Philo at SBL Annual Meeting I

This year the Philo Group has been changed to a Philo Seminar; the seminar papers will be made available on-line a few weeks before the annual meeting so that they can be read in advance. At both sessions, presenters will summarize their papers to allow more time to discuss each contributor’s work. Here are the various sessions and lectures to attend:

S23-237 Philo of Alexandria
11/23/2014 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Room 1 B (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC)
Theme: Philo’s Legal Exegesis
Ellen Birnbaum, Independent Scholar, Presiding
Maren R. Niehoff, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Philo’s Rationalisation of the Jewish Law in Greco-Roman Context (25 min)
Yedidya Etzion, University of California-Berkeley
Philo’s Sabbath: A Study in Philo’s Jewish Law (25 min)
Daniel R. Streett, Durham University
Philo’s Exegesis of the Biblical Festival Laws: Arithmology, Askesis, and Imitatio Dei (25 min)
Break (15 min)
Michael Francis, University of Notre Dame
Wasted Seed and Sins of Intent: Sexual Ethics in Spec. 3.34-36 in the Case of Infertile Marriage (25 min)
Horacio Vela, University of Notre Dame
A New Command: Philo as Lawgiver and Interpreter in the Case of the Egyptian Blasphemer (25 min)
Discussion (10 min)

S25-130 Philo of Alexandria
11/25/2014 9:00 AM to 11:45 AM
Room: Room 33 C (Upper level) – San Diego Convention Center (CC)
Theme: Philo’s De Decalogo
Ronald Cox, Pepperdine University, Presiding
Sarah Judith Pearce, University of Southampton
‘Excellent and profitable for life’: Philo on the Decalogue (15 min)
Hindy Najman, Yale University
Response to Sarah Pearce (15 min)
Discussion (30 min)
Break (15 min)
James R. Royse, Claremont, CA
The Text of Philo’s De Decalogo (15 min)
Abraham Terian, National Academy of Sciences / Armenia
The Armenian Textual and Interpretive Traditions of Philo’s De Decalogo (15 min)
Manuel Alexandre Jr., Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Rhetorical Texture and Pattern in Philo of Alexandria’s De Decalogo (15 min)
Discussion (30 min)
Business Meeting (15 min)