Review of Johnson, Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre

MARGINALIA: The Problem with Identity in Late Antiquity – By Todd Berzon. Todd Berzon on Aaron P. Johnson’s Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity.

More on Porphyry here.

Anxious revolutionary years

PHILIP JENKINS has two posts up at the Anxious Bench on the second and third centuries BCE as revolutionary years for ancient Judaism:

Revolutionary Years 1

In the third and second centuries BC, the Jewish world changed very rapidly, and we see the development of many themes and debates that would shape both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism – the Last Judgment and eschatology, angels and demons, afterlife and apocalypse. In that process, one very short period of thirty or so years demands our attention, as the centerpiece of a wide-ranging spiritual revolution.

[...]

Revolutionary Years 2

In a very short period in the second century BC – mainly between 170 and 140 – Jewish thought and religion changed swiftly and fundamentally, creating a world that is familiar to later historians from Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. I have already described some of the scriptures that emerge from this world, but let me here explore some of the religious themes that now rose to central significance.

[...]

Multilingualism Conference

JUDAIC STUDIES AT YALE UNIVERSITY: Multilingualism Conference.

Over the past 20 years there has been a great deal of new work done on multi-lingualism, on material findings, and on the interaction between text and image in antiquity. These findings have had significant implications for the way we think about dynamic interactions between and within cultures in antiquity. The planned conference will explore new research on the transfer of culture in antiquity with respect to language, image, daily practice, religious ritual, and material culture.

Follow the link for the schedule (7-9 December).

Sanders on the aporia of the Torah

SETH SANDERS: The Early History of Scriptural Unreason.

Here is where we can grasp Hebrew literature’s original aporia, in the gap between the Torah and its readers that made it sometimes seem so problematic and irrational. How did the Torah first become a puzzle to its early tradents, a problem to be solved?

Asking the important questions.

On Berlin and Brettler, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition

INTERVIEW: Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler on the Hebrew Bible (OUP Blog).

Winner of the 2004 National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship, The Jewish Study Bible is a landmark, one-volume resource tailored especially for the needs of students of the Hebrew Bible. We sat down with co-editors Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler to talk about the revisions in the Second Edition of The Jewish Study Bible, and the Biblical Studies field as a whole.

[...]

IOSOT Congress volume and Neusner Festschrift

NEW BOOKS FROM BRILL:

Congress Volume Munich 2013

Christl M. Maier, University of Marburg

This volume presents the main lectures of the 21st Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) held in Munich, Germany, in August 2013. Seventeen internationally distinguished scholars present their current research on the Hebrew Bible, including the literary history of the Hebrew text, its Greek translation and history of interpretation. Some focus on archeological sources and the reconstruction of ancient Israelite religion while others discuss the formation of the biblical text and its impact for cultural memory. The volume gives readers a representative view of the most recent developments in the study of the Old Testament.

Contributors are: Olivier Artus, Ehud Ben Zvi, Beate Ego, Irmtraud Fischer, Christian Frevel, Shimon Gesundheit, Timothy P. Harrison, Louis C. Jonker, James L. Kugel, Christoph Levin, Amihai Mazar, Steven L. McKenzie, Konrad Schmid, Yvonne Sherwood, Zipora Talshir, Akio Tsukimoto, and Jacques Vermeylen.


A Legacy of Learning
Essays in Honor of Jacob Neusner

Edited by Alan J. Avery Peck, College of the Holy Cross, Bruce Chilton, Bard College, William Scott Green, University of Miami, and Gary G. Porton, University of Illinois, Urbana.

In a career spanning over fifty years, the questions Jacob Neusner has asked and the critical methodologies he has developed have shaped the way scholars have come to approach the rabbinic literature as well as the diverse manifestations of Judaism from rabbinic times until the present. The essays collected here honor that legacy, illustrating an influence that is so pervasive that scholars today who engage in the critical study of Judaism and the history of religions more generally work in a laboratory that Professor Neusner created. Addressing topics in ancient and Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaic context of early Christianity, American Judaism, World Religions, and the academic study of the humanities, these essays demarcate the current state of Judaic and religious studies in the academy today.

Sahidic Old Testament Project

GOOD NEWS: Sahidic OT Project at Göttingen!!! (ETC).

A new Syriac Gospel in which Jesus married Mary Magdalene? I don't think so.

SHORT ANSWER, NO: Is this proof Jesus married and had two sons? Ancient manuscript said to be 'lost gospel' with a sensational twist (Harry Mount, The Daily Mail).

Barrie Wilson and Simcha Jacobovici have published a book about the well-known Syriac version of the Old Testament pseudepigraphon Joseph and Aseneth, in which they claim that the story is really a secretly-coded one about Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene. That's right: Jesus and Mary are not mentioned at all in this "Gospel," it is a story about two Old Testament characters and one has to impose an allegory of Jesus and Mary onto it, based on an imagined marriage.

The Syriac version of Joseph and Aseneth happens to be our earliest copy of the text, but we know (from the comments in the larger work in which it now imbedded) that the Syriac is a translation of a Greek text. We have many copies of this Greek text in more than one version. The origin of the Greek work is debated by scholars. Some think it is a Second-Temple-era Jewish text and others that it is a late-antique Christian one. The translator of the Syriac and the person who commissioned the translation seem to think that the book is an allegory. An allegory of what is not entirely clear, due to an unfortunate manuscript break, but something to do with "our Lord the Word." Presumably Joseph represents Jesus. I would guess that Aseneth correspondingly represents the gentile Church.

So, if Joseph and Aseneth is a Christian work (and I am not yet persuaded otherwise) and if the Syriac writers are correct in reading it as an allegory involving Jesus (and it's possible that they are), it still does not follow that the allegorical marriage of Joseph and Aseneth has anything at all to do with a literal marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The allegorical marriage of Jesus and the Church goes back to the New Testament (e.g., Ephesians 5:21-33 and Revelation 19:6-8; 21:2). The idea of a marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalene is not explicitly attested in antiquity (the almost certainly forged Gospel of Jesus' Wife notwithstanding). It would take a lot of evidence to persuade me that Joseph and Aseneth is about Jesus and Mary.

Even if it were demonstrable that Joseph and Aseneth was about a marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, this would merely be evidence for a creative apocryphal notion thought up sometime in late antiquity (and there were many, many such notions). It would remain to prove that this text told us anything about the historical Jesus and Mary and that would be very difficult indeed to establish.

Although I always like to see the Old Testament pseudepigrapha getting some media attention, it is too bad that the fascinating and entertaining text Joseph and Aseneth is being tied in the public mind to this ingenious but highly implausible connection with a literal marriage of Jesus.

It's always possible that there is some stunning argumentation in the book that will make me change my mind, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm not going to get around to reading the book anytime soon, or more likely ever. But I will keep an eye on reviews and other scholarly commentary to see if anything interesting does arise from it.

Did Jesus actually marry Mary Magdalene? I have commented here. I put up a post on the Wilson-Jacobovici notion about Joseph and Aseneth back when it was first hinted at about a year ago, linking to very helpful comments by Mark Goodacre and Richard Bauckham.

Some responses from New Testament specialists in various media:

ABC News: Alleged 'Lost Gospel' Claims Jesus Had Wife, 2 Children: Authors of a new book say they have evidence to back up claims the savior was married to Mary Magdalene. Mark Goodacre is interviewed briefly. [Bad link now corrected.]

James McGrath: Married with Children? Recent Headlines About Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Greg Carey: Another Jesus and Mary Magdalene Hoax.

Robert Cargill (who has already read the book): Review of “The Lost Gospel” by Jacobovici and Wilson. Key excerpt:

By that same allegorical logic, you could swap out the names of Samson and Delilah and claim that Mary Magdalene cut Jesus’ hair. Or swap out Adam and Eve and conclude that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were the primordial couple. Or read David and Bathsheba allegorically and end up with Jesus having a son named Solomon, who is guarded by the Priory of Sion, and…well, you get the picture.

UPDATE: Also Simcha Jacobovici has some pre-publication comments about the book in The Times of Israel, noting that the Syriac text was translated by Professor Tony Burke (of York University and the blog Apocryphicity): It begins!

And so it does.

Sight-reading a Maimonides autograph in the British Library

SAUL J. SINGER: Confessions Of A Judaica Document Collector (The Jewish Press).

I am walking through the British Library in London, which serves as the state repository for, among other things, treasured original documents. Outstanding works in the collection include a unique Aristotle papyrus, four original Magna Cartas, the 4th-century Greek Codex Sinaiticus Bible, a Gutenberg Bible, and Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks.

[...]

Mr. Singer's collection is mostly of modern Judaica and, although it is of great interest on its own terms, it is not very relevant to PaleoJudaica. But this cool little vignette caught my eye:

And then I turn around – and there it is, unbelievably right before my eyes: A handwritten responsa by Moshe ben Maimon, otherwise known as the Rambam or Maimonides. It is protected behind glass, but I can come within only a few inches of it and almost – almost – touch it.

As I begin to decipher the letter, trembling with excitement, a museum docent arrives with his group of some fifteen followers and offers a comprehensive and detailed discourse on Maimonides: renowned physician and Jewish philosopher, author of seminal texts on Jewish law, etc.

A member of the group asks: “But what does it say?” The docent bursts into a broad smile. “You know,” he says, grinning ear to ear “I have been conducting this tour for over 15 years, and no one has ever asked me that question. I don’t know the answer, but I will find out.”

I slowly raise my hand, which he acknowledges with a nod. “Although the Hebrew is old-style and I cannot read all of it,” I tell them, “this is a response to a question of Jewish law posed to Maimonides in which he essentially writes that the doctrine of caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) has no place in Jewish law. That is, the seller has an absolute duty to disclose to the buyer all the material faults of the item known to him, and his failure to do so not only constitutes grounds for a ruling in the buyer’s favor, but also establishes a religious violation.”

With thick British eyebrows raised high, the docent asks, “Are you a Jewish scholar, then, sir?” I respond, much amused, “No, and I leave behind a long trail of rabbis and teachers who would happily disabuse you of that notion. Actually, I’m an average Orthodox Jew whose parents gave him the gift of a yeshiva education.”

I proceed to describe and contrast the yeshiva day school system in the United States and Britain, explaining that what is common to both is that every elementary school child is able to read the Bible in the original Hebrew, as well as centuries-old Hebrew and Aramaic texts. They are all awestruck.

Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Loren T. Stuckenbruck
The Myth of Rebellious Angels
Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts

The mythical story of fallen angels preserved in 1 Enoch and related literature was influential during the Second Temple period. This myth, initially attested in the Enochic Book of Watchers and picked up in further parts of 1 Enoch , was received in writings composed in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, and had a profound impact on streams of religious thought in the western and oriental world, as well as in Africa. This volume collects studies by Loren T. Stuckenbruck that explore aspects of this influence in some of the literature and demonstrate how it was reused and adapted to address new cultural and religious contexts ( Book of Giants , Book of Jubilees , Dead Sea Scrolls, Book of Tobit, Book of Daniel, Genesis Apocryphon , Philo). In addition, apart from whether influence of the fallen angels’ tradition can be established, Stuckenbruck analyses the degree to which it offers a theological framework through which to reconsider theological approaches to several New Testament texts (Synoptic Gospels, Gospel of John, Acts, Pauline texts, and the Book of Revelation). Themes covered in the essays include demonology, prominent evil figures, giants, exorcism, petitionary prayer, the birth and activity of Jesus, the holy Spirit, conversion of Gentiles, "apocalyptic" and the understanding of time, and theological anthropology.

Follow the link for the TOC and ordering information.

Anxious angels

PHILIP JENKINS has been publishing a series of posts on angels in ancient Judaism and early Christianity over at the Anxious Bench. Here they are, with a brief excerpt from each:

Naming Angels

Angels certainly feature in the Old Testament, as divine envoys and as mighty figures in the divine court – see for instance the overwhelming Cherubim in Ezekiel 1. But they are nothing like as central as they would become in what we sometimes call the inter-testamental period, and in the subsequent history of Judaism and Christianity. Nor are these older figures given anything like an individual identity.

Enoch’s Angels

At some point in Jewish history, texts began referring to angels with specific names like Gabriel or Michael, and that trend reflects a basic shift in concepts of the supernatural hierarchy. That shift is significant itself in terms of the history of Western religion, but it particularly matters for anyone interested in early (or medieval) Christianity.

Angels at the Dead Sea

My recent posts concerned angels, and specifically when and why they acquired names and individual identities. Angels are fully developed characters in 1 Enoch, probably from the third century BC, and that text was well known in the community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. That group had a special interest in angels and their doings, and their role in cosmic warfare.

Angels from the East?

But the story is neither simple nor straightforward. One basic problem is that we really don’t know as much as we should about the Persian system and the great prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra). Based on analogies with Western religions, we tend to assume that Zarathustra had some great insight, founded a religion, which eventually became the official creed of the mighty Persian Empire. Well, yes and no.

Thrones and Dominions

Cautiously, then, let me suggest this. Whatever the holes in our knowledge, we can safely say that the Persian world view during the occupation of Judea was Dualistic and did involve a large number of spiritual beings, good and evil, some of whom were major figures at the heavenly court. If we had more surviving writings from that Persian faith, we would perhaps see more of a resemblance to the angels and cosmic warfare that we know from 1 Enoch. So yes, with all due skepticism, I believe that the practice of naming and individualizing angels is indeed a Persian borrowing,

HB and ancient Judaism job at Durham

SENIOR LECTURESHIP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM:

Job Details
Senior Lecturer in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible
Reference Number 4117
Location Durham City
Faculty/Division Arts & Humanities
Department Theology and Religion
Grade 9
Position Type Full Time
Contract Type Permanent
Salary (£) 48743 - 54841
Closing Date 15 December 2014

Job Description
The Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University has a long-standing tradition of outstanding research and is widely recognized as one of the leading departments in its field. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise it was ranked first in the UK, while its teaching quality is shown in its consistently obtaining exceptionally high rankings in both National Student Surveys and independent league tables. Its strengths range across Biblical Studies (Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, New Testament, ancient Judaism, and Biblical languages), Christian theology (Greek and Latin patristics, the history and theology of late antiquity and the early middle ages, the Reformation, doctrinal and philosophical theology, and theological ethics), and the study of religion (the anthropology, sociology and psychology of religion). It also has centres in Catholic Studies and Death and Life Studies; and research projects in spirituality, theology and health, and Anglican studies. The Department has a welcoming and collegial atmosphere, and is beautifully sited between the Cathedral and the Castle on the World Heritage Site in the centre of the city of Durham.
The Department seeks to appoint a non-fixed-term Senior Lecturer in Old Testament / Hebrew Bible with effect from 1 September 2015. Those who currently teach in the area include Professors Walter Moberly and Stuart Weeks, while several other staff in the Department have cross-disciplinary research interests that relate to the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible. There is a fortnightly Old Testament Research Seminar, at which papers are presented by leading scholars from the UK and abroad as well as by members of staff and research postgraduates. More information about the Department is available at http://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/ .
We invite applications from scholars with an established track record of excellent teaching and research in any aspect of Old Testament / Hebrew Bible studies, which may include ancient Judaism more broadly. The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to teaching at undergraduate and taught postgraduate levels, including the teaching of Hebrew, and may also be asked to contribute to teaching Aramaic or other ancient languages; to supervise postgraduate research students; to undertake outstanding research leading to publications of international significance; and to play a full part in the life of the department.
 
The university is an equal opportunities employer and acknowledges a range of flexible working practices.
 
Applications are particularly welcome from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in the University.

Job Summary and Purpose
The main features of the job will be:
a)        To conduct outstanding research leading to publications of international significance in the field of Old Testament / Hebrew Bible studies, which may include ancient Judaism more broadly.
b)        To teach at all undergraduate levels and at Masters level in the field of Old Testament / Hebrew Bible studies, including language teaching;
c)        To attract and supervise research students (MA and PhD);
d)        To submit applications for externally-funded research grants;
e)        To undertake administrative tasks in the Department of Theology and Religion, as agreed with the Head of Department.
The post-holder will be responsible to the Head of the Department of Theology and Religion.

Responsibilities
The key responsibilities of the job will be in teaching (lecturing, seminar leading, course organisation, marking, and dissertation supervision), research (writing and publication) and administration, within the team of staff constituting the Department of Theology and Religion.
‘Research’ may extend to pursuing research which may create ‘impact’ as understood by the UK Research Excellence Framework, but this is not a requirement for the post.

Person Specification
Essential

Qualifications 
1. Doctoral degree in a relevant area of scholarship
2. Track record, appropriate to career stage, of outstanding research publication 
3. Evidence of a planned programme of research that is compatible with and will enhance the Department's research profile, and including plans to secure external research income
4. Experience of teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level in Old Testament / Hebrew Bible studies, including language teaching, and where possible including experience of postgraduate research supervision and examination

Skills and Competencies 
5. The ability to teach and organize courses, and mark assignments in the field of Old Testament / Hebrew Bible studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels
6. Excellent communication skills in English, both oral and written
7. Scholarly expertise in appropriate languages, including the ability to teach ancient Hebrew and to contribute to the teaching of Aramaic
8. Ability and willingness to work as a member of a team, in research, teaching and administration
9.  Ability and willingness to secure external research income
10. Good IT skills
11. The applicant’s research has the potential to shape the disciplinary agenda and/or create public benefit or impact in terms of individual or societal wellbeing or the economy outside the academic community.
Desirable
11. The ability to teach one or more further appropriate ancient languages

Additional Information
Guidance for written application 

1. It is essential that in your written application you give evidence of examples of proven experience in relation to the selection criteria.

2. Please include with your application
(a) A statement (of up to 1,000 words) of the research project(s) you aim to pursue in the next five years. Where relevant this should mention any potential impact you envisage your research having outside higher education.
(b) A short statement discussing your approach to beginners’ language teaching.
These materials may be incorporated into your letter of application or included as separate documents.

3. You should include a sample of your recent scholarly writing (c. 5,000-7,000 words) with your application.
At interview, shortlisted candidates will be asked to give a 20-minute presentation on an aspect of their current or recent research to a mixed audience of academic staff and postgraduates from across the Department of Theology and Religion.
 
Interviews will be held in January 2015 - date to be confirmed.

From the SOTS List.

PLO tries to censor the name "Temple Mount"

DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE: PLO Urges Journalists: Don't Use the Term 'Temple Mount.' Mahmoud Abbas's faction says journalists should only use 'Al Aqsa Mosque Compound' in blatant attempt to erase Jewish history. (Ari Soffer, Arutz Sheva).

PA chief Mahmoud Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has issued special instructions to members of the international media, urging them to stop using the term "Temple Mount," and to instead refer to the holy site as "the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound" or "Haram al-Sharif/Noble Sanctuary."

In a blatant attempt to impose a discourse erasing any reference to the Jewish character of the site, the PLO "media advisory" claims that the "Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, sometimes referred to as the Noble Sanctuary (“Haram al-Sharif” in Arabic), is the compound that contains Al Aqsa building itself, ablution fountains, open spaces for prayer, monuments and the Dome of the Rock building. This entire area enclosed by the walls which spans 144 dunums [sic] (almost 36 acres), forms the Mosque."

[...]

Be sure and follow the second link, which leads to the PLO document, which you can read for yourself. The term "Haram al-Sharif" is certainly one name for the site, but so is "the Temple Mount," and it is bizarre to claim otherwise or to demand that the latter term not be used. This odd demand, of course, contradicts the Waqf's literature on the Temple Mount from the early twentieth century, which, as the article notes, freely admitted the ancient Jewish connection to the site. Background here (where I report that a copy of the relevant Waqf pamphlet is in the St. Andrews University Main Library) and here.

Cross-file under "Jewish-Temple denial."

UPDATE: In a couple of places above I wrote "PA" when I meant "PLO." Now corrected.

Jewish Mystic Jam

THE ARTS: ‘Jewish Mystic Jam’ seeks storytelling contest entries. It doesn't sound all that mystical, but they do have a drum circle.

Tel Burna not a "cult complex" after all?

HAARETZ: Cult fiction: Pagan relics found at ancient site fail to resolve Iron Age mystery. Pagan objects were common in ancient Judahite homes and not all animal bones originate in sacrifice, not to the gods at least (Julia Fridman).

Not every ancient site sporting a war god or female figurine is a temple to Baal or Anat. Tel Burna, the "cultic complex" sensationalized in the news last month, might be that. Or it might have been somebody's house, says Itzhaq Shai, the Israeli archaeologist directing the dig: “We can’t know for sure yet.”

In any case, the focus on the cultic finds distracted from the main body of evidence, which indicates that Tel Burna was a Judahite stronghold located smack in the middle of two ancient Biblical city giants: the Philistine city of Gath and the Judahite city of Lachish.

Tel Burna, a hillside site in south-central Israel, was occupied for several thousand years, from the Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age. It was in the kingdom of Judah, King David’s old stomping ground. There is a great deal of evidence that if anything, Tel Burna was the site of a powerful Judahite stronghold, not a cultic hub as some papers - but not the excavator - have claimed.

[...]

I expressed some skepticism about the "sanctuary" interpretation seized on by the media when the story broke. Now the excavators are doing the same, so I guess I am in good company.

The site as a whole has produced a lot of interesting finds and the "cult complex" (or rich guy's house) shouldn't overshadow them. For example, some inscribed jar handles:

Yet another sign that the town belonged to Judah are archetypal Judahite handles of large four-handled jars found there, made of local clay. The jars are thought to have held either wine or olive oil.

Some handles were decorated, including with a four-winged scarab beetle and another with a two-winged sun disk. Above these markings was the word lmlk ("[belonging] to the king," written in ancient Hebrew script), and below it one of four city names: Sochoh, Hebron, Zif and "Mmsht" (which has never been found). Similar handles have been found throughout all of ancient Judah.

Some handles also had personal seals with names of individuals. One such found at Tel Burna bears the name l’Azar Haggai. The very same name had been found on seals in the nearby site Azekah, and at Gezer, though the design of the seal found at Burna is different.

Archaeologists think the marking on the handles may have been affiliated with some sort of a Judahite administrative system.

Read it all if you can catch it before it goes behind the subscription wall.

The Talmud on conversion for love

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Converting for Love (Like Natalie Portman’s Husband)? The Talmud Forbids It. Talmudic Rabbis regulated not just actions but reputations, and left a legacy we debate and refute to this day.

The most common reason why people convert to Judaism today, I would guess, is because they want to marry a Jewish spouse. Such conversions are a sign of the amazing acceptance that Judaism enjoys in America, compared to the stigma it labored under for most of Western history. For a Christian to marry a Jew in medieval Europe meant stigmatization, isolation, perhaps even violence, as it does in many parts of the Muslim world today. For us, it is simply a personal choice, even a laudable demonstration of spousal loyalty. It was surprising to learn in this week’s Daf Yomi reading, then, that according to the Talmud, converting out of love is actually forbidden. ...

I always think of Natalie Portman's husband as Darth Vader, but I suppose that's neither here nor there.

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

Report on Digital Collation Conference

TOMMY WASSERMAN: Report from the Digital Collation Conference in Münster (ETC). I'm glad to hear that Collate is still around.

Conference on Ancient Jewish and Christian Apocalypses

APOCRYPHICITY: Conference Program for “Ancient Jewish and Christian Apocalypses.” Coming in mid-November in Berlin.

Apocrypha as fanfic

THE ANXIOUS BENCH: Of Scriptures and Superheroes (Philip Jenkins).

Some modern-day examples illustrate the kind of cultural curiosity that drives such a process of intertextuality and cross-referencing, although they are not ones that usually feature in Biblical or extra-Biblical scholarship. Bear with me in this thought-experiment.

Popular culture regularly produces figures or works that seize the imagination, heroes like James Bond or Batman, mythological worlds like Star Trek or Star Wars. Initially the works stand alone, but their respective worlds soon expand to include spin-offs and sequels, prequels and origin stories. Perhaps these offshoots develop the principal character and supply more information on his or her deeds, or else minor figures expand to become central to new works and series. Individual characters migrate into other genres and mythologies.

Reviewlet of Lim, The Formation of the Jewish Canon

LARRY HURTADO: “The Formation of the Jewish Canon”: Lim’s New Book. Earlier reviews etc. here, here, and links.