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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Philippines has one of the largest migrant workers in relation to its total population. Filipinos see migration as a “journey of achievement,” which is expected to culminate in economic success and a rise in social status not only for themselves, but also for their families. Sadly, many of those who work overseas experience marginalization, social dislocation, and downward social mobility. Moreover, having been changed by the migration process and having been shaped a consumerist mentality, those who return cannot fully integrate back into the home country, so that a cycle of departure-return-departure takes place. The story of Moses as a migrant returnee can act as a cultural critique of Filipino migration as a “journey of achievement,” as defined by the global consumerist mentality of success. There is an alternative “journey of achievement” which is defined not by economics, but by commitment and service. Through the call of God to return to Egypt, Moses’ marginal life in Midian became imbued with a transitional character, an in-between state between the Egypt of Moses’ upbringing and the Egypt of his prophetic calling. In the borderlands between Midian and Egypt, Moses underwent a liminal death encounter that transformed him from a marginal person in Midian with a confused identity to one with a new status and vocation as God’s spokesperson in Egypt with an unambiguous Israelite identity. In the same way, the marginal experience of migrant Filipinos when transformed into liminality, can result in the purging of colonial identityand consumerist values, and open a space for new possibilities.

In recent scholarly tradition Daniel has been excluded from prophecy, but chs 7-12 have placed among the apocalypses. Support for this position has been found in the placing of Daniel among the Writings but also in the fact that Daniel is never referred to as a "prophet" in the book. This paper will consider the position of Daniel in the light of recent study of prophecy and apocalyptic.

Cognitive theory maintains that an emotional response is not a reaction to a pre-determined set of behaviors, but rather, derives from the meaning an individual ascribes to behaviors. Therefore, in order to understand the nature of biblical anger, one must explore its social contexts, triggers, and consequences. Biblical anger is predominantly displayed by people with high ranking degrees of authority who direct their anger at dependents. Anger’s primary triggers are rebellion, theft and illicit relations with a superior’s family member. Texts such as Genesis 39 and 44, Numbers 16, Judges 9 and Esther 7 suggest that these triggers are perceived to be a rejection of or trespass upon a superior’s domain of authority. The consequent anger compels a superior to display his power. In light of this recurrent context, this paper suggests that the primary goal of anger in the Bible is to reclaim threatened or compromised authority. This paper additionally observes that when directed at a foreigner, anger incites irrevocably damaging retribution (e.g. Gen 34, Jud 14). In contrast, when directed at a family member anger usually carries no consequence (e.g. Gen 27, 1 Sam 20, 2 Sam 13). These disparate outcomes can be linked to the value placed by the offended on his relationship with his provoker. When an angered party values the relationship between him and his provoker less than the social position, object, or third party the provoker violates, anger compels the offended to protect his authority through murder or banishment. In contrast, when an angered party values the relationship highly, he either silently bears the assault on his domain or searches for a non-destructive means of re-asserting his authority. This paper is part of a larger work in progress wherein it serves as the framework to explain the nature of divine anger.

Any reader of 2 Peter and Jude will notice that a good portion of Jude is found also in 2 Peter. Both the language and thought of these letters is paralleled at numerous points with the principle locus of these correspondences found between Jude and 2 Peter 2. In composing his letter, the author of 2 Peter likely had the Epistle of Jude at hand. Although the author was the earliest interpreter of Jude, we should not assume that both letters counter identical heresies. The author carefully adapted the denunciations found in his source to demonstrate their application to the situation which his recipients faced. The way he adapts his source material classifies this letter within the ancient intertextual category of “imitation” (mimesis or imitatio) rather than “theft” (klope or furtum). Imitatio allowed borrowed material to be reworked extensively to make it one’s own. The models drawn from were regarded as “the books” and due honor was rendered to their authors through this practice. Indeed, authors thus imitated were considered to occupy a place of greater honor than their imitators. The way 2 Peter uses Jude highlights the honor ascribed to Jude since it recognizes him as one worthy of imitatio. Jude, as the half-brother of the Lord, held considerable honor in the Early Church (R. Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus, 1990). The intertexual relationship between 2 Peter and Jude is not simply a question of sources and comparative linguistic analysis but brings us to the heart of the sociology of the Early Church, especially its structures of honor and authority.

Biblical women—from Eve to Mary Magdalene—make occasional appearances in daily and weekly comic strips. Often, they are pictured as the wiser and “better half,” leading or solving when they hapless husbands are at a loss. Such women may be “updated” to our day and age; on other occasions, the cartoonist manages to provide some exegetical insight of value in appraising the ancient text itself. In all cases, there is room for reflection—and laughter.

This paper will discuss various aspects of Neo-Assyrian, and to some extent Neo-Babylonian, libation rituals and then examine their impact on the religion of Israel as described in the Hebrew Bible. Linguistic and literary parallels will be identified in their archaeological and iconographic contexts, highlighting Israel’s incorporation and rejection of elements of these Assyrian rites and the significant role such attitudes played in defining Israelite religion

Biblical studies can no longer be done without awareness of other scriptural systems and their impact on the hermeneutical world of modern readers and interpreters. With the increasing prominence of Muslims in public awareness and as potential students in biblical studies classes, and because of its close parallels with the Bible, the Qur’an, in particular, becomes an important scriptural text to acknowledge and draw into the interpretive conversation. In this paper, the rationale, and potential pitfalls, of integrating awareness of the Qur’an and of the Muslim interpretive tradition into the biblical studies classroom is explored. The reading and interpretation of Biblical and Qur’anic parallels by students with the help of an on-line synopsis, and the addition of Qur’anic material to introductory textbooks on the Bible are examined as potential ways and means of actualizing a wider scriptural awareness in biblical studies pedagogy.

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Previous studies of Matthew’s soteriology have struggled to reconcile the rigorous demands characteristic of Jesus’ teaching with the mercy characteristic of his deeds. I will argue that these themes come together in a powerful way in the judgment scene in Matthew 25:31-46. A comparison with similar descriptions of judgment reveals that the ignorance motif provides a significant clue to the understanding of this passage. Those acquitted come before the judge unprepared to make any claims on their own behalf. They stand out by their attitude as well as by their actions. The passage therefore comes as a fitting conclusion to Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, highlighting the connection between right attitude and right action. The ignorant righteous ones demonstrate how helplessness and obedience both characterize Jesus’ disciples.

While female figures in Luke-Acts have been examined for their rhetorical function, what is the function of the rhetorical examination itself? Using the figure of Lydia in Acts 16 as a test case, I will explore how this female figure in Acts continues to be read socio-historically by focusing attention on her social status and her offer of hospitality. While the interplay between the two has been read differently, even post-colonial readings retain a basic socio-historical assessment. I will show how this assessment has been used rhetorically in inexplicit ways but will argue for a reading that brings the rhetorical nature of the figure to the surface.

The Prologue of John, by and large, has been studied in light of the cultural contexts of Jewish Wisdom traditions and Hellenistic philosophies, with the occasional reference to its Gnostic resonances. In recent scholarship, however, the contextual influence of the Roman Empire has become central in studying the production of the Logos discourse. The interpretation I propose here is a postcolonial exploration of the Johannine Prologue through a parallel reading of the relationships US-Mexico vis-à-vis the relationships God/Logos-humanity. When analyzed through the lenses of border theory and borderlands relations, the classical oppositional pairs of above/below, flesh/spirit, dark/light and divine/human from the Prologue become hybridized creating in the process the possibilities for inclusive realities. Through this reading I suggest that the racialization of Jesus, his becoming flesh-a subject of the human-race-offers a paradigmatic story of interdependency and hybridity that could serve as a model for constructive international relations between the One-Third World and the Two-Thirds World.

In the fifteen years since the publication of "In the Wake of the Goddesses" our understanding of Mesopotamian goddesses has been enriched by the methodologies of gender studies. Previously ignored, non-literary sources such as votive inscriptions, offering lists, and visual imagery have also cast new light. Today's discourse tacitly underlines the weaknesses inherent in Frymer-Kensky's portrayal of gender in the Mesopotamian cosmos. Yet her treatment of goddesses in terms of their femininity, sexuality, and social roles, though simplistic in hindsight, cannot stand alone. Rather, her discussion of the nature and function goddesses cannot be separated from the large question she asks and the overall trajectory of her argument — focusing as it does on the Mesopotamian pantheon being absorbed and transformed by a new theological construct.

This paper is designed to unmask a subversive dimension of the biblical wisdom tradition and texts through a postcolonial and feminist literary approach. The paper will cover some of the wisdom corpus in the Hebrew Bible, focusing on the dialectics of the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman, in comparison with two faces of Job. Investigating the selected texts, I will be attentive to the following literary features.1) How do the dynamics between the dualistic construction (discontinuity) and the interrelation/interplay (continuity) of the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman, who are represented as two conflicting personae that at the same time hint their similarity, work in Proverbs? How do the dynamics of the continuity and the discontinuity of Job’s identity that embodies two personae in one person (Job the hero and Job the stranger/rebelling) work, in comparison with the relation between the Woman Wisdom and the strange woman in Proverbs? 2) How does the resemblance of the capable wife in Proverbs 31 and Job the hero (Job 29; 31), while representing an embodiment of traditional (female/male) wisdom which conforms to social classification and hierarchy, impact the deconstruction of that very traditional wisdom caused by the reversed perspective of Job as the stranger who comes out of Job the hero?

The Exodus event has often been viewed as the supreme expression of God’s intervention in history. This event has been hailed as the epitome of Heilsgeschichte. An ecological reading of the exodus narrative might consider a corresponding Erdegeschichte, tracing the story of Earth as part of the ‘history of salvation’. A more radical ecological approach, however, would set aside an anthropocentric Geschichte approach and consider Earth as an ecosystem. From the perspective of Earth, as an interdependent ecosystem, has God violated the very ‘way’ of each domain of nature involved in the event so that God could ‘gain glory’ and Israel could be saved? In the hands of YHWH the warrior God, the domains of nature appear to become agents of defence or defeat. If we dare to identify with Earth, or specific domains of Earth in the Exodus story, what is the response of Earth to the event? How does the sea react to being an agent of total destruction, allowing no option for prisoners, peace or survival? What do land, sea or fire say if they are to be true to their intrinsic roles in this ecosystem called Earth?

Using recent interpretative models derived from social and cultural anthropology that move beyond the general notion of ethnicity as defined by Max Weber and Frederik Barth, this paper will investigate how “foreigners” and “others” are treated and depicted in select legal inscriptions from ancient Crete (esp. Lyttos and Gortyn). Next to the so-called “foreigner-laws,” the legal material regulating access to sanctuaries in the Greek world will provide a further window on how communities (poleis) regulated their external relationships. Since we can assume that these laws were actually used and their punishments implemented, the insights from the Greek world might aid in understanding the intellectual rational behind the scribal exercise that led to the written codes of Biblical Law.

This paper reflects on the typology of miniature codices, the historical context and use of miniatures, and it raises questions about directions for further study. Special attention will be given to the use and function of miniature codices in early Christianity.

At the core of the traditional Christian portrayal of the Pharisees is the notion that they had exceedingly burdened the everyday life of their contemporaries with various legal interpretations and rules. Various Jewish sources suggest, however, that the legal rulings of the Pharisees quite often made the observance of the Torah more practical rather than hindered the fulfillment of God’s will. The paper studies the early Christian idea of the Pharisees and “burdens hard to bear” (Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46) in its original setting in the saying source Q, where it is a part of the polemical attack against the Pharisees and the lawyers. The woes listed in Q 11:39-52 aim at undermining the integrity of the Pharisees by ridiculing their religious practice. Q 11:46 echoes a rhetorical theme found in Greco-Roman polemical traditions by claiming that the opponents of the Q people demand more of their contemporaries while ignoring their own moral flaws. This claim is understandable in a situation where their proclamation had driven the Q-people into the margins of the surrounding society and their social identity was at stake. Such a polemical claim cannot, however, be taken as an unbiased report of how the Pharisees realized their vision of the true Israel in their everyday life.

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Was Adam a monotheist? He was the first to talk with God, the first to walk with God, the first to worship God. Despite an impressive resume of experience, Adam is seldom even an afterthought in the topic of monotheism. Why is this so? When we think of the great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, it is not Father Adam that we turn to but Father Abraham, who retains the lofty title—“Father of Monotheism.” This presentation will share (1) several reasons why Abraham, not Adam, is considered the first monotheist, (2) the implications that this tradition has upon our reading of the Bible and our understanding of the development of Biblical faith, and finally (3) how LDS scripture impacts this conversation.

Biblical scholars have long suspected that an original and more decisive end to the Pentateuch - one in which Israel occupied the land - was suppressed. This paper will argue that the editorial shaping of the Pentateuch was informed by a transhistorical and identity-conferring notion of exile. This redactional strategy is evident, for example, in the ending of the Pentateuch, which leaves Israel perched on the edge of the Promised Land, still in exile, and which makes the Pentateuch, to quote James Sanders, a "rather truncated affair." This paper will explore how the curses of exile in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 -- in their formulation and their redaction -- also lay a basis for the understanding of exile as metaphorical, transhistorical and identity-conferring. This notion of exile further informs the redaction of the Pentateuch as a whole and further elucidates how an historical experience came to be a paradigm by which present tribulations were rendered and by which the expectation of return and restoration was cultivated.

Anthropomorphic descriptions of deity have long been a significant issue in the study of the Hebrew Bible, as well as in many other areas of religious studies. However, scholars (even in the broader field of religious studies) have not distinguished between different types of anthropomorphism, beyond the generality of “anthropomorphism” (i.e., any reference to physicality) and “anthropopathism” (i.e., thinking and feeling as humans do). This is the same basic binary division evident in the scholarship of a century ago, then called physical and psychical anthropomorphism. References to the face or arm of Yahweh, for example, are still treated as the same phenomenon as Yahweh appearing in a vision, or even walking the earth. Given the significant concern with anthropomorphic portrayal of deity shared by many biblical authors and traditions, it is necessary to differentiate between diverse kinds of anthropomorphism, both in biblical texts and in the broader context of Near Eastern literature. This paper involves the identification and analysis of diverse categories of anthropomorphism, as well as an exploration of the uses of each type in both biblical and Near Eastern texts. Some examples of types of anthropomorphism that differ in important ways include concrete anthropomorphism (physical and literal embodiment on the earth, such as Yahweh walking in the garden, or Anat battling young men), envisioned anthropomorphism (physical, but in a dream or vision, such as Amos’ vision of Yahweh standing before the altar), figurative anthropomorphism (metaphoric or abstract language with no implication of visible physicality), and more. The uses of these diverse types of anthropomorphism reflect a range of perspectives of the nature of deity, and of divine-human contact and communication. The examination of different types of anthropomorphism illuminates the perspectives of various biblical authors and traditions, and on occasion demonstrates unexpected divergences between Israelite and Near Eastern thought.

Archaeological evidence reveals the mid-first century beginnings of the cult of Palaimon at the Pan-hellenic sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia, a sanctuary that Pausanias will later include in his peripatetic reconstruction of Greek religious identity. However, the evidence at the site tells the story of a Roman cult. This paper will explore the cult’s origin through the lens of Homi Bhabba’s concept of hybridity, and through references to examples of its comparative application in discussions of contemporary globalization of religion. The paper concludes that while the concept of hybridity, with its fundamental insight that religious communities are not passive but imaginative and innovative appropriators of globalized cultural products, can be helpful in understanding the origins of this cult, this particular Roman example demands a serious re-description of the post-colonial understanding of the relationships of power usually assumed in modern applications of this concept.

The Maccabean revolt prompted a variety of theological responses to violence. Jewish thinkers operated within a common tradition of law and salvation history. Yet they developed different understandings of the meaning of persecution, martyrdom, civil and foreign war, and how one should act in these circumstances. This paper will consider three texts in historical context: the Animal Apocalypse, Daniel, and the Book of Jubilees. The Animal Apocalypse promotes participation in the Maccabean revolt. The conflict is portrayed not only as national resistance to foreign oppressors, but as a façade for a cosmic conflict. God and angels determine the outcome, but by joining the struggle humans claim a share in the victory of the cosmic alliance. The final apocalypse of Daniel differs significantly in emphasis, but should not be understood as quietistic. Daniel addresses the problem of those who do not live to see vindication. Humans may not determine the course of history through military victory, but they do determine their own fate in the resurrection. Although Daniel focuses on the role of teachers, the teachers do not compete with the fighters. Rather, they serve as theological ground support. The Book of Jubilees looks back on the revolt as a futile civil war driven by impiety on all sides. The foreign armies are viewed as divine punishment to be met with repentance, not resistance. Although biblical wars were justified, Jubilees paints warfare, especially civil war, as demonic. Furthermore, the legal ruling against fighting on the Sabbath amounts to a prohibition against joining an army in the first place. These three texts all work within the Jewish tradition to interpret the same crisis in the same genre, yet they develop different theological perspectives with very different implications for how the person of faith should understand and respond to violence.

In last year's session, I presented an overview of the process of--and the questions and problems involved in--rendering Paul as a dramatic character. Chief among those questions was, and remains, a decision about the major, overriding goal of the Paul of the authentic letters, and the principal obstacles that stand in the way of that goal--i.e., the dramatic through-line. For this session, I will present a section of the monologue that will illustrate how I have dealt with these issues, and, it is hoped, generate critical discussion about the dramatic choices.

According to the Sloan Consortium, nearly 3.2 million students took at least one online course in the fall of 2005 — an increase of more than 800,000 over the previous year. As a result, more and more faculty are finding themselves faced with the challenges of teaching distance courses. Even when institutions provide faculty with a "turn-key" online system (e.g. BlackBoard, Moodle, etc. ), many feel unprepared and overwhelmed with all the details of planning and designing an online course. This presentation will give a brief overview of some basic principles of instructional design (the "how to's" of developing a course from scratch), with a particular view towards planning and designing an online course. Topics will include (1) setting course goals and objectives; (2), understanding the "distance" in distance education; (3) deciding which content to deliver in which format; (4) designing appropriate tests / exams; and (5) some "ups and downs" of teaching online. A list of web resources to assist in the planning and designing of web courses will be made available to attendees.

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The social implications of Jesus’ parables have been little studied against the backdrop of the rabbinic parables (though, pace, P. Fiebig and R.M. Johnston), let alone their imperial context. W.R. Herzog II has delineated the subversive social content of the parables within their Palestinian milieu. However, modern interpreters of the parables have forgotten that the retelling of Jesus’ parables by subsequent generations of believers in the Empire would have posed questions for their auditors regarding the social and political consequences of the ‘reign of grace’. In the first century, the eschatological age of Augustus marked a watershed in beneficence. From the late first century BC, as the Julian house eclipsed its rivals, beneficence was monopolised by the Caesars. The one-sidedness of this contest struck contemporary observers as a turning point and this was reflected in the Augustan propaganda. Luke’s gospel, as R.A. Horsley has demonstrated, is alert to the themes of the Augustan propaganda and resists its soteriological implications. Moreover, Jesus is portrayed as one who criticised the rule of the Hellenistic and Roman Benefactor-Kings (Lk 22:25), along with their affluent Herodian clients in palaces (Mt 11:7-8; cf. Lk 13:32). Jesus, as rendered by Luke in 6:32-36, jettisons the entire modus operandi of the reciprocity system (including its imperial expression), thereby setting himself against one of the most fundamental social conventions of antiquity. There is need, therefore, for further study of Jesus’ parables within the networks of grace established by the imperial benefactors. This paper investigates the political and social consequences of Jesus’ parables of grace against the propaganda of the Julio-Claudian benefactors and the counter-propaganda of their critics. It will be argued that the ‘reign of grace’ inverted the social dynamics of imperial grace and established an alternate community of servant benefactors who would be vindicated by their ‘Lord of grace’.

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In my paper I will examine the form and function of narratives of appearances of the risen Jesus in several non-canonical writings. Particular attention is paid to the appearance stories that form a narrative frame for some Christian Gnostic dialogues. On the basis of this analysis of the non-canonical stories, a comparison with the canonical narratives offers new perspectives on the formation and development of the tradition. In my opinion, the typical features of the appearance story genre are more clearly visible in later writings. For example, they are autonomous stories used in different contexts, while in earlier sources the connection to the passion narrative is essential. Furthermore, in the terminology and character of the appearance itself, the similarity of Jesus to a heavenly messenger is reinforced. From these observations on the development of the tradition in the written sources available, conclusions can be drawn relating to the shape of the early oral narrative tradition on the resurrection. It seems likely to me that the earliest stories about some disciples (most important: Mary Magdalene) meeting Jesus after his resurrection did not resemble appearance stories and did not exist independent of the passion narrative. In general, my paper gives an example as to how form-critical analysis of non-canonical writings might help to reconstruct early oral (pre-canonical) tradition, although the appearance stories examined clearly represent a late stage of the tradition.

This paper flirts with “race” at the confluence of postcolonial and queer theories, rocking its place on the (disintegrating?) raft of Identity, through a reading of the story of Lazarus, a dead man who was raised, unwrapped then ignored (John 11:1-44). Lazarus is a figure for “race,” also erected, exposed than put aside as if it is defiled and defiling. “Race,” together with “gender” and “class,” whirled the shores of biblical criticism with the fleet of literary and ideological criticisms. And with the hurls of postcolonialism, exposing the faces upon which empires rise, the “race” of darker skin people marked the repressed identities. This marking is problematized in the diaspora, where the identities of (mostly darker skin) migrants are hyphenated and hybridized. Whose experiences, e.g., should define Asian identity? The experiences of people in Asia (who are conditioned by the West)? of first generation Asians in diaspora (who are rooted in the homeland)? of second and third generation “Asians” (who may have no connections to Asian homelands and mother tongues) in diaspora? Under the rave of queer theory, we see how identity is constructed and inherently hybrid and mixed. So is “race.” We can also see, and query, darker colored people building empires. Is “race,” as we know it, drowning? I handle Lazarus at this juncture. Lazarus, still, will rise, unbound and bathed (cf. Moore’s Parlor and Gym), then led to meet other racialized characters: the Medium of Endor (who gazes at the dead), Uriah the Hittite (murdered by s/words), Mrs. Potiphar the Egyptian (partner of a gay man, as Bailey suggests), and the black lover on the couch of the Song of Songs. For “race” to walk again, the strangle of Identity must be unbound so that “race” may bathe in the wells of queer theory.

In 1989, in a short article entitled “Die Armut der Jünger in der Sicht des Lukas”, Hans-Josef Klauck suggested that the key to understanding Lukan wealth ethics might lie in the coincidence of his prescriptions regarding possessions and family. The present essay proposes to take up Klauck’s thesis in somewhat greater detail, contending that these two themes, more vociferously expressed in Luke’s Gospel than any of the other Synoptics, are integrally connected and a direct product of Lukan eschatology. This analysis of Luke 9.57-62, 14.25-35, 17.20-37, and 18.18-30 will also highlight the integration of the themes of wealth and family into the broader frameworks of discipleship and history in Luke, and thereby intends to make strides towards ameliorating Luke’s apparently equivocal imperatives regarding the use of possessions.

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This paper offers a full investigation of the way in which the Greek text of Mark is presented in Codex Sinaiticus, including a singular reading analysis and with special attention to the unusual paragraphing (esp. prominent in chs 8-9) and the use of lists (e.g. 7.21f). I shall also deal with the textual/reading function of the nomina sacra and the effect of the marginal Eusebian sections. I hope also to investigate the effect of successive corrections on the readings of the manuscript.

KTU 1.101 describes Ba’al with the imagery of a stormy mountain. Given that Ba’al is often described as a storm god whose home is located on Mt. Zaphon, these attributions seem relatively unremarkable. However, the poetic genius of this text lies not in its choice of familiar images of Ba’al, but in the way in which these familiar attributes are deployed in distinct and interesting ways. This paper argues that the interchange of poetic techniques as well as the interaction of storm and mountain imagery in the explicit comparison of Ba’al to a stormy mountain in KTU 1.101 carefully nuances these two primary associations for the storm god. Within the poetic flow of the text the storm imageries are gradually subverted by the mountain imageries to illustrate a complex deity who is unpredictable and inaccessible as well as fixed and constant. The paper's primary exposition of the text highlights the text’s interchange of simile and metaphor as well as its alternation of visual and auditory imageries. Conceptual metaphor theory is applied to the primary metaphors of the text with the aim of determining the significance of these attributions in the world of the text. Finally, this examination is brought into conversation with the Ba’al cycle with the aim of illustrating the religious discomfort which may have given rise to the desire to nuance the storm god’s attributes.

In the first part of the paper, six proposals for the composition of Q 11:14-52 by Kloppenborg (1987), Sato (1988), Jacobson (1992), Schürmann (1994), Kirk (1998) and Fleddermann (2005) are presented and evaluated. Those compositional studies are all based on the "literary paradigm". Recently Horsley/Draper (1999) and Dunn (2003) have called this paradigm in question and have proposed an oral model for the Q material. According to Horsley, "Q was an oral-derived text that calls for interpretation as it was performed orally before groups or people". Thus, in the second part of the paper, it is asked how "altering the default setting" from a literary to an oral mindset (Dunn 2003) can help to understand the composition of Q 11:14-52. Which are the gains, which are the losses?

In this paper I will offer some reflections on a number of developments in Scrolls studies over the last decade. This period saw the full publication of the literary corpus. We are now on a firm footing to assess the significance of the corpus for our understanding of ancient Judaism. The issue of the communities reflected in the texts has received new nuances both because many texts are not sectarian and because some key sectarian texts exist in multiple textual forms. The latter question is closely related to the important role of scribes in the shaping and/or creating of texts. These and related questions will be discussed in this paper.

This paper examines the Gospel of Peter in light of the early objections to the resurrection of Jesus that were made by critics of the Christian movement during the first two centuries of the Common Era. I suggest that the traditions involved in the formation of the Gospel of Peter developed, in large measure, as a response to specific arguments made against the Christian claim that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Preliminary reasons for adopting the view that the Gospel of Peter postdates the New Testament Gospels are discussed briefly. Building on the work of Graham Stanton and others, I then survey some of most pertinent early objections to the Christian resurrection claim that were made by outsiders. The majority of the paper is devoted to an examination of several of the ways in which the Gospel of Peter retells the story of Jesus’ resurrection in a manner that appears to reflect apologetic reaction to non-Christian criticisms of previous burial and resurrection narratives. This approach of referring to documented objections avoids some of the pitfalls inherent in the mirror-reading of texts.

The Apocalypse’s violent imagery has headlined discussions of the Bible in recent years. Accordingly, a number of hermeneutical approaches have been applied to the problem with varying results. The Apocalypse’s manuscript tradition, however, remains an untapped primary source in such investigations. Moreover, while the Apocalypse’s reception history is often an integral part of such studies, the actual textual history of the Apocalypse is seldom incorporated. This paper will attempt to fill this lacuna by approaching the issue from the perspective of fourth and fifth century scribes. Specifically, the paper will explore scribal changes to passages containing depictions of angelic violence in the Apocalypse. Contrary to widely held assumptions about the types of scribal activity in the Apocalypse’s manuscript tradition, several early variants suggest that scribes were also concerned about its violent content.

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The phenomenon of parallelism in biblical Hebrew poetry continues to attract the attention of researchers with diverse points of departure. In this essay, I highlight recent contributions by the following scholars: Phillip Nel, Joel LeMon, Walter Gross, Martin Mark, and Klaus Seybold. The outline of a project in which the corpus of ancient Hebrew poetry is to be tagged in terms of prosodic, semantic, syntactic, and morphological parallelisms will also be presented.

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4QPseudo-Ezekiel is usually dated to the second-century BCE as pre-Qumranite composition. Hitherto much attention has focused on 4Q385 fragment 2 (// 4Q386 1 I 1-10, 4Q388 7 1-7) as well as fragments 3-4. This paper will reconsider the question which place resurrection has within the larger framework of Pseudo-Ezekiel's vision account, thereby paying particular attention to the sequence of columns I and II of fragment 1 of 4Q386. The analysis will be conducted along two main lines:(1) the place of resurrection in 4QPseudo-Ezekiel's theological perspective, with attention for(a) the occasions for references to knowledge of God as Lord (4Q385 2 4 and 4Q386 1 II 1);(b) the role of God's covenant (4Q385 2 1);(c) the identification of those subject to divine redemption (4Q385 2 1-4, 8 and 4Q386 1 II 3 and 6);(d) the dialectic between Ezekiel's questions and divine answers(2) the relation of 4QPseudo-Ezekiel to biblical tradition. Should one analyse the text in terms of reworking the biblical text or of elaboration on an older literary version of Ezekiel in accordance with Lust's thesis about papyrus 967? The focus on resurrection as reward for a just/pious way of life of the children of Israel (4QPseudo-Ezekiel) is different from the focus on restoration and return from exile in the majority text of Ezekiel 37 (Ezek 37:12-14.21-22). Nevertheless, the Pseudo-Ezekiel fragments also pay attention to the expectation of gathering together in view of an experienced situation in which the land of Israel lies waste (4Q386 1 II 2-3) and to the divine return of a remnant (4Q386 1 II 6). Analysis of this evidence and comparison with other 'parabiblical texts' will serve as the basis for comments on criteria to specify the relation between parabiblical texts and biblical tradition.

Within the various linguistic frameworks of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the relative clause has been the object of as much, if not more, scrutiny than any other clause type. It has a high frequency of usage, independent of text or register type, and in many languages it exhibits features (such as the movement or non-movement of the relativized noun phrase, the presence or absence of a resumptive constituent, and restrictive versus non-restrictive semantics) that provide access to basic structural properties of that language. This paper will provide an overview of the features of the relative clause in the primary NWS inscriptions, highlight specific areas in which the current understanding of relative clause properties requires revision, and provide points of comparison with Biblical Hebrew.

As a biblical book the book of Jeremiah transmits normativity to two groups of audiences, the implied biblical audiences and contemporary Christian and Jewish audiences. The question is how this is done? Can we identify the modes of communication in the literary structure of the narratives in this prophetic book? My proposal is that the literary persona, Jeremiah the prophet, serves as the vehicle for this communication, partly as a role model for the people in distress, partly as a metaphor for God. The presentation will examine the interaction in some of the narrative texts between God, prophet, and people, showing that here we find a matrix of conjunction and disjunction between the three parts which helps to communicate the message of a new normativity on the ruins of a destroyed society. The final question then remains: Does this communication strategy still work in contemporary Christianity? Is the book of Jeremiah still a normative book?

Sixty years ago, a cave containing ancient Hebrew manuscripts were found in the hills of the Judean desert. Though to be associated with a community called the Essenes, these manuscripts proved to provide valuable insight into the known existence of the Jewish Essene sectarian group known from Josephus. The description about the Essenes in Josephus was able to shed light not only on the identity of the community associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also on the ideology of this apparently identical community. Examination of various themes among both literary works revealed unmistakable similarity. This paper will examine one particular theme: sacrifice in particular, in both works with regard to this harmonization. The Essene group will be examined according to Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities 18.19; a textual analysis of this passage will be given in order to understand its overall context. Reference will also be made to the description of the Essenes in Philo’s Quod Omnis Probus Liber sit 75. Subsequently, certain claims will be made about the probable connection between the classical descriptions of the Essenes and movement associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls (the DSS movement hereafter). If, in fact, this connection can be made, then insight concerning the cultic ideology of the entire DSS movement (which includes the later Qumran-related community) can be determined. With this in mind, Josephus’ and Philo’s descriptions also need to be investigated alongside the texts of the DSS movement and later Qumran-related community. In this examination, this paper will investigate the sectarian works of the Dead Sea Scrolls only.

The Qur’an reflects knowledge of main events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Key among them are his conception and birth, instructions he offered to his disciples, as well as his death and resurrection. For parallel information the reader of Christian literature can draw on Biblical and extra-biblical, specifically apocryphal material. While certain parallels between the Qur’an and the narrative recorded in the Biblical text have been discerned, that angle of comparative analysis is neither exhaustive nor often satisfactory. Also, parallels between Qur’anic traditions and early Christian apocryphal literature have been studied previously, but for the most part only in a selective manner. The Protoevangelium of James and the Infancy Gospel of Pseudo-Thomas readily come to mind. Thus far, no systematic treatment of the question of the relationship between apocryphal traditions and the formation of the text of the Qur’an has been offered. Within the framework of research that aims at closing this gap, this paper addresses the question of parallels between the Qur’an and apocryphal literature that deals with the apostles as Jesus’ followers as well as with Jesus’ death. The paper also argues that the examination of the reception history of specific apocryphal texts in the first millennium C.E. as well as of the transmission history of these texts in the manuscript tradition offers a crucial component in studying the intersection of apocryphal literature with the Qur’an.

The explosion of the internet in the last decade or so rivals the revolutionary global changes of technologies of previous centuries (linguistic, agricultural, industrial, nuclear). Each of these revolutions produced varying constructions of normative desire. The construction of desire necessary for the rise of post-war, pre-internet (thus bounded and defined) monopolistic and colonial capitalism, is obsolete. While Michel Foucault describes the discourses (e.g., Christianity) that produce sexual desire within a Western, capitalist milieu, he does not take into account such a dramatic change within capitalism itself. While Freud et al posit masochism (a blurring of pleasure and pain) as rudimental in the formation of desires, Christianity takes a leading role in constructing normative desires borne of masochism for the maintenance of Western capitalism. The primary question I address is, what role can a masochistic Christianity play in the construction of different sexual desires, of new normatives? Several critics have already imagined these alternative desires, these “queer heterosexualities.” Kaja Silverman offers the ‘male lesbian.’ A man who desires to be passive, to be dominated by a woman takes on the role of a woman who desires other women; who seeks sexual gratification through passivity and without the penis. She effectively separates gender from sex, but creates other problems. Similarly, in Take it Like a Man, David Savran argues that at the core of a masochistically produced capitalism lies the feminine male: a male who desires pain and humiliation, who seeks victimization and identifies as victim though he occupies a place of power. Christianity, a principal source of Western symbolic order, has constructed a model of masculinity and sexual desire necessary to produce the subjects Silverman describes as the “normative desires and identifications” that a dominant fiction requires. I will re-read selected Pauline texts to explore possible queer constructions of normative desires.

How do NT texts construe and assert authority? Cognitive linguistic analysis points to dynamic interaction among the conceptual metaphors, frames and blended mental spaces activated as the text is read in specific linguistic communities. Roles played and voices heard via fictive discourse evoke, subvert and revise conventional construals of moral authority.

Examining the ways interpreters have responded to Revelation’s violent imagery allows modern interpreters to understand the contours of this violence and to devise new methods of approaching these sometimes troubling texts. We may not be surprised to learn of Revelation’s popularity in the medieval world, a world typically thought of as violent. However, a close look at two medieval texts that use Revelation as a visionary model, those of Hildegard of Bingen and Hadewijch of Brabant, suggests that Revelation’s scenes of destruction were not always appropriated in a straightforward manner. Although they reinterpret Revelation’s violence toward distinct ends, these visionary writings employ violence in their reworking of Revelation’s image of the faithful or the church as a bride. It is this intersection between violence and gendered imagery which this paper will explore as a means of better understanding Revelation itself.

The Book of Jeremiah presents consistent advocacy for the goal of the suvival of the Yahwistic community in the face of the overwhelming Babylonian military power, a power directed against Israel by God. Judah itself is to avoid warfare, whether as resistance by King Zedekiah or assassination by the royal Ishmael, as such actions have only negative consequences. By avoiding warfare the community can survive in forced exile, as shown in the letter to the whole community exiled to Babylon, or in remaining in the land, as in the advice to the remnant community following the the assassination plot by Ishmael. The path of survival includes praying for the well-being of Babylon and rejects violence, although this policy is not described in terms of non-violent resistance as in the stories in the Book of Daniel. The community's task does include resistance to false, misleading voices within the community, such as the prophet Hananiah in Judah and the false prophets and diviners in Babylon who will themselves encounter violence either from God or from the Babylonian king. The primary focus of the community is faithfulness to God who will eventually restore them. Ultimately, survival will be possible because of the radical intervention of God in the internal transformation of the people.

This paper compares moral exhortation for women in two letters: from the Pythagorean Melissa to Kleareta, and the NT Pastoral Letter to Titus. In Melissa’s letter, an older woman gives advice to a younger woman about wifely decorum. This letter, found in P. Hauniensis II.13, dates to the 3rd century CE. The papyrus is a Koiné version of the Doric text found in twenty-two Renaissance manuscripts. (The Doric text seems to be more original.) The papyrus provides the earliest documentation for the letter’s transmission and its social functions. In Titus, the author gives gender- and age-specific “sound teachings,” paying particular attention to the older women instructing younger women in virtuous behavior (2:3-5, found in the earliest ms. for Titus, P 32, ca. 200). The goal of the teaching evokes a philosophical way of life within a Christian context. I argue that both letters presume a common philosophical-educational process for women, in that: (1) they share literary characteristics of the philosophical letter genre (being pseudepigraphic, paraenetic, and using classical rhetorical stylistic features); (2) they utilize authoritative (and pseudepigraphical) names to reinforce the teaching; (3) older women are thought to be the appropriate teachers of and models for younger women, and (4) the content of women’s instruction is different from that for men, i.e., exemplified in “feminine” topoi. On the other hand, the letters differ in their “theological” basis for virtuous living, which is seen in Titus in the “Christianization” (and especially, “Paulinization”) of the teaching. Also, while the letter of Titus explicitly anticipates an audience of men and women, Melissa’s letter to Kleareta imagines an all-female readership.

In a series of three experiments, groups of adults read a series of quotes attributed to Jesus, then evaluated the quotes on several dimensions (e.g., The passage is judgmental; Reading the passage comforts me.) from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. Some participants read “pink-letter” passages, judged by the Jesus Seminar (The Five Gospels, 1993) to be quotes similar to what Jesus probably said. Other participants read “black-letter” passages, judged by the Jesus Seminar to be things Jesus did not say. Experiment 1 involved quotes from the gospel of Mark, Experiment 2 quotes from the gospel of Thomas, and Experiment 3 quotes from the gospel of Luke. In Experiments 2 and 3, black-letter passages were further subdivided into apocalyptic and nonapocalyptic passages. Across the three experiments, pink-letter passages were rated significantly less: judgmental, critical, aggressive, “doom and gloom,” and pessimistic than the black-letter passages. In addition, pink-letter passages were rated significantly more: loving, active, comforting, in agreement with religious beliefs, and applicable to one’s own life. Apocalyptic black-letter passages were rated especially judgmental, critical, unloving, aggressive, noncomforting, pessimistic, and filled with doom and gloom. Comparisons between college student and older adult participants showed that older participants generally rated the passages as easier to understand, less abstract, less passive, and more challenging. This study suggests an empirical methodology for studying the response of laypeople to biblical passages, in particular to passages identified by Jesus Seminar participants as attributable or not attributable to Jesus, a methodology readily adaptable to other topics. Results will be discussed in terms of their implications for understanding and interpreting the historical Jesus.

This paper applies Pierre Bourdieu's sociological approach to language, as exemplified in his "Language and Symbolic Power," to the text of Jude. This is, in a sense, an application of a form of speech-act theory, such as has been applied with good results to other short, anti-heretical writings from the New Testament. But Bourdieu's unique approach to linguistic practice is especially well suited for Jude and his world, and promises insights beyond what can be achieved with a Searlean approach. Because Jude was unwilling or unable to describe his opponents beliefs or practices with much clarity, Bourdieu's conviction that language is employed to achieve certain outcomes—rather than simply in the hopes of conveying information—is a particularly promising point of departure. Jude's language is amazingly skillful and allusive and acerbic, but also amazingly uninformative; a socio-linguistic approach that de-emphasizes "meaning" is ideal. Jude can thus be conceived more as performance and as act and less as communiqué. Bourdieu's concepts of field and capital can be applied productively to Jude as an utterance. Each field has its particular rules, which shape what will be capital. With Bourdieu, we can ask how Jude, in the very act of writing his letter, was trying to alter the linguistic rules so as to alter, in his particular "field," the distribution of its forms of capital. Furthermore, each linguistic market will determine the value of a particular utterance, and hence competent utterances will reveal the market's social structure. Thus we can learn not only about Jude and his effort to change the rules of the game in his own favor, but also about the social structure that constrained his linguistic options.

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Based on my recent book, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (Eerdmans, 2006), I review major physical/visual features of earliest extant Christian manuscripts, with special attention to those containing what came to be Christian scriptures; and I explore what inferences we can draw about Christian usage of these texts in the second and third centuries CE.

In 1 Corinthians 5:3 Paul expresses his own verdict in terms of three participle phrases: "For though absent in body (apon to somati), I am present in spirit (paron de to pneumati); and as if present (os paron) I have already pronounced judgment." The first of these no doubt denotes Paul's bodily absence. However, scholars have been grappling over the meaning of the latter two. The scholarly views on the paron phrases in 1 Corinthians 5:3 can be largely divided into three groups: (1) anthropological interpretations; (2) theological interpretations; and (3) epistolarly interpretations. While it is difficult to reconstruct exactly how Paul's letter was delivered to the Corinthians, the epistolary-rhetorical interpretation that fully accounts for the aural/oral nature of the paron phrases and that can properly appreciate their 'vivid' and 'realistic' sense and the rhetorical force of Paul's threefold emphasis on his epistolary presence in the Corinthian community seems to be far more promising than the other two views. In this paper, it will be argued that Paul intentionally uses the paron phrases twice to make his voice heard in the Corinthian community when the text is orally performed by the letter-bearer, probably Timothy, so that the Corinthians might make the same decision with regard to the sexual offender.

That there is an ecological crisis which is worsening daily is a fact we can no longer ignore. Unfortunately, the issue and concern for ecology is one area which is neglected in biblical scholarship. Biblical scholarship has traditionally understood and read, and to date has focused on attempts to interpret Ps 8 more from anthropological perspective giving importance to humans as the center of creation. As such, the role “to have dominion” assigned to human was misunderstood. This paper is an attempt to rethink the traditional categories by which humans distinguish themselves from the natural world and will seek to situate Psalm 8 within an ecological reading to re-read the text in the light of alternative creation myths. This paper will ask whether Psalm 8, as is, is not anthropocentric and does a re-read from a Naga perspective reveal another orientation? How does Naga tribal creation myth helps to understand the interrelationship between the place of humans and the rest of their natural surroundings.

Manichean codices were overwhelmingly present in the Roman Empire as instruments of bilingual religious propaganda; their illuminations, sizes, and titles made them also significantly more attractive than their Christian counterparts. This paper identifies the strong connection between the constant reference to Mani’s books in three Manichean writings and the rapid spread of Manichaeism from Syria into Egypt in the fourth century, as a result of intense missionary efforts. In Cologne Mani Codex, the revelation of Mani’s prophetic persona is never separated from the act of writing down its content in apocalyptic books, by the prophets themselves, or by their closest disciples. The first pages of the Kephalaia, a Coptic fourth-century text, originally written in Syriac, attributed to the first generation of Manicheans, present a Mani preoccupied with turning his oral teaching into books. The Kephalaia sets the educational frame for imparting Mani's teachings. This textual stratagem lends authority both to Mani’s figure and to his disciples who would carry the Kephalaia westward, translating the original Syriac in Greek and Coptic. The very act of further copying these translations had ritual meanings, being later converted into a religious practice of its own. Finally, with the Manichean Homilies one could look at Mani’s scriptures as instruments of power that have become even more effective with the birth of the codex and its wide use in Christian Egyptian circles. This paper argues that the Manichean sub-elite acquired its textual identity in Syria, becoming a “religion of the Book” under Jewish influence. A missionary religion, such as Mani’s, adapted its message not only to the social structures of early Christianity in Syria and Egypt, but also to the more subtle tones of the administrative and textual culture that permeated the Roman provinces.

Qoheleth laments the disposition of his “toil” (’amal) because at death he will have to pass his “toil” on to others (Eccl 2:17-23). Qoheleth’s anguish is tinged with irony from two perspectives. First, Qoheleth holds a managerial view of labor. “Toil” in Ecclesiastes 2 is not work that is toilsome due to the nature of the tasks themselves. Qoheleth’s work involves the use of his mind, the exercise of wisdom and knowledge (Eccl 2:19, 21). Qohelet’s attitude toward “toil” here is work viewed from an aristocratic perspective, of the king in particular, and also of Qohelet as a learned and successful member of the upper class in actuality. ’amal in this scene refers to the work of the aristocrat, the landlord, and the estate manager. A second, related irony is that Qoheleth never acknowledges that his “toil,” the wealth that he has accumulated because of “toil,” is actually the result of the “toil” of the hammer strokes of the carpenter on his house, the sweat of the gardeners who planted his vines, and the backaches of the laborers who dug out his reservoirs. In his discontent over losing his “toil,” he never acknowledges that his “toil” is the product of the “toil” of others. This paper will offer an economic and social critique of Qoheleth’s managerial view of labor as it highlights the irony of his anguish over the disposition of the fruit of his “toil.”

Even a cursory comparison of the content that is available in the extant psalms attributed to Asaph, and the characterization of the Asaphite role/content as we find it in 1 Chronicles 16:1-42 and Nehemiah 11:17 (and elsewhere), reveals something of a disconnect. Indeed, 1 Chr 16 records the psalm-singing of the Asaphites, and for an example records not one of the psalms "le-Asaph," but a composite of Pss 96, 105 and 106. The question is, “Why is this the case?” Interpreters of the Psalms have tended at this point to simply disregard Chronicles as an unreliable and late inventor of Asaphite influence. In contrast I argue that Chronicles represents a mnemohistorical re-imagining of the Asaphite role and content, altered both to fit the context for which the Chronicler’s second-history is written, and to fit the very different historical and theological Sitz-im-Leben of Chronicles. Mnemohistory, a term attributed primarily to the work of Egyptologist Jan Assmann, does not deal with detailed questions of factuality, of what “really” happened. Instead, mnemohistory is recourse to the past that takes seriously the impact of memory in tandem with the historical past. It is my contention that the work of the Chronicler is helpfully understood both through the lens of mnemohistory – i.e. read with an eye to what and how memory is at work; and as mnemohistorical itself – i.e. written with an eye to the shaping of a particular memory for application in the re-formation of identity in the restored Israelite nation. Mnemohistory provides a helpful entry point to an evaluation of the Asaph-tradition in Chronicles, and may also suggest some broader applications to the nature of the work of Chronicler as a whole. My paper explores these aspects of the concept of mnemohistory.

Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation has developed to the point where scholars are preparing full-bodied commentary on New Testament and other ancient Mediterranean religious texts for the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series (Deo Publishing). By employing Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation as an analytic, commentary on New Testament texts reveals the nature of how early Christians creatively employed rhetorical language from their emerging religious milieu to explain and convey their faith understandings. Socio-Rhetorical Commentary analyzes visual rhetoric (“rhetography”), the rhetorical modes of discourse employed by early Christians (“rhetorolects”), and a variety of social and rhetorical “textures” as features of the documents that together provide a dynamic rhetorical force that conveys ideas and moves audiences toward understanding and activity. This paper provides a sample of Socio-Rhetorical commentary on a selected passage from the Letter to the Colossians in order to show the RRA Seminar what such commentary might look like and what it reveals.

Drawing on accounts and understandings of ancient cosmologies and cosmographies, this paper will explore the relationship between images of cosmos and gender. It will be argued that competitive cosmologies during the Persian and Hellenistic times have significantly affected perceptions of women and gender constructs. This can be explored through a number of texts taken from the Hebrew Bible, Jewish writings from the Second temple period and the Pseudepigrapha. Examples from the Hebrew Bible and post biblical Jewish Writings and Pseudepigrapha will illustrate and highlight the ideology at work behind the imag(in)ing the cosmos and how it affects portrayals of women in narratives of heavenly revelatory experiences. Texts under scrutiny will be Philo’s de Opificio Mundi, Joseph and Aseneth, the Testament of Abraham and the Testament of Job.

One of the characteristic pictorial art forms in the ancient Mediterranean world, was the funerary portrait. This paper will consider the funerary portraits from the early Christian world, especially the tomb mosaics of Roman Africa, with special attention to the interplay of costume, facial features, and gesture. Since accompanying inscriptions are part of the overall composition of the portrait, adding details of name, age, and status they will be included in examination of the construction of the memorial portrait. Items in the iconographic field (candles, birds, flowers) may be of some significance. Some of the issues that will be addressed include the representation of children, special costumes for clergy, and the identification of consecrated virgins among the deceased. Style, borders, and other formal features will be discussed in relation to the dating and geographic specificity of these objects. Also considered will the the tomb portrait itself as a sign of high status.

The importance of Alexandria Troas in Greco-Roman maritime strategy and in the early Christian mission has long been recognized, but neither the road network nor the function of the artificial harbor for ancient sailing vessels have been thoroughly investigated. The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World identifies "minor roads" north and south from Alexandria Troas, and the only road eastward from the city is also identified as "minor" and links up with what has been identified as a major north/south route between the minor towns of Gargara and Ophroneian. No route extends into the rich Skamander valley toward Skepsis, Argyria, Argiza and Pericharxis, which is a mysterious situation of the only large metropolitan city in a region being cut off from its agricultural and mining hinterland. This is also an important gap in the reconstruction of Paul's travels from Galatia to Alexandria Troas, the exact course of which also remains a mystery. The illustrated lecture reports the discovery of paved roads to the north, south, and east of Alexandria Troas in the expeditions of "The Troas Project" in 2005-07, working in cooperation with the archaeological team excavating the city under the direction of Prof. Elmar Schwertheim. Recent discoveries in the city will also be reported, along with plans to investigate the function of the harbor and the itineraries in Acts by reconstructing a replica of a Roman coastal merchant vessel. Modern survey techniques and a form of experimental, nautical archaeology promise to throw light on the mystery of Troas.

The structure and thought of the Hebrew Bible is very close to the thought structure in Indian Philosophy and Religions. Yet traditionally, most of the attention was given to the development of Christology in Indian Christian Theology. This is true in the examination of the writings of people like Brahmobandav Upadhyaya, Appaswamy, etc. In more recent times the focus has been on the thought of theologians like M.M. Thomas, and the Dalit theologians, whose focus has been on social justice issues. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of work on how Indian Christian Theology and the historic Indian Church have used the Old Testament in formulating a holistic theology in the Indian context. This paper will seek to examine the use of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the Indian Christian Church- in its formation of identity, in worship, in its development of an existence in a pluralistic society, etc. The paper hopes to take a step forward from the works of more recent scholars like D.N. Premnath. It will examine the use of the Old Testament historically, especially the use of Poetry and Wisdom Literature in Bhakti models, as well as, in the works of more recent theologies.

The work of Edward W. Said continues, nearly four years after his death, to be the subject of heated intellectual and political debate. Said has made significant contributions to semiotics, particularly to the field of semantics and the study of textual meanings in the postmodern and postcolonial worlds. This paper will discuss Said’s contribution to semantics in the form of his concept of contrapuntal reading and will examine the ways in which this concept could be helpfully applied to the field of biblical hermeneutics. The first section will outline the nature of textual interpretation in Said’s work, particularly his emphasis on the place of the signifier and the ways in which his thought on the issues of subjectivity, the relationship of knowledge to power, the role of the intellectual, and his understanding and use of the terms “secular” and “religious” are relevant to this emphasis. This will serve as a necessary basis for the second section, which will examine in greater detail Said’s concept of contrapuntal reading and its adaptability and applicability to biblical hermeneutics. Finally, the third section will argue for the use of contrapuntal reading as a tool to enable a dialogical exchange between vernacular and academic hermeneutics and for the possibility of multiple interpretations coexisting in counterpoint.

This paper is for the panel Gender, Sexuality and the Body: The Transformation of Feminist Biblical Studies

Matthew’s quotation of Isa 6:9-10 in Mt 13:14-15 betrays some intriguing elements which are different from his quotations in other parts. First, though usually deviating from the LXX for the so-called fulfillment quotations, he adopts the verbatim of the LXX in Mt 13:14-15. Second, the fulfillment introductory formula in this passage is different from the one frequently used in the Gospel; it is modified by omitting the conjunction i;na (in order that) which clearly points to the purpose of the quoted OT passage. Finally, this is the only instance in which the fulfillment quotation is presented not as coming from his hands but from Jesus’ mouth. Why did Matthew decide to deviate the common way to quote the OT? This study purports to examine this problem by looking at the context of Mt 13:14-15. The study will also compare the quotation of Isa 6:9-10 in Matthew with that in other NT books, especially in Mark 4:12 and Jn 12:40 where the verbatim departs from the LXX. The study will investigate how Matthew, different from other Gospel writers, quotes Isa 6:9-10 according to his own purpose.

Gnostic dialogues between Christ and his disciples view these disciples in a variety of ways. It is common to find one or more disciples singled out for special praise (or blame), but the way in which this is done and the identity (identities) of the disciple(s) so "honoured" can vary greatly from text to text. These issues can be very significant for our reading of the text in question, and our determination of its original Sitz im Leben. In this paper I will expose the range of ways in which these situations are presented (paying special attention to the Gospel of Judas), provide a summary and overview, and will briefly link them to contemporary Hellenistic teacher/disciple relationships as shown through the extant literature on holy men and philosophical teachers.

Further exploration of the use of wisdom allusions and traditions in the development of the portrayal of Jesus within the Gospel of Matthew is now possible because of continued research on the wisdom texts from the Qumran corpus. Additional work on understanding the relationship of wisdom and apocalyptic, particularly in texts such as 4QInstruction, provides a more adequate basis for understanding the use of wisdom in its relationship to Jesus within the gospel. New insights with regard to social context result from these developments, as well as related observations on literary form and genre. Utilizing the perspectives developed from that research, this paper focuses on the relationship of the use of wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount, especially the Beatitudes, and its development in Chapter 11 in light of the material in 4Q525 (Beatitudes) and ancillary texts. The implications of this research are then formulated for related material in the gospel such as chapters 11-13, the section of the composition in which the term “wisdom” is actually employed, 23:34-39 and 28:16-20. Attention to social context receives significant attention.

The translation of the Septuagint into German will be published in summer 2007 by the German Bible Society. The presentation aims at the clarification of the scholarly decisions concerning the German project and marks some perspectives of the translation which contribute to Septuagint research in general.

Academics, journalists, politicians and commentators refer to 9/11 as the starting place for the ‘new’ ideology and global politics, a so-called “New World Order”. While 9/11 is certainly a watershed moment, its political discourse is not new: it is a continuation of classical Orientalist discourse mapping the world into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ According to this discursive tract, ‘we’ are civilized, democratic, free, righteous, while ‘they’ are uncivilized, different, primitive and tyrannical. Combined with the language of ‘threat’ and ‘security’, this discursive tract has become naturalized as legitimate political and public discourse. Biblical metaphors play an important role in reinforcing this discursive tract and ‘story.’ From the use of scriptural metaphors and language in the Crusades to the ‘axis of evil’, this (ab)use contributes to a sense of a threatening apocalypse prevented only through the additional violence of a ‘War against Terror’, which again finds its support in biblical rhetoric. This discourse is an important tool in the continued violence against the ‘other’, specifically Muslims, in the post-9/11 world. Against this backdrop, the ‘other’ is viewed as a legitimate target of violence—through war or everyday violence perpetuated against individual Muslims. The veiled Muslim woman is the site of furious debate within hegemonic discourse and, in recent years, the veil has been a salient signifier of the “otherness” of Islam. Grounded in notions of latent Orientalism (Said, 1978), and the gendered nature of Orientalist discourse (Yegenoglu, 1998), this paper outlines the hegemonic discourse relating to the Bible and the narrative of Islam in the post-9/11 world, and traces its genealogy through Orientalist and neo-Orientalist discourse. It analyzes debates around the hijab and niqab in Canada and the United Kingdom within the context of this discourse and the global political, religious, and ideological climate of the post-9/11 world.

The Marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser, in his dialectical analysis of the subject, posits a formative speech-act between a first (“I”) and second (“you”) person, which he calls “interpellation.” Not coincidentally, he illustrates it with an incident from the Hebrew Bible: “God thus defines himself as the Subject par excellence, . . . who interpellates his subject, the individual subjected to him by his very interpellation, i.e. the individual named Moses. And Moses, interpellated-called by his Name, having recognized that it ‘really’ was he who was called by God, recognizes that he is a subject, a subject of God.” According to Althusser, it is in and through this encounter between the Self and Authority that the subject is constituted. Though the biblical text here merely provides an occasion for his description of a modern philosophical concept, he does draw attention to a genuine, noteworthy feature of biblical religious thought. For this encounter is contingent — it could have failed to take place. Mythic thought, in contrast, defines the relation joining the human and divine worlds as a necessary fact established in time immemorial — what Eliade famously refers to as illud tempus. One might damage this relationship, incurring the wrath of the gods, but one neither chooses it nor rejects it. According to various biblical traditions, however, each Israelite must enter into relationship with Yahweh as a conscious decision within history — whence the covenant. Biblical thought, in other words, conceived of the subject in historical terms, radically transforming the “mythic” concept of the self. Thus, while Foucault and others have located the beginnings of reflection on the subject in Greek or Greco-Roman philosophy, it arguably already appeared in pre-exilic biblical traditions. It is this newly conceptualized ethical problematic, located within the subject, that I will describe in this paper.

In modern western society, human morality is often regarded as a predominantly rational phenomenon. Such views are increasingly questioned by cognitive sciences. Results from developmental psychology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience suggest a crucial role for emotions in the formation of human morality. In addition, a complicated interplay between biology and culture confound our preconceived boundaries between ethics and conventions. Texts about foreigners and immigrants are found throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New testament. These texts often display contradictory ethics; some view foreigners as threatening outsiders while others advocate inclusion and/or compassion. Behind such diverse reactions we may trace very basic human emotions such as fear, disgust and empathy. These emotions are shared with a number of animals and have an evolutionary, biological basis in the human being, but are further developed through culture and somehow mitigated or balanced against each other. The present paper employs tools from disciplines belonging to the field of cognitive science, to analyze and discuss a selection of legal and hortatory texts, dealing with foreigners and immigrants. The aim is to explore a still fairly uncommon avenue for relating ethical issues to biblical interpretation.

The passage most central to the discussion of anti-Judaism in the Gospel of John is 8:31-59. Many scholars in the past two decades have explored the question of whether anti-Judaism is inherent to the gospel itself. As a way of broadening this discussion, I explore in this essay the ways that this passage was read in pre-Nicene Christianity. Sometimes this passage was used by interpreters in arguments against Jews, but often interpreters glossed over the Jewish aspect of the text, instead labelling other Christian opponents as those who have the Devil as their father. What I try to show in this essay is that even if the anti-Judaism of chapter 8 is often de-emphasized, the passage nevertheless functions in early Christianity similar to the way scholars have assumed it did in the Johannine community.

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A long-held bias for the “original version” of a text and “the best and earliest manuscripts” has caused scholars to overlook the fact that the Pericope Adulterae presents a unique phenomenon. This passage is the only example of a complete Jesus tradition with no other parallels in the canonical gospels being accepted into a canonical gospel after that gospel had been written and accepted in Christian communities and, perhaps more importantly, into the fourfold collection. In this regard, I will here focus upon what the insertion of this story into manuscripts of John’s Gospel says about several overlapping issues in textual criticism and ancient media criticism. Specifically, I will firstly argue that the Pericope Adulterae seriously problematizes the reigning scholarly assumption that written tradition existed in a “static” mode while oral tradition existed in a “performance” mode. Rather, this particular textual variant (inter alia) demonstrates that texts were also malleable and capable of “performing,” i.e., responding to a particular audience. Secondly, I will argue that while the Pericope Adulterae is not originally Johannine, it is a Johannine phenomenon insofar as it is an observable stage in the transmission of the Fourth Gospel. That the Fourth Gospel was capable of absorbing a non-Johannine (possibly oral) tradition suggests that its first readers had different conceptions of the boundaries of “Johannine” tradition than modern scholars. Thirdly, I will propose that the newer methodology of social (or cultural) memory, since it views both manuscripts and oral tradition as cultural artifacts, provides useful approaches for assessing NT textual variants and the interaction of oral and written Jesus tradition.

This paper will examine the treatment of epilepsy and epileptics in the exegetical and theological writings of ancient Christian authors such as Origen of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea and John Chrysostom. Following a general discussion of epilepsy in the ancient world, the essay will focus on the various representations of epileptics that are present in these texts, as well as the medical and religious explanations for epilepsy that are presupposed by them. The paper concludes with reflections on what these authors’ understanding of epilepsy reveals about the role of sickness and healing in the Christian economy of salvation.

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The most popular reconstruction of the early history of Philo's works and ideas is that they were directly transmitted from Philo through Jewish communities in Alexandria to the earliest Christian communities in Alexandria. In this view these Christian communities survived the devastating revolt of 116-117 and transmitted various forms of Philonism during the second century, including forms associated with "Gnosticism." This reconstruction is assumed in extrapolations from second-century Christianity in Alexandria back to first-century Judaism and Christianity in Alexandria. Despite its tantalizing simplicity, this reconstruction has become increasingly untenable. First, recent research on the revolt in 116-117 has shown that its suppression was much more devastating than once supposed. Jewish and Christian communities in Egypt could not have survived to pass on Philo's works or ideas. Second, much of the purported evidence for Philonism in second-century Christian documents from Egypt can be better explained as a recent development in Egyptian Christianity. Extrapolation of first-century Jewish or Christian communities from these documents is anachronistic. Third, the use of Philo in Egypt in the late second century appears with a flood of Christian and Jewish literature imported into Egypt. Philo's works had circulated widely enough before the revolt in 116-117 that their appearance in Egypt after this point might also be due to transmission from another region. This paper will suggest that the survival of Philo's works and ideas up to the middle of the second century is due largely to their transmission in Rome, not Alexandria. Philo sent copies of his works to Herodians and other elites in Rome. Philo's works and ideas were transmitted from Rome in the second century by Gentile Christian travelers and missionaries, some of whom reintroduced them to Alexandria.

This presentation explores some of antiquity's cross-cultural expressions of sibling rivalry as part of the distant horizon of the Fourth Gospel. I will pay particular attention to Roman examples in legend and law, and trace their contours through the republican and early imperial periods. I will also assess the potential these data bear for increasing our understanding of the controverted category of Johannine "Jews".

In Proverbs 1-9, the father’s vocative expressions related to son(s) appear eighteen times. A plural vocative form (banîm) may be observed on four occasions (4:1; 5:7; 7:24; 8:32), and in the other occurrences, the singular form (ben) is used. A careful examination of the literary development of this section suggests that this plural vocative is used purposefully, especially with regards to the progress of the father’s argumentation. The first occurrence (4:1) introduces the trans-generational aspect of wisdom; the last three (5:7; 7:24; 8:32) warn against the danger of the Strange Woman. In particular, the expression benê ’adam in Lady Wisdom’s speech of Prov 8:4-31 expands the more basic human aspects of ben / banîm. Hence, this paper proposes that a strategy of democratization is employed in Proverbs 1-9, which helps the audience probe their identity by means of wisdom, so as to be prepared for entering the world of individual maxims in Proverbs 10 and onward. The paper will be structured as follows: I. Literary voices in Proverbs 1-9 concerning the plurality of its audience II. The expressions ben, banîm, and benê ’adam and their intertextual development III. Implications of the democratization strategy in Proverbs 1-9 for reading Proverbs 10 and onward.

Taking a glance over the Samson’s saga leaves in the memory of the reader an intense impression that his story is erotic, brutal, and eccentric. However, Heb. 11:32 in the NT introduces him as a Christian hero of faith, a paragon of martyrdom. How did the early Christians read Samson’s saga, so that Samson could be reflected on as a hero of the Christian faith? Since the NT authors saw Jesus as the ideal hero in terms of Greek tragedy, their reading and understanding of the OT in light of Greek tragedy made them discover many typological figures and events to prefigure Jesus from the OT. The thesis of this study is to argue that the early Christians read the life and death of Samson in the mold of the life and death of the typical heroes in Greek tragedy. Such reading enables them to regard the Samson’s saga as an anecdote of martyrology. Thus, this study is to disclose not only that the literary structure of Samson’s narrative parallels the deep structure of Greek tragedy, but also that the pattern of the life and death of Samson corresponds to that of the heroes in antiquity. For this purpose, the methodology employed is (1) to reconstruct the deep structure of Greek tragedy and to project it upon the literary structure of the Samson narrative; (2) to reconstruct the typical image of the ancient heroes and to reflect it on the image of Samson. The source employed is Aristotle’s Poetics. As for the scope, this study does not assert that Samson’s saga was composed under the influence of Greek tragedy. It is to analogize the probability that, when Greek tragedy-oriented Christians read Samson’s saga, they found affinity between Greek tragedy and the saga, and understood Samson as a tragic hero.

It is well known that the royal psalms, such as Pss 2, 72, and 89, are strategically positioned at the seams of Books I-III. However, no systematic study has been done regarding the arrangement of royal psalms as a whole in Books IV-V. Thus, the goal of this study is to identify the organizing principle of the royal psalms (Pss 101, 110, 132, and 144) in these books. This study presupposes a difference in editorial techniques between Books I-III and IV-V (which many scholars already accept). Nevertheless, the final editor made use of a similar positioning technique of royal psalms in the subgroups of Books IV-V. There are six subgroups in Books IV-V: Pss 90-110 (or two parallel subgroups: Pss 90-101 and 102-110), Pss 111-118, Ps 119, Pss 120-134, Pss 135-145, and Pss 146-150. Besides Pss 146-150, which is the conclusion of the entire Psalter, the structure of Books IV-V centers on the giant wisdom psalm (Ps 119), which has been strategically positioned in the center of the composition. The wisdom psalm entrenched with torah motifs is closely related to royal psalms in that the destiny of the Davidic covenant and kingship is primarily dependent on the king's keeping of the torah. What is important in this grouping is that the royal psalms are located at the end or near the end of each group of psalms. The group of Hallel psalms (111-118) is an exception which forms a grand doxology following Ps 110 (a strategically positioned royal psalm). Each royal psalm is also followed by a doxological psalm(s) similar to the endings of Books I-III. By arranging the royal psalms in Books IV-V strategically, the editor(s) intended that the entire Psalms in these books, as in Books I-III, be understood eschatologically.

The paper explores theological themes in relation to three figurative body discourses evident in a close reading of 1 Corinthians.

This focuses on the mentions of Amalek in Ex, Deut, and three times in Sam and asks about the propriety of reading Ex 17 and Deut 25 through the prism of I Sam 15 as opposed to 1 Sam 30 and 1 Sam 1. Similarly, the question is asked how Deut. 7 is to be read in the light of Ex 23, Lev. 18, and Num 33 along with the absence of extermination noted in Josh. Jud. Kings, and Ps. 106. This study is based on my previous articles and that of Moshe Weinfeld.

This paper employs archaeological and epigraphical evidence to examine the religious developments of one important city on the border of cultural interactions between Ionian Greece and the rise of Rome. In this confluence of cultures and through a complex process of hybridization, the city of Aphrodisias drew upon its religious identity to recraft itself in an appeal to Roman leaders for special treatment while maintaining its own local distinctiveness. With increasing Roman dominance of the region in the first century BCE, this city took advantage of the opportunity to create a language of shared piety, combining Greco-Roman with Anatolian religious constructs in order to adapt its local goddess into the highly Romanized Venus Genetrix. This language of shared piety and fides with Rome was richly inscribed on an archive wall prominently located at the entrance to its theater. The local figure Zoilos, a freedman of Augustus, through his elaborate building programs within the city provided an opportunity for the city to further re-envision itself in relationship with Rome. The city declared Zoilos a priest of their local goddess Aphrodite for life while developing new cults to Eleutheria and Demos around him. Completing a rebuilt temple to Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, the city emphasized its highly distinctive vision of its local goddess in statuary and on coinage. With the new opportunities offered by imperial cult, Aphrodisias again drew upon its connection with Augustus and its faith in its local goddess to construct a new place for itself within the Roman world. Aphrodisias played upon the opportunities offered by Roman myths and devotion to emperors in order to hybridize its local goddess and achieve its own ends. This one case study offers a model for the interactions of local cult with Roman religion in the province of Asia.

As we know, the Ancient Near Easterners identified ‘disease’ with a wide range of phenomena from skin blemishes to rashes to bruises to sores to any other form of spreading marks. For them disease was a sign of divine displeasure. The concept undergirding this correlation is the image of an angered deity bellowing a plethora of curses while beating the wayward offender with his hand or divine weapon. The likelihood that this type of divine conduct reflects human behavior is confirmed by two Akkadian texts; one a Middle Babylonian letter and the other an entry from a so called ‘medical commentary’. This image looms large in the use and meaning of the term nega‘. In Leviticus 13:2 Yahweh’s curse of ‘leprosy’ is described as a nega‘, a term that is customarily translated as ‘disease’. While this in and of itself would seem to make eminent sense, an examination of ng‘, whose fundamental meaning is ‘strike’ and the root from which nega‘ is derived, reveals much about a constellation of ideas and images that surround the effects of divine cursing that includes beatings that leave marks on the skin. If ‘leprosy’ is a feature of an angered deity pronouncing maledictions while simultaneously hitting the offending individual with his divine weapon, then the value system illustrated in Leviticus 13 and 14 is based on a simple premise. In the end, all of this suggests that under these circumstances the Hebrew term for ‘unclean’ functions as a euphemism for ‘cursed’. Conversely, it also implies that the term ‘clean’ bears the opposite meaning. It is a synonym for ‘blessed’.

1 Esdras begins with a translation of 2 Chronicles 35-36. This paper will investigate the relationship between this Greek text’s Vorlage and the Massoretic Text of Chronicles, the significance of the two verse supplement after the equivalent of 2 Chr 35:19, and the altered function of these chapters from Chronicles in 1 Esdras.

The most recent debate of the Synoptic Problem between proponents of the Two-Document-Hypothesis (2DH) and the Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre hypothesis, with its assumption of Luke’s dependence on Mark and Matthew, predictably led into a dead end: Both positions are cogent in their critique of their respective opponents but much less convincing in the positive answers they provide. A partial solution to this situation is provided by the inclusion in the debate of the Gospel which was used by Marcion and the Marcionites. Although this gospel (which I, for lack of a better designation, name “Mcn”) is usually regarded as a re-edition of canonical Luke, it can be demonstrated that the relation of these texts must be reversed. Only recently, two independent publications strongly suggested that Luke is an augmented re-edition of this anonymous gospel (J. B. Tyson, Marcion and Luke-Acts [Columbia: University of SC Press, 2006]; M. Klinghardt, “Markion vs. Lukas,” NTS 52 [2006]: 484-513). If “Mcn” is prior to Luke, however, the basic data of the inter-synoptic relations change considerably, and so does the model to explain them. The paper briefly summarizes the most important arguments for Mcn’s priority and then demonstrates how the picture of synoptic relations changes if Mcn is included. For this purpose the most controversial features of the synoptic relations (minor agreements; alternating primitivity of the double tradition materials) are utilized to establish the alternative solution.

As an architect of a still tenuous imperial Christianity, Ambrose of Milan faced a dilemma: How would he convince imperial administrators, senators, fellow Italian bishops, the Christians of Milan and even the emperor himself to adopt the Nicene cause? He does so in part by presenting himself as a would-be martyr, under threat from "heretics," "Jews," and malicious judges bent on the violent destruction of God’s true church and those who defend it. No stranger to juridical torture or to the implementation of capital punishment, Ambrose, a former provincial governor, assumed that truth was legitimately extricated by means of bodily pain, though in his role as bishop he preferred to leave this work to others Invoking both sacred text and the tradition of the martyrs in his letters and sermons, he presents himself as a brave victim, ready to lose his life for the sake of Jesus (Matt 10:39; Ep. 75a [21a].8) and eager to protect fellow innocent Christians from the sword, from cudgels and from whips loaded with lead (Ep. 74 [40].29). This paper explores Ambrose’s exegesis of holy death from the executions of Jesus and Paul to the miraculous discovery of the bodies of Gervasius and Protasius, noting how scripture and tradition are employed to highlight those suffering from the fear of violence rather than from violence itself. By arguing his case as God's passionate advocate and bishop, he places himself in line with Jesus and the apostles, employing scripture and sanctified memory to divert attention toward those whose victimization is potential rather than real. This theorization of the potential martyr as primary victim works to conceal the systematic brutality involved in the newly Christian-Roman/Roman-Christian judicial system with which he was intimately involved. As such, he develops a theory of violence analogous to the current discourse of terrorism, which points sympathy away from victims of direct physical harm and toward those who fear that they may be harmed in an attempt to justify endless war.

This paper is both an argument for and an illustration of the use and usefulness of anthropological theory and method in the study of rabbinic literature. In recent years, arguments have been made for the value of studying non-western and historical cultures in order to disrupt and expand our own fixed categories. The inverse is also true. Looking at ancient texts using the contemporary lens of anthropology can be of great benefit to the scholar of ancient sources. In particular, anthropology can help the scholar of Rabbinic literature see beyond situated categories for a potentially more fruitful study of the vestiges of ancient Jewish culture. This paper will demonstrate this proposition by way of example. I use the concept of the donor's lien, as found in Marcel Mauss' famous essay "The Gift", to analyze the legal institution of gifts to and from God in Rabbinic literature. What might appear to be dry laws of Temple sacrifice (hekdesh), when examined through this lens, become newly invested with additional and even crucial import. This study demonstrates the productiveness of applying "the potentially subversive possibilities" (Ouroussoff, 1993) of anthropology to the study of Rabbinic literature. The subversive move in question takes place here as the substantive legal notion of divine participation in property ownership is shown to undergird Talmudic property law in general, undermining commonly held Western liberal assumptions of an exclusivist notion of "private property" as the cornerstone of Rabbinic property law.

In "Abraham Our Father," a lengthy letter about monastic duty, the Egyptian monk Shenoute defined his vision for the ideal ascetic life. On the basis of their reading of Isaiah 56:1-5, a number of monks in his monastery were arguing that sexual renunciation was the focal point of their monastic identity. Shenoute, who strongly disagreed with this interpretation, challenged the exegesis of these monks and defined the monastic life as a type of parenthood, although with spiritual rather than biological children. For Shenoute, the ascetic life was not simply one of renunciation; rather, he wrote (contra those who were neglecting their obligations), true monks must serve and take care of others in the community. In order to construct his argument, Shenoute recalled many ancestors from the biblical tradition and lauded their righteous deeds. In my analysis of "Abraham Our Father," I explore Shenoute’s biblical hermeneutics and focus particularly on his recollection of exemplars from the biblical past. Specifically, I address the prominence of female role models in Shenoute’s narrative of spiritual lineage, and argue that his notion of spiritual parenthood was especially relevant to women. In addition, I examine Shenoute’s distinction between sinful and pure children among the descendants of Abraham, and suggest that his rhetorical strategy enabled him both to distinguish between the “true” and “false” monks of his monastery, and to strengthen his own legitimacy and authority over the community.

Ancient Hebrew (AH) has numerous words for objects with blades, including apparently swords, knives, razors, and some of their component parts. This paper proposes to define two such terms, kidon and ma?atsad, with precision. The basic argument is that the various AH words for bladed tools are not merely complementary lexemes, and that there are hyponymous relations among some of them. Additionally, the paper will try to discern what features were salient enough to set it an object apart lexically. I will try to show that the kidon was a type of sword not common in ancient Israel, but that we can identify it in both the philological and archaeological records. Evidence for the identification comes from a typological study of Bronze- and Iron Age Levantine weaponry, the biblical text, and Qumran literature. In this case the foreign-ness of the weapon is what apparently dictated the desire for a separate word for the type of sword. The ma‘atsad can be shown to be a particular style of knife, also attested in the archaeological record of the southern Levant in Iron II. In this case, it seems to be not the origin of the tool, but its function that distinguished it, and philological evidence from the Bible and archaeological evidence from recent excavations at Philistine Ekron combine to show that the tool had a cultic function.

In the context of the recent philosophical turn toward Paul and a long tradition among modern philosophers of regarding Paul as the only New Testament author worthy of serious attention, Jean-Luc Nancy’s reading of the Epistle of James—famously called the “epistle of straw” by Luther—represents a major departure. Recently collected in Nancy’s La Déclosion : Déconstruction du christianisme, 1 (Paris: Galilée, 2005), “Le judéo-chrétien (De la foi)” is an indirect response to Jacques Derrida’s landmark essay “Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone.” Nancy begins with a discussion of the term “Judeo-Christian,” exploring the ways in which the “Judeo-Christian” can provide an avenue for a deconstruction of the Western tradition. Rather than leaving the discussion at an abstract conceptual level, Nancy turns to a reading of the Epistle of James, the Judeo-Christian document par excellence, placing particular emphasis on the necessarily active or performative nature of faith, on the significance of James’s discourse on wealth and poverty, on the idea of the “law of freedom,” and on the relationship between Christ as “annointed one” and the passage on the annointing of the sick. I will begin this paper by contextualizing this essay in terms of the recent turn in continental philosophy toward New Testament texts and Nancy’s broader project. The bulk of this paper will necessarily be taken up with a critical exposition of Nancy’s reading of James, including sufficient quotation (in English) to give listeners a feel for this as-yet untranslated and often very lyrical essay. In addition, I will use Nancy’s questionable historical assertions about James to reflect on the possible relationship between these philosophical readings and mainstream biblical scholarship. Finally, I will propose Nancy as a model for philosophical readings of neglected or apparently “unphilosophical” New Testament writings.

Philo's information about Abraham is mostly built on the Genesis traditions, but occasionally also takes the reader outside that body of material. What other Abrahamic literature or traditions might have been extant in the mid first century, apart from what is also found in Josephus? This presentation is intended as part of the "new M.R.James" (Lost Apocrypha of the OT) project, and surveys the various possibilities that have been suggested over the years (with Philo as a focal point).

By examining a section of a petichta, this paper performs an anthropological reading of a rabbinic pericops in order to understand the texts social, historical, and literary context. According to Lamentations Rabbah 23, the priest/prophet Zechariah was unjustly stoned to death on the Temple mount, but his blood spurts uncontrollably until the arrival of Nebuzaradan, Nebuchadnezzar's general. This story raises a number of complex questions such as why is there so much blood, why does a rabbinic text suggest that the Temple was destroyed because of the unjust murder of Zechariah, and why does Nebuzaradan convert after the whole incident. Previous answers to these questions have proven unsatisfactory because the story is generally read in isolation. By applying anthropological, literary, and historical approaches to the story, this paper provides new interpretations of the Zechariah incident. An anthropological reading indicates that the prominence of blood reflects anxieties about sacrifice and control issues. Since Nebuzaradan, after failing to control the blood with sacrifices, ultimately controls the blood with words, I argue that the story performs a more general, rabbinic valorization of discourse over sacrifice. Support for this reading come from the whole petichta which is united by a lengthy exegesis of Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 as an allegory of the destruction of the Temple. The verbal parallels between Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 and the Zechariah story demonstrate, more broadly, that national disaster is to be controlled by discourse, particularly rabbinic discourse. The paper concludes by speculating that the parallels between the Passion narrative of the Christian Gospels and the Zechariah story should be understood as a rabbinic attempt to control Christian discourse.

There is one biblical text whose use on objects even surpasses the Lord's Prayer: Septuagint Psalm 90. It is found on papyrus and parchment manuscript fragments but also on walls (in tombs, on lintels etcetera), medaillons, rings, wood tablets, and on armbands. In most cases its verses serve an apotropaeic purpose in order to protect people from all kinds of evil powers and illnesses. Providing a brief overview of the database available to me (with about 80 items) and the reasons why this biblical texts fitted so well the purpose(s) it served, I will primarily focus on Byzantine armbands. These present a certain program consisting of short textual passages and iconographic details. With this at hand and in mind the application of the first (few) verses of Septuagint Psalm 90 to certain purposes can be traced and connected with our world of today.

1. Hab 2:3-4 MT/LXX/Qumran-Writings (1QpHab; 8HevXIIgr), 2. Hab 2:3-4 in Pauline Letters (Gal 3:11; Rom 1:17), 3. Hab 2:3-4 in Hebr 10:37-38, 4. Conclusions.

One of the next volumes of the Papyrologische Kommentare zum Neuen Testament will be on 2 Thessalonians. In addition to the analysis of the Greek vocabulary according to its papyrological daily background, use and meaning, it will contain oberservations on pseudepigraphy and comments on the themes of parousia and imminentism . In documentary and also magical papyri we find ideas of a kind of doomsday, or of some pessimism when being confronted with riots, war or insecurity. Thus, the papyrus texts provide us with a clear impression how easily common people could be infected by such pessimism, and that the writer of 2 Thess had a good reason to address it. The presentation gives a short overview of the Commentary and the results of the research thus far.

The (older) historical books in the Greek Bible continue the translation process of the Pentateuch, yet they bring also a variety of new aspects and new phenomena. There are new renderings like allophyloi for the Philistines, or he[!] baal for Baal and ta alse for Aschera. There is a translation technique that develops from a careful but – at least basically – “free” translation (as in Josh, JudgesA, and parts of Kgdms) towards an almost word-by-word translation (as in Chron and 2Esdr). Not the least there is the problem of the recensions, i.e. the kaige-recension with its special “translation”-technique and the Antiochene Text/Lucianic recension, supposedly rather late and at the same time in many regards close to the Old Greek. The paper will discuss these issues, suggest solutions and criteria, esp. for the problem of the recensions, and show how the phenomena and the problems are handled and presented in Septuaginta-deutsch.

Continuing the theme of later sources for biblical lexicography, this paper considers the Judeo-Greek Biblical glossaries, such of those from the Cairo Genizah.

The Neoplatonist ritual of statue animation (telestike episteme), a process by which a divine image is “ensouled” thereby becoming in some sense alive (up to and including actual movement) and able to dispense oracles, has been the recipient of limited scholarly attention. Past discussions have tended to focus upon either the fantastical nature of the rite, speaking of the divinatory and mechanical aspects of the process, or, more recently, have sought to view the animated statue as a metaphor for the individual who is capable of being infilled by the divine. These studies all have contributed to an understanding of the telestic art and it is to be hoped that this paper will add further to the conversation. Looking at statements of Proclus primarily in his Commentary on the Timaeus, this paper seeks to understand statue animation as a ritual that does not occur in isolation, but rather serves as a communal act in which the Platonic cosmogony is remembered and reproduced. Proclus’ repeated comparisons between the role of the telestes, the ritual expert, and that of the Platonic Demiurge on the one hand, and between the cult image and the Universe on the other, suggest that the practice has implications that extend beyond simply the cultivation of oracular pronouncements. Indeed, it will be seen that the cosmogonic rehearsal found in statue animation can be viewed as a communal reminder both of the authority of Plato’s account and of the soteriological power of theurgy.

Does the portrait of history in Chronicles present fact or fiction? Maybe, Chronicles presents a mixture of both, fact and fiction. If this is the case, the question of the amount of fact or fiction in the book needs to be discussed, and more importantly, that of which criteria can be used to distinguish between the two. This paper points at a method of reading Chronicles as a construction of history, in which a certain perception of past reality is interpreted and shaped according to circumstances and structures of the present time of the community. As individuals experience life, they accept or neglect reality as they construct their past. Such constructions originate in the present and intend to shape the present as well as the future according to the basics of one’s attitude toward life. It will be shown that this model of constructing the past and interpreting reality is helpful to understand Chronicles. This approach sheds new light on book as it does not ask whether the picture of the past is true or unreliable, but rather takes it as a legitimate interpretation of past with an intentional aim to shape present and future.

This paper will explain the origins and function of John 21 from the methodological perspectives of relecture and secondary orality, with special attention to repetitions and variations within the text. Although John 21 is a self-contained narrative unit possibly later added to John 1–20, it should be analysed with methods of innertextual analysis. Close attention to the phenomenon of literary repetition and variation, viewed within the framework of a relecture model of composition suggests that John 21 reflects earlier chapters in the book, adding new but not strange meaning to an earlier text that was still meaningful to its first readers. In the process of “re-lecturing” passages from John 1–20, the Fourth Evangelist incorporates additional traditional material, namely the miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1–14). The phenomenon of “secondary orality” suggests that a synoptic text (Luke 5:1–11) has been integrated into a re-reading and re-telling of certain Johannine passages. Through this process, the Evangelist forms a new ending for an old and still valued gospel. Is there any place for historical tradition? At first glance, the closing chapter of the Gospel of John does not seem to be very important for the quest for historical information about Jesus. From the whole chapter, the miraculous catch of fish may be an only exception, as some scholars view the story as a relocated, pre-Easter narrative. However, we have to understand it by re-memorizing Luke 5:1–11 through secondary orality and by re-lecturing John 6:1–15. Nevertheless, the message of the Historical Jesus, which challenged not only this contemporaries but also later Christian communities, is clearly present in the backdrop of John 21. Repenting Peter’s guilt as a part of the missionary outlook of John 21 is a creative reference to the historical Jesus’ adoption of sinners in the Fourth Gospel; John 4 and the Samaritan woman are another one.

From the very beginning of Scrolls scholarship, attention has been paid to an unusual term of self-designation employed by the sectarians: mitnaddebîm (or sometimes: nedibîm.) Appearing frequently in the Community Rule, it would seem to depict something about the process of joining the sect. The term clearly derives from the biblical root, N.D.B., as in the common sacrificial term, nedabâ, generally translated as “freewill offering.” A standard approach to mitnaddebîm has been to translate the term as “those who freely volunteer,” a translation that emphasizes an element of choice in joining the sect. Accordingly, it has been noted that this implied degree of freedom stands out in contrast with the general deterministic tenor of sectarian thought, and some have concluded therefore that the sectarians must have accommodated at least some notion of freewill. Actually, one might do better to translate mitnaddebîm as “those who feel impelled to join.” It is anachronistic to evoke a latter-day doctrine of freewill to account for the sectarian usage. The term tells us not about the degree of choice that accompanied admission into the sect, but the strength of desire to join the group. A distinction must be drawn between choosing and wanting, for the latter can be subject to its own special form of compulsion. For the sectarians, the term reinforced the certainty of their place within the sect: they all fully desired to live according to sectarian law. Choice in such a context would have seemed to them, at best, to be arbitrary and, at worst, capricious. What is needed is a typology of willingness to clarify this point. Biblical parallels (esp. Ezra 7:13 and Neh 11:2), equivalent Greek terms, and Mishnaic Hebrew will be adduced to further the argument.

Ancient Greco-Roman women would have had opportunity to participate fully in certain cults around the Mediterranean. Within this ritual milieu, certain rites were exclusively for women and some for men. This gender divide created certain inconsistencies between male and female cults as well as created a structure of power that placed men at the center and placed women on the periphery. In the Thracian city of Philippi, the worship of Artemis was particularly plentiful, as demonstrated by the abundance of Artemis iconography in and around Philippi. This study will look at the archaeological evidence through the lens of ritual anthropology, purity and pollution, and sacred space. The vast evidence for the Artemis cult in Philippi demonstrates that a large contingent of women participated in ritual activity. Furthermore, rituals from the domestic sphere will be examined in order to shed light on the religious life of women in the Greco-Roman world and, in particular, in Philippi. Once the model is delineated and the archaeological evidence examined, I will propose answers to the question: why would ancient women worshipers abandon the rites of a goddess and join a group of followers who are monotheistic under the authority of a male God?

This paper will seek to address the problem of human exploitation of non-human creation by recovering an aspect of creation’s voice that has been long suppressed: the claim that creation itself in some sense bears the image of Christ. Hebrews 1:2-3a will be examined as part of a trajectory of NT texts in which the claim is made that creation exists by virtue of the creative agency of Christ, that creation is actively sustained by Christ, and that creation achieves its telos in Christ. It will be argued that certain strands of Hebrew wisdom traditions, particularly those in which it is asserted that God is known by examination of God’s creation, form the background from which these Christological statements developed. Two features of this connection with wisdom traditions are worth noting. First, as with wisdom, something of Christ is reflected in the non-human created order. Second, wisdom traditions do not dwell on the Imago Dei as traditionally conceived elsewhere in biblical traditions. These features enhance the view that creation itself bears its own imprint of divine image, and as such is as much the object of redemption as is human creation. Moreover, the coming of Christ into the world as servant in some sense reverses the role of human beings as rulers over creation. As human beings are renewed into the image of Christ, they become servants in the care of a creation that itself bears Christ’s image. Non-human creation, then, is worthy of the respect and care in the present that is focused on human beings, in anticipation of the redemptive destiny awaiting both. The rubric of suspicion/identification/retrieval will be used to develop this line of thought.

Clement of Alexandria’s Stromateis is an elaborate tapestry of citations from biblical, extrabiblical, and classical sources. One of Clement’s chief goals in this work is to demonstrate that all human wisdom, be it Greek, Jewish, or Christian, stems from the beneficence of the one true God. As one piece of evidence for this claim, Clement cites a curious and problematic quotation that he attributes to the Apostle Paul (Stromateis 6.5). This statement asserts that one may read the Sibylline books for proof of God’s unity and, likewise, one may consult the Oracle of Hystaspes for a clear and unambiguous description of Jesus, his followers, and those who persecute them. This remarkable passage is found nowhere in the Pauline epistles of the NT, among the statements of Paul in Acts of the Apostles, or in any non-canonical writings about or attributed to the Apostle. Scholars of early Christianity have long used the term “agrapha” to refer to sayings of Jesus preserved outside the boundaries of the four canonical gospels, whether these sayings appear in patristic writings, fragments of lost gospels, or even in the Acts of the Apostles. However, no comparable designation or collection exists for the Apostle Paul, though this quotation is best characterized as a “Pauline agraphon.” This paper has three principle objectives: a) to interpret the content and argument of this enigmatic Pauline agraphon; b) to situate the saying within the larger literary context of Clement’s Stromateis and his particular theological agenda; c) to assess whether the statement coheres with sentiments attributed to Paul in other writings, and if not, to suggest a hypothetical milieu for this assertion that Christian revelation can take place through pagan channels.

There are four occurrences of Exod 34:6-7 or its parallels found in the Torah. This paper will argue that the parallels appear in significant places in the narrative where the covenant is either being (re)affirmed or greatly endangered. In the Decalogue of Exodus 20, a parallel is located in the giving of the second commandment as a reason why ancient Israel should not worship idols or images. In Numbers 14, Moses recited the credo to incite YHWH’s pride so that the Israelites might be spared. In the Decalogue of Deuteronomy 5, a parallel is again found in the rehearsal of the second commandment. All four of the appearances, including Exod 34:6-7, occur in texts that highlight YHWH’s intimate relationship with Israel. Exodus 20 records the initial giving of the Sinai Covenant and the “Ten Words” of the covenant. Exodus 34 contains the account of YHWH and Moses’ interaction after the apostasy of the Golden Calf. In this literary context, the credo is given as a reason why YHWH will forgive the nation. Numbers 14 catalogs the second major apostasy of the ancient Israelites. In this narrative, Moses convinces YHWH not to wipe out the people by quoting the attributes given to him in Exodus 34. Deuteronomy 5 contains the final significant parallel to the credo in the Pentateuch. This parallel occurs in the rehearsal of the Ten Commandments as the people reaffirm the covenant as they are about to enter the Promised Land. Special attention will also be given to how the credo is manipulated to fit the special different contexts of the narrative.

As attested in particular by the Qumran library but also other sources, ancient Judaism wrote its literature to a large extent based on or closely related to earlier authoritative texts, i.e. in the second degree (for this term see G. Genette, Palimspests). Scholars described this type of literature either as pseudepigraphic or parabiblical. Both designations miss significant characteristics. The term parabiblical suggests on the one hand that literature in the second degree is particular to the Judeo-Christian cultures and on the other hand the existence of a bible and a closed canon. The term pseudepigrapha suggests that literature in the second degree is always a forgery, i.e. a text written under a false name. The earliest cases of Jewish literature in the second degree can already be found inside the Hebrew Bible, e.g. the reworking of 1Samuel-2Kings by 1-2Chronicles. “Parabiblical” literature did thus already exist before the Hebrew canon. Furthermore, the relation of e.g. the Homeric epics or classical Greek tragedy to archaic Greek myth resembles the Jewish literature in the second degree closely. Moreover, neither the Homeric epics, nor classical Greek tragedies, nor Jewish texts like 1-2 Chronicles claim false authorship. In this presentation, I will try to compare examples of Jewish literature in the second degree with ancient Greek and ancient Mesopotamian texts. Especially the Qumran evidence shows that Judaism participated with its literature in the second degree in a category of literature evident all over the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Near Eastern societies.

In recent years, the Ten Commandments have been the subject of numerous efforts aimed at restoring America’s moral foundation and reforming its society. While they often are portrayed as being synonymous with "Americanness," this has not always been the case. This paper will examine the Decalogue's use and development in furthering ideas about American identity and society. The paper will also explore the broader question of what makes a text useful for a particular situation. Beginning in the early years of the twentieth century, especially just after World War I, the Ten Commandments were used to articulate, defend, and critique particular understandings of American ideals. This marked a change in how the Commandments in America had generally been applied. Previously, Americans typically used individual commandments to address specific issues such as temperance or Sabbath observance. Many, however, came to combine the collective Commandments with particular understandings of the Constitution, democracy, and racial, economic, and social values that they equated with “Americanism.” Among these were Teddy Roosevelt (who often invoked the Commandments), Harry F. Atwood ("Safeguarding American Ideals"; 1921), M. Leone Bracker (in his artistic portrayals of each commandment in Pictorial Review; 1924-25), Cecil B. DeMille (in his movie, "The Ten Commandments"; 1923 and 1956), W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel (declaring the Commandments to be his platform in his successful bids for Texas Governor and U.S. Senator in the 1930s and 1940s), and Carey Daniel (“Ten Commandments for the Race Mixers” and “Ten Commandments for the Segregationists;” 1950s). These, and others, cast the Ten Commandments as reflecting American identity and, therefore, composing a necessary part of the American public and social fabric.

Diderot once compared the novels of Samuel Richardson to sacred texts, more specifically, to a gospel designed to separate family members. He assumes that readers identify with virtuous characters and draw away from those who are unjust and vicious. And since we evaluate literary characters in the same way that we evaluate real people, our judgments on characters in narrative reveal our own moral character, especially in situations of collective reading and discussion. In fact, Diderot says that he has to restrain himself from breaking off relations with people whose judgments of Richardson’s characters are opposed to his own. In this essay I will ask an uncomfortable question: what do our evaluations of biblical characters reveal about our own ethical posture? And a second, strange-sounding question: do we—or should we— 'separate ourselves' from those whose judgments on problematic characters like King David differ from our own? For example, should we draw conclusions about the moral character of readers who identify with David enough to excuse his crimes on the grounds that he is simply "all-too-human"? Is identification, or even empathy, a moral failing when faced with what Sartre would call the "facticity" of David's actions and their devastating aftermath? To address these unsettling questions I will examine the process of identification and narrative evaluation with the aid of insights garnered from moral psychology, social history, and literary theory (including intertextual analysis of 2 Samuel 11-12 together with texts by Dickens and Kafka).

Foreigners, both individuals and ethnic groups, appear in Mesopotamian cuneiform texts from the late eighth century BCE through the end of the cuneiform record. Until now, the Murašu archive from fifth- and fourth-centuries Nippur provided the most significant quantity of data identifying West Semites in Babylonia. The presence of individuals bearing West Semitic, and particularly "Yahwistic", names strongly suggests that some of these individuals and their community had roots in Judah. Until recently, the chronological gap between the end of the Judean kingdom and the earliest Murašu texts has prevented secure identification of individuals with Yahwistic names as having origins in Judah. New textual evidence now demonstrates the presence of a sizeable number of West Semites, in particular Judeans, in Mesopotamia in the years shortly after the collapse of the kingdom. The texts contain references to Judeans and even identify the town in which these individuals resided as the "town of the Judeans". This brief introduction to the onomastic data and consideration of the administrative content of the texts provide a new understanding of the presence of West Semites in Babylonia during the late first millennium BCE.

Given the characteristics of the new “Millennial Generation,” we might ask if traditional survey courses truly fit the needs and expectations of this new group of students. For instance, a survey course relying on lectures to deliver countless factual details will likely frustrate students who wish to question “facts” and who expect their courses to be entertaining and relevant to their lives and careers. These challenges compound the difficulty instructors of survey courses face in balancing the desire to cover everything as completely as possible without overwhelming students with so much information that they miss the comprehension and opportunities for critical thinking we desire. This paper examines an Introduction to Old Testament which was narrowed to focus on five stories in order to emphasize close readings, interpretations, and analysis. It will discuss student responses, results, and the suitability for this new generation of students, as well as possibilities for adaptation to other areas of study.

The Gospel of John identifies the opposition to Jesus by the undifferentiated label of the “Jews.” This representation, as is well-known, contributed significantly to anti-Semitism, especially through liturgical and dramatic performance. This paper will investigate a less-examined subject: the function assigned to the Jews in two prominent Greek commentaries of late antiquity. Origen and John Chrysostom, moreover, are significant because they are frequently adduced as representatives for two opposed exegetical methods of allegorical and literal intepretation. Exegetical method has little direct effect on their appropriation of the rhetoric of Jewishness. Both exegetes deal exclusively with the Jews as constructed in the narrative world of the Gospel, even though both had access to substantial experience of Judaism from other sources. Moreover, the Jews mirror issues solely of concern to Christians. Nevertheless, line-by-line exegesis can also produce significant differences. For Chrysostom, the gospel offers a case study of communal strife in which the Jews collectively embody the vice of envy. The gospel primarily aims to “educate us for virtue” (Hom. 49.1), and envy is the characteristic vice of Satan (Wisd. 2:24) that emerges as the primary impulse for the murderous hostility to Jesus. Anxiety about socially destabilizing rivalry consequently controls the representation of the Jews in the homily series. Origen’s understanding of the Jews is shaped by dispute with an earlier commentator, Heracleon, over anthropological issues. For Origen, the heated exchanges between Jesus and various factions in John 7 and 8 express the irreducible freedom of the human self and the definitive role of moral choice in establishing identity. The quandary of the Jews in the Gospel models the uncertainty of moral progress faced by every believer, and the Jew does not become available to serve as the arch-representative of a reprehensible quality.

Our understanding of first century messianism has dramatically increased in the past 60 years due to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Indeed, it is now debatable as to whether Qumran's dual messianism represents a religious anomaly among Jews of this period or the dominant expectation. This paper will suggest that Matthew's christological agenda included a motivation to address the messianic duality of his contemporaries. I will argue that Zechariah influenced both Qumran and Matthew and that this influence resulted in two different takes on messianic duality. For Matthew, this is seen most clearly in his portrayal of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. This paper represents a refined section of my Durham University dissertation supervised by James Dunn and John Barclay and examined by William Horbury and Loren Stuckenbruck: The Historiographical Jesus: Memory, Typology and the Son of David (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2009) forthcoming. The paper is less than 8000 words and can be shortened for presentation. The full paper can be attached to an email via pdf file upon request.

The Battles of the Bible, published by a Scottish publisher in 1852 under the cloak of anonymity, is a story about a young girl’s experiences of visiting her grandfather. Grandfather, a retired soldier, retells portions of the Hebrew Bible concerning armed conflict. His mode of exposition and interests reflect the author’s numerous evaluations of character and follow-up questions concerning content betray a concern for religious formation through biblical interpretation. The book, as stated in its preface, is directed at youth and religious educators seeking a tool for instruction. This paper examines the theological flavor of the piece and its method of communication: the literary artistry of the author. The investigation proceeds with an eye towards developments in the Church in Scotland in the earlier portion of the nineteenth century.

It is reported that 911 occurred partly due to the hatred accumulated by America’s weighted support of Israel. This incident reveals that today’s world is largely divided between the Christians and Muslims, West and East, and even U.S. and the rest of the world, provoking hatred and violence among nations and ethnic groups. Likewise, the Gospel of John reveals a dichotomized world between the Jews and Gentiles (Samaritans), with the history of violent destruction of Samaritan worship center Mt. Gerzim by a Jewish ruler in 128 B.C.E. Noting this tension and Jesus’ proclamation in John 4:23, the paper intends to argue that John 4:16-22 reports the presence of an intense ethnic, territorial, and political tension while it further proclaims alternative ways that would unite different ethnic and cultural groups. This is done by negating any territory or ethnicity bound worship center but by proclaiming a space-less spiritual and mobile center of hagiography of spirit and truth. Through this reading, this paper seeks to propose an alternative perspective that would promote ethnic and religious reconciliation for today’s divided world.

The Complutensian Polyglot, the famous work of Spanish humanist scholarship, which presents the biblical texts in their original languages and early versions, also includes a complete New Testament lexicon. This pioneering and anonymous work, the first of its kind, has been little studied. In this paper some interim conclusions from a detailed study in progress will be offered on the use of sources and the methodology of the compilers. Questions such as the following will be addressed: how did the editors compile the list of words? How did they determine the meanings of the words? What importance did they assign to context? What are their methods of stating meaning? What sources for meanings were available to them?

The oral performances that ultimately produced the New Testament and other Hellenistic Greek texts were composed and transmitted through sound. Such performances depended upon the effective use of sound to engage memory. The textual artifacts of oral performances in Hellenistic Greek preserve these effective sounds, but hermeneutical methods based upon the modern practices of silent reading are deaf to the effective use of sound. A systematic method for mapping and analyzing the sounds preserved in the textual artifacts of oral performances can sometimes expand and often critique the conclusions of hermeneutical approaches based upon silent reading. This paper will illustrate a method of sound mapping and analysis with specific methodological tools and textual examples. The paper will demonstrate sound's basic dynamics: sound builds structure, trains the ear, and selects items for emphasis.

The portrayal of Pharaoh in the biblical account of the Israelite exodus from Egypt is not without its difficulties. Both the plagues and the event at the sea are lavish displays of God’s power; both result, at one level, from the obstinacy of Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s obstinacy corresponds in scope to Israel’s deliverance: thus, it too is titanic, superhuman. The origin of this profound obstinacy, the ‘hardness of Pharaoh’s heart,’ is understood in various ways, both within the book of Exodus and in subsequent tradition. Though known principally for his hymns and for commentaries on Genesis and the Diatessaron, St. Ephrem also wrote a less well-known “Commentary on Exodus,” in which the Egyptian rulers known generically as ‘Pharaoh’ figure importantly. Drawing on a number of interpretive traditions, St. Ephrem elaborates the biblical portrait of Pharaoh and locates him within a larger scriptural dynamic of ‘poetic justice.’ This concept is understood, for the purposes of this essay, as the fitting distribution, in a literary work, of rewards and punishments according to the virtue and vices of the protagonists. Though St. Ephrem is widely acknowledged to be a gifted, poetic interpreter of scripture, his careful attempts within the Commentary to identify the ironic failures of and just punishments upon Pharaoh must not be confused with modern attempts to vindicate the ‘literary artistry’ of the Bible or to commend the aesthetic properties of biblical literature. Rather, they are an outworking of St. Ephrem’s understanding of free will, and part of a more fundamental attempt to understand the unique scriptural contours of the relation between divine purpose and human freedom in the context of the Old Testament’s paradigmatic salvation-event.

The absence of entire chapters from tractates in the Talmud Yerushalmi and the absence of editing components (openings, summatins, links, etc.), have led scholars to believe that this major work was concluded in haste, without serious editing. The circumstances that brought about the apparently sudden cessation in the compilation of the Talmud Yerushalmi during the second half of the 4th century, are vague. THe historical sources concerning the Galilee in the 4th century where most of this Talmud was composed are so few and fragmented, that we can not gain a reasonable historical picture. New data from a recently concluded comprehensive and systematic archaeological survey of the Eastern Galilee will be presented in the lecture. The data points to dramatic changes in the Jewish settled area during the 4th century. The process of diminution apparent in the last stages of the Talmud Yerushalmi till its cessation is surprisingly parallel to the decline in settlement and demography as attested to by archaeological findings. This demographic crisis together with Christian penetration into areas previously settled solely by Jews, are probably major reasons for other significant changes in the Jewish society during this period as well. These changes include, for example, the disappearance of the Rabbis as a class; the disappearance of the Patriarchate; the strengthening of local communities and the increasing usage of symbols of group identity and of epigraphy.

Hebrew script appears on the collar of the garment the Virgin wears and on the neckband of that worn by Christ in a diptych by Jan and/or Quinten Metsys ((Prado, ca. 1530) pictured and described in the catalog of the recent exhibit "Prayers and Portraits" at the National Gallery. The book describes the text on the Virgin’s collar as the “beginning words of Genesis.” On the right wing, Christ’s garment is “edged in Hebrew letters that are apparently purely decorative”. Ch. Müller, ("Urs Graf: Die Zeichnungen... " 332) (following centuries of commentary) describes the Hebrew appearing in a broadside of the Virgin, a songsheet with the notes and text of a hymn to her immaculate conception, as “fiktives”. Ruth Mellinkoff writes, in one of the few (less than a dozen) works that have given any serious attention to the appearance of Hebrew script in art, “”Hebrew or pseudo-Hebrew—the difference is not important here—was meant to symbolize Judaism” ("Outcasts", 97f). The works to be discussed in this paper are the diptych mentioned above; the songsheet by Urs Graf and another work by him, "Pyramus and Thisbe I". The Hebrew in the diptych derives from one branching of the history of the Tetragrammaton, and, like the Hebrew in the songsheet, is related to the “original” Gospel of Matthew. In the third work, the Hebrew inscription on the tombstone is almost not meaningful, but points towards a macabre reminder of the history of the Jews in Basel. This paper demonstrates that Hebrew script, even errant script, frequently makes up an important part of the artwork in which it appears and it focuses on one way the script does that: when read for linguistic meaning and associated with Hebrew texts, real or invented.

The cursing of the fig tree is a part of Mark’s and Matthew’s picture of Jerusalem and the Temple. Jesus had no positive relationship to either one, he came to Jerusalem only to die. The cursing highlights the break between Jesus’ movement and Judaism, while Luke emphasizes just the opposite: continuity. Luke seems to cut the story of cursing the fig tree into two parts. Then he rewrote them getting the parable of a barren fig tree and the story of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. The way Luke handles Mark 3:21-35 is the following: he placed the story of the kindred of Jesus into another context than the Beelzebul episode. He removed the contrast between the family of Jesus and believers. He placed another saying about the mother of Jesus together with the Beelzebul episode. Luke also took the sting out of GThom 79 simply by cutting it into two pieces, separating them, and adding a few words. Luke kept the Jewish leaders responsible for the death of Jesus, but they did not arrange an illegal trial with false witnesses. If Luke posed the high priest in a slightly better light than Mark and Matthew, the picture of Jesus is also improved: even his archenemies did not think that he was a blasphemer. The fourth example is John's story of Martha, Maria and Lazarus. Martha and Maria had the same roles in Luke than in John, but in a different context. Luke's Jesus raised a son of a widow, not his friend. The annointing stories have common elements, but different message. And finally in John many believed in Jesus because of Lazarus; Luke's paraple of Lazarus ends: '...neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'

Many scholars have suggested that the slave manumission episode in Jeremiah 34:8-22 is a late text drawing from both the Deuteronomic and Holiness Code slave manumission laws (Deut 15:12-18 and Leviticus 25:39-46) at a time when they had obtained equally authoritative positions in the Pentateuch. This paper will support the view that Jeremiah 34 is based upon Deuteronomy 15, but will propose that it functions as a source for the Holiness author of Leviticus 25. Yet whereas the author of Jeremiah 34 attempted to amplify the Deuteronomic law, the Holiness author attempted to contradict it, and relied on a specific exegetical accretion in Jeremiah 34 to do so. This accretion – the miqqetz shevvah shannim formula in Jer 34:14 – was initially employed to qualify Jeremiah’s recitation of the Deuteronomic manumission law as a Levitical exhortation (cf. Deut 31:10). The Holiness author re-applies the exegesis in Jeremiah 34 for his own purposes, subordinating the Deuteronomic legislation to the Zadokite sacral calendar. This not only reinforces recent studies that place the development of the Holiness Code subsequent to the Deuteronomic legislation, but also provides some indication of the polemical culture of the exilic period. The sequence of composition suggests a specific relationship between prophetic collections and the developing Torah traditions fostered by these different ideological groups.

This essay studies John's use of the historic present, focusing on non-lego verbs. After a brief survey of the state of scholarship, general observations about the usage and discourse function of the historic present will be offered. What follows is a more detailed examination of several sample passages (e.g. 1:35-51; 13:1-30; 20:1-18), particularly those in which a cluster of historic presents is situated. The explanatory power of various theories in accounting for the phenomena in John will also evaluated, where it is prompted by the subject matter. The result of this study will demonstrate that while discourse function is helpful in understanding John's use of the historic present, it could not explain all the phenomena. The tense-choice could be prompted by lexical factor, Johannine idiosyncrasies, or simply by the aspectual value of the present tense.

This paper looks at some of the recent work on scripture as artifact in Biblical religions in comparison with recent work on the same topic in the study of South and East Asian religions.

Throughout my research in biblical studies, I have pursued a philological methodology, by which I mean a pattern of exegesis that starts with the smaller units of language, with words, and expands progressively, reaching outward to larger units—formulas, whole passages, chapters, books, religious institutions, et cetera. In so doing, my greatest need has been to be able to access textual information from the great cultures, kingdoms, and empires of the ancient Near East as well as from the smaller ones, usually closer at hand. The comparative method requires contextual information, and the CAD, in addition to listing the lemmas, refers the reader to source materials that reveal usage, register, periodization, and most of what a scholar is seeking. In this brief presentation I will cite three examples of how I have used the CAD to great benefit.

A consideraton of the Balaam scene in Num. 22 and its potential/actual theatricality. The core of the scene involves characters who "belong" to three categorically different "lifestyles:" an angel, a she-donkey and a prophet (with two servants). The description of the stage design is truly very dramatic, strongly suggesting the inevitability of (theatrical, actual) action.

Building upon my previous work, this paper will begin by revisiting the information on children found in the homiletic corpus of John Chrysostom, before proposing that the concept of “childhood” be understood as restrictive category applicable to only a minority of sub-adult people. Slaves and the poor (always the vast majority in antiquity) would not have known a specialized time of life characterized by notions of fragility and the need for protection. They would have joined the work force from the earliest possible moment and their lives would have been largely if not entirely similar to those of adults. Only those from a privileged background had a “childhood.” The term “children” should accordingly be understood as a precise designation of those who would become cultural actors, if they lived. Thus when Chrysostom calls someone a child, he is identifying him or her as a site of cultural and social reproduction.

In the reading of Scripture and the preaching of the Word the Church has said historically that the listener is addressed by God. Not just by the preacher or the ancient text, but by God. What is the nature of that address? What warrant is there in supposing that there could be such an address? That God can speak through these means? A bit over a decade ago Yale philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff addressed these and similiar questions in his book, Divine Discourse, suitably subtitled, Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks. Marten Wisse says of the book that it "is rapidly becoming a classic for the field of theological hermeneutics." But most of the discussion seems to come from the side of philosophers and theologicans professionally interested in questions of hermeneutics, not biblical scholars and certainly not preachers and others whose work is applying the Scriptures to ordinary life. And even then, the central argument of the book seems rarely to be engaged. The book is cited as an obligatory piece of bibliography, but not take up for itself. It deserves better. This paper is an attempt to engage the core arguments of the book and to assess them. In the end, although the paper comes to somewhat different conclusions than Wolterstorff, it remains appreciative of the originality of his contribution.

First Peter commentators have long hinted at a relationship between the letter’s shepherd imagery (2.25; 5.2-4) and the shepherd discourse found in Ezekiel 34. Jobes’ remark in her recent 1 Peter commentary is representative: ‘Elements of this passage from Ezekiel [Ezek 34.11-13] correlate so well with elements of 1 Peter that it is tempting to conclude that Peter deliberately alludes to Ezekiel here [2.25] and elsewhere in his letter’. Neither Jobes nor her predecessors, however, explore their hunches further. Unable to resist the temptation to which Jobes refers, this paper will argue that 1 Peter 2.25 alludes not just to Ezekiel, but to a larger narrative—the Eschatological Davidic Shepherd tradition found in Ezekiel, but also in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Zechariah. Particular attention will be drawn to 1 Peter’s dependence upon the Greek (LXX) representations of this tradition, especially noting the role of LXX Zechariah 10.2 in explaining how 2.24-25 moves from the theme of “being healed by his wounds” to that of “straying sheep”, and finally to speak of being “returned to the shepherd and episkopos”.

This study will examine the manner in which the New Exodus as announced by Second Isaiah was fulfilled. It will challenge the assumption that SI intended a complete and immediate cosmological transformation by examining the role Cyrus plays within the rhetorical argument of Isaiah 40-55. Much of the language used to describe Cyrus and the Servant initially have much in common. They are both called to establish the Way of the LORD which is initially depicted as a theophany. Cyrus initiates the New Exodus through his conquest of Babylon, release of the exiles, and support for the reconstruction of the temple. In doing so, he acts as an agent of Yahweh the Divine Warrior and Redeemer. Cyrus succeeds in this role and the New Exodus in a real sense is inaugurated with the return from Babylon. Ezra’s allusions to SI’s prophecy demonstrate that the post-exilic community believed the return from exile genuinely fulfilled the New Exodus salvation program. Similarly Haggai’s references to Isaiah’s prophecy and the shared theophanic phenomena in both books demonstrate that this same community believed the reconstruction of the temple fulfilled “eschatological” prophecy. Yet Isa 40-55 is not merely political persuasion; an eschatological vision is also cast. Cyrus plays a limited role in the establishment of the New Exodus as demonstrated by SI’s rhetoric. As the argument of SI proceeds, the Servant continues to play a pivotal role in Yahweh’s redemptive plan whereas Cyrus disappears from the scene. The New Exodus is projected into the future not because it failed to be consummated in the repatriation of Jerusalem or because it was delayed due to Israel’s rejection of Cyrus as Yahweh’s agent. The hope of the New Exodus is tied to the hope for the Servant.

My paper aims to investigate transformation of both the prophet of Jonah and the book of Jonah in Chapter 2 through the Bakhtinian lens of authoring and re-authoring respectively. Jonah is transformed from a disobedient prophet to an obedient one in Ch. 2. At the same time, "Jonah" has been recreated or transformed throughout the history of translation. To delve into Jonah’s transformation, I will first make use of Bakhtin’s concept of authoring. According to Bakhtin, authoring is the process of constructing or drawing of self and others. By analyzing Jonah’s prayer as shown in Ch. 2 in terms of authoring, it can be concluded that Jonah’s understanding of God and himself in Ch. 2 is transformed in comparison with those in Chs. 1 and 3. Then I will proceed to the concept of re-authoring of Bakhtin throughout the history of translation of "Jonah." Given that translation is contingent on historical background, a translator cannot help redrawing a hero in a different way from the source text in the horizon. From the Bakhtinian perspective, it can be said that different translators re-author the text in their horizons. The concept of re-authoring will also show us that the text itself is polyphonic and diverse versions of translation are dialogical. Among other translations, I will focus on the Masoretic Text (MT), Septuagint (LXX), and Vulgate (V). By comparison of MT with LXX and V, we can observe that LXX and V re-author Jonah differently from MT in different horizons. The Hebrew text I will employ is traced back to the early 2nd century A.D. The Septuagint stems from the 3rd century B.C. The Vulgate was written between 390-405 A.D. Comparing the three translation versions, I will reexamine how different historical and linguistic horizons result in various re-authorings in the history of translation.

Biblical scholars, like the legal theorists addressed by H.L.A. Hart in his monumental The Concept of Law, privilege the notion of law as orders issued by a supreme and independent ‘sovereign’ being who punishes the disobedient. I attend here to an aspect of biblical law that sits in stark tension with the sovereign model: law as quasi-erotic engagement. In ‘The Valediction: A Book’, John Donne tells his lover how to ‘anger destiny’ when he is gone: Study our manuscripts, those myriads/ Of letters, which have past ‘twixt thee and me,/ Thence write our annals, and in them will be/ To all whom love’s subliming fire invades,/ Rule and example found… Donne’s letters will not replace him. Rather, the exchange of letters between himself and his lover record their engagement, preserve their love in the face of destiny, and create a model for future lovers. Though imperfect, this comparison elicits a key feature of my reading here. Biblical law, especially Deuteronomic law, is not a soliloquy but a dialogue. With this in mind, I re-read Deut. 31-33, where the Torah will remind God of his relationship with Moses; discourage unilateral punishment; intercede for Israel in Moses’ absence (31:19, 26, reading the preposition ‘be’ as ‘with’, not ‘against’); record the dialogue between God and Moses; and exemplify for Israel the dialogic ideal of law (31:21b). My reading calls for a re-evaluation of: (1) the significance of love (Deut. 6:5) and even eroticism (Ps. 119:32, 97, 131) in relation to biblical law; (2) the relationship between biblical law and rabbinic legal texts, where engagement of this kind is central; (3) the meaning of shema be’qol; (4) the desirability of obedience – which arguably forecloses engagement – as a response to biblical law; and above all (5) the classic opposition of biblical law and compassionate love.

Sinai 1 is a 12th century AD manuscript from the Monastery of St. Catherine’s of the Sinai. It is currently being edited by the present author. The manuscript contains most of Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. There is a strong possibility that this manuscript is a copy of Codex Sinaiticus, and was written in the Monastery. Codex Sinaiticus is missing the Pentateuch. There is a notation in the Codex Sinaiticus, “Compared and corrected against the Hexapla of Origen...The confessor Antoninus checked it. Pamphilus corrected the book in prison, through God’s great grace and magnanimity.” Sinai 1 contains a number of lines in Greek that are not present in any of the other 1900 Greek manuscripts of the Pentateuch. These lines are translations of verses that are in the Masoretic text, but absent from the Septuagint. This paper examines these lines and suggests that these lines were added from the Hexapla of Origen, being either lines composed by Origen himself, or perhaps present in one of the other columns of the Hexapla, such as the version of Aquila.

Though much has been written regarding the polemical character of the Epistle of Jude specifically taking up the identity of Jude’s enemies, this paper will bring a new means of analyses (social categorization by means of purity/pollution rhetoric) to this older question. Few, if any, have considered how the purity language is functioning within Jude’s polemic, yet this paper will seek to understand first how the language functions to mark Jude’s opponents and then to observe how a broader ‘worldview’ may in fact find articulation through such language. Drawing on the work of Mary Douglas and the more recent work of Jonathan Klawans, this project seeks to view Jude’s polemic and ‘worldview’ through the lens of purity and pollution.

In this paper I argue that, when the parable is extracted from its secondary frame (10:29 and 10:36-37), the parable focuses on the initiatives of two characters, not one. That is, the 'example story of the Samaritan', as Luke has it, bursts out into a true 'parable of the Samaritan and the Inn-Keeper'. This essay considers the role of the innkeeper as one who, like the Samaritan, serves a positive role within the story when it is extracted from its extant literary context. Unlike the story of the wicked tenants (Mark 12:1-12 et par.), with its association of characters whose efforts and devising result in an evil outcome, the story of Luke 10:30-35 depicts an association of characters whose efforts and devising result in a positive outcome. Rather than having an individualistic focus on a single “good” figure, the Samaritan story depicts an uncommon association of figures, a surprising collective, an unprecedented model of mutual service. In an exceptional partnership, the Samaritan and the innkeeper enter into a relationship involving personal vulnerability and loss on the one hand and mutual trust and cooperation on the other. It is from this risky, fragile and exceptional association that goodness flows to the benefit of the disadvantaged… But in Jesus’ Samaritan story, moments of empire-otherness transpire even (and perhaps especially) in coalitions between despised, suspect figures that fall outside the normal channels of institutional religion. In this, there would have been real offence, as the foundations of a prominent second-temple worldview (perhaps itself stereotyped) were being challenged, deconstructed, and refashioned… Consequently, it is not simply “the despised half-breed” Samaritan that serves as the model of “compassion and grace” in the story; it is that despised half-breed in association with the decadent scoundrel.

Proechometha in Rom 3.9 is problematic. Depending on voice, it is today taken one of three different ways: “As a true middle, in the sense of ‘put forward in excuse’… As a true passive, giving the sense, ‘Are we (Jews) at a disadvantage’… [or] As a middle form with an active sense: ‘Do we have an advantage’” (Byrne, Romans, 119). In each of these cases the pro- prefix is ‘spatial’. While these three translations are sufficiently attested in ancient literature, there is nevertheless a fourth possibility. Ancient literature also attests to the pro- prefix being used 'temporally'; e.g. ‘having previously received hostile expressions of feeling from the Athenians’ (Hdt 9.4); and ‘consider what they have already obtained’ (P. Petr. 2.12. fr. 4). Such a usage in Rom 3.9 may then be translated: ‘Do we have [something] in advance?’ This essay will revisit this so-called ‘fourth possibility’, which has been all but forgotten since Arethas and Photius in the 9th-10th centuries, but which yields numerous advantages when applied to Rom 3.9. Firstly, it allows the answer to Paul’s question in 3:9 (ou pantos), to be translated naturally -‘Not entirely’. Second, this question and answer in Rom 3:9, now ties back to Paul’s earlier question of 3:1, in a non-contradictory way. Thirdly, several well attested textual variants are now accounted for as scribal attempts at clarity. Fourthly, a connection point with Paul’s use of echo in chapter 2 (c.f. Rom 5:2?) is also gained. And fifthly, Rom 3:1-20 can now be read as a more unified whole. This last point is of great relevance in current discussion, and will be touched on briefly at the end of the paper.

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The Gospel of Judas belongs to the second stage of the Judas Iscariot trajectory. To fully place in the history of Primitive Christianity the first stage needs further. It was not until the early Christians tried to undergird the theological interpretation of the Passion story with "historical" details – partly to draw attention away from the embarrassing delay in Jesus' Second Coming – that they began to look for a concrete person who may have delivered Jesus to the enemy. They chose the disciple Judas, from Kerioth in southern Judea. After all, who could better symbolize the Jewish people (Judas/Judea/Jews) – the collective scapegoats for the church, accused from the beginning for their role in Jesus' death? And it must be remarked that, from this tragic point on, the theologically if not Biblically positive side of Jesus' act as the suffering Servant ("Jesus' blood shed for you") became distorted by the supplanting of a negative, and ultimately destructive interpretation to the verb paradidômi. Judas is transformed from one symbolic representative of the Twelve Tribes to the placard-bearing traitor, the Jew from Kerioth of Judea. Thus Judas and the Jews become, in one abysmal mistranslation and a self-serving cataclysmic theological decision of an insecure Institution, grossly stylized monsters – a grotesque miscarriage of justice whose significance can only be measured with inadequate reference to centuries of cultural abuse and horrendous mistreatment still under scrutiny today.

The paper reviews memory theories presented within the recent cognitive study of religion in order to see if they can supplement social memory approach in Biblical studies. Memory functions have been central in two much discussed problems of cognitive study of religion. Cognitive scientists of religion have discussed the reasons for the ubiquity of supernatural concepts in religions offering the concept of ‘counterintuitiveness’ as an explanation for the formation and spread of supernatural concepts (P. Boyer, J. Barrett, I. Pyysiäinen) . Several memory experiments have shown that minimally counterintuitive representations are usually better recalled than ordinary concepts that do not violate categorical expectations (or violate them too much). Another problem field where memory functions have had a central role in recent cognitive study of religion is the study of ritual. H. Whitehouse and T. Lawson & R. McCauley have presented related theories of ritual transmission that apply memory theories in order to explain different ritual modes of religiosity (Whitehouse’s doctrinal and imagistic modes of religion) as well as the ways how the frequency of rituals and their sensory pageantry contribute to rituals’ persistence and transmission (Lawson & McCauley). The distinction between semantic and episodic memory—both aspects of explicit (or declarative) memory—has dominated the discussion while less attention has been paid to implicit (or nondeclarative) memory. In addition to introducing and assessing the above discussions of cognitive scientist of religion the present paper suggests that some seemingly contradictory assumptions in Whitehouse’s and Lawson & McCauley’s theories (for instance, so-called tedium-effect vs. ritual frequency’s consolidating effect) could be clarified by introducing distinctions made in the recent studies on implicit (or nondeclarative) memory. The study of implicit memory might also form a fertile ground for the interaction of cognitive approach and social memory approach since Paul Connerton’s concept of habit-memory (cf. Keightley’s article in Kirk & Thatcher [eds.], Memory, Tradition and Text) is to be regarded as part of implicit memory.

The story of Rahab plays a prominent role in the early days of the Israelite conquest of the “Promised Land” and has been told and retold for centuries. It offers a first glimpse of what would be the new home of Israel and foreshadows some of the tensions that would surround the capture and settling of the land. Beyond the anticipation of new land fermented during the lengthy wilderness sojourn, however, is the question of Rahab and her prominent position so early in the narrative. For centuries, Christian writers have struggled to make sense of this woman. Was she a common harlot, or some type of temple functionary? Did she remain a gentile after contact with the spies, or did she profess faith in the God of Israel? This study reviews a variety of Christian attempts to understand this enigmatic biblical figure. It considers the remarks of 1 Clement, Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Origen, Irenaeus, Augustine, Jerome, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Luther, Calvin, Phylis Bird and Alice Bellis, et al., and categorizes them according to Taconius’ four-fold sense of Scripture: Literal, Allegorical, Tropological, and Anagogical. The study demonstrates that no one type of biblical interpretation is more “biblical” than another. Rather, each exegete working through the centuries believed that they were interpreting the Bible, struggling to make the ancient story address the issues of his or her own day, and addressing issues that earlier writers overlooked. They also raise concerns common to their time that previous writers could not have known. Thus via multiple modes of interpretation the Bible could speak to people long ago, as well as, those of every subsequent age.

Although food is often viewed as a conservative element in society, it can also have a role in social change as recent work on feasting has sought to demonstrate. In this paper textual and archaeological data for the development of Israel from a segmentary society to a monarchy is re-examined. Whilst early proponents of the use of social-scientific methods made significant gains in their analysis of early Israelite society, their work had numerous gaps. One of these was the use of agricultural surpluses and how these were controlled and invested to drive forwards technological and social change. Recent anthropological and archaeological work on feasting allows this lacuna to be filled, whilst also highlighting the role food and feasting plays in the Old Testament literature that describes the early Israelite experience.

This paper will explore the Bible’s use of humor through the lenses of psychological understandings of the roots and uses of humor. The roots of humor include relieving tension, expressing hostility or superiority, recognizing incongruity and absurdity, and showing love. Humor functions to maintain psychological health, bond people to one another, to express joy, to critique and effect social change, and to create the disequilibrium that can lead to new insight. Acknowledging and correlating with these common ideas, the paper will illustrate how the Bible uses humor, from Abraham and Sarah to the teaching of Jesus.

Sixty years after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls are now fully published and have been accessible to the public for years. Unfortunately, the material from Roland de Vaux’s excavations at Qumran remains unpublished and inaccessible. During the last decade we have witnessed a spate of alternative interpretations of the site of Qumran, most prominently those identifying it as a manor house (Yizhar Hirschfeld) or a pottery production center (Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg). In this paper I survey the current state of Qumran archaeology, including a consideration of the alternative interpretations and the larger trends that are defining the ongoing debates.

Roman imperial propaganda celebrated the Empire’s military successes as a Gospel bringing a divinely appointed order of moral regulation and ethical transformation to barbarians and conquered nations. Roman imperial iconologist Tonio Hölscher has shown how political iconography dramatized this achievement by offering up scenes of military victory in which representations of somber, self-regulated, victorious emperors contrasted with depictions of the vanquished in anguish and sorrow. While such iconography praised the emperor’s military prowess and moral superiority, it also made visible and helped to construct a series of ethical and social ideals all were to embrace. The sorrowful conquered now transformed through the application of Roman regulation were to conform to the moral and emotional self-control of their conquerors and so live in ethical harmony with a divinely appointed moral order preserved by imperial rule. Hölscher’s socio-semiotic iconographical study of Roman imperial conquest offers insight into the influence of Roman military art on Pauline portraits of unruly gentiles transformed through the rule of Christ to lives of obedience and self-control. That portrait is especially explicit in Colossians where Jesus’ death celebrated as a military victory secures the journey from the barbarian/Scythian life of immoderation toward one of regulation (Col. 3:5-17). Colossians belongs to an imperial situation in which a political visual culture centered on ideals of conquest and military regulation furnishes the backdrop for the social construction of Colossian ethical ideals and communal identity. If in the imperial order military victory leads to moral conquest and the transformation of once unruly peoples, in the church the paradoxical victory Jesus’ death represents similarly urges transformation, no longer by way of the threat of violence and the politics of force, but through love and forgiveness, in memory of the chains of the alternative Gospel propagandist and apostle to once unregulated gentiles, Paul.

“But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.” (Gal 2:18). This paper weaves together several biblical themes focusing on issues of boundary and purity. This resulting cloth is brought into contact with contemporary concerns about the US-Mexico border. It is to be expected that borders are contested zones. If they were not recognized as markers between this and that they would not be borders. The paper adopts an explicit malinchista perspective. La Malinche (Malintzin) famously in Mexican lore betrayed the Aztecs to the Spanish conquerors. Things are always more complicated than lore lets on and this complication allows the figure of Malinche to reflect on contemporary issues of race, ethnicity, gender and identity. I bring Malinche into dialog with Pat Buchanan and the apostle Paul all of whom struggle mightily with issues of boundaries, purity, danger, and walls.

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Early in their studies, Bible students learn the annual calendar of religious celebrations. The biblical text also provides many clues for situating other events in the yearly cycle. In a course on Peasants, Agriculture, and the Bible, students are introduced to the region's seasonal weather patterns, the timing of different crops, and the activities associated with their production and marketing. In this activity, students create a large circular calendar indicating the important religious rituals and weather cycles, in relation to our contemporary calendar. Then, drawing on their understanding of climate and food production, they locate the season for additional biblical events and stories. With cards for each quotation, they physically create a visual presentation of the seasons of the biblical stories, revealing underlying social and political adaptations to the natural environment. As students come to understand the importance of agricultural life and reliance on weather in biblical times, they expand their ability to consider the biblical stories in light of ecological relationships.

Over fifteen years ago, Antoinette Clark Wire posited that Paul and Corinthian women had different experiences of their status before and after joining the assembly of Corinth. More recently, it has come to the attention of queer theorists that trans folk have different experiences of their status than expected by the medical and psychological establishment, both before and after changes in and through behavior, dress, performance, and surgery. Though dissimilar in a variety of ways, these two dynamics are strikingly analogous in matters of being, becoming, and belonging. Most prominently, arguments about suffering, authority, and normalcy are key in both domains. Putting these two dynamics in contrapuntal conversation, then, could prove profitable for re-thinking what precisely is involved in gender, community, identity, and conversion or transition (for the first or the twenty-first century). In the end, this should demonstrate the additional and unexpected utility of feminist socio-historical modeling for feminist and/or LGBTIQ communities as well as the possibilities for a continually relevant practice of biblical studies.

The picture the canonical gospels paint of Judas Iscariot is gloomy and gets worse as the process of interpretation advances. In the Gospel of Mark, Judas hands Jesus over to his opponents but it is not entirely clear whether his act should be called a betrayal. In Matthew, Luke and John there is no doubt about it. Judas acts out of love for money in Matthew and Luke and as an agent of the Devil in Luke and John. The first reports of the newly published Gospel of Judas gave us to understand that the text provides a rehabilitation of Judas and makes him a paragon of the disciple of Jesus. My paper advances the thesis that the Gospel of Judas indeed portrays a different picture of Judas but that it is not a complete reversal of the canonical one. Judas is the disciple who best understands Jesus and to whom Jesus reveals his secret teaching. He is also the one who renders Jesus his last favor by delivering him to his opponents and thus helping him to be freed from his body. Thus, he is clearly more important than the rest of the disciples who completely misunderstand Jesus and who represent a non-acceptable form of Christianity. Nevertheless, it is not at all certain whether Judas belongs to the ”holy generation” of Christians who will dwell in the realm of light. The significance of Judas Iscariot in the Gospel of Judas does not seem to lie in the fact that he could be a role model for Christians who read the text. Rather, he is pictured as Jesus’ special disciple because, through him, the text can criticize the other disciples and the form of Christianity they represent.

This paper re-examines the well-known trope of early Christian Acts literature in which the apostle seduces socially and politically elite women from pagan society to a state of chastity for Jesus. These women are depicted as literally forsaking their fiancés at the altar, new husbands in the bridal chamber, and established husbands in comically portrayed frustration in order to devote themselves to a “real man,” namely Jesus, under the guidance of the apostle. The postcolonial insight connects this literary formation to the wider ways in which conquest and colonization were figured as gendered activities and acted out in the possession of the elite women of conquered nations and through the gendered depictions of nations in relation to one another. The trophy wives of Christ are Christian transformations of the pagan iconography of conquest and seeing this suggests ways in which the early Christian depiction of evangelism modeled itself on the Greco-Roman paradigm of gendered political control.

The name ‘Noah’ is mentioned repeatedly in the Qur’an, usually in lists of prophets. In seven suras the Noah story is clearly presented, with varying detail and emphasis. Literary analysis of biblical texts often grapples with repetition and variance. The wife-sister episodes in Genesis and Jesus’ feeding the multitudes in Matthew are examples of what Janice Chapel Anderson terms ‘double and triple stories.’ In this paper, I offer observations about differences and similarities in the shape of the Noah story between suras, and explore connections between the presentations in terms of plot structure and verbatim repetition. I attempt to determine a ‘standard’ story-shape for the Noah/Flood tale in the Qur’an and discuss the sura that best represents that story-shape. Finally, I turn to the story of Noah as presented in writings of two major Qur’an interpreters, al-?abari (224-5 AH/ 839 CE – 310 AH / 923 CE), al-Qur?ubi (circa 600 AH /1200 CE – 671 AH /1273 CE) to determine how these writers understood Noah in the Qur’an. I examine al-?abari’s Ta’rikh al-rusul wa al-muluk (The History of the Messengers and the Kings) and Ibn Kathir’s Qi?a? al-anbiya’ (Stories of the Prophets) to determine the impact of variation and contradiction in the Qur’anic Noah story on the way these authors relate the flood narrative.

References to male headship in Pauline texts such as Eph 5:23; Col 2:19; and 1Cor 11:3 spark an intense debate between traditional and egalitarian interpreters. The former maintain that these texts specify the man as the ruler, controller, decision-maker, and leader of the woman, while the latter propose that man is the source of the woman but that both are equals in rule, control, decision-making, and leadership. The crux of the debate is whether head means ruler or source. Both sides in the debate advance lexical arguments, but neither introduces the ancient disagreement about the role of the head. This paper investigates this ancient disagreement in relation to Pauline anthropology and concludes that the use of head in these texts is less likely a reference to ruler than to source.

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Hebrews 7:3 is a pivotal verse in the book’s presentation of both Melchizedek and Jesus, and one’s interpretation of its statements about Melchizedek’s lineage determines one’s understanding of what the author wishes to affirm about Jesus’ priesthood. Some interpreters have understood the verse merely as a comment that Melchizedek lacks a Levitical genealogy, thus Jesus also is a priest lacking a Levitical heritage (as discussed later in Heb 7:14). Other interpreters have understood the verse to assert that Melchizedek lacks a human genealogy of any sort and is an eternal, heavenly figure, thus Jesus too holds an eternal priesthood (something the author affirms frequently elsewhere in the book). While both of these readings have found support in Hebrews scholarship over the past three decades, I argue for the latter, appealing to a reconsideration of the Qumran portrait of Melchizedek as an angelic, priestly figure. Admittedly several elements differ in the presentations of Melchizedek at Qumran and in Hebrews, and certainly some scholars in the past have argued overzealously for too much of a relationship between Hebrews and the Qumran community. On the other hand, others have overemphasized the differences to the neglect of legitimate parallels. My thesis is that the author of Hebrews evidences some level of shared thought with the Qumran portrait of Melchizedek. Hebrews and the Qumran materials on Melchizedek provide the only examples in extant Second Temple period literature for a heavenly Melchizedek understood in light of Day of Atonement imagery, and this illuminates the interpretation of Heb 7:3.

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The significance of the topic of maturity within the theology of Ephesians and Colossians is often overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the topic of maturity in fact provides a level of theological coherence to both letters, and to some extent accounts for the relationship between the two. Both letters integrate the nature of Christian maturity into God’s eschatological plan for the cosmos, when ‘all things’ will be reconciled to (Col.) and united in (Eph.) Christ. Yet, maturity in Colossians is received through participation in Christ (1.28), whereas in Ephesians it is achieved through the promoting the growth and unity of the church (4.13). The variation in these articulations is intelligible in light the overall ecclesiological focus of Ephesians and christological focus of Colossians. Moreover, the two presentations of maturity can account for the subtle differences in the ecclesiological head-body metaphor, as well as the varying emphases of the intercessory prayers and paraenesis. However, one disparity that is not so easily explained is the gendered metaphor for maturity in Ephesians, where the corporate maturity of the church is likened to that of a ‘mature man’ (a!ndra te/leion). Most scholars take this as indication of the author’s entrenchment within his historic and social location, though some attempt to relativise the masculinity of this statement. Neither of these approaches satisfies the complexity of the issue. The cosmic implications of maturity in these two letters reveal that the author operates with an anthropology and cosmology common to the ancient world, where humanity was considered to be a microcosm of the cosmos. Yet, there are also indications in both letters of the subversion of gender as a marker of maturity. Thus, this paper will identify the theological resources available in Colossians and Ephesians that make a critical appropriation of the nature of Christian maturity possible for today.

This paper will examine the ways in which identity transformation, physical setting, and manner of speech contribute to the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. I will employ aspects of spatiality theory, cognitive linguistics, mental space theory, and the anthropology of clothing in my study. My basic premise is that conversations are constructed of more than an exchange of words. The mental back drop to the conversation includes socially recognized and agreed upon concepts or cognitive representations that identify the characters, the setting, and the language they employ. With respect to the persons involved, these concepts encompass their relative power relationships based on kinship, age, gender, rank, or social status, as well as the physical setting in which their conversation takes place, and various temporal factors such as the season of the year or the occurrence of a regularly scheduled economic activity. In addition to these cognitive elements, there are multiple socially-based triggers that provide cognitive keys or directives on how a conversation will proceed.

As an emerging methodology Performance Criticism’s eclectic approach seeks to employ and transform several disciplines, including biblical translation. Bible translation in the past century has presupposed a print-bias ethos of the Bible’s composition, transmission, and reception. Performance Criticism challenges translation theories that separate form from meaning, remove language from its social contexts and functions, and purport non-ideological methods. As an extension of Performance Criticism’s eclecticism, this paper presents insights from anthropological research in folklore and other verbal performances with a view to their contributions to biblical criticism. Researchers of ethnopoetics are concerned with how to avoid loss when transcribing verbal performances. These potential losses can inform Bible translators as to how first-century performances of biblical compositions involved more than what has been contained in print translations. Although some performance aspects may be lost, biblical texts offer hints as to how they were intended to be rhetorically performed and received. Translations for performance should attempt to reflect these rhetorical intentions and effects. Whereas researchers of Performance Criticism have often limited discussions of translation to English, this paper looks at how Performance Criticism offers insights into biblical translation in one of the minority languages of central Africa: Vuté. Fifteen years of personal involvement in anthropological and linguistic research, along with considerable exegetical and translation consulting, has resulted in the publication of the Vuté New Testament. Nevertheless, given the low literacy rates, the majority of these people will only hear this translation. How might Performance Criticism enhance this translation? Limiting this study to passages from Mark’s gospel, what differences are evident in a performance-oriented translation script when compared with the recently published print-oriented translation?

The recently published Deuteronomy fascicle of Biblia Hebraica Quinta offers much masoretic data not readily accessible previously. Some of this data especially relevant to textual criticism will be analyzed

The terms “canonical,” “non-canonical,” apocryphal,” and “pseudepigraphal” are often confusing when cited in contemporary investigations of ancient Jewish and Christian literature. They are all anachronistic terms that later Christian communities used to describe literature that did or did not eventually find acceptance into the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Initially most of those writings, if not all of them, functioned as sacred literature in one or more Jewish or Christian religious communities. This paper will focus on the meaning and validity of such distinctions for investigative research of ancient religious literature and will conclude with examples of writings that functioned or were cited authoritatively in early Judaism and/or early Christianity, but were not eventually included in the biblical canons that have survived antiquity. The examples will be from Sirach, Wisdom, 1 Enoch and Shepherd of Hermas. This paper is foundational to the proposed consultation on the function of apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature in early Judaism and early Christianity.

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Many experiments demonstrate the limited capacity of working memory. As one of the consequences of this limited processing capacity, what is usually remembered from speech is the gist rather than the exact words used, although under certain circumstances verbatim memories can be formed. This paper reports on the results of experiments by Jacqueline Strunk Sachs, Wallace Chafe et al., and Robert K. McIver that show that narratives tend to be remembered in gist form, and recalled in short bursts (described as “minichunks” by Robert Bernardo), while retaining some of the exact phrases of the original. These types of characteristics when discovered between parallel accounts in the Synoptic Gospels might be taken to indicate a relationship based on human memory, rather than copying. Outside of such specialized forms as poetry, verbatim parallels could be taken as indication of either copying or memorizing from a text. Selected Synoptic parallels are examined to determine whether or not markers of orality are present, and the potential role of copying.

Robert Polzin, in his book Samuel and the Deuteronomist, argues that the entire ark narrative of 1 Sam 4-6 is motivated by the two Israelite questions at the end of chapter 6; “Who can stand before YHWH?,” and, “To whom will He go up from us?” Polzin further suggests that the appropriateness of the use of the ark to introduce the story of Israel’s kingship is made possible because the ark is able to represent the presence of YHWH within Israel, and Israel itself. Israel is defined by the YHWH present within the community. Among the various characteristics of chronotope, Morson and Emerson identify what Bakhtin calls chronotopic motifs, a particular sort of event, or place that serves as the locale for that event, which acquires a chronotopic aura “which is an echo of the generic whole” in which the given event usually appears. When these motifs are used in other contexts, they remember their past and carry the aura of the previous narrative context into the new situation. The resonances of covenantal time and space that are associated with Sinai and the way in which the narrative comes to a grinding halt at the foot of the mountain, suggest that Mt. Sinai be looked at as a candidate for the chronotope or the chronotopic motif. My paper will argue, however, that the debut appearance of the ark on the slopes of Sinai transforms it into a receptacle that can carry the essence of the Sinai event to other narrative contexts and hence the ark functions as a chronotopic motif. It is this chronotopic character of the ark that is exploited so effectively by the writer of Samuel in the introduction to the story of kingship in Israel, as outlined by Polzin.

It is often observed that Jesus, as portrayed in Luke-Acts, resembles Moses or Elijah. While there is plenty of evidence to support these conclusions, that evidence does not, in my opinion, extend to theories that Luke-Acts is patterned after Deuteronomy or the Elijah-Elisha narrative. Moses and Elijah are just two of the many prophets who serve as models for Jesus and the apostles in Luke-Acts. The simplest explanation for references to Israel’s prophets in Luke’s Gospel is that Luke adds them to the narrative framework provided by Mark (and Q) in order to portray Jesus and Peter as prophets who, like all other prophets, will ultimately be rejected. Luke specifically refers to those prophets who display the characteristics he seeks to attribute to Jesus and Peter. For example, Luke seeks to portray Jesus as a prophet whose following will ultimately include Gentiles. He therefore expands Mark 6:1-6 by explaining what Jesus taught at Nazareth: that he will be a prophet like Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings 17:8-16 and 2 Kings 5 in Luke 4:25-27). In order to depict Peter as a prophet whose encounter with Jesus leads him to repentance, Luke turns to Mark 1:16-18, narrating the call of the first disciples in terms that liken Peter to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5 in Luke 5:8). Since Luke aims to show that Jesus is a prophet who includes the marginalized, he constructs the story in Luke 7:11-17 by combining details from a legend about Elijah and the widow (1 Kings 17:17-24) and a resuscitation narrative from Mark 5:35-43. Luke also needs to relate that Jesus, like other prophets, foresaw the destruction of the temple. Prophecies concerning the temple in Mark 13:14-19 thus receive significant additions in Luke 21:20-24, as Jesus quotes from Hos 9:7; Jer 21:7; Ezek 32:9; and Zech 12:3.

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The Book of Judith raises among many, issues related to faith, patriotism, female sexuality, violence and the relation to people of other cultures. Indian mythology has examples of women playing similar roles and using similar methods to avenge the enemy who are celebrated and worshipped by both men and women in India. This paper will explore the meaning and significance of the book of Judith in the light of some of these Indian traditions by employing the contrapuntal method (reading in juxtaposition) advocated R.S. Sugirtharajah.

Magical religious practices, which may be defined as instrumental uses of the divine, are devoted to gods and God, in Winnicott's terms, as "subjectively perceived objects," whose behavior is appreciated only in relation to the devotee; whereas the comparatively rare phenomenon of non-magical religion is devoted to "objective objects" who are conceptualized as independent agents. In a "bargain with fate," divine behavior is felt to be predictable because it is responsive to, and therefore contingent on, devotees' behavior; and cultic behavior is implicitly or explicitly magical, in that religious practices are means by which to control fate. Numbers 16-17 provides a paradigmatic illustration both of a bargain with fate and of a transferential conception of God. The Priestly narrative portrays God as a narcissistic personality, whose cult must either cater to the arbitrary demands of his narcissism or suffer his wrath. The therapeutic goal, at both clinical and religious levels of discourse, is to facilitate advance, in Winnicott's terms, from "object-relating" to "object-usage." When analysis of the transference discloses the transference onto God as a projection of interpersonal expectations that have their basis in early object relations, the divine can be conceptualized as a free agent--and as radically transcendent. The intervention, which is simultaneously psychotherapeutic and theological, replaces the concept of divinely ordained fate with a concept of divine grace, moves beyond the righteousness-reward syndrome into the possibility of gratuitous virtue, and interrupts the compulsively repetitive character of the cult.

Theatricality is a striking feature of “The Book of Ruth”. The plot advances through dialogue. Characters are sharply defined, sympathetic, recognizable types, & they are three, as in classic Greek drama. “Ruth” is a comedy, rural in character, ending in marriage. Some Biblical scholars proposed, in passing, that “Ruth” was originally performed. Others dismissed this, without explanation. Opinion also differs in dating “Ruth’s” composition: it may be a work of the fifth century B.C.E, or the seventh. I propose that we can date this redaction of “Ruth” as fifth century, because choruses of women appear in “Ruth” in the form they achieved in fifth century drama. Aristotle’s fourth century Poetics laid the rules of drama, using fifth century paradigms. He required unity of action: “Ruth” moves relentlessly to the goal of securing an heir to replace Ruth’s husband. Aristotle recommended—but did not require—that action be within a day. “Ruth’s” scenes cover a season, but, in my opinion, progress sequentially over 36 hours: from pre-dawn through the following afternoon. Homer declared that no border was closed to the artisan. Greeks worked everywhere in the East in the seventh to fifth centuries, B.C.E. Eastern cultural workers participated throughout the Greek world. East & West interacted copiously: but little attention is focused on the influence of drama—a very popular pastime—in framing Eastern stories. Choruses first appear in seventh century women’s competitive performances, such as “Partheneia” by Alcman. Actors—originally introduced to have dialogue with the chorus—later became commentators. By the fifth century, choruses had receded to the role of observers of action, rather than promoters of it. The chorus of this period is that which speaks in “Ruth”. I believe we many use this choral convention to date the writing of “Ruth”.

In Genesis 12:1-3 God calls Abram to leave his homeland, clan and family in order to journey to a new land that God will show him, where he will become a great nation. This text/ event constitutes a pivotal shift in the book of Genesis from the primeval story (Genesis 1-11) to the ancestral story (Genesis 12-50) and sets in motion nothing less than the history of redemption recounted in the rest of Scripture. This paper will explore the pivotal character of the call of Abraham, especially its ultimate purpose (articulated five times in the book of Genesis) that Abraham and his descendants (Israel) should mediate blessing to all the families of the earth. This purpose of the call of Abraham/ Israel will be examined not only for its function as an intra-narrative ethical norm for judging the actions of the characters in Genesis itself, but also for its role in signaling a fundamental movement in the larger plot of the canonical macro-narrative of redemption, initiating what is, in effect, a major subplot of the canonical story. Three particular canonical connections of the call of Abraham/ Israel will be developed, namely 1) the grounding of this call in God’s original purpose for humanity and all creation, 2) the rearticulation of this call in the Great Commission and the ensuing Gentile mission that forms the fundamental backdrop of the New Testament, and 3) the fulfillment of this call in the eschatological vision of the book of Revelation.It will become clear just how pivotal the call of Abraham is as a hermeneutical clue for a canonical reading of Scripture.

This paper compares the various types of ellipsis in Biblical Hebrew to ellipsis in a wide range of other languages. An examination of the syntactic phenomena from a typological perspective reveals ways in which the Biblical Hebrew data conform to cross-linguistic patterns. However, the typological perspective also highlights important questions about the Biblical Hebrew data.

One of the current trends in New Testament studies concerns analysis of early Christian identity. Most of this work has focused on the lengthier writings of the New Testament. This paper, however, examines the shape of the communal identity that the author of 2 Peter, one of the shortest New Testament writings, works to foster among its auditors. An introductory section prepares for the analysis of 2 Peter by summarizing key issues in the study of social identity. The bulk of the essay uses four widely agreed upon dynamics shaping collective identity in order to examine the contours of the self-understanding maintained by the author of 2 Peter. These factors include the meaning of past and future events for the auditors, the audiences’ relationship to noteworthy individuals, labels used to depict in-group and out-group members, and norms of behavior and values that should/should not characterize their community. Throughout the essay, particular attention is given to the manner in which 2 Peter defines its audience over against false teachers and their instructions. A closing section summarizes the paper’s findings and highlights the significance of interpreting 2 Peter using the lens of social identity. Reading 2 Peter from this point of view offers a fresh perspective on what the author is trying to accomplish through writing this letter. Rather than focus on the theology of the letter per se or on specific behaviors advocated by the author in and of themselves, this study frames those issues within an overall understanding of the world constructed by the author and how the author situates the auditors within it. From this viewpoint, theology becomes part of world-construction and behavior becomes construed as the manner of life appropriate for such a people faced by particular circumstances within that world.

Traditional form-critical study of the Psalms has aimed at identifying the historical Sitz im leben of a given form’s origin. A New Historicist reading redefines this goal as a sociocultural Sitz for a form’s usage. This essay illustrates this for the psalms known as Zion Hymns. After first delineating the form along traditional lines and in historical context, approaches of New Cultural History are used to examine the objectification of social experience embedded in the form. The form itself is a linguistically circumscribed semantic field within which the construction of immense edifices of symbolic representations that appear to tower over the reality of everyday life was possible. The Zion Hymns are texts of poetic history-writing, systemically distorted communication intended to construct identity and reify institutional order in ancient Israel.

Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a key witness to Jesus' death and resurrection. In Mark, she is described as one of a group of women who followed and served Jesus in Galilee before accompanying him to Jerusalem. Luke also mentions the presence of women during Jesus' mission but adds that these women have been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, and notes that Mary was once possessed by seven demons. For some scholars Mary Magdalene is a foundational figure supporting the leadership roles of women in the church, and Luke's account of her affliction is an attempt to downplay her significance as a disciple. Church tradition, moreover, has identified Mary with the sinful woman who anoints Jesus because of the account of Mary's demon-possession. Mary Magdalene thus becomes an example of a sinful woman or a prostitute. Luke's description of Mary's demon-possesion is unusual because there are no accounts of the exorcisms of women in the gospels apart from the Syrophoenician woman's daughter that takes place at a distance. There are also no accounts of healed human beings becoming disciples other than the group of women mentioned in Luke 8. These features suggest that Luke's account may have some historical basis. A woman suffering from demon-possession is likely to have been marginalised in society, and this portrayal challenges the interpretation of the group of women as wealthy benefactors. Luke's account of Mary does not diminish her role as a disciple but identifies her closely with the other human beings who approach Jesus for healing, and aligns her with the marginalised groups of tax collectors and sinners. Mary Magdalene and the women are the only disciples present at the crucifixion, and their previous suffering enables them to bear witness to the suffering of Jesus.

The overall character of the editing that gives shape to the book of Judges has not been sufficiently understood. Namely, the preservation of predominantly northern material by a Judahite, or Deuteronomistic editor, requires an adequate explanation. Save for the highly stylized sketch of “Othniel the Kenizzite” and three minor references in what are commonly termed the book’s “appendices,” Judah fails to play a role in the book. In contrast, the lopsided proportion of Israelite heroes who rally the people to war in exclusively northern settings highlights the preponderance of Israelite material in Judges. The current trend in scholarship identifies a downward spiral throughout Judges of increasingly inadequate leaders, pointing toward the unequivocal need for the monarchy. Yet this approach, which relies on a unified reading of Judges 2-21, fails to account for the nature of the Deuteronomistic additions in Judges. A close examination of Judges reveals that the Deuteronomist casts the Israelites in a negative light, yet preserves the Yahwistic reputations of their leaders. The Deuteronomist’s treatment of Gideon functions as an apt case study. Whereas other texts suit the editorial agenda, requiring little intrusion beyond the stereotypical framework, two details in Judges 6-8 necessitate theological revision: the origin of the name “Jerubbaal” and Gideon’s construction of the ephod. Regarding the former, the Deuteronomist creates a secondary, anti-Baal etymology to clear Gideon’s name of improper connotations. Regarding the latter, the editor effectively criticizes the Israelites’ use of the ephod while preserving Gideon’s Yahwistic intentions. This objective is confirmed in 8:35, in which the editor emphasizes the people’s failure to heed Gideon, despite “all the good that he did for Israel.” The Deuteronomist’s additions within the Gideon cycle reflect his overarching intention not to criticize the “judges,” but rather to elevate and disassociate them from the impious Israelites.

This paper examines aspects of the role of the Bible in the history of Peru , from the Conquest to the present-day. It points to the religious dimension as an autonomous entity in social life. This autonomy produced results that were different from those expected by those who translated, promoted, used or distributed the Bible. The appropriation of the Bible by those who are on the periphery undermines establish order and creates something new, unexpected and surprising.

The debate on the reasons for the exile ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah and the devotees of the Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah 44MT offers much for the patient interpreter. While it is certainly not safe to assume that we have in this chapter anything approaching the actual words of the Queen’s devotees—or, for that matter, of Jeremiah—there is likewise no reason to assume that this chapter is entirely fictive. The key to ch. 44 is the fact that the Queen’s devotees are said to disagree with Jeremiah not in the respect that the exile represents punishment by an offended deity, but rather on the identity of the deity in question. Turning to the Temple Sermon in Jeremiah 7, one finds a polemic against the practices associated with the worship of the Queen of Heaven, such that here we are even less certain of being given an accurate picture of the devotees’ views. In other words, the ch. 7 polemic is against the worship of the Queen of Heaven because it supports the Yahwistic perspective. Nevertheless, I argue that the devotees’ position as represented in ch. 44 can perhaps be utilized in order to imaginatively construct how the Temple Sermon might have appeared had it instead supported the perspective of the Queen’s devotees.

Traditional archaeological and historical perspectives on early Israel offered three potential explanations for Israel's genesis: conquest, peaceful infiltration, and peasant revolt. More current models note the indigenous nature of Israel, and attempt to understand how and why the community that understood itself as Israel formed from indigenous elements. Many of these latter studies focus on the concept of ethnicity and imply that Israel's self-identification as some sort of ethnic group preceded and helped bring about the coalescence of Israel. However, anthropological research suggests that ethnicity may develop alongside a polity rather than before it, making ethnogenesis a functional component of hierarchical organization. This paper will suggest that, as in the conquest model, warfare again take center stage as the explanation for the origin of earliest Israel. This assertion requires the consideration of the types of and reasons for warfare in early Iron Age highland Palestine, the evidence for warfare, biblical and otherwise, and the validity of proposing warfare as a singularly important factor in the state-formation process.

This paper ponders the issue of whether or not Mark's Gospel paves the royal road to imperial Christianity, which is also the question of whether or not Mark's Jesus is effectively a new Romulus, the founder of a new Rome. Reflection on Mark's relations to empire will, however, be triangulated by reflection on Mark's relations to Judaism, the aim being to generate a reading of Mark that is at once postcolonial and post-Holocaust.

Since the work of Ernst Käsemann scholars have debated the apocalyptic nature of Paul’s gospel. More recently, the revelatory language that Paul uses to describe his call and mission in Galatians has led some to suggest that even this epistle, which has no reference to Christ’s return or other events commonly associated with Paul’s eschatology, points to apocalyptic elements in his thought. Such a reading of Paul’s apocalyptic often goes hand-in-hand with a dismissal of any salvation historical elements in Pauline theology. The present paper will argue that the apocalyptic language found in Galatians has its roots in two oracles from the latter half of the book of Isaiah, suggesting that Paul’s gospel stands in some positive relationship to the promises of restoration for Israel. The paper will first argue that Paul’s appeal to the Galatians’ experience of the Spirit in Gal 3:1-5 draws some of its force from an allusion to Isaiah 53. Specifically, the “proclamation of faith” that serves as the basis for the reception of the Spirit corresponds to the “message” to which the prophet refers in Isa 53:1. This oracle appears in the context of two statements discussing the “revealing” of the “arm of the LORD,” a revelation that includes the message going out to the Gentiles (Isa 52:10). From there, the paper will move on to explore several other themes in Galatians that overlap with other terms and images in the Isaianic context (gospel, peace, Gentiles, Abraham’s seed) which suggest that Paul’s gospel, though founded on the cross of Christ, represents the initial fulfillment of the promises God made to Israel through Isaiah. Despite the general lack of explicit reference to Isaiah (with the exception of Isa 54:1 in Gal 4:27), Paul’s gospel is fundamentally Isaianic, and therefore combines elements of apocalyptic and salvation history.

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Ever since the eighteenth century works of Bernhard Henning Witter and Jean Astruc, Bible scholars have tended to read Genesis 1-3 as two separate accounts which were woven together in an editorial process. Although not explicitly theological, source criticism has led many theologians to interpret Genesis 1-3 in light of its hypothetical literary origins. Although I do not wish theologians to completely neglect the historical critical method, I think this method’s hegemony in the church and in the academy demonstrates one aspect of modern theology’s Babylonian captivity to the modern project in which the historical critical method originated. In an attempt to read Genesis 1-3 theologically as a Christian, I propose reading the text liturgically. Following the works of biblical exegetes like Gordon Wenham and Moshe Weinfeld, I argue for reading Genesis 1-3 as a literary whole that has liturgy and worship as its primary content. Weinfeld argues for the liturgical content and structure of Genesis 1, whereas Wenham argues for the liturgical content of Genesis 2-3, based upon parallels with the tabernacle and temple. If both are correct, then many of the source critical assumptions may prove superfluous. Following the insights of theologians like Jean Daniélou and Scott Hahn, I maintain that the Christian liturgy is the primary context in which Christians should interpret Genesis 1-3. I will use the Sacred Liturgy and Lectionary of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church as the particular Christian example for proposing a liturgical hermeneutic for reading Scripture. Genesis 1-3 will serve as the biblical example for this hermeneutic. Such a liturgical hermeneutic is a potentially rich means of reading Scripture theologically as a Christian.

A number of scholars derive the phrase lešakken šemô in the Deuteronomic (Dtn) centralization formula (e.g., Deut 12:11; 14:23; 16:2; 26:2) from the Akkadian idiom šuma(m) šakanu. The Dtn formula is certainly unusual, because the standard idiom for “setting the name” in West Semitic is sûm šem. A problem arises, however, with identifying possible routes of transmission. Various scholars believe that the well-attested Akkadian literacy of Bronze Age Canaan was a vehicle for the transmission of cuneiform texts to Iron Age Israel and Judah. But such a model needs to be abandoned on three grounds: archaeology, the politics of language usage, and the education of scribes in Late Bronze Age southern Canaan. Consequently, Akkadian influence on Deuteronomy must be limited to the Iron Age. But this poses a problem for a connection between the Akkadian and the Dtn phrases, as wide distribution of the idiom šuma(m) šakanu is not apparent from Neo-Assyrian monuments, the most likely source for such a borrowing. Two other considerations come to bear. First, the centralization formula is not used in ways that obviously recall Assyrian political instruments (unlike, e.g., the employment of the rhetoric of the Esarhaddon Vassal Treaties in Deuteronomy 13 & 28). Second, if the Assyrian background was so important, why was the idiom changed in secondary additions to the centralization layer (e.g., Deut 12:21; 14:24)? There is a case, therefore, for suggesting that the resemblance of the Dtn formula to the Akkadian idiom is accidental and that it was coined as a result of the engagement of the Dtn writer(s ) with native traditions. The paper will weigh the evidence for both Akkadian influence and inner-Israelite development and suggest which is the most likely.

The history of the research on the Historical Jesus has traditionally been divided into different phases (e.g. First, Second and Third Quest) based on criteria internal to the discipline. This essay suggests an alternative division based on a major paradigm shift from Jesus as a unique personality to Jesus as part of a charismatic movement. The main paradigm for modernity at the beginning of the 20th century was an individualistic view of the human. The result has been a view of Jesus as a unique religious personality that characterized several periods of historical Jesus research, also the picture of him as a charismatic leader (cf. Weber). This picture is still dominant, but this paper argues that a picture of Jesus must reflect changes in the understandings of the human person. Cultural shifts in the last part of the century towards gender equality and larger emphasis on groups and collectivities (e.g. feminist and liberation movements) has influenced studies of Jesus. Among the examples to be discussed are alternative models of leadership (B.Malina) and a more inter-relational picture of Jesus (R. Horsley), not as the ultimate leader but as member of a movement (E.S. Fiorenza).

The question of myth-as-reality is a subject of much debate, and is especially pertinent to the reconstruction of Ugaritic society, a reconstruction which was initially accomplished largely by a dependence on the literary texts discovered there. This paper examines the role of Anat in the Ba'al Cycle, paying particular attention to her position as violent and independent goddess in relation to the role of real-life women in Ugarit. The impetus for choosing Anat for such a myth-as-reality case study rests in the role she plays in the Ba'al Cycle as a violent and independent goddess, characteristics which appear to make her exceptionally distinctive in an androcentric culture such as Ugarit. Anat’s character elicits the question of how “translatable” her role in the literary texts was into real-life gender roles in ancient Ugarit – or, to pose the question another way, whether the character of Anat was somehow based on real-life social realities of women in Ugarit. Furthermore, if Anat’s role was not reflective of female social roles at Ugarit, from whence did Anat’s depiction come? If her role in the text is wholly a mythological creation of its writers, what does this mean for the oft presumed dependence of myth on reality? This paper will argue that it is not always accurate to posit that the world of the deities is a magnified reflection of the human world, and that although her role as independent goddess does have some parallels with what might have been the reality for a small number of upper-class or royal women for the most part Anat appears as a larger-than-life mythic character whose role is not analogous to the role of women in Ugaritic society.

In 1993, Dieter Lührmann published a reconstruction of the more intelligible side of POxy 4009. He demonstrated – convincingly, I think – that this side, which he called recto, stems from the Gospel of Peter and consists of passages parallel to Matt. 10:6 par. Luke 10:3 and 2. Clem. 5.2–4. However, Lührmann considered it impossible (“ausgeschlossen”) to reconstruct the other side of the fragment. As far as I know, thus far no one has even tried to offer a plausible reconstruction. Against all odds, I would like to show that a full reconstruction of this less intelligible side of POxy 4009, lines 1–13, is possible and that it enriches our knowledge of the Gospel of Peter with a new periscope. It also demonstrates that the side reconstructed by Lührmann is actually verso, and that both sides together hint at the well-known anti-Jewish redactional tendencies of the author. Most importantly, however, the reconstruction of POxy 4009 recto raises vital questions concerning the present state of textual criticism and speaks for the freedom of the text of the Gospels in the second century.

In 4 Ezra, through the incorporation and reinscription of earlier and contemporaneous traditions, a new Ezra emerges, an Ezra who must learn how to negotiate destruction and become worthy of revelation. This emergence is accomplished by a series of transformations that may be called exemplary: they offer a model for emulation to the reader who strives for perfection in the face of destruction. Thus the recasting of Ezra serves an educational function.

This thesis seeks to reconsider the commonly held view that some of Ephrem’s writings are anti-Semitic, and that his relationship with Judaism is polemical and controversial. The outcome of the research highlights several key issues. First, it indicates that the whole emphasis of Ephrem’s critical remarks about Jews and Judaism is directed towards Christian conduct, and not towards Jews; and second, it considers Ephrem’s negative remarks towards Jews strictly within the context of his awareness of the need for a more clearly defined identity for the Syriac Church. Furthermore, this thesis examines discernible parallels between Ephrem’s commentaries on Scripture and Jewish sources. Such an exercise contributes to a general portrait of Ephrem within the context of his Semitic background. And in addition, the thesis offers an alternative reading of Ephrem’s exegetical writings, suggesting that Ephrem was aiming to include Jews together with Christians among his target audience. Further analysis of Ephrem’s biblical commentaries suggests that his exegetical style resembles in many respects approaches to Scripture familiar to us from the writings of Jewish scholars. A comparison of Ephrem’s writings with Jewish sources represents a legitimate exercise, considering ideas that Ephrem emphasises, exegetical techniques that he uses, and his great appreciation of ‘the People’– the Jews as a chosen nation and the people of God – an appreciation which becomes apparent from Ephrem’s presentation of them. The process of reading Ephrem’s exegetical writings in parallel with Jewish sources strongly identifies him as an heir of Jewish exegetical tradition who is comfortably and thoroughly grounded in it. This reading identifies Ephrem on a theological, exegetical and methodological level as a Christian writer demonstrating the qualities and features of a Jewish sage.

"Theoria" was a technical term of Greek patristic exegesis meaning, "insight, contemplation, deeper sense." Its precise meaning has been difficult to determine by scholars chiefly because of the different ways it has been used by various authors in the Schools of Antioch and Alexandria. In fact, only nine scholars have conducted extensive research on the meaning of this term in Antiochene exegesis over the past 150 years. This paper, therefore, will a) briefly survey the history of scholarship on Antiochene "theoria" from 1850 to the present, b) explore the various usages of the term by different authors within the School of Antioch, and c) examine how the term was specifically used in the New Testament commentaries of St. John Chrysostom -- Antioch's most illustrious biblical exegete. I will conclude with brief reflections on the relevance and problems posed by the use of Antiochene "theoria" in biblical exegesis today.

This paper traces the way bodies in space become increasingly regulated under the auspices of the Temple. The Temple’s regulatory power to shape behavior and position bodies increases spatially and substantively as it moves from orienting prayer postures within and without Palestine to positioning the body when performing bodily functions. Specifically, the paper shows that in the earlier Rabbinic sources the Temple is used as an ocular focus and corporeal orientation point for prayer and that in the later sources it is used to regulate and choreograph toilet postures in reverse positioning. The Palestinian and Babylonian sources expand the reach of the Temple differently. In particular, in Babylonia the Temple (even the holy of holies) is imported through visualization techniques in prayer. Similarly, through the rules on bodily functions in the Temple vicinity, the Temple space is effectively expanded by extending its reach out of Palestine into Babylonian city life where it is internalized and its regulatory force is transmuted into localized concerns about modesty and exposure.

Over the last fifty years, a number of prominent assyriologists have argued various positions relating pieces of cuneiform literature to the development of the apocalyptic genre; these have ranged from claims of possible influence to assertions of direct literary dependence of Jewish works (Daniel in particular) upon cuneiform sources. This paper seeks to situate such claims within the discourse on apocalypses and apocalyptic literature as it has been developed in the discipline of religious studies, while keeping an eye on developments in the discourse on genre in literary critical circles

Friendship in Vietnamese culture is a very delicate matter. One must do everything for one's friend. It is never a burden but rather an honor and a privilege to be asked by a friend. One naturally responds without reservation; to act otherwise is considered shameful and might perhaps sever one's friendship. Excuses are unacceptable. A "no" is indeed unthinkable! However, when one reads the parable of the Friend at Midnight in Luke 11:5-8, one is shocked by the silly excuses of the friend inside and even more stunned that he refused to "get up and give him anything because he is his friend" (Luke 11:8a). If the man inside is a friend of the man outside, then, why did the friend inside refuse to act out of friendship? Furthermore, what would his refusal do to him, his family, and the community? Reading “The Friend at Midnight” in Luke 11:5-8 from an Asian perspective will show that the climactic focus of the parable is about honor and shame. This corresponds with the original meaning of the Greek word "anaideia" which means "shamelessness" and not "persistence" as traditionally translated, which had led to the misinterpretation of the parable. Furthermore, since honor and shame are the pivotal values of the first-century Mediterranean world, the most appropriate manner of acting and responding for the friend from within is naturally to avoid shame. His refusal to offer hospitality to his friend and neighbor so that he in turn may host the unexpected guest would definitely cause a scandal in the village, and by morning his reputation and his family's good name would be ruined.

While much scholarly attention has been devoted to identifying the logic behind the classification of unclean animals in Leviticus 11, little work has been done on the comparison between Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. This is all the more regrettable because these two chapters comprise the only real example of a parallel legislation within P and D, thus offering a unique basis for assessing both the differences and the interrelation between those corpuses. Besides, dietary laws are also briefly received in H, in the exhortation found in Lev 20:22–26 (v. 25). This paper will argue that the parallels between Lev 11 and Deut 14 are best explained by the assumption that the two chapters are separate elaborations upon a common source. Both P and D use the resources offered by the system of dietary rules as a means to (re-)define the relationship between Israel and the other nations after the exile, yet in quite distinct ways. In P, dietary prohibitions are part of a broader process which, against the background of the P account in Gen–Exod (especially Gen 1–11), systematically asserts the cultural superiority of Israel over other nations. In D, the system of dietary prohibitions illustrates on the contrary a conception of Israel’s holiness that sets Israel radically apart from the nations (see Deut 14:2, 21b, framing v. 3-21a), as in Deut 7 already. In H, finally, the reference to the dietary laws in the strategic exhortation of Lev 20:22-26, although it is coined in a language borrowing from both Priestly and Deuteronomistic traditions, develops a new, original conception transforming separation between clean and unclean animals into the model for personal and collective sanctification through observance of the Law, thus opening the way to the conception found in later Judaism, starting with the Letter of Aristeas.

The account of the creation of adam in the image of elohim in Genesis 1:27 is one of the most pored over texts in the Bible. While there have been significant developments in recent decades to the ongoing discussion as to what the text might mean, much ambiguity and many differences of opinion still remain. This paper approaches an old question from a new perspective. Rather than focusing on the terms “image” and “likeness” to gain a deeper understanding of this passage, this paper analyzes the poetical structure of Gen 1:27 both in and of itself and within the larger structure of Genesis 1. This analysis goes beyond the usual, rather simple, affirmations or denials of synonymous parallelism, intensification, or progression. In doing so, attention is drawn to the two terms being compared: elohim and adam. The indeterminate number of each (a plural form generally used as a singular, and a noun that is both singular and collective) and the addition of gender terminology in the description of adam contribute to the understanding of how the terms are poetically related. The alternating use of singular and plural pronouns for both God and human explicitly draws out a multivalence latent in the nouns themselves. The result is that poetry “says more than it knows” or perhaps more than any one answer to the age-old question of the imago Dei gives us.

The books of Samuel have been understood in a variety of ways, but are they not first of all the stuff of Israel's public life, one version of history that describes the state's early days? If so, how can we account for the space and attention given to women in these public records? Simply put, what are all the females doing in the books of Samuel? Are they mere incidentals of the broader story, or may we find other functions, from literary, political, or theological points of view? Do women have some symbolic meaning in the books of Samuel? This paper addresses some of these important questions. Drawing on Tivka Frymer-Kensky's work on the narrative functions of women in the Hebrew Bible, I survey a few key passages from the "History of David's Rise" (HDR; 1 Sam 16:14 - 2 Sam 5:10), as well as 2 Sam 6:20-23, with a view to understanding a popular groundswell of women as supporters of David and stand-in representatives of Israel. The next section examines the extent of David's own identity in feminine terms, and his connection to the female supporters. Finally, I offer some conclusions about the effect of these literary themes in the HDR.

According to one influential line of thinking, Paul’s work as apostle to the gentiles is best understood in light of prophetic expectations about the messianic age, especially the expectations of the book of Isaiah. Scholars who read Paul in this prophetic framework claim that Paul alters Isaiah's eschatological plans to better fit the facts of his current situation; Isaiah had expected the salvation of Israel to provoke the gentiles to turn to god, but Paul reversed this scenario, claiming that it is instead "the fullness of the gentiles" that brings about Israel's restoration (Romans 11:25-26). I agree this "eschatological pilgrimage" model is the best means of understanding Paul's work. I argue, however, that a freer approach to the intertextual echoes of Isaiah in Paul shows that Paul does not reverse Isaiah's plan. Instead, Isaiah's frequent references to what will happen "in the Day of the Lord" or "in the last days" allow Paul to collapse all of Isaiah into a single eschatological plan for "the Day of the Lord." A reader like Paul could easily read all of Isaiah in light of certain passages (such as Isaiah 10-11) that imply this eschatological scenario is not a two-stage affair at all but rather a three-step process: a remnant of Israel is lifted up, then the gentiles come in, then the outcasts of Israel are redeemed. This is exactly Paul's outline in Romans: The group of Jews who adhere to Paul's message constitute the saved remnant (Romans 11:7), Paul's gentiles now partake in the remnant's "spiritual blessings" (Romans 11:11 and 15:25-27), and when the full number of gentiles is achieved, the rest of Israel will be redeemed (Romans 11:14 and 11:25-26). Thus, Paul does not reverse the prophetic expectations but seems instead to be a rather clever reader of Isaiah.

Some of the motifs of the book of Joshua like the 'Fall of Jericho' or the 'Sun standing still at Gibeon' influenced society far beyond the interpretation of Scripture alone. If we have a look at the main character, Joshua, it is clear that changing times changed the image of the book's hero. His role as a commander-in-chief is stressed by Josephus, his role as a prophet by the Dead Sea Scrolls, his task as a teacher of law by Pseudo-Philo, his being a king by the Samaritan tradition. Already in early times there was a rich variety in interpretations. In the last century the discussion of Joshua focussed on the problem of violence. The present paper wants to highlight several aspects of the use of the biblical text by choosing a different angle. I go back to the 18th century at the eve of historical-critical interpretation and study the way the text of Joshua is reworked and reused in the oratorio 'Joshua" from G.F.Händel. The libretto was written by Thomas Morell. Joshua was one of Händel's most successful oratorios, finished in August 1747. For the history of interpretation it is important that the political situation in which Morell wrote and Händel composed was that of a victory over a military threat. How text and music interpret the politics of their days and the biblical text as well in the need of public affirmation is a point of departure for further study of the history of interpretation of the book of Joshua in the eigtheenth and nineteenth century.

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There has long been established a dialogue between the Bible and Art, a two-way vista for exchange; creative co-dependency. Most audiences in twentyfirst-century Europe will have inherited the concept of Salome as the young woman whose ‘dance of many veils’ leads to one man’s infatuation and another man’s decapitation. This has less to do with the brief note on the dance that one finds in the Bible and more to do with the Salome’s artistic afterlives. By looking afresh at depictions of Salome that do not represent her as the femme fatale par excellence, readers of the Bible can be challenged into re-assessing their own understanding of the story of the Baptist’s death and the role that the young woman plays in it. This paper examines Caravaggio’s visual interpretations of Herod’s stepdaughter in light of the Gospels. How did the painter imagine the woman? Was this in step with the biblical text?

It is frequently argued that the Protevangelium of James was the work of a second century Christian whose knowledge of Judaism was problematic. I will challenge this conventional hypothesis and demonstrate that the Protevangelium of James reflects the complex milieu of the second century, a formative period for Jews and Christians as they struggled to define themselves in contrast to each other and to the rest of society. This paper will reexamine Mary’s association with the temple of Jerusalem, an aspect of the Protevaneglium often cited as evidence of the author’s ignorance of Judaism, and demonstrate its appropriation of Jewish motifs. While most modern scholarship has characterized the portrayal of Mary in the temple as one of naïve ignorance, reflecting later developments in Christian monasticism rather than the real conditions of Jewish life, this cursory dismissal overlooks a carefully constructed Jewish framework. The author incorporated three groups of Jewish women accorded special positions in the temple: virgins constructing the temple curtains, accused adulteresses, and female nazirites. By integrating these motifs into the Protevangelium of James, particularly in the account of Mary and the Jerusalem temple, and by tempering them with Christian themes, the author of the Protevangelium produced a work intended both to edify Christians and to refute Jewish critique.

Using insights from the interdisciplinary field of trauma and disaster studies, this paper investigates the final shape of the book of Jeremiah and liturgical pieces scattered across the book as survival strategies for Judean readers after the multiple disasters of the Babylonian Period. The book's inchoate shape serves as a mirror of the interpretive disarray in the wake of the national disaster, and its liturgies invite the audience to enact and perform theological rebirth. The book itself is a moral act for the rebuilding of the community.

This paper considers biblical values, especially economic values, within ancient Mediterranean expectations of limited good. Macrosociological, anthropological, and systems perspectives are marshalled to consider why cultural, social, and technological constraints mandated recurring limited-good expectations. As well, perspectives about Mediterranean social norms are offered. Limited-good expectations governed attitudes toward real-world wealth and power, as well as cultural values like honor and shame. Since honor was rooted in the cultural worth ascribed to families, honor generally shaped power and wealth. Power or wealth achieved by less-honored families were generally difficult to rationalize within this limited good world. Honor could be translated into inducement and coercion, but commercial gain of wealth or political achievements could not easily be translated into honor.

Several chapels in Ephesos present the interpreter with the challenge of negotiating the interplay between physical remains, textual evidence, and iconography. The chapels which share a similar plan, though situated in different immediate physical contexts, especially engage the question of worship praxis as expressed in diverse (non-liturgical) written sources. A cave chapel offers rich iconographic detail, but its unusual shape begs the question of its liturgical use. This paper offers an assessment on the chapels from Late Antiquity in Ephesos, and presses the methodological question of evaluating different forms of evidence.

In recent years the revival of Hanna Arendt's notion of natality has led to a variety of innovative feminist discourses on the Bible in Germany. When birthing is understood as the capacity to bring something new into the world, biblical narratives and metaphors of birth gain surprising meanings. The focus lies not only on Jesus' birth (Andrea Günter 2004), but also on his death. In fact, comparisons between the suffering of Jesus and women's suffering during childbirth have a long tradition (Hildegard von Bingen) which arguably goes back to the New Testament itself (Acts 2:24). What would happen if the metaphorical link between Jesus' passion and women's labor received full theoretical attention? This paper puts the passion narratives into dialogue with feminist and queer thought on birthing. While I, too, am inspired by Arendt, I also draw from more contemporary theory, specifically queer readings of pregnant bodies (Shelley Parks 2006) and the concept of the birthing monster (Rosi Braidotti 2002, Rosemary Betterton 2006). Paying attention to the ways in which women's experiences of childbirth are discursively mediated and socially regulated, I offer a queer reading of the passion narratives in Mark and John. Thereby I bracket the assumption that pain is or should be (experienced as) tremendously meaningful. Jesus, according to the imagination of the gospel writers, follows particular social scripts of suffering, not unlike women who seek to conform to the norms directing the events in modern delivery rooms. In both cases, failures to conform are revealing. Read as a monstrous birth, Jesus' suffering on the cross furthermore touches on a profound theological mystery: What is it that is being delivered and that up to this point was to a large extent unknowable, but has raised powerful expectations, fears and fantasies?

This paper explores the role of disability in prophetic utopian texts such as Jer 31:7-9; Isa 29:17-21; 33:17-24; 35:4-10; Mic 4:6-7; Zeph 3:19. Though all of these texts model an ideal future, their treatment of disability varies.

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A theme recurring throughout Proverbs involves a) instructions directing the reader's attention toward wisdom and / or b) apothegms elevating wisdom's worth. A casual interpretation treats such instructions and apothegms on a par with other comparable forms. It is likely, however, that early readers recognized these passages as gateways calling attention not to their own theme (the worth of wisdom), but rather as a summons signaling that a distinct teaching was about to be uttered. Thus one ought come to attention. If so, this recognition may hone our detection of instructional segments and even relative prominence of one segment against another.

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Paul’s eschatological realism relates to a new birth and living hope for the believers living in a system of evil, which exploits people with a sense of inequality, indebtedness, or immorality. The gospel of divine kinship represents extensive freedoms and inscribes their empowering effects in the midst of excruciating external circumstances. By turning to and participating in the heavenly kinship, the people of God revolutionize their mindsets, exit from the bondage, and bless themselves with a full, yet never-claimed, restitution. This essay uses the social memory of the Korean Grassroots Minjung as a contextual frame in order to reconstruct Paul’s teaching of divine adoption and inheritance. The positive encounter with the sacred vision would challenge the convictions of the Korean Minjung having faced the problems involving the contradictions, gaps, and silences in their own diasporic contexts. While employing a typology of scripture as the Corrective Glasses, reading with the Korean Minjung brings in a reflection on the God-Minjung encounter as a life-giving source, making possible full humanity and human capabilities.

The children of the Bible are currently where the women of the Bible used to be: languishing in the shadows of scholarly obscurity. This paper seeks to focus the academic spotlight on some of Bible’s children. First, I will combine slides with a second-person narration that together invite the hearer to imagine her or himself as an eleven year-old girl as she goes through her daily routine in the highlands of Israel, circa 800 B.C.E. I then will offer further insights to the lives of biblical children by focusing on the stories of the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2-8). Forty-nine cited children (all anonymous) appear in these chapters (see 2 Kings 2:24; 3:27; 4:1 ff.; 4:17 ff., 8:5; 5:2 ff.; 6:28 ff.), as well as a general group of “young ones” (8:12). While most readers barely notice these children, their presence in the narrative raises such stark issues as child slavery, child sacrifice, and child cannibalism, among others. What do these young characters have to teach us about life for children in ancient Israel? What do we notice about their mothers? Does the textual witness of these characters mirror reality or serve as a hyperbolic literary trope? This paper probes these questions and their striking implications, not only for biblical times, but also for our own.

Undoubtedly the preeminent Western book, the Christian Bible, has influenced more people than any other book in world history. But the foundations and legitimizations of actions, morals, and beliefs that are derived from this book not only concern the messages gleaned from the text, but also the power and authority that have been accorded to the Bible as a sacred object. I am proposing that the Bible as both text and physical entity has been and continues to function as an icon—an image that mediates between the material and spiritual world and thus is a locus of religious power. Looking at the Bible as an icon helps us to understand the place of the book as a physical object, rather than ignoring its materiality through an exclusive focus on the text of scripture. The origins, authenticity, and efficacy of Christian portrait icons is established through what Hans Belting has called specific “legends of veracity” or “testimony by tradition”—myths that embody social understandings of how sacred images work that reflect, support, and sometimes override a philosophical understanding of images. Similarly, the Christian Bible, like other “Religions of the Book,” participates in a mythology of a prototypical heavenly book whose copy is revealed to humans. This paper will explore the impact of the myths of divine scripture on how the Christian Bible has been and is used in diverse forms of Christianity. It is my hope is that a careful and critical use of the term icon, applied to the status and function of the Bible in many different Christian contexts, will be useful for describing the interplay of the material and spiritual power attributed to the Bible that is generally not acknowledged.

In the first publication of the Coptic Gospel of Judas Jesus' infamous "betrayer" is presented as the "hero" of the gospel, a "thoroughly positive figure" and a "role model" (M. Meyer). he is presented as Jesus' "most intimate companion" and in some sense "on a par with Jesus." Jesus' reference to Judas in the text as the "thirteenth spirit" is taken to mean that, for Judas, "thirteen is the lucky number" (B. Ehrman). It is, of course, true that Judas, unlike the other disciples, has a prior understanding of Jesus' divine status. It is also true that Jesus' revelation of the "mysteries of the kingdom" is reserved for him alone. But there are some serious problems with the initial interpretation of Judas and his role, owing to ambiguities in the text, e.g., regarding Judas' status the "thirteenth," and his eventual fate. In this paper these ambiguities will be discussed, and an alternative interpreation of Judas' "heroic" role will be advanced.

In 1966, Professor Matitiahu Tsevat published an article in HUCA with the above title. He asserts (and I agree) that the Book of Job refutes “the principle of retribution.” The book, he said, fell in the crack between the confidence of the early sages in God’s just governance of the world, and the “solution” to the problem of theodicy provided by belief in an afterlife which developed in the late Persian and Greek periods. I plan to revisit Tsevat’s article, and the issues he raises. Whereas Tsevat argues that Yahweh’s speeches provide a satisfying answer to Job’s questions, I argue that although Job concedes Yahweh’s superior power, Yahweh fails to answer Job’s questions, and that is key to the meaning of the book.

Codex Vaticanus has been commended for the excellence of its text for most books of the LXX, but its "hexaplaric" text of Isaiah is considered "less trustworthy" than that of the Alexandrian manuscripts. Appropriate as these value judgements may regarding text-critical issues, they obscure the value of Codex Vaticanus in other areas. This paper identifies patterns in the ways B deviates from what might be expected, not only in text-critical matters (by comparison with A and the critical editions) but also in matters of orthography, vocabulary, morphology, divisions, marginal notes, corrections, and translational idiosyncrasies. What explanations best account for these differences? What can they tell us about those responsible for the production of this text and those who received it as scripture?

The Gospel of Matthew is a richly intertextual piece of literature, reflecting the influence of multiple OT texts. This paper seeks to explore anew how the Greek versions of Daniel inform and are refracted in the First Gospel. Following a general survey of the many intertextual connections, this paper will focus on several particular instances of Daniel’s influence, including the heaven and earth contrast theme.

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When Jesus is about to heal the leper, he is said according to one line of textual tradition to be “angered” (orgistheis); according to another set of witnesses, he is “moved with compassion” (splangnistheis). Confronted with this notorious dilemma, text critics opting for the latter tend to be impressed by the strength of the supporting manuscripts, while those preferring orgistheis generally do so on the principle of lectio difficilior. This paper attempts to resolve the impasse by understanding the pericope, along with Mark’s other conflict stories, against the backdrop of the Exodus narrative. If, as certain evidence suggests, Mark is attempting to cast the healing as a kind of Exodus in miniature, this has implications which may well shed fresh light on the original word choice at Mark 1:41.

It is common for biblical scholars to claim that the use of the second person plural (pronoun or verb) mandates that the action or activity does not refer to individuals but only to groups. In my view this understanding of the plural is reductionistic; “there is no neat one-to-one correspondence between the grammatical alterations in a word’s form and the meanings thereby conveyed.” While the second person plural can indeed be used to urge group application, it can also include individual application. Only context can indicate which type of application is called for. I provide four arguments: First, this Second Person Plural Theory leads to a reductio ad absurdum. Second, if the theory is accepted, passages that contain abrupt shifts in number would become extremely difficult if not incomprehensible. Third, examples outside the NT do not verify the theory. Extra-biblical examples demonstrate that the plural can be used for both plural and singular application, depending on context. Fourth, authors who assert that the second person plural has exclusively plural application are inconsistent in their conclusions, at times asserting that the plural entails plural application, but at other times asserting that it has singular application.

In this paper, I will examine the discourse concerning foreign nations in the final six books of the Latter Prophets. In so doing, I will compare the oracles concerning foreign nations putatively composed in the late monarchic period (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah) with comparable literature that emerged during the Persian period (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). The major differences between these two corpora may be attributed to their respective ancient contexts and to the changing role of the prophet in them.

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The MT consonantal text of Ezra 4.12 is almost certainly corrupt in three locations. Critical attempts to explain Ezra 4.12 have argued that the main problem of this verse revolves around the seventeenth and eighteenth words, MT K šwry ’škllw, Q šwry’ šklylw, ‘the walls will be completed’ or ‘the walls have been completed.’ This expression occurs in two conditional protases in Ezra 4.13 and 4.16. These two clauses have strongly influenced the standard approaches to this problem. However, the main assumption of these standard approaches is that the verb škll means ‘completed,’ as most commentators claim. The main deficiency of these approaches is that they do not weigh correctly the occurrence of škll in Aramaic texts of the Bible and other text groups, such as the Targumim. This paper proposes to evaulate the semantic as well as syntactic problems in light of a summary of ongoing research in the syntax of the Aramaic of Ezra, and provides comparisons with the Aramaic of Daniel, with other Aramaic dialects (Imperial, Dead Sea documents, PJA and CPA, and Syriac), as well as with "late" biblical Hebrew (such as Ezra-Nehemiah, Daniel, Chronicles).

This paper investigates the reading of Mk 1:40-45 preserved in the Codex Bezae and three Old Latin manuscripts. Studying this reading is significant for several reasons. One, it raises the challenging possibility that Jesus can be angry, not compassionate, toward someone in need. The Gospel of Mark has numerous passages in which Jesus behaves in less than compassionate ways (his rebuke of his disciples; his treatment of the Syro-Phonecian woman, among others). Not only does that challenge the usual notion of Jesus as compassionate, as Bart Ehrman has observed (1997), it suggests that Jesus, and those who read this text, believe it is right to be angry with the leper for coming up to Jesus. Ehrman suggests that Jesus is angry whenever his ability to heal is doubted. I want to explore an alternative, which is that Jesus continues to uphold purity principles, as do the readers of the text. Declaring foods clean is not the same as redefining the whole of purity.

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The intriguing phrase ’lhy hrht lkl-bsr, “God of the spirits of all flesh,” occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible (Numbers 16:22; 27:16). While not attested in any First Temple era Israelite inscriptions, it occurs sporadically in Second Temple period documents (and the somewhat similar “Lord of the Spirits” occurs over one hundred times in 1 Enoch). After exploring specific lexical and contextual issues pertinent to the translation and interpretation of this phrase in the Masoretic Text and ancient Versions, I briefly overview the history of commentary on it. The major question, of course, is, what should be understood by the plural noun hrh(w)t? Presuming the phrase “God of the spirits of all flesh” in the Book of Numbers presupposes a concept that the redactor and at least some ancient Israelites would have understood in a particular way, I next explore whether it is possible to understand hrh(w)t as “spirits” that at some time would inhabit a body of mortal flesh (and thus were not just angels, as in some Qumran texts). This view of pre-mortal “spirits” is attested in certain later Jewish writings, and seems to provide a simple and plausible interpretation of this biblical phrase. While the concept lying behind this interpretation is not well attested in the Hebrew Bible, I explore its internal compatibility with other biblical passages. This study concludes with an overview of the interpretation and use of the biblical phrase “God of the spirits of all flesh” in the Latter-day Saint theological tradition. Given the Latter-day Saint doctrine on the origin and existence of spirits, it is surprising that church leaders have seldom employed this phrase in major church addresses as support for church doctrine. Current, official Latter-day Saint study aids, however, do utilize Numbers 16:22 and 27:16 for doctrinal support.

Scholars have usually viewed the story of Baal’s rise to power in the Baal Cycle as a parallel to the narrative of the Enuma Elish, in which Marduk also becomes king of the gods. Although numerous plot elements are identical within the two myths, the overall contexts in which the two gods take power are quite different from one another. This paper will examine the implications of the fact that in the Baal Cycle, the position to which first Yamm, then Baal ascend is one that is granted to them by a superior god, El. This is in contrast to Marduk, who becomes king in a power vacuum.

Jewish hermeneutical techniques, especially midrash and pesher models, have been employed as the primary interpretive base for understanding the use and interpretation of Scripture in Luke-Acts. Neither volume, however, fits nicely into the generic categories where these Jewish methods for interpretation are typically utilized. A consensus has begun to form that understands the collection as some form (perhaps multiple forms) of ancient history. These literary considerations provide warrant for investigating how authoritative sources were cited and interpreted in Greco-Roman historiography and analysis of how ancient citation techniques among the historians compare to the Lukan strategy. The paper begins with an investigation of history and historiography in antiquity. I briefly consider several recent views on the genre of (Luke-)Acts such as apologetic history, Deuteronomistic history, political history, and so on, as well as some other literary portrayals such as biography in order to locate Luke-Acts in its appropriate literary setting. I favor Balch’s later position, reflected in a recently emerging consensus, that the line between history and biography is not easily drawn and that while Luke-Acts seems to fit broadly within the domain of ancient historical literature, further literary designations for Luke-Acts within the historical genre are not as easily maintained. I then consider the use of authoritative citations in an assortment of ancient historical and historiographic (as well as some biographical, e.g. Plutarch, P.Oxy. 1176; Suetonius) literature—Greek (e.g. Thucydides, Herodotus, Xenophon, Polybius) and (some) Jewish (e.g. Protevangelium of James, Josephus, Philo)—as a basis for comparison with the implementation and interpretation of Scripture and other ancient sources in Luke-Acts. Particular attention is given to comparing the narrative-rhetorical citation techniques of contemporary authors with that of the author of Luke-Acts and the implications that this may have for the Lukan use of sources in the formation of the collection.

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The “oral tradition” is not an indefinite ‘black box.’ The extensive use of epic formulae and traditional themes in Ugaritic epic (Ba‘al; Aqhat; with partial connections to Old Babylonian epic poetry) points to a rich tradition of oral epic poetry, which has left many traces in biblical poetry (Judg 5; Exod 15) and narrative, especially the tales of the patriarchs, and the Samuel-Saul-David cycle. The oral connections of these and other tales are underlined by the prominence of the artistically highly developed dialogue. The written text of the tale is the residue of an oral performance, and still reveals traces of the performing voice, using spoken interaction, and gestures, as a game of speaking characters. I view the oral, performed text, its norms and conventions as societal and public, rather than as a private experience. The societal nature of the text is still revealed by the public reading of the Deuteronomic covenant (Deut 31:28-29) besides its status as written text. The written canonical text is to be read weekly in public in the synagogue, and oral tradition continues in legal and narrative exegesis in the Beit Midrash.

The practice of derashah in the early Rabbinic (tannaitic) period did not involve the systematic application of hermeneutic rules. It was rather a mode of communion with God through sacred text. To be doresh is to enter into this state of communion. Derashah is a mode of engaging Scripture, of relating to its elements in new and revelatory ways. Derashah always happens in a social context, which includes those who are present and participating actively or passively with the darshan; the verses in play, the Torah herself; and the Divine author whose Presence hovers above the activity and peeks through the words. The process of derashah is ritualized and requires boundary formation and spatial definition. In all of Mishnah-Tosefta, the phrase "darash be …" – that is, the word 'darash' or 'dorshin' or 'dorshu'--followed by the preposition 'be' (the letter bet, in the sense of 'in' or 'with'), and with a biblical text as the object of the preposition, appears in three contexts: Tosefta Sotah 7:9; Tosefta Sanhedrin 10:5 (parallels M. Sanhedrin 7:11); and Hagigah chapter two, linked to Tosefta Megillah 4:28. We shall demonstrate that in each instance, the one who is effectively 'doresh be' reveals and activates the power of the underlying text. This sets the stage for a new understanding of the most famous instance of 'doresh be', found in Mishnah -Tosefta Hagigah chapter two, and Tosefta Megillah 4:28. My presentation will be informed by recent work on the relationship of Tosefta and Mishnah (Hauptman; Friedman) as well as scholarship on early biblical exegesis, including Qumran exegesis (Fraade; Kugel). I have read and will draw upon the recently published essay by Mayer Gruber, "The Term Midrash in Tannaitic Literature," in Rivka Ulmer, ed., Discussing Cultural Influences.

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If we claim to be doing “rhetorical criticism” of the Bible, we are, in fact, engaged in producing a form of rhetorical commentary. But what makes a commentary “rhetorical?” One way to define the notion of “rhetorical commentary” is in terms of how well it conforms to some antecedent notion of “rhetoric,” whether historical or theoretical. Another way to define “rhetorical” is by locating it within a system of differences, i.e. by examining its historical relationships with the related domains of “grammatical,” “theological,” and “philosophical” commentary. In this paper, I will survey the commentary traditions of the first through third centuries C.E. in order to abstract what appear to be the distinguishing features of grammatical, rhetorical, and philosophical/theological commentary. While most recent studies of ancient commentary delimit genre grammatically (e.g. by formal characteristics), my emphasis will be rhetorical (on purpose and method). I will use the three categories of grammatical, rhetorical, and philosophical/theological to distinguish among both the subject matter and the approach of the commentaries, leading to a nine fold categorization. I will conclude by showing how this analysis of ancient types of commentary can be used to clarify the nature of our own contemporary practices of rhetorical commentary and criticism.

This paper collects and analyzes the places in the Minor Prophets in which either small or substantial parts of the Israelite credo in Exod 34:6-7 have been taken up (Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Micah 7,18-20; Nah 1:3; cp. also Amos 3,2). I identify which parts of the credo are mentioned, how they are altered, in which contexts they are found and what (literary and theological) function they play. Also the question is pursued why specific parts of the Israelite credo are left out. Finally, I attempt to show how these references to the credo, although originating from a different theological outlook, create terminological and thematic coherence within the section of Jonah-Nahum, respectively Joel-Nahum.

The paper explores Paul's engagement with the Scriptures of Israel from the point of view of his (sense of) marginality, which invites a postcolonial perspective on his hermeneutics. It first briefly considers the deployment of postcolonial criticism in biblical studies, followed by a consideration of the value of postcolonial theory for Paul's hermeneutical strategy towards the Scriptures of Israel in particular. Four areas where postcolonial criticism can make a particular contribution to the understanding of Pauline hermeneutics receive special attention: the importance of acknowledging the influence of ideological concerns on Paul's hermeneutical strategy; the conceptualisation and portrayal of (textual and personal) "others" in the hermeneutical enterprise; considering how hybrid notions of identity within postcolonial hermeneutics carry important consequences; and, the interplay, confluence and (contradictory yet inherent) tension between operational marginality and hermeneutics - aspects of which are also demonstrated from the Pauline epistles. The argument is concluded in seeing Paul's hermeneutical challenge informed by the tension between center and margins, and his efforts to deal with this tension constructively without allowing the one to assume or assimilate the other.

The ‘philosophy of dialogue’ (Buber, Marcel, Levinas, Ricoeur) has been related to translation ethics in a remarkably French tradition. The general approach underscores the need to open the self to the other, making translation an intimate dialogue in which one should ‘receive the other as other’ (Berman), ‘translate the text as a person’ (Laygues), and indeed then perceive that we, as translators, are ultimately ‘others to ourselves’ (Kristeva). The underlying ethical position implicitly speaks from a position of power, inviting greater awareness of the cultural other, and presupposing that the translator is an individual located in the receiving culture, interrogating in silence a text from the past. How might this tradition be related to the ethics of Bible translation? The spiritual underpinnings are clear enough in the imagined or real presence of the other (Buber's point of departure was the intimate dialogue of prayer); the call to dialogue may be seen as openness of the self to guidance by faith. At the same time, however, the more active dialogues of contemporary Bible translation surely occur on quite different fronts, between translators, informants, and consultants, all in the present. This is quite a different frame of dialogue, based on modes of presence that are perhaps more truly interactive, more collective, and certainly less regulated by the traditional ethics of translation. One might still pray for collegial guidance, but the aims and measurements of success tend not to meet with the standing tenets of the ethics of dialogue. We will attempt to assess to what degree the traditional ethics of backward-looking individual dialogue can be complemented by an ethics of forward-looking collective dialogue. If we take the standing concepts and flip them over, to talk about the future, what happens? Some priorities can be retained: we translate voices and intentions, not linguistic artifacts; we privilege long-term relations, not short-term gains, and we construct identities through negotiated difference, not superficial sameness. However, the specific values of this second frame, we suggest, must also meet up with humanistic priorities of promoting the long-term well-being of the receiving languages and cultures.

Assessment of language proficiency begins with the end in mind. Therefore, any assessment tool must have a clear sense of the goals to be achieved. In a recent survey, more than 90% of students and professors of Biblical Hebrew (BH) in Christian colleges and seminaries said that the most important reason for studying BH was to understand and/or interpret the original text of the Hebrew Bible. This presentation will suggest some standards for BH proficiency, specifically as they relate to reading comprehension and interpretation skills. These standards will then be compared to the “Five C’s” of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning, developed by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages): Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities.

The interpretation of Isaiah 18 is much disputed and rightly so. Its poetry well illustrates the interpretive challenges that confront a reader of prophetic poetry. To what extent do the lines cohere with each other? How should the reader fill in the gaps between lines? How does one determine the referent of a given image? What is the interplay between the philological details and the interpretation of the whole? What role does the reader's imagination play in the interpretive process? The paper will reflect on these methodological issues by interacting with different interpretations of Isaiah 18.

The paper investigates the intricate word-image matrix between illustrated medallions, scripture, and commentary in one of the few examples of the Bible Moralisée. In the codex Vindebonensis 2554, each visualized biblical scene is paired with commentary images, arranged to depict a moralizing typology of the contemporary medieval life. Biblical text and commentary do not only supplement the visual exegesis but show an attempt to curb the potential of ambiguity in imagery. The matrix of textual visuality suggests equivalence between word and image. Yet as argued by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his work Phenomenology of Perception (2002, 2005), visible discourse is inconceivable outside from a human being who perceives. Life itself is the interlocutor between things or images and the human being. The allocation of truth in iconography is always already perceived through the lens of human existence. In consequence, the potential to evoke imaginative responses poses a risk to systematized theological teachings and textual exegesis. The paper argues that the moralized Bible provides an extraordinary example of a visual interpretation that limits ambiguity in imagery, consequently restraining imaginative responses. Instead, the complex exegesis facilitates a spatially systematized order that was thought to imprint a moral code for life on the memory of the medieval mind. While the overall work consists of 67 folios, in this paper only folio 2r will be discussed, an exegesis of Genesis 2:24-3:24. The story of the Fall carries an influential legacy regarding the disobedience of the human being against God. Folio 2r therefore offers a representative exemplar for a work that utilizes aesthetic qualities of the medieval image to communicate a moral code via magnificent beauty.

Conventional wisdom has classified Hebrew as a "Canaanite dialect." This concept must be challenged in the light of several differences between Hebrew and Phoenician (the Canaanite language par excellance) and similarities to TRansjordanian languages such as Moabite and Old South Aramaic (Deir Alla, Tel Dan, Zakkur). The basic features that define ancient Hebrew as a Transjordanian language are: consonantal structure, narrative prefix preterite, the verb "to be," the verb "to do, make," the relatie pronoun and other features. The redefinition of Hebrew as a Transjordanian language has a direct bearing on the ethnic and cultural definition of the newly arrived settlers in the hilly areas of the southern Levant in the twelfth-eleventh centuries BCE.

In this paper I would like to investigate the household theme in Roman Stoicism, especially in Hierocles and Musonius Rufus. I shall explore its relationship with the Stoic theory of oikeiosis, and clarify the development of the household conception in Neostoicism as compared to previous views [also briefly discussing G. Reydams-Schils' rich study on the Roman Stoics]. A glance will be cast, in this connection, at the high appreciation of Musonius' ethical thought on the part of early Christian authors, particularly Clement of Alexandria, who deeply admired his ethical thoughts concerning family.

The paper examines the role of disabled figures and tropes in major passages of earlier prophetic and Second Temple literature (emphasis on the latter), in order to determine if there is a shift in the representation of disability that fits with the overall differences between the types of eschatology. For the Second Temple literature, this investigation demands expansion of the category to "anomalous bodies," to include the monsters prominent in apocalyptic literature; the question then arises whether the monsters and the disabled figures are functioning in significantly similar ways. My tentative conclusions are that anomalous bodies of both types function as instantiations of metaphysical evil within the dualistic worldview of apocalypses precisely because these bodies transgress categories of "right" bodies. This metaphysical transgression goes beyond the prophetic association of disability with sin and injustice.

This paper discusses the possibility that the anonymous Parmenides commentary may have been composed by Sethian/Classic Gnostics before they were rejected in Plotinus’ seminars. The commentary’s doctrine of the prefiguration of the Second One in the First One arguably finds its closest parallel in the Sethian doctrine (esp. Zostrianos and Allogenes) of the Triple-Powered One. Of the Platonizing Sethian treatises where this doctrine occurs, Zostrianos appears to be the earliest. But Zostrianos also seems to belong to a somewhat late phase in the debate between the Gnostics and Plotinus’ circle, in that it was likely written as a justification for already rejected ideas: the text appeals to Zostrianos, who was associated with Er, an influence to Plato himself. Thus the text in fact bypasses Plato’s authority in favour of a more ancient one. Such a shift must have been necessitated by harsh criticism from Plotinus and his associates concerning the correct interpretation of Plato’s ideas (including Parmenides) and his authority (cf. VitPlot16). If Zostrianos therefore served as a secondary justification, then earlier Gnostic formulations of the ideas it contains, likely also those concerning the Triple-Powered One, must have existed prior to the composition of that text. Could they be identical with what we find in the Parmenides commentary, whose close Gnostic parallels and Gnostic adaptation at least are clearly attested? By analogy, just like the Valentinians first offered easily acceptable teaching to possible new recruits and only later revealed the full framework of Valentinian mythology, it seems feasible that advocates of Classic Gnosticism also, after having been rejected by most Christians and Jews, and in seeking refuge in Platonic circles, first discussed ideas that were easier to accept, namely, their Parmenides commentaries, and only later offered the full Gnostic framework which was then, however, rejected.

An examination of the function of gar in Romans through the lenses of relevance theory, functional grammar and markedness theory shows that Romans 1:16-17 does not function as the thesis of Romans. Works such as Diane Blakemore’s Semantic Contraints on Relevance (1987) and her Relevance and Linguistic Meaning: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse Markers (2002), when considered alongside S. R. Slings’ article “Adversative Relators” in A. Rijksbaron’s edited volume, New Approaches to Greek Particles (1997), highlight how the gar phrases in Romans introduce lower, explanatory levels of discourse. When these insights are combined with a consideration of pre-Luther interpretations of Romans, one can understand why no one considered Romans 1:16-17 the thesis of the letter before the 16th century. Luther’s discovery of Romans 1:16-17 and the solidification of these verses as the letter’s thesis in Melanchthon’s commentaries are critically examined on the way to offering another text in Romans that accounts better for the argument of the letter as a whole and fits better with what relevance theory and functional grammar would identify as the thesis of Romans.

Scholars have often noted the Hellenistic Jewish elevation of biblical heroes as ethical exemplars and as embodiments of specific ideas about Jewish identity. Focusing on the figure of Abraham, this paper will explore the dynamics of this process--as well as its limits. I will begin by considering how authors such as Josephus and Philo downplayed the biblical references to the shortcomings of Abraham and other patriarchs to elevate them into ideals comprehensible in Hellenistic terms. I will then turn to an intriguing example of the subversion of this tradition, namely, the Testament of Abraham. In this text, assertions of Abraham's perfection stand in a striking tension with narrative descriptions of his shortcomings (e.g. resistence of God's will; judgemental condemnation of others). Just as this text satirizes the genre of the testament, so its depiction of Abraham may offer a critique of the elevation of this patriarch to the status of an ideal model perfect beyond the capacity of emulation.

Thousands of fragments have been found near the Dead Sea which provide information concerning scriptural texts used in second temple Judaism. Most attention has been given to the text critical features of such fragments which focus upon the contents of such scriptural forms. Less attention has been given to the physical and visual characteristics of these texts. Emanuel Tov has assembled much information about the physical features of these texts and much of his work is found in his substantive work Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert. While Tov uses this data to provide insights concerning how scribes produced these texts and the forms of the scriptural texts used at that time, he has given less attention to how the physical features of these texts provide information relevant to the usages and functions of particular texts. My interest in this paper is to investigate how the physical features of the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls help us better understand the various usages and functions of scriptural texts in second temple Judaism. Of particular interest to me are the various excerpted and abbreviated texts including tefillin and phylacteries which were written for particular purposes different than "regular" or "continuous" scriptural texts found on scrolls. In this paper I would like to compare physical features of "regular" scriptural texts to these shorter excerpted and abbreviated texts and suggest how these differences help us better understand how scriptural texts were used.

The study of narrative has a long history that begins with Aristotle and continues into the present. This method often focuses on such elements as plot, character, and setting and as such has been generally applied in the discipline of biblical studies to traditionally narrative texts such as the gospels. This paper will give a brief overview of the narrative method with special attention to the way in which letters are a piece of a larger narrative world and invite their audiences to participate in that narrative. This paper will then apply the narrative method to the Second Epistle of Peter. We will examine the narrative world of 2 Peter (plot, characters, and setting) along with the narrative voice of the author. Since 2 Peter is a real (rather than fictional) letter, such an analysis will highlight the narrative world of 2 Peter and then connect it with the Greco-Roman world in which it was written. This analysis will point out that the readers of the epistle have a choice of narrative worlds in which to participate and that the narrative world of the epistle is structured in such a way as to invite the audience into deeper participation in one particular iteration of the Christian narrative.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are regarded as representing a sect. In order to understand the society and religion of its members, the sectarian character of the groups behind the Community Rule, the Damascus Document, etc. should be studied in light of social-scientific models of sectarianism, which would clarify what a sect is and what type of sectarianism is reflected in the scrolls. These theories and models, however, present only a general characterization of sectarianism. In my Sectarianism in Qumran: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007) I have attempted to illuminate the laws, practices, rituals and belief-system of the yahad and the Damascus Covenant by comparing them to early-modern sects: the early Anabaptists, Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, Puritans, Quakers and Shakers, while discussing social boundaries, atonement, revelation, social organization, gender, attitudes towards wealth and mysticism. I have found a series of similarities and differences among all these sects which are related to their social character. Differences between the yahad and the Damascus Covenant were particularly significant. Many Qumranic phenomena that had been previously regarded as peculiar or strange, may be now explained in light of their parallels in the other sects. My paper will discuss the method of comparison and analysis and provide several examples of the fruits of such comparisons.

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This paper deals with a lacuna in 1 Kings 4:7-20 that has excited much scholarly discussion. The names of five of Solomon’s twelve tax collectors are missing and only their father’s names are provided. In recent times, this omission has been explained variously — by stipulating that a scribe copied from a torn document (1925), by comparison to a since-exploded understanding of Ugaritic record-keeping (1950), by suggesting a biblically-unattested theory of patronymic nicknames (1990), and by relying on garbled oral transmission or a non-authorial censor (1995). I argue against these solutions and demonstrate that by listing only their father’s names, the biblical author censures these five and consigns them to oblivion. One need not resort to torn documents, Ugaritic records, and extrabiblical nicknames, nor is a non-authorial censor necessary. The Bible itself testifies; the suppression of the tax collectors’ names accords with other debasing effacements throughout the Hebrew Bible, each communicated by the tell-tale formula of namelessness combined with “son of X.” My analysis clarifies the discourtesy of identifying any man by his father’s name and not his own, whether in direct speech or in exposition, for I show that when the proper name is absent and the patronymic present, the individual’s identity is not only suppressed, it is maligned. Repudiation of the errant tax collectors also makes narrative sense, furthering the unfolding disclosure of Solomon’s avaricious rule. This interpretation solves two long-standing problems. It explains the absence of the five tax collectors' proper names and provides a rationale illustrating why it is invidious to omit any individual’s name and identify him only as son of X.

Modern biblical scholarship rejects as mythological and unwarranted traditional interpretations of Gen 3 that treat the serpent as a form of Satan and read Adam and Eve’s transgression as the original sin. Theological analysis shows that traditional interpretations arise out of logical pressures and intra-scriptural cues that must constrain and guide any cogent Christian reading of Gen 3. Tracing this analysis in some detail illuminates the criteria for a textually grounded, theologically sophisticated approach to scriptural exegesis.

The understanding of the Pentateuch is mostly guided by the pre-supposition that its structure and contents are based on narrative foundations. This view, fails to be convincing in the Book Leviticus. Here narratives are virtually lacking. Instead one meets with rituals and cultic prescriptions. The paper wants to show, with a close reading of Lev 1, that the basis of biblical cultic law is pre-Yahwistic, only superficially repainted by introductions and short additions that add the names of Mose, Aaron with his sons and contain references to YHWH-belief.

This paper will focus on the meaning of the lack of Parmenides references among the Greek Church Fathers at the end of the fourth century. It's clear that it's difficult to find a clear use of this dialogue in their writings. Is it possible to consider this attitude as a mistrust towards Neoplatonic philosophers?

Many of the texts discovered at Qumran challenge established conceptions of genre in Ancient Israelite/Early Jewish literature. For example, 4QPseudo-Daniela-b ar and 4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C are both specimens of revelatory literature that defy easy classification with conventional types such as prophecies and apocalypses. While poor manuscript preservation is partially to blame, the texts’ form and content present the main issues. The situation is further complicated to the extent that some classical research methodologies, such as form criticism, are in a state of flux (or even limbo). This paper investigates the genre of 4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C not simply to classify the text but to partially map some boundaries of the socio-cultural “encyclopedia” its writer and readers would have possessed. I apply an incarnation of form criticism that takes into account recent achievements in genre theory: the generic-analytical approach. I give special attention to the text’s representation techniques and argue that its value for understanding the shape and evolution of the genre apocalypse in the Hellenistic period has been significantly underestimated.

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Drawing on the methods of Robert K. Johnston and George Aichele, this paper places the Exodus narrative into a mutually-critical dialogue with Paul Thomas Anderson’s film "Magnolia" (1999). Such a dialogue is warranted by the ubiquitous references to Exodus 8:2 throughout "Magnolia" and the (apparently anomalous) reign of frogs near the end of the film. Though I attend to ways in which knowledge of the Exodus narrative enriches one’s viewing of the film, the paper focuses upon how the film offers fruitful interpretive lenses for explicating Exodus. In light of the film, the Exodus narrative appears not as a story of liberation from bondage but rather as a transition from one oppressive system (under Pharaoh) to another (under Moses).

The music of Psalm 137 has been silenced. Instruments have been put down in the wake of exile and human suffering. Mellifluous melodies evoking memories of a homeland have been rendered mute. Yet, Psalm 137 invites us to "note the silence". Following Mozart's insight that silence is the most important effect in music the Psalmist's silent instruments prompt us to consider whether or not the power of music to evoke both beauty and memory has been trumped by uncontainable human suffering. How can the instruments silenced by injustice and inhumanity be picked up and played again? To explore this question, I propose a reading of Psalm 137 through a hermeneutical lens constructed through the artistic languages of composer Oliver Messiaen and post-holocaust painter Samuel Bak. Specifically, I will combine the phenomenological principles of Messiaen's musical language in his holocaust work "Quartet for the End of Time" composed while imprisoned in Stalag VII, with the artistic language of Samuel Bak in his series of paintings portraying players in a string quartet set against a backdrop of a world shattered by the exile of the holocaust. I suggest the work of Bak and Messiaen provides a unique hermeneutical lens for observing how the musical silence "between the verses" in Psalm 137 performs as a space to resist to evil and imagine a future hope. Through the atonality of Messiaen's music and Samuel Bak's questions of "repairing the irreparable", we become participants in bodies of pain petitioning the Eternal to ease the pain of dislocation. Yet, as we "note the silence" in Psalm 137, we are invited to re-imagine picking up an instrument once again, albeit in a new and different world where the collective creativity of the human spirit will ultimately not bow to the threat of annihilation.

Socio-rhetorical interpretation, weaving discoveries from cognitive science, conceptual blending, and the identification of traditional modes of discourse into the fabric of biblical exegesis, promises a new paradigm for biblical studies and new insights into much-studied texts. Papers in this session, presented by authors of commentaries in the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Series, demonstrate the gains of socio-rhetorical interpretation for the genre of commentary and the ways in which this interpretive analytic opens up new directions for exploring a text.

This paper examines the literary form of the tabernacle texts in Exodus (chaps. 25-31 and 35-40) and explores the ways in which the literary features unique to this pericope might be described – and ultimately better understood – using categories from the field of Ritual Theory. To the extent that these features of the text overlap with those characteristics of ritualized activity that set it apart from quotidian activity, I will argue that this pericope should be considered a “ritualized text,” and, further, that the effect of this literary style on the reader should be considered to be somehow akin to the effect of a ritual. That is, specific literary features of this text are evocative of an experience or mindset similar to that which comes out of an experience of ritual performance or sacred (ritualized) space. Arguably, if the reader were actually required to make the items described, the inculcation of such a mindset would be inappropriate. But whomever may have been construed as the audience of this text – and whoever became the audience over time – is clearly not the person making the items, and the purpose is clearly not (only) to communicate information about the contents of the tabernacle. The literary features of the tabernacle description highlighted in this paper allow the reader to experience the text – and, to some extent, the space it describes – rather than simply communicating information about its contents.

This paper takes a phenomenological approach toward identifying, analyzing, and defining the sensate and religious nature of consuming ordinary things for extraordinary purposes. These materials may include regular foodstuffs such as honey, bread, or wine; certain plants or herbs; words written on papyrus, parchment, or paper (bibliovoria); and so on. By establishing hierophagy (roughly, eating the Sacred) as a new category of religious experience in which the transformative aspects of ingesting organic materials within a sacred context can be discussed, it is expected that early Jewish and early Christian references to such practice can be better understood. The proposed paper will initiate the discussion by focusing on a diverse array of these references in biblical and non-biblical literature, with special attention paid to the Pauline epistles.