July 2014 Newsletter
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SBL Teacher Newsletter

Bible Odyssey
SBL's new website, Bible Odyssey, has been up for a few weeks now, The Ask a Scholar section has been quite busy. Here are some of the questions sent in. (We have transliterated the Hebrew for this newsletter):

"The well where Hagar received her revelation— be'er lakhay ro'i — is mentioned as a place where Isaac was before the meeting with Rebekah. And he later comes to live near it. Is there any tradition that Isaac missed his brother Ishmael after he was expelled from the house of Abraham at Sarah's insistence?"

"Why is 'almah in Proverbs 30:19 translated as the abstract neotéti in the LXX and adolescentia in the Vulgate (and, of course, 'youth' in the Douay-Rheims, a translation of the Vulgate), but differently--as a concrete noun--in Protestant translations?"

If anyone wishes to be an occasional volunteer to answer "Ask a Scholar" questions they should contact Moira Bucciarelli, indicating their area of expertise.


SBL Membership

Login with your member number !*SBLID*! and check to see when your membership and subscriptions are due to expire.

Remember that as a member of SBL you always have access to the Journal of Biblical Literature and the Review of Biblical Literature. You only need to subscribe if you want the paper editions to be sent to you.

If you wish to receive the third issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature you need to subscribe by August 15, 2014. If you want to receive the annual Review of Biblical Literature you need to subscribe by November 1, 2014.

Now is a great time to update your member profile. Remember that if you fill out the member profile you are automatically entered in a drawing to win one of two i-Pads. The drawing will take place on January 2, 2015 so fill out or update your member profile now.

Passings

Ronald F. Youngblood (1931-2014)

Robert M. Grant (1917-2014)
It has been noted that Robert M. Grant (1959) and his father Frederick C. Grant(1934) are the only father-son SBL Presidents...so far.

More on SBL Presidents

ICI Books

Cohen, Yoram. Wisdom from the Late Bronze Age . Writings from the Ancient World. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013.

Miles, Johnny. Constructing the Other in Ancient Israel and the USA, Bible in the Modern World, 32. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011.

Sawyer, John F.A. Sacred Texts and Sacred Meanings: Studies in Biblical Language and Literature, Hebrew Bible Monographs, 28. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011.

Seitz, Christopher R. and Kent Harold Richards, eds. The Bible as Christian Scripture: The Work of Brevard S. Childs. Biblical Scholarship in North America. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013.

Soltysiak, Arkadiusz. Time and Astronomy in Past Cultures, Gorgias Précis Portfolios 6. Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2009.
More info on the ICI Programs

SBL Calendar

Events for Biblical and Religious Studies

Nida 2014 Translation Studies Research Symposium
The Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship is pleased to announce the 2014 Translation Studies Research Symposium. Please join us for two significant lectures: "Translating Biblical Poetry: Ancient Hebrew Verse and the Constraints of English,” presented by Robert Alter (UC Berkeley), with a response by Adriane Leveen (Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion); "World Literature, National Markets,” presented by David Damrosch (Harvard), with a response by Lydia Liu (Columbia).

Date and Time: Friday, September 19, 2014 (10:00am - 3:00pm); Venue: New York Institute of Technology (1871 Broadway at 62nd Street, New York, NY); Registration Fee: $25 USD; Registration Deadline: September 5, 2014.
More information >>

Yee Awarded Stendahl Medal in Biblical Studies
YeeThe Graduate Theological Foundation awarded Dr. Gale Yee of of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the prestigious Krister Stendahl Medal in Biblical Studies for 2015.
Named in honor of the world-renowned New Testament scholar and Dean of Harvard Divinity School, the late Rt. Rev. Dr. Krister Stendahl, the Medal is reserved for those outstanding scholars who have made a significant contribution to the field of biblical studies.
Yee has served SBL in many volunteer positions over the years, including Council, Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession Committee, general editor of Semeia Studies and the Annual Meeting Steering Committee.
She is currently a member of the SBL Research and Publications Committee and on the editorial board of the Ancient Israel and Its Literature series.

International Meeting Report
IM receptionSBL was delighted to partner with the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS) for the 2014 International Meeting. The meeting was a great success.
The crowds at the opening reception, held in the beautiful Rathaus made it plain that this was the most popular international meeting so far. This group of international scholars attended 221 sessions representing almost 500 hours (over 20 days) worth of programming.
We are grateful to the many persons who made this meeting a success and hope you will join us in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 20-24, 2015, for the next SBL International Meeting.

SBL Press
The publications department of SBL became SBL Press as of July 1.  SBL Press will continue to provide:

  • simultaneous publication of hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions of essential research
  • twenty series and journals covering everything from ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman texts to ancient and contemporary methods and interpretations, 
  • cutting-edge reference works, textbooks, monographs, anthologies, and translations. 

Look for our newest series, Writings from the Islamic World, which will debut in August.

We thank you all for your continued support as authors, editors, and customers

New Books from SBL Press

Constructing and Deconstructing Power in Psalms 107–150
W. Dennis Tucker Jr.
W. Dennis Tucker Jr. examines the role of Persian imperial ideology in the creation of psalms in Book 5 of the Psalter and in the shaping of the book of Psalms as a whole. Although much research has been conducted on the relationship between the Persian empire and the creation of biblical texts, the book of Psalms has been largely absent from this discussion. Tucker seeks to rectify this omission by illustrating that Book 5 constructed a subtle anti-imperial ideology in response to the threats imposed from all empires both past and present.

Paper $28.95, ISBN 9781589839724
Hardcover $43.95, ISBN 9781589839731
240 pages • Ancient Israel and Its Literature 19

Myth and Scripture: Contemporary Perspectives on Religion, Language, and Imagination
Dexter E. Callender Jr., editor
In this collection of essays, scholars suggest that using “myth” creates a framework within which to set biblical writings in both cultural and literary comparative contexts. Reading biblical accounts alongside the religious narratives of other ancient civilizations reveals what is commonplace and shared among them. The fruit of such work widens and enriches our understanding of the nature and character of biblical texts, and the results provide fresh evidence for how biblical writings became “scripture.”

Paper $36.95, ISBN 9781589839618
Hardcover $51.95, ISBN 9781589839632
322 pages • Resources for Biblical Study 78

Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine
JoAnn Scurlock
JoAnn Scurlock assembles and translates medical texts that provided instructions for ancient doctors and pharmacists. She unpacks the difficult, technical vocabulary that describes signs and symptoms as well as procedures and plants used in treatments. This fascinating material shines light on the development of medicine in the ancient Near East, yet these tablets were essentially inaccessible to anyone without an expertise in cuneiform. Scurlock’s work fills this gap by providing a key resource for teaching and research.

Paper $84.95, ISBN 9781589839694
Hardcover $104.95, ISBN 9781589839700
786 pages • Writings from the Ancient World 36


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