, that the Temple will be a house of prayer “for all nations,” is dropped by Luke who instead has Jesus call the Temple only “a house of prayer.” This odd move by the evangelist to the Gentiles suggests, perhaps, that something is afoot in Luke’s vision of the relationship between the temple and non-Israelites. This paper will investigate the relationship between temple and ethnicity in Acts, two Lukan themes that have been well-explored in isolation but not yet in relation to one another. I will argue that Luke’s temple imagery in Acts unfolds a narrative trajectory that (1) provides resources amenable to Luke’s insistence that the Spirit simultaneously preserves ethnic particularity and transcends ethnic barriers, (2) highlights the eschatological significance of the ascent of Jesus and descent of the Spirit as the mode of human presence before the God of Israel and the presence of the God of Israel among humans – themes fully intelligible only in light of Old Testament treatments of the Temple, (3) helps clarify difficult and contested Spirit passages such as Acts 8, and (4) provides a hopeful set of motifs for appropriating Luke’s well-developed, though frequently under-appreciated, soteriology.


Kaige and Paul: Romans 11 as a Witness for Hebraizing Readings in 3 Kgdms 19:10 and 18?
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Katja Kujanpää, University of Helsinki

In Rom. 11:3–4 Paul quotes 3 Kgdms 19:10 and 18 in a form that greatly differs from the wording of the majority text of the Septuagint while having four agreements with the Lucianic textual tradition. In this paper I argue that Rom. 11:3–4 shares with the Lucianic text pre–Pauline textual variants that may reflect Hebraizing revision. Therefore, compared to previous attempts to explain the text-critical matters in Rom. 11:3–4, the paper offers a completely new solution. Is Paul an early witness for kaige-type readings in 3 Kgdms 19? Paul is an early but unreliable textual witness, for he often modifies the wording of his quotations in order to make them support his argumentation. Therefore, I will address the question of how to distinguish between Paul’s adaptations and pre-Pauline textual variants, and I will suggest which deviations from the Septuagint in the quotations should be attributed to Paul. Then I will examine different possibilities to explain the curious agreements between Romans and the Lucianic text and demonstrate why the most probable solution is that the two share pre-Pauline textual tradition. The main part of the paper traces the transmission of the four variant readings that unite Paul and the Lucianic text and discusses their relationship to the Hebrew text and the Old Greek. It will be shown that Romans 11 is an interesting case for the textual criticism of Kingdoms. Paul’s quotations from 3 Kgdms offer material for rethinking kaige-type readings and their circulation on the one hand and their relationship to the Lucianic text on the other hand.


What Do We Look at When We Look at Art? Biblical Thought and the Redemption of the Finite
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Avron Kulak, York University

In my paper I examine the way in which the difference between the principles and values that underpin the pagan world and those that underpin the biblical world are central to thinking about what we look at when we look at art. In order to do so, I consider two drawings by Michelangelo – one of Cleopatra, one of the Virgin Mary. I also call upon Shakespeare, Hegel, and Kierkegaard in order to argue that an understanding of Michelangelo’s drawings requires us to see that art in the biblical tradition presupposes and expresses love as the transformation of the finite immediacies of existence, the finite givens of life, into the gift. That is, I argue that the demand made on viewers by the art of the biblical tradition is to ask whether, where, and how deeply in it we find the principle of love as the critique and redemption of finitude.


The King’s Fragrance and the Spiritual Sense of Smell: Reading Song 1:12 with Origen and Gregory of Nyssa
Program Unit: Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, Liverpool Hope University

Origen’s idiosyncratic translation of Prov 2:5, with the Hebrew da‘at rendered as ‘sense perception’ (aisthesis), provided him with a scriptural basis for the development of the idea of the ‘spiritual’ senses, adding a sensory element to the knowledge of God, even if the precise relationship between physical and ‘spiritual’ senses in his thought remained unclear. Yet it is the Song of Songs, read in dialogue with select New Testament texts, that allowed him to explain the role of individual senses in the divine-human encounter. The Song abounds in sensory images, and the prominence of scents, beginning with Song 1:3, where the connection is made between the name, the lover’s very identity, and fragrance, was noted and creatively interpreted by Origen, and later by Gregory of Nyssa. The notion of ‘spiritual’ senses in Origen and Gregory has received considerable scholarly attention, yet there has been less interest in how exegesis, on the one hand, and specific qualities of individual senses, on the other, inform their discussion. In this paper I propose to address this gap by focusing mainly on the ‘spiritual’ sense of smell and the interpretation of Song 1:12 in Origen’s Commentary and Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies. In my discussion I show how exegesis and hermeneutics, as well as theological and epistemological presuppositions, and cultural assumptions about scents and sensory perception, interact, to create not only a new understanding of the text, but also to refine the authors’ own ideas about how humans may participate in the divine reality. The LXX version of Song 1:12, as opposed to the Hebrew text, implies that the fragrance given forth by the spikenard is that of the king (‘While the king was upon his couch, my spikenard gave forth his [rather than its] fragrance’). While in the Hebrew text a certain distance is retained between the two lovers, the LXX implies a closer olfactory connection. Origen explicitly notes the two different ways of understanding the verse, giving preference to the latter one. This prompts him to recall Mary of Bethany’s extravagant gesture of John 12:3, where Mary’s wiping of Jesus’ feet with her own hair creates a union of their scents, a union that most vividly expresses their intimate bond, but also illustrates the remarkable exchange that takes place at this encounter. For Gregory, on the other hand, Song 1:12 allows to give priority to the spiritual sense of smell, undermining the traditional primacy of sight. The verse inspires him to envisage a unique synaesthetic experience, with the bride ‘touching’ the one she seeks with the sense of smell, and ‘recognising his colour’ by the faculty of scent. Gregory then interprets the ‘good odour of the bridegroom that the purified sense receives’ as the Word’s essence, underlying the order and structure of creation, which is inaccessible, intangible, and incomprehensible.


The Death of the “Wisdom Genre” and the Rebirth of “Wisdom” and Genre
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Will Kynes, Whitworth University

After a recent surge in wisdom’s popularity, the category of biblical books has begun to encounter serious questions. Was there a “wisdom tradition” (Sneed 2011, forthcoming)? What are the boundaries of “wisdom” (Dell forthcoming; Najman and Rey forthcoming)? Is the category “useful” (Weeks 2010, forthcoming)? Is it time to declare an “end” to wisdom (Kynes forthcoming)? These challenges to the wisdom genre offer an opportunity to reconsider the nature and role of both “wisdom” and genre in biblical scholarship. More flexible definitions of genre, such as family resemblance, speech-act, or prototype theories, have all been suggested to respond to the problems of defining wisdom (Wright 2010; Sneed 2011; Cheung forthcoming; Dell forthcoming). I will build on this work by using another recent development in genre criticism, Conceptual Blending (Fauconnier and Turner 2002; Sinding 2011), to develop a more consciously intertextual approach to wisdom. Like any genre, wisdom is a scholarly construct, the formalization of intertextual comparisons made by a group of readers, and Conceptual Blending helps explain how this process is actually carried out. As specific biblical examples will demonstrate, this new approach has several benefits over the traditional generic realism applied to the wisdom genre. It can account for the conceptual similarities between the so-called wisdom books without confining them within externally imposed taxonomic boundaries, explain connections between these texts and texts across the canon without expanding wisdom indefinitely, and appreciate the unique ways each so-called wisdom text interacts with other texts and genres. Thus, it enables the appreciation, if not disentanglement, of the textual web in which every text finds itself. Therefore, dropping the wisdom genre categorization need not mean either undertaking the impossible task of reading the so-called wisdom texts purely individually or denying the importance of the concept of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible. It would mean understanding the connections between the so-called wisdom texts and the concept differently, though, by giving both greater independence from each other. At the same time, this approach would recover the interdependence between the so-called wisdom books and the rest of the canon and Israelite religion more broadly, such as the links between the Torah and Proverbs (Schipper 2013) or between the Psalms and Job (Kynes 2012).


The “Johannine Lens” and Many Current Lenses on “John and Jesus”: A Review of John, Jesus, and History Volume III
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Michael Labahn, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

The focus of the essays in John, Jesus and History III is on Jesus’ passion, works and words, analyzing very different texts and topics. It is a well- known fact that the Fourth Gospel tells its very own story of Jesus. It is also a very well-known fact that John uses a quite different approach in re-telling his Jesus-story by using his own lens. Nevertheless, there are still a number of questions about how the Fourth Gospel remembers Jesus. How much history is in the Johannine Jesus and what can we learn from the Johannine Jesus about historical fact? To answer such questions, it is important to understand the Johannine lens used in his project of remembering and actualizing Jesus for his own time and that of his community. Furthermore, the contributors to Volume III use different hermeneutical and methodological “lenses” to understand the Johannine special post-Easter hermeneutic. My review will ask whether we can find a unifying band in the current approaches that could be taken as a point of departure for future research. In particular, an understanding of the Johannine narrative world and the Johannine approach to the building up of meaning from the memory of Jesus might be promising. Thus, it will be necessary to integrate a variety of methods in order to find a successful approach to John, Jesus and history.


The Adaptation of the Alphabetic Cuneiform Script to Write Hurrian at Ugarit
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Joseph Lam, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The alphabetic cuneiform writing system, known primarily from ancient Ugarit, is distinctive in the ancient Near East for its use of cuneiform symbols exclusively to represent consonantal phonemes. While the large majority of the alphabetic cuneiform texts represent the local West Semitic vernacular of Ugaritic (approx. 2000 texts to date), a small but significant number of them – more than two dozen tablets and fragments – reflect Hurrian, a non-Semitic language known from syllabic cuneiform texts hailing from various sites in northern Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Egypt (the famous Mittani Letter), from the late third millennium through the late second millennium BCE. The present paper explores the orthographic conventions observable in this alphabetic Hurrian corpus, in light of roughly contemporary syllabic Hurrian material from Ugarit and elsewhere. Specific phenomena to be examined include the use of the ’aleph signs, the representation of voiced and voiceless consonantal counterparts in the script, and the consistency of word-spellings more broadly. Such a study will not only advance our understanding of a corpus that has largely eluded detailed interpretation, but it will also lend new insight into the origins of the cuneiform alphabet and the place of the Hurrian cultural element within the Late Bronze Age city itself.


Majestic and Macabre Mirrors: Virginity and Leprosy in the Thought of Gregory of Nyssa
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Mark Lambert, University of Chicago

*


Ritual and Media in Philippi and Corinth: The Case of the Acropoleis
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Jason T. Lamoreaux, Texas A&M University

The purpose of this paper is to present a new methodological framework for understanding media involving ritual in the ancient Mediterranean and how media impacts readings of Pauline texts. Like Alfred Gell and John Clarke, I am challenging normative interpretations of media which art historians have put forth. Visual representations of ritual practice as well as mythological tales are abundant in cities of the Roman Empire. Up to the 1970’s, art historians had primarily analyzed style and form in their publications about Greco-Roman art. Since the 70’s, there has been a shift from this more simplistic and disconnected take on art to an acknowledgement of art as a dynamic communicative medium Rather than attempting to evaluate image in the art historical vein, this project moves to understand how normal, everyday Greco-Romans encountered, interacted with, and internalized media within their everyday lives. In terms of the kind of media, I will concentrate primarily on media that represents ritual contexts, especially those that are presented outside the context of ritual space and action. In particular, this project will look at media involving ritual within the first century cities of Corinth and Philippi and utilize that data to suggest new interpretations of Philippians 3:19 and 1 Corinthians 4:12; 12:3 and 16:22.


Noah (2014) as Paradigm for Reading the Bible Ecologically
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

Since the publication of Lynn White’s famous essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” in the journal Science in 1967, Christians have reflected on the place environmental concerns occupy in the faith and practice of the religion. As Ernst Conradie observed, early reflection generally took one of two paths. Either it set out to refute White’s thesis, or it sought to mine the Bible for its “ecological wisdom.” More recently, however, ecologically-minded interpreters of the Bible have noticed that the Bible is not so uniform in its depiction of the relationships between God, human beings, and the other than human world. Under the direction of Norman Habel, the Earth Bible Project and the Ecological Hermeneutics section of the Society of Biblical Literature have developed an interpretive approach to reading the Bible ecologically that employs a hermeneutic of suspicion that acknowledges that the Bible is not always so “green” due to its anthropocentric bias. This paper proceeds from the acknowledgement of anthropocentric bias to defend the following proposal: it is anachronistic to suggest that the Bible directly addresses the current ecological crises facing the world today, and for this reason, any attempt at a green reading of the Bible must start by reading the Bible through the lenses of today’s ecological realities. After sketching the contours of this interpretive approach, the paper will illustrate this approach through an examination of Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 film, Noah, arguing that the filmmaker effectively reflects on biblical traditions in light of an interpretive agenda framed by today’s ecological crises. The fact that the Bible does not directly address the ecological crises of today further illustrates the necessity of a hermeneutic of suspicion when attempting to read the Bible ecologically.


Forsaken Vocation: Reading Idolatry Ecologically
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

Both testaments record scathing critiques against idolatry. From the satirical critiques of the prophets (e.g. Isa 37:18-19; 40:19-20; 44:9-20; Jer 10:1-5) and the Psalms (e.g. 115:4-8; 135:15-18) to Paul’s defenses of monotheism and critiques of paganism (e.g. Rom 1:18-25; 1 Cor 8:1-8; 10:14-22; Gal 4:8-11), the Bible is consistently emphatic that idolatry is the marker of those in rebellion against God and is therefore a potential danger for God's people, the supreme denial of the covenant between God and God’s covenant people. This paper will attempt to read the Bible’s critiques of idolatry ecologically in light of the following line of reasoning. First, idolatry subjugates God to the created order, offering a distortion of the relationship between God and creation and thus robbing creation of its true purpose. Second, idolatry displaces human beings as the image-bearing protectors of creation, subjecting them to the domination of animals imaged as gods and robbing them of their priestly role on behalf of creation. Third, idolatry breaks the triangle of God/human/other-than-human-creation at all vertices, thus destroying the prospect of creation fulfilling its destiny. Fourth, idolatry, then, offers a clue to understanding why human sin corrupts creation and leaves it “groaning” (Rom 8:18-22). Finally, Jesus as the true image of God restores human beings to the divine image, and the outpouring of the Spirit, in light of Rom 8:18-30, is to enable empathetic groaning of humans with non-human creation, restoring the God/human/other-than-human-creation triangle. The paper will conclude with observations as to how idolatry manifests in today’s world in an ecologically destructive way.


The Epistle of James to Quadratus: An Apocryphon with Jewish-Christian Traditions?
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin

The Epistle of James to Quadratus (henceforth EJQ) is a poorly-known Christian apocryphal writing, extant only in Syriac and Armenian, that purports to be a letter written by James, brother of Jesus and bishop of Jerusalem, to one Quadratus. This Quadratus is either the first Christian apologist excerpted by Eusebius (HE IV.3), the prophet described by Eusebius who associated with the daughters of Philip the evangelist (HE III.37), or perhaps some conflation of the two (if Eusebius indeed considers them separate figures). In EJQ, James is reporting to Quadratus about the punishment inflicted by Pontius Pilate and the Emperor Tiberius on the Roman guards and Jewish leaders who suppressed the truth of Jesus’ resurrection (cf. Matt 27:62-66, 28:11-14). James urges Quadratus to transmit this information to John, Mark, Peter, and Paul; meanwhile, prominent Jews are converting to Christianity, and Gamaliel inwardly sympathizes with the Christian movement but remains silent for the time being (cf. Acts 5:34-39). The EJQ has only been studied in recent years by Roelof van den Broek, who translated the Armenian version into German and argued that its list of bishops for Jerusalem was based on independent Jewish-Christian traditions. This presentation will first provide an introduction to this apocryphon and its contents, and will present the first translation of the Syriac version into a modern research language. It will then assess the hypothesis that the EJQ does indeed reflect concerns and traditions characteristic of Jewish Christianity.


Scripture and Agriculture in Early Rabbinic and Christian Monastic Communities
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Christine Landau, University of Virginia

Agriculture was a way of life for most people in the Roman Empire, and was often viewed by the elite as drudgery, incompatible with intellectual fervor and creativity. Between 200 and 400 CE, however, the emerging rabbinic movement in Palestine and the Christian monastic movement in Egypt innovatively fused agriculture with the life of the mind. Scriptural interpretation was a catalyst for this fusion, as I will show by a comparative reading of tractate Peah of the Mishnah (ca. 200 CE) and the Pachomian Rules and Lives (4th century CE). In m.Peah, the rabbis expand upon the biblical obligation to leave a corner of one’s field unharvested for the benefit of the poor (Lev. 19.9, 23:22). The biblical commands assume God’s promise of the land to Israel, and in m.Peah, the rabbis wield Scripture alongside the sickle to distinguish themselves among their landowning neighbors as the community best positioned to farm God’s land in accordance with God’s commands. Further, the rabbis depict the mental effort involved in mastering Scripture as compatible with agricultural labor. Just over a century later, the Pachomian monastic communities in Egypt also saw farming and artisan labor as critical forms of obedience to Scripture. The monks did not configure agricultural activity as an appropriation of biblical “land” texts; rather, viewing themselves as “strangers and foreigners on earth” (Heb. 11:13, c.f. 1 Pet. 2:11), they developed an ideology of manual labor that responded to New Testament exhortations such as 1 Thess. 2:9, 4:11-12, and 2 Thess. 3:6-12. My discussion of the Pachomian Rules and select passages from the Lives traces their authors’ appropriation of Scripture to explain the monks’ approaches to land management. Rabbis and monks based their agricultural practices on different biblical texts, yet came to embrace similar convictions: that physical work can complement the task of learning Scripture, and that farming involves an ethical obligation towards the poor. I aim to show how these communities’ intense, biblically-mediated engagement with the land is clearly reflected in some of the earliest texts they produced. The value rabbis and monks placed on Scripture allowed them to take agriculture out of the realm of purely practical need and economic advantage, and configure it as a way of obeying divine commands and shaping one’s inner life and interactions with others.


“ . . . He Laid a Hand to the Other’s Property”: The Suspected Wrongdoing in Exod 22:7,10
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Yael Landman, Yeshiva University

In a 1962 article, Humbert identified several nuances of the BH idiom šala? yad (literally ‘lay a hand’). The idiom, which generally refers to a physical, often hostile act, appears rarely in the legal sections of the Pentateuch. Two of these attestations occur in the Covenant Code’s law of bailment. Exodus 22:6-14 treats cases arising from arrangements wherein one person leaves property in another’s possession for temporary safekeeping. In v. 7 and v. 10, the bailee, who watches the owner’s goods (v. 7) or animals (v. 10), must undergo a cultic procedure to clear himself of a wrongdoing designated by the words šala? yado bimlekhet re‘ehu: having “laid his hand” on the other’s property. Scholars typically view the suspected transgression of the bailee in v. 7 as one of fraud: the bailee allegedly stole the goods bailed to him. Interpretations of the wrongdoing in v. 10 vary from Fensham’s argument that the bailee’s negligence allowed for the animal’s death (etc.), to Westbrook’s view that the bailee committed fraud through illicit use of the animal. In weighing negligence as a candidate for the bailee’s alleged wrongdoing in v. 7, some scholars have argued that the language šala? yado precludes negligent behavior. Yet contextual evidence has led others to conclude that v. 10 – despite using the very same language as v. 7 – must envision an act of negligence. This paper revisits the meaning of šala? yad, questioning whether it may bear a different valence in a legal context from its meaning elsewhere. In exploring the use of šala? yad in the bailment law, this paper proposes a parallel between the BH idiom and an Akkadian idiom for negligence, a?a nadû. Drawing on contextual and comparative evidence, this paper adduces new support for a negligence reading in both v. 7 and v. 10.


Rahab, Conquistadores, and Masquerades
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Francis Landy, University of Alberta

no abstract


The Origins of Pauline Theology: Priscillian of Avila’s Canons on the Letters of Paul
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
T.J. Lang, Durham University

Prior to the widespread surge of interest in the Pauline letters beginning in the 390s by the likes of Augustine, Pelagius, and Ambrosiaster, Priscillian of Avila († 385/86) produced a work known as the Canons on the Letters of Paul. Despite the fact that Priscillian was executed by the church for alleged heresy, Priscillian’s Pauline Canons had an enduring influence on Vulgate manuscript production and Christian reading practices, even up through the Reformation. Priscillian’s Canons first involved a division or versification of each of Paul’s letters (Hebrews included) into sequentially numbered “testimonies.” These paratextual testimonies, or verses, encouraged easy citation and cross reference. Priscillian next composed ninety ‘rules’ or propositional summaries of Pauline theology, each of which was followed by a list of the relevant passages in the Pauline corpus that combined to contribute key terms and support each statement. In this paper I consider Priscillian’s work as both a technological and theological revolution in Pauline studies. On the technological front, Priscillian’s versification scheme created an efficient system for citing and correlating Pauline data. This, in turn, enabled a more “synoptic” approach to the Pauline letters. On the theological front, Priscillian’s synoptic engagement with Paul in his ninety canons represents, in many respects, a new, systematic form of Pauline theology. We should, therefore, consider the character of Priscillian’s Pauline theology in his Canons and the ways in which his innovative paratextual technology facilitated it.


Quotations and Allusions to the Book of Jeremiah in the War Scroll
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Armin Lange, Universität Wien

This paper will discuss the identification and evaluation of quotations and allusions from the Book of Jeremiah in the War Scroll and their use in the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.


The Textual Standardization of the Hebrew Bible and Alexandrian Scholarship
Program Unit: Qumran
Armin Lange, Universität Wien

Revisions of Old Greek towards the proto-Masoretic and other Hebrew texts begin to occur in the second half of the first century B.C.E. In the same period, proto-Masoretic biblical manuscripts occur in larger numbers for the first time. Both observations point to the second half of the first century B.C.E. as a formative period for the standardization of the Hebrew Biblical text. This paper will ask, if the increased impact of Greco-Roman culture during the reign of Herod the Great could have influenced the development of the proto-Masoretic standard text of the Hebrew Bible. Duane W. Roller (The Building Program of Herod the Great [San Francisco: University of California Press, 1998], 54-65) has shown, that after the Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt Herod the Great succeeded to lure a total of 21 scholars from the Alexandrian library and Museion to his court at one time or the other. This presentation will ask in how far these Alexandrian scholars could have influenced the standardization of the Biblical text.


Translation as Theological Update: The Old Greek Version of the Book of Daniel Exemplified by Daniel 6–7
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Melanie Lange, Universität Rostock

The Book of Daniel is one of the most fascinating and diverse books of the Bible drawing a line in history between Old and New Testament and providing narrative examples of life in the diaspora (Dan 1–6) and an always new mode of interpretation of historical events by its apocalyptic elements (Dan 7–12). But how does the Hebrew and Aramaic version of its (hi)stories change when it is translated? It is no discovery of modern times, that translations always mean transformations in terms of the textual content. Focusing on the Old Greek version of Daniel, it is rewarding to ask for the backgrounds of those transformations to obtain information on the first translator of this book and his life world. As diaspora literature the OG is evidence of the necessity of linguistic and cultural bridging the gap between Judaism and Hellenism and, therefore, it is a cultural and historical achievement, which also became the basis for Christianity. The extent to which OG can be described as dynamic translation is very controversial. The here presented exemplary investigation into Dan 6+7 will follow a literary approach by comparing the role behavior of the acting characters of MT and OG. Thereby it is possible to show that differences are not only based on a divergent Vorlage, but also on an integration of the translator’s own accents, and to derive information about author and dating of the OG from the text itself. The main thesis is: There is less ambition to philological correctness within OG, but a real transfer of the religious message in a different kind of speech, thought and life. Thus, OG is an autonomous historical and religious evidence. A detailed analysis and weighing of the deviations from MT provides valuable insights for the understanding of its cultural and historical context. Thus, a guiding question considers the translator’s view of history and his own historical situation, specifically his dealing with the terms of diaspora. The political importance, not to say brisance of the Book of Daniel and its assimilation to historical circumstances is significantly within its Old Greek translation.


Imagined Genocide in Joshua
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Tim Langille, University of Pittsburgh

This paper explores ?erem in the book of Joshua as imagined genocide from the perspective of trauma and genocide studies. More specifically, it engages larger questions in genocide studies about why certain genocides are ignored, hidden, denied, or imagined. Genocide scholars acknowledge that genocides in antiquity are not forgotten but are on the periphery of genocide studies and commemoration, thereby making them cases of hidden genocides. My paper will be working with a definition of genocide that goes beyond killing fields, concentration camps, and mass death in viewing genocide as cultural destruction. In the case of the book of Joshua, now that most scholars agree that ancient Israelites did not conquer the land of Canaan but rather gradually emerged from Canaanite culture, I will explore what it means to imagine perpetrating genocide, especially when the producers of the text are responding to their own survival of cultural trauma. This paper also will broach the following questions: What does it mean to recreate a social world in the image of an imagined perpetrator? What does it mean to transform an imagined community of violence into a ‘real’ community by imagining the obliteration of another community? In the process, this paper will address larger questions of violence, genocide, and cultural trauma in antiquity.


Ancient Hebrew Palaeography in France in the Digital Era
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Michael Langlois, Université de Strasbourg

In my presentation to the panel I will address the history and development of ancient Hebrew Palaeography in France. I will also discuss the leading epigraphers, the institutions in which they taught palaeography, and their approaches; and I will compare them to other methods used elsewhere. I will also discuss how modern technology can be used to develop new palaeographical tools and methods.


Contours of the Pregnant Female Body in the Childbirth Metaphor
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Karen Langton, Brite Divinity School/Texas Christian University

It has been the tendency of scholars to combine childbirth metaphors into one group as a stereotype for the depiction of bad news, crisis, or distress. However, childbirth metaphors are not identical. The subjects, vocabulary, and purpose of each metaphor varies. Current research has not brought to the surface the contours of the female body in the text. I am concerned labeling childbirth metaphors as stereotypes creates an interpretations where the pregnant female body essentially disappears. Rather than consider the contribution the female body has to the interpretation, she becomes a sign, static, with a fixed meaning and fixed shape. Since this is an ancient text, it is easy to distance ourselves from the metaphor, particularly since childbirth metaphors are not used similarly in Western culture. Therefore, I will use contemporary images to help us connect with the metaphors. I present images of women in childbirth from around the world that portray the texts in the bible. It is almost eerie when these modern day pictures depict almost word for word biblical texts. By seeing modern day images superimposed on an ancient text, it becomes obvious the pregnant female body is vital to an interpretation of the text. It is the ability to ignore these images in the text itself that speaks to our ability to ignore images of the pregnant female body in our world today. These pictures are meant to provoke discussion and challenge images that, I believe, we unknowingly have created for ourselves. Forgetting the body in the text makes it easier to forget the bodies in our midst. The female body must take precedence when a metaphor of childbirth is interpreted. As the modern day images begin to mix with the ancient texts, contours of the bodies become visible. No longer is the body hidden, but becomes so sharply focused that we cannot look away. I caution that the images are graphic.


James 3:13–4:10 and the Language of Envy in Prov 3:21–35
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Benjamin J. Lappenga, Dordt College

Although a few interpreters have noted in passing the numerous verbal links between James 3:13-4:10 and LXX Prov 3:21-35, James’ passage is regularly read as a polemic against jealousy that is most at home within Hellenistic moral literature. This paper argues that the literary and thematic coherence of James 3:13-4:10 derives not primarily from the Hellenistic topos on envy (so LT Johnson) but from metaleptic interplay with Prov 3:21-35. That is, the explicit appeal to “the scripture” in James 4:5 and the citation of Prov 3:34 in James 4:6 indicate that the tropes usually interpreted against the backdrop of Hellenistic moral literature (friendship, violence, etc.) resonate more naturally within the “cave” of Proverbs 3. Like many passages in sapiential literature (e.g., Prov 14:1, 19; 4Q416 2ii11; 4Q418 8,12; Wis 1:9-12; Sir 9:1-11), James 3:13-4:10 foregrounds the language of “jealousy” to expose the tragedy of bad zelos. In trying to locate parallels to James’ usage in Hellenistic writings, interpreters have failed to appreciate how the movement from zelos in James 3:14, 16, and 4:2 to phthonos in 4:5 simply resonates with a description found already in Isocrates: an envious person (phthonos) is one whose good emulation (zelos) has degenerated into jealous imitation because of unfulfilled desires. More significant than the particular semantic choices, then, is that James’ usage mimics the way Prov 3:31 links QN’/zelos with the neglect of the needy, distorted friendship, and emulating the ways of evil/violent people (Prov 3:27, 29, 31). Using this wisdom motif from Prov 3:21-35 as the interpretive lens for James 3:13-4:10 lends further support to a growing consensus about the notorious interpretive crux in James 4:5; namely, (1) that the formula in 4:5 does not introduce a citation of an unknown text, and (2) that it is the human spirit (rather than God’s) that “envies” (pros phthonon).


Genre Criticism and the Gospel of John: Status and Goals
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Kasper B. Larsen, Aarhus Universitet

In the last decades, Johannine scholarship has witnessed an increasing interest in historical genres and genre theory as a means to analyze the Fourth Gospel in its ancient literary environment. This interest stands in contrast to main currents in 20th century form criticism, which by-passed John’s Gospel while focusing on the Synoptic Gospels. The present paper reviews highlights and trends in recent research history, presents the volume The Gospel of John as Genre Mosaic (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), and suggests some new directions in the study of John and genre.


Desert Dining: Dietary Restrictions in Early Monasticism
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Lillian Larsen, University of Redlands

While within an ancient Jewish context, the text of Leviticus 11 offers proscriptions that appear definitive, even readers who accepted these guidelines as authoritative faced significant choices about how to interpret them. In a similar manner, monastic regulatory texts outline strict parameters of dietary observance. However, the question of how these guidelines were interpreted is more difficult to assess. This paper examines the particular foods specified in extant regulatory and narrative descriptions, and the rationales that govern inclusion in, or exclusion from, the monastic table. Paying particular attention to recurring controversies aimed at delineating a proper monastic stance towards dietary parameters, it considers the degree to which articulated norms may have been defined, embraced and/or legislated relative to broader questions of identity and belief.


Monastic Rhetorics of Speech, Sight, and Space
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Lillian Larsen, University of Redlands

This paper examines the rhetorical configurations of speech, sight, and space encountered in early Christian monastic texts. Beginning with descriptive accounts, it explores the degree to which visual imagery functions to invoke the built and/or natural environments in which respective narrative traditions found their form. It then turns focused attention to the particular spaces in which monastic authors situate individual and/or communal encounters with visual media and the spoken word. By attending to the conceptual boundaries that variously delimit, define and structure the deployment of sight and speech as spatial categories, the paper concludes by considering the degree to which contemporary readers’ understanding of monastic texts might be usefully informed by deeper cognizance of the visual and aural dimensions of the late-ancient spaces in which monastic texts were variously read, recited/rehearsed, disseminated, and/or performed.


Accidental Publication, Post-publication Revision, Textual Fluidity, and the Implications for the Traditional Tools of Textual Criticism
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Matthew David Larsen, Yale University

Notions of “authorship”, “publication”, and “final text” are often mentioned in traditional textual criticism of the Gospels, but less frequently discussed in detail. The project of source and redaction criticism ends and textual criticism begins based on when scholars imagine a text was finished. Yet modern notions of publication, textuality, and authorship, which are largely shaped by the printing press, are often anachronistically applied to the ancient world. Among other things, modern scholars tend wrongly to assume a level of textual stability and finality to the publication moment in antiquity: Von Groningen argues for a definitive moment of publication that is in the author’s control; Raymond Starr talks about concentric circles of publication. Each of these imagines a stability, finality, and control to textuality that seems foreign to the ancient world. Exploring evidence from Plato to Tertullian and Augustine, I take up the question of when a text was considered “final.” I show examples of three modes of “publication” in antiquity: 1) limited circulation among associates, 2) intentional authorial publication, 3) accidental publication. To assume that a “published” text was stable and finalized would be a mistake. A public text was beyond the control of the writer, and the text was often changed in ways that would not always have been perceived as negative. Additionally, the writer, an editor, or a student would often revise a “published” text again. At any point in the complex process of writing a work could be abandoned or could be de facto “published”. I pay close attention the complex nature of “publication” in antiquity, especially “accidental publication” and its implications for our conception of the tools of our discipline, particularly text-, source-, and redaction criticism. The question of textual finishedness is important, since there is no consequential difference between what we call textual, redaction, and source criticism, apart from first hypothesizing a moment when a text becomes closed and finalized. As Sean Gurd pointed out, every new draft is a final draft — until it is replaced by a newer draft. We move from the realm of redaction criticism of text to textual criticism based on when we deem a text was finished. Without the prior assumption of textual finalization, the tools traditionally associated with textual, source, and redaction criticism are simply the traditionary process of revising a fluid text.


The Snark Hunt for "Emotions" in Biblical Anthropology
Program Unit: Bible and Emotion
Phillip Michael Lasater, Universität Zürich

Emotions are currently in vogue in various disciplines, including disciplines that focus on the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East. At first glance, it seems unproblematic to assume that the psychological category of “the emotions” is relevant to antiquity: After all, how else could one classify words such as “love,” “hate,” “fear,” “courage,” “wrath,” or “mercy,” other than as emotions? The answer, it turns out, is that the classification could be very different. This paper argues that the psychological category of “the emotions” is foreign to the ancient Near East and that its usage in reference to antiquity is anachronistic and risks distorting our understanding of ancient anthropologies from the outset. Indeed, “the emotions” were the invention of late-modern, anti-Aristotelian Scottish thinkers that included David Hume (1711–1776 C.E.) and especially Thomas Brown (1778–1820 C.E.). The single, homogenizing category of “the emotions” displaced the pre-modern and more differentiated taxonomy of “passions, affections, and sentiments,” the former having emerged as a rival psychological taxonomy over against the latter. Furthermore, these rival psychologies are embedded within conflicting anthropologies. Therefore, ancient references to “the passions" are not simply another way of saying what people today mean by “the emotions.” The very fact of this distinction requires us to adopt different terminology in historical-critical work on, e.g., conceptions of “love,” “hate,” “fear,” “courage,” “wrath,” and “mercy” in the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible. A case study with yr’ (“to be afraid, to fear”) in the Hebrew Bible will follow and reinforce the findings of the conceptual-historical analysis.


Jonah’s Complexes and Our Own: The Roles of Character and Situation in Judging Biblical Personages
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Stuart Lasine, Wichita State University

A number of psychologists and philosophers have used the term "Jonah complex" to denote varying personality types, usually based only on one or two of the events reported in the biblical book. Biblical scholars have also analyzed and evaluated Jonah’s personality without employing, or creating, this kind of diagnostic label. Of these, many would probably agree with Ben Zvi that the characterization of the biblical Jonah is “multivocal” and “multilayered.” However, this paper suggests that the book of Jonah may not furnish us with sufficient data to support any adequate psychological profile of the prophet, whether complex or simple. At the same time, the book's plot, imagery, quoted speeches, and intertextual allusions make this text uniquely capable of evoking readers' fundamental fears and fantasies about themselves, their situation in Yahweh's world, and the fact of their inevitable death. In particular, the basic opposition between enclosure and exposure plays an important role not only within the book of Jonah, but also in the individual and collective life-worlds of the book's readers. By emphasizing the series of enclosures in which Jonah is contained—and the threats presented by immersion in the unbounded sea and exposure on dry land—the narrator tempts us to interpret Jonah’s personality and motivations in terms of our own fears of annihilation, exposure and engulfment, as well as our desire to be safely embedded. Appealing to the branch of social psychology known as attribution theory, I will argue that commentators have tended to wrongly explain Jonah's behavior in terms of robust, and usually negative, character traits, rather than viewing his words and actions in terms of his situation and the rhetorical structure of the book as a whole. In so doing, by judging Jonah we end up judging ourselves.


The Folk Conception of Religion and the Myth of a Domestic Jesus Movement
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Richard Last, York University

The contemporary classification of religion as a primarily-private phenomenon generates the pervasive myth of ancient Christ cults originating from family networks almost exclusively. Recent theoretical work proposing ties between the advent of the modern nation state and the construction of the folk religion/secular binary along private/public lines is helpful, but a similar dichotomy can be traced back to Luke’s narrative of Pauline groups being founded in what this author fashions as sacred space (i.e., domestic architecture) and distinguishes from non-sacred space (civic institutions and public spaces). The odd contemporary historical practice of describing Christ groups as forming almost exclusively out of family networks while portraying Greek, Latin, and Judean associations to have emerged from a wider spectrum of networks – including ethnic, occupational, neighbourhood, and cult networks – makes an early appearance in Luke’s narrative of a uniformly-domestic Jesus movement, and is not a realistic description of cult formation within the Jesus movement.


An Economic Scale of Greco-Roman Associations
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Richard Last, York University

Recent economic scales help to nuance older binary models of the ancient economy but they are necessarily inclusive of sections of society that were too poor to afford the luxury of membership in an association or Christ group. Applying these scales to an understanding of economic stratification in Pauline groups, therefore, requires caution. This paper highlights two problematic assumptions that have been generated by the scales recently. The first is the notion that the percentage of Christ group members at or below subsistence would have been more or less equal to the percentage of the overall population that lived in these categories. This move pushes the overall economic profile of Pauline groups so low that there is no viable explanation for how Pauline groups could have funded their meals and survived generalized financial pressures faced by all associations. The second awkward notion to follow from the scales is that Pauline groups were uniform in terms of their economic profiles – the financial activities of these groups actually differed more than is acknowledged typically. As an alternative to current economic scales, which that stratify all of ancient society (even sections too pompous and too poor to join clubs), this paper presents some criteria by which an economic scale of associations can be constructed, and it makes suggestions about where selected first-century Christ groups fit in the scale. It suggests that the new consensus on social status in Pauline groups is overall a more viable model than the one established by its critics in recent years. (This paper is for consideration in the second project identified in the call for papers).


Parading the Imperial Cult
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Jacob A. Latham, University of Tennessee

The pompa circensis (the procession preceding the wildly popular chariot races in the arena) was both a prized moment of public visibility for the praeses ludorum who conducted the procession and, above all, one of Rome’s most hallowed religious ceremonies, hedged with ritual rules and regulations whose violation could lead to dire consequences. That is, the pompa circensis was fundamentally a pompa deorum, a procession of gods, who as statues borne on fercula (litters) and as symbols, attributes, or “relics” conveyed in tensae (processional chariots) along the arena floor. Prior to his assassination, Julius Caesar received a tensa and a ferculum in the circus procession, just like the traditional gods. Though such honors figured among the reasons for which Caesar was assassinated, Augustus cultivated dynastic connections to his adoptive father in both circus ritual and imagery. After Augustus, however, the pattern of postmortem honors in the circus procession shifted—slightly but importantly. In addition to the traditional tensa, Tiberius provided a statue of the deified Augustus borne on a large, decorated cart drawn by a quadriga of elephants. On the one hand, this ostentatious vehicle drew a “humble” distinction between the divi and the dei. On the other hand, the currus elephantorum arrogantly and spectacularly asserted raw imperial power. Even though the divus was properly distinguished from the gods, the sheer size and grandeur of this display subverted any humble, pious distinctions between humans and gods. This humbly arrogant distinction between dei and divi in the pompa circensis may be explained a number of ways. Perhaps the imperial gods were relative as oppose to absolute gods; perhaps they were simply low status gods; or perhaps they only achieved divine status relative to other humans. Given a relatively firm theoretical distinction between gods and humans, the ambiguous performance of the imperial gods in the pompa circensis pushed the limit of traditional expectations, while remaining within the bounds of the acceptable. Similar finesses would be employed for members of the imperial household: male member of the imperial domus seems to have rated only an image likely borne on a ferculum, while female members of the imperial household, including empresses at first, received a carpentum to carry the statue, though eventually some empresses themselves earned an elephant cart, albeit a biga instead of a quadriga. And so, a rough pattern of honors emerged in which the honored imperial dead were internally differentiated among themselves as well as externally distinguished from the traditional gods. Whatever the theological status of these imperial divinities, imperial custom consistently discriminated between imperial and traditional gods, even if this same distinction also made the divi present in a rather more spectacular manner. The humbly arrogant difference seems to have assuaged the religious scruples of the Roman people—that or the threat of massive imperial retaliation—even as it reconfigured, in part and perhaps only for some, the divine world whose goodwill was so important for a flourishing human society.


Teaching at the Intersection of Biblical Studies and Monster Theory
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Benjamin Laugelli, University of Virginia

For the last few years I have had the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course at the University of Virginia called “Monsters in the Bible and Film.” The course began as a topical first-year writing seminar in the Department of English but has since migrated to the Department of Religious Studies, where I have offered it to undergraduates of all levels interested in the intersection of biblical studies, media studies, and monster theory. The course examines biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts that feature monsters and popular films that allude to these texts and their themes. One of the challenges I faced in developing the course was how to equip my students to identify and analyze monsters in biblical texts. The field of ancient Near Eastern studies defines a monster as an animal hybrid that moves about on four legs as animals do. Monsters differ from demons in that the latter take the form of animal-human hybrids that stand upright on two legs like humans. Using this definition as a starting point, however, presented several difficulties and limitations. For example, the conventional definition applies best to iconographic representations of monsters and not necessarily to discourses of monstrosity in literary texts. Further, the definition focuses exclusively on the form or appearance of monsters and neglects how they function or what roles they play in stories about them. In order to broaden the scope of our inquiry and enrich our analysis of the monstrous, I turned to critical theories of monstrosity in the fields of psychology, anthropology, theology, cultural studies, and media studies. In the paper I discuss representative scholars of monster theory and how their approaches to the critical study of monsters gave my students diverse and often creative ways of identifying and analyzing the significance of monsters that feature in biblical literature.


Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty as Literary Model for Deuteronomy: Some Thoughts on Method
Program Unit:
Jacob Lauinger, Johns Hopkins University

*


Rape Culture: Witnessing and Teaching
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Beatrice Lawrence, Seattle University

Rape culture as a ubiquitous, structural phenomenon is finally under examination. We have the opportunity as professors to help our students see the ways in which American hegemonic social practices encourage rape, excuse rapists, present rape as normative and even sexy, and blame victims. With the epidemic of sexual abuse on campuses, we have more than an opportunity--we have an obligation. A few biblical stories are useful to "uncover the eyes" of our students, and to enable them to see the ways in which dynamics in particular biblical texts are still present today. Though the examples are legion, two texts stand out. The story of Dinah presents a woman who is disempowered by the characters of the story as well as the literary features of the text itself. The Levite's concubine demonstrates the way in which an act of horrific sexual violence reveals the use of female bodies as political targets and weapons, the justifications levied against accusations of rape, and the fact that sexual violence is self-perpetuating. Postbiblical interpretation of these texts suggests that the women involved contributed to their own fates, which makes the texts even more relevant for contemporary conversation. Students who read these texts closely are usually shocked to discover these stories are in the Bible; in that moment of shock they are forced to draw links between an ancient text and their lived realities. Using recognizable elements of popular culture such as movies, music, social media, art, and advertising to elucidate the rape culture endemic in these texts reveals to the students how unaware they usually are of the destructive elements all around them. In this paper, I would like to explore the techniques that we can use while teaching these texts to cultivate awareness in our students, enabling them to think critically about their own contexts, and inspiring them to name and combat a culture that has had devastating consequences on too many, for too long.


Franz Overbeck and the Invention of Apocalyptic Metaphysics
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Stephen Lawson, Saint Louis University

Apocalyptic literature did not always exist. Nor was it simply discovered, lying latent within the pages of the Christian and Jewish Scriptures. It was invented. The first usage of the term as a genre of literature was in mediating theologian Friedrich Lücke’s 1832 study on the Apocalypse of John, where he pointed out similarities between that work and other texts that shared certain characteristics and hence were “apocalyptic.” This invention is surely one of the most significant in modern biblical interpretation. There are few biblical scholars today who would deny the centrality of understanding the preaching of Jesus and the faith of the earliest Christians against the backdrop of apocalyptic hopes. During the latter half of the 19th century the apocalyptic character of early Christianity posed a fundamental challenge to the hard-won but precarious peace between the Kantian distinction between reason and faith. Apocalyptic Christianity troubled the waters by its insistence that no harmony could be found between the two, and faith must destroy the distinction. This articulation of apocalyptic Christianity is frequently associated with Johannes Weiss (1863–1914) and Albert Schweitzer (1875–1963), who offered substantial treatments of Jesus and Paul as figures who expectantly proclaimed the end of the world. While the legacy of Weiss and Schweitzer continues to be felt in biblical scholarship, it was actually the historian Franz Overbeck (1837–1905) who saw most clearly and before anyone else the fundamental challenge presented by the apocalyptic character of earliest Christianity. In his 1873 book Über die Christlichkeit unserer heutigen Theologie (On the Christianity of Our Present Theology), Overbeck contended that the apocalyptic dimensions of the preaching of Jesus and Paul were completely incompatible with subsequent developments in Christian theology. In a harsh polemic directed at both the conservative and liberal theologians of his day, Overbeck asserted that all Christian theology had been an error, an attempt to accommodate the world in direct opposition to the ascetic and apocalyptic message of Jesus and Paul. His apocalyptic interpretation of the Urgeschichte (a term he was the first to use in reference to the earliest Christians) and Urliterature (his term for the earliest strata of the New Testament) drove him to brazenly lift the curtain of liberal erudition that veiled the smoke and mirrors of historicist theologians willing to accommodate Christianity to the mores of modernity. In this paper I present Overbeck’s interpretation of earliest Christianity, which for him necessitated a rejection of the Christian-ness (Christlichkeit) of all subsequent Christianity. I argue that though Overbeck’s critique of Christianity took the form of history it was metaphysical at its core. For Overbeck, historical research brought the abyss between apocalyptic and history into sharp relief. This abyss is not itself historical; it is the impassable border of history. In recognizing this border Overbeck relied upon an invented metaphysics: a “buffered” (to borrow a term from Charles Taylor), or closed, picture of reality. It is this closed reality that the interruptive nature of apocalyptic revealed by contrast.


Christian Participation in Revelation’s Violence
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Nathan Leach, University of Texas Austin

Attempts to define the level of Christian participation in Revelation’s violence often hinge upon the commentator's ability to identify passages within Revelation which clearly depict Christians engaging directly in violence. Accordingly, exegesis of several key passages frequently devotes a great deal of energy to defining who, exactly, is engaging in violence: Christ, avenging angels, or Christians. The resulting focus on who wields the sword in such passages, however, frequently fails to account for all the nuances of human participation in violence indicated by the texts in question. While the physical presence of the righteous in Christ’s army in passages like Revelation 17:14 and, arguably, 19:14 often directly raises the question of human participation in the eschatological battle, their presence or absence should not be taken as settling the issue of direct human participation in such violence. This paper argues that in Revelation three levels of active participation in eschatological violence may be distinguished: the vicarious participation of the righteous through their heavenly doppelganger, the righteous martyrs as the catalyst for vengeance, and the righteous as members of the heavenly army itself. Of these three modes of participation, the second and third may be understood as fitting with and drawing out the implications of the first.


Votive Offerings in Late Antique Christianity: Contexts, Rituals, Meanings
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Sean V. Leatherbury, Getty Research Institute

Few artifacts of popular religion in late antiquity are as evocative of popular piety than Christian votives. These objects, dedicated in churches from the fourth to eighth centuries AD, were material testaments to the answered prayers of the faithful. While most types of votives lacked inherent “magical” significances, their presence bespoke the power of Christ and the saints, and their aesthetic effects of brilliance, color, and accumulation contributed to the aura of holiness at shrines. This paper focuses on votives as objects intentionally left behind in church interiors, interpreting these objects of popular piety within their original architectural and liturgical contexts. After briefly surveying the wide range of votives from the late antique Near East and Egypt, I reimagine Christian votives as parts of multimedia assemblages, from the grouped statuettes of pregnant women that hung from rods in the church of Abu Mena in Egypt, to the masses of golden jewelry adorning the tomb of Christ in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to the assembled icons, metal plaques, lamps, and candles that decorated the interiors of village churches in the region. By re-placing votives in groups based on their original contexts, we can envision how popular rituals of votive dedication played out in the period, reconstruct how votive deposition happened over time and within real architectural space, and tease out the delicate balance between the religious and social motivations behind such dedications. “Excavating” late antique votives from their forgotten places in museum storerooms, typological corpora, and excavation reports, this paper reveals the intricate and potent networks of sacred meaning created by intentional juxtaposition of different types of objects next to each other in church interiors.


Restored Hope? The Function of the Temple and Cult as Restoration in the Book of the Twelve
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Jason LeCureux, Trinity College Queensland

Restored Hope? The Function of the Temple and Cult as Restoration in the Book of the Twelve


The Puzzle of tís dôê: Solved
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
John Lee, Macquarie University

Though much discussed, the LXX expression tís dôê, translating mî yittên, has eluded a complete solution. The translation replicates the Hebrew up to a point and is clearly intended to have the same meaning (‘would that...!’), but the choice of the optative remains difficult. In this paper it is accepted that it is a potential optative (without an), as Evans and others have taken it, but in addition it will be shown that tís with the potential optative, expressing a wish in the form of a question, is actually Greek idiom. Though rare, examples are known in Classical poetry. The proposition that the translators were familiar with this kind of educated Greek finds support in their use of the comparative optative, and another, similar poetic idiom (pôs an + opt., ‘would that...!’). The translation tís dôê, then, is not a confused blend of uses of the optative nor a calque on the Hebrew, but an equivalent that captures both the sense and the shape of the original in a Greek way.


“Our Flesh Is the Same as That of Our Kindred”: Political-Economic Perspectives on Equality and Property
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Kyong-Jin Lee, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

An account of disproportionate and unequal possession of land, labor, and power in Neh 5 calls attention to issues of human rights, political sovereignty, and private property. Economic conditions in post-exilic Yehud put the sovereignty and unity of the community at risk. The unjust allocation of material resources and the consequent physical and moral inequalities in the vassal province only serve to accentuate the absence of a legitimate political organization, which in turn endangers the political stability and well-being of the community. This paper proffers a political-theoretical analysis of the moral and economic questions raised in Neh 5. The statement “Our flesh is the same as that of our kindred” in v. 5 anticipates the notion of universal freedom and equality that the Enlightenment popularized. This discussion therefore examines the theoretical logic underlying the biblical narrative by drawing on the political-economic discourse about the natural equality of mankind. What philosophical premise does the call for a social and economic reform stand on? Enlightenment thinkers debated the question as to whether economic prosperity ought to be viewed as part of a natural state of affairs. This discussion places in conversation the philosophical framework of the argument in Neh 5 with the modern critique of the Enlightenment notion of natural freedom and the rights of equality. Specifically, this paper will utilize the theoretical expositions on liberty and equality proffered by two of the twentieth century’s most notable political thinkers—Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) and Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992)—in order to unravel the discourse of natural freedom and rights of equality in Neh 5. This discussion will highlight the distinction between an equal distribution of rights and equal distribution of property and rank.


The Textual History of Ethiopic Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Ralph Lee, Holy Trinity Theological College, Addis Ababa

This paper will discuss the textual history of the Ethiopic text of Deuteronomy based on a sample of more than 20 manuscripts dating from the 14th century to the 20th century.


Mar Isaac in the Ethiopian Tradition: Reception and Appropriation
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Ralph Lee, Holy Trinity Theological College, Addis Ababa

This paper seeks to demonstrate how the ascetic treatise of Isaac of Nineveh has been received and appropriated in the Ethiopian Christian tradition. Sections of the Amharic commentary on his ascetic treatise, and from other commentary material that refers to Mar Isaac will be used to assess the influence of this text on ascetic practice and biblical interpretation.


Dialogue and Unfinalizability of Ideologies on Monarchy in the Gideon-Abimelech Narrative: An Interpretation of Judges 6–9 in Light of Bakhtinian Dialogism
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Lee Sui Hung Albert, Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Gideon-Abiemelech narrative describes the struggles and leaderships of a tribal hero (Gideon) and a tyrannical ruler (Abiemelech) in a mythical pre-monarchial period. Although their leadership seems to be local rather than wholly national, their military and political accounts are far more detailed than any other deliverer-judges in the book of Judges. Interestingly, Gideon rejects the offer of kingship but Abiemelech strive for the kingship, which he does not entitle. Both of them exercise a certain degree of ruling and violence to their people. The whole narrative is vacillating on pro-monarchial ideology and anti-monarchial ideology. Instead of adopting source studies to explain the vacillation of ideologies in the narrative, this paper proposes a Bakhtinian dialogical reading to attribute this narrative of dialogical ideologies to a polyphonic authorship or redaction. According to Bakhtin, a polyphonic and dialogical narrative includes multiple voices in its unfinalized conversation and allows an intertwinement of multiple ideological positions. The first part will elaborate the concept of unfinalizability in Bakhtinian dialogism that a dialogical text does not allow domination by any single voice or ideology. In light of Bakhtinian dialogism, the second part will demonstrate the dialogical interaction and tension between a pro-monarchical voice and an anti-monarchical voice in the narrative. On the one hand, the misbehavior of Gideon as a prototype of king and the curse to Abimelech by Jotham formulate an obvious anti-monarchical voice. On the other hand, Gideon’s rejection of kingship suggestion and the absence of monarchy result in the subsequent chaos and imply an implicit pro-monarchial voice. The ideologies on monarchy also influence the view of tribal leadership and coalitions. The concluding part will attempt to explore the authorial meanings of dialogical ideologies in the post-exilic context of the final redactor of Judges.


A Lion Hunter and a Caged Bird: A Case of Text–Image Interface in the Assyrian Inscriptions and Reliefs Regarding Sennacherib’s Siege against Hezekiah
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Woo Min Lee, Drew University

In this paper, based on my dissertation project, I will explore how Assyrian inscriptions (texts) and reliefs (images) interact to represent the relationship between Sennacherib and Hezekiah during the Assyrian king’s siege of Jerusalem. In particular, I would like to focus on the Assyrian lion hunt and military siege inscriptions and reliefs for an ideological analysis of the simile “shut up/enclosed like a caged bird” in Sennacherib’s inscriptions regarding his siege against Hezekiah. The aforementioned simile was earlier used to describe the lion in the lion hunt inscriptions, as, in the hunt, the ferocious animal’s destiny wholly depends upon its hunter. The simile represents the animal’s powerlessness and helplessness, which are vividly expressed visually in the lion hunt reliefs. Conversely, in these inscriptions and reliefs, the Assyrian king is described as being a powerful and victorious hunter. At the conclusion of the lion hunt, the hunter always conquers his prey. The simile reflects interrelatedness between the royal lion hunt records and Sennacherib’s inscriptions regarding his siege against Hezekiah. A comparative study of the lion hunt and military siege reliefs reveals their similar patterns: a controlled situation, the confinement of the target, and the final victory of the Assyrian king. While there is no pictorial relief depicting Sennacherib’s attack against Hezekiah, the use of the same simile in the inscriptions and the similar patterns of the reliefs create the image of Sennacherib as a controlling and powerful lion hunter against Hezekiah, who is described as a controlled and powerless caged bird.


Kierkegaard Explains Ecclesiastes: Contradictions as a Reflection of the Limits of Wisdom for Describing Life under God
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Mari Leesment, University of Toronto

In many ways, Ecclesiastes reads like an existentialist text, concerned as it is with life as it is actually lived and its absurdity and ambiguity. Since Ecclesiastes is also concerned with life that is lived under God, the writings of the Christian existentialist Søren Kierkegaard help us to think through Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes appears to be a favourite work of Kierkegaard, who frequently refers to Ecclesiastes in his various writings and writes at some length about Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. Kierkegaard mirrors the attitude sought out by Ecclesiastes, responding to God as one who knows, and against whom all wisdom is limited. This paper argues, using Kierkegaard’s work on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, that the contradictions in Ecclesiastes are necessitated by the limits of wisdom and the unknowability of the work of God, and the necessity of living in light of God and the eternal. The contradictions in the book of Ecclesiastes appear to be inherent to the subject matter. In order to avoid the meaningless life, one must live, enjoying the life under God, but what is from God and the eternal is not entirely knowable. Therefore, the search for wisdom will ultimately be incomplete and bring about absurd conclusions, while an attitude to God of reverence and thankfulness and acting from this stance will shape a meaningful life despite what is unknown. In this light, Ecclesiastes does not seem to be so much a critique of particular theories, but of the limits of wisdom itself for determining how life is lived. More than simply instructing his readers in ‘fearing God’ or ‘remembering one’s creator’, which itself could become a form of objectified ‘wisdom’, Kierkegaard presents the contradictions as fundamental – wisdom is necessarily temporal and inadequate, and ultimately will be vanity, but it remains possible to live appropriately under God, where living fully is only happening if one acts from this stance.


Background as Foreground
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Mary Joan Leith, Stonehill College

The earliest known public image of Christ on the cross appears on a relief panel of the well-known early fifth-century wooden doors of the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome. We propose that the inspiration for the Santa Sabina Crucifixion panel may be located in the nexus of ongoing power relationships within fifth-century Roman Christianity. We examine this unprecedented crucifixion image in the context of both the popular Christian martyr cult in Rome’s suburban cemeteries and elite euergetism within the walls of Rome. Considering the Santa Sabina Crucifixion panel more comprehensively in terms of its local Roman and early Christian matrices can allow modern eyes to share more effectively in the experience of the fifth-century Roman Christian viewer.


Violence against Children and Girls in the Reception History of Psalm 137
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Joel M. LeMon, Emory University

Psalm 137 ends famously with a benediction on those who do violence to the bodies of little children: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock” (v. 9, NRSV). This paper explores select episodes in the reception history of Psalm 137, with a particular focus on liturgical and metrical versions of the psalm. These versions present a relatively consistent set of interpretive strategies: (1) Interpreters include the final verse, but use various rhetorical or musical techniques to soften the imagery; (2) Interpreters reframe the violence against the “little ones,” so that the children are a substitute for something or someone more deserving of such violence; (3) Interpreters truncate the psalm so as to omit the description of violence against the “little ones.” In this third option, the psalm versions typically end with v. 8, an image of violence against Babylon, who is personified as a child, namely, “Daughter Babylon.” Thus, the interpreter’s attempts to expunge the psalm’s violence against children are, at best, partial. In sum, each version of the psalm reveals the dominant mores about representations of violence in religious contexts, the sociology of children, and the differing assumptions about violence against children collectively and young girls specifically.


Ludlul Bel Nemeqi and/as Revelation
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Alan Lenzi, University of the Pacific

This paper explores revelation in the Babylonian poem Ludlul Bel Nemeqi ("The Babylonian Job") with a focus on negative and malevolent revelation. Negative revelation refers to receiving an evil omen through divinely-sanctioned means such as divination, or to not receiving a legitimately requested sign. Malevolent revelation is receiving a sign from demonic or other supra-human forces that is manifest in negative, often bodily, effects upon the receiver. These types of revelation play a major role in the sufferer's plight in the first two tablets of the Babylonian poem. The remainder of the poem recounts the sufferer's recovery and includes several revelatory or revelatory-related elements: three mantic dreams, the expulsion of demonic illness, and the reception of a favorable sign at a temple gate. Since the sufferer (the implied author) narrates his poem retrospectively in the first person, the poem reads like an autobiography of religious experience. Given that the narrator relates and interprets his extraordinary experiences so confidently and with the intent to teach others about the merciful nature of Marduk, Babylon's god, the poem as a whole may be considered a revelation in some sense. Thus, the poem problematizes any simple distinction between sapiential observation of human experience and the reception/interpretation of supra-human revelation.


Ancient Mesopotamian Prayer: Evidence and Methodological Issues
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Alan Lenzi, University of the Pacific

This presentation provides an overview of the evidence for and the methodological issues surrounding ancient Mesopotamian prayer, with an emphasis on the Akkadian material. Some of the questions pursued in this talk include: How does one determine what counts as a prayer in Mesopotamia? What physical and verbal activities might be included when Mesopotamians prayed? As our evidence is textual in nature, how do we reconstruct the text of prayers from broken tablets and deal with textual diversity when a prayer is preserved on multiple and differing manuscripts? What are the various genres of prayer attested among the evidence? Why were prayers considered efficacious and what made them so or hindered them from being so? The final third of the paper will be given to an exploration of two prayers from about a thousand years apart. One is an Old Babylonian letter-prayer. The other is an incantation-prayer from the mid-first millennium.


Prosaic Poetry: Considering the Poetic Styles of Israel's Historical Psalms
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Jeffery M. Leonard, Samford University

The so-called historical psalms often fit uncomfortably among the hymns and laments that make up the larger part of the Psalter. Because of their exceptional length and their focus on traditions from the nation's past, these psalms often lack the emotional immediacy other psalms express so vividly. A number of the historical psalms or psalms containing historical motifs also stand out because of their distinctive poetic styles. Among the 150 psalms that make up the Psalter, waw-consecutive forms appear only 335 times, an average of hardly more than twice per psalm. Of these appearances, though, fully 185 appear in only five psalms: 18, 78, 105, 106, 107. This distribution of verbal forms raises the possibility that the poetry of the historical psalms may differ in other significant respects as well. In this study, I will be considering the poetic style of the historical psalms, giving particular attention to their use of "tenses," particles, articles, and other features that distinguish their poetry from the rest of the Psalter. Additionally, I will be considering the way these features are combined to produce the unique forms of parallelism these psalms employ.


The Prophets and Israel's Early Historical Traditions
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Jeffery M. Leonard, Samford University

As the former near consensus concerning the development of Israel's historical traditions has declined in recent decades, there has been renewed interest in finding historical traditions external to the Pentateuch to gain an additional window onto the growth of this material. Among the most important of these external windows has been the historical psalms (Psalms 78, 105, 106, 135, and 136). The early Israelite prophets also regularly appeal to the nations historical traditions as they construct and deliver their prophetic oracles. In this study, I will be considering the traditions as they appear in the early prophets, both to consider how the prophets deploy these traditions and to see what light they shed on the development of the traditions themselves.


Proverbs or Prophets? A Scribal Light on the Dangerous Woman in Prophet Writing
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, University of Scranton

The goal of this paper is to allow the Mesopotamian scribal world to illuminate our understanding of portrayals of women in biblical writing; namely, prophetic literature. In the Bible, prophetic writing shares a common habit with Proverbs 1-9 in its often single-dimensional portrayals of women associated with marriage and dangers. Though the prophetic voices are in no way monolithic, in these books, Jerusalem, Judah and Israel are often personified as a harlot or female apostate (e.g. Isa 1:21-23), or as a once-forsaken woman now redeemed (Hos 2). Childbirth can be a metaphor for misery and death (Jer 4). Where women are portrayed positively, metaphors often reveal the tamed dimension of the domestic sphere, including childbirth and motherhood (Isa 8). The women of Proverbs 1-9 offer a similar simplistic portrait of women; on the one hand, danger, represented by the foolish woman (Prov 9) and the “strange” or adulterous woman who disrupts the marriage boundaries (Prov 2). On the other hand, the loving wife (Prov 5) and Lady Wisdom (Prov 1-3), who promise the young man security and safety. Meanwhile, biblical literature outside the prophetic corpus holds greater potential for portrayals of female characters that are complex, embodying women’s interests and concerns and driving the narrative (e.g. Ruth, Sarah, Rebekah, Tamar in Genesis). Proverbs 1-9 is often understood to be the quintessential scribal education text. The purpose of the collection is explained in terms of written wisdom or teachings, as an aid in the education of young men to understand “proverbs and epigrams” (1:6). The question is whether possible connections between portrayals of women in prophetic writing and Proverbs 1-9 open up the possibility of viewing prophet book writing in terms of a school setting. If so, this school setting would be naturally at home with writing in the ancient Near East, particularly the work of master scribes. Like Proverbs, Mesopotamian wisdom offers instructions to the young man on how to navigate the potential dangers of women; in “Counsels of Wisdom,” the young man is advised not to marry a prostitute, temple harlot or courtesan, who will only disrupt the home. Meanwhile, complex women who drive the narrative often come in the form of goddesses in the literary texts (e.g. Tiamat, Ereshkigal, Ishtar). Setting aside the Egyptian scribal context for now, this paper examines the portrayals of women in Proverbs 1-9 and the biblical prophets in relation to the handling of women specifically in cuneiform scribal school settings. The aim is to deepen our understanding of how different contexts for writing may produce distinct representations of women in the ancient world.


East Manasseh as a Historiographical Category
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Ellen Lerner, Vanderbilt University

Among the Israelite šeba?îm (traditionally translated as “tribes”) described in the Hebrew Bible, the šebe? of Manasseh is unique in that it is the only entity situated both west and east of the Jordan River – in the central hills region of the west and in northern Gilead in the east. This is a striking characterization because the biblical writers otherwise cast the Jordan as a boundary between the eastern and western tribes and while these two Manassite regions do not necessarily represent contiguous areas of land, they are nonetheless viewed as a single “tribal” unit. Insofar as the biblical narratives present conflicting views of the legitimacy of the east Jordan region and those Israelites that inhabit it, Manasseh operates, at least conceptually, in both the eastern and western orbits. While most scholars acknowledge that the biblical presentation of Israel’s tribal period is a historiographical construct, there is nonetheless general agreement that those groups that eventually came to be known as “Israel” were relatively small-scale, decentralized, largely agriculturally-based socio-political entities –be they tribes, simple chiefdoms or complex chiefdoms – such that the overarching biblical characterization of the pre-monarchic groups (Iron I) is not entirely far-fetched. Yet while the general idea of a “tribal” entity spanning the east and west sides of the Jordan is a plausible socio-political/socio-territorial arrangement, there are nonetheless several conceptual and textual issues with the idea of east Manasseh. This paper explores the phenomenon of east Manasseh through the lens of literary criticism and with an eye to anthropological research arguing that: 1) the concept of east Manasseh arose separately from that of west Manasseh and 2) east Manasseh is a literary/historiographical category imagined by later writers.


Esterah and Lilith: Mythical Women and Ascent
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Rebecca Lesses, Ithaca College

The Jewish ascent literature is marked by its androcentricism. Men ascend to heaven or the Merkabah, not women. Women are rarely even mentioned in apocalyptic or Hekhalot ascent accounts. There are two exceptions: in both the Midrash of Shemhazai and Azazel and the Alphabet of Ben Sira, women make ascents to heaven using the divine name. In the first text, Esterah is threatened by the fallen angel Shemhazai, and in order to escape him, she obtains knowledge of the divine name from him and uses it to ascend to heaven, where God places her in the constellation of the Pleiades. Esterah’s identity is very mysterious, and some scholars have identified her with the figure of Norea known from Gnostic literature. There is also persuasive evidence to regard Esterah’s story as depending on Muslim exegesis of a passage from Sura 2 of the Qur’an. In the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith is the first woman, corresponding to Adam, the first man. Both were made from earth, and once they are created, they immediately begin to argue about who should be on top during sexual intercourse. Adam tells her that he will not lie beneath her, because he is the superior one, while Lilith makes the argument that, “We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.” They were unable to persuade each other, and Lilith pronounced the divine name and flew off. In the continuation of the story, Lilith is identified as the demon who kills newborn children, and she swears by God’s name that if she sees or hears the names of three angels whom God sends to confront her, she will refrain from killing a child protected by an amulet carrying the angels’ names. This paper will examine the contrasting figures of Esterah and Lilith, and compare them to men in apocalyptic literature or the Hekhalot texts who ascend to heaven or the Merkabah. Who exactly is Esterah? How do these two mythical women differ from men who ascend? Are their ascents motivated by the same reasons as the ascents of men? Why does one becomes a star while the other becomes a demon? Why are there so few women to be found in these stories of ascent?


Should You Bring Allusion to a Metaphor Fight?
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
G. Brooke Lester, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

(2nd session) It is frequently (if not frequently enough) said that literary allusion is a form of metaphor. However, this claim often involves only cursory illustration of metaphor, with little engagement of metaphor theory as a discipline in motion. This presentation tests well-established examples of inner-biblical literary allusion against the critical issues that recur in metaphor theory. In the end, I argue that this definition of allusion as a kind of metaphor holds up well, and provides a surer footing for analysis of allusion in the Hebrew Bible than does the more general definition, "any indirect reference." For over forty years--a good biblical span--scholars of allusion outside of biblical studies have tested a definition of "allusion" as a figurative device akin to metaphor. Conte claims outright that allusion is "a species of metaphor," and Garner's description of allusion is scaffolded onto metaphor theory. Perri and Ben-Porat (the latter almost the sole representative cited in biblical studies) both insist that allusion can only be understood as metaphor. Nonetheless, biblical scholarship in "inner-biblical interpretation" has barely acknowledged this movement, defining allusion instead according to the relative measure of how indirectly the text at hand refers to another. Examples of allusion from Daniel, Jeremiah, and Jonah provide the testing ground. Where allusion critics engage metaphor theory relatively shallowly (say, by invoking "tenor and vehicle, or by appeal to denotation and connotation), how do such claims about allusion hold up to theoretical exploration about the associated domains that accompany these terms? Sometimes, too, known allusive tendencies suggest rhetorical devices commonly associated with metaphor: for example, biblical texts often evoke two earlier texts at once, inviting a comparison to the "mixed metaphor." Finally, the distinctions that separate metaphor from related devices like simile and irony suggest themselves for better understanding inner-biblical interpretations that are not figurative.


No, Seriously: A Unifying Theory of Allusion
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
G. Brooke Lester, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

(3rd session.) Does the term allusion apply to any "indirect reference," or properly only to those examples that function figuratively, in a manner akin to metaphor? The latter view enjoys strong support outside biblical studies, while the former holds sway in our guild, especially in studies of "the OT in the NT." This presentation offers a Unifying Theory of sorts, arguing that "indirectness of reference" represents a characteristic (but not mandatory) feature of inner-biblical allusion. This "indirectness" establishes the discourse for the reader as poetic, and invites the reader to be prepared for such figurative, metaphorical rhetorical devices as prompt her to co-produce meaning in concert with the text at hand. Most "OT in the NT" scholarship presumes a definition of allusion as "an indirect or covert reference." A 40-year movement in non-biblical allusion criticism defines allusion instead as the figurative use of an earlier text in a trope akin to metaphor. In my "Unifying Theory," I propose that these two views on allusion can be united, with "indirect or covert reference" representing a common, but not necessary, characteristic of allusion. The "indirect reference" serves as a "flag" to the reader that the text at hand employs poetry (understood here as language calling attention to itself as language), and thereby apt to employ rhetorical figures, especially allusion (understood as a device of figuration). The Venn diagram joining "indirect reference" with "allusive figures akin to metaphor" shows significant overlap...while also showing that "indirect reference" must be understood only as a common accident of allusion, not a workable definition. Illustrative biblical exemplars of allusive and non-allusive "indirect reference" include Paul's use of Isaiah 52-53 and Isaiah 10, and Matthew's use of Hosea and of Isaiah, and Revelation's use of Second Isaiah and Daniel.


Bathing Beauty: The Concealment of Bathsheba’s Rape and Counter-Power in 2 Samuel 11:1–5
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Anne Létourneau, Temple University

In this paper, I wish to reflect on the issue of sex and power in the David and Bathsheba story (2 Sam 11:1-5). I will examine how Bathsheba’s beauty is used as a narrative device to erase both the necessity of her consent to intimacy and the sexual violence (rape) inflicted on her. The mention of her beauty (2 Sam 11:2) plays the role of de facto consent in the very frugal narrative economy of this biblical story. However, beautiful Bathsheba is not completely captive to David’s fantasy. As I will demonstrate in the conclusion of this paper, the self-care involved in her beautifying session completely escapes him and opens a space for her agency. First, I will analyze the heterosexual and male gaze of David as focalizer of Bathsheba (2 Sam 11:2). The (at least partially) nude woman is described as “very beautiful to look at”. In a few but effective words, the narrator describes the woman who captivates David’s attention. This might be a way to hint at seduction and to hold the woman responsible – at least a little – for the ensuing sexual aggression. Many scholars share the perception of Bathsheba as a seducer, even though it was his desire that was enticed by the view of her (2 S 11:2). Drawing upon the insights of feminist exegesis, I will discuss issues of objectification and voyeurism in the ambiguous setting of Bathsheba’s roof terrace as a private space invaded by king David’s gaze. I will consider Guest’s argument for the lesbian gaze as rivalling with the male gaze, revealing the “heteronormative script” of all interpretations and enjoying feminine beauty “without exploiting it” (Guest 2008, 246, 248). Second, I will examine how king David’s gaze materializes in an indisputably oppressive manner. He attempts to sexually appropriate the woman he laid eyes on. Verses 3 and 4 describe, in a very laconic way, how he seeks to know the woman’s identity, before he sends for her, and sleeps with her. Using narrative criticism, syntactical and structural analysis, I will argue that the fact that Bathsheba comes to him (wattabô’ ’elâyw) does not signify her consent but the authoritarian laziness of a powerful king who stays at home while his people are at war (v. 1-2). Bathsheba, as a pretty woman, is “to-be-looked-at” (Mulvey, 1975), enjoyed sexually and disposed of. I wish to disclose the violence hidden in this quick set of actions. In the conclusion, I will show how Bathsheba’s agency blossoms in verse 5 because of David’s misunderstanding of her “beautifying/bathing” session. Unlike the readers, the king ignores that Bathsheba was actually performing the sanctification of her body from uncleanness (probably menstruation) (v. 4) and is now in her fertile period. In verse 5, she is empowered by her pregnancy and is given the chance to strike back at her royal aggressor with her own “message”. Beauty opens up a space of suffering and empowerment for Bathsheba, both concealed in her “toilette” in 2 Sam 11:2.


Ritualising Levitical Prophets
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Mark Leuchter, Temple University

Recent scholarship has drawn increasing attention to the role of Levite scribes in the redaction of the Hebrew scriptures as a type of mantic, even prophetic activity, reflected in no small part by the presentation of Levites as both scribes and prophets in Persian or early Hellenistic period biblical texts. The present study will consider how the Levitical redaction of the Book of the Twelve falls into this category, with the redaction of earlier prophetic oracles into a single corpus constituting a form of divination that resulted in a new prophetic message projected over the totality of its contents. This redactional process emerged from a cultic context, suggested not only by the "cultic blocks" within the Book of the Twelve (as discussed by James Nogalski) but also by the role that the Levite ritual recitation/performance of prophetic texts played in the Aaronide temple cult. The Levite redaction of the Book of the Twelve transformed the role that prophetic texts played from one that supported the Aaronide cultic status quo to one that elucidated the hermetic/esoteric meaning of these texts beyond cultic contexts, which in turn secured additional revelation from YHWH. This process ultimately left impressions on the Aaronide cult itself, but also carried major implications for the origins of Midrash as conceived in subsequent eras and developed in early rabbinic tradition.


Many Voices, Many Contexts, One Faith: Engaging the Breadth of Scripture to Form Discerning, Missional Congregations
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Laura R. Levens, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky

When asked to name Scriptural texts about mission, many seminarians, congregants, and ministers turn to a commanding passage in the New Testament, such as the Great Commission or a line from Paul. Yet when one reads the entire canon of New and Old Testaments as a multi-voiced, converting document teeming with witness to God, all genres and texts of Scripture contain various guidance, warnings, questions, and narratives for the formation of missional practices and congregations. Matthew and John, for example, both stress the formation of ecclesial community as witness to the world, though Matthew focuses more on faithful obedience to Christ and John attends to love and unity within the community. Luke narrates mission through acts of forgiveness and solidarity with the poor, while Mark emphasizes the approaching presence of the Kingdom through Christ. And the promise of Abraham as a “blessing to the nations,” for example, is debated and reinterpreted across the Old Testament, sometimes in opposing ways. Add recent attention to the intertextual nature of the New Testament drawing upon the Old Testament, and the biblical canon comes alive as a plurality of voices testifying to God from different contexts of place, time, social standing, etc. Though the Scriptures speak together about faith in one God, they speak from different contexts and even disagree with one another. In short, more than commanding imperative, Scripture provides a vast and varied traditioned conversation on witness and mission. Drawing on the Scriptural examples above and biblical hermeneutics of missional logics and theology from both Old and New Testament scholarship, I will demonstrate that attention to the breadth of Scriptures, in all of their variety, provides fundamental foundations for contextually aware and discerning congregational practice of mission. As more than a book of commands and imperatives, congregations and ministry practitioners may look to the voices of Scripture as guiding, challenging companions along the “divine and dusty” (as Bosch would say) journey of mission in today’s world.


Consulting and Evaluating the Latin Translations of Josephus’ Antiquities and War: A Report on the Manuscript Tradition
Program Unit: Josephus
David Levenson, Florida State University

The paper will provide an update on the Latin translations of Josephus.


Understanding Athaliah
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan University

According to 2 Kings 11, after the death of Ahaziah king of Judah, his mother Athaliah “lost all of the royal seed” (usually understood as murdering all members of the royal family – including her own grandchildren!), which, but for the heroic actions of one princess and one priest, would have been the end of the Davidic dynasty. She then ruled over Judah for six years, before being deposed and killed herself by the priest Jehoiada, who put the child Joash on the throne instead. Athaliah is often thought to have been a daughter of Ahab by Jezebel and a ardent worshipper of Baal, bent on subverting the Jerusalem Temple and court. The purpose of this paper is to offer a careful diachronic reading of the narrative in both 2 Kings 11 and in the parallel 2 Chr. 23-24 and to show that many of these claims are based on a biased interpretation of the text, and not on the information that it actually contains. Athaliah is seen as a desperate sole survivor of the Omride dynasty, trapped in a hostile Judah, whose guiding principle was not zealotry but self-survival.


The Role of the Levites in Chronicles: Past, Present, or Utopia?
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Yigal Levin, Bar-Ilan University

The importance of the Levites to the Chronicler, as a class distinct from the priests, has long been recognized. The Chronicler inserts mention of Levites in texts taken from his sources in which they originally were not mentioned, and emphasizes their role in the cult and administration of the kingdom of David and his successors. It has often been claimed, that this centrality is a reflection of the situation in the Chronicler’s own period, that of early Second Temple. On the other hand, in recent decades a growing awareness has developed, that the Levites were actually quite marginal, almost non-existent, in the Judaism of this period. This paper is an attempt to re-examine the historical background of the role of Levites in Chronicles and their role in the late First and early Second Temple periods.


"Making the Foreign Native and the Native Foreign": Ritual Violence in Levantine Imperial and Civil War Contexts
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Nathaniel Levtow, University of Montana

This paper examines the socially productive role of ritual violence in ancient West Asian representations of the “foreign”. It focuses on Deuteronomistic “reform” literature and Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions that depict rituals of domination and resistance in ways that blend, and distinguish between, foreign and native categories. It describes how these representations of strategic violence against “foreign” peoples and cults promote the absorption of “far” enemies and the expulsion of “near” enemies in contexts of imperial expansion and indigenous rivalry.


God ['Ilu] and King in KTU 1.23
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Theodore J. Lewis, Johns Hopkins University

Ritual theorists have articulated the many ways in which political rituals and mythologies serve as mediums to construct and reinforce the very nature of power and by so doing to promote the interests (and vital necessity) of god, king and state. The proposal below argues for 'Ilu's life-giving sovereignty (against that of deadly Motu) that buttresses the royal power of the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Ugarit. //This paper argues that KTU 1.23, like the majority of ritual texts, functioned as a part of the royal cult of Ugarit, yet with no appeal to reconstructing a hieros gamos mythology. In contrast, the ritual texts focus on the king at Ugarit asthe central cultic actor. It is likely then that the religious officiant speaking in the first person at the beginning of KTU 1.23 is doing so in the service of the royal cult. That the king, the queen, and their royal attendants are subsequently mentioned as receiving "well being" a few lines later argues for such a likelihood as well. In addition, part of the ritual is said to be recited at a royal location known as (d, a term used elsewhere to designate a "throne room" in the Kirta epic as well as a room in the temple of Ba'lu-'Ugarita where royal cult took place. //The god 'Ilu is often referred to as king elsewhere at Ugarit, and this paper argues that there are also reasons to view 'Ilu as king in KTU 1.23 that have gone unnoticed. These reasons include unpacking the way in which xT refers to 'Ilu's royal scepter (in addition to his male member). A new proposal is offered to solve the word ymnn concentrating on royal benevolence and generosity (known from royal diplomatic maninnu-gift giving at Amarna and Qatna). Other aspects of 'Ilu's royal status will be unpacked including his kingly sexual prowess (cf. KTU 1.4.4.38-39's mention of "the yd of Ilu the King"), his bird hunting set against the back drop of the royal hunt, not to mention the merism of gods and kings being referred to as "father and mother." Key to this line of interpretation is the binding of the enthroned god Motu with scepters (xT) in hand at the outset of the ritual. The most well known clash of 'Ilu and Motu elsewhere in Ugaritic myth is found in KTU 1.6.6.27-29 where 'Ilu is described as crushing the scepter (xT) of Motu's rule as he overturns his kingship (yhpk ks)a mlk)! Similarly, KTU 1.23 juxtaposes 'Ilu's sovereignty with Motu's kingship. The deadly scepters of "Motu the Ruler" (mt w$r) are made ritually ineffective prior to the celebration of 'Ilu's (and thereby the king's) royal benevolence and life giving powers--both with respect to newborn children and their sustenance. Lastly, aspects of 'Ilu's connection to viticulture as well as that of Ugaritic royalty resonate with KTU 1.23's concerns about viticulture and "guarding" agrarian land.


Do Paratexts Matter? Transmission, Re-identification, and New Philology
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Liv I. Lied, Det Teologiske Menighetsfakultet

The last decade has seen a rapidly growing interest in the reception of (biblical) writings and the transformative impact transmission processes might have on the textual contents of these writings. Thus, micro and macro level changes of narrative contents, as well as the scribal and reader practices that produced them are finally receiving the attention they deserve. This paper will address another, related, aspect of the transformation that might take place when writings circulate which has still not attracted the same level of interest: circulation of writings not only leads to changes in textual contents, transmission processes may also lead to a re-identification of the writings themselves. In other words, narrative contents is not the only thing that changes - cultural perceptions of what a given text unit is may change too. Traces of these transformations are still available to us in the form of paratextual features in extant manuscripts. Inspired by the perspective of New Philology, and in order to discuss the relevance of studying paratextual features, I will explore the Syriac transmission of the so-called Epistle of Baruch. This epistle is known to most scholars as the final 10 chapters of 2 Baruch. 47 Syriac manuscripts contain a copy (complete or excerpted parts) of this epistle, and with one exception (a single Arabic codex), the Syriac tradition is the only manuscript tradition that preserves it. In contemporary scholarship these manuscript copies of the epistle are commonly applied as 'text witnesses' to the epistle attached to the apocalypse in 2 Baruch. However, a closer study of titles and postscript titles, as well as the location and contextualization of the epistle in Syriac codices show that while the textual contents of the epistle remains relatively stable, 46 of these 47 manuscripts identify the epistle with a different title, associate it with a different biblical figure, locate it in a different context of text units than the context of 2 Baruch, and suggest other contexts of cultural usages than the apocalypse. Is the epistle in these copies, then, the same or a different composition than the epistle attached to 2 Baruch, and how does this paratextual information challenge the default use of these copies as text witnesses to the epistle integral to 2 Baruch?


Digitization and Manuscripts as Visual Objects: Reflections from a Media Studies Perspective
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Liv Ingeborg Lied, Det Teologiske Menighetsfakultet

During the last decade, libraries and collections worldwide have digitized their manuscript collections, making photos of manuscripts available for scholars online. Due to this ongoing digitization of manuscripts, and assisted by a constant sharing of images of manuscripts in various online (social) media, scholars in the relevant academic fields are now regularly exposed to, and are becoming familiar with, manuscripts as visual objects. Hence, manuscripts, which were formerly seldom seen, being engaged with only by the few, are now increasingly visually available - they are only “a click away”. Due to the ongoing digitization, thus, manuscripts are now accessible for new and broader groups of scholars. In this proposed paper, I will engage theoretical perspectives from Media Studies in a discussion of the hypothetical effects of the digitization of manuscripts. I will see the resulting transformation of the representation of the manuscripts as an important media shift and ask how this shift in media technology and format will affect the ways scholars engage with their source material. As has been pointed out at several occasions in the fields of Sociology of Knowledge and Media Studies, change in technical media will typically change the perception, communication, and social practices surrounding the mediated object. Thus, seeing scholarly practices basically as social and cultural practices were technology and media culture play decisive parts, this paper will pose three questions. First, (how) is it likely that the increased visual presence of manuscripts online will change editing practices? Second, how will the increased availability and the visual presence of manuscripts online change scholarship on ancient texts? And third, what new and different studies may result from this innovation in digital humanities?


Marcion’s Gospel and the Question of Theological Tendency
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Judith Lieu, University of Cambridge

Marcion’s detractors condemned him for excising material to suit his theological principles, but also mocked him for failing to do so consistently. Recent defenders of the priority of his Gospel have tended to dismiss such charges, but explain ‘Lukan expansion’ on similar grounds. Can ‘theological tendency’ be used in discussing Lukan textual tradition without ending up in a self-fulfilling circle.


The Book of Ezekiel in the War Scroll
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Ingrid Lilly, Pacific School of Religion

This paper will discuss the identification and evaluation of quotations and allusions from the Book of Ezekiel in the War Scroll and their use in the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.


Comparative Genre in Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible: Reflections on Ezekiel and Modern Literature
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Ingrid E. Lilly, Pacific School of Religion

This paper will consider the role that genre plays in the scribal transmission of Ezekiel. Drawing on social theories of texts that have developed in Anglo-American editing, I will focus on the socio-literary significance of generic expectation and composition in scribal editing. Some attention to mystical literature, priestly hymns, heavenly ascents, and temple diagrams will demonstrate how comparative genre is an important competency for textual critics and textual editors of Ezekiel.


(Re-)Contextualising Contextual Methodologies from the Ground Up: Towards a Singaporeanisation of Asian Hermeneutics
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Stephen Lim, King's College - London

The multicultural context of Asia with decolonization of many nations in the last century has prompted the development of various contextual methodologies. While these methods have been proven effective in the part of Asia they originate from, it remains to be seen whether these methods are equally viable in other contexts. In this paper, I engage three main contextual approaches in Asia with a particular context in order to outline the theoretical issues involved at the epistemological level. These approaches, as identified by Sugirtharajah (2013) in his book, The Bible and Asia, are Pieris' symbiotic reading, Lee's cross-textual reading and Sugirtharajah's contrapuntal reading. Using the case study of Singapore, I argue how the context functions as a place of theorisation that not only assesses, re-shapes and modifies these methodologies, but also supplies its own contribution to re-contextualise Asian hermeneutics.


An Ecofeminist Reading of Rom 8:18–25 in an Asian American Context
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Sung Uk Lim, Vanderbilt University

The paper rereads Romans 8:18-25 in an Asian American context, utilizing Sharon Welch’s feminist ethic of risk. Paying particular attention to the groaning and birth pangs of creation (Rom 8:22), I argue that nature and women as others invite me—as one who goes through the feminization of Asian American males in US society—to participate in their suffering in a mode of solidarity. Welch contrasts an ethic of control, in which men as moral agents are believed to resolve the troubles of nature and women, with an ethic of risk, in which men are vulnerable to the alterity of nature and women. That is to say that women and nature are others for whom men cannot speak, but from whom they can learn. An ethic of risk heeds the voices of those who suffer oppression, focusing on the “we” language of Romans 8:22. By listening to the suffering of nature and women, Asian American men can recognize that the lives of men, women, and nature are so closely interconnected that they are mutually responsible for each other. Thus, an ethic of risk calls for solidarity with the oppressed for the sake of liberation.


Josephus and the Physiognomic Tradition
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
David Lincicum, University of Notre Dame

In the recent resurgence of interest in ancient Jewish and Christian physiognomics, Josephus has not yet received sustained investigation. This paper, therefore, seeks to remedy this by examining the depiction of bodily features in Josephus's process of narrative characterization, arguing that while Josephus could not be deemed an adherent of a strict physiognomical theory, he operates with a certain 'physiognomic consciousness' which at times colors the ways in which he depicts physical features in order to convey an implicit evaluation of the subjects of his historical work.


What Is “History” in John, Jesus, and History?
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Andrew Lincoln, University of Gloucestershire

This paper will review and assess the state of the discussion about the historical dimensions of the Fourth Gospel at the end of the second stage of the John, Jesus and History project. It will do so by reflecting on issues raised in the essays and papers collected in the Group’s 2009 publication – John, Jesus and History, Volume 2: Aspects of Historicity in the Fourth Gospel.


Weeping at the Aqedah: The Tears of Abraham and the Angels
Program Unit: Midrash
Kris Lindbeck, Florida Atlantic University

Weeping affects the senses deeply: We see the tears and the grieving face of the weeper, usually hear sobs, and tears themselves can be felt and even tasted. As we all know from airplanes, even an unknown infant’s weeping can set our nerves on edge, but to see an adult weep, especially in public, can be deeply disturbing. Clearly considering the physicality of weeping in the midrash on the Aqedah deepens our understanding of the text while at the same time making it more vivid and perhaps disturbing. Weeping in rabbinic literature is infrequent but always significant. Tears signal profound grief and often shame, and the latter can be dangerous. As Charlotte Fonrobert points out in “When the Rabbi Weeps: On Reading Gender in Talmudic Aggadah” (Nashim, 2001, 60, 64-65) women cry, but so do rabbis, and even God sheds tears at the destruction of the Temple (Buber, Midrash Eikha rabbati, p. 25). This paper will discuss weeping in midrashic texts on the Aqedah where both the angels and Abraham weep. The angels’ tears clearly have concrete consequences, but Abraham’s apparently do not. When Abraham “stretched out his hand to take the knife” (22:10; Gen. Rabbah, Theodor-Albeck 26:9), the ministering angels, weeping, quote Isaiah 33:7-8, to express their shock. In Isaiah 33:8, for example, “The angels of peace weep bitterly . . . he has broken a covenant. . .” which the midrash connects with “I will establish my covenant with Isaac” (Gen. 17:21). The angels’ tears, however, do not merely accompany questions of theodicy: They have physical consequences. Their tears sweep away Abraham’s knife (Gen. Rabbah, Theodor-Albeck 26:12), and according to one interpretation, cause Isaac’s eventual blindness because they fell into his upturned eyes (Gen. Rabbah, Theodor-Albeck 65:1). Thus tears express the implicit horror and protest of the angels, and one must say of the rabbis, at the magnitude of the sacrifice demanded of father and son, even though Genesis Rabbah also extolls their heroism and its eternal meaning for the Jewish people. In the Vilna printing of Genesis Rabbah Abraham also weeps: “He stretched forth his hand to take the knife while his eyes streamed with tears, and the tears fell into Isaac’s eyes from his father’s compassion, and even so, the heart rejoiced to do the will of his Creator” (Vilna text 56:8; see also a comparable passage in Bereshit Rabbati, Albeck edition, Jerusalem 1967, Bar Ilan Responsa Database, Va-Yera’ p. 90). Whether a reader finds this passage affecting, disturbing, or both, it strikingly emphasizes the physicality of Abraham’s tears. Isaac sees, hears, and feels them. Do they increase his horror, or reassure him that his father truly grieves at the thought of his sacrifice? The midrash is silent on this, but it does clearly emphasize how extraordinary Abraham was in what God demanded and how he responded. While Rabbi Meir weeps profusely at the death of his sons (Midrash Mishle 31, Burton L. Visotzky 1990, pp. 190-192, cited in Fonrobert), Abraham weeps while grasping the knife.


Creating Genesis in Their Own Image: On Young Earth Creationism's Creative Mythology
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jim Linville, University of Lethbridge

Biblical scholars and theologians often deride Young Earth Creationism (YEC) as “bad theology” that represents an unsophisticated anti-modernist hermeneutic based on a simplistic doctrine of scriptural inerrancy. Consideration of YEC’s modern creation mythology often takes place in polemical contexts that accuses it of irresponsibly forcing the ancient biblical materials into a pseudoscientific straightjacket. Studies of YEC’s history and political agendas tend to take the phenomenon more seriously as an object of study in its own right. Some researchers note how YEC anti-modernist discourse builds on particular mythic notions of American identity (e.g., E. Caudill, 2014, on the cultural myths of the “Garden”, “Frontier”, “Progress”, and “Individualism”). These studies do not, however, examine in detail creationist hermeneutics and mythic constructs based on the Bible. I argue that YEC needs to be studied as a totalizing myth-making endeavor that embraces stories about origins and models of the universe developed from the intersection of Bible passages and appropriations of scientific concepts and language, along with myths about the Bible and of human religious, moral and intellectual history. This paper presents the variety of YEC cosmologies as part of a more expansive myth-making process through by which creationists continually create meaning through a “play” between various social, cosmic, and historical paradigms and models, including the place and nature of science as method of gaining knowledge of the divine and as a factor in society. My methodology develops from thinkers such as J. Z. Smith, Wendy Doniger, André Droogers, and Bruce Lincoln. YEC’s myths of origins center on Genesis and adapt various interpretations of such things as the “firmament” and the origins and fate of the waters of the deluge. There are also various accommodations of biblical creation passages outside of Genesis. These models are typically placed in the context of a Western Christian view of Original Sin and Salvation. In some cases, the nemesis of YEC, “evolution”, becomes a facet of human apostasy from the origins of human society, preceding Darwin by millennia, thus positing the modern debate as intrinsic to the nature of the fallen world. This paper also traces some aspects of the paradox creationists face in having to cast revelation in a “scientific” light to affirm its cultural relevance and inherent integrity, and of the inner YEC dynamics surrounding the multiple cosmological options. I argue that this opens up opportunities for “scientific” debate not dependent upon the approval of secular scientists, thus the disagreement leads to a strengthening of creationist identity.


The Priestly Creation Myth and Anti-mythic Myth
Program Unit: Genesis
Jim Linville, University of Lethbridge

It is widely understood the Priestly creation account is, in some ways, written as a polemic against key aspects of Babylonian mythology, such as the struggle against Chaos motif and the divinity of the sun and moon. It is also often claimed that the Priestly writer offered a “demythologized” version of creation. There is considerable academic debate, however, over the presence of an Israelite Chaos-kampf in the biblical materials (e.g. Tsumura, Creation and Destruction, 2005; Watson, Chaos Uncreated, 2005; Ortlund, Theophany and Chaoskampf, 2010; Scurlock and Beal, Creation and Chaos, 2013). After a critique of the current state of the debate, and the role of modern day, theologically motivated, Israelite exceptionalism, this paper argues that while it is plausible to identify a struggle against Babylonian mythology in Gen 1:1-2:4, scholars should be at least equally interested in its implied polemic against other Israelite creation and cosmological traditions, including those that see Yahweh combatting Leviathan, Rahab, the sea, and rivers. Above all, however, the Priestly creation must be seen as especially affirming key parts of priestly theology of sacred times, acts and places. In this light, the creation week story hardly represents a demythologization of creation at all, but a restated mythology to serve new religious contexts.


Subverting Households to Form Them: Ignatius and Tertullian on Consent to Marry
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
B. Diane Lipsett, Salem College

Members of early Christian groups seem mostly to have entered and experienced marriage in ways that resembled their contemporaries. Under Roman law, a valid marriage had two requirements: the legal capacity to marry and the consent or intent of the parties—the husband and wife, and, unless they were legally independent of paternal authority, the father or other ascendant male of each family. In the second and early third century, however, a few authors suggest that church authority displaces familial or paternal consent to marry. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, urges Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna: “It is proper for men and women who marry to make their union with the consent of the bishop, so that the marriage may be for the Lord and not for passion” (To Polycarp, 5.2c). Tertullian complains about “counselors” or “spiritual directors” who have recently allowed a Christian woman to marry a pagan (To His Wife, 2.2). He further refers to marriages declared valid by the divine Father, a validation analogous but superior to merely earthly paternal consent (2.8). As Ignatius and Tertullian subvert customary household authority to create new households, they invite analysis of their social ideals, rhetorical goals, and theological investments regarding consent to marriage.


Late Jewish Literary Aramaic and the Lexicon of Targum Song of Songs
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Andrew W. Litke, Catholic University of America

There is a group of targumim that shares specific linguistic peculiarities and includes features of Eastern Aramaic, Western Aramaic, Biblical Aramaic, “literary” Aramaic as found in Onqelos and Jonathan, and Syriac. In a seminal article wherein he labeled these texts “Late Jewish Literary Aramaic,” Kaufman (Kaufman 1993 [English translation 2013]) argued that it is not only the eclectic grammar of these texts that is unique. In fact, the lexicon shares the same dialectal admixture, with one of the more striking elements being the prevalence of Syriac terms. In a recent article (Kaufman 2013), Kaufman further subdivided these texts based on their Syriac correspondences. There has, however, been no detailed lexicographical study on any particular Late Jewish Literary Aramaic text. This paper will give the results of one such study, a lexical analysis of Targum Song of Songs. The results of the analysis will be multifaceted. First, the paper will highlight lexemes from Targum Song of Songs that are predominantly attested in any of the dialects listed above. Second, the paper will further specify what is meant when a particular word is labeled “Late Jewish Literary Aramaic.” Third, the paper will indicate a number of the unique correspondences between Targum Song of Songs and some of the other targumim, particularly those of Late Jewish Literary Aramaic. Such a study will not only give further specificity to the lexical makeup of Targum Song of Songs, but it will also contribute to a better understanding of Late Jewish Literary Aramaic as a whole.


Self-Knowledge in Monoimos and the Hermetic Corpus
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
M. David Litwa, University of Virginia

Self-knowledge is a key theme in western esotericism. This paper compares self-knowledge in the letter to Theophrastos by Monoimos the Arab (2d-3d century CE) and the Hermetic corpus (CH). In both texts, knowledge of self amounts to knowledge of God because God is in the self. This understanding of the God within is radicalized by Monoimos. For him, God completely appropriates all features of the self, and effectively incarnates himself in all human selves. Seeking God in creation is discouraged (in striking opposition to CH). Although both CH and Monoimos share a Stoic and Platonic background, Monoimos develops a distinctly Christian esotericism. The true self is the Son of the Human, who is the suffering Jesus.


“I Am God”: The Primal Human as Primeval Self-Deifier
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
M. David Litwa, University of Virginia

This paper offers a new reading of the self-deification myth in Ezekiel 28. Many interpreters avoid reading a primal human figure (“Adam”) in this chapter. By contrast, I see Ezekiel (and later editors) adapting an ancient Adam myth for their own social and political purposes. Adam in Genesis 3 was not a self-deifier, but the Adam in Ezekiel 28 does actually claim to be G/god. Ezekiel’s rhetorical construction of Adam as a self-deifier is rooted in his polemic against perceived ruler worship at Tyre. The prophet's new myth evokes a world wherein it is impossible for humans to become gods, a world in which God and world are ontologically separate and eternally unequal. This absolute hierarchy legitimated relative hierarchies in Ezekiel’s (real and ideal) social formation (a newly reconstituted Israel): hierarchies between priests and Levites, Levites and laity, laity and foreigners, men and women, freeborn and slave.


Avoiding a Hebdoian Reaction: Why the Study of the New Testament and Rhetoric Matters
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Nina E. Livesey, University of Oklahoma

In its long history of interpretation, analysis of the New Testament through the lens of rhetoric only begins to take hold in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Hans Dieter Betz’s 1979 commentary on Galatians restarted this method of interpretation and it has grown considerably since then. In a world becoming more and more polarized by religious extremism from many quarters, a rhetorical perspective of the New Testament is more important now than ever before. A rhetorical reading starts with the understanding that texts are human and not divine constructions and that all statements are conditioned by particular situations, by culture and by its values. As Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza remarks, “If texts and discourse are studied without reference to human agency or socio-historical situation, then language and texts become a closed system that takes on the character of ‘scientific law.’” A rhetorical approach positions the interpreter at a necessary and critical distance from the text. Rhetorical-critical interpreters adopt what has been called a “hermeneutics of suspicion.” They actively ask the reasons why authors made particular statements and in particular ways. In so doing, rhetorical-critical interpreters take an active rather than passive, or worse, naïve approach to texts. Using examples from the letters of Paul, I indicate specific ways in which a reflective rhetorical-critical reading results in a rethinking of the text.


Integrative Issues and Voting
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Nina Livesey, University of Oklahoma

*


The Moral Thought of 1 Clement and the Hellenistic Philosophers
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Hermut Loehr, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

1 Clement is one of the most important witnesses to early Christian theology and moral thought. The paper seeks to explore some aspects of the moral thought (or the "ethics") of the text within the context of the philosophical tradition of the time, esp. Stoicism and the so-called popular philosophical tradition. Can the older idea of the "hellenization" of early Christianity be confirmed by a close reading of 1 Clement?


"Listen, My Son, and Understand Me": The Translation and Arrangement of the Proverbs of the Syriac Legend of Ahiqar
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jacob Lollar, Florida State University

This paper explores the nature of the Syriac translation of the Legend of Ahiqar, considering specifically the first section of the proverbs. The Aramaic version, exemplified by the text found at Elephantine, is generally thought to be the "Vorlage" of the Syriac recension, but the Syriac text (published by Coneybeare and Harris in 1898) is quite distinct both in the length of its narrative and in its arrangement and content of the proverbs. In this paper, I explore the nature of translation in antiquity and propose that the Syriac Legend of Ahiqar should be considered a “new” or distinct literary production of an age-old legend that has been reoriented to fit the "Weltanschauung" of its late-antique readers. Furthermore, by recreating the Legend, the Syriac recension has co-opted the archetype sage from antiquity and recast him as the Judeo-Christian sage par excellence.


The Political Theology of the Priest-King in Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
D. Stephen Long, Marquette University

This essay examines the political and theological significance of two important images to which Hebrews consistently returns. First is Christ's "session;" he is seated at the right hand of God — he is enthroned as king. Second is his priesthood; he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. These two images come together to form a "political theology" that offers the ethical imperative to "hold fast" and "endure." The juxtaposition of these two images in the "priest-king" renders intelligible the thirteen admonitions found in the closing chapter of Hebrews. For interspersed among these thirteen admonitions is a reminder of what the letter has accomplished — presenting the Priest-King who himself remains constant and sets forth an altar in a city that will be, like him, lasting. The political and ethical significance of Hebrews' presentation will be compared and contrasted to other ancient possibilities in order to bring its unique import into view.


Vital Relations and Major Structural Relationships: A Heuristic Approach to Observe and Explore Biblical and Other Discourse
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Fredrick J. Long, Asbury Theological Seminary

In their book, The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities (2002), Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner describe “vital relations” (VRs) at the core of meaning making that compress and blend ideas simultaneously (93-102). “Compression in blending networks operates on a surprisingly small set of relations rooted in fundamental human neurobiology and shared social experience. These vital relations, which include Cause-Effect, Change, Time, Identity, Intentionality, Representation, and Part-Whole, not only apply across mental spaces but also define essential topology within mental spaces” (xiii). Additional VRs include Role, Analogy, Disanalogy, Property, Similarity, Category, Intentionality, and Uniqueness. Taken as a whole, these VRs correspond quite well with Major Structural Relationships (MSRs) as described by David Bauer and Robert Traina, Inductive Biblical Study: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Hermeneutics (2011), which include Recurrence, Comparison, Contrast, Introduction, Causation, Substantiation, Generalization, Particularization, Summarization, Problem-Solution, Instrumentation, Pivot, and Climax. These MSRs are ubiquitous and observable across all types of human communication. The identification of MSRs and their utilization in the study of the Bible was prompted by the art theorist John Ruskin in his The Elements of Drawing in Three Letters to Beginners (1857), who described “compositional laws” of painting that he recognized also could be applied to musical and literary composition. Then, the earliest practitioners of Inductive-Compositional Bible Study, William Rainey Harper and his pupil Wilbert W. White (early 1900s), applied and continued to develop these compositional laws, and subsequent practitioners have continued to describe and apply them as MSRs (see Fredrick Long, “Major Structural Relationships: A Survey of Origins, Development, Classifications, and Assessment.” The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies 1 [2014]: 22–58). The observation of MSRs occurs at all levels of discourse (phrases, clause, paragraph, sections, units, and discourse as a whole) and can occur in all forms of human discourse and composition. In written discourse, these relations are both explicitly marked through conjunctions and particles and implicitly indicated through literary arrangement and inference. This paper will explore how Fauconnier and Turner’s understanding of VRs and Bauer and Traina’s MSRs mutually inform one another, and illustrate through many examples how the application of VRs and MSRs may successfully instruct us, not only to make acute observations of biblical materials, but also of all human discourse.


Textual Groups and Clusters at Qumran: The Evidence of the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls Containing Exodus
Program Unit: Qumran
Drew Longacre, University of Helsinki

The Qumran copies of the books of the Hebrew scriptures are typically classified according to pre-established textual categories centered around definitive medieval or reconstructed reference texts. In this paper, I will propose an alternative approach, which stresses close analysis of the textual overlaps between the Qumran scrolls to identify precise textual groups within the Qumran corpus without regard to external textual categories. I will then apply this approach to the Hebrew-language Dead Sea Scrolls containing Exodus as a test case. Utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to grouping manuscripts, I will demonstrate close relationships between at least eight Qumran manuscripts (4Q11 4Q14 4Q17 4Q20 4Q22 4Q158 4Q364 4Q365). These relationships can be delineated with sufficient specificity to allow for reconstructed textual history to serve as an additional criterion for evaluating the variant readings preserved in the texts of these manuscripts. I will also observe the close statistical clustering of several additional Qumran scrolls (1Q2 4Q1 4Q11 4Q18) and suggest a placement for one other manuscript (4Q13) in the history of the text of Exodus. These results show the great potential of such an approach to grouping fragmentary manuscripts. The proposed text-historical picture resulting from this study is clearer and more specific than has hitherto been possible and is in turn helpful for making particular text-critical decisions.


The Collective Transmission of the Pentateuch: Documentary Evidence from the Judean Desert
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Drew Longacre, University of Helsinki

Recent scholarship has helpfully stressed the distinctiveness of the textual histories of each book of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, even within the Pentateuch, we cannot assume that the various books were transmitted along identical paths. But in this paper I will argue that we must factor into our reconstructions of textual histories the frequent collective transmission of the Pentateuch. While some scrolls that exclusively contained only one book of the Pentateuch indeed circulated in the late Second Temple period, documentary evidence from the Judean Desert strongly suggests that many scrolls circulated as larger multi-work pentateuchal collections or even complete Torah scrolls. Based on new reconstructions of all of the Hebrew-language Dead Sea Scrolls containing the book of Exodus, I will show that at least half of the documentary evidence for the transmission of the book of Exodus from the Judean Desert was demonstrably situated in large pentateuchal collections (4QGen-Exoda; 4QpaleoGen-Exodl; 4Q[Gen]-Exodb; 4Q[Gen]-Exodc; 4QExod-Levf; MurGen-Exod, Numa; 4Q[Reworked] Pentateuchb; 4Q[Reworked] Pentateuchc; 4Q[Reworked] Pentateuchd). The prominence of the transmission of the pentateuchal books as bibliographical unities is paralleled by the frequent harmonizations between books of the Pentateuch, which imply the perceived literary and/or theological unity of the Pentateuch. As such, textual scholars must factor in the real possibility of significant parallels between the textual histories of the various books of the Pentateuch. The close agreement between the proto-Masoretic and Masoretic manuscripts in different books and the typological consistency of the pre-Samaritan expansions across the boundaries of books of the Pentateuch may provide just such examples. Despite the difficulty of quantifying the importance of the collective transmission of the Pentateuch, the textual histories of its books seem to have been interconnected at numerous points and are best illuminated in light of each other, even while recognizing the differences.


Malignant Forces, Perpetual Poverty, and the Body of Christ: Theologizing toward an Eschatological Reality
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Bruce W. Longenecker, Baylor University

In Paul's world, poverty was an urban reality. In Paul's symbolic world, malignant forces were present realities. In Paul's convictional world, the body of Christ was an eschatological reality. This paper explores some of the interplay between these facets as they converge within Paul's theological discourse.


Between a ‘Hard Rock’ and ‘Leviathan’: Syriac Writers Wrestle with the Peshitta of Job
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jonathan Loopstra, Capital University

Many passages in the Syriac Peshitta translation of Job are markedly different from either the Hebrew Masoretic text or the Septuagint. In fact, as the late Michael Weitzman has suggested, the Peshi?ta of Job may best be seen as a record of how ancient Syriac translators strove to interpret a very challenging Hebrew text. Although modern scholars have been rightfully interested in examining how these distinctive passages developed, little has been done to shed light on how these readings unique to the Peshitta influenced the ways Syriac-speaking commentators interpreted Job. This paper will fill this gap in scholarship by examining how changes made during the translation of the Peshitta from the Hebrew eventually led Syriac-speaking commentators and poets to distinctive conclusions about several features of the Book of Job.


Interpretations of Syriac Dottology, Reclaiming the Past
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Jonathan Loopstra, Capital University

Most students of Syriac are generally unaware of the wide variety of punctuation and ‘accentuation’ marks present in Syriac biblical manuscripts, many of which predate comparable Hebrew Masoretic texts. This paper will provide an overview of the present state of research into the reception these dots after the fifth century. We will first look at how biblical commentators and glossators incorporated these marks, rightly or wrongly, in their interpretations of the Syriac Bible. Secondly, we will then propose ways that scholars can begin to preserve and better understand this traditional part of the Syriac heritage, while being honest with difficulties and ambiguities.


Authentic Pauline Bodies: Between Representation and Reality
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Davina Lopez, Eckerd College

In this paper, I will survey recent trends in Pauline studies concerning the rhetoric of the body and its effects. Paul's body-language is often taken as that which is historically and socially transparent or otherwise reflects an authentic ancient reality. Far from being natural or inevitable, however, I will contend that "authentic" Pauline bodies can be seen as discursive sites that serve to construct, explain, embed, naturalize, and disrupt power relationships through the language and lenses of gender, (a)sexuality, ethnicity, and geography. Moreover, I will propose that such bodies are not just constructions of ancient Pauline individuals and communities, but are also significant representations of modern Pauline worldviews.


A Paradeigma for Trinity and the Incarnation: Basil of Caesarea's Ep. 214.4.6–9 and Gregory of Nazianzus’ Ep. 101.18–21 in the Post-Chalcedonian Era
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Eric Lopez, Life Pacific College

During the intense and imperially buoyed theological activity of 518-551 C.E., Basil of Caesarea’s Ep. 214.4.6-9 and Gregory of Nazianzus’ Ep. 101.18-12 became prominently utilized texts during the back and forth of miaphysite and pro-Chalcedonian authors. In pro-Chalcedonian attempts to validate the doctrinal legacy of the Council of Chalcedon and show its faithfulness to Cyril of Alexandria and other ecclesial luminaries, I argue that these texts served a foundational role for developing pro-Chalcedonian strategies. Ultimately, they served to shape a theological trajectory, which argued that the only way to faithfully interpret Cyril and preserve the Word as the subject of a real incarnation was to adhere to a consistent theological grammar for Trinity and the incarnation. Since Aloys Grillmeier’s foundational survey in Christ in Christian Tradition, the use of Trinitarian grammar for Christological issues has been assumed yet has remained remarkably unstudied or consistently shown as significant for this era. Recently, it has been deemed an invented strategy by one lone author. This study, by showing its foundational role in pro-Chalcedonian argumentation, will give closer attention to this development and show its reoccurring use across several significant figures.


Disability and Daily Living
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Moisés López, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

Disability and Daily Living


The Greek and North-West Semitic Titles of Aphrodite
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Carolina Lopez-Ruiz, Ohio State University

Aphrodite was acknowledged by the Greeks as an oriental goddess, brought by Phoenicians to Cyprus and to Greece from Syria-Palestine, and indeed her cult was assimilated to that of Ashtart in Cyprus and in the Phoenician world. The absence of her name in the Mycenaean texts and the unclear etymology of her name have supported her origins in the Levantine world, but the linguistic evidence is elusive. The epithet of Aphrodite “Kythereia,” associated by the Greeks of historical times with the Aegean island of Kythera, is the most important clue for the Canaanite-Phoenician connection. Previous scholars have proposed the connection of the name with Kothar, the NWS craftsman god attested in Ugaritic and Phoenician texts, but the idea and its ramifications have never been fully explored. In this paper I will show that more can be said if we conduct a basic linguistic analysis of the Greek name Kythêreia and the different variants of Kothar’s name, attested diachronically (Ugaritic Kothar, Philon of Byblos’ Chousor, Syriac Kuthar). If Kythereia is indeed a Greek adaptation of a North-West Semitic female iteration of Kothar (“Ms. Kothar”), the name shows phonetic traits that imply an early and precise borrowing, mainly (but not only) before the change from long â to long ê was effective in Ionic Greek, so at the end of the second millennium. Hephaistos was indeed identified with Hephaestus in antiquity, which would explain the story in which Aphrodite is Hephaestus’ wife (Odyssey 8.266-366). The divine title (Kuthariya or the like), in time, would have been re-analyzed as Kythêreia and reinterpreted as related to the island of Kythera. //Finally, the North-West Semitic inflections of Aphrodite’s names and divine character are supported by her broader set of epithets and associations (Cypris, Ourania, “Heavenly,” etc.), cleverly intertwined narratively in Hesiod’s Theogony (187-206) and all pointing to the Phoenician realm. Hesiod’s efforts would show that by the eighth century, the Greek cosmogonists did not know what her names meant, even when they were clearly framing her as an Levantine goddess, supporting the early adaptation argued here.


Priests on Hold—Or Redefining the Image of Priests in Pseudo-Philo
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Claudia Losekam, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

The book of Biblical Antiquities, also known as Pseudo-Philo and its retelling of the biblical narrative from Adam to Saul, delineates a special interest in the leader figures of the book of Judges and their crisis. Compared to strong leader figures like Josua or Kenaz, the High Priests Eleazar and Phinehas on their side have a subordinate status. The literary presentation of priests shows ambivalent features. On the one hand the author offers the model of decline of the priesthood with special emphasizes on the sons of Eli or Micha the priest and on the other hand he presents Phinehas with his prophetic skills. The subordination of the high priests and also the performance of sacrifices, the main priestly tasks, through (lay)people (LAB 49,8; 57,4) and their leaders (LAB 21,7; 26,7; 32,18) indicate to a time of distress and doubt like shortly before and after the destruction of the temple 70 C.E. This paper is focused on how the author reshapes the image and functions of priests by revisions of the biblical narrative in order to bridge the gap between the divine gift of priesthood and the historical experience of a time without priests.


Noble Death Traditions in the Writings of Josephus
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Claudia Losekam, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Josephus is considered to highlight noble death wherever it is possible. In the retelling of the biblical events in the Jewish Antiquities he describes heroic deaths. But his reports about post-biblical events also trace the tradition of noble death. Pompeys conquest of the Jerusalem Temple 63 B.C and the death of Priests (B 1:148-150; A 14:65-70); Josephus description of the removal of the golden eagle from the temple roof through a group of young men and their execution (B 1:648-55; A 17: 156-64) and the collective suicide of the Jewish people at Massada during the war against Rome (B 7:389-406) are famous examples of noble death. The main question concerning these and other Paradigms is, what makes these deaths honorable. To accept one’s own death in order to follow the law bears a different connotation than accepting death to avoid captivity. By comparison of noble death Traditions in other Jewish and Pagan Literature this paper tries to give a differentiated answer to the question of what makes a death honorable or not. The second main focus refers to the function of the frequent noble death tradition within Josephus’ writings.


The Aqhat, Prometheus, and Hesiod's Sacrifice at Mekone
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Bruce Louden, University of Texas at El Paso

Recognized for the valuable contexts it provides for Old Testament narratives, the Ugaritic Aqhat remains underexplored and underutilized for the significant possibilities it also offers for comparative analysis and study of Greek myth. The episode in which the hero presents the goddess Anat with the first fruits of the hunt, but a quarrel erupts, offers suggestive correspondences with Hesiod’s account of the fractious feast and sacrifice at Theogony 533-64. We can observe the following motifs, in the same order, in each myth: 1. At a feast attended by men and gods, strife suddenly erupts between the protagonist and an antagonistic god (107-114). 2. Each protagonist is closely identified with a special object, Aqhat with his bow, Prometheus with fire. 3. A craftsman god, Kothar and Hephaistos, is the source of the special object, bow and fire. 4. Each antagonist god strives to obtain, or maintain possession of, the special object. 5. Both protagonists make the conflict worse by acting out of excessive pride. 6. The protagonist firmly chooses to associate with the world of mortals. 7. Each antagonist god, Aqhat and Zeus, fails to maintain possession of the special object. 8. The angry god slays, or accomplishes the equivalent for, the protagonist, in a highly ironic manner. 9. The contentious quarrel ruptures the larger relationships between mortals and immortals. 10. A bird of prey devours Aqhat’s remains; an eagle devours Prometheus’ liver. 11. Much later, an avenger comes (Pughat and Heracles) who has ties to the antagonist god. The Aqhat provides a new context for the Prometheus myth. The correspondences suggest Hesiod’s poetry is part of a larger community involving dialogue with Northwest Semitic myth. Both tales address the larger relations between mortal and immortal, with a protagonist, out of pride, harming those relations, further separating the two groups, widening the chasm that defines their differing status. Aqhat’s refusing Anat’s offer of immortality predicts Prometheus’ identification with mortals. The antagonist god treats the protagonist so harshly for his acts that a larger sense of injustice is evident, requiring a human avenger.


Depicted White, Coded Black: The Biblical Figure Hagar in Nineteenth Century Southern Women’s Novels
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Vanessa L. Lovelace, Interdenominational Theological Center

African Americans in general and African American women in particular have long appropriated the story of the biblical figure Hagar as their own. The story of the enslaved and exploited slave woman abandoned in the wilderness with her son, Ishmael and rescued by God resonated with the plight of Africans whose ancestors were enslaved and exploited in America. African Americans especially identified with Hagar because of her Egyptian ethnicity; they saw her both symbolically and racially as Black by modern racial constructs. In fact, most readers, Black and White, interpreted Hagar’s Egyptian ethnicity as Black or African. However, in an odd twist to her depiction, nineteenth century artistic and literary representations of Hagar by Whites portrayed Hagar as White. This paper will discuss some of the literary portrayals of Hagar by Southern White women novelists in the nineteenth century. I will review representations of the Hagar figure in novels by E.D.E.N. Southworth, Harriet Marion Stephens, Charlotte Moon Clark, and Mary Johnston. These proslavery women writers, confined in real life to Victorian era female propriety, lived out their fantasies of sexual and political freedom from patriarchal constraints through Hagar. Their novels feature Hagar, the heroine in the story as an ethnically ambiguous outcast or fallen woman, who crosses sexual and political boundaries of White society. The reader is not disturbed by this behavior because they know instinctively that Hagar is symbolically black when she does so and such behavior should be expected. Once her character is redeemed at the end of the story the racial ambiguity vanishes and she is again seen as White. Southern Black female writer Pauline Elizabeth Hawkins’s serial novel on Hagar sought to restore the white Hagar to blackness and her blackness to respectability.


A Devilishly Inspired Dream: Pilate’s Wife, Sex, and Reception
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Katherine Low, Mary Baldwin College

In Matthew 27:19, the wife of Pilate sends word to her husband that she experienced a dream, suffering such a great deal that he should “have nothing to do with the righteous (diakaios) man”. The text itself lends no skepticism to the authority of her dream. But interpretive vagueness exists. Is the dream a divine intercession to spare Jesus’ life? Is the dream a way to reinforce Gentile claims of Jesus’ righteousness? Or, does her suffering act as a foreboding portent? Out of such interpretative difficulty emerges a reception that asserts, particularly due to her suffering, that the Devil sent the dream to the wife of Pilate—this broad stream of interpretation pits Pilate’s wife against God’s plan and inserts Satan behind Pilate’s judgment seat. Both gender studies and reception history are engaged to discuss social and sexual elements involved for both Pilate and his wife when interpreters assume Satan sent the dream. From early Christian commentary, medieval art and plays to modern sermons and blogs, this paper tracks the complexities involved in a reception of a single verse in the gospel of Matthew.


The Son of Noah and the Daughter Who Flew Away: Did the Qur’an Inspire a Midrash?
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Shari Lowin, Stonehill College

One of the more fascinating, but under-discussed, narratives which appear in both the Jewish and Islamic Scripture concerns the story of Noah and the flood. Both the Bible (Gen. 6-9) and the Qur’an (11:25-48, 71:1-28, etc) relate that the people of the earth begin sinning egregiously against the Lord. In reaction, God decides to wipe out the earth’s inhabitants with a flood. In both cases, God chooses one man to survive this fate, a righteous man named Noah. And in both cases, Noah is instructed to build an ark in order to save himself, his family, and pairs of animals needed in order to repopulate the earth. And indeed, so it happens in both the Qur’an and the Bible. At first glance, these two narratives appear to present the same story, with a similar message. After all, in both texts sinners are destroyed by flooding while the righteous are saved by floating. Indeed, both texts refer to the hero by the same name: Noah in the Bible and Nuh in the Qur’an. And in both cases, the hero saves not only his family from drowning but the earth’s animals as well and, famously, “two by two.” Thus, the account of Noah and the flood has often been cited as continuing proof of “obvious” and rather straightforward Qur’anic reliance on the Bible. Yet, while the similarities between these two texts are indisputable, there are important differences, distinctions that are not to be glossed over and which indicate that the Qur’anic use of the Biblical material is not quite so straightforward. Most notably, the Qur’anic account (ch. 11) speaks of a son of Nuh who tries to outrun the flood rather than believe in Allah and ultimately drowns for his disbelief. The Qur’an (66:10) also refers to Nuh’s wife as a disbeliever whose unfaithfulness led her to Hell. Significantly, both characters are wholly absent from the Bible and rabbinic tradition. On the other hand, the Biblical dove, that most famous symbol of peace, who locates an olive branch and thereby indicates to a relieved Noah that the flood has ended makes no appearance in the Qur’an or later Muslim traditions. The presence or absence of each of these is not a random decorative item; as this paper will show, each holds particular significance for the message of the text in which it appears. However, the interactions between the Qur’anic and Biblical traditions on the flood narrative do not end in the Qur’anic period. The Qur’anic tradition not only inherited but bequeathed. As I will show, a medieval Jewish exegetical text known as Midrash Yonah appears to reflect some of the Qur’an’s themes. Namely, like the Qur’an, the midrash relates that the Biblical Noah too had a child, a daughter, who refused to get on the ark. Unlike her Qur’anic counterpart however, she was not only saved but turned into the famous dove that helped her father. This paper will analyze these various elements of the Noah story and will ask: [ABSTRACT TRUNCATED]


Law and Literary Form in Sura 2/al-Baqara, Considered with Reference to Other Long Medinan Suras
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania

Until relatively recently, the study of the Qur’an’s legislation was often atomistic and oriented toward the discovery of parallel formulations, e.g., in Rabbinic literature. Recent progress in plotting the Qur’an’s legal coordinates in Late Antiquity (Zellentin, 2013) and in discovering principles of sura composition (Neuwirth, 1980; Zahniser, 2009; Cuypers, 2009; Robinson; 2004) have made it seem now possible to integrate analyses of Qur’anic legislation into analyses of the structure of individual suras with a view to explicating how its many legal passages interact with the dynamics of Qur’anic composition (structure, repetition, redaction) and the dynamics of its performance (homily, orality, reception). In this paper I will consider the function of Qur’anic legislation in the structuring of Sura 2/al-Baqara and provide a comparison of its function therein with the role it plays in Suras 4/al-Nisa? and 5/al-Ma?ida. These are the three most legislatively dense suras in the Qur’an. However, they differ fundamentally in their deployment of their legislative passages. In Sura 2, the legislative provisions provide a climax to an extended narrative history of the of vicissitudes of the Covenant between God and humans. In Suras 4 and 5 the legislation is structurally foregrounded and relatively unintegrated into any narrative structure. This paper will reflect on these facts and try to account for them by critically engaging with the above-noted attempts to analyze the form of the longer Medinan Suras.


Violence and Community in Yemen: Narrativizing Religious Identity through Himyarite History
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Christine Luckritz Marquis, Union Presbyterian Seminary

In the fifth chapter of Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich explored the ways in which the early Islamic umma shared in the late ancient practice of ascetic, militant piety as a means of communal boundary marking. Pointing to precursors for Islamic mujahidun, he offers a brief, tantalizing description of al-Tabari’s narration of the introduction of Christianity to Najran. This paper offers a closer reading and contextualizing of this story of conversion and its boundary marking through violence and threats of violence. As found in al-Tabari’s Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, Christianity is brought to Najran by two male ascetics, Faymiyun and Salih. The story, as well as the larger history of Yemen and the Himyarite kingdom in which it is situated, is filled with abduction, threats, and murder, all which point to contested boundaries both religious (Jewish and Christian) and geopolitical (Himyarite and Abbysinian). The details of the story emerge with more texture when read alongside an alternate version of the story. The History of the Great Deeds of Bishop Paul of Qentos and Priest John of Edessa, a sixth-century Syriac hagiography of two ascetics, has been recognized as containing an earlier version of al-Tabari’s tale. Juxtaposition of the two texts indicates that both the names of the two main characters as well as interpretations of details within the narratives change. Such variations appear as more than mere accident. For, as Sizgorich’s work has taught us to be attentive to, the ways in which violence is framed and portrayed in these details does the crucial work of delineating communal boundaries. Likely composed in the bilingual, imperial borderland of Edessa, The History negotiates among competing Christian communities claims to having founded Christianity among the Himyarites and more generally for claim to the title of “orthodox,” which could also carry with it geopolitical implications. The same narrative, refracted several centuries later through al-Tabari’s rendering of earlier historians’s works, reframes the story. For al-Tabari, the histories of Judaism and Christianity in Yemen (especially including the role of Faymiyun) serve to prepare for the arrival of Islam. Especially in his reimagining of moments of violence (or potential violence), al-Tabari shifts communal boundaries, subtly inserting Islamic meaning in order to make space for an Islamic communal identity.


The Blood of the Prophets beyond Jerusalem and Rome
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Timothy Luckritz Marquis, Moravian Theological Seminary

The image of the blood of the prophets in Luke 11:45-51/Matt 23:29-36 denotes two related themes: violence and ethnicity. The negotiation of these themes in this particular Jesus tradition can be made more intelligible in light of the role of blood in Roman writings imagining the ethnic implications of empire. In succinct dialogue with Gil Anidjar’s recent work (Blood: A Critique of Christianity [New York: Columbia University Press, 2014]), which sees Christian discourse as the true beginning of blood as a central, ethnic category for the West, the paper argues that Luke-Acts contributes in inchoate form but in distinctive ways to a problematic legacy of asymmetric distinction between types of ethnic “bloods” (one spiritual, one fleshy; one universal, one particular), especially in the troubling history of Christian anti-Judaism. Ancient Roman meditations on Romanness and empire used blood as a way of simultaneously exploring identity in terms of biology and ethos. This is particularly clear in Lucan’s De bello civili, in which the undoing of Rome is presaged by the spilling of Roman blood, threatening the civic freedoms that had come, beyond genealogy, to define Roman identity. While Roman discourse on ethnicity often emphasized the ability of Romanness to assimilate other cultures—and, thus, have no static ethnic content of its own—the crises at the end of the Republic (and as the Julio-Claudian dynasty began to collapse during Lucan’s writing) evoked a strong and tragic sense of consanguinity, particularly, in book 1, through violence and bloodshed within Rome’s own precincts. The earliest recoverable version of the saying of Jesus about prophets’ blood (assumed to have appeared in Q) condemns the Pharisees and lawyers as denying hospitality to the envoys of Wisdom by violently excluding them from God’s “house,” thus putting them at odds with Wisdom’s more inclusive call to God’s empire. While Q raises the specter of collective guilt, it is as an internal, Jewish (though Galilean-based) challenge to Israel, offering the Galilean Jesus movement as a fictive, household-based empire as alternative to Rome. Luke modifies this tradition through its travel narrative envisioning Jesus’s impending death as a journey toward bloodshed in Jerusalem (see Luke 13:1, 13:31-33), a city doomed to destruction because of the actions of its leaders. The line from Abel to Zechariah continues through Jesus to his apostles. This prepares the way for “The Way” in Acts, a journey led not by blood but by spirit as it both overcomes and takes advantage of the ethnic categories “Jew” and “Roman.” Luke-Acts deploys Roman strategies for negotiating identity in empire as ethnic and ethical, only to outbid those strategies, conceiving of identity in the Spirit as a contentless, universal, non-ethnic category at the expense of other identities denigrated through the image of blood.


Dionysus, Disidentifications, and Wandering Pauline Epiphanies
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Timothy Luckritz Marquis, Moravian Theological Seminary

As a wandering proclaimer of a foreign deity, Paul bore many affinities to other “Eastern” cultic practitioners, such as preachers of Dionysus. While the gendered and sexualized implications of Paul’s foreignness are sporadically explicit in his letters, they manifest themselves when read in the context of ancient expectations of traveling prophets. Paul and the Euripidean picture of an effeminate Dionysus, for example, can be juxtaposed to revealing effect. Thus, passages like Paul’s triumphal epiphany (2 Cor 2:14-17) reveal more than just the unseen divinity Paul proclaims. Paul’s self-portrayal as Dionysian simultaneously orients his identity with respect to gender, sexuality, poverty, and empire to give a glimpse of a future, potential community. In dialogue with the work José Esteban Muñoz, Judith Halberstam, and Sarah Jane Cervenak (and building on earlier work of the author), the paper explores how Paul’s “disidentification” as Dionysian herald unsettles imperial preconceptions about gender and foreignness and, thus, unsettles identity under empire, itself. As Paul calls attention to his wandering, impoverished lifestyle, those in Corinth who took offense at Paul could undermine his focus on regulating sexual behavior by evoking stereotypes about the sexual proclivities of itinerant, Eastern preachers. Paul responds with an image of triumph that simultaneously draws upon images of wandering prophets and conquering emperors. Such rhetorical simultaneity uproots imperial logics by questioning imperial time itself in a way that mirrors Paul’s seemingly wandering itinerary. While 1 Corinthians addresses sequentially the relatively privileged positions of “the Strong,” the imagery of 2 Corinthians addressees intersecting value systems through a wandering rhetoric of apostolic images. Explorations (from Muñoz to Cervenak) of the ways in which intersectional (queer and/or otherwise) identities navigate and displace normative identity systems provide sign posts for following Paul’s peregrinations. Paul’s overlapping minoritarian positions and the local groups formed in their image recast and point away from normative forms of sociality to indicate a future, unseen community, resulting in a notion of epiphany cast as futurity, variously depicted in 2 Cor 3-5. Finally, the paper indicates how attention (or lack thereof) to gendered and sexualized implications in Pauline language within New Testament studies falls into the trap of later Pauline strategies of centering the Apostle (and, thus, his later interpreters) within his global landscape. Majoritarian exegetes should instead take the place of “the Strong“ in Corinth as unsettled spectators to Paul’s queer, traveling performance.


Eusebius and the Performances of the Gospel Stories
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Jared W. Ludlow, Brigham Young University

This paper examines Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History for information about the oral performance of the Gospels, especially the influence of their performance on the creation of written Gospels. Although there are historical questions about Eusebius’ work, nonetheless in his citations from earlier sources he provides one of the earliest glimpses at the transformation from oral teachings to written texts. What did these earliest Christians record and observe about the preaching and oral performance of the Gospels? What did they state about these performances that led to the writing of the Gospels? Scholarship has certainly studied Eusebius’ History in discussion of the canonical development and authoritative nature of the Gospels, but this paper will look at the earlier stage when oral performance is represented in the text. For example, Peter is portrayed as a “noble captain of God, clad in divine armor,” as he brought spiritual light and teachings to Rome. The listeners were dazzled by Peter’s light and “were not satisfied with a single hearing or with the unwritten teaching of the divine proclamation” so they exhorted Mark “to leave them a written statement of the teaching given them verbally” (see HE 2.15.1-2). Other sources likewise treat an early oral stage of transmission of the Gospels and these passages will be studied for what they say about the performance of the Gospels, how they relate to each other, and what scholars have written about them. This paper will also explore the initial resistance, yet later acknowledgment of the “necessity” felt by the evangelists to finally write down their recollections. It will be shown that the initial oral performances of stories about Jesus, enlivened by the spirit of a live presentation, were key experiences in building the early church and eventually producing the written Gospel texts.


Demography, Onomastics, and the Christian Population of Oxyrhynchus in the Third and Fourth Centuries
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University

How many Christians lived in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus in the third and fourth centuries? The numerous papyri found at Oxyrhynchus have contributed significantly to our understanding of everyday lives and reading practices, in general and also of all sorts of Christians. Using insights from studies in ancient demography and onomastics, I addresses in this paper the question of the size of the Christian population at Oxyrhynchus and the challenges the scholar encounters in making such calculations. In the end, I discuss the implications of my findings for how we understand the documentary and literary papyri pertaining to Christians.


The Nag Hammadi Texts as Monastic Literature
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Hugo Lundhaug, Universitetet i Oslo

The Nag Hammadi Codices are likely to have been produced and used by monks in Upper Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries. What are the implications of this monastic context? While most research on the Nag Hammadi texts have focused on the contexts of composition of the hypothetical Greek originals, across the Roman world, this paper considers the reception of the Coptic texts by Egyptian monks. Why and how would monks have read these texts, and what would it imply for their relationship with Alexandrian orthodoxy? Using examples from individual texts and looking at the collection as a whole, the Nag Hammadi texts will here be considered as monastic literature, and the implications for our understanding of the Nag Hammadi codices and early Egyptian monasticism will be discussed.


Judaism, Anti-Judaism, and Anti-Judeanism in Apocryphal Accounts of Jesus’ Passion
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Petri Luomanen, University of Helsinki

After dealing with the definition of “anti-Judaism” and “anti-Judeanism,” the paper discusses anti-Judaism in Early Christian apocryphal gospels by focusing on the Gospel of Peter and the Acts of Pilate (the Gospel of Nicodemus 1-16). In addition, the paper also analyzes a fragment related to Jesus’ trial in the gospel that was used by the Nazarenes (Jerome, Comm. Matt. 27.16). The paper analyzes anti-Judaism by paying attention to different types and degrees of criticism (slightly modifying Terence Donaldson’s approach in Jews and Anti-Judaism in the New Testament: Decision Points and Divergent Interpretations. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010): (1) Prophetic critique, (2) Sectarian critique and (3) ‘Gentilizing anti-Judaism’ that is the only totally anti-Jewish category of the three. The paper argues that although the Nazarenes still seem to have hoped for the conversion of the ‘sons of Israel’, their critique deserves the label anti-Judaism. The Gospel of Peter is also clearly anti-Jewish and so are also the first eleven chapters of the Acts of Pilate. In Gos. Pet. the Jews are not just made to take responsibility for the conviction of Jesus by choosing Barabbas as in the canonical gospels; they have also become guilty of “deicide” by executing “the Lord.” The final chapters of Acts Pil. (chapters 12-16) are more mixed in their attitude toward Judaism and therefore exemplify sectarian critique. Furthermore, the paper suggests that since the anti-Judaism of Gos. Pet. and Acts Pil. seems to be combined with a low Christology which does not presume virginal conception, it is likely that the traditions behind Gos. Pet. and Acts Pil. were originally composed by a faction of Ebionites who were ‘anti-Judean’ — in the geographical sense of the word. Epiphanius’ description of the Ebionites suggests that the movement may partly have been influenced by Samaritan critique of the ‘Judeans’ (see Luomanen 2012, 47-48, 161-65). Thus, the Christian anti-Judaism as we now have it in Gos. Pet. and Acts Pil. could have developed from an earlier Ebionite anti-Judeanism.


Indicators of Reality and Authenticity in John’s Narrative Historiography
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Susanne Luther, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Indicators of Reality and Authenticity in John’s Narrative Historiography


An Eternity of Silence or Merely Half an Hour (Rev 8:1)? Spatial Conflict, the Radical Jesus, and Deaf Liberation
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
William John Lyons, University of Bristol

Few Westerners have had their lives as circumscribed by one biblical text as have the Deaf community. Ironically, through Mark 7.32-37—Jesus’s only healing of a deaf and speech-impeded(?) man—‘liberation’ has usually been imposed through the crushing dominance of a particularly hearing space. For the hearing, Revelation’s “silence in heaven” (8.1) is a passing interlude before all—including the Deaf who have never spoken—fill the spaces of eternity with noisome praise: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God the Almighty….” (Rev. 4.8). Such a ubiquitous ideology of temporariness cannot but have impacted everyday life. In 1870, for example, as the foundation stone for the first purpose-built church for the “deaf and dumb” in Great Britain was being laid in London, the Jesus for whom the church was named—“St Saviour’s”—was being introduced as the only person who had ever healed a “deaf-mute”, something no prayer or science could replicate. Instead a Jesus-lite cultural healing in which“deaf-mutes” would find their place in society was on offer. Under the practitioners of the ‘Oralist method’ endorsed by the 1880 Milan Congress, this would result in the destruction of sign language and any cultural spaces that it had generated and in an assimilation into society so complete that their deafness would become invisible, a reflection of their heavenly future. Utilising Henri Lefebvre’s notion of space as produced, this paper will examine counter-responses to this hegemonic construction, up to and including ones in which resurgent Deaf spaces define their own salvific norms, their own Jesuses, developing their own conciliatory response to the traditional Jesus who has long-sought to destroy them. In the end, it is not that Christ will save the Deaf, but rather that the Deaf may be willing to save Christ. Communication through sounds in a Hearing-space heaven may in fact be replaced by a visually rich and eternal Deaf-space of (silent) communication through signs.


A Syrophoenician Becomes a Canaanite: The Narrative Functions of Two Portrayals of One Woman
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Kara J. Lyons-Pardue, Point Loma Nazarene University

Two Gospels contain the story of a Gentile woman who approaches Jesus on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter (Mark 7:24-30; Matt 15:21-28). The happy ending in which Jesus exorcises the demon from afar (Mark 7:29-30; Matt 15:28) cannot displace fully the discomfiting impact of the preceding narrative. For, in his initial response, Jesus refuses the woman. In doing so, he infers that she and her daughter are comparable to dogs (Mark 7:27; Matt 15:26). The first half of my paper will discuss the descriptive differences in each narrative—e.g., the disciples’ involvement or lack thereof, the Evangelists’ terms for the woman’s ethnic identity, Jesus’ favorable responses to the woman’s retort—and reflect on the differences between them and reflect on the episode’s role and impact in its respective Gospels. In this section, my primary method of engaging the text will be literary, that is, exegeting and comparing the two renditions of the story on a narrative level. The second half of my paper will focus on the significance of Matthew’s presumed modification of the tradition to describe the woman as a “Canaanite,” a term that conjures up Old Testament narrations of antipathy toward Israel’s neighbors in the land of promise. The term is not merely a synonym for Mark’s “Syrophoenician” label, merely describing the woman’s Phoenician origins. Instead, it is inflammatory. (This claim is far from revolutionary; among the interpretative possibilities, in their ICC Matthew commentary, Davies and Allison determine the ethnic descriptor to be most likely pejorative [2:547].) A significant question in the second half of the paper will be how, in turn, does Matthew’s use of that category (with significant baggage) reflect, enhance, or undermine the Gospel’s overall portrayal of Jesus’ Gentile mission or lack thereof? Matthew exaggerates and makes more overtly negative Mark’s initially ambiguous naming of a Gentile woman. Depicting this mother as a “Canaanite” evokes a tradition of skepticism and wariness toward the tempting polytheism of Israel’s ancient neighbors. More so, the Gentile’s status as a female enhances the echoes the dangers of mixing with “her kind.” Reading the text well requires a fuller understanding of gender and ethnic stereotypes that Matthew may be engaging intentionally. This complex characterization will benefit from engaging with a multiplicity of hermeneutical approaches, i.e., the insights of several published postcolonial and feminist treatments of the passage, paired with an eye to Matthew’s redaction of a Markan source. By designating this interlocutor’s dangerous “Canaanite” and womanly nature, Matthew may hope to do more than merely excuse Jesus’ initially unfavorable response, not to mention the canine inference. This quintessentially “other” woman (being Canaanite and female) answers Jesus in a way that Jesus labels as evidencing “great faith” (15:28). Matthew’s exaggerations on either end of this pericope, particularly when viewed relative to Mark, result in a more pronounced rebound from rejection to inclusion, which arguably reflects an overarching strategy of the Matthean narrative.


Two Mary Magdalenes: Eusebius and the Questionable Reliability of Gospels’ Female Witnesses
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Kara J. Lyons-Pardue, Point Loma Nazarene University

It is widely acknowledged that post-New Testament Christian traditions have melded into one figure, Mary Magdalene, the identities and descriptions of several women. It is less commonly known that the reverse scenario can be found in the writings of Eusebius. Instead of conflating several female figures into one, Eusebius suggests that there may two Mary Magdalenes in Mark. This unusual proposition is found in a series of questions and answers, the former posed by a Christian interlocutor, Marinus, and the latter answered by Eusebius of Caesarea, Quaestiones ad Marinum (early 4th C.). This ancient genre, Erotapokriseis, represents a type of apologetics aimed, most likely, toward an audience of educated believers rather than skeptics. In the sequence of questions, a real or imagined interlocutor has noticed in his or her reading of a Gospel an element she or he finds incompatible with another Gospel’s witness on the matter. The author provides answers to the queries, taking the position as a knowledgeable authority. In this instance, Eusebius addresses each question and offers an answer or, sometimes, several potential solutions to the questioner. Eusebius’s Quaestiones ad Marinum is more famous for its testimony to another aspect of Mark: the variety of ways in which the Second Gospel concludes. Eusebius’s first answer to Marinus constitutes the earliest reference by an ancient scholar to the absence of Mark 16:9-20 in known copies of Mark. Because passages concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus were lightning rods for disagreement and external critique, it is unsurprising that passages that feature these subjects (e.g., Mark 16:9-20) would be the subject of scrutiny. What remains largely unnoticed in scholarly studies, to date, is that correspondence between texts in which women feature prominently and those about which Marinus, the real or imaginary interlocutor raises questions. The timing, identity, and descriptions of Mary Magdalene, along with other women in the Gospel endings are the subjects of significant scrutiny in the ad Marinum. Of Marinus’s four overarching questions that Eusebius addresses regarding the Gospels’ resurrection accounts, all four of them come from verses and pericopes featuring women. Only the first inquiry lacks the name “Mary Magdalene” in the question’s wording itself; nonetheless, the verses in question involve her explicitly (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:1-2, 9) and, thus, the answer mentions her frequently. My paper attends to Eusebius’s multiple Mary-focused answers. My argument is that the doubling of the Mary Magdalenes and the rest of Eusebius’s focus on Mary and her fellow female disciples is not evidence of a latent proto-feminist impulse. Rather, the crux of the interest Eusebius demonstrates is, firstly, to demonstrate the reliability and agreement of the evangelists’ witness. Doing so involves validating women’s testimony, regardless of source. Eusebius is committed to the reliability of the women’s testimony to Jesus’ resurrection and will argue it by any means necessary … even if it means doubling the Mary Magdalenes present.


Sapiential Self-Reservation: Rhetoric of the Numerical Sayings in Proverbs 30
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Sun Myung Lyu, Baekseok University

Prov 30:15-33 as a whole is a loose collection of sayings that sits somewhat awkwardly between compositions that have remarkable literary features. Compared to its literary neighbors in Prov 30 namely the Words of Agur (30:1-9), the Teaching of Lemuel’s Mother (31:1-9), and further the stylized acrostic poem of The Woman of Valor (31:10-31), this “miscellany of epigrams” appears to have little cohesion (M. Fox), except that they are gathered along the common form of numerical sayings (R. Murphy). R. Van Leeuwen has argued, successfully albeit with limited scope, that sayings in 30:21-23 describe abnormal situations that betray “the world upside down.” The present proposal aims to show that Van Leeuwen’s dictum can be applied to the entirety of the numerical sayings, with the implication that the sage-editor(s) behind these sayings meant to express the frustration of watching their sapiential outlook of the world being challenged and mocked to their displeasure. Couched in the form of numerical saying typically used to convey the sense of order and harmony, these sayings in the canonical shape show how the wisdom teaching is frustrated in the areas of familial loyalty (15-17), sexual morality (18-20), social positioning (21-23), nobility in public service (24-28), and integrity of kingship (29-31). Although it does not register disillusionment found in Qohelet, the passage nevertheless reveals ethos of self-reservation in contrast to the general optimism of Proverbs regarding the power of wisdom shaping ethical (“righteous”) and prudent (“wise”) characters. The tint of cool detachment and sarcasm in that refection makes the passage stand out when seen in the light of the pietistic Agur, the elitism and traditionalism of Lemuel’s Mother, and the harmonized serenity of Prov 31:10-31. As a layer of final additions to the main body of proverb collection, the numerical sayings in 30:15-33 add depth to the sages’ teaching as it shows how one can look straight into the world facing the challenge to his cherished system of belief. That is the true wisdom at work.


Iliad 22 and 24 (the Death and Burial of Hector) as Mark's Model for the Death and Burial of Jesus
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Dennis MacDonald, Claremont School of Theology

Abstract: In several publications, most recently in The Gospels and Homer: Imitations of Greek Epic in Mark and Luke-Acts (2014), Dennis MacDonald has argued that Mark's powerful Passion Narrative was composed almost exclusively by imitating Homer's famous account of the death of Hector and Priam's rescue of the body of his son. My paper for the Annual Meeting summarizes the arguments and shows that several Byzantine authors noted the similarities between the deaths of Jesus and Hector and independently imitated the ending of the Iliad.


Is Basil a Pro-Nicene Exegete? Patterns of Scriptural Usage in Basil’s against Eunomius
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Seumas Macdonald, Macquarie University

The revisionist work in recent years on the 4th century Trinitarian debates has resulted in interrelated though competing proposals about how best to categorise and schematise various theological positions and trends, with vigorous hypotheses offered by Lewis Ayres and Khaled Anatolios. At the same time there has been a renewed interest in the practice and nature of exegesis among the same body of authors, the theological players in these debates. One lacuna in the contemporary research has been the demonstration of high-level schemes of categorisation via detailed examination of how these categories are realised in particular texts, along with detailed attention to exegetical method in patristic authors. This paper addresses the exegetical practice of Basil of Caesarea in his polemical/dogmatic treatise Against Eunomius. Specifically, it applies a set of eight criteria of shared pro-Nicene features alongside a three-fold taxonomy of scriptural citation to examine both how Basil employs Scripture as well as how this interacts with and shapes his theological commitments in the early 360s. In doing so it becomes apparent that Basil’s disagreement with Eunomius is not limited to the realm of theological systems, but involves questions of hermeneutics and philosophy of language, so that Basil’s defence is multi-layered, moving from refutations of how well Eunomius’s views fit with Scripture as a whole, to specific contested readings of individual verses and words. The paper argues that attention to these intersecting fields reveals how the manner of Basil’s exegetical practice supports a classification of his theology as pro-Nicene, in a way that contributes to a broader re-evaluation of 4th century theological-exegetical practice and understanding.


Damaged Papyri Rendered Accessible through MultiSpectral Imaging: An Update and Prospectus
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Roger T. Macfarlane, Brigham Young University

Multispectral Imaging of damaged papyri has produced an ample of number of virtually new texts in the first years of the current millennium. The coverage of the Herculaneum Papyri has achieved completeness with every opened fragment (except one papyrus only) now advanced in legibility by virtue of the technological intervention. Less known is the multispectral imaging project that has made available hundreds of papyri in American collections — Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the Tebtunis Papyri at the University of California — available for public accessibility through an NEH Preservation and Access Grant (2009-2012). While the completion of past projects has provided scholars with abundant opportunities to improve readings of misunderstood and formerly illegible texts, further new initiatives afoot in 2015 will open several vistas even more broadly. In a 20-minute presentation, I will demonstrate the depth of the NEH-funded database of newly legible papyri. Further, I will outline distinct opportunities for expanding the legibility of less discrete papyrological texts housed in Provo, London, Cairo, Cologne, Geneva, and elsewhere. In a paper delivered at the 2014 SBL-San Diego I presented new readings in a singular palimpsest codex owned by several institutions around the world. The Atlanta meeting will allow time to update that progress and introduce new problems — and solutions — encountered in imaging projects scheduled for the Spring of 2015. Even incremental gains in legibility of the Herculaneum Papyri, are abundant. This collection has benefited enormously from the application of MSI and will receive renewed attention in a new to be undertaken later this year. The Ancient Textual Imaging Group at Brigham Young University is a non-profit organization that is interested in enhancing through specialized digital imaging technology the study of papyrus texts from the classical world. Papyrus substrates overwritten with carbon-based ink have been shown to respond especially well to MSI. Darkening through chemical or thermal change normally reduces the text’s legibility in a way that can be reversed most readily by the non-destructive application of MSI.


Wisdom Motifs in the Compositional Strategy of the Genesis Apocryphon and Other Aramaic Texts from Qumran
Program Unit: Qumran
Daniel Machiela, McMaster University

The Aramaic Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20) is often held up as a banner example of the (re)writing processes evoked by the generic terms "rewritten Bible" and "rewritten scripture", though debate continues regarding the legitimacy of these terms, and the genre of the Apocryphon. This paper will draw attention to a largely overlooked group of motifs related to ethical wisdom and the accompanying metaphor of two paths in the Genesis Apocryphon's re-presentation of Hebrew Genesis. I will begin by discussing passages reflecting these motifs, along with their possible sources, in the Apocryphon. I will then widen our view to include a number of other, related Aramaic texts from Qumran not typically classed as rewritten scripture. Finally, I will consider possible motivations for the inclusion of these motifs in the Aramaic texts under discussion, and their eventual reception among the Essene (or Essene-like) sect at Qumran.


Commentaries in the Mesopotamian Tradition and Some Biblical Reflections
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Peter Machinist, Harvard University

Scholastic literature in Mesopotamia – the literature of its scribal communities - was a highly developed phenomenon, and one salient facet was the production of commentaries on a wide range of texts: literary, cultic, divinatory, medical, legal, and lexical. The richness and variety of this work have recently been treated in magisterial fashion by Eckart Frahm, Babylonian and Assyrian Text Commentaries. Origins of Interpretation (2011). Impelled by Frahm's study, the present paper will pursue, however modestly, three questions. (1) What, overall, do Mesopotamian commentaries look like, in content, structure, method, and goal, and how have they been studied in modern scholarship? (2) Through a particular example involving a literary text, how does a commentary go about its work? (3) Is there any value, any payoff, to the study of this commentary tradition for the understanding of the literature of the Hebrew Bible? More specifically, can we find traces of commentaries in the biblical text? If not, why not? And what about the subsequent traditions of biblical commentary, especially of midrash? Are Mesopotamian connections to be observed here?


A New View of the Rape of Persephone on Roman Sarcophagi
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Sarah Madole, Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY)

Violent imagery is pervasive in the Greco-Roman world, and one example this paper explores is the image of the abduction of a virgin, namely, the rape of Persephone/Kore by Hades. This myth enjoyed a distinctive popularity in the artistic production of both Greece and Rome. Scholars previously have explored this narrative through numerous lenses, e.g., one rationale posits that such iconography acted as a pedagogical tool for adolescent girls on the brink of marital maturity. Yet specifically the role of violence itself, and further, what role this violent imagery played in the funerary realm of the Roman period has not yet been adequately explored. Nearly one hundred sarcophagi depicting the rape of Persephone survive from Roman Italy alone – it is by far the most popular abduction myth in a burial context – which makes the mythological frieze sarcophagus an ideal medium through which to explore divergent values in depictions of this myth. The clear regional distinction between the sarcophagi produced in the West and East presents Persephone in alternative narratives, which reflects different ideologies relating to mythology, violence and gender. This paper uses the sarcophagus imagery, and geographical distinction, to revisit some of the most influential scholarship on rape, the female body, and ritual in the Greco-Roman world. The western Roman image characteristically focuses on the dramatic climax of the abduction itself. Scholars have argued that the typical Roman viewer did not identify with the overt violence of the visual narrative, as the mythological locus was far removed from Italian soil, and instead viewers saw a theatrical reenactment, which gave comfort to the bereaved. In contrast to the western sarcophagus production, however, in Asia Minor the absence of violence or female nudity is most striking on the Hades/Persephone sarcophagi. In fact, Hades and Persephone are shown in an image of marital bliss, for example on a possibly unique sarcophagus from Ephesos, where Persephone perches upon the lap of the Underworld deity. To be sure, the patron goddess of Ephesos, Artemis, protected virgins, and local residents may have felt a connection to the mythological narrative that resulted in a rejection of the depiction of physical violence. The pervasiveness of violent imagery on sarcophagi produced in Roman Italy, compared to its lack in Asia Minor suggests different attitudes toward gender, mythology and quite possibly on the nature of violence, and the funerary realm represents a fruitful arena in which to explore these questions.


Engaging the Text of the Hebrew Bible—How Prezi Can “Take You There”
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Dennis R. Magary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Drawing students into the world of biblical Hebrew is a challenging endeavor, regardless of the program or institution in which the language is being taught. Technology continues to afford new opportunities for linguistic understanding and textual engagement. Prezi is particularly well-suited to immersing the student in the world of the biblical Hebrew text. This paper will explain and demonstrate how Prezi can facilitate linguistic understanding for the student and provide a level of interaction with the Hebrew text that goes beyond the bounds of linear learning. The presentation will illustrate how Prezi provides, at all levels of Hebrew learning and textual analysis, a dynamic of linguistic engagement that facilitates comprehension and reinforces retention.


“They Shall See the Glory of the Lord” (Isa 35:2): Eschatological Purity at Qumran and in Jesus’ Movement
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jesus’ world view is widely characterized as apocalyptic and eschatological. The main features of this outlook typically include the expectation of the imminent arrival of a messiah, the violent overthrow of the current world order, and the establishment of a utopian kingdom of God where earthly fortunes will be reversed and the “last will be first” (Mt 20:16). In preparation for the kingdom, Jesus reportedly emphasized the importance of moral or ethical behavior. But Jesus is portrayed above all in the Gospel accounts as performing miracles, in particular exorcising demons and healing the sick, traditions which feature prominently in the earliest Gospel traditions. In this paper, I argue that Jesus’ exorcisms and healings as well as his emphasis on moral or ethical behavior should be understood within the context of biblical purity laws. These laws mandate that only perfect, unblemished, pure creatures (Israelites and sacrificial animals) may enter the presence of the God of Israel. By definition, then, only creatures who fulfil these criteria will be admitted to the eschatological kingdom of God on earth. I suggest that Jesus’ exorcisms and healings were not intended merely as apocalyptic signs, but were performed by Jesus and his disciples as God’s agents to effect the entry of the diseased and disabled into the kingdom of God. Like Jesus, the Qumran sect had an apocalyptic world view and anticipated the imminent arrival of the eschaton. They too believed that only perfect, unblemished, pure creatures may enter the divine realm. However, in contrast to Jesus, the Qumran sect effected this by excluding the blemished and impure from the sectarian assembly in their day and from the messianic assembly/eschatological council of the community.


Psychological Essentialism in the Serek ha-Yahad and the Two Spirits Treatise
Program Unit: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Brett E. Maiden, Emory University

The Qumran sectarian texts display a thoroughgoing cosmic dualism that carves humanity into rival camps of good and evil. Building upon recent socio-historical approaches to the Qumran movement (e.g., Newsom, Regev, Jokiranta), this paper investigates the psychological mechanisms that underpin the sect’s dualism and its construction of in-group/out-group boundaries. Specifically, evidence from experimental and developmental psychology and cognitive anthropology is used to argue that the Serek ha-Yahad and Two Spirits Treatise (1QS 3:15-4:26) reflect a deeply-engrained psychological essentialism wherein non-group members are conceptualized as having inherently different biological essences. Numerous studies show that young children and adults intuitively posit the existence of hidden internal properties that are permanent and define living species in the natural world. This essentialist tendency appears to be universal and is often extended to the social domain, as people readily impute a common unifying essence to entire social groups. This is an example of what the anthropologist Lawrence Hirschfeld calls the “naturalization” of social categories. Further cross-cultural ethnographic work reveals that people essentialize different ethnic groups as belonging to different species. After reviewing this literature, I closely examine the Serek and Treatise’s use of kinship terms (e.g., bne-hoshek, dorot), the word “spirit” (ruah), and language denoting human nature and living species (e.g., toledot, min), in order to demonstrate that essentialist intuitions about outsiders provide a foundation for the sect’s dualistic and deterministic worldview. Importantly, the essentialist thinking in these literary works is also firmly grounded in and channeled through the intertextual interpretation of scripture. The Treatise, in particular, draws on the rich creation vocabulary in Genesis 1-3 to formulate its dualistic stance. This textual production, I argue, is therefore best understood in terms of dual-processing models of human cognition. That is, the exposition of human nature in the Treatise illustrates the interaction of what cognitive scientists refer to as reflective and intuitive mental processes, in this case representing an example of reflective textual elaboration on prior essentialist intuitions.


Jeremiah, the Traumatized Prophet
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Christl M. Maier, Philipps-Universität Marburg

In the so-called confessions, five poems of lament dispersed in chapters 11-20, the prophetical voice utters despair and anger about being despised by the people and deceived by God. These poems characterize the inner struggle of the prophet between obedience to God’s word and escape from an almost impossible task. The thesis of this paper is that these poems underscore the image of a traumatized prophet who suffers from experiencing the destruction of his hometown and the failure of his efforts to avert disaster. The role of the traumatizer may be attributed to both the prophet’s opponents and to God. The paper uses features of the theory of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, cf. G. Fischer/P. Riedesser 2003) in order to evaluate passages of the confessions. It employs these features heuristically, i.e., without assuming that the historical prophet suffered from PTSD. Rather, the prophetical figure is portrayed as a person who feels betrayed by its own kin and deceived by God – a perspective that is likely to represent the experience of the people with regard to their rulers and their national deity. The paper also discusses the function of such a portrait of Jeremiah for exilic and post-exilic recipients of the prophetic message. (Proposal for topic 2)


The Four Deaths of Joshua: A Lesson in the Necessity of the Septuagint in Redaction Criticism
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Ville Mäkipelto, University of Helsinki

There are four differing accounts of Joshua's death and burial in the textual witnesses to the Hebrew Bible (Josh. 24:28–31 MT/LXX and Judg. 2:6–9 MT/LXX). These accounts obviously share a common textual basis but also differ in several details. In this paper, I reconstruct the textual growth of these verses and consider their impact for the interplay of textual and literary/redaction criticism (Literarkritik). First, the textual problems related to the usage of the LXX versions of Joshua-Judges will be considered in some detail. Second, a text critical analysis is performed. In the analysis, I argue that the LXX version of Joshua 24:28-31 reflects the earliest version from which the others have been edited for various new contexts. This editing has been carried out using different editorial techniques: the relocation of a whole verse and the omission of material from MT Joshua that is perceived as theologically problematic are especially interesting. The material omitted from Josh. 24:31 might also have some implications on reconstructing ancient Israelite conceptions on the Exodus from Egypt and the varying roles of Joshua and Moses in it. Third, the textual analysis of the death of Joshua is related to literary and redaction criticism. It is concluded that redaction critical observations are not on solid ground if they fail to acknowledge the variants preserved in the LXX. The use of literary/redaction criticism and any observations on the composition of Joshua-Judges has to begin with exploring the textual issues emerging out of a critical comparison of the LXX and the MT and other relevant textual witnesses.


Paul and Plato: Rhetorically Astute Apologists
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Matthew R Malcolm, Trinity Theological College (Perth)

While there are major and fundamental differences between Paul and Plato, they can both be thought of as determined ‘apostles’ of outrageously executed victims. They both have apologetic undertakings that are shaped by a perception that in their hero’s plight, one finds a crystallisation of what is wrong with the world, and the revelation of what is required to put things right. This paper is not claiming that Paul consciously modelled his ministry on the apologetic instincts of Plato. Rather it is raising the question of whether Plato’s example of an ingenious literary apologist might freshly illuminate elements of Paul’s identity and literary output. Specifically, a number of scholars on Plato express the view that an underlying apologetic instinct impacts works that are not, on the face of it, apologetic. Might we see something similar in Paul? Paul is rarely referred to as an apologist in accounts of his identity and thought. Yet his conviction regarding the vindication of God and the exposure of human sin in the executed Christ is certainly no less consuming than Plato’s conviction regarding the vindication of truth and the exposure of human posturing in the executed Socrates. It may be that the current emphasis in New Testament studies on socio-historical explanations of literary phenomena could be complemented by foregrounding the significance of Paul as a rhetorically cunning apologist of the God who upsets human pretension. This does not mean reading Paul from the vantage point of ‘theological interpretation’; but rather seeing Paul in the light of the intellectual context of the rhetorically astute apologist. Thus, while Aristotle has usually been of some importance for studies of rhetoric and the New Testament, perhaps Plato might prove to be a fruitful dialogue partner.


Reading Others as the Subject(s) of Biblical Narrative
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Robert D. Maldonado, California State University - Fresno

This paper explores the concept of Otherness in the composition and hermeneutics of Biblical narrative. It argues that human discourse throughout history has used Otherness to construct identity. In the late twentieth century, Otherness was theorized as an explicit interpretive category drawing on feminist/gender, race/ethnic, and cultural studies. Practitioners foregrounded the presence of Others within the biblical narrative and assessed the politics and ethics of the use of the Biblical text in Othering Others. The Othered themselves became readers of Otherness within the texts. Homer’s Odyssey, the book of Esther, and the Gospel according to Mark illustrate these dynamics. All three betray ambivalence in the ethics of negotiating Otherness: Homer in the construction of female identity, Esther in ethnic/religious identity under Empire, and Mark in the ambiguity of power, silence, and voice, especially within the character of Jesus.


A Fresh Look at P.Beatty III (P47): Towards an Integrative Study of an Early Christian Codex
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Peter Malik, University of Cambridge

Chester Beatty Biblical Papyrus III (also known as P47) is, with its ten relatively well-preserved folios, our earliest extensive manuscript of John’s Apocalypse. It has, however, received very little scholarly attention, apart from studies of its textual characteristics by Josef Schmid and R.V.G. Tasker and, more recently, singular readings by James R. Royse. This gap in our knowledge is hoped to be filled by the presenter’s doctoral thesis, where physical and non-textual features of the manuscript are analysed in connection with its scribal habits and textual characteristics. Such an approach is reflective of the recent trend to study manuscripts not only as the tradents of texts, but also as physical artefacts in their own right. Thus, besides reporting on the shape and scope of the research project more generally, the present paper aims to draw attention to three aspects of P47 where the integrative method of study has proven particularly fruitful. First, we shall discuss the manuscript’s corrections, including several newly identified readings. Secondly, we shall look at how scribal re-inking—conspicuous throughout the papyrus—correlates with several types of (presumably) scribally created readings, thus extending our knowledge of scribal behaviour in P47. And thirdly, we shall consider the textual affinities of the papyrus with the Sahidic version of Apocalypse.


At the Crossroads of Cuneiform Culture: Multilingualism and Translation in the Canaanite Amarna Letters—A Reassessment
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Alice Mandell, University of California-Los Angeles

The classification of the language of the Canaanite Amarna Letters is still a matter of contention. The primary debate is whether or not the mixed Canaano-Akkadian forms are a reflection of a local dialect(s) of Akkadian, or a written scribal code––one that was quite distanced from the actual language underlying such messages. Recent petrographic and paleographic analyses further complicate the correlation between speech and writing in this corpus. Cuneiform scribes in the southern Levant worked for multiple polities; moreover, many tablets were created at quite a distance from the political centers generating this correspondence. A number of letters were actually written at Egyptian administrative centers across the Levant, and not at the local courts “sending” these messages. The Canaanite scribe emerges as the central figure in discussions of linguistic classification, as the language of these letters is a better reflection of scribal training during this period than what was actually spoken at local Canaanite courts. As such, there is a need for a reassessment of the scribal and administrative landscape of this period, in particular, the system of scribes and messengers bridging Canaanite polities and the royal court at Tell el-‘Amarna, Egypt. This system of communication was a dynamic, complex process that entailed at the very least four linguistic strata: the Canaanite dialect underlying the message; the written scribal code that preserved the message (a product of scribe’s education); the deconstruction of this message once delivered (along with any additional socio-political subtext); and its interpretation and final translation into Egyptian. I will (re)address the problem of “Canaano-Akkadian” and the ongoing messaging process from the perspective of the scribes composing and receiving these missives. I will focus upon the linguistic, orthographic, and rhetorical strategies that they employed to bridge the geographic and cultural gulf between Canaanite and Egyptian administrators. In particular, the Canaanite glosses resurface as unique evidence for how Canaanite scribes approached the problem of translation and linguistic “border-crossing” in such cross-cultural and multilingual exchanges. The cuneiform script was not limited to a technological tool in such interactions, but entailed participation in a much larger cultural horizon––one shared by cuneiform scribes in Canaan and Egypt, who were the gatekeepers facilitating diplomacy throughout this period.


The Sabbatical Year in Tannaitic Literature: Halakha, the Borders of Rabbinic Identity, and Ecological Principle?
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
John Mandsager, University of South Carolina - Columbia

This paper will contribute to a panel exploring ecology and the environment in early rabbinic literature. While arguing that the Tannaitic halakhic innovations pertaining to the sabbatical year are primarily focused on adherence to biblical law and thus contribute to a larger early rabbinic project of presenting an agricultural landscape that is visibly and demonstrably Jewish, this paper will also explore the possibility that the Tannaitic sabbatical year may reflect attention to some of the ecological and environmental benefits made possible by leaving agricultural land fallow. There has been relatively recent interest in biblical studies investigating the biblical shevi’it and the other agricultural commandments as representing a theology or ethics of the environment in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple literature. This paper will ask what might be gleaned from investigation of land theology or environmental ethics in Tannaitic halakhot concerning the sabbatical year. Such questions are more often than not absent from early rabbinic discussions, but the systematic approach to the visual distinctions offered by rabbinic agricultural law does leave open the possibility that the ways in which rabbinic agricultural spaces are mapped and displayed in Tannaitic literature can additionally be read as visual markers of care of the land (perhaps in covenantal terms) and potentially as a form of environmental ethics. This paper thus opens the possibility that as Tannaitic literature (in this case, the halakhot of shevi’it) prescribes visual markers of distinction in agricultural space, those markers – whether of ritual action or spatial boundary – may also communicate a responsibility towards or attention to the soil itself.


(Re)Presenting Biblical Texts Online: Luke 19 as Test Case
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Joshua L. Mann, University of Durham

This paper explores and evaluates how certain features of biblical texts and manuscripts, especially related to their materiality—e.g., the spatiality of a page, indentation, paragraphing, appearance of texture, ink consistency, manuscript damage—might be encoded into digital (re)presentations using standard web technologies. Special attention will be given to how various modes of representation (e.g., images, transcriptions, etc.) each add and remove important information to and from the objects, potentially altering the perceived meaning of these texts. As a test case, the text of the Triumphal Entry pericope from Luke 19 will be prepared for display in a web browser by creating webpages that attempt to represent the text as it appears in Codex Sinaiticus, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Gutenberg Bible, a modern English version, and the Nestle-Aland 28th edition, respectively. For each manuscript or edition, two webpages will be created: (1) A page that uses an image of the relevant portion of the manuscript as its primary representation; and (2) A page that displays the text as text, using markup language(s) and CSS3 to represent the materiality of the manuscript or edition as accurately as possible. The paper will summarize and evaluate the results, comparing these representations to certain others available online (e.g., the British Library’s interface for viewing Codex Sinaiticus).


Retrieving the Radical Tillich I
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Russell Re Manning, Bath Spa University

*


Retrieving the Radical Tillich II
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Russell Re Manning, Bath Spa University

*


Using the Masorah to Appreciate a Hebrew Text
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
David Marcus, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Using the story of Abimelech (Judges chapter 9) this paper will demonstrate how the Masorah can be integrated into the teaching of a biblical Hebrew text. The goal of the Masoretes was to protect the integrity of the received text. To achieve this goal they appended notes around the text to guide scribes about the exact writing of various forms. These seemingly arcane notes can serve modern students as helpful instructional guides in three major areas. One is in the area of intertextuality, where one can see the uses of certain words or phrases elsewhere in the Bible. The second is in appreciation of the layout and other artistic features of the text and the third, which is the most useful for instructive grammatical purposes, is in observing contrasts between the forms in the text and other forms (such as the distinction between waw consecutive and waw conjunction forms). With these three helpful Masoretic guides instructors can enliven the study of any Hebrew text.


Chosen Place versus Missing Temple: Reconsidering the Historical Implications of the Centralization Formula in Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Dominik Markl, Pontificio Istituto Biblico

The centralization formula has been considered a cornerstone for the original historical setting of Deuteronomy because it creates a link with the Josianic reform. Since it seems historically plausible that Josiah implemented measures to centralize the cult in Jerusalem, an early version of Deuteronomy is likely to have provided theological support for this reform. While this classical argument indeed has great weight, its very plausibility may have blurred the scholars’ view of a striking phenomenon: by its emphasis on the ‘chosen place’, the centralisation formula conceals the notion of the temple. This paper will first analyse the general concealment of the physical structure of the temple in Deuteronomy together with related texts in the Deuteronomistic History. It will then argue that the notion of the ‘chosen place’ provides a theological solution to a burning issue: how to understand the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem?


Genesis 1 and the Beginnings of Gnosticism
Program Unit: Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
Christoph Markschies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin

The formation of "Gnosticism" has been explained by some scholars as resulting from a certain type of Jewish or Jewish-Christian Exegesis of Genesis 1. Is there really, however, evidence for such an exegesis in the sources? What do we really know about pre-Sethian and pre-Valentinian forms of "Gnosticism" and their exegesis of Genesis 1? Is it possible to establish a more convincing account of the development of "Gnosticism" than the one provided by the ancient Christian heresiologists, or must we remain with an uncertain explanation along the lines of ignoramus et ignorabimus?


What Do We Know about the "Sitz im Leben" of Ancient Christian Apocalypses?
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Christoph Markschies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

The material evidence of manuscripts is helping to answer the crucial question concerning the "Sitz im Leben" of Ancient Christian Apocalypses. The paper will discuss some examples of relevant texts, which will be included in the 3rd volume of Markschies/Schröter, Ancient Christian Apocrypha, e.g. the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Anastasia. Not only the format, size and style of handwriting, but also traces of use provide highly valuable key Information for some answers to the question in the paper's title.


Gender and Prayer in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Jill E. Marshall, Emory University

This programmatic paper surveys literary and epigraphical evidence for women’s prayer activity, in an effort to identify whether gender identity influenced the ways that groups and individuals addressed God or the gods. I draw from representations of prayers in literature and inscriptions, instructions for how to pray, and prose descriptions of how people pray, across Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian traditions. My goal is to address how perceived gender difference influenced the language, structure, rituals, and goals of prayer.


Judean War and Judean Diaspora: Class and Networks
Program Unit: Westar Institute
John Marshall, University of Toronto

*


Deixis and Scope: Reading Romans in Time and Place
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
John Marshall, University of Toronto


An Analysis of the Function of Greek Anarthrous Participles in Oblique Cases
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Phillip Marshall, Houston Baptist University

This paper investigates the issue of how to determine whether anarthrous Greek participles in an oblique case (excepting Genitive Absolute constructions) are adverbial or adjectival in function. Many Greek grammarians, when explaining participial usage, identify an adverbial function for participles in oblique cases. In 2003, Martin Culy published a thought-provoking article in which he argued that syntactically, adverbial participles are distributed in only one of two situations: (1) when the participle agrees with the case of the subject noun and the participial action is performed by that subject (usually, the participle is in the nominative case--when the main verb is finite--but sometimes in the accusative case--when the the main verb/action is the infinitive and the agent is required to be in the accusative case), and (2) when the subject of the main verb is not identical to the “subject” of the adverbial participle (in such cases, the Genitive Absolute construction--which has an adverbial function--is used). Culy reanalyzed anarthrous participles in oblique cases as instances, not of adverbial function, but adjectival function, since such morpho-syntactic situations fall outside of these two proposed constraints on the normal distribution of adverbial participles. This paper will analyze the weaknesses (and strength) of Culy’s claims, attempt to provide some criteria for how to distinguish whether such participles in oblique cases are adverbial or adjectival, and finally discuss the discourse-pragmatic function of these sorts of participles.


(Case-)Marked Left-Dislocations: The Case of Qoheleth
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Phillip Marshall, Houston Baptist University

In this paper we investigate the phenomenon of left-dislocation in Qoheleth. Throughout this book, left-dislocations abound. We will survey briefly the syntax and semantics of prototypical left-dislocation structures in BH using materials from Qoheleth for illustrative purposes. Special attention will then be given to situations where structural ambiguity is present because certain constituents might be within the domain of a clause proper, or on the edge of the clause if a left-dislocation analysis is accepted. Notably, Qoh 1:11 and 2:21 contain constituents whose clausal status is in question. In 1:11, wegam la’aharonim sheyyihyu might be a continuation of the prior clause, or it might constitute a dislocated unit at the front edge of a new clause. In 2:21, the phrase ule’adam shello ‘amal-bo could simply be a fronted constituent functioning as an argument of the following verb, or it could be an extra-clausal, left-dislocated constituent that is resumed within the clause proper. Appealing cross-linguistically and within the BH corpus to the concept of “Clitic Left Dislocation” (in which the dislocated element exhibits case-marking features that agree with the resumptive element), we argue that these phrases from Qoheleth are best analyzed as left-dislocated constituents, and that such an analysis best fits the discourse pragmatic context of Qoheleth’s argument in the respective pericopes.


Black. Life. Matter. Toward A Black Feminist/Womanist Eschatology
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Eboni Marshall Turman, Duke University

This paper will engage the work of James Cone and Claudia Rankine to expose two cultural artifacts, the noose and the hoodie, that frame black life as anti-matter. Representative of the anti-black violence that has historically threatened black lives, a preliminary discussion of these artifacts will precede a discussion of two traditional funeral scriptures in the black church that are read over and over again as a mechanism of resistance to the metanarrative of black anti-matter. The paper will conclude with an abbreviated discussion of black womanist plerosis as scriptural mandate and as the embodiment of hope even amidst the hopeless continuum of the noose and the hoodie that defy black life matter.


Rescuing God: Late Antique Exegetical Cultures in Alexandria and Antioch
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Peter Martens, Saint Louis University

The exegetical approaches associated with Alexandria and Antioch are routinely contrasted (i.e. the allegorists vs. the literalists). But there are also important similarities that are seldom articulated. I will argue that one way in which they are similar is in their approach to the theme of God in Scripture - both exegetical cultures work hard to "rescue" the anthropomorphic God in Scripture. Moreover, they do this rescuing in very similar ways with one another, as well as with the late antique philosophical tradition of Homer-commentary which was animated by similar worries with Homer's anthropomorphic gods (Cornutus, Heraclitus, pseudo-Plutarch). The standard scholarly divide between Alexandria and Antioch is drawn in terms of Alexandria's penchant for philosophic exegesis and Antioch's tendency toward rhetorical exegesis (see Francis Young). My comparative approach will demonstrate that Antioch was also deeply rooted in philosophical exegesis, nor did it hide this allegiance.


“Other-ing” Jesus: The Dregs of Anti-Judaism
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Erica L. Martin, Seattle University

Perhaps the last frontier of latent anti-Judaism in New Testament interpretation, even in the most progressive circles, is the tendency to position Jesus as “un-like” or “foreign” to his entire first-century Judean/Jewish context. This sui generis Jesus stands in opposition to his contemporary religious milieu, promoting exegetical traditions that distort and disparage first-century Judaisms in comparison. This paper emerged from beautifully rich discussions among the faculty at Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry, and takes on latent anti-Judaism in the exegesis of a handful of synoptic texts and. What happens when (without necessarily diminishing any understanding of Jesus’ divinity or uniqueness) we re-position Jesus as a participant in first century Judaisms, both teaching in continuity with preceding major streams of Israelite/Jewish thought and finding a fully Jewish audience of contemporaries who both share and want to promulgate his message?


Empowering the Exegete with Open Educational Resources
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Erica L. Martin, Seattle University

My students do not know Hebrew, but by the end of the quarter they can critique existing translations and make astute translation choices of their own. How? Using internet-based tools and resources, students can learn about the Hebrew language, explore the semantic fields of important terms, and develop an understanding of translation theory. In this presentation I will share a design for “Targeted Text Studies” in my classes which employ and link to Open Educational Resources for biblical translation and exegesis, all free, easy to use, and empowering for the budding exegete. Presentation Outline: I. Discuss need to inform students about translation as interpretation and to help students begin to make their own translation decisions II. Project a demonstration of a Targeted Text Study used in my classes a. Review the list of Questions in each text study b. Walk the section participants through the steps of the targeted text study, clicking the appropriate links and demonstrating how they are used to i. Inform students about the Hebrew language (word order, choice, semantic fields) ii. Demonstrate a range of different translations of the word/verse in extant and popular translations iii. Ask students to make their own translational decisions III. Project further Open Ed Resources applicable to this study IV. Invite questions about how the Targeted Text Study process works and feedback from the group


Christianity and Conflicting Cultural Conceptions Concerning Circumcision
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Troy W. Martin, Saint Xavier University

Circumcision is a central concern in early Christianity since it occasions the Jerusalem Assembly, occupies the central topic of Galatians, and occurs in several early Christian writings. Composed of both Jew and Gentile members, the early Church had to negotiate conflicting cultural conceptions of circumcision. From a Jewish perspective, circumcision is a mark of the covenant and obligatory for members of Abraham's family. From a non-Jewish perspective, however, circumcision is a sexual perversion. This paper investigates ancient physicians and physiologists who place circumcision in the pathological category of lipodermos, a physical defect that requires treatment and sometimes even invasive surgery. This paper also surveys poets, playwrights, plastic artists, and philosophers who place circumcision in the category of male sexual arousal. Finally, this paper considers the semantic range of Greek and Latin words referring to circumcision. In some texts, these words mean sexual arousal rather than circumcision. In other texts, they carry both meanings. This paper concludes that the conflicting cultural conceptions of circumcision created a circumcision cyclone that threatened to blow the early Christian communities off course and that these differing conceptions are responsible for making circumcision a central concern of the early church.


Emotional and Consolatory Arguments for Future Rejoicing in 1 Pet 1:6
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Troy W. Martin, Saint Xavier University

The verb agalliasthe in 1 Pet 1:6 is present in form, but commentators debate whether it refers to present or future rejoicing. This verse clearly states that the recipients of this letter are presently grieving, and so understanding agalliasthe in reference to present rejoicing means that these recipients are simultaneously grieving and rejoicing. This paper examines ancient physiological and psychological discussions of these two emotions to determine if they could ever occur simultaneously. These discussions reveal that rejoicing and grieving are opposite emotions and that rejoicing belongs with those emotions arising from pleasure while grieving falls in the category of emotions engendered by pain. Several authors from Plato to Galen state that a person cannot experience pleasure and pain simultaneously and that rejoicing and grieving are not only opposite emotions but mutually exclusive as well. Thus, ancient physiological and psychological conceptions prohibit the Petrine author from informing his recipients that they are simultaneously rejoicing and grieving, and agalliasthe is consequently better read in reference to future rejoicing. This paper then examines ancient consolatory etiquette and discovers that it is inappropriate to inform grieving recipients that they are rejoicing. Consolation can look forward to a time when the grief stricken will rejoice and can even exhort them to rejoice but cannot tell them they are rejoicing without violating consolatory etiquette. Both the emotional and the consolatory arguments in this paper, therefore, support those commentators who read agalliasthe in 1 Pet 1:6 in reference to future rather than present rejoicing.


Reaction against Imperial Epistemological Influence as an Explanation of the Indictment of David
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
William Luther Martin, Jr., University Presbyterian Church, Austin, TX

The question of imperial authorization of the Pentateuch has been widely debated in connection with the political and social contexts behind its literary formation, with scholars such as Peter Frei and Joseph Blenkinsopp debating the degree to which imperial oversight influenced the actual content of the Pentateuch. However, these perspectives have not adequately addressed the reaction against imperial epistemological influence in the writing of the Pentateuch as an alternative world view rather than as a basis for instances of specific content. On the contrary, the entire Biblical corpus can be considered a reaction against imperial epistemologies, including especially material relating to King David. My paper addresses the issue of Habermasian colonization of the mind throughout the Levant resulting from unrelenting rivalry between Eastern Mediterranean empires with special attention to the first Judean kingdom. I follow Jacob L. Wright's rejection of "source criticism" in favor of a "supplementary approach" founded on the delineation of a social context. However, for Jacob Wright, the social context is "war commemoration," which makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the layered creation of the biblical corpus. For me, the social context is anti-imperialism and anti-statism. I intend to show that the ambivalent view of David set forth in the Bible, far from being an apology for David, was actually an indictment of David and part of a complex argument against statism and imperialism which was further elaborated from one generation to the next. Because so much of the "supplemental approach" concerns material developed in an effort to understand the destruction of the first temple, I study Jeremiah's advice to Zedekiah reflected in Jer 27:12,17 and Ezekiel's diatribe against imperialism reflected in Ezekiel 23:11-21, in order to show the reaction against imperial epistemology evident in Judean identity as mediated by the Pentateuch. By discussing the Habermas colonization thesis, and by juxtaposing these against development of African and Latin American counter-imagining as an instance of anti-global theory as elucidated by David Chidester and Alberto Moreiras (The Exhaustion of Difference), I demonstrate an analogy to Judahite anti-pan-Levantine theory in order to reveal the previously misunderstood connections between reactions against imperial epistemology and the evolution of the Judean political economy as found in archaeological and textural materials. I argue that various forms of anti-imperial and anti-statist literature found in the Judean Pentateuch are attributable to the net effect of the influence of imperial epistemologies of empires including Egypt, Philistia (Gath), the House of Omri, Aram-Damascus, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia and Seleucid empires. Extending Jacob Wright's supplemental approach, I argue that Saul represented the anti-imperial, “persistent resistance” predicted by Richard Horsley, while David's centralized royal administration enforced an imperial paradigm which must have been influenced by his experience in the court of the King of Gath. In conclusion, this project, by closely examining the polemic of exile and return found in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, sheds new light on the neglected issue of reactions to imperial production of knowledge as a key influence in the final form of the Judean Pentateuch.


Web Resources for the Masorah
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Elvira Martin-Contreras, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

This presentation will demonstrate the variety of materials on the Web which are available for the study of the Masorah.


Evil Assemblages: Demonology in Porphyry of Tyre
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Heidi Marx-Wolf, University of Manitoba

The third-century philosopher, Porphyry of Tyre, produced a number of complex and fascinating accounts of the origin and nature of evil daemons. This paper proposes to look at his ideas across a number of his complete works and fragments in order to argue that Porphyrian demons are best understood as assemblages in the sense that Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari use the term. In general, Porphyry’s daemons administer the sub-lunar sphere by riding on a pneumatic vessel, which they can form according to their logos or phantasia. This “body” gives rise to passions and appetites, which can, if indulged, turn good daemons into evil demons. This is the account that Porphyry gives in On Abstinence from Animals. Porphyry also discusses the ideoplastic potential of daemonic souls in his embryology, To Gaurus on the Ensoulment of Embryos and in his Sentences. In his work On the River Styx, he also talks about how the “bodies” of certain evil Etruscan daemons can produce semen and leave behind web-like ashes when burnt. All in all, Porphyry’s demons are complex, strange creatures which inhabit a cosmic space that is both morally ambivalent and ontologically ambiguous. Their tendency to be seduced by matter, to change their status, form their pneuma and the air around them, and participate in the production of animal substances like semen make them worthy subjects of study for what they can tell us about late ancient thinking about the body more generally.


The Nations Marching to the Mount of Zion: A Postcolonial Reading beyond Imperialism and Universalism
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Safwat Marzouk, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Isaiah 2:1-4 and Micah 4:1-5 contain two well-known and similar oracles of world-peace in which the nations march to the mount of Zion where YHWH will arbitrate and judge. I propose reading these texts from a postcolonial perspective that looks at the relationship between Israel and the nations in these texts in a way that maintain a tension between sameness and difference. The imperialistic approach does not take into account the fact that the boundaries between Israel and the nations remain. The universalistic approach does not take into account the fact that the inclusion of the nation does not happen at the expense of giving up the peculiarity of Israel’s faith. According to the postcolonial perspective that I am proposing here peace does not happen through the loss of boundaries or through the erosion of difference, but rather through a healthy tension between what is shared and what is different between the peoples of different faiths.


Love and Justice: Judgement in Paul and in Matthew
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Jens-Christian Maschmeier, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

My paper will deal with the relation between love and justice in Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom. 12:9-21) and in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt. 5:43-48). The focus will be on the commandment to love one’s enemies as the proprium of Christian ethics. In Paul as well as in Matthew the commandment to love one’s enemies is closely linked to the exhortation not to retaliate. The meaning of this link is heavily disputed: Is non-retaliation an expression of the love of one’s enemies, thus aiming at the repentance of and the reconciliation with the enemy, or is non-retaliation motivated by deference to God’s judgement? In my paper I will propose an alternative solution which goes beyond a simple either-or: For Paul as well as for Matthew the belief in God’s impending judgment qualifies the present age as the time of salvation. As opposites love and justice are intrinsically linked to one another: God’s love that the Christian communities are supposed to imitate presupposes God’s final judgment. Without judgement following the chief principle of justice neither Paul nor Matthew could exhort their addressees to love their enemies. The question whether non-retaliation is understood in terms of love or in terms of deference to God’s judgement is subordinate to this basal correlation of love and justice. While Paul’s motivates his exhortation of non-retaliation with reference to God’s final judgement, Matthew emphasizes the other side of the coin: The imitation of God’s love for his enemies will be rewarded. This correlation of love and justice as opposites that can’t be played off against each other is deeply rooted in the Old Testament: Justice and mercy/love are both attributes of God (cf. for example Ex 34:6-7). An altruistic understanding of love tears apart what belongs together: love and justice.


Ruminating on Ukpong’s Inculturation Hermeneutics and Its Implications for the Study of African Biblical Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele), University of South Africa

In African biblical scholarship, the concept of inculturation hermeneutics, has come to be almost if not always linked with the late Professor Justin Ukpong, the Nigerian New Testament schoalr. In inculturation hermeneutics, argued Ukpong, the past of the biblical text is not supposed to be studied as an end in itself, but as a means to an end. He could thus argue: “Thus in inculturation hermeneutics, the past collapses into the present, and exegesis fuses with hermeneutics”(Ukpong2002:18). What does Ukpong’s concept of inculturation hermeneutics actually entail? Which implications do his notion of the fusion of exegesis and hermeneutics have for the theory and praxis of African Biblical Hermeneutics particularly on the African continent today? The preceding questions will be engaged with in the present paper


Hebrews 1 as Apocalyptic Revelation
Program Unit: Hebrews
Eric F. Mason, Judson University (Elgin, Illinois)

Scholars of Hebrews have long discussed the presence of elements of Jewish apocalyptic thought in the book, especially when considering the author’s cosmological, messianic, and eschatological ideas. Likewise, interpreters frequently comment on the way the author uses quotations of Scripture in Hebrews 1 compared to his use of quotations elsewhere in the text. The author presents the words of Scripture in Hebrews 1 as the direct words of God, now recontextualized to speak instead of the Son. Recent suggestions for understanding this phenomenon include appeals to ancient rhetorical methods like prosopopoeia or the possibility that the materials here are rooted in the author’s mystical experiences. Without fully rejecting the former or heartily embracing the latter, I suggest instead the possibility that the author presents these particular words of God as a form of apocalyptic revelation. Both the setting of this divine speech and the themes addressed are consistent with that of apocalyptic revelation, even if the means by which the material is presented is modified to fit the author’s purposes in the book of Hebrews itself.


Josephus' Recitation of His Judaean War: Some Implications
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Steve Mason, University of Groningen

In our preoccupation with the (undoubted) value of Josephus' In our preoccupation with the (undoubted) value of Josephus' Judaean War for the history of Roman Judaea, we have tended to overlook the circumstances of its composition in Flavian Rome. In this paper I work through some of the evidence that an important dimension of Josephus' preparation and dissemination of the work was oral, both his acquisition of information by oral report from others and his recitation of major sections before both friends and rivals in Rome's vibrant salon culture. With the help of remarks on book dissemination from near contemporaries in Rome, I then consider some possible consequences of this mode of working, for example: the nature of the 'truth' that Josephus espouses, his treatment of rivals, his use of irony based on audience knowledge, his personal presence as basis of authority, and his concern for vivid tragic spectacle. for the history of Roman Judaea, we have tended to overlook the circumstances of its composition in Flavian Rome. In this paper I work through some of the evidence that an important dimension of Josephus' preparation and dissemination of the work was oral, both his acquisition of information by oral report from others and his recitation of major sections before both friends and rivals in Rome's vibrant salon culture. With the help of remarks on book production from near contemporaries in Rome, I then consider some possible consequences of this mode of working, for example: the nature of the 'truth' that Josephus espouses, his treatment of rivals, his use of irony based on audience knowledge, his personal presence as basis of authority, and his concern for vivid tragic spectacle.


Nékrosis in the Pauline Corpus: A Reconsideration of the Pauline Uses in Light of Ancient Medical Treatises
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Georges Massinelli, University of Notre Dame

The two occurrences of the term nékrosis in Rom 4:19 and 2 Cor 4:10 are apparently the earliest in the extant Greek literature. Interpretative tradition has understood nékrosis as a reference to the process of dying or the state of deadness. Ancient physicians, however, employed this term to describe a precise set of pathological conditions. Most occurrences of nékrosis in medical treatises refer to a life-threatening, gangrenous affection of body tissue associated with cold, which primarily, but not exclusively, affects the extremities. A secondary, but well-attested, use indicates the loss of a wide variety of motoric or physiological functions that may or may not be connected to specific organs. Finally, very few texts apparently employ nékrosis to describe a nonviable fetus. Evidence from both Christian and non-Christian late antique authors demonstrates that these technical uses and connotations of the word nékrosis were known even outside medical circles, which makes it plausible that Paul employed nékrosis with one of these meanings. The reference to the nékrosis of Sarah’s womb in Rom 4:19 provides further support for this interpretation. In fact, barrenness is appropriately described as the loss of the womb’s physiological capability to conceive children. Analogously, the word nékrosis in 2 Cor 4:10 (“Always carrying in the body the nékrosis of Jesus”) can be read as tissue decay, in an allusion to the apostolic body visibly marked by suffering and physical deterioration because of the hardships the apostle endured for Christ.


“Come, Let Us Go Up to Bethel!” (Gen 35:3): The Bethel Traditions in the Jacob Cycle and Its Contribution to the Theology of Genesis
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Danny Mathews, Pepperdine University

A number of recent studies have investigated the importance of the conceptual world of the temple in Genesis, especially in the two creation accounts in Gen 1-2. Yet there is a need for a comprehensive and integrated examination of the importance of the temple as a sanctuary and hence as a focus for pilgrimage and various cultic acts (e.g., tithes, vows, sacrifices) throughout the book of Genesis especially during the period of the final editing and composition of Genesis during the early post-exilic period. As a prolegomena to this goal, this paper will examine the importance of cultic sites, cultic acts, and, most importantly, the divine presence and guidance in the Jacob cycle. Specifically, this paper will argue for construing the various traditions associated with Bethel as a frame for the journey of Jacob from Canaan to Aram and back (Gen 28:10-22 // Gen 35:1-16)). A close examination reveals two major claims raised in this frame that are held in tension: (1) a clear affirmation of the sanctity of various places in the land (e.g., Bethel, Mahanaim, Succoth, Shechem, and Penuel) where a pilgrimage must be taken to encounter God. This seems to reflect a concern among the diaspora community that to leave the land is to leave the presence of God (e.g., 1 Sam 26:20) as well as the typical view in the ancient Near East that a cult site marks a sacred, permanent location of the deity (and hence the emphasis on rebuilding and restoring old cult sites) (2) an equally clear affirmation that the divine presence, revealed at the sanctuary in Bethel, is now on the move with Jacob, even outside the land of Canaan (Gen 28:15; Gen 31:3, 10-13, 42; 48:15-16). This reflects a major emphasis on God’s presence among the community in exile (e.g., Ezek 1-2; Jer 23:23-24). These opposing claims on the permanence of the divine presence versus its portability work in concert to make the rhetorical claim to the diaspora community that God is indeed with them in exile but also calls them to return back to the land and re-dedicate the older cultic sites and re-affirm their exclusive loyalty to God. Finally, this paper will conclude by noting that these two claims in the Jacob cycle serve a transitional function in the overall composition of Genesis. Namely, the emphasis on the cultic sanctity of a place and personal encounter with the deity is prominent in the Primeval History and Abraham cycle. However, the Joseph narrative, in following the Jacob cycle, emphasizes the portability of God who is “with Joseph” (Gen 39) and works implicitly in Egypt for the survival of the community.


Shaping the Narrative of 1–2 Chronicles through Prayer: Rhetoric and Embodiment for Communal Participation
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Michael D. Matlock, Asbury Theological Seminary

The content, location, and integration of each recorded and reported prayer text in the narrative of 1-2 Chronicles largely determines the forceful rhetorical functions of prayer within the narrative contexts and helps to establish early Jewish identity. The editors of the book adapt prayers to new settings and distinct needs. Through the discourse of prayer related to elements of ritual, ideas become embodied and lived by the participant of these prayers.


Gen 1 in Philo of Alexandria and Related Literature
Program Unit: Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
Ekaterina Matusova, Moscow, Russia

The paper discusses first references to Gen 1 in the Graeco-Jewish and Greek sources (Aristobulos, 1 Enoch, Pseudo-Pythagorica ethica) and focuses on the principles according to which its content was harmonised with Greek philosophical thought. Those principles imply following certain traditions in philosophy as well as exegetical principles connected to the place of the LXX in the Greek system of genres. They are also connected with the issue of translation, i.e. with the Greek interpretation of certain Hebrew notions in the extra-canonical literature available to Philo.


Righteousness or Mercy: Rationale for Obeying the Torah in LXX Deuteronomy
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Jean Maurais, McGill University

Interpretative intervention has been characterized as infrequent in chapters 1-11 of the Old Greek translation of Deuteronomy. However, some puzzling translation choices can be found, one of them in Dt 6:25, a key text summarizing the rationale for obeying the Torah and secure blessing in the land of Canaan. Here, obeying the commandments is said to result in the acquiring of tsedaqah before YHWH, traditionally understood as either providing right legal standing or even merit. Contrary to other instances in the book of Deuteronomy and the vast majority of instances in the LXX as a whole, the Hebrew tsedaqah is here translated as eleemosune (pity, acts of mercy). This presentation will examine the various explanations offered for such a translation choice, noting the semantic evolution of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic words in this period. The few explanations proposed have been attempts to find some semantic overlap between tsedaqah and eleemosune. They do not try to explain why the translator made this translation choice in this particular context. The aim of the paper is therefore to make sense of this choice. To do so, we will examine the context of the book of Deuteronomy as a whole and similar translation patterns in the book of Isaiah. While tsedaqah in Dt 6:25 (and 24:13) could be translated using dikaiosune, other instances of tsedaqah in LXX Deuteronomy speak of the absence of dikaiosune in YHWH’s people as well as their dependence on YHWH’s mercy. There is thus perhaps an effort towards harmonization at work in 6:25, where eleemosune is employed instead of dikaiosune to describe the outcome of Torah observance. In the process, YHWH’s love and mercy is emphasized, so that Torah observance is always imperfect and can at best incite YHWH’s merciful intervention. Other instances of tsedaqah translated as eleemosune outside of Deuteronomy seem to confirm the understanding that when YHWH intervenes in favor of his sinful people, it is understood by the translator(s) as an act of mercy. Although the immediate context of Dt 6:25 and 24:13 does not make mention of Israel’s sin, this semantic association is perhaps inferred from the historical situation of the translation’s production, that of post-exilic Diaspora Judaism. This translation reflects what the translator thought was the best equivalent according to his understanding of the Hebrew words in this context, that of the book as a whole.


The Orphic Eros–Phanes, Platonizing Sethian Ascent Tractates, and the Mysterious Figure of Amelius Gentilianus
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Zeke Mazur, Université Laval

Background. At the colloquium of the Projet Plotin in Québec last March I suggested that the three subaeons of Barbelo (Kalyptos Protophanes, and Autogenes) in the Platonizing Sethian tractates derive from a Platonizing Sethian interpretation of the oft–cited passage of Plato Timaeus 39e7–9 describing the “Living thing that is” that contain the Forms observed by the demiurgic Nous, albeit encrypted with enigmatic and apparently novel terminology: a trinoetic interpretation that is also vaguely parallel to those of both Numenius and Amelius (as reported by Proclus). I further suggested that pseudo–Zostrianos had derived the noetic (Existence–Life–Intellect) triad from speculation on this same Platonic source passage, and elevated this triad to the very ‘bosom’ of the first principle (thus the “Triple–Powered Invisible Spirit,” endowed with the prefiguration of being, life, and thought) so as to explain the activation of these powers on the subsequent ontological strata in the form of the “Living thing that exists” and the intellect that observes it. Thesis. In this paper I would like to suggest that remarkable but hitherto unnoticed traces of a debate between the Platonizing Sethians and Plotinus’ circle over this trinoetic schema–– especially in the guise of putatively “Orphic” thought–– may be discerned in Proclus’ Commentary on the Timaeus. Specifically, not only do several passages of the commentary refer to a similar trinoetic schema based on Tim. 39e, but in one instance Proclus explicitly derives the noetic triad from this same Platonic source passage, precisely as I hypothesized pseudo–Zostrianos had done; and, moreover, in the very same passage, Proclus also connects both the noetic triad and the trinoetic schema to an ostensibly “Orphic” schema in which the apex of Intellect is–– significantly–– hidden (kruphios) but in its lower aspects emerges, via “Power,” into “Self–Manifestation.” The similarity between this supposedly “Orphic” schema and the first two subaeons of Barbelo (i.e., Kalyptos and Protophanes) is obviously noncoincidental, and one might suspect he is tacitly quoting either [a] Zostrianos itself or some closely related text, or [b] an antecedent common to Proclus himself and Zostrianos. Significantly, Proclus cites no source other than the supposed “Orphic” one for this exegesis. Indeed, as John Turner pointed out long ago, the apparent Orphicism “Protophanes,” along with “Kalyptos,” vaguely echoes an “Orphic” ontogenetic schema in which Proto(gonos)–Phanes emerges from a hidden prefiguration in the cosmic Egg. To strengthen this connection, several passages elsewhere in Proclus’ Timaeus commentary repeatedly associate Numenio–Amelian–type trinoetic schemata with putatively “Orphic” doctrines, with variations on the location of the figure of “Phanes” (usually in the 1st or 3rd position, but never in the 2nd like the Platonizing Sethian Protophanes). The very earliest Orphicizing Platonist that Proclus adduces, significantly, is Amelius Gentilianus, senior pupil of Plotinus and anti–Zostrianian par excellence, who puts Phanes in first place in his trinoetic schema (i.e., Phanes, Ouranos, and Kronos = respectively Kings 1, 2 and 3 of Plato 2nd Letter 312d5–e4). I hypothesize that Amelius is responding to Zostrianos.


Artifacts, Artisans, and Patrons: Questioning Identity in the Iron Age Arts of Northern Levant
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Stefania Mazzoni, Università degli studi di Firenze

Northern Levant during the Early Iron Age was characterized by a composite socio-cultural and political scenario; despite conspicuous instability and conflicts, arts and crafts flourished across the whole area being produced by different workshops for different patrons. Stone relief and architectural decoration of Hittite tradition prevailed first in Iron I (XII-X cent. B.C.) in the towns controlled by the Luwian rulers. In Iron II (IX-VIII cent. B.C.) other genres appeared matching architectural sculpture, such as funerary statues and stelae and were then adopted by the Aramaean rulers. Ivories and bronzes were increasingly produced in the Levantine ateliers; sumptuous furniture, pyxides and cultic containers, horse blinkers and equestrian decorations were created for the ceremonial and ritual performance of the Aramaean, Luwian and Phoenician patrons. Can these artifacts reveal any explicit or implicit reference to the owners or artisans’s identity?


African Biblical Hermeneutics: Retrospect and Prospect
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Andrew M. Mbuvi, Shaw University

African Biblical Hermeneutics section in SBL has been around close to two decades now and this is an opportune time to evaluate its achievements so far while seeking to understand its future prospects. In regard to this exercise we will look at the ideas that the pioneers (including Justin Ukpong, Musa Dube, Gerald West, Dora Mbuwayesang and Madipoane Masenya, among others), may have envisioned in organizing ABH as part of SBL. We will evaluate the impact ABH has had on SBL, on the African Church, on African Biblical scholarship and beyond. To do so we will analyze the publications (books, journal papers) that have emanated directly from papers presented in the ABH section. Lastly, we will take the risk of making proposals concerning the future, not only of ABH as a section, but of African Biblical hermeneutics to the study of the Bible.


Unmasking the Violence of Biblical Patriarchy: Towards Ethically Sound Concepts of Marriage in the African Contexts
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Dora Rudo Mbuwayesango, Hood Theological Seminary

The Bible is often idealized as having an ethically sound concept of marriage and therefore, is viewed as having the final authority on what marriage ought to be. But the nature of the Bible as a patriarchal and androcentric text presents a heteronormative view of the world in which violence against and suppression of women and non-heterosexual persons is promoted. In order, to contribute to the creation of ethically sound concepts of marriage in African contexts, African Biblical interpreters need to unveil literary and ideological strategies and techniques used to promote patriarchal and heteronormative view of marriage in the Bible and the violence inherent in it. I propose, in this paper, to analyze and critique the constructions of marriage in the Torah portion of the Hebrew Bible.


The Bird Bridegroom Story (Gilg. VI: 48–50): Wordplay and Ancient Commentary
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Kathleen McCaffrey, Independent Scholar

The stories of the animal bridegrooms who come to a bad end in the Gilgamesh Epic are regarded as folktales with elements of fantasy. Focusing on the bird bridegroom, this paper argues that two levels of meaning are actually present in this story, a surface narrative about an allallu bird with a broken wing and sly wordplay about a king who is unmanned. The equivalences for the allallu listed in Malku I and Hh resemble the hidden wordplay in Gilg. VI: 48-50. The overlap between elusive groupings in thematic lexical lists and words linked through metaphorical association in literary contexts points to scholarly interplay between these genres.


The Textual Utility of the Mal'ak YHWH in Biblical Narrative
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Dan McClellan, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Two theories are current regarding the appearance of the mal’ak YHWH in early biblical narratives in which his identity is not clearly distinguished from that of YHWH, the God of Israel. The more prominent theory is the harmonizing view that the messenger is an aspect of God, a hypostasis, or some other extension of his identity. Alternatively, some scholars view the word mal’ak as a scribal interpolation meant to obscure theologically problematic passages. This scribal tendency is detectable within the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Targumim, and the Samaritan Pentateuch, but its presence in early biblical narrative is rarely treated in relevant academic discussions. The present study will examine evidence for the interpolation of the mal’ak YHWH in early biblical narrative, focusing on conceptual and textual phenomena paralleled in cognate literature and the other corpora mentioned above. It will then go on to address other appearances of the mal’ak YHWH that are most likely original to their literary context. These occurrences reflect the later theological accommodation of the mal’ak as in some way identifiable with the God of Israel (e.g., Exod 23:21). The mechanisms for, and implications of, this theological development will then be discussed.


"Do Not Trust the People of the Book, but Do Not Disbelieve Them": Suspending Judgment on the Four Canonical Gospels in al-Biqa?i’s Tafsir
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Roy Michael McCoy III, University of Oxford

The Gospel, or al-injil (Q 3.3), remains an indispensable part of the Muslim tradition as a scripture with which the Qur?an is in close dialogue. From the earliest period of qur?anic interpretation, questions concerning the exact nature of the four canonical Gospels and their relationship to the Injil of the Qur?an have provoked scholars to either defend the text or condemn it for the sake of their own sacred book and prophet. Others within the tradition of Muslim discourse over the Bible have sought more neutral ground to stand on. This gave rise to the formulation of various categories for assessing the biblical text in an effort to salvage the Injil as mentioned in the Qur?an for good or ill. In Abu l-?asan al-Biqa?i’s (d. 885/1480) Qur?an commentary (tafsir), Na?m al-durar fi tanasub al-ayat wa’l-suwar (The String of Pearls: Concerning the Interrelatedness of the Verses and Chapters), such an attempt is made with extensive quotations from the four Gospels. The following paper will first address the theoretical basis for al-Biqa?i’s biblical citations. Given the centrality of his argument for the uncorrupted text of the Bible, the remainder of the paper will focus on the Arabic version of the Gospels transmitted by al-Biqa?i in the context of late Mamluk Cairo and the appropriation of that biblical text in his tafsir.


Heavenly Realities and Habits of the Heart: Apocalyptic and the Cultivation of Common Life in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Kevin B. McCruden, Gonzaga University

Among the diverse conceptual backgrounds informing the Epistle to the Hebrews are clear apocalyptic elements and traditions recognizable from other Second Temple Jewish texts as well as texts from the New Testament. The influence of Jewish apocalyptic traditions is perhaps most visible in the rich cosmology of Hebrews, in particular its portrayal of the heavenly session of the Son beside the throne of God in an eternal sanctuary. While the presence of apocalyptic elements in Hebrews seems clear, there is less certainty over the question concerning how apocalyptic imagery and concepts function in Hebrews. Does the author employ apocalyptic imagery primarily in the service of a distinctive Christology that pictures Jesus as an eternal high priest who offers himself in the heavenly regions? Or is it possible that apocalyptic also functions in Hebrews to shape what I would like to call the “habits of the heart” or communal character of the unidentified auditors of the sermon? In this paper I will contend 1) that Hebrews’ use of apocalyptic imagery functions, on the one hand, to reflect imaginatively on the theological claim that Jesus shares fully in the divine life of God and 2) that the author also employs apocalyptic elements for the purpose of inviting the community behind this sermon to embody a transformed common life. Clear textual hints that an invitation to renewed existence is a concern for the author are visible, for example, in the frequent references to the cleansed conscience of the believer, the sanctification of the believer, as well as the implicit summons to the community to emulate the faithfulness of Jesus in response to the pressure of societal scorn and derision. This paper will demonstrate, moreover, that when we view the use of apocalyptic elements in Hebrews from the vantage point of its implicit and explicit moral challenge to the community we discern potential points of contact between Hebrews and other New Testament texts that employ apocalyptic imagery for similar pastoral purposes.


A New Perspective on the Pseudepigrapha: The “Matter of Israel”
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Gavin McDowell, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

The Pseudepigrapha is a notoriously amorphous category. The works belonging to this non-corpus have no common denominator regarding date, language, genre, or provenance. They are, however, united by an interest in ancient Israel, for which reason most major collections (Charles, Kautzsch, Sacchi, Macho, Sparks, Charlesworth, and, most recently, Bauckham, Davila, and Panayotov) dub these writings the “Old Testament” Pseudepigrapha. The descriptor “Old Testament” is, however, imprecise. One problem is that it defines these works by what they are not, i.e., part of the Old Testament. Another problem is that the Pseudepigrapha have little rapport with the text of the Old Testament, although they share characters and themes. This is a sharp contrast with other Second Temple works, such as the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which rely heavily on quotation of the biblical text. The Pseudepigrapha are instead akin to works that fall outside Second Temple studies, such as the Apocryphon of John, the Qur’an, and the Palaea Historica, which recount the history of Israel independently of the biblical text. I would like to propose a new term, the “Matter of Israel” as a way of recontextualizing the narrative Pseudepigrapha within the broader category of stories, even histories, about ancient Israel. This term is constructed in parallel with the three Matters of medieval romance developed by the twelfth-century poet Jean Bodel. The Matters of Rome, Britain, and France treated the story cycles about the Trojan War, Arthur, and Charlemagne, respectively. The Matter of Israel therefore refers to the narrative cycles about the heroes of ancient Israel but does not define or even presuppose a relationship between these cycles and the Hebrew Bible. Consequently, the Matter of Israel can include ANY story about Adam, Abraham, or Moses, including the biblical narratives. The Matter is also not exclusively Jewish, but can involve material from any religious provenance—Samaritan, Christian, Muslim, Mandaean, or Manichaean. The term can therefore be fruitfully applied a number of works beyond the narrative Pseudepigrapha, including historiography, Muslim “Stories of the Prophets”, and Christian biblical paraphrases, thereby bridging the gap between the two temporal poles of Pseudepigrapha research, the Second Temple and Medieval periods.


A Book That Controls Itself: The Masorah of Hebrew Bible Manuscripts
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Mark McEntire, Belmont University

The history of transmission of the Hebrew Bible has included a lot of material that could be classified as “para-text.” Perhaps the most elaborate and intense example is the material known collectively as “Masorah.” The element most relevant to the transmission of the text is the “Masorah Qetonah” (or “Masorah Parva”), which appears in the margins of the great Masoretic codices, such as Aleppo and Leningradensis. The greatest concern for the Masoretes was the preservation of the sacred text through precise copying and pronunciation. The Masorah is a complicated para-textual apparatus designed to ensure accurate transmission. The vowels and accents did not always blend easily with the consonantal text that the Masoretes had received and considered sacred. Thus, the marginal notes guarded against copying errors and attempted to account for discrepancies between the traditions of reading and writing the text. This presentation will include a brief introduction to the Masorah and the mechanics of how it works in a manuscript. Its primary focus will be on what the notes might reveal about how the Masoretes worked with their text and how they thought about it.


A More Coherent J
Program Unit: Genesis
Mark McEntire, Belmont University

The primeval portion of Genesis contains four texts having to do with city-building and fame. These texts (4:17-24, 6:1-4, 10:8-12, and 11:1-9) are all typically assigned to the J source of the Pentateuch. The presence of these texts indicates that city-building and fame were major issues for J, but not for P, the other source of material for Genesis 1-11. The Documentary Hypothesis, in both its traditional and contemporary formulations, relies upon the narrative incoherence of the present form of the Pentateuch as the foundation of its existence. Given this fundamental assumption, one outcome of source division should be the reconstruction of source documents that exhibit a considerably greater degree of narrative coherence than the present form of the Pentateuch. One often unexpressed assumption in the process of source-criticism is that components appeared in the source in the same order in which they appear in Genesis, but this is only an assumption, and it is fair to ask whether it produces documents that are considerably more coherent than Genesis. The four city-building/fame texts appear to have significant narrative connections, yet they are divided in Genesis by the hybrid J/P flood story. This paper will compare a J document that puts those elements in the order Genesis places them to one that places them consecutively, with the flood as the culmination of YHWH’s attempt to control human achievement, and ask which is more coherent.


God, ReTALIation, and the Apocalyptic Scenario
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Lane C. McGaughy, Willamette University

*


Reading Reception: Dennis MacDonald and the "End" of Historical Criticism
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Kevin McGinnis, Springfield College

The work of Dennis MacDonald poses many challenges to the mainstream interpretations of the New Testament. Most significantly, mimesis criticism undermines the presuppositions, methods, and conclusions of traditional historical criticism. In this paper, I will compare MacDonald's interpretation of a passage with how it has been interpreted both in antiquity and in modern critical scholarship. I will argue that MacDonald is indeed more successful at revealing the literary creativity involved in the creation of the stories of Jesus and his apostles. However, I also suggest that adopting MacDonald's focus on the intended meaning of the authors prevents us from seeing the important means by which such fictive narratives come to be interpreted as historical facts that ought to shape the lives of a given community. In other words, I will show that MacDonald's work points us in the direction of reshaping of the field of biblical studies around theories of myth, identity, and interpretation.


Resurrection as Conformity to Christ through the Spirit: Second-Century Struggles with a Pauline Motif
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
Thomas McGlothlin, Duke University

More than any other author in the New Testament, Paul integrates resurrection into salvation: resurrection is the full flowering of the work of the Spirit that binds and conforms the Christian to the resurrected Christ. Correspondingly, as many have noted, the Pauline epistles never explicitly affirm the resurrection of non-Christians, even as they clearly affirm that all will face judgment. In this respect, Paul appears to match Josephus’s claim that Pharisees affirmed the resurrection of the righteous only, a view perhaps also represented by 2 Maccabees. Resurrection per se is an aspect of salvation. But in John 5:29 and Revelation 20, as in Daniel 12:1-3, resurrection functions as a prerequisite for judgment and therefore applies to both the wicked and the righteous. The task of integrating these two understandings of resurrection with one another was left to later readers, and this paper explores one chapter in the history of that task. Irenaeus, drawing heavily on Paul, articulates a highly-developed account of the bodily resurrection of Christians as an effect of their reception of the life-giving Spirit of God. Consequently, many of his arguments for the resurrection of the flesh, such as its reception of the Word in the Eucharist, apply only to Christians. Irenaeus develops this connection between the Spirit and the resurrection of the body in order to counter those who would use 1 Cor 15’s language of “spiritual body” to deny the participation of the body of this life in the resurrection. But when Irenaeus insists that the wicked, too, will be resurrected, he gives no account of how this can happen to those who have not received the Spirit. Tertullian’s approach is markedly different. Tertullian is far more concerned than Irenaeus by those who positively employ the language of resurrection to describe salvation as experienced in this life. (This phenomenon is visible in texts like the Valentinian Epistle to Rheginos, which appeals to Paul to connect resurrection to salvation and never ascribes resurrection to those who are not saved.) To combat this view and ensure that the purpose of resurrection is to bring whole persons, body and soul, before the judgment seat of God, Tertullian disconnects the resurrection of the flesh from the reception of the Spirit. Correspondingly, although he explicitly draws on Ireneaus’s arguments for the resurrection of the body, he omits those that apply only to Christians. He thus easily explains the generality of the resurrection but is forced into strained exegesis of Paul. Irenaeus and Tertullian, well-known for their common defense of the eschatological resurrection of the flesh, turn out to have appropriated Paul towards this end in strikingly different ways. The former began with the Pauline integration of resurrection into salvation and struggled to account for the resurrection of the wicked, but the latter began with the resurrection of all to judgment and struggled to explain Paul’s connection.


Books for Cooks: Leviticus 11, Diet, and Exegesis in Early Christianity
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Andrew McGowan, Yale Divinity School

Concern about diet was widespread in earliest Christianity, but not always focussed on specific observance of kashrut or on clean and unclean animals; ascetic dietary patterns such as those in the early Christian novels reflect wider Greco-Roman debates, concerning meat in particular. Christian writers of the second (Barnabas, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clement) and third centuries (Origen, Methodius, Novatian) do however engage directly with Lev 11, reflecting not so much any real anxiety about food as a growth of interest in the biblical text and its ownership. They use different strategies - notably dispensationalist as well as allegorizing readings - to counter more literal interpretations of Leviticus and related texts on clean and unclean foods, and to claim them as Christian prescriptions, not for diet but for morality.


Nerd Fundamentalism: What Do Space Can(n)ons Have to Do with Biblical Canons?
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
James McGrath, Butler University

The observation has more often been made in jest than in a serious manner, that both religions and science fiction franchises have canons, as well as a wider array of extracanonical works which are not all equally widely read or influential. Debates about such canons, about how to harmonize apparent discrepancies, and efforts to treat multi-authored corpuses as internally consistent, make the two phenomena worthy of scholarly (if not always entirely serious) comparison. This paper will focus primarily on two sci-fi franchises that have a longstanding history of debates about canonical and extracanonical works - Doctor Who and Star Wars – and will compare how matters of canonicity, authority, interpretation, and harmonization are dealt with in these fan communities and in religious communities which focus on the Bible.


A Text-Critical Look at Dan 9:27 in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
J. Amanda McGuire, Andrews University

Daniel is a particularly interesting book for textual criticism because there are two separate LXX readings to compare with the MT, and many variants. It is as yet unknown whether the text behind the any of the LXX versions is the same as that behind the MT, or if there are several manuscript traditions that have survived. This paper focuses on analyzing one puzzling verse, Daniel 9:27, in the MT, OG, and Th readings and exploring the possible reasons for the many variants. This article has examined the numerous variants among OG, Th, and MT in Daniel 9:27. Many of them can be explained by scribal errors, or misunderstandings of certain Hebrew words. In isolation, any single variant can be explained away without resorting to a different Vorlage. However, in Dan 9:27 we have a critical mass of variants. Most of them are found in OG, which either varies from Th or MT, leading us to one of two conclusions: 1) OG has a different Vorlage from M/Th or 2) OG’s variants are a result of theological exegesis.


Reading the Bible as Fiction or Soteriological Myth: How the Human Brain Engages with the Bible
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Heather A. McKay, Edge Hill University

The human mind is developed within the brain from a combination of experiences and reflection on them: it is ‘the seething morass of cell circuitry that has been configured by personal experiences and is constantly being updated as we live out each moment’ (S Greenfield, 2000). And where does this mind ‘happen’? Quite largely in what we think of as our memory which depends upon a combination of inputs from various associative centres in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex ‘where incoming information and ongoing behaviour are influenced by certain internalized and individual ideas, perceptions, or rules, the inner resources accrued over a lifetime that constitute an idiosyncratic mind’ (S. Greenfield, 1997). This then, is what we think with and within. When we read different books we do so with different expectations: information, understanding, pleasure, thrills, hope, etc. These different expectations arise from what has been learned from previous experiences of reading as we developed and matured. A favourite author, or even revisiting a favourite book conjures up different expectations as we approach the reading experience. As we read literature, our minds recognise the ‘meaning’ of the characters’ life events and develops sympathy and empathy for them, experiences their joys and sorrows vicariously and, even, feels catharsis from their tragedies. Many readers read the Bible in this manner but there is a further expectation when it is read from a faith perspective; something beyond the above is expected and oftentimes received - a meaning relating to the deepest existential understanding of those readers. But how is that engendered? Again, it is dependent of the previous experiences of those readers. For, to many, the reading and singing of the 23rd Psalm is an experience shared only at funeral services, where the hymnal readily falls open at that page, and nothing more. But in the mind of the religious believer an ‘extra’ experience, recognition, and sense of connection develops. This happens within the collection of remembered emotions and experiences learned and retained because of value to the individual. To paraphrase Greenfield (2000): while ‘emotion is the most basic form of consciousness, minds develop as brains d… as an individual starts to escape genetic programming in favor of personal, experience-based learning … the more you have’ solely emotion ‘at any particular moment, then the less you have’ your idiosyncratic mind (Greenfield, 2000). Thus, all personally valued insights and understanding arise out of a balanced adjustment of the two processes, an ongoing experience for everyone.


Late Bronze Age Cultic Activity in Ancient Canaan: A View from Tel Burna
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Chris McKinny, Bar-Ilan University

Since the beginning of archaeological research in the Levant, Late Bronze Age cultic practice has been the focus of many investigations stemming from various avenues of research. With a few exceptions, the core archaeological data has come from cultic complexes that were excavated in the early 20th century (e.g. Lachish). This study will present finds that were discovered recently at Tel Burna, a site that is clearly one of the key Late Bronze sites in the Shephelah, as it commands the surrounding landscape and trade routes. In Area B, a massive 13th century BCE complex was exposed with unique finds related to religious practices at the site. The finds include a row of pithoi (some imported) set into pockets in the bedrock; two mask fragments; burnt bones; and unique Cypriot imported pottery, such as a vessel with three cups joined together, which is likely of cultic orientation. Moreover, the building technique of the complex also suggests that this area should be interpreted as a cultic structure. In turn, we will discuss the building plan and the distribution of artifacts in order to gain a better understanding of the people who used it and the deity or deities that were worshiped inside of it. Through these finds we will reflect on our understanding of Late Bronze Age cult, by comparing our excavation data to both the existing archaeological record and recent scientific studies on Late Bronze Age cultic activity.


Singleness, Marriage, and the Second-Generation: Charting the Future of African and African Diasporan Immigrant Families in the West
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Janice McLean-Farrell, City Seminary of New York

*


Growing Sideways on Gerizim: Refusing Logos and Imagining Otherwise in John 4
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Peter N. McLellan, Drew University

When conflicts are remembered as resolved, ended in the name of progress and mutual interest, what sort of historiographical and ethical problems are made manifest? What kinds of pasts and futures are erased when conflict is remembered as primitive and without purpose? These concerns animate the present project’s glance toward John 4:1-42. Working at the intersection of postcolonial, Marxist, and queer historiographies this paper interrogates the way John’s Jesus sells the Samaritan woman on his living water at the expense of the memory of her ancestors. As Musa Dube has noted, this narrative move has excited manifold colonial narratives of expansion into “primitive” lands. Yet, even the memory of conflict holds within it diverse bodies. Thus, in engagement with Walter Benjamin’s angels and his notion that encounters of the everyday variety contain their own imaginative power, the argument at hand moves to enfold within the Johannine historiography the disruptive activity and agency of the Samaritan ancestors’ worship on Mount Gerizim. Indeed, this move is highlighted by the space of encounter: the location of a daily chore and a place of shared cultural and religious memory. Such a recollection of past worship refigures this locale, imagining a deferred future instead of a realized eschatology. While Jesus envelops his contemporary Samaritans into the Johannine system, their ancestors refuse to obey, they continue to worship someone other than the colonizing savior. They, in the words of Kathryn Bond Stockton, grow sideways into a future not animated by a Logos-centric history. From the mundane meeting place in John 4 we learn that these ancestors have been expanding their imagination horizontally, apart from John’s vertical history, for quite some time, with an eye toward a future other than the hegemony delineated in the Fourth Gospel’s prologue.


Paul as Orphan: Exploring Metaphor and Rhetoric in 1 Thess 2:17
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Jennifer Houston McNeel, Union Presbyterian Seminary

In 1 Thessalonians 2:17, Paul uses a striking metaphor to describe his relationship to the Thessalonian church: that he and his coworkers were made orphans (aporphanisthentes) by being separated from them for a period of time. The fact that Paul employs such a metaphor raises interesting questions for those who study metaphor and rhetoric in Paul's letters. Why would Paul choose such an unusual metaphor? How does it support his rhetorical goals in the letter? Does the image have any theological implications? This paper explores this metaphor and its rhetorical and theological nuances using the tools of cognitive metaphor theory. Translators and commentators have often argued that Paul did not really intend to say he had been orphaned, because they think Paul would not portray himself as the child, but only as the parent in his relationship with the Thessalonians. Therefore, they either translate figuratively as "torn away from" or "bereft of" (NIV, RSV, and most other English translations), or they interpret the word to mean that Paul was like a parent bereft of children (Bruce, Marshall, Richard, Wanamaker, Witherington). This paper will argue (along with Aasgaard, Best, Burke, Gaventa, Malherbe, Weima, and the NRSV) that aporphanisthentes is best translated as "orphaned" for grammatical and literary reasons. This paper builds on the previous work of those who translate the word as "orphaned" by further fleshing out the rhetorical and theological implications of the metaphor. The paper will explore how the metaphor serves Paul's rhetorical goals in 1 Thessalonians by seeking to strengthen Paul's emotional connection to the Thessalonians, by establishing kinship norms for behavior in the Christian group, by invoking a sense of Paul's vulnerability and longing for the community, and by expressing Paul's hope for reconnection. The paper will also explore the theological implications of the metaphor, including how Paul's willingness to place himself in the "lower" position of the child relates to his gospel of Christ crucified, and the implications of this language for interpreting Paul's power and authority in the community.


Messianic Exegesis of Mark 4:12
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Jocelyn McWhirter, Albion College

“A feature of Mark’s Gospel,” writes Donald Juel, “. . . is the secrecy that enshrouds Jesus’ ministry” (The Gospel of Mark, 178). Juel delineates various aspects of Mark’s secrecy motif, including “Jesus’ intentional concealment of his message from ‘outsiders’” (179). Focusing on the citation of Isa 6:9–10 in Mark 4:12, Juel asks, “Why would Jesus say (and do) such a thing with regard to outsiders? Any explanation, if there is one, must be sought first within the narrative argument. And if Jesus’ statement makes use of images from Isaiah 6, interpretation can include some attention to this famous passage, the history of its interpretation, and its use in Mark” (184). As Juel’s Doktortochter, I propose to answer his question by presenting another paper on messianic exegesis in Mark. In his book Messianic Exegesis, Juel argues that the first Christians interpreted Scriptures reminiscent of Jesus’ life and death as messianic prophecies on the basis of shared vocabulary with acknowledged messianic texts. For example, he suggests that Mark (among others) understands Pss 22 and 69 in light of Ps 89, a lament over God’s anointed one that, like Pss 22 and 69, features cognates of oneidizo. Going beyond Juel, I suggest that Mark understands Isa 6:9–10, conflated with Isa 55:7, in light of Ps 69:23, a lament about the anointed one of Ps 89 that, like Isa 6:9–10, features ophthalmoi that cannot blepein. Mark’s christological interpretation of texts about unseeing eyes in light of Ps 69:23 is not without precedent. In Rom 11:8–10, Paul cites Ps 69:22–23 in tandem with a conflation of Deut 29:4 and Isa 29:10 to explain Israel’s unbelief. Mark seems to use similar logic. Like Paul, he structures sections of his discourse around words that link Ps 69:23 and Isa 6:9–10—words like akouo, eido, blepo, syniemi, ous, ophthalmos, and kardia. He concentrates them in the parables of growth and harvest (Mark 4:10–34), the dispute about purity (7:14–23), the disciples’ reactions to Jesus’ feeding Jewish and then Gentile crowds (6:52; 8:15–21), and the paradigmatic healings of a deaf man (7:31–37) and a blind man (8:22–26). One could imagine the second Gospel written for Christians in Rome, familiar with Paul’s letter and its underlying logic yet battered by a far-off conflict between two ethnic groups with which various believers identified. Perhaps Mark intended to remind these war-weary Christians that all of them, Jews and Romans together, were insiders with regard to an important secret about Israel’s true messiah. Although Mark 4—8 shares some significant vocabulary with Romans 9—11, it is not enough to conclude that Mark based his narrative on Paul’s argument. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to surmise that, for Mark, “the mysterion of the kingdom of God” concerns (among other things) a messiah who comes to sow the word and await the harvest, his offer to Jews and Gentiles to receive the word and bear fruit, and the difficult fact that not everybody does.


"One Like a Son of Man" in the Court of the Foreign King
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Tim Meadowcroft, Laidlaw College

It is a commonplace of Danielic interpretation that chapter 7 functions as a literary hinge in that it impacts the reading both of the court tales and of the visions. The proposal of this paper is that Daniel 7, and particularly the figure of the one like a son of man, may also be interpreted as programmatic for a theological appreciation of the rest of the book. This paper limits that reading to an inquiry as to the impact of ch 7 on a theological appreciation of Daniel 1-6, and particularly the phenomenon of the Jew “in the court of the foreign king.” The form critical distinction between court contest and court conflict in chs 1-6 is assumed and the link between that distinction and the differing ways that Daniel and his friends seek to be faithful is explored. It is proposed that these differing ways may be discerned as wisdom responses to the prevailing conditions of the moment. At the same time, those responses may be seen to cohere around a theological appreciation of the vision of one like a son of man as interpreted with respect to the saints of the Most High in ch 7. The outcome is an appreciation of the role of wisdom in the routine conduct of the life of faith that is theological, and for Christian interpretation, ultimately christological.


Caesarean Section and Lithopedion in Ancient and Medieval Literature
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Michael Meerson, Princeton University

The Aramaic versions of Toledot Yeshu (Life Story of Jesus) describe a remarkable scene: Yeshu promises Caesar to “give” his virgin daughter a son without an agency of a man. The girl indeed becomes pregnant but does not give birth until Yeshu, on the twelfth (!) month of the gestation period, offers to “cut the womb” and save both the girl and the child. In result, the girl dies and the fetus appears to be a stone. At the first glance, this story presents nothing more than an inventive satire on the Immaculate Conception. However, provided that an effective satire did not choose its tools at random, particulars of the story, on one hand, may convey important historical information; and on the other hand, may help to associate the narrative in question with a specific culture and time period. Thus the present paper, based on the recently published edition of Toledot Yeshu manuscripts (Michael Meerson-Peter Schäfer, Toledot Yeshu [The Life Story of Jesus], 2 Vols. with a database. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014) argues that the story originated in 9th-century Andalusia and contains the earliest medical record of the caesarean section on a living mother, and the rare pathology—lithopedion. This argument is supported by numerous ancient and medieval sources concerning caesarean section and extra-uterine pregnancy.


Illegitimate Jesus: Family Matters with Toledot Yeshu
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Michael Meerson, Princeton University

In different versions of the Toledot, Yeshu’s pedigree reveals a remarkable flexibility: in the accounts of Tertullian and Celsus, and some of the earliest Toledot, he is a son of a supposedly married Jewish woman and a Roman soldier, Pandera; later, his father also “became” a Jew, who raped or seduced Miriam (a) while she was betrothed to another man, or (b) while she was married. Despite this fluctuation, Yeshu is always addressed as “mamzer,” and this attribute always plays an important role in explanation of his behavior. Maimonides, who had the Pandera version of the Toledot, was the first who pointed to the discrepancy (Igeret Taiman): he argued that Yeshu was a Jew, since his mother was Jewish, and also a legitimate child according to Yebamot 45a. A “bastard,” he says, was only a figure of speech. My paper, based on the recently published edition of Toledot Yeshu manuscripts (Michael Meerson-Peter Schäfer, Toledot Yeshu [The Life Story of Jesus], 2 Vols. with a database. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014) will examine the “evolution” of Yeshu’s legal status, and will address the question: May this evolution reflect an attempt to adapt the Toledot to the halakha and/or to the legal codes of the nations, so that Yeshu/Jesus would always appear as a “tainted” Jew rather than a Gentile?


Trajectories in the Interpretation of Ezekiel’s Gog Prophecy
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Andrew Mein, Westcott House

The Gog prophecy in Ezekiel 38–39 is one of the more difficult parts of a difficult book. Often considered by critical scholarship as a proto-apocalyptic text, it has provided a powerful stimulus for eschatological reflection and speculation over the centuries. Different approaches to interpretation are apparent from the earliest commentators, with, e.g., a contrast to be drawn between Theodoret’s historicizing reading and Jerome’s more mystical treatment. Readers have regularly been tempted to find the political and military travails of their own age encoded in the text, and to equate Gog with whichever enemy is most threatening: amongst Christians this runs from Ambrose’s claim that ‘Gog is the Goth’ to the famous identification of Gog with Russia, prominent in Anglo-American millenarian circles since the mid-nineteenth century. In this paper will I will begin with a brief discussion of these exegetical approaches to the text, then move on to examine some examples of a different but related trajectory of interpretation that we might call a ‘remythologization’ of the oracle. Here Gog, together with a personified Magog, is detached from his narrative context in Ezekiel’s oracle and redeployed as part of an eschatological framework where the two nevertheless retain the character of ‘ultimate enemy’. The process probably begins with the book of Revelation, but is most dramatic in the way Gog and Magog are taken up into the mythology of Alexander the Great, from where they not only become important within a variety of eschatological writings (including the hugely influential Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius), but even feature prominently in the medieval mapmaking tradition (in both Christianity and Islam). While such remythologizations may seem marginal from a strictly exegetical perspective, they were perhaps the principal way in which people encountered the figure of Gog between late antiquity and the arrival of the Reformation, and are thus crucial to a fuller history of interpretation of the Gog of both Ezekiel and Revelation.


'Tapping' the Hebrew Bible for Life in Just Social Relations—the Subaltern Way
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Monica Melanchthon, University of Divinity

The poor in India are not a generalized category of unfortunate people; their significance lies in their identity as a socio-cultural group, ordained or fixed as a particular caste; This socially stratified and hierarchical system, governed by the concepts of “pollution” and “untouchability,” condemns them by birth to live lives of servitude, unmitigated suffering, shame, cumulative discrimination and subjugation socially, culturally and economically. Poverty in India has to be spoken of in both economic terms and social terms. Caste is therefore a major consideration in any study on poverty. What insights might the Hebrew Bible offer that would contribute to an economic and social paradigm that is just, life-inspired and life enhancing? This paper will use life as a guiding metaphor and attempt a subaltern reading of select texts including Genesis 47.


The Lives of Letters
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Peter Anthony Mena, Phillips Theological Seminary

Scholars have recognized the importance of letter writing in the ancient world. This papers aims to explore the genre of letters in late antiquity and approaches its study through the application of a “new materialist” methodology. In particular, the work of Mel Chen will be used to argue that letters were conceived of by their authors, recipients, and the people with whom they were shared, as narratives as well as material objects imbued with some level of animacy. Considered a gift, letter writing has been determined to be a mode of transmitting paideia, Christian theology and doctrine, political and dogmatic treatises, auto/biographical narrative, and intersubjective communal connections for late- ancient communities. As such, letters have the power to affect social responses and can do so independently of authorial intent. This paper explores letter writing in late antiquity more broadly, but uses the epistolary works of the fourth-century writer, thinker, and theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus more specifically in order to demonstrate the way some writers used and conceived of letters as powerful religious artifacts that functioned as narratives as well as material objects that played influential roles as part of larger theological networks.


Screenshots from a Young Epigrapher's Laptop: Israeli Palaeography Today
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Anat Mendel, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

My presentation will cover the following topics: (1) a brief history of Hebrew palaeography in Israel describing the work of those who established the discipline and of their successors; (2) the development of palaeographic techniques and methods, from the use of paper squeezes and replicas to the adoption of high-end imaging equipment; (3) the teaching of palaeography and epigraphy and the training of palaeographers in Israeli institutions; (4) a comparison of working methods used by Israeli scholars with those employed by scholars in other countries; and (5) the advantages and disadvantages of being a palaeographer of ancient Hebrew in Israel. Finally, I will invite participants in the session to peek at my desk, introducing working materials and explaining my research and drawing methodologies and my philosophy about drawing historical conclusions of different types from the data with which I work.


Did God “Speak Forever”? Reconsidering the Sources and Formation of the Lukan Infancy Hymns
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Hugo Mendez, Yale University

The infancy narrative of Luke incorporates three hymns, which even within their Greek presentation, are steeped in the linguistic conventions of Semitic-language poetry, namely: the Magnificat (Lk. 1.46-55), the Benedictus (Lk. 1.68-79), and the Nunc Dimittis (Lk. 2.28-32). The Semitic character of these hymns is, in fact, so pronounced that a number of studies have speculated that the hymns themselves were originally composed in a Semitic language, specifically Hebrew, and circulated in Jewish-Christian circles before their incorporation into Luke (e.g., Wellhausen 1911; Laurentin 1957; Buth 1984; Farris 1985). Naturally, this “translation theory” posits the existence of a distinct, verifiable source (oral or textual) that played a formative role in the development of Luke 1–2. Against this view, however, a greater number of interpreters have defended the “Septuagint pastiche” or “imitation theory,” crediting the the various Semitic and semitizing features of the hymn to Luke’s known familiarity with, and conscious imitation of, the language of the LXX in other passages (e.g., Cadbury 1968). In this presentation, I will engage this debate through a study of a syntactic anomaly in the final couplet of the Magnificat: the verbal governance of the concluding phrase e?? t?? a???a (Lk 1:55b). The two most recent English-language monographs on the infancy hymns of Luke presuppose only a loose association between the formula and the lines that precede it. Stephen Farris, for one, takes an agnostic approach to the government of e?? t?? a???a, explaining that “such a formula very frequently ends a psalm, and it should be attached too closely to any preceding part of speech.” I will insist instead that the verb ?????se? in v. 55a governs e?? t?? a???a. Secondly, I will anchor the Greek syntagm ?????se? + e?? t?? a???a, and its cognates, within Semitic language usage in the period. Thirdly, I will compare two competing theories of the couplet’s formation: (1) dependence on LXX 2 Sam 22:51 || Ps. 17.51, and (2) direct translation from a Hebrew source. Recognizing that the poet adapted biblical passages when composing the hymn, I will nevertheless conclude that the poet's of Hebrew syntax was not confined to the translation Greek of the LXX. These observations lend cautious support to a Jewish-Christian origin for the hymn.


Revisiting the Origins and Underlying Genre of John 21
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Hugo Mendez, Yale University

According to Alan Culpepper, “the list of those who have recently argued for the unity of John 21 with the rest of the gospel” has grown to such a length, that one could conclude that this position “is becoming the dominant view, displacing the once-dominant view that John 21 is a later appendix” (2006:369; see, e.g., Ruckstuhl and Dschulnigg 1991; Breck 1992; Bauckham 2007; Thyen 2005). In this presentation, I will defend the former consensus, introducing the peculiar light/”day” imagery of 21.4 as new evidence of the chapter’s afterthought positioning and distinct underlying genre. Extending the solar “light of the world” motif of 8.12, the Fourth Gospel casts the presence of Jesus in the world as the world’s “day” in 9.5 and 11.9–10, and his departure from the world as its “night” in 9.4. In keeping with this framework, the second half of the gospel is characterized by an “explosion” of darkness/”night” imagery, drawing attention to the broader problem of Jesus’ impending absence (Culpepper 1983: 192). Whereas Brown (1970) and Carson (1991) see the resurrection as a resolution of this “night,” however, I will note that the gospel’s use of darkness imagery only intensifies in ch. 20. The disciples visit the empty tomb at an hour when it is “still dark” (20.1), and Jesus appears to his disciples in “the evening” (20.19). This intensification suits the fact that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus fully participate in the departure motif (cf. 3.13; 6.61–62; 20.17). Even the partial resolution of the absence of Jesus through the coming of the Paraclete (20.21–22) does not eliminate this darkness, since the “epistemological crisis” brought about Jesus’ absence persists for the world (Martyn 1968): “yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me… in that day, you will know that I am… in you” (14.19– 20). This consistent and patterned use of darkness is, however, disrupted in ch. 21. Not only does this final chapter unexpectedly reintroduce light imagery, it superimposes it upon Jesus’ physical presence with the disciples (21.3–4)—a pattern seen neither in chs. 13–20, or the scene’s nearest analogue in 6.16–21. The final chapter of the gospel is, then, a self-contained and catechetical illustration of the alignment between darkness, futility, and the spiritual absence of Jesus, over and against light, “the works of God,” and the spiritual presence of Jesus—one that integrates certain features of parable into a narrative framework.


The Metaphor of the Divine as Planter of the People in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Jennifer Metten Pantoja, University of California-Los Angeles

In the Hebrew Bible, the God of ancient Israel, YHWH, is almost always portrayed metaphorically. He is likened to a warrior, a king, a shepherd, a rock, a bride- groom, a husband, and a master gardener, to name just a few. This study examines the emergence of the conceptual metaphor YHWH IS THE PLANTER OF THE PEOPLE in order to demonstrate that biblical literature portrays the divine/human relationship as a reflection of the natural environment. Ancient Israel was an agrarian society in which the association between the land and the religion was intertwined. The aim of this study is to trace the emergence of this specific metaphorical discourse in ancient Hebrew poetry and follow its development throughout biblical history, in order to illustrate how the deep connection to the land shaped ancient thought and belief. Within this broader, primary metaphor, the complex metaphor YHWH IS THE VINTNER OF ISRAEL will also be analyzed as an image predominant in the pre-exilic prophetic literature. Viticulture became a powerful icon of the developing nation, providing rich imagery for eighth century prophetic concerns. Finally, this study will investigate how the metaphorical depiction of the people as plants was re-interpreted in exilic and post-exilic literature in response to the Babylonian campaigns in the early sixth century B.C.E., which forced many people out of the land. Recent advances in cognitive linguistics, coupled with traditional historical-critical methods, as well as a survey of the material culture, will illuminate one snapshot of ancient Israel’s conception of the divine.


Imperial Greenery: Biblical Text Counter-Images of the Sacred Tree as an Eco-critical Re-imagination
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Amy E. Meverden, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Typically, the vegetal imagery contained in both iconographic and narrative depiction is viewed as ornamental, with human, animal, or divine characters taking prominence in the interpretation of an image or text. Vegetation is considered mainly for its aesthetic qualities, namely, the art historical considerations most relevant to discussions pertaining to style, dating, and provenance. However, in both ancient Near Eastern and Roman imperial iconography, the role of vegetal imagery is vital to the overarching ideology of the imperial program, often times complementing and adding further depth to what for modern viewers may be more explicit political and social visual cues. The engagement of vegetal iconography as an active subject—a vital imperial (or anti-imperial) meaning-making component—is integral to the overall intersectional entanglement of ideological concerns present within images and texts, providing key social, political, economic, and ecological insights. Utilizing the vegetal theme of imperial gardens and sacred trees, this paper engages two imperial, iconographic images: the ancient Near Eastern Ashurbanipal “Garden Party” frieze and the Roman imperial Tellus Panel on the Ara Pacis Augustae. In the “Garden Party” frieze and the Tellus Panel (as it relates to the Ara Pacis on the whole), vegetal imagery promotes the dominance of the king/emperor as both the earthly representative of the divine and the sole subject of empire, controlling all resources through the enslavement of humanity and the earth/its resources. When one reads the Hebrew Bible’s second creation narrative in Genesis 2–3 in light of the Ashurbanipal “Garden Party” frieze and the tree of life narrative in Revelation 22 in light of the Tellus Panel, the anti-imperial vegetal rhetoric of the biblical text becomes amplified. Although one cannot determine with certainty whether the biblical writers had access to the iconography in question, when one reads the biblical text with the imperial iconography, the anti-imperial themes of the biblical text are as apparent as its impulses to reimagine the imperial order into a new way of being. The biblical narratives in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament provide counter-imperial vegetal images, presenting divine gardens and trees without a king that are free of the enslavement of humanity with full access to the divine and freedom of dominance over the earth and its resources, thus promoting an anti-imperial access to abundance. Methodologically, the presentation combines ancient Near Eastern and Roman Imperial art and history with exegesis of the biblical text, utilizing an ecological hermeneutic of suspicion along with the visual exegetical methodology of Critical Re-Imagination in order to interpret the biblical text in light of imperial iconography and, in turn, to transform the ideology of imperial iconography through the reading of the biblical text.


The Use and Non-use of the Divine Name in Aramaic Texts of Early Judaism
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Anthony Meyer, McMaster University

The so-called eclipse of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), i.e., the widespread disuse of the name in writing and speaking by the end of the Second Temple period, has fascinated scholars for centuries. While the paucity of evidence partly veils the Tetragrammaton’s early history, previous scholarship has nonetheless drawn from a relatively narrow range of material to investigate this phenomenon, prioritizing Hebrew texts. What seems to have gone largely unnoticed are the divergent practices in Aramaic. A shorter form of the divine name occurs in the Elephantine texts, P. Amherst 63, and an Idumean Ostracon (i.e., YHH/YHW), but the name is absent from the Aramaic portions of Ezra, Daniel, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The reasons behind the non-use of the name in Aramaic seem to be rather different from the non-use in Hebrew. The current paper lays out the relevant evidence as a first priority, offering a brief survey of the Aramaic works above followed by some preliminary observations about how the divergent practices in Aramaic can inform our understanding of the use and non-use of the divine name in early Judaism.


Divorce and Remarriage in Deut 24:1–4 and Matt 19:3–9
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Gary Michael, University of Aberdeen

I have to submit my entire paper.


Syriac Monastic Reading: The Material Role of Texts in the Syriac Evagrian Tradition from John the Solitary to Isaac of Nineveh
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
David A. Michelson, Vanderbilt University

A variety of Syriac ascetic and contemplative writers make explicit appeals to the practice of reading as a necessary but delimited step toward the divine vision found in theoria (contemplation). This paper examines discussions of reading in four such authors, John the Solitary, Philoxenos of Mabbug, Isaac of Nineveh, and Joseph the Visionary. In spite of differences of time and Christological confession, these Syriac authors share similar Evagrian conceptions of contemplation through which they advocate for the importance of reading sacred scripture as well as selections of “the fathers” as part of the path to divine knowledge. These exhortations are not, however, merely formulaic. A closer examination of the differences between these authors reveals a subtle debate over “how much” reading is a appropriate and when it might distract from contemplation. For example, while Philoxenos famously advocates against reading scripture too much, John the Solitary recommends reading scripture over against prayer since the former is more easily recollected after disruption by evil thoughts. Joseph the Visionary warns that reading without moderation may destroy the mind of the monk while Isaac envisions reading as a repeated and tried method of contemplation. This paper compares and contrasts these views to present a micro-history of the practice of reading in the Syriac Evagrian tradition. Moreover, it compares these theological views, as much as possible, with the extant manuscript tradition which preserved the works of Evagrius in Syriac to determine what evidence of usage may be found in the manuscripts themselves.


A Psalm against David? A Canonical Reading of Psalm 51 as a Critique of David’s Inadequate Repentance in 2 Samuel 12
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College

A Psalm against David? A Canonical Reading of Psalm 51 as a Critique of David’s Inadequate Repentance in 2 Samuel 12


Resistance to “Babylon” in the Music of Bob Marley and the Wailers: Biblical and Theological Strategies
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College

Rastafarianism has grown from its origins as a rural Jamaican religious movement in the 1920s to a spiritual vision and social force for black dignity throughout the world. Bob Marley, together with Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston (originally known as the Wailers), powerfully communicated in song the power of the Rastafarian vision to many in North America, Europe, and Africa, especially in the 1970s. Their music continues to have powerful resonance in today’s world. This presentation will examine the lyrics of representative songs of the three Wailers, to explore their strategies for maintaining an alternative consciousness and identity in the face of the dehumanizing worldview of the dominant culture (referred to by Rastafarians as “Babylon”). The extent to which these strategies draw on biblical texts and themes will be evaluated, as will the different theological approaches of the three Wailers.


Unbinding the Aqedah from the Straightjacket of Tradition: How Abraham Lost His Son
Program Unit: Genesis
J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College

Traditional Jewish and Christian readings of Genesis 22 hold Abraham up as a paradigm of virtue. By contrast, this paper will question whether Abraham’s unquestioning obedience to the divine command to sacrifice his son is meant to be either morally or religiously exemplary. Since any self-aware interpreter must wonder whether such an alternative reading is a function of contemporary sensibilities or is intrinsic to the narrative itself, the paper will mine salient details of Genesis 22, while reading the Aqedah in the context of the broader Abraham story, especially Abraham’s earlier conversation with God over Sodom’s fate (Genesis 18) and clues in the later narrative concerning his relationship to Isaac, and Isaac’s relationship to his sons. The paper will suggest that what is being “tested” in Genesis 22 is not Abraham’s obedience, but his discernment of YHWH’s “way” (18:19) and will examine the consequences of Abraham’s (failed) discernment of God on his family, especially Isaac.


“Suffer Little Children”: Child-Sacrifice, Martyrdom, and Jewish and Christian Identity Formation
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Paul Middleton, University of Chester

In one of the most notorious incidents of the First Crusade, Christian soldiers slaughtered thousands of Jews in and around the town of Mainz. According to the historian, Albert of Aachen, when the Jews saw the indiscriminate slaughter, they began to kill each other: “mothers cut the throats of nursing children…preferring them to perish by their own hands rather than by the weapons of the uncircumcised.” There are other stories of child-killing in order to prevent kidnap and forced baptism in the Middle Ages. These killings are often regarded as acts of martyrdom which protect Jewish identity. There are antecedents for such actions in late second Temple Judaism. Stories of child-killing are found in the Revolt (especially Masada), while the Maccabean literature interprets the martyrdom of the seven sons as sacrificial–a move already anticipated in the Aqeda. In contrast, a different sort of child-sacrifice was required to protect early Christian identity. In Christian martyr acts, children often posed a direct threat to the potential martyr, and therefore, before the identity-forming act of martyrdom could take place, children had to be sacrificed/abandoned. This paper argues that “child sacrifice” becomes an integral factor, albeit in contrasting ways, by which both Jewish and Christian identities are formed and protected.


Returning to Paradise: A Cosmological Interpretation of the Church in Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Justin A. Mihoc, University of Durham

In order to explain the foundation of the Church one needs to look back at the foundation of the world itself, as the groundwork and initium of Creation and its Creator. Basil of Caesarea emphasises this when he argues that the world was conceived for a useful end, its fulfilment being realised in the Church. Similarly, Gregory of Nyssa understands the initial Creation to foreshadow the redemptive restoration brought by Christ which makes possible the return to the paradisiac state. Thus, the time of the Church is connected with the beginning of time itself, the second creation with the first, the archetypal Eden with the Church. My paper attempts to explore the cosmological interpretation of the beginnings or origins of the Church as a return to the Garden of Creation. Analysing Basil and Gregory’s exegeses shows how the cosmogenesis is inextricably linked with ecclesiology through the Logos, and thus the ideal state is restored after the fall by the same Creator. The resurrection enables the believer within the Church to ‘return to the first life’ and enjoy the promised Paradise. Therefore, protology is linked with eschatology, and the interpretation of the story of Genesis leads to an understanding of what the Church is.


The Purim Feast, Justice, and a Better World
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Johnny Miles, Texas Christian University

Feasts in the ancient world were not simply just occasions for eating. Instead, banquets also served as occasions for often sinister, ulterior purposes, such as retaliation, blood vengeance, and revenge. By their very nature, banquets mirror and yet reinforce a distinctive ethos. As historical sources attest, Persian banquets exemplified opulence and decadence. This ethos of opulence and decadence (in one setting serving as an occasion for implementing a sinister plot of genocide) characteristic of Persian banquets stands in stark contrast to the lone Jewish banquet mentioned within the book of Esther. The Jewish Purim Seudah (festive meal) indeed encouraged celebration, a motif that Jewish tradition has long emphasized via diverse customs, but it also occasioned the practice of tzedaqah (justice), a motif that Jewish tradition has long neglected despite early remonstrances against Purim self-indulgence in favor of a more noble purpose for its observance. Unfortunately, Purim never gained the reputation in antiquity that the book of Esther promulgates in part. It will be this paper’s perspective that the festival of Purim sanctions the practice of tzedaqah though never using this modern nomenclature. Acts of tzedaqah that accompany celebration temper an otherwise self-indulgence often characteristic of the Purim feast, thus rendering it and Persian feasts almost indistinguishable. Moreover, it will be this paper’s stance that the festival meal of Purim and any attendant acts of tzedaqah as legitimized by the book of Esther shape what has come to be regarded as an integral aspect of Jewish life and is the antecedent to modern Jewish emphases of actualizing, in part, and wittingly or not, tikkun olam (repair of the world).


The Cosmic Christ in Roman Context: Ecology and Subaltern Identity in Colossians
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Timothy Milinovich, Dominican University

Although the letter to the Colossians has been used by political authorities to support slavery, divine right of monarchs, and rationalize domestic abuse, several texts within the letter appear to represent a “blurring” or modification of Roman cultural hegemonic principles within the Christian community’s subaltern ethics. How then can the cultural context of the letter’s author and audience—the Roman Empire—inform our understanding of the text’s meaning? Does the author simply assimilate the community’s identity with Roman power systems, or is the author utilizing and modifying common power structures found in Roman cultural hegemony to express important aspects of Christian identity in an ultimately subversive manner? In response to these questions, this paper will argue that the language and imagery of the church and domestic power relationships reflect, and yet modify, Roman imperialist relationships. While Roman imperialist paradigms presume that the more powerful party rules over the lesser in accordance with nature, and, inversely, that the lesser must submit to the greater, in Colossians the absoluteness is removed and the powerful held in check by ethical responsibilities modeled in the cruciform image of Christ. We will use two separate but textually relevant methodologies to demonstrate our thesis: an eco-feminist hermeneutic (particularly from Ivana Gebara) that engages the power relationships of divinity/humanity/creation in creational, political, and domestic spheres, and the critical theory of “hybridity” to examine the letter’s ideological emphases through its incorporation and modification of terminology and images that were common in the imperial hegemony in order to fashion identities and structures for Christians within the church community, the household, and in society that both reflect and subvert the existing hegemonies. In this sense, we can consider how the author to the Colossians uses creational imagery and human/creation power relationships to construct a subaltern and complex hybridity in proclaiming the gospel to first century audience in the provincial region of the Roman Principate. In particular, we will discuss briefly how the author incorporates and then modifies established images, terms, and paradigms of the hegemony in order to express a hybrid identity that is at once subordinate and separate from the overarching hegemony. As we will show, the central point of departure from the incorporated language is Christ, whose loving sacrifice on the cross reorients believers to an ethic of selflessness and deference to the weaker party in power relationships, an ethic that is summarized in the identity markers of “knowledge of God” and “holiness.”


Beyond the Anti-imperial Dichotomy: Towards a Contrapuntal Reading of Romans 12–15
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Timothy Milinovich, Dominican University

Paul’s view of Rome has developed into two overly polarized positions: complete acceptance of Rome’s authority, or complete rejection and subversion. Currently those who argue that Paul was pro-Roman authority (and/or apolitical) proceed with the following argument: 1/ they point to the lexicus classicus text of Rom 13; 2/ they deduce that Paul was at least accepting of Roman authority and, at worst, ambivalent and thus, 3/ conclude that an anti-Imperial reading of Paul is insufficient and/or anachronistically oriented by a “modern” liberalism foreign to Paul’s own interests (as with Johnson and Schreiner). Rather than reading Rom 12—15 as an apology for, or critique against, Roman governmental authority and culture, this paper will utilize a contrapuntal reading of the text, using the methodologies of Homi Bhabha and Edward Said, in order to explicate a type of hybridity (or modification) of the cultural milieu viz a viz the ethic of deference to the weak that is emphasized in Rom 12—15, that represents both an incorporation and modification of Roman imperial culture. Such a reading will demonstrate that Paul presumes, incorporates, and even proffers many aspects of Roman imperial authoritarianism and submission to existing hierarchical structures in his ethical directives to Christians at Rome; however, he at the same time subverts the imperial narrative of justice-from-power by making deference to the weak the foundation for his communities’ behavior. Since crafting ethics is also crafting communal identity, Paul’s directives in Romans 12—15 mark off the Roman Christians and their care for the vulnerable as subaltern, and therefore should be seen as neither a total rejection or affirmation of Roman governing power, but rather a careful reinterpretation of imperial and communal duties through the new lens of God’s grace in Christ. To present this argument, this paper will first provide an overview of the anti-/ imperial positions on Paul. Next, in order to diversify the present dichotomous parties, we will offer a perspective on imperialism (not merely empire) from the perspectives and on-going debates in the fields of Classics and political philosophy. We will then demonstrate the methods of Bhabha and Said that strike a balance between a politics of apology and a politics of blame and seek to denote how subaltern communities represent their own identities in relation to hegemonic meta-cultures and meta-narratives through the rhetorical means of imitation, incorporation, and modification of hegemonic principles and terms in order to distinguish, equivocate, and even subvert the hegemonic culture from their own set of subaltern values while still remaining a part of the physical hegemonic system. Finally, we will provide a contrapuntal reading, using the methods of Bhabha and Said, to demonstrate how Paul’s rhetoric in Rom 12—15 is neither entirely pro-imperial, nor anti-imperial, but rather exists along a spectrum of subaltern rhetoric, hybridity, and identity craft.


The Hallel—Psalms in the Context of Worship
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Matthias Millard, Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel

This paper is reconsidering the Egyptian Hallel (Ps 113-118) in its literal biblical context. To this context belongs especially the framing wisdom psalms Ps 111f. and 119. The group of psalms Ps 113-118 finds different places through the different stages within the developement of the fifth book of the psalter. Before, but also beneath this literal development these psalms are part of a living liturgy.


On the Teaching of Irrelevant Texts: Biblical Studies in the Public University
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Charles Miller, University of North Dakota

Most introductory courses in biblical studies tend to have as their stated goals: (1) to provide students with a survey of the appropriate biblical texts, (2) to introduce students to basic critical approaches to reading the texts, and, on occasion, (3) to assist students in developing skills for interpreting the Bible on their own. Individual courses are often set up to emphasize one of these goals more than the others. This approach has served as the backbone of introductory courses for decades, if not for centuries. The primary problem with such an approach is that it presumes an insider’s perspective that the biblical text has inherent value and is, in and of itself, worthy of study. It is a residual product of the fact that biblical studies has been (and to a certain extent continues to be) dominated by individuals for whom the Bible is religiously significant. In this paper, I reflect on the possibility of developing a different approach to the teaching of the Bible, one that is based on a religious studies model, emphasizing four primary areas of analysis: (1) definition, (2) classification, (3) comparison, and (4) reception. The goal of such an approach is to move beyond mere description (be it historical, literary, or theological), which too often serves merely to reproduce and naturalize emic understandings of the biblical text, and instead to view the Bible as an ever changing product of cultural practices and social agendas, which are themselves undergoing constant modification. In other words, the Bible, in its various textual and material manifestations, becomes data in need of “explanatory theorizing.”


Shaking Out the Skirt: Nehemiah's Economic Vision
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Marvin Lloyd Miller, University of Manchester

Invited panelist


Performances of Jeremiah 29: An Ethnopoetic Presentation
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Marvin Lloyd Miller, University of Manchester

What is missing in most treatments of ancient Jewish letters is the consideration of how a text may have been actualized in performance. Performance criticism helps expose and address the possible misperception or misinterpretation that may arise from a methodology that reads back into the ancient world the documentary system of the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. The position presented in this paper is that performance of ancient letters was frequently contextualized in social settings. What will be considered is a fresh rendering of Jer 29 as an oral performance that has been transmitted into written form. Writing systems capture only one aspect of what was said, leaving how it was said and with what intention woefully underrepresented. Ethnopoetics is a field of study that attempts to capture the social impact of performances. This paper will interact with Jer 29 and consider the aesthetic patterning of oral literary forms and render it in print in such a way that the artistry of the oral performance is not lost. Dell Hymes was one of the sociolinguists who shifted the emphasis from a study of grammatical or linguistic features to considering how a performance in a specific context may have taken place. His “measured” verse approach stresses how oral performance can be to some extent embodied in a text. This study emphasizes that a written text was “performance sensitive,” suggesting that the author(s) had awareness that the letter would be orally performed and the meaning of the text would be understood differently according to the audience, performer, and setting. Jer 29 will be analyzed from three perspectives. First, entextualization describes the process of rendering a performance as a written text. It includes the ways that performers fashion different aspects of the letter into objects for reflection. Second, the texture of the letter refers to the expressive choices made to read and perform Jer 29 in language, sound, and sight. Features that add texture consist of speech-acts, repetition, parallelism, metonyms, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and other linguistic signs that allow for the performer to bring the text to life. Third, contextualization refers to the process of creating interpretive frameworks that an audience can engaged in during a performance. Thus, the focus in this paper is on performance, with all the inherent variation and creativity that performance entails. Considering entexualization, texture, and contextualization, in addition to language, culture, speech, voice, and social life makes a performance approach of fundamental importance to how we understand Jer 29. Analyzing oral patterns offers an additional body of evidence when viewing issues of integrity and unity and can help clarify the relation of an embedded letter to its surrounding narrative.


Historiography in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Orality, Performance, and Memory in the Peshrim
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Shem Miller, University of Mississippi

This interdisciplinary presentation explores how theories of orality, performance, and memory elucidate our understanding of historiography in the Ya?ad movement. After a brief description of historiography in the Dead Sea Scrolls, I focus on the type of historiography presented in the biblical commentaries or peshrim. In particular, I explain how J. Foley’s concept of “traditional history,” R. Bauman’s idea of “cultural performances,” and J. Assmann’s notion of “cultural memory” illuminate the type of historiography in the peshrim—a type very different from inquiries into what really happened. The authors of the peshrim are not concerned with presenting a modern, positivistic “factual” history; rather, the peshrim advance a coherent interpretation of the past for communal identity formation in the present. History is instrumentalized in order to remember, to construct, who “we” are through oral performance.


The Characterization of Women in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Susan Miller, University of Glasgow

John’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel both include narratives which feature independent, faithful women who meet Jesus and who are among his itinerant group of disciples. The methods of characterisation of the women in the two gospels, however, have some distinctive features. Mark’s Gospel contains brief conversations between women and Jesus in which women are characterised by one saying. The faith and determination of the woman with the haemorrhage is conveyed by her inner thoughts, “If I touch his clothes, I will be healed” (5:28). The Syrophoenician woman is characterised by her clever response to Jesus, “Yes Lord but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (7:29). On the other hand John’s Gospel contains extended conversations between women and Jesus which characterise the women. John does not focus on a single saying. Instead, he traces the development in the women’s characters in the course of their conversations with Jesus. Jesus takes the initiative and he guides the women from their material needs to their spiritual desire for a relationship with God. Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, and she comes to recognise her desire for “living water”. Martha mourns the death of her brother but Jesus reveals that he is the resurrection and the life before he heals Lazarus. The positive portrayal of women in both gospels raises the question of whether the evangelists’ characterization of women shows any indication that they are concerned about gender. In Mark, women are compared positively to the male disciples. Jesus teaches his disciples to serve others but the male disciples do not serve anyone whereas the women are described as serving (1:31; 15:40-41). The male disciples flee at the arrest of Jesus and women are the only witnesses to the death of Jesus. Women discover the empty tomb but at the end of the gospel they also fail in their discipleship since they are afraid to pass on the news of the resurrection. John also shows some awareness of gender issues in his characterization of women. In John 4:27 the disciples are amazed to find Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman. Their reaction suggests that Jesus breaks social conventions by talking to this woman. Mary Magdalene may be compared to the Beloved Disciple who is portrayed as an ideal disciple. Mary is the first person to recognise the risen Jesus but the Beloved Disciple believed when he saw the empty tomb. Mark and John, however, do not use the term “disciple” of women. In Mark’s Gospel, women are described in terms of discipleship since they have “followed” and “served” Jesus (15:41) but they are not sent out on mission by Jesus. In John’s Gospel Mary Magdalene addresses Jesus as her “teacher” and she recognises Jesus when he calls her by her name. In both gospels there is a tension between the technical use of the term “disciple” to refer primarily to the male disciples who followed Jesus and the characterization of women as models of discipleship.


Sacred Slaughter: A Sacrificial Understanding of Narrative Priestly Violence
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Yonatan Miller, Harvard University

A number of famed, albeit deeply troubling narratives in the Pentateuch are marked with–and perhaps marred by–vigilante violence. Significantly, these narratives often feature members of the Israelite priesthood or their eponymous ancestors. Thus Levi is portrayed (together with Simeon) as responsible for the massacre of the Shechemites in Genesis 34. In his very first act upon stepping out into the world as an adult, Moses––progenitor of the Mushite priestly clan–– surreptitiously kills an Egyptian. Later, in the aftermath of the Golden Calf episode, Moses musters the Levites to rampage through the Israelite camp and kill thousands –– even family members (Exodus 32). Finally, in Numbers 25, Phinehas––the grandson of Aaron––is rewarded with a dual covenant of peace (!) and eternal priesthood for his vigilante-style, zealous killing of an Israelite man and the Midianite woman with whom he dared consort in public. While the phenomenon of violence in priestly narratives has been recognized by scholars, it has yet to receive an adequate explanation. Thus in an article otherwise devoted to the violence of the Levites, Joel Baden has noted that, “The basis for the association of the Levites and violence . . . is not obvious.” In this paper I explore the sacrificial roots of the rhetoric of priestly violence, and how and why it serves as a critical legitimating component of the priestly imagination in the Hebrew Bible. Rather than following a positivistic or excavatory approach, which would ground narratives of priestly violence in concrete historical circumstances, I approach these episodes as “historicized prose fiction” – as constructions of cultural memory. I contend that the rhetoric of violence in these narratives is a touchstone of particular significance for priestly group identity. Narratives of violence offer a stylized and highly charged venue for creating new realities and power structures; they are, as one scholar has written, “a kind of theater, where we collaborate in reinventing ourselves and authorizing notions, both individual and collective, of who we are.”* I expand upon the work of Gideon Aran, a sociologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who in a short essay, established a relationship between the violence against animals inherent in the sacrificial cult and the portrayal of Israelite priests as prone to interpersonal violence. Following Aran, as well as Girard, I read the above narratives as “founding fictions” redolent of human sacrifice, which are deeply connected to both sacrificial violence and the nebulous origins of the Israelite priestly caste. *Michael Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression, and Intersubjectivity (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002), p. 16.


Negation and Edge Constructions
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Cynthia L. Miller-Naude, University of the Free State

In this paper we examine the intersection of negation with edge constructions (viz. topicalization/fronting, left dislocation, extraposition and right dislocation). We present the data for negation involving each of these constructions with attention to the scope of negation as extending to the sentence (sentential negation) or to a constituent (constituent negation). The implications of negation for delimiting and defining the constructions (especially left dislocation and topicalization/fronting) are explored.


Locating the Prophet: Political Geography in Jeremiah 26–28
Program Unit: Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Mary Mills, Liverpool Hope University

The argument of this paper is that the narrative manages geopolitical realities in an imperial age via the spatial placing of the prophetic body. This approach to the text draws on political geography as management of contested concepts of power, territory and boundaries. Jeremiah's location in the temple in ch. 26 highlights the liminality of temple space and the prophetic contest of chs. 27-28 sets up a contrast between freed body and yoked body which negotiates contests of territorial ownership. The narrative world of the text provides a commentary on foreign policy and its relationship to the concept of liberation.


Nothing but the Truth? Near Eastern Scribes and the Production of Legal "Opinions"
Program Unit:
Sara Milstein, University of British Columbia

*


Chronicles as Oral Text
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Christine Mitchell, St. Andrew's College - Saskatoon

In this paper I consider the book of Chronicles as a scribal product of an oral production. I take the heuristic position that Chronicles was the product of a master scribe weaving together texts known primarily as oral products and through oral production, rather than the model of copy-and-paste usually assumed. How would thinking of Chronicles as the written result of oral performance affect how we view the interplay of genres and the collocation of textual fragments in the book?


Quinine, Ditaola, and the Bible: Investigating Botswana Health Seeking Practices
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Sana Mmolai, University of Botswana

*


Bonhoeffer’s "Creation and Fall" Revisited
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
R. Walter Moberly, University of Durham

I propose to revisit this short work, which is explicitly an exercise in theological interpretation of Scripture, under three headings. First, I will briefly outline the contours of Bonhoeffer’s reading of Genesis 1:1-4:1. Secondly, I will seek to locate Bonhoeffer’s reading, both proximately in relation to Barth and dialectical theology, and more broadly in relation to the philosophical and theological reading of Scripture characteristic of the Fathers. Thirdly, I will offer some reflection on how Bonhoeffer’s theological interpretation relates to the contemporary movement of theological interpretation.


Ascension and Atonement: Rethinking the Ascension Narratives of Luke-Acts in Light of the Ritual Process of Sacrifice
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
David M. Moffitt, University of St. Andrews

Scholars frequently comment on Luke-Acts’ strange silence regarding the sacrificial significance of Jesus’ crucifixion. Moreover, many also puzzle over Luke’s explicit linkages of the salvific benefits that Jesus provides with his resurrection and exaltation. In this paper I argue that Luke connects forgiveness and purification with Jesus’ exaltation because he understands that Jewish sacrifice consists of a hierarchically structured process that cannot be reduced to the element of the slaughter of the victim. Rather, the culminating elements of the process involve the activities of the priests approaching the altars and the sanctuary where God dwells and conveying the material of the sacrifice into God’s presence. Thus, the aspersion of blood and the burning of parts of the victim are the elements of the process identified in Leviticus as effecting atonement (i.e., forgiveness and purification). From this perspective, Luke’s ascension narratives, as well as his depictions of the resurrected and exalted Jesus, suggest that priestly and sacrificial concepts underlie his understanding of the Christ event. Luke has not emphasized the sacrificial effects of Jesus’ death, but has highlighted the atoning benefits of his ascension and exaltation because he understood Jesus’ ascension in terms of his priestly approach to God’s heavenly throne. The exalted Jesus therefore offers his sacrifice in the heavens at the right hand of God. Such a model of sacrifice takes seriously the importance of the ritual process of Jewish sacrifice and links the atoning benefits of Jesus’ work with the very aspects of the process that Leviticus also highlights—the approach to God and the conveyance of the sacrificial material into God’s presence. Far from ignoring or critiquing the practice of sacrifice and the means of atonement in the Jewish cult, Luke’s emphasis on Jesus’ ascension suggests instead the centrality of a sacrificial logic for his narrative of the Christ event.


Paul’s Use of Scripture in Romans 9–11 as Palimpsest: Literature in the Second Degree
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Douglas C. Mohrmann, Cornerstone University

This presentation will explore the generic connections between Romans 9-11, often recognized as rhetorically climatic, and other literature of the Second Temple period. Primarily aiding this exploration will be Gérard Genette’s theory of Hypertextuality and its recent applications to literature of the ancient Near East. In this particular study, work will begin with the identification of Paul’s narrative substructure in chs.9-11, which moves from the biblical past to Paul’s immediate past and present and then to Paul’s anticipation of the future. Parallels will be offered from Second Temple texts, e.g. Nehemiah 9 and Damascus Document 2.7-3.20. These comparisons will identify transformations of hypotexts in the new hypertexts. Initial attention will be given to formal matters, including translation, shifts in tense and person, and style. Secondly, the analysis will turn to generic and rhetorical matters, including reduction, transmodalization, and diegesis. Together these insights will illustrate Paul’s techniques of re-writing Scripture to achieve his particular ends. Foregoing studies have already indicated how other examples of so-called Rewritten Scripture in Second Temple literature have appropriated Israel’s story for rhetorical purposes. The benefits of this study will be to shed light on Paul’s rhetorical purpose in writing his and his audience’s story into the narrative fabric of scripture. In Romans 9-11, Paul’s story simultaneously postured himself as divine oracle, borrowed authority from his hypotexts, re-wrote his audience’s identity, and authorized Hebrew Bible/LXX as authoritative text for them. The latter two effects would be poignant for an audience struggling in Jew-Gentile relations. It is the transformation of these hypotexts in his hypertext that provides the power to do these four key tasks.


Strack-Billerbeck and Anti-Semitism
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Hilde Brekke Moller, MF Norwegian School of Theology

The Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch by H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck has been widely used by New Testament exegetes of the 21st Century. The present paper examines this biblical commentary in its historical and political context. Besides, it looks into various expressions of the ideological intentions of its authors and into the ideology that have been expressed by New Testament exegetes who employed it. More specifically, the paper examines the contemporary estimation of the commentary’s anti-Semitic legacy, and argues that by its intentions, the commentary is an example of appreciation of, and care for, Jews and Judaism. Published by Christians in Germany at a time when anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish publications were part of scholarship and popular culture, the commentary stands out in its historical context as a genuinely philo-Semitic contribution.


The Subversive Masculinity of the Suffering Servants
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Andrew Montanaro, The Catholic University of America

Dominance and aggression are definitive characteristics of masculinity according to the social sciences, where the most dominant men hold the top, or hegemonic, position over other men. The biological sciences have corroborated this claim and have shown how these characteristics can promote a man’s status, giving him greater access to resources and greater reproductive success. This conception of masculinity is in part subverted by the images of the Suffering Servants presented in deutero-Isaiah. The Servants are variously described as engaging in neither violent behavior nor retaliation and as being despised and dishonored. At the same time, the Servants claim to be honored in the eyes of Yahweh and expect to share the spoils of war. They appear to have the favor of Yahweh throughout. Rather than completely subverting masculinity, these images maintain elements of the hegemonic. Status remains a concern for the Servants, but the reference point for the hegemony is no longer other men but Yahweh. A new masculinity is thereby proposed wherein dominance and aggression take alternative forms of self-dominance and steadfastness. This paper begins by examining the data available from the social and biological sciences. It then examines the Suffering Servant passages in light of this data and the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity in ancient Israel. Central to this examination, is an analysis of shame and victory language throughout the text. A discussion will follow showing how this new form of masculinity sheds light on what kind of man is preferred by Yahweh and is coherent with how Yahweh often subverts human expectations by choosing those often rejected by other men.


How to Define the Bible within the Study of Bible and Film?
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Anne Moore, University of Calgary

The consensus or dominant definition for the Bible is based on the concept of a canon as a closed set of texts that have a specific and special authority within a religious community. This definition focuses on content and status. In addition, within the traditions of Judaism and Christianity, a complementary element is that the Bible/canon presents the “normative” history of the origins of the religion. Biblical scholars nuance and/or complicate the historical process of canonization and the historicity within the Biblical texts; they discuss the actual dates for declaring the existence of a canon and they utilize the discipline and findings of history to reveal the socio-historical context of the texts. However, the working definition is this authoritative content canon. Logically, it is this definition that also seems to dominate in the discussions of Bible and Film. The authoritative content canon is evident in the discussions surrounding Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ during which various New Testament scholars debated the accuracy of film in terms of both adherence to gospel narratives and history. However, while scholars debated the historicity and violence, moviegoers flocked to the film worldwide and film scholars are noting how Gibson’s film may have revived the biblical film genre. In reviews of the film Noah, Bible and Film scholars identified the numerous references to the book of 1 Enoch and how Darren Aronofsky incorporation of 1 Enoch resulted in a radical representation of the story. However, missing from these analyses are Aronofsky’s own statements about his review of midrash and the questions raised in the commentaries about the nature of God and the ‘righteous’ Noah. Aronofsky’s approaches the Bible not as an authoritative content canon; but as the inspiration for interpretation. Gibson’s The Passion and Aronofsky’s Noah may be more appropriately analyzes through an alternative view of the Bible as canon. Various scholars such as B.S. Childs, E.P. Sanders, W.C. Smith, Stephen B. Chapman and Jan Assman propose an alternative definition of canon that focuses on its function rather than status and content. These functional definitions of canon/Bible emphasize the relationship between the canon and the community and the complementary element is ‘interpretation,’ and, especially, interpretation in the form of intertextuality. This paper will propose that the functional definition of canon/Bible is a more appropriate or useful definition for the study of Bible and Film. Along with demonstrating the appropriateness of the functional definition, this paper will propose that E.P. Sanders’ Eight Modes of Intertextuality may provide a way of conceptualize different categories of understanding the interpretation of the Bible within film.


To Boldly Go beyond the New Testament to the Study of Christianity
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Anne Moore, University of Calgary

A review of the development of New Testament Studies reaches to the 1770s, and over this two century plus history, one witnesses: the struggle to separate from the theology and the confines of confessional boundaries; the development of various methods that are now employed generally in the study of ancient texts, and the creation of an interdisciplinary field that incorporates numerous disciplines as part of its endeavor to reconstruct the socio-historical context of the New Testament. Despite these developments, however, New Testament Studies still employs a specific definition of the New Testament that, in my opinion, blurs the boundaries between the academy and the confessional. The consensus view of the New Testament is a collection of texts to which nothing is added or taken away and has been granted an authoritative status. This definition based on A.C. Sundberg’s work and advocated by Lee MacDonald enabled New Testament scholars to discuss the early fluidity of scripture, the canonization process through which scripture would emerge as canon and the determination of the canon in the 4th century. However, this definition remains very close to the accepted confessional views of the New Testament. This presentation proposes the adoption of a functional definition of canon as reflected in the work of E.P. Sanders, W.C. Smith, J.Z. Smith and Jan Assman. These functional definitions emphasize the relationship between texts and the religious community as expressed through interpretation required for the creation and maintenance of religious identity. Obviously, the adoption of a functional definition will ‘decenter’ the New Testament and foreground the community and its performance and elucidation of canon. The overall focus will move from the New Testament to the religious community – the various expressions of Christianity. Along with the proposal for redefining the concept of canon/New Testament, the presentation will consider how this redefinition may reorganize the teaching of Christianity and facilitate its placement alongside instruction in other religious traditions.


"Pure and Peshitta": Leviticus and a Possible Proto-Syriac Dead Sea Scroll Manuscript
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
James D. Moore, Brandeis University

The version of Leviticus found in 4Q23 (4QLev–Numa) is, in the words of Armin Lange, a "unique manuscript" ("eigenständige Handschrift"), which shares close variants with other versions (MT, LXX, and Sam. Pent.). Similarly, arguing against Emanual Tov's assessment of 4Q23 as a "proto-Masoretic" manuscript, Peter W. Flint claims that 4Q23 is of a "mixed" type, sharing similarities with MT and Samaritan Pentateuch. In this paper, I show that Lange and Flint are correct to avoid calling 4Q23 a "proto-Masoretic" document. Instead, I identify it as a possible "proto-Peshitta" text. Such a claim challenges what the eminent scholar on Syriac Leviticus, David J. Lane, has called "the present consensus" that "[f]or Leviticus the material from Qumran caves 4 and 11 does not suggest that there is a connection to be found there." Lane goes on to admit that "further work is needed," and my paper demonstrates that Leviticus in 4Q23 agrees with the Peshitta more than any other version. As a result, 4Q23 helps explain many of the otherwise unique variants found in the Peshitta's version of Leviticus. Furthermore, in at least one instance, 4Q23's unique vocabulary provides an explanation for a Syriac translator's curious word choice in Syriac Leviticus. The evidence suggests that 4Q23 might have belonged to a family of manuscripts that gave rise to the Peshitta’s version of Leviticus.


Promise and Intertextual Logic: How Hebrews Get from A(braham) to Z(ion)
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Scott R. Moore, Regis University

The Book of Hebrews both breaches and preserves Jewish tradition as it interprets scripture with scripture, showing how the promise of land to Abraham has been transformed into eschatological rest in Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. We find in Hebrews some of the same intertextual strategies that scholars such as Daniel Boyarin identify in midrashic exegesis, including the tendency to interpret texts from the Pentateuch by means of juxtaposing them with texts from the Writings and Prophets. The latter texts interpret the former, often in overtly diachronic arguments. This paper focuses on four intertextual expositions in Hebrews that lead from the promise of land to Abraham to the hope of future life in eschatological Zion. In the process, the crucial elements of continuity and transformation of tradition are highlighted. The first intertextual argument focuses on the connection of the Promised Land with a promise of rest, citing Ps 95 at length. Juxtaposing Ps 95 with Gen 22 and Exod 33, Hebrews transposes (a) the past promise to a future hope and (b) the promise of a place to a state of existence. As the concept of rest is first linked with the land in Exod 33, it becomes one of the main criteria by which to judge whether the promise had reached fulfillment. From Hebrews’ perspective, Ps 95 indicates that by the time of David the “rest” aspect of the promise was still to be realized. A second intertextual argument takes on the exegetical issue of human beings entering “My rest” (that is, the LORD’s rest; Ps 95:11), putting further distance between “Promised” and “Land.” Later, in the great list of heroes in Hebrews 11, a third exposition juxtaposes allusions to Genesis with texts from the Psalms and Isaiah to show that even Abraham sought a city prepared by God in a heavenly country (11:9-16) as his ultimate destination. A fourth exposition, in Hebrews 12, looks back to Sinai and forward with Haggai 2, making the final connection between the covenant with Abraham’s descendants amidst trembling at Sinai and a new covenant offering an unshakeable kingdom. The fulfillment of the promise looks dramatically different than expected in Genesis 22, but it awaits those with faith. Hebrews uses text after text in an effort to convince its readers to put their trust in promises that are simultaneously ancient and contemporary. In the broader scheme of the book, the “new” covenant is both new and old—both a continuation and an innovation. While Hebrews asks its readers to look to a heavenly city and put their faith in what is even better and is not yet seen, its use of scripture and tradition also assures them the present promises rest on those that have long been known.


What a Sometimes Inanimate Divine Animal Has to Teach Us about Being Human: New Materialism, Other Posthumanisms, and the Johannine Jesus
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Stephen D. Moore, The Theological School, Drew University

The Johannine Jesus is not, or not solely, a human being, but not only for the reasons ordinarily adduced. The god-man is also a nonhuman animal (“Behold the lamb”—1:36; cf. 1:29; also 3:14), a vegetable (“I am the vine”—15:5; cf. 15:1), a vegetable by-product (“I am the bread”—6:35; cf. 6:41, 48, 51; “I am the door [he thyra]”—10:9; cf. 10:7), and inorganic energy, namely, electromagnetic radiation (“I am the light”—8:12; cf. 9:5)—all epithets no more or no less metaphoric than the epithet “Son of God.” Of course, it is Son christology—Son of God, Son of Man, Son of God-in-the-Image-of-Man—that has commanded center stage since at least the fourth century. The Fourth Gospel has been a prop for dominant ontologies of the human no less than of the divine—paradoxically so, as this paper will argue. The posthumanist challenge, elicited in no small part by the global ecological crisis, impels a shift of attention from Son christology to animal christology, vegetal christology, and inorganic christology. I will attempt to stage that shift through recourse to Brian Massumi’s affect theory-inflected experiment in animality studies, What Animals Teach Us about Politics, together with Mel Chen’s affect theory-inflected experiment in new materialism, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect (the latter building upon and extending Jane Bennett’s seminal new-materialist study, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things). Channeling Massumi, I will argue that the deeper one descends into the human body of the incarnated Johannine Jesus, the more levels of unhumanness one encounters, and that his divine, human, animal, vegetal, and inorganic elements interpenetrate without blurring. Channeling Chen, I will argue that the Fourth Gospel may be read as a testament to the porosity of the biopolitical logics that sustain such world-propping categories as species, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, ability/disability, and life/death. For example, the Johannine Jesus is, among other things, an ethnically marked subject (“How is it that you, a Ioudaios…?”—4:9) who is animalized through being subjected to bloody slaughter (“Behold the lamb”—1:29, 36; cf. 19:14, 36; Exod 12:46; Num 9:12) and duly devoured (6:52-56); while as “vine” (15:1-6) he (it?) exists in a persistent vegetative state, technically dead but nonetheless alive, permanently disabled but differently abled and enabling (“apart from me you can do nothing”—15:5). Through these and other such explorations I will argue that the Fourth Gospel enacts a profound disturbance of what Chen calls the "animacy hierarchy," that is, the world-structuring human ranking of inorganic material, plant life, animal life, disabled life, “fully human” life—and, I would add, divine life—in terms of perceived intrinsic worth, each rung of the hierarchy being a repository of transindividual affective investment that establishes the limits of its biopolitical power. The Johannine Jesus enacts animacy in multiple interpenetrating unhuman ways that invite less anthropocentric modes of affective engagement than the Christs of classic orthodoxy, Christs supposedly modeled on the Johannine Jesus.


Biblical Narrative Analysis from the New Criticism to the New Narratology
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Stephen D. Moore, Drew University

This paper chronicles the emergence and consolidation of biblical narrative criticism in the 1970s and 1980s and traces its development down to the present. The paper details the debts of narrative criticism both to Anglo-American New Criticism, on the one hand, and to French structural narratology, on the other hand. It also describes early alternatives to the formalist model of biblical narrative criticism, and recounts the movement in secular narrative theory from “classical” narratology to “postclassical” narratologies that began in the late 1980s, structural narratology gradually being transformed by such discourses as poststructuralism, feminism, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, and cognitive psychology. In conclusion, the paper ponders the possible contours of a postclassical narrative criticism in biblical studies.


An Oath of Things Undone: An Example of an Appropriation of Biblical Law in Hellenistic Egypt
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Stewart Moore, Fairfield University

The papyri of the Judean politeuma at Heracleopolis offer a unique window into one community’s use and adaptation of biblical law. The politeuma was an institution created by the Ptolemaic administration to reward loyal ethnic groups for their service to the crown. It gave the leaders of that community limited legal autonomy, at least as regards family and contract law. In three of the papyri, we read about a legal instrument without prior parallel in Judean life: the “epistole horkou patriou,” or letter of ancestral oath. This oath was not simply distinguished by being in the name of the God of Israel, though it no doubt was. The records of its use in the politeuma clearly indicate that it was a written instrument whereby one party swore to another party to pay a sum of money in return for a service to be done in the future, without restricting the other party at all. The horkos patrios is thus a form of promissory oath, a legal custom without real parallel in Greek culture, where such oaths only serve to restore normal relations between partners in a financial enterprise who have fallen out. Rather, this letter was an adaptation of LXX Num 30:3, creating a new legal behavior which is specifically marked as Judean and is only made possible by the presence of the politeuma. As evidenced further by the papyri, the horkos patrios created a significant burden on the weaker party in a transaction, the party not in possession of the desired bonum, exposing them to legal action to which Greek law would not have exposed them. The ancestral oath thus presents an example of fidelity to a community’s active interpretation of biblical law, and of the significant social stresses that community underwent as a result.


Diatribe and Deuteronomy: Romans 3:1–6 as Guided Reflection on Deut 32:4
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Raymond Morehouse, University of St. Andrews

If anything is clear from Romans 3.1-6, a notoriously difficult passage, it is that Paul addresses four major topics with deep roots in Israel’s scriptures: the faithfulness of God (vs. 2), the truth of God (v.4), the righteousness of God (vs. 5), and God’s judgment, primarily understood as inflicting wrath (v.5-6). The precise meaning of each is beyond the scope of this paper, but I will argue that in Romans 3.1-6 Paul employs a Greco-Roman rhetorical technique in order to leads his audience to the following conclusion based on Israel’s scriptures: God’s faithfulness, truth, and righteousness are displayed in his dealings with the unfaithful in that, as judge, he inflicts wrath on the unfaithful and unrighteous. The point of contention is whether Paul actually regards the infliction of wrath as an expression of God’s righteousness, faithfulness, and truth. The majority of commentators would argue that he does not. Despite this scholarly majority, however, there are two good reasons that we should regard the above conclusion as Paul’s actual position. First, the rhetorical features of the text are that of the ancient diatribe. Stanley Stowers, among others, has demonstrated that the literary features of Romans 3.1-6, the dialogical structure, the use of short, pointed questions, and the emphatic rejection of absurd conclusions, are the characteristics of the ancient diatribe. Paul uses this didactic technique to lead his audience through a series of tailored questions that draw out desirable answers; he uses both sides to force his own conclusions. This Greco-Roman rhetorical technique is applied in order to force the above conclusion, which is itself based on Israel’s scriptures. Second, God’s faithfulness, truth, righteousness and judgment are all affirmed in Deuteronomy 32.4, the foundational theological statement of the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32.1-43). This text undeniably played a positive and constructive role in Paul’s formulation of Romans; he quotes from the Song three times, in addition to possible allusions. In each instance the quotation supports a point Paul is making. The Song affirms that God is faithful, true, and righteous and that he inflicts wrath, as judge, on the unfaithful. I am not the first to notice some of the striking similarities between the Song and Romans 3.1-6, but these observations have not been fully applied to exegesis of the passage in question, including its rhetorical form, or to how these six verses are then integrated into the flow of Romans 1-3 as a whole. If Romans 3.1-6 is read in parallel with the Song then the above conclusion must follow.


On the Troubles of Thinking Postcolonially about Kierkegaard
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Silas Morgan, Loyola University of Chicago

Kierkegaard remains a powerful resource of constructive and contemporary biblical interpretation. However, this paper argues that are indeed limits to Kierkegaard’s usefulness, specficially when attempting to use Kierkegaard’s work on interpretation to explore postcolonial perspectives in biblical issues and theological topics. I do not think a postcolonial reading of Kierke-gaard is possible - or even desirable. This is not motivated either by a mistrust of Kierkegaard or a desire to protect or defend the particular uniqueness of postcolonial imaginary. Instead, I am concerned that this way of thinking of Kierkegaard and/or postcolonial studies misconstrues them both. I find myself increasingly troubled by efforts to interpret and utilize Kierkegaard within the theological disciplines in ways that make him appear ever the more like us, that render him in familiar terms, terms that do not always adhere to the more undecidable and dialectical nature of his authorship. The critical point here is quite simple: what Kierkegaardian thought is and what postcolonial thought is are very, very different, and so attempts to connect them, to make them somehow cohere, to reflect each other by using the biblical material as a kind of ocular prism, distorts them both and is an injustice to their respective contributions to biblical inter-pretation and its theological work.


Presentations of Parlance and Performance as Seen by Thyatira
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Daniel I. Morrison, McMaster Divinity College

As early as 1920, students of Revelation encountered the work of R. H. Charles, where he explained that the Apocalypse aims to provoke resistance to the institution of the Roman Empire. Since that time, other writers have provided support for the Apocalypse’s presence among resistance literature. According to Gregory Linton, the genre of a given work guides readers in how they should understand the text they are reading. Multiple writers have identified the book of Revelation as consisting of at least two genres—apocalyptic and prophecy. Both of these genres serve the purpose of presenting material in a way that critiques the present system and calls for some form of change. Michael Gorman appeals to the prophetic nature of Revelation in order to highlight its position in relation to the Roman Empire, while Adela Yarbro Collins notes the apocalyptic features of the book as providing a firm foundation for understanding the writing as resistance literature. Though multiple writings either refer explicitly to Revelation as “resistance literature” or note that the purpose of the work is to urge resistance to the government, Revelation 1—3 receives little attention in the discussion. The introduction of the Johannine Apocalypse contains the first of seven macarisms contained in the book. This macarism pronounces a blessing on those who read, hear, and keep the words of the book. Though reading and hearing the book may seem to be the easier of the three tasks, audiences of the Apocalypse are left with the question of what words they are to obey. This leads to questions of the significance of Revelation 1—3 and how it should guide people in understanding/interpreting the remainder of the book. When examining the book of Revelation, careful readers/hearers will recognize that approximately two-thirds of all commands directed toward the audiences appear in chapters 2—3. This concentration of commands in the Apocalypse should come as no surprise within what David Aune identifies as a series of seven imperial edicts contained in the book. Recognizing that within an ancient imperial culture the power to issue an imperial edict resided with the ruler, readers and hearers would be aware of John’s presentation of—not one, but—two kings in the Apocalypse. John’s writing presents not only the ruler of the Roman Empire, but the king to whom John believes the recipients of the Apocalypse owe their loyalty. This paper will utilize critical discourse analysis to show that Revelation 2:18–29 presents Jesus Christ as a divine king who confronts the church in Thyatira regarding their allegiance to him and provides readers with the foundation for both his demonstrations of power against the Roman Empire and his reward of the faithful depicted throughout the remainder of the book.


Renovating a Deity: Biblical Craftsmanship, House Building, and the Emergence of Monotheism
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Jeremy Morrison, Brandeis University

In the Bible, as well as in other Ancient Near Eastern texts, the language of house building and craftsmanship was used metaphorically to portray divine creation. The presence of this god-talk in a wide array of biblical genres including narratives, psalms, prophesies, and in wisdom literature, indicates the theological significance of the descriptions of God as a builder and craftsman. This paper is a study of several of these metaphoric descriptions, and investigates both the purpose(s) of these metaphors and how changes in historical and geographic settings, may have influenced changes in god-talk. By using these metaphors of craftsmanship, what were biblical writers asserting about their god Yahweh in relationship to themselves and to other gods in the Northwest Semitic pantheon?


"Do Not Look to Egypt?" Loyalty Oaths, Ancient Egypt, and the Old Testament
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Scott Morschauser, Rowan University

Joshua Berman has argued that statutes from LBA treaties pertaining to "treason/apostasy," may have provided the model for similiar stipulations in Deut 13:7-12. Admittedly, Berman's focus is upon "family law," but Egyptian materials should also be given due consideration in regards to the broader topic of "conspiracy/covenant." The exclusion of sources from the Nile Valley is largely posited upon the dearth of treaty-texts from this venue, along with an assumption that pharaohs did not deign to make written agreements with their vassal "inferiors." This paper reviews evidence that points to Egyptian kings exacting pledges of allegiance from their subjects, along with instructions to report rumors of sedition. Special attention is given to the so-called "Coronation Inscription" of Hatshepsut from the 15th century BCE. Whatever the issues of historiography it raises, the text seems to portray a ritual that has close parallels to ANE fealty ceremonies,whose characteristics had earlier been identified by Moshe Weinfeld. This suggests the possibility that ancient Egypt could also have had some influence upon covenantal practices that would later emerge in the area of Israel.


Prodigal Reunion: Tatianic Developments in the Syriac Hymn of the Soul
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Hans Moscicke, Marquette University

In a lecture delivered in 1983, Han Drijvers claimed that “writings like the Syriac apocryphal Acts of Thomas and the Odes of Solomon reflect Tatian’s ideas to such an extent that they can be considered a commentary on them.” This paper, building on the recent work of Emily Hunt who traces the commonalities between Tatian's theology and that of the Acts of Thomas, explores the impact of Tatian's Oratio ad Graceos on the Syriac Hymn of the Pearl. I conduct a comparative analysis of both texts' soteriologies, examining the similarities and differences between Tatian's concept of regaining the lost possession of union with the divine spirit and the Hymn's notion of regaining possession of the heavenly garment. I also compare the narrative arc of Tatian's conversion account with that of the Hymn, with particular focus on Tatian's use of the Matthean Kingdom Parables. I posit that certain Tatianic, soteriological motifs and the story of his conversion may have been known to and had an impact on the Hymn of the Pearl and its soteriology and composition at large.


Paul, Poverty, and the Powers: The Body of Christ as Response
Program Unit: Pauline Theology
Robert Moses, High Point University

For Paul, the powers pervade all aspects of human existence. Yet attempting to trace the connections between economic arrangements and the powers in Paul's thought is not an easy task. This paper will first sketch out Paul's vision for the body of Christ with respect to issues of money, wealth, and poverty. It then proceeds to show how related issues such as economic disparities may be connected in Paul's thought to the powers. I argue that Paul's solution to economic issues (and in their relation with the powers) lies in the body of Christ, crucified and gathered.


Is There an Exclamative ek and eka in Biblical Hebrew?
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Adina Moshavi, Bar-Ilan University

It is well established that Biblical Hebrew features an exclamative particle ma, homonymous with interrogative ma 'what'. There is no doubt that interrogative and exclamative ma are distinct: as pointed out by R. Steiner (2008), exclamative ma is a degree adverb, as in Num 24:5 "How fair are your tents, O Jacob!", while interrogative ma is a pronoun or, rarely, a manner adverb. According to the standard grammars, the interrogative manner adverbs ek and eka are also homonymous with exclamative particles; a well-known example is 2 Sam 1:25, 27, typically translated "How the mighty have fallen!" In this paper I will argue that evidence for exclamative ek and eka in Biblical Hebrew is weak, casting doubt on the existence of these particles. Cross-linguistic research into exclamatives shows that this clause type is necessarily associated with an extreme degree. It typically involves a gradable adjective ("How tall he is!" = "He is extraordinarily tall") or gradable manner ("How she runs!" = "She runs extraordinarily well"), although the degree is sometimes inferred from the context ("What cakes she bakes!" = "What amazing/delicious/elaborate/etc. cakes she bakes!") (J. Rett 2008, 2011). Exclamative ma fits this profile, occurring mostly in clauses with gradable adjectival predicates or adjectival verbs, whereas ek and eka do not occur in these syntactic environments. Furthermore, in nearly all of the supposedly exclamative occurrences of ek and eka the context does not necessitate a degree interpretation, and in many cases a degree interpretation is not even warranted. Hebraists sometimes use the term "exclamative" in a looser fashion, grouping exclamative ek and eka with interjections such as hoy, oy, heah, etc. This conception overlooks the fundamental difference between interjections, which do not have semantic content and can stand on their own grammatically, and ek and eka, which express manner and only occur within a clause. If there is no exclamative ek or eka in Biblical Hebrew, the supposed occurrences of these particles must actually be interrogative manner adverbs. I will propose that the supposed instances of exclamative ek and eka are best understood as rhetorical questions expressing astonishment. The implications for the interpretation of verses such as 1 Sam 1:25, 27, above, will be examined.


Semitic Influence in the Use of NT Greek Prepositions: The Case of the Book of Revelation
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Laurentiu Florentin Mot, Institutul Teologic Adventist

Semitic influence over the NT Greek prepositional use has been proposed by various scholars. At times, it turns out that the examples these scholars emphasize are quite unconvincing, many times because their methodologies seem unclear. This article proposes the use of Second Language Acquisition approach in assessing the degree of Semitic influence in the NT Greek prepositions use and applies it in the case of the prepositional irregularities found in the book of Revelation. Error Analysis, which is one of the major preoccupations of Second Language Acquisition, is a method whereby the source of a linguistic irregularity is identified and the irregularity is explained. The source or cause of the peculiar Greek of Revelation received two types of explanations: linguistic and non-linguistic. In the first category there are basically two orientations. The most appealing explanation seems to be the Semitic transfer, which means that John’s peculiar Greek had Aramaic, Hebrew, or both as the primary cause of it. The second explanation is the Greek hypothesis, which professes that John’s Greek has parallels in the Greek writings, and as such, is Greek in use. The question of this research is what is the source of Revelation’s prepositional irregularities? The paper discusses the usage of prepositions such as e??, e?, e?, µeta, ap?, and ep? in the book of Revelation, the NT, and the Greek language at large. Here too, the Semitic explanation predominates in literature. However, unclear terminology and inaccurate methodology were two factors that led to the conclusion that the source of the irregular prepositional use in Revelation is mainly Semitic. Therefore, this paper uses the terminology of Second Language Acquisition and its findings drawn from empirical studies about linguistic transfer and facilitation from the mother tongue into the second language. In light of Second Language Acquisition, there seem to be strong arguments that confirm the Greek hypothesis and infirm the Semitic explanation as to John’s peculiar use of prepositions.


A Toy for All Ages: Patristic Presentations of Blinded Samson as Plaything
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Vincent Moulton, Temple University

Basil of Caesarea, in "De Jejunio", describes Samson as “bereaved of his eyes and he was set out as a plaything for the children of foreigners.” Gregory of Nyssa, in "In Inscriptiones Psalmorum", outlines the “destruction of [Samson’s] eyes” and as a result he is “made laughable to drunken foreigners.” Several Church Fathers argue that because of Samson’s blindness he is something to be laughed at or played with. While the text does present Samson as a form of entertainment the text does not present a connection between Samson’s blindness and his new role. These Church Fathers view Samson’s state of blindness as the very reason that he is made laughable and a plaything for children. This paper will highlight the history of reception surrounding Samson as plaything as well as exploring exegetical strategies and assumptions about disabilities that allow interpreters to portray Samson’s blindness as more than sightlessness.


How the Forger Became an Exegete: Value Judgments and Publishing the Pseudepigrapha
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Eva Mroczek, Indiana University (Bloomington)

This paper historicizes the way early Jewish non-biblical sources have been published and evaluated from the 18th century through today, discussing how the scholarly, theological, and market interests that drive publication practices have changed over time. A key shift in the way the Pseudepigrapha have been framed has to do with the value judgements attached to these texts. The earliest publication efforts, like Fabricius’ 1713 collection, took pains to denigrate these texts as worthless forgeries vis-à-vis biblical authenticity. But today’s editions celebrate them as valuable examples of the earliest biblical exegesis, worthy of collection and study. While these judgments seem to have the opposite valence, they have something crucial in common: each frames the Pseudepigrapha in a secondary hierarchical relationship to the Bible. Both framings – the dismissive one, as forgery, and the celebratory one, as exegesis – are recuperative moves that buttress canonical boundaries in a response to challenges to the Bible’s stability and unity, which manifest differently in the Enlightenment and today.


Scribal Scholarship in the Formation of Patriarchal Narrative(s) and Holiness Code in the Post-exilic Period: The Re-conceptualization of the Promised Land
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Ndikho Mtshiselwa, University of South Africa

This paper engages with the work of scholars such as Christophe Nihan and Ehud Ben Zvi on the issue of the possession of the Promised Land by the Patriarchs. Nihan argues that the fulfillment of the promise of land made to Abraham ‘already occurred in the age of the Patriarchs, as is explicitly affirmed in Genesis 28:4 and 35:12’. Unlike Nihan, Ben Zvi holds that none of the Patriarchs held the Promised Land which is mentioned in Genesis 17:8. Based on the latter position, first, this paper draws parallels between the conceptualization of the Promised Land in the post-exilic period and the land promised to Abraham. Second, the present paper argues that some of the Israelites did not possess the Promised Land, that is, the Israelites were landless in post-exilic Yehud. Third, this paper accepts the argument that the Deuteronomistic (D) concept of the land as nahalah, ‘a personal possession’, was probably reconceptualised by the Priestly authors (P) and presented as huzzat, Yahweh’s exclusive possession. Forth, in the present paper the author argues that given the concern for social justice, H equally presented the land as solely belonging to Yahweh (cf. Lev 25:23), with the view to refute the treatment of land as a private asset by the élites in Yehud. On the whole, it is submitted in this paper that D and P’s concept of the Promised Land was supplemented by H in order to imagine and advance the sharing of land in Yehud.


Narratology and Orality in African Biblical Hermeneutics: Reading the Story of Naboth’s Vineyard and Jehu’s Revolution in Light of Intsomi YamaXhosa
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Ndikho Mtshiselwa, University of South Africa

On the issue of methodology, oral literature has been decisive in the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Africa. For instance, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan’a Mphahlele) convincingly employed the folktale of the ‘Rabbit and the Lion’, in her interpretation of the Bible. That Narratology and Orality in African Biblical Hermeneutics is a rarely researched area within biblical scholarship shows the room for further studies in this area. This paper argues that the reading of the Deuteronomistic story of Naboth’s Vineyard and Jehu’s Revolution in the Light of Intsomi yamaXhosa, ‘the folktale of the Xhosa people’ illustrates how biblical interpretation in Africa could be informed by Orality and Narrotology. First, the bearing that the context from which the texts of 1 Kgs 21:1–29; 2 Kgs 10 emerged has on the context from which the folktale of Intsimi yeenyamakazana, ‘the productive land of the animals’ developed will be investigated. Second, this paper examines the light that the social function of the story of Naboth’s vineyard and Jehu’s revolution would throw on the function of the folktale of Intsimi yeenyamakazana? Third, by considering the parallels between the story of Naboth’s Vineyard and Jehu’s Revolution and the folktale of Intsimi yeenyamakazana, the present paper will probe the socio-economic implications of Orality and Narratology for post-apartheid South Africa.


The Third Person: Finding the Self in Ancient Regulation
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Ellen Muehlberger, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Book review of Mira Balberg's Purity, Body, and Self in Early Rabbinic Literature (Berkeley: UC Press, 2014)


The Text of Revelation in GA 2329 and 2351
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Darius Müller, Protestant University Wuppertal/Bethel

In 2013 Panayiotis Tzamalikos edited a handsome edition of the text of Revelation and the so-called “Scholia in Apocalypsin” preserved in the Metamorphosis Codex 573, a codex that contains GA 2329 and 2351 in the catalogue of New Testament manuscripts. The Scholia included with the text of Revelation are found in 2351, while 2329 merely contains the text of Revelation. For Tzamalikos, the text of Revelation in both manuscripts is closely related; however, his hypothesis remains as an open question. Nonetheless, both documents belong to the “Consistently cited witnesses” of the Apocalypse in Nestle-Aland28 (cf. Introduction p. 67*), and are, consequently, considered substantial witnesses to the text of the Apocalypse. Furthermore, beyond the inclusion of the Scholia in 2351 and the textual value of these manuscripts, Tzamalikos has argued that the text form of these manuscripts was the source of the Apocalypse Koine text (cf. Tzamalikos, Book of Revelation, p. 6). Therefore, to determine their actual status for to the ECM, I examine the textual value of these manuscripts, their interrelationship, and text historical usage, utilizing the material of the completed Wuppertal test passage collation. My primary questions are: What is the text critical value of 2329 and 2351, how far are the texts of both witnesses related to each other, and what is their relationship to the Koine tradition of the Apocalypse?


Interpretative Translational Choices for Conditional Sentences in the Septuagint
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
James A. E. Mulroney, The University of Edinburgh

When writing in Greek it is normal (even unconscious) to consider the mood of the verbal that follows the particle e? or ???, since the author’s choice of either e? + indicative or ??? + subjective suggests the mood in which he wanted to communicate. This basic morphosyntactic pattern could also be varied by combining different sentence-initial particles and/or prepositions. In combination these particles did more than simply negate/affirm the sentence. The choice of, e.g. e? µ? e? or e? d? µ?, e? d? µ? ?e subtly affects the sense of the passage. For example, e? µ? d?? means “except for”, whereas e? d? µ? conveys the sense of “otherwise”. When the translators of LXX came to translate the synonymous conditional particles of their Hebrew Vorlage it does not seem that they did so by only employing literalism. While the translators chose to introduce the conditionality of the source text, they did so while also introducing interpretation on the grammatical level. While the Hebrew morphosyntax paradigmatically restricted the translator (which created a kind of literalism in the Greek text), syntagmatically, in this case, the result was often more “interpretative”, something that occurred in concert with the greater freedom found in that of semantic choice. The struggle for the translator(s) was his choice of words and their implicit relationships within the language into which he was communicating (Raffel). The translator’s choice of one conditional phrase rather than another (all of which are common in Classical and Hellenistic/Koiné Greek), including variations such as ??????G?, partly indicates this struggle in the communicative transformation from Hebrew to Greek. And because these phrases must be in grammatical concord with their verbal we may understand that the translator did not work atomistically when performing this part of his translation. The translator would have known, at least at the clause-level, where he was headed. Moreover, because these protatic clauses are related to their apodoses, there is a sentence-level perspective implicit in the act of translation. Introducing the subjunctive mood in the protasis, for example, adumbrated the apodosis, which when in the indicative and future heightens the sense of vividity. The study will focus on the earliest translators of the Pentateuch in light of Classical and Hellenistic works.


References to the Pharaoh in the Local Glyptic Assemblage of the Southern Levant during the 1st Part of the 1st Millennium BCE
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Stefan Münger, Universität Bern - Université de Berne

Among the many thousand scarabs, scaraboids and other stamp-seal amulets unearthed in Iron Age contexts in Cis- and Transjordan, there are many such seals showing royal Egyptian imagery on their bases. Focusing mainly on Pharaonic motifs, the paper aims to catalogue the principal iconemes, to trace their development throughout the Iron Ages and to extrapolate their significance vis-à-vis the contemporary glyptic assemblages. As will be shown, the royal imagery of the Egyptian king underwent considerable changes during pre-monarchic and monarchic times in Israel/Judah. This allows – to some extent – deducing the perception of the ‘image’ of the Egyptian king in this part of the Southern Levant at the close of the second and during the first centuries of the first millennium BCE. While the local seal production not only vividly copied earlier and contemporary Egyptian prototypes, it also developed idiosyncratic ‘Pharaonic’ motifs that were produced for the local market. On the other hand, imported Egyptian glyptic goods – such as scarabs and other amulet types – reveal further facets of the consumer behavior. They, too, shed light upon the ideological and religious preferences of the local population and illuminate the development of the vernacular attitude towards the Pharaonic symbols of power – including their obvious political and sacred connotations.


New Evidence for and a New Critical Edition of 4QXIIg (4Q82)
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Catherine M. Murphy, Santa Clara University

4QXIIg is the most extensive copy of the Twelve from the eleven caves at Qumran, but it is also the most difficult to read. Published by R. E. Fuller in DJD 15 (1997), it includes several multilayered fragments, ink lifted from lower layers onto the verso of upper layers in reverse, and 153 unidentified and un-transcribed fragments. This paper will present new evidence for the manuscript, including old PAM photographs that were not included in the DJD edition, recent multispectral images of fragments that reveal new contents, a report on progress made to identify the published and new-found unidentified fragments, and efforts to identify the contents from the end of the scroll, which lies still rolled on its winding stick in a box at the Israel Antiquities Authority facility in Jerusalem. In addition, the layering of several fragments permits a reconstruction of the manuscript, which in turn assists with the identification of the fragmentary remains and a more complete account of the sequencing of the books.


The Bible and the Analogical Imagination
Program Unit: Christian Theology and the Bible
Francesca Murphy, University of Notre Dame

This paper argues that Jesus Christ is the hinge of the analogy of being and that the passage from Old Covenant to New Covenant constitutes the two poles of the analogia entis. The Old and New Covenant are joined in the person of the slain lamb. These two poles are eternally united in the 'analogical' relation of the persons of the Trinity. The heart of the analogy of being is thus the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.


Field to Field, House to House: Land Tenure in the Prophets and Beyond
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Kelly Murphy, Central Michigan University

Invited


A Pentecostal Hearing of Psalmic Voices
Program Unit: Society for Pentecostal Studies
Meghan Musy, McMaster Divinity College

Hearing the different voices within the Psalter.


Hearing Voices: Exploring Psalmic Multivocality as Lyric Poetry
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Meghan D. Musy, McMaster Divinity College

Until recent decades, the biblical studies guild has been distracted. Scholars have been so seduced by the search for historiographical contexts that they have gotten lost in enthronement festivals, Assyrian cultic ceremonies, and Jerusalem temple courts. Excavating the historiographical context of the Psalter and its individual psalms has its place and its value; however, the dynamism of biblical Hebrew poetry and the rhetorical power of psalmic voicing resound when one listens through literary devices and poetics of the final form of the Psalter. To run roughshod over the poetics of the Psalter is to deny the beauty of lyric poetry and stifle its rhetorical power. Poetry provokes, goads, and emotes in lilts, tones, and language that other forms of literature do not. Thus, approaching the Psalter through lyric poetic analysis produces a more satisfying understanding of the poetics and rhetorical effect of this ancient corpus of literature. Responsible readers must approach biblical Hebrew poetry, especially the poetry of the Psalter, with an understanding of the conventions, poetic devices, and literary tools that lyric poetry employs. The poetic devices of biblical Hebrew poetry allow for multiple voices to be heard and evoke experiences. Psalms slip from cries of imprecation and lament to divine answer, from quoting the accusations and slander of the enemies to testifying to the character of Yahweh, from reflexive commands to communal imperatives. As these voices and audiences oscillate, they create distance and proximity, play with center and periphery, and fluctuate between presence and absence. The final forms of the individual psalms provide neither profiles of authors or characters nor narratival signals of normativity or progression; however, the voices of the Psalter still speak and call readers to enter into its poetic experience. Therefore, this paper will abandon the form-critical question of ‘who is speaking’—which produces educated, historical-critical guesses to interpret the literary work through reconstructed biographical sketches and contexts—in order to listen to the voices of the Psalter through lyric poetic analysis. Lyric poetic analysis of selected psalms will provide insight into the dynamics of voicing of the Psalter and, in turn, offer deeper understanding and appreciation for the rhetorical effects of psalmic poetry. Interpreting psalmic material as lyric poetry will provide a sensitized reading of the dynamics created by multivocality. It will offer a reading of the shifts in personae and audiences that seeks their rhetorical function. Thus, an exegetical examination with a focus on the lyric poetry analysis of the voicing phenomenon in the Psalter will both explore the value of lyric poetic analysis and investigate the dialects of distance/proximity and presence/absence in selected psalmic material.


African Ethics and Disability: Case Study of the Shona of Zimbabwe
Program Unit: African Association for the Study of Religions
Maaraidzo Mutambara, Africa University

*


Iltifat and Narrative Voice in the Qur’an
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Jessica Sylvan Mutter, University of Chicago

The question of voice is one of the most complex issues in the study of the Qur’an. The narrator of the Qur’an, assumed to be God, seems most often expressed in the first-person plural, but at times it is also first-person singular, and shifts from direct to indirect address and back again without warning. The addressee seems to be at times one person (based on use of a singular verb or noun) and other times many people, and also shifts rapidly from one to the other. Questions of speaker and addressee and audience only become more complicated when the Qur’anic voice narrates a story containing dialogue. The Qur’an employs direct speech from the first-person plural narrator to a second-person adressee; that speech in turn often narrates individual stories which utilize dialogue (direct speech) between the story’s characters. In essence, it frequently makes use of a sort of nested dialogue, in which the Qur’anic voice instructs Mu?ammad to tell his audience a story, then the same Qur’anic voice narrates the story, often giving active lines of dialogue to major figures such as Moses and Pharaoh. Medieval scholars noticed and attempted to understand the Qur’an’s use of shifts in person and pronoun usage, indicating what appear to be irregular and inconsistent changes in speaker, addressee and audience. Such shifting was described in the context of a rhetorical device called iltifat—literally, “turning.” Viewed as a marker of high style by medieval Arabic grammarians, its use in the Qur’an has been studied extensively. In this presentation, I argue iltifat seems to be not merely a stylistic device, but rather a shift with very clear intention and purpose. Rather, iltifat, in the context of the Qur’an, denotes a deliberate shift in speaker and dialogue, and acts as a marker of when and where dialogue, whether inner (nested) or outer, begins, ends, or shifts to an aside or another form of narration. In this presentation, I will offer a non-scriptural framework for reading and following the Qur’an’s use of iltifat and its often confusing shifts in speaker, tone and content. I focus in this presentation on examples from Suras 19, 20 and 28 (Suras Maryam, ?a Ha and Qa?a?, respectively), though I think this framework may be applied to many other suras, if not all of them. I do not offer a rejection of standard interpretations of audience and speaker in the Qur’an, but an alternative method of interpretation that I believe will clarify the purpose and intention of these shifts throughout each sura of the Qur’an.


Jesus as God’s Son: Blending Voices and Memory to Hear John’s Word
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Alicia D. Myers, Campbell University

Beginning in 2013, the John, Jesus, and History group initiated a new sort of “quest” for the historical Jesus from John’s Gospel. In so doing, these scholars have largely built on the work of Dale Allison, who emphasizes the often overlooked significance of the numerous and surprisingly-consistent “general impressions” concerning Jesus in the four, canonical Gospel accounts—John among them. While not a transparent window back to the “historical” person of Jesus, these “general impressions” are useful for communicating the ways in which Jesus was remembered by other persons in history. Among these impressions is the title “Son of God” (huios tou theou). Appearing frequently in the Synoptics, this title also surfaces at least seven times in the Gospel of John ([1:34]; 1:49; 3:16; 5:25; 10:36; 11:4, 27; 20:31). Jesus himself uses the moniker four times (3:16; 5:25; 10:36; 11:4), others confess this title as an identity for him at least two times ([John the Baptist, 1:34]; Nathanael, 1:49; and Martha 11:27), while the narrator provides the capstone reference in the so-called purpose statement of the Gospel in 20:31. Each use of the title, however, does not appear in isolation, but rather is intimately bound to other titles and metaphors for Jesus’ identity, especially in relationship to God as “Father.” In this way, references to Jesus as “Son of God” in the Fourth Gospel reach far beyond a singular referent (i.e. only royal connotations) and instead branch out to link other images to the larger motif of Jesus as “son” (and God as “father”). In this way, the more general tradition of Jesus as the “Son of God” is blended with other, arguably more exalted traditions, in the memory of the Johannine community. For this community, Jesus as God’s Son means that he is more than a human leader for God’s Kingdom—he is instead the unique enfleshment of God’s Logos who alone reflects and shows the way to the Father’s glory.


Paul and the Rhetoric of Obedience: A Rhetorical Reading of Obedience
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Jason A. Myers, Asbury Theological Seminary

This paper seeks to reconsider the meaning and context of the phrase “the obedience of faith” (?pa???? p?ste??) and the theme of obedience in Romans. By investigating how obedience language functioned within the Greco-Roman world, particularly in the discourse of the Roman Empire, it will allow us to more fully understand how some in Paul’s audience may have understood the language of obedience. This will also have the further corollary of illumining Paul’s purpose(s) in Romans. Attention to the way obedience language functioned in Greco- Roman contexts will help us understand how Gentiles in Paul’s audience may have heard the terms and images relating to obedience. A few examples of obedience language from Greco-Roman literature will suffice. In the Aeneid, Virgil poetically remarks, “But, Rome, it is thine alone, with awful sway, to rule mankind, and make the world obey” (Aen, 6.852). Likewise, Polybius states, “The Roman conquest, on the other hand, was not partial. Nearly the whole inhabited world was reduced by them to obedience (?p?????): and they left behind them an empire not to be paralleled in the past or rivaled in the future” (Hist, 1.2.3). These references are a small sampling of the substantial evidence of obedience language within the Roman Empire. This work hopes to draw further attention to obedience as a recurring theme of Romans. Paul’s use of obedience language, both at the beginning (1:5 exordium) and end (15:8 peroratio) of Romans, serves as rhetorical bookends and signals a theme that runs throughout the letter. At the forefront, my argument is that one of Paul’s purposes, as indicated by the exordium in 1:1–15 and supplemented by the peroratio in 15:22–33, is that obedience is central to his purpose(s) in Romans, especially in bringing the Roman communities alongside himself in order to make it possible to move west to Spain. The similarities between the exordium and the peroratio indicate that Paul’s purpose in writing to and visiting Rome includes the issue of obedience.


The Rhetorical Quest of “Subversion” in New Testament Studies
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Robert J. Myles, University of Auckland

This paper engages in a meta-critical reflection on the use of “subversion” in recent New Testament scholarship, focusing in particular on the quest for the historical Jesus. Drawing on the critical theory of Antonio Gramsci, Slavoj Žižek, Wendy Brown, and Jeffrey Nealon, it is argued that, through its discursive mimicking of wider cultural trends, the rhetorical trope of subversion has enabled historical Jesus scholarship to enjoy both popular and academic success in Western, neoliberal society. Subversion first came to prominence in New Testament studies during the 1990s when it had already become increasingly fashionable across a number of humanities disciplines, particularly those employing approaches developed following the linguistic turn. However, the meaning of subversion was here taken broadly–relating less to governmental structures, and more to the transgression of dominant cultural forces like patriarchy, heteronormativity, or individualism. Within historical Jesus research, scholars largely absorbed and mimicked this discourse in a way that made it palatable to the confessional and historical quirks of the discipline. By championing a subversive Jesus, he was once again made relevant. On the one hand, for example, John Dominic Crossan’s Jesus spun subversive aphorisms and his Cynic-like “lifestyle”, miracles, and Kingdom proclamation constituted the radical subversion of the present world order. On the other hand, N.T. Wright frequently intensified the rhetoric of subversion to incredible levels, claiming a Jesus who is “profoundly”, “doubly”, “thoroughly”, “deeply”, and “multiply” subversive, while simultaneously distancing him from more traditional subversive fixtures like militant revolutionary action or radicalism. It will be argued that historical Jesus research, like much of New Testament scholarship, bought into a cultural mainstreaming of subversion in which certain forms of (cultural, gender, and occasionally political) subversion are tolerated within neoliberal society, as part of its broader strategy of ideological containment and economic compliance.


Jesus Baptizatus: A Textual History of Jesus’ Baptism to the End of the Second Century
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Matti Myllykoski, Helsinki University Library

The stories of the baptism of Jesus in the four canonical Gospels have been studied with traditional methods in order to reconstruct the earliest tradition and to demonstrate the redactional motifs of each evangelist. Some scholars have also documented the reception and interpretation of these stories in later Christian literature. Yet the study of the textual transmission of the Gospel passages and its role in their reception has not received equal attention, even though the notable textual variety in the baptism stories of the canonical Gospels calls for explanation. A closer look at the Gospel manuscripts and other witnesses shows that the variant readings are often related to each other both within each pericope and between diverging versions. It is also possible to see that the different textual traditions have remarkably affected the reception of the Gospel passages at different locations of the Mediterranean area. This article takes up the evidence for a fresh examination and explores the history and significance of the textual variants from the Markan version to the end of the second century.


Measuring Syntax: New Ways of Researching Linguistic Variation in relation to “Historical Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew”
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Martijn Naaijer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

In their most recent book, Rezetko and Young opt for Cross-Textual Variable Analysis and Variationist Analysis as ways of making progress in a field that seems to have been in a stalemate position for several years. In our presentation we will review these approaches by comparing them with our own work in the project on syntactic variation in Biblical Hebrew at VU University Amsterdam. Studying complex syntactic features throughout the Hebrew Bible is difficult, especially when doing it exhaustively. It is only feasible when texts and suitable linguistic annotations are available as digital data. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, there is an abundant attestation of nominal clauses (more than 10000). We study their structure throughout the Hebrew Bible using innovative data mining techniques, like sequence analysis. We show how their structure varies within and between complete biblical books in the Masoretic Text, but also between the redactional layers of the Pentateuch. In what kind of environments can they be found and how is their structure conditioned? We compare the method and the results of our research with that of Rezetko and Young and other, more traditional studies on linguistic variation in Biblical Hebrew in order to find out how combining linguistics, source criticism and quantitative methods can advance our understanding of Hebrew syntax and the growth of the Hebrew Bible. We hope that by introducing these new tools and techniques, and stating their necessity, we will give an additional stimulus to the current debate. The data for this research have been preprocessed with a new tool: LAF-Fabric. The source is the ETCBC database of the Hebrew Bible, which has been developed over more than 30 years. This database has been archived at the national research archive for the social sciences and the humanities in the Netherlands, Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS). LAF-Fabric is included as well and is also on Github. A website has been built to expose this data to syntactical queries by researchers: SHEBANQ (http://shebanq.ancient-data.org). This website contains all references needed to obtain the data and reproduce the results obtained from it. The motivating principle behind the ETCBC database is to have a foundation of hard data to base computations on. It should be feasible for others to reproduce our computations. We have invested heavily in LAF-Fabric and SHEBANQ in order to achieve this, and we are encouraged by the DH2014 Award for Best Suite of Tools which SHEBANQ has received just recently (http://dhawards.org/dhawards2014/results/).


The Jerusalem Temple and Its Role in Land Consolidation in the First Century
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Raj Nadella, Columbia Theological Seminary

Several biblical scholars have highlighted the prevalence of the socio-economic phenomenon of latifundialization in first century Palestine. Most of these scholars have discussed how the Jerusalem temple may have contributed to that phenomenon, albeit indirectly, through factors such as temple taxes, tithing, and wealthy Jerusalem priests making loans to peasants at exorbitant interest rates. Along those lines, there is scholarly consensus, based on archeological evidence, that some priests may have acquired significant personal wealth by making loans to peasants and taking possession of their lands when the latter failed to repay. This paper makes a two-fold argument. First, it argues that the temple played a more direct role in perpetuating the process of consolidation of agricultural lands. It shows how the temple itself functioned as an economic institution that was making loans to peasants at exorbitant interest rates, much like the wealthy priests themselves. I will employ evidence from the canonical Gospels, from non-canonical sources such as 2 Maccabees and Flavius Josephus’ Bellum Judaicum and from recent archeological discoveries to call attention to the ways in which the temple was a more direct participant in latifundialization than had been previously thought. Furthermore, the paper will argue that the temple ownership of land, acquired in part through the aforementioned processes, extended well beyond the urban areas of Jerusalem.


Food Fight: The Role of Meals in Warfare as Reflected in the Eliashib Archive
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Roger S. Nam, George Fox University

Although Arad’s military significance in Judah is not surprising considering its strategic location as a gateway to the Negev, the rich collection of Iron Age II ostraca reveal inordinate concern towards food supplies, particularly to the elite officers. According to the archive, a significant amount of foodstuffs supported military activity, draining the civilian population of rare resources. Using anthropological studies of food production during war (Dirks [1988], Ember and Ember [1994]) this paper will analyze the Eliashib letters in the Arad ostracon to reconstruct aspects of military food distribution, and its deleterious effects on the regional agrarian peasants.


Healing and Wellness in Acholi-Land after Decades of War: Dining with Returning Lord’s Resistance Army Combatants
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Helen Nambalirwa, Makerere University

My field research on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) an armed group under the leadership of Joseph Kony who claims that he was sent by God to liberate the people of northern Uganda from suffering shows that the LRA have justified all their violent actions which have caused a complete overturn of the social and generational structures of the Acholi people, by making reference to biblical texts. The LRA acted violently in most cases based on their literal understanding of some biblical texts with a violent message. However, there is sufficient evidence to show that neither the LRA leader Joseph Kony nor his followers have studied the Hebrew language. That being the case, it can be argued that the LRA’s claims are without doubt a result of their oral perceptions of the narrated biblical text based on the fact that the situation in Northern Uganda presents a similar picture such as the one in the Old Testament. In the recent years, the LRA has ceased its activities in northern Uganda and many of the former LRA soldiers have returned to the community. Consequently, the community members who were never part of the LRA but instead suffered at the hands of their brothers and sisters who were members of the LRA are left with a dilemma of having to dine with their former tormentors. As northern Uganda goes through a reintegration process, the question that lingers is many people’s minds is: How can the society be healed and restored to wellness? My answer to the question is that this can best be done through the exploitation of Acholi cultural beliefs and rituals of healing and reconciliation which in my view are not very far from some rituals in the Old Testament. Through Acholi rituals of reconciliation, communities are given an opportunity to participate in the process of their social healing and cohesion. In view of that, this article therefore seeks to expose some Acholi cultural beliefs and practices that can contribute towards meaningful healing and wellness in Acholi-land.


Are Jews Outside of the Covenants if Not Confessing Jesus as Messiah? Questioning the Questions, the Options for the Answers Too
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
Mark D. Nanos, University of Kansas - Lawrence

*


Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: Judah, Edom, and Converse Constructions of Israeliteness in Genesis 36
Program Unit: Genesis
Dustin Nash, Muhlenberg College

Genesis 36 contains a large and detailed group of genealogies and lists pertaining to the kingdom of Edom, Judah’s ancient southeastern neighbor. Contemporary ethnographic studies and archaeological evidence support the claim by certain scholars that this material and other descriptions of the Israelites’ ancestral ties to regional peoples functioned to maintain the boundaries of the Judahite returnee community’s distinctive identity in the post-exilic period. Yet, the unique scope and detail of Gen 36, as well as its conspicuous position within the narrative, still require explanation. Indeed, the theory that this material worked to distinguish an Edomite “Them” from a Judahite “Us” only explains the current function of a passage that internal evidence suggests is an aggregation of separate traditions. Moreover, the genealogies of Gen 36 distinguish Edom from Israel: not Edom from Judah. The present paper will address these issues by approaching Gen 36 from the standpoint of ancient Near Eastern scribal culture and the premise of a fundamental distinction between Israelite and Judahite traditions within the biblical corpus. This perspective offers a new direction for understanding the purpose of the compiled data the passage presents, as well as the ideological goals that guided the textual formation of Genesis as a whole. Specifically, in an effort to maintain a communal boundary marker between returnee Judahites in the post-exilic period and their neighbors, the scribes responsible for Gen 36 were forced to define the Israeliteness, both negatively and positively, of the Edomites and themselves.


From Coast to Coast in Acts 10: A Journey Turned Seawards
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Emmanuel Nathan, Australian Catholic University

My paper puts forward a reading of Acts 10 ‘from the margins’ (more aptly, coastlines) to argue that Caesarea, and not Antioch (cf. Acts 11:26), should be read as the birthplace of global Christianity. To read the meeting of Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10) coastally is to reflect seriously on the significance of the two coastal towns mentioned in that narrative, Joppa and Caesarea. To the discerning reader (or hearer), the mention of Joppa would have carried some echo of the port from which the prophet Jonah had sought to flee God’s command to convert Nineveh, that most inimical of non-Jewish cities the Hebrew prophet could imagine. With that same echo, Peter’s vision at Joppa already sets the scene for him to enter onto the world stage awaiting him at Caesarea. As a far more imposing coastal town, Caesarea Maritima had been built by King Herod as the Roman (pagan) counterpart to Judean (Jewish) Jerusalem. It was thus the perfect geographical setting for the author of Acts to stage the encounter between Peter the Jew and Cornelius the Roman and to trace from there the early church’s move beyond its ‘Judean’ confines. Reading their encounter coastally, too, harks back to the promise of the Lukan Jesus on the shore of Lake Gennesaret that Simon the fisherman would henceforward be a fisher of people (Lk 5:10). Henceforward, the subsequent travelogues by sea in the book of Acts serve to punctuate Caesarea as that liminal space between land and sea where the nascent church first entered into its ongoing negotiation with empire and globalization. In a final move, I shall reflect on Acts 10 islandly (as an islander myself) and argue for an ‘amphibian’ hermeneutic in which the perspectives of island and continent, land and sea, ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’, are always held together in hybrid tension.


His Story: The Characterization of Paul in Acts from the Perspective of Reputational Entrepreneurship
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Emmanuel Nathan, Australian Catholic University

Were it not for the Book of Acts, we would be able to reconstruct very little about Paul from his own writings. The author of 2 Peter only too readily admits that Paul’s letters contain much in them that is “hard to understand” (2 Pet 3:16). Calvin Roetzel (Paul: The Man and the Myth, 1999, 153) has even gone so far as to claim that it was the author of Acts who rescued Paul from falling into obscurity by devoting over half of his book to this apostle. Having argued elsewhere that Paul was a reputation entrepreneur for Jesus, I now wish to take Gary Fine’s reputation theory one step further and argue that the author of Acts was a reputation entrepreneur for Paul. I shall pay particular attention to Paul’s ‘difficult reputation’ as a former persecutor of the church and trace the way in which the author of Acts narratively fleshes out the metamorphosis that Paul himself summarily described others as saying of him: “the one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy” (Gal 1:23). By doing so, I shall demonstrate that Gary Fine’s work on difficult reputations is helpful in further outlining the ways in which history, narrative and commemoration interact and intersect.


Clamoring for Change
Program Unit: Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Guy Nave, Luther College

This paper argues that the demand for “change” permeates contemporary political and social discourse in the United States. LexisNexis database research indicates that since 2008 there has been an exponential increase in the rhetoric of “change.” 2008 also marked the beginning of what many political scientist and historians have identified as the most deeply divided period in American politics and culture—a period where political gridlock is the norm rather than the exception. Everyone is dug in and unwilling to move from his or her ideological position. At the same time, everyone is demanding and promising change. What kind of change is possible, however, when no one thinks they need to change and everyone thinks “the other” needs to change? While calls for change abound in biblical texts, most of these calls are not directed toward "others." Biblical texts were written for communities of faith—usually by community “insiders”—emphasizing the need for change among “insiders” rather than “outsiders.” Examining select biblical passages, this presentation explores what we can learn about change when the demand for change is turned inward rather than outward.


The Greek Philosophical Tradition in Philo's Ethical Teaching: Eusebeia for the Service of God and Human Beings
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Nelida Naveros Cordova, Loyola University of Chicago

The concept of eusebeia (piety) well known in the Greek world serves as the foundational virtue in Philo’s ethical system. He appropriates the Greek understanding of eusebeia and applies it to his ethical teaching about how one is to live virtuously. However, instead of viewing eusebeia as a subordinate virtue, like in the Stoic and Platonic traditions, Philo gives the virtue eusebeia a primary place and names it “the highest and greatest of virtues” (Abr. 60) and “the origin of all the other virtues” (Decal. 52). What is significant about Philo’s ethical system is that he subsumes all the ethical commandments of the Decalogue under this greatest virtue, eusebeia, but without divorcing himself from his Greek philosophical tradition. This paper will show how this is so. Ancient sources evince that the early understanding of the Greek concept of eusebeia went through a development (ca. fifth century B.C.E.). This paper will show how this development of eusebeia in the Greek tradition is reflected in one aspect of Philo’s use of eusebeia: that is, eusebeia for the service of God and human beings. We will see that in Philo’s ethical discussion especially concerning the Decalogue, he views eusebeia in two ways: prior to its transition, when eusebeia was used indistinctly from dikaiosune; and after its transition, when eusebeia was sharply distinguished from dikaiosune. I will also offer a reason why both traditions are still present. This discussion will not only illumine some of the complexities of Philo’s understanding of the concept of eusebeia as the primary virtue in his ethical system, but will show the influence of the Greek philosophical tradition on his thought.


Historical Time in Late Babylonian and Early Jewish Ex Eventu Texts
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Matthew Neujahr, Marquette University

The Akkadian ex eventu texts constitute a small corpus of first millennium Babylonian compositions, themselves of diverse literary genres but united in their use of vaticinium ex eventu as a means of structuring past time, commenting on the present, and agitating for a particular future. Similarities between this small corpus and early Jewish historical apocalypses have long been recognized, and a number of Assyriologists (prominent among them William Hallo, A.K. Grayson, and W.G. Lambert) have argued in print that these Akkadian documents represent the direct literary and intellectual ancestors of the book of Daniel, and thus of Jewish apocalyptic literature in general. Such claims are untenable, and have been convincingly challenged by a number of scholars. However, the vey real similarities between the Akkadian works—in particular the Dynastic Prophecy and the Uruk Prophecy—and the early Jewish historical apocalypses cannot be denied. The present paper will delve into the ways in which the Akkadian ex eventu texts function as a form of historiography; their relationship to other texts in the Mesopotamian chronographic tradition; and their place among literary expressions of Babylonian mantic practices. These relationships, situated within the immense richness of the extant Babylonian literary tradition, in turn shed light on the ways in which the ex eventu passages in works such as Daniel and 1 Enoch speak to the writing of history, the nature of historical time, and the relationships between ex eventu narrative and mantic practice in Hellenistic Judea.


Silencing Women, Raising the Dead: The Curious Origins of a Controversial Conjectural Emendation
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Karin Neutel, VU University Amsterdam

The question whether Paul really instructed women to be silent in community gatherings or whether this text is in fact a later interpolation (1 Cor. 14:33b/34-35), is one of the most hotly debated text critical issues. Controversies over the past century surrounding the role of women in Christian communities have made the status of these verses especially significant. This paper will clarify the curious origins of this particular conjectural emendation and the context in which it arose. In doing so, it contributes to the ‘historical turn’ in textual criticism and illustrates the historical value of studying textual conjectures. The emendation will be shown to predate debates on women in the ministry and to have its background in another long-running dispute, that of the nature of the resurrection. The Dutch scholar Jan Willem Straatman was the first to argue for the inauthenticity of this passage, in 1863, as part of a broader case about the corrupted make-up of 1 Corinthians. His argument culminates in a rejection of Pauline authorship of statements about the appearance of the risen Christ (1 Cor. 15:3-11). Even though Straatman was thus not primarily motivated by a concern for the position of women in the church, the passage still struck him as one of the most obviously inauthentic texts in the New Testament. The arguments put forward by him are those that have remained significant in subsequent discussions: in addition to textual variations, Straatman highlights the apparent contradiction with the acceptance of women’s speech in 1 Cor. 11, and with the equality between men and women suggested by Gal. 3:28, that in Christ there is ‘no male and female’. In Straatman’s view, a text that urges women to be obedient and silent declares them to be inferior to men, and should therefore be rejected as un-Pauline. As part of the project 'New Testament Conjectural Emendation: A Comprehensive Enquiry' (at VU University, Amsterdam), this analysis of the origins of Straatman’s emendation highlights the historical insights that the study of textual conjecture yields. The case of Straatman shows that already in the mid-19th century, attitudes towards women were such that this passage could present itself as problematic for a critical reader. This analysis also illustrates the particular religious environment in which such a critical reading could originate. In supporting his rejection of bodily resurrection with the claim that the command for women to be silent is a later interpolation, Straatman raised an issue that has continued to plague Pauline scholarship until the present day.


Prayer Practices and the Transformation of Early Jewish Texts
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Judith H. Newman, University of Toronto

The Greco-Roman period witnesses a proliferation of prayer texts both within and independent of Jewish cultural texts. The discovery of the Dead Seas Scrolls has revealed the pluriform character of cultural texts and scriptures in the Greco-Roman period, almost all of which contain prayers. How might we reframe our understanding of early Jewish textual transmission and scripture formation in light of these two phenomena? George Brooke has recently identified the performative setting of worship as one underexplored social setting through which “canonization processes” occurred. Following upon his suggestion for further work, this paper identifies three ways in which prayer practices can be understood both to shape the liturgical body and to transform cultural texts into emergent scriptures.


Sculpting “Source-Places:” Alex Haley “Wroughts” a Scripture
Program Unit: Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts
Richard Newton, Elizabethtown College

During America’s bicentennial, Alex Haley captivated a nation with the saga of his family’s journey from enslavement to emancipation. Roots not only provided a portrait of black persons as consummate Americans, but also a vocabulary for articulating ultimate agency. His story proved to be the Post-Civil Rights history that the country needed to more fully realize the dream of integration. Categorizing Roots as a sort of scripture is not uncommon in scholarship. Literary critics have pointed out the edenic similarities between the Genesis creation myth and Haley’s Africa. Furthermore, the prescriptive and descriptive nature of his historiography exude a “good news” sensibility. And the record-breaking sales of the 700-page tome set Roots apart as one of those books that many have though few read, suggesting an iconic appeal. While these observations are evocative, attention to Haley’s multi-sensory approach to storytelling can further illuminate the critical study of scriptures. At last year’s meeting of SCRIPT, David Dault suggested that scriptures are a phenomenon “wrought.” In this paper, I build on that notion by framing Alex Haley’s scriptural legacy in terms of sculpture. Archival findings related to Haley’s literary legacy strongly suggest that the writer fashioned himself as a crafter of both words and “worlds.” Haley went to great lengths to carve his message and himself into the American landscape. In the novel, he presents Africa as a “source-place” from which black persons should draw strength. Haley replaces the foundational knowledge that slavery destroyed. Knowing one’s self in America becomes synonymous with knowing one’s roots—a process that presupposes knowing his Roots. Haley’s discourse turns around the transmission of Mandika terms that his forbears passed on through the generations (and eventually to the author himself). Chief among them is the phrase kamby bolongo, meaning “Gambian River.” In the New World, Haley’s protagonist, Kunta Kinte, teaches his daughter to call the nearby Mattaponi River (in Spotsylvania County, Virginia) kamby bolongo. By reforming his surroundings in the image of Africa, Kunta Kinte models Haley’s understanding that one can be rooted in America. Similarly, Haley actively detailed and even constructed sites for readers to enter his world. With profits from Roots, Haley acquired and restored the Tennessee home where he first heard the African tales that spurred his own search. Americans have since built Roots-themed sculptures in locations such as the Annapolis dock where Kunta Kinte landed in America and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta. Although Haley died in 1992, his memory and message is fixed into America, not just literally, but physically. Haley believed that “[i]n all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.” Through Haley’s Roots, we learn that scriptures are what humans craft to fill such spaces.


Writing a Commentary on a Philonic Allegorical Treatise
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Maren Niehoff, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

A response to the commentary and translation of Philo's de Plantatione by Albert Geljon and David Runia, as well as their earlier volume on Philo's de Agricultura, with a focus on the mechanics of crafting a commentary on the Alexandrian's allegorical treatises. [to be revised by Dr. Niehoff]


Prophecy in Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets with Special Emphasis on the Elijah-Elisha Narrative
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Flemming A.J. Nielsen, University of Greenland

The Elijah-Elisha narrative (1 Kgs 16:29–2 Kgs 13:25) seems to give expression to mixed ideas of prophetism. Sometimes those two prophets act like the typical Deuteronomistic prophet, and on other occasions they look like shamans of the kind that are condemned in Deut 18. Based on a reading of the narrative that emphasizes its shamanistic features, I will compare Elijah and Elisha to other prophetical figures in the Former Prophets as well as to the ideas about prophetism expressed in Deuteronomy. What can be deduced from the use of prophetism in those books as regards the classic idea about a Deuteronomistic History?


The Old Greek Text of Job: Is It of Any Help for Textual Criticism?
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Urmas Nõmmik, University of Tartu

The Old Greek text of Job is the Greek translation of the Hebrew book of Job from a time prior to Origen’s, Theodotion’s and others’. Many scholars have maintained that this text should be regarded as a literary work in its own right and seen within the framework of Greek-Hellenistic literature (e.g., Claude E. Cox, Markus Witte). There are numerous reasons to maintain such a position, for example the collocation of specific terminology and phenomena in Greek-Hellenistic philosophical, religious and mythological discourse. The language of the translators has also been found to be of a rather fine Greek stock, borrowing from Homer’s works and other bedrocks of Greek literature. The difference becomes particularly clear when one compares the Old Greek text of Job to the translation of Theodotion, which is closer to the parent text. It is rather obvious that the following problem for the textual criticism of the book of Job should arise from these premises: can a translation which after a closer analysis turns out to be a work sui generis be used as a textual critical argument for the Hebrew text? My answer is positive, with certain restrictions. Whereas in most cases, the paraphrasing translation unfortunately obscures many details in the parent text, several instances still support the supposed original reading of the Masoretic text. However, the result would be more convincing if other methods could support the evidence. Of particular interest is the method of form criticism which makes the poetic portion of the book of Job better suited to text critical operations. In order to illustrate such a claim, few examples will demonstrate the worth of the Old Greek text of Job for textual criticism.


The Old Greek Text of Job and the Literary History of the Hebrew Job
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Urmas Nõmmik, University of Tartu

The Old Greek text of Job is the Greek translation of the Hebrew book of Job from a time prior to Origen’s, Theodotion’s and others’. Many scholars have maintained that this text should be regarded as a literary work in its own right and seen within the framework of Greek-Hellenistic literature (e.g., Claude E. Cox, Markus Witte). There are numerous reasons to maintain such a position, for example the collocation of specific terminology and phenomena in Greek-Hellenistic philosophical, religious and mythological discourse. The language of the translators has also been found to be of a fine Greek stock, borrowing from Homer’s works and other bedrocks of Greek literature. The difference becomes particularly clear when one realizes the variability of expression within the Old Greek text of Job and compares it to the translation of Theodotion, which is closer to the parent text. Furthermore, the Old Greek text often omits one colon from a bicolon of the parent text or merges two cola into one. It is rather obvious that the following problem for the textual criticism and literary criticism (Literarkritik) of the book of Job should arise from these premises: can a translation which after a closer analysis turns out to be a work sui generis be used as a literary and a redaction critical argument for the Hebrew book of Job? My answer is positive, with certain restrictions. As one becomes fully conscious of the mentioned premises, one gains a new perspective to the possible worth of the Old Greek text. In order to demonstrate the methodological potential, observations on two different texts will be made. One is taken from the prose frame story of Job which in the Old Greek text supplies many "additions" and one from the poetic portion of the book which attests many "omissions" compared to the Hebrew parent text. A preliminary evaluation will be given whether the Old Greek text in these cases supports a) the thesis of an independent Greek translator, b) a Hebrew parent text different from the Masoretic text, c) the possible contribution of the later editors of the Greek text or d) an additional tradition influencing the translators.


A Lost Leaf of P.Bodmer XIII and the Construction of the Bodmer "Composite" or "Miscellaneous" Codex
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Brent Nongbri, Macquarie University

P.Bodmer XIII is a papyrus copy of a sermon on the Passover attributed to Melito of Sardis. The text of the papyrus was edited by Michael Testuz and published in 1960 as a part of the so-called Bodmer composite or miscellaneous codex. But the codicological connection of P.Bodmer XIII to the other parts of the book has been a persistent difficulty (Testuz's own proposed codicological reconstruction of this segment of the book was shown to be impossible by Eric Turner in 1977). At the time of publication, Testuz described P.Bodmer XIII as being exceptionally well preserved and complete except for the first leaf, pages 1 and 2, which had been lost. To my knowledge, all subsequent scholarly treatments of P.Bodmer XIII and the composite or miscellaneous codex have worked on the assumption that the first leaf of P.Bodmer XIII is missing. Yet, among the some 1200 photographic plates in the K.G. Saur edition of the Bodmer papyri that was published in 2000, one in fact finds this "lost" first leaf of Melito, albeit in a somewhat fragmentary form. This presentation will introduce this previously undocumented papyrus leaf and discuss its contribution to solving the ongoing problem of the construction of the Bodmer composite or miscellaneous codex.


The Rhetorical Construction of Masculinities in the Letter of Jude
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Lilly Nortje-Meyer, University of Johannesburg

It seems that the author of Jude’s honour and authority was challenged by certain men in the Christian faith community and therefore the letter should be read as a riposte to an honour challenge. In his defence Jude claims a certain honour by virtue of blood relations with James and being a ‘servant’ of Jesus Christ. He also uses the authoritative faith tradition entrusted to the apostles as well as the authoritative written traditions to position himself. Central to his claim of honour and authority is the exercise of power and dominance. These concepts are central to the notion of hegemonic masculinity which guarantees the dominant position of men and the subordination of women and other men. This identity of Jude has derived from his participation in the faith community and from interaction with other men and is based on competition. The opponents as other men are forced into a position of subordination by offensive or derogatory language used to describe men whose behaviour, appearance, or speech is considered to be typical to that traditionally associated with women. Effeminate men represent the most fundamental failure of true or idealised masculinity – an inability, weakness, lack of maturity and eventually everything negative associated with women. In a culture of dominant masculinity, this applies to men of such uncertain worth. On the other hand, Jude encourages the community to display behaviour of a conspicuously moral quality that will give them a different identity. The text of Jude continuously constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs the masculine characteristics of the 1st century Mediterranean world. The aim of this paper is to investigate the rhetorical construction of multiple patterns of performative masculinity in the text of Jude.


Participle Phrase in the Language of Ugaritic Poetry
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Tania Notarius, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Participle was not a tense in the NWS languages in the second half of the second millennium BC : it was not used as a verbal predicate denoting an event or situation and did not systematically render TAM values. On the contrary, in the first millennium BC, both in Canaanite and Aramaic branches, the predicative participle is used as a main category of the imperfective aspect. The linguistic change does not occur at once. In spite of its deficiency in the tense system, participle has certain syntactic representation in the language of Ugaritic poetry: it is used as agent noun, the participle phrase is used as relative or circumstantial clause. The purpose of this research is (1) to summarize the formal criteria of unambiguous morphological marking of participles; (2) suggest syntactic analysis of cases where there are sufficient formal indications of participial forms; (3) the conclusions about the syntactic typology of unambiguous cases will be projected on the cases with ambiguous morphology; (4) as a result I will suggest some generalizations about the syntax and semantics of participle in the language of Ugaritic poetry. In the conclusion I will evaluate on how the syntactic usages of participle in Ugaritic poetry could envisage the ‘participle’ revolution witnessed in later corpora.


Jesus as Messiah: The Unlikely Trove of Messiah Traditions in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Matthew Novenson, University of Edinburgh

The Gospel of John presents a puzzle for students of ancient Jewish and Christian messianism. It is a relatively late Gospel text, and its christological idiosyncrasies take it far afield from the relatively mainstream messianism of the Synoptic tradition. And yet, John preserves more, more detailed, and more varied Jewish (and even Samaritan) messiah traditions than any other early Christian Gospel. In this paper, I undertake to explain why John preserves these sundry traditions and how he sorts them out in relation to the figure of Jesus.


Legends of the Septuagint: Alexandria as Date with Jewish Destiny
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Jonathan Numada, McMaster Divinity College

This paper is aimed at meeting the requirements of 3A above. I will argue that Alexandrian Jewish writers held a providential view of Jewish destiny centered in Alexandria that synthesized religious and civic identities. A close reading of passages in 2 and 3 Maccabees, Philo, Josephus, and Aristeas using Collective Memory and Social Identity theory will demonstrate that participation in the Ptolemaic intellectual and cultural project at Alexandria was interpreted as a divinely-ordained purpose for Jews. Alexandria was seen as the venue where Jews would showcase God’s wisdom for Gentiles. It is because Alexandria was destined to be the site of its creation that both the LXX and Alexandria came to be seen as symbols for Jews assuming their rightful place among the nations of the world. For Alexandrian Jews, this successfully synthesized two identities commonly understood by scholars as being held in tension.


Judith and Sexual Violence: The Bible in Art
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Ela Nutu, University of Sheffield

Judith is remembered for decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes with his own sword. Despite the violence of this act, the Christian Church developed the character of Judith by associating it metaphorically and iconographically with Esther, because she too delivers her people from the Assyrians; with Jael because of the direct killing; and most importantly with Mary the mother of Jesus, primarily due to her preferred and prolonged widowed status, which acts as reinstated virginity. Like Mary, Judith is seen to birth salvation, and her celibate status becomes closely connected to the safety of her people. Judith was thus traditionally sold as a virtuous heroine, and an asexual one at that. In the Middle Ages, Judith became visually the personification of Virtue, Chastity and Humility. During the Renaissance she inspired many female painters—amongst them Artemisia Gentileschi and Elisabetta Sirani—and was a popular choice as a subject when depicting a strong woman. Yet, by the turn of the twentieth century, in interpretations such as Gustav Klimt’s, Judith is a protagonist in fin de siècle so-called ‘decadence’, where the female form can only embody ‘idols of perversity’, or the death principle; sex and death, Eros and Thanatos. In his increasingly popular science of psychoanalysis, Freud used Judith as an example of female frigidity and hysteria and declared that women kill men because of penis-envy. Leopold Sacher-Masoch identified Judith as his muse when writing on sado-masochistic sexology. Such influences eventually sutured Judith as the embodiment of neuroses; as a ‘denatured woman, perverted, barren dominatrix’. Whereas the Judith emerging from the Judeo-Christian tradition is a femme forte who had once represented Chastity, Wisdom, Justice, even Resurrection, she slowly becomes the femme fatale, the hated, cruel, fetishized, sado-masochistic model for Klimt. This paper explores this transition and engages with visual representations of Judith by both female and male artists, investigating the role of sexual violence as present in and around the Judith narrative and artistic interpretations of it.


Qur’anic Covenant Reconsidered: Mithaq and ‘Ahd in Polemical Context
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Andrew O'Connor, University of Notre Dame

Like the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, the Qur’an uses the institution of ‘covenant’ to define the human-divine relationship. However, each of these texts employs covenantal themes in distinctive ways indicative of their historical contexts. Covenant (berit) as found in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, for example, mirrors ancient Hittite and Assyrian suzerainty treaties, whereas NT authors such as Paul understand covenant (diatheke) in the context of first century Palestinian Judaism. The Qur’anic understanding of covenant (usually found in variations of mithaq or ‘ahd), on the other hand, has received comparatively little scholarly attention, except insomuch as it relates to questions of ‘inclusiveness’, supersessionism, or later Islamic perceptions of salvation history. I show that scholars should approach the Qur’an’s construction of covenant within the context of its distinctive theological mission within Late Antiquity. In particular I treat two aspects of Qur’anic covenant that have hitherto been missed: first, that the Qur’an’s use of covenant finds a direct parallel in Syriac literature, wherein themes of covenant infidelity are used to delegitimize Jews as heirs of the covenant, and second, that the Qur’an appends and reformulates the terms of the previous covenant(s) in accordance with its own doctrinal and polemical purposes. Thus the Qur’an draws upon earlier covenantal motifs which it reworks and recontextualizes in order to demarcate Christians and Jews as failed religious communities. At stake is not merely debates over correct religious praxis or confessional identity, but obedience to and support of the Prophet. To this end the Qur’an does not adopt earlier notions of divine covenant wholesale, but reimagines this theme to conform to its sectarian message. Even here Qur’anic covenant appears not as a monolithic construction, but rather reactionary and nuanced, as the charges brought against Christians and Jews are not identical. Covenant and covenant infidelity thus becomes a polemical tool by which the Prophet is able to argue for the supremacy and legitimacy of his own community vis-à-vis Christians and Jews, and does so by reformulating it to fit his theological framework.


Stelae, Elephants, and Irony: The Battle of Raphia and Its Import as Historical Context for 3 Maccabees
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Patrick O'Kernick, Marquette University

The opening verses of 3 Maccabees situate the story immediately following the Battle of Raphia in 217 BCE. The import of this historical setting for the narrative at large has been altogether overlooked. Ptolemy IV’s victory at the Battle of Raphia was an ironic moment. It was the high point of Ptolemy’s career. Ptolemy was embraced by the Egyptian cult and his victory was to be commemorated throughout Egypt with festivals and with stelae stylizing Ptolemy as a divine war hero. However, this victory would also be the last hurrah of Ptolemaic power in Coele-Syria. In addition, the Battle of Raphia was the ironic anti-climax to a massive Egyptian state project: the development of an African elephant military corps. Ptolemy won the battle, but his elephants had retreated over his own soldiers. This retreat would have been famous for years to come as the African elephant was a symbol of Egyptian power and war elephants in general were curiosities in the Hellenistic world. Writing in Alexandria about 100 years after these events, with the ironies of the moment in mind, the author of 3 Maccabees crafted a Raphia tradition alternative to that of the Egyptian cult. This tradition portrays Ptolemy as a foolish and arrogant tyrant, reimagines the famous retreat of Ptolemy’s elephants, and provides an etiology for an Alexandrian festival in commemoration of the salvific acts of the God of the Jews. The Alexandrian author of 3 Maccabees engages recent Egyptian history in rather substantial ways, and the key to this engagement is the setting of the story at the Battle of Raphia.


Resurrecting the Body: Paul, Social Identity, and Racial Reconciliation in First Century Rome and Twenty-First Century Alabama
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Matt O'Reilly, University of Gloucestershire

My initial research into Social Identity interpretation of the Pauline letters came while under pastoral appointment to a small church in rural Alabama that had split in the 1960s over race-related issues. The white church was located in a predominately African-American town, and many of the church leaders who had been children when the split happened now desired theirs to be a church that embodied the diversity of its community. During that appointment, I had the opportunity to baptize the first African-American members of the church and provide pastoral leadership as the congregation faced the challenges associated with racial reconciliation and the construction of a common social identity within this increasingly ethnically diverse congregation. The challenges I faced were in some ways analogous to those faced by Paul in his letter to the Romans, and my context influenced my interpretation and appropriation of Romans in significant ways. Romans was, after all, a letter written at least in part to nurture reconciliation among the ethnically diverse Christ-followers in Rome. Drawing on research in ethnicity and identity and on theories that aim to account for diachronic processes in identity formation, this paper argues that Paul’s deployment of resurrection language functions to create a coherent temporal representation of group identity – past, present, and future – that had potential to become salient without diminishing the distinct identities of the ethnic subgroups to which the apostle wrote. This common resurrection-oriented identity then creates a framework in which the group may embody the future hope, not least by eating and worshiping as a single and unified body characterized by ethnic diversity. This analysis will be the basis for pointing to ways that Romans may be appropriated for contemporary contexts to empower groups to move from the death of racism to the new life of reconciliation.


The Political Meaning of a Cipher— John 21:11
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Douglas E. Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University

The mystery of the one-hundred and fifty-three fish in John 21 has been discussed for centuries. Already in antiquity, two major symbolic lines of interpretation were established — ancient ichthyology in relation to biblical interpretation (Jerome) and allegorical numerology (Augustine). In the modern critical period, another major line was added — gematria. The claim of this paper is that the number ultimately yields its mysterious secret through gematria, but uniquely in political terms. This approach to the cipher, together with Weberian interpretive lenses, helps to unpack the political significance of chapter 21, its link to Petrine tradition and the tradition history of the Gospel of John, additional links between the Johannine redactor and Thomas Christianity in Egypt, and the significance of John 21 more generally for understanding political orientations in early Christianity.


Elite Control of Food Production and Non-elite Food Security in First-Century Galilee
Program Unit: Economics in the Biblical World
Douglas Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University

The study of Hasmonean and Herodian Galilee has proceeded apace in the last forty years. This work has centrally incorporated archaeology, also texts like Josephus’s, though important insights from comparative social science have played an insufficient role in the delineation of social stratification and power relations. This paper aims to highlight the crucial role of power and power structures in the agriculture and culture of first-century Galilee. Power was most manifest through patronage politics that affected the food security of the Galilean villages. It may also have appeared in the tendency toward large villages, where the“productive equipment” (both animal and human) of the Galilean elites? could be kept under close watch.


Patterns of Scriptural Interpretation in Postmissionary Messianic Judaism
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Peter Ochs, University of Virginia

What are the leading patterns of scriptural reading and interpretation in Postmissionary Messianic Judaism? How do they compare with leading patterns of reading and interpretation in recent schools of Christian and of Jewish scripturally-grounded theology?, I suggest that Mark Kinzer’s arguments for messianic Judaism display interpretive tendencies typical of postliberal schools of theology while also challenging some of the schools theological conclusions. To account for the differences, I suggest that his eschatological claims challenge not only the doctrinal positions but also the leading hermeneutical practices of both Jewish and Christian postliberalisms.


Northern Exposures: Huldah’s Oracle and the Dynastic Doom Oracles of Kings
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Daniel Oden, Harding University Main Campus

The oracles of judgment against the Northern dynasties in Kings are closely related in style and purpose (David Lamb) and always include, as a divine judgment, the exposure of the corpse of the king or his descendant. This paper builds upon the notion that the Huldah oracle of 2 Kgs 22:20 should be precisely related to the Ahijah doom oracle against Jeroboam in 1 Kgs 14:10 (Marvin Sweeney). Among the closely related dynastic doom oracles in Kings, these two oracles share an identical introductory formula as well as close verbal, syntactic and thematic parallels in their prophetic language. Because of shared formulaic language between all the doom oracles, it is likely that in their pronouncements of exposure, they share a common time of composition and editorial hand. The Huldah oracle, with its emphatic promise of burial for Josiah, heightens the judgement pronounced against the kings of Israel in the dynamic doom oracles. Accordingly, whatever pre-exilic editions may be put forward for portions of the Josiah material in 2 Kings 22-23, the final exilic or post-exilic hand that has shaped Huldah’s and Ahijah’s oracles is also responsible for the present form of the DH (cf. Lauren Monroe). Attention to similarities in the narratives about the final kings of both Israel (2 Kgs 15:8ff) and Judah (2 Kgs 23:31ff) seems to confirm this idea.


The Sabbath During and After the Maccabean Revolt
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Gerbern Oegema, McGill University

In this paper I plan to look at texts that give insights into the perception and interpretation of the Sabbath during and after the Maccabean Revolt (167-164 BCE), mainly by analyzing the pertinent passages in 1 and 2 Maccabees, Jubilees and 1 Enoch. These writings reflect a growing importance of the Sabbath as a cornerstone of Jewish identity in the second century BCE to the extent that it becomes an identity marker worth dying for (1 Macc 2:38-48; 9:34). In particular, the Sabbath is used to argue for the authors’ point of view concerning calendar and liturgy (Jub. 1:1-13; 1 En. 39:4-12; 41:8-9). Like Temple worship, dietary laws and circumcision, the Sabbath becomes a defense line in the battle field between Jewish and non-Jewish culture but also between groups within Judaism. This is both reflected by the internal Jewish discussions about the Sabbath as by the Greek and Syrian outside point of views.


Confession Inscriptions from Asia Minor: A Rural Form of Religion
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Markus Oehler, University of Vienna

The corpus of the so-called “Confession Inscriptions” is localised in a small rural area in Lydia/Phrygia and stems from the 1st-3rd century CE. The about 130 inscriptions show a specific form of coping with misfortune, illness and death which is in this form unparalleled in the Ancient Mediterranean world: People regarded harm as divine punishment, confessed sins, begged for forgiveness and gave offerings. The overall peculiarites of these documents are that – on the one hand – transgressions were confessed in public inscriptions, and on the other hand, that these texts were often formulated as praise of the deity. The paper will focus specifically on the social realities behind these inscriptions: The role of priests and temple-communities and their rural environment as a basis for a peculiar form of religion in the Greco-Roman world.


The Healing of the Haemorrhaging Woman as a Model to Checkmate Stigmatization of People Living with HIV (PLH) in Nigeria
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Ruth Oluwakemi Oke, Federal College of Education, Abeokuta

Diseases in human history are not just originating as a hit out of space. Some theologians contend they must have originated with the human race. Apparently, it is inferred that they might have come as a result of human disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden, or as a means of expression of His wrath. Other biblical perspectives ascribe disease to the work of the adversary or the Devil (Job 2: 7), jealousy from others (Job 5:2) and self indulgence (I Samuel 15: 1- 17, 16: 14- 15; 23, I Corinthian 10: 1ff). Stigmatisation of people with haemorrhaging condition (the issues of blood) in the biblical accounts of the old Jewish society compares well with stigmatisation of People Living with HIV (PLH) in the current dispensation. It is needful to ask whether, stigmatisation, discrimination and exclusion of the sick are recent phenomenon? Landman observes that people with communicable diseases were separated from the rest of the congregation in the Old Testament dispensation. However, in the New Testament, a more charitable standpoint was anticipated because of the revolutionary stance of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. During His ministry, Jesus regarded the outcasts as integral members of the Jewish community. He in fact associated with and touched those who had dreadful diseases like leprosy (Mark 1:40- 43, 2:1ff, John 8:1- 9). Stigmatization is associated with HIV in Nigeria and all over the world. But the model of interaction set by Jesus with the Hemorrhaging Woman in Mark's narrative in the Gospel proposed a charitable stand point which if adopted by the Nigerian society will go a long way in stemming the stigma associated with HIV. It is anticipated that this biblical indices will facilitate reduction if not the eradication of stigma in the society. The text under study will be contextualized.


Jesus' Healing in Mark 8:22–26 in African Context
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Olugbenga Olagunju, Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary

The proposed titled is “Jesus’ Healing in Mark 8:22-26 in African Context.” The issue of health was of serious concern to Jesus. Anywhere he went, he healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases among the people. In the course of carrying out his healing activities, Jesus used different methods or means to perform miracles. For example in Mark 7: 31-37 and John 9:1-6, Jesus used saliva and clay to heal. The use of saliva was a common therapeutic technique in the ancient world. The ancient people believed that “the saliva of a holy man of God was therapeutic and had healing effect on whomever it was spitted upon.” In Africa today, health matters pose a serious concern to both the government and the masses. Government and non-governmental organizations have made funds available to fight the scourge of sicknesses that ravage some communities. It is not a surprise that, poverty, lack of good food and drinkable water-supply, inadequate health facilities, high cost of drugs and increase in marketing of fake drugs have become serious social problems which has contributed to the shortening of human lives. Because of the precarious health situation, in which the African people find themselves, the quest for the miraculous has become so engaging to the extent that many people seek solace in traditional healing homes and spiritual churches. African people believe that without good health there is no life. And since illness or disease is an indication that the means of existence or life itself is being threatened, they must of a necessity find means of combating it.Therefore, they use every mean and method within their reach to attain good health. This paper discusses Jesus’ healing miracles in Mark 8:22-26 from an African perspective and makes it relevant for African Christians. Applying historical-critical and exegetical tools in an intercultural hermeneutics, this study demonstrates that the healing miracles of Jesus in Mark 8:22-26 though similar to mystical practices among traditional healers in Africa, the paper questions whether mystical practices as they are being advocated among African Christians today are congruous to Christian faith and practices.


Jesus’ Healing in Mark 8:22–26 in African Context
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Olugbenga Olagunju, Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary

The proposed titled is “Jesus’ Healing in Mark 8:22-26 in African Context.” The issue of health was of serious concern to Jesus. Anywhere he went, he healed all manner of sicknesses and diseases among the people. In the course of carrying out his healing activities, Jesus used different methods or means to perform miracles. For example in Mark 7: 31-37 and John 9:1-6, Jesus used saliva and clay to heal. The use of saliva was a common therapeutic technique in the ancient world. The ancient people believed that “the saliva of a holy man of God was therapeutic and had healing effect on whomever it was spitted upon.” In Africa today, health matters pose a serious concern to both the government and the masses. Government and non-governmental organizations have made funds available to fight the scourge of sicknesses that ravage some communities. It is not a surprise that, poverty, lack of good food and drinkable water-supply, inadequate health facilities, high cost of drugs and increase in marketing of fake drugs have become serious social problems which has contributed to the shortening of human lives. Because of the precarious health situation, in which the African people find themselves, the quest for the miraculous has become so engaging to the extent that many people seek solace in traditional healing homes and spiritual churches. African people believe that without good health there is no life. And since illness or disease is an indication that the means of existence or life itself is being threatened, they must of a necessity find means of combating it.Therefore, they use every mean and method within their reach to attain good health. This paper discusses Jesus’ healing miracles in Mark 8:22-26 from an African perspective and makes it relevant for African Christians. Applying historical-critical and exegetical tools in an intercultural hermeneutics, this study demonstrates that the healing miracles of Jesus in Mark 8:22-26 though similar to mystical practices among traditional healers in Africa, the paper questions whether mystical practices as they are being advocated among African Christians today are congruous to Christian faith and practices.


Miriam and Moses Wife: Sisterhood in Jeopardy?
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Funlola Olojede, University of South Africa

In feminist biblical interpretation and indeed in Old Testament studies, Miriam is upheld as the quintessential Israelite heroine – a prophetess, public leader, minstrel, “saviour” and women’s leader etc. These roles are often viewed in relation to Moses and Aaron. However, a close reading of Miriam as a sister-in-law to Moses’ wife is often overlooked in literature. It is argued here that although Miriam is cast in positive light by feminist interpreters, an aspect of feminine dynamism – rivalry –is implied in her relationship with her sister-in-law as expressed in the outbursts against Moses in Number 12:1-2. A feminist reading of the text in light of the (South) African context shows that tensions or conflicts in racially mixed marriage settings are often ignited by latent elements of racism on the part of family members. In such situations, it is argued, racial loyalty often tends to supersede or overshadow female allegiance.


Oral Tradition and the Fusion of Prose and Poetry in the Sea Event: An African Feminist Reading
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Funlola O. Olojede, University of South Africa

Drawing from the rich repertoire of oral tradition in an African setting in which prose and song become fused in the same account, this study suggests that the juxtaposition of prose and poetry in the Sea Event in Exodus 14-15:18 be seen as more than just an insertion of the poetic version of the prose into the account. Rather it smacks of an entirely different genre from either prose or poetry as it combines elements of the two. This finds parallels in the African context and it is therefore argued that the connection between poetry and oral tradition and between women and poetry (songs) highlights the oral context of the text in question.


The Anti-canonical Gospel of Thomas
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Ken Olson, Duke University

The Gospel of Thomas is not just non-canonical but anti-canonical. Jesus in Thomas acts as the revealer of the Father and praises those who do his word or will (Sayings 79, 99) , but it is far from clear that these were ever revealed in any previous generation. The only Old Testament character named in the gospel is Adam (46, 85), but if the Father created him, or the world, Thomas does not says so. There is little to suggest that the Father has a past relationship with Israel: no mention of covenants, an Exodus, a promised land, a Messiah, or a temple. There are a few signs of a future eschatology (57), but the Father has not apparently made any promises to the Patriarchs that need to be kept. There are no explicit citations of Scripture, and when Jesus’ disciples tell him that twenty-four prophets in Israel spoke about him, he criticizes them for speaking of the dead when the Living One is present (52), implicitly rejecting the Scriptures of Israel in favor of Jesus’ voice as the sole source of authority. The gospel shows knowledge of Jewish customs including circumcision (53), Sabbath observance (27), and fasting (6, 14, 27, 104), and rejects them all. If Thomas represents early Jesus tradition that circulated in a Judean environment, then this tradition was counter-culturally extremist or antinomian, More probably, Thomas represents a later compilation of Jesus tradition made in a post-Judean environment and the compiler or compilers made a concerted effort to exclude the Scriptures and practices of Israel. In Thomas, Jesus does not fulfill the Scriptures, he renders them irrelevant.


Ethnography of Communication: Linking Text and Context in 1 Pet 2:11–3:12
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Hughson T. Ong, McMaster Divinity College

This paper analyzes the social situation of 1 Pet 2:11—3:12 using the theories of ethnography of communication. Introduced and developed by Dell Hymes in the 1960s, the analytical strength of this sociolinguistic approach to the use of language lies in its capability to describe the various components of a text or discourse, relating the text or discourse to its underlying social context. This sociolinguistic approach treats a text or discourse as the product of a specific speech situation or event composed of various speech acts within a particular speech community. The text or discourse in 1 Pet 2:11—3:12 may be subject to such an ethnographic analysis in order to provide both description and depiction of its social situation. This particular passage has been a subject of analysis of two seminal, social-scientific studies in 1981(with updated versions in 1986), where John H. Elliott and David L. Balch address the role of Christians in society in 1 Peter. Whereas Elliott and Balch describe the Christians’ relation to society as, respectively, ‘social nonconformity’ and ‘social conformity’, this paper argues that a ‘social (without religious) compromise’ is a more accurate description of the actual social situation of the addressees of the letter.


Variation in Valence Patterns of Motion Verbs in Biblical Hebrew
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Reinoud Oosting, Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer, VU University Amsterdam

In the Hebrew Bible we find three categories of verbs in the Qal stem that have a locative as complement: motion verbs whereby the subject moves, such as b-w-’ and h-l-k; stationary verbs whereby the subject remains stationary, such as y-sh-b and ’-m-d; and other verbs involving the movement of a direct object, such as l-q-ch and sh-l-ch. Using the hierarchically ordered questions in the flow chart (cf. Dyk, Glanz, Oosting 2014), the present paper seeks to treat various verbs in the same way and brings similarities and differences between motion verbs and the other classes of verbs to light. In addition, this paper examines the variation in the use of valence patterns within the category of motion verbs. When analyzing the more than 6000 occurrences in the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer database of the Old Testament, it becomes clear that: 1. The verbs occur with various complement phrases. Distinction is to be made as to the direction in which the motion verb is taken (source, goal), and as to the goal of the movement (location, person). 2. The number of complements accompanying the verb varies between 1 and 4 elements. 3. The complements accompanying the verb can vary in their word order. The reference to a person usually precedes the reference to a location but there are exceptions. In order to understand the variation in the use of these valence patterns, it is necessary to take multiple factors into account. First, we check whether the differences can be explained on the basis of general linguistic insights. Then, we examine whether they are related to Biblical Hebrew Grammar. Finally, we consider the possibility that the differences are due to variation in style, language change, or textual transmission.


Sacra Peregrina: "Foreignness" in Roman Rites
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Eric Orlin, University of Puget Sound

Scholars of Roman religion have often grappled with the notion of foreign religious practices, often seeing such cults as Bacchus as antithetical to Roman practice. The Magna Mater (Kybele) has been a particularly fruitful locus of analysis, both coming from overseas and with many practices that provide a stark contrast to typical Roman practice. But one challenge has been that while Roman texts often emphasize exotic or foreign-seeming elements in these cults, they do not often use the term ‘foreign’ as a term to describe such cults or practices, leaving moderns to develop this term as a heuristic category. However, there are several texts that do use such language or attempt to develop an understanding of the term ‘foreign’. The best known of these is Verrius Flaccus who offered a definition of foreign rites in the Augustan period. This paper will first demonstrate that Flaccus’ definition is not a descriptive term, but suggests an ideological approach to the question of foreignness. In fact, Flaccus’ approach fits neatly into John Scheid’s discussion of the “Greek rite” (Graecus ritus) in Rome, where the word Greek may be considered as a stand-in for foreign; Scheid’s observation is that the cults using the Greek rite were in fact quite Roman. Flaccus’ definition similarly highlights the artificiality of the difference being constructed to serve a particular ideological end. This paper will explore how Flaccus’ attempt to ‘define’ the term fits into this broader pattern, also seen in the work of Valerius Maximus, during early Roman empire, and suggest that identifying “Roman” and “foreign” practices served as means to re-unite Roman (and Italian) society in the wake of the Roman civil wars.


Listening in the Qur'an: The Semantic Field of S-M-`
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Lauren E. Osborne, Whitman College

In her work on the recitation of the Qur'an, Kristina Nelson has noted that “the Qur'an is not the Qur'an unless it is heard.” (Nelson 1985, xiv) Nelson and others (Graham, Denny, al-Faruqi) have argued for the primacy of the oral/aural Qur'an, both at the moment of its genesis, but also within the Islamic tradition more broadly. Over the course of the development of the Islamic tradition, understandings of listening to recitation have emerged, concerning the importance of listening, particularly regarding the etiquette of how one should listen. However, this is a separate matter from the Qur'an's own understanding listeners and listening—not only how one should behave and react when listening to the Qur'an, but the concept of listening itself. In this presentation, I take a methodological approach following modern literary-historical scholars of the Qur'an (Neuwirth, Madigan), and also recent works on listening cultures from Leigh Eric Schmidt, Veit Erlmann, and others. Recent works by scholars such as Schmidt and Erlmann point to the culturally and historically specific ways in which the act of listening may be understood—both with regard to how one should listen, but also the significance of listening. I bring this premise to the Qur'an's own understanding of listening, and the thematic development of this understanding over the Qur'an's chronology. What is the understanding of hearing and listening in relation to revelation within the text of the Qur'an itself, and how might this understanding change over the chronology of the text? Following the Qur'an's use of the root S-M-`, I ask how listening is portrayed within the text (both with respect to the interlocutors depicted as listening within, but also how the Qur'an may construct its own reception outside of the text) with particular attention to chronology.


Wisdom Gets 'Tyred' in the Book of Ezekiel
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
William R. Osborne, College of the Ozarks

Wisdom Gets 'Tyred' in the Book of Ezekiel


The Bad Samaritans: The Elijah Motif in Luke 9:51–56
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
Jeremy D. Otten, Wheaton College Graduate School

The short vignette of Jesus and the Samaritan village has left commentators puzzling over what exactly the Evangelist intended to communicate. Many scholars are particularly perplexed as to why Luke, otherwise so quick to portray Jesus in the likeness of Elijah (Luke 4:24–27; 7:1–10, 11–17), suddenly casts him in such an un-Elijianic light. Some see a deliberate distancing from the Tishbite, while others seeing a commentary on the new era of grace. None of these, however, satisfactorily explain why this vignette occurs precisely here, nor do they do justice to the other curiosities of the passage. This paper will argue that in this passage it is not Jesus but the disciples who are compared to Elijah—and found wanting. Jesus himself is portrayed entirely in keeping with Luke’s perception of Elijah: as a counter-cultural prophet who shows grace to Gentiles and outsiders. This will be seen first from the context of Luke’s Elijah motif and the immediate context of this passage, and second from Luke’s inversion of 2 Kgs 1:1–17. First, as far as context, Luke’s Jesus presents Elijah as a prophet who defies national expectations, bringing grace not to the widows of Israel, but a gentile widow in Zarephath (4:24–27). In each instance of the Elijah motif, Jesus is doing the same: helping a Roman centurion (7:1–10; cf. 2 Kgs 5:1–17), a grieving widow (7:11–17; cf. 1 Kgs 17:8–24), or a foreign leper (17:11–19; cf. 2 Kgs 5:1–19). Seeing the Elijah echoes in our present passage, we should well expect a similar message. The unusual thing about this passage, however, is that it is James and John, rather than Jesus, who fill the role of Elijah, suggesting the summoning heavenly fire (9:54). Furthermore, Luke’s application of the messenger formula (v. 52), an echo of Mal 3:1 and 4:5, further serves to cast the disciples (not Jesus) in an Elijianic light (cf. 1:17, 76; 3:4; 7:27; 10:1). Given that the passages on either side illustrate failure of the disciples or would-be disciples, we are given further reason to expect something similar here (see 9:37–45, 46–50, 57–62). Second, regarding the reversals of the OT narrative, most scholars miss that the lack of heavenly fire is not the only reversal, but in fact every detail of the account is inverted. Among other things, the controversy surrounds the Jerusalem temple rather than a pagan shrine (9:53; cf. 2 Kgs 1:3), the “prophets” approach the Samaritans rather than the other way around (9:52; cf. 2 Kgs 1:9), and they cannot call fire on their own authority, but must ask permission (9:54; cf. 2 Kgs 1:10). Finally, at Jesus’ bidding, they do not ultimately pronounce judgment, but leave the village, sparing them further condemnation (9:56; cf. 2 Kgs 1:15–16). Thus while James and John fail to measure up to Elijah, Jesus is seen thoroughly in line with Luke’s portrayal of the prophet.


"As Was the Custom in Those Days": Teaching Language through Culture
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Paul Overland, Ashland Theological Seminary

(This paper is submitted for NAPH 2015 Session Five: "Methods for Teaching Particular Types of Content or Skills.") The teaching of culture ranks among the five “Standards for Foreign Language Learning” embraced both by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the American Classics League. However, culture frequently receives little or no attention in a language course, since the task of teaching grammar looms so large. This paper will explore a variety of concrete ways that instructors of Biblical Hebrew may employ culture to enhance the teaching of the language.


Ibrahim Seeking Forgiveness for His Father: Faith and Family in the Qur'an
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Leyla Ozgur, University of California Los Angeles

In this study, I explore the Qur’anic narrative portrayal of Ibrahim and his promise to seek forgiveness for his father. In the Qur’an, Ibrahim’s father worships idols and Ibrahim questions his faith and encourages him to stop this practice. When his father refuses to stop and threatens Ibrahim, Ibrahim tells his father that he will seek forgiveness for him (19:41-49). He does indeed seek forgiveness for his father (14:41 and 26:86). However, verse 9:114 and 60:4 seem to clarify that Ibrahim seeks forgiveness for his father because he promised he would do so. In this study, I attempt to understand what narrative purpose is served by Ibrahim’s portrayal as promising to seek forgiveness for his father and then this being reframed in other iterations of the story.


Penitential Prayer, Psalms 104–106 and the Shape and Shaping of Book IV of the Psalter
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Kyle P. Padden, Westminster Theological Seminary

This paper examines the use of penitential lament in Book IV of the Psalter in the context of postexilic Israel's communal response to the problem posed by the end of Book III. Recent traditio-historical inquiry into the development and role of penitential prayer during the postexilic period of ancient Israel has demonstrated a close link between the genres of lament and penitence. It is now generally agreed that penitential prayer is rooted in Deuteronomistic and Levitical traditions, and that the motif came to transform, but not entirely replace, the communal lament in the postexilic period. This view has been progressed by Richard Bautch and Mark Boda both of whom conceive of lament and penitence as forms of prayer that are responding to essentially the same set of theological questions, even as they exist on opposite sides of a continuum. That is, penitence does not appear to supersede lament during the postexilic period, but is offered in response to fundamental questions concerning suffering, exile, and restoration. Penitential passages thus give a glimpse into the community’s wrestling with Israel’s past, present and future, and appear to be indicative of a people who are grappling with promises of restoration found in sacred texts such as Deut 30 and Lev 26. As was mentioned, this paper seeks to incorporate such conclusions into the discussion surrounding the final form of Book IV of the Psalms (MT). In particular, this paper will seek to establish three basic points: First, it will examine structural, thematic, and linguistic parallels between postexilic passages that either are or share affinities with penitential prayer such as Neh. 9: 7 – 37, Isa 63:7 – 64:11, and 1 Chronicles 16:4 – 36 and suggests that such similarities should be considered when discussing the purpose and shaping of Book IV of the Psalter. Secondly, it will argue that Pss 104 – 106 should be considered one unit, and, as such, should be read as a penitential lament. Lastly, it will be suggested that such insights should be considered when discussing the theological ‘response’ that Book IV offers to the crisis presented at the end of Book III of the Psalter wherein the psalmist bewails the apparent failure of the Davidic monarchy and calls into question YHWH’s fidelity to his people. In other words, Pss 104 – 106 highlight Book IV as a penitential book wherein the community is encouraged to recall their past before praying for restoration.


The Speeches in Acts: Seventy One Years After
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Osvaldo Padilla, Samford University

The Speeches in Acts: Seventy One Years After


The Language of “Brotherhood” in Ancient Mediterranean Groups: A Sign of Shared Kinship
Program Unit: Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Carmen Palmer, University of Toronto

Within the ancient Mediterranean, a group’s ethnic identity was understood to contain multiple features, such as common culture, a connection to a homeland, and a shared notion of kinship. A change, or “conversion,” between ethnic groups would entail a change in all of the features of ethnicity combined. By extension, it follows that members of a newly-forged group, if that group’s identity is comprised of ethnic features, would consequently have a notion of shared kinship as a part of that ethnic identity. The present paper argues that within the traditions of the Qumran movement and Greco-Roman cultic associations, the language of “brotherhood” (’a?; adelphos; “frater”) signals that these groups in which that terminology is found contain notions of shared kinship. Furthermore, the manner in which the shared kinship in “brotherhood” reveals itself is group specific: group by group, brotherhood represents a different sort of kinship between members, as the following study reveals. First, within the Qumran movement, “brothers” already represent a notion of shared Judean kinship between members. This kinship in brotherhood is not cosanguinal in nature, but is more than metaphorical. Gentile converts to the movement, also equated with these same “brothers,” are included within the spatial realm of the movement. The fact that the converts are not found to break purity regulations implies a notion of “real” kinship between all members, who are all identified as brothers. Because brother language represents shared kinship between group members within the Qumran movement, it is possible that brother language can represent shared kinship in other types of ethnic groups, as well. Second, within Greco-Roman cultic associations that rely on familial language, brothers take on a kinship that resembles the rapport between members of a nuclear family (parents and siblings). Third, a particular association stemming from the Bosporus region developed a formal title of “Adopted Brothers,” where brothers of the association become cosanguinal within their new group identity. This finding concerning shared kinship within Greco-Roman cultic associations contrasts against that of present scholarship that argues for a metaphorical notion of friendship and group solidarity within Greco-Roman associations overall. Finally, however, it should be noted that brother language utilized in Greco-Roman professional associations, where identity is related primarily to mutual profession and not features of ethnicity, does not imply a shared notion of kinship. Instead, in these groups brother language is used as an honourific between members and encourages good behaviour. Even though “brotherhood” language does not necessarily mean equality, the terminology, as it is found in these groups whose primary identity is comprised of ethnic features, definitely means unique and individual representations of kinship for each Mediterranean group.


"Why Do the Rabbis and Religious Authorities Not Forbid Them from Uttering Sinful Words?” Qur’anic and Late Antique Attitudes towards Religious Scholars
Program Unit: The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
Cecilia Palombo, Princeton University

A number of Qur’anic passages mention explicitly “scholars,” learned people in matter of religion or law. When taken together, those passages show an underlying polemical message, which recurs, though differently phrased, in various parts of the Qur’an. References to learned people are linked to both issues of “praxis” (rightful behaviour, in observance of God’s commandments) and issues of “doctrine” (rightful belief). This criticism naturally intertwines with other polemical motives in the Qur’an, and is part of a wider concern for religious knowledge (‘ilm) and judgment (hukm). At the same time, however, it represents a distinctive sub-discourse, charged with specific accusations. My contribution aims at analysing such sub-discourse from two points of view, one internal to the Qur’an, the other looking at the wider historical context. First, Qur’anic attitudes towards religious knowledge and religious “professionals” will be discussed, by focusing on the specific vocabulary employed (what terms, what expressions, what stylistic patterns?), and inquiring into the existence - or, conversely, the absence - of recognizable evolutions within the text. This will entail a study of the textual context in which those verses occur, also with reference to sub-categories of Qur’anic suras. I will approach the question from both a “diachronic” perspective (are there observable “chronological” developments in the Qur’anic attitude towards religious knowledge?), and a “synchronic” perspective (if variations on the subject occur, how do they relate to stylistic features and Qur’anic “genres”?). The results of this investigation will inform the second part of the paper. This will attempt to use the Qur’an to investigate attitudes towards religious authority in late antiquity. How does the Qur’anic perspective on “scholars” relate to the late antique context? What is unique to the Qur’an, and what of the text’s approach in this respect is comparable to other broadly contemporary sources? By looking at this specific issue, I will maintain that, while the late-antique paradigm can help to shed light on the Qur’anic text and milieu, the Qur’an itself can shed light on late antiquity, adding complexity to late-antique attitudes on matters of traditional knowledge, the transmission of learning, and the exercise of power at a local level.


The Preface of Old Greek Daniel 5: A Formal Approach
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Justin L. Pannkuk, Emory University

Prefixed to the Old Greek version of Daniel 5 is a brief Preface that recounts some of the major plot lines of the narrative. The brevity of the Preface, along with its peculiar details and the perplexing question of why it was transmitted alongside the longer version of the legend in the first place, has puzzled those wishing to take account of its significance for understanding the literary history of the legend. Some have understood the Preface as an abbreviated account of the narrative that was prefixed to the OG version in order to provide details missing in the longer form of the story it precedes. Alternatively‚ Lawrence Wills has argued that the Preface itself attests to a form of the narrative at a prior stage in its development and thus provides concrete data for observing the developmental growth of the legend. This dispute over the basic nature of the Preface remains unresolved. The following paper marks an attempt to adjudicate between these options and to build upon the most fruitful insights of each for understanding the literary history of the legend. I proceed by adopting the form-critical approach of Susan Niditch and Robert Doran by appealing to the typology of story forms developed in folklore studies by A. Aarne and S. Thompson. This formal approach is helpful in the present case because it allows one to isolate the irreducible elements of this particular kind of story, including the characters, actions, and events that were likely essential to its plot line from the earliest compositional stage. Once these fundamental elements of the story are isolated, it can then be asked whether or not they are attested in the Preface. If they are, it would be possible to suggest that the Preface reflects an earlier, self-standing form of the narrative that was later expanded into the longer versions reflected in the OG and Masoretic traditions. If not, however, the Preface would have to be considered derivative. My analysis attempts to show that the latter is the case. But from what sort of source did the Preface derive? The number and extent of variant details recounted in the Preface, which cannot easily be traced back to either the OG or MT, suggest that the Preface was abstracted from a third, parallel version of the legend at an early stage in its development. This observation, in turn, allows us to notice and appreciate the ways in which the more expanded versions reflected in the MT and OG develop certain themes towards certain discursive ends. Of particular importance here, I argue, is the absence of any mention of the temple vessels and their defilement by Belshazzar in the Preface. This absence allows us to observe how the more developed, parallel versions reflected in the MT and OG actively participate in a broader discourse about the temple vessels that functioned as a way of establishing a form of continuity that could transcend the radical discontinuity of cultural life occasioned by the Babylonian exile.


The Levi Defender Tradition: From Joseph and Aseneth to the Gospel of Mary
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Cambry Pardee, Loyola University Chicago

Racy claims about Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene are a constant source of interest for scholarship and popular culture alike. Recently, the newly published text of the so-called Gospel of Jesus’ Wife seemed to reinforce suggestive statements about Mary in early Christian “Gnostic” texts like the Gospel of Mary. More recently still, Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson have argued that another ancient text, Joseph and Aseneth, is really a “disguised history” about Jesus’ marriage to Mary and their life together. In both cases, the proposals have been met with skepticism. Nevertheless, one aspect of the connection between Joseph and Aseneth and the Gospel of Mary has never been addressed—the Levi Defender tradition. In this paper we begin by bringing to light narrative parallels between Joseph and Aseneth and the Gospel of Mary, especially with regard to the role of Levi in each text. Literary similarities between the two texts abound. In both, the ostensible male protagonist (Joseph and Jesus) has a favored female companion (Aseneth and Mary), but the protagonist himself does not consistently appear in the narrative. The presence of the woman and the privilege she enjoys leads to division among the followers of the master (patriarchs and disciples). Division leads to outright aggression, manifested in plots of physical violence and in verbal abuse. Finally, Levi, both patriarch and disciple, is exhibited as Defender of his master’s companion against internal and external threats. How has Levi come to occupy this position as Defender in two very different texts—one an apocryphal Jewish romance and the other a Gnostic Christian revelation discourse? In the second part of the paper we investigate the origins of the Levi Defender tradition in the Pentateuch (cf. the Sack of Shechem and the Golden Calf episode) and explore additional iterations of this tradition in other Jewish and early Christian literature. In the Jewish context, Levi the Patriarch is quickly associated with the priesthood; in “Gnostic” circles Levi the Disciple becomes the gnostic alternative to the "orthodox" disciple Matthew and the Gospel that bears his name. In conclusion we will suggest a process of development leading from Genesis to Joseph and Aseneth to the Gospel of Mary and beyond.


The Sapiential Traditions in the Fourth Gospel: Johannine Jesus as an Imitable Wisdom Incarnate
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Chan Sok Park, College of Wooster

The notion of “imitation” or “mimesis” has drawn scholarly attentions in the recent discussion of ethical thinking in the Fourth Gospel (e.g., Richard Burridge, Cornelis Bennema). Building upon these studies, this paper aims to examine if the Gospel of John is in conversation with Greco-Roman philosophy in terms of the role of imitation for the moral formation. In particular, the Platonic motif of “imitation of god” is taken into consideration for this study. As shown in the famous line in Theatetus 176b, “to become like God is to become righteous and holy with wisdom,” ethics and assimilation to god is inextricably related in Plato’s thoughts. For John’s Gospel, I argue, the close connection between the notion of assimilation to god and ethics is achieved by presenting Jesus as a figure of personified divine wisdom. Hellenistic-Jewish sapiential thoughts, which are commonly noted in Johannine studies, serve more than a simple religious background. I argue that what is at stake in presenting Jesus in sapiential terms is its significance for formulating a Johannine ethical scheme. For John, Christ is Wisdom-Sophia incarnate and in this somatic role can provide what personified Wisdom never seems to have offered in contemporary Hellenistic-Jewish wisdom literature, an imitable example of how one ought to love God and others.


The Encounter between Hosea’s YHWH (Hosea 11) and Taiwanese Matsu
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Hye Kyung Park, Chang Jung Christian University

This paper proposes a cross-religious analysis of divine images in Hosea 11 and a Taiwanese goddess story, seeking for the encounter of the two. My study enables the readers of the Bible to examine Asian biblical hermeneutics in the multiple texts of Asia and to communicate each other in Asian contexts. The divine images of any religions metaphorically show a key concept of theological relationship between human beings and divinity. The Book of Hosea describes divine images in the three metaphors of family: husband and wife (Hosea 1-3), parent and child (Hosea 4-11), husband and wife with a rebellious son (Hosea 12-14). In the last chapter of the second part, Hosea proclaims the everlasting love of YHWH in a motherly metaphor (11:1-11). The Israelites went their own way, while they were called. However, YHWH never gave up the Israelites who even sought to sacrifice Baal, as mothers do not resist their children’s return to the home. In this paper, I would like to translate Hosea 11:3-4 as following: “Also it was I who gave Ephraim suckling, I took them in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with the human being’s umbilical cords, the interwoven love. Also I was to them like those who lift a baby to their cheeks and I inclined to him and gave suck to him.” This translation illustrates how the motherly imagine of YHWH in Hosea 11 was crucial to the understanding of the relationship between YHWH and the Israelites. The motherly image of YHWH in Hosea 11 opens the new and more meaningful views of hermeneutics in Asian cultures and traditions, since the feminine images of Asian divinities have been widely spread in the tradition of the Asian religions. Matzu, a goddess of Taiwan, has the divine image of compassion and mercy for those who pray to her. Matzu saved people in danger, as YHWH did for the Israelites. By comparing the motherly YHWH in Hosea 11 and Matzu in the Taiwanese tradition, I build a hermeneutical platform of the Asian Christians regarding the divine image.


Stigmatization, Violence, and the Symbolic World: Death of Stephen, Khmer Rouge Genocide, and April 3rd Jeju Massacre
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Hyun Ho Park, Graduate Theological Union

The Islamic State’s killing of a Jordanian pilot who is identified as a “devout Muslim” causes many to wonder why such violence is carried out by fellow Muslims. The killing of insiders by one’s fellows, however, is not unprecedented. Acts 6:8-7:60 portrays the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, stoned to death by his fellow Jews. In Cambodia during Pol Pot’s Khamer Rouge regime (1975-1979), about 2 million Cambodians also perished by fellow Khmers. In 1948-1949, on Jeju Island of South Korea, nearly 2 million civilians were killed by government military forces. “How could such a horrifying action take place?” This paper answers this question by finding a common cause of the three different incidents – the Martyrdom of Stephen, Cambodian genocide, and Jeju April 3rd Massacre. I argue that the rhetoric of false stigmatization is used to justify the violence toward trespassers of the symbols of society. To demonstrate my thesis, I first discuss from Said’s Orientalism the causes of labeling between insiders and outsiders, and among the insiders, and I discuss the extreme form of labelling, stigmatization. Second, I analyze the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts and investigate how stigmatization, “the law breaker and temple destroyer,” takes place to justify violence for the trespassers of the religious symbol. Third, I present the Cambodian genocide and investigate how its victims were considered to trespass national and cultural symbols and were stigmatized as “New People” and “Vietnamese.” Fourth, I present the case of the April 3rd Jeju Massacre, a Korean genocide, where a similar stigmatization process took place. I investigate two stigmas, “Communists” and “leftists” that are given to those considered to be the trespassers of the political symbol. Lastly, I discuss ways to be freed from the false rhetoric of stigmatization and of violence to draw the conclusion.


Minjung in the Sinking of the Sewol Ferry: A Reading of Luke 10:25–42 from Minjung Theology’s Perspective
Program Unit: Korean Biblical Colloquium
Hyun Ho Park, Graduate Theological Union

On April 16, 2014, the Sewol Ferry carrying 476 people, including 300 Danwon high school students on a field trip to Jeju, sank under the sea. 295 people died, nine were missing, and two divers died during the rescue mission. The direct cause of the tragedy is a sudden, sharp turn. What made this tragedy even more disastrous was the incompetence of the Korean government during the rescue efforts and its unwillingness to investigate the cause of the tragedy, and later the labelling of the families of victims as leftist/communists. On June 3, 2014, the Declaration of the State of Affairs was released by Korean-American students in theological studies in North America with 133 signatures. They signed this declaration because they wanted to take action in the face of injustice and tragedy. This paper is another act of doing something and taking action by providing a reflection on the Sinking of the Sewol Ferry from the perspective of Minjung theology and thus calling its readers to do something in response. I argue that a Minjung theological reading of Luke 10:25-42 identifies the victims of the Seowl Ferry incident as Christ figures of our time and calls its readers to struggle against the Korean government’s economy-driven rhetoric and to give genuine care for its victims as humans. To demonstrate my thesis, I first present a reading of Luke 10:25-37 and identify the victim of a robbery with Christ, instead of the Samaritan. Second, I discuss how the victims of the Sewol Ferry are calling us to act as Christ figures in our time. Third, I present how the story of Jesus, Martha, and Mary in Luke 10:38-41 exemplifies a “call to action” against the Korean government’s economy-driven rhetoric and to have genuine love for the victims of the tragedy as humans.


Can Tax Collectors Be Friends of Jesus?
Program Unit: Q
InHee Park, Ewha Womans University

This paper will seek to establish a possibility of the existence of “Q community” through a socio-rhetorical approach to Q 7:18-35. Since the term “community” has been basically reflecting a post-Easter theology of the early Christian church, Q scholars have become reluctant to use the term “community” for describing the social context of Q. On the contrary, this term “community” becomes an alternative for the political thinkers to designate a basic or foundational social unit in pursuit of a common socio-political vision for civilians. In this regard, a socio-rhetorical approach of Q text 7: 18-35 is helpful for considering whether a socio-political vision can be extrapolated from the reflections of literal traits of Q as distinguishable from its contemporaries in the first century Galilee. This text shows an explicit written stage of Q connected with literal traits of wisdom and prophetic tradition. Considering the difficult conditions for producing written work in ancient society, this written stage reflects social issues and the context of Q rather than just the individual’s interest. In this regard, the conflict between Jesus and John the Baptist is significant. Q admits the authority of John the Baptist. Even his role in Q in the first part of Q 3:7-17 echoes the role of high priest in Israel’s tradition who performed the baptism of repentance in Yom kippur, the most important ritual of the new year’s ceremony. Moreover, his introducing Jesus as “the coming one” renders Q’s dependency on John the Baptist’s authority. His socio-politically resistant stance was also in common with Jesus and Q considering his death by political power. Therefore, his doubt about Jesus’ identification as “the coming one” in Q 7:18 signified that there was a critical condition making a rift between Q people and other contemporaries. The attacking epithet of Jesus, “a friend of tax collector” in Q 7:34, can be a clue to find the condition of Q’s isolation from its social context. It is mentioned in the context of classifying Jesus and John the Baptist as a same category of the “children of sophia” who were refused by this generation, however, the acceptance of tax collectors in Q (perhaps after their repentance) would raise a serious problem for common people, including John’s followers, due to its negative connotation in the socio-political context of 1st century Palestine. This epithet of “a friend of tax collector” cannot be interpreted as a simple addition for emphasizing Jesus’ mercy on sinners, rather, as a historical fact, which differentiated Q’s social stance from other fellow Galileans, would create a new socio-political vision of tolerance referencing the kingdom of God. This paper will explore that this vision of the kingdom of God was derived from Q community that was forced to be separated from its contemporaries, but tried to persuade them to be tolerated as sinners with Jesus saying “the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.”


Paul, the Cosmopolitan
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Jee Hei Park, Fordham University

How does Paul construe the collective distinctiveness of Christ believers? This paper suggests the concept of cosmopolitan as a third way by which we can move away from the binary between universalism and particularism. To do so, I comparatively explore Diogenes of Sinope, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, and Paul with regard to their usage and understanding of cosmic citizenship. Diogenes of Sinope, a cynic philosopher known for his eccentric behaviors and scornful words, coined the term kosmopolite¯s to refer to himself. But the cosmopolitan of Diogenes is not as a licentious person, but a wise person who does not belong to nomos, convention. For Diogenes, the cosmos of the wise is a state free from nomos. Plutarch locates cosmopolitanism in the context of exile. For him, Socrates, a well-known exile, is an example of kosmios (a substitute of kosmopolite¯s), whose identity is not delimited to one local title. Plutarch finds the source of cosmopolitanism in the sameness of the elements and systems (fire, water, air, government, and law) that constitute the world together. In contrast, the focus of Marcus Aurelius’ cosmopolitanism is on establishing the world-polis. For Marcus, the cosmos is an ideal state of polis, in which all citizens possess mind, reason, and law in common (koinos). What is interesting in Marcus is that he develops the cosmopolitan notion into ethics by emphasizing koino¯nia among citizens. In keeping the analyses of the cosmopolitan put forward by Diogenes, Plutarch, and Marcus Aurelius, I examine Paul’s cosmopolitanism focusing on Philippians 3:20 and Galatians 3:28. In Philippians 3:20, Paul claims that the politeuma of Christ believers is in heaven, and thus the Greek word politeuma is also employed by Marcus in conjunction with his notion of koinos. But Paul’s heaven, which is unconnected to earthly things, is closer to the cosmos that Diogenes proposes as a super-state, unaffected by any social convention. In Galatians 3:28, Paul uses the phrase of “neither… nor,” which is usually regarded as an epitome of Paul’s universalism. Paul’s purpose is to compellingly illuminate the oneness in Christ. In parallel with Plutarch’s employment of the same phrase and focus on the sameness of the elements and systems that hold the world together, I present it not as an expression of erasing all boundaries but an indication of the priority of being in Christ. Socrates was a citizen of the world not because there was no Athens or Greece, but because he did not demarcate himself in one area or culture. Christ believers are one not because there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free, and male and female, but because Christ holds all of them together. In this vein, the oneness meant by Paul is not a homogenous one but a heterogeneous one. Consequently, this paper aims to demonstrate kosmopolite¯s as a fresh and valuable angle from which Paul’s notion of equality and unity in Christ can be divergently framed and interpreted.


Assyria Cannot Save Us: Socio-political Reading of Hosea’s Metaphors and Proclamations
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Kyung Sik Park, Claremont School of Theology

Scholars, who interpret and understand the metaphors and proclamations in the book of Hosea as an accusation of Israel’s religious apostasy, have overlooked the socio-political intention of the author of the book of Hosea. Scholars partly ignore the vassal relationship with Assyria during the 9th century BCE because the books of Kings do not indicate any text that proves Israel’s alliance with Assyria during this period until Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BCE). However, I argue that Israel was heavily involved with Assyria from Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) through Tiglath-Pileser III. We have clear remains which indicate the vassal relationship with Assyria (the Black Obelisk and the vassal list of Adad Nirari III). Hosea’s use of Mesopotamian legal forms proves that there is clear influence from Assyria. Furthermore, Hosea is using the Pentateuchal citations to support his political viewpoint, involving what it meant to ally with Assyria and what it meant to propose alliance with Aram instead in the narratives. These are all relevant for understanding that there were some forms of Pentateuchal narratives already in the monarchic period. Therefore, scholarly discussion about the dating of the book of Hosea, the interpretation of the issues that he raises, and influences on the understanding of the Pentateuch was limited. Socio-political reading of the book of Hosea clearly presents 1) how did Hosea understand the political situation of Northern Israel? 2) What was Hosea’s political standpoint? 3) How does Hosea use polemical language of Idolatry to characterize or caricaturize his opponents or the objects of his criticism? 4) How does Hosea relate intertextually to the Pentateuch?


The Politics of Racialization in the Matthean Passion Narrative
Program Unit: Matthew
Wongi Park, Vanderbilt University

In the Matthean passion narrative, questions surrounding the identity of Jesus come into sharp focus. The repetition of the title ? ßas??e?? t?? ???da??? (“King of the Jews/ Judeans”) in each scene of the passion narrative accents its pivotal role: Jesus’ ethnoracial identity is invoked at several key points, serving as the basis for his interrogation (Matt 27:11), torture (Matt 27:29), and mockery (Matt 27:42). It is also placed as a formal charge on the cross—a detail attested by all four Gospels (Matt 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38, John 19:19). Recent scholarship has rendered the title in one of two ways. Traditional readings have understood the title in religious-theological terms as revealing, and ironically confirming, Jesus’ messianic identity: Jesus really was the Davidic messiah he claimed to be. More recent scholarship, in contrast, has focused on the title’s socio-political significance in the first century context of Roman imperialism. Accordingly, the Matthean Jesus is perceived as a threat to the political order that Pilate represents. Yet despite the explicit citation of ethnoracial terminology, both approaches have understood the title in non-racial ways. Taking this peculiar omission in the history of scholarship as a point of departure, the aim of my reading is a critical retrieval of the politics of racialization in the Matthean passion narrative. I argue that the title is not a positive messianic designation, but a racial slur, and, moreover, that Jesus’ death on a Roman crucifix is a grotesque act of minoritization, and specifically, Judean racialization. Specifically, my reading is an attempt to underscore how Jesus is minoritized as a racialized-other through an analysis of how ethnoracial signifiers are mobilized in the courtroom scenes that comprise the Matthean passion narrative.


Disrupting Oneness, Challenging Erasure: A Feminist-Womanist Dialogue on the Body of Christ
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Angela N. Parker, The Seattle School

This paper is a co-authored piece committed to developing an embodied feminist/womanist dialogical methodology for biblical interpretation. Applying this dialogical framework to Romans 12, this paper argues that a conversation between womanist and feminist biblical interpretation opens new perspectives on the text, specifically regarding its portrayal of individual and collective bodies. In this paper we will critically examine Paul’s idea of the collective “body of Christ.” We seek to trouble and nuance this image by highlighting the particularities of the bodies existing in- and outside of the collective body. This analysis will specifically engage dynamics of race, class, and privilege utilizing the work of France Winddance Twine, Frantz Fanon and others. It will also dialogue with depictions of bodies in Roman Imperial material culture. Finally, our dialogue will explore this text in relation to the contemporary competing ideologies of #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter. The dialogue of this paper will unfold in three steps. First, we begin with a discussion of the context and imagery in which Romans is situated (first from a womanist standpoint and then from a feminist standpoint). The authors give special attention to visual Roman propaganda that celebrates and reifies the themes of particular and collective bodies as represented in the Ara Pacis and the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias. Attention will be given to issues of class, race, privilege, and oppression embodied in these images along with how this imagery dialogues with Paul’s call to be “one body in Christ.” Second, we outline how a feminist lens and a womanist lens troubles and challenges the harmonious, bounded collective body. In doing so, we will show where feminist and womanist lenses converge in addition to demonstrating the areas where each provides a unique perspective. Third, this paper will bring Romans 12 into dialogue with the contemporary tension that exists between particular identity and collective solidarity when working for social transformation around racism. This paper provides a dialogue between feminist and womanist biblical studies that opens up a space for the creation of a critical, yet constructive contextual hermeneutic for social transformation. This hermeneutic allows for a new understanding of universality and particularity as it relates to bodies in Romans 12. By performing an embodied engagement with Romans 12, we relate the dangers found within the collective body to the contemporary dialogue around the creation of the #alllivesmatter campaign in response to the #blacklivesmatter movement. Using the work of artist, Titus Kaphar, we explore the erasure of black voices by those seeking a more universalized call for liberation. In doing so, we will present a re-envisioning of oneness in the body of Christ.


Pembroke’s Persuasion: The Rhetoric of Mary Sidney’s Psalm 82
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
B. J. Parker, Baylor University

In the wake of the death of nearly her entire family, Mary Sidney completed her brother’s work of paraphrasing the Book of Psalms. As scholars such as Melody Knowles and Margaret Hannah have begun to point out, Sidney imbues the Psalms with beauty and theological bite. Within the context of an emerging Protestantism that produced the Coverdale Psalter, the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter, Clément Marot and Theoodre Bèze’s Psalter, and the Geneva Bible, Mary Sidney’s work displays an unmatched poetic prowess and theological nuance. In this paper I explore Sidney’s rendering of Psalm 82. A close reading of her paraphrase of Psalm 82 uncovers a carefully crafted poem in which she goes further than any previous tradition of admonition in her attempt to persuade Queen Elizabeth to act on behalf of Protestantism. To help unpack the significance of Sidney’s paraphrase I begin by offering a brief word about the wider literary milieu before turning to a detailed reading of the psalm. My analysis of Psalm 82 pays close attention to Sidney’s use of form and content. Attending to the form, I address the way that Sidney’s use of literary devices such as meter, caesura, alliteration, consonance, and assonance all undergird her theological conviction. My analysis of the content of the psalm further underscores Mary’s theological position as well as her willingness to speak a strong word to the Queen of England.


Teaching Epigraphy in the 21st Century: The Epigraphic Digital Lab
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Heather Dana Davis Parker, Johns Hopkins University

The dictum "nothing ever stays the same" is certainly true of academics. Fields of knowledge are always in transition, and the various fields of epigraphy (e.g., Northwest Semitic, Classical, Mesopotamian Cuneiform, Egyptian Hieroglyphic) are no exception to this. Data continue to accumulate, methods of data analysis are constantly being refined, analyses of data are continually nuancing previous understandings and conclusions, and ways of presenting such conclusions often change. This paper will focus on the technological innovations that are impacting the study of ancient texts and will compare and contrast traditional means of not only studying but also teaching these texts. A primary focus will be the use of digital technology in drawing ancient texts and palaeographic script charts and how to teach this technology in an epigraphic digital lab. Emphasis will be placed on the Northwest Semitic epigraphic corpus; however, the technologies, techniques, and methodologies discussed may be applied to any of the aforementioned epigraphic fields.


Death and the Boy or Teen Angel
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Holt N. Parker, University of Cincinnati

Greek pederasty operated under a rather rigid code of conventions that lasted for over a millennium. Once a boy reached maturity (marked by facial and body hair) he was no longer a beloved, an object of attraction. One solution to this ethical and aesthetic impasse is to kill the boy off at his moment of perfection. This paper briefly explores the poetics of pederastic perfection and variation on that theme in myth (the many loves of Apollo), literature (the Greek Novel, the remodeling of Achilles and Patroclus, Virgil’s Nissus and Eurylaus), and history (the cult of Antinoos).


Internally Headed Relative Clauses in the Greek New Testament
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Jimmy Parks, Logos Bible Software

The recent article by Stephanie Fauconnier establishes the thesis that Ancient Greek had two syntactic classes of relative clause. The externally headed relative clause and the internally headed relative clause. The focus of her article was on the existence and semantico-pragmatic constraints of this second relative clause construction. She showed convincingly that the relative clauses usually categorized as cases of incorporation fit the typological criteria of internally headed relative clauses. She also showed that in Ancient Greek, using the works of Xenophon as her data set, the internally headed relative clause could only be restrictive, while the externally headed relative clause could be restrictive or non-restrictive. The goal of the current work is to show that while the internally headed relative clause still exists in Biblical Greek, and wider Koine literature, the same semantico-pragmatic constraints do not. That is it will be shown that internally headed relative clauses can be restrictive or non-restrictive. Though there is a clear preference that they be restrictive.


The Book of Isaiah in the War Scroll
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Donald Parry, Brigham Young University

This paper will discuss the identification and evaluation of quotations and allusions from the Book of Isaiah in the War Scroll and their use in the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.


Visual and Verbal Expressions of Transformation: Olmec Were-Jaguars and Angelification in Ascension of Isaiah Compared
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Paul M. Pasquesi, Marquette University

In Olmec iconography, scholars are presented with visual artefacts of transformation from human to hybrid-animal without texts so the data can only be analyzed as outsiders (through an etic approach). The Ascension of Isaiah presents an account of a visionary’s transformation into various hybrid-angelic states and so can be analyzed from an insider perspective (an emic approach). This study seeks to discern what light these two bodies of transformational practice shed upon each other: in one we lack any verbal explanation but have an abundance of physical evidence; in the other we lack any visual cues about body postures or sense of what one might do to prepare for said vision. By utilizing cross-cultural analysis more light might be shed on what types of practices induce altered states of consciousness. From this work, it can be shown that visualization plays a role in both traditions, transforming the mystic into what one beholds. The visualization practiced in Ascension of Isaiah will be fleshed out by drawing on other late First to Early Second century texts which shed more light on various practices used to induce transformation of the self in visionary states. In the end, it will be shown that vision and transformation should be taken seriously as actual practices which some groups in antiquity engaged in. Rather than a mere literary trope, the cultivation of altered states of consciousness should be taken seriously as religious practice.


Philology and the Study of the Bible: Shifting Foci
Program Unit:
Na'ama Pat-El, University of Texas at Austin

*


Dialects of Biblical Hebrew: A Re-examination
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Na'ama Pat-El, University of Texas at Austin

Several scholars have claimed that there is ample evidence for at least two, possibly three, dialects in the text of the Hebrew Bible: Judahite, Israelian and possibly Benjaminite (e.g. Mitchell Dahood, Cyrus Gordon, James Davila, and Gary Rendsburg). The main difference between the two main dialects was argued to be a result of contact between Hebrew speakers of the northern kingdom with speakers of Aramaic and Phoenician (Dahood 1952). Most of the material presented as evidence is lexical, but several morphological, phonological and syntactic features have also been argued to be indicative of the northern dialect (Rendsburg 2003). Although there have been several critical evaluations of the idea of Israelian Hebrew, There hasn’t been a systematic evaluation of the linguistic evidence (Fredericks 1996; Schniederwind and Sivan 1997). In this paper, I will examine the linguistic features that have been claimed to be distinctive of the northern dialect. The results will show that despite biblical stories reporting on the dialects, there is little if any linguistic evidence for different dialects in the language of the Hebrew Bible. That is not to say that a dialectal differentiation did not exist, but rather that we cannot identify these dialectal features from the text of the Bible. These findings are also important for the dating of biblical texts, as alleged dialectal features have been used to dismiss the validity of dating (Young et al. 2008 I: 200). Dahood, Mitchell J. (1952). “Canaanite-Phoenician Influence in Qohelet.” Biblica 33: 191-221. Fredericks, Daniel C. (1996). “A North Israelite Dialect in the Hebrew Bible? Questions of Methodology.” Hebrew Studies 37:7-20. Rendsburg, Gary A. (2003). “A Comprehensive Guide to Israelian Hebrew: Grammar and Lexicon.” Orient 38: 5-35. Schniederwind, William M. and Daniel Sivan (1997). “The Elija-Elisha Narratives: a Text Case for the Northern Dialect of Hebrew.” Jewish Quarterly Review 37: 303-337. Young, Ian, Robert Rezetko and Martin Ehrensvärd (2008). Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts. 2 Vol. London: Equinox.


Vanishing Magic: Corrective Discourses of the Supernatural in the 'Acts of Peter'
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Shaily Shashikant Patel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The miraculous is magical in the Apocryphal Acts. That is to say, the supernatural feats performed by the apostles correlate with activities stereotypically associated with magic in the ancient world. Many scholars have highlighted this trend. Particularly striking in the 'Acts of Peter,' however, is that Peter's actions are quite sharply contrasted with those of an explicitly-named magician, Simon. The sheer vitriol with which the text maligns Simon and his magic invites questions about the function of such acerbity. Since the figure of Simon is a "flat" character devoid of almost any concrete theological content, it is unlikely that he represents any ancient "heresy." As such, the polemic in the 'Acts of Peter' cannot be explained by the assertion that Simon is merely a "stand-in" for an imagined "heterodox" position. In this paper, I argue that the function of the polemic against Simon in the 'Acts of Peter' correlates with the purpose of the text as a whole. The author's bitter rhetoric severs any possible connections between Peter and Simon, and concomitantly, between Christianity and magic. Discourses about magic proliferated in the imperial period, precipitating a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate expressions of supernatural power. Simultaneously, the Apocryphal Acts expressed their respective protagonists' power in stereotypically magical terms. By situating the 'Acts of Peter' within these opposing discursive trends, I demonstrate how the author redefines certain acts of supernatural power in a manner demonstrating apostolic superiority. In this text, then, the inclusion of Simon as an antagonist additionally functions as a sharper corrective to the traditions that comprise contemporary Acts; it is a means by which the 'Acts of Peter' further clarifies the distinction between Peter and Simon, between miracle and magic, and ultimately, between true and false faith.


Speed Dating
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Umesh Patel, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

This teaching tactic is best used in introductory undergraduate courses with an emphasis on writing. By engaging in this activity multiple times, students begin to track their own critical thought processes and gain greater confidence in defending the claims that they have made in writing. Furthermore, this collaborative assignment also encourages greater participation in class discussions by exposing them to the ideas of their peers in written form early on. At the end of the course, in addition to being a member of a highly engaged and respectful study body, students will be able to produce intelligent and complex writing that largely avoids sweeping generalizations while still considering many points of view to persuade the largest audiences.


The Mosaic Voicing of Divine Law
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Dale Patrik, Drake University

I will address the distinctive Deuteronomic presentation of divine law in first person Moses (“I, Moses”) and how this affects the persuasive force of legal discourse. We can proceed by addressing the following questions: (1) What does first person Moses have to do with rhetoric? (2) How does law delivered in first person Moses retain the authority of the Sinaitic lawgiver, YHWH? (3) How does the human voice modify the formulation of law and associated motive clauses? (4) How does the Mosaic voice open up space for the religious interpreter of divine law?


Why the Pharisees Are Important for Christian Self-Understanding
Program Unit:
John Pawlikowski, Catholic Theological Union

The Pharisees have traditionally been looked upon as the archenemies of Jesus? But some have contended that he in fact came out of the Pharisaic tradition. The 1985 Vatican NOTES on Catholic-Jewish Relations argued that Jesus stood closer to Pharisaism than any other Jewish movement of his time. But even if this is the case, does it bear significance for Christian -Jewish understanding and for Christianity's self-identity.


Venting, Anger toward God, and Spiritual Growth: Towards an Integrative Practical Theology of Pastoral Care
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Joseph Kim Paxton, Claremont School of Theology

Anger toward God (ATG) research suggests that individuals who are able to express their anger toward God are more likely to strengthen and maintain their faith. Alternatively, individuals who do not feel capable of expressing their anger toward God are significantly more likely to engage in "exit" strategies. In other words, if an individual is unable to express anger toward God or to God then they are significantly more likely to “walk away” from their faith or religious tradition. Venting, however, does not always lead to catharsis. In fact, venting can increase measures of trait anger, making people more angry (Bushman, 2001). Research on venting in social circles also fails to decrease the emotional load, or lead to catharsis. This seems to produce a precarious double-bind in which an individual who vents their anger will merely become more angry and an individual who does not vent their anger may lose their faith or walk away from their religious tradition. The book of Psalms and Lamentation 3 offers a unique looks at venting in the context of a spiritual struggle. Specifically, the bible suggests, and records, individuals who suffer and experience spiritual growth. The aim of this paper seeks to combine biblical studies, psychological research, and my previous experience as a clinical psychology intern to produce a practical theology of venting and anger for pastoral care.


Digital Tools Supporting Prosopographical Research in Texts and Manuscripts
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Laurie E. Pearce, University of California-Berkeley

Prosopographical research makes it possible to elicit narratives of individual lives and social communities from evidence—personal names, relationships, roles, as well as other metadata—preserved in textual documentation of all genres and periods. In the humanities and social sciences, prosopographers were early to recognize the potential of computers to simplify and support data storage and analysis, and were enthusiastic adopters of digital tools and methodologies. The stand-alone architecture of many early digital projects resulted in repositories of project-specific data presented in and accessible only through proprietary software and/or interfaces. Contributing to increased development and acceptance of digital tools in humanities research has been the implementation of best practices including, but not limited to the use of open source code, reusability of tools, extensibility of tools and methods across disciplines and data sets, and interoperability facilitated through web services. Berkeley Prosopography Services (BPS) is a digital toolkit that facilitates and supports prosopographical research, including the disambiguation of namesakes and the generation of social network visualizations. Although BPS originated in support for research in a corpus of cuneiform legal documents of the Hellenistic period, its corpus agnostic architecture supports investigation of the names and individuals in text corpora regardless of their time periods, languages, content, or media. It applies heuristics familiar to the humanities researcher, including the application of probabilistic reasoning in the disambiguation of namesakes and the positing and exploration of “what if” scenarios that invite the formation of new research agendas. This paper outlines the conceptual framework of BPS and will demonstrate the functionality of BPS and its potential to support prosopographical research in papyrology, drawing on text subsets from the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri, and will suggest its applicability to research in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies.


The Hebrew Bible as Arabic Literature in Exile
Program Unit: Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims
S.J. Pearce, New York University

The physician, merchant, and translator polymath, Judah ibn Tibbon (c. 1120-1190), famously advised his son: “On every Sabbath, read the weekly Torah portion in Arabic; this will help you develop your vocabulary should you wish to become a translator.” Using this admonition as a starting point, this present paper will offer an overview of the ways in which the Hebrew Bible, specifically in the Arabic version created by Sa‘adya Gaon, served as a professional guide for Judah in inducting his son Samuel into the profession of translating. By drawing specifically upon the text and the idea of the Hebrew Bible in Arabic in a variety of forms — as a lexicographic fount, as the wellspring for metaphors of moral guidance, and as a one book amongst many in an Arabic library — Judah builds up a literary and cultural program that seeks to tie his home in exile, the Jewish community of Lunel, to the memory of the home he left, the literary community of Granada.


“Leading Many Sons to Glory”: Implications of Exclusive Language in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Amy Peeler, Wheaton College (Illinois)

The author of Hebrews, unsurprisingly, does not employ inclusive language. When he speaks of the humans with whom God is involved in a salvific relationship, he often calls them “sons” (uios, 2:10; 12:5–8). He also speaks of the benefits of being a son, including access to inheritance (1:14; 9:15; 12:23), education (5:13–14; 12:7–11), and priesthood (5:1–4; 10:19–20). As an investigation of women’s participation (or lack thereof) in these arenas in the first-century world, this paper asks how women listening to the sermon to the Hebrews might have perceived this language. The author makes a powerful claim that he and his audience stand in the same relationship with God as does Jesus the Son, but this theological assertion could have added social implications for women who would not normally be included in the privileges typically reserved for sons.


The Lexeme alêtheia in the Pauline Letters: Definition and Translation in Context
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Jesús Peláez, Universidad de Córdoba

The author of this paper presents the results of the study of the lexeme alêtheia using the method of semantic analysis applied by the Semantic Analysis Group of the University of Cordoba (Spain) that is preparing the redaction of the Greek-Spanish New Testament Dictionary. The aim of this paper is to determine the different meanings of the lexeme alêtheia in the Pauline Letters, whose translation and/or interpretation varies depending on different contexts. In this way lexical meaning and contextual meanings have to be accurately described to understand the concept of alêtheia in Paul.


Justice and Mercy in Proverbs: Can It Be?
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Glenn Pemberton, Abilene Christian University

The book of Proverbs is something of a compendium of ancient Israelite ethics. Name the issue and with a rabbi’s memory (or Biblegateway.com ready to search), Proverbs will dispense ethical guidance for many a topic: speech, wealth, poverty, friends, family, leadership, the strange woman, and maybe even strange man. If only wisdom and ethics were that easy to access. The prologue of Proverbs confidently asserts that teaching its young reader’s justice is one of the primary purposes of the collection: “to gain instruction in wise dealing: righteousness, justice, and integrity” (1:3, repeated in 2:9). And, just as promised, the ethical value of justice, often defined in opposition to injustice appears from time to time in the book. For the most part, however, the justice about which Proverbs is concerned, appears to have much to do with the lives and activities of the wealthy and well-positioned – and little to do with those of lower social standing. Justice or injustice is a matter of concern for those who sit in the city gate and decide disputes, who must not take bribes (17:23), subvert judgment (18:5), show partiality (24:23), or give false testimony (19:28). Justice or injustice is a concern for those in business who gain much wealth (16:8,11, 21:6-7). And justice is of utmost importance for a king (16:10, 29:4). Given the social setting scholars often attribute to the book of Proverbs, it would be little surprise if the concept of justice were limited to the activities of the wealthy. If we continue to read, however, justice breaks free of social categories in at least two minor ways: 1) Justice is a high value of the righteous and those trying to walk on the path of wisdom (2:9, 8:20, 12:5, 21:3,15, 28:5). 2) In one verse, and only one verse, Proverbs recognizes that the powerful may act in unjust ways to harm the disadvantaged. Injustice may sweep away the hard earned harvest of the poor (13:23). Nonetheless, it is still valid to ask if justice isn’t the prerogative of only the wealthy and powerful in Proverbs? One question we must answer in this study, along with another: Does mercy exist in the book of Proverbs? The most common word for mercy or compassion (rhm), in all its various forms occurs over eighty times in the Hebrew Bible, but only once in Proverbs; and even here, it occurs within a paradigm of justice, “the one who confesses and leaves [wrong doing] will obtain mercy” (28:13b). This slight initial appearance raises another question: does the concept of wisdom exclude mercy at the expense of justice? And if not, how do these do ethical concepts relate to one another in Proverbs? This paper will attempt an answer to these questions as it fully explores what Proverbs teaches about justice and mercy; a beginning point for learning how these ethical categories relate to one another in the larger corpus of the wisdom literature.


Faith in Greek Isaiah
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Ken M. Penner, Saint Francis Xavier University

Although the book of Isaiah is replete with the theme of faith (including trust, belief, and confidence), the way that theme is expressed in Greek Isaiah differs considerably from the way it is expressed in early Christian writings. In the New Testament, faith is normally spoken of using the root p?ste??. But p?ste?? only appears 4 times in Isaiah, p?st?? only 8 times, and p?st?? does not appear at all. Instead, pep????? is Greek Isaiah’s preferred way to speak of faith. Given the centrality of faith in Christian theology, this paper describes how the earliest Christian commentators interpreted faith when they read of it in Isaiah. Specifically, it identifies the extent to which Origen, Eusebius, and their contemporaries interpreted this faith in Christian ways by recasting the idea in terms of Christian p?st??.


Biblical Hebrew Verb Form Semantics
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Ken M. Penner, Saint Francis Xavier University

In this paper I clarify the significance of verb form selection in Biblical Hebrew by determining the extent to which the semantic value of the Hebrew finite verb is temporal, aspectual, or modal in a selected corpus: the narrative beginning in 1 Samuel. Standard grammars claim Hebrew was aspect-prominent in the Biblical period, but my work on the verbal system of the Dead Sea Scrolls indicates this is not the case for Qumran Hebrew. This study contributes to the resolution of the question of Biblical Hebrew verb form semantics by using the same method I applied to Qumran Hebrew: analyzing all the verbs in this narrative, using an empirical method of statistical correlation between form and meaning. I first produced a computer database of all the verbs in this corpus, tagged for formal features such as morphology, lexical aspect, and word order on one hand, and functions such as time reference, viewpoint aspect, and modality on the other. I then determined the strength of an association between each form and each function. Finally, I used the patterns found in the preceding analysis to evaluate conflicting proposed interpretations, by ascertaining which category (Tense, Aspect, or Modality) most probably accords with the Biblical Hebrew verbal system in this corpus. In this paper I first introduce the problem of Hebrew tense and aspect, then outline relevant theoretical linguistics and major methodological issues, synthesize statistical trends from the database into hypotheses, and describe the results of applying these hypotheses to specific verbs in 1 Samuel 1-2.


Bodies of Evidence: Rhetoric of Movement in Acts
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Todd Penner, Independent Scholar

The book of Acts offers a constant, if not always consistent, movement of bodies in its narrative flow, seemingly always in flux and rarely stable. Much of this representation takes place “on the stage,” in narrative public and “before” the reader. Even the most private scenes are publicized in one fashion or another. In this paper I explore the physiognomic perceptions operative in such movements and moments, seeking to elucidate the relationship between outward perception and inward character as those relate to the bodies on display. Ultimately, these bodies constitute components of Luke’s “orderly account” of “those things fulfilled among us.” What do these elements suggest about Luke’s larger literary project? Just how “orderly” is this ordered assembly?


Theological Epistemology in the Gospel according to Matthew: A Watsonian “Canonical Perspective”
Program Unit: Matthew
Jonathan Pennington, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Francis Watson’s erudite Gospel Writing offers a new kind of “canonical perspective” which merges historical, theological, and hermeneutical approaches to the Gospels. This paper adopts Watson’s canonical perspective to examine the theme of epistemology in the Gospel according to Matthew. I argue that core to Matthew’s presentation is a revelatory and theological epistemology, which is itself a hermeneutical stance. Following Watson's lead, this paper compares and contrasts Matthew's view with other Gospels (canonical and non-canonical) and potential Sayings Collections to understand his possible sources and how The Four together speak theologically about epistemology.


Going Viral: The Mechanics of Holy Contagion in Early Christian Ritual
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Alexander Perkins, Fordham University

In this paper, I argue that early Christian discourse constructed the power that performs miracles such as healing and cleansing as a contagious element not unlike a disease, something transmittable through bodily contact, bodily fluids, and bodily remains. I use “contagion” throughout this paper to signify the epistemic idea that a condition can be transmitted through touch or contiguity with an infected person. The central issue here is the nature of the epistemology of “the holy” lying behind early Christian ritual. Although scholars often discursively confine holiness to the realm of the “spiritual,” a closer look at several early ritual operations shows the corporeal at work. Ancient Christian communities, I argue, conceptualized the mechanics of ritual as physical rather than metaphysical. In essence, holiness was considered a communicable, material object that emanated from the holy person, a holy “stuff” through which a holy individual “infects” items with which he or she comes into contact. I limit my discussion here to rituals of healing. First, I investigate a set of healings in the Gospels that operate through contact with Jesus’ bodily fluids. I follow with a discussion of miracles performed using materials that are said to have come in contact with the sweat of the Apostle Paul. My argument then continues by tracking the later tradition of such “contact relics,” their creation, and their use as curatives and sanctifiers. I conclude by noting how figuring holiness as a divine disease opens up ethical spaces to challenge the stigmatizing discourse that surrounds disease and disability in our time.


What a Difference Fifty Years Make: Frend’s Martyrdom and Persecution
Program Unit: Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
Judith Perkins, University of Saint Joseph

The experience of “predatory” martyrs has provoked a paradigm shift for conceptualizing martyrdom since W.H.C. Frend wrote his Martyrdom and Persecution. When he wrote, his study played a major role in more fully incorporating Christian writings, behaviors, and attitudes into Roman imperial history. In his 1967 JTS review, the Roman historian G. E. M. de Ste. Croix describes it as an “outstanding book, based on extensive knowledge of a variety of sources (literary, documentary, and archeological) and on a very wide reading in the modern literature” (217). Ste. Croix also recognizes the significance of Frend’s understanding of Christianity as a social movement and his attributing “as much importance to the attitudes of the Christians themselves and the influence of Christian doctrine as sources of conflict [with the state], as the outlook of the Roman authorities and the legal system of the Roman Empire” (218). Frend’s recognition that the Christians contributed to their persecuted status was particularly important. Many of the martyr acts do reflect the martyrs’ aggressive perspective. For all their willingness to die, martyrs often eagerly anticipate a violent retribution for their sufferings. Indeed, the martyrs themselves are often depicted as dying with a threat on their lips, warning that their oppressors will pay in kind for their actions. So Polycarp responds to the governor threatening to burn him, “For you are ignorant of the fire of the future judgment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly” (Mart. Poly. 11.2). In the Acts of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonicê, Carpus warns the soldier lighting the fire to burn him that he will be punished for his action: “Let us endure all things looking forward to the judgment seat of truth” (Mart. Carp. 40). Similarly, in the Passio Perpetuae, when the male martyrs enter the arena, they taunt the governor in gestures: “You judge us, but God will judge you.” And Tertullian gleefully anticipates watching the deified emperors writhing in flames at the last judgment (De Spect. 30). In their discourse around martyrdom, some early Christians appear as anything but nonviolent. “Turning the other cheek” has no place in this discourse. In her 2004 study of martyrdom, Elizabeth Castelli notes the inherent danger of this Christian perspective: “The lionizing of the martyr’s suffering . . . magnifies that suffering to such an extent that those who are charged with responsibility for engendering it lose their claim to their own humanness” (2004, 201). This refusal of a shared humanity then validates an inhumane retaliation for the incurred sufferings. In her recent work, the philosopher Judith Butler has also emphasized the danger in not recognizing the shared precariousness of all human life, its shared vulnerability to harm. And she argues that the recognition of this shared vulnerability can offer a new basis for more equitable understandings of the human community. This paper will reframe Christian martyrs in Butler’s terms of human precariousness and precarity.


Dream-Vision Discourse in the Book of Daniel and Ancient Jewish Aramaic Literature among the Qumran Library
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Andrew B. Perrin, Trinity Western University

The dream-vision episodes and interpretations that pervade the book of Daniel impact or inform almost every aspect of the composition (e.g., plot, characterization, genre, theological outlook). Daniel’s stature as a dreamer and oneirocritical profile, however, find little resonance in other writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. In search of a better interpretive context for the Danielic dream-vision tradition, the present study plots the book within a constellation of some twenty mid-Second Temple period Aramaic writings among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which exhibit an equally strong penchant for this form of revelation. Using Hindy Najman’s work on discourses linked to central figures in scriptural traditions and Carol Newsom’s work on the discourse of “apocalyptic scribalism,” this paper illumines how the dream-vision provided a way of shifting epistemological boundaries and strategically pressing the tradition in fresh directions through claims to special revelation in Daniel and these roughly contemporary writings.


What Caesar Has Coming to Him: Another Look at Mark 12:13–17
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Nicholas Perrin, Wheaton Graduate School (Illinois)

Of all the puzzling dominical sayings, perhaps one of the most perplexing is the climactic statement within the so-called Steuerfrage pericope: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Mark 12:17). While traditionally this passage has been read as establishing two noncontiguous realms (one belonging to Caesar and another to God), in this paper I will seek to argue the opposite, more specifically, that in this scene Mark is challenging the religio-political claims implicit on the Roman coinage and advancing a narrative counter-argument in which Jesus, by contesting and redefining key terms, assigns himself the exalted roles normally ascribed to Caesar.


The Grain of Truth behind the Parable of Salt (Or How Redaction Criticism Can Help Positively Identify the Words of Jesus)
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Nicholas Perrin, Wheaton Graduate School (Illinois)

While redaction criticism has traditionally exercised a negative function in historical Jesus studies (namely, by identifying and excluding editorial traces), in this paper I will demonstrate that the same criticism can – and should more routinely -- be applied as a positive tool. Examining the Parable of the Salt in the triple tradition as a case study, I will argue that a close reading of the gospel-writers’ narratives reveals not only their unique handling of the salt saying but also their shared assumptions regarding its symbolic significance. When it comes to multiply-attested sayings, evidence of semantic overlap in the midst of variegated reformulation holds promise of yielding important insights into earlier stages of tradition, not least the Sitz im Leben Jesus.


The Deuteronomist and the Chronicler as Reputational Entrepreneurs of King David
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Raymond F. Person, Jr., Ohio Northern University

The consensus model for understanding the relationship between the Deuteronomistic History and the Book of Chronicles provides an analysis in which King David is portrayed differently by the Deuteronomist(s) and the Chronicler(s). This conclusion fits very well with Gary Fine’s notion of “reputational entrepeneurs—that is, the Deuteronomistic interpretation and the Chronistic interpretation of David is a result of the creation of different reputations by these two different entrepeneurs. In earlier works I have been critical of the methodological assumptions behind the consensus model, leading me to conclude that modern scholars far too often over-emphasize the purported theological divergences between these two historiographies. In this paper, I will reflect on how my methodological critique of the consensus model creates difficulties in the application of Fine’s notion of “reputational entrepeneurs” to these historiographies as illustrated in my discussion of the portrayal of David.


Degrees of Separation: A Mythic Substructure
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Richard Pervo, Saint Paul, Minnesota

The meta-structure of romance comprises meeting, separation, and reunion. Separation from the beloved is a loss of one’s true identity. In the classic manifestations, separation is physical, e.g., Callirhoe, but variations are prolific: at one point status separates Anthia from Habrocomes, as both are enslaved on the same estate. Daphnis and Chloe are close as can be but separated by their ignorance of sex. Chastity separates Chariclea from Theagenes (Ethiopian Story), Lucius is without a human body (Metamorphoses), religion prevents the union of Aseneth with Joseph, and Clement’s family must be reunited… The range of examples merits a survey to demonstrate the power of the theme. Theology and philosophy have their own and varied contributions. The movements labeled “Gnostic” posit separation in the godhead as the fons et origo of the mess in which humanity languishes. As the myth in Plato’s Symposium holds, love is a force at war against alienation. Whether viewed as a cliché past its expiry date in Penelope’s fictional era or as the richest and most prolific begetter of tropes, separation holds ancient fiction together.


From the Lion’s Mouth (2 Tim 4:17): Paul Plays Defense
Program Unit: Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
Richard Pervo, Saint Paul, Minnesota

This paper takes up Paul's self-defense in Galatians and 2 Corinthians (especially 2 Cor 10–13), canonical Acts 17, 22 and 26, and the Acts of Paul 3 and 9. I shall examine the circumstances—against other believers in the letters, Roman and Jewish adversaries in the Acts—rhetorical strategies and forms, as well as the circumstances motivating composition. Authors of Acts revered Paul, but did not accept the claim that he was not a potent speaker. Were they right? Come and learn.


Luke’s Transformation of Matthaean Motifs
Program Unit: Formation of Luke and Acts
Jeffrey Peterson, Austin Graduate School Of Theology

A growing number of Gospels scholars has adopted Austin Farrer’s solution to the Synoptic Problem, which affirms the priority of Mark plus Luke’s use of Matthew as well as Mark, thus dispensing with Q. Full consideration of this hypothesis requires an examination of Luke’s editorial work to examine passages where it may involve the appropriation and adaptation of Matthaean language and themes. This paper explores the reconfiguration of Matthew discernible in three Lucan motifs: (1) the wondrous birth of the Anointed; (2) Jesus as the “prophet like Moses”; and (3) the mission to “all the nations” to which Christ appointed “the eleven” following his resurrection. In each case it will be seen that Luke has indeed composed his text in interaction with Matthew as well as Mark and creatively transformed Matthaean motifs (along with Marcan) to serve his own literary and theological aims.


After Historical Criticism: Mormon Biblical Studies in Post-Modernity
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Taylor G. Petrey, Kalamazoo College

The question of what Mormon biblical studies is, and whether it can exist at all as a denominationally specific enterprise, is a thorny question, but here I define it simply as Mormons engaging in scholarship on the Bible for a largely Mormon audience. On the whole, Mormon biblical studies has cautiously and sporadically engaged the broad themes of historical critical approaches to the Bible. In recent decades, biblical scholars have begun to challenge the dominance of this hermeneutical framework in the broader field. These scholars have suggested that the ideal of objectivity that historical critical approaches promised is still embedded in the particular social frameworks of the modern era. I propose that contemporary hermeneutical approaches to the biblical text including liberationist hermeneutics and hermeneutics of suspicion not only can productively inform Mormon biblical studies going forward, but also hearken to earlier Mormon approaches to the Bible.


Kinship, Sexual Difference, and the Angelic Resurrection
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Taylor G. Petrey, Kalamazoo College

This paper examines Jesus's teachings on the resurrection suggesting an end to marriage because resurrected persons will be "as angels in heaven." Feminist interpretation has disagreed as to whether this entails an end to marriage alone, or an end to sexual difference itself. Ancient Christian interpretation also disagreed on similar grounds. They too argued over whether the resurrection meant that chastity was observed, or there was no longer male and female. I explore the theories of gender in both lines of interpretation. In particular, I look at how kinship and gender are tied together. How is kinship informing the two major interpretive traditions of this text? I suggest that theories of gender move beyond materialist accounts of bodies and consider how discourses of kinship are connected to sexual difference.


Teaching Apocalyptic Literature: Lessons from Zechariah
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Anthony R. Petterson, Morling College

Apocalyptic authors are like political cartoonists, sketching the course of world events and prominent world leaders in figurative, graphic and even bizarre ways (Brent Sandy 2002). Recent world events show that the interpretation of apocalyptic literature can also be dangerous, both when it is misunderstood and understood. In this paper I will outline the way that the genre of apocalypse works, particularly in the way that it paints pictures with words. I will also draw on my experience in teaching courses on the book of Zechariah to illustrate different ways in which this literature can be engaged by students. While Zechariah is not strictly classified as apocalypse, it is close enough to illustrate some of the principles at work so that apocalypse is read in the manner for which it was intended. Apocalyptic literature is often a puzzle when first engaged, and the deeper the reader goes, the more they are drawn into the apocalyptic world. The aim seems to be for the reader to have the “aha! moment” when connections are made and the message is seen, by which time the reader is well and truly caught up in the apocalypse and sees the connections with our world and draws implications for life. In many instances, the literature also has an affective content and this needs to be appreciated, much like seeing a play or drama is very different to reading it in a book. The apocalyptic literature also provides wonderful opportunities to engage visual learners in a way that other literature may not.


Exile and Re-exile in Zechariah and the Twelve
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Anthony Petterson, Morling College, Sydney

Exile and Re-exile in Zechariah and the Twelve


Shamans in the Desert: Mark 1:12–13 Jesus and the Spirit World
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Jeffrey Pettis, Fordham University

In Mk. 1.12-13 Jesus enters into the wilderness where he is tempted. The account has parallels with Mircea Eliade’s notion of the shaman who as an initiate goes into solitude and a strict regime of self-torture and affliction. In his isolation the shaman is both attacked and assisted by demons, not unlike Jesus who is tested (peirazomenos) by Satan, and ministered to by angels at the end of his testing experience. For both the shaman and Jesus, there is a direct connection with the spirit world. The author of Mark says that Jesus is “cast out” (ekballei) by the spirit into the wilderness. Elsewhere the author notes that Jesus is known by the world of the unclean spirits who fall down before him and cry out, "You are the Son of God" (3.11). Jesus has control of the spirits, ordering them not to reveal his identity (3.12), and Mark reports that Jesus’ family tries to seize him because people say that he is “out of his mind” (exelthon Mk. 3.21; c.f. 3.22; 3.30). Connection with the spirit world appears as well in the letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria about the Secret Gospel of Mark. The author notes how “foul demons (aron daimonon) are always devising destruction for the race of men.” He also refers to a “great voice” (phone megale) from a young man’s tomb, what Morton Smith interprets as a “demon robbed of its prey” in the resurrection story in the Secret Gospel of Mark. For Eliade a demon might possess a shaman and also be controlled by the shaman to do miracles including flying. Consider ancient magical texts such as PGM IV.475-829 where one is “lifted up…to see all immortal things” (540-45). By contrast, the authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke expand Mark’s account with a lengthy Q apologetic. In both of these accounts Jesus, unlike the shaman, is not exballei by a spirit. Further, Q makes it clear that this Jesus does not fly through the air, nor turn stones to bread, or conquer the world. He is not a shaman and/or goeteia. He does not rule over such a world, one which is of the devil (Lk. 4.6). The definitive response to Mark 1.12-13 raises questions. To what extent was Jesus perceived and experienced by the author of the Gospel of Mark to be connected with shamanistic and magical practices and teachings? What light is shed upon Jesus by references to secrecy and bad demons in relation to the Secret Gospel of Mark? How concerned was the early church to separate Jesus from the shaman, and how are we to understand Jesus’ exile and conflict in the desert in terms other than the shaman?


Mapping God’s Movement on Eli’s Disabled Body in I Samuel 1–4
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
David Pettit, Iliff School of Theology

In I Samuel the Lord tells both Eli (2:27-36) and Samuel (3:11-14) that Eli’s house would be cut off for the sins of his sons. This reality is embodied in Eli. The focus of this paper is how the decline of Eli’s house is mapped onto Eli’s body as we are told in 3:2 that his “eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see.” Eli’s body, both his failing eyesight (3:2, 4:15) and his heaviness (kabed) that breaks his own neck in 4:18, is a physical representation of what would otherwise be indiscernible to the eye, or unintelligible to the mind of the hearer – that God is doing a new thing (dabar; 3:11), and that old things are passing away. The description of Eli’s eyesight is potent because it both locates decline and change onto a physical body as well as taps into the network of associations that come with blindness and disability, as well as those that come with wholeness and the abled body. I apply the study of disability for disability studies brings attention to three important aspects: the physical reality of the body, the network of association, marginalization and stigmatization that comes with disability, and lastly, from a literary standpoint, how disability imagery and associations function as what Sharon L. Snyder and David T. Mitchell call a “narrative prosthesis.” “Narrative prosthesis” is how a narrative employs disability for its “representational power, disruptive potentiality, and analytical insight.” The cultural network of abled and disabled conceptions of the body underlies the potency of Eli not being able to see. Furthermore, even as physical difference and embodiment map God’s movement, the representation of physical difference also resists or undermines the conceptions it aims to ensconce. I attend to points of connection between Eli and Samuel. I suggest that through these connections Eli becomes a site of reflection as well; reflection on the difficulty of faithfulness and of being able to discern this new “thing” (3:12) that God is doing.


The Masorah of L and the Editorial Concepts of the Edited Masorah of BHS and BHQ
Program Unit:
Kay Joe Petzold, German Bible Society

Kay Joe Petzold serves as Head of German Bible Society’s Mission Resource Center for Scholarly Editions. He studied Assyriology and Jewish Studies in Heidelberg and works in the Collaborative Research Center 933 ‘Material Text Cultures’. He wrote his dissertation on the masoretic citations of Rav Salomo Ben Isaaq (Rashi) and their relation to the masorah of ashkenasic Biblical manuscripts.


Where Do We Go Next? Boundaries and Connections
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Elaine Phillips, Gordon College

Where Do We Go Next? Boundaries and Connections


Eye for an I: Intertextuality, Lex Talionis, and the Call of Justice
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Gary A. Phillips, Wabash College

This paper explores the intertextual dynamic and interpretive after life of the lex talionis, or “eye for an eye” saying, found in Matt 5:38-39 from a Post-Holocaust perspective. The saying occupies a distinctive place in Matthew’s narrative, the interpretive relationship between the two testaments, and the history of Christian reflection on the limits and excesses of justice. Prized as a light onto Jesus’s extreme ethics, this saying also calls attention to Matthew’s use in a narrative and a troubling history of interpretation complicit in extreme violence directed against the innocent. An intertextual reading of Mt 5:38-39 sheds light on an unsettling text at work in different contexts, its tensions and contradictory effects, its disturbing propensity to incite the imagination and action, for better and for worse. This intertextual reading also raises questions about the limits and excesses of our wider responsibilities as readers after the Holocaust: How do we do justice to this call for justice? To Matthew’s gospel? To a legacy of anti-Jewish reading? The paper starts with Derrida’s notion of intertextuality characterized by textual instability, iterativity, and generativity. Texts are not static but dynamic and unstable, uncontained by genre and disciplinary borderlines, living on and off other texts, disrupting texts and readers alike. The lex talionis is a case in point of a disturbing text that lives on in written and visual forms in art and philosophy, jurisprudence and political discourse, and in multiple other ways. Matt 5:38-39 is linked not only to Exod 21:22-25 and Lev 24:19–21, its traditional biblical intertexts in their antique contexts, but also to nonbiblical texts, contexts, and interpreters. The paper illustrates with two examples. First, we consider paintings by Holocaust survivor and painter Samuel Bak from his forthcoming exhibition “Eye for an Eye.” The lex talionis is visually iterated across multiple canvases in destabilizing ways. The eye as organ of sight serves as a visual trope challenging readers to consider what the biblical call for justice means in light of six million murdered. Second, we consider Post-Holocaust philosopher and Talmudic interpreter Emmanuel Levinas’ essay “An Eye for an Eye.” For Levinas ethics is excessive, asymmetrical, and substitutional: a total one for the other; a me for a you; an “I for an I.” The lex talionis, however, exposes the limits and excesses of Levinas’ notion of responsibility when the call for justice comes from a third person, and a fourth, and innumerable others. If ethics means unlimited responsibility to another, what does justice as unlimited ethical responsibility mean for all of the many others? The paper concludes by returning to Matt 5:38-39 to consider how Bak’s visual iterations and Levinas’ ethical commentary serve as provocative Post-Holocaust intertexts to a disrupting lex talionis saying and to Matthew’s text. The lex talionis lives on unsettling as it goes. It invites us after the Holocaust to consider the call of justice in Matthew’s gospel and what to do about it for those for whom justice has been delayed.


Fraught with Responsibility: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, Teaching the Holocaust, and Biblical Texts of Terror in the Religious Studies and Theology Classroom
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Gary A. Phillips, Wabash College

The Holocaust continues to be a dislocating and de-centering experience that challenges what it means to be an ethical human being and informed citizen. The biblical studies classroom is one venue where historical, philosophical, moral, and theological questions provoked by the Holocaust are encountered, often in conjunction with “texts of terror.” Such teaching is fraught with responsibility. Dealing with the Shoah and its long aftermath presents particular teaching and learning challenges for students who directly encounter Holocaust materials and biblical texts that present genocidal violence. Basic assumptions about the Bible and faith may be directly challenged. Faculty have a heightened pedagogical and ethical responsibility to be aware of the potential negative impact for students, and to employ pedagogical strategies that mitigate that impact. Primum non nocere—“First, do no harm”—should be the guiding pedagogical principle. A hermeneutics of trauma can inform the way faculty navigate issues of student engagement with difficult Holocaust materials. We define trauma as the cognitive and/or emotional wounding that poses a fundamental threat to the stability, integrity, cohesion, and meaningfulness of a student’s assumptive world. The assumptive world constitutes “core beliefs or assumptions that ground, secure, stabilize and orient people” that can be disrupted or even shattered as a result of direct or indirect encounter with traumatic materials. Because a significant percentage of college-age students report having had recent traumatic experiences, faculty who teach the Holocaust have a pedagogical responsibility to insure that students are not retraumatized or experience secondary traumatization as a consequence of study. Our presentation explores different approaches to the teaching of traumatic materials, recent developments in trauma-informed pedagogy research, and application to the teaching of the Holocaust. We apply these insights to the deicide charge in Mt 27:25, its sordid history of interpretation, and student responses to this text and associated Holocaust materials. We will present student response data collected from two courses currently being taught: a Keene State undergraduate course (Rethinking the Holocaust—a capstone seminar for majors in Holocaust and Genocide Studies); and a Vanderbilt Divinity School graduate seminary course (Reading the Bible after the Holocaust—an elective seminar for MDiv and MTS students). We explore teaching and learning issues encountered in both courses and the nature of the ethical accountability faculty face. Emmanuel Levinas’s phenomenological ethics provides a lens for describing ethical accountability associated with teaching Holocaust materials in biblical studies and other religious studies and theological studies contexts.


Is "Millennial Christianity" Changing the Public Face of the Bible through Online Searching and Social Media Messaging
Program Unit: Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Peter M. Phillips, University of Durham

This paper explores whether proposed theological trends away from propositional Christianity and towards therapeutic Christianity are evidenced in the use of Bible texts in online searching and social media messaging. We will look first at various sociology-based conversations about the spirituality of adolescents/millennials/netgeners – those who are conspicuous users of social media in contemporary society in the West, noting briefly that the outcomes of our exploration probably also apply also to the parents of those millennials. We will then explore whether the general spiritual direction evinced in the various studies (an increasing trend towards ‘religion as therapy’) can also be seen in social media interaction with the Bible – passively through search engines and actively through the public display of biblical texts through social media messaging. We will explore various top ten lists of bible verses searched and tweeted on popular Bible search engines such as Bible Gateway, and through Bible apps such as YouVersion, as well as through specific forms of Bible search such as Open Bible. Such populist, “big data” research will be enhanced as we explore the Twitter Gospels project undertaken by Andrew Richardson of Sunderland University in partnership with the CODEC Research Centre at Durham University. While the search engine/top ten tweeted verses section of the paper provides a machine-based reading of massive numbers of interactions, the Twitter Gospels project allows us to analyse the tweeting of a specific Gospel text over a 24 hour period – allowing us an opportunity to take a closer look at specific display strategies. The concluding section of the paper will explore whether such social media usage concurs with so-called millennial Christianity (sometimes referred to as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism). In other words, do we find that there is a change away from propositional Christianity and towards therapeutic Christianity. Indeed, can such a shift be identified within the searching or in the display of Bible verses. Moreover, is it possible that a new “ordinary canon” is being developed through social media engagement with the Bible.


The Wilderness Space in Hebrews and Wisdom of Solomon
Program Unit: Hebrews
Madison N. Pierce, Durham University

While the Exodus itself is a positive event in the life of Israel, the wilderness evokes a mixed response. It is the space where God miraculously provided for his people, as well as the space where they rebelled and ultimately perished. Depictions of these episodes represent this tension also. For example, Hebrews 3.7–4.11 presents the wilderness as a space of testing, where the community proves whether it can persevere, but the latter half of Wisdom of Solomon (most of 10.15–19.22) depicts this space as one where God graciously provided for the “righteous” Israelites and punished their wicked enemies. The different accounts thus present a tension between human response and divine action. To gain insight into Hebrews’ choice to emphasize the human element in the wilderness, rather than the divine, this paper will bring these texts into conversation and explore their constructions of the wilderness space. I will first summarize the accounts of Massah and Meribah in Wisdom of Solomon, then analyze the authors’ uses of the tradition, and finally suggest their underlying motivation for their contrasting emphases.


King and Temple: The Nathan Oracle in the Deuteronomistic Historiography
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Michael Pietsch, Augustana-Hochschule

The paper will address the problem of the literary unity of the Nathan Oracle (2Sam 7) in connection with its use and function within the broader range of the deuteronomistic historiography. It will be assumed that the narrative is based on a dynastic oracle to the Davidic kingdom (cf. 2Sam 7,11–16*), a literary genre that is well attested within Ancient Near Eastern royal ideology. At some point this older kernel was rewritten in the light of the temple building motif and introduced into the David narratives legitimizing the Davidic rule in Jerusalem. Only after the downfall of the Davidic kingdom in 586 B.C.E. later deuteronomistic editors restricted the oracle to the obligation of the Mosaic tora.


Interpretation / Application of the Biblical ‘Breath of Life’ in the Latter-day Saint Religious Tradition
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Dana M. Pike, Brigham Young University

From the early years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the present, church leaders and literature have presented differing views of the meaning of the biblical phrase “the breath of life” (nishmat/ruah hayyim), which occurs a few times in the book of Genesis. Occasionally, a stated interpretation aligns with the traditional Jewish and Christian understanding of this phrase, that “the breath of life” represents some divine power through which God animates otherwise lifeless mortal forms. However, a major Latter-day Saint interpretation, or at least an application, of the phrase the “breath of life” appears to be unique: the entering of a premortal spirit into a physical mortal body. No one, as far as I am aware, has thoroughly investigated the varying ways in which the biblical expression “the breath of life” has been appropriated by Latter-day Saints in their nearly two-century religious tradition, nor suggested reasons for the differing assessments and uses of this biblical phrase. Such an examination seems important, especially since certain passages of Latter-day Saint canonical scripture and temple-service language, as well as statements from founding leader Joseph Smith, seem to display differing interpretations of this phrase. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the origins and relationship of the main understandings of “the breath of life” inherent in early Latter-day Saint texts and pronouncements, and the unresolved tension that exists between them to this day. This will be accomplished by first reviewing the occurrences in the Hebrew Bible of the phrase routinely translated “the breath of life,” followed by an examination of key early attestations of this phrase in Latter-day Saint contexts. This analysis will then lead to a discussion of whether interpretation or application is the more apt description of Latter-day Saint usage of this phrase, concluding with suggested reasons for the common Latter-day Saint interpretation/application of “the breath of life.”


Insisting on a Gospel of Resurrection in the Face of Suffering: An Initial Exploration of the Intersection of Religion and Politics in the Context in 2 Tim 2:8
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
Edward Pillar, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David

The writer of 2Timothy is presented as imprisoned, chained like a criminal, and suffering ‘for the gospel.’ Thus the writer asserts that his crime is inextricably linked with his gospel, and it seems apparent that his suffering is not only considerable (2:9), but some have suggested that it may well be linked to the severe, brutal, and cruel persecutions recorded by Tacitus of the Neronian era. The writer appears to be seeking to encourage Timothy not to be afraid to commit more fully to the gospel and thus perhaps inevitably to enter into the prospect of suffering (1:8). The gospel, which has led to such vicious persecution and inhumane suffering, is precisely and succinctly articulated in 2:8, ‘Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, out of the seed of David.’ In this paper we will explore the political nature of the gospel that is not simply an intersection of politics and religion, but appears to create an inexorable conflict with imperial politics. We will consider the thesis that in this letter the context of severe persecution and suffering is crucial in this instance to understand how religion and politics intersect. Jesus, as the Christ, is thus God’s alternative emperor or king. ‘Jesus Christ’, uniquely ordered at this point in the letter, taken alongside ‘out of the seed of David’ suggests an ancient narrative as an alternative to the imperial story that perpetuated the tyranny of the emperor. Further, the insistence of an alternative gospel – itself a challenge to empire – in proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus following crucifixion at the hands of the Romans Empire is both a challenge to imperial assertions of supreme power but also subverts this power in the act of resurrection.


Saul and the Problem of Sovereignty
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Daniel Pioske, Georgia Southern University

This paper addresses the portrayal of Saul’s political authority in the Book of Samuel through the lens of G. Agamben’s description of sovereignty and the public strategies of “constituted power” required for its maintenance. What is of interest about the representation of Saulide authority with this purpose in mind is not the historicity of the biblical traditions, but rather what these narratives reveal about how the biblical writers understood the negotiation of sovereign power within a political landscape of competing actors and interests in the tribal lands of ancient Israel. Particularly significant about the portrayal of Saul’s authority in the Book of Samuel, this paper argues, is the tenuous hold Saul has on the material apparatuses capable of authorizing and reproducing sovereignty among potential subjects. That is, in contrast to later royal figures in the biblical narrative who are described as having adroitly manipulated the resources of places, public spaces, and embodied practices to promote their authority among a diverse range of subjects, Saul is rendered as a leader who fails to marshal the material mechanisms at his disposal in order to sustain the authority he claims. In addition to the many studies devoted to the historicity of Saulide narratives in the Hebrew Bible, this study thus seeks to examine the more subtle assumptions of political power at work within the literary representation of Saul’s regime.


Narrative Infinitives: Discursive and Literary Dimensions— From Ugaritic Poetry to Phoenician and Biblical Hebrew?
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Andres Piquer Otero, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This paper approaches the phenomenon of the Absolute Infinitive with a narrative function from two different but complementary angles: a linguistic approach based on discourse analysis and a literary analysis of stylistics. The focus will be on the Ugaritic poetic corpus, but a comparative (and diachronic) line will be established with later, 1st Millennium, uses of a similar construction in Phoenician and BH. After a survey of cases, functions and contexts, conclusions will attempt to define how the adoption of an Infinitive Absolute clause for narrative contexts may combine a degree of grammatical productivity with purely stylistic factors which led to its adoption or persistence as a marker of a formal, artificial (literary) language register.


Smoky Mirrors: Kaige and Its Boundaries in the Secondary Versions of Kingdoms
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Andres Piquer Otero, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This paper is part of an ongoing research which focuses on a series of daughter versions of the LXX text of Kingdoms (mainly Coptic, Ethiopic, and Georgian) and how the manifest a complex process of textual transmission which at times would include access to a variety of sources and a creative usage of them. This affects the study of the kai ge Greek text as versions often attest that text-type, but also its lack thereof in certain cases or the construction of conflate readings (doublets et al.) By selecting a series of varied samples, my aim is to show how our approach to a kai ge (vs. Old Greek) text requires, at times, not so much to propose a distinct single Vorlage for a given version or passage within it, but rather to unravel a rich process of textual influences and active intervention by the versions' translators and transmitters. I will propose a typology thereof, underscoring the value of these data for defining the analysis of Greek readings as kai ge or kai ge-like in the history of the Septuagint text.


Beyond the Criteria of Authenticity: Where Do We Go From Here?
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Brant Pitre, Notre Dame Seminary, Graduate School of Theology

In recent years, some scholars have argued that the standard criteria of authenticity—e.g., multiple attestation, dissimilarity, embarrassment, and coherence—are no longer viable (D. C. Allison, 2010). One important volume even heralds the “demise of authenticity” and speaks of “post-criteria” Jesus research (C. Keith and A. Le Donne, eds. 2012). If, however, the criteria of authenticity are really dead, what should scholars put in their place? In the absence of the standard criteria, on what grounds can scholars draw conclusions regarding the historical plausibility or implausibility of a given teaching or action of Jesus? Are should we dispense with all historical criteria? This paper will propose that although Jesus research should abandon the standard form-critical criteria of authenticity, it should not dispense with all explicit historical argumentation. Instead, one way forward is to utilize the approach to historical plausibility articulated by E. P. Sanders: “[T]he only way to proceed in the search for the historical Jesus is to offer hypotheses based on the evidence and to evaluate them in light of how satisfactorily they account for the material in the Gospels, while also making Jesus a believable figure in first-century Palestine and the founder of a movement that eventuated in the Church” (Sanders, 1985, pp. 166-67). Implicit in these words are three arguments for historical plausibility: (1) the argument from contextual plausibility, especially within first-century Judaism; (2) the argument from coherence with other evidence about Jesus; and (3) the argument from consequences within earliest Christianity. This may be described a kind of ‘triple context’ approach to historical Jesus research. In significant contrast to the standard criteria of authenticity, these three arguments are reversible. Words and deeds attributed to Jesus can also be deemed historically implausible on the basis of contextual implausibility, incoherence with other evidence about Jesus, and inconsequentiality within earliest Christianity. In addition, this paper will also show that these three kinds of historical arguments are already being implicitly utilized in contemporary Jesus research. In fact, such arguments can be documented in the writing of Jesus scholars from a variety of perspectives. Particularly significant is the fact that historical arguments from contextual plausibility, coherence, and consequences in earliest Christianity are employed in the recent works some of the most vocal critics of the standard criteria of authenticity (see D. C. Allison 2010, C. Keith 2011, J. Schröter 2014). In light of this situation, perhaps scholars should seek to make explicit the reasons that are already implicitly operative in their various historical judgments for or against given teachings and actions attributed to Jesus. In this way, Jesus research may be able to move forward out of the “methodological quagmire” (C. Keith, 2012, p. 47) in which it currently finds itself.


The Genre of the Third Gospel and Greco-Roman Historiography: A Reconsideration
Program Unit:
Andrew Pitts, Arizona Christian University

*


Papias, Peter, and Mark, yet Again: A Reevaluation of Petrine Speech Material as a Source for Mark’s Gospel
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Andrew Pitts, Arizona Christian University

While many have questioned the antiquity and reliability of Papias’ claim (through Eusebeius) that Mark’s Gospel represents material from Peter’s speeches in Rome, some (e.g. Bauckham) have recently attempted to revive the view that Papias may provide helpful insight into the question of Gospel origins. This paper evaluates recent research on Peter’s potential influence upon the composition of Mark’s Gospel and then seeks to provide additional insight to the question via linguistic comparisons between Peter’s speech material in Acts and Mark’s Gospel. It also considers how significant contextual considerations might impact this discussion as well, such as orality, memory (social and otherwise), the practice of stenography in Greco-Roman antiquity, the use of speeches as sources in antiquity, and mimesis as it relates specifically to the issue of imitation of speech material.


The Location of the Cloud of Witnesses: Complexities of Time and Space in Hebrews
Program Unit: Hebrews
Catherine Playoust, University of Divinity

The hearers of Hebrews are told in Heb 12:1 that as they run toward their heavenly goal they are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, faithful heroes of past generations who are like onlookers cheering on the contestants from the sides of the racetrack. While reassuring for the runners, this is disconcerting from the perspective of the witnesses, who are neither peacefully asleep in the dust until the general resurrection nor settled safely in heaven. Their situation is no mere artefact of the phrasing, for the text states just beforehand that these people have not received what was promised to them, since their perfection will not take place apart from that of the hearers. Indeed, the awkward position in which the witnesses find themselves points to certain challenges of time and space that pervade the text. For its hearers, Hebrews emphasises the continuity from this life to the heavenly life: with souls anchored by the hope entering inside the veil, they are to hold fast, to fix their eyes on Jesus, who is the forerunner in their journey, and to draw near to the throne. Heb 12:22-24 even gives the impression that they have reached the heavenly Jerusalem already, in a festal gathering that encompasses the hearers collectively as well as the now-perfected righteous. Admittedly, much of the text warns about the danger of losing this connection through falling away in sin, but the idea that the individual's death and resurrection might come between now and heavenly entry is barely present, despite occasional brief references to the resurrection of the dead and other future-eschatological events. The case of Jesus is no less puzzling: the link from his death to his exalted entry into the Holy of Holies is so tight that were it not for Heb 13:20, right at the end of the text, one might wonder how the slain victim had managed to carry his own blood inside to offer it sacrificially as high priest. Even in that verse, the language employed is that of elevation from the dead rather than granting of new life. Pre-Christian Jewish apocalyptic texts already manifested a range of beliefs about afterlife, heaven and resurrection, but the inclusion of Jesus-traditions complicated the story further, as will be shown through a brief study of how some other early Christian texts (1 Clement, Ascension of Isaiah, and Revelation) handled these ideas; like Hebrews, each of these texts would leave some questions unresolved.


Lamentations as Howl: Biblical Poetry as Safety Net
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
David Pleins, Santa Clara University

In earlier centuries, the Book of Lamentations provided an expansive window for thinking about the theological depths of national suffering and dislocation. Disparate and historically far flung events, such as the Roman destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the Jewish expulsion from Spain, have been filtered through this lens. While, the Holocaust has complicated such readings, more recent decades have seen interpreters focus on the image of the spurned seductress Zion and the punishing male Deity as lightning rods for understanding and undermining this text. Working in light of the book’s reception history, however, this paper adopts a far less literalistic and more metaphorical reading of Lamentations, reflecting the spirit of the Targumic and Midrashic treatments of the book, creating a more complex and at times chaotic reading of the book’s poetic language. Howling poetry, we shall argue, remains a necessary safety net in times of suffering and social upheaval.


Ritual, Idolatry, and the Rational Norm in Plutarch and Philo
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Zlatko Plese, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Philo and Plutarch have often been portrayed as congenial thinkers, not only on account of their common philosophical and hermeneutical orientations but also because of their professed commitment to ancestral religion as a repository of divine wisdom. This paper examines similar ways in which these two authors approach the phenomenon of religious ritual, define its symbolic value, and distinguish between its proper and improper use. Both of them repeatedly warn of the emotional appeal of rituals that can easily lead to superstition and argue instead for adoption of a philosophical framework, grounded in the universal rational norm (logos, orthos logos), to uncover their concealed meaning. Both draw a stark contrast between a small number of sages, the beneficiaries and transmitters of pristine wisdom, and the light-hearted majority of believers who foolishly identify divine causes and their material effects, deify created things, and stuff their mind with the “hollow figments” of myth-makers and poets. Finally, both thinkers attribute the rise of superstition and improper worship to a progressive decline of humanity from its original way of life in line with natural law, probably drawing on Stoic theories of cultural primitivism. The paper will primarily focus on Plutarch’s treatise on Egyptian religion On Isis and Osiris (esp. chaps 69-75) and on Philo’s writings On the Decalogue and That Every Good Person Is Free.


Object Suffix and ’et with Suffix: Toward a Typology
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Frank H. Polak, Tel Aviv University

In Hebrew the indication of the direct object by personal pronoun is performed by suffix attached to the verbal predicate or to the object particle ’et. The use of these options is to a large extent conditioned by genre and corpus. In poetry, from Gen 49; Exod 15 until Ben Sira, the preferred form is the verb-suffix construction, whereas in narrative and legal texts various corpora behave in different ways. In classical narrative and legal texts (non-Dtr/P/Persian era) the verb-suffix construction prevails (though less than in poetry), but in the Deuteronomic/Priestly corpora the particle-suffix construction is equally or more frequent. In texts from the Persian era and in the non-biblical Qumran scrolls the verb-suffix construction is largely predominant. I will attempt to point to some of the conditions in which these options are used. Important parameters are: the word class of the predicate by which the object is bound (finite verb vs. infinitive/participle); syntactic structure; with regard to discourse structure: word order, contrast and other aspects of information structure; further one notes prosody and euphony. In some cases comparative data are of interest, in particular with regard to the object particles ’iyya (Arabic), ’iyat/wt (Old Aramaic), and the object form of the independent pronoun (Ugaritic hwt/hyt/hmt and Moabite hm; and likewise Akkadian yati/ki/uati/ši/uati).


Diachronic Lexical Semantics in Ancient Egyptian–Coptic the ‘Egyptian’ Side of Coptic Lexicography
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Stéphane Polis, Université de Liège

The aim of this paper is to discuss questions of historical lexicology (e.g. Geeraerts 1997) in Ancient Egyptian–Coptic (Grossman & al. 2012) and, more specifically, to show how the long history of Ancient Egyptian can inform Coptic lexicographical tools. In the first section, we present three case studies that illustrate processes of grammatica-lization (Hopper & Traugott 2003), of lexicalization (Brinton & Traugott 2005) and — more broadly — of meaning change of lexical items in Ancient Egyptian–Coptic. Based on these three case studies, a second section shows how the description of contexts of use (and of the types of inferences available in these contexts) allows one to track precisely the change in meaning of words, phrases, and entire constructions. As such, the existing Coptic etymological dictionaries (Westendorf 1965-1977; Cerný 1976; Vycichl 1983), which focus primarily on the formal side of the lexicon (i.e., the identification of word forms that are the predecessors of Coptic lexemes), could be complemented by systematic attention to the semantic aspect of the lexicon. As has been stressed for New Testament Greek (e.g., Hasselbrook 2011), the interest of a diachronic approach to the lexicon cannot be overesti¬mated when studying the meaning of lexemes in synchrony. Our paper makes some proposals in order to acknowledge this historical dimension in relation to and in complementarity with existing synchronic descriptions, like Crum’s (1939) monumental Coptic dictionary, and projects focusing on the ‘language contact’ side of Coptic lexicography (e.g., Richter 2013). In a third section, we address methodological as well as practical issues. In order to study the evolution of the meaning of lexemes and constructions in context, large scale annotated corpora are needed. Many resources are available (or will become available in the near future) — such as the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (http://aaew.bbaw.de/tla/), Ramsès (Polis & al. 2013), the project “Strukturen und Transformationen des Wortschatzes” (Richter 2015), a Digital Edition of the Sahidic-Coptic Old Testament (Behlmer & Feder 2015), etc. However, the corpus and texts are encoded and annotated in different formats and the lexica are not interconnected. In order to facilitate future work and collaborations in the field of diachronic lexicography, a migration of these resources to a common representation format for Ancient Egyptian–Coptic texts, as well as the development of common annotation schemes is needed. Several proposals are made in this direction based on the observations of section 1 and 2.


Esther's Trauma and the Annihilating Experience of the Exploitation of Her 'True' Self
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Meira Polliack, Tel Aviv University

In the wake of psychological theories on traumatic experience, this paper explores the literary portrayal of Esther's character as one battling with early and repetitive traumatic experience, which leads to an annihilating sense of fear of the exploitation of her 'true self'. I address what appears as Esther's actual traumatic experience, that is, her early parental loss, the repeated threats on her bodily integrity, her taking by surprise, and her sexual objectification, and the means through which this accumulative abusive experience is expressed in the biblical narrative and in its history of interpretation. In a loose application of the psychoanalytic concepts of Donald W. Winnicott, I argue that this experience, which feeds Esther's fear of the unthinkable exploitation of her 'true' self, leads her to develop and function through a 'false self.' This ‘false self’ can be seen in her wearing both social and personal ‘masks.’ Her identification with her 'false self' is so deep that it becomes almost indistinguishable from her 'true self' to the point where she grieves its possible loss, alongside the loss of her people. I attempt to show how Esther's psychological inability to overcome this complex traumatic experience and grow as a character, despite what appears as political empowerment and momentary triumph, results from a gendered portrayal of her inner conflict between 'true' and 'false' selves. Unlike other characters (usually male) who are partially or fully successful in resolving traumatic experience in biblical literature, Esther's character bespeaks of unresolved trauma, as it appears to self-destruct. Building on my previous study of the Joseph narrative, I also demonstrate how Esther's story follows a different trajectory than does Joseph's narrative in two respects. Firstly, in the Bible's literary reflection of traumatic events/experiences; secondly, in the biblical understanding of the destruction they may lead to when resolution appears impossible. These aspects of narrative design and character build-up inform the wider theme of 'hiding' in its traumatic context, as one which dominates the Book of Esther as a whole, with wider implications for the study of biblical literature at large, including the social and political repercussions of hidden or changed identity for the self and the group, the 'price' of abuse, individual oppression and disempowerment (senseless destruction, annihilation), and the loss inflicted on society and human kind when trauma is left to brew, unacknowledged, and to implode, unresolved.


Jewish and Christian Arabic Bible Translations: Convergence and Divergence in Translation Strategy, Script, and Method
Program Unit: Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Meira Polliack, Tel Aviv University

Questions of personal and communal identity, no less than religious, linguistic or literary concerns, come to the fore as we attempt an "ad hoc" overview of common trends and divergences in the medieval Jewish and Christian Arabic translation traditions of the Bible. The overview is based on work in progress carried out by the Biblia Arabica research group, whose aim is to map out and study the Bible's various Arabic translation traditions, from medieval to modern times and their impact on Islamic sources. Among the points of convergence, we find many examples of similar methodology employed by Christian and Jewish translators of the 10th and 11th centuries in the Arabic rendering of biblical syntax and lexicon. Was there a common source for these methods? Could they have "compared notes"? Similarly to the Christian translators, we find some Jewish authors use Arabic script rather than Hebrew script, to pen their Arabic versions, at least for some purposes. Did they differentiate between different target audiences, and if so, how can we see this in the sources? Among the points of divergence, we find most Jewish translators (except Saadia Gaon) more "faithful" to the Hebrew source text than their Christian counterparts, whose main concern lies with conveying "the message". Did the Syriac or Greek source text function differently for the Christian translators than the Hebrew for the Jews, and if so, why? Alongside the plausible textual explanations, I will look into Scriptural translation as a sociolinguistic expression, aspects of minority identity and the Middle Arabic "ethnolects" of Jews and Christians in order to attempt some preliminary answers.


Bathing in Babylonia: Jewish Ritual Immersion and Bathing Practice as Represented in the Bavli
Program Unit: History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Natalie C. Polzer, University of Louisville

Surveying evidence in the Bavli, this project examines two aspects of Jewish life in Sasanian Babylonia: (1) the historical reality of practices and locations of bathing and ritual immersion; (2) the discursive representation of these bathing practices, in light of the Zoroastrian priestly restrictive decree against ritual immersion recorded in B. Yebamot 63b. Notwithstanding the recognized problems with the archaeological data, current scholarship (this project included) is increasingly attempting to correlate textual and recent archaeological data for the historical reconstruction of Jewish life in Sasanian Babylonia. Recent scholarship on intercultural Zoroastrian-Jewish influence has focused on menstrual purity, with little attention paid to ritual immersion or bathing practices. Even for Zoroastrians, bathing in water was theologically problematic since water was considered a pure element, which must be protected from impurity. Evidence suggests that public bathing and ritual immersion, baptism included, were points of dispute between the Zoroastrian priesthood and Jewish and Christian populations. While John McDonough has recently claimed that “…an extensive network of Jewish public bathhouses [were] constructed through Babylonia….,” (“We and Those Waters of the Sea Are One”: Baptism, Bathing, and the Construction of Identity in Late Ancient Babylonia,” in: Cynthia Kosso and Anne Scott eds., The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing and Hygiene from Antiquity through the Renaissance. (Leiden: Brill 2009) 267), this claim does not correspond to either the textual or the archaeological evidence. No Sasanian bath house structures have been unearthed in a region of Sasanian imperial dominance and recent archaeological publications confirm that constructed water systems for bathing and everyday use do not appear in Sasanian territory until after the Muslim conquest. Moreover, the Bavli sources are ambiguous, suggesting that ritual immersion for the purposes of menstrual purification took place in rivers and canals rather than bath houses. The correlation of the textual and the archaeological records may shed light on the historical reality and/or the discursive presentation of the decree against ritual immersion in B.Yebamot.


The Humility of God in Rabbinic Judaism: A Rabbinic Myth in Context
Program Unit: Midrash
Jonathan Pomeranz, Yale University

Several rabbinic midrashim present narratives in which God demonstrates humility. These midrashim have largely been studied by scholars interested in the relationship of rabbinic theology to biblical theology and the relationship of rabbinic midrash to the biblical text. As a result, the ways in which these compositions functioned within their historical and cultural contexts have been obscured. This paper examines a single midrash (Exodus Rabbah 43:4), reported in the name of a fourth century tradent. According to this midrash, God wanted to forgive Israel for committing the sin of the Golden Calf, but had already vowed to destroy anyone who committed idolatry. God therefore consented to have Moses, taking the role of the presiding sage, enact the rabbinic procedure of the annulment of vows. In order to have a vow annulled, a person must stand before a sage, who sits, and must express regret to the sage about taking the vow. God, therefore, allowed Moses to sit in heaven, stood, and expressed regret about his vow to destroy Israel. This midrash’s full significance becomes apparent only against the background of its Greco-Roman and Christian environment. The focus on regret in this midrash calls attention to the tensions between biblical and Roman conceptions of personal honor and dignity. While the Torah sees only God as possessing personal honor, Roman culture regarded honor as an attribute of individual humans, who had to actively defend their honor. The use of the ceremony of the annulment of vows in this midrash draws attention to the question of whether God forgave the Israelites because he was concerned that destroying them would damage his honor, as the biblical text suggests, or whether he forgave them out of love and concern for Israel. In this midrash, God takes a radically humble position – standing while Moses sits in heaven – in order to forgive the Israelites. This midrash thus suggests that if even God, who is entitled to be concerned about his own honor, chose to forgo his concern with his honor, mere mortals should also be less concerned with personal honor. The image in this midrash of God choosing to stand before Moses is also strikingly similar to the ways in which fourth-century Christian bishops, using the model of the Incarnation, chose to portray the Roman Emperor. They showed the Roman Emperor practicing humility by deviating from the postures typical of the Emperor and adopting more humble bodily postures. This midrash is a rabbinic adaptation of Christian stories of the Roman Emperor, and, more broadly, participates in a late antique Christian discourse of humility. The analysis of this one midrash suggests that other midrashim which depict God in positions of humility may also be engaging with Roman and Christian ideologies of honor and humility. It also suggests that rabbinic theology was intertwined with the cultural and political worlds in which the rabbis lived.


A New Transcription of P. Oxy. 5072: Observations from a Recent Autopsy Analysis
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Ross P. Ponder, University of Texas at Austin

The recently published Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5072 (P. Oxy. 5072) comprises 24 fragmentary lines, preserving evidence of an unidentified apocryphal gospel fragment. It contains writing on both sides, likely part of a codex, with material similar to but distinct from the canonical gospels. One side preserves an exorcism account, recording parts of a conversation between Jesus and a demon-possessed person. The other side includes a dialogue between Jesus and another party about the meaning of discipleship. Analysis of the fragment’s handwriting dates the text between the late second and early third centuries, making P. Oxy. 5072 one of the earliest apocryphal gospel fragments. The paper not only reintroduces the fragment through providing a fresh transcription based on multispectral images and autopsy examination, but also discussing its contents, date, paleographical features, function, and the remaining open questions.


Opportunistic Stoicism: Philo's Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit and Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Book 2
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Michael Pope, Brigham Young University

In their critical notes to Philo’s Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit Cohn and Reiter include a few comparanda to Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations. Only one of these notes points to book 2 of the Tusculans. This seems insufficient upon close investigation of Tusculan Disputations 2 and Philo’s Omn. Prob. Lib. I demonstrate that the two texts exhibit sustained comparanda, especially historical and typical exempla, as well as closely aligned rhetorical and argumentative structure. I claim that both authors rely upon a text now lost to us and tentatively propose authorship for the lost text. I also argue that each author manipulates common source material toward different ends. Cicero reforms the shared material toward the goal of reinforcing normative Roman masculinity in the service of the state; Philo toward the goal of bolstering fidelity to the law. I show that for both authors, Stoic principles backed by historical exempla become tools for their respective projects rather than building blocks for further philosophical inquiry. Philo and Cicero, I argue, are opportunistic borrowers of their Stoic source material.


Akkadian Names in Aramaic Documenrts from Ancient Egypt
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Bezalel Porten, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This is an onomastic study that follows in the footsteps of earlier studies that dealt, respectively, with Egyptian names and Persian names in Aramaic documents. It classifies the Akkadian names as theophorous (verbal and nominal), hypocoristic, and profane, and compares and contrasts them with Hebrew names (e.g linguistic equivalents; frequency of three-component names in Akkadian and absence in Hebrew). Tables illustrate the pattern of cross-linguistic name-giving (e.g. Egyptian patronyms frequently have an Akkadian praenomen but Akkadian patronyms almost never have an Egyptian praenomen). Persons bearing Akkadian names are military officers and government officials, scribes and witnesses, but never contractants. Nor do they appear in the cross-river correspondence on ostraca between Syene and Elephantine. There is an Aramaic alphabetic list of all the names with their transcription in Akkadian and English, meaning, and sources in cuneiform texts.


Reputation and Christology: A Corinthian Case Study
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Chris Porter, Ridley College

The Corinthian party discord described in 1 Corinthians 1 and referred to elsewhere throughout the epistle has prompted a multiplicity of interpretive options regarding the identity and formation of the groups described in 1:12. Furthermore, the grammatical construction, and apparent disconnect when describing the ‘Christ party’ has not clarified the situation. This paper seeks to investigate the discordant situation in Corinth from the perspective of a sociology of reputation. Drawing upon Gary Alan Fine’s work on reputation promulgation and group identity, it investigates the Corinthian parties as reputation bearing groups. Comparing and contrasting the ‘Paul’, ‘Apollos’, and ‘Cephas’ groups with the contested ‘Christ’ group, it examines the first three as vehicles of reputation promulgation. Drawing upon evidence from 1 Corinthians and the wider New Testament corpus, this paper finds that each group was likely defined around each individual and their reputation, even if unintended by the namesake. It then looks at a series of interpretation options for the ‘Christ party’, before proposing that Paul intends this group to function as a reputational super-set. In the investigation of the party discord in Corinth, this paper finds that rather than treating the ‘Christ party’ as a separate entity, it should be seen as a rhetorical device, highlighting the true reputation source as ‘Christ.’ From this reading the three other leaders have derived their reputation from Christ, and serve to promulgate his reputation, rather than their own. This reputation dynamic supports a plainer reading of 1 Corinthians 1:13, and 3:23. Finally, this paper will conclude with some brief suggestions for the usage of Gary Alan Fine’s reputation model as ‘middleware’ in a wider understanding of identity and social working in the New Testament.


Storytelling Technique in the Song of Deborah
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Marla Porter, Graduate Theological Union

This paper employs a transgeneric approach, analyzing the the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) using the tools of narrative criticism. The Song of Deborah qualifies as a story because it is a narrative representation of a sequence of events, even though it belongs to the poetic genre of victory hymn. Using these tools, it first looks at the poem's mediation, discussing how speaker and addressee point to the story that lies behind the poem. Turning to the sequences, it looks at the poem as a whole, outlining the events it portrays. Then, the paper turns to the individual episodes that underlie the poem's story. Each episode contains a complete story that can be discussed using functions. Not only can this be done with each individual section, it is possible to identify functions in two adjoining sections. Finally, this paper examines the significance of the difference in story between Judges 4 and 5. The analysis reveals that not only do the prose and poem differ in details, but they also differ in their message to the community.


Greek Prepositions, Processes, and Cases in an SFL Framework
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Stanley E. Porter, McMaster Divinity College

This paper will explore Greek prepositions through the framework of systemic functional linguistics.


Apocalyptic Times in Motion: Spatial and Other Metaphors for Time in Daniel, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Anathea Portier-Young, Duke University

In their book Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought (1999) linguist George Lakoff and philosopher Mark Johnson argue that it is “virtually impossible…to conceptualize time without metaphor” (139). Cross-culturally, they argue, most metaphors for time our related to concepts and experience of movement in space. Finally, the metaphors we inherit and choose to use each carry with them a “conceptual metaphysics” (139). This paper will apply the analysis of Lakoff and Johnson to metaphors for time in three ancient apocalypses: the book of Daniel, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra. Drawing on the recent book by Bennie Reynolds (Between Symbolism and Realism: The Use of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Language in Ancient Jewish Apocalypses 333-63 BCE, 2012) the paper will also explore the relationship between metaphors for time and symbols representing periods of time within these apocalypses, testing whether Lakoff and Johnson’s insights can be fruitfully applied to visionary symbols (e.g., the clouds in 2 Baruch 53) or only to metaphors. The work of Lakoff and Johnson offers a theoretical lens for perceiving spatial and temporal dimensions of apocalyptic imagination not as separate but as imaginally intertwined.


Was the Greek Pentateuch Intended to Be Used by Non-Jewish Greek Courts?
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Patrick Pouchelle, Centre Sèvres

One of the most puzzling question concerning the Greek Pentateuch is the one of its origin. Dorival has classified all the hypothesis into two groups: the Pentateuch was translated on Jewish initiative or the impetus for translating the Pentateuch was provided by one of the Ptolemean king. This latter hypothesis being true, why then was the Ptolemean king interested in such a “barbarian” writing? The traditional answer to this question was given by the epistle of Aristeas: the Pentateuch was translated for cultural reason. However, Mélèze-Modrzejewski has given more strength to another hypothesis: the Pentateuch was translated for judicial reasons. Indeed, the papyrus P.Oxy. 3285 shows that demotic laws were translated into Greek so that Greek judges could refer to it when a trial concerning demotic people exceed the competences of a demotic court. Accordingly, the Pentateuch may have been translated for the same reason. In this case, the Greek Pentateuch may well be defined as an "Alexandrian" book. Hence, by analyzing both P.Oxy 3285 and the way some Hebrew laws in the Pentateuch were translated into Greek, this paper will assess the hypothesis of Mélèze-Modrzejewski. A great attention will be paid on the lexical and semantical similarities or discrepancies between P.Oxy 3285 and the Greek Pentateuch so as to better define whether a non-Jewish Greek court could use the Greek Pentateuch, or part of it, as a legal corpus. References: G.Dorival, “De nouvelles données sur l’origine de la Septante ?” Semitica et Classica 2 (2009), 73–79). J. Mélèze-Modrzejewski, “Droit et Justice dans le monde hellénistique au IIIe siècle avant notre ère : expérience lagide,” Pages 55–77 in Mélanges G.A. Petropoulos I, Athènes : Sakkoulas, 1984.


Neologisms in the Septuagint, Case Studies, and Criteria
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Patrick Pouchelle, Centre Sèvres

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate some criteria to assess whether a given word was coined by the translators of the Septuagint or not. This study works along with the development of the Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (HTLS). Indeed, when an author of the HTLS writes an article on a word which is firstly attested in the Septuagint, he usually tries to determine if this word is a neologism. Writing the article on ?????p??es???, I had to deal with such an issue. The Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, revised edition, compiled by Lust, Eynikel and Hauspie, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2003, qualifies a word as a neologism when it “appears to be proper to the LXX and the literature depending on it” (p.xiv). However, it acknowledges that “it is not always easy to reach certainty” (p. xxiv). For example, Kennedy, Sources of New Testament Greek, Edinburg, T&T Clark, 1895, p.88, gives a list of about 150 NT words which firstly appear in the Septuagint, including ???????. However, a few times later, Deissmann, Bibelstudien, Marburg, N.G. Elwert’sche, 1895, p.106 found that this verb was given by a papyrus of the third century B.C.E. Thus, the criterion of the first appearance in the Septuagint is not sufficient to determine if a word is a neologism: an old secular witness of this word may exist, only waiting for being found. The study of Tov, “compound Words in the LXX representating Two or More Hebrew Words”, Bib 58 (1977), 189–212, is a step further to our quest. Tov noticed that some words appearing firstly in Septuagint are compound words and correspond to a MT expression of two or more Hebrew words linked by a construct state. In this case, the Greek word designs a Hebrew thought or realia which do not correspond to an existing Greek expression. Therefore, there are few probabilities that a secular papyrus will contradict this assertion. However, the translator may have used a rare but existing Greek word, shifting its meaning to the one of its Hebrew counterpart. Analyzing some samples, like ?????p??es???, the present paper will attempt to find other criteria. Indeed, it is not sufficient that a word appears only in the LXX and related literature and that the translator may have a reason to coin it. To determine if a word is a neologism of the Septuagint, we also have to find the reason why this Greek word could not have been coined by a secular Greek. However, such a study necessarily remains uncertain as the only objective argument is the absence, prior to the Septuagint, of the studied word in the Greek corpus currently available to us.


Optical Character Recognition for Ethiopic Manuscripts
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
James Prather, Abilene Christian University

The Ethiopic OCR project is attempting to write software to read manuscripts and create critical editions. This is accomplished through modern artificial intelligence and data mining methods. This presentation will offer an update on the progress made in the previous year on the Ethiopic OCR project, including: milestones passed, newly encountered difficulties, and upcoming challenges.


Scriptual Virtuosity and the Qur'an's Imperial Context
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Michael Pregill, Boston University

In his monumental Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich explores not only the literal as well as discursive violence that Christians fostered against Jews, but also similar sorts of violence that were facilitated by accusations of Judaizing. That is, through the construction of a negative model of the Jew and Jewish behavior, particular Christian actors sought to assert their dominance against members of their own community – even emperors – whom they deemed insufficiently disciplined or unorthodox. Though Sizgorich also touches briefly on the use of a discursive type of the Jew in early Islamic culture, one notices that the texts, traditions, and voices of Jewish actors are wholly absent from Sizgorich’s study – as is any mention of the Qur’an and its milieu. But Jewish and Christian voices are very present in the Qur’an, insofar as the Qur’an echoes and appropriates texts and traditions from canonical and paracanonical Jewish and Christian sources, essentially mimicking the voices of its real or imagined interlocutors. This paper will argue that the Qur’an undertakes such appropriations deliberately and strategically as a kind of scriptural one-upsmanship, seeking to demonstrate facility and virtuosity with the traditions of rival monotheist communities, especially by alluding to Jewish and Christian traditions simultaneously and hybridizing them. This strategy of appropriation and reorientation may be located – echoing Sizgorich’s emphasis on boundary demarcation as central to projects of statebuilding and communal consolidation in Late Antiquity – in the larger political context of the Roman-Sasanian ‘Great Game’ that preceded and perhaps precipitated the rise of Islam.


Advent and Apocalypse: Reading Zechariah in Early Christian Reflection
Program Unit: History of Interpretation
Stephen Presley, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

The prophet Zachariah offers one of the earliest forms of Jewish apocalyptic literature. While Zachariah is not as developed as other apocalyptic texts in the Second Temple period, all the general features of the genre are evident in the book. In the New Testament, the biblical apocalyptic literature, such as Ezekiel and Daniel, was most often received and interpreted in light of Christ’s advents, particularly in relation to the events of the second coming. Zachariah, on the other hand, is more frequently associated with the first advent and especially the passion narratives in the Gospels. In this paper, I want to argue that the early church received this tradition of interpretation of Zachariah, but developed it to include reflection on both advents in continuity with their reading of other apocalyptic and prophetic books. The earliest Christian thinkers, including the Apostolic Fathers, Justin, Theophilus, and Irenaeus, found in Zachariah the anticipation of both advents held in prophetic tension. Throughout their writings and exegetical treatments, these early Christians focused on key passages and images of the book (esp. Zech 2:10-17, Zech 3:1-8, Zech 6:12, Zech 7:9-10, Zech 8:16-17, Zech 9:9, Zach 11:12-13, Zach 12:10-14, Zach 13:7, and Zach 14:5-8) to express how this prophet instructs the people to God to celebrate the first advent and prepare for the second. This reading shows how the earliest Christian communities received and developed these texts within the context of a broader apocalyptic and prophetic testimony of the expectant messiah that is rooted in the apostolic witness.


The Crime and Punishment of the Chronicler's Uzziah: Antecedents, Contrasts, Correlations, and Critique
Program Unit: Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
J.H. Price, The Ohio State University

Uzziah's cultic transgression and his subsequent punishment, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 26:16-21, is typically treated within the context of the Chronicler's emphasis on correct cultic procedure – and rightly so. However, the concept that royal sacrilege could bring divine punishment surfaces in a number of instances across the ancient Near East. Consequently, Uzziah may be counted among other ancient Near Eastern sacrilegious rulers. When placed within this context, Uzziah attains an elite status in both the Hebrew Bible and in ancient Near Eastern literature. The catalyst for his offense – hubris (gabah libbô) – is typically attributed to foreign rulers in the Hebrew Bible, thus likening Uzziah to his non-native counterparts (e.g., the unnamed kings of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and Tyre, as well as Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus Epiphanes). At the same time, Uzziah's attempt to take on the role of priest separates the king of Judah from his ancient Near Eastern analogues, for their cultic crimes are of a different nature than Uzziah's ambition for the priesthood. Uzziah's punishment – a skin affliction (?ara?at) – is a particularly reprehensible retributive affliction in both the Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia. In fact, only a few kings are reported to have suffered in this way because of their crimes. In this regard, Uzziah is most closely paralleled by Mesopotamian traditions about Šulgi. These Šulgi traditions, which are attested in the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Late Babylonian, and Seleucid periods, depict Šulgi as having suffered a skin disease in retribution for cultic offenses. The significance of the similar afflictions suffered by Uzziah and Šulgi is not incidental, for in both cases this uncommon punishment invalidates a particular aspect of the respective king's image.


Demons in the “Flesh”: Christian Conflict and Demonic Bodies in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Travis W. Proctor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

As inheritors of the ancient apocalyptic traditions of Second Temple Judaism, Jesus’ earliest followers agreed that Satan and his demonic minions persistently assaulted the bodies of Christians as part of the ongoing cosmic war between good and evil. Early Christians differed, however, on the precise contours of the bodily vessels that demons utilized to assail their Christian victims. Ignatius of Antioch, for example, claimed that demons were “bodiless,” and contrasts their ephemeral existence with the “flesh” of human corporeality (Smyrn. 2). The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter, however, associates the demonic body with “fleshly” materiality (82). Origen of Alexandria acknowledged the disagreement among Christians on this issue, but attributed the dissonance to differences in philosophical competence: he asserted that demons indeed possess a body, fine and thin as it may be, and only those who are “simple” or “ignorant” would say that demons are “bodiless" (De Princ., Pref.). Whatever the merits of Origen’s explanation, his comments speak to the thoroughgoing incongruities among Christians regarding the substance of the demonic body. My research takes its point of departure from this ideational discord, and seeks to show that early Christian disagreements over demonic bodies reflect concomitant divergences concerning the makeup of the (ideal) Christian body, and that due attention to the fallen bodies of demons and early Christians can be mutually illuminating. . Christian descriptions of demonic corporeality replicate shifts and differences in early Christian anthropology insofar as they inversely correlate to articulations of the ideal human body. Two representative examples can be cited here. Ignatius of Antioch, as quoted above, attributes to demons a “bodiless” existence, but claims that the ideal Christian, in imitation of the risen Jesus, possesses both “flesh and spirit.” Due to their lack of flesh, demons are deficient simulacra of humans. In contradistinction to Ignatius, The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter claims that the fleshly human Jesus of Nazareth was an “abode of demons” in contrast to his divine essence, the purely “spiritual” Christ. For the Coptic Apocalypse, then, the ideal human body consists of pure spirit, but its demonic equivalent was characterized by its connection to “fleshly” materiality. As evidenced by Ignatius and the Coptic Apocalypse, early Christians differed significantly in their characterization of demonic corporeality. Both demonologies, however, retain a common thread: the attributes which characterize idyllic human embodiment are inverted or deficient in the composition of demons. Christian disagreements regarding demonic anatomies, therefore, correlate to internecine conflicts over the ideal makeup of the Christian body. By exploring the close connection between demonic and human bodies, my presentation hopes to show how demonologies played a central role in the way that ancient Christians formulated their place in the cosmos, and thus shaped the manner in which they embodied their cultural and religious identities.


Scriptural Quotations Catena in Rom 3:10–18 and Its Influence to the Septuagint Textual Transmission
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Marika Pulkkinen, Helsingin Yliopisto - Helsingfors Universitet

A comprehensive study regarding the quotations from the psalms in Paul’s letters is lacking, which seems rather striking due to its clearly important status in his argumentation and letter dictation. In this presentation, I will first give an overall picture of Paul’s way of using Scripture as part of his letter dictation and I will investigate what role the psalms play in this usage. This observation shows that it is characteristic of Paul to change the text form he is citing. Paul modifies the text in many ways. He quotes the text selectively by omitting parts that are not suitable for his argumentation. He conflates different texts making a completely new composition. He changes the text on lexical, grammatical and compositional level. By detecting Paul’s motivation behind the modifications, it is possible to trace the direction of deviations between the texts, i.e. which text form represent the original or earlier one. This presentation focuses on the quotations from the Septuagint (LXX) Psalms in Rom 3:10–18 where Paul uses an explicit quotations catena that is composed of different psalms (5:10; 9(LXX):28; 13(14):1–3; 35(36):2; 139(140):4) and Isa 59:7–8. The passage serves an interesting material for textual critical investigation since the LXX manuscripts have been harmonized according to Paul’s composition in Rom 3:13–10. The passage is inserted in the LXX manuscripts of Psalm 13 by which Paul begins the quotations catena. The enlargement in Psalm 13(LXX) follows Paul’s composition verbatim, whereas the wordings in the parallel instances deviate from the Pauline quotation. The most plausible explanation for the deviations is that Paul has modified the text he was quoting and Paul’s wording has been later copied in the manuscript of Psalm 13(LXX).


Paul the Jew, Power of Evil, and Rome
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
Jeremy Punt, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

Neither Paul’s Jewishness nor his life under the Roman Empire is any longer disputed, but the Pauline letters are still often read as “Christian” theological treatises. Acknowledging Paul’s Jewishness within Empire reveals not only Paul’s relationship to power, but also how his letters addressed religion and justice. His Jewish identity and life in Empire informed which powers Paul addressed, how he understood their nature, and how he related to them. This contribution questions the hiatus most often presupposed but at times also argued in the Pauline letters between notions of evil and empire, from the perspective of Paul’s Jewishness.


"I, Nebuchadnezzar, Am No Longer Nebuchadnezzar": Decolonizing the Mind in Kierkegaard, Fanon, and Glissant
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Hugh S. Pyper, University of Sheffield

In Stages on Life’s Way, Kierkegaard includes a fascinating rewriting of Daniel 4, the chapter where Nebuchadnezzar recounts his transformation into an animal and subsequent restoration. This chapter has also figured in postcolonial readings of Daniel, most notably that of Daniel Smith-Christopher. Direct comparison of these readings shows that the ostensibly postcolonial and political interest in the text are read by Kierkegaard, or more accurately, by the diarist Quidam, in Stages on Life’s Way in favour of a reading that, as Mathias Engelke has argued, emphasizes a personal inward drama of repentance and confession in the face of overwhelming divine power. However, in this paper I shall argue that just such explorations of the psychological impact of the imposition of power on the self-understanding of the subject lie behind the understanding of the colonized self in the writings of Frantz Fanon, and through him Edmond Glissant, the leading postcolonial theorist and poet from the Antilles. Both of these writers were keen readers of Kierkegaard. Glissant’s diagnosis of the failure of Antilleans to find a distinctive concrete identity and their escape into more universal categories is foreshadowed in Kierkegaard’s reflections on Nebuchadnezzar. This will bring out the overlooked importance of Kierkegaard in the development of this strand of francophone postcolonial theory and point to his usefulness as a resource in wider postcolonial discourse.


"Where Once Was Love, Love Is No More?" What Happens to Expressions of Love in Late Period Egypt?
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Joachim Friedrich Quack, University of Heidelberg

It has been customary to compare the Biblical Song of Songs with the Egyptian love poetry. However, chronology has always been a problem: The Egyptian texts in question date to the later second millennium BCE (except for the stela Louvre C 100 which takes up some formal elements of love poetry und dates to ca. 700 BCE) while the Biblical composition is normally thought to be from the later first millennium BCE. This contribution will look at possible reasons for this absence of love poetry in late Egypt, but also trace expressions of love in other textual genres during this time. These concern especially lamentations of Osiris sung by Isis and Nephthys (where memories of past love are often evoked), narrative texts (where feelings of love are much more prominent than in older texts), and love charms (which also become much more frequent), but also bawdy songs where sex and orgies are explicitly mentioned.


The Closest Thing to a Bible: "The Fault in Our Stars" As Biblical Interpretation without a Bible
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Phil Quanbeck, Augsburg College

In John Green's popular YA novel and film "The Fault In Our Stars," one of the central characters Hazel Grace is described as regarding the imaginary novel, "The Imperial Affliction" as the closest thing she had to the Bible. It is nevertheless the case that the story is in many ways a study of contrasting methods of interpretation that have bearing on the way the Bible might be read. Hazel and Augustus are teenagers with cancer struggle with different ways of constructing meaning some of which don't work, such as "the literal heart of Jesus" and the cross-stitched pillows with "encouragements. Along with the churchly backdrop, the attempts at eulogies, and the issues of God and the universe of purpose or purposelessness, there are implicit insights to biblical interpretation in contemporary YA literature despite the lack of explicit mention.


Investing in Salvation: Cyprian's Assertion of Spiritual and Financial Authority in De Habitu Virginum
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Jennifer Quigley, Harvard University

This paper examines the rhetoric of speech, sight, and space in Cyprian’s De Habitu Virginum in order to explore the complex intersections of gender, economics, scriptural interpretation, and aesthetics within the text and within early Christianity. This text, a stylized, argument between the bishop of Carthage and a group of dedicated virgins, features Cyprian’s rhetoric around eye-makeup and the proper direction of vision, the deployment of Roman modesty tropes which combine a critique of “foreignness” with adornment, and the demand for an investment of earthly property with church hierarchy in order to obtain heavenly habitations. By crafting an imagined dialogue in which Cyprian’s dialogue partners only speak through repetitive indirect speech (Locupletem te dicis et divitem) (8-11), Cyprian circumscribes the possibility for response. Critiques of the manipulation of appearance, particularly eye-makeup, are juxtaposed with invocations to cast the gaze upwards and away from the body. Using work on Roman dress from scholars such as Kristi Upson-Saia and Carly Daniel-Hughes, I will consider how deploying Roman ideals of foreign infiltration of luxury goods in the assemblies in Carthage maps a theological geography that runs counter to the physical and economic landscape. Cyprian’s interpretation of John 14:2 (“In my father’s house are many rooms”) evokes spaces that are heavenly but have an impact on the early Christian communities in Carthage. Cyprian describes a variety of heavenly habitations which virgins earn through the renunciation of earthly possessions. One focal point is Cyprian’s argument that virgins should turn over their possessions as God commands for the use of the poor, so that patrimo tuo Deum faenera (“through your patrimony you will lend on interest to God”) (11). Virgins not only invest their physical bodies in the hope of gaining an interest in heaven, they also invest their earthly possessions in the hope of gaining an interest in heaven. By lending their earthly property for the use of the church on earth, God will owe these virgins, plus interest, in heaven. The proper use of their goods will truly earn dividends later. I conclude that Cyprian sees himself as the spiritual and financial head of household of the Carthaginian church, which means not only that he is responsible for the comportment of the women within the church (especially dedicated virgins), but that the comportment of these women reflects directly upon his skills and abilities as a financial and spiritual manager. By arguing that these women, who have made themselves sexually independent through a vow of celibacy, must entrust any independent wealth they have to the church (and consequently, to him), Cyprian attempts to define his role as bishop by reasserting his control over both the finances and the bodies of a group of women who have dedicated themselves to Christ.


Justice and Mercy in 1 Peter
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Volker Rabens, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

When the author of 1 Peter introduces God as Father (of Jesus Christ) in the opening of the letter, he defines him as having “great mercy” (1:3) and as being an impartial judge (1:17). These two qualities which are characteristic of God as Father according to 1 Peter, are the focus of this paper. Do these two qualities, justice and mercy, present a pair of opposites or do they mark a spectrum that has a point of convergence in the letter? Careful exegesis seems to suggest the latter. In respect to both divine and human justice and mercy we find that the epistle draws on Hebrew Bible traditions that relate the two qualities to one another. In the course of this paper I will discuss a number of potential parallels that elucidate the narrative identity drawn from the experience of the people of Israel into which 1 Peter invites its readers, a narrative that contains both the experience of and the call to enact justice and mercy in the context of their lives as “resident aliens.”


Did 1QIsaa and IQS Come from the Same Parchment Workshop?
Program Unit: Qumran
Ira Rabin, BAM Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing

The International Qumran project conducted at the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in 2007-2010 aimed at establishing an optimal methodology for an accurate characterization of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection to address such questions as archaeological provenance, origin, and attribution of fragments to a specific sheet. Using equipment of a various degree of complexity we have shown that a part of the historic information stored in the material can be revealed through its proper characterization. The onsite investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls fragments from the Schøyen collection offered the first chance to use this methodology in a field study. For the first time, we used exclusively mobile and non-invasive technology since we could not transport all of our laboratory equipment to Norway for this project. Moreover, besides the technical limitations dictated by the available equipment, we had to cope with a limited time: it was impossible to perform the number of scans required for optimal characterization of over 30 fragments within the 14 days available. Nevertheless, in the onsite study of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection in Norway we tested the reliability of the results obtained with our light, mobile lab. This contribution presents the material study of the fragments from the Cave 1. The finds from the cave 1 in the Schøyen collection include a number of small fragments. The larger part, MS 1926 1-3, was acquired from John Trever, who most probably collected them during his first inspection or photography of the scrolls in 1948. They include uninscribed small fragments from the Isaiah scroll (1QIsaa) subdivided into three groups: repair, scroll and cover, respectively; two uninscribed fragments from 1QS and three fragments from the Genesis Apocryphon, an inscribed one and two last extant pieces from the uninscribed parchment that initially covered some of the badly damaged columns of the Genesis Apocrypon. In addition, there is a fragment MS 1909 (ascribed to 1Qsb) that was purchased from the widow of William Brownlee who received it as a gift from Archbishop Athanasius Samuel in 1973. Our results show that the scrolls 1QIsaa and 1QS were produced in the same manner that differs greatly from the manufacture process of the majority of the scrolls. Moreover, if MS1909 belongs indeed to 1QSb we find that the parchment of the 1QS and 1QSb are indistinguishable. The close similarity, expensive materials and high quality of the production of 1QIsaa, 1QS and 1QSb suggest that they come from the same workshop. In contrast the fragment belonging to the “repair” was produced quite differently. Similarly, two parchments of the Genenesis Apocryphon originate from two different production processes. The contribution will discuss different production treatments in the Jewish Antiquity and their possible implications for the current debate in the Dead Sea Scrolls studies.


Biblical Foundations of a Trinitarian Hermeneutic
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Murray Rae, University of Otago

Drawing upon texts from both the Old and the New Testaments, I set out in this paper the biblical basis for a Trinitarian hermeneutic of Scripture, and I outline some of the key conceptual moves that need to be made when articulating what a Trinitarian hermeneutic involves. Against the argument sometimes put forward that a Trinitarian hermeneutic necessarily entails the imposition upon Scripture of alien doctrinal commitments, I contend that a Trinitarian hermeneutic is both called for and justified by the logic of Scripture’s own witness to the divine economy. The divine address to Abram in Genesis 12, the account of the Lord’s anointing of his servant in Isaiah 61, and the several annunciations concerning the birth of Jesus in Luke 1-2 are taken as exemplary instances of God’s communication with his people, through which a trinitarian ordering of God’s self-communication may be seen to emerge. I argue on this basis that a trinitarian hermeneutic that is attentive to the prompting of the Word and the Spirit of God is demanded by the logic of Scripture’s own narrative. Following upon the development of this claim, I draw further upon scripture to provide, in conclusion, a brief sketch of what kind of readers we are enabled to be in virtue of this communicative act of the triune God.


Is Deut 23:16 a "Fugitive Slave Law"?
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Brian Rainey, Princeton Theological Seminary

This paper analyzes Deut 23:16 (ET 23:15), a passage typically understood as a law that forbids Israelites from returning an escaped slave to his or her master. The paper looks at the root n?l (Niphal) which is often translated "to escape" (AV, NRSV) or "take/seek refuge" (JPS, NIV) and explores whether or not the root, when used in conjunction with the preposition 'el, really means "escape" or "take refuge." An alternative possibility the paper investigates is whether n?l in Deut 23:16 could refer to a slave's redemption, because n?l is also used in apposition with the roots g'l and pdh ("to redeem," Exod 6:6; Mic 4:10; Isa 50:2; Jer 15:21; cp. Deut 7:8; 24:18). In other words, is it possible that the law prohibits returning a slave to his or her master once the slave has been "redeemed"? The paper also visits biblical scenarios in which redemption of a slave and subsequent return to a master could have taken place (Exod 21:8; Jer 34:16). Additionally, interpretations of the passage by modern commentators are reviewed and assessed. Because slave redemption seems to be a practice reserved for Israelite slaves, the paper will also evaluate whether the slave in Deut 23:16 is thought of as an Israelite or foreigner.


Cyprian of Carthage Use of the Body Politic as a Model for the Body of Christ
Program Unit: Contextualizing North African Christianity
Allison K. Ralph, Catholic University of America

In Purity and Danger Mary Douglas invited us to consider how cultural concepts of society influence the regulation of individual bodies. A related question is how cultural concepts of individual bodies influence the regulation of social bodies. This paper sets the work of Cyprian of Carthage in the context of two opposing traditions of the social body, each of which relies on a particular understanding of health in the individual body. First, the Greco-Roman Body Politic, anchored in Stoic political theories, hinged on an idea of the body as a hierarchically controlled unity of diverse parts. In this model, obedience of the parts to the leadership represents harmony and health in both individual and social bodies. Disobedience among the parts amounted to illness. In contrast, the Pauline Body of Christ conceived of the body as a thing vulnerable to spreading damage caused by the pollution of guilt or ritual impurity. Each tradition of the social body conceived of the social body as a thing similar in essence to the individual body. Sickness or health in the social body were therefore visceral realities worth worrying over. The problem of what to do with the lapsed after the Decian order to sacrifice brought up common social fears of impurity in the social body. Those who feared ritual contamination feared the readmission of apostates, and thus were willing to split into schism in order to protect the purity of the body. Cyprian’s Novationist opponents so feared the spreading gangrene of sin in the Pauline Body of Christ that they split the church in schism. In contrast, Cyprian, in the Greco-Roman tradition of the body politic, feared schismatic dismemberment and so promoted unity in strong hierarchical control. He strove to gather in those who would submit to his authority and perform proper penance, thus keeping the limbs of the Body of Christ together. Although he understood the fear of contagious guilt that drove his Novatianist opponents, he denied the validity of their fear, and knew all too well that their need for purity would rend the limbs of the church.


Beware of the (Westernized) African Eyes: Decolonizing Biblical Hermeneutics in Africa
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Huli Ramantswana, University of South Africa

Ukpong calls for a “rereading of the Bible with African eyes.” This paper argues that the African eyes through which we are called to reread the Bible with require to be decolonized in two fronts: first, an African identity and to be socially located in Africa does not automatically imply reading through African eyes—beware of the Westernized African eyes; second, the current postcolonial environment still retains structures of coloniality which continually destabilizes Africa—beware of Westernized Africa. The failure to decolonize the African eyes consequently leads to the reduplication of Western-European environments in our African context(s) and the perpetuation of coloniality in our current environment.


Origen, the Myths of Scripture, and the Myths of Plato
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Ilaria L.E. Ramelli, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

I will show that Origen of Alexandria († 255ca. CE), who engaged in the interpretation of Plato’s dialogues and was committed to their allegorical exegesis as well as to the allegorical exegesis of the Bible, profoundly appreciated Plato’s myths from the methodological point of view. He even drew a close epistemological parallel between Plato’s protological and eschatological myths, on the one side, and, on the other, the Biblical accounts on protology and eschatology. These (i.e., the myths in Plato’s dialogues and the narrative of creation and the Apocalypse in Scripture) are the only cases, in all of Plato’s dialogues and in all of the Bible, that are endowed with an exclusively allegorical meaning, being deprived of a literal sense. The rest of the Bible, on the contrary, and the rest of Plato’s dialogues, have both a literal and an allegorical meaning.


Bardaisan of Edessa’s Wisdom Christology: Roots, Parallels, Meanings
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Ilaria L.E. Ramelli, Sacred Heart Major Seminary

[For the session on wisdom literature in the Middle Eastern Christian communities, in collaboration with the AAR Middle Eastern Christianity Group:] Wisdom literature, as well as a common philosophical background in Middle Platonism, lie behind the Christology of the Logos/Wisdom elaborated by the Syriac Christian philosopher-theologian Bardaisan of Edessa († 222 CE). I will argue that his Wisdom Christology, and the very peculiar imagery attached to it, bear striking similarities to those of both Origen of Alexandria and Hippolytus, his younger contemporaries. I will thus endeavor to make sense of these findings.


Making the Cut: Covenant, Curse, and Oath in Deuteronomy 29–30 and the Incantation Plaques of Arslan Tash
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Melissa Ramos, University of California-Los Angeles

Two magical incantation plaques from the seventh century BCE were found in northern Syria at the site of Arslan Tash in 1939. These two plaques were inscribed with iconography and text written with a mixture of Phoenician and Aramaic features. The plaques were shaped in an “amulet” fashion with holes at the top for display, suggestive of an apotropaic purpose of safeguarding a home against supernatural malefactors. The inscriptions on the first plaque (AT1) are of interest for biblical law because of the language of “cutting a covenant” with the deity Assur and the legal context of this covenant before an assembly of divine witnesses. This paper will explore the context of the ritual performance of oaths including animal sacrifice as the background for the phrase “cutting a covenant” in the light of the text from AT1 and Deut 29-30. The slaughter of animals was just one of the ritual practices that comprised ceremonial performance surrounding the ratification of oaths and treaties in the wider ancient Near East and Mediterranean. The connection between the dual meaning of the word alat as both “oath” and “curse” will also be discussed as part of the wider connection between treaties, covenants and incantation rituals involving blessings and curses. Finally, the importance of both the spoken incantation and the written display of oaths and curses will be examined as ritual speech and ritual writing.


What Is the Practice of a Tent
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Rebecca Raphael, Texas State University–San Marcos

*


Canonical Embarrassments: Modeling Textual Authoritarian Discouse
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Rebecca Raphael, Texas State University

This paper examines a case study in science-fiction world construction in order to explore tensions between historicist and textual authoritarian positions in biblical studies. The case study is the original Star Trek episode “Turnabout Intruder” (1969). Episodic character Janice Lester asserts that Starfleet does not allow women to become starship captains. Trek fandom found the line objectionable on the grounds that Starfleet would not be sexist. Several interpretive possibilities were open; the matter was canonically resolved by a subtle form of retroactive continuity in the Enterprise series (2000s). However, the writers of the problematic episode have publicly stated that their work simply reflected the unconscious sexism of their time. In this case, then, we have documents that strongly support the conclusion that historicists usually make as an inference about ancient texts. Using primarily material from recent discussion of disability in the Bible, I will elucidate an analogy between the interpretive strategies of contemporary imaginal world construction and those of biblical textual-authoritarians. Nodes of the analogy include the structure of textual embarrassments; the functions of absence-of-evidence and canonical amplification in addressing them; and the controlling role that extra-textual imaginal constructions exert on interpretation. Finally, I gauge the different placements of historicism within each of these discourses.


Acts and the Amazing Race: Developing Academic Responsibility in a Freshman Course
Program Unit: Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Sylvie Raquel, Trinity International University

The book of Acts is an exciting book that addresses many theological and practical ecclesiastical topics. A lecture on this subject would not only annoy a large classroom of freshmen but it also would choke the amazing thrust of the story. To give justice to the narrative’s energy and impulses, I adopted a flipped classroom approach and developed a strategy that embarks students on a dynamic journey to discover the impetus, the proponents and the organization of the Christian mission. I have laid out specific steps of the journey to let students enjoy all aspects of the ride, including the individual preparation, the group organization, and the final production. My voyage takes in consideration many pedagogical questions educators have at heart: How do you make the Bible relevant? How do you teach freshmen to be engaged in personal research? How do you teach them to use research tools and other academic skills? How do you keep all students engaged at all times? How do you make them understand theological concepts without using a theological jargon? How do you teach them community responsibility and cultural engagement? How can you encourage self-reflection and expression? In this session, I will share how I have imbedded within this project an answer to all aforementioned questions.


What Kind of Text Critic Was Origen?
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Sylvie Raquel, Trinity International University

Origen exhibited a dynamic intellectual life. His over-achieving personality as well as his insatiable thirst for learning served his incredible passion for the Scriptures. He has indeed been called the first Christian text-critic. What does that really mean? What was textual criticism like in the second and third centuries? For sure, Origen recognized that some errors in copying manuscripts were calculated while others were unintentional. He also claimed that God helped him “repair” the differences between the copies of the Old Testament. What methodology did he use to make such assessments? What was also motivating his search? Was it for the sheer love of studying the text, for theological aspirations, or for apologetic purposes? Can the goals of modern textual criticism compare with what Origen intended to achieve? As a response to the preceding questions, this paper will explore Origen's methodology and purpose in investigating the texts of the Old and New Testaments, compare it to the current state of research in textual criticism, and examine how his textual activities are a window into third-century Christian scholarship.


The Biblical Phallus . . . Who Wants It, Who Has It, Who Gets It, and How
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Ilona Rashkow, Stony Brook University

The Biblical Phallus… Who Wants It Who Has It, Who Gets It, And How In a changing society, Christians and Jews have looked to the Bible to find values and models. But the Hebrew Bible does not offer an unqualified “positive” model for family behavior or relationships. This book examines narratives, laws, and poetry throughout the Hebrew Bible which focus on the representation of the “dysfunctional” family construct. (I wish to make it quite clear that I am not using the term “dysfunctional” as a clinical term of art. Clinically, the term is used to describe a situation in which the psychopathology of individual family members and the psychopathology of the family unit interact in such a way that neither the individual nor the family are able to function. Rather, I am using the term here to refer to those family relationships which are proscribed in the text and hence, contrary to the societal norms embedded within the Hebrew Bible.) My theoretical approach is literary, albeit influenced by psychoanalytic theory, particularly that of Freud and Lacan. In order to set the narratives in an historical framework I examine the intertextuality of biblical literature with other contemporaneous works. My thesis is that the Hebrew Bible, despite its reputation as the preeminent monotheistic religious document, echoes with incest themes and narratives common to polytheistic literature including a strong earlier matriarchal polytheism, wars between rival deities, and an eventual supplanting of the goddesses with a single male deity. Finally, I include plastic representations of many of the relevant biblical texts as alternative (and supportive) readings of my own which highlight the psychoanalytic interpretations, particularly those which are Oedipal in nature.


Inclusion, Exclusion, and Group Stability in Jewish Rituals: Biblical and Contemporary
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Ilona Rashkow, Stony Brook University

Inclusion, Exclusion, and Group Stability in Jewish Rituals: Biblical and Contemporary Religious rituals, the performance of similar actions and vocal expressions based on prescribed traditions and cultural norms, range from private ceremonies to large gatherings, and from single acts to those repeated frequently. The occasions for religious rituals vary: contingencies such as illness or misfortune; life-stages (birth, religious initiation, marriage, and death); or recurrent occasions such as holidays. What interests me the most are the connections between religious rituals and psychology. This paper examines the roles that religious ritual play in the Bible and the psychological processes at work in contemporary Jews who participate in these devotional acts. Just as the community is bound by the Torah, the Torah is bound by the community; to the community; and within the community. Psychologically, religious rituals enforce group commitment and thereby foster social group stability.


Reggae and the (Revolutionary) Rhythms of Rastafari Biblical Hermeneutics: A Poetics of Relation and the Dissident Dance of Diasporic Mo(ve)ment
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
A. Paige Rawson, Drew University

A particularized Caribbean manifestation of the African diaspora with diverse global influence and iterations, the Reggae rhythms of the Rastafari movement have moved the world since the 1960s and they continue to do so. The RastafarI have undeniably distinguished themselves through their radical resistance of the dominant cultural, economic, and political ideology of “the West” (Babylon). At the intersection of rebellion and religion, though the movement has no “book of rules” per se, in this paper I consider the complex ways in which the RastafarI have appropriated the Bible, reflecting upon their particular Reggae-lations of interpretation—always already contingent, contextual, and…potentially revolutionary—and their implications for a radically embodied oral-literate biblical hermeneutics. This paper, then, explores the ways in which “citing up” scripture in the Rastafari movement and its music is the very rhythm of political rebellion, reasoning that refuses to conform to its colonial context through the resistant reading of the canonical text. Even as the RastafarI undermine (through over-standing) Western logic, linguistics, and hyper-textuality, Reggae intrinsically disrupts the lines, notes, terminology, and even the tempo of classical music, as it “reads” not according to textual (literary) convention, but contextual (oral) wisdom. Engaging the ways in which Reggae, as the RastafarI, defies textualization and cannot be defined by or confined to the contours and conditions of Western European composition, I query: How might Reggae, the revolutionary rhythms of Rastafari hermeneutics and its radical oral-literate epistemology bruk it dung for us, reflecting the dissident dance of diasporic mo(ve)ment and inflecting our inter-relational poetics and interpretational politics?


The Boundary around Samaria in Luke-Acts: Porous or Firm?
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Mark Reasoner, Marian University (Indianapolis)

Despite the reputation of Luke-Acts as being inclusive and universal in its portrait of Jesus’ message and the early movement of Jesus followers, the implied author uniquely constructs boundaries between Samaria and Judea (Luke 9:53; Acts 1:8). This firm boundary serves to highlight the foreignness of the Samaritans (Luke 10:29-37; 17:16-18: Acts 8:9-25). But Luke-Acts also shows its protagonists in border areas around Samaria (Luke 17:11; Acts 9:32-43), as though the border is more porous. This seems to fit with its vision of Samaria as included within Judea in the geographical heritage of Abraham’s descendants. It also fits with the early first century Roman inclusion of Samaria within Archelaus’ territory, the province Iudaea, though the Roman boundaries would change in the years that followed. The description of Anna’s tribe (Luke 2:36), Jesus’ self-juxtaposition with Israel’s Samaria-based prophets (Luke 4:25-27), Jesus’ invocation to the daughters of Jerusalem of a Samaria-oriented text (Luke 23:30; Hos 10:8), and the narrator’s hendiadys in Acts 8:1 all weaken the boundary around Samaria. The tension in Luke-Acts’ characterization of Samaria’s boundary may be necessary for these books’ vision of an ever enlarging scope of the prophet Jesus’ word, executed in a more artful way than in the other Synoptics.


Subject-Postponement and Information Stucture in Biblical Hebrew Verse
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Scott Redd, Reformed Theological Seminary

The subject-postponement construction, which occurs when the subject is postponed in the post-verbal field to a position after a non-pronominalized prepositional phrase or object, occurs in Biblical Hebrew verse at a much higher rate than in Biblical Hebrew prose. In this paper, I will utilize the work of Knud Lambrecht in the area of information structure in order to analyze examples of subject-postponement that are culled from an extensive corpus of Biblical Hebrew verse comprised of early and late texts. In particular, I will apply the category of “antitopic” to these postponement constructions and show how they work in conjunction with the defamiliarizing tendencies inherent in verse to produce effective communication.


A Haunted Apocalypse: Reading leukos in Revelation through a Racial-Ethnic Critical Lens
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Jonathan Redding, Vanderbilt University

From a racial-ethnic critic perspective, one can read leukos (white) working in opposition with melas (black) in the biblical book of Revelation. Using interplay between leukos and melas in non-biblical textual examples and building upon scholarly readings of leukos and melas, leukos in Revelation becomes a means for othering and exclusion. Consulting a paradigm created from Critical Race Theory (CRT) shows Revelation’s use of leukos can be manipulated as tool for systematic “othering” within the biblical text and its interpretations. Read as a means for othering, leukos haunts the canonical Christian apocalypse with language associated and interpreted through racial and ethnic differentiation. Further, potential othering from leukos permits dangerous potential readings, which, in turn, can skew personal and communal worldviews. Reading leukos with an overt awareness of American racial-ethnic history empowers the reader to question the bible, and, in turn, irresponsible biblical interpretations. The paper is in two sections. Section one establishes the problematic by defining the author’s methodological concerns, then provides an overview of scholarship surrounding Revelation chapters in which leukos appears. The overview of scholarship demonstrates infrequent and inconsistent engagement of potential racial-ethnic interpretational issues around leukos, which serves as groundwork for displaying the necessity of exegeting leukos in Revelation through a CRT lens. Section two is a Reader-Response style exegesis of leukos in Revelation through a CRT lens. Exegetical insights emphasize racial-ethnic tensions with leukos to argue Revelation and its possible interpretations may be “haunted” by the racial-ethnic biases readers carry into the text. Conclusions articulate tensions within early Christian movements that may stem from using Revelation to other, along with focusing on implications for re-interpreting Revelation.


Remembering the Future, Shaping the Past: Memory, Narrative, and Identity
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Ruth Anne Reese, Asbury Theological Seminary

Memory plays a key role in helping us know who we are and who we are becoming. As recent research in memory studies in a variety of fields tears down the old picture of memory as a wax tablet, the importance of narrative and the narrative structuring of memory is rising. The stories that we tell impact our understanding of identity and ultimately shape our future—not only who we are but who we will be. In this presentation we will examine the intersection of memory, narrative, and identity by looking at how the book of Hebrews invokes the memory of the future, memory rooted in the Old Testament, to appeal to the audience of Hebrews.


Early Christianity in Light of New Religious Movements
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Eyal Regev, Bar-Ilan University

New religious movements create innovative and distinct belief systems that lack recognized legitimacy in the eyes of the religious establishment. NRMs occupy a relatively contested place within society. Their key beliefs and behavior patterns generally consist of high-intensity proselytization. They hold new beliefs and practices that differ from the traditional ones in the surrounding religious environment. Comparing the early Christian groups with modern NRMs and cults enable us to identify and analyze indicative social and religious attributes that defined the self-identity of the early Christians – as reflected in the letters of Paul, Acts and the gospel of John – made them stand out as different, and, ultimately, led to their rejection by outside society. The devotion to Jesus as Christ and the inclusion of gentiles among these early Christian groups were novel features that, by definition, created a new religious movement rejected by both Jews and Romans. The intense recruitment of converts by the early Christians, also characteristic of NRMs, was seen as a direct threat by their contemporaries. The early Christian groups lacked social separation from mainstream society, strong demands on their members, sanctions against deviant ones, and systematic organization—all characteristics which are distinct to certain cults, such as Scientology in its early years and the Soka Gakkai. Taken together, these three social features further demonstrate that early Christianity was not a segregated sect, but rather a cult that aimed to penetrate mainstream society, gain legitimacy, and recruit converts.


Early Christian Baptism in Light of Qumranic Purification Liturgies: From Washing to Atonement
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Eyal Regev, Bar-Ilan University

The paper examines the relationship between the various components of baptism – immersion in water, purification, repentance, and forgiveness/atonement – in the Purification Liturgies found at Qumran (4Q414 and 4Q512), the baptism of John, and early Christian baptism in the NT (especially in Acts and the Pauline letters). Based on the Qumranic example, it is suggested that in the baptism of John and in early Christianity, baptism was not a purification rite, but a ritual metaphor based on the association of immersion in water with purity and atonement. The role of repentance, central in Qumran and in the baptism of John, disappears in some of the Pauline and other NT ideas concerning baptism. The connection between immersion in water and atonement transforms from Qumran and John the Baptist, where immersion actually took place, to a metaphoric concept of immersion (if one follows James Dunn) in Paul.


Sumerian Love Poetry: A New Manuscript of Šu-Suen B
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
J. N. Reid, New York University

A new manuscript of the Sumerian love poem, Šu-Suen B, was discovered in the British Museum while preparing for publication a large group of letters, administrative documents, and legal texts. The tablet appears to have been acquired by the Museum from a French antiquities dealer in AD 1909. Love poetry is a well-attested genre of writing in the ancient Near East that used metaphorical language to express the desire and passion shared between lovers. Among the Sumerian compositions from the Old Babylonian Period (ca. 1900-1595 BC), Šu-Suen B was a love poem largely written in Emesal (“light tongue”) from the perspective of a female’s desire for the king, Šu-Suen. In this paper, various aspects of Sumerian love poetry in the broader context of the genre will be discussed, and the new tablet of Šu-Suen B will be presented. Where relevant, thematic overlap with Akkadian and Hebrew love poetry will also be considered. Since this is only the second known example of Šu-Suen B, a score of the two witnesses will be provided as well as the ways in which the manuscripts diverge from one another, including new lines that are not found in the previously known version.


Children and Child Slaves in Early Mesopotamia
Program Unit: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Nicholas Reid, New York University

Like other dependent members of households, children were particularly vulnerable in early Mesopotamia (ca. 3000-1595 B.C.). The status of a child in many ways reflected the status of her/his parents, but this position was not fixed. There were several potential life courses by which the children of “free” parents could experience downward social mobility. After considering the lives of children in general, this paper considers the children of slaves and their position in society. Numerous early Mesopotamian documents record the sale of slaves and their offspring, demonstrating that the children of slaves were normally treated as another commodity that could be bought and sold. Irrespective of their places of birth, these children were also specifically excluded from Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1595 B.C.) edicts that sought the release of the native population from various forms of bondage. Toward the end of the same period, these houseborn slaves together with foreigners became the only two legitimate sources for acquiring slaves, as reflected in the sale documents. While the children of slaves were chattel in many respects, their positions were more complex when the parents had different social statuses. Early “law codes” took up this subject matter in several places, discussing issues of inheritance, the transmission of ownership, and even manumission. Considering the station of children in comparison to the children of slaves highlights the complex social overlap between slaves and other dependent members of households, revealing the vulnerability of child slaves and the mothers who bore them.


Recognizing the Plasticity of the Psalter: A Response to William Yarchin
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Stephen Breck Reid, Baylor University

Much of the debate on shape and shaping of the Psalter has started with the MT. Yarchin’s examination of medieval Hebrew manuscripts sheds interesting light on the plasticity of the Psalter. This response will explore what the awareness of textual plasticity does to the interpretation of the Psalter as individual texts and attempts to uncover a theology of the Psalter.


The Trouble with Remembering Zion: A Look at Psalm 137
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Stephen Breck Reid, Baylor University

The compelling words of Psalm 137 evoke a recollection of space and time. But all too often it is not a “real” recollection as much as it is an “aspiration.” The reading often lulls the modern reader viewing Zion as a perennial liberative icon. The reading with local communities provides a remedy to the naive reading of the scholars study. Nowhere is that more clear than in the community of mass incarceration in the “New South” and Immigration Detention. This conversation will facilitate our reflection on the interplay of power and language that often masks hegemony and domination.


Christian David Ginsburg in Moab
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Fred N. Reiner, Wesley Theological Seminary

The discovery of the Moabite Stone, or Mesha Stele, in 1868 was a stunning breakthrough in biblical studies and the history of the Hebrew language. The only surviving monument from ancient Moab, it was written in proto-Hebrew (or Canaanite or Phoenician) letters. In 1870, Christian David Ginsburg—the founder of modern Masoretic studies—published a transcription, translation, and commentary on the Moabite Stone, as did several other scholars of the day. In addition to the importance of the monument itself lay an international struggle with German, French, and English scholars vying for possession and access to study the stele. In 1872, Ginsburg mounted an expedition to Moab to visit the site of the discovery and hopefully find additional treasures. Ginsburg’s journal of that trip to Moab—his only extant journal—contains valuable information about his contacts in the world of archaeology and antiquities, his impressions of Jerusalem, and relates an exciting tale of the journey. It also provides a glimpse of Ginsburg’s character and attitudes, shedding additional light on this complex masoretic scholar and leading biblical scholar of the nineteenth century.


Adonai Is My Shepherd: Theology, Values, and Sexism in Bible Translation
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Fred N. Reiner, Wesley Theological Seminary

Our translation of biblical passages, and our selection of translations, has an effect on their liturgical use and the values we teach. By choosing a gender-neutral translation we may make a statement of gender inclusion; but at the same time some worshipers may find the change from a familiar translation jarring. Should we sacrifice the value of inclusion for the comfort of a familiar text? Psalm 23 is a case in point. The strong masculine imagery of the psalm, and its well-known translation, put off those who seek gender-neutral language for prayer and sacred texts. But do the King James and RSV translations, or a modernized version, have inherent sacredness, as well as comfort through their familiarity? This paper will explore the nuances of some of the issues involved in a gender-neutral translation of Psalm 23 (and other texts) within the liturgical context of the synagogue.


The High Priest’s New Clothes: Adam as Priest in Genesis 2–3
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Jacob Rennaker, Brigham Young University

During Judaism’s Second Temple period, several authors drew conceptual connections between the temple and the creation stories recorded in Genesis 1-3, even going so far as to describe the Israelite high priest in terms evocative of Adam. In fact, it is possible to see echoes of the high priesthood in the figure of Adam within Genesis 2-3 itself. This paper will examine such texts as Jubilees, The Wisdom of Ben Sira, the Community Rule, and Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum in order to establish an interpretive framework that highlights Adam’s priestly role in Genesis 2-3.


Weapons of the Spirit: Paul’s Warfare in 2 Cor 10:1–6
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
David Rensberger, Independent Scholar

This paper will consider Paul’s martial imagery near the beginning of 2 Corinthians 10 in light of the threat he issues near the other end of 2 Corinthians 10-13, and in light of significant parallels in 1 Corinthians. Scholars tend to take the threatening language in 2 Corinthians 10 and 12 (“we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds” [10:3b-4a NRSV]; “For I fear that when I come, I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish” [12:20a NRSV]) as rather literal threats. However, Paul’s contrast between weapons that are sarkika and those that are dynata to theo points in a different direction. Paul’s similar contrast between divine and human in an earlier letter (1 Cor. 1:18-2:5) suggests that weapons dynata to theo must be consonant with the cross of Christ, and with the weakness and humility that it implies. It is such weapons of humility that Paul can envision as destroying everything that proudly rises up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5)—knowledge that for Paul comes only through the cross. An understanding of apostolic authority that is consistent with the substance of his gospel of the cross is Paul’s central theme in the main sections of 2 Corinthians. Over the course of his dealings with the Corinthians, he may have been (among other things) in the process of working out just what such an exercise of authority might look like concretely. The metaphors Paul uses in 2 Cor. 10:1-6, drawn from military language, represent the epitome of power kata sarka, and should thus be taken as ironic. This reading is confirmed by the specific “threat” that Paul makes in 2 Cor. 12:21: in contrast to the “stick” he threatened to bring in 1 Cor. 4:21, here he speaks of being humbled and of mourning. Such humility would indeed be precisely what the Corinthians, using their quite different standards of judgment, would not wish to find in an apostle. Paul is making his way toward being consistently “weak in Christ” (2 Cor. 13:3-4), and his appeal to the “meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1) is determinative for what he intends by his threatened “warfare.” Paul’s “weapons” of humility and weakness are not really recognizable as literal weapons at all. His position is a subtle, counterintuitive, and difficult one that can easily prove as elusive for us as it appears to have been for the Corinthians.


Philo and Plutarch on Philautia
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Gretchen Reydams-Schils, University of Notre Dame

In this paper I will examine striking parallels between Philo's and Plutarch's criticism of self-love, philautia. Both authors distinguish philautia (a) from proper and salutatory self-knowledge and (b) the right disposition to oneself. In doing so, they interact with the traditions of Platonism and Stoicism.


The Text of Torah Books in the War Scroll
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Bennie Reynolds, Millsaps College

In this paper I examine the text of Torah books as preserved in quotations and allusions in the War Scroll (1Q33 or Milhamah), an eschatological text found among the Dead Sea Scrolls and produced in late Hellenistic times. I compare the quotations and allusions to major and minor manuscript traditions as well as to other sources of quotations and allusions in Jewish literature from the Hellenistic Period. In the first instance I conclude that the majority of quotations and allusions agree with MT, but that some quotations and allusions preserve readings known from the Samaritan Pentateuch and others preserve unique (non-aligned) readings. I also argue that while the War Scroll sometimes quotes Torah books in sufficient detail to evoke the concept of an authoritative literary tradition, the writer also introduces changes that contextualize the books as relevant to contemporary concerns. The evidence provides important data for understanding the textual history of Torah books in Second Temple times and illustrates the paradoxical way in which texts could be simultaneously authoritative and negotiable.


Noah's Lost Son
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame

In Hud (11) 42-46 the Qur?an has Noah address one of his sons and plead with him to enter the ark. Noah’s son refuses to do so, explaining that he plans to seek refuge from the flood on a mountain. When the son is lost in the waters of the flood Noah turns to God in order to ask that his son be forgiven: “O my Lord, my son is of my family.” For this God rebukes him: “Noah, he is not of thy family; it is a deed not righteous. Do not ask of Me that whereof thou hast no knowledge. I admonish thee, lest thou shouldst be among the ignorant.” At IQSA 2015 I will explain why this unfaithful son of Noah appears in the Qur?an when no such character appears in Genesis. Commenting on the earlier studies of G. Newby (“The Drowned Son,” 1986) and B.A. Brown (Noah’s Other Son, 2008) I will argue that this passage of Hud reflects a certain topos in the Qur?an – found also in the accounts of Abraham and his father (and in Q 46:15-18 which speaks of an anonymous son) – that faith in God has a priority over family relationships. I will also argue that it has a particular relationship to a tradition of speculation on Ezekiel 14 (a passage which speaks hypothetically of an unrighteous son of Noah) found with Justin Martyr (d. 165) and, more importantly, with the Syriac father Jacob of Serugh (d. 521) in his Homilies against the Jews.


Biblical Merismus in Book of Mormon Gospel References
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Noel B. Reynolds, Brigham Young University

In the latter part of the twentieth century, biblical scholars became increasingly aware of merismus as a recurring rhetorical device that allowed ancient writers to refer to well known larger wholes by simply mentioning some of the parts. For example, a geographical merism is found in Jeremiah 4:15 where the prophet cites a voice from both Dan and Mount Ephraim. Once this is understood as meristic reference to all the lands from Dan (in the north of Israel) down to Mount Ephraim (near Israel’s southern boundary), it is evident that the prophecy will be heard by all Israel, and not just in the two locations mentioned. The most common form of merismus in biblical writings is based on simple lists, the elements of which the reader would be expected to recognize readily. By mentioning only a few of these elements, the writer could invoke the entire list in the minds of his readers. An April 2015 article in the Scottish Journal of Theology identifies three inclusios in the Book of Mormon, each of which presents the same definition of the doctrine or gospel of Jesus Christ. But none of the three definitions is presented in the way modern readers might expect. Rather, each offers a series of statements focusing on different actions or events that are related to each other as parts of the way, doctrine, or gospel that leads to eternal life. On first reading, they could easily seem disconnected or even contradictory. But as this study demonstrates, when all these statements and their repeated elements are examined cumulatively, a well-defined account of this six-element gospel message emerges. The process by which men and women can come unto Christ and be saved is clear and multi-stepped. The picture of the whole is almost never fully articulated in one statement. Instead, we find a series of partial/meristic statements of this gospel—each of which is designed to add detail and complexity. In this paper, I will first trace the evolution of a shared understanding of merismus among biblical scholars. I will then show that this same meristic approach to defining or describing the gospel occurs not only in these three definitional passages, but that it permeates the entire text of the Book of Mormon. From Nephi in the beginning to Mormon and Moroni at the end, hundreds of statements of the gospel occur in meristic form. (This is most efficiently shown with a handout.) As I have wrestled with this textual phenomenon over the years, I have found that the rhetorical device of merismus provides the most helpful explanation of how these passages work together to convey and reinforce a single message. It may also provide a new window for an examination of similar passages in the New Testament—a possibility that will be given at least preliminary attention in the final section of this paper.


“By What Authority?” An Egalitarian Imagination of Mark 11:27–33 from Asian Feminist Perspective: A Critical Analysis of Maria Arul Raja’s Dualistic Interpretation
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Young Ra Rhee, Harvard University

This paper aims to examine the possibilities and limitations of Mark 11:27-33, as a practical foundation toward forming a Christian community that maintains an equal union of parties in conflict despite different orientations. With this aim, I will examine Dalit liberation theologian Rev.A. Maria Arul Raja, S.J.’s interpretation of the text, taking note of the necessity in his reading of validating Dalit Christians’ identity through Jesus’ authority in a context of Dalit liberative struggle. I would put focus on his presupposition of Max Weber’s dualistic division of religious authority-charismatic and institutional authorities- and his understanding of Jesus’ authority in a binary framework. His interpretation adopts Weber’s binary understanding of religious authority as a source of oppression and domination, and does not accept a dualistic framework in the text as a hierarchal and oppressive source, considering the text itself as absolute truth. As a result, his interpretation intensifies a kyriarchal structure, as dichotomic of the text itself, defining Jesus’ authority in a dualistic framework in a hierarchal way. I explore foundations to help reconstruct the text and Arul Raja’s interpretation as a unifying and liberative source. In the reconstructive process, four resources that could prove to be inspirational are 1) the ekklesia of wo/men, as an alternative model of Christian community that realizes Jesus’ egalitarian and inclusive vision; 2) a postcolonial reading of the text revealing hierarchal and authoritarian potentialities of the new Kingdom and Jesus’ authority in Mark; 3) a feminist discernment of an oppressive and hierarchal implication in Weber’s theory of religion based on Hellenized dualistic anthropology; and 4) feminist scholars’ studies that demonstrate cases of dynamic and creative unity between charismatic and institutional authorities in different contexts.


Metaphor, Collocation, and the Problem of ORTHOTOMEW
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Richard A. Rhodes, University of California-Berkeley

Look up ORTHOTOMEW in standard reference works and you will find it glossed as: 'cut in a straight line'. But in actual Koine usage it is only used metaphorically, as in Prov. 3:6, ... HINA ORTHOTOMH TAS HODOUS SOU, ... '... that [wisdom] may lead you down the right path, ...', where it is an instance of the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. In fact, there are layers of metaphor here: ORTHO- evokes MORALITY IS STRAIGHTNESS; HODOS maps onto LIFE IS A JOURNEY. But that leaves -TOME- from TEMNW 'cut'. The first impulse is to say that there is yet another metaphorical layer, CUTTING IS MOVING, or the like. However, we want to propose in this paper that there is another explanation entirely for -TOME- in ORTHOTOMEW. In Indo-European languages it is common to find multiple word constructions which behave as semantic units. These constructions are called COLLOCATIONS. The most widely discussed collocations in the syntactic literature are LIGHT-VERB constructions, consisting of verb+object with verbs of very general meanings functioning to effectively verbalize their objects, e.g., take a nap (= nap), give a presentation (= present), etc. Sometimes there isn't a simple verb alternate available: make a bed (? build a bed), have lunch, etc. A Koine example is KARPON DIDWMI 'bear fruit'. It is also common for a light verb construction to contain a verb with potentially richer semantics, e.g. pay attention, catch a cold, break a promise, cast a vote, etc. Although one can readily imagine a metaphorical analysis for light verb collocations, a closer look shows that the verb, which would be the center of the metaphor, is semantically bleached, in stark contrast to how metaphors work. Cast a vote isn't felt to involve throwing; pay attention can't be nominalized as *his payment of attention. Light verbs have been semantically analyzed as having the verbs represent very abstract notions (Apresjan, Mel'chuk): cast a vote = DO (vote), catch a disease = INCHOATIVE (HAVE (disease)). We will argue that the expression HODON TEMNW is not a metaphor, but a COLLOCATION. Crucially the meaning of TEMNW is highly attenuated, giving the expression the meaning 'make a road; make one's way', that is it means to follow a PATH but at the cost of some effort. We will show that this collocation has been in use since Classical times, both in a literal sense, as in Thucydides (2.100) KAI HODOUS EUTHEIAS ETEME 'and he laid out (made) straight roads' and metaphorically - where the metaphor is a mapping of the HODOS not the TEMNW. The Prov. 3:6 example above maps LIFE IS A JOURNEY, but IDEAS ARE LOCATIONS, is also attested in Plato e.g. Protagoras (338a) and in II Tim. 2:15 ... ORTHOTOMOUNTA TON LOGON THS ALHTHEIAS. '... working your way through the word of truth with a proper understanding. We will discuss the implications of these findings for metaphorical analysis of Scripture.


Gates and Entrances in Ezekiel 40–48: The Mapping of Social Space
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Julia Rhyder, Université de Lausanne

One of the most unique features of the vision of Ezek 40-48 is the extraordinary detail in which the various gates and entrances of the temple compound are measured and described. Notably, these architectural features are included in the list of what Ezekiel is exhorted to describe to the Israelites to ensure that they observe the temple’s “plans and statutes and do them” (43:11 MT). Scholars have frequently ascribed a defensive function to the gates in so far as they regulate access to the temple so as to prevent potentially profane influences from entering its sacred precincts. However, this fails to explain many of the more peculiar features of the gates, especially the pairing of the closure of the eastern gate of the outer court with the giving of exclusive rights of access to the našî to sit within it and eat before YHWH (43:1-3). Based on a close reading of this and other texts in Ezek 43-46 where particular roles and activities are associated with specific gates and entrances, this paper will argue that these architectural features map a differential system in which social hierarchies are organised according to the level, direction and timing of access ascribed to different groups and individuals within the temple compound. It will particularly examine Ezek 46:1-15 and the way in which the distinguished status of the našî is enshrined not only in his unique duties performed at the inner eastern gate but also in the manner, direction and timing of his movements between the gates of the outer court as compared to those of the people of the land. The description of transitional spaces through which social actors must pass within the temple compound thus appears to encode an idealised social organisation in which roles are hierarchically privileged in thoroughly spatial terms and always in relation to the temple.


Collecting Christian Apocrypha in Eastern Europe
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Bradley Rice, McGill University

Interest in Christian Apocrypha is on the rise, meaning that scholars and students now have at their fingertips an impressive array of apocryphal Christian texts in translation. The last few years alone have seen a substantive revision of Hennecke and Schneemelcher’s standard German collection (Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung, ed. C. Markschies and J. Schröter) as well as the first volume of a new collection in North America (New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, ed. T. Burke and B. Landau). Lesser known, however, are the recent efforts in Eastern Europe to gather and translate Christian Apocrypha, as may be seen, for example, in the important Polish collection edited by M. Starowieyski, Apokryfy Nowego Testamentu, or the Czech collection edited by J. Dus and P. Pokorný, Novozákonní apokryfy. These and other Eastern European collections are often overlooked, yet they contain many surprises for the interested scholar. Sometimes they offer translations of apocryphal texts not found in any Western collection; occasionally they include patristic testimonies to otherwise unknown apocrypha; most certainly they force us to ask again what it is that constitutes an “apocryphon.” The present paper will therefore survey some of these Eastern European collections, and consider how they might be used in continuing efforts to define and collect Christian Apocrypha.


Clio and Eros in Babylon: Historical Method and Theory for Cuneiform Antiquity
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Seth Richardson, Oriental Institute - University of Chicago

What science exists to document and explain what never happened, what was never documented, or existed only in the realms of fear and desire? Historical writing depends crucially on the contextualization of facts. But intangibles, some of the most important dimensions of context, are resistant to methods of working with evidence: counterfactuals, incomplete forms, absences, intentionalities—the range of unfulfilled hopes and needs which might be said to motivate all historical events and phenomena, and in this sense “erotic.” A taking-seriously of Eros must then contend with building standards and methods of evaluating evidence sufficient to historical explanation—which may again differ substantially from forms of proof we expect and accept in philology or archaeology. This paper will think towards the implications of such an approach for framing historical problems, reading sources, and writing with an eye to comparativism.


The Qeiyafa Ostracon as a List of Names
Program Unit: Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Matthieu Richelle, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne)

The ostracon found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2005 is still today subject to very different interpretations. According to a first group of scholars, it contains a message (H. Misgav), a text with ethical and/or judicial prescriptions (G. Galil ; B. Becking and P. Sanders ; R. Achenbach) ; it could even contain the first attested mention of the Israelite monarchy (E. Puech). It has even been suggested that it is “perhaps a draft of a monumental text, such as a votive or burial inscription or a magical text” (A. Yardeni). Some epigraphists are tempted by this line of interpretation but prefer to remain cautious due to the difficulties of the decipherment (C. Rollston: “probably a literary or ethical text”). A second group of scholars believes that the ostracon contains a list of personal names (A. Millard; A. Lemaire thinks it is a possibility). Both interpretations (continuous text or list) are compatible with a third hypothesis, according to which it is a scribal exercise (A. Demsky). This paper argues that, in spite of some uncertainties due to the state of preservation of the ink, the ostracon contains a list of proper names, but that the list of these names is slightly different from that which previous scholars have suggested. Indeed, the identification of names is related to three parameters: the decipherment, the division between words, and the onomastic study. With regard to the first parameter, scholars may have not reaped the full benefits of the photographs published by G. Bearman and W. A. Christens-Barry (“Imaging the Ostracon,” in Y. Garfinkel, S. Ganor [éd.], Khirbet Qeiyafa, vol. 1. Excavations Report 2007-2008, Jerusalem, Israel Exploration Society/Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2009, p. 261-270). These images have expressly been published because they “provide a better view of the text and can be used by scholars to achieve better understanding of the writing” (ibid., p. 267). Thanks to them, we propose a couple of readings which have not been proposed by previous scholars. In turn, this has an impact on the division between words and on the onomastics of the inscription. Moreover, by focusing on the two first lines, this paper tries to demonstrate that it seems very difficult to read a sentence in the beginning of the inscription, which makes it unlikely that it was a continuous text at all. Rather, the entire first two lines arguably contain a list of six or seven names. In addition, the paper provides a detailed discussion of the onomastics of the inscription. Special mention should be made of the very beginning ot the text, to be read, in our opinion, “'Allat 'Ashtar”, which is open to several analyses, with potentiel implications regarding the gender of the divinity 'Ashtar.


The Project Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Sebastian Richter, Universität Leipzig

The project Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic, having begun in Leipzig in 2010 and moved to Berlin earlier this year, aims at the comprehensive documentation and analysis of 1500 years of contact-induced language change in the Egyptian lexicon, culminating in the production of a digital database and printed dictionary of Graeco-Coptic loanwords. This contribution will introduce the DDGLC team's lexicographical work on the database, as well as the vistas it opens up for the discipline of Biblical lexicography in general.


Golden Ages, Golden Violence
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Aaron Ricker, McGill University

This presentation traces the genealogy of one bloody royal family line of ancient Mediterranean propaganda, from the visual rhetoric of the Attalid Altar of Pergamon, through the visual strategies of the Augustan Altar of Peace, to the “visions” of Revelation, where inherited constellations of imagery take a form that continues to stress “seeing” while capitalizing upon the aural and oracular rather than the ocular. My argument begins with an analysis of the ways in which the forward-looking visions of these three disparate but related “apocalyptic” artworks are framed in backward-looking terms: all three articulate their visions of New Ages in terms of Golden Ages, including convenient constructions of “religious” nostalgia valorizing divinely-ordained heroic violence against the stereotyped chaos of barbarism and barbarian tyranny. At times, I introduce literary propaganda like the poems of Ovid and Vergil to clarify the silent speech of the propaganda of the Altars. I also refer to well-established Classics and New Testament scholarship in setting up each element in its turn, since no one element within this “set-up” is in itself radically new. What is new is A) my argument that the clear genealogical outlines of an “ancient mass media” apocalyptic propaganda family tree can be traced in assembling this unusually wide-ranging review, and B) my argument about the meaning of the “textualized” character of Revelation’s branch on this tree. I argue that Revelation’s consistent and central but deeply conflicted use of these inherited image-driven strategies (transposed into insistently self-referential textual terms) pinpoints a key, experimental development in the use of the scriptures of Israel in constructing Christian “witness” and identity. It illuminates Revelation’s obsessive, creative fascination with “martyrdom/witness” and with scrolls like itself, i.e. with its own status within evolving economies of community meaning-making, technology, and production, including especially what David Brakke calls “scriptural practices.”


When Pain Becomes Symbolic of Commitment: The Practice of Spanking among Adults and Children Who Use Focus on the Family Childrearing Literature
Program Unit: Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Susan Ridgely, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

When one of her children challenged her authority Kathy reached for “The discipline.” She explained, “I actually have a spoon and I say you get one discipline or…two.” Among the 70 users of Focus on the Family literature I interviewed, however, Kathy’s consistent use of corporal punishment was the exception. When I began the project, I assumed that all my interviewees enacted Focus’ prescriptions supporting Proverbs 13:24, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children.” My interviews, however, revealed a more complicated picture in which children’s and parents’ support of corporal punishment did not result in actions, but remained a symbolic marker of belief in Biblical inerrancy and familial autonomy. Further, when parents narrated why they spanked, and children described suffering the consequences of that support, they did so in very nuanced and pained ways that attempted to negotiate the divides between private and public, and love and pain.


Why We Cannot Afford to Study Religion and Theology (or Anything Else) without Class
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Joerg Rieger, Southern Methodist University

While notions of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and race have become widely accepted and are put to good use in academic discourse, this is not yet the case with the notion of class. This paper will demonstrate how fresh reflections on class that bear in mind the challenges of intersectionality as well as the relational qualities of class can shed new light both on the complexity of the study and the practice of religion and theology. The result are broader definitions of religion and culture, both in terms of factors that go into the production of these phenomena and in terms of the impact of these phenomena on all of life.


Views of Violence: The Use of Visually Displayed Violence in the Lachish Reliefs and Iron Age Warfare
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
Jason A. Riley, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

The Lachish Reliefs have been the object of considerable analysis and are a pinnacle example of the use of visual imagery as a form of royal rhetoric in the Neo-Assyrian period. This study looks at the use of visually displayed violence in the Lachish Reliefs, and especially the juxtaposition between two sets of images in the procession scene: two fathers and their sons and the flaying scene. Based on internal visual markers connecting these sets of images, the overall composition of the Lachish Reliefs, as well as textual evidence of the use of visual-violence from Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible and other examples of visually displayed violence in Neo-Assyrian reliefs, this study will argue that the juxtaposition of these two images is deliberate and is intended to communicate a message to its audience about the use of visual-violence and its psychological impact on those who choose to rebel against Assyrian rule, including the children of rebels. Additionally, the iconographic evidence supports the proposal that children were not a group deliberately targeted for physical violence by the Assyrians, but were targets of visual-violence.


Anagnorisis in the David Narrative
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Abigail Rine, George Fox University

In 1 Sam 17:55-58, Saul inquires twice about the identity of David, seeming not to know or recognize him, despite the text’s description of David serving as Saul’s court musician in 1 Samuel 16 and being clothed by Saul in the king’s armor in 1 Samuel 17. This apparent contradiction in the text has long puzzled interpreters, who tend to reduce its meaning to a “seam” in the text – a place where two different sources have been pieced together into one (contradictory) narrative. This typical reading stresses the disunity of the text, overlooking the connection of this apparent contradiction to the narrative arc of the story as a whole. In this paper, I will read this aspect of the David narrative through Aristotle’s theorization of mythos, specifically his concepts of anagnorisis and peripeteia, which he locates as emblematic of ancient Greek myth and narrative. I argue that this Aristotelian mythic pattern can also be traced through the narrative of David and Saul, which makes the aforementioned textual glitch – whether a “seam” or not – a crucial turning point in the story. In this light, Saul’s apparent inability to recognize David can be read as a repeated failure to reach anagnorisis – a critical moment of recognition about his own identity. As a literary motif, anagnorisis is typically accompanied by peripeteia – a reversal of fortune for the hero. This is arguably the case here, as the repetitive emphasis on Saul’s inability to recognize David in Chapter 17 directly follows the anointing of David and the departure of Yahweh’s spirit from Saul in Chapter 16. Saul’s peripeteia has occurred, yet he appears unable to fully face that God is no longer with him and is now with David. The trajectory of Saul’s downfall can be traced back to that moment in 17:55, where Saul’s inability to recognize David is simultaneously a failure to recognize his own identity in God’s eyes, vis-à-vis the newly anointed David. The triad of Saul’s repetitive misrecognitions turns a spotlight on the interrelated themes of recognition and identity, which are integral to the narrative as a whole and arguably reflect the mythic pattern formulated by Aristotle.


Genesis and Gender in the Work of Luce Irigaray
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Abigail Rine, George Fox University

The recent and fairly controversial work of theorist Luce Irigaray displays an increasing attention to religion, specifically to how religious discourse relates to Western culture’s disregard of sexuate difference. A significant part of this religious turn involves a revisiting of biblical myth and an exploration of how biblical interpretation is vital to the overall project of rethinking gender. In this paper, I will analyze Luce Irigaray’s evolving interpretation of the Edenic myth in Genesis. In her earlier works, Irigaray approaches Genesis from a critical, deconstructive vantage point, connecting this founding story of Western culture to the sublimation of a feminine subjectivity. However, as her oeuvre shifts into a creative, constructive mode, concerned with founding a culture of two sexuate subjects, Genesis reemerges as an Irigarayan cosmology that evokes key features of her philosophy: a dynamic of horizontal transcendence between two sexuate subjects, and an incarnational logic that unites matter and spirit, human and divine. On one level, tracing Irigaray’s evolving understanding of Genesis serves to illuminate the concerns of her more recent work, which has been unduly overlooked (or even disparaged) by gender and feminist theorists. More importantly, however, I will argue that Irigaray’s interpretations of Genesis – and other biblical narratives, such as the Annunciation in Luke’s gospel – reveal the enduring power of these myths over contemporary conceptions of gender and demonstrates how reading them anew can enable us to think differently.


Performing Scripture: Biblical Quotation in Patristic Commentary
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
C. Rebecca Rine, Catholic University of America

Patristic commentaries are replete with quotations from scripture; in addition to quoting the book under consideration (for instance, Genesis in a commentary on Genesis), they also frequently cite words, phrases, verses, or passages from other portions of scripture. This can be clearly seen in most modern editions of patristic literature, which use parenthetical citation or typographical conventions such as quotation marks and italicization to set these quotes off as a “special” kind of language, emphasizing that they are somehow “different” from the author’s “own words.” This presentation reconsiders the significance of these biblical quotations, and of patristic commentary in general, in light of performative theories of language. Its organizing question is: what is the linguistic status of biblical quotations within patristic commentaries on scripture? In answering this question, this presentation will illuminate the extent to which scholars’ assumptions about language – about the language of scripture, the language of biblical commentary, and the language of academic writing – shape our interpretations of ancient texts. In particular, this presentation will consider the difference between a static view of quotation (cf. Saussurean linguistics) and a dynamic view of quotation (cf. Peirce, Bakhtin). In the former, structuralist view, quotations are primarily analyzed in terms of their relationship to an antecedent text. They are regarded as repetitions of a pre-existent, static text. They are often described as “prooftexts” or are simply overlooked as unimportant, with the analytical focus being turned to “what the author says the quotation means.” In the latter, performative view, quotations are primarily regarded as both repeated and newly spoken language; the analytical focus shifts such from the entity of quotation (the words themselves) to the act of quotation (the event of quotation, and simultaneously of speaking, that occurred when the patristic author first verbalized or wrote the biblical words). Using textual examples from Gregory the Great’s Homilies and Theodoret of Cyrus’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, this presentation will demonstrate the immense productivity of a performative approach to the interpretation of patristic commentary. If the language of the scripture is viewed as active and generative rather than static and fixed, the patristic authors’ engagement with the Song is not best described using metaphors of importation (eisegesis) or extrication (exegesis), but of interaction (dialogue) or embodiment (performance). When viewed as a religious performance, the commentary becomes not merely a repository of quotations or an explanation of a text’s meaning, but a demonstration of technical (and spiritual) skill in the service of personal and corporate transformation. Learning how to approach patristic commentary in this way is a skill all its own, and this presentation will attempt to both name and exemplify the features of a performative analysis of biblical commentary. For, if patristic commentary primarily involves enacting scripture’s script rather than explaining scripture’s meaning, then these commentaries are both performances in their own right, and performance-criticism-in-action. Displayed as such, they offer provocative material for furthering scholarly analysis of the performative dimensions of the written (and spoken) word.


'Bend It Like Socrates': Genre Bending and Jesus' Death in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Jason J. Ripley, Saint Olaf College

This paper employs genre analysis to explore the question of the distinctiveness of John’s triumphant portrayal of Jesus’ death in John. Harold Attridge’s programmatic essay “Genre Bending in the Fourth Gospel” has opened exciting new approaches to familiar problems in the Gospel of John. While many passages in the main body of the narrative have been explored through the lens of genre criticism, the passion narrative has received less attention. Understanding genre as involving content, form, and social function, I will argue that John’s unique portrait of Jesus’ death is in part a result of John’s blending of genres. I contend that the Evangelist combines content from the rhetoric of noble death and adapts the form of a “Death of Socrates” type-scene to transform Jesus’ ostensibly shameful death at the hands of Rome into a heroic act of faithful, non-violent resistance to tyranny. Regarding the content of the genre, I apply Jerome Neyrey’s synthesis (in “The ‘Noble Shepherd’ in John 10: Cultural and Rhetorical Background”) of Greek funeral orations with Aristotle’s guidelines for epideictic oratory to the whole of John’s Gospel, demonstrating John’s uptake of the issues central to the rhetoric of noble death. Moreover, building on the arguments of Gregory Sterling (“Mors philosophi: The Death of Jesus in Luke”) and on the notions of genre prototypes discussed by Carol Newsom (“Spying Out the Land: A Report from Genology”), I construct a constellation of features associated with the narrations of the death of Socrates (with a particular focus on aspects that are taken up by later authors in the portrayal of subsequent heroic deaths, such as the Roman republican Cato and the Maccabean martyrs), applying them to John’s portrayal of Jesus’ death. Details especially evocative of Socrates are John’s emphasis on Jesus’ divine sign indicating the nature and course of his impending death (John 12:27-33), Jesus’ comforting of his disciples in the Farewell Discourses, his resolve in the face of death and his resistance toward attempts to escape his execution (18:1-11), his participation in the process of his own death in the form of carrying his cross by himself (19:17), the emphasis on the unjustness of his death (18:28-32, 38), his dialogical interrogation of Pilate and insistence on testifying to the truth despite the consequences (18:33-38), and finally Jesus’ making of arrangements for his family in the midst of his death (19:25-27). Lastly, in terms of social function, by “bending” the genre of Socrates’ noble death around the crucifixion of Jesus, the author also engages other Jewish and Roman utilizations of the type-scene in a way that highlights Jesus’ way of the cross as the divinely authorized path of resistance to unjust imperial pressures. Taken together, this genre analysis sheds new light on the content, form, and social implications of John’s distinctive portrayal of Jesus’ death.


Deviance and Deliverance: Reading Rahab through Alan Turing’s Imitation "Game"
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Charles M. Rix, Oklahoma Christian University

In 1950, Alan Turing’s concept of the Imitation Game explored alternative meanings of the word “think” as means of responding to critics of his “thinking machine” idea (today’s “smart phone” or personal computer). The 2014 film, The Imitation Game, dramatizes Turing’s cracking of the German Enigma code with his “thinking machine” thus bringing a more expeditious end to World War II. Yet despite his pivotal role in delivering some 14 million lives from war related deaths, he suffered arrest, chemical castration, and suicide as a homosexual under oppressive British laws that named his sexual identity and practice as deviant and illegal. Both the film and Turing’s original game provide powerful cultural lenses through which to read the lives of those in Biblical stories who despite their status as non-conforming to Israelite law nonetheless deliver and protect Israelites with impunity. In this paper, I propose to put Rahab’s story (Joshua 2, 6) in conversation with Turing’s imitation game theory as a means of demonstrating the way in which Rahab’s story liberates and celebrates the value of lives who would otherwise be castrated at the margins for being morally and/or culturally deviant. Furthermore, I argue in line with literary and comic theorist Henri Bergson that such a reading of Rahab coheres with a comic narrative structure that surprises as it subverts expectations assumed by hegemonic legal systems and structures. In the end, such a reading demonstrates the way in which the Bible itself prompts its readers to value and celebrate the life of the one who delivers and liberates but who may otherwise be oppressed and tagged as deviant by the wider religious culture.


Paul Tillich and the Plastic Being of God
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Jeffrey W. Robbins, Lebanon Valley College

*


Sensing Belief in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Vernon K. Robbins, Emory University

From the perspective of our bodily senses, what does it mean that the Logos became flesh in the Gospel of John? 1 John 1:1 says believers heard, saw, and touched the word of life. There appears, however, to be a much more extensive bodily sensorium than this at work in the Gospel of John. Tasting wine reveals Jesus’ glory and causes the disciples to believe in 2:11. How might the wine at the wedding at Cana taste in contrast to the sponge full of sour wine on a branch of hyssop at the crucifixion (19:29)? And how does living water (4:11) taste in comparison to the taste of the flesh and blood of the Son of Man that brings eternal life (6:53-56)? Should believers feel the sting on flesh of the whip of cords and hear and feel the rolling coins in the Temple in 2:15? Should a believer feel and hear being born of the spirit from above, like a person feels and hears the blowing of the wind across one’s face (3:8)? Is it necessary to smell Lazarus’s decomposed body (11:39) and experience the disturbance in spirit and the weeping of Mary and Jesus (11:33-35) in order to get a true sense of the glory of God (11:40)? It would also seem that smelling and feeling the anointing, washing, and wiping of feet (12:3; 13:3, 8-10) is important for feeling love and the promise of eternal life. Is “time” also a sense in the Gospel of John: Jesus’ sense of the coming of the “hour” of his glorification and return to the Father? For a Gospel that is so focused on things “above,” it sure has a remarkable “earthly, bodily feel”!


The Visible and Invisible in Early Christian Literature: Imagistic Story-Lines That Run Cognitive Progressions
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Vernon K. Robbins, Emory University

The Visible and Invisible in Early Christian Literature: Imagistic Story-Lines that Run Cognitive Progressions


Social Theory, the Concept of Time, and Early Christian Discourse
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Erin Roberts, University of South Carolina

This paper outlines contemporary discipline-specific issues related to the concept of time, with special attention to social theory as applied to the study of early Christian texts. After identifying some of the more helpful social approaches to time, the paper engages a selection of textual case studies in order to demonstrate the benefits and potential costs of the convergence of social theory, the concept of time, and early Christian discourse.


Storm Imagery and Environmental Descriptions of the Divine
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Ryan N. Roberts, Cornerstone University

In the aftermath of earthquakes, survivors frequently describe their experience in terms of storm imagery. For example, the sound or effect of an earthquake is often described as “roaring, thundering, clapping, shaking, or a whirlwind.” Given the fluidity between storm and earthquake language, it is instructive to explore “storm-god” imagery in ancient Near Eastern texts and reflect on the inherent elasticity of its use. Indeed, it is well known that factors tied to climate, ecology, geology, or environment, can all play a role in the conception of a deity. Thus, this paper is concerned with suggesting broader connections to environmental factors such as earthquakes in the imagery associated with a “storm-god.” The paper will first briefly survey survivor accounts of earthquakes and their use of storm imagery to describe quakes. Next, the paper will provide an overview of the ancient Near Eastern environment; in specific, how selected sites tied to high or low seismicity may help explain conceptions of, or transitions away from “storm-god” imagery. Last, the paper will offer reflections on selected storm/theophany passages in the Hebrew Bible, noting both geographic and environmental factors as well as relevant ancient Near East/West Semitic backgrounds.


Biblical Greek OCR: Achievements, Opportunities, and Challenges
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Bruce Robertson, Mount Allison University

Over the past three years, considerable strides have been made in the reliable optical character recognition of ancient (or ‘polytonic’) Greek. Collaborating with Dr. Federico Boschetti of CNIR Pisa, I developed Rigaudon, a open-source suite based on the Gamera Greek OCR package but additionally comprising automatic spellcheck and text recognition. With a Compute Canada grant in 2012-13, we used Rigaudon to process the page images from Internet Archive of over 600 texts with ancient Greek; and we published these results in our Lace repository. In the past year and a half, new tools have come to the fore: my Ciaconna, a Greek OCR system based on the Ocropus 0.7 engine; and the Tesseract engine, adapted for Greek by Nick White, a researcher at Tufts University. All together, our engines can process a great variety of public-domain page images comprising Greek and supporting Latin-script languages. Encouraged by members of SBL, throughout this work we have ensured that our processes and results pertain not only to Classics, but that public-domain volumes relating to Biblical literatures are included. For instance, among our original results were Cramer’s Catena; we provide a near-complete run of Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Handbook series (e.g., Acts); and Rahlf’s Septuagint is also included. ‘Raw’ OCR is usually only the start of a digitization process, and so some of our materials have been commercially corrected through off-shore data-handling companies. The affiliated Open Greek and Latin project at Leipzig University provides a TEI-XML edition of our Catena volumes by this means. Other materials have been corrected by student labour, such as the website based around Goodell’s Greek Grammar, overseen by Chris Francese. In either case, computer-assisted correction is the next frontier in this work. This presentation will demonstrate modifications to the Lace webapp code which highlight corrected output words, or words that cannot be fixed, and which allow a signed-in user to correct the output in the browser, storing the results on a common server. In this way, a team of scholars can rapidly correct volumes by working on pages in parallel. This process moreover will allow us more efficiently to train the OCR engines, as it generates a greater store of correct results coordinated with the page images. Ultimately, though our goal is not merely accurate transcriptions of works pertaining to ancient Greek; we want to use these data to transform the way these text are disseminated, studied and viewed. Open texts derived from OCR make it possible for standard works in Biblical Studies now in public domain to be offered worldwide at no cost, perhaps as EPUB documents (suitable for offline reading in less connected countries). Even without further correction, our results can be used to generate cross-references of quotations of Biblical Greek in all OCR’d commentaries, articles, monographs, etc.: a potentially potent research tool. Finally, the OCR of apparatus critici might allow us to parse them digitally and thereby generate a more readable interface to this information.


Individualized Appellation as Polemic in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Paul Robertson, Colby-Sawyer College

In Late Antiquity we see a notable shift in how certain Christian writers regard textual and religious authority. The connection of certain ideas, social practices, and textual collections to singular individuals becomes a polemic, as these ideas/practices/texts that are called heretical are framed as such via their association with their purported individual founders: Valentinus & Valentinianism, Marcion & Marcionism, Marcus & Marcosians, etc. In most of antiquity, by contrast, religious and/or philosophical groups deployed the name of their founder with pride, and we often see competing groups fight over who has the better claim to this founder. Stoics and Epicureans, for example, both declared Socrates to be their rightful founder, and both groups also acclaimed the authority of their influential founding thinkers (e.g., Xeno, Chrysippus, Epicurus). Scholars’ modern deployment of certain names to refer to ideas/groups/texts (Valentinianism, Marcionism, etc.) re-inscribes this Late Antique polemic of a particular group of Christian authors, and further reifies the polemically constructed opposition of what is individual, singular, and temporally-demarcated (and hence negative) over against what is unified, collective, and part of an established “tradition” (and hence positive). What is “foreign”, in other words, is what can be tied to an individual, whereas what is “known” and ‘true” is what lies outside any one individual’s purview. In this paper, I introduce this methodological problem with reference to how individuals were tied to groups in the ancient world, with particular attention to Greco-Roman philosophical schools. I then focus on the particular case of Marcion, discussing how certain Late Antique Christian authors attacked and censured rival authorities by depicting their ideas and followers as inextricably tied to a fallible, individual source. Marcion’s so-called gospel, according to this polemic, was not simply reflective of different collections and understandings of Christian texts available at the time, but was instead framed as Marcion’s individual and conscious editorial selection in contrast to the “traditionally” received textual collections of these polemicists. Attempts today to re-create Marcion’s gospel, in other words, are only reinforcing this particular form of Late Antique polemic. An attention to comparative social practices, meanwhile, reveals common texts, religious behaviors, and seemingly also attitudes, across a wide variety of ancient Mediterranean people that scholars traditionally define and separate into different groups. I close with a brief comparison of how other Late Antique groups were caught up in similar sorts of polemics, particularly neo-Platonism, and how this ‘individualizing polemic’ continues to survive in modern thought and Biblical scholarship today.


Construction of Mythical Founders in the Ancient Mediterranean: Paul’s Jesus and Greco-Roman Philosophical Schools
Program Unit: Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Paul Robertson, Colby-Sawyer College

When the apostle Paul went to write his letters about the figure Jesus Christ, he seems to have had at least three distinct influences: stories both written and oral about Jesus, a knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, and a fairly robust education in Greek. In this paper, I will argue that Paul’s education in Greek exposed him to certain conventional depictions of mythical founders, particularly from Greco-Roman philosophical schools, that Paul then re-deployed in his letters to construct his own mythical Jesus Christ. In this way, Paul’s practice of literary and conceptual production parallel the mimesis that we can see in other texts that pen and perpetuate myths, such as the gospels’ stories about Jesus as discussed in the work of Dennis MacDonald. My approach differs from, and also enters into conversation with, MacDonald’s argument in two ways. First, my comparanda for early Christian literature are not the gospels and Homer, but rather Paul’s letters and Greco-Roman philosophy. MacDonald builds upon the fact that ancient education in Greek used mimesis, especially of Homer, to teach grammar, authorial perspectives, and mythical history. But mimesis was used of a variety of sources beyond Homer (e.g., the classical Greek orators such as Demosthenes), and the principle of drawing ideas, understandings, and literary and conceptual conventions from the educational study of literature easily transferred onto other groups of texts. Paul’s letters not only preceded the gospels, but we also know much more about Paul as author. Paul claims to have a fairly high level of education, a claim reflected in the fact that his letters are rhetorically more sophisticated than the gospels. This greater sophistication suggests a comparatively advanced education, and thus not only a likely exposure to texts of a greater variety and complexity, but also a stronger likelihood of advanced training and practice with the rhetorical technique of mimesis. It is my contention that Paul, who shows clear and specific knowledge of Greco-Roman philosophy (Stoicism and Cynicism in particular), also performed mimesis, but on philosophy instead of Homer. Second, MacDonald (2000 & 2001) argues that the Gospel of Mark constructs a mythical Jesus in a manner that consciously frames its Jesus in contradistinction to the tradition of the epic, Homeric hero. Paul’s letters, meanwhile, operate more positively with respect to earlier Greek literature, with Paul’s mythical Jesus Christ assimilating specific conceptual and literary frameworks. In Paul’s case, this mimesis took the form of mimicking the ways that Greco-Roman philosophical literature constructed the authority of their semi-mythical founders such as Epicurus, Xeno, Diogenes, and Socrates. Paul constructed his Jesus Christ, a semi-mythical divine figure who lacks the gospels’ biography, using characteristics common to Greco-Roman philosophy: ethical exemplarity, connection to divine authority, innovative ideas, miraculous behavior, semi-divine personage, virtue ethics, and a tie between ethics and piety. Whereas MacDonald argues for the inter-textuality of narrative elements, a close comparison of Paul’s letters and Greco-Roman philosophy suggests that conceptual characteristics of founding figures provides an additional avenue of mythic transmission.


Systematically Generating Examples from a Syntactic Treebank for Internalizing Language
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Jonathan Robie, B-Greek: The Biblical Greek Forum

This presentation is about systematically generating the materials needed to teach the Greek verb. The verb is particularly difficult for many Greek students to master, and difficult to teach. In keeping with best practices in research based language instruction, we argue that using authentic texts with appropriate scaffolding is essential to achieving reading competency. But finding optimal examples in large enough quantity to use in such instruction can be overwhelming. We believe that intelligent use of a syntactic treebank can greatly simplify this process, creating teaching materials that can greatly improve mastery. We generate a complete set of examples for each verb in the New Testament using XQuery and syntactic treebanks to illustrate the constituent patterns and morphology, starting with the most common uses of each verb, then less common uses. Teachers can select the examples they want to use, either for classroom instruction or computerized presentation. We also show how to convert these examples for use in existing software commonly used for language instruction and learning.


“Be a [Subordinate] Man”: Paul’s Subordinate Masculinity in 1 Corinthians within a Hellenistic Jewish Milieu
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Brian J. Robinson, Fuller Theological Seminary

The development and adoption of gender studies has led to a number of insightful works which not only identify culturally conditioned discourses of gender within the texts of the New Testament but also demonstrate that their authors can manipulate these discourses of gender to fit their rhetorical purposes and to help convey their ethical visions for the early Christian communities. Though the Pauline epistles are often used in debates concerning the relationship between and roles of men and women in the early church, they have only begun to be explored for what they can teach us about how Paul understood his own masculinity, the influences which shaped it, and how Paul envisioned that masculinity as an ideal to which other members of the church, both men and women, should aspire. In seeking to fill this gap, my paper will explore sections from Philo, Josephus, and 1 Corinthians which deal with the construction, maintenance, and effects of masculine and feminine attributes (e.g., Philo, Spec. 3.37-41; Sacr. 1.100; Abr. 1:135-136; Her. 1.274; Somn 1.126; Spec 1.325; Prob. 1.124; Josephus, Ant. 8.31; 13.108; War. 4.560-563), both psychological and physiological though these categories would not be separated so neatly in first century thought (e.g., the art of physiognomy). My investigation will argue that all three authors articulate a masculinity which is simultaneously indebted to Jewish tradition and discourses of gender prevalent in the broader Hellenistic culture. I will also show that, especially in Philo, masculinity and femininity are never entirely biological, and a person can move in either direction on the gender gradient. My focus will then turn to explore how Paul develops a subordinate, or feminized, masculinity as the ideal for both men and women in the church and how anxiety over slipping away from this gradient motivates his ethical admonitions (e.g., 1 Cor 7:1-40; 11:2-16). I will ultimately argue that this subordinate masculinity coheres with Paul’s understanding of the hierarchical reversal which results in the incongruity between the present age and the kingdom of God (e.g., wisdom, strength, means of assessment, etc.; cf., 1 Cor 1-4) and is seen most clearly in the penetrated (i.e., crucified) and then exalted (i.e., resurrected) body of Christ (cf., 1 Cor 15:1-11, 20-28). This provides a marked contrast to Philo and Josephus who either reinscribe discourses of masculinity within their interpretation of Jewish stories and thought or argue that problematic elements within the Jewish tradition should be understood as true masculinity. Paul is part of the same conversation and using similar tools, but Paul ultimately defends a subordinate masculinity as the ideal.


Male Prostitution in Classical Athens
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
James Robson, The Open University

Classical Athens was home to huge numbers of female sex workers, from the lowliest slaves working in the city’s brothels to streetwalkers, “entertainers” at symposia, and famous courtesans whose looks and wit became the stuff of legend. Classical Athenian views towards prostitution were also extremely liberal by modern standards. Not only was prostitution legal but there also seems to have been little or no opprobrium attached to using prostitutes. Indeed, they were openly frequented even by respected public figures including statesmen. While recent studies of prostitution in classical Athens, such as Glazebrook and Henry’s Greek Prostitutes in the Ancient Mediterranean, 800 BCE-200 CE (2011), have done much to improve and nuance our view of the city’s extensive sex industry, one area that has attracted little attention is male prostitution. Scholars are no doubt right to claim that there were far fewer male than females sex-workers, but what can we piece together about the way in which pornoi plied their trade? It is often claimed that males worked out of oikemata ‘cubicles,’ but does our evidence support this? What do our various legal cases involving sex slaves and prostitutes add to our picture (such as the sex-slave who features in Lysias’ Against Simon)? Often overlooked, too, is the account of Timarchus’ alleged whoring set out by Aeschines (Against Timarchus). The picture here is of a youth residing with a series of different men as a live-in lover, while simultaneously taking the opportunity to hire himself out for sex. This paper will also consider social attitudes towards male prostitution. The existence of a law forbidding men who had prostituted themselves in their youth from holding public office provides one example of how gender made a difference. But how else might attitudes towards pornoi have differed from attitudes towards their female equivalents?


Miracle Stories in the Acts of Pilate
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Jörg Röder, Universität Basel

My paper proposes an interpretative approach towards the miracle stories in parabiblical, so-called apocryphal, gospels, particularly those found in the Acts of Pilate. Miracle stories can be challenging for modern readers and are frequently misunderstood, in part because of the modern preoccupation with the question of the truth value and plausibility of biblical narratives. Readers wonder, is it possible that these events could have happened in the way they are narrated or do we simply have to believe in Jesus´ power to work miracles without posing critical questions? Many other questions may follow, e.g. were miracle stories only intended to align early Christianity with the surrounding pagan world or do they have a special, Christian meaning in themselves? Do we have to read them specifically in a kerygmatic perspective, because they are myths about Jesus? Intriguing, there are many miracle stories about Jesus as a child in parabiblical gospels but few when he is an adult. This makes these especially rich narratives for understanding the potential function of miracles within the broader narrative context. In the Acts of Pilate miracle stories are not the focal point of the narrative. The reports of Jesus´ miracles do, however, play an important role in the trial against Jesus, as is also evident in the canonical gospel accounts. In this paper I will discuss Jesus´miracle concerning the imperial standards (which exists only in the Acts of Pilate) and explore its meaning from several methodolgical perspectives. I´d like to defend the thesis that this miracle is the crucial turning point of the whole story of the Acts of Pilate.


How Are the Noun, Verb, and Adverb/Preposition Usages of pnh Related?
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Daniel Rodriguez, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

Traditional biblical Hebrew lexica and grammars separate root forms into their various grammatical usages. Even in Brown-Driver-Briggs' lexicon which has notoriously arranged its lexicon according to roots (instead of according to alphabetical spelling of individual words) still subcategorizes according to verb, noun, and adverb/preposition under roots with such usages, such as pnh. Traditional BH grammars instruct that adverbial and prepositional usages of words like pnh have evolved from the nominal usage into adverbs and prepositions (Joüon-Muraoka 103a). But what about the verbs? Did they evolve from the nouns too? Traditional BH resources do not account for how the verbal usages of roots like pnh (or tht or ahr for that matter) are related to the noun and adverbial/prepositional usages of the same root. Verbal usages of a root with nominal and other usages are simply listed without explanation. This paper utilizes the tools of grammaticalization theory, specifically building upon the work of Hardy (2014) which applied the theory to ahr, in order to explain the evolutionary relationship between the verbal usages of pnh and its nominal and prepositional usages like pannim and lifney. Applications for lexicography are offered in the conclusion of the paper.


What’s in a “Word”? Kalam/Kalima and Rhema/Logos as Expressions of God’s Word in Q. 3 and the Gospel of Luke
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Maria Enid Rodriguez, Catholic University of America

The mention of God’s word in both the Qur’an and the New Testament (NT) facilitates an inappropriate conflation of the meaning and function of this concept within the two textual traditions. Thus, it is vital to explore the function of God’s word in the Qur’an and the NT separately and then comparatively. This paper will focus on the frequency and distribution of the instances of God’s word within Q. 3 and the Gospel of Luke with a special emphasis on its prophetic usage (e.g., the "word" in Q. 3:39 and Luke 3:2 concerning Yahya and John the Baptist, respectively). First, this paper will describe the manner in which kalam and kalima occur in connection with the concept of God’s word in Q. 3. It will also take into account references (if any) to God’s word that do not incorporate the Arabic terms kalam and kalima as well as instances in which these terms do not correspond specifically to God’s word. With the frequency and distribution of kalam and kalima established, the function and meaning of the terms can be analyzed, seeking to understand the significance of these words within the context of Q. 3 as well as the wider context of prophetic speech in the Qur’an. Next this paper will analyze the occurrences of rhema and logos when they correspond to the concept of God’s word in Luke. The same process of analysis delineated above for the Arabic terms will be applied to the Greek terms rhema and logos. The next step will be to compare these findings, analyzing the distribution and meaning of the usage of the Arabic and Greek terms, correlating the overlap of their functionality within Q. 3 and Luke as well as observing where they diverge and what this reveals about their respective traditions.


The Death of Ignatius of Antioch as Participation in Christ
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
William Rogan, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

This essay argues that Ignatius of Antioch portrays his imminent death in Rome in terms of participation in Christ. By "participation in Christ," I mean participation in the narrative structure Ignatius sets forth regarding Christ, who came to the world, suffered, died, was raised by the Father to be with the Father, and by so doing established the church in unity through faith. The narratological theory of Mieke Bal informs my analysis of Ignatius's letters. Through close narratological analysis of the letters of Ignatius, I hope to approach more closely Ignatius’s otherness. For whatever parallels exist between the death of Ignatius and noble death traditions (such as gladiatorial death in the arena) or early Jewish and Christian martyr traditions (such as the Maccabean hope of resurrection), Ignatius structures his portrayal of his death in terms of his portrayal of Christ. Bal identifies three levels of a text: 1) text, (the telling of a story by an agent through a particular medium), 2) story (the content of that text), and 3) fabula (the “series of logically and chronologically related events that are caused or experienced by actors,” i.e., the narrative structure). I analyze Ignatius's letters on the level of fabula. After orienting the reader to the concept of fabula, I show that the same fabula structuring Ignatius’s portrayal of Christ also structures his portrayal of Christians, of the ?p?st?? (negatively), and of his own death. Ignatius, however, appears to portray his death as a particularly intensive form of participation in Christ. Whereas Christians attain to (t??????) God by enduring suffering, Ignatius intensively attains to (?p?t??????) God by his extreme sufferings. Ignatius uses the term ?p?t?????? exclusively to refer to his own journey to God through his death. Moreover, Ignatius indicates that he must be considered worthy by God in order to to die for God, which suggests he understood his violent death as a call from God.


The Fight against the Inner Person: Soteriology, Suffering, and the Letter of Peter to Philip
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
John Rogers, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

The Letter of Peter to Philip (EpPetPhil) mythologizes the struggle for salvation from systematic violence. Gathered together on the Mount of Olives, the apostles supplicate to the Father of Light and the Child of Humanity asking, “Why do the powers fight against us?” (135:2) Jesus appears as light, explains the origins of their earthly rulers, and instructs the apostles to counter the Archons (?????te?) and the Self-Willed One’s (a???d-e?a) attack on the “inner-person” (137:22). Previous scholarship has explored the Lucan features of the text, the gnostic versus orthodox cosmologies and Christologies, and the epistle’s treatment of the role of suffering. An empire critical investigation, however, has not been attempted. This paper will explicate the characters of the Self-Willed One (a???d-e?a) and the Archons (?????te?) as third century doppelgängers for Caesar and the imperial powers. In this drama that encompasses the material and cosmic realms, the apostles act as an assembly of healers and teachers against persecution and ignorance. Found in the Nag Hammadi collection and the Codex Tchacos, The Letter of Peter to Philip can aid theological and social scholarship of Christianity during its formative centuries. Karen King writes, “If we do not engage these texts, we risk giving an even more partial or incomplete portrait of early Christianity than the sources necessitate.” Questions still remain about EpPetPhil’s commentary on its context. An inter-textual engagement can illuminate the world behind the text. Extracanonical texts like the Origin of the Rulers and canonical works like the Pauline epistles will help establish the framework for Jesus’s cosmological teachings and the apostles’ healings not only in EpPetPhil, but also within the expanse of the early Christian story. The Letter of Peter to Philip depicts structures of power that force people to either to bow to imperial rule or be tortured or killed. Jesus, in this text, demands that apostles fight the worldly powers. “Come together” he says, “and teach salvation in the world with a promise (137:22-25).” To compliment Karen King’s work on suffering in EpPetPhil, this paper will exegete the use of the term “salvation” (?????? ?) as the apostles’ liberative awareness and negotiation of the Roman Imperial World. Their capacity to “become illuminators” is not solely in martyrdom (137:8-12).” The early Christ movements’ self-understanding as teachers, healers, and light-givers hinges on its nuanced knowledge of the forces spanning the cosmic realms.


Persecuted Healers: The Letter of Peter to Philip and Its Roman Imperial Context
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
John Rogers, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

The Letter of Peter to Philip (EpPetPhil) mythologizes the struggle for salvation from systematic violence. Gathered together on the Mount of Olives, the apostles supplicate to the Father of Light and the Child of Humanity asking, “Why do the powers fight against us?” (135:2) Jesus appears as light, explains the origins of their earthly rulers, and instructs the apostles to counter the Archons (?????te?) and the Self-Willed One’s (a???d-e?a) attack on the “inner-person” (137:22). Previous scholarship has explored the Lucan features of the text, the gnostic versus orthodox cosmologies and Christologies, and the epistle’s treatment of the role of suffering. An empire critical investigation, however, has not been attempted. This paper will explicate the characters of the Self-Willed One (a???d-e?a) and the Archons (?????te?) as third century doppelgängers for Caesar and the imperial powers. In this drama that encompasses the material and cosmic realms, the apostles act as an assembly of healers and teachers against persecution and ignorance. Found in the Nag Hammadi collection and the Codex Tchacos, The Letter of Peter to Philip can aid theological and social scholarship of Christianity during its formative centuries. Karen King writes, “If we do not engage these texts, we risk giving an even more partial or incomplete portrait of early Christianity than the sources necessitate.” Questions still remain about EpPetPhil’s commentary on its context. An inter-textual engagement can illuminate the world behind the text. Extracanonical texts like the Origin of the Rulers and canonical works like the Pauline epistles will help establish the framework for Jesus’s cosmological teachings and the apostles’ healings not only in EpPetPhil, but also within the expanse of the early Christian story. The Letter of Peter to Philip depicts structures of power that force people to either to bow to imperial rule or be tortured or killed. Jesus, in this text, demands that apostles fight the worldly powers. “Come together” he says, “and teach salvation in the world with a promise (137:22-25).” To compliment Karen King’s work on suffering in EpPetPhil, this paper will exegete the use of the term “salvation” (?????? ?) as the apostles’ liberative awareness and negotiation of the Roman Imperial World. Their capacity to “become illuminators” is not solely in martyrdom (137:8-12).” The early Christ movements’ self-understanding as teachers, healers, and light-givers hinges on its nuanced knowledge of the forces spanning the cosmic realms.


The Reception of Philonic Arithmological Exegesis in Didymus the Blind's Commentary on Genesis
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Justin M. Rogers, Freed-Hardeman University

Didymus the Blind stands within the tradition of Alexandrian biblical interpretation, a tradition which can be traced to Philo. Didymus mentions the name of Philo more than any Alexandrian exegete before him, and specifically references Philo's interest in arithmological exegesis. In this paper I propose to discuss arithmology in Philo and Didymus, and to outline the influence of the former on the arithmological exegesis of the latter.


The Importance of Embodied Cognition for Cultural Evolution of Baptismal Theology
Program Unit: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Rikard Roitto, Stockholm School of Theology

This paper suggests that early Christian interpretations of baptism were strongly influenced by the bodily ritual experience of baptism. Current scholarly debate on the evolution of baptismal practices and theologies lack a model of cultural evolution. This paper suggests that models of cultural evolution in cognitive anthropology and neuro-psychological research om embodied cognition can provide a way forward in our understanding of why baptismal imagination evolved in certain directions but not others. Interpretations that were more compatible with the embodied ritual experience were more easily remembered and transmitted than interpretations that were not, since sensory-motor systems are highly involved in semantic processing.


Tents and Canopies: When the “Big Tent” Becomes a “Sacred Canopy” in Biblical Studies
Program Unit: North American Association for the Study of Religion
Sarah E. Rollens, University of Alabama

The extensive scholarship and the number of university-level courses devoted to the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible are relics of the theological study of religion. Though these texts are cultural artifacts in their own right, the dominance they enjoy in many professional organizations and university departments (as opposed to other ³sacred² texts) is well known. For instance, while ³Introduction to the New Testament² or ³Introduction to the Bible² courses are to be found in almost all department of religious studies, introductory courses on the Tao Te Ching, or even the Qur¹an, are far less common. Even so, ³the Bible² is arguably what attracts many students to our field, whether their interest is due to their curiosity, their personal religious affiliation, or just simply their cultural familiarity with these texts. Critical biblical scholars are often asked to justify their ³secular² approaches to these texts, especially when they frame their research as participating in the academic study of religion instead of confessional study. One strategy for denaturalizing a confessional approach (and thus authorizing other approaches) is to contextualize the approach among other methods of analysis (historical, sociological, anthropological, literary, etc.)‹an admittedly post-modern tactic in which all theoretical frameworks are acknowledged to be perspectival and to have something distinctive to offer. But how much does this so-called ³Big Tent² approach simply reinscribe theological assumptions about the self-evident importance of ³the Bible² and its significance as a unique object of study in the secular study of religion? And how much does it sanction a brand of scholarship that simply reproduces the insider¹s confessional perspective on these texts? This paper explores the consequences for critical studies of biblical texts when the ³Big Tent² philosophy is given unexamined primacy in our field.


Identity, Violence, and the Body in Q
Program Unit: Q
Sarah E. Rollens, University of Alabama

Q’s “rhetoric of violence” has been noted by several commentators, though it is usually discussed in terms of how it reflects its authors’ experiences of innate structural violence and social inequality in the ancient world. Socio-historical studies of ancient Galilee and Judaea have shown this to be a compelling explanation for much of Q’s rhetoric. Even so, we must admit that Q itself uses themes of violence for its own literary purposes; thus, it produces discursive violence at the same time as it reflects the reality of it. Under this lens, this paper explores the connection between violence and the body within Q. Many passages in Q imagine violence as a technology for developing, molding, destroying, or otherwise shaping the self (e.g., 3:7-9; 6:22-23, 29-30, 47-49; 11:21-23, 49-51; 12:4-5; 42-46, 49-51, to name only a few passages). Sometimes this violence is imagined to stem from without (that is, from opponents and enemies), but sometime is it generated from within (i.e., from the Father and fellow righteous prophets). By examining the relationship between violence and the body in Q, this paper will demonstrate how parts of Q rely this theme to help construct the identity of the people who are allied with Jesus and the former prophets, as well as the identity of those who oppose them. In short, in Q material, there is often a close connection between conceptions of the body, its experience of violence, and identity.


An Albrightian Approach to Script Typology: The Nuts and Bolts of Palaeographic Methodology in the Johns Hopkins University Tradition
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Christopher Rollston, George Washington University

Palaeographic Theory and Method of Iron Age Northwest Semitic scripts was fledgling at best during the mid-19th century. But with the increasing numbers of epigraphic finds in Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Moabite during the closing decades of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century, Palaeographic Theory and Method developed rapidly. The research of W.F. Albright of Johns Hopkins University was foundational, with the work of Albright's student Frank Moore Cross building in a substantive manner upon the work of Albright. Palaeographic theory and method is built on the same basic premises as pottery typology, namely, that styles and practices of production (of pottery and writing) in antiquity developed through time and that these developments can be documented in an empirical fashion by trained palaeographers. As a student of P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., and thus as a grandstudent of Cross and a great-grand student of Albright, I stand firmly within the Albrightian tradition of epigraphy. Within this presentation, I will detail some of the most important components of palaeographic methodology, and the embracing of the Albrightian methodologies in North America, Europe, and the Middle East.


The Creation of a Collective Identity and the Composition of Foundation Stories in the Ancient Israel and Judah
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Thomas Römer, Collège de France - University of Lausanne

In the present scholarly discussion it is quite difficult to come to a certain consensus regarding the composition of the Pentateuch and the Former Prophets. It is however even more difficult to understand the purposes of the origin and composition of Israelite and Judahite foundation stories such as the Exodus or the patriarchal narratives. Most scholars would agree that the Exodus tradition is of Northern origin. This assumption is based mainly on 1 Kgs 12, where Jeroboam inaugurates sanctuaries for Yhwh as the god who has brought Israel out of Egypt. If one takes however seriously the claim of archeologists (E. Arie) that Dan did not became Israelite until the eighth century then 1 Kgs 12 cannot reflect the reality of the end of the tenth century BCE. It could be that the Jeroboam in 1 Kgs 12 hints in fact at the Jeroboam of the 8th century BCE, who may have tried to harmonize the cult of Yhwh in Israel. Then arises the question how the Exodus tradition in Bethel especially would fit to the Jacob tradition, who in Gen 28 appears at the founder of the (El?) sanctuary of Beth-El. It will be argued that the time of Jeroboam called “the second” is the time where the Exodus and the Jacob traditions were constructed as to provide an “Israelite identity” at least on the level of the royal sanctuaries. When the Exodus and Jacob traditions came to the south during the seventh century they were heavily reworked. It was perhaps only at that time the figure of Moses was inserted into the Moses story in order to construct him as a royal figure, as a “Judahite Sargon”. The Jacob traditions were combined with the Abraham and Isaac tradition but they never became much popular in Jerusalem. They had more success apparently in the local shrines of Hebron (and still Bethel?). Only at the Persian period Patriarchs and Exodus were combined in order to create a new foundation story which does not anymore legitimate state or priestly interests but which will event maybe for the first time in history a collective identity which does not anymore depend on political or religious institutions.


Anger in the New Testament
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Damaris Romero Gonzalez, Universidad de Córdoba (España)

The anger is expressed in New Testament through a wide group of words that could be considered synonymous, but they are not, as they show a gradation of the anger: from being indignant against someone (avganaktew) to becoming mad because of the fury with someone (evmmainomai) or being even in a state of mental incapacity as a consequence of this fury (anoia). In a similar way, among this group, it is also possible to find out about distinctions in these words if we focus on their semantic feature. Accordingly, diapriomai puts the emphasis on the state but prokaleomai on being the result of a provocation. In this paper, my aim is to analyse semantically different lexemes that mean anger using the semantic method applied to the study of the words in the Diccionario Griego-Español del Nuevo Testamento (Greek-Spanish New Testament Dictionary). So, firstly, we will make the semantic analysis of each elected lexemes, establishing the semantic features contained in the lexeme; secondly, we will form a definition of the word considering the established semantic features, and, thirdly, we will explain semantically the nuances of the words.


Demonic Dangers and Religious Responses in the Sasanian East
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Sara Ronis, Harvard University

Demons were an important part of religious life in Late Antiquity. While much work has been done on demons and the demonic in the Christian west, the central question of the role of demons in religious life in the Sasanian west has not yet been fully explored. My project explores how and when the Jewish rabbis, Zoroastrians, and Manichaeans imagine, define, and control particular demonic dangers as part of their larger religious projects in Late Antiquity. I examine how these three religious elites conceptualized demons in conversation with, and in opposition to, the other religious traditions of Babylonia. Alternative ways of constructing the demonic are investigated and contextualized through an in-depth analysis of demons in the Babylonian Talmud, the Pahlavi Videvdad and early Manichaean literature. I argue that these different religions’ divergent constructions of the demonic must be understood within their distinctive but interconnected legal, ethical, and theological religious systems. In focusing on one particular aspect of shared religious experience – the belief in demons, this papers suggests new avenues for understanding the complex interactions between the different religious traditions of the Late Antique East.


A Theology of the Septuagint?
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Martin Rösel, Universität Rostock

In recent years here has been a vivid discussion about whether, and if so, how it is possible to write a "Theology of the Septuagint", which should describe the inherent theology of the Greek Bible. While it is not disputed that there are in fact cases in which the translator has reshaped the meaning of its Vorlage, there is no consensus about the extent of these alterations and about how to detect them. In this paper I will briefly review my proposal from 2002, which has been labeled "maximalistic" by some scholars. I will then try to clarify some important points which have come up in the discussion by answering the following questions: What does "Theology of the Septuagint" mean? How can the implicit and explicit theology of the LXX be detected? How to define "Septuagint", when speaking about its theology? Is there only one Theology of the Septuagint? It will be come obvious that a Theology of the Septuagint will be an important tool for scholars working in the fields of Biblical exegesis and Hellenistic Judaism.


Manumission and Marriage in Revelation 17–22
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Eliza Rosenberg, McGill University

This paper examines the economies of metaphor that inform the conjunction of images of weddings and of slavery Revelation 16–22. John’s apocalypse notably concludes by narrating the contrasting fates of “Babylon” the whore (Rev. 16:19–18:24) and Jerusalem the bride (19:1–10 and 21:1–22:7). The juxtaposition between these antithetically parallel feminine figures has generated considerable discussion with respect to issues of gender and wealth. Much less attention, however, has fallen on the status dimensions of these identifications, which is no less marked than the gender ones. Porne, as Babylon is repeatedly designated, carried an almost inevitable connotation of slave status, evan as the lament-cum-condemnation of her wealth uses verbal strategies of repetition and placement to emphasize her facilitation of trade in “the bodies and souls of human beings” (18:13), i.e., in slaves. This is in keeping with a rhetoric (of mostly freeborn authors) that used slave traders as figures of wickedness without meaningfully disapproving of slavery. Revelation employs the related metaphor of “positive” slavery in the celestial wedding that immediately follows and inversely mirrors Babylon’s destruction. Here, the faithful, who constitute simultaneously the bride and the guests, are called the douloi of Christ four times (19:2, 5 and 22:3, 6), as many as in the entire preceding visionary report (7:3, 10:7, 11:18, and 15:3). The confluence of these images is striking in the historical context of the Roman Empire, where free status was a socio-legal precondition for marital capacity, and where marriage was familiar grounds for the manumission of enslaved women. This confluence also accords with an often overlooked literary motif of weddings themselves effecting manumission, which otherwise required its own set of proceedings. Texts such as Chariton’s Callirhoe (3.2.6–7) and Seneca the Elder’s Controversiae (7.6) make this theme explicit, while others such as Plautus’ Casina make freer use of wedding scenes within a larger dialectic of what Sandra Joshel and Sheila Murnaghan call “differential equations” (apparent comparisons for substantive contrasts) between slaves and wives in classical rhetoric. The “slaves of Christ,” then, are not only “the same as” the free wife-elect of Christ but are also becoming her. The cosmic nuptials that conclude the book establish a literary unity of two recurrent biblical metaphors on which Revelation draws: the slave of God/Christ and the wife of God/bride of Christ. Revelation exhorts believers to endure as the faithful slaves of Christ while existing in a world order ruled by the slave-trader “Babylon.” This period is also a betrothal that will be consummated with the bridegroom’s arrival at the parousia. The vision of this cosmic fulfillment does not, in an historical reading, consider the abolition of slavery (although it may not be seen as existing in the new Eden either). What it necessarily does entail is the manumission of “good” slaves for the purpose and by the means of marriage.


Bloody Branches and Divine Voices: Female Virginity, Interpretation, and the Assertion of Difference
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Michael Rosenberg, Hebrew College

In recent years, scholars have pointed to the use of gender and sexuality in both constructing and blurring boundaries between what we now call Judaism and Christianity. One example of this scholarship, Charlotte Fonrobert’s discussion of Rabbinic and early Christian discourses about menstruation in her book Menstrual Purity, focuses specifically on female blood as a point of such blurred boundaries. In this paper, I will examine a different example of specifically female blood—the so-called “blood of virginity,” i.e. the bleeding that many or most pre-modern men expected to find on their wedding nights. Beginning with an analysis of a late (almost certainly medieval) midrash, I will argue that the blood referenced in the bloody sheets pericope of Deuteronomy 22 is a powerful site for Rabbinic Jewish resistance to Christian narratives about Mary. I will then suggest that we profitably can apply the lenses provided by reading this late midrash in understanding much earlier sources. In particular, I will suggest that passages about the verification of female virginity in the Mishnah, the Protevangelium of James, and (time permitting) Augustine’s City of God, which on the face of it are not primarily about marking Jewish-Christian difference, may nevertheless reflect the ongoing process of differentiation.


"The Following You Shall Abominate among the Birds": Ancient Debates about Eating Fowl
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Jordan Rosenblum, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Hebrew Bible prohibits the consumption of certain birds. However, it neither provides a reason for why these birds are forbidden, nor offers a general principle about which birds are kosher. Ancient Jews and Christians debated both of these questions, and offered answers that were, at times, both similar and different. This paper will explore these similarities and differences, which are based on exegetical and theological assumptions held by both groups. From laws about bird’s nests to conversations about birds of prey, exegesis on biblical laws regarding fowl allowed the ancient imagination to soar.


The Swine Suicides: On the Appearance and Disappearance of Pork-Related Jewish Martyrdom in Antiquity
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Jordan D. Rosenblum, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The willingness for Jews to martyr themselves rather than consume pork was well known in the ancient Mediterranean. Both Jewish and non-Jewish texts attest to this predilection, some viewing it as an inspired testimony to one’s faith and others as a baffling and peculiar act. In Late Antiquity, new depictions of pork-related Jewish martyrdom disappear (though the occasional reference to centuries-old actions do appear). This paper offers an explanation for the disappearance of accounts of pork-related Jewish martyrdom. In doing so, it advances an argument for the rhetorical role played by pork-related Jewish martyrdom. Once we understand the role that these accounts play in the discourse of religious competition in the ancient Mediterranean, we can understand why they disappear once they no longer are needed to serve that function.


The Savior Interprets Moses: The Use of Old and New Testament in the Apocryphon of John
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Kristine Toft Rosland, Universitetet i Oslo

While there is no lack of scholarship on the use of Old Testament in the Apocryphon of John, there is still more to be done on the use of New Testament material and how the reading of the New Testament informs the reading of the Old. One of the reasons for this is that the study of the use of Scripture often has been entangled with questions of Gnostic origins, and in particular questions about the relationship between Gnosticism and Judaism. Not concerned with Gnostic origins, this paper will instead look at the use of Scripture more broadly, looking into and comparing scriptural use in the four different versions of the Apocryphon of John we have preserved. While the Old Testament is both commented on and alluded to, the New Testament is only represented in allusions and indirect quotations. Building on, and revising categories used by Devorah Dimant and Louis Painchaud in the study of intertextuality, I will argue for the centrality of Christology in the Apocryphon of John and show how this theme is treated differently in the various versions of the text.


Reconsidering the Virtue of Diastema in Gregory of Nyssa: An 'Iconic' Approach
Program Unit: Development of Early Christian Theology
Taylor Ross, Duke University

Through the efforts of historians and theologians alike, Gregory of Nyssa has been liberated from the caricatured sketch of him that prevailed in scholarship during the first half of the twentieth century. Whereas earlier scholars such as Anders Nygren and Harold Cherniss once cast Gregory as a putative Platonist whose Christian convictions were ultimately overshadowed by his more fundamental philosophical commitments, more recent appraisals, following tracks initially laid by Jean Daniélou and Hans Urs von Balthasar, have taken, among other telling signals, Nyssen’s suffuse exegetical attention to Scripture as ample indication of his commitment to the task of genuine Christian theology. While these reappraisals are more or less unified in their recovery of Gregory as an authentic proponent of Christian orthodoxy, they are not, nevertheless, united in their representations of his thought—a point Morwenna Ludlow has abundantly demonstrated. In short, the supplanting of less than charitable readings of Gregory a la Nygren and Cherniss by more sympathetic studies in the vein of Daniélou and Balthasar has not thoroughly allayed the supposed tension between Gregory’s philosophical and theological convictions, nor has it decisively settled whether this tension exists within Nyssen’s corpus in the first place, or even if such questions regarding the opposition between Christianity and Platonism are at all intelligible for considerations of early Christian authors. One recent study in particular—Hans Boersma’s 'Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach'—unmistakably raises these ensnared issues. In this paper, I aim to question Boersma’s reconfiguration of Gregory’s thought by questioning his characterization of Nyssen as an ‘anagogical theologian.’ Boersma’s account, I argue, risks conflating Gregory’s theology with a supposedly Platonic ambivalence toward spatio-temporal extension, thereby reverting to the caricatures proliferated by the early twentieth century commentators by way of an overemphasis on sensual-spiritual division to the neglect of the more basic diastemic-adiastemic ontological distinction that undergirds Nyssen's theology. Though Boersma characterizes Gregory as a fundamentally 'anagogical' theologian, I would like to suggest that Gregory is more faithfully rendered under the epithet of 'iconic' theologian. I demonstrate this proposal through a critique of Boersma's contention that diastema, or ‘spatio-temporal extension,’ is, for Gregory, a punitive component of the created order that must be eschatologically transgressed. On the contrary, I suggest—marshaling insights culled from Warren Smith, David Bentley Hart, Panteleimon Manoussakis, and Hans Urs Von Balthasar himself—diastema is not only a fundamental aspect of creatureliness for Gregory, but also the structural means by which humans may be re-assimilated to the image of God (viz. Christ) through growth in virtue, understood as imitatio Christi, both now and in the hereafter. The hermeneutical focus here will be on Gregory’s later texts, especially those written in the years subsequent to his polemical exchanges with Eunomius of Cyzicus in the mid 380s until his death in 394. What emerges in these late texts is a Christologically grounded theological vision that, pace Boersma, affirms the virtue of diastemic existence through an emphasis on the spiritual ascent made possible by the incarnation.


Vocabulary and Recension: Lexical Features of Greek Judges
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
William A. Ross, University of Cambridge

Complexity abounds in the textual-history of Greek Judges. While prior scholarship has sufficiently proven that there was a single original translation that later underwent various revisions, no fully critical edition yet exists. To ascertain the Old Greek (OG) of Judges, one must navigate the semi-critical texts in Rahlfs’ Septuaginta and Brooke & McLean’s Old Testament in Greek. Nevertheless, this complexity ought not to dissuade lexical study of the Greek version of Judges, but rather commends it. Indeed, the A and B texts of Rahlfs present a unique avenue of research in that they preserve in their recensions layers of Greek vocabulary that reflects broader developments in the language. Therefore, lexicographical research on the language of these texts provides a point of entry to text-critical analysis by furnishing external evidence. As A. Deissmann pointed out, “knowledge of the lexical conditions is itself a preliminary condition of textual criticism” (Bible Studies, 1901). John Lee was the first to suggest on lexical grounds that Rahlfs’s B text of Judges was later than the A text. To do so he situated the lexicon employed by each in the context of broader linguistic developments within Ptolemaic vernacular Greek, attested in papyri and inscriptions. Other scholars too have noted lexical variety between the texts due to the recensional activity in the book’s textual history. This paper therefore will explore select instances of lexical change in the recensions of Judges and explore word-usage as Lee did within Ptolemaic documentary evidence. Potential words of interest include, among many, exapostello (mostly A); upozugion (A) and onos (B); anantesis (A) and sunantesis (B); the synonyms rendering the Hebrew word lyn in A, and B’s use of aulizomai; diabaino (A) and parerchomai (B); sikera (A) and methusma (B); paidarion (A) and neanias (B); etc. More detailed study of these words in contemporary Greek sources will sharpen our understanding of their prevalence in the Hellenistic context and their possible semantic development. In so doing, this paper will help to situate the OG translation of Judges and its later recensions chronologically, and further our understanding of lexical choice and literary purpose in the book.


Hostiles and Hospitality: The Reception of LXX Gen 19:4–11 in OG Judg 19:22–25
Program Unit: Greek Bible
William A. Ross, University of Cambridge

The textual history of the book of Judges in Greek is very complex. To date, no critical edition exists, although that of the Göttingen Septuagint is currently underway. Nevertheless, previous scholarship has sufficiently proved that there was an original, Old Greek (OG) translation. That text may be defined with a reasonable degree of certainty as preserved in certain minuscules of the Antiochene recension, particularly when followed by the Old Latin. Thus, with careful consideration it is possible to evaluate the text of OG Judges on a case-by-case basis. In this way, and in light of earlier and more atomistic investigations of the Greek texts of Judges, the opportunity presents itself to evaluate OG Judges more holistically and on its own terms. With that in mind, this paper will first text-critically reconstruct the OG reading of Judges 19:22-25. This pericope is nestled in the larger narrative of Gibeah’s crime against the Levite’s concubine (19:1-30), and is well-known to echo Gen. 19:4-11, where Lot is assaulted by the Sodomites. Therefore, this paper will explore the reception of the Genesis text in OG Judges, assessing the similarities and differences between these texts in order to ascertain the degree to which the translator was familiar with, dependent upon, or modified the earlier Pentateuchal rendering. Scholars have not yet come to consensus on whether and how the Pentateuch furnished a “lexicon” of sorts for later translators, and therefore this paper will offer reflection in that respect as well. Furthermore, attention will be given to the ways in which later recensions of Judges modified the translation of 19:22-25, and the possible rationale for so doing. Finally, should space allow, this paper will also consider the qualities of the OG translation of Judges 19:22-25 on its own terms, with special attention to lexical choice and Greek idiom, to situate it within the broader discussion of the translation technique of Greek Judges.


Marcion’s Gospel: Reconstructions and Their Implications
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Dieter Roth, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Over the past decade, there has been a significant, renewed interest in Marcion and Marcion’s Gospel in publications by, amongst others, Joseph Tyson, Andrew Gregory, Sebastian Moll, Matthias Klinghardt, Markus Vinzent, Jason BeDuhn, and Judith Lieu. Though perhaps not, or at least not yet, matching the intensity of debate and publication during the 1840s and 1850s when, in particular, Albrecht Ritschl, F. C. Baur, Adolf Hilgenfeld, and Gustav Volckmar published a series of articles and monographs in rapid succession, there is more being written and published about Marcion at present than at perhaps any other point since Adolf von Harnack’s monumental tome Marcion: Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott, first published in 1921, with the second edition appearing in 1924. The resurgence of interest in Marcion’s Gospel has been marked especially by questions involving readings found in this text, its relationship to canonical Luke, and its place among early Christian Gospels. A major challenge, however, is that any attempt to analyze Marcion’s Gospel or to compare it with Luke or any other text must be based upon a particular reconstruction of Marcion’s text in order to be able to make such comparisons. Some of the difficulties confronted in such a reconstruction, however, are determining which sources are relevant for reconstructing Marcion’s Gospel and, in particular, how the relevant sources are read and utilized in the pursuit of this scholarly endeavor. In this paper, therefore, I will survey and critically interact with a series of issues for the reconstruction of Marcion’s Gospel and then illustrate their relevance for the discussion of the textual tradition of Luke, including the so-called “Western non-interpolations,” and the comparison of readings between Marcion’s Gospel and Luke.


Violent Masters in Q: Parables or Anti-Parables of God?
Program Unit: Q
Dieter T. Roth, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

With the passing of Luise Schottroff in February of this year, parable scholarship lost an influential and important voice. Of particular significance is her insistence, especially in the more recent of her publications, that the offended, angry, and violent master found in far more parables than we would perhaps like, is not a depiction of God or Jesus, but rather an image of what God is not like. Such masters are an anti-parable of the divine. That is to say, the parables draw on imagery used in stock metaphors or "Bildfelder" in order to call forth a comparison and ultimately a contrast with God, leading the reader to recognize the fundamental difference between God and the violence of the kings, lords, and masters of this earth. John Kloppenborg, on the other hand, has written on the representation of violence in Synoptic parables precisely because he wished to focus on violent metaphors and depictions of violence where God or Jesus is presented as the agent of violence. Whereas Schottroff viewed certain Q parables as drawing on the "bildspendender Bereich" of violence in the ancient world in order to critique it to its very core, Kloppenborg views the use of these images as the maintaining of a realistic idiom when depicting the judgment that will fall upon the disobedient. In revisiting the violent masters in the Q parables, this paper will argue that despite our modern sensitivities and discomfort, Q intentionally draws on violent aspects in the God/Master "Bildfeld" in order to advance one aspect of its theological vision of the kingdom of God. Thus, instead of being an anti-parable that comforts the reader with the thought that God is not like the violent master of the parable, Q, consonant with its Deuteronomistic theology, actually embraces the language of the violent divine as part of its motivation for faithfulness and as an element in the rhetoric of vindication for the faithful and judgment for the unfaithful found both within and outside of the community.


Travelers as Christ-Mongers in Did. 12:1–5
Program Unit: Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Clare K. Rothschild, Lewis University

Did. 12:1-5 mandates the treatment of visitors to a Christian community. On one hand, all are to be welcomed unconditionally; on the other hand, limitations exist for cases of exploitation. This paper exposes an inherent contradiction in the logic of this passage, tracing it to the "travelers" (Gk. parodioi) in v. 2. It proposes to solve the inconsistency with a new translation in keeping with the widespread values and assumptions of ancient hospitality.


LXX Isa 27:12 and Intertextuality: Literary and Historical Implications
Program Unit: Greek Bible
David Rothstein, Ariel University Center of Samaria

Isaiah 24-27 has long been the subject of intensive investigation. In particular, the intertextual nature of these chapters has been the focus of several recent studies, including the book-length investigations of D. Polaski and J.T. Hibbard. At the same time, LXX/OG Isaiah has also been the beneficiary of numerous investigations and, moreover, has been at the heart of scholarly discourse concerning the nature of LXX and the methodology and intentions of its translators. The present paper examines one of the more opaque verses of the “Isaiah Apocalypse,” Isa 27:12. After noting MT’s reading of this verse and the various problems attending its interpretation, LXX’s rendering is examined at length. In particular, the following aspects of LXX’s formula-tion will be addressed: (a) the intertextual nature of LXX’s rendering, which weaves together motifs and lexemes appearing in Isa 5 and Ps 80, (b) the double-duty role (i.e., concrete and figurative/metaphoric) of fence/wall construction in LXX, viewed against the matrix of the ancient Near East, and (c) the relationship between LXX 27:12 and 27:13. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the purported “nationalistic” Tendenz manifest in LXX’s rendering of 27:12.


The Textual History of Deut 11:4a and Its Role in Biblical and Post-Biblical Traditions of the Reed Sea Crossing
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
David Rothstein, Ariel University Center of Samaria

The discovery of the biblical scrolls at Qumran has revolutionized scholars’ under-standing of the complexity of the textual history of the Hebrew Bible. Many textual variants that were previously attested only in the ancient translations (e.g., LXX) or relatively late Jewish literary sources are now known to have their origin in Hebrew Vorlagen of the Second Temple period; this holds true for narrative, legal, and pro-phetic passages of the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, even if an Ur-form may be plausibly reconstructed, this fact in no way mitigates the importance of (understanding) the later forms of that same composition as it evolved in the context of different communities and different periods. The present paper addresses one such variant. Specifically, it examines the active – and, possibly, personified – role of the Reed Sea, as reflected in one of the Qumran phylacteries (4QPhylK), and traces the survival of this textual and literary feature in rabbinic and medieval Jewish exegesis. It then examines the implications of this variant against the matrix of related motifs in biblical, extra-biblical, and post-biblical sources and the evolving text of the Hebrew Bible in the late Second Temple period.


Travelocity, Biblical Literature, and Personal Formation: Study Tours Abroad as Part of Affective Domain Teaching in Bible Courses
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Viktor Roudkovski, LeTourneau University

Developing students’ reading of the biblical text in terms of contextual sensitivity, human dignity, social justice, global perspective, and community concerns is a challenge. One effective way of facing this difficulty head on is by designing semester-long courses that culminate in a two-week, hands-on study tour abroad. Having both a preparatory phase and an experiential phase in a course allows for broad engagement of the students in the various domains of learning. In this presentation, I will present models from courses that I teach that contain two-week study tours in Israel, Greece, and Russia that intentionally seek to address both the cognitive and the affective domains of learning. I will show how students can develop affective competencies through learning activities designed to take place before, during, and after the trips. Audience participation will consist of a brief survey and a brief discussion about best practices in offering Bible courses with study tours with personal formation in mind. Audience takeaway includes a handout with tips for offering semester-length Bible courses with study tours abroad.


An American New Jerusalem: Biblical Art at the Holy Land Experience
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Robert M. Royalty Jr., Wabash College

The Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida is a multimedia theme park that “recreates” ancient Jerusalem. In addition to historical archaeological recreations and performances by characters from the Bible, primarily Jesus, the theme park includes a large amount of art, including statues, paintings, stained glass, and reliefs. As with these performances and its imaginative biblical sites, the art of the Holy Land Experience has a political agenda within the ideological framework of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, which has owned the park since 2007. While the original theme park focused on “messianic Judaism” and the conversion of Jews (which was both controversial and unsuccessful), the TBN park draws, entertains, and educates the American Pentecostal and Evangelical communities that support its television network and other enterprises. The performances and sites, as meaning-making entertainment, have political references and functions within the construction of new notions of the “religious” and the “biblical.” The biblical art within the complex has somewhat different but interconnected political agendas. First, the appropriation of traditions of classical Christian art (or traditions as reconceived by TBN) legitimates the authority of the recreated sites at the park. “Authentic” biblical art (a Pietà, Last Suppers, Ascensions, portraits) helps to make the fabricated historical sites of the theme park seem more authentic. Second, this appropriation places these artistic traditions firmly within an American context. At the Holy Land Experience, the Christian tradition is strongly American and, conversely, America is completely Christian. Finally, key art works added by TBN to the original theme park palette add an even broader political message: America is the New Jerusalem, chosen by God to bring light and salvation to the world. In this paper, I will present and explore the biblical art of the Holy Land Experience and its evangelical, political messages within a peculiarly American, and American-focused, context.


The Text of Philo’s De Plantatione
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
James R. Royse, Claremont, California

This paper will examine the manuscript evidence for Philo’s treatise De plantatione. Although the treatise is preserved in five manuscripts, the text as printed by Wendland (in the Cohn-Wendland edition) often departs from these manuscripts. Sometimes he prints his own conjectures, and he includes many more in the apparatus for consideration. Sometimes he follows conjectures by Mangey and others. And sometimes, including some very interesting places, he follows the testimony of Eusebius. Quite a few of the textual variants involve substantial and unusual changes in wording. This paper will survey the textual issues, and examine in detail some of the more perplexing textual problems within this work.


The Impact of Post-missionary Messianic Judaism on the Messianic Jewish Movement
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
David J. Rudolph, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute

This paper will explore why Dr. Mark Kinzer's book was so controversial in 2005 and how it has served as a catalyst for deepening theological reflection, Messianic Jewish identity formation, and a normativization of Torah observance as an expression of covenant fidelity within the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations and the wider community of Jewish followers of Jesus around the world.


What Is Pilate So Afraid of in John 19:8?
Program Unit: Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Gilberto A. Ruiz, Loyola University New Orleans

Analyses of the Fourth Gospel that foreground its Roman imperial context have shown that John portrays Pilate in 18:28–19:16 as a strong, shrewd character who seizes Jesus’s trial as an opportunity to assert Rome’s sovereignty. Although this reading represents a significant advance beyond the standard view of the Johannine Pilate as a weak, indecisive ruler, it fails to explain Pilate’s becoming afraid when told of Jesus’s claim to be Son of God in 19:7-8. Pilate’s fear is unexpected and threatens to undermine the interpretation of the Johannine Pilate as strong character, since a ruthless Roman governor (as John depicts Pilate to be) should not fear a bruised and beaten accused provincial like Jesus. Neither John’s characterization of Pilate nor what we know about the power Roman governors wielded when hearing cases would lead readers to expect that Pilate could become so fearful. This paper seeks to support the newer reading of Pilate as a strong character by addressing the exegetical puzzle posed by Pilate’s fear. I argue that a close narrative analysis of John’s trial scene shows that Pilate’s fear in 19:8 functions as John’s signal to the reader that Pilate recognizes his powerlessness before the Johannine Jesus, and that this understanding of Pilate’s fear contributes to—rather than detracts from—John’s characterization of Pilate as a strong Roman ruler.


“Come Out of Her, My People” (Rev 18:4): A Post(?)colonial Consideration of John’s Apocalypse from the Puerto Rican Diaspora
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Saint John's University

First colonized by Spain in 1493 and then recolonized by the United States from 1898 until the present day, the Puerto Rican colonial condition is unique in the western hemisphere, with the island’s formal status (designated in 1952) as an Estado libre asociado (“associated free state”) that is associated but neither free in any realistic sense of that word nor a state, since the island is neither a state of the Union nor an independent nation state. In 2014, the Pew Research Center reported that “Puerto Ricans have left the financially troubled island for the U.S. mainland this decade in their largest numbers since the Great Migration after World War II,” with the island’s population dwindling to 3.5 million in 2012 by comparison with 4.9 Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland. For economic reasons that have the island’s complex colonial entanglements as their driving forces, more Puerto Ricans than ever appear to be heeding the summons of Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people.” Religion scholars on the island, among them Luis Rivera-Pagán, have recently addressed themselves to the challenges of the de-colonization of Puerto Rico from the specific standpoint of a theology that is prophetic and liberating, an approach that takes the concrete circumstances of the island commonwealth’s peculiar colonial predicament seriously. In The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning (New York: Routledge, 2009) Juan Flores (1943-2014), late professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, provides insights to the multiple ways in which diasporic communities reimagine, reshape, and reconfigure their connections (and disconnections) with their homelands. As a “Nuyorican” biblical scholar, that is, as a member of the Puerto Rican diaspora, in this paper I will offer a re-reading John’s Apocalypse in conversation with the work of Rivera-Pagán and Flores, to suggest that their analyses of the Puerto Rican colonial situation (on the island and in the diaspora) have resonances that shed new and different light on the predicament in which John’s addressees in the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia found themselves. More specifically, this reconsideration of the Apocalypse from a Puerto Rican diasporic perspective informed by a growing body of scholarship will make it possible to revisit the question of what should be made of John’s mention of the island of Patmos as the setting for Revelation’s inaugural vision (1:9-10). I will suggest that this offshore location offers a distinctive vantage point that John uses to advantage in order to diagnose the predicament in which the churches in the seven cities of Asia find themselves, and the course of action John prescribes (in 2:1-3:22) to disentangle them from the complications of urban life in the shadow of Roman imperial domination. The paper will also attend to the resonances that echo from John’s Apocalypse for the book’s twenty-first century readers whose entanglements in coloniality are no less complex.


The Contribution of Prototype Theory and Diachrony to a Synchronic Understanding of Prepositions
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Steven E. Runge, Logos Bible Software

This paper will explore Greek prepositions through the work of Silvia Luraghi and Prototype Theory.


The Place of the Treatise De Plantatione in Philo’s Allegorical Commentary
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
David Runia, Queen's College University of Melbourne

This paper is a continuation of the author’s work on the structure of Philo’s allegorical treatises, and in particular of his earlier paper on the treatise De agricultura presented in New Orleans in 2009. De plantatione follows on from De agricultura and continues some of its themes. However, its structure is less unified than in the case of the earlier treatise and its final part stands out as strikingly different. In order to gain a better understanding of what Philo intended with this treatise, it will be necessary to examine the entire sequence of treatises on Gen 9:20–27 that run from De agricultura to De sobrietate and on that basis reach some conclusions on Philo’s aims and method in the Allegorical Commentary as a whole. The paper forms part of a project, undertaken together with Dr A. C. Geljon, to produce a commentary on the treatise for the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series. This will be a sequel to the earlier commentary by the same authors on De agricultura (Leiden 2013). ITALICIZE NAMES OF PHILONIC TREATISES IN ABOVE ABSTRACT


Response to Papers on Philo and Plutarch
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
David T. Runia, University of Melbourne

The paper will be a combined response to the five papers presented in the session. It will seek to identify common themes which preoccupied religious philosophers in the first century C.E. The focus will be on Philo and Plutarch, taking into account the differing backgrounds of these two thinkers, the one a Jew defending his native religion in Alexandria, the other a priest loyal to the Greek classical tradition. Some remarks will also be made relating the New Testament to the evolution of religous-philosophical positions in the first century.


In Whose Interest? Biblical Christianity and the Prison Industrial Complex
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Erin Runions, Pomona College

This paper will consider at the notion of interest--in both its affective and financial senses (i.e., passion and money)--as it relates to contemporary conservative Christian arguments from the Bible about punishment and prisons. These discourses produce affective “best interests” and also money-making policy, including financially successful Christian-run prison programs. Thus, the paper will ask: How is interest conceptualized and generated in both Christian biblical understandings and secular deliberations about punishment; and, how do these formulations relate to the financial production of interest in the prison industrial complex? It will look at both deliberate and habitual forms of biblical interpretation, that is, as it grounds the teaching of conservative Christian prison activists as well as in less engaged Christian teaching about punishment. As will become clear, these religious views influence and are influenced by secular philosophical and political norms for punishment from early utilitarians like Jeremy Bentham to contemporary tough on crime politicians. Particular attention will be paid to the constellation of ideals around debt, compensation, repayment, retribution, restoration, and security as they are interpreted from the Hebrew Torah and as they relate to affective and financial interest.


The Hierarchy of Estates in Land in the Book of Joshua
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Stephen Russell, City University of New York

no abstract


Mimesis, Alterity, and Liminality: Envisioning in-Christ Identity as the Social Dimension of Pauline Eschatology
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Sue Russell, Asbury Theological Seminary

Mimesis, Alterity, and Liminality: Envisioning In-Christ Identity as the Social Dimension of Pauline Eschatology


Follow the Money: Realignment of Authority in Christian Communities through Constantine’s Patronage
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Sue Russell, Asbury Theological Seminary

Most historians agree that Constantine, through his edicts, changed the status of early Christion communities in society. However, how Constantine’s actions changed the trajectory of the early Christian communities is contested. Some argue that changes were already taking place within the pre-Constantine communities in regard to issues of authority, orthodoxy, and the role of the church in society. Others argue that Constantine’s actions created a radical break in the fundamental practices and shape of the early Christian communities. The debate generally centers on the wealth of the early communities, both in the revenue and property, pre-Constantine and post-Constantine as well as the role of the leaders within the communities. However, most agree the benefaction of Constantine radically changed the status and wealth of the Christian communities and the effect on Christian communities was “nothing less than revolutionary.” Although several scholars have discussed the transformation of the scale of the economic resources of communities under Constantine’s patronage, I argue that these actions also radically changed the authority structure within them. In order to demonstrate this, I use Richard Adam’s economic theory proposed in his book Energy and Structure in which he delineates the relationship between the flow of resources and different types of political power. I then examine the flow of resources in Christian communities in the 2nd and 3rd century and the type of political power and authority that arose from these exchanges. I then demonstrate the shift in the flow of resources that occurred under Constantine’s patronage in the 4th century and the shift in power and authority that resulted.


Social-Scientific Criticism and the Postmodern Turn
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Sue Russell, Asbury Theological Seminary

Since Bruce Malina’s application of anthropological models to bring fresh insight into the world of the New Testament in his groundbreaking book The New Testament World, the field of Social-scientific criticism has dramatically advanced the knowledge and understanding of the Biblical text. The work of the members of the Context Group introduced many of the insights now accepted as received knowledge in New Testament scholarship. The use of models from social science, particularly anthropology, is now accepted practice in understanding the context of the writers of the New Testament. However, the postmodern turn has caused a reevaluation in the field of anthropology as to how data is collected, analyzed, and evaluated. Critiques developed by postmodernists have provided insight into the relationship between author and audience, researcher and text, and even into the theoretical models used for analysis and the types of authority assumed in the use of these models. This paper will review some of the recent discussion in anthropology about ethnographic data and research touching on critical realism, reflexivity, the role of author, and authorial authority. It will then consider how these concepts advance the methodology of Social-scientific Criticism. Finally, it will reflect upon the methodology of the emerging field of Historical Anthropology and how this methodology is shaping new methodologies for interdisciplinary research in the intersect of anthropology and history.


‘The Light of the World’ and the Levite’s Concubine: Josephine Butler’s Feminist Reading of Art and Scripture
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Amanda Russell-Jones, Independent Scholar

Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’ is acknowledged as an influential and widely viewed image in Victorian Britain; yet in its various forms the portrayal of Jesus does not seem likely to have inspired political action or a radical critique of contemporary society. Nevertheless, this paper will explore how Josephine Butler’s juxtaposition of ‘The Light of the World’ with the Levite’s concubine of Judges 19 led to her innovative feminist reading of the text wherein Jesus is outside the closed door with the Levite’s dying concubine demanding that the door be opened to her and requiring the sleepers within to answer for their slumber. Butler(1828-1906), whose portrait hangs in the National Gallery as ‘one of those who made the century’, led a successful sixteen year campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts which gave police the power to accuse any woman of prostitution and require proof that she did not have a sexually transmitted disease. Butler argued women’s right to habeas corpus and that the Victorian church should read the Bible from the point of view of the outcast woman who was welcomed by Jesus. Through her marriage to George Butler an art critic and academic who introduced the, at the time, controversially lightweight subject of Art in Oxford University ,Josephine lived in Oxford as did Hunt’s patrons in the 1850s,was a friend of Ruskin, visited Rossetti in his studio and was sculpted as both Dante’s Beatrice and ‘The Blessed Damozel’ of Rossetti’s poem. This paper will explore how Butler’s deep concern for women who fell foul of the sexual double standard of morality in Victorian Britain, her knowledge of prostitution in male ‘celibate’ Oxford and her knowledge of contemporary society’s fascination with ‘fallen women’ as expressed in Art and literature coalesced in her juxtaposition of Hunt’s painting with Judges 19. The reception history of Revelation 3:20/The Light of the World thus meets the reception history of Judges 19/ The Levite's Concubine- and Butler made successful political capital out of it in powerful publications which still address the issue of state regulation of prostitution today.


Josephine Butler and the Woman’s Bible: Opposition to ‘the Sex-Bias’ of Commentaries Written by Only One Sex
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Amanda Russell-Jones, Independent Scholar

Josephine Butler is an important example of a woman Bible interpreter who did not speak out of an acceptable role as wife and mother but whose voice was heard as a challenge on the public stage. Her use of culture to critique the Bible and the Bible to critique culture produced biblical interpretation on behalf of outcast women and against the sexual double standard in Victorian church and society. This biblical interpretation and its implementation as public theology brought condemnation from notable churchmen like Shaftesbury, Spurgeon, Jowett and others. What can be said about how her interpretation of key passages differed from theirs? Butler denounced ‘the sex-bias’ of male commentators in no uncertain terms and argued that women should become ‘really skilled Bible interpreters’ but, nevertheless, surprisingly, she opposed the Woman’s Bible as potentially ‘pharasaical’ and declined the opportunity to write for it. It was Butler’s conviction that the Bible should be interpreted by men and women together. This paper will explore that conviction, the reasons behind it and its practical outworking. How did she negotiate the tensions that this created? Tensions like writing to her husband’s friend Benjamin Jowett, of ‘Essays and Reviews’ fame, to criticise his approach to the Bible whilst drawing most of her personal support from the theological affinity she had with the women of the Salvation Army as they contested together for the right of women to preach in Switzerland without fear of imprisonment. This paper will also consider the extant sermons of her husband George Butler to ask how far their biblical interpretation and public theology was a joint exercise driven by their experience of the hypocrisy of male ‘celibate’ Oxford. Josephine Butler played an important role in shifting power from authorised ‘theologians’ such as Jowett to a much wider group of Bible interpreters and along the way won over leading churchmen to reading the Bible from the point of view of outcast women, but- should she have written for the Woman’s Bible?


Imagining Jesus: R.G. Collingwood’s Philosophy of History and Method in Historical Jesus Research
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Jordan Ryan, McMaster University

A re-evaluation of the historiographical methods and approaches used in historical Jesus research has been underway in recent years. Some of the most recent discussions have revolved around the viability of the criteria and the role of the study of collective memory in historiography, as a number of scholars have begun to look to social memory theory as a way forward (e.g., Le Donne 2009, Allison 2010, Rodriguez 2010, Keith 2011, Schröter 2013). I suggest that historical Jesus research should also be firmly rooted in the philosophy of history. The intention of this paper is to contribute to the discussion by drawing attention to R.G. Collingwood's (1946) seminal contributions to the philosophy of history. Collingwood's concepts of the historical imagination, the relationship between history and evidence, scissors-and-paste, historical inference, and question and answer will be considered and brought into the current academic discussions concerning historiography and hermeneutics in historical Jesus research. While social memory theory makes some important hermeneutical contributions to the study of the historical Jesus, it does not do the work of historiography on its own. Historiography is not achieved solely through the recognition and understanding of the collective nature of memory and the interpretation and distortion of memories, but by asking historical questions of the data, interpreting the data, applying that data as evidence, inferring historical knowledge from it, and connecting the evidence by means of the historical imagination. Collingwood also criticizes the practice of “scissors-and-paste” history, which proceeds by simply determining the authenticity of material reported by the witnesses. Scissors-and-paste history falls short because it is primarily interested in asking whether a statement is true or false, rather than asking what it means. This critique is pertinent to criteria-based approaches, since the criteria are designed only to determine the authenticity of a given statement apart from understanding its meaning.


Apocalyptic Conflict and the Divine Warrior in the Letter to the Romans: An Inquiry into Paul’s Use of a Motif
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Scott C. Ryan, Baylor University

The driving question of this presentation converges with several streams of inquiry on the Pauline epistles, including intertextuality, the powers in Paul’s texts, and apocalyptic readings. Following in the wake of Käsemann, a number of readers highlighted Paul’s conception of Sin and Death as cosmic forces that enslave humanity (e.g., Beker, Martyn, de Boer, Gaventa). According to this line of interpretation, Rom 5-8 reflects an apocalyptic scenario: in response to the human situation, God engages in a battle with suprahuman enemies in order to reclaim rightful rule over creation. In this presentation, I suggest that the apostle Paul utilizes the pervasive motif of the Divine Warrior in his theologizing. Given that texts are relational objects and exist in a network of relationships (to use Alkier’s terms), the LXX and Second Temple documents offer evidence of motifs and expectations available to Paul. As a Jew who was heir to conceptions of a God enacting a decisive victory on behalf on God’s people (e.g., Dan 7, 11-12; Isa 59; Wis 5; 1QM; 4 Ezra 13; Sib. Or. 3:635-795; Pss. Sol. 17-18; 1 En. 1-10; Animal Apocalypse; Apocalypse of Weeks), Paul transforms the Divine Warrior motif in significant and unexpected ways. I will first survey the martial language in Rom 5:12-8:39 and 11:25-32 vis-à-vis similar themes in texts antecedent and roughly coeval with Paul. Second, I will analyze the apostle’s use of Ps 43:22 in Rom 8:36, and Isa 59:20 and Isa 27:9 in Rom 11:26-27. While focusing on Paul’s utilization of a Jewish motif, this presentation also will contribute to conversations about the apocalyptic character of Paul’s letter and expanding intertextual approaches on the New Testament beyond the quotation of pre-texts alone.


The Lion Scene in 1 Kings 13: A Case Study with Literary-Iconographic Approach
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Sanna Saari, University of Helsinki

In 1 Kings 13:24-29 a man of God faces a brutal ending, when a lion slays him on the road. The narrative around the passage reveals the reason for this tragic outcome, since the man of God has disobeyed Yahweh’s command. Troubling in this passage is the bizarre behavior of a lion and a donkey, which stay by the mangled corpse of the man. Does the implied author serve some unspoken allusions here, which are now beyond reach because of the giant temporal and cultural gap between a modern reader and an ancient text? Analyzing the poetic aspects of the narrative, and the iconographic data relating to it, might offer some new insights for interpretation. In former research, iconographic approach has mainly focused on relatively small textual units. On the other hand, literary studies of the Bible tend to center on textual entities, without seizing the vast number of iconographic material behind them. The paper discusses the possibilities of combining the resources of literary studies with iconographic approach. This methodological endeavor aims at treating Biblical narratives as coherent entities and concurrently exploring the iconographic background of them, in order to perceive a deeper understanding of the cultural context that lies behind the text.


The Mutable Divine: The Lot Story and Karl Ove Knausgaard’s A Time for Everything
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
P.J. Sabo, University of Alberta

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s 2004 novel A Time for Everything is framed by the story of a fictional sixteenth century theologian named Antinous Bellori. Lost in a dark forest as young boy, Bellori stumbles upon two angels in a river, an event which leads to a life-long exploration of angelic history as it is recorded in biblical literature. The core of the novel is devoted to imaginative retellings of the stories of Cain and Abel, Noah, and Ezekiel's divine visions. These retellings are themselves framed by an alternative, fanciful biblical exegesis—based on Bellori’s single major work, On the Nature of Angels—in which the tale of Lot and his divine visitors plays a prominent role. It is this analysis of the Lot story to which I will direct my focus in this paper. The analysis centers on the thoughts and actions of the two messengers, identifying two cruxes: Why did the angels initially refuse Lot’s offer of hospitality only to then accept it? And why did they show compassion to Lot and carry him out of Sodom (for compassion is alien to angels in Bellori’s mind)? The answer is that the angels had become infected by their human bodies, which leads into the principal claim of Bellori’s theology: the true theme of the Bible is that humans are immutable while the divine is changeable. Angels are caught in between the human and the divine, and thus it is their history that best displays this fact. After God’s emptying of himself into Christ and his death as a man, the angels are stranded on earth. Over the ensuing centuries, angels begin losing divine attributes, succumbing not only to moral, but also physical, decline—they lose their halos, shrink in size, grow feathers all over their bodies, and eventually become indistinguishable from seagulls. The enigmatic coda to the novel appears to accentuate this point, as it shifts away from the Bible, angels, and God into the mind of a contemporary, disturbed and melancholic, man living an isolated life somewhere along the Scandinavian coast. The divine is largely absent in this world; if it is present at all, it is an annoyance—like the squawking seagulls that scavenge through one’s garbage cans. The Lot story, of course, also has a coda—the incestuous and bibulous cave scene. I will conclude, then, by comparing similar themes in these two codas: the place of faith and belief without the divine; the pain and troubles associated with family dysfunction; and the connection one has to the past, particularly one’s ancestors and the prominent mythical figures of one’s tradition.


The Question of LBH Syntax: The Case of Ecclesiastes 1–2
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Nili Samet, Bar-Ilan University

Recent debate regarding the nature of the dialect referred to as Late Biblical Hebrew has been focused mainly upon vocabulary, and, to a lesser degree, upon morphology. The unique syntax of LBH has scarcely been treated. The current paper presents, for the first time, an intensive analysis of hitherto unidentified LBH syntactical structures in Ecclesiastes 1-2. This analysis may serve as a test-case to demonstrate the need for an extensive description of LBH syntax, an endeavor presently being carried out by the current speaker. The paper will then discuss the contribution of the syntactical dimension to the ongoing discussion of the origin and nature of LBH, and its relation to Qumran Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew, and Aramaic


Fragmented Rhetoric: Diachronic Challenges to a Synchronic Concept
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Harald Samuel, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

The laws in the Hebrew Bible are in a characteristic way embedded in a larger narrative. Likewise, parenetic references to this narrative are abundant within the legislative material. Inevitably, the laws of Deuteronomy must therefore be analysed within the larger framework of Penta-/Hexateuchal theorising. The present paper will explore the impact of a diachronic approach (redaction criticism) on our understanding of the rhetorical strategies which readers perceive in the received text of Deuteronomy. How might we characterize “rhetoric” outside of a final-form framework, if we take into consideration the transformation of tradition, the ambiguity relating to authorial/compositional intent as well as issues of textual (mis)transmission through time and place? What rhetorical goals lie behind supplementing and rephrasing? How do possible redactional counterstrategies manipulate our perception of forms and, thus, form criticism? Included in these reflections is an outlook on the reception history of Deuteronomic laws and their rhetorical restructuring in the Temple Scroll.


Bondage as Liberation: The Political Theology of Slavery in Late Iron Age Law
Program Unit:
Seth Sanders, Trinity College - Hartford

*


Trinitarian Judgments in/and the Book of Exodus
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Andrea D. Saner, Eastern Mennonite University

Expressing how Trinitarian doctrine is scriptural with regard to the Old Testament, while avoiding anachronism and appropriating theological presuppositions judiciously, poses significant challenges to theological interpreters. Progress toward addressing these challenges cannot be made without constructive exegesis and reflection on that exegesis. Yet at present, readings of the Old Testament that explicitly address the relationship between these texts and the doctrine of the Trinity are few and far between. In this paper, I seek to fill part of this lacuna and suggest a way forward amidst methodological challenges by examining theological judgments suggested by the use of the divine name and related terms (“messenger,” “sending,” “glory,” “goodness,” and “mercy”) in Exodus 23:20–23 and 33:1–34:8. I argue that the theological judgments expressed by the use of these terms in Exodus, when read in a Christian context, bring the reader to reflect on unity and distinction in God and on the identity of God with God’s attributes. By arguing that reflection on the Old Testament’s own idioms and concepts can lead the Christian reader to considering some principles of Trinitarian theology, I offer a way forward for theological interpreters to reflect on the resources in the Old Testament for Trinitarian reflection while avoiding significant methodological pitfalls.


Christian Magicians, Jewish Magical Idioms, and the Shared Magical Culture of Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Joseph Sanzo, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Historians of religion have largely neglected late antique "magical" objects as sources for understanding early Jewish–Christian relations. At the same time, papyrologists and scholars of ancient magic have long observed that Christian and Jewish practitioners participated in the broader world of late antique Mediterranean magic. In our presentation, we traverse the disciplines of ancient magic and early Jewish–Christian relations by focusing on Christian amulets and spells -- written in Greek, Coptic and Syriac -- that utilize so-called “Jewish” idioms. We draw on insights from recent scholarship on exoticism, indigenization, and syncretism in order to demonstrate the various ways Christian practitioners approached divine names (e.g., Iao, Sabaoth, or Adonai) and other elements that scholars have labeled “Jewish.” We demonstrate that, while some Christian practitioners treated elements, which were originally “Jewish,” as completely Christian, others seem to have capitalized on the “Jewish” exoticism of such elements. Moreover, our paper highlights Christian amulets and spells that include ostensibly “Jewish” idioms, but which also reflect language of religious differentiation between Christians and Jews. These cases acutely demonstrate that the very same practical conditions that promoted symbolic exchange across communal boundaries could also support religious differentiation. What is more, these artifacts reveal a disjunction between prevailing scholarly taxonomies of “Jewish” and “Christian” elements and ancient categories of religious difference in so-called “lived” contexts. The paper thus calls for greater attention to the manifold ways ancient practitioners -- as individual authors -- conceptualized the symbolic boundaries between Christians and Jews.


The Daughter of Zion Shares the Pain of the Syrian and Iraqi Women
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Niveen Sarras, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

My paper will explore the suffering of the daughter of Zion in the book of lamentation 1-2. The Daughter of Zion is weeping and seeking a comfort. I argue that weeping is a powerful behavior by which women show their pain and distress, and express a need for comfort (Lamentations 1:16). I will illustrate in my paper how the Daughter of Zion stands in solidarity with the suffering of Christian women in Middle East. My experience as Palestinian living under occupation and being aware of the suffering of women in Middle East makes me see a connection between the suffering of the Daughter of Zion and Middle Eastern women. In this article, I will illustrate how the suffering of the Israelite women by the Babylonians speaks to the suffering of women in Middle East like the Palestinians who are suffering from Israel, the Iraqi and Syrian women who are suffering from ISIS. The Middle Eastern women are weeping the loss of their dignity as human beings and are weeping the loss, missing and suffering of their children. ISIS has been capturing Christian women to rape them and to sell them, and killed many of them. As the enemies of the daughter of Zion became her master (Lamentation 1:5), ISIS becomes the master of those Christian women. The suffering of the Daughter of Zion is identical to the suffering of the Syrian and Iraqi Christians. Both of them use weeping to express their pain. In this paper, I will not only focus of showing how weeping is a method to seek comfort, but I will also focus on finding hope in God in the midst of suffering. We might not see any hope for the daughter of Zion in Lamentation 1-2, but I see hope for her and for the Syrian and Iraqi Christians in Yahweh’s goodness and love and there is hope for those who seek Yahweh (Lamentation 3:21-27).


Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs? A Medieval Karaite Approach
Program Unit: Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Ilana Sasson, Sacred Heart University

In agreement with mainstream Jewish tradition, Yefet ben Eli, a prominent medieval Jewish Karaite scholar, considers Solomon the primary author of the Book of Proverbs. However, he suggests that Solomon first conveyed the material orally and that the acts of recording, compilation, and arrangement of the book took place after his time. Medieval Judeo-Arabic literature, which flourished from the late 9th century, is distinct from earlier Jewish literature in its emphasis on understanding the Bible as a literary product. The Judaeo-Arabic exegetical approach includes therefore organization and systematization of the biblical material at hand. The Judaeo-Arabic compositions are rationalistic in nature, and demonstrate linguistic and literary sophistication. Medieval Judaeo-Arabic Bible exegetes not only crafted their work consciously, but also held Scripture to the same standards. Just as they were conscious of their own writing, their own voice and presence, so too they noticed the footprints of the editorial process in Scripture. In his commentary on Proverbs Yefet points to clues in the text, and the structure of the book, in order to delineate the literary process that resulted in the book as it has come down to us. His reconstruction includes models of recording and transmission as envisioned in his mind. Yefet uses the term mudawwin to denote the person or persons writing, redacting, narrating, storytelling, recording and or copying biblical literature. While the concept of the tadwin is used in Islamic sources to describe the editorial process of Hadith literature, it is not used in Qur’anic exegesis. However, other concepts such as jam‘ and ma??af reflect the approach of the Islamic tradition-bearers and exegetes to the collection process of the Qur’an. After discussing Yefet’s unique understanding of the editorial process behind the Book of Proverbs, I will try and ask whether possible parallel concepts may be found in Qur’anic exegesis.


Reflections on Royal Economic Interventions in the Mari Age
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Jack M. Sasson, Vanderbilt University

Abstract not submitted


On Earth as in Heaven: The Story of Creation in Matthew's Gospel
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Stanley P. Saunders, Columbia Theological Seminary

This paper reads the whole of Matthew’s Gospel in light of the stories of creation and fall, blessing and curse, in Genesis 1-4. From the very first words of Matthew’s Gospel to the very end, Matthew highlights connections between the story of Jesus and the story of creation, developing an eschatological vision of the “renewal of all things” (19:28), the end of the curses that beset humankind and the earth, the reconciliation of earth and heaven under God’s rule, and realization of humanity’s role as God’s agents of blessing for the whole of creation. This paper builds especially upon on the recent work of J. Richard Middleton (A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology, Baker Academic, 2014), who reconstructs an overarching biblical narrative that is rooted in Israel’s creation traditions and culminates in the vision of a renewed creation. Middleton’s account recasts biblical eschatology as a story of the renewal rather than the destruction or abandonment of creation. Salvation entails not the removal of humankind from the earth, but the realization of humankind’s original vocation as God’s images bearers, who exercise dominion in order to expand the circles of God’s blessing throughout the whole creation. Middleton, like many other scholars of the Hebrew Bible, recognizes that in biblical thought the temple was understood to be a microcosm of the whole of “heaven and earth,” God’s dwelling place in nuce, a representation of the ideals God intended for heaven and earth, for the divine and human realms as one. More than any of the other Gospels, Matthew employs the word pair “heaven and earth,” usually, as in much of the OT, as a merism for the whole of creation. Jesus’ ministry in Matthew thus offers images of him as the realization of temple ideals (e.g., forgiveness, healing, feeding, exorcising), as one who crosses the boundaries between heaven and earth, and as the fulfillment of the Adamic vocation as God’s Son and image bearer, and as the one to whom “dominion” or authority has been given in both heaven and earth. Jesus is “God with us,” a living temple, who promises his continuing presence with his disciples not in heaven, but in the pursuit of their vocation to all the nations (28:16-20). This vocation is not about saving souls, but about the continuation of Jesus’ mission to reconcile and restore Israel, the nations, and the whole creation. Rather than attempting to squeeze particular stories for ecological implications, this reading argues that we should read Matthew’s Gospel as a whole, in light of its engagement with the larger biblical story of creation. In this light, Matthew can be read as an ecological Gospel, focused on the redemption not only of humans, but of the whole of heaven and earth.


Methods for Teaching Particular Types of Content or Skills
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Pamela Scalise, Fuller Theological Seminary

I propose to chair the methodology session with the theme, "Methods for Teaching Particular Types of Content or Skills."


Qur’a¯nicizing the Gospel: A Ninth Century Muslim Polemicist and a Section from the Gospel of Matthew
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Ryan Schaffner, Ohio State University

Written in the early ninth century in Egypt, al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim’s Kitab al-radd ?ala al-na?ara (The Refutation of the Christians) is the earliest extant Muslim polemical treatise against Christians. Al-Qasim’s text begins with an argument against uniting any created being to God–setting the parameters of his polemic against Christian beliefs about God. He then summarizes the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation–the two doctrines that impinge most directly on the Muslim understanding of God, his taw?id (divine unicity). He then reveals his adeptness at handling the nuances of Christian teachings through summaries of the the respective doctrinal differences of the Melkites, Nestorians, and Jacobites. Having provided the central beliefs of Christianity about Jesus, al-Qasim then makes a twofold argument against them, noting they arrive at these doctrines through interpretation of their scripture. First, he questions the authenticity of the text itself by questioning why Christians trust Jews to have preserved scripture faithfully when they do not even trust them as witnesses against fellow Jews. Second, he argues that regardless of the authenticity of the Scripture in the hands of the Christians, they have gone astray with false interpretations. He then provides a series of quotations from the Gospels that reference Jesus as Son or God as Father and argues that correct interpretations of these references show that they are to be taken figuratively, and thus do not require the divine sonship of Jesus like Christians believe. Al-Qasim’s two-pronged argument for misinterpretation and textual corruption leads to the final portion of his text in which he includes the first eight chapters of the Gospel of Matthew in saj? (rhymed prose). This is more than just a simple translation of the Gospel into Arabic, however. Through a process of alteration and excision of words, phrases, and passages that contradict Islamic doctrine or offend Muslim sensibilities, al-Qasim provides a version of the Gospel that conforms to the injil (Gospel) as it was supposed to have been when it was given to Jesus by God, prior to its supposed corruption. I will examine instances of such alterations and excisions that reveal a pattern throughout his version of Matthew’s Gospel that I believe is an attempt on his part to strip away the layers of supposed corruption to the text that have come through misinterpretation and the innovation and lies with which al-Qasim charges the Christians. I will argue that al-Qasim has created a Gospel that no longer conforms to Christian doctrines about Jesus but is instead a corrected, qur’anicized version that no longer impinges on God’s taw?id.


Exile in Eden: A Reappraisal of Midrashic Atomization Based on Gen. Rab. 19:9
Program Unit: Midrash
Nicholas Schaser, Vanderbilt University

Scholars often assume that rabbinic midrash removes isolated verses from their biblical context and juxtaposes them with similarly atomized verses from elsewhere in the canon. In 1927, George Foot Moore stated, “[The rabbinic] conception of Scripture leads to an atomistic exegesis, which interprets sentences, clauses, phrases, and even single words independently of the [biblical] context… combines them with other similarly detached utterances; and makes large use of analogy of expressions, often by purely verbal association” (1:248). Last year, Carol Bakhos’ wrote, “[The notion] that a verse must be understood in its context, that what comes before and after the verse is important in determining its meaning, goes against the rabbinic atomistic, verso-centric approach. For the rabbis, verses are removed from their immediate context and recontextualized vis-à-vis other texts ostensibly by means of word association” (2014: 49). This paper attempts to balance this generalization with a test case from Genesis Rabbah 19:9, for which biblical context is crucial to every verse that the rabbis use to connect Adam’s expulsion from Eden with Israel’s exile to Babylon. For example, the midrash connects Gen 2:15a: “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden,” and Jer 2:7a: “And I brought you into a plentiful land.” The rest of Jer 2:7, which the rabbis do not cite, provides the actual connection: “And I brought you into a plentiful land to eat (ekhol) of its fruit (piryah) and its good [things] (tuvah).” Rather than relying on the relationship between the quoted verses, the words “eat,” “fruit,” and “good” in Jer 2:7b secure the connection to Genesis 3, which constantly repeats these words with reference to Adam and Eve (Gen 3:2-3, 6 cf. 3:1, 11-14, 17-19, 22). The Midrash takes neither verse out of its biblical context; the connections only reach their full potential if both verses are read firmly in (and along with) their respective contexts. The exegetical import lies “in the unstated… points of resonance between the two texts” (Hays, 1989: 20). According to the rabbis, not only were both Adam and Israel brought into a land, they were allowed to eat the good fruit of the land, but would ultimately abuse that privilege and be exiled. Similarly, the midrash connects Genesis 3:24 with Hosea 9:15 because both Adam and Israel were “driven out” (garash). The verses surrounding Hosea 9:15 read, “There shall not be a man (adam) left…. They shall bear no fruit (piri). Although they give birth (yeldun), I will put their beloved [children] to death (hemati). My God will reject them because they have not listened (shamu) to him” (Hos 9:12, 16-17). These threats against Israel parallel the curses God establishes in the Garden of Eden, which relate to fruit, childbirth, death, and refusing to listen to God (Gen 3:3, 16-17, 19). Thus, an analysis of Genesis Rabbah 19:9 shows that closer readings of midrash reveal a much richer approach to intertextuality than the theory of rabbinic atomism allows.


Wisdom and Revelation
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Annette Schellenberg, Universität Wien

The question of epistemological differences between Wisdom literature and other literature from the Hebrew Bible (and beyond) points to problems with the term “revelation”. In modern scholarship it is used far more frequently than in the ancient texts, often in contrast to “natural theology” or “natural” ways of acquiring knowledge. According to a traditional understanding, Wisdom has a “natural epistemology” (based on experience and tradition) and with that stands in contrast to Prophetic and Apocalyptic traditions and their “revelatory epistemology.” However, as others have pointed out before, this picture is wrong. First, it is based on a distinction of “natural” vs. “super-natural”, which is foreign to the HB. And second, it overlooks the fact that many Wisdom books acknowledge the possibility of “special” revelation. Nonetheless, the common notion of an epistemological difference between Sapiential literature and other literature is not in itself wrong. There are indeed some differences, though not in the presumed epistemologies as such. A first difference lies in how the reception of a “special” revelation is assessed: as something exclusive, as in the case of Moses, the prophets and apocalyptic seers, or as something that could happen to all people, as in the case of Proverbs, where Woman Wisdom invites everybody to listen to her words. A second difference lies in the question of whether the concept of “special” revelation is used as argument for the special authority of a given book/text. This is the case in the Torah, prophetic and apocalyptic literature but (typically) not in Sapiential texts.


Mutualism or Charity? Locating Paul's Economic Program
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Ryan S. Schellenberg, Methodist Theological School in Ohio

Amidst a surge of recent publications highlighting the economic aspects of Paul's ministry, Justin Meggitt's "Paul, Poverty and Survival" and Bruce Longenecker's "Remember the Poor" are especially responsible for having drawn attention to Paul's concern for the poor. Both challenge treatments of Paul's collection that ignore its concrete economic goals; both insist that concern for those in need was fundamental to the community ethos Paul sought to inculcate. Nevertheless, the way they envision Paul's economic program differs considerably: Meggitt focuses on mutualism among the poor as a survival strategy in early Christian assemblies; Longenecker focuses on charity given to the poor by wealthier members of the community. Tellingly, each of these economic visions has as its correlate a particular conception of Paul's own social location: Meggitt's Paul is himself poor, permanently and involuntarily (hence mutualism); Longenecker's Paul has embraced downward mobility in the service of Christ (hence charity). In the history of (North Atlantic) biblical scholarship, one encounters both Longenecker's Paul and Longenecker's social vision far more frequently than Meggitt's. This is not, I will suggest, because the evidence that Paul's poverty was voluntary is especially convincing, but rather because (North Atlantic) scholars have had difficulty imagining a Paul whose social location and thus moral obligations were different from their own.


“In Other Copies”: Transmitting and Negotiating Textual Variation on the Margins
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Eric Scherbenske, Independent Scholar

By the end of the fourth century New Testament manuscripts were increasingly circumscribed by texts from various editorial, scholarly, and scribal endeavors. This paper investigates one specific type of ancillary text, observations of textual variation that are frequently attributed to Origen in scholia from the archetype of Codex von der Goltz; these scholia, I argue, serve both to stabilize the scriptural text by confirming its careful preservation, but also to destabilize by highlighting such corruptions in transmission. Such indicators of a polyvalent textual tradition marked by variance stand in tension with other paratexts in this manuscript that attempt to present a more stable, monovalent scriptural text presented as Origen’s text critical work. In presenting variant readings in the margins these scholia mine Origen’s own exegetical references to textual variation of the scriptures—variation that, I argue, functioned analogously to Origen’s notion of stumbling blocks providentially designed to impel the reader into a deeper engagement with the scriptures. But such marginal notes of variant readings also reveal how paratexts can do more than just mediate the text to the reader; they can also (1) transmit back and forth between the text and other works (e.g. commentaries) and (2) negotiate competing understandings of what constitutes the text and how it is accurately established and authenticated. While focusing primarily on this specific manuscript, this paper also aims to stimulate further theoretical discussion of ancient marginal and prefatory works as paratexts while attending to the unique historical circumstances dependent on chirographic production and transmission.


Reading Primary Source Documents as History and Theology
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Kyle Schiefelbein, Graduate Theological Union

This teaching tactic works best in introductory courses on historical theology, or other courses in which students have to read primary sources but may not have a background in doing so.


Intertextuality in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Lawrence Schiffman, New York University

The purpose of this paper will be to set out the parameters of intertextuality regarding the Hebrew Bible as it can be located in the corpus of the Qumran Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls provide an excellent laboratory since the texts included in our canonical Hebrew Scriptures are used as raw material for the composition of new texts, and often two or more of the “canonical” texts will interact to form the basis of the Qumran passage. Our aim will be to enable a wide perspective and to provide a taxonomy of the various forms of intertextuality in order to pave the way for future studies of various subtopics. The paper will analyze specific examples for the various types of textual interaction. Finally, we hope to provide reflections on the attitude to the emerging biblical books that underlies the manner in which these books are employed in the composition of Qumran material.


From Wisdom to Theology: Proverbs 10 as an Introduction to the “Solomonic Collection” (Prov 10:1–22:16)
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Bernd U. Schipper, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin

For decades the first chapter of the so-called “Solomonic collection” of the book of Proverbs (10:1–22:16) has been seen as a simple collection of highly disparate Proverbs without any structure. Building on an idea first proposed by Thomas Krüger, this paper seeks to demonstrate that Prov 10 combines different concepts of wisdom using a “discursive approach.” The 31 verses of Prov 10 contain a number of allusions to the following chapters of the “Solomonic collection,” such as to 11:4,6; 13:3-4, and 17:9. By combining the different subjects of Prov 11–22, Prov 10 develops a theology of wisdom where three different levels of sapiential thought are connected: (1) the single aphorism (v. 4); (2) the sapiential saying (v. 5), and (3) the theological reflection (v. 3). In sum, Prov 10 should be seen as an introduction to the following chapters which presents not only the different topics of those chapters but also a hermeneutical approach characterized by a natural theology. This specific theological approach is connected with the concept of two ways: the way of wisdom, connected to the righteous person, and the way of wickedness, connected to the evildoer.


Introduction: Michael V. Fox, “The Song of Song and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs“ (1985) Thirty Years Later
Program Unit: Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Bernd U. Schipper, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin

The brief introduction illustrates the background of the session which will discuss the Song of Songs in light of Ancient Egyptian Love Poetry 30 years after Michael Fox' groundbreaking study.


Selective Representation and Narrative Ambiguity in the Book of Ruth
Program Unit: Megilloth
Jeremy Schipper, Temple University

As with most biblical prose, Ruth’s narrator provides a very selective representation of the setting, timing, characters, and events depicted in the book. The narration includes or foregrounds a few essential details, but many details remain in the unexpressed background. Yet, narration that is terse is not necessarily ambiguous. The gaps in information that result from the narrator’s selective representation differ from the ambiguity that results from the narrator’s description of characters or events. The narrator may not give much information about certain events, but the little the narrator does give is not in itself ambiguous. As a contribution to the ongoing study of the poetics of Ruth’s narrative, this presentation considers several examples primarily from Ruth 1 in which ambiguity does not result from the lack of narrative detail, but from how the details are narrated.


Jews and Samaritans in Joshua 24
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Konrad Schmid, Universität Zürich

No abstract


The Religious History and Politics of the Levant according to the Priestly Ancestor Tradition
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Konrad Schmid, University of Zurich

The Priestly passages in Genesis 12–36 probably stem from the early Persian period. Discernible in these texts is the question of how to come to terms with both a religious belief system and a political structure that differ from what the pre-Priestly ancestor tradition reflects. In order to adjust the ancestor tradition theologically as well as politically to accommodate their own present, the Priestly texts in Genesis 12–36 construe a sophisticated image of the religious history of the Levant, anchoring their own political convictions in their reinterpretation of the patriarchal narratives. This paper will focus on the Priestly adaptation of the Jacob tradition.


Communicating the Future: A Pragmatic Reading of Isaiah 49–55
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Uta Schmidt, Universität Osnabrück

In Isaiah 49-55 diverse images of the future are developed. This presentation gives some insight into my study about images of the future in Isaiah 49-55 ("Zukunftsvorstellungen in Jesaja 49-55. Eine textpragmatische Untersuchung von Kommunikation und Bildwelt", WMANT 138, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2013). A reading based on linguistic pragmatics (Christof Hardmeier, Jacob L. Mey, Joan Cutting) provides an understanding of these chapters of the book of Isaiah as a communication which does not only deal with future time, but lets this future evolve within the communication. In a multitude of images and rapidly changing scenes the change promised by YHWH is depicted. It is typical for these texts with their "vocative character" (Robert Alter) that they are addressed to someone, although in many texts no addressee is specified. At the same time, the identity of the speaker is ambiguous, too. YHWH and a prophetic voice are neither identical nor separable. But several linguistic markers in the text emphasize their effort to reach the addressee. Within this textual communication images of the future are conveyed. But their coherence is less logical or narrative but rather loosely connected, it is less reasoning and rather poetry (cf. Katie Heffelfinger, I am large …). This presentation is going to show how the patterns of communication and the images communicated thereby, together develop the message of the promised change central to Second Isaiah. Closer analysis brings to the fore several patterns of communication which convey different concepts of future in Isa 49-55. In order to understand the way future is developed in these texts, it is necessary to assess these different patterns of communication in relation to each other and to the images they unfold. From there it is possible to decide to what extent concepts like eschatology (e.g. Hans-Juergen Hermisson) and utopia (e.g. Ehud Ben Zvi) match with Second Isaiah's texts.


Theology in the Visions of Daniel 8–12
Program Unit: Book of Daniel
Uta Schmidt, Universität Osnabrück

How to describe the power of God without speaking about God? This could have been the guideline of the visionary accounts in ch. 8-12 of the book of Daniel. From ch. 7 on, Daniel is the recipient of several visions which are interpreted for him by angelic beings. But while the first of these visions (ch. 7) is explicitly about God and God's power, all the following visions are not. This presentation will show the different ways in which ch. 8-12 develop a theology of God's ultimate control over history despite circumstances that seem to prove the opposite. This contradictory structure is reflected in the literary presentation: providing assurance of God's power without presenting God as a character in the text. Power struggles of angelic and human beings are pictured without God. It is assumed that the texts reflect the authoring group's experiences of chaos and powerlessness in the face of conflict of political powers and of religious persecution. Yet, their literary presentation as apocalyptic visions is a means of turning these into something structured and thus ordered. It is also a way to lend depths to their meaning and give the impression that there is more to the situation than what is obvious. Ultimately, these writings are aimed to assure the audience that their suffering for their beliefs will make sense in the end, even if it may not be an end within this life.


The Characterization of God in the Table Talk Section in the Book of Aristeas
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Barbara Schmitz, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Although the Letter of Aristeas is understood as the story of the translation of the Septuagint, only a few paragraphs deal with the translation of the LXX itself, whereas a third of the Letter of Aristeas treats the table talk section (116 of 322 paragraphs). The table talk section tells that the 72 scholars, who were sent by the High Priest of Jerusalem to the Ptolamaic King Demetrius, were invited by the King to a seven day symposium. During that symposium, the King asked each of the 72 scholars a question about how to be a good King. Each of the 72 answers had two parts: All of the scholars gave specific advice for good kingship and suggested to the King the necessary virtues. It is quite obvious that the advices was derived from the tradition of the peri basileias-literature as it is well-known from Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek literature. The strongest ties can be shown to the writings of Theognis, Isocrates and Xenophanes. Therefore, since the proposal of Zunz (JSS 4, 1959, 21-36), it has often been discussed that the table talk section could be included from an external source. In addition, there is also a second element in each of the 72 answers: All 72 scholars refer to God and give the advice to the King to act like God or to be like God. It is quite astonishing that the 72 Jewish scholars advise an imitatio dei to the Ptolemaic King. Therefore, the table talk section does not only tell how to be a good King, but also gives a characterization of God. This aspect hasn´t been analyzed yet intensively. Is there a difference between the portrait of God and the question of how to be a good King? Is the biblical literature the root of the portrait of God and if so, which aspects are emphasized? In analyzing these questions, I will first show that the characterization of God is a very traditional one and has close ties to the characterization of God in the Greek Bible. Second, it can be shown that there are strong references from table talk section to the other parts of the Letter of Aristeas. Therefore, the table talk section can´t be cut off from its literary context. In summary, the table talk section is surely inspired by the Greek peri basileias-literature, but is a creation on its own in order to characterize God and is an integral part of the Letter of Aristeas.


The Suffering of God: Love in Willing Vulnerability
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Andrew J. Schmutzer, Moody Bible Institute

The Suffering of God: Love in Willing Vulnerability


Inner-Biblical Exegesis in 2 Sam 7:12–13 and the Deuteronomistic History
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
William Schniedewind, University of California-Los Angeles

2Sam 7:12-13 uses a Wiederaufnahme, “and I shall establish (the throne of) his kingdom (forever),” to frame an inner-biblical interpretation that points to Solomon as a temple builder and gives a central place to the temple in the Dynastic Promise. This paper examines the use of inner-biblical exegesis as a literary technique and the theme of a “temple for my name” within the larger context of the Deuteronomistic History.


Literary Units in Dialogue: Knowledge, Materiality, and the Intertextual Function of Lists in the Community Rule
Program Unit: Qumran
Alison Schofield, University of Denver

Since the pivotal works of Julia Kristeva and Gérard Genette, biblical scholars have successfully applied intertextual analysis to ancient texts. Nevertheless, current theoretical notions of the intertext are often problematic when applied to the Dead Sea Scrolls. While we can speak of discrete manuscript copies from the Qumran library, authorship was generally quite fluid and even communal in nature, challenging the very notion of “text” as was operative for Kristeva, Genette and other theorists today. The Community Rule exemplifies this dynamic situation, as it constitutes a collection of traditions, often of relatively discrete literary units, which functioned in intertextual (or inner-textual) relationship among different versions of this text. Meaning was made in how these various literary units were combined and put in conversation with previous and following literary units. The paper incorporates the principles of intertextual analysis and examines "the list" as material form (Listenwissenschaften) in The Community Rule, attempting to foreground its often overlooked role in meaning making in the way it is embedded in a larger narrative. In The Infinity of Lists, Umberto Eco claims that the list is the origin of culture: “What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible…to create order,” or, as he stylizes, there exists a certain “poetics of catalogues.” Emphasis in this study is on the poetics of lists in The Rule, not on genre or what these lists are, but what lists do here. Utilizing the categories of “bounded” and “unbounded” lists, this paper starts with two case studies, the list of the spirits of light and darkness (1QS 4:2-14) and the penal code (1QS 6-7), and proposes that special meaning is created by how these lists are situated in and engage the narrative as a whole.


Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Elizabeth Schrader, General Theological Seminary

This paper is an expansion of a study presented in March at the Mid-Atlantic Regional SBL conference, where I examined the text transmission of the figure of Martha of Bethany throughout the Fourth Gospel in over one hundred of the oldest extant Greek and Latin witnesses. The starting point for this study is sustained instability around Martha’s presentation in Papyrus 66 - arguably our most ancient extant witness of John 11 and 12. In this continuation of that study, I suggest that the Lukan figure of Martha was not present in a predecessor textform of the Fourth Gospel that circulated in the second century. The most striking textual variants around Martha will be reviewed, particularly P66's transcription of John 11:1-5. This presentation will address several redaction-critical analyses of John 11 which have already suggested there was only one sister in an earlier version of the Lazarus story, as well as nonbiblical second- and early third-century witnesses displaying further inconsistency around Martha’s presentation in the Fourth Gospel. In conclusion, this study explores how Martha’s presence (or absence) necessarily affects exegesis of the Lazarus episode, particularly in our understanding of the figure of Mary of Bethany.


Relocating the Witness: Predicting Israel’s Rebellion in Deuteronomy and Jubilees
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Sarah Schreiber, Calvin Theological Seminary

In Deuteronomy the Song of Moses is found at the end of the book. It comes at the end of Moses’ life and the end of Israel’s time in the wilderness. The people are about to enter the Promised Land, but the Lord already knows their intentions and what will happen there (Deut 31:16–18). It is at this time in their relationship that God demands a written record that will testify as a witness against Israel (Deut 31:19–21). By contrast, in Jubilees the Lord goes on record at a much earlier time. The written record is prepared at Sinai, immediately after the covenant is ritually sealed. It is the beginning of a new era in Israel’s history and also the beginning of the book of Jubilees itself. Right from the start Israel’s future in the land is predicted and interpreted (Jub. 1:5–14). By relocating the witness to Sinai, the author of Jubilees makes a strong assertion about the Lord’s relationship with Israel. The Israelites’ disobedience neither surprises the Lord nor deters him from establishing his covenant with them. Israel’s disobedience, while disastrous, is not fatal to the relationship. In a way, Jubilees outdoes Deuteronomy by relocating the witness to Sinai, making it an even more powerful testimony to God’s faithfulness despite Israel’s infidelity.


When Eyes Fail: The Invisible Curse and the Legible Body
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Daniel Schriever, Yale University

What does it mean to author a curse? The social function of curses has been helpfully situated within ancient systems of divine and human surveillance. The curse, when uttered by the community, performed the excommunication of precisely those offenders whose crimes had escaped the human gaze. Curses were powerful speech acts; even their inscription could have a purifying function, purging the communal body of hidden sins. This paper examines the most elaborate deployment of the early Christian curse: the Canons of Shenoute, leader of the White Monastery federation. From his earliest epistle to his final testament, Shenoute’s letters overflow with curses, drawing especially on the model of Deuteronomy 27. By commanding the recitation of these curse-filled letters before the monastic assembly, Shenoute constructed an elaborate system of surveillance in which God’s curse, prophetically inscribed in threatening verses of Scripture, defended the communal body from culpability for undetected transgressions against the monastic rules. Against those who questioned the existence of such invisible sinners, Shenoute urged the community to behold the truth of what they could see with their own eyes: most strikingly, his own body, as he lay stricken with a terrible skin disease, or as he publicly wept and beat his face in grief over the community’s fallen state. Elaborate rhetorical depictions of his own body in pain functioned as visible proof of God’s curse, which his letters then enumerated in meticulous detail. Eventually, Shenoute would insist that his letters, like his wounded body, had a purifying function: in their very inscription, they rendered the sins of the community legible to God.


Retrieving the Voices of Female Biblical Interpreters in Early Christianity: Methodologies, Possibilities, and Limits
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Joy Schroeder, Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Capital University

Is it possible to retrieve anything of women’s interpretive tradition apart from what can be learned by the small number of extant works by early Christian women (e.g., Perpetua, Egeria, Proba)? This paper assesses the possibilities and limits of considering male writings and other sources that may preserve “echoes,” fragments, or traces of female interpretation. Admirers such as Gregory of Nyssa and Jerome report the interpretive activities of women like Macrina and Paula, in idealized portraits that may obscure the unique contributions of these noteworthy females. Men’s letters to women give hints about the content of epistles, now lost, that were sent by women. Anonymous works like the Acts of Thecla may preserve echoes of women’s alternative traditions about Paul. Heresiologist Epiphanius reports that adherents of the New Prophecy sect (“Montanism”), in which women had significant leadership roles, attributed a special, positive status to Eve for eating of the tree of knowledge. Women’s monument inscriptions give glimpses into female perspectives on the Bible, including the significance of the New Testament deacon Phoebe. Jewish parallels include hints about and fragments of the teachings of the famous female sage Beruriah. This paper will explore imaginative possibilities for retrieving these lost voices, while acknowledging the limits of our sources. It will consider the likelihood that, compared to writers of encomiums on Late Antique women, who were idealized as modest recipients of men’s interpretive work or who were used as literary mouthpieces of the male authors’ theology, the opponents of controversial women may better preserve early Christian women’s distinctive contributions to biblical interpretation.


The Place of Matthew’s Gospel among the (Canonical and Apocryphal) Gospels in the Second Century
Program Unit: Matthew
Jens Schroeter, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Humboldt University of Berlin

In “Gospel Writing. A Canonical Perspective” Francis Watson invites us to read the gospels – canonical as well as non-canonical – as contributions to an ongoing process of reception and re-interpretation of the Jesus tradition. This creative reuse of the tradition took place mainly in the first and second century. It underwent harmonization by the creation of the fourfold gospel and limitation by the “canonical construct”. In this paper I will ask what this perspective means for the Gospel of Matthew within the process of “Gospel Writing”. Should this gospel be placed somewhere between Mark and Luke with having used the former (as well as an independent sayings source) and was used for its part by the latter? How should the relationship of Matthew to non-canonical gospels, as e.g. the Gospel of Thomas, be determined? And finally: What does the leading position of Matthew in the Four-Gospel-Collection mean for its reception in the New Testament Canon?


Redaction and Quotation in the War Scroll
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Brian Schultz, Fresno Pacific University

This paper will discuss the identification and evaluation of quotations and allusions from biblical compositions in the War Scroll and their use in the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible in the light of the redaction and compositional history of the War Scroll.


“They Will Not Hurt or Destroy on All My Holy Mountain” (Isa 11:9 and 65:25): Inter- and Intratextual Influences on the Vision of the Future Jerusalem in Isaiah 65:17–25
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Richard Schultz, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Isaiah 65:17–25, although offering one of the most familiar descriptions of the future in the book of Isaiah, resists a facile ascription of the usual eschatological labels. Set within the context of the coming creation of a new heaven and a new earth, it nevertheless focuses on the situation of “my people” in a newly-created Jerusalem (vv. 18–19) and highlights features of the city both mundane (houses, vineyards, childbirths, vv. 21–23) and imperfect (sin and death, v. 20; cf. the dust-eating serpent, v 25). This text displays a unique combination of a return to paradisiacal conditions and the effects of the termination of the covenant curses, as indicated by its intertextual connections to Genesis 1–3, Leviticus 26, and Deuteronomy 28. More intriguing, however, is its intratextual link to the more expansive description of the “peaceful kingdom” in Isaiah 11:6–9, which directly follows the depiction of the reign of the future Davidic ruler (vv. 1–5; cf. v. 10). This paper will discuss and assess several options for understanding the vision of the future in Isaiah 65:17–25 in light of its placement and possible function within the book of Isaiah, its intertextual allusions to pentateuchal traditions, and especially its intratextual quotation of Isaiah 11. After briefly tracing the trajectory of its reception history through the New Testament (i.e., 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1–4) and beyond, culminating in its diverse echoes in contemporary culture, the paper will conclude by considering the Isaianic warrant for the predominantly utopian shape of the passage’s subsequent influence.


Qohelet as Eschatological or Anti-apocalyptic Sage? Hebel, the Evil Day, and Divine Judgment in the Book of Ecclesiastes
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Richard Schultz, Wheaton College (Illinois)

Qohelet as Eschatalogical or Apocalyptic Sage? Hebel, the Evil Day, and Divine Judgment in the Book of Ecclesiastes


Where Past and Present Meet: Papyri and Parchments Illuminating Coptic-Orthodox Liturgical Traditions
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Matthias H. O. Schulz, Universität Wien

Origen and evolution of the liturgical traditions of the Coptic Orthodox Church remain obscure in many respects. On the one hand there is the fully developed liturgy of today in Bohairic Coptic and Arabic, which is well attested in manuscripts since the 11/12th century. On the other hand we find a bulk of fragmentary manuscripts on papyrus and parchment, some of them even might be as early as the 3rd century, mainly in Sahidic, Fayyumic, but also in Greek. Reliable comparative studies between past and present could only be undertaken on the basis of a representative amount of data, which means collecting and indexing as much known material as possible and arranging it according to liturgical usage. Focused on papyri and parchment manuscripts with biblical pericopes and hymn texts the lecture presents ways of palaeographical assigning fragments to known codices, of identifying the liturgical occasion for a text, as well as electronic tools for further research.


Disaster and Christianization: The Earthquake of 363 CE and the Christianization of the Cities of Roman Palestine
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Nathan Schumer, Columbia University in the City of New York

In contrast to models of Christianization that emphasizes Christianity’s gradual spread by means of the imperial or aristocratic institutional framework, I describe the Christianization of cities as a process of punctuated equilibrium, a dramatic transformation in the aftermath of disaster. Work by Jerry Toner has focused on the aftermath of crises, arguing that these are crucial moments for understanding the organization and social structure of communities in the ancient Mediterranean world. Drawing on this general model of disaster, I argue that disasters in the late antique world led to the breakdown of the reigning social structure, providing important opportunities for the Christianization of Roman cities. Local Christian groups were able to advantage of crises and use the resources of the Emperor and the Church to “rebuild”— seizing control of their communities in the aftermath of disaster. While this does not represent an abrupt end of pagan practice, it does suggest that there were intense, discrete moments of Christianization of cities throughout late antiquity. I focus on one specific case, the Christianization of the cities of Palestine in the aftermath of the earthquake of 363 CE. I argue that Christian communities in the urban centers of Jerusalem, Scythopolis, and Sepphoris used the destruction wrought by the earthquake to rebuild as Christian cities. The earthquake’s destruction of the local civic temples and buildings created space for the erection of new Christian buildings and the formation of Christian civic identities. For example, the citizens of Scythopolis refrained from rebuilding most of the temples destroyed in the earthquake, returning only some of the civic buildings to their pre-destruction function. Similarly, before 363, private citizens in Scythopolis had contributed funds to civic buildings, deeds which were commemorated in monumental inscriptions. After the earthquake, only the governor funded civic buildings and private individuals only provided donative inscriptions to churches. These sorts of changes in the culture of benefaction, the built landscape, and the use of epigraphy demonstrate some of the ways in which the aftermath of the earthquake fostered the expedited nature of the Christianization of the city and the emergence of a new Christian civic culture.


"A Slave to All": First Corinthians 9 and Paul's Performance in Slave Drag
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Tyler M. Schwaller, Harvard University

That most extant evidence on slavery in the Greco-Roman world comes from elite sources poses well-known problems for thinking about the lives and agency or (lack thereof) of the enslaved. So too scholars of early Christianity struggle with interpreting discourses of slavery in Paul's letters. Though Paul addresses slaves, calls himself a slave of Christ and slave to all, and appears to find slavery productive to think with, Paul's writings reveal more about his self-construction than about slaves. The current scholarly impasse might be framed like this: there are slaves on the one hand, hidden from view, and representations of slaves on the other. This paper questions such a representationalist binary. It reads discourses of slavery not only as the words that define and impinge upon the lives of slaves but as the practices of constituting a certain form of relationality which is inherently dynamic and contingent. As such, I investigate elite discourses on slavery not just for what they say about freepersons' conceptions of slaves and slavery but for the ways they are themselves shaped by the bodies, actions, affects, and presence of the enslaved. I do so by drawing on feminist and queer work that seeks to expose and elaborate the contingencies that inhere within discourse. That is, ideas are not merely inscribed on bodies — both human and nonhuman — but are enacted in the dynamic interplay of thoughts, practices, affects, and effects of bodies upon one another. My paper tests this idea by focusing on Paul's presentation of himself as a "slave to all" in 1 Corinthians 9 as a performance in slave drag, evincing the malleability and contingencies of status. Paul and other freepersons may have used slavery toward particular social, economic, and philosophical ends, ultimately reinforcing slaveholding ideology, yet still I argue for the possibilities of reading elite discourses as not only shaping the terms of enslavement but as being shaped by slaves and their effects upon the social-material world. Calling himself a slave to all, Paul rhetorically locates something exemplary in the spaces and practices of slavery; prior to and beyond his rhetoric, this paper considers how slaves may have contributed to, understood, and made use of slavery so conceived.


Review and Evaluation of Martin Goodman’s Rome and Jerusalem: Impact on the Rise of Christianity
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Bernard Brandon Scott, Phillips Theological Seminary

*


From SA.GIG to Ovid’s Metamorphosis: Commentaries in the Stream of Tradition
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
JoAnn Scurlock, Elmhurst College

Far from being the pointless mind game designed to create a sense of group solidarity among a scholarly elite that cognitive linguistic theory would have us imagine, ancient commentaries were a window by which the scholarly community of late Antiquity generally sought to discern ultimate truths. Giving heed to Socrates’ warning in the Cratylus, those Muslim commentators who were heirs to this tradition, despite firm adherence to monotheism, rose above the common believer's search for single answers to difficult questions. Or to put it differently, what the commentary tradition discovered over the course of its long history was the fact that, in this world, absolute certainty can be achieved only through multiplicity, since having four or five ways of understanding a given passage is as close as the ephemeral human mind can reach to eternal Truth.


Knowing and Being Known: Hierarchy, Epistemic Injustice, and Paul's First Letter to Corinth
Program Unit: African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Love L. Sechrest, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena)

Over the last ten years the discourse in philosophical ethics regarding the epistemic implications of social location and prejudice has flourished. Scholars are working on refining such concepts as epistemic and hermeneutical injustice. José Medina’s The Epistemology of Resistance is a landmark work that explores social responsibilities for the cultivation of epistemic virtue and the roles played by both privileged and disadvantaged actors in mending rends in the social fabric caused by injustice. This paper will explore the concepts emerging from this discourse as a way of examining the intersection between issues in 1 Corinthians and the epistemic injustices that plague ecclesial bodies such as those at ancient Corinth. Since some of the issues in Paul’s first epistle to Corinth involve socio-economic divisions, sexual immorality, sectarian allegiances, and worship practices, this paper suggests that competing epistemological postures and epistemic failures form a central complex underlying many of the issues at Corinth. The paper will put solutions posed by Medina and Paul into dialogue inasmuch as both point to the construction of solidarity as a way forward to a properly functioning social body.


The Book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Mormon
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
David Rolph Seely, Brigham Young University

Title of Paper: The Book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Mormon. One of the challenges of LDS biblical scholars is how to reconcile the apparent contradictions between the historical claims of the Book of Mormon with the scholarly hypotheses of the dating and authorship of the biblical text. For example, the Book of Mormon claims that the Nephites took with them to the New World the Brass Plates which contained the “five books of Moses” which served as a scriptural standard for Book of Mormon peoples. On the other hand the Documentary Hypotheses, held by many scholars, claims that the five books of Moses were created later than 600 BC and were formed by the interweaving of various ancient traditions of various dates and was not completely formed until after 600 BC. The topic of the relationship of the traditional strands of the Bible to the text of the Book of Mormon has received attention among LDS scholars most recently by David Bokovoy in his work Authoring the Old Testament. This study will address a key component of this issue—the Book of Deuteronomy. I propose to examine in detail the occurrence or non-occurrence of the text of the Book of Deuteronomy in the Book of Mormon. This will include the language, world-view, religious and legal customs and theology. Biblical scholars have a distinct idea of when the Book of Deuteronomy was composed in relationship with the three other traditional sources of the Documentary Hypothesis and regard it as a product of the reforms of Josiah that occurred before 600 BCE. Thus it is possible for it to be in the Book of Mormon. This study is designed to raise several of the problem LDS biblical scholars face in studying both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. These include: How is the biblical text reflected in the Book of Mormon? How does the evidence, or lack of evidence, of the book of Deuteronomy in the Book of Mormon square with the Documentary Hypothesis? Are there apparent anachronisms in the Book of Mormon compared with the Documentary Hypothesis? How does one deal with the apparent King James language of the Book of Mormon? and What does this evidence say about the historical claims made by the Book of Mormon? The way Latter-day Saint scholars deal with these issues impacts their understanding of the biblical text as well as the text of the Book of Mormon and ultimately deals with issues such as historicity, nature of the translation of the Book of Mormon and LDS attitudes towards the scholarly views of authorship of the Bible. Hopefully this study will provide some constructive insights into the several possible answers to some of these issues, but certainly addressing these issues in regards to Deuteronomy and the Book of Mormon will provide a description of some of the issues Latter-day Saint biblical scholars face in their work on the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon.


Romancing the Past: Josephus’ Bagoses Reconsidered
Program Unit: Josephus
Chris Seeman, Walsh University

The penultimate episode in Book 11 of Josephus’ Antiquities (pars. 297-301) is a brief but portentous tale of murder. John, the high priest, kills his brother, Jesus, in an altercation triggered by a promise made by the Persian strategos, Bagoses, that he would obtain the high priesthood for Jesus. In retribution for Jesus’ death, Bagoses imposes tribute on the Jews for seven years. Assuming the story to have an historical basis, scholars have concentrated their energies on identifying Bagoses. Prior to the publication of the Elephantine papyri, the favored candidate was Bagoas, a prominent Persian courtier known from Greek and Roman literary sources. This consensus collapsed with the unearthing of the Jedaniah archive from Elephantine, which contained correspondence addressed to “Bagohi governor of Judah” (TAD A4.7-9) and which also named John as the high priest in office during his tenure. In spite of this fortuitous coincidence of names, scholars remain divided over the matter. One reason for this impasse is a myopic focus on historicity: since Bagohi and Bagoas lived at different times, only one of them can be the “real” Bagoses. Building on the insights of recent approaches to Jewish historical fiction writing during the Hellenistic period, I propose a “both-and” solution to the Bagoses question. While the papyrological testimony provides a plausible identification with Bagohi, I argue that many elements of Josephus’ account manifestly participate in what Pierre Briant has dubbed “the Bagoas romance,” by which he means the ways in which Greco-Roman historians assimilated Bagoas’ career to the generic conventions of “decadent” oriental court intrigue. In particular, Diodorus’ portrayal of Bagoas as a clandestine king-maker whose machinations helped precipitate Achaemenid political decline directly parallels Josephus’ portrait of Bagoses as would-be “high priest-maker” whose scheme brought about the “impious savagery” of fratricide on holy ground (a harbinger of the violent sacrilege Josephus will impute to his own contemporaries during the First Revolt). Not only does Josephus draw upon the plot-structure of the Bagoas romance in crafting his own, he also emulates its poetics, employing a lexicon of villainy paralleling that of Diodorus. Thus, this paper demonstrates that, whatever historical events might underlie the Bagoses story, they have been thoroughly “romanced” by Josephus in order to link a major figure associated with Persian political decline to a local narrative of Judean political decline at the threshold of Hellenistic rule.


Who Is the Suffering Servant? Second Isaiah as a Resource for Jewish-Christian Dialogue
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Chris Seeman, Walsh University

The anonymous “suffering servant” of Isaiah 52-53 has traditionally functioned as a fault line in confessional biblical interpretation. While Jews see the servant’s affliction and exaltation as a symbolic review of their historical experience as a people, Christians see it as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ incomparable atoning sacrifice. Although there is no escaping such boundary-defining exegesis, an appreciation for the diverse ways in which early Jewish and Christian texts apply Second Isaiah’s servant imagery can assist modern Jews and Christians in overcoming the temptation to indulge in negative self-definition. (“Our understanding of the sacred text is not like theirs, therefore they are not like us.”) In fact, pre-rabbinic Jewish texts reveal both individual and communal understandings of the servant. Conversely, the same New Testament texts that identify Jesus as the servant also impute the core attributes of his servanthood to the community of his disciples. In other words, once one moves beyond the simplism of “Israel or Jesus?” early exegesis of Isaiah 52-53 reveals not a fault line but a common ground in which the relationship between individual and communal identities and agencies are explored. In addition to demonstrating this dynamic from ancient texts, I will share how I have used this approach in the context of contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue and the beneficial effects it has had in counteracting reductive understandings and enhancing interfaith solidarity.


Queers, Jews, and Paul: Struggling with a Pauline "Universal Subjectivity"
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Robert Paul Seesengood, Albright College

Badiou, Žižek and Agamben and their use of Paul in the hunt for a universal subjectivity has spawned significant discussion. Among many advances, their work has, however, shown significant lacunae. One gap, as pointed out by Benjamin Dunning (Christ Without Adam 2014) is gender. Badiou and Žižek (influenced by Breton) collapse gender difference in Pauline typology in ways that undermine their goal. A critical error, Dunning argues, lies in inattention to the historical particularity of relevant Pauline tropes and language. Gender is not the only casualty. Badiou and Žižek (and, to a lesser extent, Agamben) frequently posit a Paul struggling against, and a convert from, ideologies steeped in hegemony and domination – in extreme forms, against fascism and totalitarianism. For Badiou and Žižek (and others in conversation with them), far too often Judaism is (implicitly, but consistently) equated with fascism. Like their disregard for gender, along with egregious ethical implications, this equation also undermines their larger argument for universal subjectivity and arises from their inattention to an historical Paul. Though seeking to transcend history and trace pure lines of thought in Paul, Paul’s letters remain stubbornly insistent on historical particularities. Badiou and Žižek articulate readings of Paul that pit one ideology (Pauline liberality) triumphantly against another (Jewish – and sometimes Roman – fascism); they end up actually re-inscribing difference and making it permanent. Like gender other than masculinity (as per Dunning), Jews become the always-other, unable to exist in Paul’s “universal” subjectivity. Dunning argues that gender differences in Paul are best resolved by regarding all gender in Paul as queer. In this paper, I want to explore a space for a “queerness” in Paul’s Judaism, too. Can Dunning’s insight (influenced by Halperin’s inclusive observation of the always already queerness of Christian subjectivity) be expanded to see a space for Pauline ethnicity, for Jewishness?


Rewriting 'in' and 'of' Daniel
Program Unit: Qumran
Michael Segal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In light of the composition of the book of Daniel in the second century BCE, it is surprising the extent to which we find rewriting of this book among the Qumran texts, including the Pseudo-Daniel manuscripts (4Q243-245) and the Aramaic Apocalypse of Daniel (4Q246). Numerous allusions to Daniel are also found in additional Qumran scrolls, including the War Scroll, 4Q174, and the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C. All of these were composed within a relatively small window of time, demonstrating the intense literary interest in this work amongst ancient scribes. At the same time, we can identify similar processes of rewriting in the book of Daniel itself, as can be demonstrated by: (1) a comparison of the primary textual witnesses to the book (Masoretic text, Old Greek, Theodotion), which attest to variant literary editions; (2) the addition of the appendix in 12:5-13, which transforms aspects of the apocalypse in Daniel 10-12; (3) in the comparison of Daniel 4 (in both MT and OG) to 4QPrayer of Nabonidus (4Q242); (4) the Additions in the Greek versions of Daniel. The current study will characterize the exegetical and literary nature of the rewriting that took place both in and of Daniel (specifically in Qumran texts), and will attempt to determine whether these processes can be traced along similar trajectories. The combined investigation of the internal reworking of Daniel and its subsequent rewritings will allow for an integrated assessment of the complex work of scribes in Antiquity.


Mystical Medicine: The Esoteric Genealogies of Hebrew Medical Texts
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Marla Segol, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

This paper examines two late antique Hebrew medical texts, the work of Assaf HaRofeh (probably 4th -6th C Persia), and that of Shabbetai Donnolo (10th C Italy). These are the two earliest known Hebrew medical texts, and they contain materials gleaned from a wide array of sources. Both authors make a point of acknowledging these sources in an effort to lend authority to their writings, and surprisingly they utilize a number of sources that we might now deem ‘esoteric.’ The Sefer Assaf begins with a ‘Book of Noah’ introduction typical of magical and esoteric works. According to the Sefer Assaf, medical knowledge was divinely given to Noah from God, the Angel Raphael, and the head of the host of demons, in response to Noah’s sacrifices and prayers. Similarly, Shabbetai’s medical model is based on a cosmology articulated by means of extensive commentary on the esoteric work, the Sefer Yetsirah (Book of Formation) and on a number of esoteric and astrological texts from Persian and other traditions. In this paper I will analyze the introductions to these two works to gain a better understanding of these authors’ conceptions of the origin, meaning, and function of medical knowledge and practice.


Coptic Hymns: Poetry, Praise, Petition
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Philip Sellew, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Hymns addressed to God, Christ, the Theotokos, or the ranks of saints and martyrs are fundamental to the liturgical tradition of Coptic Christianity as a communal vehicle for praise and petition — something like ‘sung prayer.’ This paper addresses the ways in which early Coptic hymnody drew on the larger world of late ancient sung prayer — mostly as composed and transmitted in Greek or Syriac — for its major themes, yet went its own way in terms of poetics and performance. Viewed from the aesthetic perspectives of metrics, stress rhythm, and vocalized sound patterns, Coptic hymns diverge from other eastern Christian hymnic styles, in part perhaps due to indigenous Egyptian poetic traditions. In this presentation I sample the main types of early Coptic hymns via some particularly interesting examples and explore how their prosody and performance might be understood more thoroughly by drawing on insights from recent work in ritual studies and ethno-musicological scholarship.


A Woman’s Right to Choose? Ruth and Naomi: A Family of Choice
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Kyong-Sook Seo, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

The figure of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible is celebrated as a model of loving-kindness and loyalty to her mother-in-law, Naomi. However, most biblical scholars have argued that the main theme of the book of Ruth is “the celebration of the continuity of a family line.” The reason that Ruth and Naomi appears in the narrative seems to tell the readers something about their principal worth in producing sons. Feminist scholars have focused on their role as agents of their own destiny for survival in the patriarchal contexts. However, this approach still allows us to think the relationship between Ruth and Naomi as united passively to one another through their material environment context. This paper reads the story of Ruth in relation to created families; Ruth and Naomi create “a family of choice” to find safety, connection, and growth.


YHWH's Cosmology in Context
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
C.L. Seow, Vanderbilt University

As befitting a discourse of divine design, Job 38:4-21 is a carefully-argued and elegantly-structured poetic piece. The poet lays out YHWH’s cosmology as a deliberate counterpoint to Job’s. It is a cosmology that must be understood in the light of ancient Near Eastern mythology and cosmic geography.


The Text-Critical Value of 4QJob-a
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
C.L. Seow, Vanderbilt University

Although several commentaries have appeared since the publication of 4QJoba in 2000, none has taken its readings into consideration in the exegesis of the passages represented by fragments therein. This paper offers a through re-examination of the variants in this MS. It argues that many of the variants are interesting, viable, and in several cases arguably superior to what one finds in the MT.


Musical Score Theory and the Performance of Ancient Texts
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Zvi Septimus, Cornell University

The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music, a book by Lydia Goehr, stirred much controversy in the fields of aesthetic philosophy and history of music. Goehr’s argument relates to a distinction between how the musical “work” was conceived of by its composers and consumers in the 18th versus the 19th century, with Beethoven marking a turning point in the relationship between the performer, the composer, the work, the audience, and the score. Goehr’s book—and the dialogue it inspired—can be used to introduce a new model for looking at what ancient texts might have represented to their consumers at any one of a number of historical moments. Such a model would serve as an antithesis to the standard text and source critical models developed for explaining both textual composition and variation. This model also stands in contrast to the application of the types of orality theories proposed by, on the one hand, scholars in the tradition of Millman/Parry, and on the other hand, scholars who oppose that model, such as Ruth Finnegan. What both sides of this debate hold in common is that the analysis of the practices of contemporary oral cultures can be used to make arguments about ancient oral cultures and their texts. This paper argues that rather than look for a contemporary yet “primitive” model for the oral authorship and performance of poetic texts that can be mapped onto the ancient world it is perhaps more fruitful to turn our attention to a different artistic medium for insight into how performers and consumers might conceive of a “work” of art. Most importantly, an exploration of how the conception of a musical score by both composers and consumers differed radically within a short historical period, and the reasons for that shift, might yield a fresh perspective on what ancient texts might have meant as objects of art. I will use the Babylonian Talmud as a case study and examine notions of both oral and written performance.


The Jacob Cycle and the Aramaean Identity of Ancient Israel
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Omer Sergi, Tel Aviv University

The Jacob story is commonly held as an "Origin Myth". It defines Israel's origins and complex composition, its relationships with its “brothers” or neighbours, its territorial claims, its cult places and its genealogical hierarchy. The geographical setting of this story—between the Gilead and the northern cis-Jordan—together with the name of the patriarch—Jacob/Israel—make it clear that this story is a north Israelite "Origin Myth". The relationship between Jacob and his Aramaean relative, Laban, are often treated as a reflection of the political relationship between Israel and Aram-Damascus. This interpretation is highlighted by the treaty signed between Jacob and Laban in the Gilead (Gen. 31), a constantly disputed border zone between these kingdoms (e.g., 1 Kgs 22; 2 Kgs 8: 28–29, 9: 14–16). However, the Jacob cycle is not a mere reflection of political relationship; rather it provides a commentary on the socio-cultural identity of Israel and the Israelites: Jacob runs to his "Aramaean" relatives; marries two daughters of a local sheikh and his children are born among his Aramaean relatives where he also acquires great wealth. Yet, Jacob succeeds in breaking loose from the Aramean clan and to be recognized as a separate, autonomous clan. Studies of nomadic-tribal societies have shown that membership within an ethnic group is based on pragmatic grounds: groups can either attach themselves to tribal communities, or detach themselves. Kinship relations are then formulated in order to 'legitimize' membership and strengthen loyalty to the group. Accordingly, this presentation aims to ponder the Aramaic identity of Jacob as it was understood by the Israelite elite. In order to do so, I shall examine various aspects of the Gilead's material culture and epigraphic finds, as well as the region's political affiliation throughout the Iron Age. In light of that I shall reconstruct the historical and ideological context of the Jacob story and shed some new light on the Aramaic identity of ancient Israel. Consequently, I shall discuss additional northern Israelite narratives about the Gilead (Judges 8; Hosea 12), that in light of Jacob's story reveal the multifaceted aspects of the Israelite identity as it was conceptualized by the kingdom's scribal elite.


State Formation and Identity: The Chicken and the Egg
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Omer Sergi, Tel Aviv University

Special joint-session with ASOR on "Historiography and Identity in the Iron Age Levant."


Samuel Purchas and the Scripturalization of Whiteness in Colonial Virginia
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Ron Serino, Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University

The founders of the English colonial project in North America used religious justifications to advantage a particular social group: white, male, English, Protestant Christian elites. The expansion of the power and physical presence of this particular group beyond the bounds of the British Isles was attributed to an alleged divine mandate to bring “civilized” culture, including European-style education, science, and Christian salvation to other, “inferior,” groups. Social constructions of race played a key role in this ideology and similar European imperial-colonial endeavors. Furthermore, as traditions of biblical interpretation transitioned from predominantly allegorical in the medieval period to more historical and scientific modes in the modern period, particular interpretations of the Bible were utilized to support constructions of white and non-white racial identities. At a crucial moment in the foundation of the English colonial project, Samuel Purchas (1577-1626), chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, used biblical interpretation to sacralize and legitimate English imperial ambitions. Such use of the Bible, I argue, is an example of what Vincent Wimbush calls the “scripturalization” of whiteness, scripturalization being the process by which aspects of culture become scripturally/religiously authoritative by getting read into the biblical text through interpretation. This paper, informed by Critical Race Theory and postcolonial theory, will focus on how Purchas’s colonial tract entitled “Virginias Verger” helps shape the formation of white racial identity in Britain and its North American colonies by objectifying and demonizing Native American and African peoples. In the writing of Purchas, whiteness is scripturalized by interpreting biblical figures as white Europeans and by interpreting biblical lands and people with non-white, foreign lands and indigenous people. This type of biblical interpretation not only glorifies whiteness but also sanctifies the marginalization and exploitation of foreign lands and peoples, justifying European colonization and the enslavement and/or extermination of native peoples. Guided by CRT, I will identify within this example of early modern European biblical reception history European ideologies of cultural/ethnic exceptionalism, racial essentialism, and the intersectionality inherent in racialized and gendered representations of Africans, indigenous Americans, and all women as inferior. This paper will focus on ways that CRT’s critical whiteness studies seeks to analyze representations of whiteness by white Europeans and Euro-Americans (how whites see themselves), the role of whiteness in history and culture, white privilege as manifested in racializing and gendering exploited and colonized peoples, and systems of racial hierarchies like “the ladder of whiteness.” Purchas, who influenced King James, interpreted biblical references as religious justification for the expansion of English overseas commerce. As represented by Purchas, biblical Israel becomes a type for the idealism and exceptionalism of the divinely-chosen, commercial, Christian Englishman. Purchas was the immediate successor to the library of Richard Hakluyt, another prominent Anglican priest and an outspoken promoter of English colonization. The writing of Purchas was very important in promoting and supporting British imperialization in the first several decades of English colonization in North America.


Sinai, Covenant, and Innocent Blood Traditions in Matthew’s Blood Curse (25:27)
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Claudia Setzer, Manhattan College

The so-called “blood curse” in Matthew 27:25 is frequently explained as an aetiological legend linked to the destruction of the Temple and referring literally to the next generation of Jews in Jerusalem. Its virulence and placement calls for more explanation. As part of the special Matthean material, it also seems to be part of a carefully constructed search for the culprit in the death of the righteous. Its language, which evokes innocent blood traditions in Zechariah and Jeremiah, also fits most closely with Septuagint references to Sinai and covenant. It also points to a set of polemical statements in Matthew 23. This paper argues that the verse was part of an ongoing, Scripture-based polemic on the matter of Jesus’ death that was circulating in Matthew’s city.


Religious Feasting in the Hebrew Bible: A View from Tell Halif
Program Unit: Archaeology of the Biblical World
Cynthia Shafer-Elliott, William Jessup University

The methodology of household archaeology has only recently been applied to the study of the Israelite/Judahite house, its members, and their activities, including food preparation. While the role of “food” in the official religious and ideological activities of ancient Israel and Judah has been a popular topic of inquiry in both biblical studies and Syro-Palestinian archaeology, a shift of focus to the home allows for a better understanding of the daily life of the average Israelite/Judahite. In this paper, I will explore the nature of religious feasting in domestic contexts within ancient Israel and Judah. The methodology of spatial analysis in household archaeology will be used to examine the material culture of religious-domestic feasting. I will present a brief summary of this methodology followed by a description of one particular household setting from Tel Halif. The house under investigation is characteristic of Iron II Judah and contains a room with evidence of both feasting and religious activities, making the room and its use fruitful for the spatial analysis that follows. This analysis will then provide the data that will serve as a visual aid for further investigation into the nature of religious-domestic feasting and how it is reflected in the the Hebrew Bible.


(De)-Constructing Slaves in Stone and Text: Jesus, Epaphroditus, and the Idealization of Enslavement
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Katherine A. Shaner, Wake Forest University

A small fresco in an unremarkable room in the Ephesian Terrace Houses depicts a plainly-dressed woman holding a serving platter toward the viewer. This image along with others throughout the Roman Empire depicts the appropriate, desired, or even ideal portrait of an enslaved person from the master’s perspective. This depiction is significantly different from those of tortured, sexualized enslaved captives from Roman victory reliefs, such as those in Aphrodisias. The first portrait idealizes slavery. The second suggests its horrors. While neither type of portrait communicates the full reality of enslaved lives, both types of portrait are important evidence of enslaved life in the Roman world. This presentation compares the visual rhetoric that produces these two kinds of depictions with the rhetorical portraits of enslaved persons found in the letter to the Philippians: Jesus, who is portrayed as the ideal, obedient slave in the Philippians Christ hymn (Phil 2:7-11) and Epaphroditus, whom the Philippians sent to Paul while he was imprisoned (Phil 2:25-30). Through this comparison the complexities of studying the everyday lives of enslaved persons in Pauline communities emerges.


"I Do Not Understand My Actions": Some Cognitive Bases for Natural Dualisms
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Colleen Shantz, Toronto School of Theology

Anthropological dualisms—whether the body is distinguished from the soul, spirit, or mind—are explicit in early Christianity as well as many contemporary cultural inheritors of Greco-Roman philosophical constructs. However, recent field studies show that even within cultures in which such views are not expressed explicitly dualistic thinking thrives, suggesting that this is a cognitive, rather than a cultural, phenomenon. This paper outlines some of the biological foundations for such “natural” dualism and the corresponding significance for early Christian (Pauline) anthropology in particular. I will show that attention to embodied cognition provides richer explanations for a number of texts than do claims about cultural competition alone.


Family 1 in Mark: New Evidence on the Stemma of the Venice Group
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Jessica Shao, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

The genealogical relationships among some of the Family 1 manuscripts (a group of closely-related Gospel manuscripts, of which the archetype has been shown to go back to the 3rd-5th century) have not yet been demonstrated with certainty. This is certainly the case with the Venice Group manuscripts—118, 205, 209, and 2886. While Frederick Wisse first proposed that 2886 was a copy of 205, Alison Welsby, in her recent dissertation on Family 1 in John, asserts that 205 is a copy of 2886 and is, therefore, not to be used in establishing the exemplar of the Venice group. The evidence in the Gospel of Mark calls both Welsby’s and Wisse’s conclusions into question. It will be argued that 205 and 2886 are sibling manuscripts, descended from a common intermediate exemplar. Additionally, it will be argued that 209 is more closely related to 205 and 2886 than previous Venice Group stemmata have allowed. This paper presents a new stemma of the Venice Group that takes into consideration evidence from the Gospel of Mark.


Translating Alterity: Conflict, Undecidability, and Complicity
Program Unit: Nida Institute
Carolyn J. Sharp, Yale Divinity School

Skilled translation requires attentiveness to rhetorical effects and gaps that interpreters perceive in the interplay of narratological and structural features, allusiveness, and that which is left unsaid. I will theorize alterity and conflict on levels of signifying beyond the violence narrated within emplotment, focusing on three texts: Gen 32:22-32 (Jacob at the Jabbok), Genesis 34 (Dinah and the Shechemites), and Josh 2:9-13 (Rahab's speech). Issues of textual undecidability and translator complicity will be probed.


Hermeneutics and/as Politics: Defending the Qur'an (and Muslims) against the 'Scandal' of Abrogation
Program Unit: Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
Omar Shaukat, University of Johannesburg

This paper aims to initiate an engagement with the Qur?anic hermeneutics of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (AMC), while making two particular contributions to the fields of Islamic and Qur'anic Studies. First, it addresses the relative dearth of Islamic Studies scholarship on AMC. Next, in terms of Qur?anic Studies, the paper attempts to investigate AMC’s controversial claim, hitherto ignored by scholarship, that there is no abrogation within the Qur?an. Also, while making this second contribution, the paper links AMC's hermeneutical method with its political agenda of presenting itself as the arch defender of the “honor” of Islam against the Christian missionaries of colonial India, who claimed that the Qur'an is a self-contradictory text. The main argument of this paper is that AMC's hermeneutics and politics is mutually constitutive, due to which it cannot simply it said that AMC's politics of defending Islam is prior or consequent to its hermeneutics. In other words, this paper will argue that in the aftermath of an of overt military defeat and a widespread sense of intellectual inferiority amongst the Indian subjects of the British Raj, AMC posited its hermeneutics as its politics, thereby seeing itself as taking the lead in trying to revive what it perceived as the flagging Muslim spirit in the face of British and Christian aggression inside post-Mughal India. This paper's methodology will be textual-historical. It will make its point by analyzing the exegesis of verse 2:106 (which is generally the proof text for a Qur?anic theory of abrogation) in the commentary, Tafsir-i Kabir (1940), written by AMC’s second khalifa, Mirza Bashir al-Din A?mad (1889-1965). It will also look at an essay (1958) by one prominent member of AMC, Qazi Nazir, along with the scattered references to the issue in the writings of AMC's founder, Mirza Ghulam A?mad (1935-1908). (Word count: 297)


Isaiah 53 and Social Creativity in 1 Pet 2:18–25
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
David M. Shaw, University of Exeter

It has been observed that 1 Peter’s reference to Isaiah 53 is the most ‘elaborate reorganization or rewriting of Isaiah 53 from the time of the early church.’ In fact, Karen Jobes goes so far as to suggest that “Suffering Servant Christology” may have its genesis in Peter’s writings. One of the interesting features of 1 Peter’s Haustafel is the mere fact of its use of Isaiah 53 and its “Suffering Servant” motif. No other NT household code makes such a significant exegetical move in the same context and, as D. A. Carson points out, pagan household codes of the time said nothing of appropriate suffering. Yet at the heart of the early Christian faith was a suffering Messiah, a figure whose suffering was seen not as shameful or degrading but as redemptive and leading to vindication. Clearly then, the use of Isaiah 53 within the household code indicates that something distinctive is occurring within 1 Peter that warrants closer investigation. Utilizing insights from Social Identity Theory, my contention will be that 1 Peter’s use of Isaiah 53 serves as an act of “social creativity” by which the author inverts his reader’s previous notions of suffering and servanthood by portraying Christ, the Suffering Servant, as the one through whom they are redeemed and upon whom they are to model their lives. While the act of “social creativity” manifests itself in several ways, the most common indication that it is happening in 1 Peter is the inverting of previously negative comparisons and claiming them as positive. For our purposes, 1 Peter’s use of the term ?e?? d????? (servants of God) in 2:16 is most significant and provides the biggest clue that the author is engaging in “social creativity”. ?e?? d????? serves as an umbrella term by which the various household parties are to understand themselves. Thus, whether the bondservants, the wives, or the husbands are addressed, they are first and foremost addressed as ?e?? d?????. This notion, together with the use of Isaiah 53 challenges David Balch’s assimilationist position in significant ways, for while there is clearly some overlap between Christian and Greco-Roman household codes on the surface, their foundational values could not be more starkly opposed. The Greco-Roman model assumed a posture of honour, power, and authority predicated on the respectability of the father (pater familias), while 1 Peter’s model appropriates the posture of a lowly bondservant or slave (?e?? d?????) that is exemplified in both Christ, and ?? ????ta? (2:18). The use of Isaiah 53 by the author of 1 Peter therefore suggests that one is most Christ-like when they retain the posture of a servant, especially in the midst of undeserved suffering.


An Onomastic History: What Can Philo Provide?
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Frank Shaw, Ashland University

Sketching an onomastic history is no easy task. Since all our extant onomastica, like our MSS of Philo, Josephus, and most of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, are ecclesiastical, and it is clear that Christian hands reworked these surviving name lists, is an early history even possible? Philo is a prime contributor helping to answer this question. One can find multiple instances of him referring to his predecessors employing these “manuals of Hebrew etymology” in Greek (Folker Siegert). One passage in particular from the QE may have much to offer here, but the previously neglected background of a common Greek expression is needed to provide insight into the passage’s linguistic history, likely meaning, and role in an onomastic reconstruction. Another line of evidence, also hitherto neglected, is the importance of Philo’s several instances of offering alternative etymologies for the same Hebrew name that he elects to expound. The “technical term” (David Runia) that our Alexandrian employs to introduce his etymologies is a third line of evidence, one that, when combined with similar use by previous, roughly contemporary, and later authors, can provide further insight into helping establish a reconstruction of these early handbooks of Hebrew etymology in Greek, tools that played a significant role in Philo’s works.


Performing Apocalyptic Texts: A Case Study of the Eschatological Banquet from the Dead Sea Scrolls
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Shayna Sheinfeld, Colgate University

In my course on ancient and modern apocalypses, I involve students with apocalyptic literature beyond a literary analysis of primary and secondary sources. Among myriad activities and assignments, in Spring 2015 my students performed an eschatological banquet based on the description available in the Dead Sea Scroll text called The Messianic Rule (11QSa). My own guidance of this activity was minimal: after one class session devoted to a basic understanding of the Dead Sea Scrolls community through a close reading of The Community Rule, we met for the performance of the meal. I offered a basic explanation of what was required of them, and I brought some materials and foodstuff for them to use if they decided they needed it. Otherwise, students were left to their own devices in terms of the discussion and interpretation of the text, the assignment of roles, and the performance of the meal. I was present as a resource for questions, as well as to ask pointed questions throughout (sometimes to my students’ dismay). Engaging students with apocalyptic material in this way developed several pedagogically relevant points, two of which will be highlighted in this presentation: First, students stop thinking about the material as just texts, and begin to think about them in terms of societal use. While we had previously covered the historical settings of apocalypse, and placed each apocalypse/apocalyptic community within the historical context, it was still “just history” to the students. Performing the banquet shifted their analysis of texts from the realm of academic into the realm of something that is socially functional, assisting with student thinking about the genre of apocalyptic materials as social action. Second, students engage with a close and critical reading of the text, where their reading matters beyond what might be expected in a class discussion. Their interpretation of the text is, in fact, what makes the banquet happen. This type of close, engaged reading also highlights the holes in our ancient evidence. Audience members of this presentation will be asked to read parts of The Messianic Rule (11QSa) and discuss the procession of the eschatological banquet: who are the participants? What do they eat? What steps are required? If the banquet were to take place, what would it look like? What information is “missing” from the text in order to perform it? The presentation and discussion of The Messianic Rule models engaged learning in order to better understand apocalyptic communities.


The Stories about Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar (Genesis 16 and 21) from a Gender Perspective
Program Unit: Pentateuch
Yael Shemesh, Bar-Ilan University

The lecture considers Genesis chapters 16 and 21 from a gender perspective. It will examine the relationships between Abraham and Sarah (husband and wife, father and the mother of his son), between Sarah and Hagar (mistress and bondwoman, main wife and co-wife), between Abraham and Hagar (head of the family and his wife’s bondwoman, husband and wife, father and the mother of his son), and between the Lord and Hagar (rescuer and beneficiary). Special attention will be paid to Hagar and the process of her empowerment in chapter 21, as she goes from "amah", slave woman (vv. 10 and 12), to "immo", the mother of Ishmael (v. 21), and from a passive object whom another woman takes and hands over to Abraham (16:3) to an active mother who takes a wife for her son (21:21). My reading of the stories will be guided by the three questions raised by Mieke Bal in her Narratology: Who speaks? Who sees? Who acts? I will show that the answers to these questions shed light on the process of literary empowerment that Hagar experiences in both of these chapters. I will endeavor to show that this discussion casts doubt on the validity of the model proposed by Fokkelien van Dijk–Hemmes for identifying a female voice (F) or male voice (M) in biblical stories. According to her model, when stories involve interactions between women, we should investigate whether the relationship in question is one of cooperation (for example, the midwives in Egypt, Naomi and Ruth), in which case we can speak of voice F; or a relationship of tension, competition, and hostility (for example, Sarah and Hagar, Rachel and Leah, Hannah and Peninnah), which points to voice M. However, a study of Hagar’s story (and of other incidents in which women come into conflict with each other) shows that the relationship between the women is not wholly consistent with other aspects of the story that empower women and that consequently seem better suited to what van Dijk–Hemmes designates the F voice.


To Be Continued: Multi-volume Greco-Roman Histories, Attention Spans, and Luke-Acts
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Beth M. Sheppard, Duke University Divinity School

In this piece careful consideration is paid to the intersection between oral performance, rates of publication of multi-volume ancient history texts, and audience memory/attention with an eye toward shedding light on how Luke-Acts might have been written to retain a dedicated audience for both volumes. Appian’s ‘Historia Romana,’ with its ethnographic organization scheme and serialized presentation, serves as a point of comparison. Both texts are analyzed in accordance with modern theoretical approaches to classical reception theory, but evaluation also draws heavily on injunctions for length of composition and other devices spelled out in Horace’s ‘Ars Poetica.’ The reception history of sequential dramas/trilogies during the Roman era is also brought to bear on the discussion. Finally, current studies on modern attention spans in relation to extended plot arcs, episodic dramas, and other phenomena in present-day entertainment media are examined for potential insights.


Metaphor Makers and Takers: Studies in Prophetic Oracles of Judgment
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Tina Sherman, Brandeis University

A draft of a dissertation chapter focusing on agricultural metaphors. This dissertation explores the question of whether there are distinguishing features in the selection or expression of metaphor that set one group of prophetic texts apart from another. The project includes examining: 1) the extent to which the prophets are drawing from the same metaphorical source spaces when speaking of the same target space; 2) the degree to which specific linguistic expressions of common metaphors deliver similar messages; and 3) the question of whether the prophets seem to employ their own unique ideolects in their linguistic expressions of metaphor, or whether it appears that some prophets may have been drawing from a common sociolect. (In other words, this dissertation asks, if the target of the metaphor is held constant, are the prophets expressing the same ideas in the same ways about their common topic?) Thus, the project explores both the conceptual and the linguistic worlds within which the prophets created their metaphorical oracles. Using a combination of conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual blend theory, this study will examine oracles against Israel and Judah and oracles about their restoration. The approach explicitly includes form as a factor in the analysis as a way to control for differences in the contexts within which particular metaphors are used. The project will also require close study of the Hebrew text of the oracles and incorporation of concepts from sociolinguistics. While this dissertation should yield new insights into the interpretation of individual oracles, its primary potential benefit is in providing additional data for the study of the authorship and editing of specific oracles and for the exploration of intertextuality among the prophets. The presentation for the metaphor session at SBL would focus on the second chapter in this dissertation, which will examine agricultural metaphors and the question of how the prophets use these metaphors to both implement and undo the destruction of Israel and Judah and the exile of their people. It will explore whether the restoration oracles may be explicitly referencing, and perhaps even deliberately reversing, metaphorical expressions of destruction and exile, or whether the prophets are more likely simply drawing on imagery and expressions that would have been familiar to an Israelite and Judean audience.


"I Will Give You a Mouth and Wisdom": Prudent Speech in Luke 21:15
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
William D. Shiell, First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, Florida

In Luke’s eschatological discourse in 21.15, Jesus tells the disciples when they stand before kings and governors, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom (stoma kai sophian) which no one will be able to withstand or contradict”. Most English versions and commentaries overlook this uniquely Lukan pair by rendering this phrase, “words and wisdom.” In Luke, the phrase describes the prudent speech Jesus gives to disciples during a trial. Greco-Roman, ancient Jewish texts, and early Christian texts describe how a mouth catalogues the mind, exhibits the speaker’s character, and opens a doorway to the soul. During a trial specifically, a defendant needs to articulate words correctly and prudently. In order to be prepared, a person could receive divine empowerment, endure a personal crisis, or learn the skill. Speaking appropriately reveals the defendant’s wisdom and conveys it to the audience. To do so otherwise would appear foolish. A performance of Luke’s Gospel prepares the listeners for trials when they are called to stand before kings and governors for the sake of Jesus’ name. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will give them the words to say (Luke 12.12), and Jesus will equip them how to articulate the words wisely. Their words are unrehearsed, and so are their mouths. In Luke 21.15, he offers a “mouth and wisdom,” prudent speech in defense before a king. In the synagogue in Luke 4.20 and on trial before Herod in 23.9, Jesus shows them how a person uses discretion when speaking. Whether being handed over to synagogues or standing before kings and governors, defendants could remain silent by settling their minds, waiting for the appropriate moment, and enduring their trials.


“Girdled at the Breasts” (Rev 1:13): Motherhood, Magic, and Misogyny in the Portrayal of the Son of Man in the Apocalypse of John
Program Unit: John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Sarah Shier, Trinity College - Dublin

Although he is one of the major characters in the Apocalypse of John, there is a lack of scholarly analysis of the Son of Man (Rev 1:10-20) as a gendered character. In particular, little attention has been paid to this male character’s possession of mastoi (“breasts”) (Rev 1:13). This paper, therefore, makes a contribution to the analysis of the Son of Man as a gendered character by means of a discussion of the possible reasons for this physical ambiguity. Throughout the paper a comparative-literary methodology is deployed which, through the lens of a feminist hermeneutic of suspicion, takes into account both the Apocalypse’s multivalent literary allusions and Graeco-Roman cultural influences upon the book’s author. The paper aims to discover why, in a book which celebrates the masculine warrior and feminises the enemy, the elite, divine and masculine Son of Man is presented as possessing mastoi. A study of other instances of mastoi in the New Testament (Luke 11:27; 23:29) and comparisons with male characters with breasts in the Odes of Solomon (Ode 8) and the Testament of Solomon (T. Sol. 9) combine to demonstrate that these are lactating breasts and that they have supernatural powers. The Son of Man’s self-description (Rev 1:17-18) indicates that he understands himself in terms commonly associated with the feminine divinities Wisdom, Isis and Hecate, and consideration is therefore given to the possibility that the Son of Man’s possession of mastoi is an attempt to counteract the worship of the fertility goddess Artemis Ephesia. The provenance of the Son of Man’s mastoi still, however, poses a problem and attention is thus finally turned upon the Apocalypse’s divine Woman Clothed with the Sun, who has recently given birth (Rev 12:5) and must, therefore, have nourishing, milk-filled breasts. When she loses both her son and her place in Heaven (Rev 12:5-6), the Son of Man purloins her breasts, firstly in order to be able to nourish his followers with magical powers, and secondly as part of his counteracting the power of the Mother Goddess.


Reading Gender Ideology in the Johannine Shepherd Discourse (John 10:1–21)
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Seungwoo Shim, Brite Divinity School (TCU)

This paper investigates the Shepherd discourse in John (John 10:1-21) from the perspective of ancient Greco-Roman gender ideology. In particular, by employing the Greco-Roman gender notion of masculinity, the paper focuses on how John underscores Jesus’ superior masculinity in the Shepherd discourse. Jesus’ self identification as shepherd and Jesus’ heroic death contain several masculine virtues such as activity, strength, self-defense, self-control, piety, and courage. Through the image of shepherd John portrays Jesus as a strong warrior, like King David in the Jewish tradition, who fights against the enemy to save his flock. As such, it shows Jesus’ superior competence to defend his flocks from outside attacks, not to mention his courage. In the description of Jesus’ foretelling of his death, John also underscores Jesus’ self control, activity, piety, and courage. John especially places Jesus’ death within the category of the voluntary death of a hero. By doing so, John emphasizes that Jesus’ death is for the benefit of others and the result of his obedience to God’s will. Together with Jesus’ own statement on his close relationship with his father, i.e., God, Jesus’ obedience to God’s will shows his piety. Moreover, Jesus was well aware of his death in advance, and fully controlled the process of his death. In this regard, Jesus plays active role in his death. Moreover, the paper examines John’s emphasis on Jesus’ superior masculinity in relation to the situation of Johannine community. In the milieu of the first century Greco-Roman culture, Jesus’ death on the cross might have damaged seriously the fame of Jesus as a man. Therefore, John seems to defend and to restore Jesus’ masculinity by highlighting Jesus’ masculine virtues, by contrasting Jesus’ masculine behaviors with unmanly behaviors of others, such as Pharisees and Jewish rulers. In addition, the emphasis of Jesus’ masculinity carries an anti-imperial implication. The Roman imperial ideology utilizes gender as a tool to represent, not only the superiority of Roman power and Roman imperial rulers but also a hierarchal relationship between Rome and the subjugated nations. John’s claim of Jesus’ superior masculinity, however, can challenge these imperial claims, since it opposes to the feminization of the conquered, and furthermore articulates the voice of surpassing masculinity of the colonized.


Were the Lepers Outcasts in the Synoptic Gospels?
Program Unit: Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Myrick C. Shinall, Jr., Vanderbilt University

Many exegetes, both scholarly and ecclesial, interpret Jesus healing people with leprosy (Mt 8:2-4, Mk 1:40-45, Lk 5:12-14, Lk 17:12-19) as Jesus overcoming the harsh system of exclusion that Jewish law imposed on those with leprosy. This paper argues that such interpretations owe more to contemporary concerns about exclusion than to the outlook of the Gospels themselves. These interpretations falsely construct a “bad” Judaism against which to contrast the “good” Jesus. Such interpretations take for granted that those with leprosy in Second Temple Judaism were excluded from society on the basis of Levitical legislation (Lev 13-14) and that this widespread practice formed the background that auditors of the Gospels would have assumed in hearing these stories. However Leviticus 13-14, which speaks of the procedures for dealing with those with leprosy during the period of the camp, does not, on its face, demand the exclusion of those with leprosy from Second Temple society or make them untouchable. Examining how Josephus, Philo, and the Tannaitic Rabbis interpreted these laws throws doubt on the idea that early Jews systematically excluded those with leprosy from society. Narratives in the Hebrew Bible that deal with leprosy (Ex 4:6-8, Num 12, 2 Kgs 5, 2 Kgs 7, 2 Kgs 15:5, 2 Kgs 26:19-23) do draw on the idea that leprosy entailed exclusion from society, but exclusion in these stories is not uniform. Moreover, these stories present another valence that leprosy carried besides exclusion: the notion that inflicting and relieving leprosy were the special prerogatives of Israel’s God. When examined without assuming that Second Temple Jewish society uniformly excluded those with leprosy, the Synoptic Gospels reveal no indication that their leprous characters suffered from social exclusion or that Jesus’ chief accomplishment in healing them was overcoming such exclusion. Indeed evidence from both within the Synoptic Gospels (Mk 14:3, Mt 26:6) and outside them (Egerton Gospel) points to early Christian conceptions of those with leprosy taking part in the society of Jesus’ day. Rather than viewing the synoptic healings of leprosy as manifestations of Jesus’ disregard for stifling and exclusionary traditions, we should view these stories as attempts to demonstrate Jesus’ divinely granted authority.


The Body Matters: Atonement in Mark’s Gospel in Light of Leviticus 12–15
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Elizabeth Shively, University of St. Andrews

Scholars generally agree that the Gospel of Mark exhibits a theology of the cross, and many glean Mark’s view of redemption or atonement narrowly from the ransom saying in 10:45 and the cup saying in 14:24. In this presentation, I suggest that viewing Mark’s healings in light of Leviticus 12-15 suggests a fresh, multivalent understanding of atonement in the Gospel. This portion of Leviticus portrays skin disease, the discharges of blood and semen, and death itself, as impurities that place human beings in a liminal place between life and death. These impurities do not belong to the moral realm, but to the realm of destruction and death, which Israel’s life-giving God opposes. Atonement marks purification and restoration. I take a comparative and literary approach to look at a pattern of resurrection-type healings from the same impurities in the Gospel of Mark that culminate in Jesus’ own resurrection, suggesting that Jesus’ announcement of the coming of the Kingdom of God is not just about repentance and forgiveness (1:14-15), but also about the purification of the body. I wish to argue Mark presents not only a theology of the cross, but also a theology of the resurrection as the purification of humanity.


Devotion to the Virgin Mary in Pre-Ephesian Hymnography
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Stephen J Shoemaker, University of Oregon

The Armenian and Georgian Lectionaries of Jerusalem open up the world of the Holy City's early liturgies in a spectacular way that is truly unique within late ancient Christianity. They specify not only the appointed readings for dozens of annual liturgical feasts, but they also provide the specific locations for their celebration in Jerusalem and its immediate environs. Yet, while these two documents are unequaled for what they reveal about the evolving feasts of the Palestinian church in late antiquity, their terse accounts of these annual commemorations offer little sense of how these celebrations came to life in the context of early Christian worship. Thankfully, however, there is now another important early liturgical source that can provide such a perspective, the ancient Chantbook of the Jerusalem church, a work that survives only in Old Georgian where it bears the title Iadgari (Tropologion in Greek). This remarkable collection of texts reveals for the first time the hymns that were sung in the churches of Jerusalem during the sixth, the fifth, and even the fourth century. Not surprisingly, the Virgin Mary figures prominently in these early Christian hymns, and not only on the occasion of feasts in her honor, but also in the course of regular Sunday worship as observed throughout the course of the year. From this collection of hymns we can see that already by the later fourth century devotion to Mary and her unique powers of intercession had become an important feature of regular Christian worship, at least in Jerusalem. This paper will explore these hymns as evidence for significant liturgical devotion to Mary well in advance of the Third Council.


'O Mother, Where Art Thou?' On the Disappearance of the Mother from Julian's Hymn to the Mother of the Gods
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Harold Short, Florida State University

Julian's Hymn to the Mother of the Gods, written by the emperor in 362 CE as part of his revival of traditional Roman religion, offers a unique opportunity to observe gender at the intersection of religious and imperial discourse. In this paper, I focus on the easily overlooked seclusion of the Mother, especially within the text's mythological and cosmological narratives. Despite being addressed to her, relatively little of the Hymn is about the Mother of the Gods, focusing instead on the other characters in her mythological drama and certain aspects of her cult. In fact, as he describes the Mother's role in myth and creation, Julian subtly nudges her out of the frame and replaces her with male deities, so that the Mother – while she is upheld as the epitome of creative forces – is excluded from the story of creation. I situate this move within Julian's struggle to establish his political legitimacy through the invention or reconfiguration of religious symbolism: By removing the Mother from the narrative frame and replacing her with male divinities, the emperor transforms her into an inviolate and non-threatening symbol of kingship and his reign's eternal prosperity. Like 4th century Christian bishops and their virgins, Julian uses a representation of idealized and immaculate womanhood to press his political claims.


Scripture Embodied: Perpetua's Passion and the Pauline Story of Salvation
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Catherine Sider Hamilton, University of Toronto

Perpetua, Sara Maitland wrote in 1996, “mentions no doctrine whatsoever, does not quote from the Bible, and barely uses…any exclusively Christian symbols or imagery at all.” The power of Perpetua’s Passio has long been located in its immediacy: this is the unreconstructed and vivid account of a young woman on the verge of martyrdom. Recent studies, however, have demonstrated the literary and rhetorical sophistication of the account (Hefferman 1988, 2012; Ronsse 2006; cf. the multidisciplinary readings in Bremmer and Formisano 2012): here is carefully structured argument, in which Scripture and Christian imagery in fact play a major part. The role of Scripture in Perpetua’s account (by contrast with its literary, rhetorical and psychological structure) is as yet, however, understudied. This paper seeks to redress the balance: to treat Perpetua as an interpreter of Scripture first of all, and to show in the process the thoroughly scriptural logic of her account. Beginning from Perpetua’s dream visions we explore her use of Scripture to make a surprising discovery. While scholars universally note the imagery of Genesis, John and Revelation in the dreams, what has not been noted is the fundamentally Pauline vision that structures them. This paper argues, first, that Paul’s treatment of sin and the human dilemma in Romans informs Perpetua’s visions and finds an echo in the story of Felicitas that follows. Further, Perpetua (and the narrator of Felicitas’ story) see in the concrete events of their passion the outworking of Paul’s scriptural vision. Perpetua’s account of her arrest and trial is not simply vivid and real, though it is that. It is also a dramatic act of scriptural interpretation. Perpetua offers the reader the deliberate enactment, in her own life and dying, of the Pauline story of salvation.


Overcoming Obstacles: Exploring Proposed Technological Solutions for Perceived Problems with Ancient Language Learning through Communicative Methods
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
David Joseph Sigrist, Trinity Western University

Following a brief summary of personal experience learning both ancient and modern languages, and personal experience implementing a curriculum in which a communicative methodology was utilized for ancient language acquisition, the speaker will propose technological and computer-based solutions to the most salient perceived problems associated with the feasibility of utilizing the said methodology. In particular, critiques will be addressed concerning the paucity of hours and resources nearly all institutions allocate for ancient language acquisition, the lack of experience nearly all instructors of ancient languages have in sound pedagogical principles of second-language learning, the absence of native speakers and wholly immersive environments which modern languages can provide, and issues concerning how assessment should be carried out in an academic setting. Although the proposed solutions certainly have relevance for those skeptical of the effectiveness of utilizing a communicative approach for acquiring a reading fluency of ancient languages, the principal objective is to foster honest, thoughtful, and creative dialogue among those already committed to implementing such an approach.


From Paratext to Hypertext: Liquid Boundaries in Digital Bibles
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Jeffrey S. Siker, Loyola Marymount University

The dramatic shift from physical print Bibles to digital Bibles on screens of all sorts has created a whole series of new interpretive issues. One area of particular interest is the function of hypertexts and hypermedia as paratexts in digital Bibles. How are hypertexts/hypermedia both similar to and different from more traditional paratexts in print Bibles? If paratexts provide boundaries for interpretation of the biblical text, do hypertexts blur such boundaries? Do paratexts serve to close in on a text while hypertexts expand textual borders? Further, to what extent are digital Bibles truly expansive beyond the biblical text itself, and to what extent are they actually more primitive versions of print Bibles? What’s the difference between reading the paratexts in print Bibles and the function of hypertexts/media in digital Bibles and digital Bible programs, both sophisticated (Accordance, Logos, etc) and less sophisticated (YouVersion)? This paper will explore these related questions in seeking to understand better the trending patterns associated with the Bible as book in an increasingly digital world.


Social Security, Insurance, and Bankruptcy: Is There a Safety-Net in Ancient Israel?
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Ronald A. Simkins, Creighton University

Although some form of economic safety-net is generally assumed in current political conversations, debate over the nature and extent of the safety-net is perhaps the source of the great divide in American politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century. At issue, for any aspect of the safety-net, are the questions of who is protected or supported, from what, and to what extent, but also the critical question of does it work. Although the concept of a “safety-net” is anachronistic for ancient Israel, the concern expressed through the concept – to protect or support the economically disenfranchised when they are most vulnerable – is evident throughout the biblical tradition. Yet, as with today, there is no unanimity. This paper will explore the competing visions presented through the Priestly and Deuteronomic legislation, asking the questions with regard to those who are vulnerable: who is protected or supported, from what, and to what extent? Because the Priestly and Deuteronomic legislation is rather utopian, this paper will also consider whether concerns for a “safety-net” were sufficient and effective, relying especially on the historical and prophetic traditions.


The Role of the Sabbath in Jewish Universalist and Particularist Literature of the Second Temple Period
Program Unit: Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Malka Z. Simkovich, Catholic Theological Union

The observance of the Sabbath, along with the practices of circumcision and dietary laws, were the primary signifying markers of Judaism in Second Temple literature. As a marker of Judaism, the Sabbath functions in a variety of different ways in Second Temple literature. In some Jewish literature, the observance of the Sabbath acts as a barometer of one's Jewish piety. The author of the book of Judith, for instance, affirms Judith’s religious piety by describing her scrupulous observance of the Sabbath, New Moon, and Jewish holidays. In other texts, however, the Sabbath is used as a marker of a universalist worldview which invites non-Jews to worship the Jewish God without assimilating into the Jewish religion. The three primary differentiating aspects of Judaism in the Second Temple period, the practices of the Sabbath, circumcision, and dietary law, are highlighted as typifying a specifically Jewish manner of worshiping God, which Gentiles are invited to adopt in the eschatological age. This universalist vision of worship is sometimes characterized specifically by the foreign nations’ observance of the Sabbath. One of the earliest such texts which places the Sabbath at the center of its universalist vision is Isaiah 56. Yet another constellation of Second Temple texts which have also been characterized as universalist, such as The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and The Sentences of Pseudo-Phocylides, make no mention of the Sabbath; nor do they mention circumcision and dietary law. These books are Jewish in character (The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs refer to legal traditions such as levirate law; Pseudo-Phocylides opens with a restatement of the Decalogue), but they nevertheless ignore the most well-known differentiating aspects of Judaism in order to advance a universalist portrayal of Jewish tradition which underscores the ethical aspects of Judaism rather than the differentiating aspects of Judaism. This paper argues that all of the authors of these Second Temple texts viewed the Sabbath as typifying Jewish piety in a way that enabled them to use it as a barometer of the success of their own agenda - whether this meant that the Sabbath was meant to be kept only by Jews, or that all God-fearing Gentiles would keep the Sabbath in the eschatological end-time, or that the Sabbath should be ignored altogether in favor or a neutralized universalistic vision.


Militancy in the Medinan Qur'an
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Nicolai Sinai, University of Oxford

Injunctions to warfare against the unbelievers are an important characteristic of the Medinan stratum of the Qur’an, in noticeable contrast to the earlier Meccan surahs. In Muhammad’s Medinan proclamations, religiously motivated militancy comes to be a significant component of the Qur’anic ideal of piety – albeit one that is constrained by considerable counterbalancing tendencies. Since Sizgorich’s Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity does not address the topic of militancy in the Qur’an, leaping straight from Late Antiquity to early post-Qur’anic Islam, I shall attempt to complement his argument by exploring the extent to which the Qur’an’s endorsement of warfare “in the path of God” is continuous with late antique antecedents and biblically-based notions of religious militancy. In agreement with Firestone, I shall emphasize the tension between these latter ideas and native Arabian notions of tribal warfare, a tension evident in the Qur’anic audience’s palpable lack of enthusiasm for fighting the unbelievers. The paper will also explore whether the Qur’anic material on militancy and warfare offers evidence of diachronic development.


Angels among Us? The Watchers Myth and Ephrem’s Angelology in His Commentary on Genesis
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
David A. Skelton, Florida State University

Although the equation of the “sons of God” with the “sons of Seth” was a typical euhemeristic interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 in early Christianity in contrast with the Watchers myth in Enochic lore, it became the dominant interpretation in the Syriac tradition through the influence of Ephrem of Nisibis (306-373 CE). Ephrem’s lengthiest rebuttal of the equation of the “sons of God” with angels occurs in his Commentary on Genesis where he also sets up an ingenious counter narrative that re-signifies many of the key components of the Watchers myth. This paper contends that Ephrem’s attempt to mitigate the angelic interpretation of Genesis 6 ironically mirrors his own angelology. The distinctive components he adds to the Watchers myth, such as making the Cainites and Sethites live in different geographical locations and giving them different diets and body structure, allow him to accentuate modesty and chastity over avarice and gluttony, which are central virtues in Ephrem’s attempt to make virginity and monasticism ideals for all Christian. For Ephrem, the angels are paradigms of these ideals, and those who achieve these ideals become equal to the angels. Surprisingly, these distinctive components reappear in the Ethiopian commentary tradition on Genesis (and?mta) in a tarik that contains similar elements to Ephrem’s story, but unlike Ephrem, the and?mta makes the equation of Sethites with angels and monks quite explicit. Overall, this analysis between Ephrem and the and?mta may reveal the influence of Syriac interpretation on the Ethiopian commentary tradition as well as the centrality of angelology in the Sethite reading of Genesis 6:1-4.


Jerome as Secondary Witness to JPA, CPA, and Syriac
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Vincent Skemp, St. Catherine University

Late fourth-/early fifth-century Christian Jerome very likely came into contact with three Aramaic dialects: Syriac while in the Chalcis desert near Antioch; Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (JPA) and presumably Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) when he lived in Bethlehem. This paper presents the evidence and the methodology for determining the distinctions between these dialects when Jerome comments on lexemes as syrus or syriacus without making a distinction between the dialects. While Jerome’s knowledge of Aramaic is the focus of a larger monograph project, this paper focuses on whether Jerome's comments on lexemes as syrus or syriacus are secondary witnesses to JPA, CPA, or Syriac respectively. My methodology currently relies largely on looking for points of contact between what Jerome asserts about lexemes in conjunction with his location and what can be known about the dialects via lexica, such as CAL (Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project), and specific tendencies within the dialects according to modern grammars, such as Müller-Kessler for CPA.


A Passion Narrative in Q?
Program Unit: Q
David Sloan, Malone University

A common argument against the two-document hypothesis is the presence of minor agreements between Matthew and Luke against Mark. Frans Neirynck and others have given plausible non-Q explanations for every minor agreement, but in the passion narrative there is such a high concentration of minor agreements that further explanation is needed. Stephen Hultgren has surveyed some of these agreements and argued “that Matthew and Luke had access to common, non-Markan narrative material in their passion narratives,” but Hultgren ignores the arguments for the unity of Q and thus thinks that this narrative material (as well as the other double tradition material) comes from a variety of sources. The present author has previously argued (1) that Q was significantly more extensive than the double tradition (SBL 2012 and a forthcoming JSNT article) and (2) that the genre of Q is narrative (Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society 2015). This paper builds on these arguments as well as on arguments for the unity of Q and shows that many of the minor agreements in the passion narrative as well as a number of Sondergut reflect the style, theology, and themes that are found elsewhere in Q. When these elements are put together a consistent passion narrative is recovered that reflects the Deuteronomistic outlook of Q, flashes back to earlier passages in Q, and gives the same perspective on Jesus’ death and vindication as is found elsewhere in Q. This paper thus concludes that Q contained a passion narrative and offers a reconstruction of that passion narrative as well as explanations for why Matthew (and sometimes Luke) omitted various elements of this narrative.


Using Clickers to Start Discussions in the Religious Studies Classroom
Program Unit: Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Kristy Slominski, University of California-Santa Barbara

This interactive demonstration will share strategies for using student response systems, or clicker remotes, to initiate discussions within the religious studies classroom. Through multiple types of questions, I will introduce the features and benefits of clickers, as well as some ways that discussions about religion and religious studies can be prompted and enhanced through clicker questions and the resulting data. These teaching tactics help students to engage material actively during class, to share opinions, and to acknowledge the diverse views of religion held by their peers. At public institutions, where religious studies professors are often cautious about students sharing personal beliefs, clickers provide a way to integrate and critically analyze students’ stances about religious situations without putting individuals on the spot for their beliefs. The incorporation of clickers into the classroom also meets the preferences of millennial students for instantaneous feedback, personalization, and opportunities to share opinions using technology.


A Parchment Discovery from the Stacks: A Tenth Century Qur’an Fragment with a Pious Attribution
Program Unit: The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism (IQSA)
Keith Small, London School of Theology

Discoveries of ancient manuscripts can be spectacular finds where thousands of pages of ancient texts that have lain undisturbed for centuries are discovered by chance as with the Cairo Geniza in the late 1800s, or the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s, or the thousands of Qur’an pages found within the domes of the Grand Mosque in San?a’ in the early 1970s. Less sensational but no less exciting to the discoverer are the smaller finds of individual manuscripts or parchment leaves that have escaped notice in library collections until chance leads to their seeing the light of day. The Fraser Fragment is one such discovery. While surveying the existing collection of Persian manuscripts as part of his duties as curator of Islamic manuscripts for the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, Alasdair Watson came across this single 10th century parchment Qur’an leaf bound in to a volume containing two seventeenth/eleventh century Persian calligraphy manuals. In addition to its interest of being unknown to previous Bodleian librarians, it contains many interesting features as an ancient Qur’an manuscript. It features a distinctive 10th century script style and artistic style for illuminating the verse numbers. It also has distinctive additional artwork suggesting a possible link to later 16th century Safavid political claims. Then, quietly, off in one margin in simple black Persian handwriting it features an attribution note that it was written by the very hand of the 6th Imam of the Twelver Shi’ite Imams, Ja’far al-Sadiq. This paper will survey the paleographic, orthographic, and codicological features of this Qur’an leaf to understand it in its original scribal context and later uses to which it may have been put. Also, the subject of pious attribution notes with early Qur’ans and Qur’an fragments will be explored, especially those of early Caliphs and ones of the descendants of ?Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muhammad’s son-in-law. ‘Ali’s descendants are held to have special significance for calligraphers of the Qur’an. A conclusion will be made as to the genuineness of this attribution, while examining the complex motivations behind asserting such attributions in medieval piety and politics.


Why Aramaic in the Yerushalmi?
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Willem Smelik, University College London

Like epigraphy and some of the Midrashim, the Talmudim contain both Hebrew and Aramaic, albeit the Yerushalmi is predominantly Hebrew, whereas the authorial voice of the Bavli appears to be in Aramaic. The use and selection of languages raises questions which inform our understanding of the textual meaning. This paper will analyze the use and selection of languages in the Talmud Yerushalmi against the background of a multilingual society.


Witnesses for the Defense in the Gospel of Luke
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Abraham Smith, Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University

Assuming that the Third Gospel’s audience faced the public relations problem of a crucified Messiah, this paper argues that the Gospel of Luke is an insiders’ defense of Jesus despite his ignominious death on a cross. Furthermore, while the paper reviews various methodological approaches to the Lukan author, the paper’s own brand of audience-oriented criticism seeks to reconstruct the horizon of expectations and repertoires by which the Gospel’s authorial audience would likely have understood the Third Gospel’s defense. Accordingly, this paper avers that the Third Gospel negotiated a politics of respectability by imagining Jesus and his followers not solely as prophets and philosophers but as benefactors whose cosmopolitan reach rivaled the Roman Empire’s own claims of world-wide benefaction. Finally, the paper appraises the Gospel’s defense for its ethical utility under very different circumstances in the world today.


Moses and Pharaoh’s Magicians: A Comparative Method and Approach to Qur’anic Use of Biblical Narratives
Program Unit: Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Andrew C. Smith, Claremont Graduate University

This paper presents a comparative analysis of Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh and his magicians in the Qur’an (as found in Q7:103-126, 20:56-76, and 26:10-51) and Exodus (Ex. 3:1-7:13). It builds a methodological approach which views the Qur’anic text as deeply involved with and inseparable from Biblical tradition, while also recognizing that the Qur’an differs extensively from the Bible in the ways it utilizes the content of their common narratives. This paper posits the Qur’an as actively constructing its pedagogical and exhortatory usage of these narratives as a function of its reception context, adapting them to remind its audience of important mythic-scriptural narratives and, as such, represents a merging of the circumstances and experiences of the earliest community of Muhammad’s followers with the biblical historical-prophetic narrative. It argues that Qur’anic prophetic narratives may be analyzed in comparison with their corresponding Biblical narrative(s) to isolate aspects that refer specifically to the context of the Qur’an’s revelation and the circumstances of the earliest Islamic community, thus aiding in reconstruction of this era independently of and as a check against sole reliance on the tafsir and sira traditions. This methodology for Qur’anic interpretation is illustrated by analysis of the narratives of Moses appearing before Pharaoh and the subsequent magical showdown and conversion of Pharaoh’s magicians.


Jewish Attitudes toward Gentile (Im)purity and the Evidence for a Jewish-Christian Sitz im Leben in Acts
Program Unit: Book of Acts
David A. Smith, Duke University

The book of Acts is, as all interpreters realize, a story with a direction; beginning in Jerusalem, Luke narrates the growth and extension of the apostolic message “to ends of the earth.” Because this expansion of the “word of God” takes place largely through the agency of human persons of Jewish ethnicity, the progress of the narrative is marked by the challenge and negotiation of a single ethnic boundary: that between Jews and Gentiles. Although this ethnic boundary is central to the book, few studies of Acts have taken care to situate historically Luke’s presentation of the concerns of the Jewish characters of Acts about proper maintenance of this boundary within the milieu of Jewish attitudes toward Gentiles in the late Second Temple and early Rabbinic Periods. However, recent studies in ancient Jewish purity conceptions in general and attitudes toward Gentiles in particular have shed light on the variety and nature of Jewish orientations toward Gentiles in the period during which Luke-Acts was composed. The present paper surveys a number of primary texts in the ancient Jewish discourse on Gentile purity status, and, in dialogue with recent scholarship on this question, evaluates their significance for interpreting Acts. This study finds a remarkable correspondence, as well as importance differences, between attitudes toward Gentiles in the Jewish texts surveyed and the attitudes toward Gentiles expressed by the Jewish characters of Luke’s narrative. The presence in Acts both of concerns that are recognizably Jewish and of solutions that correspond to those concerns suggests Luke’s proximity to a form of Jewish-Christianity, to which his legitimatory narrative is addressed and with which the author is in closest sympathy.


Jonah and His Ninevehs: Margin and Center in Canon, Material, and Narrative
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Eric C. Smith, Iliff School of Theology

A fascinating and seemingly unlikely aspect of early Christian art is its propensity to depict the prophet Jonah. Beginning with the earliest catacomb paintings and extending to sarcophagi, gold glasses, sculptures, and illuminated manuscripts, Jonah's frequent appearances have surprised and intrigued scholars. Many interpreters have sought explanations for the prophet's ubiquity in the connection between the funerary contexts and the resurrectional resonances of the story. Others have argued that employments in manuscripts reflect the attitudes of the scribes and artists toward their own labor (playful, creative, even reluctant). Still others see the entire tradition as rooted in iconographical utilitarianism: the artists already knew how to paint Endymion, so they made him into Jonah. But such explanations fail to account for the diverse contexts where Jonah appears and material forms his story takes. In this paper (presented jointly by a scholar of Hebrew Bible and reception history and a scholar of New Testament and early Christian material culture), we argue that the many Jonahs of early Christian art are expressions of a tension between margin and center. We understand the various material existences of Jonah to mirror the story’s textual existences: as both marginal and central to their respective contexts. The book’s centrality is evident in its canonical placement among the Minor Prophets. But Jonah’s form – a generic mash up – defies the conventions of prophetic literature. As a book about a prophet, it references prophetic literature even as it stands apart from it, commenting on and critiquing the values and assumptions embedded in that literature. Likewise, depictions of Jonah are both marginal and central. They are marginal with respect to their contexts (often underground, on the edges of normative culture), and they are marginal with respect to the meanings that the story produces in those contexts. But, like the book of Jonah itself, these material and artistic expressions of Jonah remain utterly central to the theological world of the early Christian communities that created them, particularly with regard to the development of ideas about baptism, resurrection, and the afterlife. They belong irrevocably to the symbolic universe of early Christian theology, and in many ways they form the pole of meaning for the contexts in which they are found. This simultaneous marginality and centrality of Jonah on the page and in material form helps to make sense of its employment as a major part of the early Christian symbolic world.


Through a Gold Glass Darkly: Reading Hybridity in Jewish and Christian Realia
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Eric C. Smith, Iliff School of Theology

Gold glasses, like the catacombs some of them known to have come from, are described as “Jewish” or “Christian” based largely on iconographical grounds. These iconographies, in turn, are described and proscribed by recourse to texts, often canonical ones: the lulav and etrog are Jewish on the strength of biblical and rabbinical descriptions of Sukkot, for example, and a man in a tomb is Christian because of John 11. Only two “Jewish” gold glasses are provenanced, though, and both were found in “Christian” catacombs. Meanwhile, the small shards of gold glass that were found in “Jewish” catacombs bear no signs of distinctively Jewish iconography. We are faced with a situation, then, in which our textually-based iconographic identifications run up against confounding facts on the ground. Material culture does not seem to have guarded boundaries as jealously as texts did, and the realia of Roman Judaism and Christianity decline to adhere to modern constructions and reconstructions of identity. In this paper I follow Jas Elsner’s invitation to ask whether “elite” and sometimes “polemical” “textual history” should dictate a “methodological transformation in our treatment of archaeological evidence,” causing us to assert as “Jewish” or “Christian” what might actually be both or neither (Elsner, Archaeologies and Agendas, JRS 93, p. 127). In this paper I pick up where Elsner leaves off, using Bhabha’s ideas about hybridity, mimicry, and cultural differentiation to understand the muddled and confusing picture drawn by the material remains of Christianity and Judaism in Rome. Here, gold glasses are microcosms that can model and inform the greater cosmos of Judaisms and Christianities in Rome in the first centuries of the common era.


Preliminary Report on the “Willoughby Papyrus” of the Gospel of John and an Unidentified Christian Text
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Geoff S. Smith, University of Texas at Austin

Formerly in the possession of Harold Willoughby of the University of Chicago, this unpublished fragment of the Gospel of John in Greek created a stir when it appeared briefly on a well-known auction site in January of 2015. Having obtained permission from the owner to edit and publish the manuscript, I will offer in this presentation the initial results of my analysis of the so-called “Willoughby Papyrus.” I will demonstrate that this fragment complies with the 1970 UNESCO convention on cultural property and discuss the circumstances of its discovery and rediscovery. On the basis of new images of the fragment, I will also provide a transcription of the text, discuss its apparent bookroll format, and assess its text-critical value. Finally, I will present the secondary text on the verso and entertain the possibility that it belongs to an otherwise unknown Christian apocryphal text.


A Body Pure and Innocent: Anthropology and Anti-Origenism in the Sentences of Sextus (NHC XII,1)
Program Unit: Christian Apocrypha
Geoffrey Smith, University of Texas at Austin

This paper identifies in the peculiarities of the Coptic translation of the Sentences of Sextus in Nag Hammadi Codex XII a consistent tendency to elevate the status of the body. While the body is held in comparatively low regard in the Greek, Latin, and other versions of the Sentences of Sextus, the version in Codex XII insists that the body is a pure and innocent creation of God. Given that the Sentences were known to have sparked controversy during the Origenist debate, and that anti-Origenist tendencies have been identified in the version of the Gospel of Truth from Codex XII, this paper argues that the rehabilitation of the body in the Coptic Sentences is best understood as a critical response to Origenist anthropology. This paper hopes to contribute not only to our understanding of the ideological currents that run throughout Nag Hammadi Codex XII, but also more broadly to the reception of non-Canonical Christian literature in Late Antiquity.


Five Impulses of the Joseph Smith Translation of Mark and Their Implications for LDS Hermeneutics
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Julie M. Smith, Independent Scholar

This paper considers five under-appreciated aspects of the Joseph Smith Translation of Mark: the impulses to amplify Mark's unique tendencies, to foreground women, to read closely and critically, to modernize, and to revise. After each impulse is explored, it will be positioned as a potential guideline for LDS biblical hermeneutics.


A Double Portion: An Intertextual Reading of Hannah (1 Samuel 1–2) and Mark's Greek Woman (Mark 7:24–30)
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Julie M. Smith, Independent Scholar

Abstract: This paper considers intertextual echoes between 1 Samuel 1 (Hannah's pleading in the house of the Lord for a child) and Mark 7:24-30 (the Greek woman's request for exorcism for her daughter). Both stories feature women who, in distress, approach a male religious authority. In each case, the men misunderstand the request and rebuke the women: Eli believes that Hannah is drunk and Jesus believes that the woman, as a Gentile, is not entitled to his attention. The women correct the men's erroneous notions by adopting and extending their language, with Hannah explaining that she has not taken in drink but rather is pouring out her spirit and the Greek woman stating that Gentiles can be imagined as house pets instead of scavenging dogs. Based on this new understanding, the men then announce that the women's desire has been granted. Both stories serve as turning points in their larger narrative contexts: Hannah's desire for a righteous child changes the course of the nation's history (compare 1 Samuel 3:1 with 1 Samuel 4:1) and the Greek woman's desire for her daughter leads to the expansion of Jesus' ministry (compare the Jewish-oriented feeding miracle in Mark 6:35-44 with the Gentile-oriented one in Mark 8:1-10). This intertextual reading enriches the interpretation of the Markan narrative in several ways. First, some interpretive difficulties in Mark 7:24-30—including the meaning of kyrie on the woman's lips—are resolved through consideration of the intertext. Second, the occupation of the roles of both Eli and the God of Israel by Jesus has important implications for Markan christology, especially since other intertexts in Mark (including Jesus as Jonah and God during the stilling of the storm, Jesus as Adam and God during the healing of the bleeding woman, and Jesus as both Moses and God during the feeding of the five thousand) position Jesus as simultaneously filling mortal and divine roles. Next, comparing the Greek woman with Hannah adds dimension to the portrayal of one of the few characters in Mark's Gospel who considers and understands Jesus' parables. Finally, these stories might initially be dismissed as the private concerns of individual women, but since both stories alter the trajectories of their respective narrative, one implication of the intertext is to emphasize that the seemingly personal concerns of women can have transformative power on a much larger stage.


Famous (or Not So Famous) Last Words: Mark 15:34 and the Tradition of Dying (Last) Words in Greco-Roman Biography
Program Unit: Markan Literary Sources
Justin M. Smith, Azusa Pacific University

Much of the attention placed on Jesus’ last words in Mark 15.34 has been centered on the Semitic origins of the ‘cry of dereliction’ from the cross as it relates to Psalm 22.1. However, little, if any, attention has been paid to the possible Greco-Roman literary backgrounds to Jesus’ words from the cross. This is not to suggest that there are direct literary (or verbatim) parallels between the words of Jesus and Greco-Roman Biographic texts, rather this paper proposes to explore the themes and motifs present in in the closing moments of subjects in Greco-Roman biographies. These themes and motifs would be compared and contrasted to the final episode of Jesus’ life in Mark 15.34. Some special attention would be paid to the ‘death of a tyrant’ motif present in many Greco-Roman biographies as a point of contrast with the last moments of Jesus as presented in Mark 15.34.


The Postcolonial Roundtable: Evangelicals Engaging Postcoloniality
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Kay Higuera Smith, Azusa Pacific University

The Postcolonial Roundtable is a group of scholars committed to research and collaboration on the intersection between evangelicals and postcoloniality. It turns out that evangelicals are uniquely situated to meet some of the current challenges to postcolonial criticism. These challenges include the reality that many postcolonial critics: 1) are operating within the meaning-producing system of Western neo-colonialism and cannot escape that system; 2) employ elite discourse that is incomprehensible to the very people for whom they seek to speak; 3) recognize the critical ethical claims that follow postcolonial criticism but offer no practical postcolonial ethics. Yet while evangelicals, who represent a global movement, can address these challenges, it also is the case that evangelicalism itself is deeply implicated in coloniality. Thus it faces its own urgent challenges as well.


The Mourning After: Leah, Loss and Melancholia in Genesis 29
Program Unit: Bible and Practical Theology
Terry Ann Smith, New Brunswick Theological Seminary

Melancholic depression, as a mood disorder, can manifest as a defense mechanism by person(s) experiencing extreme stressful and/or debilitating events; as in the case of loss (real or imagined), be it a loved one, a position, or any other attachment (animate or inanimate) in which one has deposited a significant emotional investment. The person unable or unwilling to adjust to the new reality without the desired object internalizes the “loss” as frustration and anger. Finding themselves in an unsafe environment and unable to express their true feelings of anger and frustration causes these feelings to be directed inward, and once inward, overtime may lead to depression or the melancholic state. One way in which this internalized loss potentially manifests externally is found in the melancholic’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem. This paper examines whether the family dynamics undergirding the story of Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29, particularly as it relates to Leah’s naming of her children (i.e. Reuben associated with affliction, Simeon associated with hatred, etc.), provide the necessary conditions for understanding this naming as a product of Leah’s melancholic state, the result of her inability to win the object of her interest and affection, Jacob. Moreover, Leah as the un-favored daughter and unwanted wife and the melancholia it theoretically produces, when read together with the rising rate of depression among women in general, and African American women in particular, suggests the need for a heightened conversation within the black church regarding circumstances, symptoms and self-care for those dealing with this disorder. The pastoral implications suggest the need for engendering hope and healing when ministering to women who suffer from this malady in silence.


Roots of Resistance: Re-imaging the Distribution of Power in the Book of Daniel
Program Unit: Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Terry Smith, New Brunswick Theological Seminary

There appears an enigmatic congruence in the social conditions fueling Jewish sectarianism during the late Second Temple Period and the conditions predicating the antithetical religious discourses of African American civil rights leadership and Black Nationalist advocates during the mid-twentieth century. Comparatively, groups in both of these historical periods sought to exist under imperial administrations in which they were (and in the case of African Americans, still are) oppressed. Recent scholarly assessments of the book of Daniel have provided insight into the various kinds of social and political exploitation associated with imperial domination by uncovering some of the practical ways in which oppressed groups during this period could successfully vent their frustration in the face of their own powerlessness. Somewhat similarly, we find that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., made use of history and religion to frame their polemic against American policies and practices. Instructively, both the book of Daniel and the speeches and writings of Malcolm X and King portray struggle as endemic of the life styles, attitudes, and daily experiences of the socially marginalized and disenfranchised. Correspondingly, the perpetual presence of struggle tends to engender acts of protest that continually disrupt hegemonic claims claims to power and control, even if these acts rarely remove dominating influences. Here, my examination of the overt and covert acts of resistance (i.e. subversive indirection, mimicry, mockery, etc.) attending the Daniel narrative and the speeches and writings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X yields a reading that views the resistance strategies of these groups as attempts to re-image and redistribute power between the dominant and dominated.


Cognition and Character Building: Constructing the Mind of Jesus in Mark and John
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Tyler Smith, Yale University

The degree to which individual characters understand the revelatory words of the Johannine Jesus and respond with belief are widely recognized as hallmarks of characterization in the Fourth Gospel. While excellent work has been done on characters' (mis)understanding and (un)belief in John, that work is largely concerned with whether or not these characters represent "types" of response to Jesus. This paper attempts to offer a broader case for the centrality of represented cognition in characterization, with respect both to characters' cognitive abilities and dispositions and also to the content of their thinking, feeling, understanding, and believing. Readers construct characters by using textual and contextual cues to theorize what characters know and how their knowledge changes over time. Such a perspective is helpful whether one advocates a uniform or an eclectic approach to character studies, and lends nuance to several active sites of interest for Johannine characterization: gender, for example, but also social status, genre, the use of ancient rhetorical topoi, and the construction of the Jewish other. As several scholars have pointed out, the Johannine prologue gives readers a cognitive advantage over secondary and tertiary characters in the narrative. What has received less attention is the reader's relationship to the mind constructed for Jesus. Unlike others in the Fourth Gospel, the Johannine Jesus apparently possesses superhuman cognitive abilities by virtue of his unique relationship with the Father. These abilities, and the knowledge contingent on them, are brought into sharper relief when viewed alongside the parallel narrative and character in the Gospel of Mark. Leaving open the question of whether or not John "knew" Mark, this paper will leverage parallels the Second Gospel provides to cast light on John's construction of Jesus' mind, attending particularly to his special knowledge of the future and the inner lives of other persons in the narrative.


The Characterization of Women in Job and the Testament of Job
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Amy Smith Carman, Pepperdine University

For centuries, biblical narratives have been rewritten and expanded to respond to lingering questions left by other versions of the story. These writings often center on a distinctive theological point the author wishes to highlight, often absent or unclear from earlier renditions of the narrative. The Testament of Job is an example of this phenomenon. The anonymous author develops the story of Job with a number of fascinating additions and plot twists. One group that is portrayed in an entirely new manner is the story’s female characters. Women in the canonical book of Job are practically absent. Beyond the mention of a wife and daughters, all lacking names, Job’s wife utters the single line attributed to a female (Job 2:9). Perhaps later readers of Job found the portrayal of women in Job to be dissatisfying or too confined. Whatever the reason may be, the author utilized the T. of Job as an occasion to supplement the story by enriching the text with an increase in women’s responsibilities, a more positive view of their spiritual capabilities, and a larger share of dialogue and consequence in the narrative itself. The author dramatically transforms the way in which his or her literary predecessor treats the women in Job’s household. Instead of brief cameos and minor allusions, many of the women are transformed into major contributors in the retelling of the story. Most notably, the narrator bestows upon Job’s wife and his second set of daughters much more prominent roles than in the canonical version of the story. While there are numerous differences between the two retellings of Job’s life and trials, the focus of this study will rest on the manner in which the women in Job’s household are recast in the T. of Job. The overarching aim is explore the portrayal of women in the story through characterization and by means of a feminist interpretation. While there are difficulties in hypothesizing how the narrative relates to women in the author’s historical situation, it is an important viewpoint to bring into the conversation of women’s positions and consequence in the ancient world.


Ezra, Mixed Marriage, and Contemporary Readings
Program Unit: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Daniel Smith-Christopher, Loyola Marymount University

It is difficult to read the "mixed marriage crisis" in exclusively historical terms, entirely divorced from contemporary issues. This is especially difficult if one takes a stand of sympathy, empathy, or even solidarity, with contemporary cultural minorities whose struggle to maintain identity has often led their leadership to take a posture of criticism toward mixed marriages 'among their own' in recent history. However, there have also been engendered "readings" of these passages that suggest other ways of taking up the issue both historically and in dialogue with contemporary issues. In my comments, I will review the position from which I have read Ezra/Nehemiah in the past, and suggest ways in which I have appreciated Mark Brett's helpful critique in the past (and in this session), as well as exploring some other directions of thought inspired by others (both in social sciences and Biblical studies) as well.


Historiography and Identity
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Jeremy Smoak, University of California-Los Angeles

Special joint-session with ASOR on "Historiography and Identity in the Iron Age Levant."


The Relationship between Wisdom and Revelation: The Doctrine of Retribution as a Divinatory
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Mark Sneed, Lubbock Christian University

While Israelite scribes distinguished between modes of literature like the prophetic books and the wisdom literature, they did not clearly or rigidly distinguish between the phenomena of wisdom and revelation. A clear example of this are the sapiential oracles (massa’) of Agur and Lemuel found in Proverbs 30-31, both viewed as sources of wisdom. The concepts of wisdom and revelation, in fact, overlap because both were viewed as legitimate sources of divine knowledge. This also fits the larger ancient Near Eastern perspective. An example is the relationship between the doctrine of retribution found in all ancient Near Eastern wisdom traditions and types of divination. Drawing on the work by Glendon Bryce on omen-wisdom, I will argue that the Israelite sages’ connecting of religio-ethical behavior with fortune is a generalized version of deductive divination found in the ancient Near East, particularly Mesopotamia. The omen texts are only once removed from the doctrine of retribution. They both are forms of deductive divination. Both posit that the deities have placed divine knowledge within the sphere of the natural world that must be deduced. One difference is that the omen texts are focused more on national concerns, while wisdom instruction focuses on the individual. Omen texts also focus on unusual events, while wisdom instruction focuses on ordinary, repeatable activities. Revelation is simply inspired divination that comes directly from the deity. Thus, the difference between revelation and wisdom is ultimately about the difference between direct versus mediated forms of divine knowledge. The difference between the two from this broader perspective essentially collapses any significant incompatibility between the two that is so often assumed.


A Response to Jaco Gericke’s Thesis in the Hebrew Bible and Philosophy of Religion
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Mark Sneed, Lubbock Christian University

In this critique of Gericke’s thesis, I have mainly praise for this first attempt to provide a comprehensive apology for a new form of biblical criticism called philosophical criticism. In fact, it represents a return of sorts to the philosophical bearings of earlier biblical scholars. I would rank it in significance for biblical studies to Wellhausen’s Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel. It represents a tour de force and fills a significant gap in biblical studies. Gericke shows the following: how the ancient Israelites were capable of a kind of philosophical thinking, biblical scholars assume philosophical presuppositions that need exposing, and the Hebrew Bible can be analyzed using philosophy as a tool. All of these dimensions certainly need more attention by mainline biblical scholarship. My critique is minor and semantic and involves clarifying Gericke’s notion of folk-philosophical thinking by the Israelites. I will also offer suggestions for further study that spring from Gericke’s discussion.


Acts of Paul in the ‘We’ Materials of Acts
Program Unit: Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
Glenn E. Snyder, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Acts of Paul is normally assumed to be a single, coherent text composed after Acts. Hence it is debated whether and to what extent Acts of Paul depended upon Acts literarily, and if so, how and why its author may have related Acts of Paul to Acts. But if Acts was composed late and “parts” of Acts of Paul were composed earlier, other issues and options may be considered. Building on my work in Acts of Paul: The Formation of a Pauline Corpus (Mohr Siebeck, 2013), I therefore propose to reconsider the relations between Acts and Acts of Paul by analyzing their parallel vignettes. By explaining how all of these macro-parallels (versus smaller parallels of phrase debated by Hills, Pervo, et al.) are set within the “We” materials, I will argue that the “We” materials represent one of the final stages of composition of Acts, whose function was not only to stitch together otherwise separate blocks of material but also to (re)collect and preserve disparate traditions about Paul, including traditions otherwise attested in Acts of Paul.


Selective Memory: Lot’s Wife in the Qur’an and Later Islamic Interpretation
Program Unit: Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Josey Bridges Snyder, Emory University

The reception of Lot’s wife in the Qur’an and later Islamic interpretations is an intriguing case study for Sidney Griffith’s claim that “The Bible is at the same time everywhere and nowhere in the Arabic Qur’an.” Lot’s wife is “everywhere” in the Qur’an: she is referenced no fewer than nine times. Yet her story, at least as narrated in the Bible, is “nowhere” to be found. Indeed, the most memorable part of her story—her fantastic transformation into a pillar of salt (Gen 19:26)—is not mentioned at all. Moreover, in the Qur’an, Lot’s wife never escapes with her husband and daughters (cf. Gen 19:15-16). Instead, the angels instruct Lot to leave that “old woman” behind, explaining that she is not worthy to be spared (see, e.g., Qur’an 26:171). In the first part of my paper, I discuss the Qur’an’s treatment of Lot’s wife with a particular focus on how differences from the biblical narrative might be explained. Were the biblical details of her story simply not known? Or might we posit that the Qur’an engages in an intentional retelling? My paper addresses both options, with a particular focus on answering the question of how the retelling fits with what Griffith terms the Qur’an’s “distinctive prophetology.” In the second part of my paper, I survey a number of later Islamic interpretations of Lot’s wife, including those of al-Ya’qubi, al-?abari, al-Kisa’i, al-Rabghuzi, and a few images from sixteenth century Islamic manuscripts. These later interpreters tend to combine details from the Qur’an’s retelling of Lot’s wife with stories that are quite reminiscent of Jewish midrashic tradition. However, despite their obvious familiarity with Jewish midrashic lore, these later interpreters (with the exception of al-Ya’qubi) continue to avoid any mention salt, and they even offer a competing story where Lot’s wife is killed by a giant rock that falls on her head. At this stage, the avoidance of any mention of salt seems to be an intentional polemic against the biblical narrative. At the very least, elements that do not fit the interpreter’s reading of the Qur’an are excised. After discussing these later Islamic interpretations, I will conclude my paper with a final consideration of Griffith’s claim, the utility of this case study, and the significance of both for biblical reception criticism.


A Hermeneutic of Vulnerability and Malachi 1:2–5
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Gerrie Snyman, University of South Africa / Old Testament Essays

The paper will try to propose a way out to the question of why does the narrator in the book of Malachi fails to put forward in favour of Edom a claim to vulnerability and thus winning some reprieve from the punishment meted out to them? In the book of Samuel Shimei temporarily wins a reprieve when David triumphantly returns to the throne, only to be killed with trumped up charges after David’s death (and on instigation of David!). In Genesis 4 Cain successfully puts forward his own vulnerability when the deity condemns him to being a fugitive and wanderer on earth. His assertion of becoming fair game to every one crossing his path is countered when Yahweh provides him with protection by claiming revenge should anyone kills him. The issue to be dealt with is whether there are conditions that need to be met when a perpetrator can raise successfully his or her own vulnerability to lessen the effect of justice. In Edom’s case, similar to the case of Shimei, it seems that recognition of the other’s vulnerability would constitute a condition. Shimei verbally attacked David when the latter was quite vulnerable as he fled Jerusalem when his children tried to take over the throne. Edom similarly made life quite difficult for Israel as the latter came under attack with the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E.. Thus, it seems, Shimei as well as Edom are prohibited from successfully raising their own vulnerability in the execution of justice. In the Cain story, there is no mention of Abel’s vulnerability (although Cain took Abel’s life), thus enabling Cain to raise the issue. The paper will proceed as follows: (a) discussion of the concept of vulnerability and its current social relevance; (b) elucidation of the presence of vulnerability in the story of Cain (Gen 4) and Shimei (2 Sam 16:5-14, 19:16-23 and 1 Ki 2)and Edom in Obadiah; (c) an exposition of the presence/absence of vulnerability in the text of Malachi 1:2-5 in the execution of justice.


Malachi's Controversial Conclusion: Problems and Prospects
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Fanie Snyman, University of the Free State

The conclusion to the Book of Malachi (3:22-24 Eng 4:4-6) presents the interpreter of this text with a variety of problems. This paper highlights four prominent problems encountered in the history of the interpretation of the text. 1. The text presents us with a text-critical problem: should the LXX or Masoretic reading be preferred? 2. Should Mal 3:22-24 be seen as a later addition to the book or not? If so, do the concluding verses represent one or two additions? 3. Should the concluding verses be seen as a conclusion to the book, the Book of the Twelve or the Corpus Propheticum? 4. How should the text be interpreted? What is meant by the "law of Moses"? Why is Elijah mentioned? Why and in what way should father and children be reconciled? This paper will address these questions, considering the answers given and propose some new answers.


Bible, Music, and Social Justice in the Caribbean
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Judith Soares, University of the West Indies

This paper, recognising the dialectic inherent in the Biblical message, argues that music in the Caribbean, particularly Jamaica, has been over the years, a channel of protest in the context of a reinterpreted biblical message. In this regard, it must be noted that ideas of revolutionary /radical change in the region are often embodied in the Christian message of social justice. In other words, though the Biblical message has been interpreted as legitimating situations of oppression, it is that same doctrine through a reinterpretation at particular historical moments which provides the liberating context for the peoples of the region. This is best expressed through music. Though the Bible is a historical document written in and for the Middle East (for ease of reference) it does have relevance to the Caribbean in particular ways such as the socio-political construction of those societies which resemble that of Judah, for example, as recorded in the book of Amos. Hence issues of marginalisation, discrimination and contending social forces also appear in Caribbean societies.


Putting the “Dog” in Dogmatism: The Use of Canine Metaphors to “Other” in Isaiah 56
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
David L. Sobey, The University of Texas at Austin

Metaphors and word play abound in the book of Isaiah, including its last major editorial layer—so-called Third Isaiah (56–66). In Isaiah 56:9–12 the prophet denounces certain religious leaders for their shortsightedness, hardness of hearing, and stupidity. While such vilification is hardly rare in the book, the characterization of the prophet’s adversaries as incompetent and selfish in the passage in question is unique in its use of canine metaphors: the leaders are “dumb dogs, unable to bark” and “dogs with a voracious appetite” (Isa 56:10, 11). Deriding individuals by calling them “dogs” is not entirely unique among the biblical or ancient Near Eastern (ANE) texts either, but the author’s use of a canine imagery in Isaiah 56 is striking. In the prophetic literature, dogs are mentioned only four times—three times in Third Isaiah and once, in passing, in Jeremiah. I argue that the collocation of these references of dogs in Third Isaiah is not incidental but betray a larger discourse on others as “dogs.” I contend that the canine metaphor in Third Isaiah carries more weight than has previously been suggested. In this paper I discuss how and why the author unites his derogatory descriptions of his enemies with canine imagery. Whereas canine metaphors in the Bible and the ANE are predominately invective in nature, this passage in particular moves beyond mere vituperations—where previously interpreters have stopped—since the prophet associates his adversaries with abominable sacrifices and unclean outsiders. Thus Isaiah “others” his adversaries by calling them “dogs.” This paper is organized as follows. I first provide an overview of the content and previous interpretations of Isaiah 56:9–12. Next, I discuss metaphor theory and its implications for the current project. I then proceed to unpack the canine metaphor in Isaiah 56 by describing how dogs—and thus the leaders—are 1) despicable, lowly and deplorable; 2) abominable, unclean and defiling; and 3) Other, foreign and rejected.


Arctic Ecolonialism: The Bible, Ecology, and Colonialism in The Kautokeino Rebellion
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Anna Rebecca Solevag, School of Mission & Theology

In dialogue with both the Exeter project and the Earth Bible project, this paper seeks to expand the basis of ecological hermeneutics. The 2008 film, The Kautokeino Rebellion, is used as an example of how ecological concerns always are intricately connected with history, politics and culture. Based on the true history of a rebellion against Norwegian colonizing authorities in a Sami community in Northern Norway around 1850, the movie shows how biblical interpretation went hand in hand with racial prejudice, economic exploitation and disrespect for land and animals. The paper argues for a broad-based approach to ecological hermeneutics, which incorporates insights from other critical biblical approaches, such as feminist, race-critical and postcolonial. Looking beyond biblical criticism, such an “ecolonial” reading draws inspiration from the Earth Charter as a global, cross-cultural and interreligious starting point for our own engagement with ecological biblical hermeneutics. The Earth Charter is a universal expression of ethical principles to foster sustainable development. Their principles integrate “respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, social and economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace” (earthcharterinaction.org). In our paper we discuss how these aspects are linked in the history of Norwegian authorities exploitation of the Arctic North, and how the bible is still a factor in these contestations.


The Subordination of Apphia: An Orthoprax Corruption of Scripture
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Matthew Solomon, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

In his letter to Philemon, Paul greeted Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and the church in the first two verses. He provided a descriptor for each person in his greeting: Paul the prisoner, Timothy the brother, Philemon the brother and fellow worker, Apphia the sister, Archippus the fellow soldier, and the church that meets in Philemon’s house. In the entire Greek tradition, however, most later manuscripts (MSS) read “beloved” for Apphia while the earliest and best witnesses read “sister” for Apphia. While the change could be assimilation to Philemon’s descriptor, this paper will argue that the shift from “sister” to “beloved” was a conscious change in order to diminish somehow Apphia’s role that was made during a time when women were losing authority in early Christianity. Further, the paper also will argue that the change is not the result of a difference in orthodoxy but rather a difference in orthopraxy, highlighting an underexplored category of textual variation among NT MSS.


The Study of Inner-Biblical Exegesis and Allusion: Genealogies and Implications
Program Unit: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Benjamin D. Sommer, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

The study of inner-biblical exegesis and allusion came into its own in the mid-1980's with the publication of book-length works by Michael Fishbane and Yair Zakovitch, and since then it has become something of a subfield of its own. As both Fishbane and Zakovitch themselves stressed, however, this area of study had been pioneered by earlier scholars, in particular Yehezkel Kaufmann and Isac Leo Seeligmann. The current paper traces the genealogy of the field through these figures back to the beginnings of die Wissenschaft des Judentums in the nineteenth century, and it examines the implications (or motivations) of this field for understanding, or reimagining, the relationship between biblical criticism and Jewish studies, and indeed between biblical criticism and Judaism.


The Nature of Jonah’s Sleep in 1:5–6: Translational Choices and Their Impact on Interpretation
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Krzysztof Sonek, University of Divinity

Jonah 1:4 tells the story of a violent storm on the sea, and in 1:5 we hear sailors cry in despair, fighting against the merciless elements. The ship is about to break up, but Jonah goes down into the hold and falls asleep. Is the author of this narrative out of touch with the reality at sea? Does Jonah have a mental disorder? Is there a convincing explanation of this problem? In my paper, I look at all major ancient versions and translations of Jonah 1:5–6 and the subsequent interpretation of these verses in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic tradition. I put forward an alternative solution to the problem based on the analysis of the semantic field of the root RDM. I also propose a tentative English translation of the text and offer conclusions regarding the history of the interpretation of Jonah 1:5–6. I demonstrate that the traditional understanding of the story is rooted in the decision made by early interpreters to choose only one semantic aspect of RDM and in the Jonah/Jesus typology. While it is possible to recreate the historical process of mutual interpretative interdependence, a different explanation fits the linguistic and logical aspects of the text much better. When the polyvalence of RDM is taken into account, a new meaning of the verses in question can be proposed. Jonah no longer falls asleep. He goes down into the hold of the ship, helpless and paralysed. God wages war against him, and Jonah has nowhere to escape. He is numb with dread and has a near-death experience. This is the true nature of Jonah’s sleep.


The Exclusion of Women from Israelite Ancestor Cult: Some Considerations
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Kerry M. Sonia, Brown University

It has long been recognized among biblical scholars that certain passages within the Hebrew Bible suggest the existence of an ancestor cult in ancient Israel. Such passages refer—though sometimes obliquely—to care and commemoration of the dead in the form of food offerings, invocation of the name of the deceased, the erection of commemorative monuments, and care for the physical remains of the deceased in the form of protection and repatriation of bones. However, one aspect of ancestor cult that deserves further examination is the role of women in the cult and its constitutive practices. While studies of Israelite family religion often acknowledge the participation and influence of women in rituals involving the family, recent treatments of ancestor cult have argued that women were excluded both from the status of ancestors and participation in ancestor cult as caregivers for the dead. This paper challenges this reconstruction through the examination of four biblical texts, Gen 35:20, Isa 56:3-5, 2 Sam 21:10, and Ps 106:28 (and its interpretation of Num 25:2). These texts suggest that women do indeed participate in ancestor cult both as ancestors and caregivers for the dead. In addition, further analysis of the Israelite onomastic evidence—specifically, the fact that theophoric elements do not appear with female kinship terms in Israelite personal names—suggests that such evidence does not conclusively eliminate the possibility that women could achieve ancestor status.


“It Was in That Time That . . . ”: The Rhetorical Use of the Formula b‘t hhw’ in Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Jean-Pierre Sonnet, Pontificia Università Gregoriana

In fifteen instances (Deut 1:9, 16, 18; 2:34; 3:4, 8, 12, 18, 21, 23; 4:14; 5:5; 9,20; 10,1, 8), the Deuteronomic Moses makes the most of the formula “At that time (b‘t hhw’)”. In Deuteronomy, the phrase functions as a rhetorical marker, pertaining to Moses’, or the narrator’s, art of retelling. It signal what could be termed “authoritative secondary disclosures”: Moses (or the narrator in 10:8) reveals what was not told in the preceding account of Exodus–Numbers, or what has not been told before in the way it is now presented. The formula could be paraphrased “It was (actually) at that time that …,” and it signals the filling of gaps in the overall fabula of Israel’s journey in the desert.


"Mostly Dead Is Slightly Alive" (Miracle Max)
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
R. Kendall Soulen, Wesley Theological Seminary

Since Augustine, Christians have commonly held that Christ's advent renders the ceremonial law of Moses both "dead" (i.e. obsolete) and "deadly," (i.e. damning to all who practice it). A notable consequence of Kinzer's PMMJ is to have accelerated an intense interrogation of this traditional element of Christian self-understanding.


Cultic Continuity or Cultic Change? The Corinthian Asklepieion in the Greek vs. the Roman Period
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Barbette S. Spaeth, College of William and Mary

The Asklepieion at Corinth was founded in the Classical period, but experienced major changes in its architecture and votive gifts in the Roman period. I contend that these changes reflect a new use and interpretation of the ancient Greek site by the Roman colonists who came to Corinth in the 1st c. B.C.E. The site is divided into two sections on two different levels. In the Greek period, the two levels were linked by a long ramp to the south. The lower level had dining rooms to provide meals to worshippers and a large fountain complex, commonly called Lerna, to supply water to both the upper and lower levels. The upper level had the temple and altar of the god, an abaton for ritual sleeping, and provisions for ritual bathing. In the Roman period, the upper level was largely cut off from the lower, since the ramp was covered by a structure facing to the south, marked on the plan. All provision for ritual bathing and indeed much of the access to water at this level were removed. At the lower level of Lerna, the dining rooms were changed: the tables were removed, and perhaps these rooms were used only for seating, which Pausanias singles out in his description of this site. The lower level may have been no longer part of the sanctuary, but instead a rest area possibly connected with the nearby gymnasium. There was also a major shift in the votive offerings. In the Greek period there were a large number of anatomical votives as well as figurines and ritual pottery. In the Roman period, there were no anatomical votives, very few figurines, and no ritual pottery, but instead a few expensive marble votives. Again, I believe that these changes reflect a difference in cult between the Greek and Roman periods. The Greek worship of Asklepios involved cures conducted on site, with appropriate facilities for ritual sleeping, dining, and washing. The Roman worship of the god seems not to have required such extensive facilities for the extended stay of worshippers. The changes in the architecture and votive gifts of the sanctuary thus reflect changes in cult. The Asklepieion in Corinth provides us with evidence of a sort of cultic continuity: the same god (Asklepios or Aesculapius) was certainly worshipped there in both the Greek and the Roman period. On the other hand, the changes in the sanctuary also show significant cultic change in the changeover from the Greek sanctuary to the Roman one.


The Book of Mormon as Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Joseph M. Spencer, University of New Mexico

With few exceptions, interest in the appearance of biblical texts in the Book of Mormon has been limited by the desire to determine what apparent borrowings suggest about the volume claim to be of ancient origin. In this paper, I propose a different approach: to situate the Book of Mormon’s use of biblical texts within the larger frame of reception history. For instance, rather than asking whether variants in Isaiah texts quoted in the Book of Mormon suggest the volume’s antiquity or its modern provenance, I propose to ask what variants in such Isaiah texts suggest about a general strategy of Isaianic interpretation. To make this proposal fully concrete, I undertake in the course of this paper an analysis of a particular biblical text as it appears---and is reworked in---the Book of Mormon. Because extensive work has already been done on the manipulation and interpretation of Isaiah 6:9–10 in a variety of Jewish and Christian sources, and because the Book of Mormon also proposes a complex revision of this same passage, I give my attention to this theologically provocative text. I develop this analysis in four distinct ways. First, I discuss the particular context in which the fullest quotation of Isaiah 6:9–10 appears in the Book of Mormon, strategically located in a structurally complex portion of the text that sets Isaiah’s throne theophany in parallel with related but non-biblical throne theophanies. Second, I look at the actual revisions made directly to Isaiah 6:9–10 in its fullest quotation in the Book of Mormon, revisions that seem in certain ways---but not in others---to be meant to soften the theological force of the Isaianic original. Third, I give attention to more subtle but equally important borrowings from Isaiah 6:9–10 that appear elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, suggestive of how this text shapes larger theological assumptions in the volume. Fourth and finally, I consider both a related Isaiah text presented and revised elsewhere in the Book of Mormon (Isaiah 29:9–10) and other Book of Mormon passages focused on themes similar to that of Isaiah 6:9–10 (the theme of hardening). Throughout all this work of analysis, I place the Book of Mormon’s interpretive moves with respect to Isaiah 6:9–10 in conversation with this text’s reception in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Drawing on the growing literature on the reception history of Isaiah, and keeping an eye on both particular treatments of and general trends with respect to Isaiah 6:9–10, I argue that the Book of Mormon presents an interpretation of this particular Isaiah text with some tellingly novel features. If these features can be put into dialogue with other similarly derivable features of Book of Mormon interpretation of biblical texts, much can be learned about how an entire religious tradition---that of Mormonism---gives the biblical text one of its many living shapes in the contemporary world.


Religion, Emotion & Belief in Self-Identity Narratives of L’Arche Caring Exemplars
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Michael Spezio, Scripps College

*


Judging Samson: Judges 16 in Intercultural Reading and the Arts after 9/11
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Klaas Spronk, Protestantse Theologische Universiteit, Amsterdam

This paper on the changing views of the death of Samson, especially after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, combines an intercultural reading of the Bible with an analysis of modern representations of the Bible in art. It also takes issue with the way in which Walter Groß in his recent commentary on the book of Judges discusses a number of examples from the history of interpretation of Judges 16. Groß rightly points to the risk that the texts might be applied in any possible way and thus easily used to confirm only one’s own views. However, one should not be too optimistic about historical-critical exegesis being able to take the objective point of view necessary to come as close as possible to the original meaning. Looking for something like the original meaning, and the suggestion that it is possible to formulate this in a pure scholarly way, can be seen as a one-sided view of reality. It might say more about the researcher than about the object of his research. It is at least something that should be questioned. In this respect, intercultural reading can be of help. The story of Samson is an interesting test case because in itself it is a story not only about conflicting cultures but also about finding one’s identity within this conflict.


Conchita Wurst: A “Jesus-Like Figure” between Blasphemy and Religious Innovation
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Srdjan Sremac, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

When the Austrian singer Conchita Wurst (Tom Neuwirth) performed the song Rise Like a Phoenix at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen in 2014, many noticed how much this “woman with a beard” resembled traditional representations of Jesus Christ. Wurst seemed to express a sense of resurrection, speaking to the imagination of many transgender persons who identified with the act through their own process of sex reassignment surgery. That Wurst mixed Jesus-imagery and the event of the resurrection with cross-dressing alarmed many church leaders, mainly in Eastern Europe who condemned the act of this “Jesus-like figure”. This paper investigates these charges in the context of the rise of a discourse of ‘blasphemization’ in which the accusation of blasphemy crosses from the sphere of the religious into the realm of the political, becoming a reservoir on which the sacredness of the nation, tradition, family, and ‘natural body’ can be drawn.


The Impact of Narrative Claims in Deuteronomic Legal Composition
Program Unit: Book of Deuteronomy
Jeffrey Stackert, University of Chicago

The laws of the Deuteronomic source (D) of the Pentateuch show evidence of interaction with both legal and narrative source material. In this paper, I will focus on D's interaction with narrative source material--and, in particular, the narrative of the Elohistic (E) source--in its composition of law. I will show that, even when D does not itself recount narrative scenes from E, E's account of Israel's history both inspires and otherwise impacts D's legislation.


When Less Is More: Applying ‘Focus on Form Instruction’ in the Biblical Hebrew Classroom
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Robert Stallman, Northwest University (Washington)

Empirical research in second language learning and teaching has demonstrated the positive role of pedagogical procedures that give focused attention to particular formal elements in the target language. In the last twenty-five years the methodological principle now known as “focus on form” (FonF) has risen to prominence as distinct from traditional approaches that treat as the object of instruction a cluster of individual language elements (such as morphological features of a verbal paradigm) and explain them in isolation from any communicative context. These traditional approaches have come to be known as “focus on formS” (noting the capitalized plural) as well as “formS-focused instruction.” Researchers and language teachers discuss the relative merits and liabilities of these two approaches in the context of teaching and learning modern languages but the classroom practices associated with them appear in classrooms dedicated to ancient languages as well. For example, traditional instruction in biblical Hebrew that presents for consideration an entire verbal paradigm such as the Niphal prefix conjugation of the root QTL (which, based on deductive reasoning is then said to mean “he will be killed”) and explains the morphology of the ten words in this paradigm in isolation from the appearance of any of these words in a biblical text or live classroom communication thus practices “formS-focused instruction.” Textbooks in biblical Hebrew as well as course syllabi seldom display awareness of these two approaches and the pedagogical processes that support or enable them. Moreover, the second language literature devoted to this subject is difficult for outsiders to follow because so many different terms, phrases, and acronyms have been used and because practically all of the research is aimed at improving proficiency in modern languages. There is therefore a potential advantage for teachers of biblical Hebrew and those who develop instructional materials (a) to understand what exactly is meant by “FonF instruction,” (b) to consider how “FonF instruction” relates to the acquisition of biblical Hebrew as an ancient language, and (c) to see how “FonF instruction” may generate pedagogical processes useful both to teaching and to assessment. This paper thus proposes (a) to define and explain what counts as “FonF instruction” as distinct from “formS-focused instruction,” (b) to set forth certain proven advantages of “FonF instruction,” (c) to describe and illustrate some of the more applicable pedagogical procedures of “FonF instruction” in the context of acquiring proficiency with biblical Hebrew, and (d) to pose a series of pedagogical decisions to help teachers determine when and in what kinds of instances “FonF instruction” may appropriately be employed in the biblical Hebrew classroom.


Philo in Ethnographic Discourse: Some Observations to the Literary Context of De Vita Contemplativa
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Angela Standhartinger, Philipps-Universität Marburg

In De Vita Contemplativa, Philo of Alexandria describes a group of male and female philosophers, whom he refers to as therapeutae and therapeutrides, respectively. The existence of the group it is beyond doubt due to the close proximity of their settlement to Alexandria. However, Philo, whose theology and language are reflected in the writing, is our sole witness. This paper argues that the riddle of the historical therapeutae can be solved by a detailed comparison of De Vita Conemplativa with ancient ethnographical writings. Like Philo, Diodor, the Stoic Chaeremon and Plutarch also highlight Egyptian religiosity and myth as a source of original wisdom, philosophy and truth. It will be shown that Philo’s depiction of the “therapeutical race” refers to a full repertoire of topics and motifs from ancient ethnographical discourse, including etymology, climate, ascetic and religious practice and the role of women. De Vita Conemplativa also features extensive comparisons to positive models such as Homer’s legendary Mysians as well as to the cultural decay of Philo’s day. Most strikingly, the Jewish author self-presents here as Greek while creating an idealized portrait of a group, the Jewish identity of which is revealed only in the last third of the writing. The paper argues that with his therapeutae and therapeutrides, Philo actually presents “common” Judaism in the guise of an Egyptian religious “sect”.


A City with a Message: Colossae and Colossians
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Angela Standhartinger, Philipps-Universität Marburg

Colossians does not claim that Paul ever visited Colossae. Rather it states that it was Epaphras (Col 1:7-8), whom Paul met during his imprisonment (4:3, 18), who brought Paul’s gospel to Colossae. Surprisingly, however, the list of names in Phlm 2, 23-24 includes not only those of Epaphras and Onesimus—the other member of this community known to Paul according to Colossians 4:9—but also those of five additional co-workers of Paul mentioned in Col 4:10-14 and 4:17. As Eduard Lohse showed long ago, this concurrence is due to literary dependence. Lohse’s observation raises the question of what the authors of Colossians actually knew about ancient Colossae. This paper will examine two approaches to answering this question. One is to demonstrate local color by linking archaeological evidence and historical data about Colossae to the letter, e.g. the Byzantine Apollo/Michael cult to Col 2:18 or the recently discovered inscription naming a leading translator and interpreter to Col 3:11. The other is to ask what the choice of this particular city contributes to the overall message of the letter. A letter addressed to a rather small city in a far-flung corner of Asia Minor with the intention of having it circulate among two larger and more famous cities there, Hierapolis and Laodicea (Col 4:13-16), might well express the overall message that the letter was intended to send: namely, that Paul’s anticipated death does not pose a danger to Paul’s gospel and should not distress the communities but rather the spread of the gospel as far as Colossae demonstrates its continued growth and fertility (1:6).


Who Is Israel? Understanding Paul’s Restoration Eschatological Hopes
Program Unit: Paul within Judaism
Jason Staples, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

*


Paul, Apostle of Torah Obedience: Retheologizing Torah Obedience in the Letter to the Romans
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
J. David Stark, Faulkner University

Paul, Apostle of Torah Obedience: Retheologizing Torah Obedience in the Letter to the Romans


Abrahamic Land and Offspring Promises in Pauline Perspective
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
J. David Stark, Faulkner University

Within the narrative of Genesis, Yahweh’s promises to Abraham about landed possession in Canaan are closely tied to promises about offspring. As Paul understands the interplay between these two sets of promises, however, Genesis’s own narrative logic appears to move in a different direction to that which many first-century Jews—even Paul himself at one point—would seem to have anticipated. In particular, Yahweh’s pledge that Abraham would be “pater pollon ethnon” (Rom 4:17–18, quoting Gen 17:5) seems to become for Paul the exegetical-rhetorical lever that moves the land promise from a focus specifically on Canaan to a wider vista (Rom 4:13; 15:8–29).


Second-Century Reception of Pauline Paraenesis
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
James Starr, Johannelund Theological Seminary

Paraenesis developed in early Christianity through the example set by Paul’s epistolary moral exhortation. Two social conditions that were vital to the rhetorical power of Pauline paraenesis were his personal acquaintance and friendship with the recipients, allowing him to write in a spirit of philophronesis, and the particular theological worldview he shared with his churches. Other New Testament authors and post-apostolic church leaders continued to write moral exhortation to their congregations, but the tone and motivation of second-century paraenesis differs from that in Paul. This paper seeks to understand what has changed in second-century Christian paraenesis and why. It suggests that differences from Paul’s paraenesis might be explained in part by three observations: (1) second-century authors wrote more often from a position of formal authority than out of the philophronesis typical of Paul; (2) a shift has occurred in theological emphasis, which affects how moral exhortation is motivated; and, closely related to the second point, (3) inroads made by a growing appreciation of Platonic thought influence both the shape and the goals of Christian moral exhortation. The paper takes into account paraenesis in second-century writings to Christian congregations: 1-2 Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Barnabas, Martyrdom of Polycarp, and Clement of Alexandria.


"The Gazelle, That Feeds among the Lotus": Life, Dissemination, and Meaning of a Metaphor
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Thomas Staubli, Université de Fribourg - Universität Freiburg

The metaphor, familiar from SoS (Cant 4:5 and 7:4) is documented from iconographic sources of the Levant and Egypt from the Middle Bronze Age to the Ptolemaic era. The paper lists the evidence and demonstrates its importance for the understanding of SoS as love poetry with a religious significance.


Him Whom My Soul Loves: Song 3:1–5 as Narrative Framework for John's Resurrection Account
Program Unit: Intertextuality in the New Testament
Sheldon Steen, Florida State University

The Fourth Gospel is often known or its strangeness and the unique details provided by the author. The resurrection narrative is particularly odd account, especially considering how closely the author tends to follow the Synoptic tradition in his description of the passion and the crucifixion, with a few notable exceptions. Scholars have traditionally sought to explain these oddities by relying heavily on form and source criticism, and Bultmann’s infamous “ecclesiastical redactor.” These scholars claim that the strange details of John’s account are largely the result of his amalgamation of multiple sources as well as the effect of later redactors. John’s narrative, therefore, often comes across as haphazardly composed and, in certain places, even borderline incomprehensible. This paper proposes instead a greater intentionality on the part of the implied author in the construction of this narrative. To be sure, I do not intend to flatly deny the existence of a redactor or redactors, rather I suggest that the peculiarities and particularities of the resurrection narrative are better explained, at least in part, as an allusion to the Song of Songs, particularly Song 3:1-5. In my reading of John’s resurrection narrative alongside the Song I claim that John utilized the Song 3:1-5 as a narrative framework for his account of the resurrection. In his telling of the story he recasts Mary Magdalene as the female lover in search of her beloved. Like the woman in the Song she goes out by herself in the dark, is initially unable to find him, has a strange encounter with ambiguous characters, reaches out to touch him, and the account ends abruptly with a negative prohibition. The primary thesis of this paper is to suggest that reading John’s narrative alongside Song 3:1-5 provides a better explanation of the odd details of the narrative and offers deeper insight into John’s intended meaning for his audience. My reading relies heavily on the insights of a number of feminist scholars (e.g. Adele Reinhartz, Gail O’Day, Susan Hylen, Francis Taylor Gench, Sandra Schneiders, Collen Conway, etc.) because, on the whole, they tend to focus greater attention on the character of Mary Magdalene rather than Peter and the Beloved Disciple, and to potential biblical allusions and intertextual relationships. The contribution of this paper is to take their observations a step further and posit John’s intentional use of Song 3:1-5 as a narrative framework for his telling of the resurrection account.


Oral Proclamation and Written Text: Situating Chronological Approaches in Qur’anic Studies
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Emmanuelle Stefanidis, University Sorbonne Paris IV

The chronological reading of the Qur’an has been a privileged mode of understanding Muslim scripture in both Muslim and Western Qur’anic scholarship. Nöldeke’s influential study has served as a model to generations of scholars in the field, continuing to be invoked today as an unsurpassed study (Ernst 2011; Robinson 2004; Neuwirth 2010; Hallaq 2009). In recent decades, however, a number of scholars have raised doubts about the relevance of the chronology as a mode of reading the Qur’anic text (Wansbrough 1977, Reynolds 2010; Shoemaker 2012; Segovia 2012). The field of Quranic studies has also become more diversified, as new approaches have provided meaningful readings of the Qur’an without engaging the question of chronology (Cuypers 2007, 2015; Ernst 2011). The distinction between oral proclamation and written scripture provides a key to understanding these two strands of Western scholarship. The chronological approach is based on an understanding of the Qur’anic revelations as a series of oral proclamations delivered to a specific audience. By contrast, literary approaches to the Quran emphasise the carefully-crafted structure of the text, evoking a world of travelling traditions. In this presentation, I explore to what extent the two approaches (orality and written text) may be reconciled. I consider in particular how a range of authors have responded to these transformations of the field of Quranic studies by developing more complex and non-linear chronological readings of the Quran. I ask, to what extent can chronology account for “multiple processes of reiterations” in oral or written form (Al-Azmeh 2013)? How might the chronological approach enrich – and benefit from - our understanding of the patterns of semitic rhetoric studied by Cuypers?


The Biblical Metaphor “God Is a Principal Who Operates through Agents” and Its English Translation
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
David E. S. Stein, Freelance Editorial Services

This paper draws upon cognitive linguistics to highlight a recurring biblical metaphor: “God is a principal who operates through agents.” That is, various intermediaries (both human and divine) were depicted as speaking or acting on the deity’s behalf. Presumably employed to describe an experience of the divine, this imagery overlapped with the well-studied “God is king/husband/householder” metaphors. Like those figures, it enriched the relatively lean metaphor of divine personification. Its source domain was ancient Near Eastern society, where recourse to agents was an everyday occurrence by nearly everyone (not only by kings, husbands, or householders). The metaphor’s source concept of agency itself relied upon a conventionalized metonymy that linked together principal and agent—which then licensed referencing the principal in terms of the agent, and vice versa. Moreover, agency involved other associated commonplaces that usually went without saying in the biblical text. In this paper, after reviewing the “God is a principal” metaphor, its source-domain conventions, and its application in the Bible, I spotlight the considerable challenges that it poses for translation into contemporary English for a general audience. Drawing upon the linguistics-informed approaches of Menachem Dagut and others, I show that when dealing with this metaphor, English translators face what Dagut called a “cultural void” and a “lexical void.” Perhaps not surprisingly, recent English translations have often obscured the “God is a principal” metaphor: they leave implicit key background information that contemporary readers typically lack; and they render the Bible’s characteristic terms of agency in ways that weaken the metaphor’s basis in the social realm, such as by rendering as “angel” the same noun (“mal’akh”) that is rendered in the social realm as “messenger.” After assessing the prospects of our bridging the two Hebrew-to-English translational voids for three sample passages (Genesis 16:7–13; 18:1–15; and 19:1–24), I conclude that a translation alone—without notes or commentary—can convey the Bible’s “God is a principal” metaphor with only partial success.


Agency: Making Sense of Anomalous Usages of the Hebrew Noun “’ish”
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
David E. S. Stein, Freelance Editorial Services

This paper employs cognitive-linguistic concepts in order to resolve some cruxes in the Hebrew Bible’s usage of the noun ’ish. Many of its instances have long puzzled commentators (e.g., Gen. 4:1; 7:2; 30:43; 39:1; Exod. 11:3; Judg. 8:21). In this paper, I first observe that such instances share a feature in common: the party designated as “’ish” is representing another party. In other words, that “’ish” is standing in for a principal (who is either another person or a group, such as a household) in a situation of agency. Often, however, the principal’s authorization of that agent is not in view, or it is expressed obliquely. Second, I employ the linguistic concept of “cognitive domain” to explain how the biblical text could depict agency implicitly, while employing only one or two terms from its semantic field. When agency is thus signaled, many of its associated commonplaces (such as the principal’s authorization) could go without saying. Third, I employ the linguistic concept of “basic-level term” to explain why the Bible would have used the vague term “’ish” to denote an agent when more specific role designations (such as “mal’akh”) were available. I show that “’ish” meets the standard criteria for a basic-level term within the cognitive domain of agency. As such, it would have been the first choice for use in agency contexts—which explains its prevalence in the Bible. Fourth, I employ the linguistic concept of “semantic specialization” to account for the development of “agent” as a meaning of “’ish,” based upon my hypothesis (proposed to the SBL Biblical Lexicography Section in 2007) that when applied to animate beings, this noun’s basic meaning is “participant.” Because agents function simultaneously both as themselves and as the party whose interests they represent, an agent is a markedly intensive participant. Consequently, the use of “’ish” to mean “agent” is, cognitively speaking, an easy semantic extension from the noun’s basic meaning of “participant.” (In contrast, the conventional, modern scholarly view that the basic meaning of “’ish” is “man”—that is, an adult male regarded as a discrete individual—does not as readily yield this secondary meaning of “agent.”) Finally, I show that after these linguistic concepts are invoked, many of the “odd” usages of “’ish” then become more meaningful.


What Is a Virgin? Gender and Genocide in the Holy War of Numbers 31
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Naomi Steinberg, DePaul University

Biblical scholars have paid little attention to the gendering of genocide (defined here as the destruction of a group of people) as carried out in ancient Israel. Research on gender and genocide has recently found its way into academic studies and criminology and international law. Comparative international data on genocide assumed that the experiences of adult men were universals for a targeted group. This premise is no longer supportable. In order to better understand genocide, both gender and age must be taken into account. For a more complete picture of how religion and violence intersect with gender, in this paper I explore the gendering of genocide in Numbers 31 through the combined methodologies of feminist ethno-history and literary and tradition-historical criticism of the text. Numbers 31 relates the story of how the Israelites prevailed in battle against the Midianites. Yet, despite this victory, according to Num 31:15-17, a plague has come upon the Israelites because the warriors have killed only the Midianite adult men but not the Midianite male children or the non-virgin women. The latter must die for the apostasy in Numbers 25. Then Num 31:18 states that “all the young girls who have not know a man by having sexual intercourse with him, keep alive for yourselves.” These virginal young women are moved to settings under male control. Israel’s motives for capturing virgins in this holy war are never specified—as opposed to Judg 21:11-12. However, divergent ideologies of holy war are preserved in the Hebrew Bible in contrast to Numbers 31. Joshua 8:2, 24-28 stipulates that all humans are to be killed by the Israelites in the destruction of Ai and in Numbers 31 war pollutes whereas in other texts, e.g., 1 Sam 21:4-5, war makes soldiers holy. The inconsistencies between Numbers 31 and other holy war texts (assumed to have a different literary source than the priestly writer of the battle against the Midianites) warrant further study. Specifically, given how the priestly story in Numbers 31 carefully distinguishes between virgins and non-virgins, the cultural construction of virginity is a major societal control in this account of genocide. In this paper, I will explore the deeper issues of women’s sexual status in the story of ancient Israel’s holy war against its Midianite enemy. Thus, the questions at the heart of this research are: How is virginity socially constructed in Numbers 31 such that young virginal girls are spared the fate of the rest of the Midianites (married women, men, and boys)? How is genocide gendered in this text?


When East and West Meet: Eastern Religions and Western Philosophy in Philo of Alexandria and Plutarch
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Gregory E. Sterling, Yale Divinity School

During the early centuries of the Roman empire, religious thinkers from the East appropriated Hellenistic philosophy to interpret their sacred texts or traditions. At the same time, Hellenistic philosophers expressed interest in Eastern religious traditions. Philo of Alexandria and Chaeremon, the Egyptian priest, are examples of the former; Plutarch, Numenius of Apamea, and Plotinus are models of the latter. What led Eastern religious thinkers to appropriate Hellenistic philosophy? What led Hellenistic philosophers to explore Eastern religions? Were their interests peculiar or were there common denominators that led Eastern and Western thinkers to study and appropriate other traditions? This paper will consider the works of Philo and Plutarch to address these questions.


Cognitive Dissonance as Pedagogical Strategy for John’s Apocalypse
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Gerald Stevens, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Apocalyptic is a worldview, and one can reach students with a text's apocalyptic message by utilizing worldview itself as a heuristic approach. The approach builds upon the insights of Adela Yarbrough Collins on the sociological analysis that apocalyptic is based on cognitive dissonance. Using this idea, the teacher can build the sense of the experience of cognitive dissonance by provoking cognitive dissonance in the student. In the end, one creates an alternative worldview for the student. This approach can utilize a matrix of methods. These include drama, context-shifting, history of interpretation, and conversing application, for example. These methods and their contribution to creating cognitive dissonance for provoking student reflection, formation, and learning development will be explored. In-session demonstration and group participation activities will be part of this presentation.


Ekphrasis, Emotions, and Motivation in the Apocalypse of John
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Alexander Stewart, Tyndale Theological Seminary (Amsterdam)

This study explores how John increases the motivational force of his explicit argumentation by means of ekphrasis throughout the Apocalypse. Most past studies of ekphrasis in the Apocalypse limit the discussion to the two-women topos in Rev 17:1–18 and 21:9–22:5 or the description of the prostitute herself in Rev. 17:1–18. Based upon recent research into ekphrasis in the ancient world the scope should be widened to include descriptions of reward and punishment throughout the Apocalypse. Ekphrasis engages and activates the hearers’ imagination thereby allowing them to see what John sees. A hearer’s imaginative involvement in the vision leads to an emotional response of fear or confidence in support of John’s explicit argumentation. Ekphrasis creates pathos in support of John’s apocalyptic logos.


Challenges and Taunts: Notes on the Functions of Cognate Paronomasia in the Qur’an
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Devin Stewart, Emory University

Both general paronomasia (jinas, tajnis), in which two or more words with similar sounds occur in close proximity, and cognate paronomasia (ishtiqaq), in which the phonetically similar elements in close proximity share the same tri-consonantal root, occur frequently in the Qur’an. Western scholarship in Qur’anic studies has paid little attention to the phenomenon, with the exception of an article by Andrew Rippin (Rippin 1994); modern Arabic scholarship includes a number of relevant studies (Ma?had b. Mukhtar 1995; Muhammad al-Sayyid Musa 2000); al-Darawish 2013) that discuss scores of Qur’anic puns, including cases of cognate paronomasia, but tend to focus on exceptional or idiosyncratic uses of this rhetorical figure while omitting consideration of entire classes of paronomastic expressions that represent stylized, regular features of Qur’anic discourse and occur so frequently in the text as to become commonplace. In “Paronomasie: Eine Begriffsverwirrung,” Werner Diem suggests that the category of regular paronomasia (jinas or tajnis) must be distinguished from repetition (takrir, tikrar, tardid) and cognate paronomasia (ishtiqaq), the last of which is very common in the Semitic languages, suggesting for ishtiqaq the term figura etymologica instead (Diem 2007). The present study investigates prominent Qur’anic functions of this last category, cognate paronomasia, focusing on challenges and taunts. Along with the maf`ul mutlaq (accusative absolute or “cognate accusative), cognate blessings and curses, cognate paronomasia with proper nouns such as the Queen of Sheba’s statement, rabbi inni aalamtu nafsi wa-aslamtu ma?a Sulaymana li-llahi rabbi l-`alamin “O my Lord, I have wronged myself! I submit alongside Solomon to God, the Lord of all Being” (27:44) (See Rippin 1994), challenges and taunts represent a major category of cognate paronomasia in the Qur’an. Typical examples include: qul intaziru inna muntazirun ‘Say: Wait; indeed we are waiting’ (Q 6:158) and qul fa-ntaziru inni ma`akum min al-muntazirin ‘Say: Wait; indeed I am among those waiting with you’ (Q 10:102) in which al-muntazirin echoes the root consonants of the preceding imperative intazir. This study aims to provide an inventory of cognate-paronomastic taunts, delineate their formal features, and explain their rhetorical function. Overall, such expressions, which pit both the Prophet and God Himself against the naysayers and unbelievers in striking verbal standoffs, reveal an important aspect of the sacred text as a dialectical document while at the same time shedding light on the Qur’anic text’s relationship to common pre-Islamic Arabic usage.


Jewish Paideia: Greek Education and Torah in Alexandria
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Tyler A. Stewart, Marquette University

The substantial corpus of Alexandrian Jewish literature indicates that Jews appropriated Greek literature and philosophy in highly sophisticated ways. Beyond the general recognition that these Jews were well educated in Greek paideia, however, little more is known about Jewish education in Alexandria. Most treatments of the subject focus almost exclusively on Philo of Alexandria. While he is admittedly crucial to the discussion, scholars have long recognized that Philo is no island. He stands in a long line of Alexandrian exegesis and must be placed in a broader context of competing perspectives toward Greek culture. The Letter of Aristeas and 2 Maccabees provide two contrasting examples of Jewish appropriation of Greek education. The works are roughly contemporaneous, written in Greek, address an Alexandrian audience, and offer extended descriptions of an educational ideal. By analyzing explicit and implicit indicators of Greek education in both works this investigation shows that these Jewish authors readily appropriated Greek education while developing their own form of cultural literacy, a Jewish paideia. This Jewish paideia was indebted to the Greek language, literary forms, and philosophy, but was set apart by lionizing the Torah as its foundation text rather than Greek literature. Additionally, these texts differ sharply in their vision of the educational ideal based on contrasting interpretations of Torah obedience. The essay concludes by suggesting these two works represent two different trajectories of Jewish Paideia that appear in Philo of Alexandria and Paul of Tarsus.


Parallelism, Enjambment, and Tricola in Book V of the Psalter
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Simon P.Stocks, South East Institute for Theological Education

Theories of parallelism have tended to focus on the range of relationships that can be discerned between the members (‘cola’) of a poetic line. Whilst these relationships can be defined and analysed, a significant proportion of lines where no explicit ‘parallelism’ remains. Thus the ‘synthetic’ category of Robert Lowth remains relatively unexplored, with little nuanced appreciation of how these lines function within a framework of parallelism. Such lines can be categorised according to the degree of enjambment that they exhibit. It is generally the case that the degree of enjambment between cola is higher in cases where the extent of parallel relationships is less. Therefore an analysis and appreciation of the degree of enjambment between the cola of a poetic line can supplement traditional understandings of parallel relationships between cola, and deepen an understanding of the different ways in which the basic structural form of Hebrew poetry – juxtaposed cola – can create connection and forward impetus between those cola. Theories of parallelism have also tended to focus on bi-partite line-forms (‘bicola’), with relatively little attention given to the significant minority of tripartite line-forms (‘tricola’). The identification of such line-forms depends on a theory colometry – how should the text be divided into cola? The accentual rhythmical approach, rooted in the work of Eduard Sievers, provides the most consistent and reliable colometric analysis. A careful reading of Sievers’ theory reveals a distinction between two different types of tricolon: a six-stress tripartite line (‘para-tricolon’) that is rhythmically equivalent to a six-stress bicolon and a conventional tricolon which is significantly longer. A detailed analysis of the parallelism of Book V of the Psalter will pay particular attention to these aspects. Enjambment is analysed and quantified and set alongside an assessment of relationships between cola, in order to provide a statistical basis for the exploration of its function. Similarly, sensitivity to tricola and para-tricola will address whether and how the poetic norms are varied in the cases of these particular line-forms.


Reading the Book of Watchers on the Origin of Evil
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Ryan E. Stokes, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

The Book of Watchers describes the time before the flood as one in which evil reached unprecedented levels. Heavenly beings intermarried with human women and begat monstrous giants who attacked humans. The heavenly Watchers also corrupted humankind by revealing to humans a variety of forbidden crafts. Scholars often speak of the Book of Watchers as an account of evil’s origin that blames human sin not on humans themselves, but on angelic beings. Many readings of the Book of Watchers, however, have failed to take due notice of the diverse approaches to the problem of evil contained in the book and, as a result, have misrepresented the book’s teachings on evil. Some scholars have overestimated the centrality of the belief that sin originated in heaven to the book, mistaking it for the foundational theology both of the work and of the brand of Judaism it represents. Further, this misunderstanding of the teachings of the Book of Watchers has led scholars to mischaracterize the relationship between the explanation of sin in this work and the explanations of sin offered by other early Jewish writers, such as Ben Sira.


What Is Wrong with Moses' Body? Jude and the Supposed "Assumption" of Moses
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Ryan E. Stokes, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Jude 9 refers to a time when the archangel Michael disputed with the Devil about the body of Moses. Commentators commonly suppose that Jude in this passage cites a lost text known as the Assumption of Moses, in which Michael and Satan contend with one another following the death of Moses regarding the postmortem fate of Moses or of his body. After considering several Jewish narratives from the Second Temple period that resemble Jude 9, this paper contends that the disagreement between Michael and the Devil to which Jude refers is not one that took place after Moses’ death. Nor did it pertain to Moses’ postmortem fate. Rather the dispute took place on Sinai during Moses’ lifetime and concerned whether the Moses' mortal form would be able to survive his encounter with God. The tradition that Michael and the Devil disputed about Moses after his death and the various accounts of this supposed disagreement, on the other hand, seem to have arisen in later Christian circles as (mis)interpretations of Jude 9. This paper also contends that the Letter of Jude’s indebtedness to the earlier story about Moses, Michael, and the Devil exceeds what scholars have previously recognized.


Ready or Not, Here I Come: Triggering Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible
Program Unit: Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Jonathan Stökl, King's College London

Traditionally, interpreters have distinguished between prophets which is initiated by God and those religious specialists seen as somewhat suspect such as the prophetic groups who according to 1 Sam 10 use music, dancing and pain. But other prophets also used outside stimuli to receive oracles. Elijah is the prime example, who in 2 Kgs 3 demands a musician in order to receive a divine oracle to help the kings of Israel, Edom and Judah on their fated military campaign against Moab. This paper brings together the texts in which prophetic activity is provoked by such outside stimuli are used. While we know from cross-cultural analysis that prophets in many cultures use such stimuli, we also know that they are not necessarily a given. This paper, then, will provide an analysis of their literary and theological purpose in the pericopes in which they are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.


The Missing Symposium in the Inland Levant
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Peter Stone, Virginia Commonwealth University

In the Persian period, many people living in the towns and cities of the Levantine coast set their tables with imported Attic pottery; including both the drinking and serving vessels associated with Classical Greek symposia and, by the 4th century BCE, plates and bowls for serving food. Inland, the picture is different. At Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee, site of an administrative center located 40 km inland from Tyre, Attic pottery is hardly a rarity, but sympotic vessels like kylikes and kraters were few in number. Instead, residents acquired shapes like small bowls that were functional equivalents of local products; suggesting that their entertainments were different – in composition, presentation, or both – from those of the coast. Such differences are all the more interesting given that Kedesh was a Phoenician administrative center with obvious ties to the coast – a place where important people of some means were presumably stationed. What does this tell us about the dissemination of styles and habits of entertaining the Persian Levant? That people were happy to acquire and use foreign table settings if they were passing by but rarely made any extra effort to acquire such goods? That wealth and importance did not correlate in a 1:1 way with cosmopolitan tastes? That only people on the coast enjoyed drinking parties? Perhaps answers can be found in the archaeological record of the early Hellenistic period, when Attic exports to the Levant decreased precipitously, as they did over much of the Mediterranean. Around the same time potters in the cities and towns of the central southern Levantine coast began making their own Greek-style table vessels. But tellingly, the shapes these potters produced in greatest number and that people like the administrators at Kedesh used early in the Hellenistic period – small bowls and saucers – were those with functional predecessors dating back centuries in the region, while they chose not to produce Greek style drinking vessels such as skyphoi and kantharoi. Potters respond to perceived preferences and needs. Perhaps then, despite all the sympotic pottery used on the coast in the Persian period, sympotic behavior, similar to that practiced in the Aegean, only took hold in zones of intense interaction between Levantine and Greek people, such as along the coast where Greek merchants visited, or in communities populated by traders who regularly traveled to Greece.


Poetry of Presence: Divine Presence and Divine Spirit in the Book of the Twelve
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Beth M. Stovell, Ambrose University

Scholars have often questioned the relationship between divine presence and divine spirit in the Hebrew Bible. While scholars have examined the depictions of divine spirit and divine presence in the Book of the Twelve separately, such study has rarely examined how these two conceptions are linked linguistically through poetic devices and the impact of these poetic uses on the rhetoric of these discourses and on the Book of the Twelve as a corpus. This paper will explore how the conceptions of divine presence and divine spirit are depicted via poetic forms in the Book of the Twelve. Using the conceptual metaphor theories of Giles Fauconnier and Mark Turner alongside linguistic theories on lexical cohesion, this paper will examine how metaphors associated with God's presence are conceptually linked to metaphors associated with God's spirit in the Book of the Twelve and highlight other poetic forms used to depict these concepts such as hyperbole and parallelism. Examining the language of divine presence and divine spirit in Haggai, Joel, and Zechariah, this paper will suggest that these depictions frequently highlight expectations for renewal and transformation, using poetry to serve their rhetorical (and at times political) purposes. The conclusions of this examination will then provide insight into the impact of these themes in the Book of the Twelve more broadly.


“If God Is for Us”: The Apotropaic Function of Rom 8:31 in Early Christian Epigraphy
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Jenn Strawbridge, University of Oxford

Epigraphic evidence, while much more difficult to date than literary and papyrological evidence, offers an important and yet oft neglected dimension to the history of reception of a biblical text. One of the most curious cases of epigraphic use of a biblical text is the use of Romans 8.31 (‘if God is for us, who can be against us’). Within early Christian writings, this Pauline passage is cited only 7 times and even then, only by Eusebius and Origen. However, the words of Romans 8.31 may be found on at least 15 early (pre-6th century) epigraphic artifacts, and in particular, on the door lintels of private homes. This paper will explore what might account for the discrepancy between the literary and epigraphic use of Romans 8.31 and the possible apotropaic function of this phrase. Because the surrounding text of Romans (8.30-39) is used with significant frequency in early Christian writings to address the suffering and persecution of Christians, was the phrase found in 8.31 being used to protect Christian homes from suffering and harm? Or, is this excerpt a widely known apotropaic saying with which Paul is familiar and incorporates into his own writing? This paper will trace the epigraphic evidence for Romans 8.31 and draw conclusions about how this evidence might inform the interpretation of this Pauline passage and its reception.


‘A Preacher of the Truth’: The Apostle Paul and Irenaeus
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
Jenn Strawbridge, University of Oxford

Within decades of his death, Paul’s writings and name carry increasing gravitas as early Christian writers seek to claim and re-claim 'the Apostle' as a figure of authority in their rhetorical, apologetic, and polemical works. As such, Paul takes on a number of personal descriptions, including ‘the divine apostle’ (Clement of Alexandria), ‘the blessed apostle’ (Polycarp and 1 Clement), ‘the most holy apostle’ (Tertullian), and ‘the sanctified, the martyred, the most worthy of blessing’ (Ignatius). While the authority of the scriptures offers a framework within which second century debates between early Christian writers could take place, the authority of Paul himself offers a similar place around which debate and inquiry could occur. In particular, a subtle interplay of authorities appear in second century works which appeal both to the authority of the Pauline texts and to Paul’s authority as a teacher, preacher, and apostle. This interplay is especially visible in the writings of Irenaeus who refers to Paul as ‘the Apostle’ dozens of times and is clear in his Against Heresies that one of his aims is ‘to examine the opinion of this man, and expound the apostle’ (Haer. 4.41.4). This paper traces the way that each referent to ‘the Apostle’ by Irenaeus offers a glimpse at how Irenaeus envisioned Paul, whom he also describes as preacher and teacher. What image does Irenaeus present of Paul and how does his defense of ‘the Apostle’ and his writings shape this image? As this paper will make clear, the authority attributed to Paul by Irenaeus is one that derives from Paul’s name and his writings, the very use of which enables Irenaeus himself to claim the identity of one who is wise like Paul and who preaches ‘the truth’ as he does.


The Historical Psalms Iconographically Considered
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Brent A. Strawn, Emory University

The historical psalms, like comparable instances of narrative poetry, are hybrids. On the one hand, they are poetic compositions that are not the same as stories proper, and yet, on the other hand, they have narrative elements: characters, plot or sequence, development through time and/or space, and so on and so forth. If one imagines a continuum, at one end would be pure narrative or story and at the other end pure lyric. The historical psalms fall somewhere in between but probably, given their form, more on the lyric side of the spectrum due to their poetic form and the fact that they, too, traffic in the spare language and dense concatenation that marks all poetry, Hebrew poetry included. Even if this point is granted, these psalms contain details that are precisely the kind that lead biblical scholars into the deep waters of historical reconstruction, coupled with the attempts to place these psalms and their “data” into the constantly vexed, debated, and constantly-under-negotiation timeline of ancient Israelite history, religion, and theology. The purpose of the present study is to reinvestigate the historical psalms in a light rarely considered, that of ancient Near Eastern iconography. I will first briefly note how the historical psalms have been mined for their historical (or non-historical) contributions to events in ancient Israelite history (for their historical (or non-historical) contributions to events in ancient Israelite history before turning to the presence of narrative/narrativity and lyric/lyricism in ancient Near Eastern iconography. I will then move from the art back to the texts, and will argue that a better understanding of these psalms would see them, not as “historical” psalms but as “commemorative” ones.


Herodias' Daughter and Her Dance Recital
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Gail P. Streete, Rhodes College

In Oscar Wilde’s play, “Salome” (French, 1891; English, 1894), the virginal princess Salome eventually yields to the persuasion of her lecherous stepfather, Herod, to dance. The most tantalizing part of the whole drama is described in the brief stage direction: “Salome dances the dance of the seven veils.” Aubrey Beardsley, who illustrated Wilde’s play rather loosely and allusively shows a semi-nude Salome posing in the “Stomach Dance,” but no veils. Richard Strauss, whose opera of the same name (1905) is based on Wilde’s play, has his Salome perform a “dance of the seven veils,” for which he wrote a detailed scenario that nonetheless inexplicably omits the fourth, sixth, and seventh veils. In the first decade of the 20th century female dancers combined Wilde’s imagined dance and the biblical dancer in “the Salome dance” with such regularity that the phenomenon became known as “Salomania.” Salome and her dance have gripped the religious and popular imagination since the sermons of John Chrysostom in the late 4th century and her first depiction in art in a 6th century manuscript. While occasionally depicted as demure, she is usually seen as a nubile teenager or sultry young woman. Yet in her brief appearance in Mark 6:22-29 (// Matthew 14:1-12), she is not even named and she is called a korasion (little girl). We know nothing about the dance except that it pleased King Herod enough to give her whatever she (or her mother) wanted. But even though the entire scenario is probably fictitious, Mark’s contemporaries probably knew what kind of dance it was and why it was persuasive, perhaps even seductive. Although we will never know exactly what the dance was, I suggest here some interesting possibilities for the biblical dance, its performance, and its reception.


Survey of Language Learning Software in the Acquisition of Ancient Languages (Greek and Hebrew)
Program Unit: Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Daniel Streett, Houston Baptist University

Survey of Language Learning Software in the Acquisition of Ancient Languages (Greek & Hebrew)


Recasting the Sea: The Weaponization of Water in Exodus 15
Program Unit: Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Adam Strich, Harvard University

In this paper, I shall argue that the imagery found in two key clauses of the poem contained in Exod 15 has been misunderstood. “Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea” (NJPS) is typical of the translations given for the final clause of Exod 15:1; aside from capitalization, for example, the NRSV, differs only in the choice of “rider” rather than “driver” and “thrown” rather than “hurled.” Similarly unremarkable, as far as translations go, is “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea” (NJPS) for the first half of v. 4; aside from capitalization, the NRSV differs only in its omission of “has.” All these renderings depict the deity moving the Egyptians into the sea (b ay yam, with beth locale). I shall argue, however, on the basis of linguistic and philological evidence gleaned from other early accounts of the sea event, including Exod 15:8–10; the use of the verbs that appear in these clauses, rama(h) and yara(h), elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible; cognate languages and literatures; and various other contextual factors, that the image here is originally that of the deity shooting the Egyptians with the sea (beth instrumenti), as with an arrow or arrows. That is to say, it is the sea that the deity moves. I shall then turn to the reception history of the Song of the Sea, evident already within later sections of the Hebrew Bible, in order to explain how and why these two verbs came to be and continue to be misunderstood. Finally, I shall explore the consequences of this reading for understanding the much-debated relationship between the sea event as depicted in the Song and the Combat Myth that appears in other ancient Near Eastern texts, including Enuma Elish, the Ugaritic Baal cycle, and the occasional snippet found here and there within the Hebrew Bible itself.


"They Will Eat until They Are Satisfied": Widows, Orphans, and Aliens and the Subversion of Justice in Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Cheryl Strimple, Southern Methodist University

In the book of Deuteronomy, references to food in conjunction with the trope, “the alien, the orphan, and the widow,” are considered evidence of an ancient welfare program to assist impoverished people within ancient Israelite society. Abstracted from the book of Deuteronomy, this reading undergirds assumptions about what justice was in ancient Israel and, by analogy, what justice is today. Yet, literary features within the text, such as the association of widows, orphans, and aliens with Levites, themes like remembering and forgetting, eating to satiety, and consuming prescribed foods in particular locations at appointed times, question this reading and point to a cultic context for these meals. Bringing together evidence from food and foodway studies, the web of literary connections in which these references occur, and insights into the construction of human difference from disability studies, this paper will argue that that these meals are not an ancient feeding program but the envisioning of a cultic ritual enacted by a particular group of people to effect covenant loyalty on behalf of all Israel. Acceptance of this reading as a model for justice allows for the continuing construction and marginalization of groups of people in the service of altruism, while unjust systems remain intact.


Political-Biblical Animals: Deconstructed Sovereignty in Revelation 17
Program Unit: Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Hannah M. Strømmen, University of Chichester

One of the rising concerns in the Humanities today is what is termed “the question of the animal” – the critical attention towards the characterisations, representations and utilisations of animals past and present which deem animals distinctly different from humans in order to demarcate their inferiority. Jacques Derrida’s later work – particularly the posthumously published The Animal That Therefore I am (2008) and The Beast and the Sovereign volumes I (2009) and II (2011) – offers a significant contribution to this question. Derrida’s critique, summed up, amounts to an indictment of conceptualisations of the “human” as a sovereign subject, whose capacities for language, culture, technique, death as such, are deemed – and often dogmatically so – to be distinctly human, proper only to human animals. Derrida questions where and how we draw this line, and with what effects; he calls for a critical and curious attention to animal representations and a rethinking of power as a deconstructed sovereignty, that is, a sovereignty that is shared and even suffering. In his call for a revaluation of the political in relation to the animal, Derrida briefly mentions John’s Revelation and its political, frequently war-mongering, beasts. He suggests this book merits critical assessment in light of the animal question – an assessment Derrida does not undertake. The Book of Revelation is a significant text in the Western cultural canon; it is a text that has been mapped onto political scenes, struggles and situations, with its zoo-powers as prominent examples of the religio-political. Building on Derrida’s discussion of the concept of sovereignty in relation to the Book of Revelation, this paper analyses what we might call a religio-political fable, namely the warring Lamb with the Beast and the Whore of chapter 17. In this text we find exemplars of sovereignty and animality, constellations of the human-political and the divine-political caught up in animal representations. As a cipher for Roman imperial power, the Whore and the Beast of Revelation have become a staple composite image of evil, representing violent political power due to their rootedness in a human political order rather than divine sovereignty. As such, these depictions of the “female” and the “animal” become synonymous with a ferocious, repellent power that must be defeated. But what kind of animal, human or divine sovereignty wins when the Lamb triumphs over the Whore-Beast? What part do the animal representations play in this political battle and to what effect for conceptions of animality, humanity, and the dynamics and distribution of power?


Ethnic Rhetoric in Jerusalem and Ephesus: The Jerusalem Council, the Salutaris Foundation, and the “Religious” Legitimation of Ethnic Identity in the Roman Era Polis
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Christopher Stroup, Boston College

In recent years ethnic rhetoric has provided a helpful lens for interpreting questions related to Jewish and Christian identity in Acts (D. Balch, E. Baretto, S. Matthews, L. Nasrallah). It has also proven useful for discussions of Roman era civic identity (S. Goldhill, G. Rogers, G. Woolf). Scholars from both arenas highlight the power of ethnic rhetoric to legitimate identities. This presentation brings these two discussions together through a comparison of Acts’ depiction of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15:1-21) and the Salutaris foundation inscription (IEph 27), an inscription from Ephesus describing the civic benefaction of a wealthy Ephesian approved by the city’s boule in 104 CE. My presentation focuses on three points of comparison between the two texts: the role of an ancestral deity, the use of the mythic past, and the representation of sacred space. It argues that the Jerusalem council and the Salutaris foundation inscription employed ethnic rhetoric to legitimate the identity of communities of disputed ethnic status—gentile Christians in Acts, and wealthy Roman immigrants in Ephesus. Moreover, it asserts that both texts used “religion” as the fulcrum around which ethnic identities pivot. By interpreting the Jerusalem council through the lens of ethnic rhetoric and in comparison with the Salutaris foundation, the presentation concludes that the author of Acts used the Jerusalem council—along with its depiction of the Jewish God, Jewish history, and Jerusalem—to privilege the Jewishness of gentile Christians.


The New Editorial Committee for the Nestle-Aland and the UBS Greek New Testament
Program Unit:
Holger Strutwolf, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

Dr. Holger Strutwolf is Professor of Patristics and NT Textual Research at the University of Münster, Germany. In connection with this he also is the director of the Institute for NT Textual Research that edits the NA, UBSGNT and the Editio Critica Maior for the German Bible Society. He is also the general editor of NA 28. Dr. David Trobisch was born in Cameroon, West Africa, as the son of missionaries. He taught New Testament at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, Missouri State University, Yale Divinity School and Bangor Theological Seminary (Maine). At present he is Director of the Green Collection, Oklahoma City. He is internationally recognized for his work on the letters of Paul, the formation of the Christian Bible, and Biblical manuscripts.


Form and Vocabulary in Dead Sea Aramaic Texts and Their Translation into Greek
Program Unit: Qumran
Loren Stuckenbruck, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

In this paper I address several patterns customarily used in Aramaic manuscripts belonging, for example, to Aramaic Levi Document and the 1 Enoch Book of Watchers and consider the character of the corresponding Greek texts that have been preserved. In particular, the paper looks at the stem „truth“ (QŠT. ; cf. QŠYT. ) and its predominant Greek translation ("righteousness", "righteous") and af‘el passive verbs of motion that are most frequently rendered in the active among the Greek materials. The linguistic observations will, in turn, be contextualized through a consideration of Septuagint translation tradition, on the one hand, and the Aramaic and Greek bilinguals from Palmyra, on the other. In addition, the paper inquires into the significance of the Aramaic terms and forms within their own context in order to evaluate the character of early attempts to translate them.


Protology and the Apocalypse of John in the Context of Second Temple Notions of Time
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Loren Stuckenbruck, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

This paper attempts to locate the phrase "from the foundation of the world" in the Johannine Apocalypse (Rev. 13:8; 17:8) both within its immediate literary context and in relation to Second Temple writings that appeal to a revealed interpretation of the sacred past. In apocalyptic and sapiential literature, the role and function of Urzeit in apocalyptic writings are explored, as well as the notion of things understood as a given or at work before or at the time of creation. This in turn, illuminate the interpretation of Jesus' death in John's Apocalypse and its paradigmatic function for those who follow him.


"Land, Land, Land!" Hearing Jeremiah’s Agrarian Lament in the Critique of Kings
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Daniel J. Stulac, Duke University

This paper presents an agrarian theological interpretation of Jeremiah 21–22, the critique of Judah’s last kings. Positioned within the Christian tradition, the paper argues that the text’s lament for the land (22:29) reveals an agro-ecological dimension previously overlooked by commentators who have focused more closely on the text’s political and socioeconomic concerns. Part One organizes the text into seven addresses projected onto a narrative screen of Babylonian siege warfare. Through synchronic rhetorical analysis, the paper establishes “burning” as an important Leitmotif, which links the kings’ injustice and idolatry to the destruction of Judah’s forests. Part Two focuses on the catchword “cedar,” used as a synecdoche for the royal exploitation of land. The paper culminates in analysis of 22:29, which is understood as an agro-ecological dirge. A conclusion connects v. 29 to the larger Christian canon and suggests its theological importance for churches confronting the global agro-ecological crisis today.


Going Places? Itineraries in the Apocryphal Acts
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Jason S. Sturdevant, North Carolina State University

In the canonical Gospels, the narratives of each move inexorably toward Jerusalem, where readers know that Jesus will die. In the canonical Acts, Paul’s arrival in Rome heralds the arrival of the good news to the “ends of the earth.” What function, though, do the many travels of the apostles have in the 2nd and 3rd century Acts bearing their names? When John arrives at Ephesus, or Thomas in India, must they do so only because of the constraints of tradition, or do their travels and the locations to which they journey play some larger rhetorical function on the part of the authors of these texts? This paper will explore the itineraries of three of the 2nd-3rd century Acts of the Apostles, to determine whether the travels of the apostle in each play any significant role in the narrative beyond a change in scenery. First, in the Acts of Andrew, the apostle first visits Myrmidonia, then other key cities in Asia Minor and Greece, ending up finally at Patras, where he is martyred. In the Acts of John, rather than moving through several cities like Andrew, John’s activity consists of traveling to and from Ephesus, where he will eventually die of old age. Lastly, in the Acts of Thomas, the apostle arrives (through some difficulty) in the most far-flung location of any of the Acts: India. Are these travels merely in keeping with generic features found either in the canonical Acts or the Greek novels, or are they simply constrained by historical traditions regarding these apostles? Do these changes in location significantly enhance the drama of any of these narratives? Or do these travels, especially their final stops, highlight some important rhetorical feature of any of these Acts?


How Printing Created Manuscripts: Aesthetic and Historical Approaches to Quranic Manuscripts
Program Unit: Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts
Natalia Suit, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

My paper will address materiality of the Qur'anic manuscripts -- texts written by hand that, by virtue of the way in which they were made, have become objects whose primary value no longer is the message itself but rather the fact that they are not printed. What gives these things value is not what is written in them but the length of time that had passed since their production as well as the artistic sensibility the calligrapher poured into them. Because in Qur'anic manuscripts writing itself can be treated as an object rather than as knowledge, they veritably test the boundaries of the notion of “book” as a text to be read. The capacity of Qur'anic manuscripts to act as “books” is limited by their physical properties: calligraphy, ornamentation, parchment or paper, binding etc. In the aftermath of print, handwritten ma?a?if may/have become items in private and public collections, acquired for their historical importance, artistic qualities, and -- in the case of the museums -- for their academic significance for both Muslim and non-Muslim (especially Euro-American) scholars. This transformation of Qur'anic ma?a?if into makh?u?at, manuscripts, could fully take place only when mechanical printing became not only possible but also ubiquitous. From this perspective, printed ma?a?if did not only precede handwritten ones; they also, in an important sense, created them, transformed them into the all-encompassing category of makh?u?at. Handwritten Qur'anic texts were not the only kind of textual production that underwent dramatic change with the introduction of print technology. Brinkley Messick, who examined the changing relation between writing and authority in the nineteenth-century Yemen, noted that with the spread of print culture “the old diversity of handwritten texts, including the drafts and autographs of famous scholars, calligraphic exercises, copies made as pious pastimes, artifacts of formal study, products of professional copyists, and so forth, would eventually be reduced from the point of view of a print-oriented society, to a single basic and increasingly archaic type, the ‘manuscript,’ to be collected and curated, kept in library sections that would begin to resemble museums.” However, unlike many of genres of writing that disappeared after the introduction of printing, the Qur'anic text continued to be disseminated, acquiring new forms of authority vis-a-vis the handwritten ma?a?if and clearly relegating the latter into a category of objects rather than texts. How has this happened? My paper will examine the conditions under which a Qur'anic text may be referred to as makh?u? rather than a mu??af: conditions created through practices of preservation, collection and academic investigation.


Angelic Bodies and the Body of Christ
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Kevin Sullivan, Illinois Wesleyan University

This paper will examine the nature of the bodies that angels were believed to possess as evidenced in the literature of late second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Ancient understandings of the human body and the natural world no doubt influenced beliefs concerning the bodies of angels. While on earth, angels appear to be able to interact with the physical world in ways quite similar to human beings. In various texts, angels can eat, have intercourse, act as warriors, travel, and carry out other duties. Yet, angels also demonstrate a variety of supernatural qualities: their true identity can be withheld from their human companions, they can simply disappear when their task is complete, the can appear with bright light, and they can cause great fear in the persons seeing them, suggesting that they are easily able to transcend the limitations of the physical world. The transformative nature of the angelic body—one that could look and act as a human body in the physical world but that could transcend the limitations of the physical world and also one that was decidedly different in the heavenly sphere—likely served as an important analogy not only for understanding the nature of the risen Jesus, but also for some Christians (such as Paul) for how the redemption inaugurated by Jesus would look, i.e., those saved would themselves be transformed into an angelic body. Not only did these beliefs influence notions about Christ in early orthodox Christianity, but it also influenced Valentinian and other so-called ‘Gnostic’ beliefs about angels and the transformation of humans. It is the aim of this paper to demonstrate how beliefs about the bodies of angels in ancient Jewish and Christian literature influenced Christian beliefs about the Body of Christ and thus beliefs about salvation/redemption.


The Inter-thematic Link of Death and Survival: Ecclesiastes among the Megilloth
Program Unit: Megilloth
Chloe Sun, Logos Evangelical Seminary

Among the scrolls in the Megilloth, the Book of Ecclesiastes seems out of place in terms of its motifs, themes, and literary features. Unlike the motif of the rest of the Megilloth where a female voice is prominent, Ecclesiastes lacks a strong female voice. Unlike the rest of the Megilloth where human responsibility takes center stage, Ecclesiastes emphasizes human limitations. Unlike the rest of the Megilloth where there are two historical narratives and two songs, Ecclesiastes belongs to the wisdom genre. This paper argues that it is precisely this wisdom genre of the Book of Ecclesiastes that forms an inter-thematic link with the rest of the Megilloth. At the center of Ecclesiastes is the theme of death. This theme situates Ecclesiastes among the Megilloth and offers a counter perspective to the other scrolls in the Megilloth.


Qoheleth, Gilgamesh, and Kingship as a Historical Ideal
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Matthew J. Suriano, University of Maryland - College Park

Since Grimme’s discovery in 1905, the comparison of Qoheleth to Gilgamesh has become commonplace in biblical studies. Although the comparisons vary, they are predominantly literary in nature. Yet scholars are reticent to offer historical explanations for why the two texts bear such striking similarities. The literary affinities of both works can be addressed by first acknowledging the common ideas of kingship that draw both Gilgamesh and Qoheleth so closely into each other’s orbit. Instead of positing literary dependence of one text upon the other, it is important to recognize the cultural and historical contexts within which both works participate. Qoheleth’s self portrait as “King over Israel in Jerusalem” has invited attempts to locate the book’s historical identity, beginning with the traditional assumption of Solomon. This portraiture, however, is part of the book’s appropriation of literary motifs found in royal inscriptions. In particular, Qoheleth has been constructively compared with Akkadian narû texts, which contain the putative words of former kings, spoken in a first-person narrative style. Interestingly, the Standard Epic of Gilgamesh begins with reference to his narû. The implicit and explicit references to narû literature in Qoheleth and Gilgamesh offer insight into the ways by which both works interact with kingship as a metahistorical category. Examining this metahistorical background will shed light on the literary development of Gilgamesh, from the composite epic to the standard epic. The literary development of the epic tradition, which is intricately tied to the meaning of Gilgamesh’s experience, provides a model to both compare and contrast Qoheleth’s appropriation of royal literary motifs. These motifs were used in Qoheleth to deconstruct the ideal of kingship, not as critique, but as a reflection upon its failure. This historical perspective fits the setting of post-exilic Jerusalem, commonly assigned to the biblical book, and provides the framework for Qoheleth’s contemplation of life and individual experience.


Suetonius, Asconius, and Luke: Roman Authors and the Consultation of News Reports
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Ben Sutton, Ridley Melbourne

Suetonius, Asconius, and Luke: Roman Authors and the Consultation of News Reports


Paul’s Rhetoric of Adoption and Inheritance as Israel’s Promise to the Poor and Enslaved
Program Unit: Poverty in the Biblical World
Diana Swancutt, Boston University

This presentation examines several key Pauline texts that highlight adoption and inheritance motifs (e.g., Gal 3, Rom 4, Rom 8), with a focus on their promise to poor and enslaved believers. Material world evidence for the (rare) Roman adoption of slaves as sons will be discussed, as well as imperial rhetoric and practices of adoption. How might Paul’s rhetoric about “adoption as sons” play in this alternative collectivist community that Paul identifies as “Israel”? How shall we describe (in light of current postcolonial theories) Paul’s efforts to so shape the community identity by means of this rhetoric? These questions will be posed and discussed in the presentation.


Edifying Anecdotes of Alexander the Great in Medieval Copto-Arabic Literature
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Mark Swanson, Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago

From time to time, students of the medieval Arabic-language literature of the Coptic Orthodox community encounter the figure of Alexander the Great, not so much as a historical figure as a character in edifying anecdotes and an author or recipient in sapiential epistolary exchanges. This, of course, should come as no surprise. The history of the literary traditions concerning the Macedonian conqueror have long been receiving the attention of scholars, and much careful work has gone into attempts to describe how the originally Greek “historical” and “epistolary” Alexander cycles made their way through the various literatures of the East, in all their linguistic and confessional complexity. With regard to the Copto-Arabic literature in particular, we now have Adel Sidarus’s survey “Alexandre le grand chez les Coptes (recherches récentes et perspectives nouvelles)” [in Orientalia Christiana: Festschrift für Hubert Kaufhold zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. P. Bruns and H.O. Luthe (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2013), 477-89]. Sidarus’ study is helpful in allowing us to collect a number of instances in the medieval Copto-Arabic literature where Alexander-material is not presented in extenso and for its own sake, but selectively excerpted in order to illustrate or provide evidence for some particular theological, apologetic, or homiletic point. The present study will (briefly!) present a provisional list of such instances, but then move on to an examination of how the Alexander-material functions in such instances, and in what literary company the Alexander-material performs its function. This examination may provide some hints as to the form in which the Alexander-material (perhaps together with other edifying literature?) was available and accessible to medieval Copts (or perhaps to medieval Copts and Muslims alike?). This study is motivated in part by two striking examples of use of Alexander-material: (a) a story about Alexander’s encounter with a hermit prince in an Arabic Lenten sermon attributed to St. Shenoute the Archimandrite, preserved in MS Paris B.N. ar. 4761 (ed. V. Ghica in Annales Islamologiques 35 (2001): 143-58); and (b) a citation from the pseudo-Aristotelian (and said to be addressed to Alexander) Kitab al-Siyasa fi tadbir al-ri?asa found in the theological compilation al-?awi of al-Makin Jirjis ibn al-?Amid “the younger” (noted by M.N. Swanson in Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 2 (2014): 219-20). Each instance provides rich material for the questions formulated above, and stimulus for a wider study.


The Literary-Historical Dimensions of Intertextuality in Exodus–Numbers
Program Unit: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Marvin A. Sweeney, Claremont School of Theology

This paper examines the literary-historical dimensions of intertextuality in Exodus—Numbers. It begins with a brief review of the three major types of intertextual work current in the field of biblical studies, viz., the citation of biblical texts, the sequential reading of biblical texts within a single work, and the dialogical reading of texts in relation with other texts. It observes that intertextuality has been understood to be largely a synchronic literary phenomenon, but it argues that intertextuality also has diachronic, especially redaction-critical, applications. The paper illustrates this contention with an examination of the Exodus-Wilderness narratives in Exodus—Numbers. It begins with consideration of the motif of the slaying of the First-Born in the Exodus narratives, noting especially the citation of the law concerning the redemption of the first-born in Exod 34:19-20. Although interpreters generally read this motif in relation to the slaying of the Egyptian first-born and the redemption of Israel as first-born of YHWH, the paper argues that the motif must be read in the broader context of the Exodus-Wilderness narratives. It notes YHWH’s decision mentioned in Numbers 3 and 8 to replace the first-born of Israel with the Levites who would then function as priests in Israel. The paper then considers the Samuel narratives in which Samuel is the first born son of his mother, Hannah, and Ephraimite father, Elkanah, who is then raised as a priest in the Shiloh sanctuary. The paper concludes that the Exodus narrative was written in part as an etiology for an early Israelite practice of employing first-born sons as priests, but that it has been rewritten to point to the origins of the Levites as the priestly tribe in place of the first-born.


The Visualization of Suffering in the Ancient Courtroom and in Josephus
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Sören Swoboda, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Flecere et movere had a central affective function in ancient rhetoric. Especially in the forensic speech, in which p???? had a prominent place, the awakening of pity (??e?? or ???t?? and commiseratio) was a crucial part of the proem, but more so of the peroratio/conclusio. We can learn from striking statements in Cicero and Quintilian, for example, the importance of achieving this goal through a graphic as possible visualization of suffering. Whether the speaker only made the scenario of suffering vivid in the minds of the hearers through graphic embellishments or even made it visible by causing pity-awakening relatives of the accused to appear in the room where the trial was held, thus bringing it home to the most important sense organ in antiquity, the eye, was secondary. More important was the requirement to present the suffering as unjust, particularly horrible, and finally as something which could also happen to the viewer. The overlap of rhetoric and theater seen in the awakening of pity appeared in the Rome of the second half of the 1st century AD in a context in which the most diverse genres, in spite of the decline of classical tragedy, made use of precisely the tragic elements of the graphic staging of suffering: Besides the horrible tragedies of Seneca, often classified as closet dramas, this applies among others to Silius Italicus' epic Punica, but also to the Jewish historian Josephus. The brutality of the depictions of death in the Bellum, unique in the context of Greco-Roman historiography, can be better understood against the background of the practice of the forensic speech and of tragedy of awakening pity through the graphic staging of suffering: It presents to the 'readers' the fate of the Jews as a 'funeral procession', the emotional effect of which Quintilian in reference to Caesar's funeral procession, which was said to have made his murder tangible for everyone, criticizes as unworthy of a forensic speech. Such means, which appeal to the 'eye' and thus to p????, were, nonetheless, used not only in the court—because they promised success.


Josephus' Political Vision: Policy and Career Ambitions
Program Unit: Josephus
Sören Swoboda, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Josephus frequently praises the Jewish 'constitution' and expresses views on political issues. Statements that disclose his political vision for his country, his people and, accordingly, Rome are, by contrast, rare and ambiguous. Using selected texts my paper illuminates one aspect of the background to this well-known fact: Josephus not only is a clever tactician in terms of his autobiographical portrayal, but also knew, as someone aspiring to the political elite, what he could and couldn't say about the future of Palestine. The Bellum, for example, depict the Jewish God as guiding the catastrophe and the Romans as conquerors through his assistance, but avoid the corollary that he is instrumentalizing Rome for Jewish interests with a concrete, even political roadmap. In addition, the proof of the ability to maneuver tactically was in the context of literary and rhetorical conventions a recommendation on Rome's political stage. Thus Josephus' writings reveal far more about his own ambitions in the existing political system than about positive political changes for his country, which in the 70s he at best hoped for and in the 90s only dared to suggest (cf. Ant. X 210). Anyone who wants to identify his hopes must distinguish him from 'visionaries' like Luke or Paul, who were likewise concerned to present their convictions as not in conflict with political and religious realities. Josephus must be understood as a tactician, who, unlike these authors, used his skills as a writer to profile himself and his people and who because of his own career ambitions was not willing to disclose anything that could have disqualified or even jeopardized him (cf. Gal 5:11). My paper asks further whether generally texts on his political views or his responses to political ideas developed by others can be illuminated critically from this point of view.


Using Fred Craddock’s “Overhearing” Homiletic in Biblical Studies Classrooms to Invite Affective Change in Students
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Stephan Taeger, Brigham Young University

Teachers in biblical studies can struggle to understand their role in addressing the affective domain in academic environments. Many see the importance of encouraging affective change in students, but feel that direct attempts to work in this domain can be awkward, out of place, or overbearing. This presentation will explore Fred Craddock’s “overhearing” homiletic as a model that can help biblical studies teachers indirectly invite affective change in students. Drawing upon the work of Soren Kierkegaard, Dr. Craddock’s 1978 book “Overhearing the Gospel” (now a classic in narrative homiletics) elucidated how communicators can create an environment where listeners are given cognitive and emotional space, but are also encouraged to make affective and behavioral changes. Craddock argued that an overhearing experience occurs when listeners are afforded “distance,” but also given a chance to “participate” (through identification) with a message. Much like reading a novel, watching a movie, or attending a play, listeners do not feel directly addressed, yet they begin to recognize their own beliefs, worldviews and behaviors challenged in the content presented. The balance between “distance” and “participation” allows the listener to draw their own conclusions regarding how they can improve affectively. The use of concrete images, metaphor, and stories are critical to this method and practical suggestions will be offered. Finally, a few specific examples will be modeled as if a teacher was covering Luke 10:25-37 in a biblical studies class.


Ritual as Divine Law: The Case of Hittite Royal Cultic Rulings or 'Royal Sacrifice' and Its Biblical Correspondence
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Ada Taggar-Cohen, Doshisha University

Biblical and Hittite festivals are regarded as dictated by divine law, a demand from the deity transferred through a mediator (the biblical Moses, the Hittite king, or others). This paper will show the parallel concepts of festivals as reflecting the divine demands, being termed in both cultures as “law” (in Hittite iš?iul- and biblical Hebrew hoq). In both cultures we find texts indicating on the one hand a list of festivals to be celebrated and on the other hand texts detailing the exact way of how to conduct those festivals. In both cultures the neglect of the prescribed celebration may cost the culprits their lives. The biblical texts seem to instruct the law to the entire community of the Israelites, while the Hittite texts directly refer to the priesthood. Leviticus 23, a priestly text, and CTH 264, detailing the legal instructions to the priesthood, will stand at the core of the discussion. While both texts give an indication of the large material from which those summaries of festivals were compiled, they are posing the question of whether we indeed have here an accumulation of different sources regarding festivals, or a formulation guided by legal thinking and intention.


Embodied Religious Experience in Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales
Program Unit: Religious Experience in Antiquity
Aldo Carlo Fernando Tagliabue, Heidelberg University

In the study of the historical expression of notions such as embodiment and enactive cognition, Aelius Aristides’ Sacred Tales are an ideal test case, given their constant focus on the narrator’s body. Despite the recent surge of interest in this text (see e.g. Downie 2013), scholars have not used new research on the mind to shed new light on Aristides’ account (Platt 2011: 263 is a partial exception). My paper expands upon on the religious reading of the Sacred Tales (Petsalis-Diomidis 2010): I take this text as one promoting religious experience in two different ways – by describing Aelius Aristides’ embodied response to Asclepius and by asking his readers to undertake an embodied response to both Asclepius and his illustrious witness Aristides. My methodology consists of three main elements. Firstly, following Harkins 2012, I use embodiment language (especially ‘kinesic style’) and the way in which it affects the reader’s response as tools to describe key elements of the religious experience in the Sacred Tales. Secondly, I apply to some passages the notion of enactive vision recently developed by Troscianko 2014, who relies upon Noë’s sensorimotor enactivism. Thirdly, I attempt to bridge the analysis of embodiment language with the narratological features of the same text, such as focalization and event arrangement. In fact, I share Harkins’ view - recently re-elaborated by Kukkonen - that embodied language can shape the readers’ response, who might ‘respond to the pages through their bodies’ (2014, 265). The way in which readers are engaged will be explored through the tools of structuralist narratology (e.g. the role of first person narration, character focalization and portrayal of internal audiences). After a survey of scholarship and a methodological introduction, I first discuss Aristides’ religious embodied response to Asclepius: in books 2-6 of the Sacred Tales Aristides not only elaborates new doctrinal thoughts about god, but he is involved in a physical, emotional, and multisensorial relationship with him – which includes direct encounters with Asclepius and the narrator’s own performance of ritual actions. Embodiment language sheds light on this multifold process and leads to a detailed and comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon. Secondly, I discuss different ways in which readers of the Sacred Tales are involved in the same kind of embodied reaction. Although often in the text Aristides stresses the exclusivity of his own relationship with Asclepius, the use of a rhetoric of shortcoming (of failure of language) and the combination of first person narration, character focalization and portrayal of internal audiences favour the readers’ engagement and re-enactment of Aristides’ religious experience – especially during the bath scenes. Overall, with this paper I hope to offer a new comprehensive interpretation of the Sacred Tales and to make the case for the usefulness of embodiment as a tool for interpreting not only Jewish and early Christian texts, but also Pagan ones.


Asceticism as Resistance: The Ishmaelites, Monastic Practice, and Orthopraxy in the Virtues of St. Macarius of Egypt
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Mourad Takawi, University of Notre Dame

This paper investigates a prophecy ex eventu attributed to Macarius the Great found in the Virtues of Saint Macarius of Egypt, predicting the seventh-century Arab conquest and subsequent rule. Using Qur’anic diction while carefully subverting its idiom, the prophecy presents the anti-ascetic “Ishmaelite” as a clear threat to the Christian “myth of the desert.” In this light, I propose to understand the pericope as a liturgical text normalizing and universalizing ascetic orthopraxy as the sine qua non of the Christian life, and therefore as a mode of resistance to the “way of the Ishmaelites.”


A Liturgy of Ascent and a Life of Ascent: Conforming Congregations to Christian Scripture
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Luke Ben Tallon, LeTourneau University

Local churches should be “Scripture-shaped.” This claim, advocated by several ecclesially interested contemporary scholars, suggests that scripture should not only form the ideas (theological and ethical) of the church, but that the shared life of the church should be conformed to the narrative (or drama) of scripture. In an effort to both affirm and examine this claim, the first question that our paper will answer is, “What ‘shape’ is Christian scripture?” Various proposals are on offer, but John Calvin (followed more recently by Douglas Farrow) argues that the movement of descent and ascent provides a basic architectonic of Christian Scripture. In agreement with this thesis, we will trace this structural movement in the overarching narrative of creation, the national story of the people of Israel, and – most centrally – the particular and quintessential life of Jesus Christ. Yet, is the contemporary church conformed to this scriptural pattern of descent and ascent? This is the second question addressed by our paper, to which our answer is, “No, not sufficiently.” Contemporary Christians are frequently shaped by a narrative of ascent, but it is an anemic tale of ascent contained in the phrase, “going to heaven.” This story of “going to heaven” – though bearing both semantic and spatial resemblance to the shape of the Christian story – actually misses and even obscures Christian scripture’s account of descent and ascent. Under the guidance of Calvin, Farrow and patristic wisdom, we will offer a recovery of scripture’s shape through bifocal and simultaneous emphasis on the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Ascent of the God-Man — a narrative that could shape local Christian communities and the way that they approach scripture, worship, God’s mission, and their vocation. How, then, shall the church be transformed into this scriptural movement of descent and ascent? This is the third question we will address, arguing that two things are necessary. On the one hand, we must rediscover the descent-ascent shape of Christian scripture outlined earlier. On the other hand, we must cultivate practices that both give us eyes to see this shape and inscribe it into our life together. In other words, the hermeneutical spiral must be redrawn. The Eucharist is a paradigm of this hermeneutical spiral. Drawing on Luke-Acts and the theology of John Zizioulas, we will describe Eucharistic practice as a place in which participants could 1) recognize the descent-ascent pattern in Christian scripture, 2) reorient their worship to this pattern, and 3) fulfill their vocation to participate in the triune God’s mission of descent-ascent.


Forgiveness as the Image of the Merciful and Just God
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Luke Ben Tallon, LeTourneau University

When Moses hears the extended proclamation of the divine name in Exodus 34 it affirms both mercy and justice as characteristic of the Lord God. The Lord forgives, but does not forget just desserts. To be godly would be to exhibit both traits and that seems to be the pattern in Israel’s ethics, instantiated in the injunction of Micah 6:8 “to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” When we enter, however, into the ethical exhortations of the New Testament, we find a strange pattern exemplified in Colossians 3:1-17 and Luke 6:20-38. In the former passage, the Colossians are exhorted to bear God’s image (as revealed by Jesus Christ) by forgiving just as the Lord has forgiven them. In the latter passage, followers of Jesus are challenged to be the Most High’s children by being merciful just as their Father is merciful. In both passages explicit mention of justice is noticeably absent. So, what has happened? The difference between Exodus and Micah on the one hand and Paul and Luke on the other cannot be explained simply in terms of new ethical instructions because the ethic of the latter passages is explicitly connected to imitatio Dei. Often this difference is explained by positing a positive shift in God’s character (or characterization). This interpretation stumbles upon the common concern, though expressed in different ways, of Luke and Paul to present Jesus Christ’s work as the continuation of the work of the God of Israel. Moreover, it assumes that the attributes in Exodus 34 can be categorized into “negative” and “positive” attributes. Another popular interpretive strategy is to present forgiveness as a two-step process: first God’s concern for justice is satisfied by punishing the wicked and then God is enabled to be merciful in forgiveness. Both explanations neglect the complex picture of mercy and justice in Exodus as well as the multifaceted treatment of mercy and justice in the Book of the Twelve (which contains many echoes of the divine name formula from Exodus 34). Attending to the context of Exodus 34 and its echoes in the Book of the Twelve results in a more complex picture of the relationship between mercy and justice. No longer is divine mercy easily categorized as “positive” and divine justice as “negative.” This new interpretive horizon presents the possibility that the merciful forgiveness described in Luke and Colossians is itself just. On this reading, God’s forgiveness—the very definition of merciful justice and just mercy—serves as the ethical pattern for his children, created to bear his image and likeness, in continuity with the two-fold ethical exhortations in Israel’s scriptures.


Un-gendering Texts: A Queer Critique of Looking for “Male” and “Female” Voices
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, Vanderbilt University

The idea that the biblical scholar can discern the “gender” of a biblical text or tradition through critical analysis gained currency in the 1990s. Athalya Brenner and the late Fokkelien van Dijk-Hemmes, who pioneered the practice in On Gendering Texts: Female and Male Voices in the Hebrew Bible, argued that it is possible to recover female voices in what is often assumed to be a male-authored collection of writings by examining a text’s worldview, voice, and use of language. Following the publication of Brenner and Dijk-Hemmes’ book in 1993, feminist scholars quickly took up the charge, applying their methodology to a diverse array of biblical texts. Since then, there has been a stream of books and papers making the case for “masculine” or “feminine” voices in a variety of texts of the Hebrew Bible, including prophetic literature, the Song of Songs, and apocryphal books such as Judith. Though the boom in scholarship searching for “M” or “F” voices in biblical texts coincided with the growth of queer-theoretical and gender-critical approaches to the Bible, there has as yet been no queer-influenced critique of the practice of gendering texts. This paper will argue that the M/F textual schema both implies and reinforces a fixed gender binary, a notion that queer theory in general and queer biblical criticism in particular have challenged persuasively. In addition, the paper will argue that the process of gendering texts is necessarily circular: texts are categorized as M or F based on arbitrary criteria, which were developed in the first place in order to categorize texts as M or F. In making these arguments, the paper will use vocabulary developed by theorists such as Judith Butler and Jack Halberstam, as well as biblical studies-specific arguments against gender essentialism and binarism by Deryn Guest. It will be argued that, while the attempt to recover female voices in the Hebrew Bible is a noble goal, the idea that the scholar can do this by looking to a text’s stereotyped “gendered” language or interests is ultimately unhelpful to feminist biblical studies. The gender critic’s recognition that gender is not a strict binary undermines the idea that it is possible to determine what kind of voice, M or F, produced a particular part of the Bible.


Negotiating Interpretations of the "Image of God" in the Hebrew Bible for the Disabled and Special Needs
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Nancy Tan, Chinese University of Hong Kong

There is a wealth of theological discourse on the area of Disabilities within the Christian communities. For the last two decades, a number of biblical studies have been made relating to disability. A common procedure is to look into the scriptures to study texts where disabilities are portrayed, and and to proffer interpretations through the perspective of those who are disabled. The theological articulation of the “image of God” is among the most important topics to emerge from these studies. Recent works advocate reconsidering the interpretation of the “image of God”, by departing from physical anthropomorphic definitions to one of forming relationships. One such example, from among the biblical interpreters which has dealt with this subject more thoroughly is W. Sibley Towner, in “Clones of God” Interpretation 59 (2005): 341-56. At the same time, Towner also admits the contesting voices within the Hebrew Bible concerning the issue of the “image of God”. This paper would like to raise 2 issues: firstly, how sufficient is this interpretation of the “image of God” to refer to forming relationships sufficient for all persons with disabilities, especially if we take into consideration persons with an impairment in social communication; and secondly, in what ways and to what extent can we negotiate biblical interpretations on the “image of God” for the Disabled and the Special Needs?


The Graffiti of the Smyrna Agora
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Cumhur Tanriver, Aegean University, Turkey

Excavations in ancient Smyrna (downtown Izmir) being conducted by Dr. Akin Ersoy since 2007 have unearthed not only a magnificent agora but also have revealed one of the largest collections of graffiti in Greek. Hundreds of graffiti dating to the early Common Era were found in the two southern-most galleries of the basement of the basilica in the northern wing of the agora. Written on at least two layers of plaster on the walls and columns, the graffiti were produced with charcoal or incised with sharp objects. This paper will first review the discovery and dating of the graffiti. It will next address the restoration, conservation and recording of the graffiti. Finally, it will discuss the content of the graffiti such as health, love, and sex organized under such categories as texts, drawings and geometrical figures, and numbers and dates. Connections to early Christianity include examples of isopsephism and a possible early reference to the Spirit. These graffiti provide an insight into the life of the non-elite in a major city in the Greek East where Christianity was developing.


Embodying Resurrection: The Realism of Metaphor in Paul’s Somatic Ideals
Program Unit: Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Frederick S. Tappenden, McGill University

Paul’s ideals are bodily ideals; his expectations are somatically oriented and his thinking corporally grounded. Counterbalanced in Paul’s resurrection ideals are two somatic emphases: on the one hand, expectations of a future embodiment that is both patterned on and transformatively intertwined with Christ’s risen body, and on the other, presumptions of resurrection as a transformative process currently at work in the bodies of Christ-devotees. While these nuances are explored in various ways in modern scholarship, standard scholarly treatments tend to pit metaphor and realism against one another while simultaneously relegating Paul’s body-focus to the realm of post-mortem existence. By fashioning resurrection as a theological proposition, these treatments ironically disembody Paul’s resurrection ideals. In this paper I utilise conceptual metaphor and blending theory in an effort to draw together conceptual strands in Paul’s resurrection ideals that are usually treated as distinct (even disparate). I will focus on Romans 6–8 and give specific attention to (a) the body’s role in shaping, constructing, and grounding Paul’s eschatological outlook, (b) the conceptual metaphors at work in Paul’s transformation ideals, and (c) the attendant implications of resurrection metaphors for Paul’s understanding of life en Christo. In the end, I argue that metaphor and realism interlace in Paul’s ideals, and further that the apostle understands resurrection as a dynamic process of transformation in which human bodies engage.


Translating the Qur'an as a Manifesto for Revolution: 'Ubaydullah Sindhi's Qur'ani Shu'ur-i Inqilab
Program Unit: Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
SherAli Tareen, Franklin and Marshall College

This paper examines the modern Urdu Qur’an commentary of an important Indian Muslim scholar ‘Ubaydullah Sindhi (d.1944) titled The Qur’an’s Conscience of Revolution (Qur’ani Shu‘ur-i Inqilab) written between 1927 and 1939 to show ways in which he translated the Qur’an as a manifesto for a socialist revolution. ‘Ubaydullah Sindhi is a curious figure in the history of Islam in India. Born and raised as a Sikh, Sindhi converted to Islam in his boyhood and went on to become one of the major Muslim scholars in South Asia; he was associated with the famous North Indian Muslim seminary cum reformist movement, the Deoband Madrasa. In 1915, Sindhi left India and went to Kabul. There he spearheaded a major anti-colonial movement and established the first overseas branch of the Indian National Congress, with which he was affiliated. After spending 7 years in Kabul, Sindhi traveled extensively from 1922 to 1939, and lived for some time in Moscow (7months), Istanbul (3 years), and Mecca (14 years). In 1939, Sindhi came back to India a transformed man. From being an arch anti-colonial firebrand, the focus of his political thought had shifted to the argument that Indian Muslims must emulate the socialist ideals of economic justice and proletariat welfare. Although Sindhi was clearly inspired by the socialist revolutionary currents he had witnessed while in exile, the revolution he imagined for Indian Muslims was not based on a rejection of religion, but rather on a thorough rethinking of Muslim normative sources and traditions of knowledge. In Sindhi’s view, class struggle was at the heart of the Qur’an and of Muhammad’s prophetic career. The revolutionary intervention of the Qur’an lay in the annihilation of the two major imperial powers of the 7th century, the Romans and the Persians (Qaysar wa-Kasra). But these two empires did not only represent political and spatial entities. Rather, Sindhi argued, Roman-ness and Persian-ness (Qaysariyat wa-Kasraviyat) represented mindsets of imperial elitism that were destroyed by Islam and replaced by the equalizing power of divine sovereignty. The major sins of such elitism were extravagance, oppression of the underprivileged, and the monopolization of financial and political power by a small elite, all sins that Sindhi categorized under the biggest sin of what he called ‘capital idolatry’ (sarmaya parasti). In his view, the underlying motif of a Qur’anic revolution was to overthrow such regimes of capital idolatry and to replace them with a political order that elevated the dispossessed and that ensured a just and egalitarian society. Throughout his Qur’an commentary, Sindhi interpreted particular verses and passages in the Qur’an through entirely novel conceptual vocabularies. His commentary on chapter 73 in the Qur’an surat al-Muzzammil (‘The Enwrapped One’ or ‘The Enfolded One’) is a good example. According to Sindhi, central to the agenda of both this chapter was a scathing repudiation of a “capital idolizing mindset” (sarmaya parastana zahniyat) and the realization of a revolutionary movement that would confront and eviscerate that exploitative mindset. [ABSTRACT TRUNCATED]


"Turn Your Eyes Away from Me:" Irony, Gender, and the Power of the Female Gaze in the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Ashley Tate, University of Virginia

Feminist readings of the Song of Songs tend to appraise the poem as a rare or even singular beacon of gender equality amid the near-total dominance of male voices and perspectives within the Hebrew Bible. While this enthusiasm is undoubtedly justified, the present essay suggests that to ascribe such singularity to the Song is to risk isolating its liberating voice from its literary matrix, thus curtailing its potential to provide critical commentary on the male-dominated gender dynamics that pervade the canon. Although it may appear that the poem operates comfortably beyond the patriarchal idiom, there are several instances which suggest that it is deeply affected by patriarchal power structures. By attending to these instances, I argue that the Song of Songs does problematize them, but that its challenge is all the more effective precisely because it has internalized them. Specifically, I propose that the language of irony can provide the hermeneutical equipment with which to account for the persistent presence of male hegemony within the poem, while simultaneously preserving its refreshing alternative to the repression of the female voice. Because irony presents normative assumptions earnestly and transparently, while at the same time spurring the reader to question the stability or sufficiency of these assumptions, irony permits the Song’s unique orientation toward gender tropes to remain in critical dialogue with the patriarchy it questions. To illustrate this point, I focus on the bridegroom’s discomfort at being the object of a gaze for which he is typically the subject: “Turn your eyes away from me, for they overwhelm me!” (6.4). The Song’s ironic thrust reaches its clearest expression in this example, as the old trope of male beholder and female beheld is both acknowledged and subverted by calling attention to the experiential reality that women can and do gaze back.


A Morphological Lexicon of New Testament Greek
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
J. K. Tauber, MorphGNT

Morphological analyses such as analytical lexicons have typically involved indicating lemma, part-of-speech, morphosyntactic and morphosemantic information (such as case, number, person, gender, tense, voice, mood and degree). Much progress has been made in recent years making analyses of this sort freely available in digital formats, but the kind of information they contain has not advanced significantly for decades. This paper will provide an overview of the work of the MorphGNT project to develop an electronic Morphological Lexicon of New Testament Greek that adds inflectional classes, roots and stems, stem formation and morphophonological processes, principal parts, and derivational morphology. Beyond serving as a database of linguistic information, the goal of the morphological lexicon is to provide an "executable grammar" so particular grammar points discussed in beginner grammars, intermedia grammars or advanced reference grammars can be tested against a corpus in a way that makes completely transparent where the "rules" are followed and where they fall down. This data also provides useful data for pedagogical tools such as intelligent tutoring systems that typically require better modeling of latent traits in order to determine what a student actually knows and what items best test that knowledge. All data is for the Morphological Lexicon of New Testament Greek is available under a Creative Commons license, and all code used for both the generation and verification of the morphological lexicon is open source.


Integrative Issues and Voting
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Hal Taussig, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

*


Integrative Issues and Voting
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Hal Taussig, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

*


Forming Faithful Readers: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Missional Hermeneutic
Program Unit: GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Derek W. Taylor, Duke University

Mission rarely occupies a prominent position in contemporary theologies of ecclesial formation. Those who offer robust accounts of formation often reduce mission to the task of formation itself. This “formation as mission” model is operative, for example, when one claims that “the mission of church is to be the church.” Danger lurks, however, for the world as a theological category threatens to fall from view. If missional theology sits uneasily with this vision of the missionary task (as I believe it should), it ought to consider Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a constructive resource. Most generally, therefore, I propose that although he is not commonly read this way, Bonhoeffer should be treated as a missional theologian. In particular, Bonhoeffer’s account of “discipleship” evidences striking similarities to what many within recent GOCN conversations mean by “mission.” Yet more specifically, I propose that Bonhoeffer is a vital resource precisely in his ability to articulate an account of formation ordered toward missional faithfulness. This paper explores Bonhoeffer’s account of formation in two phases, each of which carries an important hermeneutical corollary. In the first phase, Bonhoeffer stresses formation *for* mission; in the second, formation *in* mission. While some separate these two phases of Bonhoeffer’s ecclesial vision, I suggest they must be read together. The first account of missional formation marks Bonhoeffer’s Finkenwalde period (1935-1937), from which emerge his two most famous works, Discipleship and Life Together. Yet the recent publication of DBWE 14 pulls back the curtain, so to speak, and provides a new depth of insight into Bonhoeffer’s vision and the concrete practices that characterize his communal experiment in formation for mission. An important hermeneutical implication emerges from this analysis: Bonhoeffer seeks to form communities that have the capacity to place themselves within Scripture and thereby become “biblical hearers” who can listen for and discern the voice of the Risen One. That is, Bonhoeffer seeks to form *addressable communities*, communities whose formation exists for the sake of discernment. Bonhoeffer’s second account of missional formation follows the effectual demise of the Confessing Church (1938-1944). During this time he comes to realize that one-sidedly focusing on formation for mission threatens to reduce faithfulness to stagnant sectarianism. He thus claims that the church is formed in the act of mission itself. Another hermeneutical implication emerges: mission is *ingredient within* the act of interpretation. That is, mission is not the end of faithful interpretation but part of its very process. For Bonhoeffer, faithful reading within the act of mission is an ongoing, provisional, and open-ended affair in which the reading community continually engages (and re-engages) in acts of discernment in ever-changing contexts. For Bonhoeffer, these two accounts of formation must be read together, for reading the text and reading the context are interrelated activities. That is, our ability to discern Christ and hear his voice in Scripture (characteristic of Bonhoeffer’s Finkenwalde period) and our ability to discern the context in which Christ continues to act (characteristic of Bonhoeffer’s post-Finkenwalde period) are dual aspects of a faithful missional hermeneutic.


Nonreligious and yet Theological: Bonhoeffer's Interpretation in a World Come of Age
Program Unit: Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Derek W. Taylor, Duke University

Throughout most of the 1930s, Bonhoeffer functions as a distinctly theological interpreter. During this time he remains committed to the definition of theological interpretation paradigmatically stated in his introduction to Creation and Fall. Near end of that decade, however, Bonhoeffer begins reimagining the nature of interpretation, which eventually leads to his (in)famous search for a “nonreligious interpretation of biblical concepts.” To understand this development, his thought must be historically situated. In 1932 Bonhoeffer unabashedly reads Scripture as “the book of the church.” Yet after the demise of the Confessing Church, such a position loses viability. In his mature phase, therefore, Bonhoeffer is forced to reimagine what “church” might mean and how Scripture might be its book. This paper thus asks: is “nonreligious interpretation” also “theological interpretation,” and how might Bonhoeffer’s answer to this question challenge assumptions operative in contemporary attempts to read Scripture theologically? Much depends on how we understand these two modifiers of interpretation. If we take theological interpretation to be defined primarily by its relationship to an *ecclesial culture and tradition* (as many contemporary proponents do and as Bonhoeffer himself did in 1932), Bonhoeffer’s mature interpretation is distinctly non-theological. The “religion” Bonhoeffer rejects from prison seeks to subsume interpretive faithfulness within given ecclesial structures, thereby “entrenching” the church within itself and forcing the church to win cultural space in competition with the secular world. Bonhoeffer’s mature Christology – particularly as it comes to expression in Ethics – won’t allow for the presupposed duality that undergirds such competition. In this sense, Bonhoeffer’s dual Christological and ecclesial commitments make “religious” interpretation impossible. But if we take theological interpretation to be defined primarily by its relationship to *the risen Christ*, Bonhoeffer’s mature interpretation remains wholeheartedly theological. In his mature phase, Bonhoeffer’s orders interpretation toward discerning the presence of Christ in the world, hearing Christ’s voice, and being “drawn into walking the path he walks.” This approach avoids religion in that it refuses to limit Christ to ecclesial space. That is, by creating a certain degree of critical distance between Christ and the church, Bonhoeffer is led to reimagine the nature and task of faithful reading. Having argued for the distinctly theological nature of Bonhoeffer’s nonreligious interpretation, this paper concludes by placing Bonhoeffer in conversation with Robert Jenson. I claim that three key aspects of Jenson’s interpretation fit within Bonhoeffer’s category of “religious interpretation.” First, Jenson treats Christology as a piece of clarifying dogma (a move which, in Bonhoefferian terms, risks reducing Christ to an idea). Second, Jenson employs ecclesiology as the means of spanning the “hermeneutical gap.” Finally, Jenson’s interpretation is consumptive in that its telos is right knowledge and belief. In contrast, Bonhoeffer remains focused on the particularity of Christ himself. Christ is not an idea but an agent and as such connects the “there and then” of the text to the “hear and now” of the reading community. This Christological conviction is simultaneously non-consumptive; faithful reading issues not merely in knowledge or confession but in embodied, located, and missional performance.


Reading Psalms 51 and 130 with Protestant Reformer Katharina Schütz Zell
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
J. Glen Taylor, Wycliffe College

Katharina Schütz Zell (ca. 1498­-1562) ranks among the more important female figures of the Protestant Reformation. In this paper, I shall examine the expositions of Psalms 51 and 130 that were published late in her life as part of a larger devotional work. (Although not formally trained as an exegete, Schütz Zell had an extensive knowledge of Scripture, hermeneutics, and preaching through her life experience and through the network of relationships that she fostered alongside her husband Matthew Zell, a Lutheran pastor and Reformer in Strasbourg.)


The Women Therapeutae and the Divided Space of the ‘Synagogue’
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Joan E. Taylor, King's College - London

With imminent publication of the Taylor-Hay commentary on De Vita Contemplativa (SBL Philo series), it is timely to reflect on the presentation of aspects of women and gender in the treatise, and update aspects I have explored in Jewish Women Philosophers: Philo’s Therapeutae Reconsidered (2003). This paper considers issues of actuality and rhetoric, as well as some other broader questions, and then focuses on the divided physical space Philo describes for the Sabbath meetings of the Therapeutae, in the light of what we now know of ancient synagogues and lecture halls.


Biblical Criticism à la Femme
Program Unit: Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Marion Taylor, Wycliffe College

This paper will explore the interface of gender and higher criticism in Victorian England by highlighting the work of women who experimented with what Janet Larson has called “biblical criticism à la femme.” Scholars such as Benjamin Jowett advocated a “manly” historical-critical approach to the interpretation of Scripture, while women such as Sarah Lewis and Josephine Butler used a “womanly” or “motherly” approach. The lines that divided the so-called “manly” and “womanly” approaches to interpreting the Bible were not firmly drawn and a number of women appropriated the methods and insights of historical critics to help them promote women's causes.


Seeing What Others Cannot See: Tragic Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Greek Literature
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Hanna Tervanotko, University of Helsinki

The Hebrew Bible preserves references to various prophetic figures that are not believed when they transmit their predictions. Prophet Hosea’s enemies cry that he is a fool (Hos 9:7). Also Isaiah (Isa 28:8) and Micah (Mic 2:6) are not believed. Perhaps the most complex image of a prophet, who is met with resistance concerns Jeremiah. His predictions are not listened to and in several passages he cries out his infortune (e.g., Jer 11:18; 15:10; 20:7-18). In the Biblical texts these figures fail to convince their audiences about their status as true prophets, whereas, interestingly, the audience of the texts knows that the divine origins of their messages. Various prophetic characters that feature in ancient Greek literature of the Persian era also meet disbelief. The prime example of such figure is Cassandra, who features in Aeschyllus’ Agamemnon. Her predictions concerning the fall of Troy are not listened to. Also other characters (e.g., Laocoön in Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca and Tiresias in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King) meet similar difficulties. They act as prophets against their will and speak out of internal necessity. Similarly to the ancient Jewish texts, the audience of the Greek literature is expected to know the narrative and can thus sympathize the disbelieved prophets. Yet the intention of these texts differs: while the Jewish texts transmit the oracles of the prophetic figures, and thus qualify as religious literature, the Greek texts, especially tragedies, aim at causing their audiences feelings of pity and catharsis (Aristotle, Poetics). This paper compares the portrayal of tragic prophets, in particular Jeremiah and Cassandra in ancient Jewish and Greek literature paying attention to what extent their images correlate with each other. I will analyze how the plot of the Jeremiah story is constructed, and ask to what extent Greek tragedies, and their portrayal of tragic prophets could have inspired the authors and editors of the Jewish texts. Through this comparative reading my intention is to shed new light on the depiction of tragic Jewish prophets. Finally I will discuss the potential cross-cultural influences between the portrayals of tragic prophets preserved in the ancient Jewish and Greek texts.


The Character of Dagan in Emar's Zukru Festival and the Biblical Ritual of First Fruits
Program Unit: Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
John Tracy Thames, Jr., The Johns Hopkins University

The archives from the Late Bronze Age city of Emar stand among the most prodigious and important sources of data for ritual practice in the ancient Near East and constitute a touchstone for contextualizing rituals in the Hebrew Bible. One event described in those archives far surpasses the rest in terms of length, cost, and overall extravagance: the festival called zukru. There is much about the nature of the zukru festival that is yet to be understood, including the character of the god who is named as the primary honoree of the festival—Dagan bel BU-KA-ri. This epithet of Dagan is unknown outside of Emar; within Emar it is attested only in zukru-related texts. Despite the work of astute interpreters, a satisfactory understanding of the title has yet to be obtained and, more importantly, a discussion of its significance for the family of ritual texts in which it occurs is lacking. This paper makes strides towards filling that gap by evaluating the possible interpretations of the epithet and suggesting a direction for understanding the title in its ritual context, as well is in the context of ancient Syro-Palestinian ritual practice. In particular, the terminology of the epithet is placed in dialogue with its biblical Hebrew cousin, bikkûrîm, “first fruits.” The biblical festival of ritual presentation of agricultural first fruits to the deity is suggestive for understanding the persona of Dagan through which he acted as chief of the zukru. Accordingly, I undertake close examination of the biblical festival of first fruits and illustrate its phenomenological, as well as philological connections to the Emariote festival title of Dagan and other related terms in Emar’s ritual corpus.


Jesus as Controversialist: Media-Critical Perspectives on the Historicity of the Johannine Sabbath Controversies
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Tom Thatcher, Cincinnati Christian University

Apart from scattered sayings with clear parallels in other texts, it remains the case that the Johannine discourses are almost categorically disregarded as useful sources for the message of Jesus. Consistent with this approach, the dialogues of Jesus in John 5--10, which include some of the most significant Christological statements in the Gospel, are generally discounted whole as reflections of the Johannine imagination. The present paper will utilize insights drawn from media-criticism to propose a more holistic approach that seeks to identify broad patterns in John's presentation that reflect widely-accepted themes in the message and program of the historical Jesus. Close analysis reveals that the discourses in John 5-10 are prompted by specific acts of protest by Jesus (the two Sabbath healings) that are directed toward the brokers of the Jerusalem great tradition. Against the establishment claim that he is a "sinner," Jesus contends that his widely-documented activity as a healer would be impossible were it not sanctioned by God: If God objected to healing on Sabbath, then how could Jesus do so? One may reasonably conclude that the more elaborate theological statements in this central section of the Gospel are in fact grounded in three widely accepted conclusions: that the historical Jesus was a healer; that he challenged conventional views of Sabbath; and, that he openly opposed the Judean religious establishment.


The Bible and the Enuma Elish: The Case of Rigmu
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Rannfrid Thelle, Wichita State University

In this paper I trace the history of the translation of rigmu in line 25 of Tablet 1 of the Enuma elish as an example of how presuppositions based on the Bible informed the early understanding and assumptions about how to read this text. Based on Smith’s first translations and reconstructions from 1876, it was still the common understanding in 1895 that the reason for the rebellion of the gods against Tiamat was a conflict over the creation or emergence of light. This is evidenced in Gunkel’s now classic Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit. Tablet 1 was then still thought to correspond in some sense to Genesis. Though this was not always explicitly stated, it seems to be an underlying assumption, based on influence from the biblical view of creation. By 1902 (King), however, the idea that the rebellion was instigated against chaos in order to impose order was generally accepted. However, the text upon which these translations were based was still missing the portions recounting Ea’s murder of Apsu and Mummu for having plotted to kill the noisy gods. Even after this gap was filled in by a new text in Budge’s 1921 translation, the reason for the conflict was still thought to be about order vs chaos. The line containing the word rigmu, describing how Apsu could not subdue the noise, was still not understood as “clamor,” and it wasn’t until several years later that the reason for the chain of events that led to Marduk’s battle against Tiamat was understood as being caused by the noisy offspring. In addition to the discussion of whether noise implies chaos/sinning/injustice, also an important discussion, I will argue that assumptions from theologically motivated ideas about creation guided the options that were considered when this text was first being interpreted.


New Light from the Papyri: The Legal Background of “kathos gegraptai” in Matt 26:24
Program Unit: Matthew
Michael P. Theophilos, Australian Catholic University

Recently published documentary papyri significantly enhance our understanding of the legal background of the quotation formula, “kathos gegraptai” (Matt 26:24). In light of some notable Greek parallels attested in the Septuagint (2 Kgs 14:6; 23:21; 2 Chr 23:18; 25:4; 1 Esd 3:9; Tob 1:6), and also Semitic parallels at Qumran (1QS 5:17; 8:14; CD 7:6, 19; 19:1; 4Q163 7:18; 4Q174 1:12), commentators have characteristically viewed the quotation formula, “kathos gegraptai” as functioning distinctively within the Judeo-Christian literary tradition. This view, however, overlooks considerable Greco-Roman papyrological material which bears much fruitful light on the use of the formula in the wider Mediterranean world. Of note here are the legal dimensions of the phrase, which will be analyzed in this paper, and applied to the Biblical material. This paper is part of the larger Papyrologische Kommentare zum Neuen Testament project, for which the presenter is writing the volume entitled, The Matthean and Lukan Sondergut. The commentary series examines all published papyri, ostraca, and tablets (of which there are approximately 60,000), and evaluates their contribution to the contemporary historical, social, and linguistic contextualization of the New Testament documents.


Marginalia in New Testament Greek Papyri: Implications for Scribal Practice and Textual Transmission
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Michael Theophilos, Australian Catholic University

The analysis of marginalia in New Testament Greek papyri provides a fascinating and distinct window into the process of textual transmission and scribal practice throughout the early centuries of the first millennium CE. Both interlinear and marginal glosses range in scope and extent as much as they do in genre and scribal motivation for inclusion. Portions of this material have been assessed in the first editions of the papyri and other publications, however, thus far no consensus has emerged in light of the evidence of marginalia as a whole within the New Testament Greek papyri. This paper will 1) provide an exhaustive catalogue of marginalia in the New Testament Greek papyri, 2) offer certain categories for classification of these marginalia, 3) discuss implications for scribal practice and textual transmission, and 4) highlight the exegetical contributions of the marginalia. The presentation will also contain high-resolution images of the marginalia prepared specifically for this project.


The Numismatic Background of "charakter" in Heb 1:3
Program Unit: International Syriac Language Project
Michael Theophilos, Australian Catholic University

This paper explores the implications of numismatic material for contributions to Greek lexicography, particularly as it pertains to linguistic features of the post-classical period. The working aim of this paper is to offer a demonstration and methodological enquiry into employing dated and geographically legitimate comparative numismatic data to refine, illuminate and clarify the relevant semantic domains of New Testament vocabulary. Our discussion will involve analysis of the numismatic background of charakter in Hebrews 1:3. Charakter has been variously translated in the English versions with significant variation (“express image” [KJV, NKJV, AV, JUB]; “exact imprint” [ESV, NRSV]; “very image” [ASV]; “representation” [NET, LEB]; “exact representation” [NIV, NASB]; “exact likeness” [GW, GNT, ISV]; expression” [DARBY]; “exact expression” [HCSB]; “flawless; expression” [PHILLIPS]; “very expression” [CJB]; “very stamp” [RSV]; “engraved form” [GNV]; “impress” [YLT]). Attention to the numismatic record significantly enhances and refines the definition of the relevant semantic domains, especially in regard to diachronic developments.


Josephus and the Galileans: Imperialist Ambition and Ethnic Prejudice
Program Unit: Josephus
Nathan Thiel, Marquette University

Among the central players of Josephus’ autobiography are those he refers to as the Galileans (hoi Galilaioi), a contingent which the Jewish general turned Roman supporter and prolific historian largely leaves to the margins in his more famous volumes. But when he turns his pen to give an account of his own prestigious ancestry and public career, Josephus’ relationship with the Galileans, or rather, his skill at manipulating their fickle masses, is at front and center. Patronized by their one-time general as an unstable, restive, and emotional mob ready to ignite at the slightest indignation, the Galileans are of vital importance to Josephus’ imagined success as general of the Jewish forces in Galilee. It is their undying support and even affection, as Josephus will boast, that fortifies the Jerusalem aristocrat’s position in Galilee against the unceasing threat of rival factions. Josephus’ condescension toward the Galileans is strange enough, though perhaps the residual effect of regional rivalries. Somewhat more puzzling, and the cause for some consternation, is why Josephus never identifies the inhabitants of Galilee’s major cities as Galileans. In fact, the denizens of these civic centers, under continual threat from the resentful and volatile Galilean populace, are frequently contrasted with hoi Galilaioi as if they were not Galileans themselves. It is the purpose of this study to venture an explanation for these peculiarities: Josephus’ Galilaioi are not the Jewish inhabitants of Galilee at large but an ethnos of their own, a people related to but not identical with the Jews, and in that respect much like the Idumeans. Josephus’ presentation of the Galileans is colored by an ethnic prejudice that essentializes a few selected traits and makes them foils for the virtues of Josephus and the Jews. Josephus’ résumé, as he would have it at least, is impressive by standards ancient and modern: well-born, philosophically disciplined, morally unimpeachable, an expert in the laws and traditions of his people, a consummate general and statesman, a part-time prophet, and a prolific historian all in one. Granted the argument of this study, we may add small-scale imperialist, a man who learned the character of his foreign subjects, bridled their more destructive impulses and swung their support to his political advantage.


Indices of Ethnicity in Modern Constructions of ‘Luke’
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Matthew Thiessen, Saint Louis University

Discussions of Luke-Acts often make claims about Luke’s ethnic identity, placing him in one of four possible ethnic categories: (1) Luke was a non-Greek, possibly Semitic gentile; (2) he was a Greek gentile; (3) he was a gentile convert to Judaism; and (4) he was a Jew. In this paper, I will reexamine the evidence internal to Luke-Acts which scholars adduce for their various conclusions about Luke’s ethnic identity, assessing their arguments on the basis of both Luke-Acts and modern ethnographic theory.


When Eunuchs Read: Black Queer Ambi-veil-ence, Matt 19:12, and Others
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Eric A. Thomas, Drew University

This project transposes ambi-veil-ence – the postcolonial womanist hermeneutic introduced by Shanell S. Smith (The Woman Babylon and the Marks of Empire: Reading Revelation with a Postcolonial Womanist Hermeneutic of Ambiveilence [Fortress, 2014]) to a LGBTI/Queer postcolonial hermeneutic in order to engage Matthew 19:12 from a Black Same Gender Loving (SGL) positionality. This move is an exercise in queering canons by engaging in a partnership between womanist biblical interpretation and LGBTQI/Queer hermeneutics. In so doing, the “queer codex” traditionally occupied by names like Butler, Foucault, and Sedgwick is expanded to include the scholarship and lived experiences of SGL people throughout the African diaspora, including Lorde, Baldwin, and Anzaldúa. The Matthean Jesus challenges anyone to accept who can that there are eunuchs for the basileia of heaven who are attributed a place of honor and status in his community of followers on earth. A queer postcolonial hermeneutic of ambi-veil-ance enables us to explore the implications of this social status reversal for LGBTQI believers with particular reference to the African diaspora. Smith’s postcolonial womanist hermeneutics of ambiveilence combines Homi Bhabha’s concept of colonial ambivalence with W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of double-consciousness and the racialized metaphor of “the veil.” Bhabha’s colonial ambivalence is the simultaneous embracing and resisting of the oppressor’s power and privilege. The colonial subject attempts to mimic the colonizer’s authority but never quite meets the mark. The oppressor creates his/her (but usually his) identity over and against the oppressed. The oppressed creates his/her identity in reaction to the oppressor. Ambivalence is the simultaneous desire and disdain mutually expressed in the relation of the oppressor to the oppressed. How power is negotiated, shared, or claimed by the opposing forces is the counterdiscoursive space for postcolonial critique. When the particularities of Black LGBTI lives are foregrounded in biblical interpretation, womanist scholarship provides a beneficial framework to think with. The shared influence of radical women of color scholarship in the genealogies of womanist and SGL epistemologies allow our specific standpoints grounded in shared ethical obligations and desire for the wholeness of the entire community to be articulated, performed, and embodied. Smith’s hermeneutic challenges us to read the character(s) of a text and allow ourselves upon reflection, to be “read” by the character(s) in turn. In Black gay vernacular to “read” someone is to tell them off with all of the sarcasm, cultural signification, humor, and truth that can be brought to bear in the situation. I deploy the Black gay vernacular term to “read” the power dynamics of gender privilege and heteronormativity in the text and in my context. As I read the eunuchs for the basileia, the eunuchs "read" me and my complicity with their marginalization. This hermeneutical “conversation” has the potential to begin dialogues with the centurion and his pais (Matthew 8:5-13), the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40), and many others. The eunuchs for the basileia demonstrate that for a queer postcolonial hermeneutic of ambiveilence, “reading” is fundamental.


The Standing Figures on Pithos A from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud: Their Sexual Identity and Relationship
Program Unit: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Ryan Thomas, Harvard University

The question of the sexual identity and relationship of the two standing figures at the center of pithos A continues to be a subject of vigorous debate, with the scholarly community divided over whether they should be explained in light of the inscription invoking Yahweh and his asherah that is situated above them. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion by reviewing two basic iconographic arguments for identifying the figures as Yahweh and his female partner and in the process respond to some of the common objections that have been raised against the hypothesis. In this regard, the recent publication of the pithos drawings in Kuntillet ‘Ajrud’s final excavation report and examination of the original pithos by means of a high resolution digital photograph are found to necessitate a critical reevaluation of earlier arguments that cast doubt on the male and female identity of the figures and their original association on the pithos as well as the assumption that they are straightforward representations of the Egyptian dwarf god Bes.


Word Sense Disambiguation Aided by Frame Analysis: A Case Study on Qadash
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Jeremy Thompson, Logos Bible Software

Modern lexicographers have made significant advancements in recent decades by employing frame analysis. Dictionaries based on frame analysis include: FrameNet, A Valency Dictionary of English, and Valenzwörterbuch deutscher Verben. One specific advancement involves the recognition that important overlap exists between word senses and frames. This awareness has been exploited in collaborative work between the creators of FrameNet and WordNet. For instance, the English verb “return” has both “Agent–Goal” frames (“he [Agent] returned to his home [Goal]”) and “Agent–Theme–Goal” frames (“she [Agent] returned the letter [Theme] to her friend [Goal]”). These frames represent two separate senses of the verb “return.” In this paper, we will provide a brief overview of frame analysis as well as an examination of the overlap between frames and senses. In the remainder of the paper, we will perform a case study on the Biblical Hebrew verb qadash to demonstrate how using frame analysis can be useful for disambiguating the senses of Biblical Hebrew verbs. In the end, we will show that frame analysis gives the researcher a bird’s eye view of the various patterns associated with Biblical Hebrew verbs, which places them in a better position to deal with the fine tunings of specific uses.


Intentional Ambiguity: The Rhetoric of 2 Thessalonians
Program Unit: Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Trevor Thompson, University of Chicago

John Chrysostom, in his fourth homily on 2 Thessalonians, addresses the identity of t? ?at????. He asks, “Why do you suppose Paul presents it so obscurely?” Chrysostom notes that some identify t? ?at???? with the grace of the Spirit while others connect t? ?at???? with Roman rule, the position Chrysostom favors. According to Chrysostom, Paul deliberately speaks covertly and dimly. Building upon Chrysostom’s observation of intentional ambiguity in the text, this paper will offer new solutions to classic interpretative cruces in 2 Thessalonians. The Greco-Roman rhetorical theorists offer the vocabulary and conceptual framework for interpreting 2 Thessalonians in this light. The temple in 2 Thess 2:4 can be understood as a homonymy (?µ???µ?a) referring on the one hand to the temple in Jerusalem and the other hand to a metaphorical use for God’s people. In addition, the multiple references to the opposing person/figure in 2 Thess 2:3-12 seem to be an instance of deliberate polyonymy (p??????µ?a). Far from clarifying the identity of the person/figure mentioned, the multiple descriptors multiply possible identifications. Further, ?? d?? ?µ?? (2 Thess 2:2) is syntactically ambiguous in meaning (“a letter supposedly [but not truly] from us” or “a letter as [truly] by us”) and in syntax (s??ta???). These intentional ambiguities serve the goal of the pseudepigrapher to avoid anachronism by allowing multiple interpretations.


To Whore or Not to Whore? The Question of Gender-Specific Moral Identity within the Language of Revelation
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Marsha A. Thrall, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Conventional, male-biased reading and interpretation of “whore” language in Revelation 17 and “bride” language within Revelation 21 treat these particular texts in a manner which only considers the passage content from the perspective of political climate at the time of its writing. While reading from this lens is an accurate historical-critical interpretation, such perspective fails to account for the cultural damage that can be caused by using language that creates a dichotomy intended to define the value and worth of a person, specifically, a woman. Customarily, biblical text is not used within congregations to provide a historical account of biblical era intentions; rather, text is used to present a moral code to be applied by the believer in a manner that the text itself is used as an example of Divine expectation of human behavior. A consequence of this presentation is an unrealistic treatment of feminine value. This value assignment often breaks women into two categories – the “whore” and the “pure bride.” These opposing categories provide no room for middle ground for the woman who is seeking relationship with the Divine while in community. For women, sexual promiscuity is considered to be whorish, whether or not economic compensation results from sexual activity. This paper will explore the danger in treating passages that contain feminine, sexually based language assignments as merely political statements, specifically within the text of Revelation 17 and 21.


What's Wrong with Board Games: Contect and Content of the Pseudo-Cyprianic De Aleatoribus
Program Unit: Contextualizing North African Christianity
Maureen A. Tilley, Fordham University

Scholars have investigated the origin and philological aspects of the pseudo-Cyprianic treatise De aleatoribus but largely ignored its legal and religious context and content. This paper will probe the ambient Christian context and legal situation of gaming to see in what ways the attribution of the treatise to a Cyprianic milieu might be maintained and might illuminate ecclesial life in North Africa.


Where Shall Wisdom Be Found (in the Book of the Twelve)?
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Daniel Timmer, University of Sudbury

Where Shall Wisdom Be Found (in the Book of the Twelve)?


The Construction and Deconstruction of Ethnic/National Othering in the Book of the Twelve
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Daniel Timmer, University of Sudbury

Non-Israelite nations appear throughout the Minor Prophets as ethnically and/or nationally distinct, and usually adversarial, groups. Despite their consistent and predominant identity as Israel’s “other” in the present, some of the corpus’s predictions of the future anticipate these same nations’ reconciliation with, or even integration in, restored Israel in the future. This paper surveys and analyzes the Israelite/non-Israelite distinction in the Twelve in order to identify the bases, means, and circumstances of this future de-othering of some non-Israelites, with special attention to new criteria of identity (elements common to both) that take precedence over socio-political or ethnic differences. The paper concludes by comparing this method of othering and its relativization in the Twelve with prominent means of othering and de-othering elsewhere in the HB/OT.


The Gnat and the Elephant
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Sarra Tlili, University of Florida

The question of whether the gnat is inferior or superior to the elephant preoccupied generations of Muslim thinkers. Contrary to the expectations of most, the comparison is in the insect's favor, for in spite of her size, the gnat has everything the elephant has, including the "trunk" (proboscis), plus six legs instead of four, wings and the ability to fly. These discussions are motivated by the Qur'anic verse, "God disdains not to strike a similitude of a gnat or anything above it." The ambiguity of the phrase "above it" (fa-ma fawqaha) allowed exegetes to include the entire creation in this parable, for the phrase was understood as anything "above" the gnat in smallness and in largeness. The verse therefore allowed a conception of creation with the gnat at its center. The aim of the verse is not to highlight the centrality of gnats, but rather to decentralize all creatures. Since God can strike a similitude with any, then all creatures are equal, at least in this respect. This shows how Qur'anic animal themes serve to disrupt humans' self-centeredness and hierarchical ideas. The gnat verse, in combination with the fact that the sura where it occurs is titled after another nonhuman animal, suggests that animal themes are central to al-Baqara. Nearly all these themes are mentioned in miraculous contexts. The flesh of the cow (v.73) revives a dead person; the person who doubts God's ability to revive the dead city (v. 259) is made to witness the revival of his own ass; and when Abraham asks that God reassure him of His ability to give life to the dead (v. 260), God tells him to cut and scatter the bodies of four birds, then call them to witness their revival. Besides, the miraculous is encountered in the story of the humans turned into apes as a way of punishing them. Inevitably, the revival motif is linked to the motif of death. Animals are either killed (the cow and Abraham's birds) or die naturally (the ass) before they revive someone else or are themselves revived. Other suras, of course, establish the permissibility of killing for food, something that many humans feel uneasy about. By introducing the theme of death/killing before the theme of killing for food, the point is perhaps to remind that death, regardless of its causes, is part of God's larger plan. Furthermore, since death is linked to revival, these themes are perhaps meant to convey the ultimately positive character of death. The theme of animals as a source of food and service is deemphasized in al-Baqara. One of the two references to it occurs in another miraculous context, when the Israelites are given quail to eat. The other consists of the prohibition of the swine's flesh, a rather non-food theme. Al-Baqara's animal themes seem to convey that service to humans is not the primary function of other animals. Rather, their primary function is to be part of God's bigger scheme of creativity.


"Knowledge Problems" and the Future of the Biblical Past
Program Unit: Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Andrew B. Tobolowsky, Brown University

In my paper, I will discuss “knowledge problems”, that is, problems which persist in understanding the nature of biblical historiography not because the necessary knowledge to resolve them does not exist, but because it is not conventionally available within the knowledge sphere circumscribed by traditional training and approaches to biblical studies. We can think, for example, of the famous “camel problem”, which lately re-emerged in popular discourse, in which the late date of the domestication of the camel (in the 10th century B.C.E.) reveals something of the nature of biblical accounts of the patriarchs, or the “etrog problem” in which the historiographical description of the festival of Sukkot in Leviticus is challenged by scientific studies of the availability of the fruits involved. The issue is not precisely these problems and their solutions, but how long it has been possible to solve them, and what other issues might be easily solvable by available techniques. We can think, in this respect, of the considerable controversy raised by Israel Finkelstein’s proposal of the Low Chronology based on radiocarbon studies, which, while increasingly sophisticated as a technique, might easily have been performed prior to 1996. Like the periodic revolutions of thinking produced by finds unearthed not form ongoing digs, but from museum basements, we may possess considerably greater means to solve historiographical issues than we are fully aware. A related and perhaps more pressing problem still is the extent to which knowledge problems inhibit our ability to grapple with the ramifications of theoretical approaches to ethnicity, identity, and memory where they considerably conflict with traditional approaches. It has become increasingly difficult, for example, to maintain a sense of the biblical historical account as essentially Israelite, rather than Judahite, and preservative and static rather than presentist and dynamic, regardless of the varied dates and provenances of the material involved, when viewed through the lens of anthropological theories of the invention and re-invention of tradition and the fluidity of identity over time. If it is the case that telling even the same story in the 5th century B.C.E. as opposed to the 10th century B.C.E., is transformative to how it is understood, it is even more the case when the story has undergone considerable evolution, as the biblical narrative surely did. And yet, though these fluidities and dynamisms are widely acknowledged on the conceptual level, they have achieved comparatively little impact in truly revising our approach to biblical history, in which the stability of both Judahite and Israelite identity over time remains broadly assumed. I will end this paper with suggestions for addressing these issues holistically, beginning with a call for a more realistic approach to balance in PhD training and for increased partnerships with scholars in other disciplines towards solving biblical historiographical issues. As an example, I will briefly present the findings of a social network study of biblical figures I pursued with a colleague of mine, now a data scientist at the New York Times.


The Bible in the Regime of Mass Incarceration: Reflections on the Bible from a Christian Ethicist
Program Unit: Bible and Cultural Studies
Asante Todd, Vanderbilt University

Although African Americans make up roughly 13% of the U.S. population, they comprise 40% of U.S. prison populations. Latinos are the second highest incarcerated group, making up ~30-35%. In turn, the U.S. prison system incarcerates a greater portion of its population than any other country on earth, about 1 out of every 100 adults. Legal scholar Michelle Alexander, whose book _The New Jim Crow_ stands as the definitive statement on the issue, lays out her argument in narrative form, recounting her experience as director of the Racial Justice Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “By the time I left the ACLU”, she says, “I had come to suspect that I was wrong about the criminal justice system. It was not just another institution infected with racial bias but rather a different beast entirely…I came to see mass incarceration…as a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to Jim Crow”. Alexander goes on to show how as with Jim Crow, there is today legalized discrimination, political disenfranchisement and racial segregation. There are differences between then and now: the degree of racial hostility present during Jim Crow has weakened in our day, whites have also been victims in the War on Drugs, and some blacks support the “get tough” policies of the war. Nevertheless the strategies of the Drug War are the same as Jim Crow – to deny African Americans citizenship. How do we think about the bible in relationship to mass incarceration? This response considers questions of biblical hermeneutics and ethics in the context of biopolitics, the crafting of social order through regimes of control, of control, discipline and punishment. How might biblical methods and interpretations contribute to certain disciplinary formations and the overall sedimentation of the New Jim Crow.


‘Quinine,’ ‘Ditaola,’ and the ‘Bible’: Investigating Batswana Christians’ Health Seeking Practices
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
Lovemore Togarasei, University of Botswana

In view of the existence of three health systems in most African countries: the modern/Western/allopathic, the traditional and the spiritual/faith, this paper presents and discusses findings of a recently concluded field research on Batswana’s (Botswana citizens) health seeking practices. Although the project looked at all Batswana in general, this paper focuses on findings from those who professed to be Christians. It presents and discusses their understanding and practices in health seeking. How do they respond to the existence of these three systems of health and what are the influencing and/or resultant readings of the Bible? In other words, how does the existence and practice of the three health systems influence the Christians’ understanding of the interaction of the three? How do they and other Christians they know, interact with the three? Since the Bible forms the ‘worldview’ of most African Christians or since most African Christians, especially those from the mushrooming Pentecostal charismatic churches, claim that the Bible influences their world, how do they interpret the Bible to guide their interaction with the three health systems? The article discusses the fieldwork findings in light of scholarly debates (e.g. Koumare 1983, Dube 2000, Kealotswe 2006) that have been made on the interaction of the three health systems in Africa.


Trauma, Denial, and Memory: Reading Crucifixion as Sexual Violence
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
David Tombs, University of Otago

This paper is part of a wider project drawing upon methodological insights from liberationist, black, and feminist theologies to examine Roman crucifixions as ritualized torture practices involving physical, psychological and sexualized violence. The project originated with work on prisoner abuse and torture in Latin America, to re-read the gospel accounts of crucifixion in light of Latin American truth commission investigations and human rights reports. From this perspective, if offers a reading of Roman crucifixions as extreme punishments, which remained closely associated with sexual violence as a display of punitive power and a way of shaming and degrading the victim. Read in the light of torture reports, details in the gospel narratives emerge in new significance, for example, the repeated stripping and public display of Jesus. In addition, other features of the narrative raise new questions, for example, how severe was the further mistreatment of Jesus in the Praetorium, and how were condemned prisoners typically treated? Roman prisoner punishments often involved rape and strongly sexualized elements, yet it rare for the stripping of Jesus to be named as a sexual abuse, or framed in terms of Roman use of sexual violence. Likewise it is rare to ask whether other aspects of the narrative should be considered in terms of sexual violence intended by the Romans to humiliate and debase their victims. Building on this research, this paper notes that despite the strong historical links between crucifixion and sexual violence in the First Century (as evidenced in Greco-Roman literature, and indicated in the Gospel texts), this dimension of crucifixion quickly disappeared from Christian memory. What remains is a sanitized and desexualized account of crucifixion. Ironically, Christian language about the cross maintains the strong language of shame and scandal, but without a clear memory or understanding of what this shame and scandal actually involved. Against this background, the paper argues that elements from trauma theory, drawn especially from Judith Herman’s work, are illuminating for these texts in at least three ways. Firstly, to explain how the traumatic sexual violence of crucifixion was treated as unspeakable and why it disappeared from collective Christian memory. Second, to reflect on the endurance of this amnesia and its consequences today. Finally, to indicate how the texts might be read to address this traumatic memory in an appropriate way. To this end the paper examines the sexual violence of crucifixion as an ‘unspeakable’ trauma, which has long been submerged in the Christian story. It then explores this as a coping mechanism and some of the negative consequences of this suppression. Finally it discusses Herman’s suggested framework for recovery from trauma through empowerment in three stages: first, establishing safety; second, retelling the story of the traumatic event; third, reconnecting with others. The paper argues that these three stages of empowerment might provide a helpful framework for initiating a more widespread public conversation on this sensitive issue, and also might guide initiatives to work with those who have direct experienced sexual violence.


A Spirit of Change: Ethics and the Love Command in Gal 5:13–26
Program Unit: Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Carl N. Toney, Hope International University

Typical approaches to Paul’s exhortation “to love one’s neighbor” in Gal 5:14 correctly frame the discussion within Paul’s notion of “freedom” (5:1) from the Mosaic Law. Galatians 5:19–26 is often framed within philosophical backgrounds (e.g., Stoicism) or the two-ways traditions (e.g., 1QS 3.25–4.11) to demonstrate what Paul means by freedom from the flesh (5:13). This paper argues that in Gal 5:13–24 Paul contrasts his Spirit-guided ethic with both Jewish and Greco-Roman ethics as a means to promote true virtue versus vice through personal transformation. This contrast becomes clear when we note Paul’s word choices of “law” (nomos) and “reason” (logos). While Jewish ethics promotes change through the law, philosophical tradition promotes change through reason. Paul’s contrast also provides insights into contemporary discussion of virtue ethics by highlighting the communal aspect of ethics. In 5:14 Paul follows contemporary Jewish practice of seeking to summarize the “law” (nomos; e.g., Philo in de Decalogo highlights the Ten Commandments as summaries for the Law; Jesus [Mark 12:28–34]; the lawyer [Luke 10:25–28]; Hillel [b Šabb. 31a.]). Such summaries of the law provide the path and guidelines for change. For Paul, the whole “law” (nomos) is summarized by Lev 19:18. Paul’s language of “passions” (pathema) and “desires” (epithymia/epithymeo, 5:16, 17 24) as well as his vice/virtue list in Gal 5:19–26 indicate that Paul has been dialoguing with broader notions within Stoic philosophy. So, it should come as no surprise that Paul’s summary of the law as one “reason” (logos) is also dialoguing with Greco-Roman philosophy. This dialogue is reinforced by Paul’s diatribal comment in 5:15 that fulfilling this command keeps the Galatians from “biting and devouring” one another. Further, Paul’s description of the law as an expression of reason places him within the matrix of contemporary Jewish literature, such as 4 Maccabees (e.g., 1:30–35). Paul faults both the Jewish use of the law and the Greco-Roman use of reason to promote ethical change because these are external principles acting upon a person. Rather, Paul appeals to a Spirit-guided ethic which brings inner transformation (Gal 5:22–23). Paul follows this ethic with commands presented as case studies (6:1–10) to illustrate how this ethic works in personal and community practices (modeled upon the case studies of Deut 12–26 and Exod 21–24 which illustrate the commandments of Deut 5, Ex 20). From modern ethical categories, Paul’s arguments present a virtue ethic. Ethical change occurs through personal transformation. But virtue is not something achieved in isolation, and so Paul resists “individualist” notions of character. A virtuous person is defined by her/his relationships. First, a virtuous person must be filled with the Spirit of God to begin the process of inner transformation of character. Second, a virtuous person must “love their neighbor” expressed in actions such as “bearing other’s burdens (6:2). Thus, Galatians presents a model for contemporary virtue ethics with an emphasis upon the impact personal transformation has upon community. Ethical change measured by how personal virtue is lived among the community.


A Great Books Approach to New Testament Survey
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Carl N. Toney, Hope International University

Survey classes always present a challenge for instructors, particularly with bringing a balance between depth and breath. One approach is to offer a NT survey in the style of a Great Books program. The Great Books program offers a student-centered model where students are encouraged to encounter the text with the instructor acting as a midwife encouraging the birth of knowledge. Classes are held in a sustained three hour seminar format consisting of ten to twenty students (larger classes may be divided into smaller groups [e.g., three groups at 1 hour] or rotating TAs with the instructor). In preparation for each class, each student is asked to read through the NT book and take notes which include an outline of the book and material they deem as important. Class involves a three hour sustained discussion of the book focusing upon one leading question. The challenges of such discussions include encouraging depth over breath and promoting the articulation of critical thinking versus being a sponge.


The Roman Connection: The Latin Vulgate’s Influence on the Chinese Bible
Program Unit: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Clement Tong, Carey Theological College

When Robert Morrison left for China in 1807, the expectation for the young missionary was clear and straightforward – learn the language and translate the Scriptures into Chinese as quickly as possible. For someone who was still mistaking the Korean Hangul as Chinese characters just five years ago, and with no more than a handful of Sinologists known in Britain at that time, the task was quite insurmountable. Still, Morrison went on his mission, bringing with him a number of books and dictionaries, and a Bible Manuscript by an unknown author, which he acquired from the British Museum. The Manuscript turned out to be a copy of an incomplete Chinese translation of the New Testament, the spectacular work of Jesuit missionary Jean Basset around the year 1700 in Sichuan. The Manuscript contained a Harmony of the Gospel, Acts, the Pauline Epistles, and the first chapter of Book of Hebrews, which Basset managed to finish before succumbing to his illness. As he continued to encounter numerous delays, obstacles and setbacks, Morrison began to rely heavily on the Manuscript in order to come up with his own translation rapidly. At the end he was able to complete his New Testament translation in 1813, just 6 years after landing in Canton – an extraordinary feat given the circumstances, and an achievement greatly indebted to his access to the Basset Manuscript. As the Morrison Bible became the standard Chinese Bible of the next three decades, and the foundational version which future missionaries based their translations on, its influences on the ultimate standard of Chinese Bible, the Union Version, were tremendous. What has been largely forgotten is that Basset translated his Chinese New Testament not from the original languages, but from the Latin Vulgate. Hence by making heavy use of the Jesuit’s copy, Morrison had inadvertently embedded many Vulginatic characteristics into his Chinese Bible, and into the diction of Chinese Christianity ever since. This paper examines how some of these characteristics have survived over the years and found their way into the Union Version, and their influence over Chinese Christians’ understanding of their Bible and their faith. These include the translation of the word “God” (“shen”, not the decreed Catholic term “tianzhu”), the translation of the word “baptism” as “xi”, and the missing of the word “Jehovah”, which was found in other early Chinese translations done by the Baptist missionaries in Serampore, who based their works on the Authorized Version. The paper will attempt to show the subtle but unmistaken connection between the Vulgate and the Chinese Bible, and its resulting impact and controversies.


A Maccabean Red Wedding: The Massacre of the Family of Jambri in 1 Macc 9:37–42
Program Unit: Warfare in Ancient Israel
M. Tong, Fordham University

The purpose of this paper is to cast some light on the puzzling account of the massacre of the family of Jambri that interrupts the account of Bacchides’ war against Jonathan in 1 Macc 9. I first consider the parallels between the Jambri wedding incident and the story of Dinah and Shechem in Genesis 34. This evocation of an earlier story in the Hebrew Bible is not surprising, given the propensity of the author of 1 Maccabees to reference typology from the Pentateuch to support the moral authority of the Hasmoneans. Next, I consider the placement of the massacre of the family of Jambri within the broader narrative of Jonathan’s war with Baccides. I argue that in enfolding the Jambri episode into the war, the author of 1 Maccabees demonstrates the breakdown between public (nation) and private (family) that is a result of warfare. Furthermore, the account of the Jambri wedding directly precedes the breaking of the Sabbath by Jonathan and his army whilst fleeing Baccides. By reading these stories together, i.e. the Jambri wedding massacre and the war with Baccides, we see that not only do the conventional boundaries of public and private become engulfed by violence during wartime, but even the distinction between sacred and profane time. However, this inclusion of the tragedy of the Jambri wedding in an otherwise propagandistic narrative of Hasmonean triumphalism is a site where we can see a disturbance in 1 Maccabees’ typical jingoism. Even as the text continually justifies the all-encompassing acts of violence that are characteristic, even necessary, of warfare, there is a sense of loss. The massacre of the family of Jambri is therefore a testament to the deep psychic after-affects of war, even among the victors, which even a celebratory and apologetic text like 1 Maccabees cannot help but reveal.


A Closer Kinship? David's Prayer in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17
Program Unit: Deuteronomistic History
Rachel Toombs, Baylor University

In 2 Sam 7 and 1 Chr 17, we find a parallel account of Nathan’s prophecy to David regarding the Temple and David’s prayerful response. Much conversation has occurred regarding this passage, particularly concerning its first half (2 Sam 7:1–17) and even more particularly concerning the redaction of a Deuteronomistic editor that has resulted in its present form. In this paper, I seek to take the road less traveled by attending to one question that arises when looking at the inconsistent parallels between the textual witnesses of 2 Sam 7:18–29: what is the relationship between the MT-Samuel and MT-Chronicles accounts? I begin my investigation by looking to the history of scholarship around this pericope, particularly the deuteronomistic layer proposals offered by M. Noth and F.M. Cross. I then turn to the parallel accounts in MT Sam, MT Chr, LXX Sam and 4QSama material. Ultimately, I conclude that the amount of textual variance between these three accounts does not allow for a strong argument in favor of a shared Vorlage between MT Sam and 4QSama material. In light of these inconclusive results, I introduce a dark horse into the race through A. Graeme Auld’s proposal of a shared source between Sam–Kgs and Chronicles. Auld’s proposal of a shared source is contrary to many of the alternative approaches to the relationship between Sam—Kgs and Chronicles. This alternative approach creates space for a new way of discussing the relationship between these two books and provides the framework for an interesting answer to how we are to understand the textual witness variances in 2 Sam 7.


Rhyme and Soundscape in Q Baqarah 2
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Shawkat M. Toorawa, Cornell University

Recent advances in the analysis of the Qur’anic text proper center around: its textual history; its relationships to other late antique texts; and such phenomena as Semitic rhetoric and Sura architecture. Little attention is paid to sound; exceptions include several articles by Michael Sells (1991, 1993, 1999), and several studies of saj‘ and rhyme (notably by Devin Stewart: 1990, 2009, 2013). My own work on rhyme in the Qur’an has, in the main, been in connection with a desire to underscore its importance when translating (e.g. Toorawa 2011). I believe much can—and needs to—be said about the sound structure and soundscape (or ‘soundshape’) of Qur’anic passages and contend that Qur’anic meaning inheres in word placement and in word choice This accounts for the overwhelming presence of the fa‘il shape in Q ?ariq 86 (Toorawa 2013), for instance, or the succession of passive verbs in Q 88 Ghashiyah (Toorawa, forthcoming), or the al sound in Q Zalzalah 99. Not surprisingly, these are short suras, in which their incantatory tone and apocalyptic message may account for such rhetorical features and flourish. In this paper, I suggest that sound is no less important in the longer suras. To do so, I look at rhyme and rhythmic pattern in Q Baqarah 2.


The Context of Greek Loanwords in Coptic: Greek in Coptic School Texts
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Sofia Torallas Tovar, University of Chicago

The process of translation of Christian texts into Coptic generated the absorption of a great number of Greek loan words. The different contexts in which these loanwords appear indicate different levels of comprehension in the Coptic reader. Some Coptic school texts provide evidence for the difficulties that readers had in following the Coptic text of the Bible and other important Patristic texts. In this paper I will try to present examples for these different contexts and the strategies adopted by the Coptic readers of the Sacred texts to understand and learn difficult words.


A Possible New Witness of the Antioquean Text: The Ms. 460
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Pablo Torijano, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

The manuscript 460 (XIIIth Century, Messina, Univ.-Bibl. 101) was not studied by Rahlfs nor collated in Brooke-McLean Edition. This manuscript seems to preserve in many cases readings attested in the Lucianic Textual Tradition in Kings. Several of these readings correspond to the proto-Lucianic layer of the Antiochean text tradition. The Ms. 460 could be considered as aligned with some of the manuscripts of the Lucianic group (19-82-93-108-127-700) and, accordingly should be considered as a further witness of it. In this paper, a preliminary study of these readings in the kaige and no-kaige sections of Kings will be presented.


When Scripture Gets in the Way: A Kierkegaardian Note of Caution
Program Unit: Søren Kierkegaard Society
Andrew Torrance, University of St. Andrews

Kierkegaard is well known for being critical of a scholarly reading of the bible. Indeed, he describes ‘Christian scholarship [a]s the human race's prodigious invention to defend itself against the N.T., to ensure that one can continue to be a Christian without letting the N.T. come too close.’ (Journals and Papers, ed. and trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967–78), vol. 3., 2872). Also, he is often quoted for asserting that ‘The Principal Rule’ is to ‘read the N.T. without a commentary.’ (Journals and Papers vol. 1, 210). It is generally understood that his primary reason for making such statements is that he views biblical scholarship as undermining the possibility of a reader’s subjective life being affected, challenged and provoked by its message. That is, it encourages an overly detached reading of the Scriptural texts that distracts persons from responding to Scripture’s call to discipleship. It is indeed the case that Kierkegaard devoted himself to challenging the fact that the nominal Christians in Denmark were not actively responding to the message(s) of Scripture’s. However, as this paper will argue, there is something much more fundamental to his critique of biblical scholarship. For Kierkegaard, the faithful reader is not primarily called to respond to the message of Scripture but to the living God who communicates to persons through Scripture. Accordingly, Kierkegaard is well known for insisting that scripture should be read as a letter from a beloved––from God. That God is the primary object of Christianity may seem obvious. The problem, however, is that given the visibility of Scripture and the invisibility of God, it becomes all to easy for Christians to exist in a way that forgets about God and becomes primarily devoted to Scripture. When this happens, Scripture can all too easily get in the way of a person’s relationship with God. This paper will look at how Kierkegaard sought to remind Christians that Scripture is not an end in itself but a witness to the living God (who is the primary focus of the Christian life). It will do so, in particular, by thinking about what it means to follow some of the prototypes of Christianity. Anyone familiar with Kierkegaard will know that he views Jesus Christ as the prototype for the Christian life. However, he also considers other prototypes: Abraham, Job and the woman who was a sinner. One of the major things that distinguishes these three figures from the Christians of today (or Kierkegaard’s day) is the fact that scripture does not seem to get in the way of their relationship with God. There is, therefore, a sense in which these three figures exemplify a more direct orientation towards God. At the same time, Kierkegaard does not for moment seek to diminish the importance of reading the bible for the Christian life. Accordingly, this paper will conclude by considering the advice that Kierkegaard gives to faithful readers Scripture about how to read the bible without forgetting that it is primarily a witness to God.


Rome’s Market Economy in the Lycus Valley: Soundings from Laodicea and Colossae
Program Unit: Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Michael Trainor, Australian Catholic University

People, networks and households in the Lycus Valley region of late first century CE were affected by Rome’s structured market economy. Rome’s economics ruled, even in western Anatolia. This paper offers a dialogue between Peter Temin’s The Roman Market Economy (Princeton University Press, 2012) and Ulrich Huttner’s Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley (Brill, 2013) with particular reference to the Jesus followers in the Lycus Valley. The interpretative hermeneutic that results from this dialogue assists in identifying the influence of Rome’s market economy on Jesus’ disciples in Laodicea and Colossae, evident in the first century New Testament writing of Revelation and the Pauline letters of Philemon and the Colossians.


Trauma’s Unfathomability in the Markan Household and the Story of Jesus’ Passion (Mark 14–16)
Program Unit: Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Michael Trainor, Australian Catholic University

Literary trauma theory emphasises the cognitive dissonance, loss of self and communal identity accompanied by fear and the tendency towards memory detachment and dissociative disorder. Trauma is simply unfathomable. These theoretical perspectives offer the hermeneutic lens for understanding the task of the author of the Gospel of Mark and freshly interpreting its story of Jesus. The evangelist addresses a traumatised household of late first century CE Jesus followers. The gospel’s passion narrative, of a suffering and dying naked Jesus (Mk 14-16), physically and sexually abused, invites gospel addressees to ‘re-member’ their own tragic distress mirrored in the figure of the brutalised Jesus. The memorialising of this figure in the enactment or performance of the narrative becomes a therapeutic response to the experience of trauma which slowly becomes fathomable. This paper is in three parts. The first identifies those aspects of trauma theory that highlight the dysfunction of memory created through trauma. The second links these insights to the Markan project in general and to the passion narrative in particular. The third suggests the contemporary relevance of this study in the wake of personal and institutional trauma created by the sexual abuse from clergy and other religious leaders.


Quranic Usage on Coins in the Early Islamic World: Basic Truths and Polemical Declarations
Program Unit: The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism (IQSA)
Luke Treadwell, Oxford University

The substitution of epigraphic for figural coinage by the Umayyad caliph ?Abd al-Malik b. Marwan at the end of the 7th century provided scope for extensive quotation of the Qur’anic text on precious metal coinage in the early Islamic world. In addition to the shahada, the Umayyads placed citations on their dirhams and dinars which affirmed the Prophet’s mission and the unicity of God, in order to relay explicit religious truths as well as implicit moral guidance on the correct use of coinage. Although these verses remained a standard feature of Islamic coinage for half a millennium, other Quranic material was periodically cited on coins struck by supporters of the Ahl al-bayt (Prophet’s family) who challenged the caliphal order in the 9th and 10th centuries. Examination of this less well-known corpus suggests that the Alids adduced Quran passages to attack the legitimacy of their Abbasid enemies and bolster their claim to the leadership of the umma.


Antiochean Readings in 3–4 Reigns Witnessed by the Manuscript 158: Their Pre-Lucianic/Old Greek Character
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Julio Trebolle, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

The Manuscript 158 (g in Brooke-McLean Edition; XIIIth Century, Basel, Univ.-Bibl., B VII 22) reproduces the B majority text, but adding many Antiochean readings. Rahlfs labelled these readings as “Lucianic”. However, they do not correspond to the late layer of the Antiochean textual tradition (IV Century), but to the pre-Lucianic or Old Greek layer attested in such cases also by Qumran readings, the OL version, the pre-Hexaplaric stratum of the Armenian Version or the text of Josephus. Differentiating between kaige and pre-Lucianic/OG readings is the clue to judge the cases in which Ms 158 presents double readings (kaige + pre-Lucianic) or pre-Lucianic readings going back to the Old Greek text.


The Editorial Function of Vacats and Intervals in the Manuscript Textual Tradition as Indications of Transpositions, Duplicates, or Literary Additions
Program Unit: Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Julio Trebolle, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

The vacats in the Qumran biblical scrolls and the intervals (petu?ah and setumah) in the Hebrew Medieval manuscripts accomplish an editorial function. They are connected with the different arrangement of pericopae in MT and in the Septuagint´s Vorlage or with the insertion of duplicates and literary units in either text. This paper lists transpositions, duplicates and additions indicated by vacats and intervals in the Hebrew manuscript tradition of books transmitted in two or more editions: Exodus (chaps. 35-40), Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Canticles. These books belong to the LXX kaige group. Their Greek version was based on an early Hebrew edition and therefore went through a revision process (kaige and hexaplaric) aiming to bring its text closer to the proto-MT. In this way the textual history of the Septuagint and of its secondary versions reflects the previous Hebrew editorial process.


Listening to Paul: A Literary Approach to Pseudepigraphy
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
David Trobisch, Museum of the Bible (Green Collection)

A comparison with other letter collections published in antiquity demonstrates that letter collections always mix authentic and spurious letters, and that they were understood as a narrative genre. Letter collections tell stories through the voices of the protagonists by developing the plot like soliloquies do in a stage play. Historical-critical scholarship has established a consensus that only seven of Paul’s letters included in the New Testament are possibly authentic. Obviously, those who wrote and disseminated spurious letters may have also made changes to the traditional material they published. The paper will take this observation seriously and interpret the canonical 14-letter-collection with narrative critical tools, determining the story by describing the conflict, characters, settings, and plot, and disregarding the question of historical authorship. From the readers’ perspective, the function of the letters derives from their documentary character. They provide credibility for the story. A narrative critical approach will allow an appreciation of the underlying creative effort and demonstrate that the New Testament edition of Paul may best be understood as a publication of the second century.


The Gravitas of Letters: Intra-diegetic Epistles in Jewish, Greek, and Christian Narratives
Program Unit: Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Troy M. Troftgruben, Wartburg Theological Seminary

In various narratives of antiquity, the inclusion of letters written by narrative characters occurs increasingly often and in creative ways. Whether in Jewish writings, Christian scripture, or Greek and Roman novels, incorporating the texts of intra-diegetic letters seemingly grows in popularity, which in turn diversifies how they function in their stories. Despite this diversity, I propose that primarily they serve to develop the gravitas (the virtue of substance and depth) of the story in one or more of three distinct ways: by enhancing the realism of the account, by drawing attention to pivotal events, and by increasing empathy with narrative characters. For instance, letters in historical narratives like the Greek version of Esther (additions B and E) or the Acts of the Apostles (the letter of Claudius Lysias, 23:26-30) enhance the historic feel of their stories. Whatever the origins of these letters, they offer what Hayden White calls a “discourse of the real” (“Value of Narrativity,” 1987) that enhances the story's authenticity. Further, letters in narratives often draw attention to significant events, as with the Jerusalem council’s letter in Acts (15:23-29) or the letter from Sostratos that Cleitophon reads--which offers the narrative's first mention of Leucippe by name (1.3). Since the epistolary form is not the norm for these narratives, the shift in storytelling technique creates a noticeable and memorable break in the experience of reading, which has its own distinctive rhetorical impact. Finally, intra-diegetic letters foster empathy by the vantage points they offer into the mind’s eyes of story characters. For example, Chaereas’s letter to Callirhoe that is “drenched with the libation of [his] tears and kisses” (4.4) gives a glimpse into his emotional experience that few other literary techniques can rival. These three aspects of rhetorical effect are neither mutually exclusive nor true in all instances. But in different ways they enhance the authenticity and substance of a narrative by testifying to the virtue of its story for the reader. In these ways, intra-diegetic letters function like letters of commendation in the ancient world: written testimonies regarding the virtue of persons in question -- only in this case it is not a person, but a story. These literary insertions attest from within their narratives to the gravitas of their stories in ways that no other written document can rival.


Jesus, Moses, and the Johannine Community after the Jewish Revolt
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Travis Trost, Independent Scholar

The Moses motif in the Gospel of John, when compared with certain texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, provides an opportunity to understand Jesus through a Johannine perspective. Likewise, the post-70 CE situation beyond Judea, in dealing with social and political turmoil among Jewish and Roman audiences, faced parallel challenges with the situation in the 30's. The Johannine community still needed to grapple with intramural Jewish debates on the person of Jesus, and the Moses-sayings of Jesus in John help explain Jesus' Jewish identity and mission, reconfigured later into the community's Hellenism-friendly Logos hymn.


What Is the 'Text' in Textual Criticism?
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Ronald Troxel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Brennan Breed's provocative challenge to textual critics unwittingly highlights a problem of nomenclature in the discipline. Breed's attempt at a precise definition of 'text' contrasts with the variety of phrases he appropriates uncritically: "the texts of the Hebrew Bible," "biblical texts," "textual forms of biblical books," etc. This confusion is not unique to Breed, but reflects lack of clarity about these terms in scholarship generally. As D. C. Greetham said of similar confusion in study of modern 'texts', "The vocabulary of the text and its study is obviously in need of clarification….The terms are out of joint." This paper will critique Breed's proposed definition and, drawing on discussions of 'text' within other philologically oriented disciplines and Gadamer's claim that existence is hermeneutical, it will argue that 'text' is a social convention subscribed to by readers and authors.


Genre and Moral Utility: A Rhetorical Approach to Johannine Ethics in Light of Genre Participation
Program Unit: Johannine Literature
Lindsey M. Trozzo, Baylor University (Institution) and Texas Christian University (Employer)

Genre analysis is often seen as a foundational “first step” on which every other aspect of interpretation depends. Generic categories imply certain purposes, presenting norms and building expectations that guide audience expectation, influencing them to hear or read the text within a certain interpretive schema. Thus, genre is central to the discursive process of communication that takes place in the dynamic relationship among author, text, and audience. This presentation will consider how the Fourth Gospel’s participation in various genres and literary forms sheds light on Johannine ethics. First, a comparative examination of Plutarch’s Lives will demonstrate that biographical narratives, though not straightforward ethical commentaries, nonetheless deliver complex and implicit moralism that rhetorically engages the audience. I will argue that what has sometimes been interpreted as a lack of ethics in the Fourth Gospel is actually an example of implicit moral utility that is enlivened in the rhetorical exchange between the text and the audience. Second, analysis of the Fourth Gospel’s incorporation of the topics utilized in encomia from the rhetorical tradition will demonstrate the link between Johannine Christology and Johannine ethics—that just as Jesus’ unity with his Father was determinative for his pursuits and deeds, the pursuits and deeds of Johannine Jesus-followers should flow from their share in unity with God. Finally, exploration of the similarities between the Aeneid’s two narrative levels and the Fourth Gospel’s “two-level drama” will illustrate how this particular form of narrative draws the audience into a formative story about their past as a way of teaching them “identity making” for a new era in the life of the community. As we will see, the Fourth Gospel’s participation in the formal bios genre, its incorporation of encomiastic topics, and its two-level narrative presentation all work together to uncover the otherwise elusive Johannine ethics.


Paul’s Eschatology, Jewishness, and Identity Formation Approach to Existing Identities in Christ: A Response
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
J. Brian Tucker, Moody Theological Seminary–Michigan

Paul’s Eschatology, Jewishness, and Identity Formation Approach to Existing Identities in Christ: A Response


What Can Doublets Tell Us about the Septuagint Translation of Jeremiah?
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Miika Tucker, University of Helsinki

A significant portion of the book of Jeremiah consists of doublets and recurring phrases. These occur here and there throughout the book, both in its poetry and prose sections. The doublets are not always 100% identical, as some have been modified to fit their new contexts. This presentation intends to examine how the Septuagint translator of Jeremiah has rendered certain doublets in the text. Even a quick glance at the translations of the two parts of almost any doublet in the book reveals that the translator did not attempt to produce identical renderings. What could be the reasons for such variation, and how does such variation reflect upon the character of the translation?


Why Love Matters for Justice: Political Emotions between Narrative and Law in the Holiness Code
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Paavo Tucker, Asbury Theological Seminary

The command for Israelites to love their neighbors and sojourners in Lev 19:18, 34 is usually understood as a command to act in a beneficent manner without requiring emotional commitment, based on the use of the concept of love in ancient Near Eastern treaties requiring exclusive obedience, and based on the idea that emotive love cannot be commanded. Recent studies of the commands to love in Deuteronomy however have pointed to the importance of affective love in the ethical vision of Deuteronomy, and highlighted rhetorical strategies to generate love in Deuteronomy, while critiquing interpretations that neglect the moral import of emotions (J. Lapsley, B. Arnold). Despite the aNE treaty usage of "love" that indicates that obedience is central in the commands to love as proposed influentially by W. Moran and M. Weinfeld, the emotive aspect of love cannot be neglected. Martha Nussbaum has recently argued that emotions are an important part of political and moral life in Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice. A society must inculcate the emotional commitments of its citizens towards its central aspirations and vision of justice for it to succeed in its pursuit of its goals. This paper will investigate how the commands to love in Lev 19 intend to inculcate affective love towards fellow Israelites and sojourners as the foundation of justice in the Holiness Code. As noted by Nussbaum, narratives that draw on the history and experiences of the nation are an effective means of motivating emotions of love towards the ideals and common good of the society. The rationales in Lev 19 appeal to the emotions and ground the commandments to love in the historical relationship of Israel and YHWH. The commands have a narrative structure, whose foundational Priestly narratives in Gen-Ex teach Israel the principles of love and solidarity for humanity, including Israelites and foreigners, by connecting them to a particular set of perceptions, memories, and symbols that have deep roots in the personality and in people's sense of their own history. The rhetorical strategies of the Priestly narratives and H laws indicate that the emotional aspect of love in Lev 19:18, 34 is just as important as the loving actions that are supposed to flow from the emotion. The Holiness Code requires the full integration of emotions with actions, and operates at the intimate nexus of thought and action, tracing actions to their roots in attitudes and seeking to reform those attitudes through the actions it commands.


The Psalm in Habakkuk 3
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Steven Tuell, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

In the final form of Nahum-Habakkuk, the psalm in Hab 3 serves a framing function, counterbalancing Nah 1:2-11. It is not clear, however, whether that psalm was composed for that purpose, added to its context for that purpose, or serves that purpose incidentally. Answering that question requires one to determine whether the psalm was composed or added to the book as part of a redactional frame, in the course of Nah and Hab's redaction, or was composed or altered for its present position by Hab's author. This study will propose, on linguistic, literary and theological grounds, that an ancient theophanic psalm has been altered, through key insertions at 3:32b and 3:16-19, into a prayer for help, and that this alteration and addition were undertaken by the original author of the book, prior to its editing for incorporation into the Book of the Twelve. The addition of the counterbalancing psalm at Nah 1 reflects the final editing of Nah-Hab as a subunit, and its insertion into an earlier collection, prior to Zeph, on the way to our present Book of the Twelve.


Bakhtin, Dialogue, and Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Patricia K. Tull, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

This paper will map out dimensions of Bakhtin’s understanding of dialogism as it has been invoked in biblical studies in the past generation, and as it might be invoked in future study. Particular attention will be drawn to the use of Bakhtin’s theories in exploring relationships among scriptural texts, on the one hand, and in constructing scriptural hermeneutics and biblical theology, on the other.


A Bodyguard of Lies: Deception in Samuel-Kings
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Adam Tune, The Catholic University of America

The subject of biblical deception is often approached with contempt. Specific acts of deceit committed by the venerated characters of the Bible are usually studied in order to assign blame or to give an ethical or moral evaluation. This paper is an attempt to approach biblical deception in a new way by using the discipline of psychology and more specifically the theories of deception-detection recently published by Tim Levine (Truth-Default Theory [TDT]) and Steven McCornack (Information Manipulation Theory [IMT2]). Unlike other prominent theories, the value in these theories is not the ability to passively observe a lie, but to actively promote diagnostic information. Levine and McCornack believe that before an act of deception can be detected and analyzed, one must take the proper steps to maximize the contextual information in order to properly assess both deceit and honesty. This assessment then allows one to focus less on the deceptive act itself and more on why that character would need to deceive. If a person’s motive will be thwarted by the truth or if honesty would be counterproductive to his or her goal obtainment then it is the information itself as well as the person’s ultimate goal that becomes the focus. This shift in concentration enables the technique of psychological deception-detection to become a system of biblical information-detection where one is able to place more emphasis on the content and context of the deception rather than on the act itself. The reader is then able to determine if and when sensitive information is consistently hidden by characters and if there are patterns of hostility towards such information. In this way, deception becomes subservient to “ultimate truths.” Instead of showing contempt towards acts of deceit committed by the venerated characters, the reader instead makes an allowance for deception when characters contain such precious information or when they encounter such hostile environments. There are 45 acts of deceit in the books of Samuel-Kings. An application of TDT and IMT2 to these instances reveals that a specific piece of information that is always hidden by the characters is that which pertains to the act of anointing. Whenever someone is anointed in the books of Samuel-Kings, readers should not only be aware of deception…they should expect it. Characters in these scenes are no longer judged based upon their act of deceit, but rather on how truthful they were to this overarching principle. When one recognizes that the issue of anointing must be protected by a bodyguard of lies, one further understands why the character of David uses the same means to protect the image of the Lord’s Anointed and why the character of Yhwh will do no less to protect his anointed one.


Nehemiah 5, Biopolitics, and the State of Exception
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Ekaputra Tupamahu, Vanderbilt University

Many biblical scholars have commonly viewed Nehemiah 5 as a narrative about an economic crisis in Yehud. Even many English Bibles apply a title to this chapter along this idea of economic reform. Economy is only one of the main aspects that we can discuss about this particular chapter. There are other things also that can be teased out. In other words, this is a complex crisis moment in the book of Nehemiah. Lester L. Grabbe, for example, is disappointed with the way Nehemiah handled the situation. He writes, “…Nehemiah cannot handle the matter quietly and effectively to resolve the problem, as a good administrator would.” In this paper, I will argue that Nehemiah is not only faced with an administrative problem, but also a complex biopolitical problem. I will tease out the biopolitical struggle in Nehemiah 5 through the lens of Giorgio Agamben's theory of the state of exception. My aim is to show that there is a multi-layer and multi-directional power struggle in this conflict. The subjugation and exploitation are not only an exclusively Persian imperial phenomenon, but a local phenomenon as well. In other words, when Nehemiah 5 is viewed through the lens of the state of exception, in which both life and law (i.e., auctoritas and potestas) are interplayed and interconnected, then the power struggle will appear to be multilayered and multidirectional. Nehemiah can be seen as an extended hand of the Empire, a deliverer, and an oppressor at the same time. In line with what many Postcolonial/Anti-Colonial theorists (e.g., Frantz Fanon, Robert Young, etc.) have argued that the colonial relationship is not only between Europeans and non-Europeans, and that there are many local colonialism(s) as well, my paper will show that in the figure of Nehemiah both colonized and colonizer coincides in a dynamic way.


Jesus as Healer in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Graham H. Twelftree, Regent University

John’s portrait of Jesus is markedly different from the tradition of the Synoptics to which he had access. Gone are the stories of exorcism and those of the healing of withered limbs, lepers, fevers, hemorrhages, dropsy, the deaf and the mute. Only four healing stories remain: the official’s son with a fever, the paralytic, the blind man, and the raising of Lazarus. Yet, attempting to explain the motivation for his alternative portrait of Jesus, and identifying the importance of Jesus as healer for John, this paper will note that of the seven pre-Easter signs or miracle stories, four, including the climactic one, are healings. Moreover, John has raised healing to the significance of the Synoptic nature miracles. In turn, in the face of scholarly disputes about the significance of the signs it will be seen that through interpretive clues, including a link between miracles and messiahship, it is as healer that Jesus’ origin, identity—including his relationship to God, his work, and his reception and immediate fate, as well as eventual destiny, are understood. Further, it is as healer that Jesus is relevant to John’s readers. Their present and future life depends primarily on their response to Jesus as healer.


Stranger in a Strange Pauline World
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati

Michel Faber’s latest novel, The Book of Strange New Things, concerns a Christian missionary to the inhabitants of another planet. This relatively common sci-fi conceit is, as critics note, taken to new levels of complexity in Faber’s literary fiction. As a letter-writing missionary building a church, the main character sometimes discusses his work in Pauline terms, although he considers Paul’s treatment of women (and sexuality) deeply problematic. And yet, his own liberal Christianity is stymied in a variety of ways by the fact that he can’t assign gendered identities to the members of his otherworldly community. They also seem not to understand his concept of gender. I’d like to treat the gender indeterminacy of the native population as a (fictional) contextualization of certain approaches to gender and sexuality in Paul. Dale Martin, for instance, writes of the irony that Gal 3:28, which he considers a queer text, has been taken as an indication of equality between, rather than the suspension of, traditionally gendered identities (Sex and the Single Savior 2006: 90; see any number of other, similar readings from widely different disciplinary approaches, such as: Ben Dunning’s Specters of Paul; Valerie Nicolet-Anderson’s Constructing the Self: Thinking with Paul and Michel Foucault, etc.). It would seem that on Oasis, as the planet is called by its human colonists, there really is “neither male nor female” among the indigenous Christian community. But is their Christianity thereby queer, or radical? My paper won’t assume that there are any especially queer intentions on Faber’s part. Instead, allowing Faber’s main character to stand in, uncomfortably, for scholars like Martin with regard to gender, I’ll set The Book of Strange New Things in conversation with recent critical voices within queer studies (like Robyn Wiegman and James Penney) to reflect upon the possibilities for anti-antinormative perspectives in queer approaches to Paul.


The Struggle and Paul
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati

I’d like to propose a paper on the significance of Pauline texts in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr’s sermons and speeches are an obvious place to begin; but a focus on MLK, curiously, offers a relatively limited, and even somewhat conventional, Paul. My paper, then, will explore the use of Paul by figures other than MLK. It will emphasize some of the more creative Pauline appropriations, with a special focus on speeches by Fred Shuttlesworth, the most significant player, early on, in the struggle in Birmingham. Shuttlesworth was not considered one of the more eloquent voices in the movement, but perhaps precisely for this reason his exegetical style has a surprising edge to it. The Paul that emerges from Shuttlesworth’s heterodox textual juxtapositions is anything but conventional. Other activists also read Paul in strikingly novel ways, and my paper will offer examples of just how dynamic the range of appropriations could be. Finally, it will discuss some key differences between black and white Civil Rights clergy regarding rhetorical strategies for the presentation of a radical Paul.


What’s Up with 1Reigns 12:24a-z?
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Frank Ueberschaer, Universität Zürich

1 Kings 11-14 collects a variety of different stories concerned with the break up of the United Monarchy and the founding of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Masoretic text and the Septuagint parallel each other in most of these episodes – at least more or less. One text, however, 12:24a-z in the Septuagint, is different in character. It appears to be a summary that reviews many of the stories that have been presented before, and there is no corresponding text within the Masoretic version. What is the aim of 12:24a-z in the Septuagint? Scholarship mainly revolves around the questions: Which one is original? What could the Hebrew text of this Septuagint account have looked like? What is the value of this text for historical questions? This paper will present an alternative, even in terms of methodology, by considering it as an account of its own. While not independent from the other traditions, it may have been written for reasons of its own accord and collected within the Septuagint in order to present the “whole picture.”


Should Historians of Ancient Levantine Societies Play the Identity Game, and to What End?
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Christoph Uehlinger, Universität Zürich

This paper will look at the panel’s topic (“Historiography and Identity between text and artifact”) from a certain distance and perspective: before engaging in a quest of ancient identities, let alone argue for particular identity issues and claims, we should ask what we are looking for in the first place, and why. “Identity” has not been an issue since time immemorial, but has appeared on the scholarly agendas of SBL-related disciplines in relatively recent times. We might ask on what premises, implicit or acknowledged, scholars have turned to the concept of “identity”, under what circumstances this concept has gained currency and what it is meant to do in debates on ancient history. The second part of the paper will ask how particular classes of ancient Levantine artifacts (especially luxury items) may have in the past contributed to the construction of particular identities. Critical issues to be addressed include the level of reflexivity we surmise for producers and consumers of relevant artifact classes, and the problem of anachronism involved in the retrojection of modern concepts into an imaginary past.


Coping with Multi-roles in Prophetic Traditions: The Case of Jeremiah Literature
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Emmanuel Ukaegbu-Onuoha, Claremont Graduate University

The book of Jeremiah has been long recognized for the presence of northern and southern traditions in the final form of its composition. Whereas studies concerned with these traditions have focused more on the deuteronomistic materials and how they inform and influence the general structure and theology of the book, little or nothing has been said on how these traditions affect the phenomenon of role grouping found in almost every sections of the book (1:18; 4:9; 14:18; 18:18; 26:7; 34:19; 50:4-5) With this perspective in mind, this paper examines the phenomenon of role grouping in the book of Jeremiah in an effort to explore how geographical and social locations affect the sense of social roles in the literature. Following examination of group pairs, role definition and identification, social location and geographical provenance, literary portrayal and characterization, this study argues that while role grouping in the book of Jeremiah may connote different social groups, the redactors of the book of Jeremiah presume the phenomenon of well-defined sense of social role and a multi-sense of social roles in the final form of the book. Given that Moses and Samuel are usually more closely identified with the northern traditions, and that Jeremiah is of the same provenance, it argues that multi-identified figures in Jeremiah literature is more of a northern phenomenon. And that Judah, which is in the south appears to have a more-well defined sense of social roles with regard to priests, prophets, and royal officials. Such a model re-enforces the characterization of Jeremiah, and the relevance of multi-tasking figures in a world that needs such talents for shaping today's society.


Double Martyrdom, Double Crown: Virgin Martyrs and Fourth Century Ascetic Hierarchies
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Sissel Undheim, Universitetet i Bergen

Eulogizing Saint Agnes on 21 January, the day commemorating her martyrdom, Ambrose, then newly elected bishop of Milan, rhetorically asked if his young heroine did not represent “a new kind of martyrdom”. In the saint, a twelve-year-old girl, he identified a new and intensified martyrdom of chastity and faith combined. A “double martyrdom” -duplex martyrium - he called it. (De virginibus 1.5-9) Attested in later iconography, as well as in contemporary writings of different genres, the topos of the virgin martyrs’ double martyrdom, often visualized as “the double crown”, elaborates and expands on earlier discourses describing asceticism as martyrdom. In this paper, the motif of the double crown and double martyrdom will be read in the context of two somewhat different, yet contemporary late fourth-century religious controversies. On the one hand, the double crown became a symbol in the intra-Christian disputes over marriage and virginity. As ardent proponents of asceticism against adversaries like Jovinian and Helvidius, Jerome and Ambrose exhorted virgin martyrs as models for the consecrated Christian virgins they so heartily supported. On the other hand, in texts directly or indirectly addressed to the Roman senator Symmachus and his peers, the very same virgin martyrs were paraded as examples of true Christian virginity in opposition to the debauched and false virgins of pagan mythology and cult. Examining rhetoric specifically related to the cult of Saint Agnes at Rome, combined with references to representations of other virgin saints such as Thecla, Agatha and Saint Felix of Nola, this paper will discuss the double martyrdom of virgin martyrs as a recurring motif in discourses vying to establish asceticism as expression of true and orthodox Christianity, and, in continuation of this, the virgins’ by no means unproblematic superiority in ascetic hierarchies. The analyses presented in this paper will thus expand on pivotal contributions to the study of virginity and/or martyrdom by scholars like Elizabeth Castelli, David Hunter, Virginia Burrus, Elizabeth Clark, Kathleen Coyne Kelly and Maud Burnett McInerney.


A Socio-cognitive Approach to Early Christian Rituals
Program Unit: Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Risto Uro, University of Helsinki

This paper introduces a socio-cognitive approach to the study of early Christian rituals which is based on three principles: multilevel analysis, theoretical pluralism and theory-dependent realism. Multilevel analysis means a mode of analysis that operates across the traditional hierarchies of disciplines or ‘levels’ of knowledge. In the case of the socio-cognitive approach, boundary crossing happens between the biological or cognitive level and the socio-cultural level, which is the traditional domain of the study of religion. Theoretical pluralism promotes the use of several cognitive theories and approaches. In scientific practice theoretical pluralism is not so obvious, but for a biblical scholar drawing on cognitive science it gives a number of advantages. By applying several cognitive theories of ritual, the scholar is in a position to overcome the limitations of any one cognitive theory and to assess the extent to which the theories used in the analysis are compatible. Theoretical pluralism is also helpful because ‘ritual’ is, as often noted, a ‘fuzzy set’ or ‘family resemblance’ category. The explanandum of the research is specified by the theoretical lens chosen for each analysis, but the use of several theories widens the scope and increases the means to obtain knowledge about the behavioral aspects of Christian beginnings. The fact that ritual is a ‘fuzzy set’ category also leads to a position that may be called theory-dependent realism. According to this view, the category of ritual is helpful in achieving knowledge about human behavior and social life, but this knowledge comes through different paths, i.e. selected theories and perspectives. It remains for the analyst to decide how much of this knowledge coming from diverse pathways is commensurable with one another and with other solid information. The last part of the paper suggests a model for an analysis of early Christian rituals integrating three perspectives on ritual: 1) ritual as action; 2) ritual and cooperation; and 3) ritual and religious knowledge.


Performance and Poetry in Prophetic Texts: Joel 1–2 as Performative Text
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Helmut Utzschneider, Augustana-Hochschule

„Performance“ and „performative “ are keywords of current debates in cultural studies, e.g. in linguistics (John L. Austin), cultural anthropology (Victor Turner) and especially theatre studies (Richard Schechner, Erika Fischer-Lichte). “Performances” result from encounters and interactions of two groups of persons, the one group as actors and the other as spectators (Fischer-Lichte). Performances occur, they require physical presence of actors and spectators, orality, aurality and sensitive perception. Texts can be part of real performances, e.g. in dramas, operas or simply in recitations in front of a given auditory. But texts can also be “performative” without being parts of performances. Performative or dramatic texts simulate performances by “setting on stage” several persons interacting with one another in speeches, by depicting scenes and by drawing perspectives for the readers/hearers outside the text or the persons acting inside the text. I will argue that “performativity” in this sense is a basic poetical tool and feature of prophetic speech-texts and will demonstrate my argument by analyzing Joel 1–2. [The following sections may be skipped, if the abstract is too long.] Joel 1–2 can be differentiated in three levels of “performance”. The Level 0 comprises the real readers who are hearers and spectators of the subordinated levels. They are exclusively addressed by the superscription (1,1) and probably by Joel 2,11aß – 14 (including the “formula of grace”). Level 1 is set up by the prologue (1,2–4). On this level an assembly of “elders and inhabitants of the land” is invited by a speaker to remember an outstanding event of the nearer past (1,2) and they are asked to tell about to their descendants (1,3). The starting point of this event, a disastrous plague of locusts, is narrated in 1,4. The narration is punctually resumed in Joel 2,10-11aa.18–19. Level 2 is not a narration but a sequence of speeches performed by several human speakers and by God (1,5–2,27). It takes place before the assembly of level 1 starts. In a dramatic retrospect the event indicated in level 1 (1,4) is realized and unfolded: a disaster of locusts and drought (1,5–13), the threat of the army of God (2,1–11), laments and prayers, the twofold proclamation of the day of JHWH (1,15; 2,1), the twofold ritual of fasting (1,14; 2,15) and finally promises of salvation and restoration (2,20-27). Hearers of level 2 are drunken people, peasants and – once more – the “elders and inhabitants of the land”, the people. As spectators from level 1 the people re-experiences what they originally experienced in level 2 and about what they will have to tell to their descendants.


Disrupting the Binary: Creating a GNC and Transgender Hermeneutic
Program Unit: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Katy E. Valentine, First Christian Church (Chico, CA)

Queer theory has illuminated New Testament texts in recent decades, especially in reading texts against the larger backdrop of homoeroticism and in providing positive queer interpretations of the select passages. Insufficient attention, however, has been given to reading the Bible in light of gender identity, specifically gender non-conforming (GNC) and transgender identities. I propose to fill this gap by examining specific New Testament and early Christian texts to show a trajectory of fluid gender identity in both the ancient world and today with particular emphasis on contemporary GNC and transgender identities. Gender theorists who challenge the binary understanding of gender support this analysis, including Paul Baker and Judith Butler. This paper occurs in three parts with primary attention to New Testament and early Christian texts. First, I review recent scholarship that addresses potential sources for “transgender” imagery in the New Testament and early Christian texts, including Anson, Tannis and Mollenkott. This work is significant but generally occurs within the context of theology rather than biblical studies. Second, I examine fluid expressions of gender in the ancient world in order to compare and contrast ancient and contemporary constructions of gender. Though distinct, many who identify as GNC or transgender today resonate with ancient gender fluidity. Third, I interpret select New Testament and early Christian texts with attention to their ancient contexts and their power to serve as texts of inspiration today. Three texts have been selected in part through an interview process with Christians who identify as GNC or transgender: Mark 9:2-8 (Matt 17:1-9/Luke 9:28-36), Gal 3:27-28, and the martyrdom of Perpetua. Each of these texts addresses bodily transformations in ways that inform contemporary GNC and transgender communities. The transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2-8) is a pivotal moment in the Gospel where Jesus undergoes a bodily transformation, and many GNC and transgender people similarly transform their own bodies to better match their gender identity. The caution to secrecy in Mark also has potency for GNC and transgender people who may need to keep their gender identity hidden. Paul’s use of the baptismal formula in Gal 3:27-28 calls on Jesus followers to “clothe” themselves in Christ while also indicating that “neither male and female” is a barrier Christ. Clothing is a particular marker for GNC and transgender people during and after transition; the baptismal formula has the potential to break away from the binary gender constructions that sometimes dominate Pauline interpretation. In the martyrdom of Perpetua, Perpetua transforms from a lactating woman into a man in the context of a vision, which enables her to defeat a gladiatorial opponent. Though the text has patriarchal overtones, such stories in the early hagiography are significant for establishing gender fluidity as part of the sacred landscape of early Christianity. In sum, this paper proposes to lay a foundation for GNC and transgender hermeneutics. I examine three early Christian texts that have the potential to disrupt the binary understandings of gender with particular resonance for GNC and transgender communities today.


Marriage of Self-Control? Rereading 1 Corinthians 7
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
Katy E. Valentine, First Christian Church (Chico, CA)

Scholarship on 1 Cor 7 in the past several decades has shed light on Paul’s use of the discourses of marriage prevalent in Greco-Roman discourse. This emphasis on marriage, however, does not provide a satisfactory interpretation of 1 Cor 7 as a whole, particularly how Paul’s instructions in vv. 17-24 regarding circumcision and slaves relate to the rest of the chapter. This paper will fill that gap through a socio-rhetorical analysis of 1 Cor 7 with particular attention to the language of self-control over the desires. It is the discourses of self-control, not marriage, that provide thematic unity for the chapter. This paper proceeds in three parts. First, I briefly show the thread of self-control that is present in a variety of Greek and Latin literature beginning in the fifth century BCE, including moral literature, medical handbooks and novels. This literature emphasized the need for elite males to control their desires and shames those who lack self-control. Second, I show how Paul capitalizes on the theme of self-control in his advice to the Corinthians. Paul offers the Corinthians two possible solutions to public incontinence: either marriage or celibacy, framed in part by the discourses of self-control over the desires and made visible in the frank advice offered in 1 Cor 7:1-11 and 36-38. The use of these discourses shows Paul’s status as a self-controlled, celibate man, which further enables him to critique those who were unable to control their appetites. Third, I show how these discourses are applicable to the instructions regarding circumcision/uncircumcision and slavery in 1 Cor 7:17-24. This paper concludes by showing how the discourse of self-control provides a unifying theme to the chapter as a whole. In particular, Paul’s adaptation of the rhetoric of self-control suggests his belief that self-control was not limited to free males but could be attained also by women and freed slaves. In sum, I propose to interpret 1 Cor 7 through a careful analysis of the discourses of self-control over the desires. These discourses teach the Corinthians about the dangers of sexual fornication in language already known to them, while adapting the discourses for a particular audience.


The Merging of Covenantal Traditions in Malachi
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Lotta Valve, Abo Akademi

In 2015, it is 25 years since the publication of Julia O’Brien’s study Priest and Levite in Malachi. Her view of Malachi as an adapted rib, or covenant lawsuit speech, has not gained wide acceptance. This situation is probably at least partly due to her simultaneous and rather radical claims about the dating of Malachi to the sixth century. I want to argue in my paper that the kernel in O’Brien’s view of Malachi as an adapted rib was nevertheless correct. Even a cursory reading of the book of Malachi gives the reader the impression that covenant, berit, is a central term in the book. The word occurs in three contexts in the text, five times altogether. The first occurrence is in 2:4, in the phrase beriti et lewi “my covenant with Levi,” and in 2:8, in the same discourse, the phrase is repeated in a slightly different way: berit hallewi “the levitical covenant.” In 2:10, reference is made to berit abotenu “covenant of our fathers,” and in 2:14, in the continuation of this discourse, to ‘eshet beriteka, “wife of your covenant.” Finally in 3:1, a mysterious personage, mal’ak habberit, “messenger of the covenant” is mentioned. In addition to these explicit references to a covenant, several other concepts that have association to ancient covenantal terminology occur in Malachi (e.g. zikkaron, segulla) and will be discussed in my paper. It is my contention that traces of different covenantal concepts can be found in Malachi, and that regarding the Sinai covenant, Malachi also represents a merging of Deuteronomistic and Priestly concepts. I will also address the question of the larger structure of Malachi, the relation of this structure to the rib form, and questions pertaining to the redaction of the book. I argue that Malachi as a whole indeed can be seen as a late and strongly modified example of rib. At the same time, however, there is indication that the final shape of the book is the work of more than one redactor, and that additions have successively been put mostly in the end of each previous version. Nevertheless, the ultimate form of Malachi simultaneously indicates that later redactors have understood the goals and emphases of their predecessors. My task is thus to show in which way(s) Malachi, a post-exilic prophetic book, can be seen as an early but also progressive example of adapting and merging covenant concepts and discourses that originally stem from different traditions.


Worldview, Historiography, and OT Narrative
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Koert van Bekkum, Theologische Universiteit Kampen voor de Gereformeerde Kerken

Worldview, Historiography, and OT Narrative


Setting the Table for a Queer Jesus: Ecce Homo in Sweden and Serbia
Program Unit: LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Mariecke van den Berg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohslon Wallin’s exhibition Ecce Homo, picturing a gay Jesus surrounded by queer people, caused much controversy when held in the cathedral of Uppsala, Sweden (1998), and at the Belgrade Pride Festival, Serbia (2012). Based on interviews with those involved in organizing the exhibitions and on archival and online media research, this paper will offer a reading of what is at stake in the art and its reception, in particular the work The Last Supper, in these two countries. Three analytical perspectives will be used: post-secular, theological, and aesthetic. I will argue that the controversy reveals a struggle over the symbolic and political value of sacred and secular spaces in late-modern societies; a struggle over the ecclesio-political implications of a queer theology of the last supper; and the confrontational queerness of traditional Jesus imagery


If Not "Faxed from Heaven’" Then Whence Do Cults Originate?
Program Unit: Greco-Roman Religions
Gerhard van den Heever, University of South Africa

This paper will introduce and reflect on some important desiderata for theorizing cult formations in the early Roman Empire. These include two interpretations of the broad sweep of transformations characterizing the Graeco-Roman world (Bruce Lincoln and Jörg Rüpke), as well as a short overview of the most salient perspectives on religion emerging from recent theory of religion. The latter is then illustrated by a presentation on the performativeness of religion in the establishment of new social formations, as well as the inventions of traditions and practices. New Religious Movements (historical case studies and the scholarly study thereof) are adduced as comparanda to highlight concrete cases of entrepreneurial cult formations in antiquity (particularly Alexander and Glykon; the apostle Paul; and the Roman cult of Mithras) with some reflection on orientalizing as a manner of creating Roman gods.


Marcion’s Legacy and the Old Testament Quotations in Codex Bezae’s Luke
Program Unit: New Testament Textual Criticism
Ronald van der Bergh, University of Pretoria

In this paper, I will consider whether the impact of Marcion and his followers’ treatment of the Old Testament is discernible in the Old Testament quotations in Codex Bezae’s Luke. I will pay special attention to indicators of Old Testament awareness in Codex Bezae’s transmission history, taking into account the quotations’ layout in Codex Bezae (e.g. paragraph division), their text (e.g. readings that can be shown to have changed in the transmission of the text of the manuscript) and the context of the quoted text (e.g. introductory formulae of the quotations).


“Is There a Man Here?” The Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove in Judges 4
Program Unit: Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Charlene Van der Walt, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch

The paper reads together two seemingly distant narratives, but with surprisingly similar central characters. In Judges 4 we meet the promised deliverer of Israel in the unexpected figure of Jael. In a narrative that challenges traditional binary Gender constructions, Jael emerges as the ironic answer to Sisera’ hypothetical question: “Is there a man here?.” Similarly we find embedded against an equally complex social landscape of South Africa in the struggle against Apartheid the figure of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in Justin Chadwick’s biopic Mandela: A long walk to freedom (2013). Winnie’ trajectory is traced within the film from the seemingly innocent girl that meets Nelson Mandela to the militant counter icon to his call for peace and reconciliation in the transformations process to establish a democratic South Africa. The paper reads together these two complex narratives in order to set up a reflective surface for ethical reflection by contemporary readers. Beyond a clear cut judgment for the emulation or rejection of Jael and Winnie and their response to dehumanizing circumstances, the paper argues for the interpretative tasks of sitting with complexity, discomfort and painful realities. Within this interpretative space the possibility for hope, imagination, compassion and care becomes a fragile possibility, not only for individuals but also for communities. The ethical perspective developed in the paper is not one striving for hard and fast rules that can be applied to all contemporary situations but rather with the formation of identity in a creative reflective engagement with these complex narratives.


A Critical Appraisal of Challenging and Critical Views on the Historicity of John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Jan van der Watt, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

A review is offered of the first volume in the series, John, Jesus and History: Critical Appraisals of Critical Views, edited by Paul Anderson, Felix Just and Tom Thatcher. This volume challenges and offers a variety of perspectives on the notion of the so-called inferior historicity of the Gospel of John. To a certain extent this volume set the stage for the discussions that followed. The fact that the quest went on in such a lively way proves the validity of some of the claims made in this initial volume. Its contribution to the debate will be critically considered.


An Unexpected Patron: A Social-Scientific and Realistic Reading of the Parable of the Vineyard Labourers (Matt 20:1–15)
Program Unit: Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Ernest van Eck, University of Pretoria

Many readings of the Parable of the Laborers in the vineyard want to treat the owner as representing God. Knowledge of actual agricultural practices relating to the management of vineyards suggests, on the contrary, that the details of the parable obstruct an easy identification of the owner with God, and that he displays unusual behavior not only by paying all the laborers the same wage, but by his very intervention in the hiring process. The conclusion reached is that the parable constructs the vineyard owner, typically one of the noveau riche who lived in cities, not only as a “good employer” but also, contrary to expectation, as a patron who intervened well beyond the strict norms of economic exchange.


Metapherein—Translating Metaphor in the Septuagint: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Pierre Van Hecke, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Adequately translating metaphor is one of the major challenges any translator is confronted with. A word-for-word rendering of a source text’s metaphor often yields inadequate results from the perspective of the target language. When Job describes the time of his former happiness as y?mê ?orpî (29:4), it makes little sense to translate this expression in English directly as “the days of my autumn/winter”. In cases like these, the translator is invited to creatively find a suitable translation equivalent. The same was true for the translators of the Septuagint. This paper will investigate to which extent the cognitive-linguistic theories of metaphor and of translation (e.g. Mandelblit 1995; Kövecses 2005; Rojo & Ibarretxe-Antunano 2013) are fruitful for describing the different ways in which the Septuagint has dealt with the metaphors it encountered in its Hebrew source text and for assessing the reasons for these different translation methods. The paper will focus in particular on the sometimes daunting metaphors the book of Job uses in the description of the protagonist’s suffering and his relationship to God.


Space, Body, and Meaning in 2 Maccabees
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Jan W. van Henten, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Many scholars work on the Maccabean books as a crucial source for the history of the Jews in the first two centuries B.C.E. and C.E., which is absolutely important. Few scholars concentrate on how the story of the Jews is told in these books. This paper lines up with the second approach. It will focus on the ways the author has used the category of space as a narratological tool to articulate his story. Because space foregrounds the body of the protagonists of the story, I will especially discuss those sections of the narrative that highlight bodies as a focal point of space within the story. Following the observation of Jonathan Smith (To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual, Chicago: 1987) that the relationship to the human body confers meaning to place, I also intend to analyze how the nexus of body and space contributes to meaning, i.e., the message of the story.


Hannah and Her Sons Re-interpreted
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jan W. van Henten, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Hannah is the name which was given in Josippon to the anonymous mother whose sons were tortured to death during the persecution by King Antiochus IV (175–164 BCE). The martyrdom of her family, described in 2 and 4 Maccabees, has been radically re-interpreted in Jewish as well as Christian writings. It also has been frequently represented in art, starting, probably, with the famous Brescia casket or lipsanotheca (third quarter of the 4th cent., Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia). From the 9th century onwards, manuscripts of the Bible and other writings such as menologia and books of hours are frequently illustrated with portraits of the martyrs or the scene of their martyrdom. Manuscripts of the Homilies by Gregory of Nazianzus often include portraits of Hannah and her sons or a depiction of their martyrdom at the beginning of Homily 15, which is devoted to them. Greek and Latin Bible manuscripts often include illustrations of the martyrs, sometimes in connection with the beginning of Ps 79 (Vg. 78). For example, the Stuttgart Psalter (Wu¨rttembergische Landesbibliothek MS cod.bibl. fol. 23), which originated in Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Paris) and dates from ca. 820/830, includes a historiated initial depicting the scene of the execution of the martyrs in front of a city. The initial preludes Ps 79: 2–3 (“They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful [LXX and Vg. “holy ones”] to the wild animals of the earth”). The association of the martyrdom of Hannah and her sons with Ps 79 became an established tradition. Another important trend in the re-interpretation of Hannah and her sons combines their martyrdom with the Passion of Jesus. In a book of hours in the Morgan Library and Museum (MS H. 5, fols. 27r–28v, ca. 1500) the Passion according to John is accompanied by a cycle with eight depictions of the martyrdom of Hannah and her sons, visually juxtaposing the sufferings of Jesus and the martyrdom. A famous case of a similar juxtaposition concerns a lavishly decorated golden shrine, manufactured in 1527 by the goldsmith Peter Hanemann, which can still be admired in St. Andrew’s Church in Cologne. The shrine constructs an analogy between Hannah and Mary. Hannah watches as her sons suffer and die; Mary beholds Jesus’ suffering. The shrine exemplifies how the story of Hannah and her sons became fully integrated with its Christian context. Building on these and other examples, this paper will discuss important trends in the Christian reception of Hannah and her sons, drawing on literary sources as well as works of art.


Matthew’s Magoi: An Exploration of Matthew’s Antiochene Gospel between Roman West and Parthian East
Program Unit: Matthew
George van Kooten, University of Groningen

This paper researches the meaning and importance of the Magoi in Matthew’s narrative of the Star of Bethlehem. As New Testament scholarship seems to hold the consensus view that the Star of Bethlehem narrative is built on Balaam’s Prophecy, it has hardly if ever delved into the question of why Matthew referred to these visiting pagans as Magoi. Based on a full new assessment of all Graeco-Roman sources on the Magoi, and on the other Mesopotamian-Babylonian evidence gathered in the “Quellen zur Geschichte des Partherreiches” (Hackl & Jacobs et al., eds; Göttingen 2010, 3 vols), this paper argues that the Magoi are the king-makers of the Parthian empire. Chronological stratification of all Graeco-Roman sources may suggest whether Matthew totally devised the story, or that there is some historical kernel to it. It seems that in Matthew’s own time the Magoi had become derided because of strongly anti-Parthian polemics. Pliny, for instance, understands them as Magoi in the negative sense of the word: Magicians and charlatans. This is echoed in Luke’s use of the term Magos in his depiction of Simon Magus and the Magician Elymas (Acts 8.9, 11; 13.6, 8). Matthew’s use of Magus, however, is distinctively positive, and seems to reflect the positive use of the term in the Augustan era, when there was a unique peace process between Romans and Parthians between 20 BC and AD 2. Subsequently, it is shown that this story had an enormous importance for Matthew. He didn’t see them as the fulfilment of Balaam’s prophecy, as the conspicuous lack of Matthew’s characteristic Old Testament fulfilment formula indicates. Rather, Augustan traditions regarding the Magoi, who were king-makers, performed proskynesis and were interested in political developments in Syria-Judaea, were now taken by him as the model of true discipleship: the Magoi are the first to perform proskynesis towards Jesus, to be followed by the disciples. Just as the Roman centurion of Capernaum represents the converts from the Roman West, so the Magoi exemplify the converts from the Parthian East - together they fulfil Jesus’ prophecy, in Matthew’s reworking of the Q-source: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8.11; cf. Luke 13.28-29). Finally, this is brought to bear on the likely Sitz-im-Leben of Matthew in Syrian Antioch: it is this city from where the Roman legions marched against Parthia, and the city that was attacked by the Parthians in return. By bringing both Romans and Parthian Magoi into the narrative, Matthew portrays Jesus’ kingdom as an alternative kingdom, very different from Roman and Parthian conceptions of political power. Hence the reason why Matthew criticises the proskynesis for earthly power in his depiction of Jesus’ temptation (Matthew 4), portrays Jesus’ kingdom the way he does in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and ends his Gospel with his portrayal of Jesus’ different and enduring power (Matthew 28).


Greek Philosophical Anthropology and Ethics in the Letter of James
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
George van Kooten, University of Groningen

This paper argues that James’ notion of “double-souledness” is foundational for its anthropology and ethics and best understood in the context of contemporary Graeco-Roman anthropological and ethical discourse. According to James, human beings who lack wisdom and fail to ask it of God, and who remain doubtful about God, are “double-souled (dipsychos)” (1:5–8). The term “double-souled” is a neologism first attested in James (and subsequently not used outside the corpus of Christian writings), and many attempt to interpret it along Jewish lines in the sense of double-heartedness (Seitz 1944, 1947, 1958; Marcus 1982). However, the Greco-Roman background emerges in the implicit contrast between God as “singular” (as opposed to compound or mixed), and humankind as double-souled. Given James’s interest in the salvation of souls through the operation of the innate, natural Logos (1:21), the term dipsychos is a statement about the divided nature of the human psyche (soul).The notion of a “double-souled,” divided self is also important within Greco-Roman anthropology and ethics (Shields 2010; Barney, Brennan & Brittain 2012; cf. Kloppenborg 2010). The depiction of the “double-souled” human being as unstable (1:8) resembles the Stoic view that “only the normative wise person is coherent and stable, and that the character and lives of non-wise people are marked by inconsistency and inner conflict” (Gill 2006:232). The characterization of being double-souled is similar to the Platonic view that a certain type of human being whose psyche has deteriorated is never free from internal strife and is hence “a ‘double person,’ by comparison with the ‘single-minded and harmonious psyche’ of the truly just person” (Plato, Resp. 554c-e) (Gill, p. 319; in addition Plato, Resp. 611b–612a; Plutarch, Mor. 441E–442A). Moreover, this “double” type of human being lacks freedom and is enslaved by the worst desires (Plato, Resp. 577e2–3). This Platonic view anticipates the Stoic conviction that only the wise person is free (Gill, pp. 319–320). In the same way, James characterizes the law that his readers should adhere to as “the law of freedom” (1:25; 2:12; cf. Jackson-McGabe 2001). The paper argues that these Greco-Roman views come much closer to James than rabbinical references to “double-heartedness.” What is perhaps most relevant here is that this anthropological assessment of the divided, “double-souled” self opens up the possibility of effective ethical therapy. By receiving the implanted, divine Logos, the “Word of truth” (1:18), human souls can be saved (1:21) and freed from double-souledness (4:8) because God is fully stable (1:17). This Greek anthropology and ethics are accommodated to enable the readers to follow the examples of Jesus Christ (2:1–7) and the biblical prophets (5:10–11, 17–18).


Pentateuch and Worldview
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Raymond Van Leeuwen, Eastern University

Pentateuch and Worldview


Wisdom, Farming, and Revelation in the Ancient Near East and Israel
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, Eastern University

Israelite wisdom (both within and outside the “wisdom literature) contains more than one concept of “revelation.” There is mantic wisdom in Daniel, and both Eliphaz and Elihu in Job claim revelatory experiences that make them wiser than others. Most scholars, however, contrast prophecy as a genre of revelation, to wisdom as a genre of practical reason without revelation. In its exploration of “Wisdom and Revelation,” the present paper considers von Rad’s (Weisheit in Israel) notion of revelation in creation. I will discuss several ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts, such as the Sumerian “Farmer’s Manual” and the small poem in Isa 28:23-28. I argue that these and related texts appear to instantiate and thus confirm von Rad’s understanding of a revelatory “voice of wisdom” in creation. That is, creation and creatures are somehow a medium of divine revelation understood as wisdom. Theologically, this biblical idea has a Wirkungsgeschichte in Jewish and Christian traditions of “natural law” and of “general revelation.” Hermeneutically, it remains to ask what epistemological utility a concept of revelation through creation might have in our scientific, post-Enlightenment age. And is the revelation of Lady Wisdom in creation to be construed, as Michael Fox suggests, in terms of Plato’s “ideas”?


The “Messianic Mystery” as Part of the Paradoxical Characterization of God in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Geert Van Oyen, Université Catholique de Louvain

In this paper we formulate three theses. (1) Instead of using the classical term “messianic secret” we prefer to speak of “messianic mystery”, meaning that Jesus is never fully understood neither by characters in the story nor by the readers of the story. The mystery surrounding the character of Jesus as Christ and Son of God in the Gospel of Mark is created through his characterization which is construed by a complex web of unexpected and even contradictory affirmations of his Christological description by the narrator and by the other characters. Only a synchronic narrative approach allows creating a coherent image of the protagonist as an elusive person. (2) The messianic mystery is part of a larger whole of paradoxical and opaque statements in Mark’s gospel. Exegesis should integrate the mysterious identity of Jesus into the “gospel puzzle” of the paradoxical sayings (8:35; 9:35; 10:43-44), the parabolic teaching (4,1-34), the enigmatic signification of the miracles and exorcisms, the Kingdom of God as present and future (1:15) and the incomprehensible paradox of passion and resurrection (14,1-16,8 with, e.g., 15:34.39; 16:7-8). The mystery about the Son of God goes together with the mystery about Jesus’ message and acts. (3) The basis and the result of the narrator’s use of this multilayered and confusing language is his profound conviction that God himself is an unpredictable and undefinable actor. Jesus, the other characters in the story and the readers are all struggling to understand how God is at work in the human world. They are all challenged to turn upside down their predefined and spontaneous expectations of who Jesus as Son of God is and who God is. In this sense, only an unprejudiced reader can experience how Mark’s story is a permanent critique towards uncritical theological constructions about God.


The Paradoxical Characterization of God in the Gospel of Mark and "The Table of Silence" of Constantin Brâncusi
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Geert Van Oyen, Université Catholique de Louvain

In this paper a parallel will be drawn between two works of art which both in their own way are trying to express the inexpressible reality of God. On the one hand, the narrator of the Gospel of Mark uses all kinds of rhetorical topoi to create a veil of mystery around a transcendent God who is manifesting himself in a human world. Through paradoxes (the Son of God is crucified), unexpected and unpredictable actions (the enemies are the executers of God’s plan) and contradictory statements (the hidden revelation of God in Jesus), Mark makes his readers experience the incapability of fully explaining and understanding the logic of God’s activity in the world. The text challenges the readers to leave behind all presuppositions about God since his surprising presence is turning upside down the common ideas of who people think he is (Mark 8:35: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it”). Standing before this Mystery, one cannot but keep silence. On the other hand, the open air installation called The Table of Silence by Constantine Brancusi (1937) invites the visitor to meditate on what it means to give one’s life. Built as a memorial for the Hungarian soldiers of the Great War who were leaving their village to fight the German aggressor, it illustrates - through the interplay of huge blocks of stones and empty space - both the presence and the absence of God. The work of art (also called The Twelve Apostles) expresses the whole range of emotions between fear and hope, communication and silence, power and weakness of men just before they are going to die. The whole area is filled by this one question: “God, where are you?” and reminds the visitor of the last words of Jesus (Mark 15:39: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").


The Use and Interpretation of the Book of Jubilees in the Ma??afa Berhan and the Ma??afa Milad
Program Unit: Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Jacques van Ruiten, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

The book of Jubilees largely consists of a reception history of older material. At the one hand it presupposes the material that can be found in Genesis 1 to Exodus 19, and the other hand material originating from the Enochic traditions. The history of interpretation shows that both Genesis and the book of Jubilees continued to be read, sometimes side by side. An underexposed field of interest is the reception history of the book of Jubilees within the context of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The impact of Jubilees in Ethiopia seems to be evident, due to the fact that a Greek version of the book was translated into Ge’ez at some point in history. Moreover, it is preserved in its entirety. Jubilees is incorporated into both the smaller and the larger canon. In this contribution, I concentrate on the influence of the book of Jubilees that can be found in the literature of the period of King Zar’a Ya‘aqob, such as Ma??afa Berhan and the Ma??afa Milad.


The Kiss in the Song of Songs
Program Unit: Megilloth
Jacques van Ruiten, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

With regard to the study of the Song of Songs, there is a long tradition of allegorical interpretation, which stands in sharp contrast with modern interpretation that nearly unanimously consider the work originally as a profane human erotic love song between man and woman. According to most scholars, canonicity was secured for the book only by interpreting it allegorically. In this paper, I question this sharp distinction between an original meaning of the Song of Songs and its reception history. Already in the 2nd century BCE, there is evidence that the text was read religiously, whereas there is no evidence in antiquity that one ever read the Song “literally.” While focussing on the first poem (Songs 1:2-4), I show that this reading of the Song of Songs is based on its firm place in the canon, and especially on its intertextual relationship with Wisdom literature (e.g., Prov 1-9), and with the other books of the Meghillot.


Shaping the Future in the Book of Isaiah: The 'Beyond the Days' (Isa 2:2), the 'Day of the Lord' and the 'Days' of the Kings
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen, Tilburg School of Catholic Theology

The word 'day' is one of the most important indications of ‘time’ in the Book of Isaiah. It is used in two different expressions to indicate the fu-ture: the phrases 'the day of the Lord' / 'in that day', which occur very of-ten in the Book of Isaiah, and the unique time-indication 'beyond the days' in Isa 2:2. Both expressions are related to the days of the Kings mentioned in the headings in the Book of Isaiah. I wish to examine these relation and to pay attention to the implementation of the beyond the days in the Book of Isaiah.


You Shall Die on the Mountain? On Moses' Presence in the Synoptic Transfiguration Narratives
Program Unit: Synoptic Gospels
Eric Vanden Eykel, Ferrum College

In the Synoptic accounts of the transfiguration (Matt 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36), Moses and Elijah appear on a mountaintop to Jesus and the disciples. One of the more common interpretations of their presence in this scene is that together they symbolize “the law and the prophets.” But from a canonical/narrative perspective, the situation is more complex that this explanation would imply. Elijah is accounted for easily: he was taken into heaven alive and will come again to help usher in the day of YHWH (so 2 Kings 2:11-12; Mal 4:5). Moses, on the other hand, dies and is buried outside the promised land at the close of the Pentateuch. So why is he standing on a mountaintop (presumably, inside the promised land) with someone who, at least according to overarching narrative of the Hebrew Bible, did not die? How might ancient readers have understood his presence there? The story of Moses’ death in Deut 34 is not particularly complicated: he and YHWH are the only characters; there is no dialogue; and the ensuing details of his passing are hazy at best. But, as is frequently the case, narrative gaps engendered a host of alternate versions of the story in which Moses doesn’t die but, like Elijah, is taken into heaven alive. In this paper I examine first-century interpretations of Moses’ demise — most prominently, those of Philo, Josephus, and Pseudo-Philo — all of which imply that what happens on the mountain at the end of Deuteronomy is not a “death” in the traditional sense. I do not wish to argue for literary dependence between these sources and the Synoptics. Rather, borrowing terminology from Umberto Eco, I suggest that they shed light on the “cultural encyclopedia” shared by the authors and intended readers of the Synoptics. And this, I will argue, allows for a more nuanced understanding of Moses’ presence at the transfiguration either as expressing the belief that he did not die, or at the very least that death outside the promised land would not be his final sentence.


Spear Wounds and Sleigh Bells: Believing and Seeing in the Gospel of John and The Polar Express
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Eric M. Vanden Eykel, Ferrum College

In his children’s book The Polar Express (1985), Chris Van Allsburg tells the story of a boy who travels to the North Pole and receives a bell from Santa’s sleigh, from Santa himself. The sound of the bell, so the story goes, nourishes the boy’s belief in Santa into adulthood. Van Allsburg’s narrative plays off a theme that is central to the Gospel of John: the relationship between hearing and believing. But while the author of the Fourth Gospel emphasizes the role of hearing in engendering faith, Van Allsburg’s narrative world is one in which the ability to hear is a sign that faith is already present. In this paper I explore the tensions between these two works in order to bring to light some of the more subtle points of the Johannine emphasis on the primacy of hearing as it pertains to belief. In John 20, for example, Thomas refuses to believe that his crucified, dead, and buried teacher is alive. He responds to the other disciples’ enthusiastic “We have seen the Lord” with a skeptical request for visual and tangible proof. The episode highlights what until this point in the Gospel has been only latent: that the most significant faith comes not through touch or sight, but through hearing. For when Jesus appears to Thomas and offers his body for examination, Thomas utters his “My Lord and my God” without so much as extending his hand. And Jesus’ words bring the episode to a close: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. In The Polar Express, by contrast, the boy believes in Santa from the beginning, before he has the opportunity to see or touch anything; he believes because he has heard what others have told him. When he requests a bell from Santa’s sleigh, he does so not because it will help him believe, but because he already believes. Toward the end of the story, after the boy loses the bell through a hole in his pocket, The Polar Express comes close to affirming the central claim of the Doubting Thomas pericope, namely, that belief is not contingent on materiality or sight. But the tension is resolved when the boy finds the bell waiting for him under the tree on Christmas morning with a personal note from Santa: “Found this on the seat of my sleigh…” That the boy’s belief persists as he ages is evidenced by the fact that he alone continues to hear the sound of the bell ringing; in the end, the ability to hear presumes the existence of faith.


Genesis 1 in the Book of Jubilees
Program Unit: Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
James VanderKam, University of Notre Dame

The paper offers an attempt to place Jubilees’ rewriting of Genesis 1 in the early history of reflection on the creation story. It also seeks to identify the messages that the writer of Jubilees derives from or relates to Genesis 1 and that prove important elsewhere in his book.


Qere or Ketiv: Did the Talmud Reject Scribal "Oral Tradition"?
Program Unit: Masoretic Studies
Robert Vanhoff, TorahResource Institute

This paper explores evidence from the Babylonian Talmud that suggests rabbinic knowledge of and interaction with a contemporaneous scribal institution which would be classified today as belonging to the “proto-Masoretic” tradition. The argument is made that though rabbis and scribes shared technical terminology for explaining Scripture's true meaning, their employment of that terminology in local or specialized discourse differed in ideological, and likely polemical, ways. Exploring these differences contributes to a sharpened understanding of the emergence of rabbinic authority and the Masoretic tradition.


Teaching Philology: Its Ideals and Its Practice
Program Unit:
Jacqueline Vayntrub, Harvard University

*


The Titles of Proverbs and the Shaping of a Tradition
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
Jacqueline Vayntrub, Harvard University

Critical scholarship commonly regards the titles attributing sections of Proverbs to Solomon as late and of no historical value. Breuggemann’s statement is representative of this view: such ascriptions are “of a fanciful kind, surely marked by legendary tendencies, useful for canonical consideration, but out of which no certain historical judgement can be made” (1990). In this paper, I will show that while these titles cannot support historical claims for the book’s authorship, the ascriptions have significant literary value. Such titles may give us a view to the book’s intentional shaping as an iteration of received tradition. In 1 Kings 5, Solomon is depicted as a composer-in-performance of m?š?l and šir (conventionally, “proverbs” and “songs”) and that these, or some other utterances of ??km?to, “his wisdom,” were recorded in a scroll for posterity. Just as Genette and Maclean describe how “generic indications” such as the designation "novel" can function in a title (1991), likewise the title mišle šlomo carries with it the sense, “Consider the following work to be the mš?lim of Solomon.” Our encounter of the biblical book of Proverbs is necessarily informed by the tradition of Solomon’s performed wisdom. I will demonstrate how the ascriptions of sections of Proverbs to Solomon as well as other aspects the book’s organizational strategies demonstrate a reshaping of the tradition of Solomon as not merely a wise performer of m?š?l, but as a literate scholar capable of their collection.


Language, Leakiness, and Loose Lips in the Gospel of Mark
Program Unit: Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Erin K. Vearncombe, Princeton University

The gospel of Mark is generally understood to be a gospel of secrets, a narrative of concealment and revelation, obfuscation and elucidation: demons and disciples are silenced, people healed of various diseases are ordered to isolate themselves from others, teachings are deliberately framed so that no one will understand them. Secrets occur at different points throughout the gospel in different kinds of material in an inconsistent manner. This inconsistency has been the stumbling block for the majority of interpreters of the so-called “secrecy motif.” After over a century of William Wrede-inspired dialogue on the literary motif of secrecy in the gospel of Mark, scholarship has begun to turn away from secrecy and silence, contending instead that other social factors such as honor and shame or mockery and gossip drive the gospel narrative, factors that make better sense of a seemingly inconsistent drive to secrecy. This paper seeks to reverse the secrecy motif by arguing that the drive in the narrative is not towards concealment, but towards revelation; the gospel is characterized by a fundamental leakiness. While “leak” implies something accidental or unplanned, when applied to information, seepage is a deliberate, though inconsistent, act, active as opposed to passive, and not something easily stopped – we need look only so far as WikiLeaks to see this property of information made abundantly clear. In the ancient Mediterranean context, I will argue, this leakiness of information corresponds directly to the leakiness of the human body, a body existing right on the border of public and private space. In Terence’s play Eunuchus (second century BCE), Parmeno states that he has loose lips; asked if he can keep a secret, he responds, “I am full of holes, and leak in every direction” (plenus rimarum sum; hac atque illac perfluo, I.ii.25). Bodies cannot keep secrets. Speech, visibility and the public/private space of the body, specifically the boundaries of the body, participate together in a phenomenon of leaks. Leaking is a fundamental structure of communication that has rich implications for our understanding of not simply the dissemination of information in Mark, but more significantly for the politics of the gospel. In a context where excessive privacy was interpreted as a social threat, what happens when speech is negotiated between public and private space and communicative boundaries are manipulated and controlled? Speech in Mark’s narrative, specifically speech in relation to bodies, presents a paradox of public space that challenges normative means of contesting power.


Warlike Imagery in the Song of Songs: A Cognitive Linguistic Inquiry
Program Unit: Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Danilo Verde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

While Song of Songs (SoS) is often considered a tender love poem, it also uses military language to describe the love relationship between its characters. A close reading of the poem reveals for four such metaphorical portraits: the woman as warrior, the man as warrior, the woman as a fortified city, and love as war. This suggests that the Song’s concept of love is more complex and more paradoxical than is usually assumed. Current research has not paid sufficient attention to the Song’s warlike metaphors. Despite the fact that some commentaries have identified the military background of single lines, none offers a systematic analysis of all the warlike metaphors nor an interpretation of them in dialogue with other metaphors that shape the ‘Gestalt of love’ according to the Song. Furthermore, existing commentaries and monographs on Song of Songs neglect the studies produced by Cognitive Linguistics (CL) on metaphorical phenomena, even though CL currently is the reference approach for the study of both ordinary and literary metaphors. This approach has already shed new light on several other biblical books, but has not yet been applied to the Song. In this presentation, I will provide (i) an overview of the Song’s warlike metaphors and similes, and (ii) a reading of a paradigmatic warlike metaphor (Song 6:4) in the light of CL.


Between Literature, Law, and the Function of the Mishnah: On Mira Balberg's Interpretation of the Order of Purities
Program Unit: Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Moulie Vidas, Princeton University

Review of Mira Balberg's Purity, Body, and Self in Early Rabbinic Literature (Berkeley: UC Press, 2014)


Sacrifice and the Eucharist in East Syrian Prayers and the Culture of Prayer in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Cynthia Villagomez, Winston-Salem State University

The development of the Anaphora (the Eucharistic prayer) within the earliest liturgical traditions of East Syrian Christian communities has received considerable attention from Syriac scholars since the nineteenth century. The issues of the significance of prayers within the daily offices of the late ancient and early medieval Church of the East and the primacy of continuous and pure prayer to the progressive stages of the contemplative life among East Syrian ascetics have been well-studied by Syriac specialists. The scholarly literature addressing the significance of East Syrian prayers to ritual and contemplative practices and beliefs has emphasized their role in reinforcing communal identity among Mesopotamian and Persian Christians living under Sasanian and early Muslim rule. The scholarship on East Syrian prayer has also focused on the relationship of prayers and prayer practices to the broader culture of prayer among Jews and Zoroastrians in these periods in the context of religious competition as well as in terms of the conversion of new converts to the Church of the East. In recent years, scholars such as Erica Hunter have demonstrated the diffusion of East Syrian prayers and prayer culture from the heartland of the Church of the East in Mesopotamia and Persia to its members belonging to its distant communities in Central Asia and China. In this paper, I discuss the main arguments and Syriac sources of evidence related to the scholarly treatment of these issues on East Syrian prayer. I build on the arguments of Sebastian Brock and Susan Harvey to demonstrate the significance of a historical continuity in the convergence of Eucharistic and contemplative prayer imagery and practice in Syriac liturgical, homiletic, ascetical, and hagiographical texts to reinforce local and long-distance communal solidarity among believers in the Church of the East. I develop a narrative of this continuity by using texts such as Aphrahat's fourth century homily on prayer in his Demonstration IV, early hagiographical sources such as the fifth century martyrdom and history of the Simeon bar Sabba'e, one of the earliest and most important of the early Persian martyr saints, the liturgical homilies of Narsai, the late fifth/early six century teacher and theologian at the School of Nisibis, various sixth and seventh century monastic histories, and the contemplative writings by great monastic spiritual leaders such as Isaac of Nineveh. This study aims to bring greater attention to the manner in which these sources emphasize


Does It Look Threatening as Well? On the Relations between Drawings and Texts in the Babylonian Incantation Bowls
Program Unit: Art and Religions of Antiquity
Naama Vilozny, University of Haifa

Almost two thousand incantation bowls are known, of which approximately two-thirds are inscribed in Jewish Aramaic and include an abundance of texts that show an intensive knowledge of the Jewish culture. The texts on the bowls are in most cases fixed and identical. The consistent differences between inscriptions in the same language consist of the names of the client (although occasionally several bowls were inscribed for the same client). Other variations may involve different quotations from the literary Jewish sources. The names of the harmful elements sometimes vary from bowl to bowl, although for the most part they are consistent and familiar. Lilith for example is mentioned in connection with infant mortality or death in childbirth. The texts then are very significant for the magic of Babylonian Jewry, and are central to research of ancient magic. Yet a large number of incantation bowls incorporate motifs of demonic figures, humans and hybrids, both male and female, and other decorations, which were the center of my research. In my lecture I will present these visual aspects of Babylonian Jewish magic, which bear witness to the existence of Jewish art in Babylonia of the Talmudic period and are an exceptional tool with which to determine the degree of linkage between text and image. In my talk I intend to set the colorful descriptions of demons of the textual sources against the bowls paintings, to see if there is any correlation between them and whether they reflect a common outlook of the Jews of Babylonia. By these examinations of text and image I wish to emphasize each media's role in the implementation of the magical activity.


The President’s Bible: Inaugural Addresses and the Politics of Scripture
Program Unit: Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Jason von Ehrenkrook, University of Massachusetts Boston

During the CNN/YouTube Republican primary debate held in St. Petersburg, Florida on November 28, 2007, moderator Anderson Cooper relayed a rather stunning question from a viewer: “Do you believe every word of the Bible?” This question, a jarring intrusion on the heels of an otherwise substantive discussion of issues such as immigration, federal spending, taxes, and urban violence, certainly illustrates the extent to which the Bible remains a significant protagonist in American politics. In today’s political climate, at least on one side of the partisan divide, many Americans clearly expect presidential candidates to establish their biblical bona fides as proof of their qualification for the office of the presidency. But what about after the election? What role does the Bible actually play within the Oval Office, so to speak? This paper, part of a larger study of the Bible and presidential politics, examines the use of the Bible within one narrowly defined discursive context: inaugural speeches. The broad chronological sweep of this data set—57 speeches spanning 224 years—is an ideal entry point into the topic insofar as it will enable analysis of the manifold uses of the Bible alongside a consideration of larger diachronic trends. In particular, this study will address the following questions: 1) What specific texts are used and which parts of the Bible are most frequently deployed? 2) To what end? How do these citations function? Rhetorical flourish? Posturing? Support of policy initiatives? 3) How, if at all, has scripture-wielding in inaugural addresses changed over the years? 4) How have varied historical contexts (moments of national crisis, social upheaval, etc.) impacted the use of the Bible?


Nostra Aetate’s Urgent Call to Forget the Past
Program Unit: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Katharina von Kellenbach, St. Marys College of Maryland

*


Families, Children, and Askesis: Framing Christ-Believing Bodies
Program Unit: Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Robert von Thaden, Jr., Mercyhurst College

At the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries, numerous scholars have turned their attention to the description and treatment of children in the Bible and cognate texts. For those of us with historical questions, investigating biblical families opens up one window for us to see actual, embodied human beings living and interacting in real geo-physical space. The lived reality of children and families in the ancient world is necessary to map out if we are ever to hope to understand texts that deploy them in rhetorical and/or metaphorical ways. In this paper I will examine the cognitive frames that New Testament writers activated in texts that engage families, children, and/or the disciplined refusal to participate in or produce them. “The appeal of frames,” Seana Coulson notes, “lies chiefly in their ability to account for all the ‘extra’ information readers infer in the course of meaning construction” (Semantic Leaps, 83). In other words, conceptual frames help us to fill in the background information that make language and rhetoric understandable. Those of us who investigate biblical texts from a historical perspective, then, must take great care in understanding the frames available in the ancient world, lest we anachronistically import contemporary frames into the discussion. This is all the more crucial when dealing with sentimental topics such as family and children (and the arguments against them).


“From Infancy Inured to War”: Josephus’ Geographical Excursus on Galilee (War 3.35–44) in Light of Soja’s “Thirdspace”
Program Unit: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
John Vonder Bruegge, Northwestern College

Sean Freyne once stated that “the quest for the historical Jesus is quickly becoming the quest for the historical Galilee.” Functioning under the broad umbrella of historical criticism for generations, scholarship has tended to view Galilee through a historical lens. Perhaps ironically, few have endeavored to take a deliberately spatial approach to Galilee, even though it is first and foremost a geographical region. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Josephus’ portrayal of Galilee in the War in light of Edward Soja’s concept of “Thirdspace.” Using Soja’s trialectic of space as a theoretical lens, Josephus’ most concise description of the region can be seen as not only a space perceived, but also conceived, a deliberate creation suited for Josephus’ own apologetic aims. In this regard, Josephus is following the geographical conventions of Greco-Roman historiographical tradition, with helpful parallels being found in Polybius and Strabo, yet the Galilean space he constructs is unique, not only among his contemporaries but even within his own corpus. The Galilee of the War is not to be conflated with the Galilee of the Life. This paper will argue that Josephus’ Galilee, particularly in War 3.35-44, is revealed less in terms of boundary lines that can be drawn on a conventional map, and more in terms of Josephus’ own sphere of activity, the platform on which he shows himself publicly to be an ideal general for the Jewish people—intrepid but enlightened, a master of warfare who understands that the only true master of war is God. Soja’s theoretical lens opens the door to a deliberately a-historical reading of Josephus’ Galilee, not in the sense of ignoring historical arguments, but rather in an attempt to break free from a purely historical analysis where geography is viewed as an inert and static background.


The Quest for the Geographical Luke: How Luke’s Narrative Construction of Palestine Makes Him a Better Geographer Than You Might Think
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
John Vonder Bruegge, Northwestern College

The geography of the third gospel has long been a source of debate and confusion, particularly with regard to the central “travel section” (Luke 9:51-19:28) in which Jesus makes his way from Galilee to Jerusalem. The section is riddled with conundrums and difficulties, leading many scholars to conclude that Luke simply has no interest in the geography of Palestine. The overarching purpose of this paper is to reassert Luke as a geographer in his own right. Using Edward Said’s concept of “imaginative geography” as a theoretical lens, Luke is best viewed against the backdrop of Greco-Roman geography, a tradition that often involved doing geographical reflection from the perspective of an “outsider.” Narrative descriptions of the region in Pliny and Strabo provide useful parallels and lend credence to the theory, first proposed by Hans Conzelmann, that Luke perhaps envisioned the administrative districts of Galilee and Judea as having a common border rather than being separated spatially by the region of Samaria. Many have rejected Conzelmann’s thesis, but the problem with modern reflections on the geography of Luke is that they invariably compare his material to the conventional historical map of the region, one which Luke never possessed. Bucking the trend of most current scholarship which understands Luke as a poor or careless geographer, this paper will argue that Luke is in fact a very careful one, as long as he is allowed to use an “outsider’s” narrative map of the region.


Moving the Boundary: The Metaphorical Use of a Literal Prohibition in the Second Temple Period
Program Unit: Biblical Law
Daniel Vos, Boston College

Moving the boundary (hsyg hgbwl) is found in a half-dozen texts in the Hebrew Bible and stems from a sapiential/legal context as can be demonstrated from numerous ancient Near Eastern parallels. However, in a range of texts from the Second Temple period, moving the boundary is primarily encountered as a metaphor. The original legal sense of moving the boundary and its metaphorical utility are explicitly discussed by Philo of Alexandria’s De specialibus legibus 4.149–150. The metaphorical usage of the phrase is also found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Damascus Document, 4Q Instruction, 4Q Curses, and 4Q 424 make negative use of the moving the boundary metaphor, while the Community Rule (1QS) makes positive use of the image of setting a boundary. For the Damascus Document, moving the boundary serves as a metaphor for sin; in 4Q Instruction, not moving the boundary concerns living within the bounds of one’s divinely granted inheritance. In 1QS 10, setting a boundary is a matter of personal piety, conforming with divinely established standards. In this paper, I review the original sapiential/legal sense of moving the boundary and discuss the ways in which it is applied metaphorically in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I argue that the literal sense of moving a boundary marker lends itself to application in two particular conceptual fields: sin as transgression of a boundary and one’s life as a divinely granted inheritance. At the conclusion of the paper, I suggest that the use of legal material as a source for literary metaphor deserves further investigation.


A Cognitive Approach to Copying Errors: Two Previously Unknown Constraints on Haplography
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Jonathan Vroom, University of Toronto

The copying of a manuscript involves a number of complex cognitive processes that are important for understanding the nature of ancient textual transmission. Although the cognitive sciences have been productively applied to a number of other areas in biblical and classical studies, this cognitive dimension of copying has received almost no attention in textual scholarship of the Hebrew Bible (or any other text-critical field). In this paper I will provide an example of how basic concepts from the cognitive sciences can be applied to aspects of ancient textual transmission. Using a well-known variant in Exodus 22:4 as an example, I will explore the implications that cognitive psychology can have for understanding the copying error of haplography; I will identify two previously unknown constraints on this phenomenon: 1) haplography is caused by the repetition of words, not single letters; 2) haplography does not result in the loss of large portions of text. While these two constraints have far-reaching implications for the practice of textual criticism, they are only one example of how the cognitive sciences can be productively applied to our understanding of ancient manuscript transmission.


Intra-Christian Competition in the Acts of Thecla and the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University

September 23 commemorates the feast days of three Christian women martyrs/saints: Thecla, Xanthippe, and Polyxena. In the Acts of Thecla, Thecla is presented as the ideal virgin and proto-martyr after she is persuaded by Paul’s teachings to reject her marriage and commit herself to a life of chastity. For Thecla, the preservation of her virginity remains her power and the key to her success and survival. In the novel, she is twice sentenced by the governor, twice condemned to death, and twice saved by divine intervention. Noteworthy is the fact that Thecla never yields to marriage and her virginity and ascetic practices function as a model for others to follow and are described in the language of martyrdom. In the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, an account of two sisters is offered. The parallels between Thecla and Xanthippe and Polyxena are unmistakable and knowledge of the Acts of Thecla is certain. Xanthippe is a devout married Christian woman who also renounces her marriage in exchange for an ascetic life upon hearing the teachings of Paul. Her sister Polyxena is a Christian sister that undergoes kidnapping and numerous perilous adventures involving wild beasts and a sagacious lioness, but is also spared by divine intervention. In both Acts, virginity, chastity, baptism, and ascetic practices are consistent themes throughout the narrative, but their views on them are strikingly different. Are the ideas represented in the Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena a response to the Acts of Thecla? Is the shared feast day evidence of competing ideas and intra-Christian disputes over marriage, virginity, martyrdom, and the role of women in late antiquity?


Moving at the Pace of the Cattle: A Pastoralist Way of Relating to Nature in Genesis
Program Unit: Ecological Hermeneutics
Lubunga W'Ehusha, University of KwaZulu-Natal

A number of scholars accuse the Judeo-Christian belief of human dominion over creation as the cause of the irresponsible exploitation of the resources of the Earth. They blame the Bible for reassuring anthropocentrism and aggressive attitudes towards nature, factors that have contributed to the current environmental crisis affecting the whole world. Notwithstanding the ambiguous nature of the interpretation of the Bible, many eco-theologians are offering a re-reading of biblical texts that recognizes the intrinsic value of all the entities of creation. By so doing, many theologians are making a substantive contribution to the solution of environmental problems on the Earth. This essay subscribes to an ecological friendly reading of the Bible that opposes the destruction of God’s creation. In the light of ecological hermeneutics, I suggest a more balanced reading of the account of Jacob (Gen. 33:13-14) as he decides to walk slowly at the pace of the cattle in order to preserve the life of nursing herds along with his own children. This attitude is not a mere sympathy for the frailty and tenderness of young lives but a deep concern for the intrinsic value of plants, animals and humans from a shepherd. I argue that the worldview of a pastoralist communities, to which Jacob belonged as do many African ethnic groups today, provides a hermeneutical framework though which an interpretation of Old Testament texts can be read in a way which is sensitive to the preservation of Nature. The context of African cattle herders, such as the Maasai of Kenya, is used to shed light to the understanding of Jacob’s attitude towards his flock.


The Comparative Martyrdom of R. Hanina b. Teradion
Program Unit: Early Jewish Christian Relations
Shlomo Wadler, University of Notre Dame

Jews and Christians interacted with one another in many ways, including through texts. Though not quite as famous as the martyrdom of his contemporary, R. Akiva, the martyrdom of the second century (CE) rabbi, R. Hanina b. Teradion has received considerable attention by those who study martyrdom in rabbinic literature, especially the account found in b. 'Abodah Zarah 17b-18a. While some have approached this story from an historical standpoint, attempting to connect data from the account with particular Roman laws during the Hadrianic persecution, others have approached it from the angle of rabbinic attitudes towards martyrdom in general. It is my intention to view this account as a reaction to Christian views on martyrdom, and as one which presents R. Hanina b. Teradion as a superior form of martyr. We will first look at story in b. 'Abod. Zar. in the context of its sugya and preceding sugyot, as well as compared to the version in the minor tractate Semahot and in the Sifre. We will then compare it to the similar account of R. Akiva's martyrdom in b. Berakot 61b in order to show how R. Hanina’s martyrdom is exaggerated, before turning to comparisons to early Christian martyrdom accounts. While the martyrdom of R. Hanina b. Teradion is not responding to any specific text of early Christian martyrdom, I will argue that it shares and clearly exaggerates many of the themes found in those accounts. What emerges is a picture of a rabbinic martyr who is an intentionally exaggerated form of what Christians and Jews may have thought a martyr to be. R. Hanina b. Teradion is meant to be viewed as a better martyr than the Christian martyrs, and whose story is one of the triumph of Jewish martyrdom to Christian martyrdom.


What Will Justin S. Ukpong Say Today? Contemporizing African Contextual Hermeneutics
Program Unit: African Biblical Hermeneutics
R.S. Wafula, Luther College

No one can deny the fact that Justin S. Ukpong occupies a central place in advocating for an authentic African Biblical hermeneutics approach. Of special significance is Ukpong’s insistence on linking the biblical texts to the African context. For Ukpong this manifestation takes place on a somewhat gradual developmental scale. In this paper I seek to explore Justin’s views on African contextual hermeneutics' response to African issues with the question of what Justin would be asking ABH scholars to be doing “today.”


The Servant and God Are Comparable: A Result of Reading the Body as Space in Second Isaiah
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Eric Wagner, Catholic University of America

Second Isaiah offers an inviting corpus with which to analyze the body by means of critical space theory. The corpus itself initiates such analysis with an early invitation when it repeatedly asks “To whom might you liken God?” (Isa. 40:18, 25). Is there a divine body and does it have a potential compliment? Notoriously the bodily portrayal of the Servant also appears in Second Isaiah. These and other bodily portrayals in Second Isaiah suggest a system of bodily representation. The over interests of critical space theorists in the body and bodily representation promises that critical space theory may have analytic value for studying portrayals of the body in Second Isaiah. This study will specifically argue that through comprehensive critical spatial analysis of the bodies in Second Isaiah, the bodily portrayal of God is best compared with the bodily portrayal of the Servant. So the rhetorical question, “To whom might you liken God?” (Is 40:18), meets an unexpected answer: liken God to the Servant. The study begins by articulating its theoretical basis in critical space theory and shows how this will be used to identify and analyze the bodily spaces portrayed in Second Isaiah. The data that arises from a critical spatial analysis produces three general categories for classifying the bodily spaces in Second Isaiah. These categories facilitate classifying the bodily spaces of God and the Servant amid the other bodily spaces of the entire corpus. Ultimately, the bodies of God and the Servant emerge as comparable based on the quantity and quality of their representation. This new insight also confirms the value of critical space theory as an analytical tool for analyzing the body.


The End of Philology
Program Unit:
J. Ross Wagner, Duke University

*


Canonization and the Cuneiform Commentary Tradition Reconsidered
Program Unit: Assyriology and the Bible
Zackary Wainer, Brown University

Canonization is one of the most hotly debated aspects of the Mesopotamian textual tradition. While some scholars have argued for multiple canons spanning thousands of years, others, examining the same material, have concluded that there never was a Mesopotamian canon, and that the use of the term canon or its derivatives to describe Mesopotamian literature is thus unsuitable. In recent years, ideas of Mesopotamian canonization have come to bear on the burgeoning field of cuneiform commentaries. The dominant theory of Mesopotamian commentary formation proposes that an unalterable canon was a prerequisite for the advent of independent exegetical texts. Because scholars could not change these canonical texts, they wrote commentaries to keep these compositions accessible in ever-changing social, political, or linguistic environments. Although scholars have asserted that an immutable canon was a key factor in the creation of the Mesopotamian commentary tradition, there are reasons to believe that this may not have been the case. In this paper, I will argue against the dominant view of Mesopotamian commentary formation and propose that at least some texts that were objects of interpretation were not static. Specifically, I will draw on evidence from Enuma Anu Enlil (EAE), the Mesopotamian celestial-divinatory series par excellence. While EAE is the focus of hundreds of cuneiform commentaries, portions of this text seem to have been fairly fluid. After examining evidence from EAE, I will draw on sources from the Hebrew Bible and discussions from biblical studies to further my argument that canonization is not a necessary precursor for exegesis. I will conclude my paper by offering an alternative to the dominant theory of cuneiform commentary formation.


The Eclipsing of Abraham in Syriac and Jewish Late Antique Liturgical Poetry
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Miriam-Simma Walfish, Harvard University

In this paper, I argue that two different late antique interpretive traditions of the story of the binding of Isaac, one found in a Palestinian Aramaic piyut, and the other in two Syriac dialogue poems, both work to shift the reader's focus from Abraham as protagonist to other characters. Yet, while these two traditions are similar in their eclipsing of Abraham, they differ with regard to their choice of character as a replacement. The Jewish liturgical poem reads the story as fundamentally about Isaac, while the Christian poems draw our attention instead to the figure of Sarah. These different exegetical choices reflect the different social and theological settings of these interpretive communities.


Apocalyptic Now: Judgment and Rescue Miracles as Discipleship in Luke’s Acts
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Brandon Walker, University of Nottingham

Apocalyptic Now: Judgment and Rescue Miracles as Discipleship in Luke’s Acts


"Fear God and Keep His Commandments": An Unexpected Friendship between Qoheleth and Deuteronomy
Program Unit: Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Justin Walker, Emory University

The pithy conclusion of the epilogue of Ecclesiastes (Qoh 12:13b-14) has sparked much debate over the relationship between these brief theological commands and the wider enigmatic work. Many interpreters deem the epilogue (whether it is a later redaction or somehow original) as ultimately disjunctive with regard to the book of Qoheleth as a whole. For these interpreters, the book’s concluding commands to “fear God and keep his commandments” reflect the more “orthodox” piety of Deuteronomy, Proverbs, or Ben Sira, and so stand in contrast to the Teacher’s reticence (expressed elsewhere) concerning divine commandments and his otherwise ambivalent theological outlook. In this light, Qoh 12:13b-14 is sometimes viewed as either a prophylactic for Qoheleth’s skepticism, somehow making him or his book more palatable to mainstream wisdom traditions, or as an ironic subversion of Qoheleth’s total enterprise. While ideological tensions between 12:13b-14 and some of the more pessimistic portions of Qoheleth’s theology are no doubt apparent (cf., e.g., 6:1-2; 7:14; 8:10-11, 14, 17; 9:1), the presence of such contradictions need not exclude attempts to draw the epilogue, on the one hand, and the body of the book, on the other, into a more nuanced relationship. Following those who interpret the entirety of the book synchronically, the present paper explores what “fear God and keep his commandments” might mean specifically for Qoheleth with an aim toward identifying the same for Deuteronomy, the putative origin of such language. I argue that Qoheleth presents a multivalent conception of “fearing” God (consisting both of human terror and piety) and a unique conception of divine “commandments” (consisting of the carpe diem ethic). After summarizing these “Qoheleutian” ideas, I then consider Qoheleth’s potential congruity with Deuteronomy—particularly in those passages that highlight God’s foreboding threat (“fear God…”) and that command the audience to rejoice and enjoy (“…and keep his commandments”). In the light of a more nuanced consideration of Deuteronomy, assumptions regarding “true” Qoheleth’s discontinuity with the “secondary” epilogue are complicated, which allows one to reconsider Qoheleth’s relationship to more “orthodox” biblical traditions. In the end, a somewhat surprising friendship between Deuteronomy and Qoheleth can be seen to have benefits for the interpretation of both works.


Malady and Medicine: God's Justice and Mercy in Anne Locke's Sonnet Sequence on Psalm 51
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Nathan Wall, Wycliffe College

When Anne Locke published her 1559 English translation of four sermons that John Calvin preached on Isaiah 38 (the account of King Hezekiah's illness and recovery), she appended a sonnet sequence entitled "A Meditation of a Penitent Sinner." For over two decades scholars of Elizabethan literature have identified Locke's poetic treatment of Psalm 51 as the first sonnet sequence composed in the English language. In this paper, I want to explore a dimension of the sonnets that deserves more attention, namely, that they are an exegesis of the psalm. To accentuate the distinctive features of Locke's interpretation, I will compare and contrast her reading of the psalm with interpretations given by her spiritual progenitor, John Calvin, and by her literary descendant, John Donne. I will show that Locke's interpretation of Psalm 51 is driven not mainly by figural associations, by typological persona, or by intertextual linkage, but by a particular theological dialectic: the "medicine" of God's justice and mercy.


The Elusive Esther: The Relationship of Esther and Mordecai within Syriac Biblical Interpretation
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Erin Galgay Walsh, Duke University

Within both Jewish and Christian traditions, the book of Esther has been the subject of frequent debate concerning its historical veracity and worthiness for canonicity. The history of Jewish exegesis shows continued contestation of the text’s meaning. Differences in translation and theological presuppositions conditioned the reception of Esther among late antique Christians, and the paucity of references to Esther among early Christian writers suggests that the book lacked appeal for Christian readers. Examination of the reception of Esther among Syriac Christians reveals evocative parallels with strands of Jewish exegesis as well as carefully wrought Christological readings of this biblical text. After a brief overview of the manuscript history and translation profile of the book of Esther in Syriac, this paper will turn to the reception history of the text, with particular attention to how the relationship of Mordecai and Esther is presented and the expansion of Mordecai’s role. Within Syriac literature, the Demonstrations of Aphrahat and a recently published orthodox marriage rite are rare provocative instances of theological and interpretative creativity. While Aphrahat invokes Esther and Mordecai within four of his Demonstrations, my examination will focus on the two extended engagements in Demonstration 3: “On Fasting” and 21: “On Persecution.” Aphrahat’s exposition of Esther and Mordecai as moral exemplars quickly gives way to a lengthy narration of Mordecai and Haman’s deeply intertwined lineages and the role they play in the larger arc of Israel’s history. Lastly, in Demonstration 21 “On Persecution,” Aphrahat illuminates the prefiguration of Christ’s passion in the suffering of Mordecai and Esther through detailed attention to the typological relationship of Mordecai and Jesus. Examination of these passages reveals that the character and lineage of Mordecai exercises a gravitational pull in Aphrahat’s thought, overshadowing Esther’s centrality in the biblical text. Within these short passages, Aphrahat appropriates the book of Esther to achieve his rhetorical ends and to deepen his engagement with the history and ancestral lineages which are so prominent throughout his work. The orthodox wedding is another of the rare instances of an invocation of the story of Esther within that liturgical setting. Within a prayer said over the head of the bride, Esther is presented as an exemplar of a dutiful wife who takes the advice of her husband. This husband is unnamed, but leads one to consider the possibility that some Syriac Christians considered Mordecai to be Esther’s husband, a reading found within rabbinic literature. This possible connection suggests another locus of the cross-fertilization of Jewish and Christian forms of interpretation that has so often been the subject of scholarly inquiry. For the study of the book of Esther among Christians, this paper highlights the discontinuity between modern readings centering on Esther and late antique interpretation.


Rethinking the Biblical Epic: Aronofsky's Noah
Program Unit: Bible and Film
Richard Walsh, Methodist University

Aronofsky’s Noah rethinks and nuances the biblical epic with fantastic features and the characterization typical of his other films. Fantastic elements include (1) the film’s “post-apocalyptic” setting in a world ruined by humans; (2) nature miracles; (3) the use of visual styles, which differ from the visual realism of the primary action, to depict the “primeval” stories; (4) Noah’s dream-visions; and (5) the Watchers. The last may be the most “comfortable” fantastic feature, as the Watchers bespeak a fantastic (spiritual) world that abuts and enhances the film’s primary world. The matter is more akin to C. S. Lewis than Tolkien or Aronofsky. By contrast, Noah’s dream-visions are more typical of fantastic elements in other Aronofsky’s films, which often focus so relentlessly upon a protagonist’s visions/obsessions that it becomes difficult for the audience to determine what is “real” (cf. Pi; Black Swan). While the cultural weight of the Genesis story grants Noah’s dream-visions credibility, their need for interpretation, as well as their changing expositions by various exegetes, unsettles. This “threatening” fantastic adds a tinge of horror to the film. The visions/obsessions of Aronofsky’s protagonists gradually separate them from “reality” and family (community). Noah’s character arc seems similar, but, unlike most Aronofsky characters, Noah ultimately moves from (divine) vengeance to love, finding family in the end, and it is his family, as much as his visions, that saves humanity. While the “saving” family is typical of Hollywood film, it is particularly prominent in many biblical epics where omnia vincit amor. Noah’ story surprises then only because he is an Aronofsky character. If Aronofsky nuances the biblical epic with the fantastic and troubles it with his characterization of an obsessive protagonist, he ultimately uses the genre’s dominant pattern to save his film’s story. The result is curiously biblical (cf. The Fountain).


Jesus and the Anachronistic Origins of Christianity
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Robyn Walsh, University of Miami

Studies of the origins and development of the Jesus movement/Christianity often have focused on the figure of Jesus, his teachings, and biography. This tendency is evident in contemporary scholarship, and especially in courses and textbooks that first emphasize the narrative of the canonical gospels over and against the letters of Paul, even though Paul constitutes our earliest and most secure account of the Jesus movement, its discourses, and practices. In other words, as far as a historical description of the origins of the Jesus movement is concerned, one can argue that it begins with Paul and not with Jesus. This paper suggests that our scholarly tendency towards anachronism has led to certain theoretical missteps that are well documented (e.g., the so-called Hellenism/Judaism divide), but it has also led us astray in our efforts to recover and/or preserve the “history” of Jesus’ life and teachings. Specifically, I will argue that if one reconsiders the activities of Jesus in the gospels (baptism, fellowship meals, pneumatic demonstrations) compared to those Paul describes (the same), then we must concede that it is at least possible that our first-century biographies about Jesus were based primarily on more ‘recent’ knowledge about the activities of self-styled ‘Christ’ specialists like Paul, and not necessarily on any definitive knowledge about the origins of the Jesus movement or Jesus himself.


The Role and Status of the High Priest in Persian Period Yehud
Program Unit: Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Daniel Wang, University of Texas at Austin

The high priest is considered the central human figure within the Jerusalem temple cult, but little is known about the exact contours of his role and responsibilities before the Hellenistic period. The biblical evidence is not extensive. It is fairly certain, however, that the Persian period is a time of instability within the priesthood and the office of the high priest. While there may not have been an actual vacuum of political leadership in Persian period Yehud, various groups, including competing priestly factions, attempt to establish influence and legitimacy within the constraints of larger imperial interests. One common assumption is that as a result of the lack of a monarchy, the temple and concomitantly the high priesthood grow in importance—religiously, socio-economically, and politically—throughout the postexilic period. This has recently been challenged by Lisbeth Fried who, following S. N. Eisenstadt, argues that the high priest has no authority because the Persian empire seeks to limit the power of local elites. I re-examine the evidence from Babylon, Egypt, and Western Asia to argue that rather than promoting a monolithic policy that curbs local power throughout the empire, Persian government policy is flexible and adapted to each particular regional, socio-economic, political situation. By examining the question of who appoints the high priest in Yehud, I clarify the high priest’s role during the Persian period Yehud and help to establish him as figure of power and influence within the Yehud community.


'The Scriptures Are Not Insignificant': Reading Techniques in the Epistle to Diognetus and Alexandrian Textual Culture
Program Unit: Texts and Traditions in the Second Century
H. Clifton Ward, Durham University

Among the options to identify the mysterious author of the Epistle to Diognetus, there has been support in recent years for either the apologist Quadratus or Polycarp of Smyrna. On the other hand, many scholars have often been content merely to locate the text in Alexandria because of its thematic similarities with certain Alexandrian texts. In this paper, however, I will examine the questions of provenance and authorship by focusing attention on the particular reading techniques employed in Diognetus and compare these with other second century texts. Building upon the work of Harnack, Marrou, and Lona, this paper will argue that Diognetus shares more affinities with the oeuvre of Clement of Alexandria than is often realized, and by comparing these features with the reading strategies of other authors, such as Theophilus of Antioch and Melito of Sardis, I will suggest that an Alexandrian provenance is probable. Additionally, I will suggest that the reading practices which characterize Diognetus and Clement may actually imply that the Epistle of Barnabas, which employs quite a different set of strategies for literary analysis, was not an Alexandrian text, as many claim. By calling attention to the techniques of literary analysis employed in these texts, I will argue that, beyond a reconsideration of the provenance of Diognetus and the subsequent implications that this reappraisal has for Barnabas, a broader focus on the spread of such reading practices among Christian writers might alter the terrain for our understanding of the textual culture in second century Alexandria.


The Pre-Islamic Image of the Word 'Saracen' and Its Implications for Early Christian and Islamic Interactions
Program Unit: The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
Walter D. Ward, University of Alabama at Birmingham

The nomadic tribes which dwelt along the later Roman Empire's eastern border from the fourth to seventh centuries C.E were often labeled with the term "Saracen." This paper explores the connotations of the word "Saracen" and the effect of the use of this word to describe Muslims on the initial relationship between Christians and Muslims. This paper begins by examining the image of "Saracens" that is constructed by the Sinai Martyr accounts (Ammonius, Relatio and pseudo-Nilus, Narrationes). These texts stress the pagan beliefs and bestial nature of the nomadic inhabitants of the Sinai. According to the Sinai Martyr accounts, the “Saracens” practiced “impure” religious rituals such as black magic and animal and human sacrifice. The “Saracens” are also accused of attacking monastic sites and were demonized through intense descriptions of the brutal slaughter of monks. In describing these vicious attacks and deviant religious beliefs, the word “Saracen” became associated with an image of an inhuman “other.” While the purpose of these texts was to demonstrate that the Christian monks faced a constant threat of violence and martyrdom at the hands of the “Saracens” in an attempt to enhance the monks spiritual credentials, these descriptions had much wider implications for antiquity and today. Contemporaries of the Muslim invasion of the eastern Roman Empire, such as the patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius, initially did not understand that the invasions were launched by followers of a new religion, calling the invaders “Saracens” and thinking that they were just ordinary nomadic raiders. Once it became clear that the Muslims were not just nomadic raiders, the term stuck. To some extent, this is understandable, but since the term “Saracen” had already been associated with heresy, paganism, and violence, some early Christians could use these previously developed rhetorical tools to engage in polemical arguments with tropes of the pre-Islamic “Saracen” image. Authors such as John of Damascus wrapped these descriptions together into a neat package, defining the standard Christian understanding of Islam for centuries. For example, Stephen Mansur’s description of the Twenty Martyrs of Mar Saba, written in the late eighth or early ninth century, reuses the Sinai descriptions of “Saracens” to accuse Muslims of the same types of violence against monks. In order to understand how Christians reacted to the emergent Muslim faith, it is important to investigate the role of pre-Islamic stereotypes in defining the Christian image of Islam. One component of this image is the term “Saracen.”


The Rhetoric of Boundary Making: The Case of Jews and Samaritans
Program Unit: Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Tim Wardle, Furman University

What were the limits of Judaism in the early centuries B.C.E. and C.E.? In an age of sectarianism and dissent, why were some groups understood to be “Jewish,” while others were deemed outside the pale? In this paper, I will examine the case of the Samaritans, a community on the fringes of Judaism. Most non-Jews seem to have found it difficult to discern Samaritans from Jews: both peoples claimed a common ancestry, spoke the same language, worshipped the God of Israel, and observed the commandments in the Pentateuch. Indeed, for centuries they had both been part of “Israel.” But the Assyrian invasion in the 8th century coupled with the post-exilic return to Jerusalem by those who had been exiled in Babylon created deep fissures between these two peoples. The existence of rival temples—one in Jerusalem and the other on Mount Gerizim—only served to increase the tension. Most likely stemming from this disagreement over temple locale, Jewish polemic against the Samaritans began to increase in the decades leading up to the destruction of the Samaritan temple in the second century B.C.E., and continued throughout the early centuries B.C.E. and C.E. Repudiating Samaritan claims of being descendants of Israel and therefore close relatives of the Jews, many Jews instead asserted that Samaritans were of foreign descent, labeling them “Cutheans,” “Sidonians,” and “Shechemites” (unfortunately, the literary evidence is very uneven, and we have little in the way of Samaritan response). This paper will first explore the nature of this rhetoric and its function in the ancient world before turning to an evaluation of modern scholarly judgments on the shifting relationship between Samaritans and Jews.


Intertextual Christology: Biblical Echoes and Incarnational Christology in 2 Thess 1:7–10
Program Unit: Disputed Paulines
James Ware, University of Evansville

In the debate over Christology in primitive Christianity, the so-called "Christological YHWH texts" within the New Testament play a critical role. A number of scholars have argued that the Christological YHWH passages are evidence of a "divine Christology" identifying Jesus with the God of Israel. Other scholars, most notably James Dunn, have proposed a non-incarnational reading of these passages. Little attention has been given within this debate to 2 Thess 1:8-10. However, the wide consensus regarding its biblical allusions, and distinctive features within the passage, make it a useful test case for analyzing major arguments within the debate. An exploration of these features discloses the weakness of key arguments of Dunn, and points to the true significance of the application, within early Christian texts, of Old Testament YHWH passages to Jesus.


Abraham— The Prequel
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Megan Warner, King's College - London

Even if Ridley Scott is unlikely to follow up ‘Exodus – Kings and Gods’ and his new ‘King David’ film with ‘Abraham – The Prequel’, this paper proposes that envisaging the ancestral narratives (with a special focus on the Abraham cycle) as a Persian period ‘prequel’ raises valuable questions about the relationship between Genesis and the Moses and monarchic traditions. The literary capacity of a prequel to influence and alter its audience’s perceptions of an earlier, principal, work means that understanding the ancestral narratives as ‘prequel’ may highlight matters not immediately apparent when the ancestral narratives are understood as ‘introduction’, ‘prelude’ or ‘prologue.’ Recent insights associated with the so-called ‘Death of the Yahwist,’ including Konrad Schmid’s argument about the lack of a pre-P literary source spanning Genesis and Exodus, have been important, but remain largely unexplored from the point-of-view of the ancestral narratives. This paper proposes the application of the literary category of ‘prequel’ to the ancestral narratives as one means of exploring the issues, both synchronic and diachronic, raised by these insights.


History, Memory, and Transculturality in the Gospel of John
Program Unit: John, Jesus, and History
Meredith J. C. Warren, University of Sheffield

This paper will discuss the modes of transculturation apparent in the Gospel of John. The troubled relationship this gospel exhibits with regard to “The Jews” (hoi Ioudioi) is well known; John’s Jesus devalues Moses (e.g. 6:32; 7:22), breaks the Sabbath (e.g. 9:14, 16), and is frequently openly hostile to “The Jews” (e.g. 8:44). But John also affirms Moses (e.g. 1:45; 5:46) and embraces its Jewish context as much as it displays discomfort with certain Jewish-associated elements. “Rabbi” Jesus (e.g. 1:38, 49; 3:2, 26; 4:31; 6:25; 9:2; 11:8) confirms his Jewish identity by his participation in ritual and community activities (e.g. Passover, 2:13; 6:4; 12:1) and by using scripture to support his views (e.g. 7:38). At the same time, the Fourth Gospel owes much to the literature and cultures of the non-Jewish ancient Mediterranean; John frequently translates Aramaic and Hebrew terminology for an audience that the author assumes would not understand (e.g. 1:38, 41, 42; 4:25; 5:2; 9:7; 11:16; 19:17; 20:16, 24), and scholars have located in John broader Greco-Roman literary tropes, such as the genre of bios of the hero (e.g. Wills 1997) and anagnorisis (e.g. Culpepper 1983; Larsen 2008). These elements are expertly brought together in the Gospel in order to construct a collective memory of Jesus’ life and death. The relationship in the Gospel to ancient historiography, memory, and John’s cultural inheritance is therefore complicated. How does the Fourth Gospel “remember” Jesus? How are historiographical elements bent toward John’s own rhetorical ends? The Gospel of John preserves the intercultural complexities involved in the ancient creation of history as a means of memorialization.


Pouring Out God's Wrath: Libation Imagery in the Book of Revelation
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Meredith Warren, University of Sheffield

As opposed to the positive use of libation language in other New Testament texts (e.g. Luke 22:20; Philippians 2:17), Revelation uses such imagery negatively. Wine is used alternately as a metaphor for God's wrath (e.g. 14:10) or is a luxury good associated with Babylon (e.g. 17:2; 18:13); the libations that are poured out in in the Bowl Visions of chapter 16 pour out plagues. This paper will query the implications of this negative imagery for early Christian hearers of this text and their own meal practices in Asia Minor.


Canon and Scripture Development in light of the Infancy Gospels
Program Unit: Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Bill Warren, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

The Infancy Gospels, specifically The Proto-Gospel of James, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and The Latin Infancy Gospels (J Composition) contain extensive quotations, allusions, and structural similarities to the Septuagint, the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke, and to other (proto-) New Testament texts. Scholars have noted some inter-textual incidences previously, but a thorough survey of the Old Testament (specifically the LXX) and New Testament quotations, allusions, and structural borrowings in these Infancy Gospels (IGs) needs more attention as a window into canon development and into the nature of the communities behind this type of use of OT texts. This paper will examine the critical texts of several of the IGs using Richard Hays’ methodology for identifying allusions (Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul). For each IG, the quotations, allusions, and structural similarities to canonical texts will be isolated, then the canonical text(s) referenced and the type of adaptation will be determined. These results will then be analyzed, with conclusions focused on: 1) the similarities and differences between uses of the OT and uses of the NT by the IGs, 2) the similarities and differences between uses of “canonical” texts by earlier IGs and later IGs, and 3) the type of adaptations by each IG author.


Inscriptions in the Family Tomb—Commemorating Identity in the Face of Crisis
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Jody Washburn, University of California-Los Angeles

A number of inscriptions—both texts and images—were discovered in a burial cave at Khirbet Beit Lei in the southern Shephelah. Because the inscriptions do not fit neatly into any previous category, a variety of interpretations have been offered since Joseph Naveh originally published the inscriptions in 1963. The inscriptions were incised on the hewn walls of a well-prepared burial cave, yet the content of the inscriptions does not seem to be explicitly related to burial. This has led scholars to look for alternative explanations for the source and purpose of the inscriptions, with many arguing that refugees temporarily residing in the cave inscribed the petitions, curses and images as part of their response to an immediate crisis from which they were fleeing. The recurring question is whether the inscriptions, especially the curse phrases, are funerary or non-funerary in nature; and by extension, whether or not those responsible for the inscriptions were previously connected to the space. Put another way, what are the possible connections between the inscriptions and the burial use for which the cave was originally hewn? In this paper, I argue that there is no need to argue only one way or the other, as has been the tendency in treatments of the inscriptions. A more nuanced approach better suits the complex nature of the data. The inscriptions are not traditional formal epitaphs, but at the same time their location in the family burial chamber is not accidental. Commemoration of people or events is a community affair, with place, time and bodily actions all carrying significance. Personal responses stem from a kin group’s cultural background and training, as has been well articulated by Maurice Halbwachs and Paul Connerton in their works on social memory. Viewed through this lens, the Beit Lei inscriptions provide a unique glimpse into the role of the family tomb (a representation of the house of the fathers immortalized in stone) in commemorating identity in the face of crisis.


Jesus’ Table Fellowship with Sinners and Purity Halakhah
Program Unit: Historical Jesus
Cecilia Wassen, Uppsala Universitet

Jesus’ attitude towards purity practices is a hotly debated issue, with the majority of scholars arguing that Jesus in some ways challenged purity halakhah.Key evidence for the view that Jesus disregarded purity laws includes his reputation of eating with ‘sinners.’ Whereas purity concerns are not explicit on the story level in the texts, many scholars still find his actions contradictory to the norms. This reasoning rests on the assumption that common Jews (i.e., not priests or members of sects) avoided impurity to a great extent; otherwise Jesus’ behaviour would not be odd. I will analyze this question on the basis on both textual and archaeological evidence, and from the perspective of everyday life in which impurity was an unavoidable part. I will go into the questions of degrees of impurity and how exactly impurity could be transmitted between people at a dinner, and if anyone cared. I will argue that there is nothing in Jesus’ behaviour that indicates that he somehow challenged purity norms, only social norms.


Male and Female Impurities in the Late Second Temple Period
Program Unit: Women in the Biblical World
Cecilia Wassen, Uppsala Universitet

Commentators analysing the story of Jesus healing the hemorrhaging woman (a zavah) in Mark 5:24-34 often emphasize the social isolation such a woman would have experienced because of her impurity. But to what extent would a zavah have been isolated and would the same rules have applied also to the male equivalent, the zav (Lev 15:1-30)? I will compare the purity laws for gender specific impurities, i.e., those stemming from menstruation, semen, and genital discharges, and discuss how these kinds of impurities would have affected men and women in their interaction with others. I will analyze both archaeological and textual evidence, paying special attention to the purity laws in the Dead Sea Scrolls, since these provide detailed prescriptions both about the transmission of impurity as well as the means of purifications. I will demonstrate that ritual impurity affected men and women alike and suggest that both men and women would normally be impure quite frequently. In addition, I will argue that there was a mix of practices concerning any isolation or segregation of impurity carriers.


From Adams (1885) to Zimmerman (2003): In, with, and under the Elements of Prepositions
Program Unit: Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Jonathan M. Watt, Geneva College

This paper will present an historical overview of the study of Greek prepositions in order to set the context for the other papers in the session.


Mark’s “Dappled” Christology
Program Unit: Gospel of Mark
Rikk Watts, Regent College

This paper will begin by outlining the current state of play concerning Markan Christology. It will give particular attention to the determinative role of assumed cultural—Graeco-Roman and Jewish—and literary horizons within which Mark’s account of Jesus is read. It will propose that from within these perspectives Mark offers a “dappled” Christology (after Hopkins, “Pied Beauty;” cf. Cartwright, The Dappled World, i.e. resistant to an easily observed elegant uniformity) which, from Mark’s point of view, finds its unique and integrative origin in the “genius” of the Jesus he presents. The paper will conclude with a brief proposal tracing the narrative structure of Mark’s “dappled” Christology within the interpretative horizons he himself indicates.


The Interaction between Apocrypha and Canon: A Case Study of Oxyrhynchus
Program Unit: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Thomas A. Wayment, Brigham Young University

In this presentation, I would like to present on the Oxyrhynchus papyri that preserve non-canonical texts as part of a case study for the interaction between so-called canonical and non-canonical texts. Oxyrhynchus presents an interesting diachronic example of canonical and non-canonical texts being used alongside one another. As L. Hurtado noted some time ago (The Earliest Christian Artifacts), there are some functional differences in the Christian literary papyri that indicate features of their usage and purpose within the community. And while canonical and non-canonical may be anachronistic terms prior to the fourth century, this paper will pursue the question of whether there are notable differences between the canonical papyri prior to the fourth century and the non-canonical papyri during the same period. For example, during the same time period the papyri containing canonical texts appear almost exclusively in codex form of Turner’s size 7–9 codices, while the papyri containing non-canonical papyri are preserved in roll form 50% of the time and codex form 50% of the time with the added feature that the number of miniature codices skyrockets for the non-canonical papyri. I would like to explore what these differences might mean, if anything, for the growing Christian community at Oxyrhynchus. I will also be applying the new dating standards of Orsini and Clarysse, “Early New Testament Manuscripts and their Dates,” to both the canonical and non-canonical papyri to develop a more precise diachronic approach to these questions.


Jesus Followers in Pompeii: The “Hotel of the Christians” and the Christianos Graffito Reconsidered
Program Unit: Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Thomas A. Wayment, Brigham Young University

Since the earliest days of excavation in Pompeii, scholars have debated the presence of Jews and early Christians in the city before its destruction in 79 C.E. Claims regarding the presence of these minority groups have ranged from the wildly sensationalistic to the rigidly minimalistic. However, very little work has been done in recent years to responsibly evaluate and contextualize the various pieces of evidence that might contribute to this debate. For example, in 1864 a Latin graffito was discovered in Pompeii (Reg. VII Ins. XI) which seemed to refer to the presence of Christians in the city. The publication of the “Christianos” graffito subsequently led to the popular dubbing of the insula in which it was found as the “Hotel of the Christians.” Its publication also prompted a wide variety of opinions regarding the graffito’s significance, including claims that it is the “earliest Christian artifact” attesting a robust Christian community in Pompeii and opposing claims that dismiss this interpretation as "pious imagination." In this paper we will survey the previous (often obscure) scholarship on this graffito, provide a new edition of the text, contextualize the graffito and insula within its physical setting, and consider the implications of this graffito for understanding the social location of early Christians in the region of Pompeii between 62 and 79 C.E. Ultimately, although the name “Hotel of the Christians” is inaccurate and misleading, the graffito itself does appear to refer to an individual who had encountered “Christian” teaching either in Pompeii or in the larger region of Campania. The graffito’s content implies the marginalization of this individual by its non-Christian writer and sheds light on how Christian presence was perceived by outsiders in the Pompeii region. Considered within the context of other ancient sources which attest the presence of Christians in Italy during the mid-first century, the “Christianos” graffito can cautiously, but reasonably, be seen as evidence for the presence of Jesus followers in Campania and, when evaluated responsibly, can refine our understanding of the early spread of Christianity in Italy.


Geography and Power in Joshua
Program Unit: Joshua-Judges
Nili Wazana, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

*


A Historically Bankrupt Epistle? Rhetoric and History in the Epistle of Jude
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Natalie Webb, Baylor University

With only 25 verses, the Epistle of Jude is one of the shortest, and most neglected, books of the New Testament. While this may have originally been due, in part, to its use of non-canonical Jewish works, a larger problem for readers of Jude throughout the centuries has been its lack of historical specificity. As its designation as a “catholic epistle” suggests, the addressees of the letter are unnamed apart from their designation as “those who are called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ” (Jude 1). The book’s authorship is equally ambiguous. While the letter is attributed to “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James” (Jude 1), most scholars consider it a pseudonymous writing from the late first or early second century. In addition to these problems, the Epistle of Jude provides very little information concerning its specific occasion. Although it is filled with biting criticism of its opponents, information on their identity is scarce. All of this uncertainty presents a challenge to readers of Jude, many of whom react by filling in the gaps with detailed historical hypotheses arrived at in various ways. Given their prominence in the letter, the identity of the opponents in Jude provides the starting place for much historical speculation. A quick glance at the section titles in Jude commentaries is all that is necessary to see that most scholars equate the “intruders” of Jude with “false teachers”, as seen in 2 Peter. This is perhaps an obvious move to make given the large blocks of material shared by the two epistles; however it is worth noting that ?e?d?p??f?ta? is found nowhere in Jude. Even so, from this assertion scholars posit diverse possibilities regarding the point at issue between the author of Jude and those who are assumed to be false teachers. Some scholars, however, caution against using Jude’s characterization of the opponents as an avenue toward historical information. Even so, these scholars argue (albeit more cautiously than others) for a particular purpose and situation of the letter. However, Lauri Thurén takes the warning concerning Jude’s rhetorical language to the extreme. After a thorough “de-rhetorizing” of the situation, he finds the letter to be all but historically bankrupt. While caution is certainly prudent, might Thurén’s conclusion go too far? This paper will proceed by first engaging with Thurén’s work, taking seriously his critiques of the traditional assumptions about the Epistle of Jude and examining his claims. Next, it will explore whether a more measured approach might do justice to both the rhetoric and historical situation of Jude. This investigation will be guided, in large part, by the methodology proposed by John Barclay for employing cautious mirror-reading to a polemical letter. While Barclay’s study focuses on Galatians, it is appropriately applied to Jude, as well. Finally, a measured analysis of the historical situation will attempt to provide a middle way between the overly-historicized Jude of most commentators and the historically bankrupt Jude of others.


From the David of the Books of Samuel to the David in the Psalms and Back Again (2 Sam 22 // Ps 18): Some Canon-Hermeneutical Reflections
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Beat Weber, Theologisches Seminar Bienenberg (Switzerland)

The double tradition found in 2 Sam 22 // Ps 18 provides one of the main hubs of connection between the Psalter and other books of the Hebrew Bible (a second hub is Ps 96; 105-6 // 1 Chr 16). It is the main indicator of a reader horizon of the Psalms which identifies the readers of the Psalter (especially Books I + II) who read the Psalms holistically as part of a book against the background of the David narratives in 1 and 2 Samuel. Such a "synoptic " reading of the narrative context ( 1-2 Sam) together with poetically shaped prayers of David (the Psalter) is indicated through ascriptions of certain psalms to David and especially through the biographically situated notes about the life of David in the first two books of the Psalms (among which Ps 18 is also found). Hermeneutically, these notes for the reader (which presupposes a remembrance of the David narratives) define the secondary nature of the Psalter in terms of the canon. A reading of the Psalter after the books of Samuel and against that background further mediates a prayer-theological deepening of the narrative tradition while it also opens the possibility for the worshipping community of enacting the prayers of David. In addition to that, 2 Sam 22 plays a significant role as a testamentary word of David “from the end” (1-2 Sam) for the words of prayer of David “from the beginning” (the Psalter). This will be argued, using Pss 3 and 18 with their headings, as examples. It seems that the royal-Davidic song of thanksgiving found in 2 Sam 22 confidently celebrates the salvation provided by God in response to the supplications and laments about the hardship and distress caused by the enemies in the first (and second) Davidic Psalter. In the reading sequence of the Psalms (lectio continua) this confidence about salvation in the end is therefore already present even before 2 Sam 22 appears in the form of Ps 18. In addition to that, the heading of Ps 18 elevates David to a position next to Moses and thus reinforces the connection between the testament of David (2 Sam 22 = Ps 18) and that of Moses (Deut 32).


Using Art to Teach Information Fluency in the Undergraduate Biblical Studies Course
Program Unit: Bible and Visual Art
Jane S. Webster, Barton College

Panel presentation on the theme " Teaching the Bible and the Arts in the Undergraduate Classroom."


"The Devil, the Lake of Fire, and the Beast", Otherwise Known as, "Our Employing Company, Spontaneous Combustion, and the Mine Itself": An Explosive Interpretation of Rev 20:1–15 by South Derbyshire
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Tiffany Webster, University of Sheffield

This paper will draw upon the findings of the now complete research project ‘When the Bible Meets the Black Stuff’. The principal objective of this research was to further examine the relationship between text and context, primarily via a case-study investigation into how a specific group of ‘ordinary’ readers read and interpret biblical texts. The ‘ordinary’ readers in this case were a group of South Derbyshire coal miners. The coal miners participated in a year-long Contextual Bible Study (CBS) program during which they met on a monthly basis to collectively read, discuss and interpret twelve biblical passages. However, just as this program began, the participating coal miners were made involuntarily redundant owing to a catastrophic fire at their employing colliery. This unexpected event had an explosive impact upon the research project. The CBS program (for which the biblical texts and themes for exploration were already devised) was - without my initial realisation - transformed into something more akin to group-therapy. The coal miners began using the biblical texts in a therapeutic manner to interrogate the trauma of mass involuntary redundancy, which, for these men, also amounted to a loss of identity. Whilst all the readings produced by the coal miners can be considered reflective of the contextual realities of being employed in the coal mining industry, their reading of Revelation 20:1-15 was particularly evocative of this positionality, and also contained highly volatile reflections on their recent experience of redundancy. This paper therefore seeks to ‘unpack’ this contextual reading of Revelation 20:1-15. For example, it will reflect upon how the coal miners interpreted the ‘Beast’ in Revelation 20:4 to be a zoomorphic/theriomorphic representation of the coal mine itself, and how this then led the coal miners to interpret the ‘mark of the beast’ as a metaphor for the blue scars of coal miners. This paper will conclude by reflecting upon how this therapeutic (yet still controversial) contextual reading of Revelation now enables Bible scholars to begin contributing to the Medical Humanities.


Innovative Aspects of Saadia Gaon's Judaeo-Arabic Translation and Commentary on the Book of Esther
Program Unit: Biblia Arabica: The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Michael Wechsler, Moody Bible Institute (Chicago)

To Saadia Gaon (882-942) belongs the distinction of having composed the first known personalized and programmatic Jewish commentary on the book of Esther. His more significant innovations in this commentary, which we shall briefly survey, include his treatment of various exegetical cruxes, his literary-thematic analysis and structuring of the biblical book (as well as his commentary thereon), his elucidative references to contemporary socio-religious and vocational realia, and his incorporation of anti-Karaite and anti-Gentile polemics.


Eve’s Reputation in Ephrem the Syrian
Program Unit: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Michelle Weedman, Maryville College

In this paper I will use Gary Alan Fine’s work on shifts in reputational processes to offer an account of Ephrem the Syrian’s (306–373) rehabilitation of Eve’s reputation. In early Jewish and Christian thought, Eve was almost universally portrayed as the source of human sin. One of the effects of blaming Eve for sin was that theologians could transfer her reputation to that of women in general. In this account, women, by virtue of sharing Eve’s gender, also share her reputation as the source and locus of sin in the world. I will argue that Ephem, writing from Syria in the middle decades of the fourth century, offers a nearly unprecedented attempt to reclaim Eve’s reputationand, by extension, thus reclaims the reputations of womanhood as a whole. Ephrem begins this reputational process by offering Mary as a spiritual and moral exemplar. For Ephrem, Mary’s obedience to Christ provides the model for how all Christians can make Christ present in the world. In this regard, Mary is the counterpoint to Eve: as Eve “gave birth” to evil, Mary gives birth to Christ. Unexpectedly, however, Ephrem then uses Mary’s gender to offer positive portrayal of women in general, which includes Eve. This rehabilitation takes shape in two stages. First, Ephrem reaches back into the Old Testament to show that Christianity’s spiritual lineage passes through a number of female figures of dubious reputation, such as Tamar and Rahab, both of whom engaged in dubious sexual practices by fourth century standards. For Ephrem, these women were actually moral exemplars whose dubious reputations became a way of assessing their true spiritual purity; just as Christ was hidden in Mary, these women’s reputations hide their true virtue. The same is true for Eve. Ephrem does not exonerate Eve for her moral failure, but he does provide a nuanced, sympathetic portrayal of both her gender and her moral struggle. Making Mary the ideal Christian allows Ephrem to invite his readers to remember Eve in the same way that they remember these other women, as people whose reputations belie the true nature of their struggle to live the virtuous life. This rehabilitation process is intensified in the case of Eve. Ephrem’s positive portrayal of Mary also creates a deep intimacy between Mary and Eve, an intimacy that serves to force a reevaluation Eve’s reputation as exemplar of female immorality. Eve sinned, in Ephrem’s account, but that sin does not transfer to the reputations of those who share her gender.


Wisdom Has Set Her Table
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Stuart Weeks, University of Durham

Proverbs 1-9 culminates in two contrasting scenes, where wisdom and folly issue dinner invitations to the 'simple'. This paper explores the place of this contrast in the imagery of the work as a whole, and alongside the other invitations issued by various characters: What exactly is being offered, and what is the nature of the meals?


Women Singing Psalms: The Paradox of a Unifying and Divisive Ritual Practice in the Early Church
Program Unit: Ritual in the Biblical World
Jade Weimer, University of Toronto

Early Christ-followers incorporated musical practice into their daily lives in both a communal worship setting and in the private domestic sphere. Paul encourages the singing of psalms in his first letter to the Corinthians and this is one of the earliest reference of liturgical singing that we have. However, this ritual practice caused controversy among later Patristic writers, ironically, because of that same letter. On one hand, Paul tells his assembly to bring psalms to worship gatherings in 14:26 but eight verses later Paul writes that women ought to be silent in the church. Scholars generally argue that 14:34 is likely a later interpolation but both of these statements were used by patristic writers to support one position or the other. Liturgical singing becomes a contentious issue which causes division among church authorities. John Chrysostom and Theodoret of Cyrus are two writers that supported female participation in psalm-singing despite Paul's supposed prohibition on women speaking in the church. Ephraem the Syrian even organized and directed an all-female chorus that sung during the liturgy. Others such as Cyril of Jerusalem and Isidore of Pelusium argue against this position citing Paul as their guiding reference with an emphasis on the legitimacy of 1 Corinthians 14:34. This paper explores the various references to women singing in the church that can be dated between the 3rd and 5th centuries in order to compare and contrast the varying opinions on this important ritual practice. Additionally, I argue that the different attitudes held on this issue can be attributed to several factors. First, some authorities deemed the inclusion of female singers to be heretical because this was a common practice among Greco-Roman religious cults and some Gnostic communities. Second, female singers had a negative reputation in the Greco-Roman world because of their status as entertainers and courtesans. Of course this does not fairly represent all female singers and instrumentalists in the Greco-Roman world but it was a prevailing attitude among Christian writers. Finally, singing can be considered a form of individual and collective power insofar as it provides an opportunity for the performer to vocalize a particular worldview and some members of the church hierarchy disapproved of women exercising this power, even within a liturgical setting. Therefore, this contentious ritual practice caused some debate among patristic writers who were unable to agree whether a unified vocal performance was more or less desirable than allowing women to participate in that performance.


Biblia Hebraica Quinta among the Editions as Seen in the New Genesis Fascicle
Program Unit:
Richard Weis, Lexington Theological Seminary

Dr. Richard D. Weis, Professor of Hebrew Bible at Lexington Theological Seminary, is a general editor of Biblia Hebraica Quinta and also is responsible for its fascicle on Jeremiah. In addition, he is writing the commentary on Jeremiah for the Forms of the Old Testament Literature series from Eerdmans. He is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean at Lexington Theological Seminary.


“Ornamentation from Afar”: The Social and Symbolic Function of Achaemenid Imperial Imports in the Book of Esther
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Eric L. Welch, University of Kansas

The opulence described in the book of Esther has long been recognized by commentators as a plausible representation of the Persian court and its many luxuries. Archaeological excavations conducted at Susa during the 19th and 20th centuries demonstrate an expansive royal compound encompassing some 5 hectares. Architectural detail in the form of elaborate engravings, glazed tile mosaics, and monumental sculpture contribute to the magnificence of the capital city, which was primarily developed under the hand of Darius I (the Great). Often overlooked in treatments of the historical setting of the book of Esther are the relevant Achaemenid texts, especially those considering the royal city of Susa. This presentation will examine one such text, the so-called “Foundation Charter of Darius,” to demonstrate how the Achaemenid Empire used imported resources—both products and people—to display the extent of its imperial reach. This paper will then explore how this ideology of the material representation of imperial extent surfaces in the book of Esther and functions as an important literary device in its narrative trajectory.


Whose Promises Are They? An Exploration of Script
Program Unit: Book of Acts
Susan Wendel, Briercrest College and Seminary

The author of Luke-Acts depicts scriptural interpretation as an essential characteristic of the Christ-believing community: those who understand the Jewish scriptures and the message of Jesus form part of the true people of God, whereas those who do not are excluded. This self-defining strategy resembles that of certain early Jewish interpreters who also aimed to represent their groups through claims to authoritative exegesis. For Luke, however, the widespread inclusion of non-Jews within the Christ-believing community introduced new challenges to this means of self-definition. Since the Christ-believing group disregarded some boundary markers that typically distinguished Jews from non-Jews, it had to mediate between its Jewish roots, on the one hand, and its new identity as a group distinct from Judaism, on the other. The change in the ethnic composition of the Christ-believing community meant that its relationship to the Jewish scriptures required further explanation. Although considerable debate surrounds the treatment of Mosaic law in Luke-Acts, less attention is paid to the question of how Luke applies scriptural promises to Jews and non-Jews. Many scholars consider Luke’s use of various themes from the Jewish scriptures in his writings, but often simply assume that Luke applies the scriptural heritage of Israel to the Christ-believing community. Accordingly, descriptions of how Luke appropriates the Jewish scriptures for an ethnically diverse community remain largely undeveloped. In this paper, I will argue that Luke consistently differentiates between how Jews and non-Jews experience inclusion in God’s plan on the basis of the fulfilment of different types of scriptural promises. This will entail a brief survey of his appeal to three types of scriptural traditions: 1) Abrahamic promises; 2) Isaianic promises; and 3) the presentation of the descent of the Spirit as the realization of God’s purposes. While Luke clearly shows how God grants all Christ-believers the gift of the Spirit, repentance, and a divine revelation of his will, he does not for this reason conclude that scriptural promises made to Jews are transferred to non-Jews. Instead, Luke portrays these benefits, which the entire community shares, as the realization of two different types of scriptural promises: Jewish Christ-believers receive the Spirit, revelation, and repentance in fulfilment of promises that God made to Israel, whereas non-Jewish Christ-believers receive the same gifts in fulfilment of scriptural promises that predict the inclusion of the nations. Thus, although Luke identifies the entire Christ-believing community, comprised of Jews and non-Jews, as recipients of the Spirit, repentance, and an exclusive understanding of the scriptures, he consistently recognizes the distinct status of Jewish Christ-believers in relation to their scriptures even as he excludes Jews who do not embrace the exegesis and message of Jesus.


From the Herodians to Hadrian: The Shifting Status of Judean Religion in Post-Flavian Rome
Program Unit: Westar Institute
Heidi Wendt, Wright State University Main Campus

*


Foregrounding the Jewish Context of New Testament Prayers
Program Unit: Prayer in Antiquity
Rodney A. Werline, Barton College

In their examinations of New Testament prayers, many interpreters have sought to highlight what they determine to be the unique features of these prayers. Often, an elevated Christology, perhaps partially buoyed by the lingering effects of Jeremias’ incorrect explanation of Jesus’ use of Abba, further shapes the analysis. As a result, the Jewish context of these prayers is shoved into the background. This paper argues that these prayers must be interpreted as Second Temple Jewish prayers—thus, foregrounding their Jewish context. Further, the paper will use ritual theory as a way to avoid theological interpretations that obscure the function of these prayers within Second Temple Jewish culture.


Polysemy and Hidden Nuances in the Opening of Obadiah’s Oracle against Edom
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Nicholas R. Werse, Baylor University

I propose a paper exploring the polysemy of Obadiah 2-4 in which the divine declaration “from there I will bring you down” (v.4) communicates three distinctive threats against Edom’s elevation, pride and physical strongholds. The soviet literary theory of Yuri Lotman will provide the methodological background for the analysis of the polysemy in the text. For Lotman the semiotic analysis of a text should extend beyond the study of singular governing systems of signification to include the investigation of the relationship between these various systems. Such an investigation concerns itself with how the multiple systems interact to increase information bearing capabilities of the text. This paper will first present a brief argument for reading the opening of Obadiah as a development of the Jeremiah 49 oracle against Edom in order to identify the unique Obadian alterations and innovations to the poetry of the oracle. The Edomite declaration “who will bring me down to the earth?” (v. 3) is nuanced by what Lotman would identify as three systems of signification, or rather, three contextual clues all indicating that three meanings are implied by the one phrase. The semantic domain of the lexical units speaks to spatial elevation, which contextually also functions metaphorically for the Edomite pride. Additionally the presence of the widely-recognized word-play with the Edomite city Sela suggests that the Edomite self-exaltation and pride is closely connected to their physical strongholds. The text of Obadiah alters the Jeremian source material to provide a divine response to the Edomite self-exaltation. This divine response employs all of the same lexemes as the Edomite declaration which served a polysemous function in the previous verse. The close structural and lexical relationship between the Edomite boast and the Divine response allows the divine response to adopt the additional nuances inherent to former. Thus the Divine response “from there I will bring you down” is a threat not only to the spatial exaltation and metaphorical pride, but also serves as a threat against the Edomite strongholds. I will conclude by situating this close reading within the broader discussion concerning the relationship between the Edomite crimes and the coming punishment reflected in the book of Obadiah as a whole.


Co-opting Another’s Story: Isaiah and the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission)
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal

The formation history of Isaiah involves the incorporation or co-option of earlier layers of story. And while ‘incorporation’ might be considered a positive form of narrative inclusion, ‘co-option’ implies a narrative form that excludes or marginalises. Drawing on notions of story-telling from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), together with associated forms of trauma theory, this paper reflects on how marginalised voices or stories or discourses are ‘taken up’ by later voices or stories or discourses, both in Isaiah and post-apartheid South, and the impact this has on those whose voices or stories or discourses have been subsumed and consumed. The paper will work with an economic analysis of marginalisation, tracing how notions of ‘the poor’ are recast and redeployed in later textual appropriations or co-options.


Left-Dislocation in Biblical Hebrew: Towards a Unified Syntactico-Semantic and Discourse-Pragmatic Profile
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Josh Westbury, Logos Bible Software

Despite several studies on the so-called Left Dislocation (LD) (i.e., casus pendens) construction in Biblical Hebrew (BH), a consensus regarding the parameters of the category continues to elude linguists. The present paper adds to this discussion by presenting an overview of an exhaustive analysis of verbal LD constructions¬–both in terms of their syntactico-semantic attributes and discourse-pragmatic functions–in the prose corpus of the Torah and Former Prophets. Drawing on recent research concerning the form and function of LD across languages, a broad set of criteria is developed and employed for the identification and classification of LD constructions within the specified corpus. This results in the identification of approximately seven types of LD constructions, in which a grammatical construction is understood–within a Cognitive Grammar framework–as a schematic representation of a conventionalized form-function pairing. The syntactico-semantic description of these types is consistent with the cross-linguistic evidence and can be explained in terms of their motivation and function in discourse. Although they reflect a “family resemblance” to one another through a set of shared attributes, each type is distinguished based on one or more distinctive features. Moreover, these features betray the location of each type relative to the prototypical schema within an exemplar model of conceptual categorization. In other words, each type is determined to be more or less prototypical depending on its respective degree of family resemblance (i.e., shared syntactico-semantic and discourse-pragmatic attributes) to the aforementioned prototype. The result of this analysis reveals a textured profile of the LD category in BH, one that is comprised of a unified radial network of overlapping LD types.


Modeling the Morphophonology of Ancient Greek: A Human-directed Computational Approach
Program Unit: Global Education and Research Technology
Josh Westbury, Logos Bible Software

Current methods of computational morphological tagging provide no information with respect to the phonological processes that led to a given form’s inclusion in a particular morphological category. In order to retrieve this information for a particular form, one must undertake the cumbersome task of consulting the abstract phonological schemes in standard grammars and then attempt to manually apply those schemes to reconstruct the derivational path of the form in question (e.g. thesos } -s } theos). In light this state of affairs, it is our contention that a computational morphophonemic model is needed. This model would utilize both deductive and inductive approaches to verify and display the morphophonemic derivational patterns of existing lexical forms in ancient Greek. The deductive aspect of the project would entail leveraging the phonological and morphological paradigms contained in various grammars as well as existing texts with rich information to establish a set of formalized morphophonemic rules that are manually encoded into a functional computer language. This program is then run against a text in order to isolate patterns that betray information as to where and how this rule applies. Moreover, the inductive aspect of the project will entail applying the aforementioned rules to a unicode phonological script (i.e. consonants, vowels, and diacritics) in an effort to computationally construct the phonological derivation of existing morphological and lexical forms. In short, we are proposing a dynamic morphophonemic data set for ancient Greek that is partly manual and partly automated. We manually specify prototypical patterns along with exceptions to the patterns; the computer then applies those patterns, showing where they occur.


The Term Massa' in Malachi 1:1
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Karl William Weyde, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo

The term massa’ in Mal 1:1 has long since puzzled scholars. Since it also occurs in Zech 9:1; 12:1, a widespread opinion in the 20th century was that Malachi, together with Zechariah 9–11; 12–14 formed three appendices to Zechariah 1–8, or to the Book of the Twelve Prophets. However, in the last decades, especially since the turn of the millennium, other explanations have been given, for instance that the term introduces a special genre of prophetic literature (M. Floyd 2002, partly following M. Sweeney 1996), or indicates a renewal of prophecy along the lines of earlier prophecy (M.J. Boda 2006). These views draw on a dissertation by R. Weis (1986), who also argued that the massa’ texts reflect a shift in the history of prophecy from a dynamic oral to a fixed literary phenomenon. Also I. Willi-Plein (2006) contends that massa’ refers to written oracles or collections of visions, which were not heard by their audience; therefore massa’ was applied to the passage in Jer 23:33-40 and could also introduce later written prophecy, which explains its occurrences in Zech 9:1; 12:1; Mal 1:1. A. Meinhold (2006) emphasizes that massa’ has several functions, which it shares, in many occurrences, with the formula debar yhwh. Recently, R. Kessler (2011) argued for a genitive (construct) relationship of massa’ to the phrase debar yhwh in Mal 1:1 (and Zech 9:1; 12:1), which connects it to the specific ‘word of YHWH theology’ that occurs in Hos 1:1; Joel 1:1; Mi 1:1; Zeph 1:1. However, since debar yhwh can often have the same function as massa’, these interpretations do not provide convincing arguments for why massa’ was applied to Zech 9:1; 12:1; Mal 1:1. This paper offers a new interpretation of massa’ in Mal 1:1 based on Jer 23:33-40 and some other texts. The Jeremiah passage forbids using the term because false prophets misused it when they spoke words of salvation instead of words of punishment in a time characterized by prevailing faithlessness (Jer 23:9–32; Lam 2:14). Later, however, after the punishment had been executed (the Exile), the term massa’ could be used again and be applied to words of judgement or salvation. But prophecy in the old sense ceased and became a written phenomenon characterized by reuse and interpretation of earlier divine words and authorized by the formula ’amar yhwh, which explains its frequent occurrences in Malachi, and also its occurrences in Obadiah 1–4 compared with the ‘parallel’ in Jer 49:14-16, and Isa 65:25 using Isa 11:9. In Malachi, both earlier prophecy (e.g. 1:2-5) and torah (e.g. 1:6–2:9) are interpreted and applied to a new situation. The term massa’ in Mal 1:1 introduces such interpretations. Similarly, in Zech 9:1; 12:1, the term introduces interpretations of older words, among others those in Zechariah 1–8.


Paging Dr. Paul: Reading Paul's Use of Grief with Galen
Program Unit: Pauline Epistles
David Wheeler-Reed, Yale University

Scholarly interest in the medical writers is growing among both Classicists and New Testament historians. It is clear that Galen knew about both Jews and Christians, and that he may have even read some biblical books. Some scholars, for example, have suggested that one of Galen’s formulations sounds remarkably Pauline: “I shall show this not by persuasive words but by clear demonstrations” (UP 14.7; cf. 1 Cor 2:4). Even though Galen lived and wrote in the second century CE, one wonders if his medical and philosophical treatises can shed new light on familiar New Testament texts. This paper will operate as a kind of test case and argue that various Pauline texts make more sense when read with medical writers such as Galen. It will suggest that Paul may have had medical terminology in mind when he wrote about lupe (grief) in his extant letters. Galen, for example, connects lupe (grief) with all sorts of diseases, since physician-philosophers like him believed that emotions were diseases of the soul (De indolentia). Galen defines grief as, "[A] disease... whether we call it an emotion or a kind of pain" (Aff. Dig. 7). This definition of lupe is universal in the Greco-Roman world, since it can also be found in the writings of Hippocrates, Rufus of Ephesus, and some Pythagorean texts. When this medical definition of lupe is taken seriously, Pauline texts such as 1 Thessalonians 4:3-18, 2 Corinthians 2:1-11, 2 Corinthians 7:8-13, and Philippians 2:19-30 take on new meanings which are often overlooked by New Testament scholars. Instead of understanding lupe as a kind of inner sorrow or a cognitive state of existence, medical literature shows that lupe was understood as a visible demonstration of grief that could lead to a serious illness. Such an understanding of grief would mean that in his letters, Paul was not concerned with the inner state of those who belonged to the communities he founded but with the actual health of physical bodies. This paper will conclude with a few remarks on future projects in which medical literature may be helpful to illuminating passages from the Pauline epistles. In particular, brief comments will be made on Paul's use of "body imagery" in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and marriage and sex in 1 Corinthians 7.


Women, Medicine, and the Economy in Late Antiquity
Program Unit: Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
David Wheeler-Reed, Yale University

This paper will examine the neglected theme of women and medicine in Late Antiquity, which will help us better understand the place of women in the ancient economy from the third through the fifth centuries C.E. The first part of this paper will explore the medical provision by and for women in the cities of the Roman west, a provision which was a conscious part of civic life in the Empire. This includes an examination of medical texts as well as epigraphic and archaeological data from the period. The second part of this paper will draw a number of conclusions from this data. It will contend that women in the cities of the Roman West could expect a certain kind, even standard, of medical provision. The way women interacted with it was shaped by family situations and structures as well as economics and status. This paper will conclude with brief remarks on the maia (and obstetrix), a female figure mentioned by both Soranus and Galen, who will be contrasted with the female medica, who constitute about five percent of the epigraphic evidence in the West.


Jesus’ Death as Failed Spectacle in Luke 23
Program Unit: Gospel of Luke
Robyn J. Whitaker, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Lucan scholars have long recognized the importance of the Greco-Roman ideal of noble death for understanding Luke’s passion. However, noble death is only one aspect of a larger cultural phenomenon of death as a spectator sport in the ancient world; a culture which included gladiators, fatal sporting events, public executions, and ritualized theatrical deaths. This paper examines the depiction of Jesus’ death in Luke’s passion as a form of ancient spectacle (?e???a). I argue that Luke draws upon traditions associated with gladiatorial shows and violent spectacles in his potrayal of the crucifixion. In doing so, I aim to extend and compliment, rather than reject, the extensive body of scholarship addressing the influence of noble death traditions on Luke’s passion by acknowledging how death was a spectator sport in the first century CE. The paper will focus particularly on the crowd’s gesture of grief as one that contravenes spectator behavioral norms, transcends gender and ethnic boundaries, and allows Luke to subvert imperial aims in killing Jesus.


Tertullian on the Author of the Acts of Paul: Paul’s Reputational Entrepreneurs at the Turn of the Third Century
Program Unit: Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
Benjamin L. White, Clemson University

This paper explores the reputational work of two Pauline interpreters at the end of the second century: Tertullian and the nameless presbyter the Acta Pauli, the latter of whom Tertullian accused in his De baptismo (17.5) of “adding of his own to Paul’s reputation.” The presbyter himself, however, claimed to have written for another reason: “love of Paul.” This contest over the image of the Apostle and whether or not he would have allowed women to teach and baptize in the church provides a window into one of the many early theo-political wranglings over Paul’s complex, difficult, and yet important legacy. Paul’s reputation, apparently from the beginning (cf. Rom. 3.7-8; 2 Cor 10-13; Acts 9.21-29; 21.21-26; 2 Peter 3.16), has always been “difficult,” or “sticky,” to use the reputational categories described by sociologist Gary Alan Fine (Northeastern University). Sometimes loved, sometimes despised, by the late-second century Paul had successfully become “all things to all people” (1 Cor 9.22) and a vast and diverse corpus of writings was circulating either in his name or about him. Already in the earliest layer of the Pauline tradition a bewildering array of positions on numerous matters was preserved and was thus susceptible to “twisting” (2 Peter 3.16) as texts were moved forward and backward, remembered or forgotten, in the process of early Christian image-making. Applying the work of both Fine and Barry Schwartz (University of Georgia) on the theory, art, and mechanics of reputational entrepreneurship within the broader field of social memory studies, this paper shows how the author of the Acts of Paul and Thecla (following Glenn Snyder’s minimal reading of the Acta Pauli reference in De baptismo) and Tertullian work from some of the same layers of earlier Pauline traditions to form and shape Paul’s image in different directions on the issue of gender. It is not concerned about the question Who got Paul right?, but rather Which Paul? How have prior Pauline materials been organized for the purpose of the present?


The Curious Case of the Teetotalling Jesus and Audience Inference in Mark 15:36
Program Unit: Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Michael Whitenton, Baylor University

It is commonplace to observe that the Markan Jesus’ initial refusal of wine (15:23) should be understood in light of his earlier promise to abstain until he can drink it anew in the kingdom of God (cf. 14:25). However, attention to whether the Markan Jesus continues his temperance at the second offer of wine is relatively sparse. Indeed, most treatments of Mark 15:36 do not even raise the question, an unfortunate omission since the outcome is unclear in the narrative itself. Even more regrettable, the few that do weigh in on the matter uniformly neglect ancient rhetorical theories of narrative opacity and inferential meaning, which was considered a staple of engaging an audience. This paper represents a performance-critical attempt to fill this lacuna. When the dust settles, I argue that the Gospel offers a series of heretofore overlooked hints meant to encourage audience members to infer that the Markan Jesus accepted the wine offered in 15:36. First, I will set the discussion in the context of ancient discussions of audience inference, which held that some points should be left unstated so that the audience, when they discovered the matter for themselves, would be all the more favorable to the conclusion (e.g. Demetrius, Eloc. 222). I will then survey how a representative sampling of modern Markan scholars have filled the gap, making inferences of their own, concerning 15:36. Next, discussion will turn to Matthew, Luke, John, and the Gospel of Peter, all of which fill the gap in very instructive ways. Finally, we will turn to Mark itself, where it will be demonstrated that the texture of the entire Gospel, set in its oral-aural context, offers hints that audience members ought to infer that the Markan Jesus did, in fact, drink (sour) wine, suggesting the inauguration of God’s ironic kingdom from the throne of his cross.


From Spirit and Gospel to Spirit and Christ
Program Unit: Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Timothy Wiarda, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (Mill Valley)

At several points in 2 Corinthians 3:1-4:6 Paul brings the Spirit’s impact on the human heart into close association with his ministry of the gospel and/or with Christ as the image of God’s glory. This conjunction of elements occurs first in the letter-writing metaphor of 3:3, then in Paul’s statements about the removal of a veil in 3:14-17, and then again in his depiction of the transformational and enlightening effects of beholding God’s glory as imaged in Jesus Christ (3:18; 4:6). These texts serve distinct rhetorical functions: the first validates Paul’s ministry, the second explains the mixed response his gospel receives, while the third and fourth seem simply to aim at encouraging believers and praising God. So a number of shifts may be observed: from self-validation to encouragement and praise; from the collocation of Spirit and gospel preaching to that of Spirit and the manifestation of God in Christ; and from reference to the specific event of Paul’s initial preaching in Corinth to reflective comment on the general conditions governing response to the gospel and then on to still deeper structures of theological thought. But constant elements reappear at each stage: the Spirit, reference to human hearts, and an outwardly conveyed message or revelation. What makes Paul’s use of the Spirit-gospel or Spirit-Christ motif in 2 Corinthians 3:1-4:6 particularly interesting is that it has both precedents and subsequent examples in other of his letters. Behind the metaphor in 3:3 lie the more basic statements in 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 and 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 (“When I preach the Spirit works”), while moving forward we find a different and yet strikingly similar metaphorical development in Romans 15:16. The explanatory remarks in 3:14-17 have their precursor in 1 Corinthians 2:12-16 (“People cannot respond unless the Spirit works”). And the encouragement-oriented depictions of the Spirit working in conjunction with the Christ as the outward image of God’s glory in 3:18 and 4:6 are further developed in Romans 5:5-8 (“God meets our deepest needs as the Spirit opens our hearts to see his love and glory displayed in Jesus Christ”). These interrelated passages certainly reveal Paul’s ability to adapt and re-express a single basic idea to meet a variety to rhetorical needs. Tracking this motif from its initial appearance in 1 Thessalonians on through to its later iterations in Romans may also suggest a plausible developmental scenario—from simple statement to metaphor, from appeal to specific concrete events to general statements of theological principle, from defense of Paul’s mission to words of encouragement and praise—though here we must be cautious. Finally, observing the genetic links among these texts can shed additional light on some disputed points of exegesis.


Between Partiality and Grace
Program Unit: Bible and Ethics
Peter Wick, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Partiality and grace both exceed the framework of justice and commandments. Interestingly enough, they both have the same roots in the Hebrew Bible. In the Aroonitic blessing the Lord shall lift up his countenance (nasa paneh, Dtn 6,26), but the righteous one is not partial (nasa paneh, Prov 6,35; 18,5). Are partiality and grace against the law? And what are the differences between them especially in the perspective of the New Testament?


Rejection of Dietary Laws in the New Testament
Program Unit: Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Peter Wick, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

The New Testament expresses different ways to deal with the biblical dietary laws. In Acts God intervenes supernaturally to convince Petrus to break with these laws. But later in Acts a few dietary laws were still demanded from converted pagans. Paul´s letters show that several groups in early Christianity still kept some of the biblical dietary laws. It is remarkable, that Jesus in the Gospel of Mark rejects these laws completely, although he is carefully observing other rituals of the meal. The paper gives an examination of relevant passages in which biblical laws are discussed. It shows how early Christianity struggled for a shared identity in relation to pagans, who got converted.


Sensing the Bible in the TV Series Sleepy Hollow
Program Unit: Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts
Steve A. Wiggins, Independent Scholar

The hit Fox network series Sleepy Hollow is among the most biblically literate prime-time programs (not directly based on the Bible) in recent years. The conceit of the story, that Ichabod Crane was resurrected in present-day Sleepy Hollow to prevent the apocalypse, very quickly turns to the book of Revelation to explain the backstory. Within three or four episodes of the first season, it became clear that the Bible was more than just a collection of divine words. Prophecy and its malleability play throughout the episodes, as do elaboration on the four horsemen and the sense that the Bible bears hidden meanings. Here the Bicle is an iconic text. In this paper, an in-depth analysis of how the Bible is presented in the first season of Sleepy Hollow will lead to considerations of the way the Bible is sensed as a book, in conjunction with other grimoires or magic books. This presentation of the Bible as a book of magic is deeply embedded in the popular media. Sleepy Hollow senses the Bible as not the only book to deliver from evil, but certainly the most important book to do so. Subtly this shifts the sense of scripture to any number of ancient texts. In the modern context, Tim Burton’s 1999 movie of the same title serves as a Vorlage of how the Bible is portrayed iconically in the series. The evolving role of the Bible in the course of the first season of the series suggests that the public sense of scripture is also evolving toward the Bible as grimoire.


The Stars of Hermes
Program Unit: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Christian Wildberg, Princeton University

On the basis of detailed philological analysis the author has not only shown (in a previous publication) that the tractates of the Corpus Hermeticum were already in antiquity subjected to extensive redaction, but also that the doctrines espoused in the original hermetic text and the ancient interpolations differ from one another in significant respects. In light of this overall hermeneutics of the tractates, the present paper re-examines the role of astrology in the Corpus Hermeticum. The evidence suggests that one encounters not one but in fact two different strands of celestial symbolism. They do not, as has previously been supposed, be taken to amount to a muddled and incoherent whole but have to be carefully distinguished. One strand seems to belong to the original Hermetic doctrine, whereas the other is not only found expounded in some treatises but also superimposed on earlier treatises in layers of interpolations. It appears that in the first, originary strand of Hermetism the heavens are symbolic of divinity as such; as cosmic adornments, they give powerful testimony to divine splendor and goodness. In this narrative, the star gods are at once the creation of the supreme deity and the creators of the sublunary world, including mankind. Man’s purpose in this “enchanted universe” is simply to gaze at the stars in admiration and recognize the presence of god in them (astroskopia). In the other, later strand of astrology, the Hermetica describe the heavens as symbols of power and influence, and they are no longer the makers of man. Importantly, in these texts, man is the direct creation of the first deity, the brother the celestial demiurge. The stars have merely the function to endow man with the powers necessary for his rule over nature and the animal kingdom. In particular, man stands in need these powers because the world is no longer hospitable and benevolent; the stars and planets are seen as portent bearers of providence, harsh necessity and crushing fate. Mankind’s only hope is astrology. The observation and interpretation of the stars as symbols of the “quality of time” is elevated to the level of the master science of astrology, a science that is at once necessary for the survival of mankind and productive of a future of high technological and artistic accomplishment. The paper suggests that there is an intimate connection between the two different strands of astrology present in the Corpus Hermeticum and the two fundamentally different anthropologies espoused in these texts.


What Has Abraham to Do with Jerry Springer? Reading the Hebrew Bible in Light of Modern Views of Domestic and Family Abuse
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
J. Blair Wilgus, Hope International University

How do we deal with Hebrew Bible texts that contain violence and abuse which is seen as abhorrent in modern western culture? Many sociological approaches have attempted to give voice to the voiceless in these texts. This has highlighted the impact of abuse either according to ancient or modern definitions. At the same time, exegetes have questioned what kind of response these texts demand. Answers range from rejecting or ignoring the violence found in the text in favor of theological readings to readings that privilege our own social norms and reject the text itself. This paper will explore methods of evaluating biblical texts and seek to provide useful categories for discussing ancient domestic and family abuse (DFA) in light of both ancient and modern understandings. Part one of the paper will begin by defining DFA according the legal and narrative texts in the Hebrew Bible. It will then survey texts featuring examples of DFA according to this ancient framework. Part two will further nuance the definition of DFA by integrating modern understandings. It will then identify instances of DFA in the Hebrew Bible according to this revised definition. This will bring the narrative of Gen 12-23 and the family of Abraham as a key example in evaluating DFA in the Hebrew Bible as well as today. Part three will begin to explore similarities and differences between ancient Israelite and modern definitions of and responses to DFA. This will lead to an examination of how modern ethical and social norms influence readings of ancient texts that feature different values and practices, revealing a contrast between passing judgments of blame as in moral universalism and expressing, as Miranda Fricker has proposed, “moral disappointment” as a category of moral relativism. The result of this discussion will propose a suggestion of how audiences can read the Hebrew Bible from within modern cultural and moral contexts without having to deny the moral import of the text or affirm the practices contained within.


Jason Voorhees—Slasher Villain or Zealous Priest? Analyzing Responses to Purging Evil in the Hebrew Bible and Friday the 13th
Program Unit: Bible and Film
J. Blair Wilgus, Hope International University

In the Hebrew Bible the holy wrath of Israel’s God gets released with a fury that is unparalleled, driving Israel to cry out and prophets to pray. Israel’s literature describes their God as holy, a characteristic that they aspire to as a nation. None are quite as successful at attaining this holiness as the priestly tribe of Levi. They are foreshadowed by their namesake’s massacre of the Shechemites in Gen 34. As a tribe they are chosen because of their slaughter of their brothers and sons in Exod 32. And from their tribe, the line of Phinehas was chosen as the line of priests because of his murder of an Israelite and Midianite in Num 25. God’s holiest of people mimic his own unquenching wrath toward sin. Likewise, the unwavering determination of Jason Voorhees is unstoppable, inspiring fear in the hearts of those who hear of him and causing his victims to cry out in agony. Jason’s story mimics Israel’s own. In these films this evil judge enforces a certain morality. He was foreshadowed by his mother’s massacre of a campful of teenagers who embodied the sins of those who allowed Jason to “die” in Friday the 13th. He became a force all his own in Friday the 13th Part 2. And he donned his iconic hockey mask in Friday the 13th Part 3. Since then, Jason Voorhees has been the cornerstone of American horror films. Both the narratives of the Levites’ origin and the Friday the 13th movies depict a world in which evil is punished. They function as community shaping stories, inspiring fear in the minds of those who might find themselves tempted by the same offenses as their victims. They feature a character(s) that cannot be deterred and who, unlike Israel’s God, cannot be swayed by intercession. The stories of the Levites were Israel’s horror stories just as the stories of Jason Voorhees are modern priestly narratives. Both narratives inspire fear and establish boundaries. Both narratives open the question of where the line between good and evil must be drawn. This paper will examine how the narratives of the Levites were used to establish cultic boundaries and how modern slasher films, especially the Friday the 13th series, establish similar boundaries.


Atonement in the Heavenly Holy of Holies: Early Reception of Atonement in Origen of Alexandria’s Reading of Hebrews
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Shawn J. Wilhite, Southern Seminary

Abstract: David Moffitt’s 2011 monograph, Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews, has certainly stirred Hebrews scholarship. In 2013, I. Howard Marshall levels a plethora of critiques against Moffitt’s monograph, including why no one else in the early church resembles such position. The following seeks to respond to such criticism via History of Interpretation of Hebrews by asking two questions of Origen of Alexandria’s literature. (1) According to Origen’s reading of the Epistle of Hebrews, where is the locale of atonement? and (2) According to Origen, when does Jesus acquire the position of high priest. These research questions, when asked of Origen, prove to be both continuous and discontinuous with portions of Moffitt’s thesis. For Origen, especially his reading of Heb 4:14 and 9:23–26, (1) atonement is accomplished in the Holy of Holies, which is heaven, and (2) Jesus has always been high priest, even in his pre-incarnation and incarnation position.


Networks to the Top: The Alabarch’s Family and the Restructuring of the Jewish Elite in Alexandria
Program Unit: Hellenistic Judaism
Julia Wilker, University of Pennsylvania

While relatively little is known about the biography of Philo of Alexandria, his family is one of the best-documented clans of the Jewish elite of Alexandria in the early imperial period. For more than a century, its members maintained an influential role in the political, social, and economic life of Alexandria. Philo himself famously participated in the Jewish embassy to Gaius Caligula in 39 CE. His brother Alexander held the important office of the alabarches in Alexandria and also oversaw the Egyptian estates of Antonia minor. The most distinguished political career of the family was that of Tiberius Julius Alexander, one of the alabarch’s sons, who served as governor of Judaea, praefectus Aegypti, and praefectus praetorio, albeit he “did not remain in his ancestral customs” (Josephus, AJ 20.100). Despite Josephus’ claim that Alexander the Alabarch had a renowned ancestry (AJ 20.100), the family has to be regarded as an outstanding example of the redefined Jewish upper class in Alexandria that emerged in the early imperial period and established itself alongside, and even in competition with, the traditional elites. In this paper, the family of Philo and Alexander the Alabarch serves as a case study for the interconnectivity and restructuring of the Alexandrian Jewish elite under Roman rule. In the first part of the paper, the family’s personal network is reconstructed based on literary, papyrological and epigraphical sources. This extensive network comprised economic, political and personal ties among the Alexandrian upper class, in Roman Egypt, to Judaea and Rome; and the Jewish and non-Jewish friends, partners, and associates of the family ranged from members of the highest echelons of the imperial society (including the Julio-Claudian dynasty) to middle-class agents and affiliates. The second part of the paper shows that the rapid social advancement of the family was neither accidental nor the result of mere political conformism. Instead, it largely depended on this personal network. Most of its members were part of the newly emerging imperial elite who relied on the mutual support this network offered even in times of crisis. The example of the alabarch’s family and its rise hence demonstrates the major impact that Roman rule had on the internal hierarchy and self-perception of the new Jewish upper class in Alexandria whose members identified with, supported, and benefitted from the new imperial order.


Mary Sidney's Translation of "tsedeq" as "Just" Rather than "Righteous"
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Elizabeth Ann R. Willett, SIL International

Mary Sidney's interesting and entertaining free translations of the Psalms using lyric poetry forms prized by the Renaissance literary world highlight women's roles often glossed over by male translators. In addition, she chooses to translate Hebrew tsedeq as just in contrast to the King James's righteous, perhaps reflecting her concern for social justice, while the king spiritualized the concept in order to protect his position and right to enforce royal wishes. This is illustrated in various of Sidney's renderings in Psalm 119. For example, KJV's 119:137 "You are righteous, O LORD," for Sidney is "Sure, Lord, thyself art just," and KJV's 119:106 "your righteous ordinances" is Sidney's "Thou justly dost ordain."


Gathering Psalms: Paratexts and Poetics in the ‘Book’ of Psalms
Program Unit: Book History and Biblical Literatures
David Willgren, Lund University

Recent research on the Book of Psalms has been dealing intensively with issues relating to the so called “final shape” of the Book of Psalms. Proceeding from, among others, an influential dissertation by Gerald H Wilson, scholars have argued that the collection, as it now stands, is “more than the sum of its parts” (so e.g. McCann). Although such a notion is fairly straight forward on a conceptual or general level, it is not quite clear how it relates to the actual effect of the juxtaposition of psalms (and collections of psalms) on a compositional level, and even less so to notions of ‘editorial intent’. While great progress have been made in identifying various techniques possibly used in shaping the collection, a coherent theoretical framework is often missing. Fundamentally, the question to be asked is what one means with ‘book’ in the designation “Book of Psalms?” Often taken for granted, I believe the issue has to be properly (re-)addressed, as it effects both the way the collection is read and used, as well as any reconstruction of the process through which the collection was once formed. Proceeding from these observations, I will, in my paper, attempt to sketch a new way forward. First, I briefly revisit and critique parts of the methodological foundation laid in particular by Wilson, focusing especially on what I call a conflation of synchronic and diachronic issues. Second, I propose that the view of the Book of Psalms as an anthology merit further consideration. So, after an attempt to provide a workable definition of anthologies, I sketch out some consequences for the current study of the formation of the Book of Psalms. Here, focus is especially on the poetics of anthologies, that is, on the question of what binds an anthology together, as well as the question of how an anthology is usually read, and I suggest that the notion of paratextuality, as developed by the french literary scholar Gérard Genette can, if properly contextualized to an ancient material culture, open up some new and unexpected possibilities.


Why the Camel Has the Hump: Studying the Reception of Genesis Rabba
Program Unit: Midrash
Benjamin Williams, University of Manchester

No less than fifteen commentaries on Midrash Rabba were printed in the Vilna 1878 folio edition and yet more are extant in manuscript. Written by twelfth-century scholars of Ashkenaz, philosophers of Provence, kabbalists of Spain, homilists of the Ottoman Empire and rabbis of Eastern Europe, these expositions are abundant sources of information on the reception history of rabbinic Bible interpretation. Those that have appeared in print are sometimes employed in contemporary studies of midrash, making an understanding of their authors’ aims all the more important. Relatively little, though, is known of the nature of these texts, their relationship to one other and the methods of interpretation they employ. The purpose of this paper is to analyse medieval and early modern commentaries on rabbinic Bible interpretation by comparing expositions of a midrash which has perplexed every reader who has ventured an explanation. According to Genesis Rabba, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree, God commanded the ground to bring forth cursed animals of four species – gnats, fleas, flies and a camel (Genesis Rabba 5:9 and 20:8). While the midrash appears to place a camel in a list of small pests to suggest that even troublesome creatures have some intrinsic worth, the reason camels might be considered unpleasant animals in the first place is not explicit. This paper analyses the explanations offered by medieval Ashkenazi commentators, who employed a limited knowledge of the camel to speculate about its unfriendly nature, and scholars of Spain and Provence who accorded the four impure animals in the midrash with mystical and allegorical levels of meaning. It also considers how the printing of Genesis Rabba in the sixteenth century facilitated a comparison of multiple readings and the formulation of textual emendations. By examining commentaries on the midrash of the insects and the camel, therefore, this study permits an understanding of the modes of exegesis employed by successive interpreters, the expository resources at their disposal and their methods of selecting and adapting earlier explanations. It thereby contributes towards a fuller appreciation of the exegetical scholarship inspired by rabbinic Bible interpretation and furnishes new insights into the reception history of midrash.


Rarely Will Someone Die for a Righteous Man: The Means and the Significance of Atonement in Rom 5:6–11 and the (Ig)Noble Jewish Martyrological Background
Program Unit: Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Jarvis J. Williams, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Thesis: In this paper, I will argue a twofold thesis. First, Paul presents Jesus’ death as a substitute for the ungodly in Rom 5:6-11 to accomplish soteriological benefits for them. Second, Paul pits the Jewish martyrological traditions against the Greco-Roman heroic-noble death traditions to highlight both the means of and the significance of atonement for the ungodly through Jesus' death in Rom 5:6-11. Arguments: I will present two primary arguments two support this thesis. First, Paul argues that Jesus’ death accomplished soteriological benefits for the ungodly. Second, Paul discusses two concepts (reconciliation and resurrection) in the heroic-death traditions and in the Jewish martyrological narratives to highlight the benefits that Jesus’ death accomplished for the ungodly. Method: I will seek to support my thesis with grammatical-historical exegesis. I will also interact with both numerous relevant Greco-Roman texts and Second Temple Jewish texts to support my thesis in addition to the ones mentioned above. The paper will especially interact with the Jewish martyrological narratives in LXX Daniel 3 and in 2 and 4 Maccabees. Furthermore, I will interact with contemporary scholarship on the means of, the significance of, and the Jewish martyrological background behind Jesus' death in Rom 5:6-11. Conclusion: My arguments will seek to support my twofold thesis. First, Paul presents Jesus’ death as a substitute for Jews and Gentiles in Rom 5:6-11. Second, Paul pits the Jewish martyrological traditions against Greco-Roman heroic traditions to highlight the means of and the significance of atonement for the ungodly through Jesus' death in Rom 5:6-11.


Beyond Interpretive Boundaries: The Bible and Popular Music
Program Unit: Bible and Popular Culture
Marvin Williams, Independent Scholar

Popular music is reshaping the ways in which American culture reads or engages the Bible. This twenty-first century biblical interpretive phenomenon is not limited to American culture, for this method of “teaching the Bible” is global in scope and nature. In a culture where the Bible is being appropriated through a variety of musical genres, popular music is becoming a medium for interpreting biblical texts and major theological themes like sin, prayer, and the role of the church in society. To a large degree popular music’s success emerges from the unique ability to blur the lines between what is sacred and what is secular. Of course, the merging of sacred and secular is certainly not a new phenomenon in the study of culture, but the way in which popular music explicates complicated biblical themes or explores elaborate theological tenets points to new ways of interpreting or reading the Bible. In many respects, popular music represents a revolutionary approach—a hermeneutical shift—to understanding biblical texts. As intuitive yet biblically-centered writers, musicians, and artists hone their craft in the realm of religious expression, popular music will continue to have far reaching effects within and beyond the horizons of Biblical studies. Popular music, unlike other forms of music, is global in scope but personal in nature. In this paper, I will delineate the ways in which popular music is an interpretive tool for teaching biblical texts. In examining, for example, such works as Carlos Santana’s aptly titled album, Supernatural, Ella Henderson’s hit single “Ghost,” Imagine Dragons “Demons,” Sting’s “If I Ever Lost My Faith in You,” Bruno Mars, “Locked out of Heaven,” and Hozier’s “Take Me to Church,” I will demonstrate the overall influence popular music exerts in interpreting the Bible.


Reading Charis in Its Ancient Social Context: The Language of Reciprocity in 1 Pet 2:19–20
Program Unit: Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Travis B. Williams, Tusculum College

Considerable debate surrounds the meaning of charis in 1 Pet 2:19-20. Scholars have long puzzled over whether the term should be understood in a theological sense, as the unmerited favor which God freely bestows upon those who please him, or whether it merely represents a human action that secures a favorable response from God. What interpreters have continued to overlook, however, are the social dynamics which underlie the use of this term. To fully understand the meaning of charis in 1 Pet 2:19-20, it must be read against the backdrop of reciprocity and gift-exchange in the Greco-Roman world. This approach offers fresh perspective to an old debate. What it reveals is that for the Petrine author the endurance of unjust suffering is not simply an act that receives divine approval; instead, it is the reciprocal response (charis) which the audience is obligated to make in return for the beneficence which God has bestowed.


The Josianic Edition of Isaiah: A Critical Examination
Program Unit: Book of Isaiah
Hugh G. M. Williamson, University of Oxford

In 1977 Hermann Barth published an influential book proposing that the early words of Isaiah had been subjected to a systematic redaction during the reign of Josiah. This ‘Assur-Redaktion’ has been adopted into English-speaking scholarship under the label ‘Josianic Redaction’. Some scholars, such as J. Vermeylen (who independently reached comparable conclusions), R. E. Clements, and M. de Jong have contributed further constructive research on this topic, and many other commentators have taken it over as a given. Occasional expressions of disagreement have had less impact, probably because they are regarded as part of wider theories of composition with which only a minority agrees. Barth started his analysis with a detailed consideration of Isaiah 10, but a re-examination of his arguments raises questions that throw serious doubt on his conclusions. After setting these out, the paper will proceed to look also at two or three other key passages which he and others have invoked in their support. If the theory becomes untenable, it will be necessary to rethink the composition history of the first part of Isaiah again and the paper will conclude with some introductory comments on this.


Yahweh’s Historical Consciousness: Metahistoriography via Divine Speech in Isaiah 40–48
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Ian Douglas Wilson, University of Alberta

A number of scholars have highlighted the “metahistorical” aspect of prophetic literature in its postmonarchic contexts, that is, its tendency to transform “an historical ideal into a vivid future hope” (Carol Meyers, “Foreign Places, Future World,” Eretz-Israel 24: 170*). Since prophetic literature straddles the line between past and future, with equally strong senses of what has been and what will be, it simultaneously tends toward historiography and ahistoriography. The literature represents both what was or is, from the perspective of ancient Judean literati, and what is not. Prophetic literature, therefore, as a literary artifact from ancient Judah, has a certain metahistoriographical tendency; it took part in Judean historiographical discourse without being historiography per se. In this paper I will examine this tendency in Isaiah 40-48, with the aim of illuminating the interrelationship between the metahistoriographical discourse in the text and the portrayal of Yahweh as the source of its discursive statements. This passage in the book of Isaiah—with its marked focus on Jacob/Israel, its prominent representation of the Persian Cyrus as a kind of Davidide, and its pronounced emphasis upon a journey out of the wilderness—draws on (and, in turn, informs) a number of textual lieux de mémoire from the corpus of Judean literature. In this way the passage comments on Judah’s perceived historical past but with an eye toward the people’s historical future. The discourse is couched, however, in divine speech, in Yahweh’s words mediated by the prophet. It is only through the divine voice that Judeans actively imagined the future. In this way, Yahweh served as a stand-in for the speculative side of Judean historical consciousness. This observation, of course, tells us something about Judean historical consciousness in general, but it also reveals an important aspect of ancient Judean theology: their understandings of Yahweh’s consciousness.


Dualing Daniels: Evidence Favoring the Unity of the Book of Daniel
Program Unit: Psychology and Biblical Studies
Jim Wilson, Asbury Theological Seminary

Scholarship of the book of Daniel tends to emphasize either the unity or disunity of the book based on authorship, discourse, genre, language, and historicity; yet in the ongoing discussion about the unity of the book of Daniel one feature of the text has been largely neglected. This feature is the “Danielic self.” Daniel is presented in Dan 1-6 as a powerful and influential figure who accomplishes incredible interpretive tasks, but in Dan 7-12 he is portrayed as weak and incapable of discerning anything without help. While this dissonance could be explained by the disunity of the book, in light of additional unifying features this paper will demonstrate the opposite. It will be shown from diachronic and synchronic positions that the book of Daniel actually presents a single Danielic self from complementary public and private perspectives.


God Loves a Cheerful Tither: Deuteronomy 14:22–29 as a Model for the “Cheerful Giver” of 2 Corinthians 9:7
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Jim Wilson, Asbury Theological Seminary

God Loves a Cheerful Tither: Deuteronomy 14:22-29 as a Model for the “Cheerful Giver” of 2 Corinthians 9:7


A Star Is Born: On the Etymology of *`Athtar- and *`Athtart-
Program Unit: Philology in Hebrew Studies
Aren M. Wilson-Wright, The University of Texas at Austin

The Semitic divine names *`Athtar- and *`Athtart- pose two problems from a comparative Semitic perspective. They contain too many consonants to be easily etymologized as Semitic and they exhibit gender polarity. In East Semitic the unmarked, formally masculine form Ištar (from *`Athtar-) denotes a goddess, while in West Semitic *`Athtar- and *`Athtart- represent a male god and a goddess respectively. The solutions to these two problems, I suggest, are related and indicative of prehistoric language contact. I argue that speakers of common Semitic borrowed an early form of Indo-European *H2ster- ‘star’ to denote the planet Venus. The borrowed term either replaced the name of an indigenous Venusian deity or became the name of a deity at a later time. This scenario can also explain the gender inversion of the Semitic terms: Indo-European *H2ster- is feminine and was borrowed into Proto-Semitic as an unmarked feminine noun like *'imm- ‘mother’ and *rahil- ‘ewe’. In East Semitic, the unmarked form persisted, but in West Semitic this form was—in some cases—secondarily marked as feminine by the addition of a final -t. Over time, West Semitic speakers reinterpreted *`Athtar- as masculine by analogy with the new form *`Athtart-.


Hermeneutics of Love and Conversion: Augustine on the Character of the Interpreter
Program Unit: Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Chandra Wim, Wycliffe College

Is there such thing as ethics of reading the Bible? What would it look like? Why do we need one? What would Augustine say about this? Drawing mostly from his De Doctrina Christiana (later DCC), this paper argues that for Augustine one’s character is as much as, if not more important than one’s ability to use scholarly tools in the process of scriptural interpretation. Augustine’s preoccupation on the theory of signs (Book 2 and 3 of DDC) is based on his theology of love (Book 1). Love ("caritas") is the hermeneutical key to unlock Scripture’s meaning, for the end of Scripture and its study is the dual love of God and neighbor. It is also a criterion to determine whether a text should be interpreted literally or figuratively: whatever passage that does not literally pertain to the dual love of God and neighbor must be taken to be figurative. For Augustine, this is where the character of the reader plays a crucial role, for only practitioners of Christian love can discern "caritas" being taught in passages whose literal sense contradicts it. In this sense, Scripture-reading is a kind of spiraling ascent where one continuously grows in love and understanding. Indeed, Augustine sees this ascent as a spiritual ascent where one moves from the fear of the Lord (which is the beginning of knowledge) toward Wisdom, which is Christ himself. This in turn means that exegetical precision and correct interpretation, however important they may be, are always secondary in comparison to the spiritual reality and transformation that is taking place when one encounter God in and through Scripture. Similarly, exegetical techniques and critical tools, however important they may be in this endeavor, are always secondary in comparison to the character of the reader. This is because Augustine discerns that the greatest problem one have with Scripture is not intellectual, but spiritual in nature. The main problem, in other words, is not the historical distance between the contemporary reader and the ancient authors of Scripture, but the spiritual distance between us and the God of Scripture that is caused by our sin and pride. Thus, while the ultimate aim for reading Scripture is to be transformed into Christlikeness, the reader herself needs to be transformed by the Holy Spirit in order to be a better reader of Scripture. Yet the Spirit’s primary means for character transformation is the Scripture itself. Thus, there is a mutual relationship between the sacred text and the reader that is transformative in nature. This transformation calls for a kind of hermeneutic of conversion that is necessary in any serious Christian scriptural interpretation enterprise.


Salmonan pa hende di Awor—A Rhythmic Translation of the Psalms in Papiamentu: Bible Translation and the Acceptability Factor in Musical Performance
Program Unit: Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Marlon Winedt, United Bible Societies

In 1982 the Antillean Bible Society published the "Salmonan pa Hende di Awor" (Psalms for the modern person) by the hand of the Catholic Priest Fr. Bernardino Van Baars (1926-1995). He produced a translation of the Psalms in Papiamentu , the Iberian Creole language of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao according to a particular rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllabification. Although a formal (liturgical) and not dynamic equivalent translation, it did strike a chord with the public at large. The vocabulary level is clearly acrolectic, constraint by prosodic concerns, but its sheer poetic force has captivated a whole generation. Before its incorporation into complete Bible in Papiamentu (1998), the translation became a true bestseller - with more 10.000 sold copies (1982, 1987, 1990 editions) - in this island creole of more than 250.000 mother tongue speakers. The success of the Psalm consisted in the contextualization of the medieval masoretic cantillation of the Psalms. As such the rendition is easy to perform with a simple and traditional instruments like the drum or oral choral performance. Rural mother tongue speakers have expressed that the Psalms "made their calves dance!" This successful "musical" creation contrasts with the slow rhythm (sic!), on the other hand, of the dissemination of the same beloved Psalms in traditional musical forms. Specifically, the use of the afro-Caribbean genre of the "tambú" in churches has been slow, due to its origin and historical prejudices. Despite the growth of creolized gospel music, it is exactly the use of the traditional slave protest song genre of tambú that has not been accepted as such in the wider church community, due to its former link to a more erotic kind of dance. The contention of this paper is that this translation of the Psalms constitutes a Caribbean hermeneutic in which the performance of the Scripture facilitates the engagement of the text in a transformational manner. And against the naysayers, it shows the importance of Creole languages for a truly Caribbean Christian practice and theology. The success in sales of the written text and later on, of the whole Bible also belies the one size-fits-all approach that one sees in creole language studies. From a Caribbean theological perspective, where emancipation, orality and performance go hand in hand with a creole language identity - which cannot be divested from the historical and pragmatic reality of Caribbean heteroglossia - Scripture will only truly become "Skritura pa hende di awor" (Scripture for the modern person) when the oral presentation and performance is taken seriously. On the other hand, reading Scripture from the framework of creolité also affects the interpretation, selection, deselection and hermeneutical focus of the reader/hearer. Bible translation helps elucidates matters of cultural identity, acceptability, Scripture critique, appropriation and a hermeneutics from the creole perspective.


Paul's Appeal for a Would-Be Maroon Slave: Reading and Translating Philemon from the Perspective of Caribbean Maroon Societies
Program Unit: Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Marlon Winedt, United Bible Societies

In the letter to Philemon Paul mediates between a slave owner and his runaway slave Onesimus. Though it is a personal letter, it is clear that very early on, in the early church, it became part of the Pauline corpus, and thus, its public oral context must be taken seriously. A pertinent question is whether we find in that public oral setting, a collision between the Greco-roman context of honor-shame relationships and the new value system of the emergent community of believers. And can the translator, who comes from the historical and contemporary perspective as part of the maroon societies in the Caribbean engage with this text, meaningfully and productively, not just on an abstract spiritual level, in such a way as to mediate a text that speaks to their context? Indeed the historical maroon and slave revolt movements of the 18th century and maroon societies, like for example the Aukan and Saramacan in Suriname, the influence of maroon slaves on the formation of the Jamaican post-slave society, the Haitian emancipation and independence movement, and of course, the natural aspiration of slave communities throughout the Caribbean region, expressed by violent revolts, seem to be in contrast with the "acceptance of slavery" premise of the letter and early Christianity. Often church communities have chosen to not explicitly address these issues which result in non-engagement or lack thereof. The translator can and has to make exegetical and translational choices that will determine not just the information elements of the text but will influence the contextualization of the text. Part of this process entails the development of conscientious paratextual features and commentaries to support understanding of the text. In other words, what is the good news of Christ, the message of emancipation in this text, given the cruel history of slave trade and the results thereof? First, a plausible socio-cultural Greco-roman scenario of the institution of slavery will be painted in which the roles of the slave owner and the position of the slave is expounded. The role of Paul as a mediator and the rhetorical tone of this letter of persuasion will be analyzed. In the second place, we will briefly look at the rhetorical structure of the letter and the most salient rhetorical tools. And last but not least, consisting of the greater part of the paper, we will look at how the text has been received or translated in some Caribbean contexts. Some concrete creole translations of Philemon will be compared and discussed and concrete suggestions for study notes will be given.


Children, Fathers, Sons, and Daughters: Exploring Familial Imagery in 2 Cor 6:11–7:4
Program Unit: Children in the Biblical World
Sean Winter, University of Divinity, Melbourne

This paper explores the relational paradigm evoked by Paul’s statement to the effect that he speaks to his Corinthian audience ‘as to children’ (?? t??????), see 2 Cor. 6.13. I consider and critique the traditional interpretation of this phrase which relates it to notions of Paul’s patriarchal oversight of the community—what Paul Barnett has termed ‘an assertion of spiritual paternity’. In its place I offer a reading that takes seriously the potential connection to the familial language that appears in the OT catena in 2 Cor. 6.16b–18: ‘you shall be my sons and daughters’ (?ses?? µ?? e?? ????? ?a? ???at??a?). This latter context suggests that the reference to the Corinthians as t????? does not evoke some form of reciprocal contract between apostle and congregation whereby the relationship is sustained by the mutual obligations of affection, or the hierarchically structured give and take of instruction/example and obedience. Prior to any such construal of Paul’s relationship to the Corinthians is an evocation of a shared identity through participation in the new covenant.


Prototyping Learning Technology in Word: The Hebrew Verb 'Cruncher'
Program Unit: Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Nicolai Winther-Nielsen, Fjellhaug International University College Denmark

This presentation will guide teachers on how the Hebrew verbal system can be taught more effectively ?using Microsoft Word to prototype a learning program. For the presentation, the audience will get access ?to a Word document and verbs will be selected from the Hebrew Bible will to illustrate a Seven-Step ?procedure to parse any Hebrew Verb. ? Two important points will emerge from this presentation on pedagogical prototyping: ? First, teaching can be enhanced by simulating learning technology: when instruction and learning is ?reformulated from the point of view of how a computer could do it, the teacher gets a better ?understanding of informal steps and rules that improve learning outcomes for students. ? Second, prototyping for a learning technology can start in Word. The Verb Cruncher was built and ?tested as a Word document, using the disposition features in reading mode. ? The presentation will trace the story of prototyping for verb analysis. The Verb Cruncher was introduced ?by Nicolai Winther-Nielsen for advanced students in Madagascar in 2014 (see video http://global-?learning.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=17), and the paper will present the evidence for how students ?developed better skills for verb analysis. The prototyping in Word will be developed for corpus-driven ?learning in Claus Tøndering’s Bible Online Learner and for testing in Judith Gottschalk’s Learning Journey. ?This kind of prototyping fosters acquisition of essential steps in natural language processing. It is an all-?purpose, doable, and effective way to develop better practice for learning and eventually better ?intelligent tutoring systems.?


The Kaige Section of 2 Samuel
Program Unit: Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Raimund Wirth, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

The main focus of this paper is how the Kaige recension deals with verbal forms in the Kaige section in the second half of 2 Samuel. As is well known, this recension aims at a more literal rendering of the Hebrew; in particular, numerous changes in the vocabulary usage have been described in previous studies. My emphasis is on changes in the translation of verbs, concerning both vocabulary and grammar. It will be shown which principles the revisers were following and how consistently these principles are present in the majority text of the Kaige section of 2 Samuel. I shall also propose a new solution to the problem of the exact beginning of the Kaige section in 2 Samuel, which is still lacking a scholarly consensus.


Local Subcultures: Or, Why Date and Place Matter
Program Unit: Construction of Christian Identities
Stephan Witetschek, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Back in 1904, William M. Ramsay interpreted the local allusions in Rev 2—3 as pointers to an identification of Christian communities with the cities in which they found themselves as “the church of Ephesus”, “the church of Smyrna” etc. Meanwhile, and not only with regard to Revelation, it has become more common to understand early Christianity (1) as a diversified subculture within in ancient cities and societies and (2) as a network allowing the swift travel of texts and ideas throughout the Roman Empire (Michael B. Thompson has coined the term “holy internet”). This paper will critically discuss both insights in view of their methodological implications for the question of “local” Christian identities: Is it (historically and exegetically) possible and (hermeneutically) worthwhile to discern different early Christian identities in different places? In other words: To what extent can early Christian literary texts (not only letters, but also gospels) serve as sources for “local” identities? Re-enter (with increased complexity) the “introductory questions” of date and place of composition.


When David Strikes His Harp: The Work of Mary Anne Schimmelpennick on the Psalms
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
Andrew Witt, Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto

In 1825, Mary Anne Schimmelpennick published a work on the Psalms which included a brief introduction, an index of the psalms in chronological order, a new translation, and a concluding essay on the spiritual interpretation of the psalms. In this paper I will offer an assessment of her method of theological interpretation, which is principally concerned with her understanding of the psalm titles and voicing within a psalm. My assessment will look both forwards and backwards, showing how and where she fits into the larger history of interpretation, as well as in what ways her approach to the Psalms could challenge current methods of interpretation.


The Formation of the Book of Haggai
Program Unit: Book of the Twelve Prophets
Jakob Wöhrle, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

In conversation with Martin Leuenbergers' new commentary the paper will deal with the formation of the book of Haggai. It will especially treat the relationship between the words of the prophet and the chronological framwork. Additionally, it will treat the literary assignment of the promise to Zerubbabel in Hag 2:20-23. It will dwell on the historical backgrounds and the historical-political intention of the different literary strata.


Being Good Neighbors: Coexistence with Foreigners according to the Priestly and Post-priestly Passages of the Ancestors’ Narratives
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Jakob Wöhrle, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

The relationship between the Israelite people and the members of foreign nations is one of the basic issues of the ancestors’ narratives. On its different literary strata the ancestors’ narratives show an ongoing debate about how to interact and coexist with such members of foreign nations. The paper will deal with the late, Persian-period layers of the ancestors’ account. It will show that the priestly passages pursue a rather specific concept of peaceful coexistence according to which every nation should live in its respective country and according to which the members of the different nations recognize this need, retreat and restrict themselves to their own territories. The post-priestly passages develop this concept further in different respects. Especially, they treat the open question of how to interact with foreigners who live together with God’s people in the land of Canaan. For example, they deal with the foreigners’ right of landholding or with possibilities and conditions of integrating outsiders into the people.


Sin and Evil in James: Sapiential and Apocalyptic
Program Unit: Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Benjamin Wold, Trinity College - Dublin

James’ sapiential discourse implies that foolish behavior is to show partiality to the wealthy and to speak idly. These traditional wisdom topoi represent one way that sin is portrayed, while on the other hand there is a cosmic dimension to evil: the world is at enmity with God (4:4). The cause of evil, namely the present conflict between good and evil, has both an aspect of internal dualities and also external reification. Indeed, we are told that there are “passions at war in your members” (4:1). False wisdom is described as “earthly,” “unspiritual,” and even “devlish” (3:15). In my paper I shall address the cosmic dimensions of sin and evil in James and also reponses to it. The author exhorts his community to “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7), which is instruction that has an apotropaic quality. This petitionary response to personified evil is reinforced when prayer is said to have “great power in its effects” (5:16). By giving sustained attention to the various ways sin is constructed in James, this early Christian epistle will be situated alongside the complex and developing wisdom tradition in which it participates.


Visual Midrash or the Bible as Image: Gematria, Notikaron, and Other Forms of ‘Textual’ Wordplay as Visual Interpretation
Program Unit: Midrash
Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

One particularly long-standing and robust scholarly portrait of the classical rabbinic sages has imagined the authors of early midrash as critical textual scholars akin to the Greek authors of the Homerica scholia. This vision of the late antique rabbinic authorities has been strengthened in particular by classical rabbinic allusions to text-critical signs used by these Greek scholars (such as puncta extraordinaria and alphabetic parentheses) and by their use of Hellenistic exegetical techniques that focus on the minutiae of the written text (including, for example, gematria and notarikon). There is very little question, of course, that the classical rabbinic sages were familiar with text-critical apparatus similar to those used by the Alexandrian grammarians—although it is not clear that the sages themselves ever made original use of these symbols. There is likewise no doubt that the rabbinic authorities employed exegetical techniques, shared with the rest of the Mediterranean world, that could be taken to suggest that the authors maintained an intense awareness of the minutiae of the written word—such as gematria (letter-number substitution), notarikon (acrostics and word splitting), and atbash (a letter substitution code). Such classical rabbinic exegetical techniques thus appear, at first glance at least, to approach the Hebrew Bible through an interpretative lens steeped in the practices of textuality and literacy. Recent work on the use of these techniques in Greco-Roman circles, however, has suggested that the ancient interpreters who deployed these methods to engage with the minutiae of the written text employed these techniques to approach the written word not so much as a communicative textual phenomenon but as a visual one—a form of pictograph. A closer looks at late antique rabbinic discussions of these marks and techniques likewise suggests that, while both earlier (Second Temple) and later (medieval) Jewish authors might have embraced the textual potentials of these Hellenistic interpretative marks and methods, the classical rabbinic sages used these techniques to engage with the minutiae of the written text of the Hebrew Bible in keeping with the practice in their own historical milieu: approaching the details of the written transcript of the Bible less as textual cues than as visual images. This paper will look at examples of this use of gematria and other Hellenistic exegetical techniques as a form of visual midrash—that is, early rabbinic interpretation of the written text of the Hebrew Bible as a visual image—and explore the possibility that this conception of text as image is subtly at work in many other forms of late antique midrash, as well.


An Analysis of Shifting Rhymes in Sura 52
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Ryan David Woloshen, Wayne State University

Many early Meccan suras are characterized by blocks of verses with identical end-rhymes that treat a coherent theme with shifts in end-rhyme corresponding to shifts in theme. However, some early Meccan suras display frequent shifting end-rhymes that do not clearly correspond to shifting theme, which raises questions about why such rhyme shifts occur, how they relate to theme, and what implications they have for the development of the sura as a textual unit. My paper offers a close analysis of Sura 52, which exemplifies apparent aberrations in rhyme, in order to argue for a rather coherent pattern of rhyme shifting that I tentatively call ring-structured rhyme. Adopting the theme-cum-structure analytical framework epitomized in Ernst’s How to Read the Qur’an, I demarcate basic thematic blocks of the sura and map out the end-rhymes of all its verses. Seeing the emergent theme and rhyme patterns in light of each other reveals a distinctive rhyme scheme that elegantly delineates the thematic blocks. Within each block are pairs of verse-final letters, one I call dominant and the other subordinate, based on their frequency of use (so that the subordinate letter appears more “anomalous”). It is the numerical incidence and spatial distribution of these subordinate-letter verses vis-à-vis the dominant-letter verses that manifest an elegant—implying deliberate—ring-structured rhyme pattern. Given the subtlety of ring-structured rhyme, it is easy to imagine how the structure could be foiled by later insertions. However, drawing on the claim of Farrin that one of the functions of larger-scale thematic ring composition is to facilitate the incorporation of later texts, I draw the same conclusion of ring-structured rhyme. I further suggest that ring-structured rhyme could not only accommodate later insertions, but anticipate and even require them in order for the overall structure to fully come into being. This has significant implications for the chronological development of the sura as a textual unit. What is more, while my present paper focuses on the example of Sura 52, I have found evidence of ring-structured rhyme elsewhere, namely the adjacent Sura 51. This raises questions for further study: How common are ring-structured rhyme structures in the Qur’an? What might the presence of such structures in multiple suras indicate about the chronological development and ordering of the suras with the Qur’an corpus as a whole?


Worldview and the Old Testament
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Al Wolters, Redeemer University College

Worldview and the Old Testament


The Meaning of BD(
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Albert Wolters, Redeemer University College

The Hebrew verb BD( is often translated as ‘break’ or ‘cut,’ but it actually has a more specific semantic range which is not captured by those renderings. An examination of its twenty-two occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, and a comparison with other verbs commonly translated ‘break’ or ‘cut’ shows that DD( has the specific meaning of cutting or smashing an object (usually of wood or iron) into multiple pieces with repeated blows of an axe or (sledge)hammer. Failure to understand this has caused commentators and translators to misinterpret the verb’s use in a number of passages, notably its two occurrences in Zechariah 11:10 and 11:14, where its object is a shepherd’s staff and cudgel.


A New Greek-Chinese Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Hong Kong Bible Society): Principles and Examples
Program Unit: Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium
Eric Kun-chun Wong, Chinese University of Hong Kong

n/a


Leah: The "Lost Matriarch" in Genesis Rabbah
Program Unit: Midrash
Katie J. Woolstenhulme, University of Durham

Of the four matriarchs portrayed in the biblical book of Genesis, Leah is certainly the most neglected. Little information is provided about this woman and her role as mother to several of Israel's tribal ancestors is often overshadowed by her rivalry with her sister, Rachel, and her marriage to the patriarch Jacob, who prefers Rachel to his first wife (Gen 29-33). According to Jerry Rabow, Leah is the 'Lost Matriarch', often sidelined in favour of the other Genesis matriarchs, Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel. Rabow's recent monograph, 'The Lost Matriarch: Finding Leah in the Bible and Midrash' (JPS: 2014), brings together multiple traditions from classical midrash through to modern commentary in an attempt to rediscover the fascinating interpretive history surrounding Leah. This paper will advance Rabow's quest for the 'Lost Matriarch' by considering the portrayal of Leah in Genesis Rabbah, the fifth century exegetical midrash on the biblical text of Genesis. I will examine various pericopae concerning Leah in this midrash, arguing that the rabbis developed traditions about Leah's barrenness and motherhood in order to highlight her role as a foundational mother of Israel. Her development from barren woman to mother is a transformation shared with the other Genesis matriarchs. Furthermore, Leah acts as a representative of the barren, the disadvantaged, and of Israel, as do the other Genesis matriarchs. Genesis Rabbah emphasises Leah's role as a worthy matriarch who continues to shape the life and identity of Israel. As such, in this midrash Leah is no longer the 'Lost Matriarch' but assumes her position as a true mother of Israel alongside Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel.


The Galatian Heirs: “Children of the Promise”
Program Unit: Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Carla Swafford Works, Wesley Theological Seminary

The promises to Abraham hold a prominent place in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Though Paul only cites a few verses (particularly, Gen 15:6 and 12:3; cf. Gen. 18:18), the theme of promise courses throughout his argument (Gal 3-4). What was promised to Abraham, Paul claims, was promised to his “seed” in the singular, and that seed is Christ (Gal 3:16). It is through the faithfulness of Christ that the promise comes to the Gentiles. The promises to Abraham (e.g., Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-6, 17) and to his seed (e.g., Gen 22:18; cf. 12:7; 13:15; 17:7), however, include progeny and land. While Paul engages the promise of Abraham’s seed, he makes no explicit reference to the land. As Walter Brueggemann argues, however, “The Abraham imagery apart from the land promise is an empty form” (The Land [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977], 177). If the land and progeny are integral to God’s promises to Abraham, how is Paul appropriating the promise of land for the Gentile Galatians? How can they be “children of the promise, like Isaac” (Gal 4:28)? Paul emphatically argues that the Galatians are heirs of the promises to Abraham through faith, not through observing the law (Gal 3:18). What is the promise that the Galatians inherit? It is nothing short of life. The gift of land embodies blessing—God’s commitment to the blessing of abundant life that God desired for God’s creation. Paul’s appeals to the promises of Abraham do not dismiss God’s promise of land. Rather, Paul assumes the blessing of land as testimony of God’s faithfulness and as witness to God’s intention to rectify creation. Paul’s language of inheritance and “new creation” indicate that God has not abandoned God’s concern for the land, since the just and fair use of that land was to be a witness of the blessing of life. Abundant life on the land figures prominently in the vision of new creation in Isaiah 65:17-25. In consideration of a God who longs to consummate creation, this paper proposes that the promise of the land does not disappear, but is transformed in light of the “new creation” that the Spirit makes possible (Gal 6:15). Through faith, the Galatians are indeed heirs and children of the promise. What they are inheriting is the blessing of life—the kind of abundant life that God intended for all creation.


Christianity Appears First, as Itself
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Bruce Worthington, Wycliffe College

Over the brief history of the study of early Christian origins, scholars have, to a lesser or greater extent, negotiated between two primary antecedents to the Christian tradition—second Temple Judaism, and Greco-Roman philosophy. Much of contemporary scholarship on the issue of Christian origins navigates around these two poles, with scholars negotiating between these two influences, to various degrees and percentages (as diverse as they are). It might appear, then, that early Christian origins are wholly indebted to, and determined by, its relationship to these two cultural position—such that all early Christian language and practice is either a fulfillment of an antecedent tradition at best, or, at worst, cultural theft. While such an approach has correctly helped to identify what most obviously comprised the cultural situation of Christianity’s birth, the formal study of early Christian origins cannot (due to their assumption that nothing is sui generis) account for the phenomenon of newness in early Christian thought and practice. Based on the philosophical thought of Alain Badiou, and his notion of an evental truth, we may begin, again, to chart a path of newness in early Christian thought and practice. By this I mean to suggest that rehearsing the axiomatic principles, or, antecedent traditions that comprise the cultural situation of early Christianity is insufficient to articulate what is simply declared in Acts—Christianity appears first, as itself (Acts 11:26). What this means is that early Christianity appears first—not as a dialectical synthesis of second temple Judaism, or Greco-Roman philosophy—but as itself, or, as that which appears as a novelty to its pre-existing cultural set. What else might we make of Paul’s own assumption that philosophy is ignorance (Acts 17:30); his heritage is rubbish (Philippians 3:8); and his message is foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18)? Here, the intent of this study is not to valorize early Christian truth claims in a vulgar manner, rather, it intends to respectfully analyze the production of early Christianity from the perspective of religious phenomena that appear as new, or, a novelty to its pre-existing cultural situation. Such a fresh approach is valuable not only for the formal practice of biblical studies, but as a general hermeneutical tool for understanding the production of generic or “new” truth conditions in other cultural situations and contexts.


Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, the Scrolls, and Early Judaism as a Scholarly Category
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Benjamin Wright III, Lehigh University

In numerous publications, Russell McCutcheon has addressed the problem of the study of religion, theory and the labels that we use to talk about that study. Labels often impose blinders on the objects of our inquiry, and this has certainly been true of the field we call “Biblical Studies.” In this paper, I look at how Biblical Studies affected the emergence and development of the field that we now call the study of Early Judaism, paying particular attention to the study of the so-called pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls.


“Live Such Good Lives among the Nations”: The Missional Impact of OT Ethics in the New
Program Unit: Institute for Biblical Research
Christopher Wright, Langham Partnership

“Live such good lives among the nations.” The Missional Impact of OT Ethics in the New


The Hermeneutics of Ritual Innovation: Hand Placement in Leviticus 24
Program Unit: Biblical Law
David P. Wright, Brandeis University

This paper argues that the gesture of hand placement in Lev 24:14 for cases of blasphemy is generated hermeneutically through a reinterpretation of sources. The pericope (vv. 10–22) is mainly a hybrid rewriting of the laws about speaking about deities and miscarriage-talion in the Covenant Code (Exod 22:17; 23:13 and 21:22–25). The Lev 24 passage, however, also used witness legislation from Deut. The avenue to this legislation was D’s talion law in Deut 19:21, part of its main witness law (19:15–21). This witness law helped Lev 24 characterize talion punishment as literally imposed. Use of this witness law led 24 to also draw from D’s cognate witness law in Deut 17:5–7 to describe the legal procedure for blasphemy. Building on the precedent provided by sacrificial hand placement in P generally, and specifically the scapegoat ritual in Lev 16:21, Lev 24 transformed D’s requirement that the witnesses’ hands be first (yad ha‘edîm tihyeh bô bari’šonâ) on an offender to execute him into the requirement that the hearers’ hands be imposed on the head of a blasphemer (wesamekû kol-haššome‘îm ’et-yedêhem ‘al-ro’šô), thus creating a new ritual as well as legal procedure.


The Natural World as Sign in Early Jewish Apocalyptic Literature
Program Unit: Pseudepigrapha
Jackie Wyse-Rhodes, Emory University

Though the natural world is frequently presented as predictable and orderly in 1 Enoch and early Jewish apocalyptic literature as a whole, allowances are also made for disordered nature as an aberration of its usual ordered self. Throughout apocalyptic literature, one sign of imminent destruction and the coming judgment is the reluctance of the natural order to follow the paths and courses which God has set forth. In chapter 65 of The Book of the Parables, Noah knows that the deluge is near because of the tilt of the earth. In chapter 80 of The Book of the Luminaries, “the days of the sinners” are characterized by changes in the natural order. The years grow shorter; seeds sprout late; rain is withheld; the sky stands still; fruit appears late, if at all; the moon changes the order of its appearance; the heads of the stars stray from God’s command. Indeed, in those days, the law of the stars will be closed to sinners, and “the thoughts of those on the earth will err regarding them” (80:7). In the Sibylline Oracles 2:154ff, many signs of the end are keyed to natural imagery: the luminaries will crash together; stars will fall together from heaven on the sea; all elements of the world will be bereft, which includes: air, land, sea, light, the vault of heaven, days and nights. All will melt into one and then separate. This will be followed by judgment, resurrection, the punishment of the wicked, and the rewards of the righteous. In 8:217, judgment day occurrences are listed as follows: the earth will sweat; the sun will be eclipsed; heaven will be rolled up; the moon will perish; ravines will be elevated; the heights of hills will be destroyed; the mountains will be made plain; the seas will not be able to bear voyage; the earth will be parched with its springs; the rivers will fail. Nature encompasses time as well as space, and when its ordered cycles are interrupted, it serves as a sign that the natural order is departing from God’s intention. These sources seem to agree that the reliability or unreliability of the natural world serves as a barometer for the well-being of humanity and the cosmos as a whole. But the question remains: Whence the (un)reliability? Is it a result of God’s sovereign intervention, angelic misbehavior, or human sin? Differing answers reveal differing apocalyptic cosmologies, which this paper will begin to explore. For example, 4 Ezra is especially clear that such disruptions in the natural order are God’s doing, though in other books, it appears that nature embodies the suffering of the cosmos that the final judgment puts right. Furthermore, since humankind is accused of unreliability and inconstancy in 1 Enoch and 2 Baruch, in these cases, the transformation of nature from reliable to unreliable can best be interpreted as a foreshadowing of the judgment of humankind.


Philo of Alexandria and the Fifth Day of Creation (De opificio mundi 62–68)
Program Unit: Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
Beatrice Wyss, Universität Bern - Université de Berne

Starting with an interpretation of Philo’s account of the fifth day of creation, I shall track the philosophical and biblical foundations of Philo’s anthropocentrism. Whereas Genesis 1 relates the generation of animals to the fifth and sixth day (day 5, Gen 1,20-23: generation of fishes and birds, day 6, Gen 1,24-31: generation of all the animals living on earth, including human beings), Philo presents the fifth day as the birthday of all animals, fishes, birds, reptiles and mammals and the sixth day as the creation day of human beings. In this detail Philo’s anthropocentric twist is clearly visible. Comparing Philo’s account of the animals in De opificio 62-68 with his De animalibus, we become aware that there existed a philosophical discussion about the question, do animals have reason or not? We find these same discussions in contemporary pagan literature (e.g. Pliny, Naturalis historia 8-9; Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, Bruta animalia ratione uti, De esu carnium; Aelian, Natura animalium); they finally go back to Aristotle’s ground-breaking works on animals and their behaviour (Historia animalium, De genertione animalium, De incessu animalium, De motu animalium, De partibus animalium). While these pagan discussions show that Philo’s arguments on the non-rationality of animals have a common philosophical foundation, they do not answer the question WHY Philo examines the problem of the rationality of animals. I guess there are theological reasons for this: Philo lived in Alexandreia with its mixed population of greeks, jews and egypts. The egypts are known (or better, ridiculed) for their theriomorphic gods, mixed of human and animal shape or wholly theriomorphic like Apis. Philo, in dispossessing the animals of reason, dispossesses them from the divine realm, because it is reason who makes man capable of grasping the existence of god; mans reason is a mirror of god’s reason (Opif. 69). So it is not only a detail but a constitutional element of Philo’s thinking, that animals and the egypts have one aspect in common, sense perception: animals only have sense perception and no reason, the egypts neglect their reason and indulge in sense perception.


The Interpretation of the Women’s Lament for Tammuz (Ezek 8:14): The Influence of the Sumerian Laments for Dumuzi
Program Unit: Book of Ezekiel
Inchol Yang, Claremont School of Theology

In this paper, I have investigated why the Tammuz ritual in Ezekiel is similar to the Sumerian city laments for Dumuzi. In contrast to scholars’ lopsided viewpoint that interprets women’s wailing for Tammuz as their supplication for fertility of the land, I argued that the Tammuz ritual reflects a longing for the return of YHWH after the fall of Jerusalem. During the Neo- Babylonian period, popular Tammuz rituals in the fourth or fifth month usually were conducted for the healing of the sick or necromancy. However, by introducing the Tammuz ritual in the sixth month, Ezekiel allows audiences to reconsider the Sumerian city laments for Dumuzi in Lagash in the sixth month. In the Ur III period, the disappearance of Dumuzi, the divine king, connotes the fall of the Sumerian city. The Sumerian gala priests recited their city laments with balag for the imprisoned king Dumuzi. They wished the return of their god Dumuzi for the recovery of their city. In a similar vein, the Israelite deity YHWH disappeared after the fall of Jerusalem by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. From the perspective of the Israelite, their deity YHWH functioned as a king-shepherd like Dumuzi. Against this background, Ezekiel introduced the Sumerian city laments in response to the disappearance of YHWH, hoping for the recovery of his city, Jerusalem.


The Shaping of the Biblical Psalter: Reconsidering the Status Quaestionis in Light of Medieval Manuscript Evidence
Program Unit: Book of Psalms
William Yarchin, Azusa Pacific University

Discussion about the shaping of the biblical psalter has proceeded largely on the assumption that the shaping of the Hebrew Book of Psalms is coterminous with the “editing” or “redacting” of it. A parallel assumption has been that such shaping/editing/redacting came to a close around 100 CE with the emergence of a single standard shape to the Psalter, essentially the one found in MT. Both of these assumptions are seriously challenged by the great body of MT psalms manuscript evidence that is been conspicuously absent from the discussion. A survey of virtually all the world’s Hebrew psalms manuscripts demonstrates that the Hebrew Psalter possessed no standard configuration until printed editions in the sixteenth century established the textus receptus (TR). Ancient and medieval Hebrew manuscripts present a wide variety of psalms-configurations, or psalter-shapes, and the great majority of them are non-TR configurations. The variety is created by a range of paratextual psalm delimitations achieved through psalm-conjoinments and psalm-divisions. Thus the paratextual (scribal) dimensions of the psalms-collections are as important for our consideration of the Psalter’s shape as the strictly textual (semantic) dimensions. The ancient non-TR shape of the Septuagint Book of Psalms, along with that of its daughter the Gallican Psalterium, includes a variety of psalter-configurations that, parallel to the Hebrew, reflect a continuing process of paratextually shaping the psalm-collection under the imprint of the devotional, liturgical, and intellectual life of the respective religious communities. That process by no means came to an end in antiquity. Thus the shaping and shape of these collections remains a worthwhile avenue of research, but the manuscript evidence suggests that we should not restrict the discussion to the Hebrew psalm collections extant at the time of the second fall of Jerusalem. Discussions about exegesis and canon stand to be enriched by considering implications of the larger range of manuscript paratextual evidence. Twentieth-century form criticism taught us that delineation of the textual unit is a primary step in biblical exegesis. Discrete psalms lend themselves easily to this method of analysis. Since the manuscript evidence identifies a greater variety of attested psalm compositions than we have typically permitted ourselves to study, I conclude by noting the ways an ancient and a modern scholar have commented on frequently attested non-TR psalm compositions.


‘He Will Take the Best of Your Fields:’ Royal Feasts and Rural Extraction
Program Unit: Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Gale A. Yee, Episcopal Divinity School

Samuel warns the people who demand a king to rule over them that, among other things, he will conscript their sons into his armies, compel them to work on his plantations and reap his harvests, take their daughters to be perfumers, cooks and bakers, and take the best of their grain and vineyards and redistribute them among his courtiers (1 Sam 8:10-18). This paper will examine the toll that this extraction takes among agrarians in the lavish feasting that kings held to reinforce social and political ties with domestic and foreign elites (cf. 1 Kings 4:20-28; 18:19). It is particularly indebted to the recent analysis of Israelite economy by Roland Boer, The Sacred Economy (Library of Ancient Israel; Westminster John Knox, 2015).


The Roman Ideology of Securitas in Text, Stone, and Coin: Establishing a Roman Political Context for 1 Thess 5:3
Program Unit: Paul and Politics
Daniel Yencich, University of Denver

This paper attempts to be a footnote, an exegetical point of reference, for one verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:3. It has in view primarily the second of two key words in this verse, “peace” (eirene) and “security” (asphaleia), and aims to furnish enough literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence to firmly contextualize asphaleia as a vital part of Roman political ideology of which the apostle Paul was critical. In so doing, I enter into a recent debate over the subject of 1 Thessalonians 5:3, those who say “peace and security.” Jeffrey A.D. Weima has surveyed a large dataset culled from Greco-Roman literary and material culture and characterized eirene kai asphaleia in 5:3 as an explicit citation of a recognizable piece of Roman propaganda. In response, Joel R. White has pressed Weima’s reading of the data and shown, conclusively, that “peace and security” was not an explicit propagandistic doublet in Paul’s time. White offers a new reading in which “peace” is seen as a reference to the Pax Romana while “security” is read as a nod to Greek ideologies of the city. While I affirm, with Weima, that Paul’s primary referent in 5:3 is indeed the Roman Empire, I also agree with White that the phrase is nowhere to be found as an explicit doublet. Thus I suggest a new descriptive category be applied to the same data-set. Instead of searching (in vain) for an explicit use of the phrase eirene kai asphaleia as an established piece of Roman propaganda, it makes better sense of the data to read 1 Thessalonians 5:3 as a reference to two discrete but related pieces of Roman political ideology: peace and security.


Plant. 1–27: The Significance of Reading Philonic Parallels
Program Unit: Philo of Alexandria
Sami Yli-Karjanmaa, University of Helsinki

This paper looks at ways in which parallel passages in Philo can affect our understanding of a Philonic text. Two examples from Plant. 1–27 are examined: §§ 11–14 deals with the creatures belonging to each of the elements. In §§ 17–25 Philo elaborates on what he thinks Plato’s notion of the human being as a “heavenly plant” means. In the analysis of Plant. 11–14 special attention is devoted to what Philo says about the souls found in the air, and light is sought from the two important parallels in Gig. 6–18 and Somn. 1.133–141. It is argued that the tenet of reincarnation, very clearly implied by Philo in the Somn. passage, should be understood to be a part of what Philo wants to convey to his audience in each case. This view is reinforced when Philo’s texts are compared with various reincarnational texts by Plato and the Platonist interpretations thereof. Plant. 17–25 is read together with Leg. 1.31–38, Det. 79–90 and Her. 52–64. Particular emphasis is given to the question whether a protological or a universal understanding of Philo’s interpretations of Gen. 1:27, 2:7 and Ex. 31:2–3 is to be preferred. It seems at first sight clear that when Philo in §§ 18–19 appeals to Gen. 2:7b and 1:27 as proof texts for his view of the soul being stamped by the Logos, he is speaking of the original constitution of the human being. However, when he couples Gen. 2:7b with 1:27 and dissociates it from 2:7a (even opposing the parts of the verse to each other in § 44, as he also does in Leg. and Her.) and subsequently goes on to causally link the soul’s likeness of the “image of God” (who sends his “breath”) to its ability to apprehend the unseen (§20), its being pulled towards God (§21) and its craving for wisdom and knowledge (§23), he comes very close to his interpretations of Gen. 2:7b–8 in Leg. And those interpretations are almost exclusively universal (instead of protological)—in essence, soteriological: both the “breath of life” and Paradise are interpreted as means of the soul for exchanging its state of earthliness and death for that of heavenliness and life. This paper argues that in order to fully appreciate what Philo wants to say in Plant. we need to read, not between the lines, but on the lines of his other allegorical treatises.


“It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times”: Fishing Imagery, Polarity, and Prophetic Literature
Program Unit: Israelite Prophetic Literature
Tyler R. Yoder, Ohio State University

Out of nearly a dozen fishing references in the Hebrew Bible, three emphasize a state rather than an action (Isaiah 19:5-10; Ezekiel 26:1-14; 47:1-12). In each of these references, the particular state in view represents a radical deviation from the status quo. The war oracles against both Egypt in Isaiah 19:5-10 and Tyre in Ezekiel 26:1-14 incorporate fishing images as they envisage wholesale societal collapse for these two locales. Standing within a well grounded Egyptian literary trope, the former describes the crippling effects of a dried up Nile. And in the latter example, fishers signal the downfall of a sturdy island fortress, whose ruins ironically benefit others.? Ezekiel’s eschatological vision in Ezekiel 47:1-12 of a recreated Israel uniquely draws on and transforms these two depictions of desolation. It marks the lone positive fishing image in the Hebrew Bible, just as it also happens to designate the only example where Israelites fish. Moreover, the angling occurs at a place where Israelites could not conceivably fish at all (i.e. the Dead Sea). As in several prominent exemplars from Mesopotamian literature (e.g. Gudea Cylinder B; Marduk Prophecy), a deity effects such transformation. From the vantage point of Ezekiel 47:1-12, the return of the divine presence becomes the agent of change that enables such a radical vision of the future. What ensues is not a mere copying of creation themes, but rather a complete reconstruction of topographical and socio-economic norms in Judah. In this idyllic portrayal, a formidable river issues from Jerusalem, emptying into a revivified Dead Sea and perpetually healing the land along the way. Agrarian (e.g. Amos 9:13; Isaiah 2:4), pastoral (e.g. Isaiah 11:6-8), or even socio-religious (e.g. Isaiah 19:16-25) visions of the eschaton speak plainly to an Israelite audience. But a vision that removes seasons altogether, completely reshapes the land, and transforms a wilderness into a thriving fish market is not simply dramatic. It is foreign, incongruous, and jarring.? From a rhetorical perspective, these three prophetic passages (Isaiah 19:5-10; Ezekiel 26:1-14; 47:1-12) together connote polar realities: the worst of times for Egypt and Tyre, but the best of times for the locale where the divine presence resides. This study assesses the individual character and presentation of each passage before placing them within their broader literary contexts and juxtaposing them with one another in order to make comparative assessments. And due to the distinctive features of the second Ezekiel passage (47:1-12), the discussion concludes with a final reevaluation of the peculiar nature and function of fishing language in texts that concern a geographical location (i.e. Judah) where fishing played a relatively negligible role.


State-Sanctioned or Critiquing the State? Towards the Formation of the Pentateuch and the Promulgation of Torah
Program Unit: Ideological Criticism
Philip Yoo, University of Oxford

This paper offers an examination of the external and internal political influences that give shape to the Pentateuch and its promulgation as Torah. It is generally agreed that the Pentateuch is the result of a lengthy process that incorporates originally independent materials (however construed as sources, traditions, or fragments) into its final form sometime in the Persian period. Alongside the process of the formation of the Pentateuch, the necessity for its formation continues to raise scholarly questions. Within this discussion, the theory of Persian imperial authorization offers an attractive explanation that places the Pentateuch as a legal document fully sanctioned by the Achaemenid overlords. Although questions on the extent of Persian direct influence with the minutiae of the Jerusalem cult have been raised, the place of Yehud within the larger empire and the extent of its subservience to Pax Persica continue to inform new proposals for the elevation of the Pentateuch to Torah in the Second Temple Period. This paper offers insights as to how the lived experiences of a Judean community and its ideological constructions seek to retain cultic expressions in a post-First Temple world and, in doing so, turns the sacred words and oracles of the deity into a sacred text that preserves the revelations of the deity from the antiquated past. Accordingly, the formation and elevation of the Pentateuch as Torah is to a certain extent informed by the surrounding political situation. However, rather than a direct response that either supports or critiques imperial power, the Pentateuch should be viewed as a document that was primarily shaped by the cultic interests of post-exilic Yehud which, in turn, will ultimately inform future debates between central and peripheral groups in the Second Temple period and beyond.


Sensory Readings of Classics: A Neo-Confucian Form of Spiritual Cultivation
Program Unit: Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts
Yohan Yoo, Seoul National University

Zhu Xi (1130-1200) of China and Yi Hwang (or T’oegye, 1501-1570) of Korea, leading scholars of the Neo-Confucian school of the two countries, emphasized readings of Confucian classics as the most important form of spiritual practice to attain li, “principle,” and in doing so ultimately to become a sage. They believed the Confucian classics – especially the Four Books and the Five Classics, in which the ancient Confucian sages revealed li most clearly – to have transformative power when read repeatedly and deliberately. Zhu introduced the concept – further developed by Yi – of encouraging a scholar to activate at least three senses when reading a text, over and above the experience of merely reading the characters of the text. First, the text should be recited aloud so the reciters would hear their own voices, sometimes along with those of their colleagues when several scholars read together. They imagined, furthermore, that the voices they were hearing while reading was those of the ancient sages themselves. Secondly, while hearing the voices of the sages, the reciting scholars would visualize their images, seeking personal communion with them. Finally, the meditative reading of scholars was frequently likened to savoring a text’s flavor. The act of reading books was described as “chewing,” using the imagery associated with rumination. When the readers recited the text aloud, pronouncing each syllable using tongues, lips and mouths, they were engaged in a gustatory experience: “chewing” and “tasting” the ancient classics.


Noah's Four Sons
Program Unit: Genesis
Tzemah Yoreh, University of Toronto

The vineyard episode in Genesis 9 is fundamentally difficult. It introduces the protagonists, Noah and his three sons, but then adds a parenthetical comment that Ham was the father of Canaan (9:18). Since Canaan is otherwise absent from this tale, this aside is troublesome. A similar parenthetical remark is made when Ham commits his sin, and instead of simply referring to Ham, he is called “Ham, the father of Canaan (9:22).” When Noah wakes up from his drunken stupor he realizes what his son has done to him, but instead of cursing Ham, Noah curses Ham’s son, who did nothing wrong (the nature of the sin is unclear as well, though that will not be the focus of this lecture). Though the nation of Canaan is deemed as culpable of many sins in later narratives, the man Canaan is guilty of nothing. Why then does Noah curse him? Viewed through the conceptual tool-kit of the supplementary paradigm of biblical criticism, one way to solve this problem is by positing an earlier version of the story in which Noah had four sons, not three: Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan, and that it was Canaan (not Ham) who committed the sin and was cursed. A later editor inserted the parenthetical remarks in 9:18 and 9:22 ("Ham the father of") so as to bring this story in line with the rest of the Noah narratives (Genesis 5:31, 6:10, 7:13, 9:19, 10:1) in which Noah has only three sons. The earlier version of the pertinent verses would be 9:18: "The sons of Noah who went out from the ship were Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Canaan" 9:20: "Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, and told two of his two brothers outside." In the proposed lecture I will flesh out this idea of fours sons. I will seek to explain why a later author would have deemed it so important to change the number of Noah's children from four to three, offering additional evidence from both within the biblical text and from post-biblical texts. Especially interesting is Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, an 8th century Midrashic compilation, which asserts that Canaan was Noah's fourth son and that he castrated Noah. Intriguingly, the Quran also notes that Noah had four sons (Sura 11,Hud v. 42–43). This unnamed fourth son refuses to come aboard the Ark, and instead climbs a mountain and is drowned. Some later Islamic commentators give his name as either Yam or Kan’an. The significance of this early medieval evidence will be discussed, focusing on the origins of the four-sons tradition in these texts, which is seemingly only available by employing the methods of biblical criticism.


Proposing a New Date for Ben Sira
Program Unit: Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Tzemah Yoreh, University of Toronto

At a 2014 conference on Wisdom literature in Metz France (October 22-24) it was once again cautiously concluded that there was little evidence that would support a relationship between Ben Sira and any particular Hellenistic idea, sage, or book, beyond a general resemblance to the sixth century BCE Theognis of Megara. This lack of Hellenistic influence is remarkable enough that one must offer an explanation for it, beyond the general consensus that Ben Sira was a conservative thinker. If Ben Sira were a conservative thinker in the Hellenistic period, among peers influenced by Hellenistic philosophy, one would have expected Ben Sira to reject either implicitly or explicitly some of the Hellenistic ideas that were clearly present in early second-century Jerusalem when he wrote. He does not. On the basis of this lack of definite influence, this paper proposes that the core of Ben Sira was composed earlier than scholars generally suppose. Prima facie, this seems unlikely. Scholarship has been fairly confident when it comes to the date of Ben Sira's composition, since in Chapter 50 a hymn is dedicated to the High Priest Simon II who passed away in 196 BCE, and Ben Sira's grandson dates his translation of the work into Greek to 132 BCE. Ben Sira's final form is dated to a time prior to the unrest preceding the Maccabean revolt (175 BCE), since it does not reference that period. Can one posit an earlier date for parts of Ben Sira? Obviously not, if one accepts Ben Sira as the author of the entire book, as many scholars seem content to do despite a complex history of transmission especially of the end of the book. When scholars are willing to acknowledge that Ben Sira consists of multiple layers (and whenever the question is seriously considered this is affirmed ), they often posit that Ben Sira composed all the layers himself at different times in his life (see for example Corley's 2008 article: “Searching for Structure and Redaction in Ben Sira”). But if we look at books of similar length in the Hebrew Bible, no critical scholar can confidently assign the book to one author; the fractures in these lengthy books points towards multiple stages of authorship. Why should one account for the fractures of Ben Sira any differently? As the book itself states: "When a man of understanding hears a wise saying, he will praise it and add to it." (21:15). If Ben Sira was indeed the product of multiple authorship, then it is possible to date at least parts of the book to an earlier period. The question I will explore in this paper is if there is a core of earlier material in Ben Sira, how may we begin to identify it, and when it may be dated.


Ancient Hebrew without Authors
Program Unit: Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Ian Young, University of Sydney

This paper examines the nature of the main source of evidence for Hebrew in the BCE period: the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. It will look at this evidence through the lens of contemporary scholarship on the history of the Hebrew Bible text, an approach which sees the composition of the biblical literature to be a long drawn out scribal process, to which many individuals contributed. This is in contrast with anachronistic models of the composition of biblical books or identifiable parts of them by single authors at specific dates. It will look at the unusually well attested text MT Jeremiah 39:1–10// LXX Jeremiah 39:1–10// MT Jeremiah 52:4–16// LXX Jeremiah 52:4–16// MT 2 Kings 25:1–12// LXX 2 Kings 25:1–12 to demonstrate how the text critical model is the only adequate one to account for the evidence, and will make suggestions as to how the application of this approach can help reformulate some of the questions scholars ask in their study of ancient Hebrew.


Jesus as Daimon: An Exploration of Celsus's Understanding of "Daimones" in Origen's Contra Celsum
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
Jonathan Young, Lenoir-Rhyne University

In book five, chapter two of Origen's Contra Celsum, Celsus inadvertently advances a pagan "Christology." Noting that no god or son of a god had ever come to earth, Celsus suggests that a being such as Christ could be an angel or a god, but most likely a daimon (Contra Celsum, 5.2). Christ's identification as a "daimon" provides insight into how Celsus possibly envisioned such a being. Therefore, with this passage providing definitional parameters, this paper explores Celsus's demonology in light of previous depictions of daimones. Since only fragments of Celsus's work survive in Contra Celsum, it is prudent to acknowledge that Origen filtered Celsus through his own Christology and demonology. Despite this fact, it is not unfounded to assert that Origen's work could inform our understandings of how pagans envisioned the nature of daimones. Much recent scholarship demonstrates the overlapping religious beliefs of pagans and Christians in the Greco-Roman world. Early Christians did not develop daimones as a rhetorical tool; it was a product of the cultural milieu. Celsus’s discussion of daimones is found within his larger argument for the correct worship of the highest god. Celsus presents a henotheistic framework which necessitated the worship of the highest god’s subordinates: beings such as angels, daimones, and heroes (cf. Contra Celsum, 7.68). In this system, Celsus seems to take the ontological category of “daimon” for granted, only taking the time to describe how daimones fit into a greater cosmology. This picture is further complicated by the ambiguous definition of what constituted a “daimon” in antiquity. Among the many definitions, daimones were cited as gods (Iliad, 1.222, 3.420), the spirits of heroes (Hesiod, Works and Days, 314), and intermediary spirits (Plato, Symposium, 202d-203a). Nevertheless, Celsus’s identification of Christ as a daimon could provide an exploratory lens to discern pagan beliefs regarding daimones. Celsus’s theoretical attempt to fit the figure of Christ into a pagan cosmology may itself help narrow down the common cultural understandings regarding daimones. In other words, by interacting with Christian beliefs, Celsus perhaps articulates formerly tacit pagan beliefs about daimones. Adding to the scholarly discourse on pagan demonologies in late antiquity, this paper tests the extent to which earlier demonologies may inform (yet not dictate) our understanding of daimones in Celsus. Demonological sources as varied as the Middle Platonists and the Greek Magical Papyri are used to illuminate Celsus’s own view. There are further implications to such an investigation. Celsus’s conception of the nature of daimones may perhaps shed light on the pagan demonologies of later authors such as Porphyry and Iamblichus. While this paper does not finalize the discussion regarding daimones, it seeks new possibilities for continued research of pagan demonologies in late antiquity.


The Function of Lamentations 5: A New Proposal
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
May Young, Trinity International University

Lamentations 5 stands as an anomaly in the book of Lamentations. The chapter’s twenty-two verses are commensurate with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, yet the text does not exhibit the alphabetic acrostic structure characteristic of the other four chapters. Chapter 5 is half the length of chapter 4, with its forty-four lines, and one-third the length of the initial three chapters. There is only one collective voice that is heard throughout the poem, viz., and the voice of the community. Chapter 5 further distinguishes itself by being the only poem in the book that is comprised almost entirely of parallel lines-- only three of the twenty-two lines exhibit enjambment. Moreover, the poem has been identified as a closing prayer for the book, resembling a communal lament. Chapter 5, however, continues the dialogue that began in chapter 1, reflecting many of the themes and motifs introduced and developed in previous chapters. The differences in this chapter have not gone unnoticed, and possible functions for the final chapter of the book have been proposed, all having merit. This paper will propose a function for Lamentations 5 which develops out of multiple poetic devices which are prominent and pervasive in the book. A matrix analysis of five prominent poetic features, viz., acrostic structure, parallelism, enjambment, change in voice, and repetition of lexemes and images, noting especially their distribution and intersection throughout the book, show a progressive disintegration of correlation among these literary features as the book unfolds. Concurrent with this literary unraveling is a progressive increase in hope and new voices. The literary disengagement of poetic devices, coupled with a multiplication of new voices and rise in hope, usher in a completely new structure to conclude the book. The stark differences observed in chapter 5 function to provide a new structure in which Jerusalem’s crisis can be contemplated.


Is the Tent So Big That It Hides Ideology?
Program Unit: Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Stephen L. Young, Brown University

A defining aspect of many “critical academic” approaches is analysis of any approach and its practitioners themselves. This paper uses the frequent discussion/debate about the presence of “Evangelical” scholars at SBL/AAR as an opportunity to argue that “the Big Tent” hinders, and even stifles, basic critical analysis of others within the Tent. By constructing the idea of one large field in which all who participate are most basically colleagues engaging in the same endeavor, legitimate criticism is often limited to debate about the content of others’ ideas. Conversely, social or ideological analysis of others’ positions, interests, and practices is often delegitimized, sometimes with the rhetoric of professional courtesy or tolerance since, so the logic goes, “we are all in the same field.” In this way the ideological aspect of producing and consuming “scholarly” discourse is occluded. By identifying and comparing the interests animating certain “Evangelical” scholarly practices with those of other selections of critical scholars, this paper will provide a concrete example of how the Big Tent can impoverish our analyses of the work others inside the tent.


Addition, Subtraction, and Equivalency: The Significance of Expansions and Omissions in LXX Lamentations
Program Unit: International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Kevin J. Youngblood, Harding University Main Campus

Though LXX Lamentations typically adheres very closely to its Hebrew parent text, it occasionally surprises with what appear to be departures from its translator’s typical quantitative equivalency approach. Particularly interesting are occasional small expansions and omissions that challenge overly-simplistic characterizations of the translator’s technique as “slavish” or a mere “calque” of his Vorlage. These expansions and omissions deserve more attention than they have thus far received in considerations of the general character of LXX Lamentations, of its place in the Septuagint tradition, and of its relationship to the Kaige-Theodotion group. The addition of a prologue attributing the book to Jeremiah, the insertion of alphabetic strophe labels, and five glosses (1:19c; 1:21c; 2:6c; 2:20b; and 4:21b) betray the translator’s affinity for and reliance on certain antecedent parts of the LXX tradition that may help clarify LXX Lamentation’s place in this heterogeneous collection of translations. Equally interesting and telling are uncharacteristic omissions in the translation of elements of the parent text that may give insight into the translation’s Vorlage, its interpretive tendencies, and its relationship to other translation units in the LXX tradition. The paper will conclude by noting how that including these often overlooked features of LXX Lamentations in comparisons of its style with other members of the Kaige-Theodotion group brings greater clarity to both LXX Lamentation’s place in the group as well as to the nature of the group as a whole.


Teaching the Teacher in the Gospel of Mark: Jesus as Sadducee and Pharisee
Program Unit:
Peter Zaas, Siena College

Jesus has several roles in the Gospel of Mark, but most prominent among them is the role of teacher. In portraying Jesus as a teacher, Mark describes Jesus conversations with other Jewish teachers. The Gospel portrays Jesus in conflict with at least three of the Jewish parties or sects described by Josephus, who wrote a decade or more later. In two pericopes, particularly, The Question about Resurrection, Mk 12:18-27, and The Question about Hand Washing, Mk 7:1-23, the anonymous evangelist portrays Jesus in legal conflict with Sadducees, in the first case, and with Pharisees, in the second. Each of these conflict-stories resembles the familiar conflicts between Pharisees and Sadducees in the Tannaitic literature, and each of them confirms Josephus’ descriptions of the legal and theological issues that distinguished Pharisees and Sadducees from each other. The effect of these narratives in Mark is to portray Jesus as a Pharisee, vis- -vis Sadducees, and as a Sadducee, vis- -vis Pharisees, affirming the concept of resurrection like a Pharisee, but denying the need for ordinary Israelites to wash their hands before eating, like a Sadducee. In the Jewish didactic context, a person who argues with you is a colleague, not an enemy, so these narratives locate Jesus in relationship to other Jews of his time. Jesus argumentation confirms his continuity with both Jewish methods of teaching and its content.


The Arabic Renditions of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers: Greek and Syriac Wisdom and Arabic Culture
Program Unit: Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Jason Zaborowski, Bradley University

This paper shows how Arabic-speaking Christians adapted ancient Christian wisdom to Arabic culture. The Arabic recensions of the Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) stem both from the Greek and Syriac manuscript traditions, thus preserving ancient Christian wisdom of those cultures. Out of the confluence of translations the Arabic versions tailor traditional Christian wisdom collections to an Arabicized audience. By analyzing Arabic manuscripts from the tenth- to thirteenth-centuries, this research essay demonstrates how Christians under Islamic rule adapted the Apophthegmata genre to Arab Islamic culture through particularly Islamic idioms of speech and by expanding the corpus of pre-Islamic apophthegms to include later saints that emerged in the context of Muslim-Christian relations.


The Ummah Pericope (Q2:104–123)
Program Unit: Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Hamza M. Zafer, University of Washington

Several studies on the structure and composition of Q Baqara 2 (Islahi, 1980; Robinson, 1996; Zahniser, 2000; Smith, 2001; Farrin, 2010; El-Tahry, 2010) have indicated that the ummah, the soteriological community, is a salient theme in the Qur’an’s longest sura. In this paper, I present close analysis of a complex set of verses at the heart of Q Baqara 2, that I have tentatively labeled the ummah pericope (Q2:104-123). This pericope, which forms a distinct thematic and formal unit within the sura, contains some of the Qur?an’s most explicit expression of community formation. It is comprised of a series of polemical engagements with various interlocutors along three broad and overlapping modalities of communal consciousness and boundary-making. It presents the ummah as (i) a juridical entity: individuals or groups constitute an ummah when they adhere to the din—an ahistorical category with permeable boundaries; (ii) a prophetological entity: individuals or groups constitute an ummah when they are vicarious recipients of nubuwwa—a semi-historical category with somewhat permeable boundaries; (iii) a genealogical entity: individuals or groups constitute an ummah when they share patrimony—a historical category with impermeable boundaries. The ummah pericope functions as a pivot for the entire sura, which draws increasingly complex dichotomies between communal insiders and outsiders. I argue that the sura shows that paleo-Muslim engagements with sectarian competitors cannot be reduced to a very clear supersessionism. Rather, the fundamental point of differentiation between the insider and outsider, is access to and acceptance of huda, prophetic rather than generated knowledge.


Exegesis, Ideology, and Literary History in the Temple Scroll: The Case of the Temple Plan
Program Unit: Qumran
Molly Zahn, University of Kansas

Study of second temple texts that rewrite or otherwise interpret earlier scriptural materials frequently involves attempts to distinguish between “exegesis” and “ideology” or Tendenz: does the later text simply reflect a straightforward attempt to clarify or explain the earlier materials, or does the earlier text serve merely as raw material onto which the concerns of later readers are projected? In most cases, it appears that the reality lies somewhere between these two extremes. The instructions for a monumental temple complex in the Temple Scroll (TS) are a case in point. A real “exegetical” impetus for TS’s idea that God revealed temple instructions to Moses at Sinai is easy to imagine, given the conspicuous absence of such instructions in traditional versions of the Torah and the note in 1 Chron 28:19 that the plan for the first temple was revealed by God to David. On the other hand, insofar as the details of TS’s temple, putatively revealed at Sinai, differ from those of the Solomonic temple, the temple instructions in TS do not simply constitute the exegetical filling of a perceived gap in prior scripture, but a tendentious argument that the Jerusalem temple as described in Kings and Chronicles was not up to snuff. Here as elsewhere in TS, a real textual warrant for exegesis does not preclude, but rather facilitates, an ideological transformation of the tradition. In this paper, I will elaborate upon the above argument for a mix of exegesis and Tendenz in TS’s temple plan, but would like to further advance the discussion with an additional complication. Manuscript evidence suggests that the temple plan of TS did not originate with TS, but already existed (in some form) in at least one earlier text, the arguably pentateuchal manuscript 4Q365 (4QReworked Pentateuch C). We must therefore consider the possibility that the ideological point made by TS—that the first temple did not correspond to God’s command—was not first formulated by TS’s author but instead was drawn from an earlier (pentateuchal!) text. This possibility helps to further contextualize the ideology of TS in the cultural landscape of Second Temple Judaism by hinting at a precursor for one of its major claims. Perhaps more importantly, it also raises methodological issues. It forces us to reformulate the question of exegesis and ideology in TS to accommodate more complexity, proving false the idea of a simple dyadic or binary relationship between “the” scriptural text and the later rewriting of TS, which either straightforwardly exegetes or tendentiously revises the earlier scripture.


What’s in a Lexeme? The Case of Coptic
Program Unit: Biblical Lexicography
Ewa Zakrzewska, University of Amsterdam

Linguistic publications on Coptic, including dictionaries, have long been considered mere auxiliary tools for philological research. In recent years, however, renewed interest in the Coptic language inaugurated new lexicographical projects, primarily devoted to vocabulary of Greek origin: a dictionary of Greek borrowings attested in documentary texts (Förster 2002) and a comprehensive data base of Greek loan words in Coptic (Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic project directed by T.S. Richter). As a next step, the need has been signaled to compile a new, state-of-the-art, general dictionary which could replace the currently available dictionaries by Crum (1939) and Westendorf (1965). Needless to say, the design for such a dictionary has to be carefully considered and the aim of the present paper is to anticipate this discussion. The central question which a lexicographer has to answer beforehand is: “What is a lexical unit (or lexeme) in a given language?” The present contribution, which addresses this question on the basis of examples from Coptic, is specifically devoted to two phenomena which involve composite lexical units:word formation: the treatment of multi-morpheme lexical units, formulaic language use, in particular as attested in religious discourse: the treatment of multi-word lexical units. Both phenomena present a formidable challenge to lexicographers, as they blur the seemingly clear distinction between lexicon and grammar: lexemes vis-à-vis morphemes in the case of word formation and lexemes vis-à-vis phrases in the case of formulae. Moreover, current linguistic research does not provide ready solutions for this challenge, as mainstream linguistics of the second half of the last century chose the existence of a sharp distinction between lexicon and grammar as one of its initial assumptions. It is only since a few years that interest has been growing in such ‘grey area’ phenomena. The purpose of this presentation is twofold: first, to put forward viable lexicographical solutions for the Coptic material and, secondly, to position the relevant Coptic language facts within the newly started linguistic debate on the relations between lexicon and grammar.


Forming a Muslim Understanding of Celibacy: The Case of al-Junayd Baghdadi
Program Unit: Religious World of Late Antiquity
John Zaleski, Harvard University

This paper considers the early Islamic reception of ideas on celibacy and the renunciation of sexual desire. These ideas were contested within and across the religious confessions of Late Antiquity and formed part of the cultural heritage of the late ancient Middle East that was taken up and reinterpreted by Muslims. I focus on the ways that the ninth-century Baghdadi Sufi, al-Junayd, attempted to create an Islamic understanding of celibacy over and against its Christian and specifically monastic connotations. As I argue, Junayd’s writings shed light on the continuing process of the formation of Islamic identity and religious practice. They also provide a point of reflection for academic usage of the categories “Christian” and “Islamic” in the context of late ancient and early medieval religious practice in the Middle East.


The Virgin Annunciate and Public Devotion in Renaissance Siena: The Devotional Function and Significance of Images of the Annunciation
Program Unit: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam: Rediscovering the Marys
Kristina Zammit Endrich, C3 Saskatoon

Although brief, the account of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Luke has inspired a wealth of varied interpretations in the visual arts for centuries. The few verses, offering the Virgin’s perspective, served as a cornerstone of Marian doctrine and liturgy. The subsequent rise to prominence of the cult of the Virgin in medieval Roman Catholicism saw the pre-eminence of the Annunciation theme grow, particularly in Italy. The theme held a dominant position in ecclesiastical art throughout the Renaissance, representing, as it does, the core Christian tenet of redemption through Christ who is made incarnate following the Annunciation. It also functions as a representation of a paragon of womanhood, purity and obedience; Mary, a virgin, offers herself as a vessel in deferent acquiescence to the will of God. This presentation intends to explore the devotional function and significance of images of the Annunciation in the Italian Renaissance, with a specific focus on Renaissance Siena. By concentrating on two major works of art and relating them to a wider artistic context, against the backdrop of existing scholarship on the paintings, I will examine the iconography of the Annunciation and how it was used to reveal the figure of the Virgin Mary to the Renaissance congregation. The two works, the Annunciation panel from Duccio’s "Maestà" and Simone Martini’s "Annunciation with Saints Ansanus and Massima", were both conceived for the same interior space, that of Siena’s Cathedral, during the first half of the fourteenth century. Both reveal captivating insight into the devotional significance of Virgin Annunciate iconography as the subject of a predella painting and a central panel for a main altarpiece. In her obedience Mary becomes the communicator of the Word of God; the Logos that is of one being with the Father, and that has existed since the beginning, is thus “made flesh” in Jesus Christ, “the only begotten Son” (New King James Version, John 1. 1-5, 14-18). The significance of words as the agent of divine action is emphasized in Luke’s account, and they are made incarnate once more in their pictorial transformation into imagery by the hand of the artist. Such paintings are not mere replications of scenes from the earthly domain; instead they suffuse what is perceivable with that which is beyond visual comprehension. Besides exploring the symbols that became regarded as traditional features of an Annunciation image, this presentation intends to address the particularly fascinating portrayals that reveal some form of innovation on the part of the artist, who still strives to maintain the boundaries of decorum. In the realm of public devotion, such margins were more defined, as the images bore the responsibility of engaging a congregation into worship. How did artists address the task of conveying a scene so shrouded in divine mystery? How do contemporary worshippers respond to such images; can the works still inspire viewers and impart knowledge and understanding?


Evidence for Q from the Gospel of Peter
Program Unit: Q
Michael T. Zeddies, Chicago, IL

The pericope of the centurion, a story assigned to Q describing an encounter at Capernaum between Jesus and a centurion, contains language at Matt 7.8//Luke 8.9 that echoes Josephus at Jewish War 2.10.4, which describes the encounter at Tiberias between a Jewish delegation and the Roman legate of Syria, Publius Petronius. I note that the Akhmim Fragment identified with the text of the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (Gos. Pet.) assigns the name Petronius to a centurion tasked with guarding the tomb of Jesus. I suggest that this is unlikely to be sheer coincidence. I further suggest it is unlikely that two authors used Jewish War 2.10.4 independently: one to compose the pericope of the centurion, and the second to assign the name Petronius to a centurion. The use of Jewish War 2.10.4 therefore belongs to a single author and text. This text could not have been Matthew or Luke, since neither mention the name Petronius, and so it must have either been Gos. Pet. itself, or else a source Gos. Pet. shared with one or both of Matthew and Luke. If Gos. Pet. itself, we ought to find other close linguistic parallels between Gos. Pet. and/or Matthew and Luke, but almost no such parallels can be found, as Raymond Brown noted. The text must therefore have been a source Gos. Pet. shared with Matthew and Luke, that contained the centurion pericope. We can identify this source with Q, making Gos. Pet. a witness to Q's contents. This informs us that Q must have have included a passion narrative, as some have argued, similar to but different from Mark's. Because this account was not pre-Markan, but para-Markan or even post-Markan, it escapes for example the criticisms that Brown, John Kloppenborg, and Paul Foster have made of John Dominic Crossan's Cross Gospel hypothesis. I conclude that Q was a narrative gospel. I also explain that these conclusions are not changed if Marcion predates Luke, and discuss some ramifications.


Mark’s Jesus as Post-war Subject in Pre-war Galilee
Program Unit: Redescribing Christian Origins
Christopher B. Zeichmann, University of Toronto

While most scholars agree Mark was composed around the time of the Judaean War, many are reluctant to see any implications in the Gospel aside from isolated pericopae (e.g., Olivet Discourse, rending of the temple veil). This paper will suggest that in fact the conditions of Palestine after the Judaean War resonate throughout Mark. It will argue that Mark presents Jesus as a time-displaced subject from the post-War period that inhabited Galilee during the reign of Herod Antipas. In so doing, the Markan Jesus operates with an anachronistic hindsight allowing him to authorize a number of practices for the Markan association in the post-War period, whether through explicit instruction or exemplary practices of his own. Three particular activities will be discussed at length: 1) Jesus’ discussion of tax practices (12:13-17), 2) spatial reconfigurations adjusting for the loss of the temple, and 3) authorizing the site of Galilee – and Capernaum in particular – as the locus for refugee activity. In so doing, Jesus’ peculiar status as a post-War subject residing the pre-War period (and the continuity the Markan association ostensibly holds with his practices) legitimates their claims to partake in an authentic post-War Judaism. This paper will elaborate on the functions of anachronism and time-displaced subjectivity in Markan patterns of legitimation.


Repetition, Structure, and Meaning in the Talmud and in the Quran
Program Unit: The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Holger Zellentin, University of Nottingham

In the Talmud as well as in the Quran, the repetitions of specific words, expressions, and sentences create internal cross-references within the entirety of the text, within individual tractates or surahs, and within individual literary units within them. For the audience, the appreciation of the repetitions in changing contexts turns every hearing of a text into a rehearing, and every reading into a rereading. While internal repetitions create structure that generates meaning, repetitions throughout the Talmud and the Qur’an additionally lead the audience to perceive a sense of textual familiarity. In their totality, the repetitions inscribe a “secondary” synchronicity into the Talmud’s as well as into the Qu’an’s literary form—a process that began in the time when parts of these texts were first formulated and that culminated when they were redacted in their current form. For all their formal literary affinity, the Arabic Quran and the Aramaic Talmud are entirely distinct works. Rather than pointing to any form of “influence,” the formal affinities between the two texts should be accounted for mainly in the framework of a late ancient Semitic literary koine, comprising both oral and written aspects, in which several genres of Syriac literature equally participate. Scholars such as Michel Cuypers and Devin Stewart have already illuminated many aspects of the Qur’an’s literary features. A broader comparative discussion of Biblical, rabbinic, and Syriac literary forms, however, will show more precisely what the Qur’an shares with its contemporaries, and what is unique to Muslim Scripture. Moreover, a comparative approach allows us consider in how far the groundbreaking literary studies on the formal features of rabbinic literature (by Jonah Frenkel, Joshua Levinson, Jeffrey Rubenstein and others) may yield insights for a better appreciation of the Quran as well.


Prophecy-Oriented Jesus-Judaism versus Rabbinic Judaism
Program Unit: Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Karin Zetterholm, Lund University/Linnaeus University

In this paper I argue that the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1.27–72, the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, and the Didascalia Apostolorum, texts, which combine belief in Jesus as the Messiah and Jewish law observance would have made sense in antiquity as Jewish, although non-rabbinic visions of the history and vocation of the people of Israel, and that their view of Jesus as prophet/ lawgiver with the power to reshape and interpret the Torah was perceived by the rabbis as a challenge to their version of Judaism. Traditionally seen as “Jewish-Christian” (with the emphasis on Christian) the place of these texts within the history of Judaism has only recently begun to be explored in light of the scholarly insight that Jesus-orientation was an option within Judaism for several centuries, at least for some people/groups in some locales. While otherwise diverse, these texts share the belief that Jesus is a prophet/teacher/lawgiver, who has ushered in a new era in the history of the people of Israel, marked by the inclusion of Gentiles in the covenant with Israel’s God. Rec. 1.27–72 and the Homilies in particular promote the idea that prophecy is the only reliable source of knowledge about God. While these traits are commonly considered characteristics of Christianity (i.e. non-Jewish), they have roots in the Bible and first century Judaism, and would have made sense within Judaism in late antiquity provided we do not use rabbinic Judaism as the sole criterion of Jewishness. While profoundly Jewish, the claim that prophecy is the only source of knowledge about God was a challenge to the rabbinic version of Judaism. The view of Jesus as a prophet/lawgiver with unparalleled authority to reshape and interpret the Torah along with the claim to possess prophetic authority—transmitted from Jesus via the apostles to the present-day leadership of Jesus-oriented communities—challenged the foundation of rabbinic Judaism, according to which the right to preserve and interpret the Torah had been given at Sinai to the people of Israel whose leaders and representatives the rabbis considered themselves to be.


"Readin', Writin', and 'Rithmatic" in Ancient Hebrew Palaeography
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Ziony Zevit, American Jewish University

Recent developments in Hebrew palaeography suggest to me that (at least) three different "schools" are emerging, each in a different center. What is considered a "creative" or "innovative" approach to a difficult inscription in one is thought of as "reckless" in another; what is referred to as a "disciplined" approach by one may be dismissed as "rigid" by another. In this brief introduction to presentations by panelists, I will succinctly present recent views about Israelite literacy in the Iron Age and will undertake to identify areas of disagreement between the different approaches to palaeography.


Apparent Contradictions between Pseudo-Jonathan and Its Hebrew Vorlage
Program Unit: Aramaic Studies
Iosif Zhakevich, Harvard University

This paper studies passages in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Ps-J) that appear to convey the opposite sense in the Aramaic text vis-à-vis the corresponding passages in the Hebrew source-text. Michael Klein and other scholars have referred to this technique of translation as “converse translation.” The present study analyzes five cases of apparent converse translation (Genesis 4:14; 4:23–24; 19:33; 37:33; and Exodus 33:3) and advances the thesis that these translations are the result of careful exegesis, and that they serve literary and theological functions in the narrative of Ps-J. The study shows that these apparent converse translations in fact issue out of certain complexities in the Hebrew vorlage and are the targumist’s interpretations of the Hebrew text. In effect, the rendition of the narrative that the targumist offers in the Aramaic version is actually latent in the Hebrew version. In producing these translations, the targumist intended to ensure that a particular reading of the narrative––one that was sanctioned by the targumist––was clearly and unambiguously expressed in the text. This paper contends, in the end, that, inasmuch as apparent converse translations in Ps-J are products of exegesis, they indicate that the targumist did not seek to reject the Hebrew narrative, but rather to explicate it.


Interrupting an Established Parallelism
Program Unit: Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Sarah Zhang, GETS Theological Seminary

Our knowledge of parallelism in biblical Hebrew poetry not only can be gathered through studies of how the relevant poetic elements—phonological, morphological, semantic, syntactic, metaphorical, thematic and prosodic (to name a few)—establish a strong rhythm in a poetic unit, but also can be gleaned from how the establishment is turned around to mark its own end. The poetic elements most susceptible to change at the time of interruption can also be the ones that generate salient textures in the poem. In this paper, I will take a close look at three lyrical turns—Ruth 1:16d–17b, Ps 94:9–10 and Song 8:6, in an effort to outline how gapping serves to wrap up a lyrical unit. It will be presented that stable syntactic pattern, recurring phonetic elements, and balanced line lengths are all essential aspects in the establishment and interruption of paralleled lines. While the aforementioned poetic elements are employed to stabilize a unique rhythm and thus building up accompanied rhetorical force, their implosion through gapping fully cashes out the built-up force in the last punch.


Lyrical Slippages, Meaning-Making, and Proximity in Song 2:10–13
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Sarah Zhang, GETS Theological Seminary

The interpretation of biblical poetry has typically been divided into studies of its various elements, such as the prosodic, semantic, syntactic, thematic aspects of a poem, yet the significance of a poem to its reader is by definition beyond mere rational expositions. This paper will address this issue with the help of the idea of proximity as articulated by Emmanuel Levinas, of how the proximity to the other precedes words and makes the meaning of words meaningful. To achieve this goal, I will focus on lyrical slippages found in Song 2:10–13: (1) accumulative synaesthetic experiences scatter the mental focus over different senses and recollect the saturated (if not overwhelmed) mental focus beyond the correspondence between the word and the world in the language game, resulting in the denuding of the addressee’s sensibility, as vulnerability to her lover; (2) the assumed correspondence between word and world is exposed of its essential instability in the circumventive approach to the poem (in contrast to a “thetic act”). These slippages prevent a definite re-presentation of this poem; instead, they help to invoke and nurture the proximity of the lover to the addressee. In short, for proximity to become alive to one’s perception, one has to diffuse the singly focused attention to the object(s), allowing the interwoven lyrical threads to caress one’s sensibility. With reading being performed as a handshake and a caressing—and being caressed—the addressee is invited to the secret garden where meaning is made, and where she may reach for her lover’s inviting hand.


Biblical Exegesis as Way of Philosophizing: The Beginning and the End of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed
Program Unit: Hebrew Bible and Philosophy
Ying Zhang, East China Normal University

Whether Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed is “a Jewish book for the Jews” (Leo Strauss) or a philosophic book addressing to the Jews and gentiles as well, one thing is clear: Maimonides discusses philosophy and its method at length in the Guide. On the other hand, the Guide, at least at first glance, looks like a biblical exegesis, or even a lexicographic work. Despite Maimonides’ statements that the purpose of the Guide is to “explain the meanings of certain terms in books of prophecy” and “of very obscure parables in the books of the prophets,” and the fact of the seeming genre of exegesis, one may still observe that the very first two chapters (I 1, 2) are full of philosophic implications: his making distinction between “things generally accepted” and “those cognized by intellect,” and between “truth and falsehood and the fine and the bad,” as well as his rendering “the image,” that is, human being’s likeness of God, as natural form, and so on, all pointing to an explicit appreciation of philosophy. The same holds true also in the very last chapters of the Guide, in which Maimonides explain the equivocality of the biblical term hokhma (wisdom) thus draw the conclusion of what is meant by ultimate human perfection. The proposed paper attempts to make a close reading of the first and the last chapters of the Guide, so as to show as clear as possible how Maimonides is pondering philosophical notions by biblical exegesis. It will examine Maimonides’ treatment of certain notions, such as human perfection, intellect, wisdom, and so on, in these chapters and elsewhere in the book. It would be too ambitious to answer the everlasting question concerning Maimonides’ position between philosophy and the Law through such a small piece of work. But the author will always have this question in her mind in studying the Guide.


Floods and Kings: Reconciling Herodotus' Babylonian Logos with Near Eastern Accounts of the Fall of Babylon to Cyrus the Great
Program Unit: Literature and History of the Persian Period
Marcus Ziemann, Ohio State University

It is well known that Herodotus' account of the fall of Babylon to Cyrus differs from Near Eastern accounts. Herodotus claims that Cyrus diverted the Euphrates so that his troops could surreptitiously enter the city. However, both the Cyrus Cylinder and the Nabonidus Chronicle claim that Babylon surrendered without a fight. In this paper I will argue that Herodotus conflated accounts of the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib's razing of Babylon with Cyrus' conquest. After Sennacherib conquered Babylon, he dug canals through the city and boasts in his inscriptions that he dumped the temples' bricks into the Euphrates, which his successors considered impious. Furthermore, he reappropriated Enuma elish for his new Bit-akiti, on which he depicted Assur defeating Tiamat with the Flood. The memory of the flooding of Babylon lived on long after he died. In addition to several references by Esarhaddon, Jeremiah prophesies that Babylon will slide into the ocean. When the Medes and Babylonians sacked Nineveh, they also flooded the city in reprisal for Sennacherib's actions, an act of divine retribution against the Assyrians according to Nabonidus. Nahum, Xenophon, and Diodorus Siculus also describe Nineveh succumbing to divine reprisals. I will argue that Herodotus purposefully grafted this flood-reprisal narrative into the Babylonian logos in order to present Cyrus' conquest of Babylon as the beginning of the Persians' moral downfall. Herodotus' account shares the important strands of the Near Eastern narrative: manipulation of water to sack Babylon, desecration of temples and holy places, and moral stain. The digging of canals and diversion of water fits into a larger scheme of actions that Herodotus considers impious and despotic, most famously Xerxes' lashing and chaining of the Hellespont. As an oracle says to Greeks trying to change their peninsula into an island, “Zeus would have made it into an island, if he wanted.”


Divine-Human Relations in Exod 3:1–4:17
Program Unit: National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Yisca Zimran, Bar-Ilan University

The biblical texts frequently document relationship in which God is represented as holding control and authority, dictating human action, and human beings as accepting the divine prerogative. In some rare cases, however, the opposite relationship exists, wherein the human protagonist is in control, compelling God to bend to his/her will. The disparity between these two types of relationships is illustrated in the gap between the repeated refrain "And God spoke to Moses saying" and the much rarer statement "And Moses spoke to God saying" (Num 27:15). In this lecture, I shall engage in a textual analysis of Exod 3:1 - 4:17 in order to reveal the presence of these two relationships. I shall then examining them in light of the sources that lie behind the text (J and E). Afterwards I shall discuss the significance of their combined presence from a synchronistic perspective, investigating the image of God fashioned by their interlinkage and the meaning the unit bears in its current place within the narratival sequence. Since this passage preceding the account of the Exodus, determination of the nature of the divine-human relationship within it affects the way in which the imminent deliverance and its causes are understood.


The Use of Elegchos / Elegcho in LXX Proverbs and Its Reception in the Hellenistic Diaspora
Program Unit: Greek Bible
Jason M. Zurawski, University of Michigan

Throughout the Septuagint translations, the Greek term elegchos is used typically as a translation of the Hebrew tôka?at, with the verb elegcho translating the Hebrew verbal root y-k-?. In their respective ranges of meaning, the terms have much in common: the verb, in essence, meaning to set to right; the noun, the thing which will set to right. The Greek and Hebrew terms are both found naturally in the juridical setting, signifying refutation, cross-examination, or the like. When one moves outside of the courtroom, however, the exact tenor of the terms can differ significantly. Unique to the Hebrew concept, God’s correction or reproof often takes the form of severe physical punishment and violence, something we do not find in classical Greek sources. An important aspect of the Greek terminology which has no parallel in the Hebrew is found in the philosophical sphere, where elegcho / elegchos represents the controverting of propositions as an integral aspect of paideia. Elegchos cleanses the soul of ignorance and hubris by removing from it unfounded assumptions and presuppositions, leaving the individual in possession only of that which one truly knows and understands. The translation of tôka?at with elegchos, therefore, introduced a different nuance in meaning, especially for those later Jews who exclusively used the Greek text in the Hellenistic Diaspora. In the book of Proverbs, where tôka?at / elegchos are often put into close association with mûsar / paideia, the Greek text consistently tries to distance itself from any inherent notions of violence or physical punishment found in the Hebrew, offering its later users a text which could be understood fully within the Greco-Roman cultural milieu and which would allow the Jews to take part in the important discussions taking place as to the nature of paideia within the broader philosophical perspective.

 
 


JOIN   |  DONATE   |  CONTACT   |  SBL TWITTER   |  BIBLE ODYSSEY TWITTER   |  PRIVACY POLICY

© 2024, Society of Biblical Literature. All Rights Reserved.