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Archive for the ‘HB/OT’ Category


Richard Hays, “Unexpected Echoes: Reading Scripture with Mark”

In Edinburgh, Gospel of Mark, Gunning Lectures, HB/OT, Hermeneutics, Kerry Lee, Messianic secret, New Testament, Richard HAYS, Scripture, SEMINAR REPORTS on January 19, 2012 at 7:16 pm

A report on a paper given by Richard Hays (Dean and George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament at Duke University in Durham, NC), 17 January 2012. Professor Hays is delivering this year’s Gunning Lectures at New College, University of Edinburgh, on the topic “Israel’s Scripture Through the Eyes of the Gospel Writers.”

RBECS is also on facebook, here.

Professor Hays’ lecture series continued with a closer examination of the way allusions to Old Testament passages in the Gospel of Mark portray Jesus as mysteriously but directly embodying the presence of God, contrary to a certain tendency in New Testament scholarship to posit an early low Christology (evident in the Gospel of Mark, among other places) which evolved into a higher Christology (evident in, for example, the Gospel of John). He began with a reflection on the insufficiency of certain terms to encompass all that Mark’s Gospel asserts about Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »


Richard Hays, “Can the Gospels Teach Us How to Read the OT?”

In Edinburgh, Gunning Lectures, HB/OT, Kerry Lee, New Testament, Richard HAYS, Scripture, SEMINAR REPORTS on January 17, 2012 at 4:56 pm

A report on a paper given by Richard Hays (Dean and George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament at Duke University in Durham, NC), 16 January 2012. Professor Hays is delivering this year’s Gunning Lectures at New College, University of Edinburgh, on the topic “Israel’s Scripture Through the Eyes of the Gospel Writers.”

RBECS is also on facebook, here.

Professor Hays’ first presentation in his series was, in part, an introduction to the problem underlying the remainder of the lectures: it is frequently accused of the New Testament that its proclamation of Jesus rests on twisted and tendentious readings of the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament, it is asserted, is silent about Jesus, meaning, first, that the conceptual background for the New Testament resides elsewhere than Israel’s scriptures and, second, that one cannot objectively view Christianity as being in continuity with the faith of the Old Testament. Read the rest of this entry »


Arie van der Kooij, “The Translators of the Pentateuch in Greek”

In Arie van der KOOIJ, David J. Larsen, HB/OT, Pentateuch, SEMINAR REPORTS, Septuagint, St Andrews on December 7, 2011 at 8:28 pm

This is a report on a paper presented by Prof Arie van der Kooij (Emeritus), Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Universiteit Leiden, at the Biblical Studies Research Seminar at St Andrews, 1 December 2011. The list of forthcoming papers in this seminar at St Andrews is available here.

RBECS is on Facebook too, here.

Professor van der Kooij, of Leiden University, gave a fascinating paper at the University of St Andrews’  Biblical Studies Research Seminar.  His topic was one that has not been discussed in detail at the seminar in recent years, which made his paper even more intriguing.  Professor van der Kooij’s thesis was that, contrary to other current theories, when evaluating the character of the translators of the Pentateuch into Greek we should take the perspective of the ancient Letter of Aristeus — that they were learned, noble persons working under the direction of the High Priest from Jerusalem. Read the rest of this entry »


Nicholas Wyatt, “After Death Has Us Parted: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in the Ancient Semitic World”

In Abraham, Edinburgh, HB/OT, Kerry Lee, Nicholas WYATT, Pentateuch, SEMINAR REPORTS on November 1, 2011 at 12:28 pm

A report on a paper given by Professor Nicholas Wyatt (Honorary Professorial Fellow, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh) at the Biblical Studies Seminar at New College, the University of Edinburgh, 28 October 2011.

The list of forthcoming papers in the Biblical Studies Seminars at Edinburgh can be downloaded from here. You can find RBECS on facebook, here.

Professor Wyatt’s paper drew together disparate strands from first and second millennium BCE texts from across Mesopotamia and the Levant in order to identify common elements in their post-funerary practices, or ritual “Encounters Between the Living and the Dead.”

The bulk of the paper centered around investigating the eastern Mesopotamian practice of the kispum, a ritual feast wherein a deceased person, most especially but not exclusively a deceased king, was remembered and “fed.” Read the rest of this entry »


John Barton, “Law and Narrative in the Pentateuch”

In Edinburgh, HB/OT, John BARTON, Kerry Lee, Pentateuch, SEMINAR REPORTS on October 15, 2011 at 11:20 pm

A report on a paper given by Professor John Barton (Oriel College, Oxford University) at the Biblical Studies Seminar at New College, the University of Edinburgh, 14 October 2011.

The list of forthcoming papers in the Biblical Studies Seminars at Edinburgh can be downloaded from here. You can find RBECS on facebook, here.

Professor Barton’s paper was an exploration of the problem of the relationship between the legal and narrative texts of the Pentateuch. The paper consisted of six points/sections: (1) an introduction of the problem, (2) a review of the Jewish interpretive tradition which has foregrounded the legal texts, (3) a review of the Christian tradition which, in contrast, foregrounded the narrative texts but in a prophetic light, (4) an exploration of two broad purposes for narrative with a national scope (such as, but not limited to, royals annals), one positive and one negative, which would provide a rubric by which to foreground the narrative texts, (5) a third suggestion for the purpose of narratives which integrates the legal texts for the modern reader, and finally (6) a look ahead to some work which is breaking down the generic barriers between narrative and law, perhaps providing yet another solution to the problem. Read the rest of this entry »


Worship that Makes Sense to Paul: A New Approach to the Theology and Ethics of Paul’s Cultic Metaphors

In Cognition, Cultic metaphors, De Gruyter, HB/OT, Nijay K. GUPTA, Paul's ethics, Philippians, Romans, Samuli Siikavirta on October 14, 2011 at 10:43 pm

2011.10.06 | Nijay K. Gupta, Worship that Makes Sense to Paul: A New Approach to the Theology and Ethics of Paul’s Cultic Metaphors, (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde des älteren Kirche 175), Göttingen: De Gruyter, 2010. ISBN 978-3-11-022889-2. Hardcover.

Reviewed by Samuli Siikavirta, University of Cambridge.

RBECS would like to thank De Gruyter for kindly providing us with a review copy. Visit us on facebook too.

How are cultic metaphors of the Hebrew Bible used in Paul’s undisputed letters? Read the rest of this entry »


Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, “The Geographical and Theological Location of Isaiah 40-55”

In David J. Larsen, HB/OT, Lena-Sofia TIEMEYER, Scripture, SEMINAR REPORTS, St Andrews on March 24, 2011 at 12:55 pm

This is a report on a seminar paper presented by Dr Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, Lecturer in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, King’s College, University of Aberdeen, in the Biblical Studies Seminar at the School of Divinity, St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, on 14 Oct 2010. This paper represents themes/material taken from Dr Tiemeyer’s recent major publication on Deutero-Isaiah entitled For the Comfort of Zion: The Geographical and Theological Location of Isaiah 40-55 (Vetus Testamentum Supplement 139, Leiden, Brill, 2011).

Dr Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, in this seminar paper, challenged the academic status quo regarding the understanding of the location for the writing of the section of the Book of Isaiah known as 2nd or Deutero-Isaiah (Isa 40-55).  Read the rest of this entry »


The 1st St Andrews Graduate Conference for Biblical and Early Christian Studies: Authoritative Texts and Reception History

In Call for papers, DSS, HB/OT, New Testament, Patristics, Reception history, Septuagint, St Andrews on February 1, 2011 at 1:39 pm

[see the CfP for the 2nd StAnGCBECS (2012) here and the Facebook page of the conference here]

Authoritative Texts and Reception History

Aspects and Approaches

15-16 June 2011

With an emphasis on textual reception history, the first St Andrews Graduate Conference for Biblical and Early Christian Studies is aimed at graduate students and early career scholars. Contributors are welcomed from the following fields of research: Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament and Early Christianity.

Some other details, here. Information about registration are posted here. You can download the conference poster from here.

We have four invited plenary speakers:

Prof. Kristin De Troyer

Prof. James R. Davila

Prof. N. T. Wright

Dr. Mark W. Elliott

Conference sessions will be chaired by plenary speakers followed by papers grouped by topic.

Papers will be 20 minutes. Deadline to send in your 250-word abstracts is 15 March 2011. Abstracts should be e-mailed to StAnGCBECS [at] gmail.com Read the rest of this entry »