Society of Biblical Literature
Bible trouble; queer reading at the boundaries of biblical scholarship.
The title is a play on Judith Butler's Gender Trouble (1990), as this collection of 16 essays engages queer theory in biblical interpretation; "boundaries" refers to queer theory increasingly being applied in contexts broader than sexuality and gender. Hornsby (religious studies, Drury U., Springfield, Missouri) and Stone (Bible, culture, and hermeneutics, Chicago Theological Seminary) see parallels between hegemonic binaries or queerness and the creation out of chaos in Genesis. Queer theologians and other scholars critique historical-critical exegesis and view the relationships of such biblical characters as David and Saul, and the gender reversals of Jael, Deborah, and Rahab through the lenses of contemporary identity politics (e.g., portrayed in the film Paris is Burning). (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Blood expiation in Hittite and biblical ritual; origins, context, and meaning.
In a thorough revision of his May 2009 doctoral dissertation at Bar-Ilan University, Feder (Bible and Semitic languages, Bar-Ilan U.) examines the use of blood to purge the effects of sin and impurity in Hittite and biblical ritual. The idea that blood atones for sins is prominent in both Jewish and Christian traditions, he says, and he traces it back to its earliest documentation in the ancient Near East. His study starts with the discovery of a set of rites documented in Hittite texts from the 14th to 13th centuries BCE in which the smearing of blood is used as a means of expiation, purification, and consecration. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Hazon Gabriel; new readings of the Gabriel revelation.
A little over a decade ago, a grey limestone with a Hebrew inscription surfaced from an unknown history, and has been thoroughly studied by scholars in a number of disciplines since. Here are 11 papers from a February 2009 conference in Houston Texas about the text, along with all known editions of it and an English translation. The owner of the stone, Zurich antiquities collector David Jeselsohn, recounts how he came by it and published the text. Other topics include the apocalyptic and messianic dimensions of the Gabriel Revelation in their historical context, a grammatical sketch, the archaeology of Hazon Gabriel in the context of Second Temple and Late Antique literature, and "Jerusalem" in the Gabriel Revelation and the Revelation of John. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
John, Qumran, and the Dead Sea scrolls; sixty years of discovery and debate.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Society's 2007 annual meeting, held in San Diego, included a number of special sessions on recent development in scrolls research. Eight studies here reflect deliberations in the session devoted to the past and potential impact of the scrolls on Johannine studies. Among the topics are mystery in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the fourth gospel, purification in the fourth gospel in light of Qumran, and light from the Dead Sea Scrolls on John 17:15. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Mark as story; retrospect and prospect.
The Gospel of Mark having been the first book of the New Testament to be scrutinized through the lens of narrative criticism, scholars of the Bible and religion consider it as a story. Their topics include the emergence of a prominent reading strategy, why there are no humans or animals in the Gospel, audience address and purpose in the performance of Mark, kingdoms in conflict as the narrative context of Mark 6:17-29, and the paradox of secrecy. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Memory, Jesus, and the Synoptic Gospels.
McIver (Biblical studies, Avondale College of Higher Education, Cooranbong, Australia) applies insights from the psychological study of memory to the three to six decades between when Jesus was killed and the Gospels were written. Covering first personal and collective memory, then Jesus traditions as memory, he considers such topics as eyewitness memory, personal event memories, collective memory as an explanation of Gospel origins, and memory frailties and the Gospel tradition. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
New idioms within old; poetry and parallelism in the non-masoretic poems of 11Q5 (= 11QPsa).
Reymond (biblical Hebrew, Yale U.) is interested in the poetry of the post-biblical era, when the idiom and language inherited from the Bible still influenced writers, but were being altered and changed by them. Looking at the seven non-Masoretic poems preserved in the Dead Sea Scroll, he identifies their characteristics, especially the linguistic and literary idioms and structures that might reveal a common poetic strategy or underlying theology. In many cases phrases with the same wording have been placed in contexts that significantly change their meaning and significance. These variations represent not only the flexibility of Scripture, he says, but the creative and poetic imagination of Second Temple Hebrew writers to express new ideas while affirming the relevance and truth of the Scripture. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Paul the martyr; the cult of the apostle in the Latin west.
Eastman (New Testament Greek and Christian history, Yale Divinity School) identifies four broad practices — places, stories, objects and rituals, and patronage relationships — through which Christians created and re-created an image of Paul as a martyr worthy of veneration. These often overlapped and interacted with each other, he says, in the Pauline cult as well as cults of other saints. He looks at the cult on the Ostian Road and the Appian Road in the city of Rome, the spread of the cult in Latin Europe, and the cult in North Africa. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Redescribing Paul and the Corinthians.
In the second of a proposed three-volume set, members of the Society's Seminar on Ancient Myths and Modern Theories of Christian Origins ponder the redescription of Christianity as religion in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Among their topics are Paul's gospel and the Christ cult question, a rejoinder and some proposals on redescription and theory, Paul's apocalypticism and the Jesus associations at Thessalonica and Corinth, and whether Pauline Christianity resembles a Hellenistic philosophy. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Septuagint vocabulary; pre-history, usage, reception.
Bons and Joosten are editors of the forthcoming Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint, and as part of the process symposia were held in Strasbourg in November 2008 and June 2009 to foster interest in studying the vocabulary of the Greek version of the Old Testament in a historical perspective. The 10 papers here were selected from those gatherings. Five of them are in English, and consider such matters as a semantic investigation of the transition of the arete from the ancient world to the New Testament, problems and perspectives in Septuagint lexicography: the case of non-compliance, and barbarism in the Septuagint. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The text of the Apostolos in Athanasius of Alexandria.
Donker (Gideon Theological College, Upper Nile State, Southern Sudan) presents a slightly revised version of his October 2009 PhD dissertation at Macquarie U., Australia. He contributes to the study of early New Testament texts and transmission by piecing together the version fourth-century Greek Church Father Athanasius of Alexandria used from the quotations of it in his own writing. His topics include Athanasius and his writing, text and apparatus, the methodology of textual analysis, group profile analysis, and statistical and multivariate analysis. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Was 1 Esdras first?; an investigation into the priority and nature of 1 Esdras.
The question is whether the canonical Old Testament book Ezra-Nehemiah is a revision of the apocryphal 1 Esdras, or the other way around. European and US biblical and classical scholars argue against the priority of each in turn, then investigate the nature of 1 Esdras. Their topics include the lower criticism and higher criticism case for 1 Esdras, the second year of Darius, ancient composition patterns mirrored in 1 Esdras and the priority of the canonical composition type, Hellenistic Greek elements in 1 Esdras, and the rendering of 2 Chronicles 35-36 in 1 Edras. The Society of Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill publishes the hardbound. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
