Revisiting Ezra 1:1-4 with the Temple Building Inscriptions of Mesopotamia
L. S. Fried has convincingly demonstrated that Ezra 1‒6 foregrounds the ideology of temple destruction and reconstruction in Mesopotamia, but her brief treatment of the topic warrants further probing of Ezra 1:1‒4. First, a careful examination of the (re-)building inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian era provides some corrective insights to E. J. Bickerman and B. A. Levine’s brief discussion of the distinct Hebrew idiom in Ezra 1:1 (i.e., hēʿîr, “stirred up”). Regarding Ezra 1:2‒4, what is not fully addressed in Berkman’s study is the imagery of the king as shepherd that comes to the fore in the Mesopotamian (re-)building texts. However tenuous the connection between the edict of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1‒4) and the Cyrus Cylinder may be, the evidence that the purpose of restoring the city and its temple is an expression of the underlying ideology of shepherd-kingship cannot be readily dismissed.
The Mystery of Election and The Eclipse of Divine Justice in the Jacob Stories
Previous scholarship has acknowledged that it is difficult for the average reader of the Patriarchal narratives in Genesis to have an easy theological reflection on, or an insight into the narrator’s own theological judgment upon the incidents and stories narrated. The Jacob cycle of stories presents the readers with a theological dilemma on the divine election of Jacob in relation to his moral flaws. Is God complicit in Jacob’s use of trickery to obtain the Patriarchal blessings and Laban’s flocks? Does divine election overrule God’s demand of moral accountability on the part of the elect? This paper attempts a narrative critical enquiry into the Jacob cycle of stories and argues that the narrator deliberately employs certain narrative niches to create a balance between the mystery of election and God’s righteous demand on moral justice.
“Birth Pains” in Prophetic Writings and Socio-Historical Dynamics
Multiple New Testament texts depict mothers in the labor and delivery process to metaphorically illustrate prophetic literature. Traditional scholarship frequently bypasses the reality and trauma of childbearing within the ancient world. Modern interpreters especially from industrialized nations come from a culture in which the birth of a child is often expressed to be the happiest day in a parent’s life. Their cultural lens involves a world where pregnancies are often planned, prenatal health is carefully cultivated, and the process of labor and delivery is medically advanced. In contrast, the patriarchal system from the world of scripture was one that exploited the female body. Malnourishment, primitive medicine, and other substandard treatments combined to subject women to a restricted lifespan as well as an extremely high maternal and infant mortality rate. When reconsidering these grisly realities, the prophetic imagery takes on a far more potent and serious meaning.
Ambiguous Silences and Creation’s Praise in Psalms 19 and 65
Attention to the role of silence in the psalms often focuses on the experience of divine absence that generates laments (e.g. Pss 13:2-3; 22:2-3). Yet, many other silences populate the psalms, whether in the muted agony of the sufferer (Ps 38:14-15) or in the injunction to silent wisdom that awaits God’s justice (Ps 37:7). This paper will explore Psalms 19 and 65 in light of the broader question of psalmic silence. Both psalms involve an interplay between silence and doxology, and both contextualize this interplay with the language of creation. In Psalm 19, silence functions as obfuscation; it names the mystery of creation’s doxological relationship with God. In Psalm 65, silence signals divine sovereignty over cosmic chaos while creation shouts and sings. Both texts thus illustrate the integral yet differentiated role of silence, beyond its communication of the absence of God, as part of the psalmic dialogue of praise.
Elijah
Some of the stories of Elijah which occupy all of 1 Kings 17-19 appear to have popular origins, comparable to those of Balaam in Numbers. This is especially conspicuous in the story of healing the woman's son, which has nothing to do with the elite theme of opposing Jezebel. Other stories better fit that political purpose. A new stylistic measure is employed to suggest that the difference between the popular material and its elite adaptation can be detected in the styles of the several pieces. It may then be asked whether these stories are original in Kings, or were a later, dramatic addition.
Christ and the Forces of Purity Systems
Thiessen argues in his recent book Jesus and the Forces of Death that the Gospels portray Jesus completely affirming the purity worldview common across the ancient Mediterranean, in particular the purity system of his own Judean people and culture. Thiessen’s work is a needed correction to anti-Judaism/Semitism in New Testament scholarship. However, Thiessen has made theoretical, exegetical, and categorical errors that undercut his dichotomous argument. This paper will argue, first, that it is crucial to understand how Judean purity systems should be differentiated from the rest of the Mediterranean milieu in the first century. Second, Jesus is portrayed as accepting purity/impurity as a reality but opposing Jewish purity systems when they are enacted in harmful and oppressive ways. Finally, Jesus’s is contrasted with stereotyped Jewish leaders in ways that serve the development of early Christian views of ritual and moral purity.
From the Conflicted Archaeology of Ancient Biblical Communities to Community Archaeology: A Personal Journey
Following nearly 50 years of active research in the field of biblical archaeology--50 years of development and change, conflictual results and their unsettling implications, and significant pivots in perspectives and practice in the disciplines of biblical studies and of archaeology in the southern Levant--my reflections on this personal journey are set to unfold. What is it about beginning one's archaeological career at the archaeologically safe and untouched site of Tall Hisban, Jordan (biblical Heshbon) in the early 1970s that could possibly go wrong? What sort of funny thing(s) happened on the way from "Heshbon" to "Hisban"? In what ways did subsequent excavations at the nearby sister site of Tall al-`Umayri (part of the Madaba Plains Project) exacerbate or alleviate emerging challenges to the biblical record of the "Conquest" of Canaan in the face of overwhelming archaeological evidence to the contrary? What did it mean to discover that communities like Jericho, Ai, and now Heshbon fell, not to ancient tribal Israelite entities but to modern archaeological research? And where is modern archaeological research heading today? This presentation walks us from attempts to understand ancient biblical communities and the challenges they generate to recent endeavors to engage modern communities in the process of preserving the past and the opportunities they present.
Foundations of Sapphire: Galatians 4:27 and Obstetrical Literature in the Hebrew Bible
Through the examination of obstetrical literature in the Hebrew Bible, my paper analyzes literary traits of this genre in order to illustrate the rhetorical implications of Paul’s citation of Isaiah 54:1 within the Sarah/Hagar allegory in Galatians 4. In analyzing Paul’s polemical use of Isaiah 54:1, I first ask what glimpses into conception, pregnancy, and childbirth customs in Ancient Israel can be made accessible for understanding the Isaiah citation in the Sarah/Hagar allegory. A second question I ask is how the allegory contributed to the denigration of women and childbirth. Reading obstetrical literature in the Hebrew Bible, and applying identified traits of this genre to Septuagint texts, provides a window for understanding how childbearing processes unfolded in the Ancient World, and what byproducts that rhetorical usages, exploiting these realities, can leave behind.
Rabbis around the Dinner Table
Mishnah Avot urges householders to “Let your house be a meeting-house for sages” (1:4). This request was no simple exhortation but was part of a broader social understanding of guest-friendship (hospitium) that formalized a social network that could be called upon to offer other services, such as donations, gifts, protection, or recommendations for civic positions. Looking closely at Leviticus Rabbah 9:4 and 34:13, this paper analyzes the stakes of forming hospitality friendships with rabbis. I will illuminate how rabbis used biblical texts to deflect from expectations of patronage reciprocity by categorizing the relationship in charitable terms. I will ultimately argue that the category of hospitium was useful to the Palestinian rabbis because it both expanded their social networks in meaningful ways while masking associations of a patron / client relationship.
The Woman Who Is a Snare: The Identity and Nature of the Female Figure in Eccl 7:25-29
In what is likely the most highly contested passage of Ecclesiastes (Eccl 7:25-29), Qohelet has been judged a misogynist who finds women irrational, condemns them indiscriminately as seductresses, and lashes out against them in a vitriolic way. A discourse analysis attending to the syntax of the passage, however, suggests a different understanding: through intertextual links with the warnings against the strange woman in Proverbs and with Solomon’s demise through intermarriage with foreign women in 1 Kgs 11, Qohelet is advising the reader to self-discipline lest he fall prey to the allurement of illicit sexual relations. I argue that the passage carries a chiasm turning on Qohelet’s statement concerning his discoveries (v. 27) and that the female figure represents the outside woman posing a threat to the wisdom-seeker.
What If There Isn’t Enough Evidence? “Locusts” in Joel 1:4 and 2:25
Joel 1:4 and 2:25 presents an interesting challenge to the lexicographer and interpreter: how are we to make sense of the four biblical Hebrew lexemes for “locust” that describe what in the literal sense is “series of successive locust plagues”? For the lexicographer, are there identifiable distinctions between these lexemes? Do they relate to the other five 'locust' lexemes? For the interpreter, are these lexemes used as a metaphorical reference to something besides a winged insect? Or is the locust invasion of 1:4 a historical (i.e., literal) event? I evaluate the available linguistic evidence to ascertain whether a literal or metaphorical interpretation is feasible. My goal is not to determine a single correct interpretation but to argue via a canonical reading that certain interpretations are more probable in light of the linguistic evidence.
Gospel Parables, Rabbinic Parallels, and the Decentralization of Textual Scholarship
This paper examines several textual episodes that portray Jesus as an advocate for the rabbinic tradition of the Oral Law, especially in the context of the rivalry between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Among these episodes are parallel narratives in the Gospels and midrashic literature that emphasize the political and theological significance of Torah study. In these narratives, communal textual scholarship that serves as an ongoing expansion of Scripture is often contrasted with the tendency of temple authorities to downplay the importance of interpretive practices. The parable of the talents, for example, particularly when inspected alongside its rabbinic equivalents, could be understood as a hermeneutical attack on the privileged few who control the text and insist on its allegedly unchanging nature. Ultimately, the platform that Jesus promotes is based on creative exegesis: the treatment of the Bible as a living network of dynamic relations between texts and readers.
Israel’s Story in the Songs of Ascents: Toward a Missional Hermeneutic
In Emerson and Hood’s research on Systems of Israel’s Story (SIS), they conclude “[t]he canonical shape of the Psalter, Chronicles, and other canonical indicators reveals an interest in summaries of Israel’s story.” The Songs of Ascents (SOA), Psalms 120-134, articulate Israel’s story through the twin themes of blessing and kingship. But the structural and thematic analysis/hermeneutic does not demonstrate how these two themes correlate to each other, or how they relate to Israel’s story that included “the return from exile” motif. In order to answer these questions, a canonical reading of the Hebrew Bible (Law, Prophets, & Writings) must be considered. A reading that Jesus and the early church read according to a particular canonical shape and sequence that understood the messiah and mission as the fulfillment of Israel’s story.
John’s Gospel: Good News for Jerusalem Refugees in the 70s CE
It is plausible to date John in the 70s CE. Most scholars date John in the 80s or 90s CE claiming development of John’s theology required time to mature, overlooking Paul’s theology completed before 70 CE. John’s hearers/readers are homeless refugees grieving the temple’s destruction. John sets the Temple Incident near the beginning to remind them Jesus is their enduring temple. He recalls Jesus prepared a home for them and they abide in Christ the Vine. John proclaims Jesus, the Creating Word who comes from above, so the refugees would keep trusting Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
Translating the Gospel of Mark for Oral Performance
Do we really need another English translation of the Bible? There is a whole range of English versions from ‘literal’ to ‘functional / dynamic equivalence’ to paraphrase. All of these, however, are literary renderings. It is my conviction that the Gospel of Mark could best be described as a transcription of an oral performance. What, then, would an English translation of Mark ‘sound’ like that attends to its narrative features and tries to preserve and replicate oral characteristics of the Greek? In my presentation I will share the translation work I am doing and how it affects the performance and reception of the text.
The Work of the Spirit with Samson and Saul, Similarities and Contrasts
The purpose of this paper presents the theme of the Spirit coming upon certain people in Judges and 1 Samuel. The theological concept of pneumatology will be unpacked with the similarities and contrasts with two people, Samsons and Saul. The outcome of the paper points to the Spirit's work to clothe persons for service and promote God’s will in Israel.
The Significance of the City’s Question Concerning Jesus’ Identity in Matthew 21:10
Matthew’s account of the Triumphal Entry uniquely records the shaking of the city and their subsequent question of Jesus’ identity. Interpretations of the Triumphal Entry have often focused on the fulfillment of Scripture (Isa 62:11; Zech 9:9), Jesus’ uniquely subversive triumphant arrival in light of common triumphant arrivals for kings in Jewish culture, and the structural and thematic importance of the Triumphal Entry and the Temple Act. However, interpretations frequently fail to highlight the significance of the city’s question concerning Jesus’s identity. Through examining the inimical nature of the city’s question, and the surrounding thematic inclusios I argue for the greater structural and thematic importance of the inaugural question of Jesus’ identity in 21:10 as it provides the foundation for and remains a thread throughout the succeeding narration of Jesus’s divine identity in Matthew’s Gospel.
Reconsidering the Women of the Book of Tobit
Scholarly consensus describes the women of the Book of Tobit as secondary figures to the major protagonists, Tobit and his son Tobias, and even as antagonistic towards them. As such, descriptions of these female characters as marginal, as heroic foils, and even as irrelevant to modern audiences persists. In this paper I argue for a reconsideration of the female characters of the Book of Tobit. I provide a critical view of the major assumption upon which these perspectives rely: that Hannah opposes her husband Tobit in their various disputes without reasons validated by the narrative. I demonstrate that Hannah in fact has a view of retribution, expressed in economic terms especially, that divine and angelic agents appear to support, and that the narrative affirms. In turn, other female characters such as Sarah and Deborah appear with unique agency also illustrated by the narrative as vital for the formation and defense of the community's religious identity in exile.
Fake News about Fictional Jews: Parrhesia and Conspiracy Theories in the UnLost Gospels
Mass Communication analysis explains how the Gospels avoided becoming “Lost Gospels”; they use story-plotting techniques, some already known as ways to engage audiences (see Aristotle’s Poetics). Murder plots, conspiracy theories, and horror scenes with tender moments raise the stakes. Audiences react to simulated Parrhesia, accepting as nobly “bold speech” a credentialed hero’s accusations of murder conspiracies concocted by a lurking, stalking, group enemy (Pharisees etc.). Audience reactions motivate audience creativity, resulting partly in “Believer Fiction” (paralleling Fan Fiction). Audiences’ tales about contemporary, local Jews, or “world Jewry” sometimes set their own audiences up for political or violence-oriented “Calls to Action.”
Speech from the Whirlwind as Religious Recovery Resource from the Babylonian Trauma
This introductory study examines Job 38.1-11 as an inspirational resource for recovery from the collective trauma experienced by the earliest waves of postexilic Hebrews who had returned to their homeland from Babylon and who faced the challenge of rebuilding their faith and society after many questioned their traditional religious beliefs in retributive justice and the Davidic covenant. It interprets the hero in several OT contexts, including the scriptures of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daughter Zion and the Suffering Servant in Second Isaiah as another individual figure from the Babylonian period that these survivors could relate to in processing their trauma. The paper also examines the passage as a conclusion to Job's lamentation begun in chapter 3. In addition, this interpretation suggests benefits of the connotative language used throughout the book to support its function of promoting post-traumatic religious recovery of these survivors.
Persecution of the Righteous: Anti Jewish Rhetoric or Intra Jewish Polemic?
Does Matthew reflect a community encountering persecution from fellow Jews? I propose the Matthean author, in a narrative plot, is engaging a familiar Hebrew scriptural theme: the persecution of the righteous by their fellow Jews, and their ultimate vindication by God. Lamentations, Jeremiah, Micah, and many lament Psalms include this theme. What prompted Matthew’s author to choose this theme, presenting fellow Jews as persecutors? In a post Second-Temple climate, a Matthean group sought to identify Jesus as Messiah, and distinguish itself from Scribes and Pharisees. Christianity had not fully separated from Judaism. It was not safe to charge the real enemy, Rome. Also, blaming fellow Jews would indicate God was not absent or out of control, and the Romans were God’s pawns. I will show language of persecution of the righteous follows an insider rebuke tradition in a style common to Jewish sacred literature; a style by no means anti-Jewish.
Human Trafficking in Romans 1:18-32
The contemporary anti-gay reading of Romans 1:18-32 ignores Paul’s rhetorical agenda in his missive to the communities of believers in the Imperial capital and violates a fundamental ethical standard for biblical interpretation. A careful linguistic and social-contextual reading of Paul’s language in this passage overturns that reading and illustrates that Paul was condemning practices associated with pornographic spectacles and other types of human trafficking, not loving relationships between consenting adults.
A Generative Exegesis of the Parable of the Pounds (Luke 19:11-28)
The embarrassing question in Mark 4:13 (“Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?”), smoothed over in the accounts of Matthew 13:1–23 and Luke 8:4–15, may be taken to imply that the explanation offered for the Parable of the Sower is not simply the interpretation of a single parable, but rather refers to a much more general hermeneutical process. The explanation could then be commending not merely a single stage for textual interpretation (viz., the decoding of an allegory), but rather showing the Parable of the Sower to be a meta-parable. The traditional discussion of the four levels of scriptural interpretation (in Hebrew: pshat, remez, drash, sod) most recently explored in Gilad Elbom’s incisive study of kabbalistic hermeneutics, Textual Rivalries: Jesus, Midrash, and Kabbalah (Fortress, 2022), is paralleled in the four scenarios of the Parable of the Sower.
Trends in the Philosophy of History, Thoughts for New Testament Studies
This presentation surveys a selection of figures in the recent history of historiography with particular focus on their discussion of the nature of historical epistemology (including facts, evidence, and knowledge) and concludes with implications for New Testament history which move beyond, but include, the epistemological.
The History of the Biblical Onomastica
At last year’s EGLBS meeting I spoke on testimony for the living pronunciation Iaō for the divine name in NT times. One major line of evidence presented came from the biblical onomastica. Since last year’s talk I have submitted the article on the biblical onomastica for Brill’s THB project, vol. 3.2, a condensation of my monograph on the subject. These documents are the most ignored primary source material in modern biblical study, strangely so for multiple reasons. In this talk I present the dynamics as to why the world’s first biblical commentaries or dictionaries have been so neglected and how they continue to be so. Specific examples are provided which show their value in fields such as lexicography, LXX textual criticism, and the value of non-canonical source material for understanding canonical texts.
Where Are My Roots? Reading Jeremiah 17:5-10 with Karl Rahner
A theological approach to reading Scripture advocates that biblical interpretation should not only shape our theological commitments but also be shaped by them. From within this hermeneutical framework, I wish to address Jer 17:5-10, a section where one can find two contrasting images. On the one hand, verses 5-8 speak about a blessed and cursed person; their differing fates arise from the way these individuals orient their hearts. On the other hand, verses 9-10 stress that the human heart is devious, and only God knows it. However, how can the human heart be both decisive for one’s destiny and at the same time deceitful and unknowable? While diachronic and synchronic approaches present their solutions to this interpretative crux, I hope to contribute to the ongoing discussion by evoking the work of Karl Rahner, whose notion of an “anonymous Christian” deeply resonates with both polarities of Jeremiah’s passage.
Consolatory Rhetoric in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
The present scholarly conversation about the meaning of 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 does not recognize the Thessalonians’ communal bereavement as an impetus for Paul’s advice. I argue that Paul intended his instructions in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 to apply to the circumstance of unexpected bereavement mentioned in 4:13. I demonstrate that the exhortations in 4:9-12 are represented in ancient consolation literature generally and in consolatory letters written to bereaved individuals, in particular. To do so, I investigate the exhortations to love one another (4:9-10), to strive eagerly to be calm (4:11), to be busy with your own affairs (4:11), and to work with your own hands (4:11). I conclude my analysis with a discussion of the goal of impressing witnesses in consolatory rhetoric (4:12).
Paul, Litigation, and Apocalyptic in the Corinthian Community
In 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, Paul pens a response to issues of litigation in the Corinthian community. Curiously, he mentions concepts such as judgement, angels, and the kingdom of God. These concepts have nothing to do with the everyday concerns of the community. Yet, Paul connects the two. Was this a mistake or an example of Paul getting caried away by his own rhetoric? In this presentation we seek to explore how Paul connects both legality and apocalyptic in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 and further, see if this research can shed light on some of the current debates regarding apocalyptic. To do so, we will explore legality in the Corinthian community. Then we will analyze the text while paying attention to echoes of the Hebrew Scriptures. Finally, we will present our findings.
The Twilight of the Late Bronze Age in the Land of Ammon
The Late Bronze Age has long been a period critical to biblical studies and biblical archaeology because of its association with the Exodus and Conquest narrative. While the search for evidence related to the biblical narratives has had mixed results at best, our understanding of this period in Central Jordan has expanded significantly over the past several decades. This address will present a portrait of the history and archaeology of land of Ammon at the end of the Late Bronze Age.