4-18
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
7/04/2006
2:00 PM to 5:15 PM
Room: Lecture Theatre - William Robertson
Petri Luomanen, University of Helsinki, Presiding
Bradley J. Embry, International College and Graduate School
A Story of Love? Use of Song of Songs in the Odes of Solomon (30 min)
AbstractRivka Nir, Open University of Israel
This paper intends to examine the use of Song of Songs terminology in the formation of the Odes of Solomon. Most commentaries make no mention of Song of Songs as an Old Testament source text for Odes of Solomon. In this paper, I argue that Song of Songs was a primary source text for the Odes, functioning in many respects according to the analogical interpretation often given it by the rabbis and Church Fathers.
The Conversion of Aseneth in a Christian Context (30 min)
AbstractEdna Isreali, Tel Aviv University
Asenth’s conversion is still the most enigmatic episode in "Joseph and Aseneth". In contrast to the commonly-held opinion, I will argue that this scene should be understood in a Christian context. At its center stands the Eucharist, expressed by the “bread of life” and the “cup of immortality” and illustrated by the honeycomb. All the stages through which Aseneth went before partaking of the Eucharist (fasting, praying on her knees, turning to the east, spreading her hands towards heaven, looking upwards) and the acts which described the communion itself (Aseneth 'set a table', the angel stretched out his right hand, broke a small portion off the comb, he himself ate, what was left he put into Aseneth’s mouth, he told her to eat, and she ate), are compatible with the Eucharist liturgy and Christian initiation rites in the first centuries. In performing these rites, Aseneth becomes a model for gentiles who were called on not only to join the Church but also to lead a virginal way of life. The Eucharistic character is equally manifested in its description as a mysterion, its eschatological prospect and its celebration on Sunday. Two main arguments were raised in denying the Christian identity of this episode: the lack of baptism and the apparent disconnection of the ointment to the meal formula. I will prove that Aseneth’s baptism is clearly hinted at in the angel’s command to wash her hands and face with living water (14:12-15) and that the ointment (myron) prayer was an integral part of the Eucharist liturgy. In her transformation to the "city of refuge", in the sign of the Cross and the bees and the honeycomb scene, Aseneth symbolizes the Church of the Gentiles united with Christ and capable of granting salvation and resurrection to its believers.
Who Is "Taxo"? Re-thinking the Origins of the Assumption of Moses (30 min)
AbstractBreak (45 min)
The identity of the enigmatic figure of "TAXO" has fascinated scholars since publication of the Latin translation from a Greek text of the Assumption of Moses (1861). Scholars offered many imaginative solutions based on numerology or substitutive method of at-bash or ab-bag. Some ascribed the name to a suffering Messiah, some to Shiloh, who is numerically equal to Moses, and over the period from the Hasmonean Revolt until the Bar-Kokhva Revolt to different historical figures; many others supposed Taxo is the Latin form for the Greek taxon, the "Orderer". Such calculations or assumptions are speculative and unconvincing, not only because they lean on many kinds of distortions of the name in the Latin text, and of the supposed equivalents in Greek or in Hebrew, but also because they fail to explain how this figure integrates with the book’s time, content and purpose. I believe their failure derives from their preconception that the book is of Jewish origin. In 1868 Philippi claimed the author could not be Jewish, assuming the name points to the Christian Messiah, yet his attempt to deduce it from Taxo was unsatisfactory. Following Philippi’s conclusion about Christian origin, I suggest that the Latin TAXO is (like a number of other Greek words in this book) a transliteration of the Greek original, and should be read not as taxo but as TACHO (X=CH). This letter combination symbolizes Jesus Christ: T (Tau) and X (CHi) symbolize the cross and Christ (Xristos) while the two vowels A (Alpha) and O (Omega) are also early Christian symbols of Jesus who, like the biblical God, is defined as the first and the last, and at the same time as the Second Moses -- in whose name the writer delivers his eschatological message and who is clearly presented as a suffering righteous one.
Pierluigi Piovanelli, University of Ottawa
Christian Apocryphal Texts for the New Millennium: Achievements, Prospects, and Challenges (30 min)
AbstractIstvan Czachesz, University of Groningen
The long awaited volume 2 of the Écrits apocryphes chrétiens, the anthology of texts in translation published by the late Pierre Geoltrain and Jean-Daniel Kaestli in the prestigious Pléiade series, was released on September 22, 2005. The two Pléiade volumes -- the first one was edited by François Bovon (and Pierre Geoltrain, in 1997 -- contain no lesser than 82 apocryphal writings, including some new texts translated for the first time into a modern language. This prestigious and groundbreaking publication provides the most up-to-date collection of Christian apocryphal texts available at the moment. Because of the extremely large selection of early Christian and late-antique texts offered to the readers, it also represents a major paradigmatic shift in comparison to what was found in, e.g., the various editions of the German anthology published by Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher. In the light of the Pléiade achievements, I will explore the impact of newly published texts, the reappraisal of late-antique texts, and the apocryphal creativity in the long-term history of Christianity. I will briefly address the issues of the Christian identity of some well known Jewish Pseudepigrapha (as, e.g., the Ascension of Isaiah or the Lives of the Prophets, included as Christian texts in the Pléiade volumes); the value of “proto-orthodox,” “Gnostic,” and “Jewish Christian” labels for the reconstruction of early Christian history and theologies; the flourishing of late-antique apocryphal texts (i.e., after the end of the 3rd century CE), and the process of creating new apocryphal texts in Christian and non-Christian cultures.
Cognitive Constructs of the Divine in Apocryphal Literature (30 min)
Abstract
In apocryphal literature the conceptualization of the divine shows many unexpected forms. I have earlier analyzed various theoriomorphic representations and the widespread use of metamorphosis from the point of view of cognitive science. In this paper I will ask whether different cognitive constructs of the divine could lead to the formation of the canon and the marginalization or extra-canonical classification of some pieces of early Christian literature. According to the cognitive science of religion, religious concepts violate shared ontological expectations. Those violations, however, are not haphazard, but help the divine agents acquire socially strategic information and use such information to intervene in everyday life. The most widespread god concepts seem to have evolved a special economy whereby minimally counterintuitive traits are coupled with a maximal functionality in performing such functions. My starting hypothesis is that apocryphal literature presents less optimal and economic conceptualizations of the divine. The hypothesis will be tested through an analysis of a sample of apocryphal literature, including gospels, apocalypses, apocryphal acts, and writings form the Nag Hammadi Library.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Edna Israeli's paper was canceled. The Dead Sea Scrolls session was moved from the morning to the afternoon, so I had to split my time between the it and the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha session.
4-22
Dead Sea Scrolls and Hebrew Bible
7/04/2006
2:00 PM to 5:45 PM
Room: G.04 - William Robertson
Theme: Prophecy and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Kristin De Troyer, Claremont School of Theology, Presiding
George J. Brooke, University of Manchester
Was the Teacher a Prophet? (30 min)
AbstractTimothy H. Lim, University of Edinburgh
The sectarian compositions from the Qumran caves seem to be very reluctant to use the word nby' of any member of the community; it is never used even of the Righteous Teacher. The purpose of this paper will be to reconsider the possible prophetic status of the Teacher by setting the image of him within the context of the breadth of scriptural interpretation in the Qumran corpus much of which implies that prophecy was still ongoing particularly in a range of parabiblical compositions. This recondiseration of the character of Second Temple prophecy will strongly suggest that the Teacher was a prophet in all but name.
‘All these he composed through prophecy’ (30 min)
AbstractDiscussion (30 min)
The first part of this paper will survey the evidence of how the biblical psalms were read as prophecy in the Qumran community. Topics discussed will include inter alia the number of copies of the Psalms, the prophetic role of the Teacher of Righteousness, the three continuous Pesharim to Psalms, the ‘midrash’ on the last days, the messianic anthology, 11QMelchizedek, 4QMMT, the Damascus Document and the Psalms Scroll. This review of the evidence will be followed by the suggestion that one of the main reasons why the Psalms were read as prophecy is that they were believed to have been written by David through prophetic inspiration: ‘all these he (ie David) composed through prophecy which was given him from before the Most High’. Thus, the relationship between prophecy and psalms, already evident in the biblical texts, takes on an ever more prominent place in the post-exilic period.
Break (45 min)
Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki
Pesharim as Divination (30 min)
AbstractKatell Berthelot, National Center for Scientific Research
As has been noticed long ago, the interpretatvie method of the Pesharim of Qumran bears resemblance, not only to the interpretation of dreams and visions in the Book of Daniel, but also to Mesopotamian dream interpretation, where the verb pasharu is used as a technical term for communicating an ominous dream to another person. This paper will place the Pesharim against a wider background of divination, laying special emphasis on the scribal interpretation of prophecy. It will argue that the Pesharim (especially the so-called continuous Pesharim) can be taken as one characteristic specimen of ancient Near Eastern scribal divination.
4QTestimonia as a Polemic against the Prophetic Claims of John Hyrkanus (30 min)
AbstractDiscussion (30 min)
According to Josephus, John Hyrcanus was gifted with the gift of prophecy, and he was the only Hasmonean ruler to be characterized as a prophet. 4QTestimonia (4Q175) deals with biblical prophecies and prophets, and ends with a passage that elaborates on Joshua's curse against the person who will rebuild Jericho (in Jos 6:26) and implies that his prophecy has been fulfilled. This passage can also be found in 4QApocryphon of Joshua (4Q379 22). It is generally agreed that the author of 4Q175 quotes the Apocryphon of Joshua, but Hanan Eshel has proposed to consider 4Q175 the original composition, arguing that the passage better fits the context of 4Q175. According to Eshel, this particular passage alludes to John Hyrcanus and two of his sons. Moreover, he suggests that it may refer polemically to Hyrcanus' gift of prophecy. In this lecture, I will examine Eshel's interpretation of 4Q175 and tackle the issue of prophecy and false prophecy in this text, in order to answer the question: Is 4QTestimonia a polemic against the prophetic claims of John Hyrcanus?
Aside from networking and drinking coffee, I also stopped in at the Working with Biblical Manuscripts (Textual Criticism) session in the morning. I don't have the patience to fill in the abstracts this time, but here's the program. You can find details on the Online Program Book page, if you're interested.
4-16
Working with Biblical Manuscripts (Textual Criticism)
7/04/2006
8:45 AM to 12:00 PM
Room: Lecture Theatre - William Robertson
David Trobisch, Bangor Theological Seminary, Presiding
Tommy Wasserman, Lund University
P78 – the Epistle of Jude on an amulet? (30 min)
Pablo Torijano Morales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Andrés Piquer-Otero, University of California-Berkeley and Juan-José Alarcón
Text-critical Value of Secondary Versions in the Study of The Septuagint 3-4 Kingdoms (30 min)
John P. Flanagan, Leiden University
Isaiah 6:13: A New Look at an Old Textual Problem (30 min)
Break (45 min)
Ekkehard Henschke, Oxford
Tischendorf's Codex Sinaiticus and its Modern Presentation (30 min)
Elvira Martin Contreras, Oriente Antiguo Instituto Filologia
M1’s Massoretic Appendices: A New Description (30 min)
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