One session will be dedicated to papers exploring the Influence of the Martyrological Traditions of 2 and 4 Maccabees. This session will be largely pre-planned, but relevant proposals are still welcome for possible inclusion in the open session and in any publication emerging with this focus.
The steering committee would welcome proposals for a second session on “Humor in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.” Papers in this session would explore examples of humor (parody, satire, comedic motifs) in this literature, how this literature reflects established conventions (e.g., Roman comedy), and/or what the presence of humor says about the purposes for composition, the ethos of the community in which the texts emerged and were read, and, especially, what windows open into the later Jewish and Christian communities that would preserve and refer to these humorous episodes in their own contexts.
Proposals for papers dealing with any aspect of the function of apocryphal or pseudepigraphic texts in early Jewish, Christian, or other communities are welcome for a third, open session.