65 or 85; does it matter?

 Just wanted to show a picture from the seminar that was held yesterday on the occasion of my 65th birthday (see programme below). My colleague Jostein Ådna, was the organizer; both he and a former PhD student and now general secretary in the Norwegian Bible society, Ingeborg Mongstad Kvammen lectured,— and so did also my doctor-father, prof Peder Borgen. He is 20 years older than me, but had an informative lecture on “Norwegian research on Philo of Alexandria in the latter half of the last century. Some observations.”
Here you can see him listening to my comments after his lecture.

His vitality gives one hopes of still some more years to go!

Philo, James and 1 Peter

Thursday May 30, 2013, the owner and writer of this Blog turns 65. On this occasion The School of Mission and Theology invites  to a seminar in honor of the jubilee, where central  points of his research will be focused. The seminar consists of three sessions with lectures followed by discussion.

Program :
10:00 to 11:30 am.  Session 1:
Welcome by Jostein Ådna, head of the Department of Biblical Studies at MHS
Lecture by Professor dr.theol. Peder Johan Borgen, PhD:
“Norwegian research on Philo of Alexandria in the latter half of the last century. Some observations.”

11:30 to 12:30: Lunch in the canteen with cakes, speeches and celebration of the jubilee

12:30 to 1:45 p.m.: Session 2:
Lecture by General Secretary  (Norwegian Bible Society),  Ingeborg Mongstad Kvammen, PhD:   “Toward a Post Colonial Reading of the Epistle of James”

1:45 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Break with fruit

2:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Session 3:
Lecture by Professor dr.theol. Jostein Ådna:
“Interpretion of Scripture and theological argumentation in Peter’s first letter”
After the lectures there will  questions and comments.

NT Seminar at MHS

Torsdag 30. mai 2013 fyller professor Torrey Seland 65 år. I den anledning inviterer Misjonshøgskolen til et seminar til ære for jubilanten, der tyngdepunkter i hans forskning vil stå sentralt. Seminaret består av tre økter med foredrag etterfulgt av diskusjon.

Program:
Sted: Sted: Amfiauditorium 215
10.00–11.30
Sesjon 1
Velkomst ved Jostein Ådna, leder for Seksjon for bibelvitenskap ved Misjonshøgskolen
Foredrag ved professor dr.theol. Peder Johan Borgen, PhD:
“Norsk Filonforskning i siste halvdel av det forrige århundre. Noen observasjoner.”

11.30–12.30: Lunsj i kantinen med kake, taler og hyllest av jubilanten

12.30–13.45: Sesjon 2
Foredrag ved generalsekretær Ingeborg Mongstad-Kvammen, PhD:
“Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Epistle of James”

13.45–14.15 Pause med frukt

14.15–15.30 Sesjon 3
Foredrag ved professor dr.theol. Jostein Ådna:
“Skrifttolkning og teologisk argumentasjon i Peters første brev”
15.30–15.45 Avrunding

Etter foredragene åpnes det for spørsmål og kommentarer, med jubilanten som første respondent.

Foredragssesjonene er åpne, men de som ønsker å nyte godt av gratis lunsjbord, varme og kalde drikker og pausefrukt, bes om å registrere seg som seminardeltakere. Påmelding skjer til Jostein Ådna, på e-post (jostein.aadna@mhs.no) eller telefon (51516228), innen 28. mai.

Rejoice, Dear Zion!

One of my colleagues, Prof. Magnar Kartveit, at The School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger-Norway, is publishing a new book this spring:

Rejoice, Dear Zion! Hebrew Construct Phrases with “Daughter” and “Virgin” as Nomen Regens (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 447) Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013. 210 p.

In this forthcoming publication he discusses the phrase “Daughter of Zion” from a linguistic point of view, using methaphor theory and irony as tools.

The German publisher promotes the book thus:”
The phrase “Daughter of Zion” is in recent Bible translations often rendered “Daughter Zion”. The discussion behind this change has continued for decades, but lacks proper linguistic footing. Parlance in grammars, dictionaries, commentaries and textbooks is often confusing.
The present book seeks to remedy this defect by treating all relevant expressions from a linguistic point of view. To do this, it also discusses the understanding of Hebrew construct phrases, and finds that while there is a morphological category of genitive in Akkadian, Ugaritic and Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac do not display it. The use of this term as a syntactical category is unfortunate, and the term should be avoided in Hebrew grammar. Metaphor theory and the use of irony are also tools in the discussion of the phrases.
As a result of the treatment, the author finds that there are some Hebrew construct phrases where nomen regens describes the following nomen rectum, and the description may be metaphorical, in some cases also ironical. This seems to be the case with “Daughter of Zion” and similar phrases. This understanding calls for a revision of the translation of the phrases, and new translations are suggested.”

Pauls_Ethical_Methodology

Scott D. Mackcie has posted a new article on his blog, this time on a pauline letter:

“The Two Tables of the Law and Paul’s Ethical Methodology in 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 and 10:23–11:1,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 75.2 (2013): 315–334.

Congratulations to Scott for having an article published in Catholic Biblical Quarterly.

Larry Hurtado Blog

Professor emeritus at Divinity school, Edinburgh University, has published some interesting postings in the recent weeks. Here he deals with topics central to his books on early Christology, see especially Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (2003), and his How On Earth Did Jesus Become a God?(2005).

I would like like to refer to these postings on his Blog called Larry Hurtado’s Blog:
“Revelatory” Experiences and Religious Innovation (April 15)

“I had been asked to focus on religious experience in my Rice lecture, and so took the opportunity to re-visit matters and treat in more detail some direct evidence in early Christian texts. I began by clarifying what I mean by “revelatory” experiences, distinguishing these from other types of religious experiences. In experiences of “revelation”, the recipient senses some significant new cognitive content, and/or some major re-configuring of previous beliefs, often with an accompanying sense of mission to proclaim the new insight/belief. I emphasize that we don’t have to grant the religious/theological validity of the claimed revelation; we simply have to recognize the genuineness of the claim to having such experiences and the efficacy of such experiences in generating religious innovations.”
Read more here.

“Early Christian Monotheism” (April 19)

“I began by discussing “the Terminology Question”, specifically debates about whether in fact it is misleading to refer to ancient Jewish or Christian “monotheism”. The problem is that (1) the term is of relatively recent vintage (18th century), and, more seriously, (2) that the standard dictionary definition is belief in the existence of only one God (or, correspondingly, denial of the existence of any other gods). All our evidence of ancient Jewish tradition is either inconclusive about whether the existence of other deities was denied, or else is pretty clear that their existence wasn’t denied. Ancient Jews (and Christians) seem to have been more concerned to refuse the worship of other deities, and not so much their existence.
I respond by noting, however, that …..” Read more here.

Jesus in early Christian Prayer (April 24)

“In previous postings I gave concise summaries of the thrust of my recent guest lecture in Rice University and one of the two lectures in Houston Baptist University. In this posting I want to summarize the other HBU lecture: “The Place of Jesus in Earliest Christian Prayer and its Import for Early Christian Identity.”” Read more here.

Mideast Bible Blog

A new interesting blog has recently been established by Dr. Willem J. de Wit
Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, called Mideast Bible.
Mideast Bible is a website dedicated to reading and studying the Bible and theology through Middle Eastern eyes. The site is best understood as a bridge with two-way traffic:
on the one hand it informs interested people all over the world about Middle Eastern perspectives on the Bible and theology;
on the other hand it draws attention to global developments in Biblical Studies and theology (and sometimes higher education more in general) that may be of interest to Middle Eastern students, pastors, and theologians.

Go to http://mideastbible.com/
So far prof de Wit has mostly posted references to other webpages etc, but hopefully we may also see more substantive articles and other goodies.