THE PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS (PSCO) has an ambitious and exciting agenda for this academic year. I take the liberty of reproducing the whole agenda from Bob Kraft's e-mail to the PSCO list:

To PSCO email list
With apologies for not communicating earlier

The pieces are now in hand to move forward with scheduling for the 41st year of the PSCO. We have received a small grant from the UPenn Humanities Forum to enable us to bring in some outside speakers, and we have secured a room at the conference hotel in Atlanta for a session on Friday evening, before the SBL/AAR conference proper. The following paragraphs briefly describe the topic for 2003-2004, with a very tentative list of possible times and topics/speakers. Except for the UPenn people, none of the proposed speakers has yet been contacted. The schedule is thus open for further suggestions and volunteers!

For the 2003-2004 Year, the 41st of the PSCO, the topic will continue from where the past year ended, and will focus on specific "biblical" personages with whom "parabiblical" materials have been associated, following up on the sort of biographical organization used by Montague Rhodes James in his 1920 publication of "Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament: their Titles and Fragments Collected, Translated and Discussed" (now availabe online at
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/735/Parabiblical/jamesnew.htm )

The work by James is understandably badly in need of updating, and the internet provides an amenable format for such a task. And in addition, we propose to create an electronic "sister volume" that focuses on early Christian names and materials, along the lines explored in
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/735/Parabiblical/NTApoc.htm .

The program for PSCO 41 will approach the subject from the perspective of selected specific names that served as magnets for associating literature and traditions -- and with a view to creating appropriately updated electronic tools for such study.

As guidelines for presenters, the following suggestions may be useful:

1. The focus is on named "persons" (or groups such as "Watchers," "the 70") who play a significant role in the attributed authorship and/or main interest of "parabiblical literature" in Judaism and/or Christianity -- thus "prosopography" or "onomastics" as a general subtitle.

2. A primary criterion for selection is the connections of the "person" to (especially "parabiblical") literature and associated traditions -- what is the subject supposed to have written or to have been the primary interest for (e.g. Noah as author or as main focus).

3. Also of interest are the stories, traditions, legends, even art, that circulated around/about the "person," especially prior to the "fixing" of written materials with the success of the printing press in or about the 16th century (i.e. in the pre-print world).

Here is a very tentative schedule and list of possibilities:

Sept/Oct (probably Thursday, 9 October at UPenn):

"Overview of the Project with selected examples (OG & Watchers, DANIEL, GOSPEL OF MARY, BARNABAS)" (see the online materials noted above)
Robert Kraft, University of Pennsylvania (PSCO coordinator)

"Armenian Developments of Biblical Traditions: Transmission and Creativity" (with focus on Adam and Eve, Ezra, and a few others)
Michael E. Stone, Hebrew University

21 November 2003, 7-8:30 pm, Atlanta Mariott Marquis Hotel, Amsterdam Room (Convention Level): Panel of experts attending the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion in Atlanta GA, on the subject "Parabiblical Prosopography":

Focus question -- to what extent do popular narratives/reports about parabiblical identities (supposed authors and focal figures) assist us in understanding how the "parabiblical" literature was read/understood and transmitted/preserved?

some possible participants as resource people in discussion context (see, e.g., Stone & Bergren, Biblical Figures outside the Bible)--people likely to be in Atlanta but otherwise expensive as guests for Philadelphia/Princeton sessions --

NOTE: none of them have been contacted yet (although some are on the PSCO email list and will see this in planning)

John D. Turner (Univ Nebrasks at Lincoln), Seth and the Sethians
Philip Alexander (Manchester ENG), Enoch
Birger Pearson (Santa Barbara, Emeritus), Melchizedek, Norea, etc
J. Edward Wright (Univ Arizona), Baruch
James VanderKam (Notre Dame), Enoch, Noah
George Nickelsburg (Univ Iowa, Emeritus), Enoch and general
James Davila (St. Andrews SCOT), Rechabites
John Painter (Charles Sturt Univ), James the Just
Richard Bauckham (St. Andrews SCOT), James the Just
Burton Mack (Claremont), Mark
Scott Johnson (Oxford ENG), Thecla (S23-51)
Holly Hearon (Christian Theol Sem), Mary(s) (S23-125, S23-103)
Jane Schaberg (Univ Detroit), Jesus' women (S24-13)
Michael Kaler (Laval Univ), Paul (S24-15)
Christine Thomas (Santa Barbara), Peter (S24-101)
F.Stanley Jones (Cal State), Clement
Kirsti Copeland (Univ Redlands), John Baptist / Apoc. of James

January 2004:

"Parabiblical Traditions with Connections to Magic -- SOLOMON and PHILIP"
Sarah Schwarz, University of Pennsylvania
Debra Bucher, University of Pennsylvania

March 2004 (at Princeton) [some unconfirmed possibilities]

"The WATCHERS and GIANTS in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Traditions"
Annette Reed, McMaster University (Canada)
"JOSEPH AND ASENETH among the Ascetics"
Ross Kraemer, Brown University

April/May 2004: [unconfirmed suggestions -- others are most welcome as well]
"ADAM AND EVE in various Settings"
Gary Anderson, Notre Dame University
"MARY as the new Eve"
Ann Matter, University of Pennsylvania


--
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html