"Through the Museum with the Bible" WorkshopsThe Society of Biblical Literature is partnering with The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in a two-day event, April 2-3 2007, that will discuss how ancient material culture can help us to understand the Bible and its world.
The collections of the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University span the globe and the centuries. Housed in a distinguished building by renowned architect Michael Graves, the Carlos maintains the largest collection of ancient art in the Southeast with objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, and the ancient Americas.
Featured Speaker Jodi Magness will give the evening lecture on Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and James. In this slide-illustrated lecture the burials of Jesus and James will be discussed in the context of ancient Jewish tombs and burial customs.
Participants may choose to attend two of the following workshops:
What Can Archaeology Tell Us about Jesus?
- Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism chair in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Archaeology cannot verify the existence of Jesus, but it can shed light on his world and help us better to understand the New Testament accounts. In this workshop we look at what archaeology can and cannot tell us about Jesus.
Ancient North African Art and Biblical Imagery
- Joel LeMon, is currently a fellow at the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University. In the Fall, he will join the faculty of the Candler School of Theology as Assistant Professor of Old Testament. This workshop provides an introduction to ancient Egyptian and Nubian art via the Carlos collections. Participants will discover how these ancient African images can inform our readings of selected biblical texts. Further, they will explore the ways that ancient Israelites shared (and modified) ideas, images, and beliefs with these cultures.
Image, Text, Scripture: How Artifacts and Texts Shed Light on the Bible
- Brent A. Strawn is Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Candler School of Theology and author of What Is Stronger Than a Lion? Leonine Image and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (Academic 2005). This workshop will explore the relationship between images, texts, and artifacts and how the nexus created by attention to all three casts significant light on the Bible and the beliefs represented therein. Specific texts and specific artifacts (including examples from the collections of the Carlos Museum) will be discussed.
See the registration brochure for more information.