BNTC 2004 illustrated

Jim Davila has really got this blogging lark sussed -- you can see some of his photographs from the British New Testament Conference on Paleojudaica including one of my grinning face with Catherine Smith and Helen Ingram.

BNTC 2004 further reflections

The two other main papers were Bishop Tom Wright on the Thursday evening and Prof. Judith Lieu on the Saturday morning. Bishop Tom spoke on "Many perspectives on Paul: Can they be integreated" and was at his most entertaining when he launched a vociferous attack on a recent book by Stephen Westerholm, about which he had not a good word to say. There were lots of other interesting bits in Tom's talk but I struggled with it a little, primarily because my all too regular habit of drifting off to sleep in even the most interesting papers kicked in half-way through. I also slept through almost all of the first seminar papers session on the Friday morning, and half of Judith Lieu's on the Saturday, when I simply had to find a place to lie down (cf. earlier comments on extensive dashing around). Judith Lieu's paper was about Orality and Textuality in early Christianity.

Bishop Tom was also present at the first two meetings of the Jesus Seminar (not the Jesus Seminar, of course, but the BNTC's own Jesus Seminar) where the topic was his book The Resurrection of the Son of God. Although I missed most of the first session through fatigue, I stayed awake all the way through the second at which the focus was on the New Testament material and included responses to Wright's book from James Crossley and Larry Hurtado, both of whom made some good poins. It was a well attended seminar too. Larry began his paper by pointing out that Tom's work is essentially apologetic. I thought that right and asked a question about this later on, concerning the way that Tom deals, in the book, with Matt. 27.51-3, where the saints are raised at the earthquake at the death of Jesus, where Tom's argument strikes me as more apologetic than history, not least given its weak remarks to the effect that odd things do happen in history. Of course they do, but the question is whether this particular odd thing happened and whether placing a question mark over its historicity might actually help Tom out when it comes to arguing for the historicity of the resurrection traditions. Tom's answer was that if he were to acknowledge redaction and legend here, then his opponents would say, "The why not everywhere", which strikes me as weak. He went on to claim that his arguments have been crafted by the kind of dialogue partners he has had to engage with, and a particularly silly (he used that word) period in North American scholarship.

More later . . .

BNTC 2004 highlights continued

At the end of the dinner, Graham Stanton gave a toast to celebrate the society's twenty-fifth anniversary. It was excellent and got lots of laughs; afterwards Jimmy Dunn, also present at the conception of the society, gave his own reflections on the society's history. I had added a note of confusion to proceedings on the previous day by explaining to the committee that I thought Jimmy mistaken that this was the society's twenty-fifth anniversary. He had told me this last year and I'd happily accepted it, thinking that such an expert on oral tradition and memory would surely have got such an important detail correct. But when I consulted the written record on Wednesday night, it seemed that the first meeting of the British New Testament Conference was in Glasgow in 1980. 1980-2004 is twenty-four years, not twenty-five, isn't it? So I think that our twenty-fifth anniversary is next year, 2005. To add to this, it turns out that this conference was not, as we have been advertising, our 22nd, nor was Birmingham our 21st, Cambridge our 20th, Manchester our 19th or Roehampton our 18th, all of which we had said in our publicity. I counted up the conferences from 1980 onwards and it's pretty clear -- this one is our 23rd and not our 22nd (the conference did not meet in 1983 or 1988 when there were SNTS meetings in the UK). Someone had clearly miscalculated when it was said that Roehamption was number 18 -- this was the source of the error. It should have been 19. So here was another useful reminder -- don't rely on oral tradition when there is a text you can check.

But back to the question of whether this is, indeed, our twenty-fifth year or not, Graham Stanton and Jimmy Dunn made a robust but not entirely convincing case that it was indeed right that we should be celebrating. Graham Stanton's case was that the first gathering at which the first conference was planned was twenty-five years ago in 1979, at a meeting of the SNTS in Durham. And the conception was a year earlier even than that in 1978. Now the current president of the society, elected at the 2003 Birmingham meeting, is Morna Hooker. She expressed her delight at presiding over the society on what was turning out to be a rolling anniversary schedule, this year twenty-five years since the planning of the first meeting, next year twenty-five years since the the first meeting, the year after our twenty-fifth meeting. It's like a perpetual jubilee.

The big conference dinner on Friday evening also provided the oppurtunity for Larry Hurtado, who coordinated the conference this year, to thank the local organisers. Larry pointed out that his great skill was simply in having delegated to extraordinarily capable people. Special mention was rightly made of Paul Middleton who handled the vast bulk of the local organising, and did an excellent, good-humoured and very unfussy job. I have found it a delight, as secretary, to work with him over the last few months. What was even more remarkable was that Paul did all this on top of presenting a paper in the Short Simultaneous Papers session on Friday, and then, apparently, having his PhD viva on Saturday afternoon! My only criticism (and I have to indulge myself by thinking that something was better about Birmingham 2003) would be that the big thanks were not accompanied by the presentation of flowers.

BNTC 2004 highlights

Next on to some personal highlights. The academic high point for me was Bart Ehrman's paper on the Friday afternoon. This was the second of the three plenary papers. Its title was something like "The divine man in texts canonical and apocryphal" but the bulk of the paper was the exposition of a thesis about a proto-Luke, or a first edition of Luke, in which the Christological profile was adoptionistic. Although he balked somewhat at the term "proto-Luke", no doubt because of the baggage it carries with it, his argument was that the Birth Narratives were added after the first edition of Luke in a bid to bring it more clearly into conformity with emerging proto-orthodox views. At the same point, other parts of Luke were adjusted, including famously the baptismal "this day I have begotten thee", to bring it into conformith with Matthew's and Mark's "in whom I am well pleased". I was not entirely persuaded by the paper -- the idea of a bolted on Luke 1-2 suffers in the same way that it did in Streeter and Taylor's proto-Luke -- Luke 3.1 looks like it does not because it is the original beginning of the book but because it is the point at which Luke really can be as precise as he would like to be about dating. He has a rough idea of when Jesus was born, some time around the end of Herod the Great's reign, near-ish the time when Quirinius was governor of Syria, but he is not going to miss the chance to date things properly when he comes to the point when he can pull this off in 3.1. But it was the kind of the paper that got the imagination going, lucidly presented, and with the kind of liveliness that ensures you hear every word.

Socially, the high point of the conference was the Friday evening, after Bart's paper, when we piled onto two coaches to go from Pollock Halls, which were the primary location for the conference, to New College where the Department of Divinity and Religious Studies is based. We were given a short guided tour, a glass of wine and then a fine dinner in an impressive old dining hall. I ended up drinking red wine with salmon because the white had all gone by the second course, but that was forgiveable in such a lovely setting and with such good food and service.

To be continued . . .

British New Testament Conference 2004: Personal Reflections

I am sitting in Edinburgh airport after having attended the British New Testament Conference 2004, hosted by the Department of Divinity and Religious Studies at the University and a great success. First, though, some personal reflections on the more stressful side of attending these conference as secretary of the society, no doubt somewhat self-indulgent and probably worth deleting later on.

This was my last conference as secretary of the society. At the business meeting on Friday afternoon, Bridget Gilfillan Upton was elected unanimously as the new society secretary; a fine choice -- I am sure that she will do an excellent job. The society has grown enormously over the last three or four years and this conference, like Cambridge 2002 and Birmingham 2003, had over 170 delegates. The secretary's job has, as a result, also grown. I have found it tough to keep up with the job over the last six months or so, not least having also taken on other major responsibilities. Although Bridget will have her work cut out, there are two respects in which things will become simpler. First, the society has decided to separate out the jobs of secretary and treasurer for the first time. I will be the last of those who has had to combine the two roles. This is very good news. We were lucky to receive an offer for the role of treasurer from Lloyd Pietersen and the business meeting cheerfully accepted the offer and appointed him to the task. This becomes possible because Lloyd has previously acted as the society's independent examiner of accounts. Lloyd is not reneweing his certificate to practise as an accountant from next year so becomes available to join the committee in this new role of treasurer. I am delighted for Bridget's sake. I have found it hard to do the treasurer's job at the same time as the secretary's; I don't enjoy handling money, especially other people's money.

The other respect in which things are changing is that the secretary will not be responsible for the web site. Since you are reading this blog, you probably already know that I enjoy noodling around on the web and so I have offered to continue adminstering the web site for as long as the society is happy for me to do it.

I am writing this just after the end of the conference and am a bit fatigued from it all and looking forward next year, when we meet in Liverpool, to being able to go along as a ordinary punter again, to enjoy meeting old friends and new, to talk about research and other things, to enjoy seminars and sessions without worrying about things that might go wrong, wondering if I have forgotten to do anything and dashing around madly when I realise that I have forgotten do do something. The real low point for me this year was the realisation that I had forgotten to get the accounts summaries photocopied for the business meeting approximately five minutes before the business meeting was due to start. Fifteen minutes later, they were finally ready and having run to the business meeting with them (meeting someone on the way who told me not to rush -- for some reason they were late starting the meeting!) only to get there and realise that I had left all the agendas and minutes in my room. More running -- I felt a bit like Tru in Tru Calling; finally we were able to get under way late but I was now in such an breathless and sweaty state it was hard work to be coherent; the meeting felt vaguely shambolic. I realise that this kind of thing is, in the end, not that much of a big deal. So I've had to dash around a bit, but so what? I suppose the trouble is that this feels all too typical of what it has been like to be secretary of the society. I don't enjoy doing administration. And where last year Catherine Smith, who organised the Birmingham conference, was able to tell me what to do all the time, this year I had to keep thinking for myself. I'd rather be thinking about the Passion narrative, or the Gospel of Thomas, or the Epistle to the Galatians, than about where I should be, who I need to see, what I need to photocopy, what I might have forgotten to do.

Now that was cathartic. Next on to what I enjoyed about the conference.

to be continued . . . . .

British New Testament Conference

The British New Testament Conference starts today and runs until Saturday. It is at the University of Edinburgh this year, and the society celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. I'll set off later this morning and hope to be able to blog when I get there, but that all depends on gaining access to the net somewhere. For this year's programme, see the previous link.

Beliefnet on The Passion's Promise

Beliefnet have an article on The Passion of the Christ several months on:

Did 'The Passion' Fulfill Its Promise?
They said the movie might convert millions, wreck Jewish-Christian relations, ruin Mel. Which predictions came true?
By Kimberly Winston

I couldn't help noticing reference to another book on the film, half-way through this excerpt:

When the film first appeared, Dr. Robert M. Franklin, a professor of social ethics at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, wrote that he thought it would have great resonance within the African-American community because it depicted a darker-skinned Jesus who is brutalized in a way that resembled the beatings of black slaves.

"There was an appreciation for introducing a larger American audience to the Jesus that blacks have known and loved for centuries," Franklin said. "That finally the exalted Christ has been brought back to earth as a vulnerable, broken, wounded healer."

But whether it brought more African-Americans into church "is hard to say," he continued. "I haven’t heard there has been significant attraction among the unchurched population and I know that was on the agenda for many. But I have not seen that in the African-American community."

That does not surprise S. Brent Plate, editor of "Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson’s Film and Its Critics" (Palgrave & Macmillan, 2004). When the movie first appeared, he doubted it would lead to America’s Third Great Awakening--a massive religious revival--and doubts the DVD and VHS will have more success.

"It has helped get certain people into church, but a Great Awakening goes beyond getting people into pews," Plate said. "It is about discipleship. It goes beyond saying ‘I am a Christian’ to living their life the way Christ did."

On that, he says, "the verdict is still out."

It looks like the release date for that book 1 October. More anon.

Also on Beliefnet is one of those fun quizzes that tells you where you figure on the scale:

Are you a 'Passion' Christian?

I scored pretty low, 41 out of 100, "You may have responded to parts of "The Passion," but likely felt that it didn't fully capture your vision of Jesus and his message. The film's violence and focus on pain may have troubled you." I think I confused it a bit with my answers.

Passion DVD: Watch it Gibson's Way

My DVD of The Passion of the Christ arrived in this morning's post, just in time for me to re-view parts of the film again before a panel discussion on the film on Saturday at the British New Testament Conference Hermeneutics / Use and Influence Seminars. (I'm now half-way through two DVDs since my copy of !Hero arrived yesterday -- so far excellent).

One feature of the DVD has not been widely publicised: that it allows you to watch it with or without the subtitles. That might not sound like a big deal, but remember that Mel Gibson's original intention was to show the film without any subtitles, so that one would experience it rather as he and others loved experiencing the Tridentine Mass. So now, with the wonders of DVD technology, you can choose whether you want to watch it in the subtitled cinema format, or Mel Gibson's way.

Warcry article on Jesus Films

I received a copy of a colourful, double-page spread on Jesus films in the Salvation Army's WarCry weekly newspaper today. It seems that they have an on-line version too:

It's playback time for Jesus
Mark Goodacre gives guidance on Jesus movies on DVD and VHS
by Philip Halcrow

I am sure you will be sorry to hear that the on-line version does not include the little photograph of me that appears in the print version! This article is based on a phone call I had with the author a fortnight or so ago. I must admit that I had not quite realised that I was the only one being interviewed and that this was going to be so focused on my views. But thankfully there is nothing too odd. There is a mistake, though. When talking with the author, I had thought that Paul Verhoeven was to be one of the contributors to Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which was, I understand, one of the original intentions.

Blog Anniversary

The NT Gateway Weblog is one year old today. The first post, Welcome to the NT Gateway Weblog, was posted on Tuesday 2 September 2003. This is the 1,113th post since then. Many thanks for all your encouragement and contributions over the last twelve months.

Jewish Roman World of Jesus: New URL

There's a new URL for James Tabor's Jewish Roman World of Jesus and I have made an adjustment on my Historical Jesus page.

Review of Deming, Paul on Marriage and Celibacy

From the latest Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.08.23, noticed on RogueClassicism:

W. Deming, Paul on Marriage and Celibacy. The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corinthians 7
Reviewed by Pieter W. van der Horst

Radical Retelling of the Scriptures

This one has been knocking around for a bit and I am late on it, but it's worth a mention: there is a new edition of the Bible out that has caused a bit of a stir, John Henson, Good as New: A Radical Retelling of the Scriptures. I use the word "edition" rather than translation because it is striking not only in its trendy translations but also in its exclusion of books the author does not like (the Pastorals, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation) and inclusion of others outside the canon including the Gospel of Thomas. I have not had a chance to look at the book myself but Richard Ostler of the Associated Press has. I saw this link on Bible and Interpretation:

NEW BIBLE - Trendy or heretical?
Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer

This is from the Jamaica Gleaner and dates from Saturday 21 August. Ostler suggests that the book would hardly have been noticed if it had not been for the Foreword provided by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. I am wondering whether this is the first edition of the Bible, if indeed one can call it that, to include Thomas. The only other ones I can think of are the various publications of the Jesus Seminar (see Jesus Seminar and Westar Institute) which include Thomas in a five-fold Gospel canon. But as for the Jesus Seminar, Saying 114 apparently causes concern and is adjusted; from Ostler's article:

There's addition as well as subtraction. Following one scholarly sect, he puts the Gospel of Thomas alongside Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, though Christianity discarded Thomas. Henson makes the debatable claim that it's 'probably' among the earliest Christian writings and 'possibly' as early as the other four.

Then he outrageously changes the conclusion of Thomas to say that "every woman who insists on equality with men is fit to be a citizen in God's New World." What Thomas actually said was that "every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." Political correctness similarly barred much masculine terminology.

NTGateway web space upgrade

I had to buy some extra web space for the NT Gateway yesterday because the amount of data transfer (i.e. the number of files being viewed by users) is rising at a rapid rate. Data transferred last month was 3.54 MB on a limit of 1 MB. So I have upgraded to an account that allows me 5 MB of data transfer a month, along with 250 MB of space. This is good news from the point of view of the site's popularity, but my reason for mentioning this is to note that I fund the domain name and web space out of a small amount of revenue I pick up from links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and at the moment this is just covering the cost but with continued upgrades it is possible that it will fall short in the future (the number of visitors to the NT Gateway has risen constantly over the last few years, but the revenue from Amazon has remained static for three years). I don't make much of these links, not least because I am keen that users shop around to get the best deals, support their local book shops and so on. Indeed, I'll always mention if I happen to find something cheaper outside of Amazon. But if you are shopping on Amazon anyway, and are not clicking through from anywhere else (e.g. you can support the Hunger Site with Amazon purchases), I'd be grateful if you could go from the NT Gateway just as a small token of support. Many thanks!

!Hero DVD Release

My DVD of the !Hero Rock Opera arrived today. I've blogged about this on various occasions in the past (New Rock Opera on Jesus, !Hero Web Site, !Hero Rock Opera, !Hero Worship, and Real Mary Magdalene). The soundtrack, written by Eddie DeGarmo, is pretty enjoyable, far preferable to Godspell but not quite reaching the heights of Jesus Christ Superstar. The DVD release is of the live stage show, but has bags of extras too (a 2-disc set). I hope I get a chance to watch it soon and will comment here when I have. Anyway, here are the details:

!HERO: The Rock Opera

Happily, I don't have to repeat my previous complaint about the price of international shipping. I got my copy for less than $30, including free shipping the UK, which at the current exchange rate is pretty good. The DVDs are all autographed, apparently, if one buys from the !Hero web site. Mine has the single word "Mark" in silver pen, presumably Mark Stuart (Petrov). As far as I can tell, the DVD is only available from that site at the moment.

I haven't yet seen any proper reviews of this DVD, which I think came out in mid-July, but there are several reviews of the CD which was released earlier in the year, e.g. this one on Christianity Today, but I think it's better than he does:

Various Artists
!Hero: The Rock Opera (Meaux Music)
by Andree Farias

Jeffers, Greco-Roman World of the New Testament

On Ancient / Classical History, N. S. Gill adds a short review of James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era - Exploring the Background of Early Christianity. I must admit that it is not a book I had come across before. She reviews it quite favourably:

The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament

Cave of John the Baptist latest

On RogueClassicism, David Meadows posts (with permission) the complete email messages to the ANE-List from James Tabor and Shimon Gibson on the cave of John the Baptist (for previous entries here, see Cave of John the Baptist (updated) and More on the John the Baptist Cave):

James Tabor on Shimon Gibson

David Meadows also notes the following feature on Weekend Edition from last Sunday, which includes an interview with Gibson:

The Search for John the Baptist's Ritual Cave

Shimon Gibson, a biblical archeologist, believes he has found a cave outside of Jerusalem, where John the Baptist might have performed his baptisms. Other archeologists aren't so sure. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports.

Meanwhile on Paleojudaica, Jim Davila blogs this link from the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Archeology: News from the Field

This is particularly good for some photographs by Shimon Gibson.

Update (1 September): On Paleojudaica, Jim Davila notes that there is now a transcript of the above NPR programme featuring Shimon Gibson, James Tabor and others:

Profile: Shimon Gibson's Belief That He Has Found The Site Where John The Baptist Might Have Performed His Baptisms
All Things Considered: August 30, 2004

Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ

Today is the release date for the DVD of The Passion of the Christ; I had an email from Amazon yesterday to say that mine is on the way. You'd have thought that Fox Home Entertainment would send me a free one with all the publicity I give it! Anyway, they don't need my help since it's currently ranked number 1 at Amazon.com. But what I do want to publicise a bit, partly because Continuum have asked me to do so, and partly because I have been involved with it in a small way, is the following new book:

Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ The Film, the Gospels and the Claims of History Edited by Kathleen E. Corley and Robert L. Webb Continuum International Publishing August 31 2004 ISBN: 082647781X $17.95 £ 9.99

The link above takes you to a web page hosted here which gives a cover illustration, blurb, contents list and hyperlinked footnotes. The latter was my suggestion to the editors given the large number of lengthy URLs given in the footnotes to the essays, several of which wouuld be almost impossible to type accurately. The book is released today to coincide with the DVD release. Amazon have it for $12.57 and Amazon.co.uk for £6.99. I must admit that I have not yet read all of the book -- only my own and one other essay; I'll make some comments on the rest when I have received my copy (I haven't yet).

Update (20.26): I've made some adjustments to the Contents listing and Notes on the Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ page, with thanks to Robert Webb for the information.

Review of Bibical Literature latest

I'm just back from bank holiday break and hope to find some time somewhere to blog some items of interest before heading off for the British New Testament Conference on Thursday. Here are the latest additions to the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the New Testament heading:

Barr, David L.
Reading the Book of Revelation: A Resource for Students
Reviewed by Mark Bredin

Garland, David E.
1 Corinthians
Reviewed by Garwood Anderson

Haacker, Klaus
The Theology of Paul's Letter to the Romans
Reviewed by Daniel Kirk

Lohse, Eduard
Der Brief an die Römer
Reviewed by Marco Frenschkowski

Resseguie, James L.
Spiritual Landscape: Images of the Spiritual Life in the Gospel of Luke
Reviewed by Ronald R. Clark

Winter, Bruce W.
Roman Wives, Roman Widows: The Appearance of New Women and the Pauline Communities
Reviewed by Jennifer Knust

Aramaic gets boost from Hollywood

A short piece that may be of interest from this week's Church Times:

Aramaic gets boost from Hollywood
By Bill Bowder

THE USE of Aramaic in Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ has led to a surge of interest in the language, which was spoken by Jesus and his disciples.

The Metropolitan of the Chaldean Syrian Church of the East (the Syriac Church) in India, Dr Mar Aprem, has offered a beginners’ course in his diocese of Trichur in response to the sudden enthusiasm for the ancient language . . .

. . . . Mar Aprem’s enthusiasm for Mel Gibson’s film developed when he went with some of his clergy to see the film in Easter Week, the first time he had been to a cinema in 50 years, he said on Monday.

"The film has done good. They see how much Jesus suffered," he said. "After the film, people wanted to know more. I have asked two of my clergy to conduct a beginners’ course in Aramaic at the ecumenical research institute in Trichur. When I get back, I will also offer a master-class in Aramaic for those who have already been studying it."

And have a look at the cartoon.