Bible Odyssey

Recently added content:

Anders Runesson on the translation of ekklesia

David Sim on When was Matthew written?

Jurgen Zangenberg on why Luke was so nice to the Samaritans

Paula Fredriksen on the origins of original sin

Chris Hays on why cultural influence is sometimes a one-way street

Ian Werrett talks about scribes and scribal tradition

Steve Mason explains what historiography is

It’s worth noting that all of the new articles above are written in response to reader questions. Thanks, readers! Thanks, scholars!

Do you like Bible Odyssey and have nice things to say about it? If so, send your praise to us at: bow@sbl-site.org The National Endowment for the Humanities, which funded the site, is eager to hear how the site is being used out in the world, and what people like about it. 

SBL on Twitter

Follow SBL on twitter: @bibleodyssey and @SBLsite.

The former promotes content related to Bible Odyssey and biblical studies in general. The latter is a combined channel for communication to SBL members from the SBL Press, Professions, Congresses, and Membership departments.

SBL Calendar

Events for Biblical and Religious Studies

TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 20 (2015)

Celebrating Twenty Years with a Rich Collection of Special Essays

TC is one of the first electronic journals. James Adair founded the journal in 1996. In celebration we present a special feature on the coherence based genealogical method. Articles include:

TC Editors, Editorial Introduction
Klaus Wachtel, The Coherence Method and History
Georg Gäbel, Annette Hüffmeier, Gerd Mink, Holger Strutwolf, Klaus Wachtel, The CBGM Applied to Variants from Acts: Methodological Background
Klaus Wachtel, Constructing Local Stemmata for the ECM of Acts: Examples
Annette Hüffmeier, The CBGM Applied to Variants from Acts
Tommy Wasserman, Historical and Philological Correlations and the CBGM as Applied to Mark 1:1
Stephen Carlson, Comments on the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method

A final new article closes out Volume 20.

John Granger Cook, Julian’s Contra Galilaeos and Cyril’s Contra Iulianum: Two Witnesses to the Short Ending of Mark

Call for Nominations

The Society of Biblical Literature is a member-run learned society. Its governance structure depends on the community of volunteer scholars who quite literally take turns leading the organization. Over one-thousand members serve every year, for various terms of office, in many different areas, in order to support SBL’s mission of fostering biblical scholarship. Some positions are initiated by members as they propose book series or program units (and serve as editors and chairs). Members support editors and chairs by serving on book series editorial boards or program unit steering committees. Some work is done in an advisory fashion, or on an ad hoc board that addresses new challenges and opportunities. Still other groups are standing committees, and their members assist with the ongoing programs, policies, and business matters of the Society. See a list of the various committees and boards (select a committee to read its description).

SBL Members are encouraged and invited to submit nominations to fill open positions on SBL committees and boards. Members may nominate themselves. All nominees must be members in good standing of the SBL. For more information on what positions are open, when they open, and on how to submit a name, please go here.

SBL Receives Grant from Luce

SBL has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to explore the scope, feasibility, and design of a new research platform for scholars, publishers, librarians, as well as other stakeholders in humanities and social science research and teaching.
More information

Travel Grant Intent to Submit

As of January, the Annual Meeting Travel Grants are open for submission. Don’t miss this great opportunity to attend the Annual Meeting, participate in the program, and build your network with fellow scholars. March 1, 2016 is the deadline for the Intent to Submit for all prospective applicants. Just send an email to the travel grant administrator  including your name, nationality, SBL membership number, and a current copy of your academic CV in PDF format.
Check out the Travel Grants Webpage for more information.

Details on opportunities to present at regional meetings and how to apply for a Regional Scholar Award are also available on each regional meeting webpage. Don’t miss this opportunity. Submit your application today!

International Meeting

Proposals are in for the 2016 International Meeting in partnership with the Korea New Testament Society, Korea Old Testament Society, and the Society of Asian Biblical Studies. Stay tuned for more information. The program will be available online in April.

Annual Meeting

Missed out on Seoul? Submit your proposal for the 2016 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. March 1st is the last day to submit proposals.
View the call for papers

New Membership Rate Plan

On February 1, 2016, SBL announced a new income-based membership rate plan, which has received overwhelming support from members. The new rate structure provides more thoroughgoing fairness based on ability to pay; maps out sustainable growth through consistent, equitable increases; and still has better rates than our peer organizations at every income level. See categories and rates here. Members from ICI countries are now able to join SBL and renew their memberships online instead of sending in forms to the office. It is Council’s hope and intention that this change helps usher in new accessibility and diversity for membership in SBL, while providing resources that foster the future of biblical scholarship.
Member Profile
Have you filled out your member profile in the last year or updated it with any changes? Remember that the member Profile data that we collect is used to help us better serve our members and make important decisions about programs and benefits which we offer. You can see the results of last year’s snapshot here. To encourage participation in the member profile SBL pledged to give away 2 iPads each year for the first three years. We randomly chose the last two winners in January. Congratulations to Dr. Catherine Cory of  the University of Saint Thomas (Saint Paul, MN) and Dr. Josh Parrot of Louisburg College (Youngsville, SC).
New Member Benefit – JSTOR’s JPASS
We are very happy to announce an important new member benefit which will help to foster biblical scholarship by allowing members to access over 1,900 scholarly journals through JSTOR. Many of our members already have access to JSTOR through their school, college, or university libraries. Those who do not have access will be able to purchase an annual or monthly JPASS at a 50% discount through their membership with SBL. Simply log in with your member number the go to the member benefits page. There you can click a link which will allow you to purchase a JPASS at the reduced rate.
Support SBL
There are many ways that you can help SBL foster biblical scholarship: you can support SBL by volunteering and participating in SBL as an active member. You can make a monetary donation through our website. Another way that you can support SBL is by shopping at Amazon.com. Click on this link: Support SBL with Amazon Purchases. Then shop as you normally do. A percentage of what you spend will be donated to SBL.

International Cooperation Initiative (ICI) Books and Newsletter

These books were added to the ICI repository in January and February:

Maier, Christl M., and Nuria Calduch-Benages, eds. The Writings and Later Wisdom Books. The Bible and Women, An Encyclopaedia of Exegesis and Cultural History, Volume 1.3: The Writings and Later Wisdom Books. Bible and Women. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2014.

Neujahr, Matthew. Predicting the Past in the Ancient Near East: Mantic Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia, Judah, and the Mediterranean World. Brown Judaic Studies 354. Providence: Brown Judaic Studies, 2012.

Allen, James P. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid TextsSecond Edition. Writings from the Ancient World 38. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015.

den Hertog, Cornelis. The Other Face of God: ‘I Am That I Am’ Reconsidered. Hebrew Bible Monographs. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012.

Hagelia, Hallvard. Three Old Testament Theologies for Today. Hebrew Bible Monographs 44. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012.

Whitelam, Keith W., ed. Holy Land as Homeland? Models for Constructing the Historic Landscapes of Jesus. The Social World of Biblical Antiquity 2/ 7. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011.

ICI Newsletter Archive

SBL Press E-books

Don’t forget to visit the Kindle Store and Google Play to search for available SBL Press and Society of Biblical Literature titles.

Featured titles:

Refutation of All Heresies
M. David Litwa
The Refutation of All Heresies (ca. 225 CE) is a treasure-trove of ancient philosophy, astrology, medicine, magic, Gnostic thought, numerology, heresiography, ecclesial politics, and early Christian studies in general. Offered here for the first time in almost a century is a full English translation, along with a newly-edited Greek text, extensive notes, and a thorough introduction.

Paper $99.95, ISBN 9780884140856
Hardcover $119.95, ISBN 9780884140870
Kindle, ASIN B01B554CFW
Google Play, ISBN 9780884140863
440 pages • Writings from the Greco-Roman World 40

Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire
Jason M. Silverman and Caroline Waerzeggers, editors
Various disciplines that deal with Achaemenid rule offer starkly different assessments of Persian kingship. While Assyriologists treat Cyrus’s heirs as legitimate successors of the Babylonian kings, biblical scholars often speak of a “kingless era” in which the priesthood took over the function of the Davidic monarch. Egyptologists see their land as uniquely independently minded despite conquests, while Hellenistic scholarship tends to evaluate the interface between Hellenism and native traditions without reference to the previous two centuries of Persian rule. This volume brings together in dialogue a broad array of scholars with the goal of seeking a broader context for assessing Persian kingship through the anthropological concept of political memory.

Paper $59.95, ISBN 9780884140887
Hardcover $79.95, ISBN 9780884140900
Open Access eISBN 9780884140894
516 pages • Ancient Near East Monographs 13

Encyclopaedia of Midrash: Biblical Interpretation in Formative Judaism (2 Volumes)
Jacob Neusner and Alan J. Avery-Peck, editors
The SBL Press paperback edition of an essential Brill reference set provides readers with a deep, broad treatment of midrash in an affordable format. Through the writings of top scholars in each of their fields, it sets out the current state of the question for the many topics discussed throughout the two-volume set. Included are a general introduction to rabbinic midrash and its traits (the theoretical questions of definition, origins, theology, hermeneutics, genre-criticism, and language), discussion of rabbinic midrashic documents focused on specific books of Scripture, the theology expressed by rabbinic midrashic compilations, and the historical context in which rabbinic midrash took shape.

Paper $149.95, ISBN 9780884141297
1100 pages • Brill Reprints

The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis: Book I (Sects 1–46)
Frank Williams
SBL Press is pleased to offer a paperback edition of Brill’s Panarion by Epiphanius, monastic founder and bishop of Salamis on Cyprus for almost 40 years of the fourth century. This work is a historical encyclopedia of sects and heresies and their refutations. Book I, concerned chiefly with Gnostic and Jewish Christian groups, deals with material which is also found in Nag Hammadi, other Gnostic writings, and in such patristic authors as Irenaeus and Hippolytus.  Documents not available elsewhere are reproduced here. Its translation has been found useful by students of Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism, patrologists, historians of religion, church historians, and students of Judaism.

Paper $59.95, ISBN 9780884141303
446 pages • Brill Reprints

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective: A History of Research
Devorah Dimant, editor
SBL Press is pleased to offer a paperback edition of Brill’s survey of research into the Dead Sea Scrolls in the past 60 years. An innovation of the volume is that it covers Qumran scholarship in separate countries: the USA, Canada, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy and the Eastern bloc. Each essay also carries a detailed bibliography for the respective country. Biographies of all the major scholars active in the field are briefly given as well. This book thereby exhaustively surveys past and present Qumran research, outlining its particular development in various circumstances and national contexts.

Paper $94.95, ISBN 9780884141396
708 pages • Brill Reprints

Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism: Contributions from Cognitive and Social Science
Petri Luomanen, Ilkka Pyysiainen, and Risto Uro, editors
This SBL Press paperback edition offers a collection of essays on cognitive science of religion originally printed by Brill. Apart from psychology and anthropology of religion, also historians of religion have shown increasing interest in this approach. This volume is groundbreaking in combining cognitive analysis with historical and social-scientific approaches to biblical materials, Christian origins, and early Judaism. The book is in four parts: an introduction to cognitive and social-scientific approaches, applications of cognitive science, applications of conceptual blending theory, and applications of socio-cognitive analyses. The book will be of interest for historians of religion, biblical scholars, and those working in the cognitive science of religion.

Paper $44.95, ISBN 9780884141433
336 pages • Brill Reprints