Visiting Edinburgh

We were spending a weekend recently in Edinburgh, Scotland, for some days of relaxation. On Friday we included a visit to Divinity School, attending a session in their Biblical Seminar. Prof Francis Watson (Durham) , was visiting the seminar too, presenting a lecture on “New Discoveries, Missed Opportunities: Reflexions on Modern Gospel Scholarship.” Maybe my expectations were wrong or too high, but I was a little bit disappointed as the “New Discoveries” were the discoveries of The Gospel of Peter and The Gospel of Thomas, and the reactions of Rendel Harris and W. Sanday in the latter half of the nineteenth century….. The brief discussions after the lecture was, however, dealing more with present day issues.

The session was directed by the guy who has written the most interesting recent study on Christ language/Messianism in Paul; Matthew V Novenson. Larry Hurtado was there too, but I did not get close enough to him; however, I was able to shake hands with Paul Foster. I had been reading an interesting article by him on the plane from Stavanger ( highly recommended article; P. Foster, Memory, Orality, and the Fourth Gospel: Three Dead-Ends in Historical Jesus Research, JSHJ 10(2012):191-227). In this article he presents important criticism of the use of research on memory, orality issues in antiquity, and the Gospel of John in recent research on the historical Jesus.

The rest of the weekend we spent sight-seeing and shopping in Edinburgh, including an interesting bus tour to Newhaven.

New book on 1 Peter coming

A new volume on 1 Peter is coming in October this year, published by de Gruyter. In honor of the 100^th anniversary of Goppelt’s birth, a collection of essays was compiled by renowned scriptural scholars working in key areas of modern research on the First Epistle. They focus on the First Epistle’s historical and communicative setting, the author’s use of metaphor and rhetoric, and situate the First Epistle in the context of the theological history of early Christianity:

David du Toit ed., Bedrängnis und Identität. Studien zu Situation, Kommunikation und Theologie des 1. Petrusbriefes (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 200; de Gruyter, 2013).

I have a piece on 1 Peter and its readers, in which I in particular discuss what we in fact can know about them, and Witherington’s view of the readers as Jewish readers.

N.T. Wright on NotaBene

Having been an enthusiastic user of NotaBene since spring 1985, when the editor of the Norwegian journal Humanistiske Data offered me a copy if I would write a review of the program – which he th0ught was something new on the marked – I still consider it as not only one of the best, but probably the best word processor suite for scholarly writing.

Now it is a pleasure to see that also N.T. Wright is joining in praising the program: “When I take on new graduate students, I always ask them what software they’re using. I tell them what they need in their software (not least, in Biblical Studies, the ancient languages – but also the reference tools, the bibliography, and so much more), and how Nota Bene provides exactly that. It will do everything you can think of and want, and plenty more besides.” You can read the rest of his story of -and with- NotaBene here.

Some may say I must be well paid by NotaBene to present such a praise; but I am not,- not a single Norwegian øre! 🙂 Just pure enthusiasm.

SBL Philo Seminar Papers

A new link has been added on my Resource Pages for Biblical Studies, adding a section on the papers to be presented in the Philo Seminar at the SBL Annual Meeting in November: http://torreys.org/philo_seminar_papers/

The Stavanger International Conference on Disability, Illness and Religion

The Stavanger International Conference on Disability, Illness and Religion 7-9 May 2014, at The School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger, Norway, aims to promote discussions within the fields of theology and religious studies that focus on illness and disability.

Disability studies, Dignity studies and other interdisciplinary approaches are fairly new approaches in these fields. These perspectives have, however, become important avenues for new insights. Within the field of Biblical Studies, we have seen several edited volumes and monographs that engage with Disability Studies and apply this approach on the biblical texts. Within systematic theology we have seen constructive attempts at creating a disability theology. Within religious studies, we have seen engagements with issues such as the intersection of religion, disability, literature and art, and the intersection of environmental crisis and disability. Further investigations are nevertheless called for and should be encouraged.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: Oct. 1, 2013

How to submit an abstract and register? Please send email with name, address, credentials, institution, phone, email and title of abstract to Anna Rebecca Solevag: ars@mhs.no. For questions, send email to Anna Rebecca Solevag or Stian Eriksen, stian.eriksen@mhs.no. Abstracts should be approximately 500 words.

For more info on submitting papers, see here.

Philo at SBL Annual Meeting (III)

Outside the sessions of the Philo group sessions mentioned below, Philo is referred to or studied in many other papers. Below is a review of some of the other instances I have discovered that Philo is dealt with by way of some discussions of issues found in his books and in other comparable works. I cannot claim to have found all the papers relevant, but here are some:

• in the S26-117 (Nov 26,a session on Hellenistic Judaism, at 11/26/2013 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Room: 334 – Convention Center, where the theme i Myth and History in Hellenistic Judaism , Sandra Gambetti, College of Staten Island, will be presiding, and Virginia Wayland, University of Pennsylvania, will read a paper on History as Paideia in Philo of Alexandria’s Life of Moses (25 min);
• Of the five papers read in the S26-126 Session on Pauline Epistles (11/26/2013 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM Room: 346 – Convention Center), there will be two papers dealing with Philo’s thoughts: Stefan Nordgaard from Københavns Universitet/University of Copenhagen, will read a paper on Paul, Philo, and the Genesis of the Law: The Case of Galatians (25 min), and G. Anthony Keddie, University of Texas at Austin, will deal somewhat with Philo in his paper on Freedom, Slavery, Torah: The Freedom Paradigm and the Mosaic Law in 2 Cor 3:1-4:6 (25 min).
• In a somewhat earlier session (S23-212Disputed Paulines; 11/23/2013 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, Room: Holiday 1 – Hilton), dealing with the theme: Pastoral Epistles), Tyler A. Stewart from Marquette University, will present a paper on Graduation in a Pauline School: “Progress” in the Pastoral Epistles, Philo, Plutarch, and Epictetus (25 min).
• Likewise, in a session (S24-230, 11/24/2013, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, in
  Room: 347 – Convention Center), dealing with the main theme Intertextuality in the New Testament, having as its subtheme The Intertextuality of the Letter to the Hebrews: The Use of Scripture Guided by Contemporary Literary Traditions, Ken Schenck, Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University, will present a paper on Contact: How Hebrews and Philo Connected Scriptures Together (25 min).
• Then, in a seminar dealing with Senses and Culture in the Biblical World (S24-342, 11/24/2013, 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM, Room: Armistead – Hilton), in a session on Sensory Encounters and Sensory Rituals, Allen Kerkeslager, Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, PA) will deal with the violence in Alexandria in 38 CE: Sensory Pageantry in Imperial Funerary Rituals as a Stimulus for the Violence in Alexandria in 38 CE (25 min).

These are the relevant papers I have found so far; if I have overlooked some, please notify me by using the e-mail address found at the bottom of this page.

Philo at SBL Annual Meeting (II)

In addition to the sessions mentioned below, there is also a Joint Session With: Philo of Alexandria, Midrash:

S25-231 Philo of Alexandria
Joint Session With: Philo of Alexandria, Midrash
11/25/2013 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: 321 – Convention Center
Theme: Biblical Interpretation in Philo and Other Early Exegetes: Uses and Influences
Rivka Ulmer, Bucknell University, Presiding
David Nelson, Groton School, Presiding

Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Catholic University Milan and Durham University
Philo’s Doctrine of Apokatastasis: Philosophical Sources, Exegetical Strategies, and Aftermath</i> (30 min)
Jason Sturdevant, North Carolina State University
God – “Not Like a Human” yet “Like Humans”: Divine Adaptability and the Logos in Philo of Alexandria (30 min)
Break (15 min)
Horacio Vela, University of Notre Dame
Stoic Interpretations of Gen 2:7 at Alexandria? (30 min)
Deborah Forger, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Divine Embodiment in the Gospel of John & Philo’s De Opificio Mundi (30 min)
Discussion (15 min)