Unless noted, all events are in the Southam (SA) and Loeb (LA) buildings
Saturday
May 23, 2009
14:00-19:00 (SA 314)
Executive Committee Meeting / Runion du Comit Excutif
Sunday May 24, 2009
8:45-11:30 (SA 415)
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament / Bible Hbraque/Ancien
Testament I
Chair / Prsident: TBA
8:45-9:15 Matthew Thiessen (Duke University)
The Text of Genesis 17:14
The purpose of this paper is to establish a firm text-critical foundation from which to discuss the function of circumcision in Genesis 17. While a number of text-critical issues arise within Genesis 17, verse 14 plays a particularly important role in understanding the significance of circumcision in the chapter. Nonetheless, virtually all commentators are silent on the textual difficulty of verse 14 and therefore follow the reading preserved in the MT. In contrast, this paper will argue that the LXX and Samaritan Pentateuch represent the earliest inferable textual state of Genesis 17.14.
9:15-9:45 Edward Ho (McMaster Divinity College)
The Threefold Parody in the Beginning of Job
In A Rhetoric of Irony, literary critic Wayne Booth identifies clues to the recognition of irony in literature. This paper argues that the author of Job uses some of these pointers in the beginning to signal to the reader an authorial ironic intent and the prologue is thus meant to be understood as a parody. Through subversive uses of the sapiential didactic narrative genre, the heavenly council type scene, and the testing motif, the naivety of the belief that the plight of Job originates in some kind of heavenly decision is exposed by this threefold parody.
9:45-10:15 Ehud Ben Zvi (University of Alberta)
On the term Deuteronomistic in Relation to
Joshua-2 Kings in the Persian Period
This paper will address
the question of to which attributes of the classical history of Israel shaped
by these books may the term deuteronomistic be applicable, once the focus
shifts to Persian period literati and the communicative, ideological and social
function of these attributes.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 Frank Clancy (Waterloo)
Missing Chronological Information in Chronicles
Chronicles does not include
much of the chronological information in Kings because Israel was not
included. However, three missing pieces of information should
be in Chronicles because they deal with Judah are missing: 1. the
23rd year of Jehoash; 2. the 14th year of Hezekiah; 3. and
the synchronisms between Hezekiahs reign and the end of the kingdom of
Israel. The reference to the 23rd year of Jehoash may have been omitted
deliberately by the Chronicler. However, the other two probably were
added to Kings by a redactor and were not part of the Chroniclers source text.
11:00-11:30 Robert D. Holmstedt (University of Toronto)
Dating the Language of Ruth: An Assessment
In a recent ZAW article,
Ziony Zevit attempts to revitalize the case for the relatively late date of
the book of Ruth using historical-contextual as well as specifically linguistic
means. At the same time a small number of scholars have spear-headed an attempt
to remove linguistic data from any discussion of dating biblical texts. This
has culminated in a detailed, two-volume forthcoming work by Ian Young, Robert
Rezetko, and Martin Ehrensvrd . This paper will consider what linguistic
features in the book of Ruth might be relevant for dating the book and will use
these features to test the cogency of Young, Rezetko, and Ehrensvrds
anti-dating arguments (I am indebted to these authors for providing me with an advance
copy of their work).
8:45-11:30 (SA 406)
New
Testament / Nouveau Testament
Gospels / Les
Evangiles
Chair / Prsident: Zeba Crook (Carleton University)
8:45-9:15 Kyung S. Baek (Trinity Western University)
Matthew 1:1 As the Title for the Gospel of Matthew: Bi/bloj gene/sewj and Jesus designation as ui9oj 0Abraa&m
Although
the significance of Matthew 1:1 (Bi/bloj gene/sewj
0Ihsou~ Xristou~ ui9ou~ Daui\d ui9ou~ 0Abraa&m) is recognized by scholars
debate still lingers as to its nature and limits. Five different proposals have been forwarded as to its exact
referent: (1) It extends only to the tripartite genealogy of Jesus (1:2-17);
(2) It is limited to Jesus genealogy and birth narrative (1:2-25); (3) It
continues and includes the visit of the magi and the massacre of infants by
King Herod (1:2–2:23); (4) It extends even farther to encompass the
inauguration of Jesus ministry to Galilee of the Gentiles (1:1–4:16);
or (5) It envelops the entire Gospel ending with Jesus commission to his
disciples (1:2–28:20). This paper proposes Matthew 1:1 to be the title
for the entire Gospel, which accounts for its initial position, the ambiguous
meaning of bi/bloj gene/sewj, and its terseness
including five titular elements that thematically resonate well beyond the
initial chapters and seem to encapsulate Matthews general focus and
message. Therefore by
concentrating on the use of bi/bloj gene/sewj and Jesus
designation as ui9oj
0Abraa&m, I can conclude that Matthew 1:1 may
be functioning on a number of levels (with multiple referents), but it
primarily acts as a title that orientates its audience for everything that
follows.
9:15-9:45 Agnes
Choi (Wycliffe College)
Never the Two Shall Meet? Urban-Rural Interaction in Matt 20:1-15
One finds both
urban and rural imagery in the Synoptic Gospels. A single pericope typically
draws upon imagery from only one of these domains; thus, it is curious to find
these two domains combined in Matt 20:1-15. While the history of interpretation
of this parable has traditionally focussed upon the peculiar wage policy of the
oikodespotēs, this paper will
consider papyrological evidence to assess whether other aspects of this
parable, particularly the way in which urban-rural interaction was depicted,
might have struck Jesus audience as unusual.
9:45-10:15 Esther Kobel (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Chewing the flesh of Jesus:
Cannibalistic language in John 6
Several documents of the first centuries
C.E. testify that Christ-believers are accused of performing ritual murder
followed by the cannibalistic consumption of human flesh and incestuous and
promiscuous intercourse. These events are sometimes labelled thyestean and
oedipodean after Thyestes and Oedipus, two heroes of Greek mythology.
Allusions to thyestean banquets and oedipodean intercourse would have been
recognized and understood immediately in the Greco-Roman milieu. This paper
will explore the possible relationship of the cannibalistic language in John
6 to accusations of thyestean behaviour in the context of menace that
generally marks the Johannine communal meals.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 Jordash Kiffiak
(Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Lukes Very Brief Preface
Scholarly
attempts to determine the generic affinity(ies) of Lukes preface (1.1-4) have
relied to various extents on arguments pertaining to its length. The preface is
very short – one sentence, consisting of 42 words. This paper will seek,
first, to confirm the negative judgement of Loveday Alexander, which has been
challenged of late, namely, that a meaningful point of comparison cannot be
found in any preface within the grand literary tradition of Hellenistic
historiography. Next, I will compare Lukes preface to those in other literary
corpora. In particular, technical treatises will be considered and – not
treated in Alexanders The Preface to Lukes Gospel (1993) – the
writings of amateur historians.
11:00-11:30 Kari Tolppanen (Wycliffe College)
A Source Critical Reassessment of the Lukan Eschatological Discourse (Luke 21:5-36)
The author argues that Luke did not
derive his triple tradition from the document now known as canonical Mark, but
from another branch of the Markan tradition, which he calls a Non-Canonical
Markan Source/Tradition. The
author bases his argument on the observation that sometimes theological
elements, which Luke clearly emphasizes in his double work, are absent in a
Lukan pericope while present in a parallel Markan pericope. The author uses the Lukan Eschatological
Discourse as an example. The
discourse misses several such theological elements, which Luke emphasizes
elsewhere in his Gospel.
8:45-11:30 (SA 316)
Chair / Prsident: TBA
8:45-9:15 Jeremy Penner (McMaster University)
Did Jews Pray the Shema in the Second Temple Period?
Specialists in Jewish liturgy commonly assert that the
Shema was an established liturgical custom already in the Second Temple period.
Through a careful reexamination of the evidence this paper highlights a number
of difficulties with this assertion and offers an alternative interpretation of
such Second Temple period texts thought to evince the existence of the Shema
liturgy.
9:15-9:45 Andrew B. Perrin (Trinity Western University)
Dusting for
Scribal Fingerprints: The Editorial Overlay of 4QReworked Pentateuch
The discovery of the Dead
Sea Scrolls has provided an invaluable window into the pluriform nature of the
biblical texts in the mid-late Second Temple era. While investigations into the
transmission and developmental processes of the Hebrew scriptures often revolve
around the 200+ biblical manuscripts at Qumran, few attempts have been made
to explore the interface between scripture and interpretation in alleged
parascriptural documents to clarify the origins of the biblical text. One such
text that blurs the line between scripture and interpretation is 4QReworked
Pentateuch (4QRP). The 4QRP group is represented by five manuscripts which all
evidence overt scribal intervention in the scriptural text for interpretive
purposes. Therefore, one question to be legitimately posed on these texts is:
Beneath the editorial faade applied by the scribe, does this text contain
potentially early Pentateuchal readings unknown from other textual traditions?
The present paper aims to formulate a methodology to enable text critics of the
Hebrew Bible to constructively interact with 4QRP and thus extract reliable
text-critical data from this intriguing hybrid text. In the process of
achieving this goal I will explicate the textual character of 4QRP and
highlight the apparent editorial emphases of the 4QRP scribe(s).
9:45-10:15 Tyler Smith (Oxford University)
Josephus as (Re)writer of the Samson Episodes
Josephus is
better known as a historian than as an interpreter of the Bible. Nevertheless,
his translation of the Hebrew Bible is a rich source for thinking about
biblical interpretation and spiritual historiography in Antiquity. This paper
will look at Josephus (re)presentation of the Samson narratives (Ant. 5.275-317;
cf. Judges 13-17) with attention to his departures from the biblical text,
editorial comments, elisions, additions, and moralizing. It will be argued that
Josephus applies his creative literary skill to these narratives in order to
extract support for a larger project in the Antiquities of the Jews,
namely, to demonstrate that those who submit to Gods will succeed in all
things beyond belief (Ant. 1.14), and that those who disobey have
something less savory in store.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 Mary R. DAngelo (University of Notre Dame)
Bad Hair For Boys at Banquets
In both the Sentences
of Pseudo-Phocylides and Philos Vita Contemplativa, hairdos worn by
boys receive a surprising amount of detailed attention and moral weight. John
Pollini has used Philos description of the hairdo of serving boys at banquets
to identify the slave-boys in a number of art works of the Flavian-Trajanic
era. This paper will suggest that Pseudo-Phocylides and Philo are
describing the same hairdo, but their use of it derives from very different
social positions. Together with other Jewish texts from the period, they offer
insight into the representations of male homeroticism in Judaism of the early
imperial era.
11:00-11:30 Shawn W.J. Keough (St. Michaels
College)
God is not like a man: Principles of divine revelation and biblical exegesis in Philo of Alexandria
This paper
will offer a synthetic presentation and analysis of the way Philo confronts the
tension between his most foundational theological principles and the persistent
anthropomorphism and anthropopathism of the books of Moses. In particular,
Philo finds two biblical descriptions of God especially troubling: Gods
swearing an oath to Abraham (Gen 22.16; Sac 1.91-101; Leg
3.200-210), and Gods repenting of having created humanity and deciding to
destroy humanity by a flood (Gen 6.5; Deus 1.20-85). In Philos
treatment of both biblical episodes he brings forward two apparently
contradictory biblical statements: God is not like a man (cf. Num
23.19 LXX), and, God is like a man (cf. Deut 1.31 LXX). These two opposing
biblical statements provide Philo with an interpretive framework within which
he develops and articulates his own fundamental convictions regarding the mode
of divine revelation and the task of biblical interpretation.
11:30-12:30 (SA 416)
Lunch for all Students and New Members / Casse-crote
pour tudiants et membres nouveaux
12:30-14:00 (SA 416)
Special Session Organized by Students / Session
spciale organise par les tudiants
Presiding: Agnes Choi (Student Liaison, CSBS Executive)
What Not To Do on the Road from Candidacy to Tenure
Panellists: Tony Burke (York University), John Kloppenborg (University of Toronto), Michele Murray (Bishops University), Daniel Smith (Huron University College).
The approval of ones thesis proposal may be the last step towards attaining candidacy, but it is only the first step towards attaining tenure. What common mistakes should be avoided during the writing of the dissertation, the job search, and the first years of working at an academic institution? What obstacles might one encounter as an instructor, a researcher, and a colleague? The panellists will discuss not only the errors and challenges of the different phases of this journey, but also strategies for manoeuvring through them successfully. There will be ample time for discussion, so bring your questions. See you there!
14:00-15:20 (LA
C164)
Student
Essay Prizes / Prix pour travaux dՎtudiant(e)s
Chair / Prsident: Francis Landy (University of Alberta)
14:30-15:00 Jeremias Prize: Erin Vearncombe (University of Toronto) Whom did he Marry? Women, Sex and Holiness in the Book of Jubiliees
15:00-15:10 Questions
15:10-15:40 Founders Prize: Danielle Duperreault (McGill University) The Poetics of History and the Prophecy of Deutero- Isaiah
15:40-15:50 Questions
15:30-17:00 (LA C164)
CSBS Annual
General Meeting / Assemble annuelle de la SCB
Presiding / Prsidence: Terence L. Donaldson (Wycliffe College)
17:15-18:15 (LA C164)
Presidential Address / Confrence du Prsident
Presiding / Prsidence: Francis Landy (University of Alberta)
Terence L. Donaldson
(Wycliffe College)
Supersessionism in Early Christianity
Since World
War II, the question of the New Testament and antisemitism or anti-Judaism
has received considerable attention. In recent years, however, these isms
have been joined by another. Supersessionism, originally used in Christian
tradition with a positive (even triumphalistic) valence, is increasingly used
as a negative characterization of traditional Christian claims that the church
has superseded Israel in the divine purposes and has inherited all that was
positive in Israels tradition. The term has some advantages; for example, it
focuses attention on the issue of self-definition, which in many ways is
antecedent to any actions, speech or attitudes directed against (anti) the
other. Still, in that it was first used with respect to a Christianity that
existed as a distinct institution, separated from its original Jewish matrix
and now self-consciously Gentile, it has limitations when used with reference
to an earlier, transitional—or proto-Christian—period. During this
period, lasting at least until 150 C.E., any description of Christian
self-definition needs to take several variables into account: the terms on
which Gentiles were included; whether Jewish believers had any distinct,
ongoing status; the relative status of Jewish and Gentile believers; the
relationship of the movement to scriptural Israel; the relationship of the
movement to contemporary Judaism; whether a positive place was envisaged for
Israel as a distinct entity in the (eschatological) future. Since we can
discern a range of opinion on these matters within this period, what might
loosely be described as supersessionism at a lower resolution displays
significant differentiation at a higher. Moreover, it is part of a larger
spectrum where, at either extreme, supersessionism is not really applicable.
The purpose of this paper is to describe this spectrum—in other words, to
provide a taxonomy of supersessionism in
early Christianity.
19:00-22:00 (Canal Ritz, 375 Queen Elizabeth Dr.)
CSBS Annual Dinner / Banquet
annuel de la SCB
8:45-12:00 (SA 415)
Patterns in
Biblical Scholarship/Methods of Interpretation
Chair / Prsident: TBA
8:45-9:15 Edith Humphrey (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary)
My Duty to Instruct—Elizabeth Stuart Bowdlers Practical Criticism of the Bible
Late
eighteenth century England is not well known for its women authors, because those
who wrote in this age frequently did so anonymously. Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler makes an intriguing case that women
should analyze the Bible, an argument that would have been congenial to her own
day—written pieces both fulfill a mothers duty to instruct her children,
and also allow that instruction to be detached from their author so as to be
better examined for their content, unencumbered by family affection. Less coy than some of her
contemporaries, Mrs. Bowdler thus finally consented to attach her name to what
she calls practical observations on the book of Revelation. Because this piece predates the French
Revolution, an early editor sees in it not only the wise council of a mother,
but prophetic insight into the anti-religious fervour that characterized much
of the French Revolution. Such
commentary is odd, since her piece is generally not directed towards a
predictive reading of the Apocalypse, though it has some novel interpretations
of symbolic details, such as the two witnesses of chapter 11, which are decoded
as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Ascribed to her also is a
commentary and critical notes on the Song of Solomon. This paper will demonstrate how Bowdlers historical and Anglican context has influenced her
readings, for good and for ill. It
will also argue that the commentary on Song of Solomon must surely have come
from her pen, because of strong similarities in outlook, approach and favourite
themes between the two works.
9:15-9:45 Christiana de Groot
(Calvin College)
Deborah: A Lightening Rod for Nineteenth Century Womens Issues
This essay
presents part of the rich reception history of the Deborah narrative in womens
writings in the nineteenth century. An examination of three authors, Elizabeth
Baxter writing in 1897, Grace Aquilar writing in 1845 and Clara Neyman writing
in 1898 reveals that each woman used their interpretation of the Deborah and
Barak narrative in Judges chapters four and five to support their position
regarding womens rights and duties. Together, the views of these three writers
create a spectrum of the nineteenth century beliefs about womens sanctioned
place in the home and society.
9:45-10:15 Marion Ann Taylor (Wycliffe College)
University of Toronto Women and Criticism in the Nineteenth Century
The history of
the rise of biblical criticism in the nineteenth century in Britain has been
rehearsed many times. Scholars have focused their histories on the lives and
publications of key academics and religious leaders. Missing from these studies
are those who had neither voice nor position in the academy or church. In this
paper, I want to listen to the voices of women whose lives were touched by
criticism with a view to recovering a forgotten chapter in history of the rise
of criticism in Britain. I want to
suggest that while women did not play a significant role in biblical
scholarship per se in the nineteenth
century, women were consumers, popularizers, practitioners and critics of
criticism.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 Alain Gignac (Universit de Montral)
The mise
en scne of Rom 7:7–8:4 : A narrative and synchronic approach
Rom 7 is a hermeneutical, epistemological and
methodological challenge. I do not pretend offering a definitive solution nor
wish to expose forces and weaknesses of past solutions, but I want to open a
new way of reading. If one adopts as epistemological stand point a synchronic
perspective, and as methodological frame, narrative analysis, which
hermeneutical possibilities are created ? Following the steps of Stanley
Stowers, taking into account the enunciation indices of the text (as defined by
Benveniste) and not trying to identify the I which is speaking, I construct a
dialog between two characters which respects the difficulties of the text and
explains why the Wirkungsgeschichte
has seen alternatively in the discourse a Christian I or a non-Christian I.
11:00-11:30 Gary Yamasaki (Columbia Bible College)
Performance Criticism Meets Perspective Criticism: Attending to Point
of View in the Performing of Biblical Narratives
The performing
of biblical narratives has gained increasing attention since the 1980s, but
analysis of such performances has not yet considered the role of point of view
in the dynamics of the story being performed. Perspective criticism—a new methodology involving the
analysis of point of view in biblical narratives—indicates that a
storyteller can relate a story from an objective on-the-sidelines point of
view, or from the point of view of one of the characters, a distinction which
is crucial, for the former creates a sense of distance from all characters,
while the latter creates a sense of affinity with the one character. This distinction can be realized in a
performance through choosing between retaining the persona of the narrator (simply
telling the audience what the
characters are doing), and taking on the persona of a character (mimicking their voice/actions). In this session, we will view a portion
of David Rhoads performance of Mark, witnessing how he mimics every characters voice/actions, thus
creating a sense of affinity even in situations where a sense of distance is
obviously intended.
11:30-12:00 Sophia
Chen (Wycliffe College)
The Test of
Abraham (Genesis 22:1-19) in the Abraham Cycle: A Canonical Reading
The
story of the test of Abraham is a favourite in Judaism, Muslim, and
Christianity; its artistry is also widely acknowledged. Much scholarly
attention has been dedicated to the examinations of the text. However, its
theological significance is often ignored by modern biblical criticisms, such
as source, form and tradition criticism. In reaction to the impasse, this paper
seeks to answer: How can the reader read the text as Scripture? How does the
text live on beyond its historical horizon and edify the faith of future generations?
Through the lens of a canonical reading, one shall see that the story possesses
an intrinsic canonical force that directs to the future. Its message is not to
be historicized, but rather continues to live on.
9:15-12:00 (SA 403)
Reading for the Uncanny in Hebrew Scriptures
Chair / Prsident:
9:15-9:45 Francis Landy (University of Alberta)
Rahab and La Malinche
There
are two stories in Joshua: an overt story in which the conquest of the Holy
Land is mandated, together with the annihilation of its idols and the uprooting
of its gods. The second story is precisely the reverse of the first. In it the
conquest is destabilized by the exchange of sexual and sacred goods. Of this
the story of Rahab is paradigmatic. Joshua sends out two spies whose purpose is
not so much military as symbolic, to repeat and thereby undo the effects of the
first spy story in Num.13-14, and surreptitiously to disclose the others
secret, in particular its genital secret. The Israelites gain possession of the
land even while they destroy its male guardians. The devouring mother of
Num.13-14 becomes the ever available consort, reminiscent of both the Song of
Songs and the wise woman of Proverbs. She thus introduces a hybrid space, which
is not simply a space of miscegenation and the interpenetration of languages,
as for example when Rahab adopts a Deuteronomic voice, but a space that speaks,
that creates its own dialectic, and its own complex shifts of power and idiom.
Ilana Pardes has pointed out the analogy between accounts of the conquest of
the Holy Land and that of the New World. In this context, Rahab may be compared
to La Malinche, Cortes trilingual consort and cultural intermediary. La
Malinche, with her vast cultural resonance as traitor and heroine, personifies
the horror and lure of mestizaje that determines the entire sacred history of
Mexico and the Americas in general. So the religion of Israel is the product of
cultural negotiation and anxiety. It is no accident that in Midrash and in
Christian tradition, Rahab becomes the wife of Joshua.
9:45-10:15 Erin
Runions (Pomona College)
From Disgust to Humor: Nonheteronormative
Racialization and the Transvaluation of Affect in Joshua 2
This paper
starts from the premise contemporary disgust toward non-normative forms of
sexuality in the U.S. is conditioned by the racialization of certain
representations of sexuality in the Bible, even where the biblical heritage
and/or racialization is no longer obvious. Attitudes toward Canaanites are
central in reproducing disgust toward nonnormative sexualities. Disrupting
disgust with the Canaanites requires the interrogation of the colonial
commitments that allow for this response. Drawing on queer of color critiques,
and cultural studies theorizations of affect, this paper uses the
well-recognized humor in the story of Rahab in Joshua 2 as a way of intervening
in the usual circuits of disgust. The Canaanite Rahab is racialized as
nonheteronormative in the story; however, the usual disgust is not present,
either for the storys narrator, or its interpreters. The story of Rahab
revalues the usual affect that buttresses depictions of the Canaanites in the
Tanakh. Here I want to pick up on
the suggestion made by Yair Zakovitch and others that Rahabs story is a
humorous one built from various traditional folktales, though I find the punch
line in different places than does Zakovitch. The story uses humor to represent
the racialized nonheteronormative subject positively, and it undercuts the
corollary positive aura surrounding the Israelites conquest. A humorous
earlier indigenous tale can be discerned that undercuts the affective values of
the storys colonial final form, with attendant emotions circulating around the
Canaanites, the divine warrior, holy war, and even Rahabs own heroism. In
other words, one plausible redactional layer of Joshua 2 talks back to the
conquest narrative that tries to tame it, as well as to the affects associated
with it, including disgust at the Canaanites and exclusionary righteous hope
for the Israelites. It is in the final form of the story, however, that Rahab
is the most queer. Though resistant, she is neither fully transgressive or
heroic, but she is funny. That hilarity revalues the usual emotive response to
Canaanite sexuality, allowing affective bodily energies to turn the repulsion
of disgust into the inclusion of pleasure.
9:45-10:00 Break
10:00-10:30 Fiona C. Black (Mount Allison University)
Lament without Gender? Pursuing the Affective Side of the Complaint Psalms.
It
is assumed that complaint psalms, among other types, are the utterances of a
male speaker (and intended for a male audience). There is no particular reason
to do so (grammatical or literary), save for the conventions of biblical
scholarship, most notably, the assumptions of form-critical readings of these
texts. More globally, in fact, one might be tempted to posit that gender
is rather a non-issue in these texts, since readers typically fail to find (or
comment on) any obvious signals about masculinity or femininity in any part of them.
And yet, the complaints are profoundly interested in subjectivity, exploring as
they do the constitution of the subject in the face of (or perhaps by virtue
of) grief and suffering. Is this to be a subject, then, without gender? This
paper argues that it is in the balance between the observance of the literary
conventions of lament and the counter-cultural impulses of complaint and
imprecation that clues about gender might be located. Most significantly, it is
in the affective qualities of these texts (and their interpretive histories)
that gender-especially the feminine-might be interrogated.
10:30-11:00 David Jobling (St Andrews College)
Giving was Voluptuous to Me: The Bible in Bertolt Brechts The Good Person of Setzuan
This
is the third of a series of essays on the Bible in Brechts plays, where it is
a pervasive presence. The text which gives The Good Person of Setzuan
its shape is Genesis 18-19, three of whose major elements the play plays with:
the arrival of three divine beings and the hospitality they receive; the
destruction of the inhospitable city; and the promise of a son. But we also
find significant allusion to the Decalogue, the Gospels and Paul. Some
collocations of biblical texts seem to occur below the level of consciousness,
as a return, perhaps of Brechts repressed Lutheran childhood. Most attention
will be given to the plays deconstruction of two biblical topoi: political
overthrow as human achievement rather than divine punishment, and doing good
– rather than evil – as a seduction.
11:00-11:30 Michael DeRoche (Memorial University)
From Adultery to Zenot: The many accusations of Hosea.
One of the
perplexing aspects of Hosea studies is the precise nature of sexual crimes
committed by Gomer. At various points in Hos 1-4 the prophet accuses his wife
of a variety of sexual acts. She is a zonah and a qodeshah. He also
accuses her of committing menaaphet. As many commentators have remarked, it is
not easy to reconcile the sexual activities implied by these different terms.
While most scholars, feminists and non-feminists alike, agree that Gomer must
have committed some sexual act that Hosea takes as a violation of their
marriage, they are uncertain about the precise identity of the act. Suggestions
include prostitution, adultery, and/or some form of cultic sexual activity.
Others, due to the uncertainty surrounding these terms, feel it is impossible
to specify the act in question, and are only willing to say that she is
guilty of being promiscuous, or that she must have committed some type of
sexual indiscretion. Employing the behavioral theories of the
social-psychologist, Lenore Walker, in particular her cycle theory of
violence, this paper reassesses the many sexually oriented charges that Hosea
brings against his wife.
11:30-12:00 Discussion
8:45-12:00 (SA
406)
Ancient
Historiography Seminar / Groupe de Travail sur l'Historiographie Ancienne: Prophets
and Prophecy in Ancient Israelite Historiography (Session 1)
Chair / Prsident: Patricia
Kirkpatrick (McGill University)
8:45-9:15 K. L. Noll (Brandon
University)
Neither
Prophets nor History Writing in the Nebiim
Deuteronomy 18:22 defines genuine prophecy as the ability to foretell
events without contingency. The
story of Micaiah ben Imlah (1 Kings 22) attacks that definition with a
deliciously deceptive tale in which prophets who tell lies are genuine and a
prophet who tells the truth is not.
In this story, the king of Israel is not defeated by his own hubris. He is defeated by an ingeniously
deceptive god who chooses a false prophet to speak a true message that is
articulated in such a way that the king is compelled to reject it as
false. As such, this story is
another example illustrating that the Former Prophets do not constitute a
Deuteronomistic History. Rather,
these scrolls testify to an ongoing literary debate among ancient scribes who
were dissatisfied with the religion advocated by the book of Deuteronomy. The implications of this are profound. The biblical Former Prophets are not
best described as history writing and the treatment of prophets within this
narrative literature has nothing to do with real flesh-and-blood prophets. These tales are literary conceits,
artificial constructions understood by the ancient reader to represent
theological debates in dialogue with Deuteronomy, not reports of historical
events under the guidance of a god who revealed his intentions to prophetic
servants.
9:15-9:45 John Van Seters (Waterloo)
Prophecy as Prediction in Biblical
Historiography
There is great diversity in the roles that prophecy plays within the
biblical historical narratives, but the present paper will focus on the role of
prediction of future events by prophets within the Dtr corpus and its later
literary supplements. Such a role of prediction may be viewed in comparison
with the element of prediction in Near Eastern literature, primarily in the
form of omens and divination; and in Greek histories, such as Herodotus, in his
use of oracles, mantics and wise counselors to anticipate future events. While
the biblical narratives do recognize the use of omens manipulated by specialist
ephod-wearing priests for the purpose of predicting the outcome of an impending
battle, Dtr seems to denigrate the use of divination and give to the prophet
the function of predicting future events. This has to do, not only with
warnings about the consequences of disobedience to the divine will, but also
concerning the more long-term destiny of royal dynasties and the fate of the
nations of Israel and Judah. This is reflected in the so-called theology of
the Dtr history, as spelled out by von Rad, as well as in certain reactions to
Dtr in later additions to the history (e.g. the David Saga). The paper will
take up a number of examples to illustrate these features. What I hope will become
clear are the great differences in the understanding of prophecy as prediction
within biblical historiography.
9:45-10:15 Mark J. Boda (McMaster
Divinity College)
Recycling Heaven's Words: Prophets, Angels
and Priests in the Historiography of Judges
It is often noted that the dominant historiographic structure in the book
of Judges is that of a five stage cycle of events which include: sin,
punishment, crying out, salvation, quiet (e.g., Amit 36-37; cf. Greenspahn
1986: 388). Others have suggested a four part cycle (Trompf 1979: 219-20) by
excluding the element quiet or a six part cycle (Mayes 1983: 61-62; cf. Gunn
1987: 104-105) by including the element of the raising up of the deliverer (cf.
OConnell 1996: 26n18). The present paper investigates the role of prophets and
other divine intermediaries within the historiographic structure of the book of
Judges, revealing that a word from the deity is as consistent as other elements
in this historiographic structure. A close look at the similarities and differences
between the various instances of this element within the book highlights a key
theme in the book and suggests the role of the book within a broader
Deuteronomic History/Former Prophets.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 Keith Bodner (Atlantic Baptist
University)
A Bad News Bearer: The Dramatic Fulfillment
of a Prophetic Word about the Dissolution of a Priestly Line
Even a brief glance at Thomas Rmers recent book on the Deuteronomistic
History is sufficient for noticing the great artistry of the overall story that
stretches from Joshua to Kings. Part of the allure of this history—as a
legion of commentators have observed—is the extraordinary cast of
characters that populate the Former Prophets. One such under-rated (yet
intriguing) character is Jonathan son of Abiathar, and I am proposing this
character for the subject of my paper. In the two prominent episodes in which
he appears, this member of the Elide line is used in a larger discussion about
succession, which is ironic, since he himself is banished into obscurity by the
succession of a rival house. Through the character of Jonathan the reader is
confronted with both literary issues of composition, and thematic issues at the
heart of the narrative.
11:00-11:30 Lissa M. Wray Beal
(Providence Theological Seminary)
Ahijah and Jeroboam: Template for Prophetic
Activity in the Book of Kings
The kingship of Jeroboam I, so crucial to the remainder of the Book of
Kings, is bounded and punctuated by prophetic interactions. In those
interactions, the fate of successive Israelite kings is found. Ahijah, in 1
Kgs. 11 proffers the word of hope for an enduring house, and in 1 Kgs. 14
delivers the fatal word of judgment against that house. In 1 Kgs. 13 the man of
God from Judah delivers the dramatic word against the altar, and is then
himself caught up in another prophetic interaction as commentary upon the
first. This paper explores the three prophetic interactions, noting the similar
means and motifs by which the prophetic word comes to Jeroboam, and the comparability
of those means and motifs to other prophetic words at similar junctures in
successive kingships. In this, the Jeroboam narrative provides a template for
prophetic activity throughout the Books of Kings. This paper also explores how
some of the prophetic interactions in Jeroboams reign are fulfilled within his
reign, while others remain open. Both the fulfilled and unfulfilled words in
Jeroboams reign provide narratological threads to connect this narrative to
the remaining history of the kings of Israel and Judah. Further, each works
together to provide a commentary upon the certainty of YHWHs prophetic word.
11:30-12:00 General Discussion
12:00-13:30 (TBA)
Women
Scholars Lunch / Casse-crote pour les femmes savants
13:30-17:30 (SA
406)
Ancient
Historiography Seminar / Groupe de Travail sur l'Historiographie Ancienne: Prophets and Prophecy in Ancient
Israelite Historiography (Session 2)
Chair / Prsident: Tyler F. Williams
13:30-14:00 Paul Evans (Ambrose University College)
Prophecy Influencing History: Dialogism in the Chroniclers Ahaz Narrative
The Chronicler's account of the reign of
Ahaz of Judah (2 Chronicles 28) has invariably been read in comparison with the
account in 2 Kings 16 (his putative Vorlage). Though the Chronicler follows the
general outline of 2 Kings 16 there are numerous differences between the
accounts (including the insertion of an encounter between Israelites and a
prophet) which interpreters have explained in various ways. Interestingly, 2
Chronicles 32:32 references the vision of Isaiah (which is the editorial
incipit and natural title of the canonical book) as a source employed by the
Chronicler, inviting the interpreter to view Chronicles in dialogue with the
book of Isaiah. Following this
lead, this study will examine the relationship between 2 Kings 16, Isaiah 7 and
2 Chronicles 28, drawing on Bakthins ideas of dialogism. While in the context of the
Syro-Ephraimite threat, Isaiah 7 emphasized the need for Ahaz to trust in
Yahweh (Isa 7:9) and clearly predicts that Assyria will trouble Ahaz severely
(Isa 7:17), in 2 Kings 16 Ahazs trust in/appeal to Assyria appears to
successfully end the Syro-Ephramite threat as Assyria comes to his aid. The potential for conflict between
these texts is obvious. As well, the
insertion of a new prophetic story into the Ahaz narrative may be influenced by
the prophetic encounter between Isaiah and Ahaz in Isaiah 7. This study
suggests that the texts of Isaiah and 2 Kings are positions that are answered
by Chronicles.
14:00-14:30 Ken Ristau (Penn State)
The Reconstruction of Jerusalem in Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: Finding History in Prophecy
Haggai and Zechariah are identified in
Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 as prophets at the time of the reconstruction of the temple
to Yahweh in Jerusalem. This, and the date formulations that appear in their
writings, have given scholars confidence that their books are among the
earliest of the Persian period and provide contemporary reflections on the
situation in Jerusalem. Among the biblical texts, this sets them apart; few
texts in the Bible are accepted today as contemporary to the events they
describe. Yet, using these texts to reconstruct our understanding of the period
is complicated by their prophetic genre. My paper will examine this problem
through a careful historical reading of the texts.
14:30-15:00 Ralph
J. Korner (McMaster
University)
The See-Saw History of Visionary Literary Devices in Hebrew Prophecy, and Beyond
My article in Novum Testamentum suggests a
reiterative macro-structure for Revelation that results from the use of three
visionary literary devices that occur within Jewish Second Temple apocalyptic
literature (And I Saw An Apocalyptic Literary Convention for Structural
Identification in the Apocalypse, NovT 42/2 [2000]:160-183). Although
not specifically addressed in my article, they also occur within prophetic
visionary literature in the Hebrew Bible. These three visionary literary
devices are: the space/time referent (Rev 1:9, 10), and I saw, and after
these things I saw. If one assumes that these three are used in a technical
literary fashion for the structural demarcation of visions, then greater
organizational clarity results for HB visionary texts, especially in Ezekiel,
Zechariah 1–6, and Daniel 7–12. Additionally, then, one sees
diachronic development from Amoss text (3rd person terminology)
through to Zechariah (1st person terminology) and on to later Jewish
and early Christian visionary literature. But of particular interest to ones
interpretation of the historiography in the apocalyptic section of Daniel (chs.
7–12), is the juxtaposition of 1st person visionary
terminology with prophetic superscriptions (e.g., Dan 7:1 in the first year
of King Belshazzar). In Ezekiel and Zechariah the concurrence of these two
elements seems to be a key factor in the ascription of prophetic authority to
their visionary texts. Daniels apocalyptic historiography also appears to be a
case in point. If this is so, then how does an acknowledgment of this mixed
genre better help one to see what the author of Daniels historiographical
message saw?
15:00-15:15 Break
15:15-15:45 John Kessler (Tyndale
Seminary)
Once again, the Motif of the Empty Land: Reflections on the Intersection
of History, Ideology and Community
in Sixth-Century BCE Literature.
This paper will present a
summary of the socio-demographic situation in Yehud in the mid- to late-sixth-century (BCE) in Yehud, then survey
the way in which this situations
is variously portrayed and explained in some of the literature of the period. The paper will conclude
with an examination of the way in which the complex, mutual interaction between
historical reality and ideological concerns shapes historical representation
within the biblical text.
15:45-16:15 Lisbeth S. Fried (University of Michigan)
The Role of the Prophets in Ezra 1-6
I have suggested in a previous article
(Fried 2008) that the authors of Ezra-Nehemiah attempted to describe a
restoration community that instantiated Ezekiels programmatic ideals. A major
component of those ideals was a belief that the prophets caused the downfall of
Judah and that they must never again enter the land of Judah (Ezek. 13:9). It
is likely to comply with Ezekiels ideology that prophets are noticeably absent
from the lists of returnees in Ezra 2=Nehemiah 7. In spite of this, the
prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah is portrayed in Ezra as instrumental in
ending the stoppage of work on the temple and in permitting it to continue
until the temple is completed (Ezra 5:1, 2 and 6:14). I suggest that after
creating the drama of the forced
cessation of work on the temple, the author had no way to get it started again.
He used the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah as a type of deus ex machina to unravel his plot and
so complete the work on the temple.
This use of the prophets expresses the authors very practical, but
mundane, conviction that sometimes they can inspire the people for good.
16:15-16:45 Colin M. Toffelmire (McMaster Divinity School)
(Re)Visionary History: Historical Reconstruction and Religious Identity in the Animal Apocalypse
The Animal Apocalypse of 1 Enoch 85-90
offers a unique example of ancient historiography in the guise of a prophetic
vision of the history of the people of Israel in which the players are
represented by animals. The
structure of the allegory is controlled by the primary image of clean v.
unclean. All of the animals
representing the people of God are clean animals, and all of the animals
representing the surrounding nations are unclean animals. Also of vital importance for the
rhetoric of the Animal Apocalypse are the roles of the primeval patriarch
Enoch. By assuming the mantle of
Enoch the pseudonymous author is able to offer his comments regarding Israelite
history and identity both as an authoritative prophet living in the ancient
past and also as a perfect priest able to enter the heavenly Temple (cf. 1 En
14-15). Through a close literary
examination, I argue that this controlling metaphor of clean v. unclean is used
by the author of the Animal Apocalypse, in concert with the dual
prophetic/priestly role of Enoch, to retell Israelite history, thereby
establishing both a religious history and identity for Jews living in Seleucid
era Yehud. History thus becomes a
frame in which the author sets his message of religious and militant
resistance.
16:45-17:15 General Discussion
17:15-17:30 Open Planning Session for Montral 2010
13:30-16:30 (SA 415)
Concepts of Ancient Jewish Discourse: Continuity and
Transformation (6th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) (Theme: Concept/s of
Prophecy)
Chair / Prsident: Hindy Najman (University of Toronto)
13:30-14:00 Ehud Ben-Zvi (University of Alberta)
Exile, Empty Land and the General Intellectual
Discourse in Yehud
The concept
and the associated meta-narrative of Empty Land required and
resulted in drastic and related processes of social memory creation
and forgetfulness whose success must be explained. This paper raises the issue
of whether the social and ideological success of these processes was
related, to a large extent at least, to a systemic preference
for Empty Land over its alternatives within the discourse of Yehud. In
particular, this paper will explore the multiple ways in which the
concept of Empty Land was deeply interwoven with a significant number of
other central images/motifs/metanarratives associated with the concept of
Exile in the general intellectual discourse of Yehud. In other words,
positive discursive connectedness played an important role in the development
of Empty Land.
14:00-14:30 Christine Mitchell (St.
Andrews College)
Earth-Empire in Haggai-Zechariah and Persian
Imperial Inscriptions
This paper is a comparative analysis of the concepts
of earth as a geographic term and as a socio-political term in
Haggai-Zechariah and the inscriptions of Darius the Great. Clarisse Herrenschmidt (1976) has
argued that while the words land/people (dahayu-) and kingdom (xšaa-)
were used in the Bisitun inscription to describe the area under Darius rule,
his later texts used a new word to describe the vastness of his dominion. This word earth (būmī-), previously meaning
land, soil, and used as the counterpart to heavens/sky, now came to have
the meaning of empire. In
Haggai-Zechariah, the Hebrew word ארץ, while still linked with place-names in such phrases as ארץ־יהודה (e.g.,
Zech 2:4), may be read when it stands alone as a counterpart to Darius būmī-. As such, the Hebrew texts use the
rhetoric of Persian texts in order to counterpoise the Persian Great King with
the divine king Yhwh. However, by
adopting this imperial rhetoric, these prophetic books divorce the concept of
the land from the people who inhabit it.
This move undoes the link between people, land and Yhwh that is so
important in earlier prophetic texts.
Geographic space is re-oriented from local connections with land to
universal connections with Yhwhs created order.
14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-15:15 Tim Langille (University of Toronto)
History as a Contested Space? The Invention of Tradition and Collective Memory,
Competing Narratives, Polemic Discourses, and the Exodus Narrative in Diaspora
Matt Matsuda
posits that [n]o history can be a pure event, pure evolution; each rather is a
repetition, a return to a story which must be retold, distinguished from its previous
telling. The past is not a truth upon which to build, but a truth sought, a
re-memorializing over which to struggle (The Memory of the Modern, 16). I will look at Josephus Contra
Apionem in attempt to determine whether or not we are dealing with a case of
history as a contested space (i.e., a struggle over re-memorialization) in a
polemic debate between Jewish and non-Jewish sources (i.e., Manetho,
Lysimachus, and Apion), as the power to narrate, or to block the formation of
other narratives, is central to disputed spaces. This paper takes a
mnemohistorical approach to explore the possibility that Alexandrian Jews
(re)invented tradition and created a new collective memory of Moses and the
Exodus narrative in response to their diaspora environment. More
specifically, this paper argues that Alexandrian Jews grafted new tradition and
collective memory onto older ones by creating new narratives from and drawing
off previously existing narratives in order to establish a presence in and to
elevate their part in the history of their Egyptian diaspora home.
15:15-15:45 C. J. Patrick
Davis (Trinity Western)
From Egypt to Babylon, Dispersion to Exile:
Symbolic Spaces in the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C
The most prominent
components of the Qumran composition entitled 4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C are
first, narrative expositions featuring the Prophet Jeremiah among the dispersed
Jews in Tahpanes in Egypt (4Q385a 18 ii), and then writing to the Babylonian
exiles from the Diaspora (4Q389 1). Second, are apocalyptic-style discourses
reviewing the history of the Second Temple period (4Q385a 4 1–9, 4Q387 2
ii, 4Q389 8 ii 1–4 and 4Q390 1 i–ii). In a recent article, Cana
Werman has challenged the inclusion of 4Q390 among the other fragments of the
Apocryphon, principally because the chronological breakdown of the 490-year
epoch appears distinct from what is presented in 4Q385a 4 1–9, 4Q387 2 ii
and 4Q389 8 ii 1–4. She considers the Apocryphon to be externally focused
in terms of its historical description while 4Q390 is consistently more
concerned with events taking place within Israel. What Werman has missed is
what will be the focus of this paper: How the dual-setting in Egypt and then
the public reading in Babylon provide a framework for understanding the
differences Werman has observed between the two historical schemata. This study
will elaborate upon three features of the fragments of the Apocryphon according
to their dual setting. First, differences in presentations in Egypt and
Babylon; second, distinctions in terminology and emphases; third, the function
of Jeremiah as a leadership critique. Finally, the employment of symbolic
spaces (Egypt and Babylon; Temple and land; nearness and distance) will be used
to show how the Apocryphon developed and functioned for different audiences in
different times and different places.
15:45-16:15 General Discussion of Papers
13:30-16:30 (SA 515)
Chair / Prsident: Steven Muir
13:30-14:00 Ronald Charles (University of Toronto)
Conquering the world in Joseph
and Aseneth
Respondent: Kimberly Stratton
(Carleton University)
I probe the question of how the narrative of Joseph
and Aseneth encourages travels to distant and inhabited lands, and how
it justifies itself. The narrative expresses an ideology of conquest, which
does not stop at the land of Egypt or to other lands. The text envisions
the re-arranging of the whole cosmos by and for the benefit of those who
would take refuge in the Jewish faith embraced by Aseneth and by people
like her. Thus, my argument is that Aseneths conversion has implications
that go beyond the individual dimension because the conquering of the
prized Aseneth seems to signal the conquering and the re-creation of the
whole cosmos.
14:00-14:30
Erin Vearncombe (University of Toronto)
Mapping,
Mission and Mimesis: Pauls Redefinition of Imperial Articulations of Travel
Respondent: Richard Ascough (Queens University)
Pauls
claims to travel in Romans 15 in particular function as status claims within
the larger domain of Roman imperial consciousness of spatiality and its
manipulation. Travel was vital to
the Empire not only on a practical level, but perhaps most significantly on a
rhetorical level, used to validate and emphasize Roman sovereignty. Paul uses and redefines imperial
travel-related rhetoric in order to achieve a remapping of the Empire,
offering an alternate polity with an alternate sovereign within the same
geographical boundaries.
14:30-15:00 Jane S. Webster (Barton College)
A Journey through the Book of Tobit: Travel and Magic in a Jewish Novel
Respondent: Anne Moore (University of Calgary
The apocryphal
Book of Tobit revolves around a journey. Tobit sends his son, Tobias, to
collect some money from a distant land accompanied by an angel in disguise and
a friendly dog. Together, they
have many picaresque adventures.
But the Book of Tobit alludes to other types of journeys as well: forced
travel into exile, righteous walking in the ways of truth and justice,
passage into death, and pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This paper will explore the
narrative motif of journeys and magic in the Book of Tobit and identify a
number of possible implications for its sociological context. Finally, it will
also consider various interpretations of the journey motif through art.
15:00-15:15 Break
15:15-15:45 Michele Murray (Bishops University)
Seeking Protection Along the Way: Magic and Travel in the Ancient Mediterranean
Respondent: Janet Tulloch (Carleton University)
Travel in the
ancient world was fraught with danger and uncertainty, but it was a necessary
and unavoidable part of life for many people. Some travellers, in an effort to
obtain a sense of protection, guidance, and security, engaged in religious and
magical practices and rituals as they made their ways along the roadways and
seaways of the ancient Mediterranean world. This paper will explore these types of behaviours,
particularly among Christian travellers.
15:45-16:15 Philip Harland (York University)
Journeys in Pursuit of Divine Wisdom: Stories of Thessalos and Other Seekers
Respondent: Terry Donaldson (University of Toronto)
The distraught
youth seeking answers to life's questions was a recurring image within the
thought-world of authors in antiquity.
Integral to this image was the motif of travel and wandering to find the
answers to these questions, and this travel could be quite extensive. These young wanderers, whose persistent
itch could only be scratched by finding god or philosophy, can be discovered in
sources ranging from Greco-Roman medicinal guide-books (Thessalos) and
satirical literature (Lucian) to early Christian novels (Clement).
16:15-16:45 Concluding Remarks: Steven Muir
19:30-21:00 (SA Theatre B)
Craigie
Lecture / La Confrence Craigie
Amy-Jill
Levine
Resurrecting
Late Judaism: Archaeology, Analysis, and Apologetic
Joint CSBS/CSSR/CTS/CSPS reception (hosted by CSBS)
21:00-23:00 (Loeb Lounge)
10:00-12:00 (SA 415)
Concepts of Ancient Jewish Discourse: Continuity and
Transformation (6th c. BCE-3rd c. CE)
Chair / Prsident: Ehud Ben-Zvi (place)
10:00-10:30 Judith Newman (Emmanuel
College)
Liturgical Imagination in the Composition of Ben
Sira.
Ben
Sira participates in a recognizable way in the pre-exilic wisdom genre, yet it
reconfigures that genre in its use of prayer and hymnic language which
punctuates its proverbial discourse throughout. Moreover, the book reflects a
textualized notion of wisdom drawing as well on the language of temple ritual.
Pre-exilic Israelite wisdom traditions rely on human reflection on the natural
world and social relations as the source of wisdom. By contrast, a soliloquy of
praise set in the mouth of the personified wisdom figure (Ben Sira 24)
identifies the font of wisdom as the divine sanctuary and the speech as a whole
is identified as the book of the covenant, the torah of Moses. The final
chapters of the book likewise point to the sanctuary. The composition and oral
transmission of wisdom discourse by the pious sage thus occurs through the
reconception of temple and prayer reflected in the book itself (Ben Sira
38:34b-39:11). By reassessing both the book's prayers and its temple discourse,
this essay will argue that the role of high priest in the temple as center of
the polity is ultimately trumped by the role of the pious prophetic sage as
himself the performative medium of divine instruction which includes his own
book. The ultimate (variant) shapes of the book whether in Hebrew, Greek, or
Syriac thus represent the extension of such scripturalized sapiential prayer
discourse that is part of the liturgical temper of the Greco-Roman era.
10:30-11:00 John Kloppenborg (University of
Toronto)
Soul Formation in Hellenistic Judaism.
The
paper discusses the development of discourse about soul formation in the
Testament of the XII Patriarchs, 4 Maccabees and James, and the influence of
Platonism and Stoicism on these writers.
11:00-11:30 Hindy Najman (University of Toronto)
The First and Second Destruction in the Late Ancient Jewish Imagination
Many post-70
CE texts represent and characterize the second destruction as though it were
the first destruction. This paper
considers the conception of exile and destruction in several post-70
Texts.
8:45-11:30 (SA 406)
New Testament World
Chair / Prsident: TBA
8:45-9:15 Pauline Hogan (Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Corner Brook NL)
Mary Baker Eddy and the Apocryphal Acts
There is a curious parallel between the
fictional situations created by the early Christian Apocryphal Acts of the
second and third centuries, and the real life situation of the late nineteenth
century religious figure who founded the Christian Science religious movement.
Mary Baker Eddy used biblical interpretation to confront the legal and medical
establishments of her day. There are similarities in the way the central
figures of many of the Apocryphal Acts challenged the legal and social powers
of their era. In both cases, the role of healing performed a central function.
9:15-9:45 Rene Baergen (Emmanuel College)
Capernaum and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
Scholarly tradition increasingly locates the Galilean Jesus in and around Capernaum: it is his center (EP Sanders) and headquarters (R Horsley), base (G Theissen) and hub (J Reed), emblematic of his kingdom (JD Crossan) and constitutive of his career (S Freyne). Despite this rhetorical celebration, however, the fact of Capernaum seems only rarely to have required engagement with the particular geographic conditions which make it so. This paper will explore the role of Capernaum in the reconstruction of Jesus and suggest very briefly some contours of a quest beyond geographical amnesia.
9:45-10:15 Daniel A. Smith (Huron University College)
Further into the Empty Tomb: Narrative, Apologetic, and Hagiographical Deployments in Early Christianity
This paper examines different trajectories of deployment
of the story of Jesus empty tomb in early Christianity after the canonical
gospels, detecting mainly an apologetic for the resurrection of the body
(construed as the resurrection of the flesh), but also some interesting
hagiographical applications of the logic of the empty tomb.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00
Matthew W. Mitchell (Canisius College)
Some More Light On the Text: the Apostle Paul as a Narrative Device in HBOs Deadwood.
Study of the
bible and film or religion and popular culture is a growth area for
scholars. This phenomenon can also be seen in other disciplines such as
philosophy, with books appearing on the philosophy of any number of
television shows or movies. As far as Pauline scholarship is concerned, these
studies tend to be exclusively thematic or topical given the relatively rare
direct use of Pauline materials by popular media. An exception occurs in Season
One of the HBO television series Deadwood,
in which recurring and explicit use of Pauls letters is made. In this paper,
however, rather than concentrating on the biblical texts interpretation, the
approach favored by most scholarship in this area, I will examine the role of
the Pauline text as a narrative device within the television show, as well as
reflecting on the methodological issues that arise for biblical scholars
seeking to explore popular media.
11:00-11:30 Adele Reinhartz
(University of Ottawa)
Media-ting the Bible: Searching for Scripture
in Digital Image and Sound
In recent decades, biblical
studies has broadened its purview beyond historical, theological and
philological issues to investigate the ongoing role of the Bible for
contemporary culture, with particular focus on Bible and film. Research in this
area, however, is hindered by the sheer number of films that use Bibles,
biblical quotation and biblical motifs, and the inability to search films
rapidly for relevant material. To
address the latter problem, an interdisciplinary (Arts, Engineering) research
collaboration has been created at the University of Ottawa, funded through the
SSHRC Strategic Program Image, Text, Sound and Technology (2008-2009). This paper will briefly discuss the
strategy adopted by the ITST research team and provide a live demonstration
of the tool that illustrates the research done to date.
8:45-12:00 (SA 403)
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament / Bible Hbraque/Ancien
Testament II
Chair / Prsident: TBA
8:45-9:15 William Morrow (Queens University)
Cruel God in the Context of Joban Scholarship
I am responsible for the entry on Margaret Brackenbury Crook (1886-1972) in the Dictionary of Women Interpreters
(forthcoming from Baker Press). Among her accomplishments as a biblical scholar
is her monograph, The Cruel God: Jobs
Search for the Meaning of Suffering (Beacon Press, 1959). This paper will
contextualize The Cruel God within
contemporary trends in Joban scholarship. Among other topics, attention will be
paid to her theory that the structure of the book resembles a series of
lectures, her assignment of a Babylonian provenance to the original book, and
source criticism of the Elihu speeches.
9:15-9:45 Joel N. Lohr (Trinity Western University)
In What Sense Desire? Reexamining tĕšq and
Its Reception History
The
curse Eve receives in the Genesis creation story includes not only a
pronouncement that she would experience increased pain in childbearing but also
an unclear statement indicating that her desire would be for her husband and
that he will rule over her (Genesis 3:16). The underlying word for desire
used here, tĕšq, is found
in only two other places in the MT (Genesis 4:7 and Song of Songs 7:11 [7:10])
and its reception history suggests a complicated and potentially confused
picture. Non-Hebrew versions of
these passages only complicate the issue further. In this paper, I examine the
textual and translational history of the term before investigating the terms
history of interpretation. I argue
that our understanding of desire may be faulty and/or in need of adjustment.
9:45-10:15 Daniel A. Machiela (McMaster University)
The Translation of Elijah: The
Morphology of the Elijah-Elisha Narrative in the Ancient Versions and Their
Relevance to Second Temple Messianism
This paper will take a
detailed look at the way in which the Elijah-Elisha material from 1-2 Kings is
attested and received within the Hebrew Bible itself (i.e. inner-biblical
exegesis), especially the books of Chronicles and Malachi, and then examine how
these accounts are dealt with in the versions and certain manuscripts from
Qumran. Through such an approach we may discern the gradual conflation of these
texts, and the development of the idea that Elijah would precede and herald the
messianic era.
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:00 R. Glenn Wooden (Acadia)
Antiochus IV Epiphanes in History,
Theology, and Translation
The intersection of the thinly veiled chronicle
of Antiochus IV in Daniel 11:21-45, other sources for the life of Antiochus,
and the relatively quick translation of Daniel into Greek all make the Old
Greek a text where history might have led to an informed, clarified, or
corrected translation. In Daniel, the translation of negev by Egypt and Kittim by
Romans have
confirmed this for scholars (Hanhart 1981; van der Kooij 1986; Dines
2008) and led them to find other alterations. I
propose that 11:40-45 should be used to determine whether the translator knew
to what Dan 11 referred, but this raises doubts about the common assumptions.
11:00-11:30 Steven Scott (University of Ottawa)
The Binitarian Nature of the Book of Daniel
This a follow up paper to my The Binitarian Nature of the Book of
Similitudes (JSP 2008). In that
paper I argued that there is a distinction made between the Lord of Spirits
(the El manifestation of God) and the Name of the Lord of Spirits (the YHWH
manifestation of God). In this
presentation, I will do a careful analysis of Daniels visions, and argue that
the Son of Man figure is best seen as the YHWH manifestation of God. Parallels
in imagery with earlier texts (primarily Ezekiel) are drawn upon.
11:30-12:00 Heather Macumber (St. Michaels College)
The
Right Way to Mediate: Human and Angelic Interaction in Zechariah 1-8 and
the Book of Watchers
Second Temple literature abounds with occurrences of angelic figures who mediate between the earthly and divine realms. Zechariah 1-8 recounts the actions of an interpreting angel who reveals heavenly mysteries to Zechariah and directly petitions God on behalf of Jerusalem. In The Book of Watchers, a similar intercession for humanity is made by the four archangels. In addition, a curious distortion of angelic mediation occurs between the seer Enoch and the fallen Watchers. This paper will compare and contrast the models of human and angelic interaction found in Zechariah 1-8 and The Book of Watchers and evaluate their contribution to the development of apocalyptic literature.
13:00-16:15 (SA 406)
New Testament: Paul, Acts, 1 Peter, and Revelation
Chair / Prsident: Matthew Mitchell (Canisius College)
13:00-13:30 Nick Meyer (McMaster University)
Jews, Gentiles and Pauls Polemical Text: 1 Thess.
2.14-16 in Socio-Historical and Theological Context
The text of 1 Thess. 2.14-16
has generated many controversies and interpretive cruxes, not least for its
stunning attack on the Jews. I will argue that though Paul does not directly
credit the suffering of his converts to the Jewish community of Thessalonica,
the rejection of Pauls message by the majority of Jews there had exacerbating
social effects on Pauls converts and left Paul and them in a social and
theological conundrum. This situation will then be used to illuminate Pauls
surprising juxtaposition of the model Judean churches with severe polemics
against the Jews.
13:30-14:00 Catherine
Jones (St. Michaels College)
Theatre of Shame: A New Reading of 1 Cor 9 in
light of the Implications of Pauls Manual Labour
For many scholars, Paul is viewed as
having freely chosen to engage in manual labour to safeguard his freedom as an
apostle of Christ. Using 1 Cor 9 as the interpretative key, Paul is seen as
refusing the material support offered to him by the Corinthian congregation,
financial support that was rightfully his given Pauls accepted status as an
apostle. Such an interpretation, however, fails to take into account the fact
that 1 Cor 9 is a problematic text in that it is unable to explain other texts
in the Pauline corpus where manual labour is portrayed as a scenario of shame
and dishonour. I will demonstrate that manual labourers in an ancient
Mediterranean context were deemed slavish and contemptible. The life of a
manual labourer was analogous to a theatre of shame, a picture that is
confirmed by Paul himself. Thus, Pauls descriptions of the context and
implications of his manual labour suggest that he was not as self-evidently an
apostle as he appears to contend in 1 Cor 9.
14:00-14:30 Margaret Y. MacDonald (St. Francis Xavier University)
Ambivalent Ideals: Women and the Household in Acts 16
Comparison of assessments of the role of Lydia in
recent scholarship offers an interesting study into the variety of feminist
readings of Acts and of the tension between historical and literary/rhetorical
readings. At the heart of the
debate is the issue of Lydias social status. In contrast to liberationist
readings which have understood Lydia as a historical figure of humble means
calling together a type contrast society, some scholars have viewed Lydia as
a fictional character shaped by the ancient motif of the involvement elite
women in the reception of religions. This paper considers whether a focus on
families challenges any common assumptions about the women of Acts that have
emerged especially in recent feminist analysis. Household ideals and the
house-church setting will figure prominently in the discussion.
14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-15:15 Rev. Frank Z. Kovcs (North-West University, South Africa)
Acts 27-28: Lukan Paul as Servant in the Dynamics of Gods Salvation
The last two chapters of Acts examined
in terms of the Lukan presentation of Paul is revealing, particularly the
depiction of Paul as Gods servant in the context of Gods programme of
salvation. The Lukan Paul viewed
from this perspective, relating servant to salvation, seems to shed greater
light on the dynamics of the spread of the Gospel. The field of inquiry consists of two general areas, the
Lukan characterisation of Paul and the dynamics of Gods programme of inclusive
salvation. The characterization of
Paul is focused to include the role of servant by examining the legitimating
features in the narrative and discourses dealing with both Pauls character and
his commission. In this way Lukan
Paul emerges as Gods servant whom endures hardships along his journey and as a
result facilitates the spread of the Gospel.
15:15-15:45 Keir Hammer (Taylor University College)
Rebirthed by God the Father
Scholars of 1 Peter
have argued that various terms from the introductory portions of this early
Christian letter serve as key metaphors for the work as a whole. Suffering, diaspora, and strangers are
some of the terms that have been highlighted in 1 Peters opening. Unfortunately little attention has been
paid to the role of rebirth language within this texts structure. In this paper I will argue that rebirth
language is much more important to the letters opening than has been
previously assumed and will demonstrate using repetitive-progressive texture
(an analysis that comes from Socio-Rhetorical criticism) that rebirth language
is part of a larger progressive pattern that shapes the thrust of the work as a
whole.
15:45-16:15 Ralph J. Korner (McMaster University)
Understanding the Reiterative Structure of the Book of Revelation:
Dont be Left Behind.
Contra to a dispensational reading of Revelations text (e.g., the popular Left Behind series), I demonstrate a reiterative narrative for the Apocalypse that is based upon an objectively determined structure, one which is anchored in the original audiences historical and literary contexts (And I Saw An Apocalyptic Literary Convention for Structural Identification in the Apocalypse, NovT 42/2 [2000]:160-183). This reiterative reading results from the use of three literary devices that also occur throughout visionary literature in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Jewish Second Temple and early Christian apocalyptic literature. They are: the space/time referent (Rev 1:9, 10); and I saw; and after these things I saw. I shared this presentation in 2007 in St. Andrews (Scotland).
13:00-16:45 (SA 403)
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament / Bible Hbraque/Ancien
Testament III
Chair / Prsident: William Morrow (Queens University)
13:00-13:30 J. Richard Middleton (Roberts Wesleyan College)
Against You, You Alone, Have I Sinned: An
Intertextual Reading of Psalm 51
Out of 150 psalms in the MT,
seventy-three are connected to David through their superscriptions. Of the thirteen
that make an explicit link to some event in Davids life, the most famous is
Psalm 51, which references the liaison with Bathsheba and the subsequent
confrontation with the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 11-12). Although there are some phrases in
Psalm 51 that might corroborate this as Davids prayer of confession, there are
others that problematize such a connection. Taking into account the complex issue of Davidic
superscriptions (including the divergent testimony of the MT, DSS and LXX),
this paper will explore an intertextual reading of Psalm 51 such that the psalm
calls into question aspects of Davids response in 2 Samuel 11-12. The paper
will also attend to the psalms allusion to Exodus 34:6-7, the occasion when
YHWH forgave Israels sin of idolatry (the golden calf), and its possible
relevance to this reading.
13:30-14:00 Tyler F. Williams (Taylor University College)
Psalm 151: An Orphan in the Greek Psalter
Psalm 151 is unique within the
Septuagint Psalter in that it has no corresponding parent text in the Masoretic
book of Psalms; as such it is marked as e[xwqen tou' ajriqmou' (outside the
number). The discovery of two
Hebrew psalms related to LXX Psalm 151 among the Dead Sea Scrolls (Psalms 151A
and 151B in 11Q5), has raised significant questions surrounding its
relationship to these psalms and the nature of its Vorlage. In this paper I
will explore these questions and any implications they may have to our
understanding of the development of the book of Psalms.
14:00-14:30 Carmen Palmer (Emmanuel College)
Luther
and the Torah Psalms: Luthers Means of Working within a Mosaic Law
Understanding
In his fight against
indulgences in the Catholic Church, Martin Luther is famously known for his
polemic between law and gospel.
Any biblical text deemed to suggest that works were required for
salvation would simply not suffice.
But how would he apply these ideals to the Torah Psalms, (specifically
Psalms 1, 19, and 119), the Psalms which view law or instruction in a
positive light? In the following
study of Luthers lectures on the Torah Psalms, we will discover that Luthers
views hinge on what, precisely, he defines this Law to be. Finally, we will observe that Luthers
understanding of Psalm 119 as Mosaic Law ultimately differs from modern
historical-critical assessments of this Torah/Law as potentially a
non-Pentateuchal source of law, and note what implications this would have on
Luthers conclusions.
14:30-14:45 Break
14:45-15:15 Peter W. Flint (Trinity Western University)
Towards the First Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible: The Oxford
Hebrew Bible Project
One
of the last great lacunae in Biblical Scholarship is the complete lack of a
critical (eclectic) edition of the Hebrew Bible. This paper briefly affirms the
need for critical texts by tracing scholarly editions of the New Testament and
the Septuagint, culminating in Novum
Testamentum Grace and the Gttingen
Septuagint editions. It then shows how most modern English translation of
the Hebrew Scriptures are based on the received Masoretic Text (as in the
medieval Leningrad Codex and Aleppo Codex), but in reality presume an eclectic
parent text by adopting more than 100 new readings from the Qumran Scrolls
and/or the Septuagint. The question will then be addressed of why almost all
Biblical scholars have resisted a critical (eclectic) edition of the Hebrew
Bible, instead upholding the supremacy of the Masoretic Text. Finally, the
Oxford Hebrew Bible Project (OHB) will be introduced, with a few illustrations
from the Book of Psalms, which I am preparing for the OHB project as my major
research project.
15:15-15:45 Margaret
Hebron (Trinity Western University)
The Oxford Hebrew Bible Project and the Book of Psalms: An Introduction
to the Project, as Illustrated by Psalm 145
The purpose of this paper is
to introduce the Oxford Hebrew Bible Project (OHB) and explain its importance
for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. While text critical editions exist
for the New Testament, no critical text of the Hebrew Bible has ever been
published. Ron Hendel, the general editor for the OHB, anticipates that the OHB
will greatly encourage further productivity in the field and inspire similar
publications. I will focus specifically on the Book of Psalms, being prepared
by Professor Peter W. Flint, and will examine key passages in the acrostic
Psalm 145 with a special interest in readings from the Dead Sea Scrolls that
will be used in the critical text. Some of these readings have already been
incorporated by English Bibles such as the RSV and NIV.
15:45-16:15 Gerbern S. Oegema (McGill University)
Early Judaism and
Modern Culture
This paper presents the main
thesis developed in my forthcoming book titled Early Judaism and Modern
Culture: Essays on Early Jewish Literature and Theology (Eerdmans 2009). In it
I explore the literature and theology of Early Judaism (300 BCE – 200 CE)
from a hermeneutical point of view in order to identify its importance for
today. I look at what theologically can be said about the contents of these writings.
How do the ancient authors treat topics such as the authority of the Bible, the importance of
philosophy, the quest for religious identity, the relevance of the literary
world, gender, ethics, the inter-religious dialogue and politics?