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2025 International Meeting
Meeting Begins: 6/23/2025
Meeting Ends: 6/27/2025
Call for Papers Opens: 10/23/2024
Call for Papers Closes: 1/15/2025
Requirements for Participation
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Program Units
A Critical History of Exegesis Since around 1900 (EABS)
Description: Recently, research on the history of exegesis (‘Forschungs-/Exegesegeschichte’) has been accumulating. On the one hand, this relates to feminist projects such as “The Bible and Women”, on the other hand to the ongoing post-colonial debates. However, there are also older discourses, e.g. Jew-Hatred in the time of National Socialism in Germany or the research on the emergence of historical-critical methodology or the most important Protestant biblical scholars in the 20th century. However, there is a broad preoccupation and previous methodological experience with this topic, but the research is little connected with each other and seems to be more of an ‘enthusiast’s topic’. Furthermore, the opportunities and limits of international cooperation, the visualisation of non-European hermeneutics and the opportunities of digital humanities have hardly been explored yet.
We focus on the period since around 1900. In principle, the focus is on biblical scholars, but contributions to researchers from Semitic studies, Jewish studies, and archaeology of the Levant or ANES etc. are welcome.
Call for papers: The history of exegesis has recently gained interest, whether through feminist approaches, the Black Lives Matter movement, postcolonialism, (new) anti-Semitism, #IamHanna or simply out of historical interest.
For this reason, we invite you to engage with the history of research since around 1900. The Research Unit “A critical History of Exegesis since around 1900” will focus on “World War II and Jew- Hatred/Anti-Semitism” at the EABS Meeting 2024. We look forward to receiving your abstracts!
The 2025 workshop aims to explore the complex and multifaceted relationship between World War II, the rise of anti-Semitism, and the impact these had on biblical scholarship and broader Christian-Jewish relations. It will delve into the historical, theological, and socio-political dimensions of Jew-hatred/anti-Semitism during the Nazi era. We encourage papers that examine how biblical scholarship and interpretation were influenced, manipulated, or resisted in the context of the pervasive anti-Semitism of the time. This includes studies of particular scholars, exegesis of relevant biblical texts, and the role of religious institutions in either perpetuating or combating antisemitic ideologies.
Possible topics might include:
• The role of biblical scholarship in Nazi ideology and propaganda.
• Christian-Jewish relations and the impact of anti-Semitism on theological discourse during World War II.
• The response of religious institutions to the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.
• The legacy of World War II on contemporary interpretations of biblical texts.
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Allusions in the Gospels and Acts
Description: This unit is to foster literary-critical and inter-textual approaches to the canonical and extra-canonical gospels and acts of the apostles. The approaches include: (1) uncovering allusive fragments of Greco-Roman, Hellenized-Jewish, and Christian texts in gospel passages and apostle narratives; (2) discussing whether the fragments reflect accidental confluences, non-opposite appropriations of poetic langue, or Christian emulations against anterior texts and traditions; (3) interpreting Christian meanings generated by resonances between anterior and posterior contexts of those allusions.
Call for papers: For the 2025 Upssala Meeting, the Allusions in the Gospels and Acts section requests paper proposals on inter-textual approaches to the canonical and extra-canonical gospels and acts of the apostles and their terms, motifs, ideas, traditions, typologies, characterizations, contextualizations, narrative orders, literary skills, and/or rhetorical tactics. Priority shall be given to proposals for allusions to the Hellenistic and Jewish literature in gospel passages and apostle narratives.
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Ancient Apocalypses and Their Contexts (EABS)
Description: Emerging between the third and second centuries BCE, ancient apocalypses are sometimes considered as the “child of prophecy.” Focused on revelations, otherworldly realities and eschatology, though never disconnected from historical and earthly circumstances, these writings constitute both a corpus of their own and a bridge between the Hebrew Bible, the literature of Second Temple Judaism and the early Christian writings. The research unit “Ancient Apocalypses and Their Contexts” aims to create a place at EABS dedicated to the (re-) discovery of ancient apocalypses and to foster scholarly discussion on these texts that arouse fascination and yet are sometimes neglected. The corpus to be explored is the literary production that belongs to the so-called “apocalyptic literary genre” as defined by John and Adela Yarbro Collins (see Semeia 14 [1979] and 36 [1986]), also taking into account updates in current research (e.g., Collin McAllistair [ed.] 2020). The research unit offers two distinct kinds of sessions each year. First, a classic format with papers of 20-25 minutes followed by a short time of discussion. For these sessions, the approach is by topic, with a specific theme proposed each year: spatiality and temporality in apocalypses in 2024; positive and negative figures in apocalypses in 2025; seers and mediatory figures in apocalypses in 2026. Second, sessions entitled “Discovering more Apocalypses,” a new format consisting of introductions to and guided readings into little-known ancient apocalypses.
Call for papers: In the 2025 thematic sessions of our unit, we welcome papers that explore how ancient apocalypses depict and make use of positive and negative figures (including positive and negative groups). We wish to focus on both the characteristics of these figures and groups as well as the various functions they fulfill.
Expanding on the first focus, we are interested in questions such as what are the typical traits associated with positive and negative figures or groups? In particular, can we identify features/characteristics that are common between several apocalypses and that could thus be considered typical “apocalyptic” ways of depicting a figure or a group either positively or negatively? Following the second focus, we are interested in the functions of these figures and groups, both at the level of the text’s logic (e.g., in relation to the eschatological scenario) and with respect to its political, ethical, and theological purpose. For instance, we wish to explore how positive and negative figures (or groups) portrayed in apocalypses may have a polemic function against contemporary or past figures (or groups), or on the contrary be used to valorize them. Moreover, we wish to address the potential ethical goal of these figures. In particular, are some of them intended to serve as models or countermodels for listeners and/or readers to follow or avoid? Papers may address these issues in several apocalypses for the sake of comparison, or they may focus on a particular text.
In addition, and as every year, in the part of our unit called “Discovering more Apocalypses,” we welcome papers introducing apocalyptic texts that are often neglected or little known (e.g., the Apocalypse of Abraham, the First Apocalypse of James, the “Gnostic” Apocalypse of Peter). These introductions would be structured as follows: a short presentation of an Apocalypse (15 minutes) plus a guided reading of some extracts taken from it (30 minutes).
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Ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East (EABS)
Description: Throughout its history, Ancient Israel was intricately embedded within the diverse cultural frameworks of the ancient Near East. To fully understand these interactions, an interdisciplinary approach is essential. This research group fosters a collaborative forum for specialists across various disciplines, including Hebrew Bible scholars, Assyriologists, Egyptologists, Classicists, Hittitologists, and others. Our methodology is primarily based on a comparative approach, but it remains intentionally flexible to adapt to the focus of each call for papers.
Over the next five years, our research will continue centering on key topics that intersect ancient Israelite culture with that of neighboring Near Eastern societies. Additionally, we will keep an open call for papers, and explore opportunities to organize joint sessions with other research groups, particularly if and when EABS and SBL meet together.
We look forward to engaging with scholars from various disciplines and welcome contributions that will enrich our collective understanding of ancient Israel in its broader cultural milieu.
Call for papers: Polytheisms in Ancient Israel and the Ancient Near East: 50 years after the discovery of the artefacts in Kuntillet Agrud (1975 / 1976), scholars agree that Ancient Israel had a polytheistic past like its neighbouring cultures in the ancient Levant. However, many details of the polytheistic conceptions of the Levant are still unclear: To what extent can the religious systems of the different small states be compared? Was there a concept of panthea as elaborate as in Mesopotamia or Egypt? Is YHWH a newcomer and ascendant in a family of gods that resembles the conception of Ugarit or was he more of a solitary god from the beginning? And: what value do concepts such as "polytheism" or "monotheism" actually have for describing religious systems in the Levant in the 1st millennium BCE? The chairs invite scholars from all concerned fields to discuss the conceptualizations of Levantine panthea and their development. Additionally, we are planning a joint session with the ‘Ugaritic and its World’ group of the ISBL. As always, papers addressing other topics covered under the rubric ‘Israel in the Ancient Near East’ are welcome.
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Ancient Near East
Description: The ancient Near East section explores the texts and material culture of the ancient world, especially Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia from the birth of writing through the Hellenistic period. Our aim is to study the ancient world with a variety of methods and from a variety of perspectives—anthropological, archaeological, art-historical, economic, legal, literary, philological, sociohistorical, etc. We welcome work that reads the literature or material culture of one region against another, as well as work that is more limited in scope. Each year, we anticipate hosting two panels: one devoted to any aspect of the study of the ancient Near East, and one focussing on a more narrowly defined theme, region, approach, or time period.
Call for papers: The ancient Near East section explores the texts and material culture of the ancient world, especially Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia from the birth of writing through the Hellenistic period. Our aim is to study the ancient world with a variety of methods and from a variety of perspectives—anthropological, archaeological, art-historical, economic, legal, literary, philological, sociohistorical, critical theory, etc. We welcome work that reads the literature or material culture of one region against another, as well as work that is more limited in scope. In 2025, papers devoted to any aspect of the study of the ancient Near/Middle East will be considered for open sessions.
Tags: Anatolian (Hittite, Luwian, Hurrian) (Ancient Near Eastern Literature - Region), Ancient Near East - Bronze Age (History & Culture), Ancient Near East - Hellenistic Period (History & Culture), Ancient Near East - Iron Age (History & Culture), Ancient Near East - Late Antiquity (History & Culture), Ancient Near East - Neo-Assyria (History & Culture), Ancient Near East - Neo-Babylonia (History & Culture), Aramaic (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics)), Comparative Approaches (Interpretive Approaches), Egyptian (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics)), Hebrew (classical) (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics)), Latter Prophets - Ezekiel (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Northwest Semitic - Canaanite (Phoenician, Punic, Moabite, Ammonite) (Ancient Near Eastern Literature - Region), Social-Scientific Approaches (Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology) (Interpretive Approaches), Torah/Pentateuch - Genesis (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint))
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Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Description: This section, formerly titled Iconography and the Bible, examines the ways that ancient pictorial material informs interpretations of biblical texts and vice-versa. We welcome papers that explore the relationships between iconographic and textual materials as well as papers that deal exclusively with iconographic issues.
Call for papers: At this joint EABS-SBL conference the EABS research unit 'Iconography and Biblical Studies' and the SBL 'Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible' Program Unit jointly invite paper proposals for one or two thematic sessions on VISUAL VIOLENCE. Violence is and was part of real-life experiences - what is the use or aim of violence? How does it relate to or express power and ideology? Here, violence also touches on themes like asymmetry, horror, fear, and trauma. We would be delighted to receive good quality, creative abstracts addressing violence in combination with ancient iconographic material and biblical texts; the papers can include the above-mentioned perspectives, as well as gender, embodiment, or materiality of violence.
For the joint OPEN session(s), as in previous years, we welcome paper proposals within the broad interdisciplinary framework of iconography and biblical studies.
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Animals and the Bible (EABS)
Description: Animal Studies is a growing discipline, which has recently had fruitful intersections with philosophy, theology, and literary studies (see the work of e.g., Georgio Agamben, David Clough, Jacques Derrida, Donna Haraway, and Peter Singer). Animals, and the question of animal ethics, are also growing concerns in the contemporary world, particularly in light of modern industrialised farming trends and the pressing threat of extinctions. Animals have always had a presence in biblical scholarship—whether it be in relation to purity laws (e.g., Douglas, 1966), zooarchaeology (e.g., Borowski, 1998), or animal symbolism (e.g., Strawn, 2005)—but the intersection with critical Animal Studies has, until recently, been lacking. There has, however, been a recent flourishing in this area (see e.g., Koosed, 2014; Stone, 2018; Strømmen, 2018). This research unit aims to continue this dialogue by facilitating critical thought about the status and role of animals in the Bible and related texts. Important questions include: the role of animals in the biblical world; animal ethics in relation to the Bible; and the relationships and boundaries between animals, humans, and God. Beyond this, any research within the intersection of Biblical and Animal studies is encouraged. This nascent field of study has no set methodology, and we hope to incorporate a range of interdisciplinary approaches.
Call for papers: In 1728 a young Carl Linnaeus transferred to Uppsala University to complete his studies. He eventually returned in 1741 as a Professor of Medicine and Botany before becoming Rector of the university in 1750. Linnaeus is often regarded as the founder of the modern taxonomic system which governs the naming and classification of animals within zoology. As the EABS Annual Conference will be visiting his academic home in 2025, this year we are interested in papers which engage with the various ways animals are classified or distinguished within biblical or cognate texts. Papers might look at the distinction between: clean and unclean animals; edible or inedible animals; domestic and wild animals; animals of the land, birds of the air, fish of the sea, creeping things on the ground; or other ways in which the animal world is distinguished in the Bible. As ever, we are keen to receive any proposals which engage with animal studies or animals generally within the biblical world and traditions.
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Anthropology and the Bible (EABS)
Description: The aim of this unit is to foster ethnographic readings of biblical stories, both Old and New Testaments, and anthropological perspectives on the archaeology, the history and the literature of ancient Palestine in its Near Eastern context. Relevant topics for discussion are:
Political and historical anthropology of ancient Palestine (city-states, urbanization, state-formation processes, ethnogenesis).
Mediterranean anthropology in biblical narrative (patronage, hospitality, feud, honour and shame, food).
Sociology and anthropology of religion and ancient Palestinian cultic and ritual data (aniconism, iconography, burial, cultic places, etc.).
Sociology and anthropology of biblical studies (the production of academic knowledge and its impact on society).
Comparative analysis of Biblical and Eastern Mediterranean literature from an anthropological perspective.
Call for papers: For the 2025 EABS-iSBL joint meeting in Uppsala, the Anthropology and the Bible research group will host an open session. We welcome papers dealing in particular with the themes and interpretive approaches foster by the unit but also those relevant for analytical and comparative purposes.
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Apocalyptic Literature
Description: The Apocalyptic Literature Section provides the International Meeting’s only general forum for studies related to apocalyptic literature. The Section welcomes papers that engage the wide range of apocalyptic texts, that provide analysis of the history and conventions of apocalyptic literature, and that employ diverse methodological perspectives.
Call for papers: The Apocalyptic Literature Section is planning to hold three sessions in Uppsala. The first session will be organized in collaboration with local organizers and Swedish scholars involved in the project At the End of the World. The second session will attempt to debate the role of transdisciplinarity in the study of apocalyptic literature and movements by discussing how Embodied Cognition can be used to further our studies. This session will have a mix of invited papers and proposals that deal with the use of Embodied Cognition (4E) models in the study of apocalyptic literature and movements. The third session is open, but we are particularly interested in receiving proposals on 1 Enoch.
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Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Description: The Section fosters ongoing study of extra-canonical texts, as subjects of literary and philological investigation; as evidence for the history of religion, theology, and cult practice; and as documents of the socio-symbolic construction of traditions along lines of class and gender.
Call for papers: The Section invites papers that delve into the literary, religious, and societal dimensions of extra-canonical texts. This includes literary and philological analysis, historical insights into religious practices and theologies, and examinations of socio-symbolic constructions of traditions. The section encourages interdisciplinary approaches and comparative studies, aiming to broaden the understanding of these texts beyond their canonical counterparts.
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Apostolic Fathers and Related Early Christian Literature
Description: This unit fosters academic discourse focused upon the “Apostolic Fathers” and supplemental literature, as transmitters of earlier traditions; as reflections of theology, ethics, and worship; as means of identity and community formation; and as subjects of literary and social-theory investigations.
Call for papers: This unit fosters academic discourse focused upon the “Apostolic Fathers” and supplemental literature as transmitters of earlier traditions; as reflections of theology, ethics, and worship; as means of identity and community formation; and as subjects of literary and social-theory investigations.
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Bible and Empire
Description: A unit examining the influence of imperial political powers on the development of the Bible in its historical context as well as the Bible’s use and reception throughout subsequent history.
Call for papers: The Bible and Empire section offers three opportunities for papers at the 2025 International Meeting. First, a session that considers the impact of biblical readings and receptions that alter queer sexual practices in spaces colonized, formerly colonized, or impacted by imposed textual traditions. Papers that examine alternative and creative reinterpretations of biblical traditions are welcomed as are those that describe processes of textual impositions that suppress indigenous sexual practices. In general papers that explore queer sexualities in the context fit within this section. Second, a session that examines the relationships between biblical texts and different forms of settler colonialism. This session looks for papers from diverse historical contexts that examine receptions and counter readings of biblical texts in areas described as settler colonies. Papers that privilege Joshua and Judges are obvious choices. However, papers that explore less obvious texts that demonstrate the complexities of the influence of Bible upon colonialism will receive attention. A third set of sessions offers the opportunity to develop definitions of the relationships between Bible and Empire. Drawing from varied geographical, religious, “national,” cultural, and historical contexts, these sessions provide opportunity to explore legacies of the fraught relationships between the Bible and empire. Through a combination of invited and open submissions, the sessions will explore issues such as the difference between catholic and protestant empires, Bible translations, the concept of imperium, changing geopolitical factors such as the rise of liberal imperialism in the 19th century or Christian nationalism in the 21st century, as well as the impacts of developments in media technologies.
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Bible and Its Influence: History and Impact
Description: This unit offers a forum for papers on both the theory of reception studies and critical analysis of historical and contemporary case studies related to the Bible’s use and influence, in spheres ranging from art, literature and music to religion, society and culture.
Call for papers: For the joint SBL/EABS meeting in Uppsala in 2025, “The Biblical World and Its Reception” (EABS) will be meeting together with “Bible and Its Influence: History and Impact” (SBL). The combined unit will be holding two/three sessions.
This year we are especially interested in papers which focus on the Bible and video games. This might include methodological approaches, close analyses of individual games, thematic critiques, and other avenues which examine the ways in which the medium has depicted, adapted, interpreted, and drawn upon biblical texts and traditions.
In addition, we will also have at least one open session, for which we welcome papers on any topic that is relevant to the units’ general interests in the reception, influence, and impact of the Bible.
Tags: History of Interpretation (Interpretive Approaches)
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Bible and Visual Culture
Description: The Bible and Visual Culture unit is premised on recognising that some of the most engaging and creative interpretations of biblical texts, themes, and stories are found in visual media from antiquity to the present. Further encouragement to attend to visual interpretations of the Bible is offered by our awareness that such readings have often captured the collective and, especially, popular imagination to a far greater extent than have many written interpretations. In doing so, these visualisations have shaped and influenced our reading and understanding of the biblical texts. The section offers an academic space for the critical exploration and discussion of biblical texts, characters, motifs and themes as they are represented in visual media, including (but not limited to) painting, sculpture, print making, illustration, moving pictures (including film, television, and gaming), advertising, street art, and other expressions of visual culture. The section welcomes efforts to situate visual interpretations of the Bible within a wider hermeneutical context and explore how such interpretations challenge or support other non-visual readings of biblical texts. The nature of the subject explored in this section demands an openness to the insights of a range of different approaches and disciplines beyond biblical studies, including (but again, not limited to) art history, film, theatre, psychology, music, trauma studies, as well as studies in gender and postcolonialism.
Call for papers: The Bible and Visual Art unit welcomes submissions for two open sessions at the International Meeting in 2025. In the first instance, we invite proposals that fall within our broad purpose stated above. Furthermore, as a traditional feature of this unit at the International Meeting, one session shall offer space for a special focus on the art of the region of the meeting. We, therefore, encourage proposals that explore the reception of the Bible in the visual culture of Uppsala, Sweden in general, and the neighbouring Scandinavian countries, or by artists originating from this geographical region. This unit engages contributions that situate visual interpretations of the Bible within broader hermeneutical frameworks and engage with disciplines beyond biblical studies.
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Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law
Description: The purpose of the Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law Section is to promote interdisciplinary research on ancient Near Eastern, biblical, and post-biblical law. Methodological perspectives include historical-critical, literary, legal-historical, feminist, and social-scientific approaches.
Call for papers: The purpose of the Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law Section is to promote interdisciplinary research on ancient Near Eastern, biblical, and post-biblical law. Methodological perspectives include but are not limited to historical-critical, literary, legal-historical, feminist, and social-scientific approaches.
Tags: Law (Comparative Religion / History of Religion), Law Codes & Legal Documents (Ancient Near Eastern Literature - Genre)
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Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom
Description: The unit seeks to encourage an ongoing discourse on new ideas and methodologies in the study of Wisdom Literature. The primary focus is on Biblical wisdom - Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth, the Wisdom Psalms and other texts influenced by wisdom ideas, as well as Ben Sira and Wisdom of Solomon. The section is also concerned with the relationship between biblical wisdom literature and cognate texts of the ancient Near East.
Call for papers:
Tags: Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Wisdom (Ancient Near Eastern Literature - Genre), Wisdom and Philosophical Literature (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Wisdom of Solomon (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Writings - Ecclesiastes (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Writings - Job (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Writings - Proverbs (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint))
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Biblical Characters in Three Traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)
Description: This seminar approaches biblical literature through its most famous and pivotal characters, for it is around them that the subsequent biblical story is organized and arranged. Moreover, these characters have come to enjoy a life and fame that extends well beyond the basic Old Testament, Miqra, and New Testament, and even into the Qur’an and Islamic oral and written texts. As was demonstrated at the recent Tartu seminar, Samaritan texts and traditions (unfamiliar to many) have a contribution to make to the seminar as well. Our work seeks, among other goals, to facilitate a meaningful and informed dialogue between Jews, Christians, Muslims and Samaritans—foregrounded in the academic study of the treatment of characters across texts and
traditions—by providing both an open forum at annual conferences, and by providing through our publications a written reference library to consult. A further goal is to encourage and provide a forum in which new scholarly talent in biblical and related studies may be presented.
Call for papers: For the 2025 meeting, we welcome papers discussing diverse aspects of biblical characters — humans, animals and vegetation — and in particular, characters of the “pre-“ eras. These might include, for example, plants and animals of the pre-human world (during days 1–5 of creation); plants and living creatures of the pre-transgression period; pre-deluge peoples, species and characters; pre-Tower of Babel humans; pre-settlement seven peoples of Canaan, etc. The seminar will examine their presentation and treatment in scriptures and reception history, in primordial and later times; as a group or as individuals; their relationship with later nations, etc. Papers are invited that examine the presentation of such characters through one, or more, of the Three Traditions, using one or more perspectives, such as theology, literature, history, archaeology, art, or other disciplines.
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Biblical Hebrew Language and Linguistics
Description: This unit focuses on Biblical Hebrew language and linguistics. We welcome papers on all
aspects of Biblical Hebrew, such as grammar, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, linguistic theory
etc. We are also interested in papers that emphasize the contribution of the analysis of Biblical
Hebrew to the understanding of the biblical text and exemplify the importance of linguistic
analysis as an exegetical tool.
Call for papers: The “Biblical Hebrew Language and Linguistics” invites papers for an open session and a thematic session. The thematic session will be: Syntactic Ambiguity and Biblical Interpretation. Papers that discuss syntactic ambiguity or indeterminacy of any kind and the impact of ambiguity/indeterminacy on the interpretation of specific biblical texts are welcome.
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Biblical Interpretation in Early Christianity
Description: This program unit explores the interpretative structures, methodologies, and concerns of patristic exegesis and the various assumptions underlying it.
Call for papers: This year we especially encourage papers that focus upon the reception of biblical materials within the liturgy and worship of early Christianity. Such paper proposals may examine the usage and echoes of biblical materials within the "lived community" of ecclesial life, reflected in assembled worship services, liturgy, and prayer. Beyond this specific focus, papers may also be submitted that more generally explore the interpretive structures, methodologies, and concerns of patristic exegesis.
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Biblical Theological Investigations into the Attributes of God (EABS)
Description: The Research Unit engages in Biblical Theological investigations, that is, investigations of how Biblical texts from the First or Second Testament portray an attribute of God as part of the developing, unfolding and progressive story line of the text. Each year the Research Unit focuses on a different attribute of God.
Call for papers: A number of passages in both the Old and New Testament speak of God as immutable. He is unchanging, and he does not change in any way. In Balaam’s second oracle he refers to God as “not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind” (Num 23:19); the psalmist sings that while creation will wear out like a garment, God stays the same (Ps 102:26-27; cf. Heb 1:10-12); Malachi argues that the Lord does not change (Mal 3:6); James states that “there is no variation or shadow due to change” in God (Jam 1:17); and the author of Hebrews states that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). Consequently, the immutability of God is one of the key, historic attributes of God which the church has confessed throughout the centuries. There are, however, passages in Scripture that seem to speak about God as changing, specifically as God having “regret” (e.g., Gen 6:6; 1 Sam 15:11) or “relenting” (Jonah 3:10; Amos 7:3). Scholars have long since attempted to reconcile these apparent conflicting statements.
The Research Unit “Biblical Theological investigations into the attributes of God” invites scholars to submit papers on biblical texts with explicit or implicit references to the immutability of God in its rich diversity, and to investigate these texts from a Biblical Theological perspective, that is, by reflecting on how these texts portray the attribute of God’s immutability as part of the developing, unfolding and progressive story line of the text. Preference will be given to papers which address the attribute of God’s immutability from lesser-known texts in the Old and New Testament.
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Bodies of Communication (EABS)
Description: ‘Bodies of Communication’ is a research unit fostering conversations on the body as a location of religious expression. As the study of religion moves away from religious doctrines and institutions towards an increasing interest in the lived experience of religion, the human body takes up a more central place. In biblical and related literature, the body is inevitably involved in the discussion of a range of issues; for some the connection is obvious, such as food and sexuality, birth and death, whilst for others the body forms either the background or the method of communication.
While bodies are often policed in religious settings, this can also occur within a textual environment; bodies also offer a site for resistance and deviance, a means of opposing traditional norms. The abstract body, the idealized body and the concrete body, that exists and lives in time and space, can all be understood to express religious narratives and structures.
This unit aims to increase understanding of the body as a significant site in the period of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, as well as in a variety of interpretations and resonances. It especially encourages engagement with issues that are relevant for contemporary culture and society.
Call for papers: 1 Joint session with Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World: Over the last few years, the two research units have considered how the bodymind is used and interpreted, metaphorically within texts and rhetorically through interpretation. As we have discussed issues surrounding the bodymind, questions have continually arisen surrounding the constructed nature of embodied identity in biblical, early Christian and early Jewish texts, as well as within considerations of their wider cultural contexts. In 2025, we invite papers which examine the intersectionality of identity as it pertains to expression through the bodymind, of overlapping “categories” enacted by the bodymind and around the idea of bodies/bodily events/conditions being portrayed as "non normative" or "disobedient". We particularly encourage papers which discuss cultural expectations or norms regarding the bodymind in terms of how they are established, developed and/or challenged within a text.
Papers may wish to critically examine issues such as:
how categories and boundaries are constructed and challenged, both within and surrounding the body.
how contemporary ancient ideas regarding disease and sickness contribute to discussions of identity.
the effect of age in portrayals of a person’s or group’s identity.
examining non-normative bodies through a kyriarchal lens.
the specific interaction between gender and embodied identity.
We will also consider innovative papers which ask new and important questions relating to our broader research topic. Additionally “bodymind” is to be considered in its widest sense, e.g. as a whole or in relation to constituent parts.
We welcome papers related to a range of literature, including the HB, NT, Early Jewish and Christian writings, as well as their history of interpretation and reception.
2 Joint session with Bible and Ecology. Please see their CfP or https://eabs.net/EABS/Research-Units/Research_Units/EABS_Research_Units/Bodies_of_Communication.aspx
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Canonical Approaches to the Bible (EABS)
Description: Canonical interpretation or exegesis aims to understand biblical texts in the context of the whole canon of texts. It takes into account different forms of canon in various traditions. Reading texts canonically links them to a community of faith for who they are part of their respective canon and understands it as scripture.
Canonical exegesis is not a fixed set of methods but rather a mindset for approaching biblical texts. The research unit aims to take up the ideas introduced by Brevard Childs, James Sanders, and others and to give room to discuss different approaches of canonical exegesis.
We want to further the discussion of methodological and hermeneutical foundations and enrich the understanding of individual texts and larger units by reading them canonically. To guide and focus the sessions, we choose overarching topics for a couple of years.
Call for papers: On the Kingdom of God and Its Implications ***
The research group "Canonical Approaches" focuses on literary devices, subjects, and methodological questions in relation to the Canon. The idea of the Kingdom of God is one of the significant connections between various parts of the Bible. In the Old Testament, the Psalms in particular deal with God's kingship. Also, the Torah, the Prophets, and the other Writings portray him as king or include this presumption. The New Testament refers to God's basileia from Matthew to the Apocalypse of John. Other ideas and motifs play a role, e.g., the throne, enthronement, divine judgment, the Chaoskampf, and the Day of JHWH. They link various parts of the Canon and give structure to it. The topic calls for reflection, e.g., on the metaphor of divine kingship, the divine-human relationship, divine council, or its past, present, and future aspects.
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In Sofia 2024, papers and discussions repeatedly engaged topics relating the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. We continue our exploration on the "Kingdom of God" and encourage to submit proposals which open the discussion for relating HB and NT. We also welcome papers that focusing on methodological and hermeneutical questions of canonical approaches.
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Central Theologumena in the Narrative Texts of the Pentateuch (EABS)
Description: The Research Group “Central Theologumena in the Narrative Texts of the Pentateuch” focuses on theological concepts and traditions in the Pentateuch. Through a close reading of classical texts, such as Gen 17 and Exod 6, we hope to gain a better understanding of the individual passages beyond the different Pentateuch models. In addition, we aim to clarify the similarities and differences between different parts of the Pentateuch with book-overlapping papers on specific themes, such as creation, covenant and the Promised Land. We consider the textual-critical evidence with their specific understanding of the texts to be of utmost importance, and hope to detect theological developments beyond the boundaries of the Masoretic Text.
Every year, there will be one invited and one open session. Both diachronically and synchronically oriented papers are welcome.
Call for papers: In Uppsala, our invited session will concentrate on central theologumena in the narratives about Israel in the Desert (Exod 16–Num 10). Possible subjects are covenant, election and divine promises. We encourage tracking developments and differences of theological conceptions in comparison between Exod 16–Num 10 and other passages from the Pentateuch. A further interest is the reception of these chapters in the Septuagint and in the texts from the Judean Desert.
In the open session, we welcome critical contributions on all narrative texts of the Pentateuch. We especially encourage junior scholars to submit abstracts. Papers may concentrate on both diachronic and synchronic aspects.
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Citations and Allusions in the Hebrew Bible (EABS)
Description: The notion that texts within the Hebrew Bible refer to each other and that neglect of such references leads to an imperfect understanding of a given text has garnered much attention in recent years. There are substantial bodies of both methodological debate and case studies. For all that, core problems wait to be settled with at least a relative consensus. Among them are the differentiation between citations, allusions, and similar textual references on the one hand and affinities between texts induced by different factors on the other hand; criteria for discerning textual references, and their strength relative to each other; categories for a detailed description of textual references; and a rigid scrutiny regarding modes of marking citations. As concerns case studies, a sustained effort is needed to collect and compare the various scholarly results. The time is ripe for bringing together scholars working in the field in order to critically examine what has been achieved so far, and to draw attention to pressing questions which have remained unresolved heretofore. The research group shall be a platform to do that. It will focus on cases of citations and allusions, that is, on actual, intentional references from one text to another.
Call for papers: In search of citations, allusions, and cognate phenomena, and pursuing the set of questions stated in the unit’s general program, for the 2025 annual conference we propose to focus on the phenomenon and corpus of biblical prophecy. Hence, we welcome papers dealing with textual references from or to a given text of the Latter Prophets, or within that corpus. While contributions may put their main emphasis either on the case at hand or methodological conclusions to be drawn from it, both aspects should be covered. Next to invited papers, there will be a sufficient number of slots for proposed contributions.
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Cognition, Epistemology, and Pedagogy in Biblical Exegesis
Description: The primary purpose of this session is to analyze and scrutinize Biblical characters,their behaviors, dynamic relationships, and episodes through the lenses of Cognition, Epistemology, and/or Learning theories. Its secondary purpose is to gain a general (but profound) understanding of how one thinks, knows, and learns, which aspects cannot be underestimated in our daily life. It is also relevant since most SBL members are teachers and life-long learners.
Cognition refers to how a person perceives and understands their world through interacting with different factors. Epistemology refers to what knowledge is. How one thinks (Cognition) and how one defines knowledge (Epistemology) are closely related to how one knows and learns (Education). The examples of cognition can range from information processing, intelligence, language development, memory, and reasoning. An individual’s definition of knowledge may affect their problem-solving and decision- making processes. Concrete analysis of the Biblical characters, relationships, and stories through these focuses will help us understand the Scripture better and deeper. The versatile Biblical characters and their stories may offer the “data” to underline the meaningfulness of these studies, synchronously.
Call for papers: This year, we welcome the proposals on cultural influence on these focuses. As we know, culture plays a crucial role shaping an individual’s thinking, knowing, and learning. Culture functions as a filter that one consciously and unconsciously interprets their thoughts and knowledge through. For the proposals, empirical approaches are welcome. Systematic analyses are welcome. Numbers, graphs, and charts are welcome. Ideally, the proposals are drawn and inspired from solid theories and frameworks. Feel free to contact Young Park if you have any questions.
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Cognitive and Cultural Evolutionary Perspectives on the Biblical World (EABS)
Description: Cultural evolutionary theory is a fast-growing, highly multidisciplinary scholarly endeavor which combines evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, semiotics, and computer science to explain how culture changes in populations with time. The cognitive basis and evolutionary function of religion has long been a topic of interest among cultural evolutionists and formed into a project of cognitive and evolutionary science of religion (CESR). On the other hand, religions consist of cultural expressions, which tend to follow common patterns of change. Evolutionary approaches have gained acceptance because of their cogent theory and applicability to different areas of human culture, such as language, technology, complex societies, and semiotic shifts. Methodologically, the cultural evolutionary perspective tends towards pluralism. On the one hand, there is an interest towards empirical experimental research, on the other hand, the use of semiotics and computer modelling and digital technologies are increasing, especially among researchers with a primary focus on historiography and the analysis of textual sources. Overall, CESR aims to bridge the methodological gap between the natural sciences and the humanities.
The unit proposes to be a wide platform where scholars who are interested in applications of CESR and cultural evolution to the biblical world and literature, and want to test and present their ideas to interested colleagues. The unit invites quantitative and computational modeling as well as qualitative case studies.
Call for papers: Cultural evolution studies long-term changes in human populations by using cultural artefacts as a source of information. While other approaches in the humanities often focus on the particular and unique, cultural-evolutionary and cognitive perspectives observe recurring patterns and their underlying mechanisms. Big data are needed to gain this comprehensive view. The cultural-evolutionary-cognitive approach has thus learned to apply various computer-assisted methods to study evolutionary processes in culture by using big data analysis on large textual or epigraphic corpora. Network analyses, for example, can be applied to uncover selection biases or cultural attractors. This year, the unit Cognitive and Cultural Evolutionary Perspectives on the Biblical World invites presentations to discuss the sources of big data available to Biblical scholars, the types of analyses that the data allow, and the types of results that they yield. We further invite talks that suggest how to handle numerical and statistical information in ways that are meaningful and interesting for the scholars of humanities. Contributions that will discuss the issue from a theoretical point of view, as well as case studies that apply the given methods from the field of computational analysis and digital humanities, are welcome. We will also host an open session for scholars to present research that does not fall under this year’s theme but deals with the Biblical world from a cultural evolutionary or cognitive perspective. Young or established scholars are welcome to propose a paper of their project or individual research.
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Comparing Ancient Chronographic Historiographies from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Judah, and Greece in the Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods (EABS)
Description: This research unit aims to advance the comparative exploration of ancient historiographies from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Judah, and Greece in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods. To this end we will pay significant attention to the following matters: the underlying assumptions and basic world-shaping conceptualizations on which these works were grounded (including conceptualizations of time, periodization, causality); the generative grammars and narrative patterns at work in these historiographical texts; the interrelation between genre, social location, and historical contingency, and intersections between local, ‘global’ and ‘glocal’ cultural traditions in shaping historiography.
Call for papers: The third meeting of this research unit focuses on the relationship between ancient text collections and chronographic or historiographical writings. ‘Text collections’ are broadly conceived to include not only physical repositories of texts (literary or non-literary) but also ‘mental’ libraries or archives. We invite speakers to offer papers on specific corpora/regions, trace diachronic developments through the later first millennium BC, or treat material from a comparative perspective. Topics that may be explored include:
1. Text collections and the emergence of chronographic traditions. Did particular types of text collection, or processes of collecting or archiving information, lend themselves to the emergence of chronographic or historiographical writing, or particular types thereof?
2. Developments through the later first millennium. How did the relationship between text collections and chronography change over time? Did developments in chronography or historiography have an impact on text collections or collecting practices, or vice versa?
3. Sources and repositories. How important were different sorts of sources (e.g. oral vs written), and repositories of sources, for chronographic writing?
4. Attitudes towards text collections. What value was accorded to libraries or archives in the cultures under discussion? How does this relate to the way in which knowledge about the past was sought, analysed and presented?
5. ‘Mental’ libraries and ancient chronography.
6. ‘Imaginary’ texts as sources for chronography or referred to in chronographic texts.
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Computational and Quantitative Approaches Applied to Biblical Studies (EABS)
Description: The recent improvements in digital tools have radically impacted research approaches: all research fields, including humanities, have been affected by the digital revolution, giving birth to a new venue of research regrouped under the umbrella term "digital humanities". Several projects relying on digital approaches for better understanding of the biblical text are being led around the world, but these studies often struggle to have a meaningful impact on biblical scholarship due to the opacity of the used methods and are often relegated as a sub-field difficult to approach for non-computer scientists. The purpose of this research unit is to gather scholars leading, involved, or interested in projects leveraging digital tools for biblical studies, to (1) Present existing case studies and research projects; (2) Centralize efforts in the development of computational tools for biblical studies (dataset, software, methods) by referencing resources; (3) Open up a dialogue regarding the strengths and limits of computational approaches. The research unit proposes four main topics regarding expected papers: (1) Database and open-data initiatives for biblical studies; (2) Available software tools for biblical studies; (3) Computational approaches and artificial intelligence methods; (4) Discussions of the potential and the methodological limits.
Call for papers: The recent improvements in digital tools have radically impacted research approaches: all research fields, including humanities, have been affected by the digital revolution, giving birth to a new venue of research regrouped under the umbrella term "digital humanities". The research unit Computational and quantitative approaches to biblical studies aims at grouping together scholars involved or interested in projects leveraging new quantitative digital tools for biblical studies and calls for papers related to: (1) Database and open-data initiatives for biblical studies; (2) Available software tools for biblical studies and textual criticism; (3) Computational approaches and artificial intelligence methods applied to biblical studies; (4) Discussions of the potential and the methodological limits of the application of quantitative approaches for humanities related fields.
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Concepts of Biblical Israel (EABS)
Description: In the Hebrew Bible, Israel appears as a term for various entities: a tribal confederation, the United Monarchy, the Northern Kingdom alone, the Southern Kingdom alone, and as a term for a religious community. Thus, the Hebrew Bible documents concepts of Israel that are quite different from each other and are guided in different ways by ethnic, political, social, geographical, cultural, and religious aspects. Going beyond previous research, this research unit does not just focus on the mere question of when and how the concept of a pan-Israel (i.e., the Israel of the twelve tribes or the Israel including the people of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms) emerged, but rather aims at taking a broad view on different texts within the Hebrew Bible, detailing and elaborating upon the great variety of concepts of Israel within these scriptures. On a methodological level, the research unit acknowledges the contribution of anthropological studies of tribal societies for the study of biblical discourses of Israel, but also wants to draw inspiration from sociological and historical research on premodern nationalism.
Call for papers: In 2025, the research unit “Concepts of Biblical Israel” will hold two (long) sessions. One invited session will be dedicated to the concepts of Israel in the Latter Prophets. The second (partly invited) session will mainly focus on the concepts of Israel in Psalms and cognate literature (both biblical and extrabiblical), but welcomes also papers on the origins, developments, and manifestations of concepts of Israel elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, as well as contributions focusing on methodological issues.
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Contextual Interpretation of the Bible (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and New Testament)
Description: The goal of this Seminar is to explore the interest in Contextual Biblical Interpretation, its
different strategies (including "inculturation", inter(con)textualization, and reading with "ordinary"
readers), its methodological justifications, and the extent to which all interpretations are
contextual. We are especially interested in seemingly "marginal" (from the geographical,
gender, faith, class, age, communal, and so forth) aspects of Biblical interpretation.
Call for papers: This Seminar underlines the significance of contextual interpretation and its contribution to biblical studies. We invite contributions to 2-3 open sessions on the interpretation of a biblical text from within a reader's explicitly articulated context, personal as well as communal, while firmly anchored in clear methodology. We are particularly interested in the contextual counter readings/subversions of the same character or narrative by “ordinary” readers on the margins. We also invite papers that propose critical and creative readings of a biblical text about biblical characters and their interpretive significance. We will warmly consider proposals that are also queer, cross-scriptural and/or dip into the flows of orality.
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Culturally Central Texts in Early Judaism, Early Christianity, and Other Cultures (EABS)
Description: Early Judaism and early Christianity can be defined as text-centered religions, namely, religions which place texts at the center of their practices. The research unit seeks to understand how and why this aspect became predominant in these two religions. Furthermore, because other religions are similarly organized and structured around collections of texts, it seeks to understand how this phenomenon can be studied in a cross-cultural perspective, and what new insights can be gained from such cross-cultural perspective for the study of early Judaism and early Christianity.
We focus on the period since around 1900. In principle, the focus is on biblical scholars, but contributions to researchers from Semitic studies, Jewish studies, and archaeology of the Levant or ANES etc. are welcome.
Call for papers: The Research unit “Culturally Central Texts in Early Judaism, Early Christianity and Other Cultures” will be holding one invited session on the topic “Beyond ‘Scriptures’: Culturally Central Texts in Early Judaism and Christianity”, as well as one open session entitled: “How Texts Became Central in Judaism and Christianity: A Sample of New Approaches”. For the open session, we invite contributions dealing with any aspect of the processes through which texts received a central position in early Judaism and early Christianity, such as for example: the politics of textual centralization; the role of rituals; manuscript evidence for the creation of culturally central texts; textual centralization and the monumentalization of texts; central texts and the creation of social memory; etc. Papers with a focus on material evidence, on comparative evidence, and/or with a strong theoretical component are especially welcome.
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Early Christianity (EABS)
Description: The constitutive idea of this seminar is to treat Early Christianity as a multivalent phenomenon, characterized by a fundamental diversity. The focus is on interchanges and interactions between various groups and movements in the ancient Mediterranean world that had an impact on developing Christianity, including the interrelations between various Christian groupings. Papers offered to this seminar may focus on both canonical and non-canonical writings as well as other source materials and may apply a variety of methods. We highly encourage interdisciplinary approaches and particularly welcome contributions that cross boundaries between traditional disciplines.
Call for papers: For the 2025 International Meeting in Uppsala, we are inviting papers on two themes: 'Gender and Early Christianity' and 'Early Christian and Jewish worldviews.' Both topics should be understood broadly. For the first, proposals examining constructions of gender in early Christian texts and traditions, or controversies around gender in texts or practice, or uses of gendered imagery are welcome. For the second, we invite proposals interested in exploring early Christianity in its Jewish contexts, broadly understood. While we anticipate prioritising proposals that come under these two broad themes, we would also welcome papers relating to any aspect of the unit's aims.
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Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Description: The unit is the foundational component of an international, interdisciplinary project that seeks to delineate the relationship between early Christianity and the ancient economy in the period from Jesus to Justinian, demonstrating both similarities and differences in attitudes, approaches to problems, and attempted solutions.
Call for papers: The Early Christianity and Ancient Economy program examines economic aspects of early Christian groups from the first to the fifth century CE, understood within the context of the economies of the Roman Empire and its provinces. “Economy” is understood broadly to consist of the production, transmission, and consumption of goods and services, as well as the social, political, and ideological conditions associated with economic systems. We invite papers exploring aspects of the economic organization of early Christian assemblies as well as Rome and its provinces, in addition to those critically assessing the theoretical frameworks (e.g., economic anthropology, régulation theory, New Institutional Economics) and concepts (e.g., class, exploitation, wealth and poverty, gender, ethnicity, and movements of human and material resources) used in the study of the economic history of the Mediterranean basin in antiquity. In recognition of the 2025 International Meeting’s host city, Uppsala, papers on any aspect of the economy of Sweden, including religious responses to or appropriations of it, are also welcome.
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Early Judaism and Rabbinics (EABS)
Description: The title and program of this unit are purposefully generic and refer to a timeframe during which Jewish society and thought developed and changed fundamentally: the second through the sixth century CE. The Hebrew Bible continued to be central to the Jews in this period, through its study and application, and a classical rabbinic literature was created in this period, including new genres, around the interpretation of the Bible and in response to it. The unit aims to provide a venue for cutting edge scholarship undertaken in the history of early Judaism in Europe and beyond. Currently, there is no such venue within the EABS. Our goal is to organize at least two sessions each year, one with an open call, and one that follows a specific theme. These calls will respond to the scholarly topics that we perceive or wish to stimulate, but they could also serve the discussion of critical recent publications.
Call for papers: This year, we will host two different session. 1) From Tannaim to Amoraim: Between Rupture and Continuity; and 2) The Reception of Ante-Diluvian Biblical Figures in Post Second-Temple Judaism.
1) Classical rabbinic periodization traditionally distinguishes between two distinct, Tannaitic and the Amoraic eras. This session aims to probe various aspects of similarity and difference between these eras and their literary products. Papers are invited that will explore ideological and cultural features of the dynamics within rabbinic literature that might explain, or, alternatively question this periodization. They may address themes relating to literary, political, philological, theological or geographical issues, and probe the potential contribution of internal or external factors in the emergence of this unique rabbinic time frame.
2) We invite scholars to submit papers dedicated to the reception of ante-diluvian (pre-flood) biblical figures in post Second-Temple Judaism. This session aims to explore the multifaceted ways in which figures such as Adam, Eve, Enoch, Noah, and others were interpreted, reimagined, and utilized in Jewish texts and traditions after the Second Temple period and before, roughly, the seventh century CE. Suggested approaches include but are not limited to: diachronic or synchronic comparison, cultural contextualization or cultural connotation, while the scope may include artefacts as well.
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Emotions and the Biblical World (EABS)
Description: The last few decades have witnessed a growing interest in the study of emotions among scholars of antiquity, reflecting a more general interest among scholars of various disciplines in how different societies throughout the centuries have conceptualised, represented, and used emotions. The Emotions and the Biblical World research unit explores the role that emotions play in biblical writings, and in Early Judaism and Early Christianity more generally. This includes but is not limited to patterns of articulating emotions, their significance in worship and broadly understood religious experience, the role of emotions in strategies of persuasion, the vocabulary used to describe emotions and their manifestations, the translation of emotion discourses, as well as the social and cultural factors that influence their expression, suppression or repression, with a particular focus on the relationship between emotions and gender, and between emotions and the construction of otherness. The literary corpora that we consider are not limited to the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, but also include other Early Jewish and Early Christian writings.
Call for papers: We invite paper proposals for the following sessions:
In a joint session with the Lived Scriptures in Late Antiquity unit, we aim to explore the emotional expressions, representations, and styles associated with lived scriptures and lived religions. Which specific emotional experiences may be related to the lived reception of scriptures? How do emotions impact the privileging of certain texts and marginalising others? How does the situatedness of texts in particular socio-historical, cultural and geographical locations relate to emotional communities associated with a particular location and period? What is the affective dimension of the perceived authority of a text considered scriptural? Which methodological frameworks are most helpful to examine lived and embodied emotions of the past, in contrast with models used to analyze emotional discourses? We are particularly interested in approaches attentive to emotions in their material, local, particular, fluid, and variable forms. What tensions can be distinguished between these lived expressions of emotions and scripted, often normative discourses?
For our second session, there is an open call for papers. We welcome abstracts along the goals of the unit as specified in the research group description above, whether from a theoretical perspective or as case studies. Regardless of the focus of the paper, we encourage presenters to include methodological considerations.
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Enoch within and outside the Books of Enoch: Parabiblical Writings, Iconography, and Oral Tradition (EABS)
Description: The Vorlage of parabiblical writings attributed to Enoch was composed (in either Aramaic or Hebrew) no later than 1st cent. BCE, although some of its constituents (e.g. The Astronomical Book, The Book of Watchers) are dated to an earlier period (3rd cent. BCE). Its intellectual offspring survived in multilingual cross-cultural landscapes of the apocalyptic Judaeo-Christian traditions in three versions. 1 Enoch isfully attested in Ethiopic, with a number of extant segments in Aramaic from Qumran, as well as Greek passages embedded (predominantly, but not only) in Byzantine chronographic compositions; there are also fragments in Latin. 2 Enoch is wholly extant only in Church Slavonic (hence its designation as the Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch), and 3 Enoch is attested exclusively in Hebrew. Significantly, The Book of Watchers, which was also known to the Church Fathers (e.g. Tertullian and Origen), was quoted as “scripture” in the Epistle of Jude. Since hitherto the scholarly discourse has been focused predominantly on apocryphal compositions ascribed to Enoch (i.e. 1, 2 and 3 Enoch), the current Research Unit aims at interdisciplinary analysis of Enoch’s image not only within, but also outside of the writings designated by his name, contextualizing them within the scribal heritage of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), along with related iconography and conjoined vernacular oral traditions (when possible). History of ancient sciences (astronomy and calendrical knowledge) will feature as a significant constituent of the scope of disciplines involved in the analysis of the Enochic corpus. It will be also compared and contrasted to other parabiblical compositions from late antiquity and middle ages, with a special emphasis on ascent apocalypses for which Enoch functions as the archetypal template.
Call for papers: The project will focus on 1, 2, and 3 Enoch within the broad framework of apocalyptic writings within the Judeo-Christian intellectual environment, in connection with hitherto understudied iconography and oral traditions. Scholars with broad interdisciplinary interests are invited to participate. Along with specialists from the area of Enochic studies, researchers in related fields are encouraged to contribute papers dealing with allusions and references to Enochic imagery, as attested in all three Abrahamic religions. General studies of apocalyptic texts will also be welcome as potential comparative material, as well as the iconography of Enochic paradigms of cosmology and cosmography. Scientific models concerning the surveys in palaeographic studies through the means of digitalization and computer analysis of surviving manuscripts, combined with chemical analysis of writing materials (parchment, papyrus, and ink) will be encouraged.
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Families and Children in the Ancient World
Description: This unit provides a forum for presenting and discussing issues related to families, children and biblical literature. The section is open to presentations on the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Testament and early Christian, Rabbinic and Greco-Roman material from a variety of perspectives and using a variety of methods.
Call for papers: This year’s Families and Children in the Ancient World section will host two sessions. For our open session, we invite any papers addressing issues regarding families and children in the ancient social contexts or literary texts, including Hebrew Bible, Christian Testament, early Chrisitan literature, Rabbinic literature, and so on. Papers that explore specific themes regarding children/childhood, maternity, or family relationships are welcome. For our themed session, we invite papers that engage with migration and/or gender in the discussions of children or families in the ancient texts or artifacts. We look forward to papers that discuss the significance of gender, migration, and their intersections in ancient or contemporary social contexts of children and families. Both traditional research methods and interdisciplinary approaches, including child-centered biblical hermeneutics, are welcome in both sessions.
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Gospel of Mark
Description: Our aim is to provide a forum for scholars and graduate students to explore all aspects of and approaches to the research, hermeneutics, and interpretation of the Gospel of Mark, including (but not limited to) historical, exegetical, theological, methodological, and literary studies. We are especially interested in the investigation of new questions, new areas of inquiry, and new strategies for reading Mark.
Call for papers: The Gospel of Mark Section is a forum for scholars and graduate students exploring all aspects of and approaches to research and interpretation of the Gospel of Mark, including (but not limited to) historical, exegetical, theological, and literary studies, but especially the investigation of new questions, new areas of inquiry, and new strategies for reading Mark.
For the 2025 joined international meeting of SBL and EABS in Uppsala, the Gospel of Mark Section is soliciting proposals in three areas: (1) early commentaries and/or patristic reception of Mark, (2) Mark in Judaism (joined session with EABS New Testament writings within Judaism); (3) an open session on any aspect of the Gospel of Mark consistent with the section’s mission.
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Graeco-Roman Society and the New Testament (EABS)
Description: The research group focuses a) on various aspects of the social life and cultural world of the Graeco-Roman cities and communities in which Jews and Christians operated (e.g. household networks and religion, kinship, gender, friendship and other relationships, slavery, prostitution, social and geographical mobility, social groups, everyday life in Graeco-Roman cities etc.). These local communities, their cultural systems and social structures provide the socio-historical and cultural context of the New Testament texts and can therefore provide valuable insight into the early Christian groups, b) on artefacts from the Graeco-Roman world (e.g. coins and archeological findings) or non-literary texts preserved on stone, papyri or are material that can shed light into the life of Jewish and Christian groups of this time, and c) on methodological issues and lenses that are relevant to the discussion of the Graeco-Roman material culture and can contribute to the reconstruction of the social and cultural context of the New Testament communities. Papers that present interdisciplinary approaches to the topics under discussion and offer new insights and fresh interpretations of Jewish and Christian sources placing them within their socio-historical and cultural context are welcome.
Call for papers: For the 2025 meeting of our group, we are inviting papers for the following two sessions: a) Countryside and villages in the Graeco-Roman world. The Graeco-Roman countryside, villages, rural populations, and their cultures have rarely attracted the interest of research. More particularly, while focusing on the cultural and political dominance of the urban cities and the groups of people dwelling in them, their interaction (not only economic but also religious and cultural) has often been neglected. Despite early Christianity's origins in rural Palestine, the scholarly consensus adopted the "urban thesis" of the Graeco-Roman cities as the Christian movement's dominant environment. However, the dominance of this position has been recently contested based on new archaeological findings and historical research, as well as an ideological shift from the urban context to alternative forms of human life and religiosity. It is necessary, therefore, to re-address the issue of the role of rural areas in the life (political, economic, religious and cultural) of the Graeco-Roman world as well as their place in the history of early Christianity. We welcome papers that would address any aspect of the life, organization, and networking in the rural areas of the Graeco-Roman wold and their interaction with the cities or that would deal with the ways the New Testament and early Christian writings reflect the reality of the countryside or infer to the original rural provenance of traditions about Jesus and early Christian groups. Moreover, in collaboration with the EABS group of “Ecology and the Bible” we would like to include papers that explore how the countryside as a reality or imagery was associated with welfare and health. b) a session where papers on any topic within the range of the range unit are welcome.
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Heeding the Hidden Voices in Second Temple Jewish Literature
Description: This unit will explore the unspoken suffering of marginalized individuals,
such as widows, orphans, children, divorcees, trafficking victims, forced
laborers, and military conscripts during the 2nd Temple period, shedding
light on their untold emotional struggles.
Call for papers: This unit will explore the unspoken suffering of marginalized individuals,
such as widows, orphans, children, divorcees, trafficking victims, forced
laborers, and military conscripts during the 2nd Temple period, shedding
light on their untold emotional struggles.
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Hellenistic Greek Language and Linguistics
Description: Hellenistic Greek forms the basis of studies relative to both testaments as well as much of the ancient world. This section welcomes papers on any aspect of the Greek found in the Septuagint, New Testament, or other Hellenistic literature. Linguistic, grammatical and lexical studies are particularly encouraged.
Call for papers: Hellenistic and Koine Greek form the basis of studies relative to both testaments as well as much of the ancient world. This section welcomes papers on any aspect of the Greek found in the Septuagint, New Testament, or other related literature. Linguistic, grammatical and lexical studies are particularly encouraged.
Tags: Greek - Attic (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics)), Greek - Koine (LXX, NT, Patristics) (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics))
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Historical Approaches to the Bible and the Biblical World (EABS)
Description: This research unit is dedicated to providing an interdisciplinary forum for cooperation between biblical scholars, historians, archaeologists, etc. It is based on the realization that the reconstruction of the history of ancient Israel/Palestine has to correlate biblical and extra-biblical sources (archaeology, epigraphy, iconography, numismatics, etc.). Thus, the research unit will engage in a critical methodological discourse on the role of all available and relevant sources for a “Geschichte Israels”, their interpretation in their own right and their combination. Moreover, the unit’s research is committed to a broader comparative approach, by bringing together experts on the history of ancient Israel/Palestine and scholars dealing with other regions of the ancient world, whose expertise can facilitate a new understanding of biblical scholars’, historians’, etc. own methods and objects of study.
Call for papers: Towards a Revised Religious History of the Southern Levant in Persian and Early Hellenistic Times: Biblical, Epigraphic, and Iconographic Perspectives.
In reconstructing the religious history of the Southern Levant, it is critical to assess both biblical and extra-biblical sources. This session poses the following questions: What can biblical, epigraphic, and iconographic sources tell us about the religious-historical landscape of the Southern Levant in Persian and early Hellenistic times? How can these various sources be brought into dialogue with each other in fruitful ways? What do these sources reveal about diverse, regionally differentiated Yahwisms in Yehud, Samaria, or other areas? But most importantly: How do (late) biblical texts actually relate to a revised history of religion in Persian and early Hellenistic times? This meeting will serve as an interdisciplinary forum for researchers from the fields of biblical studies and material culture studies especially, in order to produce new insights. We invite presenters to submit abstracts that clearly indicate the types of sources presented, the methodological background, and how this will contribute to our understanding of the religious history of the Southern Levant. We also welcome papers addressing the religious history of neighbouring areas at this time.
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Iconography and Biblical Studies (EABS)
Description: The research unit provides space for scholarly discourse linking the Hebrew Bible and New Testament scholarship for the study of ancient Near Eastern visual culture. While most of EABS's research units concern texts and literature, this research unit provides a much-needed space for the study of visual culture as part of the archaeology of the ancient Near East. The research unit encourages engagement beyond the biblical canon with visual culture from the ancient Levant, the Mediterranean, Egypt, and Mesopotamia and its reception.
Archaeology provides essential data for understanding biblical literature in its historical contexts. An important branch of archaeology is iconography, the study of pictorial expressions. Visual expressions depict various subjects: the natural and cultivated world, daily life, rituals, and ideas. Studying visual material—contemporary and non-contemporary—to biblical literature (the Hebrew Bible and New Testament) affords insights into the historical contexts of the text. It facilitates an awareness of how the people contemporaneous with the text thought, imagined, and observed reality. The research unit “Iconography and Biblical Studies” is interdisciplinary.
The research unit welcomes diverse approaches and methodologies, including iconographic, art historical, comparative, historical, and cognitive approaches, reception history, gender studies, political and hermeneutical methodologies. These approaches are applied to visual culture relevant for studying biblical literature, its contexts, and contemporary interpretation.
Call for papers: Thematic session: At this joint EABS-SBL conference, the EABS research unit 'Iconography and Biblical Studies' and the SBL 'Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible' Program Unit jointly invite paper proposals on VISUAL VIOLENCE. Violence was part of real-life experiences in the ancient Levant but is also a central visual component in the iconography of the region and beyond. The fact that violence is represented in various ways, through multiple media, and with different practical and symbolic functions invites comparative studies. While certain depictions of violence may be prominent, others can appear covert – raising questions on the understanding and methodology of interpreting visual violence. What are the particular methods to study violence visually?
Papers are invited that examine the different ways violence was (re)presented, its materiality and medially, functions and audiences, the meanings behind these representations, and their comparison to archaeological, historical, and literary material. We welcome a variety of approaches engaging visual violence. This may include (1) topics such as violence and cult/religion, warfare, or imperial power; (2) theoretical considerations on gendered and sexualized violence, decolonial approaches, and trauma studies; and (3) disciplinary perspectives including but not limited to archaeology, biblical studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, and art history – each offering a unique and valuable perspective.
Open call: As in previous years, we welcome your paper proposals for the joint open session within the broad interdisciplinary framework of iconography and biblical studies.
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Impact of Hellenistic Empires (EABS)
Description: The Research Group is primarily concerned with the impact of empire on the political organization, social structures, and ideology of local polities of the Ancient Near East in Hellenistic times, on the one hand, and their literary imagination, on the other. The structural changes and historical events affecting Judaea will be both addressed directly and set in their wider, regional and interregional context(s), primarily (but not exclusively) defined as the Seleukid empire at large and Ptolemaic Egypt. Likewise, the question of the relation between, on the one hand, the Hellenistic, imperial setting and its bearings on Judaea and neighbouring polities and, on the other hand, the literary production of the time, will be of central concern. To this end, the Research group intends to bring together historians, social scientists, epigraphists, archaeologists, and text scholars. Although the Research Group will focus on Hellenistic times, its chronological range will also cover Persian and Roman imperial times, and cooperation with Research Groups focusing on these periods as well as on narrowly-defined topics (such as “resistance”) overlapping with the concerns of the Research Group will be considered.
Call for papers: Urbanisation, urban life, and elite ways of life outside the city
Sapiential works of Persian and Hellenistic times (Proverbs; and the Wisdom of Ben Sira) make numerous references to urban life. Yet, archaeological findings suggest that Judea remained under-urbanised in Hellenistic times. Not only was Jerusalem its sole urban centre, but moreover the inhabited area outside (and alongside) the temple precinct remained very modest up to the Hasmonean or even the Herodian period. This remains true, even as recent archaeological excavations suggest that the overall inhabited area may have been slightly more extensive than was hitherto assumed. We seek to address this seeming gap between the material evidence and the literary representations of the city and urban life in Judaean and cognate literatures of Hellenistic times through three topics:
1) What is a city in the Hellenistic East? This issue will be addressed through concrete case-studies bearing on the urbanisation in a given region (Babylonia, Northern Syria, Palestine as a whole, Phoenicia, Judea, Transjordan, and Ptolemaic Egypt) according to the material and documentary evidence (archaeology and material remains, papyri, inscriptions).
2) What is a polis in the Hellenistic East.
3) Representations of the city, urban life, and village life in the literature, papyri, and inscriptions, in any one of the regions mentioned above (e.g. Egyptian and Demotic wisdom literature, Alexandrian poetry, Judaean wisdom, including Proverbs, Ben Sira);
4) Elite ways of life in farmsteads and the countryside (for instance, studies on village gymnasia in Ptolemaic Egypt and elsewhere; Iraq al-Amir; material evidence of luxury goods imported from the Mediterranean in farmsteads in Palestine).
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Intersectional Criticism: Gender, Class, Race, Sexuality, and Disability (EABS)
Description: Intersectionality refers to interconnected social categorisations such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. An intersectional approach to biblical studies explores how our understanding of these interconnected social categories can enliven our interpretation of biblical texts, seeking out unheard or unacknowledged voices and narratives within the texts. It encourages us to think about intersecting power dynamics within the text and how unpacking these dynamics can broaden our scope for interpretation. The question of intersectionality not only applies to the text but to the scholars themselves. As scholars, we inhabit a range of intersecting social locations which shape our textual interpretation and in recognising this, we hope this research unit will create space for scholars to interrogate how their positionality manifests in their work. Conversations about positionality are beginning to emerge in biblical studies, and this research unit seeks to further this conversation. Alongside creating a space for intersectional research, our goal is also to offer an opportunity for marginalised scholars to present their research. It is our hope that the papers presented in this research unit will showcase how acknowledging the way our social locations impact our research garners varied and rich reflections, creating a field that is more reflective of the scholars it comprises.
Call for papers: “This unit, ‘Intersectional Criticism: Gender, Class, Race, Sexuality, and Disability’ will host a session at the conference in Uppsala 2025. Intersectionality denotes the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. This unit has two focuses - intersectionality within the biblical text and reflecting the intersecting positionality of the scholars themselves. The first session invites papers with an intersectional approach to biblical texts that explore how our understanding of these interconnected social categories can enliven our interpretation, seeking out unheard or unacknowledged voices and narratives. We encourage scholars to think about intersecting power dynamics within the text and how unpacking these dynamics can broaden our scope for interpretation. Our second session invites papers on the theme of intersecting positionality of us as scholars. We inhabit a range of intersecting social locations which shape our textual interpretation and in recognising this, we seek papers in which scholars interrogate how their positionality manifests in their work. Conversations about positionality are beginning to emerge in biblical studies, and this research unit seeks to further this conversation. Our final session will be an open discussion on the role of biblical scholarship in response to global crises. We acknowledge the impact of biblical scholarship outside of the academy and seek to explore the question of our social responsibility as scholars.
We also hope this conversation will help build networks of solidarity and opportunities for collaboration within the broader field.”
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Intersectional Feminism(s)
Description: The aim of this unit is to generate collaborative insights within a broad understanding of intersectional feminism(s). Its purpose is to be inclusive and to challenge hegemonic paradigms and structures (including within feminism). This unit prides itself on championing interdisciplinarity, positionality, and recognition that the personal is political. We particularly welcome papers which reflect the breadth of voices and experiences that comprise global feminisms and encourage contributors from all contexts.
Call for papers: Our call for papers is an open call regarding all aspects that our unit encapsulates, namely those of intersectional feminist approaches to the biblical text including gender-centered, queer, de-colonial, and post-colonial approaches. We especially encourage historically minoritized voices and early career/emerging scholars to submit abstracts as we desire our unit to be shaped by those who are too often denied space to highlight their work.
Tags: Gender and Sexuality Criticism (incl. Feminist, Womanist, Masculinity Studies, Queer Theory) (Interpretive Approaches)
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Intersections: A Forum for Research on Ancient Israel, Hebrew Bible, and Cognate Topics (EABS)
Description: ‘Intersections’ provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and discussion of the full range of methods and interdisciplinary investigations currently being applied to the study of the Hebrew Bible, ancient Israel, and cognate topics, including their contemporary receptions. It celebrates diversity and encourages presentations by scholars working in less-trodden areas/approaches. ‘Intersections’ aims at countering current tendencies toward the fragmentation of our field into separate mini/micro-fields and at furthering interactions among scholars using various approaches and working in different areas in order to stimulate new insights through cross-fertilization.
This research unit accepts a maximum of ten papers per meeting.
Call for papers: ‘Intersections’ provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and discussion of the full range of methods and interdisciplinary investigations currently being applied to the study of the Hebrew Bible, ancient Israel, and cognate topics, including their contemporary receptions. It celebrates diversity and encourages presentations by scholars working in less-trodden areas/approaches. ‘Intersections’ aims at countering current tendencies toward the fragmentation of our field into separate mini/micro-fields and at furthering interactions among scholars using various approaches and working in different areas in order to stimulate new insights through cross-fertilization.
This research unit accepts a maximum of ten papers per meeting.
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Jewish Material in NT Manuscripts
Description: A multi-disciplinary approach to identifying Jewish material in the NT
writings, exploring Greek manuscripts, early versions and Patristic writings
for evidence of Second Temple traditions absent from the current Greek
NT, in order to trace their transmission in the early decades of the Church.
Call for papers: A multi-disciplinary approach to identifying Jewish material in the NT
writings, exploring Greek manuscripts, early versions and Patristic writings
for evidence of Second Temple traditions absent from the current Greek
NT, in order to trace their transmission in the early decades of the Church.
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Jews, Christians, and the Materiality of Mortuary Ritual in Late Antiquity (EABS)
Description: This research unit provides an interdisciplinary forum for biblical scholars and material culture specialists, seeking to understand the mortuary rituals of Mediterranean Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity both in their broader (‘pagan’) contexts and in relation to each other. The term ‘mortuary rituals’ refers to death-related ritual practices, such as the treatment of the body, mourning, commemoration, and continued interaction with the deceased (e.g., visits to the burial place, festivals for the dead). These rituals were facilitated by various forms of material culture, which still leave their traces: inscriptions, burial vessels, grave goods, funerary architecture, feasting accessories, etc. It is now generally acknowledged that the strict division between the mortuary rituals of ‘pagans’, Jews, and Christians is overly simplistic, also in terms of their material features. Since Jews and Christians were integral parts of their communities, their mortuary rituals were part and parcel of their cultural surroundings; at the same time, these started to take on distinctive features, often understood in terms of deliberate demarcation. This is the starting point for considering questions like these ritual practitioners’ attitudes towards death, the identities of the deceased and their relatives, or the boundaries between this world and the next.
Call for papers: "Beyond Categorization: New Perspectives on the Funerary Monuments for Pagans, Jews, and Christians in Late Antiquity." Studying material from Late Antiquity, it is nearly impossible to get past the attribution of a “religious identity/category” to artifacts, especially artifacts retrieved from spaces for rituals such as funerary contexts. But, for many reasons, this systematic - but necessary? - use of religious classification can be a bit reductive. Our starting point here is to ask: is there potential for blurred lines? This session will consider funerary monuments for pagans, Jews, and Christians from multiple perspectives (e.g., epigraphic, iconographic, archaeological perspectives). This includes a wide variety of (portable) monuments, such as funerary reliefs (e.g. loculi), sarcophagi, gold glasses, lamps, and grave goods, addressing especially, but not exclusively, the following questions: On which scholarly grounds do we assign certain types of monuments to pagans, Jews, or Christians, as opposed to their co-religionists? In which sense were these monuments embedded in their local cultures; in which sense could these take on distinctive features? How were patterns of commemoration inflected by overlapping categories of social organization, such as status, age, gender? In other words: how were epigraphic habits, iconographic codes, and display options appropriated, adapted, or even subverted on monuments for pagans, Jews, and Christians, to create suitable monuments for the diverse members of their communities? In which ways were these monuments widely comprehensible in their community, irrespective of one’s background, but potentially open to multiple perspectives, depending on one’s background? The abstract should clearly indicate the monuments presented and analyzed, the method(s) applied to this material, and how it contributes to our understanding of mortuary rituals in Late Antiquity. We especially welcome papers dealing with multiple religious groups.
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Johannine Literature
Description: The unit promotes the study of the Johannine literature, a major component of the Christian Scripture; addressing the issues and concerns having to do with the analysis and interpretation of the literature.
Call for papers: The Johannine Literature sections from the EABS and SBL are inviting paper proposals on the topic of ‘"The Fourth Gospel’s Interaction with the Old Testament" (e.g. the reception of OT motifs, the use of a specific OT writing, OT persons, questions of intertextuality etc.) as the focus for at least one session. We will also host open sessions and invite paper proposals on the Johannine Epistles as well as the Gospel of John.”
Tags: Gospels - John (Biblical Literature - New Testament)
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Johannine Literature (EABS)
Description: This research unit provides a forum for discussion of literary, theological, and historical issues and perspectives relating to the interpretation of the Johannine literature, understood for this purpose as encompassing the Gospel of John and the Letters of John.
Call for papers: The Johannine Literature sections from the EABS and SBL are inviting paper proposals on the topic of ‘"The Fourth Gospel’s Interaction with the Old Testament" (e.g. the reception of OT motifs, the use of a specific OT writing, OT persons, questions of intertextuality etc.) as the focus for at least one session. We will also host open sessions and invite paper proposals on the Johannine Epistles as well as the Gospel of John.”
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Judaica
Description: The unit draws together scholars from around the world to explore diverse issues that are related to Hebrew Scripture in its relationship to ancient, medieval, and modern Judaisms: medieval lexicography and poetics, musical exegesis, philosophy, and the study of the Talmud in the Far East.
Call for papers: The unit draws together scholars from around the world to explore diverse issues that are related to Hebrew Scripture in its relationship to ancient, medieval, and modern Judaisms: medieval lexicography and poetics, musical exegesis, philosophy, and the study of the Talmud in the Far East.
Tags: Ancient Near East - Iron Age (History & Culture), Apocalyptic Literature and Related Works (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Art, Film, Music, and Literature (History of Interpretation / Reception History / Reception Criticism), Babylonian Talmud (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Biblical Interpretations (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Biblical Texts (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Comparative Approaches (Interpretive Approaches), Dead Sea Scrolls (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Expansions of the Old Testament and Other Legends (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Hebrew (classical) (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics)), Hymns and Prayers (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Jerusalem Talmud (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Jewish (Ideology & Theology), Jewish Pseudepigrapha (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Josephus (Early Jewish Literature - Other), Legal Writings (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Lexicography (Text and Translation), Literary Criticism (incl. poetics, new criticism, formalism, close reading, narratology) (Interpretive Approaches), Mishnah (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Nonliterary Texts (lists, contracts) (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Other Jewish Compositions (e.g., 1 Enoch) (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Other Rabbinic Works - Exegetical Midrashim (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Other Rabbinic Works - Haggadic Midrashim (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Other Rabbinic Works - Halakic Midrashim (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Other Rabbinic Works - Homiletical Midrashim (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Other Texts (Early Jewish Literature - Other), Philo (Early Jewish Literature - Other), Prayers, Psalms, and Odes (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Rabbinic Literature (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Rule Documents (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Sectarian Texts (Early Jewish Literature - Dead Sea Scrolls), Targumic Texts (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Testaments (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Tosefta (Early Jewish Literature - Rabbinic Literature), Wisdom and Philosophical Literature (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha)
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Lived Scriptures in Late Antiquity (EABS)
Description: In Late Antiquity, there was no “Bible” and the level of literacy was low. Yet, “biblical texts” were used and interpreted in multiple contexts. This research unit studies biblical receptions in Late Antiquity (ca. 1st–7th centuries CE) in the widest sense of the term. What texts were considered “biblical”? How did the ancients relate to authoritative texts and use them? What impact did these texts have on their readers’ lives? Inspired by discussions on lived religion, the research unit aims to broaden the focus from the dominant to the margins and to reconstruct a diversity of perspectives on scriptures in Late Antiquity. We emphasize the situatedness of texts in particular socio-historical, cultural and geographical locations, appreciating the corporeality of the past. We invite papers that examine scriptures and their receptions in Late Antiquity as “lived”. We especially welcome contributions that are informed by culture and gender critical approaches as well as the framework of lived religion.
Call for papers: The research unit Lived Scriptures in Late Antiquity is planning two sessions, one general session and one joint session with the Emotions in the Biblical World unit. In light of the thematic foci of the Uppsala meeting, for the general session, we invite papers dealing with intersections of biblical texts, gender, and rituals, or any combination of these topics. In the joint session, we aim to explore the emotional expressions, representations, and styles associated with lived scriptures and lived religions. We are particularly interested in approaches attentive to emotions in their material, local, particular, fluid, and variable forms.
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Living in the Last Days: New Testament Eschatology and Its Contexts (EABS)
Description: This research unit aims to investigate how the belief of “living in the last days” shaped the writings of the New Testament corpus. The expectation of the forthcoming End in the immediate future formed the ideal basis for the early Christians’ refusal of any compromise with history as well as its political powers. This radicalism, historically labelled in scholarship as “eschatological”, strongly characterised and influenced early Christian literary production. In an attempt to move research forward and take account of the huge significance of eschatological thought in the wider context of the Early Imperial Times (Star, 2021), this research unit focuses specifically on the New Testament. It seeks to more fully understand and better nuance the peculiar characteristics that distinguishes these writings’ eschatologies from contemporary ancient Jewish and Graeco-Roman expectations of the End.
Call for papers: For the 2025 EABS/SBL Conference, we are pleased to propose two sessions. As part of our five-year program, which this year emphasizes the Synoptic tradition, the first session will be in collaboration with the SBL research unit on “Synoptic Gospels.” The second session will be open to papers that explore eschatology in the New Testament and related contexts.
Eschatology in the Synoptic Tradition: This joint session invites papers that examine the role of eschatology within the Synoptic tradition, with a particular focus on how the theme of the End influenced the Christian communities where the redaction of the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke took place. We seek to explore both the similarities and differences in eschatological perspectives between the Synoptic Gospels, highlighting how and where these ideas fit within their theological and literary contexts.
Open Session: any paper related to the concept of the “End” in antiquity is welcome. In particular, we encourage interdisciplinary perspectives that can relate the eschatology of the New Testament with wider Jewish and Graeco-Roman traditions.
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Loneliness in the Biblical World
Description: The unit "Loneliness in the Biblical World" studies ancient portrayals of life
alone and brings them into conversation with contemporary social and
psychological research.
Call for papers: For the 2025 conference, we warmly invite paper proposals for one session related to loneliness in the Hebrew Bible, for one session on loneliness in the Second Temple Period, including New Testament texts, and for one open session. As the unit title indicates, we would be delighted to receive proposals that interact in some capacity with contemporary definitions and discourses around loneliness. For any queries, feel free to reach out to the unit chairs at any time.
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Mariological Discourses (EABS)
Description: The aim of the Research Unit is to gather specialists from different fields (theology, philology, religious anthropology, art history, sensory ethnography, etc.) thus creating a forum for discussion on socio-cultural and confessional paradigms involved in the study of the image of the Virgin Mary in Christianity (Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism) in their multilingual environments. Contributions in the field of Mariological literature (in Greek, Syriac, Latin, Slavonic, Armenian, etc.), Church music, and iconography are especially welcomed, together with explorations in patristic tradition. Studies in ethno-confessional dimensions of the cult of the Virgin Mary are sought (including research in the field of vernacular religious practices), along with Mariological festivals as temporary markers of events in her life celebrated by the communities. Contributions exploring the sacred sites related to the veneration of the Virgin Mary in various ethnic and religious landscapes, including places of pilgrimage, are also relevant. Here particularly important are the collections of the Marian miracles preserved and composed in several European and Oriental languages. Approaches involving sensory ethnography and visual anthropology are welcome. Encouraged will be studies devoted to inter- confessional encounters related to Marian narratives in the three Abrahamic religions, such as attitudes to Mary in Rabbinic sources and in Islamic tradition. The approach of the participants in the workshop to Mariological topoi is to be interdisciplinary.
Call for papers: The aim of the Research Unit is to gather specialists from different fields (theology, philology, religious anthropology, sensory ethnography, art history, musicology, etc.) thus creating a forum for discussion on socio-cultural and confessional paradigms involved in the study of the image of the Virgin Mary in Christianity (Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism) in their multilingual environments. Contributions in the field of Mariological literature (in Greek, Syriac, Latin (and its vernacular counterparts), Slavonic, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Ethiopic etc.), Church music, and iconography are especially welcomed, together with explorations in patristic tradition. Studies in ethno-confessional dimensions of the cult of the Virgin Mary (including research in the field of vernacular religious practices), along with Mariological festivals as temporary markers of events in her life celebrated by the communities are sought. Contributions exploring the sacred sites related to the veneration of the Virgin Mary in various ethnic and religious landscapes, including places of pilgrimage, would also be relevant. The approach of the participants in the Research Unit to Mariological topoi is to be interdisciplinary. Contributions devoted to Jewish and Islamic narratives related to Mary are envisaged as well, thus construing her image as a key-case of interface between the three Abrahamic religions.
This year, we plan to offer s special joint session with "The Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective" unit on Mariology in both Christian and Islamic traditions, exploring Mary’s theological, devotional, and cultural significance. Comparative papers on Mariological themes are particularly welcome. Membership in the Society of Biblical Literature or the European Association of Biblical Studies is required to submit a proposal. For more information, please get in touch with the program unit chairs.
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Medicine, Sciences, and Knowledge in Biblical and Talmudic Traditions (EABS)
Description: The group focuses primarily on medical and scientific ideas and practices in Biblical and Rabbinic traditions understood broadly (including e.g. New Testament, Qumranic texts, so-called apocryphal traditions, Targum, early Christian texts etc.), as well as in related traditions (e.g. ancient Babylonian/Egyptian, Persian, Graeco-Roman, Syriac, Manichean, or early Bzyantine and Islamicate). While focusing on late antiquity, the unit welcomes research on more ancient or later (medieval to early modern) periods. The research unit will address the complex and often subtle processes of reception, adaptation and production of medicine and various sciences in the transformative period of (late) antiquity as a rich ‘encyclopaedic’ body of knowledge within their broader trans-cultural, philosophical and religious contexts. Contributions should aim at offering a comparative perspective on the embeddedness of medical and scientific discourses in their surrounding cultures. The unit is interested in the interplay between forms, contents, hermeneutics and practices of knowledge-making. How did authors gather, organise and frame their medical and scientific interests through compilation strategies and discursive patterns. Which role played religious epistemologies or knowledge regimes in the internal or intercultural appropriation of scientific ideas and skills. Synchronic and diachronic perspectives may highlight complex processes of transmission, transfer, rejection, modification and invention. Finally, also material and non-textual (visual/oral culture) dimensions shall shed light on unsolved questions in the transcultural history of science(s) and knowledge in (late) antiquity.
Call for papers: Annual special focus
Practical expertise and practicing knowledge: pragmatic texts, handbooks and compendia - their cultural dynamics, developments and and varying contexts.
Besides other submissions that all in our general scope, for our thematic focus in 2025, papers are invited to comparatively explore practical expertise or pragmatic texts that convey medical and other (scientific) knowledge with a specific focus on its applicability and sociocultural utility in Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other ancient or premodern traditions.
In the ancient, late antique and medieval periods, the Mediterranean, Middles east and beyond witnessed an agglomeration of knowledge in various fields (including magic, divination, dream interpretation etc.). Alongside these broader “encyclopaedic” impulses, one can also observe a surge of technical collections. This compilational drive, in Late Antiquity often understood as mere eclecticism feeding on the ‘golden past’, reveals its own epistemic creativity (van der Eijk 2010; van Deun/Macé 2009; Formisano/van der Eijk 2017). The primarily non-theoretical compendia – ranging from recipe collections (pharmacopoeia/euporista; such as Medicina Plinii, Ps.-Apuleius’ Herbarium, Coptic recipe collections, and the Aramaic ‘magic’ recipe book ‘Sword of Moses’) or medical collections (the sunagogai by Oribasius, Aetius, Paulos; Cassius Felix; Theodorus Priscianus) and magical, astrological or astro-medical handbooks to compendia in other areas (mechanics, warfare, agriculture, architecture etc.) – constitute important sources that still await more thorough and comparative study.
In Talmudic literature, single advice with therapies and recipes (often including simples or amulets, healing rituals) is often interspersed but forms also longer clusters or discursive formations, such as the Vade Mecum in b.Gittin, the ‘Dream Book’ in b.Berahot or some clusters of zoological, geographical (spatial) or astrological-astronomical knowledge. Simi
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Memory, Method, and Text (EABS)
Description: Social memory theory and related sociological and/or cultural anthropological studies have become important new players in the exegetical discourse. The research done in the last decades has proven that the application of memory studies can indeed enhance both the understanding of biblical texts and contexts and the reception of those texts and contexts in the first four centuries. One of the most important and controversial questions of the current debate is how memory theory achieves this. As social memory theory is not a method but rather a hermeneutical lens, it is difficult to speak of a “memory approach”. The research unit aims both to explore how social memory theory can inform methodology and develop tools for reading and understanding Early Christian traditions and texts based on the interdisciplinary theoretical work of social scientists like Maurice Halbwachs and experts for particular cultures like Jan Assmann (Egyptology) or Aleida Assmann (Anglistics) and others like Pierre Nora, Barry Schwartz, or Marianne Hirsch. The goal is to move beyond traditional historical questions that aim to uncover earlier sources and reconstruct the past to an understanding of these traditions and texts as diverse processes of receptions of the past among groups of Jesus followers within their different cultural contexts. The sessions of the research unit will, in next five years, focus both on questions of hermeneutics and methodology as well as what it is that memory studies contributes to an understanding of Early Christian texts, both biblical and non-biblical, with a special focus on trauma and resilience, lieux de mémoire, and liturgy and ritual.
Call for papers: The research unit Memory, Method, and Text plans three different kinds of sessions for 2025: a) hermeneutical sessions to discuss methodological questions, b) thematic sessions, and c) open session. For the hermeneutical sessions a), we invite papers that deal with the question of memory theory and classical historical-critical exegesis, in particular Redaktionskritik and Formkritik. The focus of the discussion should be on the questions of what it is that memory theory is doing that is different and if memory theory and historical-critical exegesis are complementary or mutually exclusive. For the thematic sessions b) we will be focusing on questions of trauma, social identity, and memory. In addition, we will have one joint session with the "Representations of Cultural Trauma in the Hebrew Bible” group. For these sessions we invite papers that deal with the question of what trauma is either engaging with Jeffrey Alexander’s or Jan and Aleida Assmann’s concepts of cultural trauma or generational trauma, and explore concepts, definitions and possible applications on biblical and non-biblical texts. For the open sessions c), we invite papers and presentations of projects that investigate hermeneutical/methodological questions as well as applications of memory theory to different texts and contexts of the Bible. We especially invite younger scholars to present and discuss their research projects with the group
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Methods of New Testament Exegesis (EABS)
Description: Exegetical methods are fundamental to the scholarly study of biblical texts. Since the beginnings of New Testament studies as an academic discipline, the methods of text interpretation have undergone several developments and modifications. In recent decades, the methodological diversity of New Testament exegesis has widened significantly when scholars adapted approaches from neighbouring sciences, such as linguistics, cognitive sciences and cultural studies. At the same time, established methods, e.g. form criticism (Formgeschichte) or tradition history, have been critically evaluated. This research unit aims at exploring how established methods and recently introduced approaches relate to each other: Where do older methods merge with newer ones? In what way are these methodological approaches part of the range of historical criticism? Is the juxtaposition of so-called synchronic and diachronic approaches still reasonable? How can we meaningfully delineate and name specific exegetical methods to facilitate academic discourse and teaching at an academic level? And how do exegetical approaches differ within the theological traditions of different countries and denominations? This research unit will also facilitate an open-minded exchange about the practice of exegetical introductory courses at the various universities and theological educational institutions across Europe and around the world.
Call for papers: After discussing the diversity of exegetical methods and approaches in different countries and educational contexts in the first year of this research unit (2024), in the second year in Uppsala (2025) we want to turn our attention to the question of methodological diversity as such. We therefore invite short papers of 20-25 minutes in length addressing the following questions: How can we succeed in combining the diversity of exegetical methods into a coherent overall approach? Where do approaches from the more classical historical-critical exegesis meet newer approaches in a way that may require a new approach and new terminology? How is it possible not to lose touch with older research and its nomenclature despite innovation? Are the newer approaches perhaps so different that a connection seems impossible? We especially encourage early career researchers to share their experiences with the diversity of exegetical methods and their ideas on necessary further developments.
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Miracles and Paradoxography in Biblical Reception from Late Antiquity (EABS)
Description: This research unit is intended to host conversations between texts of biblical reception (broadly conceived) and so-called paradoxography, an ancient genre invested in cataloguing and describing what we moderns would call natural wonders. Thematically, these collections include accounts of animals, plants, rivers, or peoples and their customs. The recently renewed focus in Classics on paradoxography has demonstrated that fascination with marvels impacted many different literary productions, and may, at times, be responsible for the apparent increase in fantastic and super-human motifs in late antique literature. The research unit encourages scholars to engage with paradoxographies and related literature to study the attitudes of authors toward marvellous and paradoxical phenomena, and to reflect on their prospective literary influence. It is our contention that a basic understanding of the genre of paradoxography might in many cases be imperative to locate any miraculous story in its literary context and to put an author’s literary creativity under perspective.
Call for papers: For the final meeting of this research unit, we invite papers dealing with late ancient reception of Greco-Roman miracle collections – so-called paradoxographies. For instance, we welcome papers dealing with the compilation and redaction of paradoxographies, their use of sources, implicit interpretation strategies and way of organizing wonders. We also welcome papers studying specific themes in dealing with miracles, be it the times and places whereto Jewish and early Christian texts ascribe certain wonders, exotic afflictions described in paradoxographies, medical treatments making use of nature’s miracles, or paradoxographical bodies such as giants, ant-lions, centaurs, or dog-headed people. Papers studying how ancient narratives such as apocryphal acts or hagiographies deal with strange and exotic phenomena are also welcome.
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Museums and the Bible (EABS)
Description: The Museums and the Bible Research Unit is dedicated to exploring the complex interactions between biblical studies and museums, focusing on how museums collect, curate, display, interpret, and derive benefit from ancient texts and artifacts tied to the Bible. Among the central concerns for this research unit are the ethics of this museum-bible nexus, its sociopolitical implications, and the elite power relationships that shape it. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, this research unit aims to deepen our understanding of the ways in which museums teach, politicize, and harness the Bible to validate colonial, racist, and gendered viewpoints and generate consent to existing political orders.
Call for papers: Museums and the Bible research unit will examine the contextual ways in which museum objects are interpreted as “biblical” artifacts or related to the Bible. The aim here is to interrogate an interpretative process that is deemed neutral in traditional biblical studies and yet fraught with a complex web of ideological entanglements and colonial pasts. The focus will not only be high profile objects tied to the Bible but also forgeries, facsimiles, duplicates, and artifacts with contested heritage. The session invites papers that critically interrogate how museums “make” these objects “speak the Bible” through specific affective strategies, scientific discourses, modes of representation, and pedagogical techniques. Here, the notion of “make” also has in view the power dynamics inherent to the process of conflating museum objects with the people, places, and practices in the Bible.
Key questions include: What narratives are constructed or deconstructed through the exhibition of these objects? How do modes of representation influence public understanding of the Bible and its cultural significance? What role do museums play in mediating the relationship between the Bible and contemporary socio-political contexts?
An interdisciplinary approach is encouraged for both the invited and open sessions, including topics that engage the museums of the host city. We welcome contributions from fields including (but not limited to) biblical studies, museum studies, anthropology, art history, and cultural studies. Papers may address theoretical considerations, case studies, or methodological innovations that shed light on the dynamic interactions between biblical texts, artifacts, and museum practices.
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Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Description: The Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section provides a forum for current international research on the Coptic codices discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. Research areas include: issues of text and translation; analysis and interpretation of the tractates; codicological analysis; background and provenance of the manuscripts; studies relevant to the larger social and religio-historical contexts of the Nag Hammadi texts, especially their relation to Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman religious traditions.
Call for papers: The Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section provides a forum for current international research on the Coptic codices discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. Research areas include: issues of text and translation; analysis and interpretation of the tractates; codicological analysis; background and provenance of the manuscripts; studies relevant to the larger social and religio-historical contexts of the Nag Hammadi texts, especially their relation to Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman religious traditions.
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New Testament Writings within Judaism (EABS)
Description: New Testament is a corpus of texts that describe life and legacy of Jesus - a first century Judean martyr, who was proclaimed the Messiah of Israel by some of his fellow Judeans. The movement which originated in Jerusalem, soon reached beyond the Land of Israel and became predominantly Gentile. As a consequence of various socio-political-religious factors, in the following decades, the connection between emerging Christianity and Judaism became increasingly weaker, which laid foundation for later interpretations picturing Jesus, Paul and other NT figures as proponents of new Christian religion opposed firmly to Judaism and Torah. In recent decades, however, increasing number of scholars have engaged in a research, which attempts to describe various NT texts in its original context of Second Temple Judaism. This interdisciplinary unit aims to present developments in this field and invite scholars from the fields of NT, Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic texts, history, religion, social memory, Greek and Hebrew philology, rhetoric and others to engage in a dialogue regarding this new way of interpreting NT texts. It is hoped, the unit can become a platform to present more context-informed readings and interpretations, combat harmful stereotypes and open new fields of interreligious dialogue.
Call for papers: For Upsala 2025 conference the New Testament Writings within Judaism unit invites paper proposals in two subjects:
1) Gospels within Judaism.
While Paul and his letters have received a good deal of attention from scholars working in the “within Judaism” perspective on the NT, explorations of the Gospels from this perspective have been much fewer and far less developed. On the one hand, there is, today, a broad consensus that the historical Jesus must be understood as a first-century Eastern Mediterranean Jew whose movement had no intentions of breaking from Jewish ancestral tradition. On the other hand, there is significant debate over whether the Gospels—as the earliest textual receptions of Jesus tradition—should be read within a similar historical-hermeneutical framework.
Moving beyond interpretations of the Gospels simply against the “background” of Second Temple Judaism, some recent scholarship has considered whether the Gospels should be understood as early Jewish literature in their own right. Rather than viewing these texts as witnesses to or evidence of the “origins of Christianity,” this scholarship has argued that the Gospels represent expressions of Jewish identity that took shape amidst a highly diverse and ideologically congested first-century socio-cultural landscape.
This year, the NTwJ Unit invites papers that seek to describe various Gospel texts as “within Judaism.” We welcome a broad array of papers that deal with, for example, methodological, linguistic, historical, material, intertextual, halakhic, and/or other socio-religious aspects of Gospels research, as well as proposals of new readings.
2) For a separate session, we invite papers dealing with methodological issues in the study of NT texts within Judaism, including linguistic, semantic, translational, terminological and other aspects related to the NTwJ research.
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Northwest Semitic Epigraphy Related to the Biblical World (EABS)
Description: This research group will further develop the work of the unit “Epigraphical and Paleological Studies Pertaining to the Biblical World”, which met at Vienna in 2007 (SBL), Lisbon in 2008 (EABS), Rome in 2009, London in 2011, Amsterdam in 2012, St Andrews in 2013 and Berlin in 2017.
Call for papers: This research group will further develop the work of the unit “Epigraphical and Paleological Studies Pertaining to the Biblical World”, which met at Vienna in 2007 (SBL), Lisbon in 2008 (EABS), Rome in 2009, London in 2011, Amsterdam in 2012, St Andrews in 2013 and Berlin in 2017.
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Numbers, Counting and Number Symbolism
Description: Numbers appear everywhere in the Bible, beginning with the counting of the days of creation in Gen 1, continuing with the years of life of the forefathers and the measurements of Noah’s ark. Nevertheless, these numbers are often ignored, and their interpretation is left to esotericists and “numerologists.” Yet these numbers provide structure to the tradition on the one hand, but on the other hand they were also changed when the texts were rewritten. Be it complex systems of demographical or chronological data, isolated numbers or countings of text passages, they deserve interpretation appropriate to the context.
This includes asking why many statistics seem to make women invisible. In general, contributions on numbers, counting and number symbolism in biblical books and the surrounding cultures are welcome.
Call for papers: Numbers appear everywhere in the Bible, beginning with the counting of the days of creation in Gen 1, continuing with the years of life of the forefathers and the measurements of Noah’s ark. Nevertheless, these numbers are often ignored, and their interpretation is left to esotericists and “numerologists.” Yet these numbers provide structure to the tradition on the one hand, but on the other hand they were also changed when the texts were rewritten. Be it complex systems of demographical or chronological data, isolated numbers or countings of text passages, they deserve interpretation appropriate to the context.
This includes asking why many statistics seem to make women invisible.
In general, contributions on numbers, counting and number symbolism in biblical books and the surrounding cultures are welcome. A special focus this year is on numbers in the Pentateuch including its textual versions and its reception history.
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Open Forum for New Testament and Early Christian Studies (EABS)
Description: ‘The Open Forum’ is a place for exchanging and experimenting with new ideas about texts, methods and interdisciplinary approaches. These can be related to the New Testament, early Judaism or early Christianity, as well as their reception, in all possible forms. It celebrates diversity and invites presentations by scholars working in more adventurous areas and approaches. The Forum aims to counter tendencies toward the fragmentation of our field and encourages interaction between scholars working with a variety of approaches and sources. It aims to offer a stimulating environment for the creation of innovative and productive scholarship.
Call for papers: ‘The Open Forum’ is a place for exchanging and experimenting with new ideas about texts, methods and interdisciplinary approaches. These can be related to the New Testament, early Judaism or early Christianity, as well as their reception, in all possible forms. It celebrates diversity and invites presentations by scholars working in more adventurous areas and approaches. The Forum aims to counter tendencies toward the fragmentation of our field and encourages interaction between scholars working with a variety of approaches and sources. It aims to offer a stimulating environment for the creation of innovative and productive scholarship. For Uppsala 2025 we especially welcome papers focusing on the Bible and politics as well as gender and biblical studies. In addition, we always remain open to papers addressing any area of New Testament and Early Christianity.
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Paul and Pauline Literature
Description: The unit provides a forum for presentation and discussion of original scholarly research on all facets of the interpretation of the Pauline Corpus in the New Testament. This includes consideration of exegetical, socio-historical, history of religions, theological, literary, history of interpretation, and methodological questions.
Call for papers: The unit provides a forum for presentation and discussion of original scholarly research on all facets of the interpretation of the Pauline Corpus in the New Testament. This includes consideration of exegetical, socio-historical, history of religions, theological, literary, history of interpretation, and methodological questions.
Tags: Pauline Epistles (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - 1 Corinthians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - 1 Thessalonians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - 1 Timothy (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - 2 Corinthians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - 2 Thessalonians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - 2 Timothy (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Colossians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Ephesians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Galatians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Philemon (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Philippians (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Romans (Biblical Literature - New Testament), Pauline Epistles - Titus (Biblical Literature - New Testament)
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Pentateuch (Torah)
Description: The unit provides a forum for presentation and discussion of research on the Pentateuch / Torah, with a particular focus on transmission-historical issues and linkage of that area of inquiry with other more synchronic methodologies.
Call for papers: The unit provides a forum for presentation and discussion of research on the Pentateuch / Torah, with a particular focus on transmission-historical issues and linkage of that area of inquiry with other more synchronic methodologies.
Tags: Torah/Pentateuch (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Torah/Pentateuch - Deuteronomy (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Torah/Pentateuch - Exodus (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Torah/Pentateuch - Genesis (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Torah/Pentateuch - Leviticus (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Torah/Pentateuch - Numbers (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint))
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Perceptions and Receptions of Persia (PERSIAS) (EABS)
Description: This research group seeks to explore perceptions and receptions of Persia in Judean writings from Yehud/Judaea, Samaria, Babylon, and Egypt in Antiquity. Our research aims at scrutinizing why Persia is such a fertile symbol or cipher with which to construct meaning among Judean minorities under Empire, that is, in Persian, Hellenistic and Roman times. We will especially emphasize that these perceptions and receptions were produced among subaltern groups across a variety of socio-cultural systems within a vast geographical area including the ancient Levant, Mesopotamia and Egypt. PERSIAS aims at stimulating multidisciplinary discussions on theoretical and methodological perspectives related to appropriations of conceptualizations, memories, and multifaceted imaginations of Persia, with particular emphasis on local patterns of perception and reception, transmission and translation within approaches grounded on cross-cultural studies. The research group aims at advancing a critical reflection on cultural encounters and dynamics in the Ancient world.
Call for papers: The perception of Persia by the different versions of the Book of Esther
This session invites papers examining perceptions of Persia in different versions of the Book of Esther. These perceptions may be embedded in, e.g., remembering/imagined figures, institutions, and so on, all of which should be studied in their broader contexts. Many interpretations embrace Esther’s textual versions and are attested in readings produced by religious experts, poets, popular culture, etc, across time, space, and languages. Versions of readings of Esther exist in, e.g., Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Ethiopian, Armenian, Georgian, and Judean-Persian, as well as in the Talmuds, Medieval Judaism, and Modern Judaism. The same holds for Christian versions and readings throughout history, as well as for various Muslim traditions. Papers on the usages of the book of Esther in literature, visual art, music, film, etc., are also most welcome.
The session will combine invited papers and an open call for papers. We plan to publish the contributions in an anthology or special issue of a journal. We encourage scholars to produce co-written papers to enable productive interdisciplinary collaboration.
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Place, Space, and Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Description: Investigates the inherent spatiality of human existence and how it affects human behavior, ideology, identity, and orientation. Ancient Mediterranean texts and societies are studied from a decidedly spatial perspective. Different approaches to spatiality will enrich investigations, e.g. narratological space, critical spatiality, sociological theories on space, space and identity, space and body.
Call for papers: The PSIAMW conference 2025 at Uppsala ISBL will consist of four sessions focused on the theme "Locked Space and Locking Space.” This theme will encompass a wide range of topics including:
1. Restricted Holy Areas: Examining spaces designated as sacred to maintain the universal creation order, such as the Garden of Eden or the Holy of Holies.
2. Confined Spaces by Various Agents: Exploring isolation due to natural disasters, contagious diseases, war exiles, imprisonment, or conceptual isolation by family members like Tamar.
3. Confinement for Protection: Analyzing protective confinements such as Jonah in the fish’s belly or Noah’s family in Noah’s ark.
4. Emotional Responses: Investigating the intense emotions triggered by confinement, including nostalgia, hysteria, loneliness, inclusivity, exclusivity, and the desire to (re)enter.
5. Power Dynamics: Focusing on the power dynamics of those who want to lock or are locking spaces.
6. Imagined Wide-Open Spaces: Considering the counter-concept of imagined freedom within locked spaces.
The first session will focus on the above themes. The second and third sessions will be joint sessions with the "Representations of Cultural Trauma in the Hebrew Bible" and the "Ritual in the Biblical World" units, respectively. The fourth session will be an open session that deals with the biblical texts from spatial perspectives. All four sessions are open for paper submissions.
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Political Biblical Criticism
Description: The unit seeks to pursue, on the one hand, the task of criticism, its vision and mission, in the contemporary world and, on the other hand, the development of a political approach, globalsystemic in orientation, to focus on major crises of the world—migration, inequality, climate—bringing together thereby, in interdisciplinary fashion, Biblical Studies and such other fields as Migration Studies, Economic Studies, and Climate Studies.
Call for papers: We welcome paper proposals at the intersections of the Bible and politics broadly understood. We particularly invite papers that examine biblical genocides. Such papers might consider how the Bible uses genocidal terms, how scholars and practitioners apply the category of “genocide” in studying biblical texts, how “genocides” are portrayed in biblical texts and traditions, and how the Bible and biblical texts have been used to justify and make sense of genocides in the world across time and space.
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Politization of Bibles and Biblization of Politics in the Twenty-First Century (EABS)
Description: Biblical Interpretation today is characterized by a variety of different concerns and approaches. The focus of this programme unit is on the use and misuse of biblical texts in past and present politics, in the broadest sense; and conversely, on the use and misuse of politics in biblical interpretation and transmission. The scope may include analysis of the biblical and related texts and contexts, questions of method and theory, and especially attention to interpretations- interpreters and their contexts. Papers are welcome from such perspectives as psychology and psychoanalysis, philosophy, postcolonial studies, gender studies, social studies, economic studies, racial-ethnic studies, and queer studies.
Call for papers: AI/Robotics, Politics and the Bible (2025)
The advancement of large language models (LLM), other AI systems and social/theomorphic robots like Pepper, SanTO, or CelesTE opens a fascinating frontier, challenging traditional notions of personhood, otherness, and religious practice by blurring lines between human and machine, creator and creation, sacredness and artificiality. This convergence prompts a critical and multidisciplinary examination of how biblical studies, techno-politics and robotics intersect.
Despite criticism, AI systems could be used to extend the reach and accessibility of religious teachings (e.g. Jesus-Avatar in Luzern, Nikodemus.AI), feeding into its democratisation. One central aspect concerns the power structures within religious communities. Are social/theomorphic robots merely tools, or can robots embody spiritual values? Could they perform religious services, offer spiritual guidance, or be intermediaries between humans and the divine, and would it change our understanding of worship, prayer, and community?
Sophisticated social robots and AI systems force a reconsideration of what it means to be human. Can biblical texts/concepts help interpret and evaluate this emergence, inform our understanding of AI and vice versa? Trans- and posthumanism looms large as robot technology threatens to dehumanise while promising a longer life, with broader techno-political implications.
Our group wants to explore beyond the ethical questions and moral debates and encourage submissions that engage with a variety of biblical texts and interpretative approaches, that offer critical reflections on this complex intersecting field.
Two other sessions are planned: proposals are welcomed for a general session on the global intersections of Bible and politics (a focus on Nordic countries is appreciated but not required). A third session will consist of an invited panel discussion (45 min) on new developments in political Bible use in the Nordic context.
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Postcolonial Pedagogy for Biblical Studies
Description: For the field of Biblical Studies, the postcolonial project calls us to address all aspects of our teaching methods, assessment strategies and curricula that inadvertently promote a Northern-grounded system of education as the gold standard. Students from a diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds should not be diecast into a certain way of thinking, writing and reasoning. Our concept of academic achievement must be broadened to accommodate the innate values and strengths of diverse cultures. The goal of this programme unit is to create a space where Biblical Studies stakeholders can exchange knowledge and share experiences, with the aim of fostering an inclusive pedagogical practice that will result in contextually relevant learning outcomes.
Call for papers: We welcome papers that explore issues related to curriculum design and delivery, assessment, or other questions relevant to Biblical Studies pedagogy. Topics of particular interest include: Diversifying the sources of knowledge; Contextual epistemologies; Cultural inclusivity in the classroom; Gender issues in the multi-cultural classroom; and Technology and inclusivity.
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Prophets
Description: This unit aims to provide an open forum for scholars to present papers on a variety of topics germane to the study of ancient Israelite prophecy and prophetic literature.
Call for papers: The Prophecy unit welcomes proposals for papers on prophecy and prophetic texts in the Bible. Five sessions are planned for the unit. Two sessions will focus on a trauma reading of prophetic texts. Papers are especially welcomed in which insights from trauma studies are combined with insights from different theoretical frameworks (for example affect theory, cognitive linguistics, metaphor theory, etc.). A third session will focus on Prophets and Politics, and papers will also be accepted for two open sessions on any topic relevant to ancient Israelite prophecy.
Tags: Former Prophets (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Former Prophets - 1-2 Kings (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Former Prophets - 1-2 Samuel (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Former Prophets - Judges (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Former Prophets -Joshua (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets (not including The Twelve) (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - Ezekiel (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - Isaiah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - Jeremiah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Amos (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Habakkuk (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Haggai (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Hosea (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Joel (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Jonah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Malachi (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Micah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Nahum (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Obadiah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Zechariah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint)), Latter Prophets - The Twelve - Zephaniah (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint))
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Prophets and Prophecy (EABS)
Description: This unit aims to provide an open forum for scholars to present papers on a variety of topics germane to the study of ancient Israelite prophecy and prophetic literature.
All approaches to prophetic literature are welcomed, including inter alia historical, literary, rhetorical, and theological.
Call for papers: This coming year, 2025, we will have open sessions with papers on a broad range of topics dealing with prophetic literature. We invite submissions of papers that discuss concrete analysis for prophetic pericopes; papers that discuss fundamental prophetic phenomena and their significance in the context of a book or relationships between books; and papers that discuss different and innovative reading methods and their implications for the analysis process and the research conclusions.
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Psychological Hermeneutics of Biblical Themes and Texts
Description: Psychological Criticism complements approaches that consider texts and their impact/s from the perspective of the reader, alongside literary, rhetorical and theological approaches, identifying how texts operate within the minds of their readers, or portray thoughts and motivations of the characters in their narratives.
Call for papers: We invite proposals for papers about "rituals in the Bible understood from a psychological perspective". Rituals may be understood in a sense as wide as possible but crucial is that the paper be anchored in a recognised psychological theory. We prefer references to the original language of biblical texts.
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Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Description: The unit provides forum for presentation and discussion of views relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran settlement, and the people of that place and of those documents.
Call for papers: The Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls Program unit invites submissions for a special theme session jointly hosted with the EABS-Dead Sea Scrolls research unit on Ritual and Cognitive Science in Qumran Studies. This session aims to explore the intersection of ritual practice within the Qumran community and cognitive science, offering new theoretical perspectives and methodologies to understand the significance of ritual in shaping religious belief, group identity, and social behavior. Proposals should clearly identify the methodological approach that will be used and the specific texts that will be discussed. This session will consider proposals for remote participation. If that is the case, please be sure to indicate a clear statement about 'remote' participation in the abstract. In honor of our meeting’s location in Sweden, a second session is planned around the work of the Swedish scholar Helmer Ringgren. This session aims to revisit, critique, and recontextualize Ringgren’s foundational work The Faith of Qumran: Theology of the Dead Sea Scrolls in light of recent research on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran community. A third session will be completely open.
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Quran and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective
Description: This unit seeks to foster comparative research on the Quran and Muslim culture, discourse, and devotional life. We encourage papers and panels that examine the Quran and Islamic tradition in the wider context of the history of the Western monotheisms; explore Islam’s profound historical relationships with Judaism, Christianity, and the biblical heritage; and promote comparative inquiry and intercommunal dialogue more generally.
Call for papers: The Qur’an and Islamic Tradition in Comparative Perspective unit invites paper and panel proposals for the 2025 ISBL international meeting. We seek submissions exploring the Qur’an and Islamic tradition's deep historical relationships with biblical, rabbinic, and Near Eastern traditions from Late Antiquity to the modern period. All proposals must include a comparative element with biblical literature. This year, we plan to offer the following special and open sessions: 1) Panel on Pedagogy for Teaching Biblical and Qur’anic Studies: We invite educators to discuss innovative teaching methods for biblical and Qur’anic studies, considering current political and technological trends. Interested participants should contact the session chairs directly. 2) Mariology in Christian and Islamic Traditions: We are planning a co-sponsored session(s) with the Mariological Discourses unit (EABS) on Mariology in both Christian and Islamic traditions, exploring Mary’s theological, devotional, and cultural significance. Comparative papers on Mariological themes are particularly welcome. 3) Open Sessions on Qur’anic/Islamic and Biblical Studies: We also invite papers exploring any relationship between the Qur’an/Islamic tradition and biblical, rabbinic, and Near Eastern studies, including shared narratives, interpretative strategies, and historical interactions. Membership is required to submit a proposal. For more information, please get in touch with the program unit chairs.
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Reception of the Bible in Contemporary Israel: Religion, Politics, and Identity (EABS)
Description: Within the context of the reception history, this research unit explores how the Bible is received, interpreted, and used in contemporary Israeli society. Interested in the intersection of religion, politics, and identity, the unit investigates how the Bible has shaped and keeps shaping personal and collective understandings of Jewish heritage and national identity in contemporary Israel from the earliest theorizing of Zionism to the present day. Contextualized in the broader analysis of biblical reception in the modern world, the research unit includes the following key themes:
• The Bible’s role in forming national and religious identity in Israel.
• The politicization of biblical narratives in the context of Israeli politics and law.
• The secular and religious interpretations of the Bible in contemporary Israeli culture.
• The influence of the Bible on interfaith relations, particularly between Jews and other religious communities in Israel.
• Bible-related educational practices in Israeli schools and their impact on collective memory and national discourse.
• The need to negotiate between the modern democratic principles and biblical roots.
This unit aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how the Bible and related texts (such as, for example, the deuterocanonical apocryphal texts found in the Septuagint) serve as powerful identity, religious, and political means in Israel
Call for papers: This research unit seeks contributions from scholars in Biblical, Jewish, and Israeli studies to engage in an interdisciplinary dialogue investigating the reception of the biblical tradition in Israel. In particular, we are interested in exploring how contemporary Israel has received and reinterpreted biblical narratives and history intersecting religious and political interests. Such a hermeneutic lens to understand Israeli society can highlight how secular, religious, and political groups that coexist within the State have used religious rhetoric, founding myths, history, rituals, and political or theological concepts taken from biblical tradition to fuel the ongoing debate on nationalism, ethics, religion, and public policy, affecting the perception of Jewish-Israeli identity and the coexistence with other religious communities.
Young scholars are particularly encouraged to submit their research and join us in this innovative examination of the role of the Bible within contemporary Israel’s historical and cultural contexts.
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Representations of Cultural Trauma in the Hebrew Bible (EABS)
Description: The Hebrew Bible frequently refers to collective experiences of disasters and crises. We investigate the interrelationship between biblical representations of collective suffering and the creation of collective identity in ancient Israel and emerging Judaism in light of the category of cultural trauma. According to Alexander, “Cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks upon their group consciousness, marking their memories forever and changing their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways” (2004: 1). From this perspective, several factors contribute to shaping the cultural trauma of social groups and societies, among which the creation and transmission of symbolic representations of the events at stake are crucial. We explore biblical texts such as collective laments, curses, narratives, etc. not only as texts representing and voicing the community’s experience of catastrophic events, but also as tools to shape cultural trauma in ancient Israel and emerging Judaism. Additionally, we explore relevant texts as “equipment for living” (Burke 1998) for the addressed community, namely as the literary and religious heritage through which the carrier groups of biblical texts attempted to build cultural resilience by coping with and giving meaning to collective suffering.
Call for papers: For the 2025 SBL/EABS Joint Meeting, we are accepting proposals for three sections. The first section welcomes studies that explore the Hebrew Bible through the lens of cultural trauma studies. The second section, organized in collaboration with the EABS research unit "Memory, Method, and Text," invites proposals focusing on trauma, social identity, and memory. The third section, co-hosted with the ISBL groups "Ritual in the Biblical World" and "Place, Space, and Identity," seeks proposals that integrate Spatial Theory, Ritual Studies, and Trauma Studies. In your abstract, please clearly specify whether you are submitting to section 1, section 2, or section 3.
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Rethinking Biblical Written Tradition through Slavonic Interpretations
Description: Some of the lost Second Temple texts have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but, for reasons still unknown, a number have been preserved only in Slavonic version, from centuries later. These Slavonic manuscripts have been used to restore the lost Greek originals and to fill in the gap in the textual tradition. While welcoming these classical text critical approaches, this program unit focuses more strongly on the appropriation and adaptation of these texts in the Slavic cultures that received them and looks for papers that study the Vorlage and transmission of Slavonic versions as well as Slavic interpretations of the Bible.
Call for papers: We are calling for the presentations of the Slavonic biblical literature as in the description of our unit. Papers on traditional interpretations in ecclesiastical contexts are always welcome.
This year, we will dedicate a session to the problem of genre theory. These papers will focus on biblical genres in vernacular interpretations and rhetorical genres in which biblical texts are used (from sermons to commentaries to drama genres). Those papers that focus on emerging new genres in biblical literature are especially welcome.
We are planning a session on interdisciplinarity in Slavonic biblical studies. We would like to explore whether interdisciplinarity in biblical studies is necessary when we enter the territory of Slavonic texts, for which the Bible often becomes the basis for forming literary languages. In this context, we would also like to welcome texts dealing with digital humanities in Slavic biblical studies, the use and creation of new tools, the use of AI, the digitisation of texts and objects, and the formation of collections.
A joint session of “Slavonic Apocrypha (EABS)” and “Rethinking Biblical Written Tradition through Slavonic Interpretations (SBL), will include the themes of this year’s venue, such as the intersection of Slavonic Bible, rituals, and cognitive sciences. Because politics has always played a major role in religion in Slavic lands, we call for another joint session on Slavic Biblical traditions and politics.
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Return Migration in Biblical Literature
Description: Return is a literary trope and social phenomenon in the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, and other literary cultures. In Homer’s Iliad, Odysseus returns home. As a new field (1980s), return migration studies offer new critical insights on historical, literary, and sociological matters related to biblical and extra-biblical studies.
Call for papers: In 2025, the call for papers centers around seminal principle reasons for a collective return of peoples: cultural (identity, citizenship, belonging, space, etc.), religious (temple - including people/guild groups), economic (land), and/or environmental (collapses). Papers from any biblical and non, from the ANE (EMME) to Roman, including but not limited to HB/OT, Intertestamental - DSS, NT, and theories from modern and ancient societies, are invited toward both presentation and publication - the unit's second edited volume from Return Migrations (w/De-Gruyter-Brill).
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Ritual in the Biblical World
Description: The Ritual in the Biblical World Section focuses on the nature, meaning and function of ritual found in textual sources (HB, NT, non-canonical) in the larger context of the material culture of the ancient world, employing insights and methods of the field of ritual theory and ethnography.
Call for papers: First, the main session will focus on the METHODOLOGY OF RITUAL STUDIES in the Biblical World. We invite papers outlining methodological approaches at the intersection of biblical and ritual research, demonstrating the application of recent theoretical models to Biblical texts, or otherwise contributing to the enhancement of ritual theory in our fields of research. Currently, the possibility of a conference volume on ritual methodology is evaluated.
Secondly, we plan a JOINT SESSION on «Locked Space and Locking Space» together with the PSIAMW (Place, Space, and Identity, ISBL) and Representation of Cultural Trauma (EABS) program units, encompassing the fields of Spatial Theory, Ritual Studies, and Trauma Studies.
Thirdly, as usual, we offer the opportunity of an OPEN SESSION on all aspects of ritual activities in the larger context of their cultural and religious functions in the ancient Near East and in the ancient Mediterranean, including their textual, archaeological and iconographical expressions.
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Scribes and Scribal Groups in the Early Second Temple Period (EABS)
Description: There is an increasing awareness among biblical scholars in various specialisation fields of the fact that the late Achaemenid-Persian and early Hellenistic periods were constitutive for the formation (origin, finalisation, redaction, etc.) of a significant part of the Hebrew Bible. Various scholars have therefore started investigating the broader discourses of these time periods in order to come to a better understanding of the interaction and cross-influence of different scribal groups of the time, and resultant literature formations. However, there is still not much collaboration between and correlation of results in the various fields of expertise. This 5-year research unit will therefore bring together scholars from various relevant sub-fields for the purpose of investigating the practices and cross-influences of scribal activities in the late Achaemenid-Persian and early Hellenistic periods in Jerusalem in Yehud/Judea. The aim will be to establish how scribal groups with different ideological (and theological) agendas participated in the political-theological discourses of their time, and how they contributed to the biblical literature formation processes of the time period.
Call for papers: In 2025 at the Uppsala conference, we will focus on Samari(t)an-Jerusalemite scribal discourses. In recent years, scholars have started moving away from an oppositional model of understanding the interaction between Samaria/Mt Gerizim in the north and Jerusalem in the south. We therefore invite abstract submissions on any topic related to the scribal interaction between these two ancient centers. We plan to have two open sessions with three papers each, and a session with three invited speakers.
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Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database
Description: The international project Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (SAHD)
applies a comprehensive approach to precise the meaning of words in
biblical Hebrew. See https://sahd-online.com for examples of entries. Each
entry includes all the relevant information regarding the Hebrew word.
Call for papers: The international project Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (SAHD)
applies a comprehensive approach to precise the meaning of words in
biblical Hebrew. See https://sahd-online.com for examples of entries. Each
entry includes all the relevant information regarding the Hebrew word.
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Septuagint Studies
Description: This unit is open to all papers devoted to the Septuagint and related versions.
Call for papers: We welcome all proposals related to Septuagint research. All abstracts are expected to name the most important source texts, methodology, and a concrete research question. In addition, the abstract should explain how the proposed paper is connected with previous research and current developments in the field of Septuagint studies.
We especially encourage Septuagint papers related to Bible Translation, particularly in Nordic Countries, among Indigenous Peoples, and in Sign Languages.
In addition, we seek to organize a joint session with the EABS “The Greek Bible between Judaism and Christianity” research unit with a focus on the Minor Versions, the Hexapla, and Hexaplaric materials, and the process of their transmission.
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Slavonic Apocrypha (EABS)
Description: Despite its “Slavonic Apocrypha” name, this research unit is intentionally broad in scope and provides a forum in which both biblical scholars and Slavists can discuss current issues in their fields and exchange ideas. It includes the traditionally understood Slavonic Apocrypha, i.e. translations of Hellenistic pseudepigrapha, as well as a variety of sacred literature in Slavonic and, such as theological discourses, historiographies, hagiographies, liturgical texts, and folk tales that are intertwined with biblical texts in both manuscripts and religious practices. Historical philology, lexicographical works, and linguistic analysis of Slavonic manuscripts are central research fields in this forum. We also welcome contributions from scholars of other academic fields that discuss these topics.
Slavonic Apocrypha are studied as biblical reception history. Their application in liturgical and catechetical context questions the application of the definition of biblical canon and apocrypha on them. Because the mechanism of intertextuality in Slavic religious literature was more powerful and longstanding than the assessment of marginality and the differentiation of the texts according to canonical/noncanonical, our forum aims to contribute to the ongoing search for a comprehensive term for apocalyptic, pseudepigraphical, and apocryphal literature. This unit addresses the pressing need for a platform where European scholars of “Slavonic Apocrypha” and medieval Slavic literature and their international colleagues can express their concerns, discuss solutions, and set mutual goals. It promotes the publication of critical editions of “Slavonic Apocrypha” and discusses the concerns over the digitization project of Slavonic manuscripts. While the name “Slavonic Apocrypha” is inadequate for this corpus of literature, we will wait and allow the scholarly consensus in the field to lead us to a better one.
Call for papers: We accept papers on all topics related to Slavonic Apocrypha as defined in our program. Please, check the program above.
Additionally, this year we call the presentations on "Apocrypha in Slavonic and Caucasian Traditions." We will continue the updates on the project on Old Polish Apocrypha. Moreover, we invite papers with a broad approach to Slavic written and oral biblical tradition within or outside the ecclesiastical contexts inspired by the famous Scandinavian Myth and Ritual school of biblical interpretations. The school’s focus on the centrality of the rituals and myths of ancient societies in their religious and cultural self-understanding has left a legacy of comparative and interdisciplinary approach and openness to new ideas in Biblical studies. Therefore, we welcome interdisciplinary approach and encourage the use of different methodologies in order to uncover the literary and cultural context of Slavonic and related texts. A joint session of “Slavonic Apocrypha (EABS)” and “Rethinking Biblical Written Tradition through Slavonic Interpretations (ISBL), will include the themes of this year’s venue, such as the intersection of Slavonic Bible, rituals, and cognitive sciences. Because politics always has played a major role in religion in Slavic lands, we call for another joint session on Slavic Biblical traditions and politics.
Finally, it is a reminder that all people who present their paper at the conference in Uppsala, after the peer reviewed assessment of their completed work, will have the opportunity to publish their paper in Scrinium or Scripta & e-Scripta.
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Slavonic Parabiblical Traditions (EABS)
Description: The overall aims and objectives of this research unit have several different aspects to be taken into account:
1) Comparing and contrasting particular topoi within Slavonic literary, iconographic and oral heritage which are known to be attested in earlier Jewish and/or Christian intellectual environments; relationships with Islamic texts and traditions are anticipated.
2) More detailed analyses of the religious and ritual contexts of these topoi from the point of view of calendar, worship, etc., as a prerequisite for improved results in understanding the Slavonic texts. Explorations into the history of liturgical music will be encouraged, as well as explorations into religious art and iconography.
3) Scriptural and parascriptural intertextuality within the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) through the prism of such topoi. The parallel attestations of certain specific types of templates (e.g. common socio-religious processes, cross-cultural meta-narratives, etc.) in Slavonic intellectual landscape will allow the combined expertise of the research team to focus on common questions from differing perspectives. The chronological framework of research will cover the periods from Late Antiquity and Middle ages to modern times.
4) Explorations in the field of historical and comparative linguistics, with special emphasis on Palaeoslavonic scribal strategies for transmission and dissemination of canonical and apocryphal books within the Byzantine Commonwealth and beyond. The intellectual landscapes of Slavia Orthodoxa and Slavia Catholica will be taken into consideration along with the cultural environments of Slavia Judaica and Slavia Islamica. Studies into the multilingual and cross-cultural transmissions of texts originally composed in “classical Biblical languages” and their further dissemination through Slavonic (comparing and contrasting these processes with those attested in other languages).
5) Interdisciplinary approach to
Call for papers: The project focuses on the Nachleben of Judaeo-Christian parabiblical heritage within the intellectual landscape of Pax Slavia Christiana, with a special emphasis on scribal traditions preserved in the last lingua sacra of Europe — Old Church Slavonic. Taken into consideration are also socio-political conditions of their transmission from the Middle Ages to Modernity, as well as the processes of cultural continuity. One of the aims of the current project is to explore the mega- corpus of texts and traditions that has been preserved through multilingual channels of cross- cultural transmission, along with the examination of relevant archaeological record and religious iconography; likewise envisaged is further examination of vernacular oral heritage of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Papers are invited on various aspects of Bible-related traditions. The aim will be to compare and contrast Slavonic texts with others (extant in Hebrew / Aramaic, Greek, Syriac, Latin, Romanian, Armenian,etc.);scholarsworkinginallofthesefieldsarewelcometoapply. Notonlyare parabiblical written texts to be included within this purview, but also iconography and vernacular oral heritage (including “Folk Bible” compositions). Matters concerning intertextuality within the three Abrahamic religions will also be explored.
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Status of Women in the Profession
Description: The Committee holds sessions each year exploring the nature of the profession as experienced by women biblical scholars. The goal of the sessions are to provide a forum for open discussion, networking, and the sharing of ideas.
Call for papers: The Committee holds sessions each year exploring the nature of the profession as experienced by women biblical scholars. The goal of the sessions are to provide a forum for open discussion, networking, and the sharing of ideas.
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Synoptic Gospels
Description: The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), which have formed a coherent unit since antiquity, have played an important role in modern scholarship. Scholarship on the Synoptic Gospels as a group has often focussed on the “synoptic problem” and given special attention to source and redaction criticism with a view to sorting through the relationship(s) between Matthew, Mark, and Luke. While that discussion is certainly still active, including recent discussion of the relationship of the Synoptic Gospels to John, there are many other fruitful approaches to these three texts both in dialogue with each other and individually. This section provides an open forum for the presentation of papers, from a variety of perspectives and using a variety of methods.
Call for papers: For 2025 we invite papers in open sessions under three headings: i) ideological/critical-theoretical approaches to the texts (e.g. Feminist, Womanist, Postcolonial, Intersectional, Queer, Disability studies, Eco-approaches), ii) relationships and interaction between the Synoptic Gospels and the Hebrew Bible and/or other Second Temple Jewish texts; iii) the gospels as story—narrative approaches to the Synoptic Gospels. For all proposals we especially welcome papers that address at least two of the Synoptic Gospels. Papers that fall outside of the three groupings may still be considered for an open session.
In 2025 the Synoptic Gospels unit is also co-sponsoring a session with the "Living in the Last Days: New Testament Eschatology and Its Context" unit of the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS): "Eschatology in the Synoptic Tradition" This joint session invites papers that examine the role of eschatology within the Synoptic tradition, with a particular focus on how the theme of the End influenced the Christian communities where the redaction of the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke took place. We seek to explore both the similarities and differen
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Textual Criticism of the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Qur’an (EABS)
Description: This research group focuses on the textual study and criticism of sacred texts from the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world that later had a global influence; the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur’anic text. All three have similarities and differences. They have influenced other writings and at the same time have themselves undergone external influence bearing on questions of interrelationship, orality, textuality and language. Not only the above mentioned characteristics, but also their preservation and the copying as well as the proliferation of manuscripts are of particular interest to textual scholars.
The purpose of this research unit is to study the textual criticism of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Qur'an. The study of the Old Testament textual history includes the Hebrew Bible, the texts from Qumran, the Septuagint, the Masoretic Text – as well as the Aramaic Targumim, the Syriac translations, the Vulgate, Commentaries and others. Additionally, the study of the text of the New Testament includes also its versions, the Patristic citations, commentaries and related texts. Finally, the study of the textual history of the Qu’ran includes its text, the qira’at tradition (the alternative readings that correspond to different text types), the cultural milieu and context of Qur’anic transmission, and its commentary tradition.
Relevant topics for discussion would include:
The study of OT, NT or Qur’anic writings not only in manuscripts, but also inscribed or printed
The text itself and the circumstances of its transmission
Types or groupings of texts
Reconstructions of forms of text
Textual criticism and history
Textual criticism and exegesis
Textual criticism and theology
Call for papers: For the Uppsala 2025 joint meeting of the SBL and EABS, the units of textual criticism of both societies invite submissions focusing on methods in textual criticism of the OT and the NT. The paper proposals should present or discuss the methodological assumptions and procedures text critical scholars apply to those ancient texts. Of great interest are also recent methodological developments, the impact of digital humanities on textual criticism, and interdisciplinarity with other scholarly fields.
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Textual Criticism: Manuscripts & Methods
Description: This program unit is devoted to the textual criticism of early Jewish and early Christian writings: This includes the Jewish Bible, early Jewish literature, and the Old Testament (in Hebrew and Aramaic, Greek, and other ancient languages), as well as early Christian literature and the New Testament (in Greek, Latin, and other ancient languages). We offer a forum for the investigation of all types of material witnesses related to the text of this literature—tablets, manuscripts, ostraca, inscriptions—and for the consideration of the textual form of this literature reflected in its citation and use by ancient authors and in writings from antiquity through the Middle Ages. This consists not only of contributions that deal with the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin textual witnesses, but also those that engage evidence in Ugaritic, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Armenian, and other linguistic traditions. A wide variety of additional issues related to textual criticism are also addressed, including epigraphy, manuscript studies, papyrology, codicology, paleography, scribal habits and the production of texts, the history of transmission (and its cultural, social, and religious settings), the practice of textual criticism from antiquity to modern times, restoration and conservation, the use of modern technology in studying this material, the production of critical editions, and discussions of particular passages.
Call for papers: For the Uppsala 2025 joint meeting of the SBL and EABS, the unit of textual criticism of both societies invite submissions focusing on method in textual criticism of the OT and the NT. The paper proposals should present or discuss the methodological assumptions and procedures text critical scholars apply to those ancient texts. Of great interest are also recent methodological developments, the impact of digital humanities on textual criticism, and interdisciplinarity with other scholarly fields.
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The Bible as an Asian Text
Description: Most parts of the Bible were formed in Asia. However, the mainline biblical
study was dominated by a western, modern, and (new-)colonial vantages.
Some called the modern study of the Bible as "An Exile in the West."
Call for papers: Most parts of the Bible were formed in Asia. However, the mainline biblical
study was dominated by a western, modern, and (new-)colonial vantages.
Some called the modern study of the Bible as "An Exile in the West."
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The Bible in Arabic amongst Jews, Christians, and Muslims (Biblia Arabica): A Continued Exploration (EABS)
Description: The research unit The Bible in Arabic amongst Jews, Christians and Muslims (Biblia Arabica) – A Continued Exploration aims to provide a forum for engaging in discussion of the reception history of the Bible in the Arabic cultural context, through exploring specific examples of how biblical texts have been used, appropriated and transformed in monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, operating in Arabic speaking word. Insights drawn from a wide range of scholarly disciplines, such as religious, cultural and literary studies or linguistics are encouraged and the reception history of any relevant text from the Bible will be considered suitable material for presentation and discussion.
Call for papers: The research unit The Bible in Arabic invites paper submissions for two sessions:
Philological Investigations: This session will explore topics such as translation techniques, linguistic analysis, and Vorlage dependence.
Narratological Approaches: This session will focus on the re-use and reinterpretation of biblical characters across various genres.
In both sessions, contributions examining inter-religious dynamics are especially welcome. We encourage papers addressing both medieval and modern perspectives.
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The Bible, Ecology, and Sustainability (EABS)
Description: Ecological crisis is one of the most crucial challenges needing combined response in the last decades, now and the most immediate future. In the critical discussion regarding its roots as well as religion’s contribution to address it, biblical scholars have turned to the biblical text and its interpretation through the ages, searching for possible misinterpretations that supported ideologically the environmental exploitation and degradation. They also developed different methodological models for reading the biblical text from an ecological perspective. Given the pressing global ecological crisis, the research unit would like to continue the critical and inter-/multi-/trans-disciplinary exploration of the Bible and ecology and to link these two to the larger project of sustainability.
The research unit aims to:
Explore and employ various methodological trends in reading well-known and uncharted biblical and early Christian texts from ecological and sustainability perspectives.
Analyse the use of these texts from the global perspectives of various stakeholders including but not limited to biblical scholars.
Encourage dialogue and synergy with various groups from different global locations, within and beyond biblical exegesis.
Develop pedagogical strategies in exegesis, theology, and religious education for effective response to pressing pastoral challenges of the climate crisis and sustainability.
Call for papers: The World Health Organization (WHO) noted in August 2024 that “Climate change exacerbates many social, environmental, and economic risk factors for mental health and psychosocial well-being”. In line with this threat, there is also a wide gap in how to respond to this challenge from an interdisciplinary lens. Some scholars posit that the integration of faith, religion, and spirituality into positive psychology and as inspiration for effective actions can strengthen individual and collective resources to face the threats of the climate emergency, the need for planetary sustainability, and the promotion of health and well-being.
This 2025, the research unit The Bible, Ecology and Sustainability looks for presentations that show how environmental threats or devastation like famine, flood, pestilence, or caused by wars, and the like are narrated, suffered from, responded to, and mitigated in the Scriptures. The research unit will feature invited guests on this topic as well as an open session.
The research unit will also have a joint session with the Bodies of Communication Research Unit to show how these ecological threats are internalized, externalized, or metaphorized in the minds and bodies of or in dis/abilities of individuals and/or communities in the Scriptures. There will also be a joint session with the Graeco-Roman Society and the New Testament Research Unit on the topic of Countryside and villages in the Graeco-Roman world and how these relate to the theme of good health and well-being.
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The Biblical World and Its Reception (EABS)
Description: This seminar aims to provide a forum in which participants can engage in theoretical issues pertaining to the reception of “the biblical world” throughout the last 2,500 years and/or present specific examples of how biblical and cognate texts have been appropriated within later cultural, political, and artistic contexts (including, but not limited to, literature, art, music, and film). Insights drawn from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged and the reception history of any relevant text from the biblical period will be considered suitable material for presentation and discussion.
Call for papers: For the joint SBL/EABS meeting in Uppsala in 2025, “The Biblical World and Its Reception” (EABS) will be meeting together with “Bible and Its Influence: History and Impact” (SBL). The combined unit will be holding two/three sessions.
This year we are especially interested in papers which focus on the Bible and video games. This might include methodological approaches, close analyses of individual games, thematic critiques, and other avenues which examine the ways in which the medium has depicted, adapted, interpreted, and drawn upon biblical texts and traditions.
In addition, we will also have at least one open session, for which we welcome papers on any topic that is relevant to the units’ general interests in the reception, influence, and impact of the Bible.
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The Book of Jeremiah (EABS)
Description: Jeremiah occupies a special place within the prophets. It is distinguished from the other Latter Prophets under various aspects, among others its textual problems, composition and dynamic of the book, degree of intertextual relationships, motifs (like the issue of false prophecy, or the concentration on Jerusalem’s fall in 587, involving trauma and the question of hope), presentation of characters, spiritual orientation, and theology. Nearly all of these aspects are subject of discussion in recent research. The research unit will tackle these issues and others as far as they are related to Jer (exegesis and theology), starting from the text in its original language(s). Participants in the online research seminar ‘Yirmeyahu’ (in French or English, depending on the sessions) will be delighted to welcome any scholar interested in the study of Jer to the meetings of this research unit.
Call for papers: In Uppsala the Jeremiah unit invites papers on major motifs and themes within the book(s) of Jeremiah, building on sessions in Syracuse and Sofia dealing with the book's composition and intertextuality. Papers on the theology and spirituality of Jeremiah are also welcome. In addition to this general call, the unit will also dedicate a special seminar session to the study of Jer 32, in keeping with this International Meeting's focus on politics. Papers for this session are also welcome. In order to facilitate deep discussion, the unit invites proposals for short (10 minutes), in-person presentations; we will also solicit a handout from presenters approximately three weeks before the meeting (ca. June 2), which will be distributed to other participants and interested parties.
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The Book of Numbers in the Context of Second Temple Literature (EABS)
Description: The research unit aims at re-evaluating the relation between the book of Numbers and other Second Temple literature. Based on the current consensus, which considers Numbers the latest book of the Pentateuch, it will be asked how some of its characteristic notions – the high priest, feasts and rituals, temple economy – relate to contemporary or even later biblical and extrabiblical literature from Persian and Hellenistic times (e.g., Prophetic and Chronistic literature, Pseudepigrapha, the Elephantine correspondence, evidence from ancient Mesopotamia, Flavius Josephus). Provided that the biblical texts are to be read as “construed history,” the respective aspects will be analyzed with regard to their literary scope and their theological reflection on the one hand and their historical, socio-political background(s) or context(s) on the other. By doing so, the research unit aims at enlarging the understanding of the book of Numbers, interconnecting Pentateuchal scholarship with research on Prophetic and Chronistic literature and contextualizing the biblical notions in their broader historical context in order to enhance the understanding of the Second Temple period as a whole.
Call for papers: In 2025, the research unit “The Book of Numbers in the Context of Second Temple Literature” will focus on the topic “Feasts and Rituals in the Book of Numbers and Second Temple Literature.” This session aims to explore the significance of feasts and rituals in the Book of Numbers and their reception and development in the literature of the Second Temple period. Contributions that address ritual regulations, the role of priestly duties, concepts of ritual purity, and the transformation of these themes in the literature and practice of Second Temple Judaism are especially welcome.
Key questions include:
• How are feasts and rituals depicted in the Book of Numbers, and what role do they play in religious practice?
• How did the ritual regulations of the Book of Numbers influence the literature and religious practice of the Second Temple period?
• How were concepts such as purity, sacrifice, and priesthood transformed and interpreted?
• What parallels and differences can be observed between the ritual texts of the Book of Numbers and the writings of the Second Temple period (e.g., Qumran texts, Apocrypha)?
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The Dead Sea Scrolls (EABS)
Description: The goals of the research unit are to provide a forum for scholarly discussion of the Dead Sea Scrolls and to facilitate further integration of the study of the Scrolls within the fields of biblical and cognate studies. We encourage conversation between the early transmission, reception, and interpretation of the Scrolls and other literary sources from the late Second Temple period, such as Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and the Greek translations, as well as available inscriptions and archeological evidence. The research unit hosts two sessions annually: one open call session for papers discussing any aspect of the Dead Sea Scrolls and one session focused on a changing theme with both invited and submitted papers. The chosen themes represent some of the major discussions of the field of Dead Sea Scrolls studies and seeks to integrate various points of view, e.g., literary studies, material culture, and new interdisciplinary methods.
Call for papers: For the 2025 Uppsala meeting, we welcome proposals for an open session on any topic related to the Dead Sea Scrolls, broadly understood, or the material culture of Qumran. We especially welcome papers that relate the Scrolls to their broader social and cultural milieu. The session will be a hybrid one with the opportunity to present and participate either in person on site or online.
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The Enoch Seminar
Description: The Enoch Seminar is an academic group of international specialists in Second Temple Judaism (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Origins), who share the results of their research in the field and meet to discuss topics of common interest. The Enoch Seminar was founded in 2001 at the initiative of Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan. Members of the Enoch Seminar are university professors and specialists in Second Temple Judaism, Christian Origins, and early Islam.
Call for papers: The session, chaired by Cecilia Wassen, offers a book presentation of the volume “Within Judaism? Interpretive Trajectories in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the First to the Twenty-First Century” (Fortress Academic, 2023), edited by Karin Hedner Zetterholm, and Anders Runesson. The session is an opportunity to discuss the challenges and implications of reading the New Testament of a collection of “Jewish” texts, starting from the question of how we define an ancient text as a “Jewish text” and when it ceases (if it ceases) to be such. As is typical of all Enoch Seminar meetings, ample time will be dedicated to discussion and exchange of ideas among the participating scholars and the editors of the volume.
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The Greek Bible between Judaism and Christianity (EABS)
Description: The Septuagint originated as Jewish scripture, and in time it became the Christian Old Testament. This research unit explores the variegated reception of the Septuagint in Jewish and Christian communities. How did Jewish and Christian readers engage with, interpret, appropriate, question or transform the Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible to which they had access? How did cultural transformations, such as the emergence of Christianity and the gradual ‘parting of the ways’, affect the reception of the Septuagint? Was the Greek Bible and its interpretation primarily a locus of tension and discussion, or could it also foster dialogue between Jews and Christians? The research unit has two specific goals: firstly, to illustrate the multi-faceted reception history of the Septuagint and related versions, within both Judaism and Christianity; and, secondly, to stimulate a dialogue between Biblical Studies and other disciplines, such as Jewish Studies, Classics and Patristics.
Call for papers: The research unit "The Greek Bible Between Judaism and Christianity" seeks proposals on the topic of "Origen’s Hexapla and Beyond". This session will discuss the textual character, the background and the reception of Origen’s Hexapla as well as its value for related topics, such as the Jewish Minor Versions, the Secunda, Alexandrian and Caesarean scholarship.
Possible research questions include but are not limited to:
1. What can the available evidence teach us about Origen’s Hexapla and “Hexaplaric” materials in the wider sense? How did mechanisms of selection and transmission influence the reception and interpretation of Jewish texts by Christian authors? How were the textual variants interpreted? Were they primarily a locus of tension and discussion, or could they also foster dialogue between Jews and Christians?
2. How can we access and interpret the remaining evidence for Origen’s Hexapla, and “Hexaplaric” readings in the wider sense? Which methodological approaches allow us to overcome the fragmentary nature of the source material?
3. How can research on Hexaplaric materials impact our knowledge of related topics, such as Hebrew phonetics in relation to the so-called “Secunda”, Alexandrian and Caesarean scholarship, and Jewish reception of the Septuagint?
We look forward to proposals that either (a) study in detail specific material within the purview of this call; or (b) adopt a diachronic perspective on the source material and/or one or more of the research questions. Papers on one of the following topics are especially welcome:
• Origen’s Hexapla: collection of evidence, critical edition, purposes of Origen’s project, his use of diacritical signs, Secunda, Quinta and related topics (Tetrapla, Heptapla, Octapla, Syro-Hexapla).
• the Jewish Minor Versions and other Jewish translations/revisions of the Septuagint.
• evidence for and interpretations of the Jewish Minor Versions and “Hexaplaric” readings in Rabbinic sources and Church Fathers.
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The Language of Colour in the Bible: From Word to Image (EABS)
Description: The study of the language of colour has generated great attention since the 19th century in several fields, especially philology and art; exploring the great civilizations considered the bedrock of Europe: Greece and Rome. Surprisingly the Bible, the other pillar on which European culture is founded, has been left on the sidelines of this research, creating a primordial void.
This research project aims to bridge this gap and provide a more complete picture of the language of colour in a book that has inspired both literary and artistic works: the Bible. A multi and interdisciplinary study of the biblical text in its original languages can certainly shed new light on the interpretation of the image and vice versa.
The objectives pursued in the field of philology are to determine the chromatic lexicon of the biblical text, the sensory perception it reflects and the symbolic dimension from which it emanates. In this sense, we believe that the Apocryphal literature and the early Christian literature can shed light on the meaning of colour in the biblical texts both with regard to sensorial perception and symbolism.
However, this is not only true in the philological field since the object of study of this research unit is the cultural aspect of colours and the works of art. Pigments become the focus of study, allowing for a Cultural History of Colour where the materiality of colour is the main tool for understanding its symbolism, technique and religious influences. In this regard, colour palettes and artistic compositions have a close relationship with the field of ritual praxis, the configuration of the worldview and the understanding of the environment, configuring a unique language, a chromatic language used in different periods by artists, being one more element of biblical interpretation.
Call for papers: This panel, titled “Exploring Women's Stories through Biblical Colour”, invites scholars from diverse disciplines to delve into the nuanced roles that colors play in relation to women in the biblical world. This interdisciplinary panel seeks to uncover the layers of meaning behind color references and representations, exploring how these elements contribute to our understanding of gender, identity, and society in ancient times. We welcome submissions that explore the following themes: 1. Lexicographical Studies of Colour Terms: a) Analysis of ancient colour terms related to women; b) The evolution of color terminology and its semantic shifts in relation to female figures. 2. Biblical Exegesis and Theological Interpretations: a) The symbolism of specific colors in biblical narratives involving women; b) Theological implications of color in depictions of female figures. 3. Historical and Cultural Contexts: a) The role of color in ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures and its influence on biblical depictions of women; b) How color is used to signify status, emotion, or role within the social fabric of biblical communities. 4. Art Historical Perspectives: a) Examination of color in ancient art, including frescoes, mosaics, and textiles, depicting biblical women; b) The intersection of artistic techniques and theological messages in the use of color; c) Biblical women's studies from visual exegesis and the reception of the Bible. 5. Archaeological Insights: a) Discoveries of artifacts and their color analysis that shed light on the daily lives and status of women in biblical times; b) The material culture of color, including dyes and pigments, and their significance in the lives of women. 6. Interdisciplinary Approaches: a) Cross-disciplinary to offer comprehensive insights into the use of color; b) Comparative studies with other ancient to highlight unique or shared perceptions of women and color.
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The Language of Pain in Ancient Israel and Early Judaism
Description: This program unit intends to research how pain was experienced,
conceptualized, expressed, and related to in ancient Israel and early
Judaism, by investigating linguistic expressions of pain in all Jewish
sources at our disposal from prior to ca. 200 CE.
Call for papers: For the 2025 SBL International Meeting, we invite proposals that explore linguistic expressions of physical suffering in the Hebrew Bible, Deuterocanonical Books/Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Abstracts should include the following key elements: the scope of the study, the main thesis, a case study, the methodology employed, and the significance of the proposal.
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The Origins of Israel and the Shaping of Early Israelite Identities during the Iron Age: Perspectives from the Biblical Studies and Archaeology (EABS)
Description: The question of the “origins of Israel” (which should be addressed in the plural form) in the land and the formation of the “Israelite” identity requires the interdisciplinary approach among scholars of multiple disciplines from the biblical studies, history of the ancient Israel, cultural-history, socio- political history, and the archaeology of southern Levant.
The modern archaeological investigation revealed the widely diverging views to the description in the biblical narrative literature that states that the origin of Israel was realized through the conquest of the land, a view, especially presented in the so-called Deuteronomistic history (e.g., the book of Joshua).
However, this difference sheds a new light on the question of the “origins of Israel”. Why the major biblical traditions present the origin of Israel as the conquest of land, not the peaceful infil- tration of the “Israelite” population in the land? How can we interpret the socio-political and historical situation of the Late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age II, e.g., the retreat of the power of the Egyptian empire from Levant, the destruction and the abandonment of the major urban site in Levant in relation to the formation of the Israelite identities? This research unit aims to investigate the origin of Israel and the formation of Israelite identity from the multiple angles with diverging methodology as a scholarly collaborative endeavour.
Call for papers: In 2025, the research unit “Origins of Israel: Perspectives from Biblical Studies and Archaeology” will have two sessions. The first session focuses on the concept of the rise of Israel in the so-called Deuteronomistic history and other narrative literature of the Hebrew Bible. The second session is dedicated to the archaeological and historical discussions, especially with the focus on the issues of the destructions of the urban sites in the southern Levant in the Late Bronze age and its potential relationship to the narrative literature of the Hebrew Bible (e.g., the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic His- tory). Both sessions partly invite a few speakers on the main topic of our research unit, but we will have sufficient slots to accept the proposed papers.Those who have research interest in the origin of Israel, conquest of the land, biblical views of the land of Israel, and methodological question on the relationship between archaeology and the Bible are welcomed to propose a paper.
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The Slavic Translation and Transmission of Biblical Texts (EABS)
Description: The proposed project focuses on Slavic translations of canonical Bible Books, both during the Old Church Slavonic period (to 1100) and during the later Church Slavonic period, during which manuscripts, while being based on Old Church Slavonic protographs, reflected distinct identifiable linguistic features of the Bulgarian, Serbian, and East Slavic vernaculars and dialects. The project will also focus on the first printed Slavic Bibles.
Specific goals will be textological analyses both of the transmission of the Greek Bible text in Church Slavonic translation, and the transmission of Slavic translations through the copying and editing/“updating” of manuscripts by later copyists. Our work will also include efforts to identify or reconstruct, to the extent possible, the specific later Greek version(s) of the Gospels, Psalms,and Acts and Epistles that were first translated into Old Church Slavonic; and additional later Greek versions that appear to have been relied on by later medieval Slavic scribes, who are known often to have consulted and incorporated multiple Greek sources when copying/editing Church Slavonic Biblical manuscripts.
Call for papers: This program unit is dedicated to the Slavic versions of the Greek Biblical texts. We invite scholars who have studied the composition, structure, and/or features of Slavic manuscripts and early printed books that contain any Books of the Bible to submit abstracts for papers in this conference session by 15 January, by uploading them on the SBL website. Digital studies on this topic are also welcome.
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Ugarit and Its World
Description: The unit explores the ancient city of Ugarit, its culture, cult, texts, history, and material culture.
We also have interest in research that uses Ugaritic Studies to shed new light on different
aspects of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts.
Call for papers: The “Ugarit and its World” section explores the ancient city of Ugarit, its culture, scribal culture, cult, texts, history and material culture. As a center of international trade located on the shores of the Mediterranean, Ugarit was subject to cross-cultural influences. The texts and other archaeological findings unearthed at the site reflect this culture’s uniqueness as well as its cosmopolitan status and political importance. Our purpose is to further the study of the ancient world of Ugaritic culture, language, literature, social structure, economy etc., by interpreting the texts from Ugarit against the background of other Ancient Near Eastern texts and in light of historical-political events that took place in neighboring cultures. We welcome comparative papers that contribute to the field of Hebrew Bible studies. We also welcome new approaches and methods that yield new insights on Ugaritic culture, texts, art, religion etc.
In 2025 meeting we will collaborate with the EABS unit “Israel in the Ancient Near East”, chaired by Noga Ayali-Darshan and Anna Elise Zernecke. Accordingly, we will have at least one combined session.
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Wisdom in Intertextual Perspective (EABS)
Description: This unit seeks to provide a forum for the exploration of the emerging methodologies of intertextuality in the study of wisdom literature and beyond. The primary focus is on wisdom compositions - Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes, and the Wisdom Psalms and Deutero-Canonical works such as Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon, including comparative sources and cognate cultures from the ancient Near East. The intertextual method takes interest outside simply wisdom material to include connections and interrelationships with other genres of material.
Call for papers:
1. Author-oriented and reader-oriented approaches to intertextuality across the wisdom books
This unit will attempt to explore intertextual links across the wisdom books elucidating different approaches to intertextuality i.e., author-oriented and reader-oriented. This includes diachronic and synchronic approaches, with the former featuring author or redactor-oriented motivations and readerly methods; and the latter opening up the possibility of relating a wide range of texts without diachronic constraints. The issues of the relative authority of texts and the role of the canon are opened up for discussion, as are issues of scribal motivation and intention.
2. Intertextuality between prophetic books and wisdom literature
This session seeks to explore intertextual links not only between prophetic books in the biblical canon and the canonical wisdom books, but also to draw on a range of extra-canonical texts and other cultural and cognate prophetic and wisdom material to represent the diversity of possible connections across these texts.
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Writings (including Psalms)
Description: The aim of the unit to promote all aspects of and approaches to the study of the texts commonly referred to as the Writings (Ketuvim) in the Hebrew Bible.
Call for papers: Papers are welcome on any part of the Writings in the Hebrew Bible, especially research applying newer interpretive lenses, methodologies, and discoveries to specific passages or books. Papers on the Psalms may focus on individual psalms, or consider themes and issues relating to the Psalter as a whole. Papers on other books of the Writings may focus on discussion of poetics, historiography, interaction with empire, migration, identity formation, cultural exchange, minority-group interpretations, apocalyptic and wisdom themes, or canon formation.
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