Pre SBL Buzz

It is a week to go before the Society of Biblical Literature's Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, and at this time of year there is an enjoyable "buzz" around the biblioblogs, e-lists and internet generally as people make their plans, frantically write their papers, and try to find a spare slot for that meeting with a publisher / friend / colleague / former colleague, etc. I have found myself staring at my diary several times over the last couple of days and wondering how to fit everything in, and whether I'll be able to get to any papers just because I want to be there, rather than because I am responsible in some way.

But one thing seems different to me this year. This may be just because I was so out of the loop with my housing and financial woes that I was not able to concentrate properly, so I'd be interested to hear whether this is other people's perception too. Normally at about this time, the internet is awash with contributors' papers. I have often made the flight with a armful of print-outs of papers, but don't anticipate doing the same this year. Rick Brannan has his available for our session on blogging, on which more anon. In Thoughts on Antiquity, Chris Weimer mentions the Seminar Papers, which you can find on the SBL site here:

SBL Seminar Papers

It's the first time I've checked this up -- must have missed it before now, but I am struck that there are only seven papers available, and five of those are from the Matthew section, which suggests some coordination on their part. I may be misremembering, but this looks like a lot less than last year, the first year of internet-only seminar papers. And it is less still than when the fat book used to come out.

Anyway, I am speaking this year in the Matthew section and I am just putting the finishing touches to my paper and hope to upload here soon.

SBL Blogging brainstorm

The NT Gateway server was down yesterday evening, and I had a bunch of things I wanted to blog on too. O well, it gave me the chance to write 43 emails instead, and the backlog is now a little reduced. One of the things I'd like to do is a little brainstorming ahead of next week's SBL CARG (that's Computer Assisted Research Section [Group]) session all about blogging. So I'll be back on-line with my thoughts in a moment, or, as they say here in the US, "momentarily".

Reporting the Birth of Jesus on MSNBC

This article is about a feature on American TV tonight:

The daunting task of reporting on the birth of Jesus
Keith Morrison, Dateline Correspondent

That said, the questions are simply irresistible. Where was Jesus born, Bethlehem or Nazareth? Were there "wise men?" How many? Were they kings? Did Herod slaughter the boy-children of Bethlehem? Did the Holy Family flee to Egypt, as Matthew reports? Legions of scholars have done their best to sort it out. We spoke on camera to six: John Dominic Crossan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, DePaul University and a prolific author of books about the historical Jesus; Ben Witherington, author and Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary; Craig Evans, Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College; Scott Hahn, Professor of Scripture, Franciscan University; A.J. Levine, Jewish scholar and teacher of the New Testament at Vanderbilt University, and Lesley Hazleton, author of a "flesh and blood" biography of Mary. Their views are instructive, fascinating and frequently conflicting. One of the most difficult parts of our assignment was the need to leave out so much of their compelling commentary.

Here's the programme's blurb:

In a special edition of 'Dateline NBC,' Keith Morrison asks, "What if everything you thought you knew wasn’t the whole story?" In an attempt to answer this profound question, Morrison takes viewers on a remarkable journey -- back in time -- to unravel the mystery. "The Birth of Jesus" hour airs Dateline Friday, 8 p.m./7 C.

The latter is a standard feature of advertising of TV programmes in the US -- the are on at "8/7 central", meaning 8 pm Eastern Time, 7 pm Central.

Graphic Novel Based on Mark's Gospel

This was on Religion Press Releases today:

The Angel is a Clown: First Graphic Novel Based on a Gospel Captures Vivid Power of Mark

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact: Rebecca Wilson, 330-524-2067, rswilson@raex.com

November 10, 2005 -- NEW YORK--The devil rides in a stretch limousine, Moses bears a striking resemblance to Frederick Douglass, and the angel left at the tomb is a clown. And that's just the start of the unusual cast of characters in Marked, the first graphic novel based on a Gospel.

Marked, created by New York artist and Episcopalian Steve Ross, is true to both the graphic novel form and the Gospel. The story is full of action, danger and subversive characters with wild ideas: just like a comic book--and just like the biblical stories of Jesus' life. "We might want to label Marked up front the way we should label the New Testament itself: Let the reader beware," says the Rev. William McD. Tully, rector of St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City.

Why turn biblical imagery upside down? "For centuries, we've seen the long-haired white middle-class guys who have co-opted Christianity. That was my beef," says Ross. "Those images of Jesus and his followers were created by really talented artists during the Dutch Renaissance, and after hundreds of years our culture is still bound by these images' tyranny." That's why this Jesus, who starts out holding a circular saw and sporting long hair and beard, is bald and clean-shaven by page 17.

To the uninitiated--and perhaps to the uptight--Marked may appear blasphemous. Ross's art was inspired by Nikos Kazantzakis' controversial novel The Last Temptation of Christ, and the format of graphic novels encourages sophisticated play with the sort of shocking images and complex themes that have made Art Spiegleman's Maus both a prize-winner and a classic. "I fear that two thousand years of 20/20 hindsight have sucked the surprise, awe and sheer weirdness out of the Gospels," says Ross, and Marked works hard to restore those qualities to the familiar story.

But Ross is a man of deep faith and abiding love for the Gospel story: "I just wanted to see if I could receive the Gospel of Mark with a lover's heart and then recount it with a troublemaker's eye," he says. "Like Picasso stripping away layer after layer of preconceptions until he finally arrived at a new way of seeing."

Steve Ross, whose illustrations have appeared in numerous magazines and publications around the world, lives in New York with his wife and their two children. He is a member of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church.

Marked
Steve Ross
175 pages 7" x 10 1/2"
Available December 2005 from Seabury Books
1-59627-002-0 Softcover $20.00
publicity contact: Rebecca Wilson, rswilson@raex.com, 330-524-2067
Art and excerpts for media use available at www.markedgraphicnovel.com.

###

Seabury Books
an imprint of
Church Publishing Incorporated * 445 Fifth Avenue * New York NY 10016
www.seaburybooks.org * 1-800-242-1918
-----
You can see selections from the book at this website:

Marked

I suppose that for academic types, it is especially refreshing to see a graphic novel that bases itself on a particular Gospel, rather than on a harmony. And it is even more welcome to see Mark the focus, since this is so rarely the case in art. I wonder what's happened to the Visual Bible's Gospel of Mark film, by the way? I haven't heard anything for a long time now.

Update (17.25): Amazon have it for $13.60.

3rd Century Church at Megiddo

This has been big news in the blogs, and elsewhere, and my being behind on everything has not given me the chance to mention it here, but thanks to John Marshall for pointing out this Washington Post article on what was at first being called "oldest Christian church", but which is now being more accurately and responsibly reported. This article seems to get the vote as the most useful and balanced yet, and I mention it for those who haven't so far seen it:

Site May Be 3rd-Century Place of Christian Worship
Discovery Made At Israeli Prison
By Scott Wilson

If this is your first encounter with the story, you should definitely read the article above -- and keep a look out for more on this.

Evangelical Textual Criticism

I'm very behind on reading everything that has accumulated on my blogroll in recent weeks, but I've made one addition that is especially welcome:

Evangelical Textual Criticism
This is a forum for people with knowledge of the Bible in its original languages to discuss its manuscripts and textual history from the perspective of historic evangelical theology

I think I first spotted mention of it on Stephen Carlson's Hypotyposeis, Jim West's Biblical Theology and Michael Bird's Euangelion.

The new blog is welcome not only because it claims some top scholars in its team (e.g. Peter Head and Pete Williams, but also because it is a team blog, and on such an interesting and important topic.

I hope that the name of the new blog won't put people off. Not me. Some of my best friends are text critics. And some of my best friends are evangelicals. Goodness, come to think of it, I can think of friends who are both evangelicals and text critics! Well, two or three.

Jonathan Klawans

One of the (many) pleasures of being at Duke is that there is a regular New Testament and Early Judaism colloquium, sometimes with guest speakers (this semester John Barclay, before I arrived) and sometimes with the home team (this semester Joel Marcus, a couple of weeks ago, a fascinating paper on idolatry in the NT). Tonight was the third and last of the semester. After the delivered pizza, it was a paper by Jonathan Klawans on the temple incident. Although I didn't find myself sympathetic to the thesis of the paper, it was a brilliant and most enjoyable presentation, not least because of its scope -- a rethinking of the way sacrifice works in ancient and early Judaism and with a lot of useful reflections on contemporary scholarship on sacrifice. I am ashamed to say that I was not familiar with Klawans's work until tonight, but he is clearly well worth spending time with. Here's his faculty page at Boston University:

Jonathan Klawans

I am afraid that it is nothing like as strong as his colleague Paula Fredriksen's web page, with its multiple full-text reproductions of articles, but it provides a useful sketch.

Klawans has a new book out which I looked at tonight and which I will be looking to buy next week in Philadelphia. This is the OUP link:

Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple
Symbolism and Supersessionism in the Study of Ancient Judaism

Swimming in a sea of emails

A week or two ago, I was drowning in emails. Now I am swimming again, I think. Well, perhaps treading water at least. I am really sorry to all those I owe emails. I hope replies will be on the way soon. I am very behind with absolutely everything, but have this naively optimistic hope that life will be restored to some kind of normality soon, and that before leaving for Philadelphia on Friday, I will be on top of everything. It's good to dream.

Old Texts for a New Day

I received this flyer today; it is from Hollins University, and I've added a link at the beginning below to their website (but for the flyer, click on the main link below):

Hollins University:

Monday, November 28, 2005
Green Drawing Room, Main Building

Old Texts for a New Day: Setting the New Testament Writings in the Today’s World (PDF)

4:30 pm The Importance of Pauline Theology for the Church Today
Anne Katherine Greib, Hollins class of 1971, Associate Professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological (Episcopal) Seminary

7:30 pm 'Let No One Despise Your Youth': Tendencies and Countercurrents in the Pastoral Epistles
Sandra Hack Polaski, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Baptist Theological Seminary of Richmond
Reception to follow 7:30 pm lecture

Review of Biblical Literature Latest

Latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Finlan, Stephen
The Background and Content of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors
Reviewed by Susan Haber

Frost, Samuel M.
Exegetical Essays on the Resurrection of the Dead
Reviewed by Michael Licona

Garrow, Alan J. P.
The Gospel of Matthew's Dependence on the Didache
Reviewed by Michael Bird

Gaventa, Beverly Roberts
Acts
Reviewed by Craig Keener

Incigneri, Brian J.
The Gospel to the Romans: The Setting and Rhetoric of Mark's Gospel
Reviewed by Michael Bird

Rossing, Barbara R.
The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation
Reviewed by Pieter De Villiers

Malherbe Festschrift

Tom Olbricht mentioned the following on Rhetoric-L:
--
Early Christianity and Classical Culture: Comparative Studies in Honor of Abraham J. Malherbe, eds. John T. Fitzgerald, Thomas H. Olbricht, L. Michael White (Atlanta: SBL, 2005), 740 pp.

PART I: Graphos

Dieter Zeller, "The theia physis of Hippocrates and other "Divine Men""

Harold W. Attridge, "Making Scents of Paul: The Background and Sense of 2 Cor 2:14-17"

Gerard Mussies, "In Those Days:" Some Remarks on the Use of "Days" in Matthew 2:13:1, and Luke 2:1"

David E. Aune, "Distinct Lexical Meanings of aparche in Hellenism, Judaism, and Early Christianity"

Hans-Josef Klauck, "Compilation of Letters in Cicero's Correspondence"

Duane F. Watson, "A Reexamination of the Epistolary Analysis Underpinning the Composite Nature of Philippians"

PART II: Ethos

Ronald F. Hock, "The Parable of the Foolish Rich Man (Luke 12:16-20) and the Graeco-Roman Conventions of Thought and Behavior"

Troels Engberg-Pedersen, "Radical Altruism in Philippians 2:4"

Luke Timothy Johnson, "Transformation of the Mind and Moral Discernment in Paul"

James W. Thompson, "Creation, Shame, Nature: in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16: The Background and Coherence of Paul’s Argument"

Cilliers Breytenbach, "Civic Concord and Cosmic Harmony: Sources of Metaphoric Mapping in 1 Clement 20.3"

PART III: Logos

Edgar Krentz, "Logos or Sophia: The Pauline Use of the Ancient Dispute between Rhetoric and Philosophy"

Bruce W. Winter, "The Toppling of Favorinus and Paul by the Corinthians"

L. Michael White, "’Rhetoric and Reality in Galatians: Framing the Social Demands of Friendship"

Stanley K. Stowers, "Apostrophe, Prosopopoiiua, and Paul's Rhetorical Education"

Thomas H. Olbricht, "Analogy and Allegory in Classical Rhetoric"

Everett Ferguson, "The Art of Praise: Philo and Philodemus on Music"

PART IV: Ethnos

Carl R. Holladay, "Paul and His Predecessors in the Diaspora: Some reflections on Ethnic Identity in the Fragmentary Hellenistic Jewish Authors"

Leander E. Keck, "The Jewish Paul among the Gentiles: Two Portrayals"

David L. Balch, "The Cultural Origin of "Receiving all Nations" in Luke-Acts: Alexander the Great or Roman Imperial Policy?"

Edwin A. Judge, "Did the Churches Compete with Cult Groups?"

Hanne Sigismund Nielsen, in "Men, Women, and Marital Chastity: Public Preaching and Popular Piety at Rome"

PART V: Nomos

Johan C. Thom, "’The Mind is its Own Place’": Defining the Topos"

J. Louis Martyn, "Nomos Plus Genitive Noun in Paul: The History of God's Law"

Benjamin J. Fiore, "Household Rules at Ephesus: Good News, Bad News, No News"

Marinus de Jonge and L. Michael White, "The Washing of Adam in the Acherusian Lake (Greek Life of Adam andEve 37:3) in the Context of Early Christian Notions of Afterlife"

John T. Fitzgerald, "Last Wills and Testaments in Graeco-Roman Perspective--

Alice Cooper as King Herod

I was enjoying listening to Simon Mayo on FiveLive on Friday afternoon (well, it comes on in the morning here -- still haven't got used to that) and during an interview with Alice Cooper, someone emailed to compliment him on his portrayal of Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar. Cooper said that Tim Rice himself had approached him about doing it and he did a little imitation of himself saying "Walk across my swimming pool". I wasn't familiar with this, so googled and found that it was on a 1996 London Cast recording (or 1997 highlights recording), which I have now of course ordered from Amazon, who even have a short clip available. I am looking forward to listening; it is the version with Steve Balsamo as Jesus.

Another great King Herod is, of course, Rik Mayall in the recent Jesus Christ Superstar (2001), which has Glenn Carter as Jesus.

Chicken Little

Question: what does Chicken Little have in common with The Passion of the Christ?

Update (Sunday, 23.13): Jim West gets the prize for the most entertaining answer in Biblical Theology; I also liked anonymous commenter's "The title character announces the coming of the end, suffers mockery and condemnation, and ends up saving the world through his actions?", which was in fact better than the real answer, correctly guessed by David, that the music for each was composed by John Debney. Like all the most serious film-goers, I'm a credit watcher. One of the big puzzles to an English viewer about this film, though, is why all the other characters retain their repetitive surnames, Foxy Loxy, Goosey Lucy, etc., but there is a failure of the imagination on Chicken Little, who in the UK is Chicken Licken.

Meanwhile, Crystal asks what The Passion of the Christ has in common with The Matrix Reloaded. Monica Bellucci?

Early Christians' Reactions to Slavery

Another interesting press release from Fortress (I've asked other publishers to send me these, but to no avail, so Fortress continues to get the free publicity that others don't):
--
Early Christians’ Reaction to the Practice of Slavery

MINNEAPOLIS (November 4, 2005)— How did early Christians think about slaves? J. Albert Harrill argues in his new book, Slaves in the New Testament, that they did so using conventional stereotypes familiar from ancient moral philosophy, handbook literature, and the comic stage.

In this significant new analysis of slaves and slavery in the New Testament, Harrill breaks new ground with his extensive use of Greco-Roman evidence, explicit attention to hermeneutics, and treatment of the use of the New Testament in antebellum U.S. slavery debates. He examines in detail Philemon, I Corinthians, Romans, Luke-Acts, and the household codes.

While scholars have often treated references to slaves in the New Testament as evidence of the “liberating” participation of enslaved people in early Christianity, Harrill shows that many of the figures appearing in the New Testament are literary representations drawing on ancient ideologies that supported slavery. This finding then leads to an investigation of the ideological use of the New Testament to justify, and use to condemn, slavery in the United States.

This study as a whole offers a hermeneutical challenge to the noble dream that biblical criticism can settle Christian moral debate.

"Harrill combines wide-ranging knowledge of ancient sources with a sharp eye for the jugular of a text. The result is that rare thing in biblical scholarship, genuinely fresh insights into an old question. A book both delightful and disturbing, Slaves in the New Testament demolishes a card house of wishful thinking about early Christian views on slavery. Everyone who believes that the Bible has something to say about moral issues needs to pay attention."
— Wayne A. Meeks, Woolsey Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies Department of Religious Studies, Yale University

"Far more than a historical study of slavery in early Christianity, Harrill's remarkable book raises profound moral questions for the field of Biblical Studies and for the Christian churches. Nineteenth-century debates over whether the Bible supports slavery forged the schools of thought that shape today's debates over lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rights; the full emancipation of women; or capital punishment. Harrill deftly analyzes a range of New Testament and other Christian sources, demonstrating how frequently they echo Roman society's slave-holding values and anxieties about living with people forcibly held in bondage."
— Bernadette Brooten, Robert and Myra Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies, Brandeis University

J. Albert Harrill is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Adjunct Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies, and Director of the Ancient Studies Program at Indiana University. He is author of The Manumission of Slaves in Early Christianity (Mohr [Siebeck], 1995).

Slaves in the New Testament: Literary, Social, and Moral Dimensions

Format: Hardcover with jacket, 6” x 9”, 360 pp

ISBN: 0-8006-3772-0

Price: $45.00



Format: Paperback, 6” x 9”, 360 pp

ISBN: 0-8006-3781-X

Price: $25.00

Publisher: Fortress Press

To order Slaves in the New Testament please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review copies or exam copies, or to discuss speaking engagements or interviews, please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or email toddb@augsburgfortress.org.
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First full study of women's roles in the early church

This press release is from Fortress:

--
“This is the fruit of mature and careful social historians who now do for the study of Christian women what Beryl Rawson and Richard Saller have done for the Roman family—a patient, multidisciplinary, literary, political, and archaeological investigation. . . . The most thorough and far-reaching study to date. . . . No one wanting to engage the lives and roles of early Christian women or their central place in the expansion of Christianity in the first three centuries can afford to miss this book.”

—Harry O. Maier, Professor of New Testament Studies, Vancouver School of Theology

Fortress Press Releases the First Full Study of Women’s Roles in the Early Church

MINNEAPOLIS (October 19, 2005)— A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity by Carolyn Osiek, Margaret Y. MacDonald, with Janet H. Tulloch gives a focused look at women in the household context discusses the importance of issues of space and visibility in shaping the lives of early Christian women. Several aspects of women's everyday existence are investigated, including the lives of wives, widows, women with children, female slaves, women as patrons, household leaders, and teachers. In addition, several key themes emerge: hospitality, dining practices, and the extent of female segregation.

“A wonderful collection of evidence for the participation of women in early Christian house churches, as patrons, leaders, presiders, and funerary banquet hosts. . . . Essential reading for scholars of the New Testament and antiquity alike.”

—Kathleen E. Corley, Professor of New Testament and Christianity and Oshkosh Northwestern Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

“A perceptive and illuminating study of early Christian women in the domestic setting of house churches . . . set in the broader cultural context of the Mediterranean in the first couple of centuries of Christianity.”

—Beryl Rawson, Professor Emerita, Classics, Australian National University

"Uses the all too meager evidence with sophistication and presents their results with engaging clarity."

— Harold W. Attridge, Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament and Dean, Yale Divinity School

Carolyn Osiek is Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. Her other books include, with Kevin Madigan, Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History (2005); Shepherd of Hermas (Hermeneia, Fortress Press, 1999); and, with David L. Balch, Families in the New Testament World: Households and House Churches (1997).

Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of New Testament at St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia, Canada). Her previous books include Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion (1996) and The Pauline Churches: A Socio-Historical Study of Institutionalization (1988).

Janet Tulloch, who contributes the chapter on women and funerary banquets, received her Ph.D. in the New Testament from the University of Ottawa.

Format: Hardcover, 6” x 9”, 320 pp

ISBN: 0800636902

Price: $35.00

Format: Paperback, 6” x 9”, 320 pp

ISBN: 0800637771

Price: $35.00

Publisher: Fortress Press

To order A Woman’s Place please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at www.fortresspress.com. To request review copies or exam copies, or to discuss speaking engagements or interviews, please call 1-800-426-0115 ext. 234 or email toddb@augsburgfortress.org
--

Rhetoric, Ethic, and Moral Persuasion in Biblical Discourse

This was just announced on Rhetoric-L by Tom Olbricht:

--
Rhetoric, Ethic, and Moral Persuasion in Biblical Discourse, eds. Thomas H. Olbricht and Anders Eriksson (New York: T & T Clark International, 2005) xiv + 401 pp.

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, "Disciplinary Matters: Biblical Studies as A Critical Rhetoric of Inquiry."

Rodney K. Duke, Applachian State University, Boone, NC, "The Ethical Appeal of Chronicles"

Anders Eriksson, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, "The old is good: Parables of patched garment and wineskins as elaboration of a chreia in Luke 5:33-39 about feasting with Jesus."

Manfred Kraus, Unitersität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany "Ethos as a Technical Means of Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory"

John W. Marshall, University of Toronto, "When You Make the Inside like the Outside: Pseudepigraphy and Ethos"

J. David Hester-Amador, Center for Rhetoric and Hermeneutics, Santa Rosa, California, "The Wuellerian Sublime: Rhetorics, Ethics, Power, and the Ethics of Commun(icat)ion"

Prof. Carol Poster, York University, Toronto, CA, "Ethos, Authority and the New Testament Canon"

Thomas H. Olbricht, Pepperdine University, Emeritus, South Berwick, ME, "The Foundations of Ethos in Paul and in the Classical Rhetoricians"

Roy Jeal, William and Catherine Booth College, Winnipeg, Canada, "Melody, Imagery and Memory in the Moral Persuasion of Paul"

Fred Long, Bethel College, Mishawaka, IN, "From Epicheiremes to Exhortation: A Pauline Method for Moral Persuasion in I Thesalonianst"

Mark D. Given, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, "On His Majesty’s Secret Service: The Undercover Ethos of Paul, God’s Double Agent"

Todd Penner, Austin College, Sherman, TX, and Prof. Caroline Vander Stichele, University of Amsterdam, "Unveiling Paul: Gendering Ethos in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16"

Russell B. Sisson, Union College, Barboursville, KY, "Athorial Ethos in Philippians: The Agon Topos in Paul and Hellenistic Moralists"

Troy Martin, Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL, "Veiled Exhortation Regarding the Veil: Ethos as the controlling Moral Persuasion (1 Cor. 11:2-16)"

Johan S. Vos, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, "Phil 1:12-26 and the Rhetoric of Success"

Rollin Ramsaran, Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, TN, "In the Steps of the Moralists: Paul’s Rhetorical Argumentation in Philippians 4"

Jerry L. Sumney, Lexington Theological Seminary, Lexington, KY, "The Function of Ethos in Colossians 1:24-2:5"

Walter Übelacker, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, "Hebrews and the Implied Author’s Rhetorical Ethos"

Vernon K. Robbins, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, "From Heidelberg to Heidelberg: Rhetorical Interpretation of the Bible at the Seven ‘Pepperdine’ Conferences from 1992 to 2002"
--
I particularly like the title of Mark Given's article. I always say that one should ahve a few article titles on your CV that make one sit up and take notice!

In the Footsteps of Jesus

Coming soon on BBC Radio 4:

In the Footsteps of Jesus

Edward Stourton embarks on a journey in the footsteps of Jesus, bringing to life the world in which He lived.

There has never been a greater public demand for information about Jesus, the real man. Mel Gibson's The Passion and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code have both tapped into this desire to learn more about the man who is at the centre of the world's largest religion.

For one third of the world’s population, Jesus is the son of God, while a quarter views Him as a prophet and many others revere Him as a great teacher. But in this series Edward will also trace how the idea of Jesus and our understanding of Him has changed through the centuries; from Jesus, to Christ, to Emperor and finally to Guru.

It is a four part series, beginning Monday 21 November, and continuing weekly until the week before Christmas. For those of us outside the UK, don't worry! You can listen to it on-line. (In fact if you are anything like me, you are already listening to Radio 4 on-line whenever possible).

I should add that I have been involved in the series, as script consultant. I am very happy with the way that it has shaped up. I talked to Ed Stourton not long before leaving the UK; and they also got some top notch people, including Tom Wright, Ed Sanders, Bart Ehrman and Larry Hurtado. I promise some regular reminders when the programme airs.

Review of Biblical Literature latest

A little later than usual, but here it is anyway, the latest from the SBL Review of Biblical Literature under the NT heading:

Brown, Michael Joseph
The Lord's Prayer through North African Eyes: A Window into Early Christianity
Reviewed by Gerald West

Meier, John P.
Translated by Jean-Bernard Degorce, Charles Ehlinger, and Noël Lucas
Un Certain Juif: Jésus-Les Données de l'histoire: II: La parole et les gestes
Reviewed by Thomas Kraus

Tsang, Sam
From Slaves to Sons: A New Rhetoric Analysis on Paul's Slave Metaphors in His Letter to the Galatians
Reviewed by Roy Lucas

Van Neste, Ray
Cohesion and Structure in the Pastoral Epistles
Reviewed by Christopher Hutson

O'Keefe, John J. and R. R. Reno
Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible
Reviewed by Tobias Nicklas

O'Keefe, John J. and R. R. Reno
Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible
Reviewed by Marcus Sigismund

Segal, Alan F.
Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion
Reviewed by Corrado Martone

Thought for the day

I am really enjoying reading Dale Allison, Resurrecting Jesus, in the few spare moments I have at the moment, and rather liked this comment which he makes in passing:

"One cannot fairly criticize an idea by ridiculing its distortions" (222).

I can think of occasions when I could have used that line to good effect, and I am going to remember it for the future.

Thanks and another attempt to return

One of my favourite parts of one of my favourite films, The Truman Show, is where they take the show off the air and they get the best ratings ever. I feel a bit like that with the blog! My blogging hiatus has generated so many sympathetic comments and emails that I wonder whether I should do it more often (only joking). The long and short of it is that we after an initial honeymoon period for the first few weeks when we arrived in North Carolina, subsequently we have found the transition from the UK to the US very difficult, and unexpectedly so in many areas. I am not able to go into detail, at least not at this point, but what I would like to do is to say thanks for the support and encouragement, which means alot.

And I am going to say darn everything and I will blog!