Only four Pentateuchal passages frame laws as deriving from an actual “event” or “suit.” The most extensive narrative is that of Zelophehad’s daughters, who attempt to inherit their son-less father’s estate, only to have their alleged victory in Numbers 27 thwarted by their uncles in Numbers 36. Most scholars have related to Nu 36 as a subsequent “emendation” of the earlier Nu 27 law, passed in favor of the daughters. I shall argue that Nu 27 and 36 share a single author, who fabricated the fiction of Zelophehad in order to undermine what was standard fare in Ancient Near Eastern societies—female inheritance. As such, “history” is created in these passages as to provide a ruse for altering by means of an oracle what was otherwise commonly practiced. In this sense, both law and history are crafted to serve ideology. The reader accepts the “reality” of this ruse because of the author’s crafy narrative plausibility, but the ploy only lasts until the reader recognizes that no other law in the Pentateuch derives from so elaborate a literary scheme.

The apocryphal Infancy gospel of Thomas (IGT), which narrates the childhood story of Jesus from age five to twelve, is an enigmatic text. Originating in a 2nd century Greek-speaking context in the 2nd century CE, it proved very popular, and has been preserved in a variety of recensions and versions. Because of its complicated tradition history, much scholarly effort has been spent on tracing its original form, but with little success. Only limited attention has been given to its actual contents. This lack of attention, however, is also very much due to views about IGT as aberrant and banal, not least because of its seemingly offensive depiction of Jesus. Thus, IGT has by many been regarded of little theological and historical significance, and it has often been made an object of denigration. This paper will in opposition to such views argue that IGT should not in any way be underestimated. Rather, it should be regarded an important testimony to the lives and thinking of a much neglected group: the large number of “mainstream” non-elite early Christians living in Mediterranean rural areas. This will be demonstrated through select examples from IGT, which address different, but central aspects in it: its oral character, narrative world, socio-cultural values, views of gender, and theological profile. Instead of being regarded inferior and peripheral, IGT may turn out to be a quality rustic produce of an early Christian milieu deserving far more attention than it has received. The gospel may in fact be an unadorned, yet precious gem in our heritage from the first rural Christians. The paper will, in addition to my own book on IGT, The childhood of Jesus (forthc.), build on the contributions by Hock (1995) and Chartrand-Burke (2001).

The patriarchal corporal punishment and abandonment of children has been historically widespread. These patterns of painful childhood experience form striking parallels with narrative and theological themes in the New Testament. For example, images of an innocent Son obediently suffering according to his Father’s will, and concepts of religious sin as punishable disobedience to a divine Father, closely parallel ordinary experiences of childhood punishment. Similar parallels pertain to childhood abandonment, most strikingly in the Matthean cry of dereliction, which represents the dramatic insertion of a psalmistic lament of abandonment into the context of a Father-Son relationship. Some of these parallels are extensive and precise, suggesting that they did not arise by chance. In this paper, I explore the radical implications of these parallels for our understanding of New Testament origins. Specifically, I argue that central canonical traditions were shaped, without intention or conscious awareness, as a reflection of endemic childhood punishment and abandonment in the highly patriarchal world of the early Roman Empire. This shaping could have occurred through the “revelation” of internally produced symbolic images arising from childhood; through a social-evolutionary process occurring during oral transmission; or by other means. Psychologically, symbolization could have occurred through trauma-specific mechanisms such as dissociation; through distortions of early memory associated with childhood “amnesia”; or through normal processes of metaphorical thought such as those evident in dreams and linguistic metaphors. (In a complementary paper for the Bible and Cultural Studies unit, I discuss the implications of trauma-associated canonical parallels for later generations of believers.)

This paper explores the ways in which the rather sparse and fragmented biblical data concerning women's experiences and roles within the ancient Israelite religious community can be enhanced through reference to extrabiblical data. These data include archaeological data from Israelite and other ancient Near Eastern and eastern Mediterranean contexts and literary materials (especially mythological materials) from elsewhere in the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean. Case studies from the books of Judges and Samuel will be briefly explored.

This paper examines textual variants in the text of 4 Maccabees as it is presented in codex Alexandrinus. The specific variant trends from Alexandrinus discussed in this paper relate to the diminished rewards the martyrs receive for their bravery, the more graphic manner in which the torturers and torture acts are described and how the martyrs’ direct speech about these torture acts is presented. Rather than providing an etiology for these variants which might attribute them to scribal intentionality, this study seeks to show that the reader of Alexandrinus would be more likely to give assent to the author’s thesis, i.e., that pious reason is the supreme master of the passions, because of the manner in which the martyrs and their tortures are depicted in the text of Alexandrinus. This paper is thus focused on how the text of Alexandrinus would affect its reader differently than today’s eclectic text and attempts to understand this effect in light of the reader’s view of the martyrs’ motivations for acting nobly.

There has been some disagreement among scholars regarding the division and organization of 2 Peter. Unlike some other biblical letters, 2 Peter does not have strong boundaries between its different sections, but transitions using blended semantic themes. This blending causes difficulties for the translator, who looks to segment the text into smaller units. However, with the adoption of modern linguistic tools within biblical scholarship, new avenues have been opened to evaluate the composition and structure of a text. Using the OpenText.org model and other linguistic features, as well as incorporating a comparison of traditional syntactic mapping, I will evaluate how participant reference, verbal aspect and particularly semantic domains can be used to provide insight into the structure of 2 Peter. In addition, I hope to show that using a discourse approach to evaluating the composition of a text provides a more rigorous and insightful approach than the traditional syntactic mapping.

The task of preparing the critical edition of the Septuagint translation of 1 Samuel for the Göttingen series is like a huge jigsaw puzzle – with most of the pieces missing. Not only do the various recensions of the Greek text complicate our search for the original Old Greek, but other factors – such as the variations of the Hebrew text and the translation technique, including errors by the translator – have certainly also played a role. Obviously, the decision often has to be made on the basis of internal criteria, as already stated by Sebastian Brock. This also means a rethinking of what has been considered as the textus receptus until now. As far as the Hebrew text is concerned, deconstruction has been going on since the Qumran findings. But what about Codex Vaticanus being regarded as more or less the Old Greek? The picture of Vaticanus standing like a rock in the midst of the stream no longer seems to be tenable. In this paper I give some examples to demonstrate the kinds of problems encountered in the project on the textual history of 1 Samuel.

This paper concretizes the strategies which Amy Hollywood proposes in her paper, "Strategies for the Study of Women's Religious Experience," by analyzing the relationship between the bestowal of divine secrets and gender in the pseudepigraphon, "Joseph and Aseneth." This study complements other papers in the session, Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity, including Sarah Iles Johnston's "Women's Religious Experience in the Greek World," and John R. Levison's "Eve's Religious Experience in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve."

In Second Isaiah, there is a major difference between “the nations” ????? Isa 40:17; 42:1; 43:9; 45:20; 52:10) or more specifically ????? “to the nations” (cf. Isa 42:1) and ???? “nations” (40:15; 42:6; 49:6, 22; 54:3). The former refers to the various nations of the known period while the latter lexeme without the definite article exclusively refers to Judah (42:6b and 49:6) or Judah and Israel. The purpose clause, “[So] that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6), has been rendered and misunderstood as a message of universal salvation from the phrase “light to the nations” (NRSV). However, in light of the context of verse 6 of chapter 49, this message cannot reflect universal salvation—“For He [Yahweh] has said ‘It is too little that you should be my servant, in that I raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel: I will also make you a light of nations, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.” The purpose clause reflects the tribes of Israel and Judah who are now understood as nations of peoples—without the definite article as seen in the MT. The detriment is the careless insertion of the definite article (cf. the NRSV, RSV, NIV, ASV). The essential marker or the lack of the definite article is central in correctly transmitting the message of Isaiah 42:6-7. This definite article differentiates a universal reading from the more narrow and closed notion of nations, in an Abramaic sense, i.e., nations or peoples descending from Abraham (as the BDB suggests). K. Sparks, J. Oswalt, J. Blenkinsopp, C. Baltzer, among others, with poetic license, have freely inserted the definite article in their translations generating an ‘overly inclusive mission oriented’ universal message of salvation.

The Epistle to the Hebrews engages in a complex process of the mapping of memory for its inscribed audience. This paper investigates how this first-century text from the city of Rome configures a collective memory through the use of the scripturally informed remembrance of divine speech, the deployment of traditions about Jesus’ death, and an invocation of a people’s “past.” The text, moreover, cultivates certain poetics of remembrance—pathways for recalling the past, along with habits of forgetting—that equip the audience for negotiating an identity and ethos within Flavian Rome. This paper sets Hebrews’s acts of memory in relation to the Flavian monumentalization of a collective memory of triumph and restoration that reshaped the cityscape of Rome. The poetics of remembrance in Hebrews can therefore be understood as fostering a means for moving through that city as the bearers of a different memory.

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This paper deals with the description of the research of biblical narrative in Israel from the early sixties of the 20th century to the present. I will try to explain the different motivations of scholars who prefer this research direction and to describe the different approaches and trends. The main representatives, their main works and their contribution to the general research of this subject will be described as well.

Imagery of violence and the justification of human destruction permeate the historical accounts of the fourth century Christian apologists Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History) and Lactantius (De Mortibus Persecutorum; On Divine Anger). In providing detailed narratives of and rational for the infliction of cruel punishment of the opponents of Christians, both Eusebius and Lactantius refer to the conception of divine justice and retribution realized through the vehicle of human agency. While Eusebius focuses his historical account of the manifestation of divine justice (dike, krisis), anger (aganaktesis) and revenge (timoria; kolasis) through the judgment of the Jewish nation in particular, Lactantius chooses to focus on the ‘pagan’ opponents and persecutors instead. In my analysis of their portrayal of the infliction of cruelty and human annihilation, I contrast these accounts to similar imagery found in Christian and Jewish apocalyptic literature and emphasize the decidedly different symbolic meanings of generating and reinscribing images of violence in historical terms.

In Acts of Philip, the majority of the action takes place either in or around the city called Opheorymos/Hierapolis. The journey undertaken by Mariamne, Philip, and Bartholomew to this city winds through a fantastical and mythical landscape. This paper argues that landscape plays an important role in narrative and is as ‘scripted’ as the characters of narrative. Narrative landscape is a human construction and thus there is always an implicit meaning to place. What did/does the landscape of Acts of Philip evoke for the ancient/modern audience? While certain scholars posit a direct relation between narrative location and geographic location of textual communities, I am not convinced that this is so. Frédéric Amsler argues that the location of the action in Hierapolis points to a religious conflict in Phrygia between members of the “Acts of Philip” community and the cult of Cybele. While this may be a possibility, this paper seeks to understand the function of landscape within narrative, arguing that in the case of Acts of Philip, the fantastic and mythical landscape in which beasts talk and demons construct churches in the wilderness actually functions as a source of authority. I stand with Duncan and Ley who argue that landscape functions as a site on which ideology and power are negotiated. I argue, therefore, that the landscape in Acts of Philip is a site upon which intra-Christian ideology is played out. By placing the action within a symbolic landscape the author dislocates the events from a fixed time and place, and therefore from a fixed meaning. The narrative exists, therefore, beyond time and place. By using landscape to separate the narrative from ‘real’ time, and place it in the ‘mythical’ past, the author(s) is thus able to lay claim to an apostolic authority, which it could not otherwise do.

This paper will compare and contrast how various Greco-Roman associations were described in antiquity and how they have been described by modern scholars. Drawing upon the work of Bruce Lincoln and Jonathan Z. Smith, the paper will explore “cohesion” as a category for description both in antiquity and today. It will focus in particular on the use of myth, ritual, and function as a means of classifying associations. Neither the ancient writers nor the modern scholars seem able to fully escape their own social locations when attempting to describe these groups. This leads to asking whether it is possible, or even desirable, to attempt a taxonomy of Greco-Roman associations for use in the (re-)description of Greco-Roman antiquity.

This paper will examine medical texts from Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Syria-Palestine in order to illuminate how biblical ideas about the ear and hearing compare and contrast to those of Israel's neighbors. In particular, the paper will explore possible reasons why, in some texts, the human being is divided into nine or twelve parts, with the ear usually recognized as one of those parts. Other texts relate the ear to various features of the physical cosmos, which is seen as a body in itself. In the Song of Ulikummi, preserved in Hittite literature, one finds the idea that deafness and lack of compassion are related. The paper will also explore the relationship between orality and textuality in the development of concepts about the value of hearing.

Ezekiel 27:12-22 describes the exchanges carried out by the city of Tyre ca. the beginning of the 6th century BCE. These exchanges included, among other commodities, olive oil from Judah and the land of Israel (v. 17) as well as Izalla wine from Damascus (v. 18), foodstuffs that would normally be transported in storage jars. In the past, little attention was paid to the trade of these commodities. In 1999, however, the finding of two deep-sea shipwrecks loaded with a total of ca. eight hundred almost identical Phoenician storage jars (Ballard and Stager et al. 2002) showed that Phoenician wine trade was probably significant from at least the 8th century BCE. A recent typological, contextual, and petrographical study of Iron Age II storage jars from the Southern Levant carried out by Aznar supports this conclusion and provides new light on the exchanges. Aznar’s study suggests that the Phoenicians may have been involved with the Philistines in foodstuff transportation in the early 10th century BCE (dates according to conventional chronology); that the Phoenicians started trading wine, as an elite product, as early as the 10th century BCE; that the Phoenicians used several storage jar production centers, perhaps involving other cities besides Tyre, from at least the 8th century BCE; and that the Phoenicians developed a highly specialized storage jar production, probably for a distinct type of foodstuff, perhaps olive oil, during the 7th-6th century BCE.

The Mrs. Robinson phase of feminist readings of the Bible is winding down, like Mrs. Robinson herself. No longer the provocative and seductive element of biblical studies, many feminists, particularly those in the third-wave, are now questioning the depth of oppression that American and European women in universities are actually experiencing. While women of color still constitute a subordinate class, it is more from the barriers of race and ethnicity than gender. Back in the day, Mrs. Robinson feminism questioned the basic constitutive elements of female subjectivity and feminist scholars read and reread biblical texts, until we depleted most of these areas of investigation. Now we suffer less from penisneid than from discipline envy, to use Marjorie Garber’s term. This paper will examine the methods and strategies scholars in biblical studies deploy as we move from the hierarchy and prestige of linguistics, diachronic readings, and historical foundations to more alluring desires. Is it only linguistic study that is fading? How hot are the flames of feminist and cultural analyses when applied to biblical studies? I suspect that cultural studies in all its guises from film to podcast, from colonialism to cartooning will create a new synergy in which biblical studies as a scholarly discipline will be subsumed under the weight of contemporary cultures and multiple viewpoints. One might imagine Mrs. Robinson bored with seduction, no longer envying men their occupations and fast cars, but rather writing her own script, winking at the audience.

This paper will explore essentials for teaching biblical stories involving sexual violation. My experience has shown that such texts frequently elicit or provoke memories from students. This can present an opportunity for some to deal with these issues in profoundly personal ways; it is a chance for all to address something that has plagued society for generations. It is indeed a powerful teaching and learning moment for all involved. I offer a number of suggestions for how faculty can be prepare themselves and the class to address this issue most effectively, appropriately, and sensitively. This paper is a chapter from my book, forthcoming this year from Peter Lang Publishing Company.

This paper attempts to raise issues and to propose hypotheses about the social function of art (especially wall frescoes and floor mosaics, perhaps sculpture) in the dining spaces (triclinia) of Pompeii, including some comparison and contrast with the literary tradition of symposia/convivia.

Biblical studies classes prevail among course offerings in Religion and Theology, so much so that the Bible has been aptly termed "the touchstone text for the study of religion in the United States" (Rosengarten, 2004). And yet, an impending separation of the annual meetings of the AAR and SBL looms darkly overhead. For some, the separation raises questions about the "fit" of Biblical Studies in Religion departments. For others, it indicates confusion about the nature of our discipline. Clearly, Biblical Studies does belong in colleges; but how do we conceptualize and theoretically justify its "place" within the liberal arts? This paper was inspired by J.Z. Smith's seminal 1999 SBL plenary talk, "Bible and Religion" (Smith 2004). To frame an historical approach to these conceptual questions, two salient moments are examined: the present, when U.S. teachers of Bible courses are often associated with the SBL, and 1933, when the dominant organization was called the National Association of Biblical Instructors (the ancestor of the AAR; Smith 2004). As evidence for the "present," the paper examines the 2000 AAR surveys, recent work on college student engagement, instructor syllabi, and mainstream introductory Biblical Studies textbooks. For 1933, the main evidence is the first issue of the Journal of NABI, which was dedicated to pedagogical and definitional questions relating the Liberal Arts and Biblical Studies. The differences between "then" and "now" are striking: over the past six decades, our discipline has been profoundly transformed. The comparison highlights several tensions inherent in our work with college students, providing insight into the ongoing challenges which face Biblical Scholars working in the context of liberal arts colleges, and a key to conceptualizing and improving our own historically situated practices.

D.Z. Hoffman was one the first scholars to recognize the 13th century Yemenite Midrash, Midrash Ha-Gadol, as a major source for the lost Midarshei Halacha. As part of his monumental life work he created Midrash Tannaim out of Tannaitic-looking paragraphs from Midrash Ha-Gadol on the book of Deutronomy. He distinguished, by using different size of fonts, between paragraphs that have parallels in the Sifre, the known Midrash Halacha on the book of Deuteronomy from the school of R. Akiva, and unparallel paragraphs. A small amount of fragments, found in the Cairo Genizah, helped assure that Midrash Ha-Gadol, indeed, used the Tannaitic R. Ishmael's Mechilta on the book of Deuteronomy, in his Midrash. Some scholars, including Hoffman himself, have warned against relying on Midrash Tannaim as a sure source for the Mechilta. Based on a thorough examination of one portion of Hoffman's Midrash Tanaim, this paper will try to suggest a few systematic tools to verify which paragraphs are indeed parts of the original Midrash from the school of R. Ishmael. For this purpose, on the one hand we have to trace a few known and lesser known terminologies and Midrashic techniques of the school of R. Ishmael, and verify their use in those paragraphs. And, on the other hand, we must explore some of the editorial methods and reworked materials of R. David Ha-Adani, the editor of Midrash Ha-Gadol, in composing his treatise. Based on this suggested methodology, it will be shown that at least in one Parasha, many paragraphs are not parts of the original Midrash, but rather later reworked material, mostly rephrasing of Maimonides' Mishne Torah. However, at the end of the day, we are left with close to three quarters of an unparallel Tannaitic Midrash, bearing distinct features of the school of R. Ishmael.

The paper will deal with the contribution of Israeli research to the study of the archaeology of the Land of Israel in the Biblical Period. We will discuss the influence of the political atmosphere on archaeological research in the early days of the State of Israel, in the 1970’s and in the present. We will analyze the influence of European and American research on the work of Israeli scholars, the unique nature of the Israeli research and its influence on scholars from abroad and their studies. We will also analyze the connections between biblical research and archaeology, during this period, from the early stages and up to the present.

Earth is a complex character in John's story, portrayed as a place, a people, and even as a self-conscious agent. After sorting out some of these narrative strands and seeing how the character Earth functions in relation to the great ecological disasters portrayed in this story, we will consider how modern interpreters use the Apocalypse to justify various attitudes toward the environment.

In Galatians 6.11-18, Paul records the conclusion to his letter as he makes his closing argument to the Galatian church. During his final arguments for Christians to become a new creation and to be willing to suffer for Christ, Paul refers to his stigmata in Galatians 6.17. The NRSV states, “From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks (stigmata) of Jesus branded on my body.” Paul is attempting to use his “marks” for the purpose of rhetorical leverage against those who oppose him. In mentioning his stigmata, Paul is hoping to arouse the passions of the Galatians as a weighty and final appeal. How one interprets these “marks” has the potential of changing how one understands Paul’s identity. In particular, I would like to investigate further connections between Slave Torture within the Greco-Roman Empire and Paul's concept of slavery in Christ. I am especially interested in an examination of Paul's stigmata through the lens of Postcolonialism as an optic for interpretation that illuminates the difficulties of Paul's own understanding of torture from/for Christ. As a rhetorical tool, Paul links his torture through stigmata as directly related to his own authenticity and as the touchstone for truth in speaking to the Galatians. If this is the case, then how does this resonate within the postcolonial reality of empire, neocolonialism, and torture as a contemporary method for the acquisition of truth?

Burton L. Mack in The Lost Gospel : The Book Of Q & Christian Origins (San Francisco: Harper, 1993: 73ff) builds on his position that the gospels are based primarily upon Greco-Roman rhetorical models. In reconstructing Q behind Lk6 and Mt5 he omits intimations of specialized interpretations of key OT biblical verses. What we will note, in fact, is that the same subtle biblical allusions and exegesis discerned in Jewish sources occur in the two gospels. I begin by citing gospel passages that will form the essence of my argument that the gospels preserve and rework exegetical traditions that the rabbis preserve and rework in much the same ways. The biblical exegesis in these passages overlaps with rabbinic positions more than they overlap with each other. A brief example of several in the same unit: Mt 5:48 instructs: Therefore be perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. Midrash Tehillim, Ps 119:1: And likewise Moses said to Israel: Be perfect with the Lord your God (Dt 18:13), [meaning] .... If you are perfect then you are with the Lord your God. --Why is this?-- Because he is also perfect.. It remains to show that Matthew is also reading Dt 18:13 in a specialized manner. Mack's reconstruction has omitted the center of these sermons which is Jewish biblical exegesis.

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. Building on the theoretical foundations of Edward Said and R. S. Sugirtharajah, and the postcolonial analysis of Revelation by Chris Frilingos, this paper will examine the ways in which the borrowing of the language of chosenness from Judaism operates as ideological imperialism in the First Epistle of Peter, and will explore how a post-colonial critique can offer new insights into supersessionism. While the more typical analyses of the Petrine author’s use of Jewish themes claim it as a means of assimilation (Balch) or separation (Elliott) vis-à-vis Greco-Roman expectations, my argument is that the author’s appropriation of identity markers, not of the colonizer, Rome, but of another oppressed group, the Jews, to place his group above that other oppressed group, is an ideologically imperialist linguistic move. This language, ostensibly of the victim, presupposes however the acceptability of a hierarchy of religious and ethnic groups, participates in the plundering of the ideological resources of another, possibly weaker group solely for the purpose of the creation and maintenance of a superior identity, and constructs a metanarrative of replacement and ascendancy.

The shepherd metaphor was commonly used in the Ancient Near East to symbolize the relationship between a king and his subjects. While this meaning of “ruler” associated with shepherd metaphor is clearly reflected in the Hebrew Bible, the metaphor becomes extended in early Christian writings to include the meaning of “teacher.” This paper seeks to determine the precedents for this move from “ruler” to “teacher,” suggesting that there are two: a general thematic precedent of the depiction in the Hebrew Bible of YHWH as Israel’s ultimate shepherd and a textual precedent of the shepherd narrative in Zechariah 11:4-17.

The theme of the paper is a comparison between the Q text of the Lord’s Prayer and the material available in Duke Database of Documentary Papyri: this analysis is going to be part of a wider project focused on a complete examination of Q to be published in the series Papyrologischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament. Of course, the survey shows that the lexical structure of the prayer follows a twofold pattern: there is a remarkable influence of Septuagint usages, but it appears that the structuring was also guided by the everyday speech preserved in documentary papyri. One important comparison can take into consideration the prayer’s request for forgiveness of debts and the phrasing of Ptolemaic decrees of amnesty on important royal events such as throne accessions or victories in battle. Many lexical clues strengthen the hypothesis that at least the second half of the prayer was composed with reference to this kind of documents whose knowledge in the Land of Israel is confirmed by parallels in contemporary Seleucid and Hasmonean edicts. It is worth noting that amnesties constituted a relevant component of Hellenistic royal ideologies: they expressed the cosmic and social value of kingship since the king presented himself as savior and benefactor of his people. A Jewish parallel can be detected in the requirement of Jubilee forgiveness: on a social and economic level, this requirement should have been known to I century Jews in the Land of Israel since it appears in a Hebrew deed of loan found in Murabba’at. Arguably, the Lord’s Prayer plays a provocative reversal of current royal ideology, shifting one of its main features from an inner worldly level to divine transcendence

In his recent monograph on the moral codes in the Hebrew Bible, Moses Erben, Timo Veijola defended the thesis that the deuteronomists should be seen as the predecessors of the Rabbinic scribes. In this thesis the figures of Ezra and Nehemiah play an important role. Veijola, unfortunately, did not elaborate the specifics of that role. In my presentation, I would like to investigate the role of Nehemiah as a Mosaic heir by paying attention to the way he solves the intermarriage crisis. In my view, this solution differs from the one narrated in the Book of Ezra. Both Ezra 9 and Neh. 13, however, should be seen as appropriations of the tradition to their own time. And is’nt that what heirs are supposed to do?

Metropolitan Washington, D.C. is the home of many churches and synagogues, some of them national in nature, such as the National Cathedral (Episcopal), the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Roman Catholic), the National Presbyterian Church, the Church of the Pilgrims (unofficially the national church of the former southern branch of the Presbyterian Church, now united with the northern branch), the National Baptist Church, and others. Many of these buildings have stained glass windows depicting biblical scenes. This paper will explore this heritage with a special eye for scenes involving biblical women. Additionally, issues of ethnic portrayal will be considered. Not only churches that are primarily European, but African-American and Asian-American churches with stained glass windows will also be visited. The goal will be to assemble a diverse group of images of biblical women and to analyze them artistically, theologically, and biblically.

This paper is an examination of why Israel’s God, YHWH, is not explicitly portrayed with old age imagery in the early biblical traditions. The imagery used of YHWH is in many ways a compilation of features seen in the Ugaritic depictions of the gods El and Baal. Yet Baal is portrayed as a youthful warrior, while El is explicitly portrayed as old. Biblical writers preferred to resolve this tension by depicting YHWH as a youthful warrior. They thus avoided associating the deity with the weakness often seen as a concomitant feature of senescence. The second part examines the striking reversal in this tradition during the second century BCE, when YHWH is called “the Ancient of Days” in Daniel 7. Two trajectories may account for this transformation. First, there was a renaissance of cosmic or mythological themes in late biblical Israel: motifs once rejected because of concerns for orthodoxy were now welcomed into the tradition. The writer of Daniel 7 employs refracted motifs earlier attested at Ugarit to portray God in a new light. YHWH’s epithet, “Ancient of Days,” is reminiscent of the elderly El, who has a younger divine agent, Baal, who reigns with him; this younger agent in Daniel 7 is the “one like a son of man” figure. The second trajectory is the growing tendency to portray YHWH as a father. YHWH is only occasionally portrayed as a father in Israel’s early traditions, but paternal imagery re-enters the tradition at a later date. YHWH is thus portrayed as a father to David the king, to David’s descendants, and to the Israelite nation as a whole. The conjunction of these two trajectories produced the image of YHWH as the bearded and white-haired “Ancient of Days.”

The story of the finding of “the book of the (divine) instruction” plays an important role in the book of Kings. Moreover, it has served key roles in critical biblical research for more than a century, and in construction of ancient Israelite history. This paper does not focus on the well-known debates on questions of historicity or lack thereof, nor on matters of redactional history of the book of Kings. Instead, it addresses the particular social memory of the event that the (present form of the) book of Kings not only shapes and reflects among its intended and primary readers in the postmonarchic period, but also asks them to reenact as they proceed in reading and rereading the Kings. Thus, the paper discusses, among others, the way in which the texts suggested them to imagine the contents of that ??? ?????, the role the book (and its finding) played in that locus of social memory, how these matters related to the readerships’ discourses and the light they may shed on the intellectual and ideological milieu of literati, within which the present book of Kings emerged.

In Modern Israel, biblical texts are relevant in political debates and used by nationalist for proving patriotism. It was that thinking that moved me to use biblical texts when faced with the need to name the grassroots peace movement in Israel which I founded: “Four Mothers – Leave Lebanon in Peace.” Between 1997-2000 we lobbied the Israeli government to stop the war with Lebanon. The phrase “Four Mothers” is mentioned in the Passover Haggadah describing the most essential elements in Jewish history. Using this name tied us to the power of biblical motherhood, as well as to the Passover story. This connection enabled us to use ideas like “exodus” “freedom” and “survival” in relation to our protest against the war with Lebanon. During Passover we gathered at the border between Lebanon and Israel. At this event I read Jeremiah’s prophecy (31:14-16) as he referred to Rachel in his lament of the exile. The Lord says, “They shall come back from the land of the enemy.” As I continued to quote the Lord’s promise to Rachel, “and your children shall return to their own border,” the participants of the rally and television viewers become more supportive (according to newspapers’ surveys) of the idea to leave Lebanon in peace. Relating our motherhood to the Biblical mothers gave us the authenticity and the credibility to change public opinion regarding this war. The New York Times stated: "Many Israelis celebrated with the ‘Four Mothers’ one of the most successful grass-roots movements in Israeli history. The women took a classic Israeli stereotype -- the silent, suffering soldier's mother -- stood it on its head and dared to challenge the military." ( New York Times June 3, 2000).

Pentecostalism, is its various expressions, is a mushrooming phenomenon on the local and international religious scenes. In, fact, this type of Christianity is one of the fastest growing subgroups of Christianity in the African-American community. What is more, the Bible plays a major role in theologizing and in moral philosophizing among Pentecostals. Noteworthy, however, is it that a dearth is present in the amount of critical scholarship on biblical hermeneutics in Pentecostal quarters. While Gordon Fee, Gordon Anderson, and Walter Hollenweger raise questions and propose strategies for interpreting the Bible among Pentecostals, none of these scholars sculpts a paradigm for understanding the Bible that reflects an awareness of developments in Afrocentric biblical criticism. Thus, the task that the present paper sets for itself is to introduce Afrocentric biblical criticism into the current conversation on Pentecostal biblical Hermeneutics. The thesis to be developed in this essay is that a model for reading the Bible, which grounds itself in an Afrocentric, Pentecostal perspective, offers a robust hermeneutic theory for interpreting and appropriating the material in the Bible, and for convincing a subgroup of persons for whom the Bible has significance that the critical study of this document is a worthwhile enterprise.

In the midst of what one historian has referred to as “the Fourth Great Awakening,” the Bible is making a comeback in contemporary American politics. Not since the nineteenth century has Scripture played such a large role in serving as the basis for social movements. One major factor--but not the only factor--influencing its reemergence is the centrality of the Bible to the Conservative Evangelical voting block that has played such a major role in recent elections. This partly helps to explain a recent and generally little noticed phenomenon: the increased use of scriptural citations and biblical allusions in political rhetoric. In this paper the use of Scripture in political oratory is examined with an eye toward identifying, the good, the bad and the ugly. It will be shown that successful use of sacred texts in politics requires not using it so generously so as to frighten advocates of Church/State separation, all the while speaking in “code” to one’s targeted religious audience. The rhetoric of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton. Barack Obama, and Joe Lieberman will be scrutinized. In addition, the essay will examine some of the difficulties that Democrats have had in turning their use of the Bible into electoral victories.

The proposed paper considers the extent to which the theology, and the Weltanschauung more broadly, of the Priestly tradent (P), are influenced by royal structures and concerns. On one level, P can be considered a-monarchic, in that the Priestly Pentateuchal writings are almost completely devoid of explicit references to kings or kingship. I will argue, however, that conceptions of kingship are deeply embedded within the P corpus. The presentation will focus primarily on the dynamics of the relationship between YHWH and Israel. A related issue, P’s constructions of the priesthood and priestly succession, will also be treated. In the course of my discussion, I will address the theological and ideological underpinnings of P’s particular engagement with monarchic ideas and imagery. Additionally, the oft-debated question of an historical setting for the Priestly Torah will be situated within the context of the P-kingship inquiry.

This paper will explore daughters, ie, the young unmarried girls in families, in the world of the New Testament. One way to understand the significance of the daughters in the New Testament is to view their status as daughters in the ancient Mediterranean context. A social-historical reconstruction of the life of daughters in the Greco-Roman world, following scholars such as Susan Dixon, Susan Pomeroy or Ross Kraemer, yields a negative portrayal in many regards. For example, daughters were more likely to be abandoned at birth than sons were. If raised in the family, they were educated less than their brothers, and were also considered an expense when marriage is arranged. Sons were more important among the children in a family, carrying on the family name and property. In contrast to this historical evidence, representations of daughters in literary texts from this era offer a different portrait. In the Greek and Jewish novels, as well as in plays and poetry, daughters frequently are central characters around whom the plot revolves or are the catalysts for the action. I will examine both the social-historical and literary representations of daughters in the Greco-Roman world, and hypothesize why this difference exists. I will then briefly apply these findings to three daughters in the gospel of Mark, Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:21-24, 35-42), Herodias’ daughter (Mark 6:14-29) and the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter (Mark 7:24-30) and suggests the ways in which they contribute to Mark’s inclusive social vision of the reign of God while further establishing Jesus’ role as the son of God.

The paper will evaluate the books of Obadiah-Jonah-Micah within the Twelve for the ways in which they relate to recurring themes and theological motifs (e.g. Zion and the nations, theodicy, sin/repentance) within and through the Book of the Twelve.

Positive, detailed treatments of Scripture in Athenagoras of Athens have been lacking. Strong expressions of the absence of Scripture’s influence in his Legatio have seemed to rule the modern prejudice. With Pouderon’s 1994 essay some helpful headway toward recognizing the presence of Scripture within the apologist’s argument was made, yet Pouderon left undeveloped an analysis of how Scripture functions within the Legatio to contribute to an argument for Christian self-definition. This paper, then, will explore how Scripture, sacred teaching, influences Athenagoras in his attempt to answer the Romans for their perceived misconception of Christianity and the hardships with which they burden the Christians. In particular, this paper will demonstrate how biblical passages function to manifest a conception of God the Father which emphasizes God’s distinction from earthly things and God’s spiritual essence. This is the accepted rational view of the deity within the broader Roman context. This emphasis comes forth as Athenagoras reads and employs pagan philosophical and poetic texts within a pattern of belief and conception delimited by Scriptural teaching. Scripture certainly functions to develop the absolutely unique claims of the Christians, but significantly, it also informs, in a prejudicial manner, how Athenagoras will read pagan texts in a somewhat distinctive manner, yet also one which, within allowable parameters, holds commonality with his non-Christian culture.

Since Joachim Jeremias’ Jesu Verheissung für die Völker (1956) it has often been assumed that in Matt 8.11-12 Jesus looked forward to the inclusion of gentiles into the kingdom at the eschaton. However, several recent studies, most notably by Dale C. Allison, have called this view into question and have instead advocated that the logion refers to the regathering of the Diaspora. The purpose of this study is to evaluate Allison’s arguments and to propose that a gentile reference is implicit in the logion based on: (1) the broader context of the inter-textual echoes of passages concerning the regathering of Jewish exiles; and (2) a wider ethnic membership for those who participate in the patriarchal banquet based on the reference to ‘Abraham’. Furthermore, the logion is interpreted in the historical Jesus’ ministry through the lens of a partially realized eschatology. As such the saying represents Jesus’ contention that Israel’s restoration was already becoming a reality and that gentiles were already entering the kingdom as an embryonic foretaste of their inclusion at the eschaton.

By popular wisdom, stereotypes are the product of pathological thinking and serve only to further the prejudiced desires of the ones who utilize them. However, many theorists (such as Henri Tajfel, Vincent Yzerbyt and Russell Spears) argue that stereotypes are rather an inevitable way to categorize the social world. Stereotypes establish social maps that define “us” by delineating “them”. The stereotype of the others (the “outgroup”) functions as a marker for the social self (the “ingroup”) in such a way that it becomes constitutive. If one were to remove the stereotype of the outgroup, the identity of the ingroup would be challenged: without "them", we cease being "us". This paper will argue that the gospel of Matthew’s stereotype of the Pharisees as hypocritical is foundational within the Sermon on the Mount as well as throughout the gospel. This representation of the Pharisees is not incidental to the first gospel, but rather functions as an important means of identity construction for the Matthean community. This stereotype helped Matthew map his social universe so as to know appropriate and inappropriate modes of behavior and being. If one were to ask Matthew what is a faithful follower of Jesus looked like, he would be hard pressed to answer without reference to his Pharisaical stereotype. The Pharisees need to be what Matthew construes them to be for his vision of Christian identity to be maintained. This paper has direct relevance to early Christian identity construction. Beyond this, it also has important implications for early Jewish–Christian relation, as well as Christian anti-Judaism.

Reading only narrative, commentators have not appreciated King David’s depression following his crimes. When Psalms are integrated with narrative at every phase of his life, several insights emerge. From youth David’s passion was to serve YHWH. He knew the covenant, tried to live accordingly, and despised the wicked. After he was anointed he envisioned a temple where he would serve his Beloved. As king he brought the Ark to Jerusalem, the most ecstatic day of his life. His kingdom established, the country in relative peace, David determined to fulfill his dream. Instead, YHWH made him founder of a dynasty. A son of his would build the Temple. The latter news conflicted with David’s high expectations as a king in the ancient Near East. Sometime after this David fumbled in battle and stayed at the palace while his heroes went to war. He took Bathsheba. When his efforts to cover her pregnancy failed he arranged the death of Uriah. From David’s prayers and lack thereof it becomes clear he was deeply dispirited. In contrast to his hypergraphic anguish at the cave of Adullam when unjust circumstances drove him to despair, David was depressed following the rape of Tamar, death of Amnon, and exile of Absalom. This paper traces evidence of his depression and his recovery as he anticipated his penance was nearing an end.

On the assumption, widely shared, that the Priestly material was compiled in the post-destruction period, the mystery is that neither Aaron qua priest nor Aaronid priests are mentioned in any pre-exilic text or indeed in any post-destruction texts with the exception of the same Priestly material, Chronicles and one or two psalms. This is true even of texts which have a lot to say about priests, for example Malachi and Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra's Aaronid descent draws on the lists in Chronicles). The priests on the island of Elephantine are not called "sons of Aaron" either. This silence can hardly be coincidental and seems to demand an answer. One proposal for a solution will be offered.

While Oxyrhynchus is best known among scholars of Christian origins for its New Testament and Extra-Biblical fragments, what is not nearly as well known is the large number of private Christian letters it has produced. Beginning in the third century Christian letters begin to emerge from Oxyrhynchus and by the sixth and seventh centuries almost every extant letter is distinctly Christian. While these letters have not received nearly as much attention in scholarship as the New Testament or Extra-Biblical material, they too are an important source for elucidating and understanding Christianity at Oxyrhynchus. This paper will assess how the extant Christian letters from Oxyrhynchus from the third to fifth centuries allude to and employ scripture.

It is well-recognized that the Qumran scrolls of Samuel make a significant contribution to understanding the text-critical problems of this stretch of the Deuteronomistic History. The contribution is now poised to be further enhanced with the publication of the recent DJD volume edited by Cross, Parry, Saley and Ulrich. To this point, however, comparatively less attention has been given to examining the literary contribution of the Qumran material as far as understanding the literary dynamics of the narrative. In this presentation I argue that the 4QSam material presents alternative readings at several points that enhance one’s appreciation of the narrative artistry of the text. After reviewing several specific examples from 1 Samuel that pertain to the “visual” arena, I will move toward a conclusion with some points about the more general literary contribution of the Qumran scrolls and some future directions for this kind of research.

"But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, until it went down into the ground. . . ." (Judg. 4:21). For many readers of Judges 4 (and 5), Jael's actions fascinate, even as they also provoke unease. Even feminist biblical scholars, who often otherwise bemoan the bible's lack of strong, positive female characters and images, may, upon reading this text, be left squirming -- literally, figuratively, or both. Does not Jael go too far? Aren't her actions just too violent and too aggressive? Part of the problem, of course, is the very physicality of Jael's actions. Early stages of feminist theorizing focused primarily on how patriarchy operated in and through cultural ideologies and how these, in turn, impacted the psyches of women and men. Only more recently has Elizabeth Grosz, among others, argued for the importance of theorizing the body, not only as a site of patriarchal subjugation but also as a potential site for resistance to that subjugation. And Martha McCaughey, in her book Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women's Self-Defense (New York University Press, 1997), insists that the women's self-defense movement fosters such bodily resistance. Indeed, this movement can help feminism take seriously the corporeality and pleasure of physical resistance to sexual discrimination and sexual violence; it demands that feminism get physical!(see pg. xiii) This paper proposes to re-read Jael's actions from the perspective of physical feminism. It will analyze how and to what extent we might value what she does physically in her attempts to withstand patriarchy's operations.

Contemporary Christianity dwells in the shadow of the Shoah. The contemporary three-year Lectionaries provide collections of readings for proclamation in public worship that are open to the anamnesis of classical teachings of contempt. After general observations pertaining to: 1) The Catholic, Episcopal and Revised Common three-year lectionaries currently in use, 2) The Christian understandings of Jewish scriptures, 3) The distinction between supersessionism and Christian re-reading. This study will focus the selections Isaiah and 1) Describe what is included from the Book of Isaiah in each lectionary 2) Indicate the dominant understandings of the selections 4) Explore where Isaiah functions as prototype, prediction, or foreshadowing in lectionary collections, 5) Identify when and how the Christian calendar provides additional hermeneutical influences. While the Churches cannot sacrifice essential teaching to the altar of interfaith sensitivities, after the Shoah they can no longer foster teachings of contempt. Lectionaries incorporate biblical understandings that must be reconsidered in light of post-Shoah consciousness.

In this paper I argue that Paul has a clearly defined scheme of the Renewed Mind and that this concept is that which links the apostle's theology to his ethics. Romans 12.1-2 is one the most well known of all New Testament passages. Scholars generally agree that the passage serves as a kind of literary bridge, linking the more "theological" sections of the letter (chapers 1-11) to the more "ethical" sections (chapers 12-16). Moreover, scholars generally agree with Bultmann, Furnish and others that Paul's ethics are somehow based upon, and developed out of his theology. The question however is how the two are precisely connected. This paper argues that Paul's scheme of the renewed mind (and more precisely, the phren word group) provides the all important lexical bridge between the apostle's theology and ethics. After an introductory section which clearly defines the question and the various proposals, the paper endeavors to break new ground on the age old question of how Paul's theology relates to his ethics by showing how the Phren word group is used by Paul to link the theological and ethical sections together.

With Homer as a foil, and with key selections from Genesis, the David story, and Luke-Acts—each considered as coherent and unified dramas—I will demonstrate the relationship between the self-transcending self and communal well-being. The dominant synergy between a self-transcending self and communal well-being indicates the role of such orally-based narrative in the formation and maintaining of cultural values. Abraham must change if Sarah is to bear a child and if blessing—instead of curse—is to come for a foreign people [Abimelech’s]); Joseph must repeatedly “go down” if he is to transcend his early braggadocio and dreams of lording-over toward the blessing of his own family, of Egypt, and of “all the families of the world”; David’s capacities for self-examination and “turn-around”—toward the recovery of communal well-being (three key repetitions, the most conspicuous in 2 Samuel 24 where David is at his worst but best when confronting himself for sin prompted by God). Such a self-transcending self is fundamental in the teachings of Jesus, as represented in Luke-Acts: the counter-intuitive must come to ascendancy if the self is to be “found” and community restored to the in-breaking of God’s idea of good community. By contrast, Homer’s Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus reflect cultural values quite different from such self-transcending selves; the epics promote values and characters characterized by stasis, as suggested by the frequent Homeric epithet. Such fixed selves—the wrathful Achilles, the foresighted Odysseus—have a tenuous or negative impact on their respective communities (the Trojan war in The Iliad; the need for Athena to act unilaterally in bringing ultimate peace, in The Odyssey). I will draw on my published work, including Homeric studies, and two books: Genesis, The Story We Haven’t Heard; and, The Way According to Luke: Hearing the Whole Story of Luke-Acts.

1 Peter is a genuine letter--not in the sense of authorship, but in that it functions by projecting a narrative world. This world can be identified and charted by listing and sorting the events mentioned and presupposed by the letter. The temporal location of writer and readers can be identified on the projected narrative timeline. How does this narrative world projected by the pseudonymous author correspond to the "real world?"

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic," composed by Julia Ward Howe at the start of the Civil War, draws heavily on apocalyptic language and imagery to present the Union Army as the instrument of God's just punishment of Southern slavery. It had since been applied generally to US military power in wars against various enemies (Nazis, communists, terrorists). The paper will articulate the biblical basis of the hymn and how its use has contributed to Americans' perceptions of our role in the world. For all its use of John's Apocalypse, I will argue that the imperialism fostered by the hymn is itself condemned by Revelation.

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In this paper, I propose to work out in a general way some new thinking about continuity, rather than rupture, in the history of allegoresis, in particular I wish to locate allegorical thinking in some persistent themes of Greek thought of various types and argue then that it is not as foreign to rabbinic interpretation as once I would have claimed.

Teaching biblical literature in a secular Liberal Arts environment requires allowing the texts to speak for themselves, so that students might hear what the texts have to say (which may not necessarily be what we want to hear). This is easier said than done since we must attempt to leave religious convictions, traditions, and specific agendas behind. At the same time, we must also recognize that we will not always be able to avoid our own historical context and bias. In light of these challenges and through my eight years experience as a Christian teaching courses in a Jewish Studies program at a secular university I have developed methods (and discarded others) for teaching the Hebrew Bible that include reading the texts critically as literary and historical sources while salting the course with Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other interpretations. The goal is to use the potential handicaps of preconceived ideas and convictions as gateways into the material. God may well be in the classroom and miracles may well occur, but the students know that they have to determine that for themselves.

In the (Neo-) Platonic Parmenides reception, the One has acquired a status that transcends even Being. Ultimate source of reality, it is placed so far above it, that it has barely a relation to it (this is obviously an oversimplified view). Whether or not this is a valid interpretation of Plato and Parmenides (cf. e.g. the excellent study by J.-M. Narbonne, 2001), is not directly relevant to our question which is primarily concerned with Gnostic thought. But even though the Gnostics did not necessarily seek to interpret philosophical antecedents, they were confronted with similar questions. In Gnosticism (and especially the more "platonizing" texts), we find a way of exploring answers to the question of the derivation of multiplicity from initial Unity. This Unity does not seem to be described in the "henological" language of the Neo-Platonists (even if it sometimes tends to seem so in English translations), but they seem to stay on a purely "ontological" level, being in that way maybe even closer to Parmenides and Plato than the philosophical "schools" of that period.

The realization has dawned that our silent, isolated readings of the Fourth Gospel, or any other ancient text for that matter, is a categorically different experience than that of those who first received the text as audiences of a performance. I contend that the author of the Gospel borrowed heavily from the conventions of Greek tragedy in his construction of his dialogues to suit the demands of a performance text. I will revisit my work on the use of tragic conventions in the trial scene and the recognition scene in the garden. I will then take my analysis in a new direction by exploring the significance of the construction of the scenes at the cross as discrete tableaux that drew upon conventions that informed the construction of Roman and Hellenistic comedy, in particular mime. However audacious it may seem to suggest that the Johannine crucifixion account could have been influence by early mime -- condemned by the early Church Fathers for its vulgarity -- we must accommodate in our readings the culture of spectacle and performance in which the gospel’s author and first audiences would have been steeped. Given that the event upon which the passion narratives was based was itself a calculated violent spectacle about which refined Roman authors hesitated to write, the gospel writer parodies the Roman theater of cruelty. Comparison with extant, comic performance pieces brings into sharper relief the art of representation of action and elements of resistance to Roman signification in Johannine story telling.

The Pierpont-Morgan Library holds manuscript 1001, a fabulous late-fifteenth century Book of Hours from the vicinity of Poitiers, France, most famous for its gruesome portrayal of the seven deadly sins. Yet its little known image of Job on the dunghill, juxtaposed with the raising of Lazarus, which illuminates the Office of the Dead is equally striking for its theological and pastoral sensitivity, especially when compared to other images in similar books of Hours. The Job image reflects and participates in unusual interpretive traditions concerning Job’s wife, Job’s friends, and the role of death in the book of Job. The image thus questions many assumptions about the interpretation of the book of Job while it provides a hopeful and comforting message for those grappling with the difficult realities of bereavement. Furthermore, as a representative of the culture of death in the late middle ages, the image is an example of how biblical interpretation can reveal the social and historical context of the interpreter, but its theological and pastoral sensitivity reveals how biblical interpretation can diverge from, and possibly influence, the artists' context, as well.

An overview of the past quarter-century plus of literary studies in Genesis, highlighting the milestones of biblical literary analysis.

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Giorgio Agamben’s The Time That Remains is more than a commentary on Romans; it also offers commentary on Walter Benjamin’s allusions to Paul. This paper evaluates Agamben’s specific claims about Benjamin’s use of 2 Corinthians 12 in his "Theses on the Philosophy of History." While Agamben is correct that two key words in Benjamin’s text appear in Luther’s translation of Paul, there is reason to doubt the directness of the allusion, since other biblical allusions in the "Theses" do not match Luther’s vocabulary, and the correspondence Agamben claims could be explained in other ways. I propose an alternative, more contextualized way of understanding Benjamin’s biblical allusions that goes beyond traditional Jewish and Christian messianism and avoids strict dependence on Paul. Such a reading reflects Benjamin’s concerns with Christian anti-Jewishness. In the end, Agamben’s Pauline Benjamin may in fact be a kind of Benjaminian Paul; my paper will elaborate this suggestion in light of recent scholarship on Paul.

There is a strong probability that Jewish Christians defended their faith and practice by citing a saying of Jesus from Mt. 10.24-25: "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor the slave above the master. It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master." Several patristic writers note the use of this saying by the Ebionites. Other writers note the claim to imitate Jesus without citing Mt. 10.24-25. Different patristic writers connect the saying to different Ebionite practices, providing multiple attestation. The criterion of dissimilarity is also applicable, as is the criterion of embarassment. Patristic writers find it difficult or impossible to refute this claim, yet they persist in the effort. This makes it, by all critical standards, highly unlikely that this is a patristic invention. Some Jewish Christians claimed that their practice of circumcision, their observance of Passover, and their obedience to the Law are a conscious imitation of Jesus, and they supported this claim by citing Mt. 10.24-25. This is the most certifiable piece of historical data in all of the patristic representation of Jewish Christianity. This use of Mt. 10.24-25 unveils a central hermeneutical pattern used by Jewish Christians to interpret and practice the Torah. Such insights play a key role in the effort to define Jewish Christianity and to locate it on the religious map of antiquity.

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Ancient manuscripts often contain text which has been defaced by use or time. Certain image-editing techniques have proven to be helpful in recovering this text. I will perform a live demonstration of the image-editing techniques J. Bruce Prior and I have used to determine the text our Washington manuscript transcriptions. This step-by-step demonstration of techniques we call reverse-image overlay and splice overlay will re-create the steps we took to recover the text of some specific problem passages in the Freer Gospels and the Washington Manuscript of Deuteronomy-Joshua. Since the same techniques can be applied to images of any ancient manuscript, this presentation will be of special interest to anyone in the field of textual criticism.

Jeremiah’s poems of lament have long been sites of scholarly dispute. But whether they be thought outpourings of a soul overwhelmed by his calling or imports of conventional liturgical songs, in the context of the text they perform an authorial voice and in so doing construct the prophetic subject. That the author is product rather than source of the writings is in some ways a contention of the book: constituted as prophet by the incoming divine word (ch. 1), later sacrificing sexuality for textuality, biological lineage for a prophetic heritage (ch. 16), Jeremiah is a creature composed entirely of text—a scroll of human parchment. In this paper, I begin turning the pages of the prophet alongside those of the writings of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Encouraging each to comment upon the others, I will articulate something of the text life of this Writing Prophet. Starting with the so-called ‘confessions’, and perhaps moving beyond, I shall take note of the forces which threaten to tear the text in two—forces set in motion by the division of loyalties demanded of a mediator position between the people and Yhwh; forces which—in the schema of prophetic metaphors—are inevitably gendered; and forces which result in the prophet feeling like he has been had (ch. 20). Warned not to break down lest he himself be broken (ch. 1), the demand that he faithfully fulfil his task nevertheless seems to threaten an inevitable breaching of his corpus.

This paper explores the imagery that lies behind a 15th-century colored woodcut that can be found in the Rosenwald Collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In the woodcut, Jesus stands bound to both his cross and the column of his flagellation. His body drips with blood. Opposite stands a tonsured male holding a large heart in his two hands. The male is naked except for a loincloth. Between the two figures stands a small, horned and hoofed creature. In one banderole are the words “O herr das will ich • das / beger ich darumbe / so soltu ziehe mich” (“O Lord, this I want, I desire it, for this reason thus should you pull me” ). The request “thus should you pull me” is visually imaged by a rope tied around the man’s waist, the other end of which is held by Jesus. It is a direct verbal and visual allusion to Song of Songs 1:3: “Draw me after you.” The heart held in the hands and the rope that binds the faithful to Christ are motifs that can be found in visual images of romantic love as well as images of spiritual love. This paper will explore both the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs in late medieval mystical literature and the visual imagery of the period, specifically that of the heart wounded by love and the rope that binds the faithful to Christ, in order to illumine the context of this woodcut.

The interpretation of Biblical theophanies holds an important place in the polemical and catechetical articulation of early Christianity's religious claims. While considerable attention has been given to the exegesis of theophanies in the New Testament and other early Christian (especially pre-Nicene) writings, the use of theophanies in Christian hymns has received far less attention. This is quite unfortunate, because by the very nature of its performative character, hymnographic material has enjoyed a circulation and reception superior to that of any single patristic writing. This paper will take into consideration Byzantine festal hymns of a distinct type, recognized as such in scholarship, whose roots stretch back to the second-century homily "On Pascha," by Melito of Sardes. The first part of my paper will discuss the hymnographic exegesis of specific Biblical theophanies (e.g., God's manifestation to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc). The second part will be looking for a way of "categorizing" this type of exegesis. The Biblical interpretation present in these hymns is difficult to frame within the categories commonly used to describe patristic exegesis. As far as I can see at this point, possibly the closest parallels can be drawn to the category "rewritten Bible," coined by Vermes in 1961 and widely utilized since then to designate biblical interpretation occuring in Rabbinic midrash, the Palestinian Targum, or OT Pseudepigrapha such as the Book of the Watchers, the Book of Jubilees, or the Genesis Apocryphon.

This presentation proposes a close reading and analysis of the throne vision in Ezekiel the Tragedian’s Exagoge. Commonly the throne vision of Ezekiel the Tragedian has been read in the scholarship sympathetic to its connections to Ezekiel 1 from the perspective of the much later Hekhalot literature. This paper, while not oblivious to the evident connections (albeit indirect) of the text to these much later developments, is based on the observation that the sources that attest to interests in the vision of Ezekiel 1 in the Second Temple period reflect complex, distinct, and often conflicting ideologies. It consequently proposes a diachronic reading of the text within the context of previous and ongoing ideological developments. An analysis of earlier texts evinces continuing speculations about the theomorphic and iconic value of humanity. Within these speculations privileges of ancient Near Eastern monarchy have been democratized and ascribed to an idealized humanity in the exilic and Second Temple period. In its new status, idealized humanity was envisioned as bearing the form and representing the venerability of the divine. It is this particular association that transpires through the imagery of the throne vision of Ezekiel the Tragedian. The text also reflects an ideology related to subsequent speculations about Adam. Several motifs present in Ezekiel the Tragedian’s scene resurface in the later literature dedicated to the protoplast, such as the theomorphism of exalted humanity, its iconic value, and its veneration by astral beings/angels. The latter element of this theomorphic paradigm best attests to the complexity of Second Temple kabod speculations, to the divergence of this paradigm from and its polemics with repeated identifications of divine mediators as angelic beings.

The nature and the diversity of ethical material contained within the NT is often seen as a problem or a challenge to those interpreters who wish to use it in ethical debate today. Some specific concerns dealt with it in scripture are contingent upon the writers’ own day, such as carrying a legionary’s pack (Matt 5:41) or meat offered to idols (1 Cor 8; 10:18-33), while today’s ethical issues, such as nuclear war or embryo research do not feature at all. Furthermore the plurality of 27 books written by different authors in different genres to different audiences leads to variation or even contradiction on some issues. For those who want a “biblical ethic” or “NT witness,” theological interpretation needs to find a unity of scripture. Richard Hays sought such a synthesis through his “focal images” of cross, community, and new creation in his The Moral Vision of the New Testament (1996). This paper will examine some ways of bringing the “two horizons” of the text and contemporary ethical debate together, distinguishing the various modes, methods and genres of ethical material in the NT. It will also outline a possible method for handling such diverse ethical material within the Christian community, using the use of the Bible under apartheid in South Africa as an example.

Trying to internalize a language requires a person to be able to describe one’s immediate environment, including all of the common activities involving the body. However, if a student opens the GreekNT or Louw-Nida’s semantic domains, one immediately perceives accidental holes. Filling those holes and evaluating the resulting domains presents challenges. We need to be able to ‘wipe a runny nose’. We need to know which words are more generic or more specialized and which words are more common register or more formal. Fortunately, where biblical and/or mishnaic Hebrew may be missing a word, Hellenistic Greek attestations often provide more than one word. And yes, we need to know some of “ those” words. The challenge brings its own rewards. Widely-ranging texts become more accessible. Some of these texts include ancient humor with a glimpse into ancient world views, and sometimes a biblical text takes on a new perspective. Body parts and actions also provide a concrete basis for many metaphorical extensions in the language and a few euphemisms. Body parts and their actions provide an easy entrance into an immersion classroom. Half of the presentation will include skits and pictures that illustrate how teaching can take place, in the language. There is room for humor while a student (and teacher!) moves along a path toward internalization. We do many different things with our body parts so that there is no lack of practice with verbs or noun-cases. For one example among several in the presentation: coughing, spitting, sucking, talking, kissing, eating, bad breath, and yelling show how one little word STOMA can be a practical springboard into this ancient language. These are words that every little kid would know without second thought. It is not a bad idea if they are our words, too.

In 1 John 3:11-18 Cain symbolizes the antithesis of brotherly love. Scholars agree that as the first murderer Cain represents a compelling illustration of what it means to hate one’s brother. The figure of Cain stands in direct contrast to Christ. Cain took another’s life; Christ laid down his life for others. But an examination of how Cain was portrayed in contemporaneous Jewish literature suggests that there may be more to the illustration than has previously been appreciated. The choice of terminology used to describe the slaughter of Abel in 1 John retains the ritual overtones that pervade the original story in Genesis 4. While this terminology can communicate a violent type of death, it is more often used to describe a murder that is somehow linked to a ritual act or suggestive overtones. This slaughter language could also be used to describe the act of fratricide. Despite the fact that Cain is portrayed as a “murderer” in 1 John, some interpreters of the Genesis story preferred to identify him more specifically as the “fratricide”. In Jewish literature, fratricide was sometimes considered to be a more heinous crime than homicide and could be regarded as a form of sacrilege. Such an assessment of Cain is reflected in Philo of Alexandria. This paper will demonstrate that the description of Cain in 1 John reflects the common conviction among authors like Philo, Josephus and the Sybil that fratricide was an act of sacrilege. The ritual overtones in the passage help to emphasize the contrast with Christ. By linking those who “hate their brothers” with Cain, the author of 1 John was accusing them of an act that stood in contrast to the self-sacrificial act of Christ. Hatred of others meant they were guilty of communal fratricide, which is a sacrilege.

The role of the biblical narrative in American history and in the shaping of the ‘American character’ is well documented. A related but less apparent phenomenon is the significant influence that the material book, “Holy Bible,” has had on this history. This paper will present three examples showing that the physical Bible as embodiment of divine approbation has played a role in the story of the formation and evolution of American identity. The first example is the eighteenth century law that required the presence of a Bible whenever an oath was sworn as part of testimony in civil procedures. This curious custom made the symbol of Protestant Christianity a central player in the proceedings of the American judicial system. The second, almost a century later, is the role that pictures of the Bible had in political cartoons, especially those of Thomas Nash, which fanned the flames of the anti-immigration riots of the 1840’s. The Bible had become part of a construction of American identity that excluded immigrant Irish Catholics, and even a drawing of a Bible fanned the flames of xenophobia. Finally, the production of large and elaborately bound Family Bibles signified the accommodation of Protestant spirituality to the possibility of comfortable wealth. Intended for display in the parlor, they signaled both piety and prosperity to all who entered. The blank pages bound in for family records allowed people literally to write themselves Bible. Just as the Bible in the courtroom merged an American ideal of justice with the divine law, the family Bible in the parlor merged a nineteenth century American ideal of the prosperous family with the story of the people of God. Taken together, these examples suggest the influence of the material Bible on American self-understanding; they also highlight tensions and contradictions in our national identity.

Paul’s thinking concerning the adiaphorization of all things in Christ as in e.g 1Cor.7 has proved to be a focus of diverse interpretations as commentators such as e.g Anthony Thiselton clearly demonstrate. Some clarification is available from similar approaches to Paul in Stoic thinking, as recently noted by Will Deeming in his chapter in Paul in the Greco-Roman World. However, it would appear that Stoic thinking cannot fully account for Paul’s statements about remaining in the ‘calling’ in which one was situated at the point of call. There is also additional evidence that Paul’s differentiated thinking on the question of identity in Christ proved difficult even for close disciples such as the author of Ephesians. Though it is clear that this author shared many aspects of Paul’s thought on identity such as e.g the significance of the Jewish roots of the faith (as emphasized recently by Yee in his SNTS monograph), it is also evident that Ephesians does not simply repeat or replicate Paul’s thinking on adiaphorization in relation e.g to ethnic identity. In Ephesians, specially in ch. 2:11-22, the author developed a distinctive understanding of identity in Christ. It seems that Paul’s ‘relativization’ of circumcision and uncircumcision has always proved difficult to understand and practice so that the Pauline school soon interpreted this is a direction that assisted gentile identity at the expense of Jewish identity in Christ.

This paper will introduce the latest technology in three-dimensional virtual reality modeling research, and detail its application to the reconstruction of the settlement at Khirbet Qumran. It takes into account all theories regarding the history of Qumran, and proposes a theory of occupation for the settlement there based upon the archaeological remains. In short, this paper will argue that the main building at Qumran was originally established as a Hasmonean fortress. It was later abandoned by the soldiers and occupied by a sect of Sadducean dissidents, who broke away from the Temple in the mid second-century BCE to form their own priestly community. They brought with them a corpus of scrolls from Jerusalem and continued to produce their own. Over the next two centuries, their beliefs evolved and they developed their own distinct set of beliefs and disciplines. While they maintained among themselves that they were priestly Sadducees, others may have begun to distinguish them from the Jerusalem Sadducees, and call them by other names, including Essenes.

Gregory-Aland no. 2427 is an unprovenanced, illuminated manuscript of the Gospel of Mark, written in what appears to be a medieval hand. Its illuminations have been found to contain a modern pigment, but that finding does not settle the question of its curious text, which is closer to Codex Vaticanus (B) than to any other manuscript. Ever since Westcott and Hort (1881), B has been considered one of the most important manuscripts of the New Testament, so 2427’s closeness to B has attracted the attention of textual critics. However, Westcott and Hort were not the first to base a critical text largely on B. Some twenty years earlier, Philipp Buttmann (1860) published a recension of the Greek New Testament based on Cardinal Mai’s edition of B (1857, 1859). In the Gospel of Mark, Buttmann’s text departs from B at about 90 variation units, with which 2474 agrees more than 80 times, except where 2427 has a singular reading. Significantly, 2427’s support for Buttmann’s departures include his mistakes that otherwise lack manuscript attestation. Even more significantly, 2427 contains scribal errors occasioned by the unique page layout of the 1860 Buttmann edition. This evidence shows that the exemplar of MS 2427 is the 1860 Buttmann edition of the New Testament or its stereotypic reprints.

The “Solomonic” books, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, are a useful case study for the use of different criteria for dating Biblical texts. Most scholars in the recent past have dated large portions of this literature -- e.g. Proverbs 1-9, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs -- to the Persian or Hellenistic periods on the basis of linguistic and other criteria. This paper proposes three types of non-linguistic criteria to be considered in dating such Biblical texts: similarity to well documented examples of oral-written educational literature outside Israel, dissimilarity from major themes and topics at the center of later Israelite oral-written literature, various sorts of potential historical reference within each book, and relations of genetic dependence between texts in the “Solomonic” books and texts in other, datable Biblical texts. With regard to the latter criterion, the paper outlines criteria for both a) establishing the likelihood of genetic dependence of one text on another; and b) establishing a likely direction of dependence (if this can be established). Both broader criteria for dating and the specific criteria for analyzing intertextual genetic dependence are illustrated with cases from books attributed to Solomon, especially the Song of Songs. Preliminary analysis using these criteria suggests a much earlier dating for the Song of Songs and other “Solomonic” books than is typical of past discussions of the historical placement of these books.

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This paper notes the essential neglect of this question in previous scholarship, examines a few previous discussions, and frames further examination of the matter.

The paper considers how cultural understandings of masculinity come to bear on literary depictions of the Joban disabled body in the Testament of Job. In looking at the figure of Job through the lens of disability, the project joins a growing body of literature concerned with the disabled male body. The aims of this paper are two-fold. First, the study pushes Mitchell and Snyder’s argument in Narrative Prosthesis that the disabled body often receives some form of “repair” by a story’s denouement, to inquire whether fragmented conceptions of gender brought about by the onset of disability also find repair in narrative. Job’s gender undergoes several transformations throughout the narrative based on the physical state of his body. First, Job as the “king of Egypt” is paradigmatic of the Hellenistic king who more than fulfills his masculine duties. The disablement and deformity of Job’s body renders his identity as a male ambiguous however. Job’s body becomes both docile and passive, leaving him unable to perform the physical tasks that Hellenistic society associated with masculinity. Yet, the text does not feminized Job. Rather, the Testament reframes the masculinity of Job to exhibit inner fortitude, corresponding to the masculine ideals of the Platonic philosophers. With the Lord’s command that Job “gird his loins like a man,” the narrative interweaves Job’s bodily restoration with his identification of himself as a man (T.Job 46:7-8). Job is not only cured of his diseased body, but it returns to a state indicative of the stereotypical masculine ideal (T. Job 52:1-2). Second, at the level of characterization and plot, the study asks how the Testament negotiates the gender of Job as a disabled male and how his disability functions within the scope of the overall narrative.

Drawing upon my earlier analysis of the structure of 1 Peter, this paper employs social description (social history) to shed light on a main concern of the letter, namely, “How should the recipients of 1 Peter deal with the disconnect between faith in their spiritual identity and the reality of their everyday social experience?” Whereas in the past this question has often been treated theologically (i.e., in light of the human condition and/or in eschatological terms), as well as sociologically (e.g., with categories such as “insider/outsider”), this paper addresses the problem starting from the historical and social context of the pervasive Roman imperial cult in Asia Minor in the latter part of the first century and early second century. With this background in mind, the paper explores three main passages in 1 Peter: First, the famous reference to Rome as “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13 reminds us of the Christians’ struggle against a hostile culture and government. Second, the reference to suffering “as a 'Christianos'” (4:16) confirms that some problems faced by these believers were based in religio-political realities. Third, the admonitions “be subject to every human institution,” and “honor the emperor” (2:13-17), do not represent a call to capitulation to the authorities, but imply a resistance to Roman imperial cult. Conclusions are drawn in terms of a unifying theme of 1 Peter, “The Call of God”—a description of these believers with both spiritual and social implications.

The critical study of religion, particularly the Bible (within my immediate area of specialty), often requires students of faith to wrestle with views of biblical origins that are at odds with many traditional views that tend to view human beings as passive instruments in the writing of Scripture. I have found that it is not sufficient to leave students dangling, wondering what "to do" with such new views of biblical origins. Over the years, I have increasingly brought into class discussion, either formally or informally, the theological implications of critical views of biblical origins, which focus attention on the historical, social, cultural, and human dimensions of the Bible. God's people, I teach, are co-authors and co-creators with God of the story of which the Bible speaks. In this way, the discipline "informs faith." But faith also informs the discipline (I find this to be increasingly so in my classes‹it comes with age, I think). I do not mean by this that faith trumps the critical scrutiny of evidence or casually fills gaps or legitimates the avoidance of difficult issues. Rather, this God who invites God's people to be co-creators and co-authors in the unfolding of the biblical story is, candidly, more present in my classroom discussions of biblical texts and issues than God was when I was a younger, more "objective" scholar. Questions of theodicy when studying the Deuteronomic History or Job or issues of Markan Christology and suffering are explored more explicitly than in a setting where "neutral description" of "the religion" of the ancient text is normative. My institutional context, a church-related (even though quite nominally in terms of any legal relationships) liberal arts college, invites and even encourages such theological engagement. This paper will discuss explicitly how one might think of God, given critical views of biblical origins, and how such thinking about God can inform and theologically enrich one's reading of the biblical texts in the specific classroom settings that comprise my specific contextual location and situation.

Recognizing the Assyrian palace reliefs as celebratory records of empire building and assertions of earned power, this paper will examine the depiction and bracketing of violence in the representation of empire. While many have noted the exhaustive and unabashed depictions of military violence in the reliefs, it is equally important to consider the types of violence known from Assyrian and biblical texts on Assyria that remain visually unrecorded in the reliefs. For example, violence against enemy men, their horses, their military machinery, their landscapes, and their cities is reiterated across the reliefs. At the same time, violence against enemy women and enemy gods is usually bracketed from view. This paper will examine the implications of the aesthetic choices that determined which aspects of conquest and empire building were celebrated artistically and which were left unrecorded.

In De spectaculis, a work celebrating the opening of the Colosseum in 80 CE, the poet Martial concludes that the loser’s second-place “virtutis fama” is “to yield to the greater [foe].” This, in a nutshell, is the Flavian message to all its former enemies, including the Jews with whom they had just fought a war. Monumental works such as the amphitheater itself and the new Temple of Peace presented visible signs of Flavian ascendancy to all visitors at Rome. Two other prolific Flavian writers, Pliny the Elder and Josephus, are noticeably reticent about different aspects of the Temple of Peace, though, and both are completely silent on the existence of the Colosseum, despite Martial’s claim that “omnis Caesareo cedit labor amphitheatro.” In this paper I shall try to explain this silence while showing how these three Flavian authors’ approaches to these two particular monuments provide varying Roman and Jewish perspectives on Roman imperialism, its effects upon both the environment and people’s way of life, the status of Jews at Rome, and the idea of “peace” under the Flavian regime.

The Freer Codex of the Minor Prophets (MS V) presents a near-complete third century text of the dodekapropheton in Greek, and forms one of the most important early witnesses to these books. Invaluable ancillary data is stored in the margins: alongside simple corrections are variant readings written by a number of scribes, as well as Coptic glosses. At the end of the codex was copied a separate work, unknown but clearly non-biblical, of which only fragment remain. This paper analyses the marginal notations for what they can tell us about the circumstances of the codex's production and use, and presents a new analysis of the unidentified text.

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The acceptance, rejection, or transformation of Jewish purity regulations in Christianity has become a matter of serious scholarly attention, since Mary Douglas’ Purity and Danger was recognized as changing the paradigms for our understanding of these matters. There is much debate regarding Jesus’ views of purity regulations. I have been working on Paul’s. In this paper I will apply what I have learned from these discussions to the Didache, which contains passages involving purity regulations in chapters 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, and 16. When purity concerns appear in Christian literature they are often dismissed by Christian scholars as "merely metaphorical." But what I have learned in my study of purity so far is that a purity system is a metaphorical system (or a symbolic system) by its very nature. Purity is part of an entire system of boundaries that mark what is holy from what is not. In certain Pauline letters purity is a dominant not a marginal concern. I want to see if it is any less of a concern in the Didache. My sense at this point is that the concern for purity it is not as strong in Didache as in Paul’s letters, but I wish to examine carefully all the passages and present a cogent view of Didache as a whole on this issue. This is vitally important for understanding the relationship between emergent Christianity and first century Judaisms.

The 12 volume Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins has not only sold over 12 million copies, it has impacted the way most Americans understand Revelation, Apocalyptic Literature, and world politics. The books and popular movies are accepted as popular commentaries on a controversial book. While LaHaye and Jenkins do not represent the most common scholarly approach to Revelation and Eschatology, they represent an ever-growing mindset in Evangelical America. While the series has some value in calling people to repentance, morality, and an awareness of world events, it is damaging to those of us who teach Apocalyptic Literature. This series uses a form of projective identification stemming from the cold war and days of the Red Scare. This form of transference can promote a sense of paranoia and distrust for attempts at world peace, Eastern-Europeans, Jews, and those who are not American. The writers also ignore the true historical setting of Revelation and the attempts of apocalyptic writers to provide hope in times of crisis. While Apocalyptic Literature uses projective identification to respond to a perceived threat and crisis, the authors of the Left Behind Series imagine and create a threat and crisis.

In the introduction to The Vintage Book of American Short Stories, Tobias Wolff writes: "That sense of kinship is what makes stories important to us. The pleasure we take in cleverness and technical virtuosity soon exhausts itself in the absence of any recognizable human landscape. We need to feel ourselves acted upon by a story, outraged, exposed, in danger of heartbreak and change. Those are the stories that endure in our memories, to the point where they take on the nature of memory itself. In this way the experience of something read can form us no less than the experience of something lived through" (xiii). If this is true, then surely fiction, poetry, and scripture have much in common. All are about the business of acting upon readers in order to shape them somehow, to suggest something about realities and possibilities. This presentation will attend not only to the reasoning behind using fiction and poetry in the biblical studies classroom, but also to the practical considerations.

The earliest Jewish artistic representation of the sacrifice of Isaac is the well-known wall-painting found in the synagogue at Dura Europus, which shows (among other narrative details) a young Isaac supine on the altar awaiting the moment of sacrifice. In a recurring early Christian iconographic representation of the scene, however, Isaac has moved to a kneeling position beside a small (incense altar), hands bound behind his back, Abraham with knife (or sword) upraised, preparing to strike. A legitimate question to be raised in a session such as this one is: To what extent can these iconic differences provide a basis of comparison of Jewish and Christian interpretations of the biblical story of the Sacrifice/Binding? This presentation takes the Binding/Sacrifice as a test case, examining selected representations of this biblical scene, depicted in a variety of contexts, to explore the methodological issues and assumptions involved in our readings of these pictorial readings of the biblical text. Recent work of both Jewish and Christian art historians reminds us that any number of non-literary factors may intervene between the biblical text and its pictorial representation. In other words, it may be misleading to look for “influence” (or lack thereof) in either shared iconographic conventions or the presumed presence of shared “midrashic” motifs. Thus, this presentation considers the interplay between the biblical narrative, its literary interpretations, and the 2d-3d century cultural narrative of persecution and martyrdom, as well as the mechanics of artistic production in the ancient world, in tackling the question of what iconographic Isaacs can tell us about interaction between early Jewish and Christian readers of Genesis 22.

Everything that God knows about the universe in Job 38-39 the author of Job also knows-otherwise he could not be telling us. But to share the cosmological knowledge of the Joban author demands a careful study of his rather difficult Hebrew, and an appreciation of the structural development of the divine speeches.      For the Joban author, the earth is supported by pillars (different from the pillars of heaven), which rest on bases, which are sunk in primeval matter, perhaps the underworld sea. Crowning the whole work is its capstone (not its cornerstone).      Each morning, according to Job 38-39, is created afresh. The high god summons the lesser deity Dawn to bring the new day into being, which Dawn does by taking hold of the edges of the earth and shaking it like a blanket, as if to remove loose objects, which are the stars.      Light and darkness, entities independent of the heavenly bodies, exist in the same physical space and share the one dwelling. Above the firmament lie the heavenly storerooms, not only for snow and hail but also for heat. And many other facets of the physical universe, lightning, hoarfrost, ice, the relation of the stars to the weather, come into sharper focus as we explore the poetry of the speeches.

It has long been noted that the Enochic corpus elaborates upon a peculiar passage from Genesis 6:1-4 that concerns the union of the sons of God and mortal women. Enochic works understand the account to refer to rebellious angels who after deciding to mate with women leave their heavenly dwelling. While the author of 1 Enoch 6 accents the lustful nature of the angels and makes clear that the guilt for the sinful union lies with the angels alone and not the women, Jewish and Christian interpreters of Late Antiquity relate the very story of the watchers, or fallen angels, in such a way as to indict women for tempting the celestial beings. What explains such diverse readings of the account? Text variants in the Greek and Ethiopic manuscript traditions that concern the fate of the wives either serve to implicate the wives in seduction or exculpate the wives of any sexual deviancy. Following the Greek text known as Panopolitanus, the wives of the angels are to become sirens, mythological creatures often associated with seduction (1 En. 19:2). Ethiopic manuscripts preserve another reading: the wives of the angels will become peaceful. Which of these readings is correct? Further, as fragments of this Enochic work have been discovered in Aramaic, but the Aramaic is not extant for this particular verse, one should also consider which Hebrew or Aramaic word stood in the place of the Greek and Ethiopic readings. This study assesses the Greek and Ethiopic reading of 1 En. 19:2 and also explores what these readings communicate about women and sexuality.

Jedidiah Solomo Norzi was a late-sixteenth-century masoretic scholar and grammarian, born in Mantua, Italy. He is best known for his masoretic commentary on the Bible, published in the mid-eighteenth century as Minhat Shai. Norizi compared Bible printings against reliable masoretic manuscripts in order to ascertain the most authentic readings. He brought a new and urgent critical eye to the study of the Masoretic Text during the decades following the appearance of the first significant printed editions of the Bible. A number of examples from Norzi's commentary will be presented. These will illustrate the usefulness of Norzi's work in explicating obscure or little-understood aspects of the Masoretic Text and will serve as an introduction to the great contribution that Norzi made to masoretic studies. Brief notes about Norzi's life and his methodology will also be discussed.

The fear of nighttime and its associated menaces (both natural and supernatural) and the religious measures taken to deal with this concern was a major preoccupation for people in ancient societies. While this phenomenon has been recognized in some passages of the Hebrew Bible, it appears that our interpretation of some biblical texts can benefit from a better understanding of this ancient preoccupation. This paper will survey textual and iconographical evidence from the ancient Near East and bring it to bear on some select biblical passages relevant to this aspect of household religion.

The Septuagint of Proverbs is, except for a few fragments from Qumran, the only textual resource besides the MT earlier than the Common Era. But it is a tricky translation for this purpose, and the way it should be used is open to debate. Granted that, as Cook has shown, LXX-Prov is an interpretative translation, can it nevertheless provide a witness to textual variants? Cook and Fox have debated this issue in various publications. In the present pair of papers, they enter into dialogue in order to sharpen the questions about the text-critical use of this resource and think through the constraints and possibilities of using such a document as a witness to variants. According to Cook, LXX-Proverbs is a freely translated rendering of a Semitic parent text that does not differ dramatically from the MT. Its translation technique is defined as one of diversity and unity and is so free that he finds it extremely difficult to retrovert this parent text. He also deems the Greek as the first exegetical commentary of the Hebrew. According to Fox, LXX-Prov provides a window to an ancient Hebrew text that differs significantly from the MT and that justifies a bolder text-critical use of the translation. Fox argues that, first, there are techniques for recognizing a Hebrew Vorlage, even when it cannot be fully recovered. Second, even when the critieria for a strong argument for a particular retroversion are not available, other factors can strengthen the grounds for the retroversion; and, third, the fact that a translation is “interpretive” does not mean that it is interpreting the MT.

Two priestly theologies oriented on the idea of the Holy are attested in the literature of Israel's Second Temple period, for example, in Ezekiel and Third Isaiah. These two theologies of holiness display comparable emphases over against other priestly and prophetic thinking of the period, but also clear and apparent tensions with each other. For convenience these theologies may be labeled "Holiness Theology" and "Reverence Theology." Both emphasize God as Holy, completely Other, and numinous, but they differ greatly on how to conceptualize holiness, respond to it, and be transformed by it. Holiness Theology and Reverence Theology, I will argue, have separate sets of tradents, two priestly schools active in Second Temple times. I believe I can name these schools and associate them directly with priestly stands within the Pentateuch

The works of Ambrosiaster on the Pauline epistles contain a portrait of Paul the Pharisee that differs significantly from Augustine’s Paul. While Augustine read Paul as the man of “introspective conscience” (Stendahl) crucified between the demands of the Law and those of the “old man” within, Ambrosiaster portrayed Paul the Pharisee in a sympathetic light (along the lines of 1 Timothy 1:13) as a Jew whose opposition to the nascent church could be excused by his ignorance. This picture of the pre-Christian Paul clearly arises in part from Ambrosiaster’s supercessionalist theology, in which the Jewish Law gets granted the limited status of a “law of deeds” which functioned to keep the Jews fearing and obeying God until the time of Christ, when the long-promised justification could be actualized. On the other hand, Ambrosiaster’s notion of Saul as a Jew whose resistance to Christianity derived not from “malevolence” but from “ignorance”, also seems designed to present Paul as an exemplary convert. The intended audience for this portrait, I will argue, are not potential Jewish converts but pagans (Ambrosiaster’s time and place puts him at the beginning of a phrase of a major expansion of Christianity into the higher levels of Roman society). My claim will be supported by the numerous aspects of Ambrosiaster’s major exegetical works which both ridicule aspects of pagan spirituality (especially astrological determinism) and address pagan objections to Christianity grounded in apparent contradictions in the Bible and purveyed by a variety of pagan polemicists (Porphyry, Hierocles, and Julian). Thus Ambrosiaster would be using his image pre-Christian Paul to suggest that loyalty to the religion of one’s ancestors may have pious motivations yet be mistaken and in need of correction at the dawning of a new truth.

This paper presents a detailed overview of the role of women in ancient funerary practices, lament and funerary meals in Greek, Roman, Jewish and Christian traditions which serves as a new context for understanding women's roles in early Christian origins, meals and the creation and transmission of early Christian stories and oral tradition.

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One way the psalmist of the laments represents himself as a sufferer is through the language of the distressed body. The psalmist portrays himself as diminished, wounded, and in pain that sometimes reduces him to inarticulateness. The language of the suffering body is, most obviously, a discourse of powerlessness. This language is not just one of powerlessness, however, but also a means of empowerment. Medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman has done cross-cultural studies of the expression of pain and assumptions of personhood, society, and embodiment embedded therein. He argues that a particular culture’s somatic idiom of distress is a means of expressing real distress, but also a means of affording the sufferer a degree of power. Using Kleinman’s work to read the psalmist’s body language, I contend that the language of bodily suffering forms a disempowerment/empowerment discursive complex, in which these aspects of the language are unmerged and not mutually exclusive. The language of the body in the laments is multivocal, a language of vulnerability and powerlessness, yet also a language of authority and power. Finally, I explore the interpretive and ethical implications of reading the language of bodily powerlessness as part of a discourse strategy that simultaneously empowers the psalmist. How should the reader respond to the psalmist's physical suffering? Though there are ethical implications to remaining distant in the presence of suffering, there are also ethical implications to not maintaining enough distance. Reading the bodily suffering as a language of disempowerment and empowerment helps one sympathize with the psalmist and also recognize the discourse of suffering as part of a construction of identity that intends to persuade and accomplish a particular, often violent, social goal.

Described by enthusiastic supporters as philosopher, theologian, counsellor, prophet, and leading 20th century Christian thinker, Rev. Francis August Schaeffer IV offered to travelling seekers of truth a spiritual refuge in a small village in the Swiss Alps. Beginning in 1948 as the European Headquarters for a separatist fundamentalist mission board, L’Abri Fellowship International officially became its own independent Christian ministry within a few short years. In 2006 L’Abri continues to attract contemporary converts with over ten affiliate branches and multiple properties in seven countries throughout Europe, North America, and Korea. This presentation is part of a larger project in which I examine the fundamentalist appeal to the Bible as cultural capital for a separatist agenda of Protestant Christian colonization. Legitimated by the one-step hermeneutic of direct, divine authority, the L’Abri family story demonstrates the ongoing power of mythical consciousness and homeworld pragmatics (i.e., my pragmatic space and mythical world feeling as objective orientation on the world). In addition to a brief examination of the mountain of God reference (Is 2:2-3) which continues to inform the L’Abri missionary endeavour, I use a convergence of phenomenological and semiotic orientations (Paul Ricoeur, Richard Lanigan, Yuri Lotman, Ernst Cassirer) to help unravel the various inscriptions, embodied expressions, and normative logics that helped to constitute this particular collaboration of separatist fundamentalist mission. As I will demonstrate, the official narrative synthesis of the L’Abri story both hides and reveals a largely contested social drama with notable casualties in the battle for truth. In sum, while originally presented in its official version from heterogeneous signs to divine blessing, unravelling this grand narrative configuration (i.e., “telling the story backwards”) offers a prescient opportunity to explore the function of providential organizational politics across a cluster of semiotic spaces that cling to a “blessed rage for order.”

Matthew 11:9-14 is a passage generally thought to have come from the Q source and is comparable to Luke 7:24-30. A major difference between the two accounts is that Matthew adds a comment about John being Elijah, “who is to come.” This phrase has no parallel in any of the other gospels except Matthew 17:10-13, where Jesus says Elijah “is indeed coming.” The Greek vocabulary and forms in both passages imply a future event. There are a few reasons the author of Matthew might have inserted the additions to the Q source. He may have viewed John the Baptist as a reincarnation of Elijah. But given the little evidence for belief in reincarnation during that period, this is not likely. Or, Matthew may be using Elijah to invoke feelings of a new age with John the Baptist standing at the threshold. Further, he may be invoking feelings of two new ages—the first age coming with the ministry of Jesus, the second with the triumphant return of Jesus at the eschaton. The second and third possibilities best fit into the consensus about the author of Matthew’s themes and reason for writing. Following the destruction of the Temple, the author wished to reassure his readers not only that a new age had dawned with Jesus but that another age was still to come. He wants to invoke eschatological feelings for events both in the past and in the future. For this reason he suggests that John is Elijah, who is to come.

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During the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, the field has witnessed many developments. This presentation will focus on some of these, including some of the most recent (and often problematic) proposals. Note from the Chairs of the Session: Professor Cross will be presenting either in person, or via video.

In Romans 16, Paul greets a surprising number of men and women, by name, and often with descriptors or epithets that suggest missionary labor. These names are addressed to individuals, to male-female pairs, to mixed groups, to one all-male group, and to one pair of two women and one of two men. This (slide) essay brings togther prosopographical readings of Romans 16 with studies of the funerary portraits porduced by and for freedpersons at from Rome in the very late Republic and early Empire. Examining Romans 16 in the social and political context of these portraits offers significant insight into social conditions and imperial propaganda that helped to form these groupings. These portraits illustrate the ways that freedpersons constructed and reconstructed families. The conjuncture of social displacement and innovation moral rectitude, of resistance and accommodation conveyed in the portraits is also a factor in Romans. The portraits can help illuminate the combination of social innovations reflected in Romans 16, concession to imperial power expressed in Rom 13:1-7 and moral strictures voiced in Rom 1:18-31.

Sexual renunciation could challenge well-to-do Christian households by undermining their hierarchically-gendered organization grounded in the relationship of paterfamilias and materfamilias. Focusing on Ad uxorem (Ux.) and De exhortatione castitatis (Cast.), this paper examines how one early Christian author, Tertullian, minimized the potential threat to household arrangements from sexual renunciation by insisting that even in widowhood or perpetual virginity, “blessed states of existence,” women remain under male authority. Sexual renunciation is not an ultimate danger to gendered social arrangements because gender and sex are permanent features of the self. He casts widowhood and celibacy as practices that discipline Christian bodies and souls for life in a resurrected body, a body no longer suffering from passions or procreation. But he avers that Christian bodies still manifest this essential hierarchical difference. Speaking from the position of a well-to-do householder, Tertullian exhorts his wife (Ux.) and a widowed brother (Cast.) upon the death of their respective spouses not to fret over the potential disruption their new state poses. For instance, defining the church as an extension of the household, he stresses that a Christian woman retains a new dominus for whom she must organize her domestic and ecclesiastical tasks. Similarly, a man should not worry about disbanding his household; Tertullian advises him to secure a non-sexual union with a Christian sister to run his estate smoothly. By keeping gendered labor divisions intact and rooting them in a mildly refigured household, Tertullian tries to insure the economic and social relationships upon which the upper-class members of his community relied.

At least two visionaries spoke as prophets of judgment after the destruction of the Temple, and their revelations are displayed in IV Ezra and the Apocalypse of John. In this paper I am interested in comparing their narratives of judgment and punishment or reward. How does each recast the previous prophecies of, e.g., Daniel? How do the lots and abodes of the righteous or wicked reflect the manner and kind of destruction suffered by Israel at the hands of the nations? How do these places refer conceptually to the absent Temple? What is the consequence for each of the appearance of the Messiah? By placing these two texts in conversation I hope to make initial explorations of the crucial role that the destruction of the Temple played in the formation of the otherworldly topography of the early Christian and Jewish traditions.

The response of the citizens of Capernaum to Jesus’ proclamation in Mark 1:21-27 highlights the ‘paradigm shift’ that his ministry inaugurated in the sphere of preaching. In comparison with the teaching of the scribes, Mark tells us, Jesus taught with authority. This paper uses this underestimated pericope as a springboard to explore the concept of authority in preaching, particularly in the light of the postmodern distaste for external authority, and seeks to assess the need for a further remodelling of the preaching paradigm, in terms of its very conception as much as with respect to its style. Does reconceptualizing power structures in society in general mean the death of the teacher-pupil and preacher-listener binary oppositions? Is the concept of authority now so firmly embedded in our concept of preaching, not least as a result of the ministry of Jesus, as to make it inherently ‘modern’ and doomed to irrelevance? If so, can literary criticism and the postmodern emphasis on story offer a useful model for non-authoritarian preaching (presuming the latter is both possible and desirable)? On the way I will address the question of whether cultural-critical approaches and the present focus on literary and iconic reception of the biblical texts have been the primary contribution of academic biblical scholarship to the present poor health of expository preaching before concluding with some practical suggestions for the way ahead.

The distribution of traditions connected to Benjamin within the books of Joshua-Samuel suggests that a continuous historiographical narrative - probably in written form - concerning the origin of the kingdom of Israel in which Benjamin played a leading role. This tradition not only provides the content for much of the present DH in Joshua-1 Sam, but also supplies a motive for the composition of that history, as a Judean response to it. A historical setting for both of these compositions has already been identified and explored, and the paper thus adds a further dimension to a scenario that is already being considered by several scholars.

'Canonical' biblical criticism entails more than the treatments of James Sanders or Brevard Childs, who have explicitly engaged with some of the issues involved in an approach that privileges the canon as a historical or hermeneutical category. The sub-discipline of 'biblical studies' itself promotes such a view, though paradoxically its growing independence from theology and its closer alliance with the human sciences have gradually reduced 'canon' itself to a social phenomenon, an aspect of human cultural activity that organizes and creates 'knowledge' - thus deprivileging it. Historical and comparative studies of canon have played a central role in humanizing and thus de-divinizing its role. But if canon represents the plant 'above ground', the subterranean roots remain intact (thanks to the institutional context of much of the teaching of biblical studies), and canonical biblical criticism persists using the labels of 'testimony' (e.g. Long. Longman, Provan) or 'Western civilization' (e.g. Dever), which bypass the question of 'canon' and attempt to engage directly with 'history'.

This paper explores the relationship between the Hekhalot literature -- the pre-Kabbalistic corpus of mystical texts that give instructions on how to ascend (or "descend") to God's heavenly throne-chariot and to compel the angels to grant revelations -- and the verifiably Jewish apocalypses of the early centuries C.E. and earlier. The article views the Hekhalot literature from the heuristic social-scientific model of the practitioner (the "descender to the chariot") as "shaman/healer" and examines the apocalypses to determine which elements of this model already existed in the earlier period and whether these indicate a genetic relationship between the apocalyptic visionaries and the descenders to the chariot.

This paper argues that Paul's letter to the Romans assumes that India has been evangelized by an apostle and that the Book of Revelation assumes the existence of a viable Christian community in India. This study focuses on the trade between India and the Roman Empire and uses archaeological and textual evidence. The archaeological evidence of slashed Roman coins found in great numbers in India is explained using the latest scholarly insights into the book of Revelation. Thus a phenomenon that had been first observed by archaeologists nearly two hundred years ago is explained using the results of New Testament scholarship. Other texts employed in this study are the Periplus Maris Erythraei, Pliny's Natural History, Strabo's Geography and the Tamil Sangam poetry. This paper shows that Indian Christianity is the key to some of the puzzling elements in the book of Revelation. Thus the marriage of texts and archaeology yields the positive fruit of bringing India into the domain of “biblical lands.”

I will argue that several enigmatic statements within Gal 4:12-20 are clarified if we recognize that Paul utilized rhetorical parody within his deliberative argument. My study will begin by contrasting rhetorical parody, evinced by Quintilian and others, with the theatrical parody that appeared in Greek Comedies and was associated with ridicule and buffoonery. Although theatrical parody does appear in literature contemporary with Paul (e.g. Philo, Flaccus, 36-40), numerous studies of the meaning and use of parody in the ancient world by Murray, Householder, Rose, and Genette indicate that many forms of ancient parody did not imply disrespect for the original work and that ancient parody was not limited to the ridiculous or burlesque. I will depend on Genette’s description of ancient rhetorical parody as the recognizable quotation of a familiar text that is distorted to the degree that the quotation is separated from its original context and given a new meaning. Ancient rhetorical parody should be understood as a figure of discourse and should be separated from the post-Enlightenment understanding of parody as a genre that deals with the ridiculous. Next, my presentation will discuss Paul’s use of rhetorical parody in Gal 4:12-20. I will contend that Paul is polemically reinterpreting numerous Pentateuchal demands for obedience to the Law by sufficiently distorting the recognizable statements in order to combat his opponents’ insistence on the circumcision of the Galatians. Paul carries out his polemic against the rival missionaries by parodying writings that, in a strictly literal reading, could be used to support his opponents’ position. Since understanding Paul’s statements as a parodic reinterpretation of Scripture employs intertextual controls, some of the dangers of mirror reading can be avoided with this interpretation.

From the abundance of early Christian images of Mary Magdalene it seems impossible to draw any conclusions about a historical figure. To be sure, she is portrayed as a witness of the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. But the early texts differ in their stories about what exactly it is that she is a witness of and whether that would be important. In addition, according to some texts she has kept silent about her experiences, but in other texts she tells about them: reminding the disciples of what Jesus said to all of them earlier or bringing a new message which was revealed to her alone. After that, she either withdraws and nobody hears of her any more or like Paul she sets out to preach the gospel. However, several texts explicitly demonstrate that the general perception of the authority of women over men determines how Mary Magdalene is seen. When studying the early discussion about this theme the different images of Mary Magdalene fall into place.

Chapter 4 of the Book of Numbers deals with the duties of the Levite clans of Kohath, Gershon and Merari. Some translations not only divide this chapter into shorter sections (vv. 1-20; 21-28; 29-33; …), but formulate the section headings in the same way (“The Duties of the Levite Clan of Kohath / Gershon / Merari”, respectively). These headings wrongly suggest that the three Levite groups are on an equal level and are given equal tasks. The text of chapter 4 shows repeatedly that the duties of the clans of Kohath are more closely connected to the holy objects of the tent of meeting than are the duties of the other clans. Although Kohath was not Levi’s eldest son, his clans come first. Kohath, as Aaron’s grandfather, was a closer relative to Aaron the high priest than were Kohath’s two brothers. All this is borne out by the differences in phraseology between these sections. At times the repetition between the sections is only partial. For example, the Hebrew la`asôt mel’akhah ‘to do work’ (in the tent of meeting) only occurs in v. 3, in connection with the special clans of the Kohathites, to which Aaron and his sons belong. The phrase la`asôt mel’akhah does not occur in connection with the other Levite clans in vv. 23 and 30, where a more submissive formulation is used in the Hebrew: la`avod `avodah ‘to render service’ (in/of the tent of meeting). This seems to underline that their task is less central and perhaps more subordinate than that of the Kohathites. Few Bible translations actually show these differences. Analysis and comparison of phraseology has a bearing on the interpretation and translation of this chapter. If headings for shorter sections are used in a translation, they should be adapted accordingly.

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Since February 2005, the presenter has located over 90 previously unknown Ethiopian manuscripts currently located in North America. These manuscripts are in the possession of four dealers, four private parties and one University. In each case we have made arrangements to photograph the manuscripts in high-resolution digital photography. In conjunction with Getatchew Haile of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN) we have completed physical descriptions and catalogued the content of the manuscripts. The contents of the manuscripts range from Ethiopian Psalters and other biblical and service books and hymnals to historical works. Sets of images of the mss are being deposited at the HMML as well as other research libraries and institutions. This presentation will describe the process of acquiring the images, cataloguing the content and preparing the images for research.

An exploration of the way the voice of earth is heard in a cyclical view of nature presented in Ecclesiastes, notably in passages such as Eccl. 1:4-8 and 11:3-5. Also an investigation into the way imagery is used from the natural world in the book as a whole, looking especially at the use of animal imagery, as from members of the earth community outside the human and yet integrally related to the human. Argument that instead of simply illustrating human life as part of the dualistic worldview of the book, e.g. in 3:16-21, that in many ways earth and its creatures define human life within the context of earths character, cycles and abundance.

The prophets were skilled and creative poets whose messages were not only powerful and poignant but also highly imaginative. This paper explores the literary and rhetorical techniques such as imagery, metaphor, and irony found in Isaiah 28. Creative, imaginative, and persuasive, this woe speech (vv 1-4) and instruction (vv 5-29) attests to Isaiah not only as a prophet but also as a poet par excellence who delivers a provocative message to the political and religious leaders of his day whom he holds responsible for the community's degradation.

Using popular culture to facilitate discussion of biblical texts and themes is becoming increasingly common in contemporary classrooms. This paper will first consider the theoretical implications of such pedagogical strategies. It will then suggest ways in which cultural items such as clips from films, the Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, music and music videos, and internet sites may be used to teach the Bible. The presentation will conclude with a short teaching demonstration.

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This paper seeks to make available five papyrus fragments of Greek Exodus, from the same codex as seven fragments previously presented (now available in VT 56/2), written in expert uncial script between the mid-fourth and mid-fifth century CE. Four of these fragments, when combined with fragments three and four from the previous collection, yield six consecutive, fragmentary pages bearing witness to the text of Exodus 10:24-13:7, the only extant papyrus witness to those chapters of Exodus. This manuscript continues to resist the temptation to harmonize the Greek text to the Hebrew (here, notably in the instructions concerning the observance of the Passover internally or with ritual requirements found elsewhere in the Pentateuch). Examining forty-nine places in the text where variant readings exist, these fragments diverge from each of the text types found in A, B, F, M, and the O-group more frequently than they align with the variant readings found in each, suggesting considerable independence of the major text families. These fragments recommend themselves as a valuable witness to the text of Exodus based on their independence of known text types, their non-revisionist character (in regard to the tendency to conform the Greek text to the MT), the general care exhibited by the scribe (whose errors are indeed few on these pages), and their antiquity. Their importance is augmented as the sole papyrus witness to the narrative of the first Passover, the tenth plague, and the instructions for the perpetual observance of the Passover. The presentation will include photographic scans, the critical texts of these five fragments, and an analysis of its variant readings vis-à-vis the critical editions of Rahlfs and Wevers.

A commentary on Matthew 11:25-30 will be presented.

In trying to ascertain the meaning behind Philo‚s use of the adverb physikôs in his allegorical method, commentators have sought to compare this usage with Stoic allegorical procedures, thus concluding that Philo uses the term to denote some form of Stoic physical allegory‚ or more generally Scripture’s hidden physis.‚ It has also been claimed that such terms as physikôs and physiologia were used by both Stoics and Philo alike as technical terms which simply denoted allegorical interpretation.‚ This paper, however, through an analysis of Philo‚s use of the adverb physikôs in his Legum allegoriae, argues that the term more properly signifies that branch of philosophy which deals with the study of nature, that is physics. Thus, when according to the claims of Philo, Moses allegorizes physikôs, he is putting forth allegorically a philosophical doctrine pertaining to that branch of philosophy entitled physics. Thus physikôs is not some esoteric exegetical term but properly a philosophical term.

John Chrysostom’s epistolary treatise To Stagirius, Demoniac, is unique in antiquity for its detailed presentation of a personal struggle with epileptic illness. Stagirius is a young aristocrat who has recently converted to the monasticism; before doing so he was healthy, but his new life is troubled by continual falls, foaming, and loss of consciousness in front of his fellow ascetics, incidents which are attributed to demonic attack. Driven to despair (athumia) and contemplating suicide, Stagirius seeks the help of his friend Chrysostom, who responds with this work in three volumes, which I analyze as a prominent example of consolation rhetoric (logos paramuthetikos) adapted to the Christian ascetic context of spiritual direction. In contrast to Greek medical attempts to effect a cure through a change in regimen, as represented by Galen’s Letter to an Epileptic Boy, Chrysostom, echoing ascetic theorists such as Origen and Nilus, argues that demonic attacks of illness are themselves a therapeutic measure sent by God which have already helped Stagirius improve his monastic practice. I show how Chrysostom attempts to reconfigure Stagirius’ shame for his illness, a sense of embarrassment which most medical writers take for granted, by shifting its focus to his feelings of depression and suicide, because they represent the controllable aspects of his condition, in contrast to the epileptic attacks. Chrysostom frequently describes Stagirius’ post-conversion experience of illness and demonic attacks in the language of trauma, making use of a widespread theme in ancient monastic literature; in conclusion, I argue that this emphasis on self-formation through repeated traumatic attacks provides an important alternative to William James’ classic model of conversion, followed by A. D. Nock and other scholars of ancient religion, as a cathartic shift from a “sick soul” and a “divided self” to a condition of “saintliness.”

Recent studies have shown in great detail the composite character of the major Qumran sectarian works and the variety of their underlying sources (the Rule of the Community (1QS), Hodayot (1QHa), the War Scroll (1QM) and the Damascus Document). This calls for a new evaluation of the date and provenance of these sectarian texts. However, present critical discussions continue to assign the sectarian literature dating and origin proposed forty years ago, when only a handfull sectarian texts were known and their inquiry was at its infancy. The present paper proposes a diffirent and new approach for these problems.

The paper investigates the nature and relevance of the blessing topic in Ancient Israel and the Levant on the basis of a comparison of two selected primary sources in order to clarify some key issues and problems of the research on blessing in general. (1) First of all, the selected examples allow for a concrete and specific description of two bless-ing phenomena. (2) With respect to method, there result two major insights in the ap-propriate sources for investigation: The importance and the potential of the so called primary sources gain evidence, especially in the context of OT exegesis. In the light of recent discussions in OT and Oriental research, the relevance of pictures in addition to and in combination with texts becomes quite indisputable. (3) In the Levantine context, blessing appears in different cases as a basic factor of religion – a factor that, at least in the treated examples, shapes the religious symbol systems and is characteristic for them: Distinct basic constellations of blessing are perceivable in their changing localizations in religious symbol systems and enable to trace the religious- and theological-historical transformations of blessing and theologies of blessing in ancient Israel and the Levant. From this one can derive first and tentative conclusions for a more general depiction of blessing and theologies of blessing in ancient Israel and the Levant.

A commentary on Matthew 12:6 and 18:20 will be presented.

The paper will review Hadot's hypothesis that Marius Victorinus is deeply dependent on Porpyhry. Checking Hadot's arguments in front of the recent discussion about the date of the Anonymous Commentary in Plato's Parmenides as well as the possibility of other Platonic or even Gnostic sources the paper will compare the philosophical thoughts used by Victorinus with those of Porphyry's fragments and writings. The difference between these two philosophical approaches has to be integrated in a new view of Victorinus' method of writing. Kevin Corrigan and John Turner have been contacted.

The relationship between mother and child is considered sacred by human society. This paper will suggest a reading of Exodus 2 as an example of infanticide. The politics of memory inherent to later biblical interpretation of this text seems to downplay the implied child neglect perpetrated by Moses’ mother. With no indication that she had any foreknowledge of the bathing practices of Pharaoh’s daughter, may this text be read as another example of the limited, but existing number of accounts of slave mothers killing their children in circumstances of utter desperation? Infanticide throughout the ages often became a marker of the “immoral”, more “primitive” and “deprived” “other”. This paper will consider this against the broader backdrop of child sacrifice in Syro-Palestinian religions and the Bible and compare this with the underplaying of this and other acts of violence in the representation of acts of violence in children's bibles.

In the context of the social memory wars, which reflect broader culture wars and philosophical issues surrounding universalism and constructionism, the Gospel of Matthew can be interpreted as social memory maintained, constructed, and contested. To arrive at a perspective within the context of social memory studies, critical decisions have to be made about matters such as genre, orality and scribality, sources, and reading, writing, oral performance, the potential for cynicism, and the Post-Modernist mood. These issues are especially important in the case of the guard at the empty tomb story, found only in Matthew. Generally, the gospel maintains a social identity with Israel that recalls archetypal heroes, events, norms, and practices. Yet, the gospel contests Israelite memories by dramatizing Jesus in a way that leads to conflict with “official” memory. Again, the gospel maintains a memory of Jesus that is in continuity with early believers’ oral traditions and sources; yet, it constructs a new image especially relevant for its own Israelite community. Specifically, a symbol of this continuity-discontinuity identity is the empty tomb. Against believers who doubt and non-believers who charge that the corpse was stolen, the truth defended is that the tomb was empty because Jesus was raised from the dead. That memory has been maintained, constructed, and contested over time. Examples are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as a memory site and believers and modern rationalists who offer alternative explanations of the empty tomb. The paper will address these issues with attention to works on social memory from Halbwachs to the present.

Language and imagery associated with philosophers became a significant literary topos in 1st and 2nd century C.E. Greek literature in part because of the ability of philosophers to symbolize pious resistance to tyrants. One aspect of this popular philosophical imagery, the parresia or boldness attributed to them, became, among other things, shorthand for speaking openly to power and challenging authorities despite the risk to their lives. In this paper I will look at the ways in which the topos is appropriated in the portrayal of the early Christian community’s resistance to the oppressive Jewish authorities in Acts 4-5 and again in the successive trial scenes in Acts 21-26. I will argue that the allusions to Classical Greek literary models (notably traditions associated with Socrates) clearly fit within the mimetic literary ethos of the period and that each appropriation presents a complex negotiation of cultural identity through the use of the categories and language of Greek paideia.

Overview of discourse concepts: Thematization, Topic and Information Flow with an application to 1 John

I will summarize the main textual arguments in my 2006 monograph, The Origins of the 'Second' Temple: Persian Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem (London: Equinox Press), for dating the rebuilding of the temple to Artaxerxes I, as part of the reorganization of the province of Yehud that included the moving of the district capital from Mizpah to Jerusalem. These include 1) that the genealogies in Nehemiah suggest at most a 30-year time gap between Zerubbabel and Nehemiah; 2) that the dates in Haggai and Zechariah 1-8 are secondary, as in all the prophetic books, and designed to show the historical fulfilment of Jeremiah's prediction of 70 years of devastation for the land of Judah (Jer 25:11-12; 29:10); and 3) that Ezra 1-6 has been composed using biblical sources only and is designed to show the fulfilment in real time of prophetic predictions about the rebuilt temple in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Haggai and Zechariah 1-8. Finally, the reliability of the claim in 2 Macc 1:10-2:18 that Nehemiah rebuilt the temple will be evaluated.

Study of the redaction of the DtrH over the last forty years has concentrated, to a large extent, on identifying various deuteronomistic redactional strands and reconstructing different editions of the DtrH. For the most part, change in theme (occasionally accompanied by change in style of language and composition) has served as the main criterion for analysis, while the nature of the editorial techniques for revision has largely gone neglected. Biblical authors could employ a variety of editorial strategies for revising pre-existing texts, all of which were considered valid for their purposes. An author could expand a narrative with new material reflecting his tendencies, and thus shift the reader’s perception of the text’s purpose, or he could rewrite it according to his own outlook, while omitting conflicting views. In a third, lesser-known method, an author refrains from revising the pre-existing material, and attempts to influence the reader’s stance toward the subject targeted by appending new blocks of narrative, which challenge the reader to question the concepts and ideals embodied in the previous meta-narrative. In this paper, I propose to examine how the different editorial techniques were employed in relation to the DtrH. Particular attention will be devoted to examining how the third technique served post-deuteronomistic authors, who restructured the historical narrative with new prologues and appendices, and thus contributed to the breakdown of the deuteronomistic meta-narrative. I will argue that these efforts at restructuring the historical narrative were aimed at redirecting readers’ attitudes regarding tendencies implicit in the DtrH, and in effect, challenged its claims of authority.

While biblical scholars no longer posit a simple genetic relationship between “Hellenistic culture” and Qoheleth, many persist in privileging Greek ideals to the exclusion of ANE concepts in their readings of the work. Consider, for example, the surprisingly consistent appeals to tyche in attempts to understand Qoheleth’s conception of fate (miqreh). Though this focus on tyche has proven illuminating, the complexity of cultural interaction demands that readers think not only about Greek conceptions of fate, but also about ideals closer to Ancient Israel’s socio-historical context. Rather than seeking a single corresponding signifier, it is fruitful to consider a group of words from both Greek and ANE contexts. Towards that end, this paper attempts to broaden the conversation regarding Israel’s conception of fate by closely considering the concept of gad, like tyche a word that signifies in various historical periods both a general concept and a deity. Evidence from Palmyra, Phoenicia, and perhaps even Lachish suggest the worship of Gad as a god of fortune or chance from “long before the Hellenistic period” (Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 56-66, 278; AB 19). Moreover, the worship of the deity Gad appears in Isaiah 65.11, wherein Israelites are said to have forgotten the Lord’s “holy mountain” in their veneration of the deities Gad and Meni. If it is true that some Israelites were worshipping Gad in the post-exilic period and that such worship had been present in the Levant for centuries, why then do scholars turn so quickly to Hellenistic concepts to understand fate in Qoheleth? Taking a history of religions approach, this paper traces the evidence for gad in ancient Israel and seeks to place this concept next to tyche as another parallel concept by which one might understand Qoheleth’s use of miqreh.

In this paper I analyze how Americans draw upon the authority of both ancient “hidden” texts and the authority of scholarly discourse, even overtly fictional scholarly discourse, in their imaginings of the “re-discovered” figure of Mary Magdalene. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has contributed enormously to the explosion of Magdalene devotion. Although I do not focus on the book, its presence hovers powerfully over the discourses I study. As case studies, I examine the literature of several communities that venerate Mary Magdalene (often identifying themselves as “Gnostic”), all of which have a strong presence on the World Wide Web. These are: “The Sophia Fellowship,” adherents of “Sophian Gnosticism,” which also holds meetings in Sacramento, California; the Magdalene Circle, based in Columbus, Ohio; the “Order of Mary Magdala,” an Internet site with lengthy, detailed prayers, creeds, and stories surrounding Mary; and “The Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene,” which combines Marian worship with tarot, Gnosticism, and Kabbalah. I also take into consideration the bibliographies these groups compile, a pastiche of academic, popular, and ancient sources. By looking to “new ancient” scriptural authorities in order to re-present and laud or advance women's spirituality, many feminists are remaking the same move that more traditional authorities have long made to suppress women--- they are privileging the authority of antiquity and exoticizing the hidden, “mysterious” past. The imagery of ancient authority also echoes throughout the last decade of American popular culture. Whether Americans do so intentionally, as in the case of celebrating “Sophian Gnosticism” or reading The Da Vinci Code, or more obliquely, when watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Lord of the Rings, they are drawn into a conversation that rests upon an ideology of hidden wisdom.

In this preliminary study I suggest that a progymnasmatically trained author could reasonably want to improve and clarify a previous respected letter that he expects his own readers to likely be familiar with. This procedure is briefly documented via such similar imitation and emulation by Apollonius, Aretaios, Galen, and Theon in the Greek tradition and by Seneca, Quintilian, and Cicero in the parallel Latin tradition. I set out the dozen or so textual comparisons or verbal agreements between Romans and Acts. I note occasions within the speeches by Paul in Acts where concepts developed in Romans seem to be recast in the new narrative format. I also note concepts mentioned discursively without exemplarity in Romans which receive a needed progymnasmatic clarification via examples and precedents in Luke-Acts. The cummulative impression may be that such identifiable traces of the Paul of Romans are intentional, so as to both portray and improve upon the historical Paul and his ideas in the most convincing narrative manner. I will suggest that the literary personification of the Lukan Paul is, in part, quite possibly formed with the Paul of Romans in mind and that perhaps other ideas developed in Romans are redeployed by Luke in a narrative-rhetorical manner.

This paper will give examples of interpretation of Leviticus's Holiness Code through four ages: late antique ,medieval, early modern and modern, but also across four genres of reception: homily, canon law, commentary and catholic social teaching. It will aim to show a continuity of the receivers' view of biblical legislation as both positive and religious and yet at the same time natural and rational, and therefore to some degree timeless. The paucity of artistic representation of Leviticus should not make one think that the book has lacked cultural influence: if anything this has been arguably more profound and therefore more subversive. The issue of some parts of Leviticus encouraging and other parts offending against conceptions of natural justice will be explored.

The role of metaphor in political and moral discourse has recently been discussed by linguist George Lakoff, particularly in his work Moral Politics. He proposes that such discourse relies on the root metaphor of family, viewing the nation as a family. The key difference undergirding a frequent experience of mutual unintelligibility of liberal and conservative perspectives in contemporary discourse is the pattern of family relationships each is assuming. These patterns are designated as "Strict Father" and "Nurturant Parent" corresponding to conservative and liberal political and moral perspectives. The family metaphor is also a major element in the success of the Roman imperial cult as a binding force for the early Empire, relying on the form of "Strict Father" family assumed as the norm for the elites. Familial language in teachings attributed to Jesus reveals an alternative family metaphor both at the level of language and of family praxis. This paper will examine the household images in several parables and teachings in the gospel of Luke as illustrations of an alternative vision of family and the body politic.

A cursory glance through the Psalter reveals numerous allusions to events in Israel's literary history. While a range of literary and oral sources were obviously available to psalmists, the relationships between these sources and the psalmists' final work are more obscure. Concerning these relationships, numerous questions remain unanswered: how strictly did the psalmists replicate their sources, what kinds of alterations did they make (additions, omissions, etc.), did they alter the meaning of their sources in their own compositions? Departing from the more classical approaches to researching the psalms-engaging in the determination of Sitz im Leben and Gattungen-this intertextual dissertation addresses the aforementioned issues by focusing on a group of psalms associated with Israel's Exodus tradition (primarily 78, 105, 106, 135, and 136). Through a detailed comparison of lexical correspondences between the psalms and other locations in biblical literature, together with a relative dating of each psalm, the study identifies literary sources employed by the psalmists. It additionally includes a close reading of each psalm to establish the unity and meaning of each composition. After performing the aforementioned tasks, the study analyzes and categorizes lexical variances between each psalm and its sources, providing potential explanations for alterations found between the two, and revealing how the psalmists reinterpreted their biblical sources. Though the study has not yet been fully concluded, the impression received is that the psalmists were actively engaged in altering earlier biblical records in a variety of ways. Consequently, from the preliminary results it is possible to broaden our understanding of the psalmists' work and include them among Israel's earliest biblical interpreters.

To speak about a relationship between economics and biblical interpretations evokes an adage that never the twain shall meet. An analysis of koinonia in Acts 4:32-5:11 in the light of that relationship opens up worlds of meaning for both reading the New Testament and redressing public policy. An account of la tanda (an informal, micro-finance, rotating, savings and loan association among Latina/os in the US) provides a context for such a scriptural analysis. The hermeneutical aim of this paper is to highlight the potential of biblical narratives and economic praxis to orient each other toward an ethical awareness of their impact on the livelihood of real communities. This impact is a life-and-death matter for immigrant peoples who pay with their work lives to partake of a social system that results in the enrichment of a minority at the expense of the enslavement of the majority through debt. This paper interprets koinonia in Acts 4:32-5:11 in a way that offers a challenge and alternative to exacting this deadly price for immigrants to “make it” and belong in the US community. In light of Latina/os who seek alternative debt practices while paying with their lives to participate in US society, this paper raises a question of scripture: For what do Ananias and Sapphira pay with their lives in Acts 5:1-11 and lose membership in the fellowship of the community? This interpreter’s response converges koinonia, debt bondage and ethnic identity issues in reading Acts. The response makes the case that reading koinonia in Acts 4:32-5:11 adds to the political ecology debate on Latina/o debt bondage, and vice versa, that this debate adds to the history of interpretations on that text such that resistance to such bondage is an interpretive option for this text for particular readers.

As Maurice Halbwachs has shown the collective remembering is central to the experience of a community. The markan community has put record of how the stories of healings were transmitted in the houses and the ways. The memory of which it has happened in the therapeutic encounter to Jesus constitutes a strategy to maintain and enhance group identity. The collective identities are nourished by collective memory pro­viding bonds with the past that are extended in the time until the future (retroactive and proactive memory). Some stories send to the healed ones to their houses, and in the case of the gerasene man with a concrete mission, to narrate what it has lived. The narration of these therapeutic encounters would offer a new significance to the family/house as a place where it is possible to follow Jesus too and that it is formed around the interpretation of the past according to Jesus’ group.

The Hezekiah-Sennacherib narrative of 2 Kings 18-19 has commonly been viewed as an incoherent narrative composed of multiple sources, necessitating a diachronic approach. However, this hypothesis is really only a heuristic model suggesting we read the pericope in this way. This study would instead suggest a Bakhtinian approach viewing this pericope as a polyphonic composition which will account for both the disjunctions within the narrative and its unity. This narrative can be seen as a dialogue of genres with 1) history-like narrative, 2) direct speech and 3) prophetic oracle all in implicit dialogue. This narrative may be read as “dialogic” as different voices intersect in this pericope revealing a plurality of viewpoints that cannot be explained by a single consciousness. This pericope juxtaposes: 1) the Rabshakeh’s first speech (“Yahweh has sent me and Hezekiah will deceive you”) which is in dialogue with Isaiah 10 (Assyria=Yahweh’s punishing rod); 2) Hezekiah’s response (“Sennacherib mocks the living God”); 3) the Rabshakeh’s second speech (“your God will deceive you and Yahweh cannot save you”); 4) Yahweh’s verdict (“I indeed sent him, but will also send him back”); and 5) the concluding narrated event (Sennacherib’s death). The conclusion of this polyphonic work is not definitive—was Assyria the rod of Yahweh’s punishment or was he merely an example of the fate of blasphemers? Lacking a monologic concluding comment by the narrator to state his viewpoint—though such comments are commonplace (cf. 2 Kings 18:12), perhaps our author here was intrigued by prophetic assertions that Assyria was God’s punishing rod and others claiming that Assyria’s defeat was God’s arrangement. Rather than stating in a monologic way the significance of Sennacherib’s defeat, he instead describes a dialogue and an event.

Service-learning is becoming more and more popular on campuses across the country and is increasingly recognized as a legitimate pedagogical approach within a wide range of disciplines. This paper will explore the advantages and challenges of integrating academic service-learning into undergraduate biblical studies classes, particularly in the Liberal Arts setting. How is learning enhanced when service becomes a lens for reading various biblical texts? How can this learning be effectively measured? What are the trade-offs in terms of other assignments/material covered in class? What new demands are placed on the teacher? How does the pedagogy of service-learning relate to emerging interpretive trends in the discipline of biblical studies? One hoped for outcome of this paper, based on the author’s growing experience with service-learning in a variety of biblical studies classes, is to stimulate dialogue among colleagues as we experiment with this pedagogy.

Is the gaze voyeuristic (i.e., objectifying, looking that intrudes upon that which is seen)? When is looking erotic (looking that participates in that which is seen) and how different is the erotic look from the voyeuristic gaze? The paper investigates some of the ways looking at the body—in particular female bodies that are naked or partially clad—is represented in the biblical text by focusing on four examples: the story of Susanna and the elders, where looking is explicitly condemned, the story of David and Bathsheba, where looking is implicitly condemned, and the Song of Songs, in which looking is mutual and erotic, though perhaps not always so, and, by way of contrast, the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, where a woman casts her eyes upon a man. To illustrate the suggestiveness, subtlety, and complexity of these texts in which looking features so importantly, the paper considers various ways artists have responded to textual clues; e.g., preserving the erotic look, turning the look into the gaze, reinscribing the voyeuristic gaze or introducing it or even, as in the case of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, reversing it.

The Epistle of James is often neglected in the discussion of the Bible and activism. This paper looks at James 5:1-6 as a key passage for supporting economic justice activism. This support for activism depends on how the cryptic 5:6b is understood. By examining the passage in isolation, as part of the section 4:13-5:6, and as part of the overall letter, it becomes evident that the text does support economic justice activism.

I will offer a storytelling event of a biblical narrative.

William Foxwell Albright looms large as a figure of biblical scholarship in the 20th century. He was a prolific writer and the teacher of biblical scholars, some of whom continue to work to this very day. Since his death, his scholarship has been the frequent target of attacks but less attention has been paid to Albright the individual except by Burke O. Long. This paper takes the position that the conclusions of Albright in adulthood derive from the world of his youth, a claim that can be made about many people. Therefore, to truly understand the biblical scholarship of Albright one needs to fully understand the Midwest Methodist life at the dawn of the 20th century in which this Chilean-born son of missionaries was raised.

Why does Philo expand so greatly the story of the blasphemer? The main point is that the blasphemer is an Egyptian. Philo, as a leader of the Jewish community in Alexandria, must have been aware of the attraction that the Egyptian way of life had for some Jews of his day. The fact that the blasphemer was the product of a mixed marriage between a Jew and an Egyptian must have recalled for him such products of mixed marriages with Egyptians who accompanied the Israelites in the Exodus from Egypt. Philo uses extremely strong condemnatory language in describing (De Vita Mosis 1.147) these products of mixed marriages as a bastard host. He likewise describes the blasphemer as a bastard.

Paul uses the metaphor of redemption to picture the saving effect of the death of Christ. The metaphor has biblical (Exodus) resonances, but I contend that the dominant reference is to the Greco-Roman practice of purchasing a slave’s freedom or paying a ransom for the release of captives. Further, Paul links redemption with sacrifice, thus bringing out the theme of payment inherent in sacrifice, while giving a ritual significance to redemption. The theme of purchase will be traced through several Pauline passages. Believers are “bought and paid for” in 1 Corinthians, utilizing an ordinary marketplace verb for purchasing (agorazo), rather than a verb with any Exodus resonance, and believers are also redeemed (exagorazo) in Gal 3:13; 4:5. Romans 3:24-25, where Christ is redemption (apolytrosis) and place of atonement (hilasterion), links redemption and sacrificial purification. The death pays the price to free the captives of sin, while purifying the stain of sin. By linking sacrifice redemption, Paul is re-joining ideas that were cognate in Hebrew (kipper, atonement; kopher, payment), thus bringing out the element of payment in Hebrew sacrifice, and implying that redemption has a ritual meaning. The death of Jesus accomplishes cultic cleansing and adequate ransoming. It constitutes a holy payment to God. There is a transfer of ownership, as in a commercial transaction, but this transaction has ritual sacredness. The approach to God is a ritual approach. The currency “spent” is a ritual substance, blood (Rom 5:9). Paul’s language of payment must be interpreted in connection with his cultic metaphors, placing the death of Jesus within a liturgical setting. Yet the image of God being paid off cannot be entirely expunged, even though Paul recoils from the idea: it is inherent in the redemption metaphor itself.

Making use of Bakhtin’s criteria of locus, form, and degree of intertextuality, this paper explores how the figures of Joshua and the Branch both serve as forerunners to the figure of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It will show how the gospel, making use of the older text as a dialogic partner, first roots itself in it to then diverge from it, signalling a new era in terms of the communication between the human and the divine. While the encounter between Joshua and the devil in Zechariah shows two figures with no volition or text of their own, these characters have been expanded in the Gospel. The figure of Jesus enjoys centre stage in the Gospel. The figure of the devil has moved from silent challenger within the divine plan in Zechariah to become the antagonist with a kingdom of his own. The struggle between the two is responsible for the dramatic tension that underlies the gospel as a whole. Parallels between the Branch and Jesus in terms of their being serve to legitimize the latter as the chosen figure to fulfil the divine plan. The generic difference between the two texts in the way these figures are presented implies differences in discourse, creating a dialogic relationship between them with hermeneutic implications for the gospel. It also throws light on the genre of the gospel, and can be used to challenge the view of the Gospel of Luke as an ancient biography or bios.

Jeremiah 10:5a is represented in a variety of ways in the ancient Versions. This is particularly evident between the divergent readings of the MT and the LXX. The goal of this paper will be twofold. First, the differences between the readings of the MT and the LXX will be analyzed. This will include an examination of what elements within the Greek text can and cannot be linked to the MT. Second, the other ancient Versions will be analyzed in an effort to examine how they might be connected to a consonantal text similar to the MT. It will be argued that deviations from the MT that are shared by two or more ancient translations might imply some text-historical relation.

The famous contest between Elijah and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah in 1 Kings 18:1-46 ends with Elijah slaying or ordering the deaths of the prophets of Baal (v. 40). The majority of interpreters of this passage interpret the brutal scene as Elijah acting in accordance with the will of God as dictated in Deuteronomy 13:3-6, which commands the death of prophets who urge apostasy. While the obvious ethical problems posed by the reading have led a few to brand the scene as “ugly” (Montgomery and Gehman, 1951), or to excuse the slaying as uniquely necessary (Wiseman, 1993), on the whole the discomfort of a few scholars on the point is generally perceived as “introducing contemporary moral sensitivity foreign to the text” (Cogan 444). I argue that the larger unit of 1 Kings 18-19 contains a sharp internal critique of the mass murder in 1 Kings 18:40, as evident through attention to literary clues, particularly a repeated chiastic structure. An implicit contrast between the characters and actions of Obedyahu and Eliyahu, the literary structure of the theophany of silence in 1 Kings 19, and God’s command to “Go back by the way you came,” suggest the prophet acted on his own and failed to recognize divinely offered alternatives for peace. Moreover, following Heschel (1962), who argued that God works in tandem with prophetic action and pathos, I propose that Elijah’s resolute stance in favor of warfare against the pagan prophets in turn determines God’s participation in the cycle of violence (1 Kings 19:15-18). Finally, I suggest some authorial and editorial contexts for the literary layers of the narrative.

Even the concept of rival cities envisions a world of polities defined by city centers. This can be a useful rubric for exploring political interaction in the ancient Near East, but it can also distract from other components in the regional network of peoples and power. Any analysis of political rivalries in early second-millennium Syria must account for both city-based states and large tribal alliances. Conflicts between towns were liable to follow tribal commitments. Ancient Mari was itself ruled by the king of the Binu Sim’al alliance, and its affairs were often colored by tribal identities. In order to illustrate the interplay of town and tribe in early Syrian political life, I have chosen two towns that are important less for any on-going rivalry than for one episode of outright conflict, as recounted in one letter to the king at Mari from a high official on diplomatic mission (ARM XXVI 24). Der was a small town of special significance to the Binu Sim’al peoples, so much so that it could count on military support from the king at Mari, even though it was outside the normal perimeter of his authority. In this text, the Binu Yamina peoples and their allies in the Zalmaqum coalition meet at the holy center of Harran to plan an attack on Der. Interestingly, Der seems to have special sacred value for the Binu Sim’al peoples. The conflict that is immediately focused on Harran and Der actually pertains to the more general rivalry between the Binu Yamina and the Binu Sim’al tribal associations. By examining this one crisis between towns, we gain a sense of the deeper lines of social organization and stress in ancient Syria of the Middle Bronze Age.

Ancient hermeneutics embedded in Qumran (4Q184), Rabbinic Jewish sources, and medieval commentaries identified the figure of the Isha Zara in Proverbs (2:16-22; 5:1-23; 6:20-35; 7:1-27) as representing abstract dangers, using allegory, or rather allegorization, as a legitimate hermeneutic tool. Modern scholars as well have interpreted the Isha Zara speeches in a variety of ways, being reluctant to admit that the texts mean nothing more than warnings against dangerous liaisons. This paper aims to retrieve the original meaning of the Isha Zara speeches, in both their MT and LXX forms, without reading into them either other texts, specifically Prov 9, or later interpretations. This would require setting aside methods such as intertextuality, that too often functions as a modern version of midrash, or allegorization, another form of Midrash that is a wonderful resource for sermons but illegitimate in philological analysis. In our view, the Isha Zara speeches do not differ from other issues of everyday life dominating the Book of Proverbs, such as family ethos, parental teaching, domestic harmony, and social stability.

This paper argues that the climactic petition of the prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19, asking for the Ephesian ekklesia to be filled to all the pleroma of God, refers to God's glory. The writer uses imagery from Jewish Scriptures describing God's glory filling (pleroma) the sanctuary so completely the priests cannot enter (Exod. 40; III Kgdms. 8). Ezekiel uses the pleroma/glory imagery to report God's departure from the sanctuary (ch. 10), though later envisioning God's glory filling the New Temple in the eschatological age (ch. 43). The author of Ephesians sees the Ephesian ekklesia as this New Temple and prays for their filling with God's glory. Aside from the shared pleroma terminology, several indicators support this thesis. First, the primary context of the prayer, 2:19-22, envisions the Ephesian ekklesia as a temple in which God "dwells," while the prayer asks for Christ to "dwell" in their hearts (3:17). Second, 2:21 speaks of the Ephesians built upon the "foundation" of apostles and prophets; the prayer views the ekklesia as rooted and "founded" in love (3:17). Third, the four dimensions of Christ's love--"breadth, length, height, depth"--find their only parallel in the Jewish Scriptures in the dimensions of the altar described in Ezekiel 43. Finally, the doxology mentions the desire for God to receive "glory" in the ekklesia (3:21). I draw two conclusions. First is the importance of the temple imagery in the central section of Ephesians. The Ephesian ekklesia, as God's temple (2:19-22) should be filled with God's glory (3:19), with the saints partaking in their own up-building (4:12, 16). Second, even with an important word like pleroma, the writer of Ephesians draws both from a Hellenistic background (1:23) and from Judaism and its Scripture (3:19).

The question of the location of targum either within or without the textual polysystem of rabbinic Judaism has had a revealing history. On the one hand, notices of the ancient practice of targum derive entirely from early rabbinic literature, while the extant targumic texts appear to have been transmitted through rabbinic channels. On the other, for the last fifty years, scholars have sought to locate targum outside of rabbinic Judaism, as “pre-rabbinic,” “anti-rabbinic,” “extra-rabbinic,” or most recently, “para-rabbinic.” While introductions to rabbinic literature often omit treatment of targum entirely, the targumim incorporate exegetical traditions that find their closest parallels in rabbinic texts. Yet, the targumim also incorporate traditions and terminology that do not fit neatly within what we usually associate with rabbinic Judaism. Several recent studies by scholars of rabbinic Judaism build their theses largely on locating targum outside of rabbinic Judaism. Since there is substantial evidence for targum having functioned both in the synagogue and in the rabbinic “house of study,” targum raises interesting questions regarding the relationship between these two institutions. Is targum an expression of the “popular” Judaism of the synagogue, or a vehicle for the rabbinization of the synagogue (scholars having argued for both)? The present paper will explore these issues of targumic identity arguing that they have as much to do with our understanding of targum as they do with scholarly constructions of the boundaries of rabbinic Judaism and its literature. Should differences between targum and rabbinic literature be attributed to its lying outside the bounds of rabbinic Judaism? Alternatively, might its distinctive generic qualities and functions be accommodated within a broader, more fluid understanding of rabbinic Judaism in terms of the generic variety of its textual practices, rather than the unity of its sociology and ideology?

This paper will explore the uses of metaphor, simile and other figures common in Hebrew poetry, and discuss how they function in the poetry of Isaiah.

This work examines the life and suffering of the main character in the Book of Ruth, Naomi, and it proposes that she is the other Job. Naomi is shown to be a model for African American women of faith within the context of suffering, faith and agency. The paper discusses faith and hope and the linguistic variations surrounding these two concepts as found in the text of the Hebrew Bible, and how Naomi uses them. Comparisons are drawn to prove that indeed, Naomi, like Job, suffered and that she can serve as a model for women of faith who have difficulty identifying with the man Job or even with Hagar. Reference is made to the faith of the African American Church and its historical Bible based faith traditions.

Lucian is a major source of the ancient utopian tradition, even if his verae historiae are already a parody of that tradition. Have utopian and apocalyptic traditions been in contact? Influences are possible in both directions. The emphasis of the paper will be on images of heavenly cities and of the Isles of the Blessed, aiming not so much at an analysis of isolated motivs, but at comparing utopian and apocalyptic constructions of reality. Christian texts that will be considered at some length are the Apocalypsis of John and the Visio Zosimi (also called the History of the Rechabites). Some ideas from recent commentaries on v. h. (Peter von Moellendorff, Aristoula Georgiadou and David Larmour) will also be discussed.

John 5-12 portrays a number of conflicts between Jesus and "the Jews" of Judea, often at feasts in Jerusalem. This paper will consider the extent to which this Johannine literary theme may reflect actual historical tensions between Galilee and Judea in the first-century.

Since the Deuteronomistic History ends with the release and exaltation of Jehoiachin by the Babylonian king Evil-Merodach (2 Kgs 25:27-30), there is little doubt that it could not be completed before 561 BCE; at the same time, few scholars are willing today to sustain Martin Noth's contention that the composition's finale also indicates its terminus ante quem. The paper argues that Noth's thesis, although poorly substantiated, was essentially correct. Of crucial importance in this regard is the aspect of 2 Kgs 25:27-30 that has thus far largely escaped scholarly attention, namely, the identity of Jehoiachin's benefactor. Given Evil-Merodach's sheer obscurity and insignificance, at any point after his fall in 560 BCE the audience was likely to see the episode as largely inconsequential. Lack of references or allusions to the fragment in post-exilic texts confirms as much. By contrast, with Evil-Merodach still on the throne it would be highly meanigful as a striking confirmation of the divine promise to David and its lasting validity, even against the background of Israel's total collapse. If the Former Prophets, where the Davidic promise and associated concepts play a pivotal formative role, is a (largely) Deuteronomistic composition, it means that Deuteronomistic literary activity, contrary to the recent tendency to extend it into the post-exilic period, ceased after Evil-Merodach’s fall. What is more, Deuteronomism as an ideological and literary phenomenon may be a product of Evil-Merodach's brief reign (562-560 BCE); although this hypothesis cannot be definitively proved, it offers a novel and promising way of accounting for the present shape of the Former Prophets, especially for the combination of homogeneity and heterogeneity, continuity and discontinuity in the corpus.

The last decade has witnessed a proliferation of both theoretical and interpretive readings of the Hebrew Bible. This energetic enterprise has resulted in anthologies and monographs that continue to elude systematic organization. Publications like Athalya Brenner and Carole Fontaine eds. Reading the Bible: Approaches, Methods and Strategies (Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) and Alice Bach ed. Women in the Hebrew Bible (Routledge, 1999) have captured the plurality and diversity of the field. This panel seeks to build on this wealth, by mapping out lines of debate and dialogue. This panel has both scholarly and pedagogic purpose: it seeks to translate the thinking of major voices in the field to the undergraduate and graduate class, and to map out the field so as to facilitate dialogue and debate, which have become the hallmark of the field of Women’s Studies in general. The panelists will explore disciplinary codes and (e.g. historical, literary, anthropological) and intersecting and ‘competing’ theories (e.g. postcolonial and cultural theory) and assess whether and to what extent we can identify an emerging consensus in the field of biblical feminist studies.

Ancient visual artifacts and texts dealing with warfare in antiquity readily illuminate the widespread practices of armed aggression and defense among fighting men. But with several outstanding exceptions, they are far more reluctant to depict or divulge the methods and aims involved in the equally ubiquitous practices of warfare against women and girls taken captive through such aggression and conflict. To gain a sound grasp of the ethics and norms of warfare in antiquity, however, it is imperative to elucidate the norms of this long occluded other half--the dark side--of ancient warfare as waged by armed men against women and girls among the enemy. Passages in the Old Testament Prophets are among some of the outstanding exceptions from antiquity that do allow insight into this other half of ancient warfare, including Isaiah 13, Ezekiel 16 and 23, Hosea 13, Nahum 2-3, and Zechariah 14. The purpose of my paper is twofold. First, picking up where Kern leaves off (Ancient Siege Warfare, 1999, 62-85) I show that the Old Testament Prophets clearly support my broader thesis that warfare in antiquity is predominantly a gender-specific practice in two phases, first to kill off or incapacitate adult males in a community marked as enemy or alien, and second, to capture and subjugate surviving girls and women through sexual assault and related practices of debasement that focus on commandeering female sexuality, productivity, and creativity. Second, I demonstrate why this question concerning the ethics of warfare in ancient Israel and beyond is highly relevant to urgent humanitarian concerns about sexual violence in warfare in modern times, as suffered and witnessed, for example, by girls and women in the Balkans during the early and late twentieth centuries.

Recent trends in scholarship of the exile, particularly on the book of Ezekiel, have been influenced by refugee and trauma studies. In addition, some evaluations of Ezekiel’s theology have decried the book’s misogynistic tendencies as well as one of the over-arching theological messages of the prophet: that the community in exile suffered dislocation and the destruction of the temple because of religious infidelity. This paper will explore the theological implications of a conversation between Ezekiel scholarship and literary trauma theory. A reading of Ezekiel that focuses on the way the text testifies to trauma provides room to explore the community’s articulation of its experience while acknowledging the possible dangers of its theological conclusions. This paper will discuss how the community that produced the text of Ezekiel was trying to construct a theology in light of its traumatic history.

This paper/presentation stems from the experience of participating in 'The Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World' project and presents subsequent thoughts on how to further profit from the application of Humanities Computing to Septuagint Studies. It will seek to do three things: (1) It will start by critically assessing the impact the well-known pioneering Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study (CATSS) project has had on the research of the Septuagint, by giving an overview, discussing some relevant case studies, and asking the question whether computing approaches have presented more an evolution than a revolution. (2) It will show some of the potentials of Humanities Computing within Septuagint Studies by presenting the application of open source tools on the CATSS resources. After illustrating the transformation of these resources into standard-compliant formats, the presentation will demonstrate how a freely-available tool like the XML Aware Indexing and Retrieval Architecture (XAIRA) can open up the world of computer-aided Corpus Linguistics and Natural Language Processing to the Septuagint scholar. (3) It will identify the challenges posed by the digitization of the research environment, not only for the field of Septuagint Studies, but for the whole of Humanities. By discussing such issues as the role/impact of proprietary 'Bible software' in Biblical Studies (Are commercial interests and the dis/interested pursuit of knowledge reconcilable?), the impact of the new media on copyright law (Can an ancient text be owned?), and, more particularly, the competition of research paradigms (Will Humanities Computing change the questions we ask about texts?), this paper will try to map the limits and possibilities of the incipient yet already pervasive impact of the computer on the discourses and practices of the Humanities and Biblical Studies.

In this paper I examine how the particularly Cuban concept of resolviendo (survival) offers insights for reading biblical passages from a Cuban feminist perspective. I explore the concept of resolviendo, its meaning and use in Cuba today. Then, I examine the philosophical ideas of Karl Jaspers on limit or boundary situation. Finally, I explore how resolviendo offers insights for reading the biblical texts of Genesis 38 and Judith 8-12. It seems to me that survival shapes the actions of many characters in the Hebrew Bible. Karl Jaspers’s philosophical concepts of limit or boundary situation shed lights on this issue.

In the early 1980s, the military government of the Central American nation of Guatemala under the leadership of a born-again Pentecostal general, Efraín Ríos Montt, decimated the nation’s indigenous Mayan population in its attempt to eradicate a Marxist guerrilla movement. While most Mayans were not guerrillas, many, like the president himself, were Pentecostals. This paper will explore how the emergence of end-times theology during the Mayan holocaust contributed to the rapid expansion of Pentecostalism during this period, with particular emphasis on how Mayans interpreted government repression in terms of the fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecies of the Book of Revelation. The paper will also examine the evangelical and millenarian themes in the public rhetoric of General Ríos Montt as expressed in his weekly discursos del domingo, or political “Sunday sermons,” in which Ríos Montt identified himself as God’s anointed agent and positioned the government’s scorched earth campaign within the framework of kairos, a Biblically prophetic historical moment.

Did 4th century Antiochene Christians wear “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets? Doubtful. But there is good reason to believe that the sentiment, if not the fashion, had indeed caught hold in the community. Chrysostom’s increasingly well-known Homiliae Adversus Iudaeos reveal unmistakably that one of the chief reasons given by Christians for attending the synagogue and participating in other Jewish rituals was the desire to imitate Christ’s behaviors in the flesh. Christ had been circumcised, frequented synagogues, and observed the festivals, and some Antiochene Christians felt compelled in some measure to follow suit. This study first examines Chrysostom’s strategy for combating this mimetic urge – why, on his reckoning, Christians should not do what Jesus had done. The second and more substantive section examines the exegetical implications of this social crisis for Chrysostom’s approach to the Jewishness of Jesus in the gospel narratives. Particularly in his commentary on the Fourth Gospel, one sees how Chrysostom acknowledges but subtly undercuts Jesus’ Jewish identity and his observance of Jewish rites.

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Normal discussions of international lingua franca in the Ancient Near East confine themselves to Akkadian, Aramaic and Greek. While the Egyptian scribal tradition is well-known in Egypt, it is also attested outside of Egypt, from Kassite Babylon, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire, to ancient Israel. I will examine the appearance of ancient Egyptian scribes outside of Egypt. I will also examine what can be determined about the context of their exportation outside Egypt.

An examination of the literary-theological patterning of the institution of the Sabbath as presented in the Priestly tradition of the Pentateuch, especially in relation to the traditions of creation and cult. The Sabbath is used as a vehicle for the development of new and revolutionary concepts of sacred time and holiness that are basic to the views of the Priestly authors.

"Who Peopled the Madaba Plains in the Iron Age?" At various times and places, scholars have suggested that the Madaba Plains were occupied by Reubenites, Ammonites, Moabites, and others. This paper examines the archaeological and epigraphic evidence for clues and make some suggestions for discussion.

Both Deut 1–3 and 5:1–6:3 serve to integrate the formerly independent Deut-Code into an extant narrative context. Deut 5:1–6:3 conceptually coordinates the proclamation of the law on Sinai and the interpretive proclamation of the law in Moab. What guides the composition is the idea of gradual stages in the proclamation. In contrast to this, Deut 1–3 is concerned with a historical-geographical coordination. It presents the interpretive proclamation “on the other side of the Jordan in the valley facing Beit Peor” as a new edition of the account of Israel’s sojourn in Horeb. Deut 1–3 and Deut 5:1–6:3 appear to be the work of one and the same author. These texts represent the first attempt to historically position the Deut-Code in keeping with the older Hexateuch narrative. Yet it was not the first attempt in general to historically position the Deut-Code. My paper focuses on a still older attempt, which introduced the Code with Deut 4:45*; 5:1a*; 6:4. This version knows only of a proclamation of the Code during the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

This paper will survey the extent to which both ancient and modern readers of Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer have puzzled over the meaning of Matt 6:13a, "And lead us not into temptation." The paper's argument will then combine the following elements: (1) analysis of the structure of Matt 6:9b-13; (2) the meaning of temptation and the character of God in Matthew s Gospel; (3) Parallels between the Lord's Prayer and Jesus' temptation in the wilderness (4:1-11); and (4) the rhetorical form of hyperbole known as dialectical negation, following the work of Heinz Kruze and Andrew Bartelt. Given the presence of dialectical negation elsewhere in Matthew's Gospel (Hos 6:6 in Matt 9:13, 12:7; Matt 10:20; Matt 10:34), the paper will propose that Matt 9:13a and b must be read together, with the following force: Do not only bring us into temptation, but even more deliver us from the Evil One. This understanding is consistent with the portrait of discipleship in Matthew wherein the disciple is not above his master, or a slave above his lord.

A commentary on Matthew 26:24 and 28:19 will be presented.

The Gospel of Luke along with its companion Acts of the Apostles display an unmistakable interest in things Roman. Critical scholarship has long tried to account for this feature of the Lukan narrative. Early perspectives held that Luke-Acts was written to cement a positive relation between Christians and the Roman empire, and to render the life of Jesus and his apostles as an 'apologia pro ecclesia.' More recent analysis has largely dispensed with this understanding, but retains the basic position that Luke-Acts presents Christians and Christianity in a way that is essentially compatible with Roman rule. This paper analyzes references to Rome in the context of Greek imperial literature, particularly that of the Second Sophistic. The writings of Plutarch, Dio of Prussa, and others seek to make sense of Roman power and to understand their identity as Greeks in a world dominated by Rome. Like these writers, Luke uses his literary effort not only to make sense of Roman 'imperium,' but also to call into question the legitimacy of Rome and its imperial status. Rather than accepting Roman authority, Luke-Acts contests Rome's claims by mimicking Roman public expressions of power, transposing them to Jesus and the early church, and offering alternative models of world rule for his Christian audience. This analysis of power relations between dominant and subordinate cultures and the resistance to imperial power borrows both from contemporary Greek literature, and also modern political and post-colonial theories, particularly the concept of colonial mimicry

Two of the most ancient Christian Paschal homilies, one by Melito of Sardes and the other of unknown origin, preserved under the names of Hippolytus of Rome or John Chrysostom, testify to the expectation of the divine glory during the Paschal night. Rabbinic materials such as the Targums Neofiti 1 and Pseudo-Jonathan attest to a similar expectation on the night of the festival of Pesach. The salvific power of this light seems to constitute the first reason for this Paschal expectation. Since further investigation identifies similar elements in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, the present study proposes what might be called a “two-branched trunk” theory: one might reasonably suppose that both the Christian and the Jewish-rabbinic expectations of the salvific glory of Pascha may constitute two different developments of a common matrix in the Second Temple festival of Passover. Major doctrinal and ritual shifts emerge in the Christian worship where Jesus Christ took the place of Yahweh or of his Word. From a mystical perspective, these materials and others such as the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Christian liturgies, reflect the existence of a form of mysticism that engages a whole community not solely an individual. For Jews and Christians, Pascha was therefore a communitarian form of mysticism. The liturgical celebration may be seen as the necessary step within which the mystical experience should find expression.

Scholars have noted thematic parallels between the frame tales of Westcar Papyrus and ancient Israel's account of the exodus from Egypt (parting of waters, inanimate object transformed into a reptile, for instance). What has not been clearly recognized is the similar function of magic in the Westcar Papyrus and the Priestly strand of the Exodus narrative. A literary approach reveals several motifs which unite the individual tales of the Westcar Papyrus. Among these is the leitmotif of magic tricks as Demonstrationswunder. Repeatedly, characters perform magic tricks with the result that observers express marvel. As such, the wonder-inspiring acts serve to legitimate the person performing the magic. In the book of Exodus, the magic tricks performed by Moses and Aaron in P's plague narratives serve a similar function: to inspire wonder and thus legitimate Israel’s god and his designated leaders. The comparison suggests that the connection drawn between magic and miracle by the author of Westcar Papyrus persisted far into the first millennium BCE among Egypt's northern neighbors.

The Elijah/Elisha Narrative attracts much speculation on its literary formation and its relation to the Deuteronomic History. This paper adds to that conversation. Utilizing the tools afforded by Mieke Bal’s narratology, the story of Elijah as rain-maker is examined for its humor, its intertextuality or “sampling,” its literary formation and its placement in the Deuteronomic History. Special attention is placed upon characterization, which leads to a lively reading of the text and speculation on the relationship between the character of Elisha and that of Elijah. By way of humor and sampling, the audience is asked to engage and evaluate the prophetic character of Elijah in comparison with Elisha. Is Elijah’s rain-making to be understood as bringing Ahab’s kingdom back to life as Elisha brought to life the Shunammite’s son? What Elisha can do for a single boy, Elijah can do, not just for a widow’s son, but also for an entire nation.

Moses’ last words in his prophetic call narrative are: by-adwny shlch-n’ byd-tshlch. Throughout its translation history, Exod 4.13 has been freely interpreted as his final objection, “Send someone else.” But the consonantal text literally reads, “Send please in the hand You will send”, which, because the hand of God is an image for divine intervention in human affairs, in English idiom could as well mean “Please send (me) in Your power”. The purpose of this paper is to assemble the many reasons that Exod 4.13 can be read as an acquiescent prayer in the prophetic call narrative of Moses rather than as an objection, and consequently to assess v. 14-16 as a distinct and separate paragraph in the dialogue. Several approaches can be synchronized and brought to bear on this question, including analysis of narrative form, of grammar, of chiasmus, of participant reference patterns and syntactic evidence of paragraph divisions, of key words and leading words characteristic of extensive traditions, and of inner biblical exegesis. This discussion raises good and relevant questions about reading difficult or ambiguous passsages, and shows many possibilities for reading and interpreting texts beyond this particular passage.

A commentary on Matthew 25:1-12 will be presented.

It is commonly assumed that the epistle to the Galatians is addressed to Gentile Christians who have not been circumcised, and that Paul is attempting to dissuade them from what he sees as a disastrous course of action. But the letter's substance and rhetoric are better explained on the assumption that Paul is rebuking churches in which the process of circumcision is already underway. This scenario is preferable to the standard view for several reasons: (1) 6.12 speaks of the agitators compelling the Galatians to be circumcised. ANAGKAZW is here used of successful and not attempted compulsion, as elsewhere in Greek literature, including Gal. 2.14. (2) The conditional sentence in 5.2 is misread when it is used to imply a process not yet underway. (3) The tense of Paul’s statements in 5.4 should be taken seriously “You have been severed from Christ . . . you have fallen from grace” (cf. 5.7). (4) Paul's language of astonishment (1.6), foolishness (3.1) and spells (3.1) tells the same story of successful coercion. (5) The Galatians are already keeping special days (4.10), which gives no hint that they would hold off on circumcision. (6) Paul’s picture of the agitators depicts them with knife in hand (5.12); they are practising circumcision as well as teaching it. (7) Nothing short of a new birth can turn this drastic situation around (4.19).

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Since the widespread dismissal of Noth’s ingenious hypothesis that early Israel formed an amphictyony on analogy with amphictyonies in the classical world, there has been surprisingly little attention to what sort of supratribal organization may have characterized early Israel. Rather, it seems, the conclusion has generally been drawn that, if not an amphictyony, then early Israel will have lacked supratribal organization of any sort.. It is that assumption I am questioning, not only by reexamining the biblical text but by engaging in a number of studies comparing premonarchic Israel with pre-state or sub-state peoples that appear to bear some resemblance to early Israel in structure and/or origin, and that also exhibit a variety of confederate arrangements. Having previously examined the Icelandic Commonwealth, I now turn to a critical comparison of premonarchic Israel and the Iroquois league of Five Nations.. In this paper I will first describe what is known about the structure of the Iroquois confederacy in comparison with what is hypothesized about the structure of an alleged early Israelite confederacy, taking note of points of difference and points with sufficient similarity to warrant further examination. Next, I will describe what is hypothesized concerning the origin of the Iroquois confederacy in relation to what is hypothesized about the origin of the alleged Israelite confederacy. I will conclude by stating what I believe the comparative study of societies across cultures can accomplish and what it cannot accomplish. In short, in exploring the hypothesis that early Israel constituted an intertribal confederacy of some sort, comparative studies open up possibilities, sometimes strengthening what is already surmised and sometimes suggesting new lines of inquiry, but comparative studies, given the independence in time and/or space of the societies compared, can never establish certainties.

The place of the high priest as both religious and political leader in Judah during the Persian, Greek, and Roman periods is often taken for granted. However, the position of the high priest as a political or civil leader has recently been questioned. My aim will be to consider whether anthropology (whether historical or contemporary) provides models that might help us to understand better the high priest's position in Second Temple Judaean society.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the history of effect ("Wirkungsgeschichte" of the concept of a new covenant, found especially in Jeremiah 31:31-34, in early Judaism and early Christianity. A brief investigation of the new covenant concept in the Hebrew Bible will be followed by an investigation of the meaning of the phrase "new covenant in the land of Damascus" in the Qumran Damascus Scroll. Following an overview of the new covenant concept in the New Testament, the use of the new covenant concept in Barnabas, Justin, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origin and Aphrahat will be discussed. It wil be pointed out that the term "kaine diatheke" ("new covenant") is used by Clement both to speak of the theology of salvation history and to designate the writings of the New Testament. In a similar way, Tertullian uses "testamentum" in certain contexts to refter to the biblical books and uses it elsewhere in a theological context to refer to "last will/covenant." In Origen's commentaries "kaine diatheke" refers, however, primarily to the New Testament. This development can be explained by discerning five phases in the way early Christianity used the new convenant concept. The paper will conclude with reflections on the implications of this textured history of effect on our current understanding of the new covenant concept.

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Manuscripts, like people, have closer, as well as more distant relatives. The DNA, as it were, of determining affiliation among manuscripts are distinctive readings. The text of the Freer Joshua has been claimed as both an early and a considerably later member of the family or transmitted for hundreds of years). We will see whether we can fix more firmly the Freer Joshua's place on its family tree--and how we go about doing so.

The destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 CE had profound theological implications for Jews and Christians. They shared a fundamental belief in God’s involvement in human history. It was therefore necessary to provide a religious explanation for an event of such enormous significance, one that all agreed was not random but somehow reflected the will of God. However, when it came to specific explanations, Jewish and Christian views sharply diverged, particularly regarding the issue of what the destruction revealed about the relationship between God and Israel. In this paper, I discuss two texts from the rabbinic midrash on Lamentations and then selections from writings by Origen and Eusebius. I do not argue that the two communities were in direct contact with each other, but I do believe that these texts illustrate different attempts to grapple with an event that brings up shared concerns about legitimacy and about which people are the true Israel. The midrashim support their claims by rejecting a traditional theodicy that makes Israel responsible for their own suffering, and even blame the destruction on God. The Christians offer precisely the opposite explanation for the destruction. They support a theodicy that links the Jews’ killing of Jesus with the terrible destruction a few decades later, and which legitimates the transfer of God’s favor from Jews to Gentile Christians.

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It has been often observed that Targum Jonathan turns Hannah’s song of thanksgiving in praise of the LORD who reverses fortunes (1 Sam 2:1-10) into a prophecy about Israel’s future. Overall, 2:1-5 are interpreted in a historically particularlizing way (rooted in Hannah’s present in 2:1, leading ultimately to the fall of Rome and the establishment of Jerusalem), and 2:6-10 are interpreted in an eschatological way. We will explore the various factors and mechanisms for this prophetic interpretation. The reference to a future anointed one/Messiah in 2:10 as well as the phrase “my enemies” in 2:1 and “those who contend with Him” in 2:10 provide a framework within which to recount the history of the LORD’s deliverance of Israel from a succession of enemies (Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and ultimately Gog and its allies). Particular phrases in the Hebrew text seem to triggar associations with other Scriptures leading to the identifying of these particular enemies. we’ap serves as a formal cue for introducing an expansion, while beken serves as a pivot to return to a more straight forward translation of the Hebrew text. Interestingly, the struggle of Esther and Mordecai with the sons of Haman between the mention of the Hasmoneans and the Romans (out of their biblical sequence) raises the possibility that they are code names for Queen Shelamzion Alexandra, Shim'on ben Shetah, and the Sadducees respectively.

An analysis of popular portraits of Jesus that highlights their grounding in strong misreadings of academic scholarship allows for a better understanding of scholarly discourse, the romanticization of scholarship for popular consumption, and contemporary perceptions of Jesus on the part of both scholars and the general public, as well. This paper will demonstrate some of the ways that pop culture representations of Jesus, such as those found in The Da Vinci Code and Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," actually trace back through surprising lines of connection to scholarly discourse itself.

The otherwise virtuous Job seems to treat his wife as a mere object when he suggests that were he merely to look at another man's wife, she should compensate this men by giving him sexual favors. On the other hand, Job 42 portrays Job as eschewing patriarchal values when he bequeaths his real estate to sons and daughters alike, beyond Moses's allowing daughters to inherit real estate in the absence of male heirs (Num 27). Reading Job 31:1, 9-12 in the light of Hos 4; Matt 5:28 and Mishnah Sotah 9:9, the proposed paper will demonstrate the following: Job 31 attacks patriarchy, takes monogamy for granted, and suggests that the just punishment for a husband's philandering is for the wife to engage with impunity in extra-marital liaisons of their own, Consequently, the Book of Job belongs to a short list of Hebrew Scripture texts which advocate monogamy and a shorter list of Hebrew Scripture texts, which castigqte men who compromise mongamy.

This paper explores how David’s killing of Goliath has been viewed in popular illustration for youth, in Britain and North America, since the eighteenth century. Artists over the centuries have generally rendered some variation of: 1) David with his sling facing a standing (or falling) Goliath; 2) David atop a fallen Goliath, about to sever (or severing) his head; 3) David, Goliath’s head in hand, beside the truncated corpse; 4) David in procession, with Goliath’s head impaled on a sword or pole. My illustrated presentation traces the changing choices made for the visual consumption of the Bible by youth, and relates these changes to educational debates concerning age-appropriate depiction of violence and death, as well as to changing social attitudes towards public execution and decapitation. While most of the illustrations considered will be from printed materials, some will be drawn from other media such as film.

The discovery and study of the ancient Near Eastern cultures and religions of Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia have conclusively shown that the religion of Israel did not arise in a religious vacuum. Rather it was rooted in the soil of Canaan, the cradle of Israelite religion and culture. This means that the religion of Israel is not a mere ‘counter-religion’, an independent and unique religious phenomenon, with respect to other ancient Near Eastern religions surrounding it. In fact, archaeological findings from the land attest to polytheistic, syncretistic, and iconic cult and religiosity in ancient Israel. However, this is a very different perspective from the writers of the Hebrew Bible. For polytheism and iconolatry are forbidden in the Hebrew Bible. This conflict and gap between materials always entails a possibility of new interpretation. This is where archaeological and iconographical studies and historical and textual studies can challenge one another and so produce a greater knowledge and understanding. Therefore, in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the Israelite religion than the officially admitted records allows, I will examine textual, archaeological, and pictorial data from ancient Near Eastern religious and cultural sources. The selected archaeological and the epigraphic findings as well as parallel textual evidence, investigated in this paper, will make it clear that religious life in ancient Israel was pluriform and varied. This examination also suggests how Israelite religion evolved from a polytheistic and syncretistic religious milieu and cult to the monotheistic religion of Yahwism. More significantly, I will present how through its evolution the religious and cultic tradition of goddesses in ancient Israel was suppressed, eradicated, transformed, and, in some ways, survived as well.

We are two professors of religion, one Jewish and the other Christian, teaching at a Christian affiliated liberal arts insitution. We are charged at our college to teach our religion courses in such a way that we encourage faith. But the context in which we do so, namely that of the liberal arts, places a premium on the freedom to challenge all assertions. Living within this tension we have made two observations. First, these two commitments are not always reconcilable. How does one simultaneously convey conviction and open-minded exploration? This dialectic has led us to reflect upon our different heritages. Here we have concluded that the Jewish approach seems to be more comfortable posing questions (Is God good?), while the Christian tradition has tended to seek answers (God is good). Can our respective religious backgrounds give us new paradigms for envisioning the task of teaching religion at a religious liberal arts institution?

The position of Queen Mother, or "Great Lady", is the most influential position a woman could hope to achieve in ancient Israel. And yet most of the biblical accounts we have concerning them are negative. Perhaps the most intriguing account is that of Maacah, Asa's (grand)mother, whom Asa removes from being Queen Mother because she made a mipletset, or "horrid thing" for Asherah. What is this connection between Asherah and the Queen Mother, and what might the mipletset be? Some scholars have suggested that it could be connected to the asherah poles set up in the Jerusalem temple, whereas others have suggested the small pottery pillar figurines so common throughout Judah in the 8th century BCE. Furthermore, Jeremiah condemns the worship of the "Queen of Heaven", who is said to be worshiped by royalty, officials, and common folk alike. Many scholars have sought to identify this Queen of Heaven with Asherah. What is the function of this unnamed Queen of Heaven, and can she be associated with the royal court? How is Asherah connected to the Queen Mother, and could this association suggest something about the nature of the goddess and not just the Queen Mother? In other words, is this connection with Asherah an attempt to discredit the role of Queen Mother? Or is "Yahweh's Asherah" the consort of Yahweh, as has been supposed, or is she instead Yahweh's mother?

The presentation introduces a multiform learning environment for New Testament Greek developed at the Department of Biblical Studies in the University of Helsinki. This learning environment, Kamu, was granted the Teaching Technology Award by the University of Helsinki in 2003 and the National Award of Excellence in the Web Learning Technologies at the University Level by the Finnish Ministry of Education in 2005. Kamu is accessible in Finnish at www.helsinki.fi/teol/hyel/opiskelu/y65/kamu. The presentation will include demonstrations of various interactive exercises and games in English. In addition to the web material, Greek classes and a new textbook are part of the multiform learning environment. By using Kamu students can study Greek flexibly according to their own individual study plans and schedules. Web exercises give students immeadite feedback on their performance and enables an unlimited amount of repetitions in exercises dealing with Greek alphabets, vocabulary, different grammatical forms and translation of texts. Kamu contains self-correcting tests that help students to evaluate the level of their own learning and the need of further exercises. The principal aim is to enhance the effectiveness of Greek teaching by stimulating students to use more time on independent study. Kamu also helps to develop the teaching of Greek from traditional teacher-centered lectures into a more student-centered, self-paced and interactive learning experience. The presenters hope to share experiences in teaching ancient languages using interactive computer tools and welcome new ideas for the further development of the learning environment.

The First Epistle of John offers different meaning to its different audiences, different ways for different groups to live through the dire times ahead endeavoring to maintain koinonia of different kinds with the Father, through the Son. The LDS hermeneutic of continuing revelation and an ongoing apocalypticism is most significant for an LDS approach to elucidating the text of 1 John.

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The first poem of Jeremiah’s Book of Consolation, Jer 30:5-11, sets the tone for the Book of Consolation as a whole both by describing imminent destruction and exile and by holding out the promise of future restoration. Jer 30:5-11 also provides a window on the complex growth of the Book of Consolation, which includes older and newer strata. This paper traces how the concept of exile changes over the course of the poem’s redaction and the implications this has for understanding the description of exile in the Book of Consolation as a whole. Poem One opens with a fearful cry and an anguished description of the nation's distress, Jer 30:5-7. This oldest stratum asserts that the exile is final and may even have cast doubt on the notion that the people would be rescued. The poem looks beyond certain doom to the promise of divine rescue in its second half, Jer 30:8-11, variously attested in MT and LXX, so that what began in panic ends with consolation. The shift from understanding exile as a decisive end to understanding exile as a prelude to tantalizing possibility came as older strands of the tradition were redeployed to new audiences; the composition reflects a complex understanding of exile that engages and even reformulates earlier conceptions. The resulting hope of renewal, however, comes at a price: The more vivid the images of restoration, the more elusive their realization.

This paper is an observation and analysis of a previously unrecognized category of theophany in the Hebrew Bible, and the significant differences between this type of theophany and related concepts evident in other ancient Near Eastern literature. In the remarkable texts of Genesis 18:1-15 and 32:23-33, God appears to a patriarch in concrete, embodied human form and is defined by the narrator as a “man,” both times with the Hebrew word ’ish. These two texts have each been the object of a wide variety of interpretations, and they have never been studied together with regard to this issue. I argue that these two texts in which God appears concretely as a man reflect the same Israelite religious phenomenon, namely the human theophany, or more precisely, the ’ish theophany. In these passages, the theophany is characterized not only by God’s appearance in human form, but by the utterly realistic nature of this form. Yahweh is portrayed in graphic human terms, and cannot be distinguished from a human male through any visual clues. In Ugaritic, Mesopotamian, and other Near Eastern texts, however, gods who appear to humans in anthropomorphic form do so unrealistically, with visual clues such as superhuman size and strength. The concept of the realistic human theophany cannot be categorized according to any known type of divine-human communication among Israel’s neighbors. This also touches on the wider problem of the nature of the relationship between early Israelite and Canaanite religion. While there is surely a strong family resemblance in very many areas, the phenomenon of the ’ish theophany, as seen in these Genesis texts, reflects a feature of religious thought not attested for Canaanite religion. The current understanding that early Israelite religious thought was essentially like Canaanite must therefore be nuanced.

There are intriguing similarities between the ancient Egyptian opening of the mouth ritual (EOM) and the Book of Mormon. Specifically, the EOM contains about 50 specific parallels to a 34-chapter section of the Book of Mormon (Mosiah chapter 25 through Alma chapter 29), a section that amounts to about one-sixth of the entire book. About half of similarities occur as strictly sequential parallels, among them the following: (a) a main priest's quick fall into a painful sleep; a blessing upon mouth, eyes, and limbs; the priest's vision of God; the priest awakening to bear testimony of what he has experienced, including having been snatched from the wrappings which had held him captive; (b) a process of rebirth which is similar to the fashioning of wood, especially engraving an image of the face of God; (c) seven smitings, followed by a main priest appearing as a great feline; (d) a first cycle of mouth-opening involving a slaughter scene and the severing of an arm; the arm and other "marvels" being presented to the king to open his mouth; calling upon God; a woman mourning; a visitation by the "beloved son" followed by a scene of surpassing joy; (e) a second, abbreviated, cycle of mouth-opening involving a wounded arm; (f) weapons of peace to combat wickedness of heart; (g) offering of multiple glorifications; (h) sacrifices of one thousands; and (i) an escort to safety by four sons of a king. Possible explanations for similarities are considered, including some that hypothesize a third text that influenced both the EOM and the Book of Mormon.

This paper will present insights into Paul's life, thought, and letters gained from my attempt to render Paul as dramatic character in a performed monologue. Analyzing the letters from the perspective of dramaturgy brings one into conversation with traditional questions about Paul's life and thought (issues of chronology, the concrete occasions for the undisputed letters, the question of the "center" of Paul's thought, etc.); but it also compels one to account for the diversity in thought and tone by constructing a character whose motivations and traits can be comprehended by an audience as a (relatively) unified personality. The quest for the center of Paul shifts from the attempt to ground his life and thought in a central idea from which all others emanate to the question of what constitutes his fundamental goal as a human character, and the means he chooses to strive for that goal. Moreover, in terms of individual passages from the letters, such an endeavor brings to the fore the essentially oral character of Paul's expression.

Previous scholarship on John 6:51–71 has focused exclusively on whether the language is “Eucharistic. I propose a new literary context in which to understand this imagery: the ancient narratives of internal (civil) war. In Greek and Roman culture, cannibalism was a traditional way of talking about threats to society. Internal threats and dissention among fellow citizens were believed to overturn the value system within which people think and to destroy the old linguistic and semantic world. We find the classic expression in Thucydides’ narrative of the revolt (stasis) at Corcyra during the Peloponnesian War. Rebels and conspirators distort and misuse words, and the disturbance of discourse leads to cannibalism being revalued, a complete inversion of civilization and savagery. Cannibalistic metaphors, allusions, and scenes were, thus, a favorite horror of ancient writers on the topic (Tacitus, Sallust, Dio Cassius, Lucan) because its sickening imagery of self-evisceration and the mauling of corpses best manifested for ancients the grotesque indistinguishableness of humans and beasts. My hypothesis is that the author of John turned the slander of cannibalism, with which synagogue leaders may have originally branded the rebel Jesus-confessing sectarians, into a tool for self-definition. I intend to explore both the author’s indebtedness to classic literary models as well as his deviation from them. The cannibalistic language does not belong to misunderstandings of the Christian Eucharist as such, but is a rhetorical category located in the specific discourse of internal war.

Building upon recent work in holiness and purity in Ezra-Nehemiah, this paper argues for a unity of authorship in these books. There appears to be a maximal view of the two concepts in both Ezra and Nehemiah that includes not only the Temple and its priests but the laity as well (Eskenazi). Furthermore, the use of holiness and purity terminology (e.g. the roots qdsh, thr, tm', m'l, and bdl) throughout E-N sheds light on the unique way in which impurity is used throughout (Hayes, Carter, Schoper, Smith), more exclusionary and penalizing than other biblical texts (Douglas). The application of traditional impurity language and ritual to maintain ethnic purity appears for the first time in Jewish history and can be traced throughout the individual sources of both books (Olyan). While I argue with details of the particular claims of these scholars, their analyses reveal a new approach to holiness and purity deeply rooted in and shared by Ezra and Nehemiah and cleverly employed by what seems to be a single author to the same end.

What factors are involved in teaching at a self-defined "independent, Christian university" when the course is part of the general education curriculum? What do students bring to the class in terms of preconceptions and expectations of a general education course? How does the audience alter the approach to the topic? This presentation will reflect on the results of a survey conducted at Friends University in 2006 to assess student attitudes and expectations regarding the biblical literature courses taught within the general education curriculum.

There are several gospels that portray Mary Magdalene as an apostle. The most important of them are the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Mary. She enjoys personal authority as a person commissioned by the Lord. Other writings, such as the Gospel of Luke, do not see her in this role. It is possible that in some writings, former tradition about Mary Magdalene the apostle has been disregarded or actively suppressed. In my paper I will argue for a different option: the view of Mary Magdalene as an apostle might be the product of a new interpretation of older tradition at literary level. The existent gospels attest to a tradition of an encounter between Mary Magdalene and the risen Lord. In my opinion, however, John is the first gospel that presents this encounter as an appearance granting apostolic authority. To substantiate my theory of a literary development in the Magdalene tradition, I will discuss the interpretation of the Gospel of John, as well as the evidence from other writings (Gospel of Mary) pointing to an apostle Mary Magdalene. A comparison with other aspects of the Magdalene tradition (Mary Magdalene as a disciple, her involvement with the nature of discipleship) will also be helpful. Finally, the Thomas tradition shows a similar literary development, although there are differences in respect of the figure of Thomas.

In the ancient world, it was often believed that one could know something of a person’s inner moral character based on the person’s outward physical features. This study is known as physiognomy. Handbooks were written to index various physical attributes and their corresponding character traits. Thus, a common method of characterization was a physical description in which the description implies something about a person’s character. The most important bodily indicator for the physiognomist was undoubtedly the eye. Blindness, then, often carried a literary function beyond the obvious disability of the blind person; blindness was also used as a means of characterization. In most cases, especially in biblical literature, a character that is physically blind is likewise spiritually blind—the physical and spiritual conditions match. Greek literature has a few significant exceptions to this rule, and the paper would include discussion of those exceptions (one might think of the “blind prophets” such as Teiresias). The focus of the paper is twofold. First, the paper will explore examples of blindness in Greco-Roman literature in order to understand how blindness was generally understood in the literature of the world in which the NT grew up. Special attention will be given to the biblical literature and the ways in which blindness both fits and breaks the typical Greco-Roman usage. Second, the paper will explore the most notable example of blindness in the NT—the blinding of Saul. Saul, after his encounter with Christ, is curiously described: “though his eyes were open, he could see nothing.” The paper will suggest that in addition to the clear literal meaning, a symbolic and physiognomic reading might also be offered in which Saul’s physical condition has been made to match his prior spiritual condition.

The book of Joshua reflects a redactional program intent on ameliorating the militarism of Israel’s conquest traditions. This program can be detected by attention to three aspects of Joshua 2-12. First (following L. Stone), transitional comments recast military campaigns as defensive operations. Second, the narrative as a whole gradually redefines Israel’s “enemies” as the kings of the land rather than the peoples of the land. Third, anecdotes focused on identity issues have been attached to each of the first three, paradigmatic, battle accounts (at Jericho, Ai, and Gibeon). The anecdotes display structural and thematic parallels and, taken together, blur the distinctions between Israelites and Canaanites. The program overall constitutes an attempt to separate the conquest traditions from the ethnic antagonisms inherent within them and represents a recontextualization of these traditions in light of Israel’s experience in the land.

By using a cognitive linguistics approach, it is possible to demonstrate that frames, cognitive models and image schemas structure the early chapters of Jeremiah and provide a sense of unity for the text. The image of the boiling pot in Jeremiah 1.13 is the focus of this paper. While the image of the boiling pot is neither a full-form vision nor a literary metaphor, the sentence "I see a boiling pot, tilted away from the north," is both evocative and slightly menacing due to its underlying image schematic structure. The cognitive linguistics approach utilised in this paper employs a version of Langacker’s viewing arrangement diagram to re-conceptualize the relationship between author, text and reader. The re-conceptualization demonstrates that a combination of grammar, context, culture and embodied experience establishes connections between the originator and reader of text. The conceptualization of experience gives rise to cognitive models and image schemas. This paper will define and describe image schematic structure. It will examine several BH terms and constructions used to represent image schemas in Jeremiah 1.1-6.30, with particular emphasis upon the containment, force and path schemas that contribute to the boiling pot image and its explanation in Jeremiah 1.13-1.19. Finally, the paper will demonstrate that frames, cognitive models and image schemas occur across genres, which makes a cognitive linguistics approach useful for the analysis and description of BH prophetic text.

If it is true that the NT writings carry forward the story of Israel in hermeneutically diverse ways, what implications follow for Christian ethics? Most studies of NT ethics, including my own previous work, have paid insufficient attention to this question. This paper will seek to reflect upon some of the major ethical trajectories suggested by the NT authors' readings of Israel's Scripture.

This paper (part of a broader project to probe the role of named letter carriers in Paul's epistolary communication strategy) discusses the roles assigned to named letter carriers in around 40 personal letters among the Greek papyri contemporary with the NT.

Abraham's slave, Eliezer, attests to the important station to which some ancient Near Eastern slaves arose. In Mesopotamia, certain slaves also enjoyed a degree of autonomy. This paper will consider the semi-independent slaves of the Neo-Babylonian period, particularly those owned by the Egibi family. We will discuss their business activities, both as agents of their masters and as holders of their own property--the peculium. This will allow us to consider important questions of property, rights, and freedom as they pertain to ancient Babylonian slavery.

For all its irreverence, the movie Dogma raises some interesting theological questions that resonate with certain biblical texts and trends in modern theology. The presumed immutability and non-contradiction of divine decrees drive Dogma's plot, but these themes are complicated when referred to Amalek's annihilation and Saul's election and rejection. This paper will examine potential biblical and theological resources for addressing the problem that lies at the heart of the film.

The Bavli and its redactors in particular, often seem to use Elijah to voice their views and concerns, presenting him as expressing support for the rabbis’ right to legislate and interpret the Torah, eliminating conflicts, or criticizing the behavior of some rabbis. A comparison with the Yerushalmi and amoraic midrashic collections shows that the aggadic passages where Elijah appears often lack parallels, suggesting that they are Babylonian inventions. The language further indicates that many of the additions where Elijah appears are reworkings or creations of the redactors. Seen against the background of the challenge to their authority that the rabbis experienced in the Amoraic period, demonstrated by other scholars, this paper explores the possibility of understanding the fact that the redactors use Elijah to voice their concerns, both as a symptom of the reduced authority that the rabbis felt, and as attempts to bolster that very authority through affirmation from God through Elijah. This claim is supported by other ways of attempting to bolster rabbinic authority expressed in halakhic passages where both Talmuds, and the Bavli in particular, are very anxious to exclude Elijah from the process of determining halakhah, asserting their authority over his divine knowledge and reducing his role to a theoretical argument used to clarify different rabbinic positions.

While the Joseph narrative’s garment motif has received some scholarly attention, the literature generally neglects the high concentration and thematic significance of food and meals in this text. This paper argues that the recurrent references to food in Genesis 37-50 constitute a leitmotif which points out the shifts in the sibling rivalry theme throughout the progress of the plot. It argues that presence of food imagery in both Joseph’s and Pharaoh’s dreams, the setting of the climax of the story within the context of famine, the allusion to Potiphar’s neglect of everything except attention to his food, and most importantly the two significant meals which frame the story - that of the brothers after throwing Joseph in the pit, and that at which Joseph hosts his brothers in Egypt - function to alert the reader to the presence of material relevant to the plot’s theme of sibling rivalry and to highlight the various changes in the status of that rivalry throughout the course of the plot.. Generally following George Coats’ analysis of the Joseph Cycle’s plot, the paper traces the occurrence and function of the food leitmotif through the plot’s various stages highlighting its shifts in significance which closely accompany the shifts in the brothers’ relationships. The paper highlights the ways in which the primary turning points in the plot occur in the context of meals and the ways in which the food imagery develops from highlighting dissension in the story’s early stages to illustrating familial reconciliation and blessing in the plot’s conclusion.

Scholars who work primarily in the Hebrew Bible, the Greek New Testament, and other classical material have long had the capability of studying the grammar, morphology, and literature of their text corpus via commercial software programs. Efforts to move the study of Ugaritic into the electronic world to date have focused on digital reproduction of tablets and information storage and retrieval. The prodigious achievement of Laboratorio de Hermeneumatica (Instituto de Filologia) of Madrid, accomplished under the leadership of J. L. Cunchillos, J. A. Zamora and J. P. Vita, paved the way for new implementations of their data in a sophisticated, user-friendly software package. This presentation offers attendees the first look at the result of a recent licensing agreement between the Laboratorio and Logos Bible Software. The new software package not only allows searching of the Ugaritic corpus, but the results of those searches are fully integrated with digitized print works relevant to the study of Ugaritic.

This paper will examine a number of similarities in style, terminology and ideology between the prologue to the Book of Proverbs and the Qumran Community Rule. On a formal level, Michael Fox has drawn attention to the shared use of chains of infinitives of purpose in the Prologue of Proverbs and the Community Rule. The proposed paper will try to show that the relationship between both works is - perhaps surprisingly - close in a number of other areas too, such as the emphasis on ethical conduct which is esteemed more highly than sacrifices, the importance of council (esah), the stark choices available to those addressed and the threats that lurk and may side-track them along the wrong path. A noteworthy difference is the prominence of positive and negative portrayals of women in Proverbs over against 1QS. The most likely explanation for the shared features is to argue that the Qumran community has adapted and replaced the structures of learning and education previously practised in the home and school, but took over some of the language and framework. It is often argued that Proverbs 1-9 is addressed, at least partly, to young men on the brink of independence. Similarly, a case has been made that the Community Rule has a didactic purpose in helping new and old members making sense of their new identity as part of the community. More concretely we may have to allow for the possibility that the authors of the Rule themselves were part of the same educated and scholarly milieu as the one that produced Proverbs, and esp. Proverbs 1-9.

The account of the two prostitutes in I Kings 3:16-28 has long been held to be an interpolation demonstrating King Solomon’s exceptional wisdom. But this understanding has difficulties. The first woman’s story seems implausible in many respects, yet the king does not question her, and the judgment itself does not consider at all the testimony presented. The second half of the story could itself display the king’s wisdom; most of the first half is unnecessary for this purpose. The entire account furthermore does not mention Solomon by name; the king is associated with Solomon purely through the story’s placement within the larger narrative. A close reading of the passage suggests that the focus lies with the women, rather than with their judge. Each of the two near-equal halves (verses 16 through 22, and 23 through 28) has a tight chiastic structure. The first half focuses on the contrast between the “false” mother, who kills her own child, then rises at night to deceive. The second half is centered on the feelings of the “true” mother, who surrenders claim to her son, in order to save his life. While Claudia Camp identifies Solomon as the king, it seems more helpful to relate Solomon to the child who can easily end up with either woman as mother. The women’s uneasy relationship is set up by the four-fold repetition of bayit (house) in verses 17 and 18, paralleling the situation introduced at the start of I Kings 3 as Solomon brings his first foreign bride to Jerusalem. The story of the prostitutes before Solomon then serves as part of the foundation for the larger Solomon narrative, in which the presence of non-Israelite wives creates danger for the king.

The Münster Institute for New Testament Textual Research, Peter Robinson's Scholarly Digital Editions, Leicester, UK, and the German Bible Society, Stuttgart, cooperate in preparing the 28th edition of the Novum Testamentum Graece, known as Nestle-Aland, in digital form (funded in part by the German Research Foundation, Bonn.) The Catholic or General Letters part of the Digital Nestle-Aland will be presented in this session. The digital edition offers two main features not available in the printed book: transcripts of important Greek New Testament manuscripts (Nestle-Aland's 'consistently cited witnesses'), and a complete apparatus based on these transcripts. The comparison of any two or more manuscripts in any given verse has been made effortless. At every point, a careful distinction has been made between real variant readings and mere spelling differences so that the transcripts' apparatus is very easy to read (an original spelling collation is available as well.) At the same time, the digital edition is easier to use than the printed book, particularly for people new to the edition. There is no more any need to flip back and forth between the New Testament text and apparatus on the one hand and the book's introduction and appendices on the other, as the relevant information is made available by means of pop-up messages wherever critical signs, witness symbols, and abbreviations occur. Newly added features include an Expert Search function, a panel displaying dictionary entries for the Nestle text as well as the transcripts, and direct links from any given passage in a transcript to an image of the corresponding manuscript page whenever such images are freely accessible on the Internet.

The theology faculty at the University of Jena sought to become a self-proclaimed "stronghold of National Socialism" and it succeeded. Its professoriate during the Third Reich was dominated by professors who racialized the curriculum and by students who wrote dissertations supporting Nazi principles in theological language. The nazification was enabled not by a take-over by radical factions, but by the position of political neutrality adopted by Jena's most distinguished theologian, Karl Heussi. In the post-war years, as the Nazi professors were forced to resigned, Heussi reconstituted the faculty with ex-Nazis who made scrutiny of the Nazi-era complicity, and the Nazi-era PhD students went on to prominent positions within the post-war church.

In the Fall of 2005, Al Gore lectured in Los Angeles about global warming as part of the production of the new documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Gore compared some of the horrible plagues imagined in John's Apocalypse to the horrific repercussions of global warming around the world, repercussions which Gore demonstrated in a complex narrative of photographs, tables, and film clips. Through a focus on Gore's rhetoric of averting the global warming apocalypse, this paper explores the enduring prominence and power of the Apocalypse as it may be encountered throughout the US political imaginary. It is often recognized that Conservative Christians in the U.S.A. have used the horrific imagery of the Apocalypse in combination with the promise of an imminent End in order to shape politics, identities, and cultures. Many occupying different parts of the political Left have likewise turned to narratives of impending environmental doom and/or political totalitarianism. Given that such a variety of groups deploy these counterpoised apocalypticisms, what does this suggest about the social power of apocalyptic narratives over the social realities of different people? Successful deployment of the Apocalypse, and specifically of its horrors and end-time imagination, has been a significant source of social power for those who pursue it, and those who perceive themselves to be in situations of social distress often invoke apocalyptic rhetoric. Gore serves as an interesting example against this backdrop. Although he is part of the political mainstream, his speech comes at a time when many on the political Left feel disenfranchised. Is apocalyptic rhetoric most popular with groups who perceive themselves as disempowered or is it just such a central part of the US cultural imagination that it is hard to conceive of a historical trajectory outside of the Apocalypse?

Abstract for Benjamin Harshav's paper: Rhythm in poetry and other genres always rests upon (or is related to, or deviates from) a "metrical" system of recurring proportions. Without the foundations of such a system no rhythmical effect is possible. This paper will discuss principles of rhythm attested in poetry and other genres of the literature of the Hebrew Bible. Abstract for John Hobbins' paper: This paper will offer a description of ancient Hebrew verse that builds on Harshavian principles. The text model to be presented is an attempt to stipulate the continuously operating principles of organization at work in ancient Hebrew verse. I will show by example how biblical Hebrew poetry instantiates a textual hierarchy and a set of prosodic regularities characterized by freedom within clearly definable limits. A fuller account of the proposal is available online at: www.ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com.

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Torah, rendered as 'the law' in the extant versions, is a central theme of 4 Ezra. The original author of 4 Ezra had a much broader concept of 'Torah' than simply the Mosaic law; it can refer to all of Scripture, or, in Uriel’s speeches, to a more abstract entity associated with 'the way of the Most High.' Understanding Torah broadly as divine 'instruction,' the author of 4 Ezra raises the possibility of sources of Torah other than Scripture.

At the end of a listing of Levitical figures in Nehemiah 11, one finds the odd mention of a Judahite, one "Pethahiah." Moreover, Pethahiah is said to have "advised the king concerning all the affairs of the people." Past studies have sought to understand what role this might be in relation to the Persian court, the presumed mentioned "king." But such approaches failed to explain why the mention appears in this specific portion of the list. Taking the context of the list as a critical component for assessing the mention leads to some insights on the role of the list as well as the reason for Pethahiah's inclusion.

The primary intention of the liberal arts curriculum is to provide exposure to a variety of academic subjects while cultivating in the student the skills of intelligent reading, effective speaking and writing, and incisive critical analysis. The Religious Studies instructor in this context is largely freed from the obligation to present comprehensive overviews and may instead deal with perennial issues of religious inquiry through selected examples taken from specific religious cultures. In the case of biblical studies, the instructor need not deal at length with critical methodologies or the history of interpretation of the biblical texts. Instead, she or he may focus attention on the sorts of issues and questions that arise when documents created in ancient cultural contexts become the definitive body of divine revelation for later religious communities. Lectures, discussions, assignments, and examinations all may concentrate on questions raised by particular passages or situations taken from the biblical texts, with the evaluation of responses based on the students’ ability to recognize and grapple with the central issues and present their conclusions clearly in speaking or writing. In this way, the course becomes a way for students to understand and practice how to investigate biblical texts in a way consistent with the skills and values of the wider liberal arts curriculum. This discussion will be supplemented with examples drawn from twenty years of teaching at Allegheny College, a traditional liberal arts institution.

The letter of consolation is an established ancient genre, and Paul's letter to the Philippians is such a letter. It is rendered more or less unique, however, by the fact that it is Paul the sufferer (the prisoner) who is writing to console those grieving on his behalf, not the other way around. To my knowledge no ancient parallel for this exists, except Seneca's strikingly similar letter of consolation to his mother Helvia on the occasion of his own exile. In this paper I attempt to clarify Paul's consolatory strategy in Philippians with reference to Seneca's letter.

America’s complex on-going affair with the Bible generated a precocious fascination with the Bible-lands and their material remains, as witness the fanfare surrounding the cuneiform bricks exhibited in NYC in 1817. By the 1830s, new technologies in print production, changing tastes in visual culture, a growing thirst for accurate historical contextualization, and the rise of a generation of American-born Orientalists in conversation with their European counterparts resulted in an influential Bible commentary boasting the latest word in cuneiform decipherment, aggressively marketed by John C. Holbrook of Brattleboro, Vermont.

This fragmentary tomb inscription of the fifth century B.C.E. was found by Sir Flinders Petrie near Sheikh Fall in his 1921-1922 campaign in Egypt. The genre of the inscription has been described as a tomb biography (Giron, Dalley), or as a piece of fictional literature (Lemaire, Porten). Lemaire in his editio princeps in 1995 related it to several Aramaic and Egyptian literary traditions, including H.or son of Pawenesh (in Aramaic and Demotic), the Cycle of Petubastis/Inaros (in Demotic), Setne Khamwas (in Demotic), the story of Ah.iqar (in Aramaic and Demotic), and the “Story of Two Brothers” from Papyrus Amherst 63 (Aramaic in Demotic script). Moreover, Egyptologists Vittmann and Ryholt have suggested that the key to understanding this inscription is to be found in the reading of the name of a character appearing in a broken context. They understand the name in question to be Ynh.rw (the Aramaic form of Inaros), rather than Snh.rw (as suggested by Porten and Yardeni) or Ynh.tw (as suggested by Lemaire). If so, the inscription may be the earliest story concerning Inaros, an Egyptian hero whose story cycle is set in the seventh century BCE, but who was previously known only from Demotic manuscripts dating to the late Ptolemaic and Roman periods. This paper explores the literary context of the Sheikh Fall inscription, especially its possible relationship to the Inaros stories —of which it would be the earliest representative— and its relationship to other Aramaic literature.

Previous investigations on the distribution of "'asher" and "sh" in Qoheleth have not succeeded in identifying either a convincing pattern of distribution or a plausible explanation for the presence of both relative words in the same book, which are at times interwoven in the same verse or set of verses. This paper will once again attempt to discern whether there may exist a rhyme or reason for the use of "'asher" and "sh" in Qoheleth. This study will build upon this researcher’s investigation of the syntactic, diachronic, and dialectal issues in relative clause strategies in ancient Hebrew, and will consider whether the use of the two relative words in Qoheleth is connected to “code-switching” for the literary purpose of advancing the royal persona for the voice of Qoheleth.

Among Syriac-speaking Christians, the poetry of the fourth-century Ephraem the Syrian is at the heart of theological reflection, spirituality, and liturgical life. Early Christian communities recognized his impact and authority by distinguishing him with the epithet “Harp of the Spirit.” Recent studies (Horn, 2000 and 2002) have explored some of the liturgical, sacramental, and dogmatic dimensions of Ephraem’s pneumatology. Although Ephraem died in 373, his pneumatology was as sophisticated as that of the Cappadocian theologians and ultimately may have inspired the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit that is associated with the Council of Constantinople (381). Thus far however, contextual factors that shaped Ephraem’s thought on the Holy Spirit have not been considered appropriately. This paper contributes to the exploration of fourth-century pneumatology in Asia Minor and Syria by examining a central motif that Ephraem employs when he speaks of the infusion of the Spirit into the world. Throughout his metrical sermons (memre) and his poems (madroshe), Ephraem features the Spirit as tearing the veil of the Temple and leaving the Temple at the time of Jesus’ death. While the scene as such is based on a quotation from Matthew’s gospel, Ephraem added pneumatology and a critique of Judaism as two distinct elements to his biblical interpretation. This paper offers a twofold explanation for this phenomenon. It shows that both Rabbinic thought and earlier Christian interpretive traditions that are evidenced in patristic Latin and Greek sermons (Pseudo-Cyprian and Melito of Sardis) are sources for Ephraem’s thought, or at least are parallels to this interpretation. Taking account of recent research on traces of anti-Judaism in Ephraem’s work (Shepardson, 2003), this paper also situates Ephraem’s presentation of the Spirit as deserting the Jews within the context of the poet-theologian’s struggle on behalf of orthodoxy within his own community.

In the first century CE the lines between the early Jesus movement and Judaism were blurry, if not non-existent. Some NT scholars have asserted the necessity of an exclusively Jewish context and audience for many, if not all, of the books and letters of the Christian canon. But can we say that this carries over into the extra-canonical literature of the second or even third centuries of the common era? Conventional wisdom says that anything outside the canon that mentions Jesus is Christian. It is assumed that by the second century, Jesus can reliably be used to identify Christian communities. My research, however, does not bear this out. This paper will discuss two texts (Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Protoevangelium of James) where the presence of Jesus does not necessarily indicate Christianity, at least not a form that is recognizable as such. The Apocalypse of John will also be considered. These ‘Jesus’ texts resonate more with the concerns and sensibilities of proto/early-rabbinic Judaism. They call into question the way historians determine the cultural provenance of a text and assign it to a ‘community’. They force scholars to examine the assumptions and prejudices that inform our conclusions about both Judaism and Christianity during these centuries of great change. This paper hopes to open a discussion of how scholars make distinctions between religious groups.

The debate in the mid-1980s between John Elliott and David Balch was a high point in the discussion of 1 Peter, not least in relation to the differing ways in which social-scientific resources might be used to illuminate the dynamics of the relationship between the community and the world, as depicted and promoted in the letter. Building on the work of writers such as James C. Scott, who have studied the forms of everyday peasant resistance, and on postcolonial theorists’ analyses of the ways in which subject peoples relate to empire, this paper will set out new theoretical resources with which to conceptualise the relationship between community and world, church and empire, in 1 Peter. These resources may provide one way beyond the contrast between seeing 1 Peter either as promoting a sectarian opposition to the world or as encouraging assimilation to it. Analysing the letter in the light of this framework, the paper will seek to characterise the letter’s stance towards the empire, somewhere between conformity and resistance.

In order to understand the lives of Jews and other subjected peoples under Roman rule, we need a more multifaceted sense of how power operated in the Roman imperial order. Both Jewish and Christian interpreters have usually understood the Temple in Jerusalem primarily or mainly as one of two central institutions of ancient “Judaism.” When we attempt to ask a more complex set of questions about the historical context in which the Temple was situated, however, its role and attitudes toward it become much more complicated. From the foundation of the Temple and temple-state under the Persian imperial regime, it functioned as an instrument of imperial rule in Judea. In what way did that change, and perhaps become enhanced, when the Roman-appointed Herod massively rebuilt the Temple complex and installed his own creatures in high priestly office? Since Persian times, there had been dissenting voices among Judeans about the legitimacy and operation of the Temple. In what way did that change or continue under Roman and Herodian rule? The early Roman period was framed by massive popular revolts against the Herodians and high priests, who were Roman client rulers. How may that have been particular to Roman rule? In the broader context of the Roman empire, to what extent may the Herodian Temple have functioned as an institution designed partly for the Jewish diaspora under the conditions of Roman rule? And, finally, how may the response to the Temple among diaspora Jews have differed from that among Judeans and Galileans?

Animals who talk with humans, in the sense of communicating via human speech, appear only twice in the Hebrew Bible: the serpent converses with Eve (Genesis 3), and the ass rebukes Balaam (Numbers 22). In each case the animal is a prominent character in the narrative, and the animal’s speech changes the course of the story. Instances of direct discourse between human beings and animals are also rare in other ancient Near Eastern literature; animals frequently converse with each other, and occasionally with deities, but almost never with humans. Rather than recognizing the non-human to human speech in Genesis 3 and Numbers 22 as a unique literary phenomenon worthy of deeper consideration, most commentators dismiss an animal’s ability to speak as a generic convention of fables or of “primitive” literature. Re-reading Genesis 3 and Numbers 22 with particular attention to the voices of the serpent and donkey reveals that these two talking animals are no mere generic conventions. Instead, they share a unique literary function that, while not necessarily frequent enough to comprise its own form, nevertheless sets these two texts apart from the fable genre. The ability of the ass and serpent to converse with Balaam and Eve, respectively, is not a narrative elevation of the animals from subhuman to human capacities, but rather depicts their close affinities with the deity. The text of each story is saturated with the vocabulary of divine revelation; the speech of the animals, who see and know what humans cannot, mediates between God and the humans, giving humanity access to God. Rather than a primitive device used to introduce moralizing elements into texts, animal speech operates in Genesis 3 and Numbers 22 as a carefully constructed way to bring knowledge of the divine to humanity.

Elijah's jouney to Mt. Horeb in 1 Kings 19:1-18 portrays the struggles of a man who displays hopelessness. In 1 Kings 18:14-16 he had defeated the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel. Instead of bringing about national repentance, Elijah is threatened by the queen of Israel, Jezebel. Fleeing for his life, Elijah journeys 40 days to Mt. Horeb where he is confronted with the reality of the situation and is directed by God to return to Israel. Using Cognitive Theory as a base, the paper explores Elijah's experiences and God's response as described by the writer of the text. Beck's Negative Cognitive Triad (Beck 1997, 1987, 1967), which consists of a negative view of one's self, one's world, and one's future, provides the framework for understanding Elijah's sense of despair. God's directive response to Elijah is also consistent with the approach advocated by Cognitive Theory.

The Jewish and Christian sacred writings have inspired visual artists throughout the centuries, yielding an artistic tradition as varied as the biblical texts themselves. These works of art range from ancient frescos and mosaics to medieval manuscript illuminations to contemporary photography, reflecting not only different mediums and styles, but also different historical contexts and intentions. Using visual art to teach the Bible, consequently, can involve a number of specific strategies and a multiplicity of purposes. More importantly, using visual art in teaching the Bible offers a range of possible rewards, such as increased student engagement and understanding of interpretive problems. Drawing upon categories articulated by Katharine Martinez in an article on how historians employ the visual ("Imaging the Past: Historians, Visual Images and the Contested Definition of History" Visual Resources 11 [1995]: 21-45) and the work of Robin Jensen on early Christian art (Understanding Early Christian Art [London: Routledge, 2000]), this paper explores a number of ways in which visual art can be used in the classroom. These strategies include "reading" visual pieces that specifically illustrate a particular text to explore multiple meanings in a text and using non-figurative images as a way of engaging students to think about more abstract concepts related to biblical studies (such as using Pauls Klee's abstract oil painting Ancient Sound to think about canon formation).

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Both blood and water provide powerful images in the first half of the Gospel of John—water to wine at Cana in John 2:1-11; water and spirit being the source of the new birth in 3:1–21; water “springing up to everlasting life” in 4:4-42; the troubled waters of the pool of Bethesda being a source or, better, a type of healing in 5:1-16; Jesus’ blood being a source of life in the Bread of Life Discourse of 6:26-59; and rivers of living water flowing from those who believe on Jesus in 7:37-39. Critical to understanding this symbolism is the sign of the blood and water that stream from Jesus’ side as he hangs from the cross in 19:34-45, where it becomes apparent that they are symbols of Jesus’ dual nature: his ability to lay down his life as an offering for sin, but his continued ability to be the source of life for those who accept him. The high christology of John has particular resonance for the Latter-day Saints, where the Logos hymn of 1:1-18 accords with LDS teachings on premortality but in particular with the premortal identity and role of Jesus before the incarnation. In addition, several passages of restoration scripture and LDS teaching shape the hermeneutic that Latter-day Saints can bring to bear on the exegesis of the gospel, particularly the teaching of 1 Nephi 11:12-33 on the condescension; Doctrine and Covenants 93:2-22 on the incarnation and the mortal Jesus’ growing “from grace to grace”; and the significance mortal bodies quickened by blood and immortal, resurrected bodies quickened by spirit. These perspectives allow an interpretation of the blood and water imagery that makes these elements symbolic of mortality and eternal life, making them truly semeia of who Jesus was and what he did for mankind.

The biblical manuscripts in the Freer Gallery of Art, six codices palaeographically dated from the third through the sixth centuries CE, comprise one of the most significant collections of such material in the world. Yet, after an initial frenzy of popular and scholarly interest after their acquisition in the early 20th century, they have only occasionally been studied seriously by scholars, and are widely unknown among the public. The project reported on in this session brings together the work of a group of scholars focused on these under-utilized manuscripts.

Despite the lack of an explicit citation from Numbers in the Pauline epistles, there are indeed a number of unquestionable allusions to Numbers in 1 Corinthians. Especially 1 Corinthians 10 is replete with such allusions (vv. 4-10). For instance, in 1 Cor 10:8-10 Paul mentions three tragic events written exclusively in Numbers 11:4, 34; 21:5-6; and 25:1-9. All of these are referred to as the negative examples to be avoided (cf. 1 Cor 10:6, 11). But Paul’s conscious use of Numbers is not limited to this chapter. The allusions to Numbers are made not only in the latter chapters (Num 11:29/1 Cor 14:5; Num 12:8/1 Cor 13:12; Num 18:8, 31/1 Cor 9:13; Num 21:3/1 Cor 12:3.) but also in the earlier chapters. In his insightful essay, “The Systematic Use of the Pentateuch in 1 Corinthians,” Thomas L. Brodie pays close attention to the affinities between the earlier chapters of 1 Corinthians and Numbers. Among others, he claims, situational similarity can be the most telling evidence of Paul’s dependence on Numbers in 1 Corinthians: like Moses who had to handle the various crises in the community of the people of Israel (Num 11-17), Paul as the founder of the Corinthian community had a similar need to deal with the various crises in it (1 Cor 3:1-5:8). The present paper aims to further develop Brodie’s idea and demonstrate how effectively Paul uses Numbers especially in 1 Corinthians 1-5 to handle these crises, including the crisis of his apostolic authority, at Corinth.

Amalek is the archetypal enemy of Israel, ultimately becoming the symbol of anti-Semitism leading to the hereditary hostility between Israel and Amalek being considered as the “longest hatred.” In Jewish historical tradition, Amalek became the typus of the irreconcilable enemy of the Israelites, to be wiped out from the world. All the great persecutors of the Jewish people across the centuries are regarded as descendants of Amalek, including Antiochus, Titus, and Hitler. After the Persian War in 1992, Israeli bakeries sold “Haman’s ear,” a special pastry eaten on Purim, which was decorated to look like Saddam Hussein. In contrast, the Arabs regard Amalek as their oldest ancestor and themselves as the descendant of Amalek, since Amalek is mentioned in many Arabic writings. T. Nöldeke argues that the origin of the Arabic accounts about the Amalekites was rooted in the Old Testament and that Amalek had been mystified by the Arabs for their own purpose. Since both of the Jewish interpretation and the Arabic accounts of Amalek are based on the Old Testament from their own bias, we need to return to the Old Testament for a proper understanding of the origin of their long continuing hostility. The question is, why are the Amalekites singled out when so many nations attacked and oppressed Israel? It is surprising that there is no divine command to eradiate any nation except Amalek, regarding as irreconcilable evil. I will analyze the Biblical texts related to Amalek and then, in relation to the desert nomads in the Sinai Peninsula, I will investigate the socio-cultural difference and relationship between flock nomads and desert nomads in the early history of Israel. Also the post-exilic context of Israel will be considered, because some of the Biblical accounts could be added in the post exilic period.

Scholars argue about the Christological significance of Jesus’ anointing by an anonymous woman in Mark 14:3-9, Matthew 26:6-13 and Luke 7:36-50, but in John 12:1-8, named Mary of Bethany. Whether or not the woman was a prostitute or whether her act was decent is also at issue in much scholarship. Who are we to remember? This paper looks at the ancient texts of mythical and ritual anointing of Adonis by Aphrodite and the women who were thought to personate her in human life: prostitutes. In such a model for anointing, the ritual, symbolic and erotic significance of the event remembered in the gospels can be seen as one integrated act. Important to prostitutes is what history is remembered and whether the act of anointing Jesus is their history. This line of research was instigated by of the activist prostitutes of the Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP), in Berkeley California, with whom I have collaborated to read biblical prostitution from the standpoint of prostitutes.

Eusebius composed Preparatio Evangelica and Demonstratio Evangelica as an apologetic work for the practice of verbal confrontation with the Greeks and the Jews. In his depiction of Christianity as a new ethnic and religious category, Eusebius makes room for two new rhetorical locations in the divide between Greeks and Jews, respectively the “Christians” and “Hebrews.” He then places Christianismos in a process devolving from the glorious Hebrews of the past, through the low point of Greeks and the depression of Jews, to Christians as future Hebrews drawn from all the nations. These new Hebrews supersede the Jews and recover the older, higher moral standards of the ancient Hebrews, whereas the Jews renounced these standards in Egypt, and having ignored their own prophets, put Jesus to death. I hope to show in this paper that Eusebius’ apologetic writings employ a rhetoric of appropriation and displacement of Jewish past and Hellenistic philosophy. Writing mainly for the pagan converts to Christianity, Eusebius grants the Greeks a high chance for integration in the Christian politeia. On the other hand, he relegates the Jews to a dispensable role in the chain of transmitting the Torah and prophetic Hebrew books, as well as the “genetic” information, from the Hebrews to Jesus Christ, and subsequently to the Christians. As a result, Eusebius guarantees Christianismos a place on the ontological map of oikoumene, whereas the textual category of “Hebrews” provides it with a secure archaic character, definitely pre-Jewish, through “ethnic argumentation.”

Moral claims that wealthier members in agrarian societies have the responsibility to help insure the basic subsistence needs of peasants underlie both Pentateuchal laws concerning the poor and prophetic critiques of the rich. James Scott argues that such provisions for the poor, supported by moral claims and sanctions, are central to the "moral economy" that functions widely in agrarian societies. The third-year tithe (Deuteronomy 14) and the various provisions for the poor included in Deuteronomy 28-29 (prohibition of usury; payment of wages daily; exhortation not to deny justice to the vulnerable; gleaning rights) suggest that such a moral economy functioned in Israel. These laws reflect characteristic moral claims made by peasants in other agrarian societies: they focus primarily on prohibitions of exploitation; they provide no mechanisms for enforcement, but employ motive clauses to lay a moral obligation on the wealthy; and they do not eliminate exploitation or promote equality among all members of society, but provide help for peasants to meet their basic subsistence needs. Peasants in agrarian societies accept exploitation (grudgingly), but hold to a subsistence ethic which, when threatened, leads to conflict (though rarely in the form of violence). Instead, peasants engage in acts of resistance or employ rhetoric that aims to shame the wealthy or appeal to moral norms. This paper contends that such moral rhetoric operated in Israel and is reflected particularly in the kind of legal materials described above. Recent arguments that such legislation reflects conflict among elite groups within Israel rather than concern for the poor will be challenged. Even if such could be demonstrated, that there is a presumption that the vulnerable must be helped, even if only minimally, suggests that a moral ethic that respected the subsistence needs of peasants was operative in Israel.

By the mid-to-late 1960s, as the contents of the Nag Hammadi and Qumran finds filtered outside of academia, fantasies about the possibilities of a gospel “smoking gun” began to fade from the popular imagination of an eager U.S. audience. Not coincidentally, perhaps, scholars of the time began popularizing other potentially electrifying gospel “discoveries,” such as the hypothetical gospel source document “Q” and the secret (yet somehow recoverable) counter-histories of The Passover Plot. Alongside the disappointments of the deserts and the paler compensations of academic reconstruction, I trace in this paper an additional front by which we might gauge the possibilities simmering in the American religious imagination during this period: the “gospel thriller,” a subgenre emerging in Anglophone markets from the 1960s onward, in which a newly discovered (often autograph) gospel threatens to shatter the foundations of Christianity. A race against time to prove (or disprove) the new gospel’s authenticity usually implicates (in modes both flattering and discomfiting) myriad scholarly and confessional interests. Unbounded by the quasi-scientific reconstructions of scholarship, “gospel thrillers” provided readers a means simultaneously to critique and endorse the productive imaginations of academic inquiry.

The study of ancient depictions of 'madness' is frought with many of the same difficulties of any cross-cultural study. It is easy to fall in the trap of reading particular 'symptoms' and automatically linking them to a specific modern, Western diagnosis. 1 Sam. 21-11:16 is unusual in that (even more directly than Dan. 4) one is provided with an emic depiction of what the composer of the narrative clearly thought best exemplified 'madness'. The paper will comment upon the terminology used, on the motif of pretension of madness (e.g. Odysseus, Hamlet), and the broader function of the pericope in the story of David's rise.

The use and abuse of religious imagery and symbols in politics, including American politics, is a well established historical fact. This paper will however endeavor to illustrate the growing tendency by American politicians to use religion to justify certain policies or political positions and mobilize public support for these policies. The paper will dwell on three main aspects of this relationship between the world of politics and the word of God:1. Is there anything new about the current mixing of religion and politics in American political life? 2. Many in the American religious establishment are willing partners in this emerging trend. Is the distinction between Church and State getting fuzzier in the 21st century? 3. Religion and politics have always been an explosive mixture. Unfortunately, however, religion is the weakest link in this formulation and is therefore more likely to get damaged again in the process.

The Qumran community envisioned a progressive revelation of law beginning with Moses and finding its most recent expression among its own sectarian leaders. Whereas in rabbinic tradition in which the prophets function as the first group of post-Mosaic tradents of the Oral Torah (i.e., m. Abot 1:1), at Qumran the classical prophets are conceptualized as the second stage in the progressive revelation of law, whereby they amplify and supplement the Torah. For the Qumran community this provides an important methodological foundation regarding the importance of prophetic scriptural literature in sectarian legal hermeneutics. As prophets entrusted with the added task of lawgiving, the prophetic scriptural word is understood as a valid formulation of divine juridical desire. This model seemingly provides the background for the general tendency in Qumran legal texts to rely upon non-Pentateuchal prophetic sources as scriptural support for the establishment of post-biblical law. Scholarly assessment of the legal authority of prophetic scripture has ranged from the view that Qumran legal hermeneutics place equal legal force to Pentateuchal and non-Pentateuchal passages to the suggestion that non-Pentateuchal citations play a limited role in sectarian legal exegesis. In this paper, I gather together the legal uses of non-Pentateuchal scripture and examine the function of these citations. By drawing upon comparative Second Temple period legal material and rabbinic sources, I determine the exegetical role of the non-Pentateuchal passages and the nature of their application in the individual legal formulations. After looking more closely at the data, I offer some larger observations on the role of the ancient prophetic word in the legal system of the Qumran community. Finally, I call attention to the continuing traces of this debate in rabbinic tradition and ways in which the Qumran material can help frame this discussion.

The quest for the secrets of first century Galilee has become an issue of intense interest in recent research fuelling not least the at times heated debate about the cultural and socio-economic setting of the Historical Jesus. Especially a growing interest can be traced in Herod Antipas’ impact on the region’s socio-economic stability. Was he good or bad news for the ordinary rural peasant population and did his urbanization programme had a crucial impact on the Historical Jesus? No consensus has been reached and Antipas is presently being used as cornerstone in conflicting pictures of Galilee as being in good and stable conditions or under heavy economic pressure leading to increasing indebtedness and tenancy. Surprisingly, nevertheless, the reign of Antipas has only been treated incomprehensively the last three decades, since the dissertation of H. Hoehner from 1972, in which period intense archaeological activity has accumulated new insights on ancient Galilee. This presentation, building on a larger research investigation, therefore aims at surveying the sources to the reign of Antipas of both literary and archaeological nature in order to determine the socio-economic consequences hereof, and it will be argued that Antipas’ impact on early first century Galilee was most likely more moderate than many times assumed by Historical Jesus scholars.

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Allegedly established on the basis of the book of Esther, the feast of Purim is typically characterized by carnivalesque behaviour, role reversals, masquerading and excess. I examine some of the ways in which themes in the book of Esther are deployed in certain politically progressive contemporary interpretations and enactments of Purim, with particular attention to Purim’s underlying subversives notes. I approach this as one interested in the ways religious communities make use of scriptural and ritual resources to fund political agendas. Purim is used as a site for political resistances and subversions of various kinds. This analysis dialogues closely with the text of the book of Esther, intertwining a feminist and poststructuralist reading of it with a consideration of contemporary interpretations of Purim, and how these are performatively enacted. Examining Esther from this perspective, we can see it as embodying networks of power, identity and authority in the production of a carnivalesque satire. As I shall show, the desire for power, the inversion of power, and the exercise of power are dominant themes within the text - as also is the relationship of power to gendered and ethnic identity. And in Esther, we can see various networks of power and identity at play: the politics of gender, of ethnicity, of authority, of honour and of pleasure. Stalking this nexus of power plays is the politics of death. This is the ghost at the seemingly endless series of feasts.

The Jewish feasts mentioned in John 5-12 provide a thematic backdrop to the narrative’s action. The presentation of Jesus’ identity and his teaching allude to language and practices that are consistent with our understanding of the first century practice of these feasts. This paper will specifically examine what information these feasts give about the historicity of John’s presentation of Jesus. First, it will be suggested that the feasts can be understood as presenting a consistent chronology of Jesus’ ministry. The three accounts which mention the Passover are especially important for a reconstruction of the chronology of Jesus’ ministry. This paper will show that it is crucial to begin with the narrative purpose of the feasts as they are presented before attempting to understand any chronology they may present. Second, what does the Gospel of John’s strategy of using the Jewish feasts tell us about the historical setting relatively to the destruction of the Temple in CE 70? This paper will consider whether it is better to understand the accounts of Jesus’ actions at the feasts in light of the aftermath of the destruction of the Temple, or as recollections from before the destruction of the Temple. Third, this paper will build on Adele Reinhartz’ inquiry about “the Gospel of John as a potential source of knowledge of first-century Judaism” (Reinhartz 2005,110). Is the Gospel of John’s treatment of the Jewish feasts consistent with the trajectory of Jewish belief and practice throughout the Second Temple period?

This poster shows the first application of a contemporary theory of creativity to the ancient Hebrew text that epitomizes the surprising resolution of an overwhelming tragedy, while raising major theological issues. Analyzing the text in terms of creativity theory puts these longstanding concerns in better perspective, while other issues emerge and receive their due at last. One theoretical approach to the formal study of human creativity (Rhodes, 1961) and a recent monograph that develops and applies it (Isaksen, 2000) underlie this new analysis of the book of Job. The poster applies the theory to the cardinal strands of the Job drama as a paradigm for wise behavior that encompasses social, practical, moral, and aesthetic concerns: in broader, albeit less familiar terms, these are the parameters for the positive exercise of creativity. An overview of the whole book shows how its structure is consonant with four basic questions that embody distinct facets of the formal study of human creativity. In terms of the “Four P’s” of the theory, those (concurrent) questions investigate what may be the best ‘Press’ (context), the most effective Process, the prerequisite Personal traits, and some useful criteria for appraising the Products of creativity. One by one the succeeding quarters of the text speak to these topics. The book of Job is concerned with more than an attempt to justify the ways of God to man: it also considers how humans, made distinctively creative in God’s image, are to justify themselves to their Creator.

This paper concretizes the strategies which Amy Hollywood proposes in her paper, "Strategies for the Study of Women's Religious Experience," by analyzing select aspects of women's religious experience in the Greek world. This study complements other papers in the session, Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity, including Patricia Ahearne-Kroll’s "The Portrayal of Aseneth's Religious Experience in ‘Joseph and Aseneth’” and John R. Levison's "Eve's Religious Experience in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve."

In a paper presented at the SBL International Meeting in 2005, I have proposed that the Books of Chronicles should be seen as "Reforming History". The ambiguity of the expression is intentional, indicating that the Books of Chronicles are simultaneously an attempt to reformulate and sanitize the older traditions about the past, as well as an attempt to reformulate the identity of God's people in the changed socio-historical circumstances of the late Persian era. This proposal contributes to the ongoing debate on the nature of Chronicles (which was also reflected in the discussion of two recent Chronicle commentaries – by Knoppers and McKenzie – at the 2005 SBL Annual Meeting). My present contribution will present more textual support for my proposal. My paper will discuss a number of the more crucial royal narratives in Chronicles in order to show how the communicative intention of these narratives was refocused from their Deuteronomistic versions. It will be shown how slight changes in the narrative structures resulted into a literature which shows continuity with the past, but also subtly contributes to a process of identity formation in the present of the late Persian era.

Socrates Scholasticus, an historian writing a history of the church of the 4th and early 5th Century, stated that the beliefs of Arius spread and from a “little spark a large fire was kindled” (Eccl. Hist. I.6) throughout Egypt and parts of North Africa. He also stated that it spread because of Eusebius, the bishop of Nicomedia. It was Eusebius of Nicomedia who baptized Emperor Constantine at the end of his life and after his death, his son Constantius remained an Arian, while his two brothers, Constantine II and Constans, both remained Nicene or Catholic. Eusebius was a tireless supporter of Arius and his form of Christianity. We will examine the acceptance and spread of Arianism, mostly focusing on Eusebius of Nicomedia. Because of his efforts, Arianism spread not only in the East of the Roman Empire, but also north beyond its boundaries. This form of Christianity would come back into the Empire as these northern peoples traveled into the Roman West.

Prophets employ a rhetoric of horror in order to convince their audience to reform their evil behavior. The prophet Jeremiah describes a monstrous enemy that approaches from the North to devour sinful Israel. No less monstrous is the image of wounded Israel, as the victims' bodies become food for the birds and beasts. Using horror theory, this paper examines the monsters of the book of Jeremiah and considers their rhetorical impact. Horror theorists Noel Carroll, Julia Kristeva, and Barbara Creed provide useful criteria for identifying and analyzing Jeremiah's monsters. In the book of Jeremiah, two distinct monstrous figures emerge--God the aggressor and Israel the vanquished. Careful examination reveals how the monsters of Jeremiah reflect the peculiar position of the prophet who stands between God and the people and the power of his rhetoric to address both. Monstrous Israel serves to warn Israel of what will happen if they do not reform. Monstrous God terrifies Israel, but also demonstrates the extent of God's anger and cruelty and works to modify God's behavior. The monsters of Jeremiah reveal God's power and the power of the prophet to affect God.

The relationship between the people of Israel, the Gentile nations, and YHWH, Israel's God, remains a central question in modern Jewish-Christian dialogue. Second Isaiah's description of Israel as a "covenant to the people, a light to the nations" has often been cited as evidence of a universal missionary impulse. Yet the larger context of 2nd and 3rd Isaiah, focused on the central themes of Israel's divine election and impending redemption, contains little interest in conversion of the nations. Rather, the nations are invoked as part of the universal exaltation of Israel's God. While the nations facilitate Israel's return and acknowledge the sovereignty of her God, they are not the recipients of an organized mission. Howevr, Second Isaiah's denial of the existence of foreign gods, challenging the views of Deuteronomy and DtrH which accorded some level of legitimacy to the gods of the other nations, has implications for the status of foreigners vis-a-vis Israel's God. In the latest pieces of 3rd Isaiah, 56 and 66, one finds Gentiles turning towards Israel's God in worship, not simply in acknowledgement of his exalted status.

James R. Davila, The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha: Jewish, Christian or other?, states on p. 78 that the Ascension of Isaiah was "composed by a Christian in Greek in the second century, although it may incorporate an earlier Jewish source." The paper discusses the different attempts at delineating such a source, and the methods used in these attempts. The methodological proposals of Davila, pp. 64-66, are taken into consideration for AscIs. It is suggested that the Jewish part of the material in AscIs, unlike its parallels in the Talmud, reveals an anti-Samaritan bias. A further criterion for finding the Jewish origins of Old Testament pseudepigrapha transmitted by Christians is therefore proposed: the presence of Jewish polemics.

Enuma Elish concludes with the founding of Babylon as the "center of religion" and the construction of Marduk's temple-home in its midst. It both establishes a mythic (eternal, necessary) relation between Marduk and his sacred abode and simultaneously creates a mythic relationship between Marduk and the Babylonians, who are created into an eternally fixed cosmic station, service of the gods. The Law Code of Hammurabi contributes to the same general picture. Hammurabi places his divine calling as king at the time Anu and Enlil "allotted supreme power over all peoples to the god Marduk," that is, at the time of creation. His law code, part of his mythic appointment as "pious prince, who venerates the gods, to make justice prevail in the land" spells out the principles of this justice enjoined upon his subjects. Biblical traditions deal with similar concerns, but due to Israel's "historical consciousness," it could not take its relation to Yahweh for granted. It is premised instead on a historical (temporal, contingent) encounter—one that takes place, as Lacan emphasized, "as if by chance." This encounter—or better, several encounters—is therefore conceived of as a covenant, a human political form—which in contrast to Hammurabi's reign, is established in human time. Thus, Yahweh and his people meet initially as foreign (alienated) parties. The contingent nature of their encounter and of the relationship they forge finds expression in the marked importance of apodictic law in their covenant: the divine "I" addresses a mortal "you." This is the encounter Althusser designates "interpellation": authority ("I") addresses and thereby constitutes its subject ("you"). As a result, biblical traditions usher in a new concept of human subjectivity, a contingent, historical subject not determined by a mythic cosmic station.

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A brief presentation of potentially fruitful future directions for the study of warfare in ancient Israel.

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At one time it was common to describe the Judean king Marcus Julius Agrippa I as a defender of Jewish religious traditions. Contradictory evidence was accommodated by expressing skepticism about Agrippa's personal piety. In the last few decades support for this view of Agrippa has eroded. Scholarship has developed greater sensitivity to the source-critical problems, rhetorical agendas, and finer details of the ancient literary portraits of Agrippa. More attention also has been given to Agrippa's family heritage, his upbringing in Rome, his coins, his building projects, and other clues to his cultural priorities. As a result, Agrippa's proclivities increasingly appear much more typical of any other Hellenized elite who grew up in Rome and shared a similar mixture of Idumaean and Judean (and perhaps Phoenician) ancestry. But it also has become increasingly apparent that his interests were fundamentally Roman. In spite of these developments, scholars continue to assert that Agrippa acted as a champion for the beleaguered Judeans of Alexandria in the conflicts associated with his visit to the city in 38 CE. Through a survey of the evidence in Philo, Josephus, papyri, and other sources, this paper will demonstrate that Agrippa stubbornly refused to take on such a role. Agrippa's concern was to diminish the threat that these conflicts posed to his own privileged status in the Roman administration. This conclusion complements previous articles that have argued that the catalyst for the most devastating phase of the violence in 38 was a Judean crime against Rome.

The meal celebration described in Didache 9-10 has received a lot of scholarly attention. Until now, however, students of the Didache have not reached consensus about the nature and the form of this celebration. In this ongoing debate verse 10.6, more specifically, the admonitions: “If anyone is holy, let him come. If anyone is not, let him repent”, play a particularly important role. The scholarly opinion is divided into two groups: whether this passage introduces or concludes the eucharistic celebration. While defending the latter view, this contribution seeks to shed some more light on understanding this controversial passage by pointing out its connection with the Two Ways section of the Didache. This interpretation is further supported by several parallels between Didache 10.6, on the one hand, and the Jewish halakik literature as well as relevant early Christian sources, on the other.

This paper examines three visions of Jerusalem: the archaeological remains of a Bronze and Iron Age Jerusalem; the Holy City as presented in the Hebrew Scriptures; and the Jerusalem of song and legend as understood in its modern context. Can these three cities co-exist? Is it possible to find a biblical Jerusalem in its archaeological ruins? What are the implications of 21st century scholarly attempts to reconstruct an archaeologically and historically based Jerusalem?

Recent scholarship on Proverbs 1-9 has increasingly emphasized hermeneutical issues in the study of this section’s key metaphorical figures, such as Lady Wisdom, Lady Folly, etc. In this paper, I will argue that the change of literary voices in Proverbs 8:32-36 conclusively reinforces the invaluable nature of Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 8—as this passage is placed before Proverbs 9, where the reader is called to choose between Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly. The paper will be structured as follows: I. Relevant literature will be examined to highlight some principal debates related to Proverbs 1-9. II. The literary change of voices in 8:32-36 will be investigated exegetically, especially with respect to its co-text in Proverbs 8. III. Proverbs 3:13-18 and 7:24-27 will then be examined in greater detail, to argue that in alluding to these prior passages, Proverbs 8:32-36 intends to further radicalize the contrast between life and death. IV. Finally, the implication of the change of voices in 8:32-36 will be probed in relationship to Proverbs 9. I will mainly contend that this literary phenomenon enables Lady Wisdom to present herself in chapter 9 as the right choice for the path of wisdom.

I am convinced that more conjunctive studies must be done on the concept of scripturalization as a phenomenon. This will help us better understand “scripture” and its relationship to the community which values it. There are shared traits in the scripturalization process of diverse communities throughout history as comparative religions scholars and anthropologists have shown. It is my argument that understanding the concept of scripturalization in the African-American community will help better understand scripturalization in ancient societies, including that of the earliest Christians. In this paper, I will explain the process of scripturalization in Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” with the understanding that there is active scripturalization in form and content of the literary work. I will particularly focus on the character of Beloved and her redemptive role. I would assert that Professor Morrison utilizes the genre elements of “horror” and “the fantastic” effectively to present Beloved as a source of redemption. Tzvetan Todorv’s The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre and Rosemary Jackson’s Fantasy, the Literature of Subversion will serve in the identification of genre elements of horror and the fantastic. I will argue that Beloved’s redemptive role is significant in light of African-American history of slavery and oppression. Understanding the way Beloved functions in the scripturalization process will shed light on the phenomenon of scripturalization. Based on this paper, presented at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in 2006, I intend to show at the following Society of Biblical Literature meeting in 2007 how this opens the door to better understanding of scripturalization in the New Testament.

The New Testament Greek has been for long a compulsory or pre-requisite subject in the theological seminary for the prospective ministers for the Christian churches. However, it has still remained so much heavy burden of unmanageable and insurmountable tool to most of the ordinary students in the seminaries. They have tried to learn, as hard as they can, and also to utilize it in their ministries, as possible as they can But unfortunately, most of them have failed to keep their ability to use the Greek after their graduation from the seminaries, as we who are called the teachers of the New Testament Greek, have observed with much pains. What is the problem? Are there useful tools to be re-invented or re-adjusted for this purpose so as to solve that current problem of the pedagogical method in the practical teaching-learning process of the New Testament Greek? We may say that the applied syntactic-semantic studies on the biblical texts from the modern linguistic point of view has, in some measure, contributed to this field. The biblical scholars with this linguistic perspective such as J. Louw, D. Stuart, W. Kaiser, G. Fee, W. Mounce, and others are the significant contributors as well as the initiatives and representatives in this area. But can we say that their efforts are sufficient in realizing to serve our students’ needs regarding the Greek? Is there any additional or re-adjusted, methodological consideration in setting-up the pedagogical modules of interpretive process on the Greek texts of the Bible? It is always necessary that all the methods of interpretation or pedagogy are properly evaluated, applied, revised, and readjusted for the practical purpose. The researcher is going to present a newly promoted, readjusted, syntactic-analytic Greek study model which has been actually taught to my students for many years.

The turn to orality in gospel studies has been accompanied by the appearance of fresh attempts to absorb the double-tradition materials partly or wholly into oral dynamics. While affirming the crucial importance of the systematic engagement of gospels scholarship with oral tradition research, this paper develops some criticisms of some recent attempts, e.g. by James D. G. Dunn and others, to assimilate Q materials to oral processes. It draws upon research on orality, scribality, manuscript culture, and cultural memory to suggest a way forward in the study of orality and the history of the gospel traditions.

In this paper, I will explore the retreat of paganism from its civic expressions into domestic contexts. Drawing on archaeological evidence from the well-preserved city of Aphrodisias from the 4th to the 6th centuries CE, I will examine the pagan survivals from domestic settings placed within the context of a city in the midst of transforming its sacred spaces. Late Antique houses are a fascinating feature of the changing face of ancient cities during this period. These houses are typically richly decorated, new constructions within highly desirable urban locations. Diverse in character and form, the specific uses of these structures remain a matter for speculation. Houses excavated at Aphrodisias include the North Temenos House, the 'Bishop's Palace', the 'Philosopher's House', the Atrium House, and the Water-Channel House. These houses demonstrate the range of opportunities for pagan survival and they chronicle the reactions of Christians to paganism. In some cases these houses provide evidence that we might expect, such as pagan artistic images variously covered over and preserved, or statues destroyed. In other cases they give material form to important pagan developments that have often been recognized, such as the importance of philosophical schools while adding vivid images of the antagonism they could arouse in Christians. These houses also preserve surprises, though, particularly evident with finds like the cult statuette discovered in the Water-Channel House. In a time when civic paganism was increasingly problematic, houses offered spaces for ongoing pagan expression and cultic life. It is a grand irony that while Christianity moved away from its house-church origins to take new form in grand structures and gradually to lay claim to civic space, paganism was pushed into retreat, only to find lingering life in its domestic roots.

All areas of ancient near eastern studies have taken root, come to bloom,and born copious fruit in Israeli academic institutions, and have had a profound impact on the study of the Bible and biblical Israel. Klein will discuss the development of Ancient Near Eastern Studies (especially Assyriology, Sumerology and Northwest Semitic languages and literatures) in Israel since the time of Torczyner (Tur-Sinai), Mazar and Cassuto over forty or fifty years ago. Hurowitz will review the influence of ANE studies on research in the fields of biblical history, religion, literature, and language, with prominence given to the work of Hayim Tadmor, Avraham Malamat and Moshe Weinfeld and their disciples. Israeli scholarship in both ANE studies and comparative research continues the scholarly traditions of its founders, and of prominent foreign scholars such as Benno Landsberger, Samuel Noah Kramer, Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, Cyrus Gordon, Moshe Held, H. L. Ginsberg and William H. Hallo.

The study will provide an evaluation of the legal repercussions of cross-cultural marriages in the time of Ezra/Nehemiah in view of the legal code visible in the Hebrew Bible. After the definition of key concepts (such as “mixed” or cross-cultural marriage, etc.), the Pentateuchal legislation concerning cross-cultural marriages and its application in the time of Ezra/Nehemiah will be described. It is interesting to note that during other periods of biblical history, cross-cultural marriages seemingly did not evoke such a strong response as during the later postexilic period. In this context the close relationship between law and sociolinguistic pragmatics will be noted, which also seems to provide a helpful perspective for our understanding of this particular drastic action in Ezra/Nehemiah. Finally, relevant extrabiblical data concerning the realities of cross-cultural marriages from Palestine (Wadi ed-Daliyeh documents) and Egypt (Elephantine papyri) will be presented which seek to provide the historical context of the biblical narratives involving cross-cultural marriages in the time of Ezra/Nehemiah.

The authenticity of 1 Cor. 14:34-35 is frequently disputed on the basis of transcriptional probability. Specifically, that there are no parallels for the displacement attested by D F G 88 915 and most of the Latin tradition (which moves the passage to the end of chapter 14). Gordon Fee has been influential in arguing that the best way to account for the displacement is that 14:34-35 are a marginal gloss in an early copy of the Corpus Paulinum, which subsequent copies placed either after v. 33 or after v. 40. This paper demonstrates that 1) There are other examples of shifts and insertions of blocks of text in the Corpus Paulinum, all of which are the result of harmonization to other passages; 2) D F G and the Latin tradition shift four blocks of text (Rom. 16:5, 16; 20; 1 Cor. 14:34-35) and make two insertions that are harmonizations to other passages (1 Cor. 16:19; Gal. 4:17); 3) Editorial style, theme, and manuscript attestation indicate that all six alterations derive from the same source; 4) The displacement of 14:34-35 fits a pattern of alterations made in order to bring women in general, and Prisca (Priscilla) in particular, under apostolic authority; 5) This editorial activity corresponds to “anti-feminist” tendency in the “Western” text of Acts, in particular in the account of Priscilla in Acts 18. This passage is the source of the insertion at 1 Cor. 16:19, which further connects the alterations in D F G to those in Acts. Recognition of this editorial activity in D F G and the Latin tradition renders the “marginal gloss theory” for the origin of 1 Cor. 14:34-35 unnecessary. As a result, arguments against the authenticity of 1 Cor. 14:34-35 must be made on a basis other than that of transcriptional probability.

A comparison of several lament psalms reveals consistent patterns of literary borrowing from specific earlier texts, indicating an internal dialogue operating beneath the surface of these compositions. The petitioners revisit certain texts in shaping their prayers, maintaining an ongoing conversation between a traditionally accepted group of source texts particularly suited to the concerns of the psalmist. A look at three representative examples, Psalms 79, 80, and 94, enables us to identify categories of textual preference in biblical allusion among lament writers, and provides an interpretive key to understanding psalms of need and grief.

The paper examines the Isaianic portrayal of Zion in light of chapters 60-66 from the perspective of a Christian biblical scholar who respects the contextual, historical, and grammatical moorings of the Hebrew text. The analysis seeks to initiate dialogue concerning the nature of Jerusalem as described by the prophet, and endeavors to answer the ultimate question: Who can enter her holy gates?

We can trace aspects of the history of Aramaic from early in the first millennium BCE, but our data is scarce for the Palestinian dialect of Middle Aramaic. Besides the Aramaic of Daniel, the Qumran Aramaic texts, the consonantal texts of Onqelos and Jonathan, and the Bar Koseba letters, there is another small source that has not been fully exploited yet: Aramaic statements in tannaitic literature. E.Y. Kutscher repeatedly stressed the meagerness of our knowledge of this dialect period, but wrote, “the few Aramaic words and sentences to be found in tannaitic literature…have to be used with care, since their text is not yet established. I purposely refrained from using the Aramaic material to be found in tannaitic literature, for [this] reason.” D. Talshir has seconded this opinion more recently, but has also laid down some methodological principles to point the way to future research on these texts. As a first step in this direction, I will analyze linguistically the Aramaic sayings of Hillel preserved in the mishnaic tractate Pirqe ’Avot. This must be based on an evaluation of the important manuscripts of this tractate to ascertain which version of these sayings is the most reliable. The work that has been done over the past half-century in studying and classifying the various manuscripts of the Mishnah, especially by Kutscher and M. Bar-Asher, is critically important for us, but it must be recalled that their studies relied on the Hebrew within the manuscripts. As Yochanan Breuer has shown, a manuscript’s preservation of distinct linguistic dialects—or, in this case, distinct languages—is a good test of the manuscript’s reliability. It would be particularly interesting if we could find either definitive Babylonianisms in Hillel’s Aramaic (in light of his traditional Babylonian origins), or conclusive Palestinianisms.

David’s political machinations are often worked out on the bodies of women; however, the political overlay on Rizpah’s story (2 Sam 21:1-14) is inconsistent, even nonsensical. Abner and Ishbaal’s conflict is dubious, there is no biblical account of Saul incurring bloodguilt with the Gibeonites, and there is a textual problem with the names of the men executed. Rather than clearly connecting to David’s power politics, the superimposition of the political on Rizpah’s story is an attempt to distract the reader from the gruesomeness of the tale. The text tries to control and contain the fleshiness of the story – Rizpah’s own as she sits in the desert skin burned, lips cracked, hair matted; and the men’s impaled flesh, decaying and rotting under the brutal summer sun. Rizpah’s story is not frequently examined in biblical studies. Even among feminist interpreters, Athalya Brenner’s recent interpretive monologue is the most sustained study. Rizpah has had more of an afterlife in certain popular contexts. She has been a model for women’s activism especially in Latin America where her actions are compared to the Mothers of the Disappeared. In Christian inspirational literature, she is a model of “undefeatable faith” which demonstrates maternal love at its most powerful. This paper will first examine the biblical writer’s attempt to fit Rizpah into the political story of David. Next, this paper will analyze the use of Rizpah in popular discourse, and the political ramifications of such discourse. In certain contexts, particularly the Latin American one, Rizpah’s story is read as a subversive assault on dangerous regimes; in others, her characterization is used to support the status quo by locating (and implicitly limiting) women’s power to their “natural” maternal instincts.

The Markan Jesus' meeting with a widow at the Temple treasury appears as singularly out of place. Throughout much of the ancient world, women’7’s legal status was always inferior to men and widowed women had even fewer legal rights. Given their social location, widows had little to offer, yet in the Markan pericope a widow is praised for her "giving." In context, her generosity seems a symbolic action of total dedication in the most sacred place in Jerusalem. Jesus' purpose and mission mirrors the widow's proleptic action (see Mark 10:45). Investigation of the encounter of Jesus and the widow demands a look at not only what can be seen but what it is possible to see once the reader gazes beyond the bounds of convention. This paper is an examination of the unity created by the emergence of both Jesus and the widow within the sacred confines of the Jerusalem Temple. It explores whether there is evidence of a counter-memory to the documented tradition of the place of this woman. The encounter scene has no pre-established center in spite of critical readings which place the widow at the side of the action. How is the widow a sexed and gendered body within the confines of male priestly power? What response does Jesus' praise of the "giving" widow require of the Markan community?

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This paper introduces a book (now almost completed) on the languages and texts, religion (Yahwistic) and culture (Phoinic) of the first documented Israelite communities, those of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages.

Papyrus and parchment folios (categorized as specific groups by Eric G. Turner in his classic 'The Typology of the Early Codex' [University of Philadelphia Press 1977, pp. 22, 28-29]) have often been treated as something particularly special. Consequently, they have been classified in a certain respect (above all as amulets or being typical of Christian apocrypha). However, the manuscripts subsumed under the category of 'miniature' are quite individual in their features and do not fit automatic classifications. Thus, this paper focuses on the category itself as well as on the updating of Greek 'miniatures' based on Turner's. Finally, some mutual contexts of the data are presented and conclusions from it relevant for New Testament Textual Criticism are drawn.

For all its popularity, Psalm 8 has posed a number of notoriously difficult exegetical challenges for commentators from all eras who have sought to interpret it. Certain words in the psalm are not easily translated, the structure of the psalm is not readily apparent – neither is its genre nor its provenance – and various elements of the psalm seem to defy any obvious explanation as to their import. Faced with the many vexing exegetical conundrums posed by Psalm 8, scholars have often indulged in speculative exegesis more so than in compelling textual argument. Indeed, rare is the scholar who does not emend the text of Psalm 8 in some fashion or who dares interpret it on its own terms, without the necessary “elucidation” provided by another (or many other) biblical or extra-biblical text(s). Yet, however valuable the results, the efforts to interpret Psalm 8 in the light of more accessible (or hypothetical) texts have obscured the fact that the psalm, as is, possesses its own internal structure and rhetorical logic, which – properly considered – go a long way toward unraveling the textual enigmas that have long bothered biblical exegetes and readers. In short, the contention of this paper is that an appreciation of the very structure of Psalm 8 elucidates three key elements of its meaning: (a) the role of 3a (“From the mouths of infants and sucklings”) in the psalm; (b) the identity of the “Elohim” to whom man is compared in 6a (and the nature of that comparison); and (c) the rhetorical strategy and overarching message of the psalm as a whole.

In the last years, a number of monographs have explored the possibility of larger units, binding together several single sayings in the Book of Proverbs. These investigations resulted in different compositional units. The fact, that the results differed from one another, has however not led to a discussion on what criteria might be valid for establishing a compositional unit, nor has Gustav Boström’s concept of “paronomasia” been perceived in full as significant for proverbial compositions. The paper aims at putting Boström’s paronomasia in a framework, where it can be related to other stilistic features and wants to underscore the importance of phonetic repetition for understanding of biblical texts.

Images of the divine play a major cultic role in the Mediterranean basin from its earliest history. Although their importance remains largely intact, the function of the image (along with other ritual activities) is called into question by philosophers of the second and third centuries C.E. In Book 3.28-30 of the De Mysteriis, Iamblichus of Chalcis, in the guise of the Egyptian priest Abamon, demolishes the work of those who create images of the gods for the purpose of divination. As alluded to, this is in continuity with the general trend of philosophers who are calling into question the utility of divine images in a variety of cultic practices (Maximus of Tyre, Porphyry; but cf. Plotinus Ennead 4.3.11 and Asclepius 37), Iamblichus’ reasoning differs from those who precede him. Further, Iamblichus is not entirely opposed to divine statues (cf. 1.9; 5.23-4) as they are an important part of the theurgic ritual. The purpose of this paper is to present and to analyze Iamblichus’ position regarding the use of images in both divinatory and theurgic ritual. Not only will this provide insight into the thought and ritual activity of the Neoplatonist, but it will also offer a snapshot of the continuing evolution of the image as Greco-Roman religious practice prepares to enter a phase in which the image would face new challenges.

In both Jewish and Islamic exegetical traditions, Cain and Abel are portrayed as twins; each with the other, or each with a sister. In most religious systems, twins represent a categorical anomaly; they challenge legal, ethical, moral, or natural proscriptions because of 1) the unusual circumstances surrounding their birth, and/or 2) their subsequent rivalries. For example, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and the Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer record that while Eve was frolicking in the Garden, Sammael rides past her on a serpent and she conceives Cain. After Eve copulates with Sammael, Adam comes to her, and she conceives Abel. As a result of these dual conceptions, Abel was begotten in the likeness of Adam while Cain was spawned from demonic seed. Cain, as we all know, went on to murder his brother. Contrary to these Jewish tales of the good vs evil twin, the Islamic corpus confirms that even though Cain was a twin, he was not spawned from demonic seed, nor was he destined to kill Abel. Using these and other stories of Cain and Abel, this paper will first place the mythical and biological phenomenon of twinning within its broader Jewish and Islamic scriptural, exegetical, legal, and medical context to explore how and why Jewish scholars treat twins as categorical anomalies, and Muslim scholars do not. Second, this paper will argue that while twins as anomalies ultimately confirm such privileged categories as “first-born son,” “patriarchal primacy,” and “moral geneticism” in the Jewish context, the exact opposite is true in the Islamic context, where the birth of twins poses no threat to established rules that ensure every individual is equal before his/her God.

While Israelite warfare has been studied more conceptually (von Rad, Niditch), what has sometimes been overlooked in the history of scholarship is the pragmatics of warring. Using a socio-economic methodology (Y. Garlan, W.K. Pritchett), this paper will focus on one aspect of the practicalities of war, that of booty. In re-interpreting Israel's violent tradition, there arose in ancient Jewish interpretation of the Second Temple period a heightened sensitivity to the ethics of plunder, exemplified in the justification of the Exodus “plundering of Egypt” by Jubilees, Philo, Ezekiel the Tragedian. An additional example is found in the unique account of Judas Maccabaeus' pious plundering through his distribution of war-booty to disadvantaged—widows, orphans, and aged (2 Maccabees 8). Another example of this new sensitivity in plundering is expressed in Josephus whereby defrauding even an enemy is condemned. During the later Second Temple period, shifts in ideology of Israelite war history allowed Israel to be interpreted more piously which in turn encouraged its constituents to act accordingly.

Old Testament allusions are pervasive throughout the book of Revelation. For example, the throne room vision of Revelation 4-5 appears to be based on the similar vision of Ezekiel 1-2. Revelation 4:8, however, clearly alludes to Isaiah 6. This study investigates the interrelationship between the imagery of Ezekiel 1-2 and that of Isaiah 6 in Revelation 4-5. It will demonstrate that monarchical imagery from Isaiah transforms the mobile cultic deity of Ezekiel into the permanently enthroned cosmic deity of Revelation.

Even though aging has become a “hot” topic in academia, few early Christian scholars have commented on the social context of age and aging in early Christian communities. Certainly fewer people in the ancient world grew old than we are accustomed to today in our society, but they did not consider it particularly unique to grow old (Parkin 2003). Utilizing insights from the anthropology of aging, this paper will argue that the category of “age” became more important as Christianity institutionalized. Though few texts in first and second century early Christian literature mention the concept of aging, especially old age, I will focus texts in which “age” as a social category is rather prominent, such as 1 Timothy and Titus. As the early church began to model itself on the Roman household (Verner 1983; Maier 1991), the resulting fictive kin support systems and hierarchical power typically provided functions for older members of the Christian community (the young-old). It also provided and encouraged care for older members who needed it (the old-old), reflective of parent-child obligations (filial piety) found in many cultures. In some cases the early church gave older people more security and importance than they would have had otherwise (e.g., widows). As in other cultures, however, conflict between older and younger members appears to be present as well.

There has been a marked tendency within biblical scholarship to overemphasize the role of repentance in the Hebrew Bible. Phenomena such as fasting, supplication, prophecy, and confession are assumed to be closely wedded to repentance in most scholarly treatments. This undue emphasis can be traced to the belated advent of the notion that we now take to be repentance--a combination of regret for past sin and determination not to do so again. However, a large part of the penitential lens through which most contemporary interpreters peer was constructed in the Middle Ages by great medieval thinkers who perceived the need to integrate the mental process of repentance that had become essential within formative Judaism and Christianity with physical rites preserved from their shared biblical heritage. A detailed exploration of medieval discussions of repentance can serve as a vital prelude to a reconsideration of the biblical material. The medievals clearly identify those rites that came to be interpreted as penitential, and, more importantly, reveal the interpretive logic behind those associations. What emerges are not only methods of inserting spiritual content into physical performances but of reading absences in Scripture. That is to say, asserting the implied presence of repentance on the basis of its associated practices being mentioned. The work of the Jewish philosopher and legist Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) provides an ideal basis for such a discussion, for he clearly isolates a number of important methods, among them: viewing physical rite as an expression of the mental event and viewing the physical rite as leading to the mental event. These same reading strategies (problematic when imposed upon the world of ancient Israel in light of their assumed dichotomy between interior and exterior modes of behavior) are consistently, though unwittingly, employed in contemporary biblical scholarship.

A study of the "violence" in Paul's language in 2 Corinthians

Computer-assisted stylostatistical methods have great power for evaluating the authorship of disputed New Testament writings. Unfortunately, their use is primarily limited to large-scale investigation of stylistic traits beyond an author’s conscious control. Their complexity renders them impractical for confirming the subjective impression of style, even though they provide powerful tools for assessing authenticity. I propose a more modest approach to computer-assisted stylistic analysis. The goal of this approach is not to establish authorial identity but to verify assertions regarding distinctive stylistic features. The method is as follows: (1) identify a computer-searchable sign of the feature, (2) determine the relative frequency of the sign in the disputed and undisputed writings, (3) calculate the mean and standard deviation for the undisputed writings, and (4) compare the frequency in the disputed writings against the mean and standard deviation of the undisputed writings. The proposed paper explains this method and illustrates its use by evaluating six style features commonly attributed to Ephesians and Colossians (protracted sentences, abundance of subordinate clauses, profusion of genitival constructions, excessive use of ??, substitution of Pauline particles and prepositions for non-Pauline ones, and infrequent use of questions). Ephesians and Colossians are within the standard deviation of the undisputed Epistles for four and three features, respectively. Therefore, only two of these stylistic descriptions accurately differentiate Ephesians from the undisputed Pauline Epistles, and only three distinguish Colossians. While researchers cannot establish authorial identity using this technique, the method does provide an objective measure for discussing style. The method is accessible to New Testament scholars who may not have a strong background in mathematics or computer science. Moreover, scholars can evaluate a wide variety of stylistic features using this method and can expand the discussion to include a comparison of the styles of different authors.

Isaiah 6.9-10 is one of the most complex and difficult passages in the Hebrew Bible, as well as one of the most important. In it Isaiah is commissioned to instruct “this people” not to understand, and at the same time to forestall their comprehension. There are seven double binds here, enmeshed in ambiguities on the macro- and micro-levels. The people only understand when they do not understand, and vice versa; concomitantly, the prophet fulfils his mission only by failing to do so. However, the people’s ability to understand not to understand is undermined in the following verse by the transfer of the imperative to the prophet; if he controls their responses, they are automata, who cannot obey the divine command to understand not to understand. The double bind is subject to a regress, since we cannot know if the very words mandating incomprehension are themselves a trap, which mean other than they appear to say. The communication of the command not to communicate may be a transgression of that command, since informing victims of a deception results in its exposure, or it may contribute to the process of blinding. In this paper I intend to read Isaiah 6.9-10 in the context of the vision of ch.6, the relation of listening, reading and writing, the intimate initiatory scene and the unfolding text in history. The theoretical resources will include Elliot Wolfson’s Language, Eros, Being, in which the concealed is revealed, but only as that which is concealed in revelation. The secret is both homoerotic, the blinding, searing and healing encounter of prophet and God via the seraph, and the abjected, perverse and dissimulated heterosexual relation of god and goddess in v.13. Beyond this, however, and with a nod to Derrida, I will be fleetingly evoking Levinas’s Otherwise than Being, in which the face of the other can never be reduced to the same, to the said, and thus is an enigma, which one only sees through not seeing, not comprehending.

The thesis of this paper is that many interpreters have misunderstood the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) because they have failed to recognize an allusion to Exod 34:6-7. Interpreters most often believe that the lawyer’s response to Jesus’ last question showed that the lawyer did not understand the parable. Jesus asks, “Which of these was a neighbor?” They posit that the lawyer’s response, “The one who showed 'eleos',” shows that he hated the Samaritans so much he refused to mention his ethnicity. I hold that the lawyer’s response to Jesus’ parable is the most appropriate one. This paper contends that 'eleos' is an echo of the ancient Israelite creedal formula found in Exod 34:6-7. This creedal formula affirms the covenant fidelity and faithfulness of YHWH to the nation. Thus, the lawyer completely understood and affirmed that the point of the parable was that Jesus is calling for us to extend the same kind of love toward our neighbor that YHWH extended toward Israel. In the Old Testament, hesed (eleos in the LXX) became the signature attribute of the creed. Often times the creed was rehearsed with hesed functioning as a pars pro toto. The previous five times that eleos is used in Luke there are definite allusions to Exod 34:6-7. Those five prepare the reader for the sixth and final appearance in 10:37. Considering this allusion changes the force of the larger narrative surrounding the parable. The lawyer is a dynamic character that moves from good answers to even better.

The Letter of Aristeas is central to Septuagint Studies as it provides the only substantial report about how the (Pentateuch)-Septuagint was created. Since H. Hody (Contra historiam Aristeae de LXX interpretibus dissertatio, 1685) the legendary and pseudepigraphic character of the Letter of Aristeas has been widely accepted. Hody’s study also initiated an extensive discussion about the question when the Letter of Aristeas was written. The proposed dates range from the 3rd cent. BCE to the 1st cent. CE. Relative chronology provides a new approach to this crux interpretum. Let. Arist. 121 describes the Septuagint translators in a way that resembles the praise of Ben Sira’s education in the Greek Prologue to Ecclesiasticus (verses 7-11). The Letter of Aristeas thus models the Septuagint translators after the blueprint of Ben Sira. Therefore, the Letter of Aristeas was written after the grandson’s Greek translation gained considerable prominence and authority in Alexandrian Jewry, i.e. some time in the 1st cent. BCE. A 1st cent. BCE date of the Letter of Aristeas raises the question why the Old Greek translation which was well established by that time needed special legendary authorization.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers) have historically been framed as a descriptive record of the formative period of early Egyptian monasticism (Bousset, 1923; Guy, 1956, 1974, 1993; Ward, 1975, 2003; Regnault, 1977; Gould, 1986, 1993; Burton-Christie, 1993; Harmless, 2004). In this paper I argue that placing the Sayings in conversation with extant archeological evidence troubles such positivist readings, drawing attention to significant, if less noted details of the narrative register. Complicating simplistic construals that portray boundaries between monastic elites and non-elites as clearly inscribed and largely uncontested, extant epigraphic and papyrological evidence foregrounds a more textured social reality. For example, archeological evidence from the Monastery of Epiphanius in Egypt includes correspondence between the weaver, Frange, and a cohort of fellow monastic tradesmen. One writes to ‘beg’ the loan of a loom, another to request a transportable wooden beam needed to fix his own loom in position. Elsewhere we learn that Frange is the superior of a community, and equally engaged in more intellectually substantive correspondence. Frange’s bi-vocational status suggests a monastic reality where conventional social demarcations have become decidedly porous. It likewise draws attention to subtle (and not so subtle) fissures in the narrative record that have long been overlooked. The semi-humorous, if pointed depiction of a monk who considers himself too spiritual to participate in manual labor, and elects instead to sit and read all day (Sayings, Discretion 69), takes on new resonance. Archeological remains underscore the way in which this saying is at once descriptive and prescriptive. Reframing the narrative window, epigraphical and papyrological evidence filters interpretive representation of the daily lives of early monastic non-elites in new ways.

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Background of the project - The project started with an analysis of liberation hermeneutics (Latvus, Arjen teologia [Theology of everyday] 2002. Latin American liberation theology as well as British urban theology and Indian Dalit theology aimed to create models to do theology and especially biblical interpretation in context. Although several cultural, social and historical differences are obvious there are also certain structural similarities which can be described as a method of intercontextual biblical interpretation. The major issue is the interactive relation between biblical text and current context. Other key questions are the relation between the interpreter and context, tools to sense and analyse context, social inequality & justice, the role of community etc. Experimental part - In year 2004 a similar intercontextual methodology was used in academic teaching (Helsinki University). Students analysed psalms related to the theme of poverty. The task was twofold: to use traditional exegetical tools for analysis and to use exposure-method to find a connection to local reality (with poor and deprived people in Helsinki). Both success and difficulties were faced. For most students even a short but authentic contact with the world of the poor was heuristic both personally and for reading the psalms. On the other hand sometimes there was a danger for there to be a split between experiences and exegetical work. The best results were created in a dialogue between current context and biblical texts. Following phase - The new project will aim to read poverty texts in relation to Finnish reality. The results will be written in the form of a commentary. Intercontextual reading of biblical texts allows the study of current reality in interaction with biblical texts. Also the social contexts of biblical texts can be understood more deeply due to the study of current reality. Important step is collaboration between theologians and poverty researchers.

In the study of the textual history of the Septuagint, the name of Frederick Field, and the phrase, “Field’s Hexapla,” saturates the literature. Indeed, it has been more than a century since a systematic presentation of the Hexaplaric materials has been attempted, and it is not yet forty years since S. Jellicoe bemoaned that although such a new collection would be welcomed, it was nonetheless an unrealistic hope in his near future. Because of this gap between Field’s work and the present day, nearly all of the literature on the Hexapla refers to Field alone. While it is true that Field’s is the greatest monument of Hexapla research to date, it is lamentable that so few know of the rich history of Hexapla scholarship that antedates Field by centuries. Focusing solely on the collections of Hexaplaric fragments, this paper will present that history in part, beginning in the late 16th century with the work of Petrus Morinus in the production of the Sixtine version of the LXX and concluding with my own research on III-IV Kingdoms which is part of the new work being carried out by The Hexapla Institute. The Hexapla Project is already underway and in the coming years will produce the definitive edition of the Hexaplaric fragments, thus replacing Field and joining the illustrious heritage of research on the Hexapla.

There is an interesting sub-genre of "Jesus films" that relates well to the "treatment of biblical themes in films that are not expressly biblical." This genre is distinct both from films that attempt to directly adapt the canonical gospels to the screen, and from films that simply feature a discernable Christ figure as a central theme. The films that populate this sub-genre rest somewhere in between, being filmed narratives that have nothing else to do with Jesus other than the suggestion of a title, a set of visual themes, or an abstract yet fully intentional nod to the nature of Jesus. This paper will outline the contours of this interesting genre by looking at three of its most effective examples, and attempt to identify the hermeneutics at play in such profoundly inter-textual works of art.At first glimpse, Bruno Dumont's controversial realist masterpiece "La vie de Jesus" is only related to Jesus by title. But beneath the surface of the film lies commentary about mortality and materiality that expands to fill the Christological brackets set by Dumont in the title. Gus van Sant's recent film “Last Days” narrates the last few days of Kurt Cobain’s life in the context of a loosely fictional stand-in that becomes increasingly cloaked in Jesus imagery until a final resurrection scene. And finally, Bresson’s “Au hazard Balthazar” quite boldly turns a dilapidated donkey into a provocative metaphor for the odd presence of Christ in contemporary culture. All three of these films are intentional and provocative allusions to Jesus in decidedly non-biblical narrative worlds. This paper will track the reflective strategies of this "non-canonical" genre through these three close readings in their appropriate film theoretical context, and articulate the rich potential for re-narrating Jesus by means of the startling generic conflict embodied by these films.

John 1:1-18 outlines the entire Gospel with its multiple meanings and diverse ideologies. Yet, unlike the Synoptics it does not proclaim any good news forthright. No mention of euangelion evidenced in the prologue. When this text is read in the life-context of believers, what good news does or can it proclaim? With this question, the paper seeks to present a relevant contextual reading of the text by applying the tri-polar contextual criticism of Grenholm and Patte. Aiming this, the paper will first raise the life-context questions of today’s believers on the idea of Logos, the light, becoming children of God, the Logos indwelling, and grace and truth to see how these can be good news for today’s hurting and confused believing communities and the world. Second, the paper will analyze the text in the light of the reader’s religious and theological experience as a pastor of a local church and teacher in an undergraduate institution incorporating the Methodist doctrine of salvation and grace, to see how these doctrines can be affirmed and challenged by this text. Lastly, to draw out its critical meanings, the paper will engage in critical analysis of the text by focusing on its literary rhetoric as a narrative whole and on its cultural dimension as a document embedded in the pivotal values of kinship and marriage, patron and client, and honor and shame. With this contextual reading, the paper intends to argue that the prologue of the Fourth Gospel declares the good news of people becoming the privileged children of God and of Logos’ indwelling grace to the ones who respond in faith, apart from one’s biological, gender, ethnic, or national boundaries.

The ancient art of memory illustrates how memory encodes ideas and arguments in images. Because Hellenistic Greek literature was orally composed, published through speech and aurally received, sound served as memory's primary vehicle, creating and evoking remembered images. The sounds of an oral performance organized its structure and shaped its meaning. This paper will demonstrate ways in which memory is engaged in the reception of an oral performance through a systematic analysis of speech sounds encoded in the textual artifact.

Crossing the boundaries between spaces which are differently gendered or differently statused entails risks, either to the boundary crosser, the occupants of the social space, or both, but these risks or affronts can be eliminated or mitigated by the operation of certain intermediaries. Although the role of brokers has been well explored for the ancient Roman and New Testament worlds, this paper will propose an alternative model for the world of the Hebrew Bible. In Hebrew Bible narrative, intermediation across boundaries between persons of differing statuses and differing genders was regularly accomplished by “non-persons”: individuals who were essentially without gender and without status and thus effectively invisible, individuals who were not “at home” in either high-status locales or in low-status ones and thus not out-of-place in either. Such persons could function as chaperones, ushers, escorts, guides, surrogates, and messengers without provoking an honor challenge. Understanding genderlessness and statuslessness helps to clarify the dynamics of certain HB narratives. For instance, Joseph is able to serve in the presence of an elite female (Potiphar’s wife) precisely because as a servant he is both without gender and without status. She unmasks the socially constructed fiction about him by pointing out, not that the emperor has no clothes, but that the servant Joseph is a real man. Similarly the model will be applied to the misunderstood role of Elihu in the book of Job. Elihu bursts on the scene out of “nowhere,” after Job has repeatedly requested an audience with God, and soon after Elihu’s appearance, Job does find himself in the presence of God. Elihu, then, would seem to be the broker who places the human client Job in the presence of the Divine Patron.

The nature of the resurrection was one of the fiercest controversies among different early Christian groups. The writers representing the “orthodox” view laid heavy stress on the physical, bodily resurrection and accused their opponents, all those who held a more spiritual understanding of the resurrection, of falsifying the true faith. “For if the resurrection of the flesh be denied, the prime article of the faith is shaken,” writes Tertullian against the “heretical tenets of Valentinus” (Res. 2). The dispute was not only over theological issues but had significant political and social implications as well. This paper studies this controversy from the reverse point of view, provided by the Valentinian writings of the Nag Hammadi corpus. These texts make abundantly clear that there was no single “Gnostic” doctrine of the resurrection but different ideas may occur even within a single writing. Sometimes the topic is treated in a polemical context, suggesting that the question concerning the nature of the resurrection was also significant for the ideology and identity of the groups that produced the texts. The paper addresses, e.g., the questions how the view of the resurrection served their identity formation and how they envisioned the authority of the witnesses of the resurrected Jesus.

After the latest publications in the field of Epigraphy, Numismatics, and Archaeology, this paper will try to show the new light they shed on the history of the Persian province of Samaria, especially during the IVth c. BCE, with special remarks concerning the problem of the extension of the province as well as its culture(s) and religion(s).

It is an under-appreciated fact that the term raz, "secret," occurs almost exclusively in chapter two of the Book of Daniel (eight of nine attestations, with 4:6 being the one exception). I believe this distribution of raz is significant because two "firsts" occur in the chapter: chapter two is the first time Daniel receives revelation from the Hebrew deity, and it is also the first time we see the Jewish hero best his Babylonian scholarly colleagues, the ummanu, who are known from Akkadian sources to be the custodians of the secrets of the gods. In this paper I argue that the idea of secrecy in Dan 2 constructs a positive characterization of both the Israelite deity—he is a god who actively reveals divine knowledge—and the Israelite hero—Daniel is capable and worthy of receiving revelation. But secrecy also creates a point of conflict between Daniel and his Babylonian colleagues, the supposed experts in secret matters, and vividly shows the Israelite mediator their superior. By bringing these two uses of secrecy together, I believe Dan 2 intends to show that the Babylonian court scholars had failed to discover the secret they were asked to divine because they did not have the relationship Daniel had with the Hebrew god, the god who reveals secrets. Dan 2, therefore, shows some familiarity with and presents a polemic against the Mesopotamian scribal idea of court scholars as the possessors and guardians of the secret of the gods. In the opinion of the Jewish author, the ancient Babylonian scribal lore—the secret of the gods—proves ineffective in the face of the active, responsive, and direct revelation of the Hebrew deity to his chosen and trusted recipient.

Isaiah 21:1-12 is notoriously complex in its interweaving of speaking voices. There are “pockets” of monologue in dialogue and “imaginary dialogues” in monologue. Employing literary-critical tools along with a psychological lens, this paper seeks to explore the function of the literary devices represented in this passage in general, and of the “first-person” projection of the “third-person” view in particular. As far as the Isaian persona is concerned, I shall further demonstrate that such a refined literary technique (the intertwining of speaking voices) is an effective and powerful means to bring something that is embedded and inward (the Isaian interiority) to the foreground.

The discovery over the past century of scores of Late Antique synagogues and cemeteries exhibiting heretofore unimaginable expressions of Jewish art has generated a great deal of scholarly and popular interest, revealing much about the nature of Jewish social, cultural, and religious life. In this paper we will focus on themes and motifs that were of specific interest to the Jews in Late Antiquity, i.e., biblical scenes, personalities, and recognizable Jewish symbols.

This paper concretizes the strategies which Amy Hollywood proposes in her paper, "Strategies for the Study of Women's Religious Experience," by analyzing Eve’s autobiographical narrative in the testamentary portion of the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (15-30). This study complements other papers in the session, Women's Religious Experience in Antiquity, including Sarah Iles Johnston's "Women's Religious Experience in the Greek World" and Patricia Ahearne-Kroll’s "The Portrayal of Aseneth's Religious Experience in ‘Joseph and Aseneth.’”

Jerusalem sits high upon the mountainous spine of the Holy land, looking east to the desert and west to the sea. It has been the focal point for prayer, priest, pilgrim and plunderer for more than three millennia. This paper offers a physical history of the city, from its pre-Israelite origins through periods of growth (and decline) during the Monarchic, Persian, Second Commonwealth, Roman, Ottoman, Mandate and Modern periods. It examines changes in the city's dimensions, modern growth outside the walls and attitudes expressed by Jews, christians, and muslims for the "Holy City."

The Syrohexapla of 1 Samuel is extremely poorly preserved. The fragments published by Baars, de Boer, and Goshen-Gottstein amount to only 56 verses, and those still unpublished do not add much. Even more fragmentary are the quotations in the works of Ishodad of Merw, Barhebraeus, and Andreas Masius, but they do shed some light on the Syrohexapla. Many of these fragments and quotations have been discussed by Sebastian Brock in his 1966 dissertation. In this paper I will discuss a few examples to demonstrate the nature and the problems of the Syrohexaplaric material in 1 Samuel. What kinds of texts lie behind these fragments and quotations? How reliable are they as Syrohexaplaric witnesses? Which column of the Hexapla are they reflecting if any?

This study attempts to define the “way of the Lord” in Isaiah 40-66 by examining the related images of “high/low,” and “crooked/straight.” For a century the majority of scholars have interpreted the “way” of Second Isaiah as a literal road extending from Babylon to Palestine and Third Isaiah’s quotations of 40:3 as figurative, ethical, and spiritualized reinterpretations of this “way.” By understanding these images in relation to the “way” motif, the author argues that the “way” of TI is consistent with that of SI.

David's elegy for Jonathan and Saul in 2 Samuel 1 is introduced with the note, “it is written in the book of Jashar." If we can imagine encountering the poem in such an anthology it would serve as a particularly fine example of ancient Hebrew verse and would read as a genuine expression of David's grief over their deaths. But of course the elegy, as readers encounter it now, is not a freestanding poem, but has a particular context in the larger narrative of 1 and 2 Samuel. A close reading of the poem in its present context demonstrates a series of concrete echoes from the surrounding narrative which sustain a second, deeply ironic level of meaning to the poem. If the first level of meaning is a celebration of the former military prowess and unity of purpose of Saul and Jonathan and presents a moving expression of grief at the news of their deaths, the second level of meaning – mobilized by repeated allusion to the surrounding narrative, and reinforced by structure, diction, and imagery – is a consistent denigration of Saul and Jonathan, implying that Israel is in fact better off with them gone and David now in line for the throne. Particular attention will be paid to theories of poetic voice and of the apostrophic mode in order to get at the nature of poetic address as it relates to David's lament.

'When my father was a king/ He was a king who knew exactly what he knew,/ And his brain was not a thing/ Forever swinging to and fro and fro and to./ Shall I, then, be like my father/ And be wilfully unmoveable and strong?/ Or is it better to be right?/ Or am I right when I believe I may be wrong?' (The King and I). Must an all-powerful king be immutable, or can he open himself to influence in whatever form it might take? The King of Siam’s puzzle is precisely the one that interests me in relation to God. There is no Anna, not even an Asherah, but there is the choice to be influenced. Reading two biblical narratives on kingship (1 Sam. 12:12-25 and 2 Kgs. 18-19) in the light of two rabbinic parables on the same theme (Midrash Tanchuma Devarim on Metatron and the death of Moses, and Bereishit Rabbah 22.9), I suggest the biblical writers saw kingship both as a locus of God’s power and, more surprisingly, as a vehicle through which God allows himself to be affected (educated). My strategy requires discussion of some negative aspects of kingship. Alongside reassuring accounts of an idealized ruler are narratives that evoke an unfamiliar, all-too-human king. Through a close rereading of these texts, I show that the boundaries between divine and human kingship are more blurred than the standard account suggests, and that a constructive theological value emerges once we acknowledge this. The idea of divine kingship does not merely inspire awe and command respect for a God who is essentially remote. It holds out the hope that God is receptive to the needs of humanity, and offers a route by which he can be approached.

This poster presentation will trace the historical interpretive arc inspired by Exodus 12:1-2 and its commandment to observe the new moon of the month of Nisan and maintain a calendar so as to fix the festivals in their proper seasons. An examination of evolving religious sensibilities as filtered through the prism of these two Hebrew Bible verses, this presentation will outline manifold interpretations found in Jewish and early Christian literature from the biblical era through the medieval period. The literary sources to be examined will span the poetic and fanciful interpretations of Aggadic Midrash, the magical and astrological readings found in the Pseudepigrapha, Philo of Alexandria and Josephus, as well as the thematic reframing of lunar motifs in the Patristic literature. Other religious and literary writings to be summarized will include those of ancient Jewish commentators such as the Tannaim, Amoraim and medieval thinkers such as Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Maimonides, as well as those of the Church Fathers and biblical faith groups such as the Samaritans. Throughout, the emphasis will be upon understanding the interpretive literary trajectory of these biblical verses, as well as upon the light these religious, calendrical and astronomical interpretations have shed upon the writers’ changing understanding of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Recent scholarly investigation into the books of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah has challenged the views of earlier modern exegetes who generally supported a theory of single authorship for these works. Newer scholars, the most notable of which are probably H.G.M. Williamson and Sara Japhet, initially founded their arguments for disparate authorship on linguistic and stylistic evidence. More recently however, arguments have been based on variants in the essential themes, ideologies and rhetoric employed by the texts. This paper focuses on one of these essential themes, that of varying attitudes toward purity as expressed through descriptions of the celebration of Passover: 2 Chronicles 30 and 35:1-19 versus Ezra 6:19-22. First, using the work of Emile Durkheim, Mary Douglas and others, I describe how ritual meals help create communal bonds and form identity within the bounds of particular purity rules. Even though Douglas’s work does not specifically address Passover, her essential components of the ritual meal fit well with the rules prescribed for Passover in Exodus 12 and Numbers 9. Then, using the aforementioned texts from Chronicles and Ezra, I show that when ritual meal purity is properly understood in its role as identity marker, the reader can see that the author of Chronicles is taking a radically different view toward those may celebrate the Passover than does the author of Ezra. These views, in turn, shape and are shaped by differences in each author’s more fundamental understanding of who constitutes the “true Israel.” I conclude by noting that both authors see recognition of Jerusalem-based worship as an essential part of national identity, but that they remain divided on the issue of participation within it. This important difference in turn supports the more recent scholarly work arguing for separate authorship.

Wisdom Discourse in Mediterranean antiquity, which entails living the fruitful life, is expressed not only in personal-moral contexts as ethical-philosophical discourse, but also is articulated in communal-civic contexts as politeia or political discourse. Epictetus' Enchiridion as an example of ethical-philosophical wisdom discourse, Cicero's De re publica as an example of communal-civic wisdom discourse, and Paul's letter to the Ephesians as an example of early-Christian communal-ethical wisdom discourse, will be examined with respect to wisdom topoi and argumentative strategies associated with these topoi. This paper explores the relationship between communal-civic and individual-moral dimensions of wisdom discourse, with the goal being to identify wisdom topoi that are associated with each (communal and individual) and their possible interrelation.

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As pointed out by many scholars including Dale Allison in his excellent commentary on the Testament of Abraham, there are puzzles from the judgment scene that have perplexed Testament of Abraham scholars. One difficulty is making sense of two pairs of gates with two different individuals enthroned between them. Another puzzle is the presence of one angel overlooking the weighing of the scales and another testing the souls by fire. Shouldn’t one method suffice? A further puzzle is how the text describes Abel asking for sins and good deeds to be read out of a book, but a recording angel is there writing down the sins and good deeds of the souls. As Allison queries, “What is the function of recording angels if sins and good deeds are already written in the book on the table?” In all these cases and others, a better understanding of the notion of judgment depicted in Egyptian sources might help answer some of these puzzles. The surface parallels between some aspects of Egyptian judgment and the Testament of Abraham have been mentioned by scholars, but a closer, detailed study of Egyptian texts and vignettes has usually been lacking. By more carefully examining the Egyptian milieu of the judgment of scales several possible puzzles of the Testament of Abraham might be answered. Although undoubtedly there were many influences on the Testament of Abraham’s judgment scene, I think we can conclude that an Egyptian judgment scene formed the core for the Testament of Abraham judgment scene. The author(s) of the Testament of Abraham then changed the identity of certain elements to fit their own worldview, but presumably they found enough value and/or similarity in the Egyptian judgment scene to appropriate it for their own purposes.

Are New Testament manuscripts trash? The answer to this question, surprisingly, is: yes. New Testament and other early Christian writings played an important role in the life of their communities, but how were the actual manuscripts containing these texts regarded and how were they discarded? It is well-known that Jews deposited their disused writings in a genizah. Moreover, two important finds from the previous century show great care for the manuscripts: the Qumran scrolls hidden away in caves, and the Nag Hammadi codices buried in a jar. Yet not all ancient writings were packed away so carefully. Over the last one hundred years or so, parts of ancient Christian texts– canonical and non-canonical – have been discovered on the garbage heaps of ancient Egyptian cities such as Oxyrhynchus. These papyrus fragments rank among the earliest and most important witnesses for the text of the New Testament. Taking a social historical approach, this paper explores why Christian manuscripts ended up on these trash heaps and thus touches upon the question how ancient Christians used and treated their books.

At the end of the fourth century two Church fathers, Epiphanius and Jerome, started to refer to a Jewish-Christian ”heresy” of the Nazarenes. While Epiphanius’ description seems to be based mainly on his creative imagination (see Luomanen, “Nazarenes.” Pages 279–315 in Companion to the Second Century Christian ”Heretics.” Edited by A. Marjanen and P. Luomanen. Supplemets to Vigiliae Christianae 76. Leiden: Brill 2005), Jerome provides some reliable evidence of scriptures that were used by the Nazarenes: their Commentary on Isaiah and their copy of the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew/Aramaic (Vir. ill. 3). Although scholars have noticed the Nazarenes’ anti-rabbinic polemics in the Commentary on Isaiah, the “Gospel of the Nazarenes” has not usually thought to be particularly anti-rabbinic. The contents of early Jewish-Christian gospels have to be reconstructed on the basis of fragments preserved by Church fathers. The present paper introduces a new reconstruction of the “Gospel of the Nazarenes” which challenges the widely accepted “Three Gospel Hypothesis” (which presumes the “Gospel of the Ebionites,” the “Gospel of the Nazarenes” and the “Gospel of the Hebrews”) and casts fresh light on the Nazarenes’ anti-rabbinic exegesis. The Nazarenes’ exegetical trickery twisted the wordings of Isaiah and Matthew against their rabbinic opponents and in the Nazarene version of Jesus’ trial (cf. Matt 27:15–48) the mob requires Pilate to release the “son of our Rabbi” (Jerome, Comm. Matt. 27.16). Overall, the Nazarenes’ exegesis shows how Matthew’s criticism of Jewish authorities and people—and especially the Matthean version of Jesus’ trial—was applied in the heat of later Jewish Christian debates. If the Nazarenes’ slander of the Rabbis was more developed than has been assumed thus far, this may also explain why Jerome notes that the Jews regularly ”curse” the Nazarenes in their synagogues (Jerome, Epist. 112.13).

It is widely recognized that there are a remarkable number of shared words and phrases in the Holiness Code (Lev 17-26) and the Book of Ezekiel. The purpose of this paper is to examine how subsequent scribes and commentators responded to these intertextual connections by making further connections of their own between these two texts.

The petitioner in several psalms of Unschuldserklärung (declaration of innocence) proclaims his own righteousness as the basis of divine favor and rescue (See Pss 7, 17, 18, 26, 35, 38, 44, 86). This attitude is often taken, rather dismissively, as the petitioner’s trust in covenantal loyalty or his confidence in his status in the cultic community (von Rad, for example). However, this paper argues that these psalms demonstrate reasonably cohesive conceptions of righteousness that should not be glossed over by a Protestant doctrine of justification or other ideological bents. Rather, the Psalter’s depiction of the righteous petitioner is quite similar to the characterization of the virtuous person in virtue ethics, and finds its closest biblical parallel in the portrayal of the righteous person in the book of Proverbs. Definable through specific behavior patterns and character traits, righteousness touted in these psalms is then best understood as a virtue rather than a status. Although these psalms are not collectively linked to wisdom tradition, they nevertheless provide a useful interface between the Psalter and the wisdom literature for constructing a more balanced biblical anthropology, as both uphold human integrity to be more than just a soteriological corollary.

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Because the cities of the Assyrian heartland were so closely bound up with the Assyrian state as a whole, they have often been treated simply as a dependent variable of the state: simply as another manifestation of the workings of the central royal administration. The possibility that these cities had some autonomy and individual character, that they were home to different and differing groups, traditions, and ideologies, has only rarely been touched on, let alone explored. Two of the exceptions were A.L. Oppenheim and Paul Garelli in remarks focused upon the behavior of Assur, the original core city of the Assyrian state, at certain points in the Neo-Assyrian period. The present paper offers an assessment of Oppenheim’s and Garelli’s suggestions in the context of a broader, more systematic survey of the first millennium BC history of Assur, with special attention to the various literary works originating from and/or intended for that city. In so doing, the paper raises some general questions about the nature of the Assyrian imperial system and the complexity of the elites who controlled it.

Against our readerly training to seek closure, Bakhtin teaches us to attend to the possibilities for irresolution in narrative. This paper presents a Bakhtinian reading of biblical allusion in “The River” and “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor. Allusion is shown to be a form of double-voicing from a perspective in Bakhtin theory: in allusive language, two voices speak in one. Such dialogization writ large can render a conversation in one narrative between two language worlds. The paper proposes that in these stories, biblical allusions weave a scriptural subtext that contends with the secular storyworld on the surface of the text. The critical literature on both stories is contradictory, split between secular and religious interpretations: Some read the drowning of a child in “The River” as a critique of fundamentalist religion, others find the death an affirmation of exitus et reditus theology. Some conclude that the widow in the story “Greenleaf” dies as a comeuppance for her bad attitude; others feel that she dies as the beloved of Jesus, in his embrace. Some critics appear to be reading the modern, secular voice of the text, others the ancient, biblical voice of the subtext. But what Bakhtin holds to be the dialogical nature of truth is upheld in what I read as the stories’ wobble between contending worldviews. The reading of the O’Connor stories is consonant with some readers’ proposals that parable is her genre. The paper concludes with a look at the possible implications of the O’Connor readings for a Bakhtinian understanding of her exemplar in the parables of Jesus.

This paper will explore the afterlife of the laws of Exodus in early medieval English law. In particular, it will study the intersection of the Decalogue and Covenant Code with the law code of Alfred the Great who ruled the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from about 871 C.E. to 899 C.E. Alfred was the first King of Wessex to declare himself “King of England,” thus making him of great importance in the history of the British crown. Alfred was a learned man, who was committed to education and who improved the kingdom’s legal system. In regard to the latter, he used prior Anglo-Saxon law codes, the Decalogue, and the certain provisions of the Covenant Code to write what is considered by many to be the first law code of England. This paper will compare and contrast the legal provisions of the Decalogue and the Covenant Code with Alfred’s legal provisions and then offer an analysis of Alfred’s interpretations of these important biblical texts. The methods used will be drawn from biblical narrative criticism, biblical cultural criticism, and legal history.

The Arch of Titus in Rome and the Spoils of Jerusalem Panel In this paper I consider the spoils of Jerusalem panel in the Arch of Titus in relation to the following issues: 1) the route of the triumphal procession; 2) the location and date of the arch; 3) the reason for the prominent depiction of the menorah and showbread table.

Although Daughter Zion is a literary figure, the plausibility of this metaphor partly stems from an accepted view of the life and behavior of a young woman and thus from a conscious or unconscious role model of the society in which the texts are written. The paper treats Daughter Zion as a female character and analyses its traits, speech and relations to other characters, esp. to God the (metaphorical) father by using insights of Mieke Bal’s narratological theory. This analysis also gives attention to Zion’s different portraits in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Zechariah by interpreting each of these portraits with regard to each book’s overall message and setting. The goal is to determine the function of the female character for ancient readers alongside the following questions: Which voice(s) does Daughter Zion represent? What makes her character appealing or appalling? How do emotions play out in the portrait? What is, after all, the role model for a daughter mirrored in these texts?

The President who chose that war horse of Revelation- inspired song, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” for the Hymn of the Day to accompany the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for the victims of 9/11 signaled that ideas close to or drawn directly from the Book of Revelation would have pride of place in the communication and shaping of foreign policy in the months and years to come. This paper explores, primarily through the analysis of President Bush’s speeches, how his administration draws upon the motifs of Revelation, and how its adaptations belong to a centuries’ long utilization of Revelation to promote a particular vision of American nationalism. While the President is too often associated in both the popular media and the Academy with pre-Millennialist themes of the Christian Dispensationalist Right, a closer analysis shows that Bush’s millennialism is an uneasy compatriot with his conservative supporters. The Bush Administration has created in its national and foreign policy formulations not only room for pre-millennialist interests, but also a Revelation-inspired power allegiance that in its resulting mythos offers a virtually unassailable world-view, and assures that the Book of Revelation will be in America’s political imagination for some time to come.

In Mark 5:7, the demons ask of and command Jesus, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the highest god? I adjure you by god, do not torture me!” Tina Pippin has explored the dynamics of the ethics of the orgy of violence in the Markan apocalypse (Semeia 72). The violence unfortunately extends beyond. Here in Mark 5 the demons are apparently fair game for torture and their demise warrants an apparently gleeful and justified response on the part of the hearer. And who could disagree? They are, after all, DEMONS! Such discourse, however, begs the question as to what counts as demonic and who gets to say so. It raises the question of how this text can be and is read over and over without ever thinking about torture. The first part of the paper explores the dynamics of exorcism, violence and torture within the broader narrative framework of Mark. The second part develops the ways in which (anti)patriarchy gets caught up in attempts at justified/justifying as well as not noticing torture via demonizing the opposition. This then is brought in the final part into juxtaposition with current discourses on torture, state and human interests, the demonic, and the war on terror. The result shows the fraughtness in standing for justice of all in a world constructed by Good Guys/Bad Guys.

English folk rituals involving Bibles provide the empirical ground for an exploration of the relationship between Bibles’ semantic properties—especially their relevance—and Bibles’ physical properties. While in literacy the material properties of a text are treated semantically, as serving the text’s meaning, in these English folk rituals the semantic properties of a text are treated as materially efficacious. Particular attention will be paid to the “Bible & key,” a widespread form of bibliomancy documented in several variants. The nature of the (structuralist) inversion of literacy and Bible ritual is analyzed in terms of current theories about the interaction of cognition and culture, with special attention to the ways in which such practices are transmitted.

This study aims to focus on the dynamics of travel and contact in the argumentation of Paul’s letter to the Philippians as part of an ongoing effort to develop a feminist, postcolonial analysis of Pauline letters. Conceiving of Philippi as an ancient, colonized “contact zone” and Philippians as possibly an instance of travel literature should aid in investigating the role of women, gender, and sexuality in historic and discursive colonization. Given Roman imperial control and the colonia’s place on an important route for travel, ancient Philippi brought people of disparate ethnic, cultic, political, and/or geographical origins together. Though this mixing involved conflict and asymetrical dynamics, the conditions of contact (rather than an empire’s “frontier”) emphasizes the mutual agency of colonized and colonizer. Such a conceptualization provides an opportunity, then, to develop further reflections upon and reconstructions of the role of women in the contact zone. Thus, renewed attention should be paid to the role of Euodia and Syntyche and the dynamic presented in the letter between Paul and these two Philippian women.

An introduction to Gérhard Weil’s Masora Magna, also known as Massorah Gedolah, which was published in 1971 to accompany the edition of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) by the Biblical Institute Press, Rome. This paper will illustrate how Weil’s Masora Magna is organized, and how it correlates with the Masoretic apparatus of BHS. The relationship of the Masora magna notes to the Masora parva notes will be discussed as well as demonstrating how Weil edited the Masora magna notes in the Leningrad manuscript for his edition. The paper will suggest some ways in which the Masora magna can be used as a tool in biblical research, and will illustrate the differences between the presentation of the Masorah magna notes in Weil’s edition as compared with their presentation in the new Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ) edition.

This paper analyzes Horace’s Epistles 1.7 and 2 Corinthians 1-9 as two innovative uses of the epistolary motif of “travel plans” to manipulate the status implications of a patron-client relationship. Building on recent scholarship, this paper examines how Horace refashions his relationship with Maecenas by simultaneously changing travel plans, insisting on autonomy, and flattering a benefactor. In refusing to return to Rome, Horace manipulates his relationship with his patron by refashioning their respective personae, depicting himself as absurdly ungrateful and Maecenas as effortlessly generous. Horace flatters his patron and instructs his audience (both Maecenas and the public audience of his poem) about the autonomy which characterizes the socially unattached life. The poem portrays an intellectual client who enjoys the benefits of patronage while rhetorically pulling the strings of the relationship. Similarly, Paul writes 2 Corinthians 1-9 in order to manipulate his relationship with the community in light of a dispute rooted in uncertainty about the status implications of the relationship between an “apostle” and his community. Paul uses his altered plans to visit Corinth as an opportunity to simultaneously flatter the community by depicting them as an essential aspect of his mission and assert his authority evinced through his social self-lowering through tireless travel. Paul innovatively manipulates his relationship with the Corinthians by appealing to their emotions and re-contextualizing his relationship with them. A fuller understanding of each author’s rhetorical innovations requires some reflection on the nexus between pathos-arguments and the manipulation of social status in ancient rhetoric. Thus, this paper will draw insights from ancient rhetorical and epistolary theorists, as well as from contemporary social theorists (Bourdieu, Laclau and Mouffe, Schatzki), to help explain how generic and rhetorical innovations can work to form communities by refashioning various subject positions.

Reflection on the future of socio-rhetorical analysis.

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While many college professors would describe their profession as a vocation, the presence in the classroom of ordained clergy who see this vocation as also a religious call has increasingly been viewed as problematic. I am a candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. I hold a tenure track position at an ELCA related college. If my ³call² is successfully negotiated with the ELCA, I will be called to my faculty position. I view my place in the classroom as a ³ministry of word.² Yet, only a minority of my students are Lutheran, and the pluralism of North America means that there are always agnostics and atheists present as well. A further level of complexity is that I share my faculty position with my wife, who views the role of faith in the classroom rather differently. This creates interesting dynamics with students who have both of us as professors, prompting them to ask questions about our shared work and shared faith. This presentation will explore how it is that I negotiate my faith, my call, the religious pluralism of the contemporary classroom, and the dynamics of a position shared with a spouse. In part, James Fowler¹s stages of faith will help in explicating how I work to build and nurture faith ­ however a specific student might define its contents ­ in ways consistent with my understanding of my own faith positions. Most specifically, these issues will be discussed against the backdrop of my class on Paul, where, with a number of Lutheran pre-seminary students present, I am intent on teaching the ³new² Paul, leading to a deconstruction of primal Lutheran faith categories such as Law and Gospel and Justification by Faith. The means by which student faith perspectives, mine, and those of our reconstruction of Paul engage one another is proving to be a fertile area of faith development.

The development of the masoretic notices is “sketched on the basis of vague hints and with much speculation” (cf. I. Yeivin, Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah, Missoula 1980, pag. 131). Even when the majority of scholars coincide in recognizing the soferim as the first to work in the preservation of the biblical text, the period between their work and the appearance of the Masorah (aprox. S. VI-VII) is vaguely outlined in the masoretic studies. The presence of textual notices in the midrashim and in the Talmud, is usually mentioned in the masorah studies just by bringing up a few examples from diverse sources. The identification and study of the commentaries based on textual details present in the midrashim Genesis Rabbah, Lamentations Rabbah, Sifre Numbers, Sifra Leviticus and the Mekiltah of Rabbi Yismael that I have carried out until the moment, stress the relevance of midrashim in general, and the haggadic one in particular, in the studies about the history and development of the textual traditions included in the Masorah. This paper presents my current research project that aims to analize and study the rest of the midrashim, both haggadic and halakic, dated prior to the appearance of the Masorah, with the goal of tracing the history of the transmission and of the evolution of textual traditions included in the Masorah in a period before its appearance (aprox. 6th to 7th century). The paper also examines the examples of the midrash Leviticus Rabbah in which a textual detail is commented in the language of the Masorah and the most relevant conclusions.

The Project on Ancient Cultural Engagement at York University (PACE) is a resource intended to encourage and assist reflection on problems of social, cultural, and ethnic identity in the Roman world. Since this was an articulated issue chiefly for members of the elite classes, we focus initially on writers who stood conspicuously at the confluence of cultures, and whose compositions were devoted in significant measure to working out problems of identity. Our first two authors are Polybius of Megalopolis and Flavius Josephus. Our site provides the complete Greek texts, each with two English translations, full historical-literary commentary, bibliography, scholarly books and articles, dissertations, images of places mentioned, archaeological summaries, tables of textual parallels, and notes on the history of reception. Such resources are available both as discrete modules (from the front page) and for the reader of the texts in situ. Membership in the Project, open to all qualified scholars, permits indefinite contribution to the site contents.

In this paper I argue that by depicting Jesus and Stephen as praying for God to forgive the Jews who kill them, the second-century author of Luke-Acts is asserting an ethic of extreme Christian mercy as the flip side of his anti-Jewish polemic. Other early Christian authors concerned with establishing boundaries between Christians and Jews follow suit. I will demonstrate first how these assertions of extreme mercy are (ironically and tragically) built on a scaffolding of Jew vilification. I will then show how, in a further series of ironies, the authors and transmitters of these forgiveness prayers strive to mark them as inefficacious. A primary means of rendering them inefficacious is to read them “intransitively”—as indicating the perfection of the one who loves enemies/prays for persecutors, but as having no consequence for actual enemies/persecutors. Other strategies include attaching conditions to the forgiveness prayers that remain unmet by the Jews, and—in the case of Luke 23.34a—simply striking the prayer from the text. I conclude with some assessment of how the assertion of extreme mercy as a Christian proprium, along with its violent undertow of anti-Jewish polemic, continue to function in scholarship on early Jewish and Christian relations.

Integrated models of tribal village land management systems are presented based on a comparative botanical study of dryland ecologies and their agricultural communities. There is sparse paleobotanical data from the study of early Israel’s tribal village sites; however, comparative studies of small-plot agriculture and herding practices tells us that these semi-arid regions contain interstitial spaces of open territory that can provide a wide variety of edible plants such as wild grasses, various tubers, berries and other fruits and nuts that appear over an annual cycle. These areas are also home to a variety of animals and birds that can be hunted or trapped, and also provide additional water catchment systems wherein soil moisture, soil health and resistance to erosion (stability) of adjacent terraced farm fields are promoted. The hypothesized lower human population of the Late Bronze era hill-country of Palestine, which was separated from heirarchical political systems, may have allowed the return of a biodiverse system of plants and animals more closely resembling a pristine area, which is shown here to support the same plant families that have appeared in Israel. Besides cultivated food sources, the variety of available foods from gathering, hunting or trapping may revise our view of the socioeconomic patterns of ancient Israel and estimates of the population carrying capacity of this type of ecology. This study, based on research from the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria) and from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, reveals the extent and variety of indigenous knowledge and techniques in managing these ecosystems, utilizing early agricultural techniques and long-term food supply stabilization in sustainable ways, providing these human communities sustenance over many generations.

This paper will explore the possibility that in certain late antique Platonic systems (academic, patristic, and Gnostic) the problem of the derivation of subsidiary ontological levels from a transcendent unity was conceived at least partially in terms of contemporaneous embryology and biological reproduction. In particular, the self-contraction model of ontogenesis, (one subset of the common derivational model involving a primordial self-reversion)-- occurring for example, in the Anonymous Commentary on Plato's Parmenides, the Nag Hammadi treatise Allogenes (according to Turner's reconstruction), Marius Victorinus' Adversus Arium, Plotinus, and elsewhere-- may be related to a prevailing embryological notion that human seed contracted (or breathed) into itself at the moment of successful conception (thus Galen, De Semine I.2.6; also, the Hippocratic On the Nature of the Child 12.1).

This paper continues the quest to figure out how the African biblical scholar can beneficially engage works of African literature, specifically African novels, in formulating pertinent issues in African theological discourse. African novelists, like the two discussed in this paper, do not shy away from appropriating the Bible in more than a cursory fashion in their writings which leaves the reader with the distinct sense that the Bible is being engaged at an interpretive level. For this purpose, this paper seeks to compare two African novelists whose extensive use of the Bible and biblical imagery plays a central role in their novels. We will be comparing what we perceive to be two divergent ways in which these authors have employed the Bible (narratives, theological terminology, imagery, etc) in their novels and what biblical scholars can glean from these works in relation to the emerging discipline of African biblical hermeneutics.

There are a number of differences between the thought of GTr and the fragments of Valentinus. For example, GTr's creation myth (17.14-20) is more negative in its attitude toward material creation than that of Valentinus in Stromateis IV.89.6-90.1. While this realm is lesser for Valentinus, it reflects the reality of the eternal realm through the grace of that realm; Valentinus would not call this world a "substitute for truth". More significantly, GTr displays a wide range of motifs which are similar to the teaching of later Valentinians, such as Ptolemy's disciples, Marcus and Heracleon. While any of these individual motifs associated with later teachers might be plausibly traced to Valentinus, it is incredible to suppose that ALL such motifs can be traced to the original teaching of the Master. The hypothesis is simply too unwieldy. We should choose the simplest theory. GTr contains a wide array of motifs from a later stage in Valentinian thought precisely because it was written later than the time of Valentinus.

By all accounts Genesis 1-11 is composed of an odd and diverse set of materials. Traditional methods of reading these texts, such as source-criticism and form-criticism made significant progress in talking about the types of literature in this corpus, the potential settings from which the units may have emerged, and how each unit may be connected to others with similar language, theology, and ideology. These methods have declined in influence partly because they began to approach the limits of their explanatory power, and because they operated with assumptions that could no longer be taken for granted. A more fruitful area of inquiry now involves a shift away from asking “where did this text come from?” toward asking “what is this text doing here?” These two types of questions may not be as unrelated as they initially seem. Genesis 1-11 develops a unique narrative world, one which is obviously different from the world of our experience. Strange names, very long life-spans, indeterminate geography, strange creatures and plants, and a direct link between heaven and earth serve to develop a setting in the distant past which is mysterious and murky. What if the ability to contribute to this sense of dislocation was one of the reasons for choosing certain materials and shaping them in particular ways? What effect might this have had on the earliest readers of Genesis? This paper will examine passages in Genesis 1-11 and ask what they contribute to the construction of its world and how this aspect of those texts relates to some of the conclusions about them reached by historical-critical methods.

Whereas in many societies lying to outsiders is regarded as acceptable and even, at times, praiseworthy, the practising of deceit upon insiders is considered to be a hostile act. To go so far as to deceive or betray members of one's own family is treated as utterly heinous and contemptible. As Goffman (1977) has shown, many human interactions take place encapsulated within acts of courtesy or courtship, but these may be of genuine or deceptive intent. With ambiguity built into them these interactions can provide 'slippage'; they can be planned in deceptive mode by the would-be manipulator/s and read and reacted to as if genuine by the intended victim. Two biblical stories provide us with clear examples of the malign power of this abuse of ambiguity where two conspire against one in a deceitful way. The stories of the Dispossessing of Esau and the Rape of Tamar will be analysed using insights from two theories of manipulation: Information Manipulation Theory (McCornack 1992) and Social Manipulation Theory (Peterson 2004). This will uncover the roles and methods of the paired conspirators practised against the unsupported victims.

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In his book Messianic Exegesis, Donald Juel offers a compelling proposal concerning Paul’s interpretation of Gen 22:18 in Gal 3. He points out that convention permits Paul to interpret two passages together on the basis of shared vocabulary. Therefore, because both Gen 22:18 and 2 Sam 7:12 contain the word “offspring,” Paul can conclude that the “offspring” who extends the blessing of Abraham to the Gentiles is the “offspring” promised to David by Nathan—that is, the Messiah (pp. 85-7). Surely similar arguments can be made about biblical exegesis elsewhere in Paul’s letters. This paper makes such an argument about Rom 9:30-11:32, in which Paul attributes christological significance to fourteen citations in order to explain why so many of his Jewish compatriots remain “ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God” through faith in Christ (Rom 10:3). That Paul conflates half these citations on the basis of shared vocabulary (in Rom 9:33; 11:8-10, 26-27) suggests that the “messianic exegesis” proposed by Juel is indeed at work in this passage. I reconstruct Paul’s interpretive process beginning with Isa 52:13-53:12 and Ps 69, passages that can be understood as messianic prophecies due to verbal similarities with Ps 89, a lament over God’s “anointed one” (Juel, pp. 104-10, 131). Then, using words like “believe,” “report,” “word,” “mouth,” “stone,” “sin,” “lawlessness,”and “burning anger,” I show how messianic exegesis can extend from Isa 53 and Ps 69 to the twelve other citations in Rom 9:30-11:32. This enables Paul to make the audacious claim that, according to Israel’s Scripture, some Jews are made righteous by believing in Jesus Christ whereas the rest have stumbled due to their blindness and hardness of heart.

The importance of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts has long been recognized. This paper seeks to provide a perspective on the role of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts and suggests two fruitful directions for exploration of this topic. The most substantial contributions to this discussion have focused on the role of the Old Testament in developing the work’s Christology. This paper seeks to develop a more comprehensive picture of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts by examining explicit appeals to the Old Testament as well as fourteen "summary statements" of Old Testament teaching that do not contain explicit citations. A careful study reveals that the prophetic significance of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts is found in five central themes: the suffering, death, resurrection, and exaltation of the Messiah; eschatological blessing; the rejection of Christ by many Jews; the coming judgment on unbelief; and the offer of forgiveness to all (Jew or Gentile) in the name of Jesus. Text concerned with these other themes (in addition to Christology) must be brought into the discussion of the Old Testament in Luke-Acts. In addition, considered as rhetorical devices, Luke’s Old Testament citations and summaries offer insight into his purpose--the authority of the Old Testament is brought to bear in order to bring Theophilus certainty concerning the things about which he has been instructed: particularly, Jesus is indeed the Messiah and that God has ordained the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles. This does not lead to a new conclusion about the purpose of Luke-Acts, but it does bring new evidence to bear on the question.

The usual paradigm students use to approach the Bible is to read words on a page. The explicit purpose of this small group exercise is to shift the paradigm of approaching the Bible to one that gives awareness of geographical space and bodily movement. My anecdotal evidence, over several years of refining the exercise, suggests that this different “reading” indirectly challenges preconceived ideas about the nature of the text, with specific challenge to a fundamentalist/conservative tendency to obsess with the actual words of what is considered a verbally inspired text. The geography and bodily movement exercise is achieved by having a small group role play a biblical text while physically moving to predetermined locations that symbolically represent different geographical references in the text. Drawing upon the emerging methodology of performance criticism, learning theory in psychology, and theories of movement from the theatrical art of dance, I will provide a possible explanation of why the exercise seems effective in shifting basic hermeneutical perspectives on the Bible. I will discuss passages from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament that are effectively used in this exercise. Handouts will be provided that give the instructor all necessary information and materials to implement the exercise. The protocol leads students through a pre- and post-bodily movement reading of the text.

The prevalence of the book of Leviticus in the Dead Sea Scrolls community is evident not only by the number of copies of this book found at Qumran, but also by the large number of quotations from Leviticus found in the non-biblical material. The book of Leviticus clearly was foundational in shaping the life and self-understanding of the priestly community at Qumran. This paper focuses on the interpretive traditions of Leviticus in the Scrolls, investigating the ways this book influenced Essene communal legislation and ideology. While the interpretive techniques used by Qumran scribes are of some interest, the primary aim of this paper is to discuss the broader motivations and ethos of the community members in creating a unique culture of elitist ritual purity with clearly defined boundaries toward the outside world.

The Hebrew Bible is an androcentric document produced largely by elite males in an urban environment; and it is more interested in national events and community values than in the lives of individuals. For these reasons and many others, it is an inadequate, incomplete, and distorted source of information about the lives of ordinary Israelite women. Nevertheless, assumptions based on biblical data are often used in making judgments about the lives and status of women in the biblical period. This paper will explore the ways in which ethnohistorical analysis, as an independent way for assessing the lives of Israelite women, can help bridge the gap between portrayals of women in the Hebrew Bible and the social reality of their lives.

“He was born of a woman that he might beget us of the Holy Spirit.” This paper examines the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the writings of Philoxenos of Mabbug (d. 523). Philoxenos is better known for his voluminous participation in the Christological disputes following the council of Chalcedon. His Christological polemics were marked by repeated attacks upon specific inconsistencies of dyophysite theology. This theological orientation should not, however, lead one to conclude that defining the nuances of Christological doctrine was Philoxenos’ primary concern in opposing Chalcedon. He framed his polemic works within a larger spiritual context. This context comes to light in a previously unedited fragment (MS Vat. Borgia syr. 10) in which Philoxenos resorts to extreme rhetoric to explain the efficacious role of the Holy Spirit even in the face of blatant sinfulness. Nevertheless, he reserves one exception concerning the indwelling of the Spirit, the Spirit will depart from heretics at the moment of their apostasy. This exception provides an interpretive key for understanding Philoxenos’ Christological polemics. For Philoxenos, the Christological heresies were more than just doctrinal mistakes about Christ, they were part of a larger conflict between the Holy Spirit and Satan. Erroneous teaching about Christ’s incarnation was a Satanic effort to interrupt the Spirit’s role in the economy of salvation. Christ’s incarnation and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling were related. Denial of the former prevented the occurrence of the latter. The doctrine of Christ was not merely an intellectual question, it was a pressing spiritual matter with consequences for the work of the Spirit. In short, the urgency which Philoxenos assigned to defending the doctrine of Christ was a function of the importance he attached to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. His concern for Christology was a product of his pneumatology.

Interpreters of 1 and 2 Samuel have long been troubled by God’s evident favoritism shown towards David, given God’s earlier summary rejection of Saul. But this macro-narrative tension in God’s attitude towards the first two kings of Israel is matched by an intra-textual tension in the story of Saul’s rejection. In 1 Samuel 15:10 God tells Samuel that he has “repented” of (or has changed his mind about) making Saul king (a statement reiterated by the narrator in 15:35). Then, when Saul confesses his sin and pleads for forgiveness, Samuel tells him (in 15:29) that God is not a human being that he should “repent” (that is, God will not change his mind about changing his mind). This paper will take as its starting point the evident contradiction between these two statements about God’s “repentance” in 1 Samuel 15 (which is unlikely to be unintentional in such an astute narrative) as a clue to interpreting the role of human and divine freedom in 1 Samuel 15 and beyond. First, the vexed question of whether (and to what extent) Samuel adequately represents God’s intent will be assessed, and this will lead to a hypothesis about why God shifts significantly (changes his mind) from his treatment of Saul (rejecting him and refusing him forgiveness) to his later treatment of David (entering into an unconditional covenant with him and immediately forgiving his sin when he confesses). The role of Samuel in both representing God’s will and precipitating a change in God’s modus operandi will be explored.

This paper proposes a modified Marxist-ideological perspective on the (hi)story of Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11-14. An exploration of the semantic isotopies of politics, religion, and economics within this narrative reveals a conflict of class and ideology merely “papered over” by its ideological antinomies (i.e. contradictions). Ideologemes such as royal ideology and historical determinism reinforce this text's major role in this struggle with its simultaneous ideology of the rule(r)(d) being (ex)(re)pressed. With further consideration of this narrative's historical-ideological conceptualizations, various economic determinants emerge in this religio-political polemic by one segment of culture (i.e. Judah) asserting its dominance over another (more economically dominant) segment of culture (i.e. Israel) as Other in spite of its own marginalization as Other.

The literature of the Book of Psalms is among the most familiar of any of the biblical writings. Students, especially those with some church or synagogue background, will have encountered individual Psalms during a visit to their religious community. Others might have met with a biblical psalm (often without knowing it) in a novel they have read, a popular song they have heard, or from the mouth of a character in a television program they have watched. The Psalms, as evidenced even within our popular culture, continues to impact the lives of those who read or hear them. Nonetheless, many times our presentation of the Psalms - especially of the micro-structures (parallelism) and the macro-structures (genre) - tends to stupefy, rather than to excite our students. It is not totally the fault of our presentation, since we are often struggling against the perceptions of average students, who believe they hate poetry and can never hope to understand it. In my presentation, I offer a general overview of the process my class goes through in encountering biblical poetry. I focus specifically on two simple in-class exercises: (1) introducing the basic parallel structure of Hebrew poetry and (2) introducing the basic structure of a complaint psalm. In both exercises, the students are asked to write their own examples of the structures in question. These two exercises are grounded in learner-centered approaches to teaching and promote active engagement in the learning process.

While most feminist biblical scholars work and teach in the context of biblical, theological, ancient near eastern or classical departments or programmes, my work is done only in the context of a women’s studies programme at a secular (Provincial) university. The relevance of feminist biblical criticism is not obvious to many outside the field. This paper seeks to demonstrate how the range of methods, methodologies and ideologies that characterize feminist biblical scholarship on the Hebrew Bible can contribute positively to the development of the critical interpretive skills of undergraduate women’s studies students.

As Vales writes to Psais in the letter section of P. Kell. 35, his discussion of the accompanying amulet text demonstrates rhetorical devices that are standard fare in the Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM). In such cases, a writer uses the form of the personal letter (actual or not) as the literary frame for a ritual text. The writer demonstrates high reverence for the transmitted text as well as his individual knowledge of and access to such texts – all of which Vales’ letter demonstrates – apparently suggesting a guarantee of efficacy through a tested chain of tradition. The Kellis letter seems to indicate that actual letters containing ritual texts – later to become editorial sources – could have worked their ways into later synthetic anthologies like the PGM, where the letter genre is obvious in well-known examples (see PGM ). This does not preclude the possibility that such texts were later edited in a variety of ways during the process of scribal transmission, leading to the “canonical” versions we now have in the PGM. Such correspondence, which also displays rhetorical similarities with the testament genre, reflects the relationship between the holy man and personal or professional beneficiaries and clients that formed an essential component of Late Antique religion.

In this paper, I work with Bakhtin’s notion of “inserted genres” as part of his overall definition of heteroglossia. In order to work with this notion, I bring together Chronicles and Ben Sira. I problematize the relationship, and I look for possibilities of using Ben Sira (whose date and context are more easily determined) for furthering our understanding of the genre and context of Chronicles. I argue that the Chronicler was a broadly literate author (as was Ben Sira), who used a number of literary techniques in order to achieve his ideological aims. Although I use examples from the range of both books, my primary focus is on the so-called “Hymn to the Ancestors” in Ben Sira 44-50, and on the depiction of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16. The use of inserted genres in both books is the starting point for my reflections on the genre(s) of the books as a whole.

I propose to consider the meaning of the Flood Narrative as a whole, in its received form, via a heuristic exercise in redaction criticism. A preliminary consideration of characteristic construals will lead to a renewed consideration of the divine soliloquy in Gen. 8:21-22 as a possible key to the whole story. The theological tension between 6:5 and 8:21 is well recognized, in that the reason for Yhwh's decision to wipe out humanity is repeated in the context of the decision to sustain life upon earth. The tension, however, focusses entirely upon the clause in 8:21ay, 'for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth'. I will argue that there are good grounds for seeing this clause as a distinct addition to an otherwise complete divine soliloquy, and then propose a reading of the story without this clause. When the clause is included, it highlights two issues that are otherwise less central within the story: divine mutability and human depravity. Possible reasons for adding the clause will be explored. The story will then be construed with the clause as integral. Special consideration will be given to the narrative tension constituted by the pronouncement of humanity's evil inclination when the only significant human in the context is the tsaddiq Noah. Some final remarks will consider the meaning and purpose of the narrative as a whole.

Of the three main citations of the Greek Bible in Luke’s Pentecost speech (Acts 2), Joel 3:1-5 (Acts 2:17-21), Ps 15:8-11 (2:25-28), and Ps 109:1 (2:34b-35a), commentators have the most difficulty in explaining why Luke would quote nine lines of Psalm 15 only apparently to find, in two short lines, one rather cryptic prophetic nugget of the resurrection from the dead of David’s future offspring and christos (Ps 15:10 = Acts 2:27). The reason for this confusion is that interpreters as a rule assume that Luke is referring to the Hebrew Psalm 16, a ‘Song of Trust,’ rather than the Greek Psalm 15 which is a very different “writing of David” and composes a psalm of David as ‘a suffering righteous one.’ --Psalm 15, in fact, serves as the linchpin for the rhetorical strategy of the whole speech. If Joel 3 illumines how it could be that the Pentecost pilgrims are experiencing the “wind and the flame,” and Psalm 109 forms an inclusio to show that Jesus, the exalted Messiah and Lord, is actually the “my lord” (Ps 109:1) who is pouring out the Spirit “in these last days,” then Psalm 15 explains how the people of Israel (“you,” pl.) could “execute” their own Messiah and Lord according to “the prescient plan and foreknowledge of God” (2:23). In the logic of Peter, the one who is now “exalted at the right hand” is precisely the one whom David “kept seeing” as “my Lord” (Ps 15:2!) “in his presence.” David’s suffering thus prefigures and prophesies the “plan” that leads to “the right hand” (Ps. 15:8-10 [2:25-27]). Peter is identifying the career of Jesus from the Greek psalms, “opened,” according to volume one, by the risen Lord and Christ himself (Luke 24:44-47).

Homiletical theory in recent decades has shown receptivity to changing assumptions regarding authority, knowledge, and truth as it seeks solution to the continuing quest for how, what, and even why to preach. Some among both the clergy and laity question whether the era of pulpit proclamation can survive in a high-tech culture of virtual reality, instant global news, and portable movie theaters on DVD. How does one orally communicate from ancient texts to contemporary audiences whose alternative sources of information are multicultural, entertaining technological experiences? The quest for methods capable of effectively communicating religious concepts with compelling relevance has at times obscured both the consideration of the bible as a whole and the unfolding perspective rendered by its narrative accounting. In spite of recent homiletical shifts responsive to narrative sensibilities preaching remains constrained by the rhetorical format of argument. Methodological quests for preaching elsewhere pursued as a discipline of communication remain essential; however, each generation’s homiletic must address the challenge of what exactly Christianity proclaims for the existing culture. This paper is concerned with the potential of homiletics to make fuller use of postmodern hermeneutical approaches for considering the storied accounting intrinsic to the Genesis-to-Revelation narrative. Homiletical considerations from such a reading must embrace both the questions of our fragmented postmodern culture and the constraints of the final form of the Christian canon.

Contemporary biblical scholarship is increasingly aware of the exegetical possibilities generated by the discovery and publication of all the known Dead Sea Scrolls, and one sign of this awareness is the dramatic increase in intertextual studies of various biblical passages in recent years, influenced in part by the exegetical principles operating within the Qumran literature itself. In the same vein Second Temple scholars are cognizant of the almost exclusive dependence of the Qumran documents upon earlier material from the Hebrew Bible, and this knowledge has already produced several intertextual studies of various Qumran texts alongside biblical texts like Isaiah and the Psalms, as well as portions and sections of Targumim, Mishnah, Talmud, Josephus, the New Testament and other texts. Relatively few interpreters, however, have begun the process of examining the striking intertextual parallels between Jeremiah's laments and the brooding poetry of the Hodayot scroll from Cave 1 (1QH). The following study will attempt to put to both these poetic anthologies some basic intertextual questions: (1) What are the predominant metaphors common to JL and 1QH?, and (2) What factors might be responsible for adapting and, in some cases, transforming the metaphors in 1QH vis-à-vis those in JL?

The imagery of the Apocalypse of John is vivid, surreal and, to the members of many mainline churches, deeply confusing. However, most Americans are quite familiar with vivid and surreal imagery in another context: propaganda posters, especially those of World Wars I and II. Similarly, John’s Apocalypse is frequently thought of as a propagandistic tool, encouraging his communities to resist the imperial power of Rome. Both the posters and the Apocalypse deploy similar visual tropes: the enemy as a monster, the community as a woman, the participation of the individual in the struggles of the community. Comparing and contrasting the visual style and tropes of American propaganda posters in World Wars I and II to the Apocalypse will help evaluate two important questions concerning the ethical consequences of reading John’s text, then and now: (1) Was John simply mirroring imperial brutality in his own text, and (2) What effect is his text likely to have in the modern American empire? This comparative exercise reveals that John’s boundaries are much less clearly conceptualized than those of most of the posters, probably reflecting the fact that John had little or no chance to implement his boundaries as political policy, in stark contrast to the power of the Roman and American governments to do so. John’s more ad hoc boundaries, depending upon his personal authority as the arbiter of those boundaries, become potentially quite dangerous in a modern American context where Christians reading John can clearly imagine holding the power to transfer his imaginative categories into legal categories.

According to the Hebrew Bible, Israel's settlement in Egypt was predicated upon a royal decree, which allowed Jacob and his sons to dwell in the land of Goshen, further securing them jobs as "herdsmen" for pharaoh. Despite the "narrative" presentation in Genesis, the king's command and its provisions bear resemblance to ancient Egyptian donation texts, or royal charters. Well-attested, these legal documents typically contained stipulations exempting tenants on royal estates from outside labor. However, some examples also specified that such largesse and protections were to continue beyond the lifetime of the issuing monarch. In order to ensure compliance, "grants-in-perpetuity", were sometimes sealed with elaborate threats and curses implicating all parties that would violate their strictures, including future kings and advisors. The Biblical "plot" of Israel's sojourn, oppression, and departure from the Nile Valley very much resembles the "dynamics" of donation texts- - a feature that may especially be seen in the imagery and function of the plague cycle in Exodus. Rather than simply being manifestations of divine power, the disasters unleashed upon pharaoh are to be regarded as "dramatized curses", of the type found in Egyptian foundation charters. Indeed, the Biblical story is purposefully constructed to stress that the kings of Egypt had violated Israel's legal status through "breach of contract", thereby justifying the latter's demands for emancipation, as well as providing a cause for Yahweh's advocacy on its behalf.

The American children’s Bible market is saturated by timidly told versions which aim to render the scriptures as a non-threatening literal stream of watercolor tales and timeless truths. Though some illustrated versions display commendable sensitivity to historical details, the most significant evolution since the 1950s seems to have come in the form of cartooning the characters and letting Jesus’ hair grow back to its natural brown. Faced with the challenge of compressing all of those entangled stories into a palatable format, many authors have opted for 300-500 page abridgements (overestimating parents’ time and patience perhaps?) that sweep past the unsavory events with the wave of a hand. Other editions compile just a few disconnected stories. But almost all employ a sweetness of style that will either fade or congeal as the child grows up. The outmoded aesthetics of the trade and religious press editions will be shown to reflect particularly conservative inclinations to control the story. Their style snugly fits their function to depict an uncomplicated but uncompromising world in which God’s just have legitimately inherited the earth. There of course do need to be effective ways around certain stories, but overly sanitized versions pave the way for armchair religion and complacent escapism that is regulated through assuring sermons on ‘Scripture’s simple message’. The paper registers aesthetic and literary complaints against a market dominated by the status quo, and it critiques the anesthetizing effects of uncreative biblical interpretation. It will end with images from a children’s OT/Hebrew Bible written and illustrated by the presenter and currently under consideration for publication in America. The book’s collages dress biblical characters in ornamented papers and intend to show an abstract and recycled portrayal can better evoke the actual assemblages of biblical texts.

Students bring many pre-understandings to the study of the Hebrew Bible. These pre-understandings often hamper students' willingness to entertain new ideas. This paper presents many of the strategies and pedagogical approaches I have used during my 36-year teaching career to help beginning students overcome their pre-understandings and increase their learning.

Studies on Paul’s use of scripture have either focused on the (supposed) capabilities of the author (Hays, Wagner) or the (supposed lack of) capabilities of his first readers/hearers (Stanley, Tuckett). In the former case, Paul’s sophisticated interpretations of scripture are defended by reference to such passages as Romans 9-11, Galatians 3 and 2 Corinthians 3 and then extended to other passages. In the latter, reference to literacy studies and classical rhetoric are used to show that such sophisticated explanations are unlikely, as they require a level of reader competence which very few in the church (if any), would have possessed. The quotation of Isa 52:5 in Rom 2:24 offers an interesting case study to explore these issues since it is the first Isaiah quotation to appear in the book and thus comes before the extensive use of Isaiah in Romans 9-11. A reader-centred approach would not therefore import the background of Isaiah 52 into the meaning of the text since: (a) there is nothing to suggest it is required; (b) very few in the Roman church(es) would have known or had access to the original context; and (c) it does not immediately support Paul’s point anyway. On the other hand: (a) Paul does begin the letter to Romans by asserting that the gospel was ‘promised beforehand through his prophets’; (b) the reader will discover in Romans 9-11 that Isaiah is rather important to Paul, including a quotation from Isa 52:7; and (c) there is no reason to limit the meaning of a text to what is apparent on a first reading. The suggestion of this paper is that the only way out of this impasse is to adopt a hermeneutic that combines insights from author-centred and reader-centred approaches from the outset.

Hebrews 1:3 calls Christ the charakter of God’s being. This term is unique in the New Testament, and rare in the Septuagint. The word is derived from the Greek verb charasso, which means to cut into, engrave, imprint. Usually the term in Hebrews is understood to be a metaphor for the divine nature imprinting itself on the person of Christ to produce an exact image of God. The Hellenistic Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria uses the metaphor in this way, to speak of the Logos of God as a stamp imprinting a measure of divinity on the soul of a human. While this specific and narrow context is important, I propose that our understanding of the issue will gain from considering a broader context, namely the use of images by rulers in the Greco-Roman Imperial cult. Rulers not only produced coins with their images; they also commissioned depictions of themselves on statues, busts, jewelry, crowns, and plaques. These distinctive portraits were deliberately circulated in the territory under the ruler’s jurisdiction to serve as visible representations – indeed, ‘satellite manifestations’ – of the person and authority of the ruler. Further, the combination of human and divine was a feature of the Imperial Cult. Thus the Imperial cult contained ready-made conceptual elements useful to a variety of theological explanations such as Philo’s view of God’s Logos and Hebrew’s hymn to Christ. Such a broad context has not been extensively explored in analysis of Hebrews. Further, icons in Orthodox Christianity originated in this ancient context, and by examining modern usage we may gain insights into first-century settings.

The term “judaizer,” a noun derived from transliteration via Latin of the Greek verb ioudaizein, “to judaize,” frequently has been used incorrectly by scholars to refer to Jews, or, more typically, Jewish Christians who actively engaged in persuading non-Jews – usually Pauline Christians – to follow part or all of the Jewish law. I will argue that the correct understanding of the verb “to judaize” is that it refers to Gentile behaviour – that is, Gentiles who “lived like Jews” by observing various components of the Mosaic law, without fully converting to Judaism. Within the Christian context, Christian judaizing, then, refers to Christians of Gentile origin who combined a commitment to Christianity with adherence in varying degrees to Jewish practices, without viewing such behaviour as contradictory. From the perspective of certain Christian leaders, judaizers dangerously blurred the boundaries between nascent Christianity and well-established Judaism. As such, within attempts to suppress this phenomenon, Gentile Christian judaizers became the target of anti-Jewish rhetoric in various early Christian writings. I will examine evidence for Gentile Christian judaizers from two documents: Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho. I will argue that the phenomenon of Gentile Christian judaizing represents a largely neglected point along the continuum of Jewish-Christian relations in antiquity, one that complicates the portrait of Jewish-Christian relations by adding another dimension. Indeed, not only were there Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, there were Gentile Christians who lived like Jews.

Working in 1513 the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538) created a series of woodcuts and drawings centered on the passion of Christ. His work presents viewers with an opportunity to discover methods of biblical and theological hermeneutics associated with the passion narratives of the Gospels during an age that would give birth to the Protestant Reformation in Germany. This paper will provide an analysis of Albrecht Altdorfer's biblical and theological interpretations of Gospel narratives of the passion of Christ by examining woodcuts and drawings he created in 1513. The prints and drawings are part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The paper will also provide a comparison between Altdorfer's interpretations of select Gospel texts with interpretations of the same texts by his contemporary Martin Luther.

Ginsburg's Massorah is a four-volume collection of masoretic lists and other material. It is beneficial as a reference source for comparing various versions of similar rubrics, or for identifying the texts which a masoretic list is annotating (they are not always self-evident!). This demonstration will explain the organizing principles for Ginsburg's Masorah and illustrate its use.

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The goal of the contribution is to summarize the advantages and disadvantages of writing a paper in DocBook. It has several advantages including style sheets and the xml file format for storing the files. Disadvantages include problems when transforming the xml files to PDF (with FOP) : Hebrew and Greek characters appear as "#" - so one must look for another software that transforms from xml (or fo) to PDF.

This paper suggests that the shift from subsistence to cash-cropping occurred in the eighth century and met with significant criticism and resistance from the northern prophets. The first section builds on the work of Hopkins (1985) and Borowski (1987) in looking at epigraphic and archaeological evidence to suggest a major conversion in agricultural production strategies for northern Israel during the eighth century. The period of Assyrian withdrawal and relative economic independence allowed for northern Israel to participate heavily in economic trade, taking advantage of its amicable relationship with Tyre and proximity to the Via Maris and the King’s Highway in the Transjordan. In an attempt to create commodities suitable for trade, Israel converted much of its land from diversified subsistence agriculture to specialized cash-cropping, particularly with grain, wine and oil, the three major trade commodities in the ancient Near East. The second section analyzes the references to grain, wine and oil in the northern prophets of Amos and Hosea within the backdrop of this shift from subsistence to cash-cropping. For most of the Hebrew Bible, the usage of these terms is neutral or positive. However, these three commodities take additional ideological meaning in the northern prophets. Specifically, Amos and Hosea use these commodities as metaphors for curses, pointing to an implicit polemic against cash-cropping in the Northern Kingdom.

Early Christian apologetic rhetoric almost always contains some arguments against idolatry and images. These arguments hint at a deeper crisis over representation, in terms of language, in terms of images, and in terms of what it means to have the “name” Christian—to represent Christ. Christian arguments against images drew not only from the traditions of Jewish scripture against idolatry, but also from ongoing arguments in the first centuries about what it meant to represent the human and the divine. Thus, in this paper I argue that we need to read early Christian injunctions against statuary in the context of similar injunctions by contemporaries who were neither Christian nor Jewish, especially in satirical or oratorical writings. Moreover, although some have thought it impossible to understand these injunctions in light of contemporary material culture, I conclude that we must read these texts in the context of the built environment of the city in antiquity, crowded as it was with its “other population” of statuary. This paper pays particular attention to those texts which claim to be written to emperors, analyzing how their rhetoric functions implicitly and explicitly to critique imperial involvement in the production of images and the empire’s claims to justice—claims that were physically manifest in something like the Forum of Trajan, with its basilica replete with statuary of bound prisoners and divinized emperors. It also pays particular attention to elite-funded building programs that sought to address the imperial family through statuary even as the early Christian apologists claimed to address the emperors through words. The paper concludes by showing how females and those of low status often become collateral damage not only in imperial depictions of triumphs in relief sculpture or statuary, but also in the rhetoric of elite early Christian authors.

The last few years have seen a many-sided questioning of the form-critical consensus that dominated psalms scholarship for much of the past century. Both approaches that focus on the close reading of individual psalms and those that highlight those texts’ redaction in accord with the shaping of the larger Psalter have tended to downplay the importance of genre as an interpretive category. While such approaches clearly have broken important new ground, this paper will argue for the retention of genre as a key interpretive category, though one in need of significant reconceptualization. More specifically, this paper will argue that a greater appreciation of the psalms’ usage throughout history calls for an understanding of genre that is both descriptive and constructive. In support of this argument, the paper will take note of the ongoing importance of psalms groupings throughout the ages, as well as the way that such groupings have contributed to the formation of individual and group identity. The paper will also take note of the way that past interpreters and their communities have tended to define the genre of form-critically ambiguous psalms (such as those usually classified as “mixed types”). Finally, the paper will briefly consider the genre implications of the psalms’ liturgical usage. The paper will conclude that any attempt to understand the way that the psalms have functioned and continue to function must pay considerable attention to genre analysis, especially if the latter is understood in a more expansive way.

The story of the Samaritan woman has traditionally been interpreted as the offer of the gospel to the Samaritans, and has entailed all too ready questioning of the woman's moral character. Feminist scholars have done important work in reconstructing her character as an intelligent figure and challenging popular portraits of her. Reading the story of the Samaritan woman as a Dalit (untouchable) woman from India, what is striking to me is the basic fact that Jesus, a Jew, asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. This is a major step taken by Jesus in the process of liberation, but is not given sufficient importance in commentaries or interpretations. Thus I will partly depart from the recent and in itself laudable, tendency within feminist interpretation to highlight the theological conversation between the Samaritan woman and Jesus and defend her character. My paper will begin by asking what cultural dynamics are involved in Jesus' asking and accepting water from a Samaritan. Following Fernando Segovia's version of cultural studies, I will make explicit use of my own social location to bring the ancient text and context into my own present. Reading from the perspective of a Dalit women, I will challenge the text to respond to the particular oppressions suffered by the Dalits within the casteistic context. I approach the text not from general issues of Dalit women, however, but from the particular experiences of my own life situation. Thus my approach to the text in this paper will employ autobiographical criticism as well as cultural studies.

This “soul” reading will poetically play with power in the Gospel miracle stories. Power! Who’s got it? Who wants it? Who gets it? (Jesus? The religious authorities? The people who participate or witness the miracle? The Romans? God?) How would a first-century audience under Roman occupation have heard these stories? How would they have been empowered and disempowered by them? How do twenty-first century audiences hear them? How are they empowered or disempowered? How might these stories be heard for personal and social transformation? These questions and more (or less) will be addressed. All the usual suspects will be rounded up: Freud, Fanon, Lacan, Winnecott, Klein. Come and play with us in the miracle fields!

The book of Revelation can be a dangerous text. Some have taken it to give so clear a vision of the world to come that they have become disengaged from, indeed even hostile to, the world that currently is. Perhaps no better example of this can be found than in the exegesis of the Branch Davidians, whose community, based at Mt Carmel near Waco in Texas, suffered a catastrophic sequence of events from 28th Feb to 19th April 1993. Despite the passing of some thirteen years since those events, arguments over responsibility for the death-laden outcome persist and, at least in an academic context, the prime responsibility has been seen to rest with US Government agencies, in particular the FBI and the ATF. In this paper I argue that this attribution of guilt does not accord with the known facts. Rather, I argue, the Branch Davidians themselves set fire to Mt Carmel and did so for a particular (theological) reason. That reason was not desperation, nor yet a response to some truly crass FBI tactics. Neither was the cause of the fire located in the presumed crazed mind of David Koresh. Rather, so I argue, the fire that took place at Mt Carmel was the outworking of apocalyptic expectation, based in substantial part upon a reading of the book of Revelation, that insisted that the end-time community must be ‘baptised by fire’ before returning as the army of Rev 19.16. The political furore that erupted after April 19th 1993 was then, so I argue, largely unnecessary since it was Koresh and others in the wider Davidian and Branch Davidian tradition, and not the FBI, who in the end were responsible for the catastrophic outcome of the 51 days of negotiation.

There is a trajectory in folklore scholarship that deals in complicated ways with gender, voice, audience, genre, and, of course, the traditional narrative patterns of the tales. This paper will discuss some of this scholarship [including that of Margaret Mills and Margaret Beissinger] and then apply their obeservations to biblical material in Genesis.

A comparison between Philo's "Questions and Answers on Genesis" and Genesis Rabbah against the background of the genre of "Questions and Answers" in Homeric Scholarship. I shall discuss whether the exegetes in Genesis Rabbah raised the same or other questions and whether they may have been familiar with the genre as it appears in Philo's work.

Prophetic activity is attested in several Neo-Assyrian cities. While Arbela assumes an outstanding position in the written documents of prophecy preserved to us, it is evident that prophets were part of the local cults in cities like Ashur, Calah, Nineveh, and Babylon. The sources do not report on major rivalries between prophets and their cultic traditions in different cities. On the contrary, the Neo-Assyrian prophets, at least according to the available documentation, seem to share the fundamental constituents of the Neo-Assyrian royal ideology, which gives the impression of a state-run inter-urban communication between prophetic communities in different temples of Ishtar. Only a few scattered pieces of evidence make some tensions discernible below the surface. Prophecy, hence, appears as a significant means of propagating the Assyrian imperial ideology in different cities as divine words surpassing local interests.

Research in the past twenty years has surfaced several recurring motifs in the Book of the Twelve that may have helped create or resulted from traditions concerning the unity of this corpus. Much energy has been spent trying to determine the extent to which any or all of these motifs may have been the result of deliberate editorial shaping or collecting of the Twelve Prophets. This paper will explore the nature of these motifs and the way they intersect one another. The paper will also offer suggestions about the extent to which recognition of these constellations can aid readers in extrapolating strategies for dealing with the Twelve as a composite corpus which also invites readers to engage the writings in relation to one another and to the Sitz im Buch of the respective writings.

Genesis 16:12 reads: ‘Indeed he will be a wild ass of a man, his hand against all, and the hands of all against him.’ What kind of world view does the author of this text have, looking at nomadic life full of amazement? Nomads and nomadic life are strange and dangerous. They are fighters, lonely ones, nowhere at home, living in widespread regions. On the other side those people are brothers. Distant brothers, but nevertheless family. Formcritically we have to do with a tribal story. The Assyrian Name Šumu’il renders a North Arabian tribal name S1ama‘’il which is without doubt the same name as Hebrew Jišma’el (Knauf). But historicity is not the main focus of the paper. The main character in Genesis 16 is the story of a self- confident, proud woman, using the favour of the moment. Sarai, her mistress, and Abram her bed partner and master are acting in the margin. The name of Ishmael is only used once. In ch 21 he is an anonymous throughout the story. In 16, however, he is the nomad-raider, in 21 he looks like a desert hunter. The differences between the Ishmael images reflect the different views on Hagar. In Gen 16 she was an active woman finding her own way through the desert. In Gen 21, she wanders aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer Sheba (V.14), a region with more water and food than the desert of Shur. The paper explores the literary relations between Gen 16 and 21 focussing on the different characters of Ishmael and Hagar. On the level of composition the divine intervention in both Gen 21 en 22 is studied.

The semantic analysis of verbal tenses in a Biblical poetic text is not an easy task. The function of tense in poetic speech has been analyzed much less than that in prosaic narrative and discourse. A reason for this might be the lack of accurate pragmatic criteria, which would make an adequate semantic description possible. This paper attempts to analyze a given poetic text (the biblical oracles of Balaam) according to such general communicative categories as addresser and addressee(s), the core of the message, the pragmatics of the addresser’s speech, the communicative structure of the whole, etc. This approach allows one to define the collection of the oracles as a basically egocentric discourse, orientated to the moment of speech, directed by clear pragmatic rationales. With discourse conditions thus defined the semantic analysis of verbal tenses gets full basis. The analysis includes all the verbal forms in a predicate position. Some relatively archaic and rare uses are identified.

One of the legacies from the short reign of Aristobulus I was his defeat of the Itureans. Their defeat required territorial concessions, but Aristobulus offered, if they wished to remain in their country, to be circumcised and to live in accordance with the laws of the Jews (Ant.13:318). There is no indication in the literary account for the borders of the Iturean territory, and some scholars have suggested that Aristobulus defeat of the Itureans is to be identified with the campaign of Antigonus, brother of Aristobulus in the Galilee (War 1:76). A frequently repeated scholarly opinion in the previous century maintained that a generation earlier Simon had evacuated all of the Jewish communities of the Galilee. As a result, the region remained (virtually or entirely) devoid of a Jewish presence and was subsequently populated by the Itureans until their defeat by Aristobulus (see Schrer, Vermes and Millar 1:217-218). This mistaken reading of Simons rescue of Jewish communities in western Galilee (1 Macc 5:21-23) served as the foundation for the incendiary assertion in some later pre-WWII continental scholarship that the Jewish settlements of the Galilee in the New Testament period were merely the descendants of Aristobulus campaign of coerced conversation, and that the Galilean population in the first century CE was not ethnically Jewish (including Jesus and his first followers). Recent archaeological data confirms the sparse but consistent historical testimony of a continued Jewish presence in the Galilee in the 2nd century BCE. This study will consider the evidence from recent archaeological efforts and offer a careful reading of the pertinent historical passages to determine the extent of Simons efforts and the question of a Jewish presence in the Galilee during the days of Aristobulus.

This paper will argue that our understanding of the Colossian parenesis will be fundamentally deepened and enhanced by an appreciation and application of the epistemology of Michael Polanyi; a Polanyian epistemology provides a more natural, organic understanding of the parenetical material than the traditional discussions revolving around the the relationship between the indicative and imperative sections of the Pauline corpus. This paper will do this through a brief examination and application of Polanyian concepts such as discovery, tacit knowledge, subsidiary and focal awareness, indwelling, the society of exploerers, and the hierarchy of knowledge. This paper will demonstrate how Paul's parenetical instruction actually helps disciples "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord" (Col. 1.10). In demonstrating this, this paper explains more than the "what" of the parenetical material; it demonstrates "how" Paul's parenetical instruction actually helps form Christian disciples.

Not even named in the biblical accounts, Salomé has become the epitome of the femme fatale. Does the Bible justify this reading of Herod’s young step-daughter? This paper examines depictions of Salomé by Henri Regnault, Gustave Moreau and Lovis Corinth and investigates the gender, psychoanalytical and signification tensions at play within the processes of reception and representation of the biblical character.

In their analysis of the “aesthetics of violence,” scholars of contemporary film explore what artistic representations of violence both reveal and obscure about the societies that produced them. This paper considers how the categories developed within contemporary film theory might inform our understanding of what prophetic depictions of violence do—and don't—reveal about the ancient societies from which they come.

Collective numbing is a common response among victims of disaster. One way the book of Jeremiah seeks to rebuild the community destroyed during the Babylonian Period is to cultivate expressions of grief. God's lament and the call for the services of the mourning women are aspects of that effort.

In Romans, Paul represents the boundary of the Christian communities as a boundary between the holy and the ordinary. Consideration of holiness in cross-cultural terms leads us to draw together the following: separation from the ordinary; links with other holy entities; use of special terminology designating the holy. Coordinating these three features suggests patterns in Romans that are not evident in the more usual approaches via topics such as justification and faith.

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Excavations in Ephesos have exposed a source for supplementing the narratives associated with Paul in both the canonical and apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. Exceptional interest was stimulated by the remains of an exquisite painting found in a cave located just outside the city center; the fresco expresses a delightful iconographic rendition of the legend handed down in the Acts of Paul and Thekla. This depiction of three primary characters known from the Acts of Paul and Thekla has generated different interpretations, which hinge on distinct features such as the size of the characters, their position relative to one another, their arm position and hand gesture. With respect to the larger vista of Theklan iconography, the relative rarity of images of Thekla and Paul in this narrative scene obfuscates this painting’s analysis. In addition to elucidating the content of fresco, other aspects begging explanation include the surrounding context of the painting, the (liturgical?) use of the cave, the type of visitors to the cave, the monument’s donor, and the continued use of the cave after this fresco was coated. This paper will present various challenges in recent study of the fresco, and offer suggestions for continued interpretation.

Rev 12 contains several elements also known by Greco-Roman and Jewish legends of the endangered birth and childhood of important persons (cf. e.g. Horus, Apollo, Moses). My paper will draw special attention to the imagery of the woman clothed with the sun and the rescue of her son as he is caught up to God’s throne (cf. Rev 12:1-5). There is literary as well as numismatic evidence that this narration ironically reverses claims of the Roman Imperial cult. In particular, Rev 12 seems to reflect Domitian’s attempt to present himself as a god (during his lifetime!) by the deification of his deceased son. This investigation does not only corroborate the assumption of a formation of Revelation under Domitian but also contributes to a better understanding of its theological and admonishing issues: The Seer emphasizes that the claims of the worldly ruler for divinity and all emperor worship is blasphemy because the only one who deserves veneration is the son of the true queen of heaven, i.e. Christ.

A commentary on Matthew 4:1-11 will be presented.

The "Praedium of Julia Felix" at Pompeii contains a variety of different meal and entertainment settings all in the same complex, all apparently owned and operated by a freedwoman. The arrangement is open to a number of possible interpretations which will be explored in the context of what we know about semi-public eating establishments and their social functions.

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While a significant amount of information about the city of Caesarea Maritima exists in literary, archaeological, and inscriptional sources, two literary works where Caesarea figures prominently are Josephus’ Jewish War and the New Testament book of Acts. Caesarea is not only one place among many in these works but its unique geographical placement and features allow each author to employ this city as a setting which helps to advance the plot of each work in particular ways. Broadly speaking, Caesarea functions as the intersection between the Jewish and Gentile worlds in both works. This paper examines the usage of Caesarea as a significant setting in these works, how each author uses this particular setting in the advancement of the story, and how these insights affect the interpretation of each work.

King Zedekiah’s fate has not aroused much scholarly discussion. This is surprising because Zedekiah was Judah’s last king and therefore the last reigning heir to David’s throne. As a son of Josiah, Zedekiah’s line would represent the Davidic dynastic line. There has been much more discussion about the deposed Jehoiachin and his alleged rehabilitation in 2Kgs 25:27-30. Most scholars assume that 2Kgs 24:18-25:7 represents a fairly historical rendering of Zedekiah’s final days and fate, but several inconsistencies suggest that the account is biased and unreliable. In addition, it is incompatible with some passages in the book of Jeremiah. It is probable that the author of Kings was not preoccupied with the Davidic kingship only because of his interest in the history of kingship and continuity of the dynasty. He wrote in an exilic context where two dynastic lines were in a position to justify their legitimacy to the throne, and he had a firm position in this conflict. He rejected Zedekiah’s line as a dead end in favor of Jehoiachin. This motive is significant for interpreting the meaning and message of the books of Kings.

The early Christian Gospels’ most radical construction of economy relates to an alternative oikos and oikonomia in terms of the creation of extensive opportunities and freedoms over and against the economy of Rome and also writes its empowering effects into the present context of the grassroots people. Jesus’ oikonomia arises not from a moral of good economic discipline and earnings, but rather from real needs and real community under the mercy and grace of God, who levels all boundaries of “every valley” and “every mountain” (Luke 3:5). This essay uses the social memory of the Korean Minjung as a contextual, hermeneutical frame in order to reconstruct a pattern of scripture’s alternative way of living and interacting under the reality of empire (Luke 18:18-30; 19:1-10; cf. 17:11-19). Such configuration goes beyond individual relations and purely materialistic motivations in a market economy and does not allow for the division of costs from benefits, because they are interpenetrating and interdependent therein.

The precise nature of “Asherah” and her function within the cult of Israel continues to be the subject of debate. Naturally, of particular import in the discussion are the Old Hebrew epigraphic references to “Yahweh and his Asherah” (Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom). Some within the field have argued that the “Asherah” referred to was the famed Levantine goddess attested at Ugarit (e.g., Dever). However, many have argued that the “Asherah” of the Old Hebrew epigraphic corpus is not the goddess, but rather a wooden cult object (e.g., Smith). It has also been argued that the term “asherah” in the Old Hebrew inscriptions should be affirmed to signify the “cultically available presence.” That is, “an abstract aspect of a male deity is hypostatized, personified, and worshipped as a goddess, who may be thought to function as a consort of that deity” (McCarter). This paper focuses heavily on the ancient Near Eastern textual evidence, especially the Akkadian, Phoenician, and Aramaic references to “local manifestations of deities” and then assesses the implications for the interpretation of the Old Hebrew epigraphic references to “Asherah.”

This paper weaves together into a new pattern several strands of Johannine study which are currently perceived separately. Recent research has emphasized the thoroughly forensic character of key Johannine concepts like witness (marturia) and signs (semeia). Other research has illuminated with equal clarity that portions of John's plot resemble dramatic scenes of recognition (anagnoresis). These two approaches are pursued in isolation from, or even in opposition to, one another, and the present paper will show that they actually complement and support one another. For, ancient drama (both comedy and tragedy, in both Greece and Rome) was largely influenced by, and itself influenced, forensic rhetoric and the law courts. Comparing Aristotle's Rhetoric with the discussion of tragic recognition in his Poetics demonstrates this reality. Even more important, the tragedians regularly employ the language of rhetorical proof (marturia, semeia, tekmeria, etc.) as the language of deliberation and argument, and apply this language to more than merely recognition scenes. Debates and inquiries on various subjects assume a forensic form and adopt the language of forensic proof. But, forensic themes certainly appear in recognition scenes. When tragic characters evaluate evidence leading up to recognition, a phrase so apparently Johannine as "I believe the signs" (pisteuw ta semeia) can appear. This paper will explore how tragedians dramatize the evaluation of evidence and testimony in recognition scenes, in order to compare and contrast how the Gospel of John dramatizes the evaluation of evidence and testimony in the recognition of Jesus

This paper will offer selected exemplars from the Christian tradition, from persons who have viewed the unity of Scripture as constituted by the character and activity of God as disclosed in love of God and love of neighbor. I will provide a brief overview of interpretive practices in the reading of scripture from the work of Augustine, Bonaventure, and John Wesley. Rather than look for a textual or thematic approach, I will offer an alternative way of reading scripture that centers on the salvific nature of the Word of God, the Triune God’s self-communicative activity in Word and Spirit, and the participation of the church as enabled by divine love or charity in response to God’s self-disclosure in its liturgical life.

This paper will explore the use of biblical law to defend slavery in the antebellum American South. At a time when a literal reading of the Bible was prevalent in Protestant denominations, debates concerning the issue of slavery raised crucial questions about the relevance of the Bible and biblical law to the circumstances of the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. In addition, questions were raised about the relationship between theology and biblical interpretation and the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. This paper will trace the manner in which slavery was defended as biblically-based and the theological and cultural tensions that resulted.

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The literary evidence for Jewish and Christian interactions is frustratingly and richly ambivalent in Eusebius’ local chronicle of fourth century Christian martyrs, The Martyrs of Palestine. On the one hand, there is an explicit relationship of emphatic enmity. Eusebius depicts the Jews of Palestine as bad examples of their own tradition against an historic enemy, the Egyptians—specifically Egyptian converts to Christianity. In another account, the Caesarean martyr Paul prays for the Jews, “our enemies,” along with the Samaritans and state executioners before his death. Yet there is a clear and unattributed narrative affinity with Jewish sources in Eusebius’ text, not only with Philo’s De vita contemplativa, which Eusebius uses to construct his own ascetic intellectual lineage, but also with contemporary Rabbinic accounts from Caesarea, of which the examinations of Saul Lieberman, in “The Martyrs of Caesarea,” and Daniel Boyarin, in Dying for God, are particularly interesting. This paper will place the narrative points of contact and divergence between Jews and Christians—and Jewish and Christian texts—in The Martyrs of Palestine within the larger construction of fourth century Palestine from Eusebius’ Christian, Caesarean perspective.

One implication of the recent revolution in our understanding of the Greek verbal system is the idea that the different tense-forms serve to communicate greater or lesser prominence in the discourse. So far most of the discussion of prominence and markedness has been theoretical and suggestive. A few studies have been done which seek to test the prominence theory on assorted texts, but much more of this type of research needs to be done. Responding to Robert Picirilli’s challenge for more testing, this paper inquires as to whether the pattern of verb usage in the Gospel of Matthew confirms or conforms to Porter’s theory of “backgrounding-foregrounding-frontgrounding”.

This paper considers the often-gruesome violence in Christian fantasies of the judgment and punishment in store for opponents in texts such as the Apocalypse of Peter, various martyr acts, and Tertullian’s De Spectaculis. The paper’s central question is how does the futurity of this violence function for understanding its role in Christian discourse? The first section of the paper locates Christian fantasies within the cultural imaginings of the early Empire, where courts, trials and penalties provide an almost obsessive focus. The Greek romances whose florescence parallels the rise of Christianity feature numerous trials and punishments including torture, crucifixion and being burned. Imaginary courts and trials are also fundamental to the second sophistic, the movement that saw the educated of the first three centuries AD speaking and writing in the Greek style and language of fifth and fourth century BC. Throughout the empire, the elite vied for prestige and power in part on the basis of their ability to give fictitious law court speeches in an artificial language. A recent commentator (Schmitz) has offered that these sophistic exhibitions functioned to effect elite solidarity and to intimidate the masses. Imaginary courts and trials were part of the period’s discourse of power. Although the elites looked to the past and the Christians to the future, that both groups avoided the present in their contemplations of the courts suggest the formation of analogous mechanisms to find room to maneuver within the power matrix of Roman imperialism. The elite signaled their cooperation and acquiescence to Rome as they retained their privilege and position by accepting the present by looking to the past. Christians by placing their court outside of human time in the future indicate not so much their violent intentions, as their commitment to a future configured differently than the present.

The nineteenth-century has been described as a period which nurtured an obsession with origins. To understand the historical origins of a phenomenon was to understand the essence of the phenomenon itself. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which this mentality and the related “quest for origins” movement influenced the so-called (First) Quest of the Historical Jesus. It will be argued that the strong assumptive correlation between authenticity and primitiveness in more contemporary historical Jesus research finds its roots in the philosophical outlook of this period.

Very few Jewish apocalypses use hymns. Why does the Seer use hymns in the Book of Revelation? This paper argues that hymns were rhetorically effective for unifying First Century hearers as clients of the patron God and evoking common dependence, emotions and access to power. Revelation 5:8-14 establishes relationships between God, the cosmos, saints, and the world. These relationships are characterized by cosmic order, participation in God’s work, equal status among the saints, and the task of being kingdom and priests in the world. Therefore, the hymns provide a basis for believer’s endurance, witness and resistance.

A survey of various studies applying conversation analysis to literature reveals that structures found in everyday conversation can be preserved in literary discourse. This observation complicates any discussion of the oral origins of literature, including the Bible, in that what might be considered “oral” features can also be found in literature from highly literate, modern cultures. Therefore, different strategies must be employed to address the question “How Should We Talk About the Oral Dimension of Biblical Texts?”

This paper will be part of a panel discussion on the reception of Acts in the second century and beyond.

The History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism Section has wisely chosen to focus on material and conceptions that challenge the boundaries of the academic model of Rabbinic Judaism. From Michael Weitzman's somewhat puzzled observation in his book, The Syriac Version of the Old Testament: An Introduction, that while the Peshitta translators were definitely Jewish, they lacked agreement with Rabbinic Judaism, to the further translations from Hebrew of the Psalms of Solomon, in Greek and Syriac, to the original Syriac versions 6 Macc and 7 Macc, we have evidence of non-rabbinic Jews first translating, and then writing, in Syriac in Late Antiquity. The challenging questions include "Is there evidences of rabbinic "attitude" toward such literary activity?" and "How do we account for Syriac Jewish (non-Rabbinic) literature, if Syriac is a Christian language?" The present consensus that the Peshitta Old Testament is the work of Jewish translators, early Syriac translations of the outside books and such pseudepigrapha as the Psalms of Solomon, and two original Syriac works on the Maccabean martyrdoms, 6 Macc and 7 Macc, lead us to suspect the continued existence of an unconverted Jewish community that supported and produced literary materials. Such a community may also be the source for the plethora of haggadic tales about biblical figures found in Syriac literature. By hypothesis, those materials that were attractive to Syriac-speaking Christians were preserved. The Jewish literary community for which we have this evidence in Syriac does not appear to have survived and preserved its own literature. Remnants seem to surface later in the folk tales of the Kurdistani Jews and in the brief materials anthologized by Jellinek and Wertheimer. This presentation will track the evidentiary trail for this “fifth column” of Judaism, outside the Rabbinic core, and discuss the possible signs of rabbinic hostility to its existence.

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This metaphor of Spirit as the “other hand of God” was employed by St Irenaeus to bring out the large scale of the mutual work of creation and redemption by the Spirit and the Son. If we put the doctrine of the Holy Spirit into dialogue with modern science, a door would open and an integration of science with faith would be possible. Science is not the enemy of faith but a source of insight into the truth about creation along with faith. For example, the long process of the world’s development or evolution does not imply atheism or materialism but does imply a process which is open to the Spirit's activity and guidance.

This paper proposes that issues of etiquette and protocol form a significant underpinning of the narratives of the Ugaritic Baal Cycle (CAT 1.1-1.6). It will focus on the episode of Baal’s building of his palace (1.3 –1.4) to examine how sensitivity toward the role of protocol within the royal court and dynamics of etiquette within a patrimonial household can illuminate the meaning of several of the key scenes within the episode.

There has been much recent discussion of Greek cases from a linguistic perspective. An important preliminary issue that governs a significant portion of this discussion revolves around how cases should be defined. Should they be understood semantically, syntactically, in terms of functionality, or in some other way? Much of the recent research has proceeded from the inadequacies of traditional models in defining the semantics of Greek cases and consistently delimiting the functionality of individual case forms. But it seems that these linguistic proposals, like the traditional models they criticize, face serious definitional problems and have failed to establish a clear connection between the semantic meanings they posit and the formal realization of case in the Greek language. This paper suggests a systemic theory which attempts to account for the range of syntactical and semantic issues involved in formulating an adequate model of case and endeavors to address directly the ambiguity that has been introduced into the discussion revolving around case and meaning by proposing a semantic entry condition for the Greek case system. The meaning of individual forms is then explained in relation to the system of forms from which they are chosen. The theory proposed in this paper, therefore, attempts to establish an organic connection between morphological and semantic categories and seeks to delimit the functionality of cases in a variety of contexts based upon the semantics of the form.

Reference to the book of Isaiah to elucidate and develop teachings about Jesus was not unusual in Early Christianity, but the “Ascension of Isaiah” takes it to an extreme. This work depicts the prophet Isaiah as a visionary who ascends through the heavens to learn about “the Beloved” (Jesus) and the saving role he will play in Isaiah’s future. Isaiah is eventually killed by Manasseh, under Satan’s influence, for refusing to retract his vision or say that Manasseh’s sinful ways are good. Isaiah reserves the full revelation of his experience (told in Asc. Isa.) for a select few, but indicates it obliquely in the scriptural book of Isaiah. Thus Asc. Isa. implicitly invites its Early Christian readers to delve into canonical Isaiah in order to deepen their Christological and eschatological knowledge. That is, it uses the apocalyptic genre of a heavenly journey to encourage the pursuit of wisdom through the social practice of exegesis. If these readers emulate their hero Isaiah well, however, theirs will be no mere “armchair theology,” just as practising wisdom could be life-threatening for the sages of old. According to their understanding of what is concealed, their perception of how the future of the Church and the world will unfold, they will be called upon to be faithful to the Beloved by prophesying truly and resisting idolatry just as Isaiah did, even up to martyrdom.

The intellectual sources of the linguistic study of Biblical Hebrew are extremely diverse, ranging from the broken-from world of the Yeshiva rabbinic tradition (Ben Yehudah and Yellin), through the Central European schools of historical linguistics (Epstein, Torczyner [Tur-Sinai], and Ben Hayyim), to English and Italian philology (Segal, Ginsberg, Cassuto) and British functional linguistics (Rabin). In the Israeli context the language of the Bible was not the focus of the study of Hebrew. One of the central preoccupations was the study of the language of the Mishna and Tosefta, the Midrashim and the Piyyut, which affected our understanding of Biblical Hebrew (e.g., Yellin, Yalon, Kutscher, Morag and Kaddary). A second focus was the study of the various pronunciation traditions of the communities reunited in Israel, placing the punctuation schools of BHeb in the stream of the language tradition, and leading to new insights in ancient Hebrew dialectology (Morag). This paper will trace how, from these beginnings, and by whom, the linguistic study of biblical Hebrew in Israel developed, eventually to incorporate also syntax, semantics, discourse analysis and sociolinguistic dimensions and to contribute much also to our understanding of biblical poetics and stylistics.

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This paper will explore issues related to the use of Scripture by Paul, including such matters as the text that he used, and the ways in which he used it both in his letters and in terms of personal use. Comparison will be made to other ancient practices for collection, transmission and utilization of ancient texts, especially those considered to be of special or sacred value.

As defense against Christian arguments that Israel’s idolatry at Sinai abrogated their covenant with God, rabbinic commentators on the biblical Golden Calf episode promoted various apologetic claims in their interpretation of the story, including that the Calf had been magically brought to life to lead Israel astray. This notion is attested in various midrashim, and it has long been held that this is the conception of the Calf to be found in the Qur'an and Muslim commentary as well. While the classical Muslim exegetes’ unanimity regarding the Calf’s animation is indisputable, we will argue that the brief comments in the Qur'an to this effect—particularly its description of the idol as “a calf, a body that lows” (Q. 7:148/20:88)—have been misunderstood by classical exegetes and modern scholars alike, and that the Qur'an does not in fact presuppose the view that the Calf was alive. The apparent anomaly in Late Antique interpretation of the Calf episode thus presented by the Qur'an will be addressed through a reconsideration of the relationship between the rabbinic midrashim, the Qur'an, and the early Islamic commentary tradition.

The surprising but continuing presence of the Bible in South African public discourse was recently emphasised by the explicit references to the prophet Isaiah in the speech of South African president, Mr Thabo Mbeki at the opening of parliament (February 2006). Various other, opposition parties followed suit and in their replies to Mbeki’s speech also made, albeit it quite different, references to Isaiah. An analysis of the use of the Bible by country’s head of state in post-Apartheid, multi-religious South Africa shows the major significance and intriguing role played by religious texts and the Bible in particular in South African public life. Upon further investigating the presence of the Bible in public discourse, two particularly interesting features emerge. On the one hand, and the different passages from Isaiah notwithstanding, the broader hermeneutical approaches of the politicians show remarkable similarity. On the other hand, the different texts of Isaiah which were used in parliament betray a careful process of selection and require further exploration. And finally, the ethical implications and complications of a popularised Bible in party-political discourse and the biblicisation of politics in the particular context of post-Apartheid South Africa are considered.

In a very early article ("Kinds of Information in Discourse") Joseph Grimes notes the presence of *irrealis* in stories--authors mention that something did not happen. If authors tell us "what happened", why do they also tell us what did not happen? This paper demonstrates the vital role of irrealis in biblical narrative by examining negation in an extended story, and develops a theory of the narrative function of irrealis.

Ancient travelers and pilgrims sometimes gathered together in the evenings and shared stories. This paper is based on the experience of a travel seminar that went from Athens to Istanbul. During this travel course the Book of Acts was performed in sequence on alternating evenings with performances of the Argonautica of Apollonius. This paper will describe how Acts functions in oral performance and can be divided up into ten episodes with “cliffhanger” endings and the effect this serial reading has on an audience. This paper will also describe how the parallel reading of the Argonautica enriches the audiences understanding of epic stories and sea travel in the ancient world and the social and literary context of the Acts of the Apostles. This paper will also address the issue of trusting the story to tell itself.

In his treatise On the Divine Names, Denys sets forth a vision of theological language according to which God both is all attributes and transcends all attributes. That is, he associates the First and Second Hypotheses of the Parmenides with the same God. To this end, he uses the analogy of the sun (div. nom. 5.8) as an example of something that causes multiple effects (which must somehow preexist in their cause) and is numerically one (i.e., transcendent of their multiplicity). In this paper, I will argue three theses that specify Denys’ reading of the Parmenides and place it in historical context: (1) Denys fashions the sun analogy from a combination of Platonic sources: (a) Parmenides 131b and (b) Republic 508-509d. Proclus mentions a similar intertextual combination in his discussion of Parmenides 131b. (2) Denys’ reading of the First and Second Hypotheses is an attempt to rehabilitate the Parmenides for Christian use after the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies rendered an older reading of it suspect. His orthodoxy disallows the interpretation of Clement and Origen. (3) By placing affirmation and negation on the same level of divine being, Denys apparently undermines the law of non-contradiction. Both p and not-p can be true at the same level of being. The cumulative effect of these theses is that Denys’ theology demonstrates (mediated) engagement with both the first and second parts of the Parmenides. I will conclude by asking whether Denys’ new reading has fatal consequences for theological coherence. I will ask whether Denys’ “sun” analogy falls victim to the same consequences as Socrates’ “day”: each Form or divine attribute both is and is not what it is supposed to be.

Some especially interesting results from collation of the Berlin, London and Paris collections of the Amarna tablets will be presented along with photographs from the West Semitic Research team led by Bruce Zuckerman and Marilyn J. Lundberg. Macro photographs of individual signs will be used to illustrate new readings resulting from Rainey's collations.

Origen in his homilies interprets passages of Jeremiah, and Luke, to show God's paedagogical attitude toward us, the meaning of his threats, the message full of hope contained in the Hebrew Bible, which in his view forms one and the same body with the NT. In the Bible we always find death first and life after, for God even gives death, if this is useful for the sinner, but only to give a better life: death, either physical or spiritual, never is the ultimate reality, according to the Bible; to the perspective of a thanatos aiônios Origen opposes the announcement of the resurrection of the dead present in the Bible: oukh horas en tais Graphais apaggelian anastaseôs nekrôn? This anastasis coincides, in his view, with universal restoration in the end.

Hermeneutics understands understanding as a dynamic between a situated text or artifact and a situated recipient. The situation of both text and reader contribute to possibilities of understanding and misunderstanding. This paper will examine and critique the unconscious and virtually universal assumption that the situation of biblical readers includes the sense of hearing. To that end, I will posit a deaf or Deaf reader and show what deafness (and hearing) bring to the hermeneutic circle. Discussion will focus on selected biblical passages in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament (e.g. Ex 4:11; Lev 19:14; Is 6:9-10, 29:18, 35:5; Ps 115; Mk 7:31-37), as these have been read and experienced by deaf or Deaf readers. I will drawn on the scholarship on Deafness, publications by and interviews with deaf or Deaf practitioners of Judaism and Christianity, and my own experience as a deaf scholar in a hearing classroom. This study is partly in the tradition of feminist, African-American, and queer hermeneutics; however, I also intend to critique normative scholarly assumptions that the main point of such endeavors is to propose identity-positive re-readings. Instead, in the spirit of J. Berlinerblau’s _The Secular Bible_ (2005), I argue that the task of a scholarly deaf hermeneutics should be first to analyze what the text does and does not say about deafness, and secondly to reflect on the role of hearing or deafness in the construction of biblical interpretations. Finally, I suggest that the study of deafness in the Bible and in biblical interpretations has broad implications for scholarship on religion and embodiment. I will conclude with an outline for avenues of research in deafness and biblical studies.

The social reality behind Nag Hammadi texts has been notoriously difficult to uncover, many texts being essentially mythological narratives. Some scholars have applied various sociological models to these mythological texts, but the results have not necessarily been convincing. One problem in applying sociological theories to mythological texts is that we need some sociological “input data” to start with. Another problem is that the results may vary considerably depending on which theory is used and how it is used. For example, Scott suggests that in light of Stark&Bainbridge’s model, Sethianism is a deviant, non-schismatic “audience cult.” This is based on Scott’s understanding that the Sethian authors were comparable to astrologers, selling their products on religious market by appealing to ancient figures and odd secret doctrines. First, such an understanding derives from false assumptions: Scott appears to underestimate both the polemical relationship the Sethian authors had with Judaism, and the self-understanding of belonging to a unique group (“seed of Seth”). Second, whereas the model of Stark&Bainbridge essentially measures socio-cultural tension between a given religious group and the surrounding society, other models (e.g. Wallis) add another important variable: a claim to possess the truth. Such models seem to fit Sethian and related mythological evidence better. Third, the results vary depending on the point of view/comparison, as Williams and Spence have noted. For example, one and the same group may be seen either as a “sect” or a “cult,” or it may contain both “sectarians” and “cultists.” The era and geographical location also have an impact on the results. This paper argues that we are indeed able to filter valuable sociological information out of Nag Hammadi texts, but only if we are careful about our starting assumptions and our use of sociological models.

Haggai and Zechariah 1-8 predict the reestablishment of the pre-exilic institutions of the temple in Jerusalem and the monarchy in Judah. Zechariah 9-14 and Malachi explain the failure of the religio-political leaders in Judah during the Persian period. Their failure precluded the arrival of the new day envisioned by prophets both inside and outside the Twelve. This article will undertake a systematic survey of a number of themes common to the Twelve, noting the particular colorings Haggai, Zechariah 1-8, Zechariah 9-14, and Malachi give to each. These themes include the role of priests, potential kings, the relationship between Israel and Judah, the day of YHWH, theodicy, the relationship between Judah and the nations, repentance, the fertility/infertility of the land, and punishment and restoration. The article will also note the function of Zechariah 9-14 and Malachi in closing the Twelve.

Focusing on the early Enochic literature and book of Jubilees, this paper will reflect on the reception of our earliest "OT pseudepigrapha" in pre-70 Judaism and Ante-Nicene Christianity, asking whether and how we can move beyond traditional dichotomies -- biblical/post-biblical, canonical/extracanonical -- to recover the broad range of ways in which early Jews and Christians encountered sacred or revelatory texts.

Though numerous scholars have suggested that Paul's directives in 1 Corinthians 7 concerning virginity were monumental for the first-century Greco-Roman world, especially when we consider that marriage and the production of children was the norm for the Empire, this paper will take things a step further and show how Paul's rhetoric in 1 Corinthians 7 about marriage, sex, and virginity was in fact undercutting what we might call "the family values" movement of the Augustan Age. In order to accomplish this feet this paper will take a look at 1 Corinthians 7 alongside the "Lex Julia" laws of the Augustan period as well as the "Papian-Poppaean" laws. We shall see that the family and sexual values established by Paul for the Corinthian community was entirely at odds with the values of the larger Empire. Thus, this paper will argue that a chapter in Paul's writings often thought to defend ecclesiastical celibacy or to advocate celibacy as a higher, spiritual norm, was in fact coded rhetoric that struck at the value system the Empire held so dear. This paper shall close with a few remarks regarding "value systems" in modern day empires.

The 123rd Cathedral Homily of the early sixth-century Monophysite patriarch Severus of Antioch features a series of textual citations drawn from a Manichaean work. Modern scholars have noted certain affinities these citations share with materials contained in prior Christian polemicists such as Titus of Bostra and Theodoret, and they have offered largely speculative suggestions about the possible identity of the written source. The present paper seeks to advance the critical discussion surrounding this source by calling attention to the existence of what appear to be ‘later’ versions of this same source in Arabic language testimonia about Mani and Manichaeism.

Buseirah, which is identified with biblical Bozrah, was excavated in the 1970s by C.M. Bennett. The final report was published recently by P. Bienkowski (2002). Bennett identified in Area A two large edifices, constructed one upon the ruins of the other. Bienkowski suggested now a totally different understanding of the architecture of this area, the main change being by merging both buildings into a single edifice. The lecture will deal with the problems arising from this suggestion, with the aim to restore Bennett's observation. The later building, dating most probably in the 6th century BCE will be compared with other similar buildings (like in Hazor, Area B, No. 3002).

The Hebrew Bible contains several references to the mlk-sacrifice (or, sacrifice to Molek). There is significant debate about the identity of the recipient(s) of the mlk-sacrifice, but the options in the Hebrew Bible include Baal, YHWH, and Molek. A divergent account of Israelite child sacrifices is found in a fragmentary Aramaic text from Qumran: Pseudo-Daniel (4QpsDana-b ar). In contrast to most biblical descriptions of Israelite child sacrifices, 4QpsDana-b ar claims that children were sacrificed ????? ????? “to the demons of error.” This paper will investigate the meaning of the term ???? ????? and examine its significance in light of other accounts of child sacrifices in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Jewish literature. I will begin with some introductory comments on the manuscripts of 4QpsDana-b ar. Next, I will do a linguistic analysis of the two lexemes that compose the phrase ???? ????? “demons of error.” In the final part of my paper I will draw some conclusions about the meaning of “demons of error” in 4QpsDana-b ar and its implications for 1) Second Temple conceptions of Israelite child sacrifices and 2) Second Temple demonology.

Following R. Hays' paradigm for Paul's letters (Echoes), with attention to Ann Jervis' points (JBL 112), I will suggest that when 1 Peter chose to write to Christians as "exiles in the Diaspora," he chose to reapply the original Diaspora letter. After arguing 1 Peter develops the same themes in the same order, I will ask, Is it midrash (like the rabbis) or pesher (like Paul)? E.g., God has a word for his people in exile (Jer 29:1-2 and 1 Pet 1:1-2). To mold his people, God has allowed a foreign empire to conquer them (Jer 29:4 and 1 Pet 1:3—2:10). They must submit and live in peace (Jer 29:5-7 and 1 Pet 2:1—4:11). God’s plan (Jer 29: 10-14 and 1 Pet 4:12) includes suffering (Jer 29:15-23 and 1 Pet 4:12-16), warnings/judgment (Jer 29:24-32 and 1 Pet 4:17—5:9), and a promise of restoration (Jer 30:1—31:20 and 1 Pet 5:10). Lastly, although they live in Babylon, they are aliens there (Jer 31:21-26 and 1 Pet 5:12-14). A survey of 1 Peter will show how he compresses or elaborates themes in Jeremiah to suit his needs. E.g., Jeremiah briefly states they are to submit to the empire and to live in peace (29:5-7). 1 Peter elaborates how this should be done, Greco-Roman household codes, etc. (2:12—3:16). Jeremiah warns about false leaders among the people (29:15-32). 1 Peter mentions no false leaders in the church but rather briefly admonishes the elders to lead wisely and not for sordid gain (5:1-9). Jeremiah describes at length the coming restoration (30—31), while 1 Peter makes only a passing comment (5:10). Commentators have long noted sermonic qualities in 1 Peter, is 1 Peter re-preaching Jeremiah's message to the exiles, and is he doing midrash or pesher or a hybrid?

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While the temple and the administration of the new community figure prominently at the center of Zechariah 1-8, visions pertaining to a restored Jerusalem serve as book ends. The language employed in Zechariah for Jerusalem is among the most exalted in all biblical writings. The city’s restoration is presented both in terms of renewal of its past glory and also as a future, utopian expectation. The literary-theological messages are conveyed in a series of visions through motifs or tropes of the measuring line, election and holiness, and the city as axis mundi. This paper will explore and elucidate Zechariah’s visions of Jerusalem through an intertextual and comparative lens with a view to understanding the communicative intent for the community in Yehud.

Not all Coptic manuscripts survive as more or less complete books. Compared to the Nag Hammadi texts, the so-called Berlin Coptic Book was in a dire state. It had to be pieced together from about 3000 scattered fragments. Though I introduced this manuscript at the beginning of the reconstruction work, the task is now complete and a very interesting text, a Coptic translation of an early 2nd century theological treatise, emerged. Another significant manuscript still awaits reconstruction: an incomplete 4th century Coptic papyrus book with several apocryphal texts, among them a version of the well-known Testament of Job. Although this text survived in other languages, the Coptic version would be by far the oldest attestation of this very important pseudepigraphic work of Judaism.

If Josephus' account of the Judean constitution and its history is understood as pro-priestly while Justus of Tiberias wrote from the perspective of a monarchist, perhaps any historiographical rivalry between these authors is based on competing claims for these institutions.

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This paper argues, on the basis of detailed analysis of the Old Hebrew epigraphic corpus, that Israelite scribes underwent substantial and rigorous formal, standardized education. Special attention is devoted to the subject of Old Hebrew palaeography, orthography, numeric conventions, and conventional formulae. In addition, there will be some reference to modern data about the time it takes to become proficient in one's first modern alphabetic writing system (with some comparison of languages with deep and shallow orthographies).

By the early sixth century BCE anthropomorphic metaphors of the marital and the political spheres function in descriptions of God as King, and they both illustrate the covenant relationship between God and his people. Studying Ezekiel 16 and 20, this paper suggests that Ezekiel differentiates between these otherwise interchangeable metaphors, and employs each of them to substantiate his arguments on the God-people relationship in the conflict between the Jehoiachin Exiles and Those Who Remained in Jerusalem. Life and death, continuity and annihilation, ingroup and outgroup perspectives, are all demonstrated through the prophet’s usage of these metaphors of God as King, sovereign or husband.

The Biblical Concept of “Pride”:The difference between the Hebraic concept of g'h "pride" and the English concept of "pride"- reducing the artificiality of the cognitive context of the biblical scholar/translator It has been increasingly recognized that in an act of communication the cognitive contexts of the participants play a significant role (Ernst-August Gutt, 2006). In the written communication of ancient texts, such as the Hebrew bible, the scholar/translator is faced with the largely unfamiliar cognitive context of the Biblical writer. While interpreting such a text, the scholar/translator will naturally tend to decipher the text from the artificial cognitive framework that fits the conceptual framework of his/her own mother tongue. This research paper aims to increase the cognitive resemblance between the biblical text and the reader’s understanding. The concept of pride was chosen because very little semantic research has been devoted to it. Comprehensive research was done by examining all the occurrences of the root g'h and its derivatives in the Hebrew Bible. The semantic network of Hebrew synonyms was also checked. The results of the research indicate an important cognitive difference between the Hebraic concept of g'h and the English concept of pride. This fact has ramifications for the understanding and interpretation of the Biblical text for the scholar and theologian, but especially for the translator.

In its earliest attestation in the Chester Beatty papyrus (P46) (3rd cent. C. E.), the Epistle to the Hebrews is found in a collection of Pauline letters after Romans, indicating Pauline authorship. This position on authorship represents a mid-second century assessment of Hebrews by the Eastern church in Alexandria. Clement and Origen both discuss this view, acknowledging issues of style and content most likely as a means of defending the presence of Hebrews in their Pauline corpus (Hist. eccl. 6.14, 25). In the West, too, prior to the Muratorian Fragment, Pauline authorship of Hebrews was probably accepted. References to Hebrews alongside Romans and 1 Corinthians in 1 Clement suggest that this author, writing to a Pauline church, knew all three in association with each other as Pauline. By the fifth century, both Augustine (Civ. Dei 16.22) and Jerome (De vir. illust. 5.59) adopt this earlier consensus on Pauline authorship represented by 1 Clement and the Chester Beatty papyrus, securing the tradition until the Enlightenment. Since the Enlightenment, however, this view is rejected and today the question of how Hebrews rose to and maintained Pauline status for over a thousand years lays dormant. This paper presents the status quaestionis of the role of Heb 13:20—25 in this debate, arguing that these few verses in isolation were not composed de novo. Rather, the author of Hebrews deliberately adopted words and phrases from a collection of accepted Pauline materials to imply apostolic authorship for the work overall. The goal of this forgery was to foster a perception of the book’s often radical views as orthodox. The present discussion is informed by, but also attempts to move beyond, the latest understandings of pseudonymity among early Christian texts.

The christological problem embedded in the phrase “God made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36) has divided both ancient and modern interpreters over the question “when?”: when did God make Jesus both Lord and Christ? Close attention to the various answers offered by the history of interpretation reveals the need to probe carefully the wider hermeneutical contexts in which exegesis operates. The answer to the “when” question and the concomitant sense of Acts 2:36 are inextricably bound to the larger interpretive structures in which the verse is read. Through a juxtaposition of major patristic figures and modern New Testament scholars, this paper thus analyzes a particularly significant verse in the history of exegesis in effort to reflect upon the distinctive conceptual frameworks for interpretation and the resultant hermeneutical insight for present scholarly work.

An analysis of scribal corrections in the Freer Gospels codex with a view to what they tell us about the purposes and influences that helped to shape its text.

In the summer of 2003 the Network of Biblical Storytellers invited Biblical scholars of the Society of Biblical Literature to work with well-trained and professional storytellers to shape a new partnership in order to explore how performance in both the ancient world and the contemporary world might affect our understanding of the nature of the biblical narrative. For three consecutive summers almost twenty scholars and storytellers have gathered in the summer under the name “NOBS Scholars” to discuss such topics as the oral context of the ancient world, the relationship between oral and written stories, the contributions of other traditional and contemporary schools of biblical criticism for our task, the distortions in biblical interpretation that results when the primary medium of performance is neglected, the pedagogical value of storytelling methodology in universities and seminaries, the role of gender in storytelling, contemporary biblical scholarship with digital media, and, above all, the value of performance for understanding the nature of the biblical material. This poster will document this amazing process of partnership and share the developing direction of Performance Criticism in light of these on-going experiences.

Postcolonial readings of the Revelation to John have shed new light on the ways in which that apocalypse functioned to nourish resistance against the Roman Empire in the province of Asia in the waning years of the first century CE. In Revelation 7:15, heavenly voices announce: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.” Examination of the influence of John’s Apocalypse through a postcolonial optic also yields important insights into the re-deployment of apocalyptic rhetoric in the European colonization of the Americas. This paper will begin to explore the ways in which the apocalyptic eschatology that nourished the European colonization of the Americas beginning in the fifteenth century encountered and was encountered by the eschatologies of indigenous populations of the Americas. Special attention will be given to the role of apocalypticism in the Spanish colonial enterprise.

This paper will explore the preservation and application of the "cross saying" (Lk 9:23 and par.) in earliest Christianity. The paper first examines how the saying functioned in its earliest possible setting, noting its implications for discipleship in the Roman-controlled world. An answer will be sought for the question: Did the earliest Christians fundamentally understand the cross saying as a call to martyrdom/political action? It will be noted that successive generations continued to find this saying meaningful, some developing novel applications related to a more spiritual/metaphorical Christian religious expereince (e.g., Gal 2:20, etc.). Finally, the various presentations of Jesus' death as paradignmatic for discipleship in the Synoptic gospels are examined, with suggestions for its meaning during the time of their composition (post-Neronic).

The ‘foundation stone,’ or Even Shetiyah, of rabbinic thought has been an important trope within the academic study of religion, as well as in the study of Judaism from the perspective of the history of religions. Mircea Eliade, A.J. Wensick, and other comparativists sought out this myth in order to elucidate cross-cultural tropes and to outline a morphology of world myth. These comparativists situated the rabbinic ‘foundation stone’ in relation to two models of ‘foreign’ myth: the foundation stone was the center of the world, or “axis mundi, ” or represented the primordial battle against chaos, or “agon” model, as can be perceived in the Babylonian Talmud Yoma 54b. In these broad cross-cultural categories, these scholars offered genealogical models for the ‘influence’ of foreign cultures upon Judaism or universal religious paradigms of divine creation or sacred space. Nonetheless, the development of the ‘foundation stone’ in subsequent rabbinic thought demonstrates that these early references to the image are symbolic discourse, in which the mythic value of the Even Shetiyah reverberates beyond these typological readings and cross cultural formulations. Traditions found in works such as Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer and Zohar exemplify a more explicit expression of ‘foundation stone’ imagery that is informed by the mythic value of the patriarch Jacob, and one which works in concert with the tenor of rabbinic symbolic discourse. My examination of the ‘foundation stone’ tradition will occur within the context of the tropes’ correlation to the patriarch Jacob, and will demonstrate that these ‘foreign’ traditions are situated within the semiotic development of rabbinic myth. Consequently, this paper will argue that rabbinic development of ‘shared’ or ‘borrowed’ traditions about the Even Shetiyah can inform our understanding of symbolic and exegetical developments within rabbinic literature, and the use of rabbinic tropes for the comparative exercise.

[Please note: in both the title and abstract, the second "a" of 4QSama should be superscript.] There is probably no more vexing problem in Septuagint Studies today than that of Proto-Lucian, not only with regard to its definition and origin, but also with regard to its relationship with the texts of the Qumran scrolls. Using the publication of 4QSama in DJD 17, this paper examines every reading in the non-kaige section of Samuel where 4QSama agrees with the Lucianic text against the Old Greek and Masoretic texts. The aim is to assess the strength of the affinity between the Lucianic tradition and 4QSama in such instances.

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Despite the growing number of dissenting voices, the majority of scholars still sees Qumran as a site where a more or less radical Jewish group studied and copied sacred writings – and also authored religious compositions of their own. These scrolls were placed in the nearby caves, either to hide them from the Romans or simply to store them as a kind of a library, or both. Accepting or rejecting this overall picture has implications for our estimation of the inhabitants' literacy rate, as well as more general considerations pertaining to their class and social status. One can, and possibly should, however, approach these issues from a different, if not opposite, angle. This paper aims to investigate the material evidence from Khirbet Qumran from the viewpoint of class and literacy in particular. It seems demonstrable that the majority of the dwellers at Qumran lead a very simple, non-luxurious life. Many of them must have spent most of their waking hours in the mundane and typically non-elite tasks of agriculture, food preparation, and, e.g., pottery manufacture. On one hand, the inkwells found on the site attest to at least some amount of writing activity – but still, we have very little evidence of extensive scroll production at Khirbet Qumran. While studying of writings does not necessarily leave a clear archaeological record behind, archaeological and textual parallels can shed light on the likelihood of Qumran being a hub of scriptural study in the Second Temple period. These reflections will obviously not suffice to solve the question of the identity of the inhabitants, but might provide us with a small patch of firmer ground.

Fundamental to any study of masora is an understanding of the major codexes of the Hebrew Bible that represent the high point in the work of the great masoretes. Scholars are familiar with the basic characteristics of the two most famous codexes, Aleppo and Leningradensis, but a greater appreciation of their contents and role in the history of the Biblical text is fundamental to a better understanding of the Masoretic text. Other early and important Tiberian manuscripts will be discussed in relation to the establishment of the Tiberian system. The presentation will also consider: Factors that led to the triumph of the Tiberian system over Palestinian and Babylonian traditions; The (rival) Tiberian sub-systems, namely ben Asher and ben Naphtali; Prospects and pitfalls in utilizing electronic resources available for manuscript and textual studies.

Critical reflections on the reception of The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987)

The paper will evaluate the writings Hos, Joel, and Amos within the Twelve for the ways in which they relate to recurring themes/motifs within and through the Book as a whole. Several recurring elements have been noted in recent literature, and will be evaluated to see whether and in what ways they function within the first section of the Twelve. Within this section the Fate of Israel is contrasted to that of Judah. In Northern Israel and in Judah (Joel) the Day of YHWH is prophetically announced. However, only in Judah YHWH does postpone that day. Other themes include: Theodicy, the relationship of God’s people and the nations, Sin/Repentance, the fertility/infertility of the land, and Punishment and Restoration. In the end it will be reflected upon the implications the findings may have for a theological reception of persons of faith today.

Scholars have often suggested that a travel narrative might stand behind Paul’s journey to Rome. Boismard and Lamouille have actually suggested two sources behind the story. The possibility that we might at least have two oral traditions mixed here raises numerous possibilities. In particular, the similarity between this shipwreck and one mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:25 is tantalizing. Has Luke transplanted an earlier tale of shipwreck to this point in the narrative? Further, might the Pastoral Epistles contain relevant historical memories? Presuming Paul dies “at the end of Acts,” does 2 Timothy allude to a more precise itinerary of Paul’s final trip to Rome (through Miletus and Corinth), perhaps even the historical continuation of the story at Acts 27:5? Indeed, Titus would make more sense if Paul had visited Crete at some point. Thus the hypothetical tale: Did “Luke” want a more climactic ending to Acts than an original journey across Greece to Rome? Did he pass over the shipwreck tale earlier as a distraction to the progress of the narrative, much as he did Paul’s disheartening second visit to Corinth (2 Cor. 12:14; 13:2)? Has he merged two tales in Acts 27 (as perhaps Acts 15 has)? Paul and Titus set out from Asia Minor around the time of Paul’s stay at Ephesus. In the process of journey they eventually find themselves off the southern coast of Crete (cf. Acts 27:7). They spend “a night and a day in the deep” in the environs of Cauda. A mission to Crete ensues. Acts 27 becomes two stories combined, that of Paul’s trip to Rome and an earlier shipwreck near Crete.

This paper argues that the imagery of physical difference plays an important part in the poetics of David’s rise to power. Such imagery provides one means of minimizing differences in people groups that are quite diverse and grouping them together as “other”; the correlative to a normative Davidic “us.” The images of physical difference are not simple, transparent, or isolated character descriptions that strive for accurate depictions of particular bodies. Rather, they reflect carefully choreographed images of cultural ideals. The David Story decontextualizes and choreographs physical difference into a contrast between the “fit” body of David’s house and the “unfit” bodies of those who oppose David.

The paper discusses the function of the biblical Psalms in Jewish tradition from Antiquity until today. The discussion rests upon insights from various approaches to scripture where scripture is not only thought of as text, but also as artifact. Thus, the paper distinguishes between a hermeneutical and an artifactual use of scripture: 1. A hermeneutical use of scripture is taken to imply a Gadamerian fusion with the horizon of the text, thereby enabling the user to consider whether the text’s proposed religious worldview should be transposed into the user’s own worldview. 2. An artifactual use is taken to imply an emphasis on the non-semantic aspects of scripture (particular binding and embellishment, specifications for spelling, recitation, ritual handling and storage, etc.). Artifactual use seems to promote an understanding of scripture that is governed by personal and cultural representations where these representations are subsequently and much more subconsciously transposed into the user’s worldview. Based on an analysis of various examples of Psalmic use in Jewish tradition, the paper discusses what kind of scriptural use dominates in what kind of situations and to what effect.

Abraham Heschel, Walter Brueggemann, and Terence Fretheim have conducted important studies of the suffering of God in the Hebrew Bible, but there are two key areas that need further exploration. First, there is a need to classify the textual evidence that they use. Though these three rarely admit it, some texts refer to divine suffering much more clearly than others. This presentation helps fill this void by tabulating the texts in the Hebrew Bible that refer to divine suffering into three categories: (1) passages that refer explicitly to divine suffering, (2) passages that merely imply that God suffers, and (3) passages that make potential reference to divine pathos but are clouded by some element of ambiguity. This table not only allows one to understand which texts refer the most clearly to divine pathos, but also it shows in what ways different parts of the Hebrew Bible speak about God’s suffering. Second, there is a need to examine whether God suffers as humanity suffers. Heschel, Brueggemann, and Fretheim make different claims about this issue. Heschel strongly differentiates God’s suffering from humanity’s, Brueggemann sees little difference between the two, and Fretheim aims to find middle ground. This presentation evaluates their claims by analyzing passages that refer explicitly to divine pathos, charting whether (and where) similar language is used to express human suffering. By classifying types of textual evidence and examining similarities between the human and divine, this presentation promotes a deeper understanding of the extent and nature of God’s suffering.

The Freer Gospels Codex was dated paleographically by H.A. Sanders to the early fifth or late fourth century CE. In this presentation, I discuss subsequent data and rationale for re-considering this, and I propose that the Gospels Codex may more appropriately be dated to the sixth century CE.

In pre-Masoretic times, the written transmission of Hebrew biblical texts was basically restricted to the consonantal framework. All further information necessary to read the text, especially vowels and accents, had to be supplied by the reader, be it due to his general knowledge of the Hebrew language, or be it due to an oral reading tradition known by heart. The act of reading, therefore, was obviously an important factor for the constitution of the text. It even influenced and changed the written tradition in many cases. The paper will demonstrate this influence with the help of examples from different textual traditions (Masoretic text, Samaritan pentateuch, Septuagint). Moreover, it will provide a systematic description of the different ways in which the act of reading influenced the textual history of the Hebrew bible.

This paper critiques recent attempts to classify the architecture and other evidence for domestic space in Roman Corinth. In light of the material remains from the colonial period, how much can be ascertained, and to what extent can it be related to literary references and archaeological evidence from other contemporary urban areas? These considerations will also be used as a lens for further analysis of the structure and function of “house churches” in Paul’s community.

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Previous studies of the ‘highway’ image within Isaiah have focused either on its redactional function in linking major sections of the present book (especially O.H. Steck) or on its place within the ‘New Exodus’ theme (first discussed by A. Zillesen in 1903), often historicizing the motif as referring exclusively to the exiles’ future return from Babylon. Both of these approaches tend to focus on a few texts in which the key Hebrew words from the semantic field of ‘highway’ (müsillâ / maslûl and the related terms derek [sg.] and nütîbâ) occur to the exclusion of others. In this paper, all of the passages containing the highway image will be analyzed and categorized, giving primary attention to 11:16, 19:23, 35:8, 40:3, 42:16, 43:16 + 19, 49:11, 57:14, and 62:10, in an attempt to determine its distribution and literary function within the book of Isaiah (e.g., in passages that either open or conclude major units within the book), as well as its theological significance (i.e., as describing not simply the Israelites’ return to the land but rather their return to Yahweh).

Ezekiel's familiarity with the priestly source is textual; he shows awareness of P in its written form--the Holiness legislation as well as earlier P; narrative as well as law. As for the other Pentateuchal sources, including D, Ezekiel exhibits no literary knowledge of them.

Anyone who notices that Graetz's 11-part Geschichte der Juden divides all of Jewish history into a "first" period (until 160 BCE) and a "third" period (from 70 CE to the eighteenth century) but never terms the centuries in between -- the Second Temple period -- the "second" period; that between the 1863 and 1878 editions of the volume on that period he changed all the "Juden" into "Judäer"; that his introduction to the period waffles as to whether it is one of religious or political history; and that he left this introduction out beginning with the fourth edition, realizes that Graetz had his difficulties with this period, although he loved it. Understanding Graetz's considerations and difficulties, on the background of the birth of neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte, of Jewish polemics about Josephus, of institutionalized anti-Semitism in Germany, and of Graetz's extended visit in Palestine in 1872, will help us understand the genesis of views which were long to remain fundamental for the study of Jews and Judaism in the Graeco-Roman period.

In this presentation, I argue that though Egypt and Mesopotamia had very different mythologies, they had the same worldview. By examining the texts of Egypt and Mesopotamia, I argue that there are seven key points of similarity in the basic way of how both the Egyptians and Mesopotamians understood the world was created and maintained. They are as follows: 1) In the beginning there was watery chaos. 2) Within this chaos the creator God emerged and overcomes chaos in combat. 3) Creation comes about through the Command and Wisdom of the creator God. 4) Creation was seen as Order, Truth, Justice and Righteousness imposed on chaos. 5) This Order was seen as light. 6) Creation had to be maintained and supported against chaos. 7) There was an understood covenant between the gods and humans in regards to maintaining the order of creation. Understanding this common worldview provides valuable insight as it provides the foundation of how they understood the world around them. Understanding the ANE Worldview provides a theological understanding that makes comprehension of concepts such as Truth, Righteousness, Justice, Faith, and Wisdom in the ANE clearer and more precise. This holds true not only for Egypt and Mesopotamia, but for Israel, and by extension, Early Christianity. The presentation will not only outline the worldview from the primary sources from Egypt and Mesopotamia, but will also briefly explain how it makes the Hebrew understanding of Faith and the Day of the Lord clearer. I would like to have the full paper available (through me via email) for those interested to allow for a better critical response to the presentation.

Given the contextual quality of most of his writings, reconstruction of the "historical Paul," though rarely described in such terms, certainly occupies a central role in Pauline scholarship. As scholars, we inquire into Paul's underlying, "coherent" theology, Paul's Jewishness, Paul's "Romanness," Paul's hybridity and Paul's fundamental personality. Much like modern attempts to reconstruct the historical Jesus, scholarship has not only failed to produce a singular image of Paul, but even failed to identify a singular methodology. Also, reconstructed images of Paul (and his polemic) often reveal more about the interpreter's location than Paul's. Unlike quests for the historical Jesus, however, in Pauline studies we do not have texts primarily about Paul, but texts arising (or purporting to arise) from Paul. Further, unlike Jesus research, which tends to produce historical "Jesuses" who differ primarily in emphasis but not openly incompatible (Jesus the philosopher, the healer, the political rebel, the Torah sage), reconstructed images of Paul are often wildly divergent (Paul the anti-Semite, the good Jew, the homophobe, the closeted gay, the misogynist, the egalitarian, the convert from Judaism, the Roman, the Pharisee). Further, Pauline pseudepigrapha and later traditions obviously present unique problems. This paper will explore these issues, concentrating on how scholarship, itself, complicates the question. I will compare and contrast the alternate strategies and scholarship behind historical Jesus research and Pauline coherence, noting how data from disputed Paulines both complicates the process and offers a glimpse into the first "quest for the historical Paul."

In the Lukan appearance stories the continued physicality of the risen Jesus is emphasized. He may appear and depart in wondrous ways, but he is recognisable, he proves to the disciples that he is flesh and bone, and they watch him eat. Is this a portrayal of the prototypical resurrected body? In the paper I will critically examine this question by exploring other passages in Luke-Acts where the resurrected life is qualified. Here 'resurrection' interplays with ideas of immortality and also of transformation in ways that correlate eschatological and protological reflections and employ a blend of temporal and spatial categories. Several (Hellenistic) Jewish texts show similar features. Finally, in pursuing the spatial dimension I will discuss how the unique ascension story in Luke-Acts, transferring Jesus' resurrected body from earth to heaven, may involve requalification and transformation.

Micah 2:12-13 presents a complex set of interpretive problems that bear directly on the issue of the theological coherence of the book of Micah as a whole. Are the images in 2:12-13 intended to represent actions of divine deliverance or judgment? These verses have been read in a number of markedly different ways by interpreters ancient and contemporary. The majority view is that these verses constitute a straightforward oracle of deliverance. But some have interpreted the passage as an oracle of judgment, others read it as an unreliable oracle of redemption mouthed by the false prophets, and yet others discern two contrasting oracless, with verse 12 threatening judgment and verse 13 proclaiming a proleptic word of hope. I will analyze the semantic possibilities and ambiguities of Mic 2:12-13, engaging the passage as a polysemous textual locus for contested views about the construction of the prophetic voice in Micah 1-3. Affirming the minority view that 2:12-13 in fact constitute a prophecy of judgment, I will argue that the ambiguous rhetoric of Micah here performs an ironic destabilization of the implied audience's hermeneutical ability to recognize false prophecy. Finally, I consider theological implications of this reading in light of John Caputo's hermeneutical insights regarding the undecideability of texts.

This curious little episode in the canonical Acts provides interesting fodder for the critic who is focusing on the interplay of Greek, Roman, and early Christian cultural values in the early Roman Empire. Here, the author of Acts seems to have imitated a Roman imitation of a Greek work and to have tooled his imitation to act as a critique of the political value systems of both the Greeks and the Romans. That Eutychus' fall from the window is based on Elpenor's fall from the roof in Odyssey 10 has been noted by others including the Ancient Narrative section's own Dennis MacDonald. But Augustan apologist Vergil has imitated Elpenor's fall as well--twice, in fact--as, again, some commentators have noted. In this paper I will argue that the author of Acts has not imitated Homer so much as Vergil, and not imitated Vergil's versions in their details so much as in their critique of the politics of Odysseus' leadership. In this the author of Acts will be laying the foundation of the "Empire of God" of the early Christian communities by reworking a piece of political propaganda central to the foundation of Augustus' empire. In my argument, I will give a nod to Tim Whitmarsh's Greek Literature and the Roman Empire: The Politics of Imitation (although he does not, in fact, discuss this passage in that work).

The brief account of Rachel’s theft of her father Laban’s teraphim (Gen 31:19f.) raises a large number of interpretive issues. Among these are the nature and function of the teraphim, the ambiguous characterization of Rachel and her theft and the nature of patriarchal (in this case, matriarchal) religious practice. The marked lack of overt justification (or even explanation) for the theft of the teraphim has always been a narrative problem—and very often a theological one as well. While briefly touching on all of these traditional issues, the focus of this work will be strongly redactional in nature. A correct understanding of the teraphim and the motivation for Rachel’s theft will not be sought in etymological theories or in the adducing of ancient Near Eastern parallels, but rather in the narrative role the objects play in a specific literary, social and historical context.