In "Why So Reticent, Boaz?: Boaz's (In)action from an Identity Perspective" Peter H. W. Lau of Sydney University presented a reading of the book of Ruth that analysed Boaz' behaviour from a Social Identity Theoretical perspective. Using this grid enabled Peter to describe clearly the issues involved and throw considerable light of some of the gaps that we as listeners to the story are obliged to fill.
Next, Sunwoo Hwang of the University of Edinburgh offered a clear and organised discussion of "Bêtî in 1 Chronicles 17:14: Temple or Kingdom?" and in doing so drew my attention also to the interesting differences between not only 1 Chron 17:14 and its presumed source in 2 Sam 7:16, but also between the LXX and MT.
Rachelle Gilmour of the University of Sydney presented a lively and engaging analysis of "Suspense and Anticipation in I Samuel 9" and in doing so added still more to my appreciation of this most entertaining and rich passage. (For my take on the passage before Rachelle's paper listen to my 5 minute talks "Humour in the Bible: Part 1: Introducing Saul and Humour in the Bible: Part 2: Still Introducing Saul, incidentally there really are other 'casts in the Humour in the Bible series!
Labels: 1chron, 1sam, 2sam, audio, bible, ruth, sbl
¶ 5:23 PM
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Françoise Mirguet's topic was "The divine monologues in Genesis: An interrupted sequence". She presented the monologues, noted that the cease at 18:17-18, and explored their function in the telling of Genesis, arguing that the reason they cease is that the last monologue represents the moment when God elects a dialogue partner in Abraham.
I am not quite convinced by the case she argued, but convinced enough that I look forward to reading the published version to see if I am then convinced - at least I think there is a "case to answer"...
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Sione Havea is a well-established Tongan biblical scholar, now at Charles Sturt University. His paper "Displacing Bible, Drifting Homes, Restless Tellings" was a lively repeat of the usual post-colonial warnings about the ways in which the (Western) missionary enterprise of the 19th and 20th centuries left the Bible as a problematic book. It was engagingly delivered, and even the jibes at "Western Men" did not seem to hurt the Western males in the audience ;-)
The words were enlivened by "works by artists from Oceania who expose the partnership of the Christian mission with Western colonization"). I somehow missed the argument of the second part, where he spoke about "how and why the Western bible [failed to] function as 'home' for the natives (for whom 'stories give home'). The third part, spoke of "the power of telling" this was a passionate plea, but sadly the example based on the "witch of Endor" (which was promised in the abstract) did not feature in the paper as presented.
Nasili Vaka'uta, a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland (declaration of interest: I have co-supervised his thesis for the last few years) belongs to the next generation of Pacific scholarship. Nasili spoke on "Myth of (Im)Purity and Peoples of the (Is)Lands: A Tongan Reading of Ezra 9-10" To me Nasili's great achievement is to have prodcued a reading of his text which uses Tomgan vocabulary and culture as the categories that shape the reading. His "Tongan reading" is not merely a Western reading in Tongan clothes therefore, but more genuinely Tongan. I remember encouraging my Congolese students in the 80s to begin, trying to achieve this task, of discovering the thought patterns and processes that would lead to African readings that were African in their intellectual framework as well as their appearance! Back then we made little progress, but I think Nasili's paper represents a strong beginning to such a process for Tongan Tu'a readers. Here is his abstract:
Ezra 9-10 is narrated with a gaze. It gazes at the “peoples of the lands” not merely to identify, but also to belittle and discriminate against. In this paper, I offer a Tongan reading of Ezra 9-10 with attention to objects of deriding gazes, and the myth/ideology behind the gaze vis-à-vis the colonial construction of the Oceanic island 'natives.' This reading is situated in the social location of Tongan commoners (tu'a), and theorized with the Tongan notion of fonua (land, place, sea, and people). Methodologically, it weaves together insights from various methods and categories from Tongan culture. This interpretive framework provides the lenses for enga[g/z]ing (gaze back at) the text.
Labels: biblical.studies, pacific, sbl
¶ 5:53 AM
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It was great to begin this first ever SBL in New Zealand in a culturally appropriate way with the visitors being welcomed to the University Marae, to the University and to the country. As so often though my delight in powwhiri was tinged with saddness, of only Māori custom could unbend enough to produce a geniuinely bicultural powhiri one for example in which the speeches were tailored to the presence of 90% of the participants who are not fluent in Te Reo (the Māori language) so shorter and accompanied by brief summary statements in English (like subtitles) so that the 90% could understand and appreciate the ceremony. Such a powhiri if regularly adopted for bicultural occasions, would I suspect take NZ by storm and become the only appropriate way to formally welcome visitors. Instead too often what we have is a mere cultural show - which ends up turning Māori into museum exhibits, rather than partners in a bicultural society.
Labels: culture, nz, sbl, video
¶ 7:57 AM
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Yes, Tim. I was right up the front of the crowd waiting to go through the arch onto the marae, so I heard the two Maori explaining to the SBL president what was going to happen and what his role was in it all, so I had some idea what was happening. There are also some similarities between the function of the powhiri and the function of an Aboriginal Australian message stick, which is carried by visitors into the country of other peoples, so I had some 'hooks' to hang the experience on, but it was still a bit odd not hearing what had happened until after it had happened. I do hope our hosts were right about the ability of the powhiri to improve the standard of our conference presentations!! :-)
By 
Judy Redman, at
July 7, 2008 9:35 PM
SBL International in Auckland starts next week, my last attempt here to get a group of people who are active online to meet face to face didn't exactly draw a crowd, so like Robert the Bruce (who my granny used to claim was an ancestor of ours) I'll try again ;-)
I'm proposing Wednesday evening, early (for those who are jetlagged), the last of the tours finishes at 5pm so maybe meeting for "tea" (i.e. an early informal evening meal) at 6pm... suggestions of better times/dates are welcome....
Accomodation
If there is anyone attending SBL who does not have accomodation booked, or who would prefer to stay in a home please ask as we have an empty spare room that we'd expected to be full, we live close to central Auckland.
Labels: sbl
¶ 6:12 AM
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Tim,
I can meet @ 6pm on Wednesday. Let me know for sure and where.
Thanks,
Joe Fleener
By Joe Fleener, at
June 30, 2008 10:37 AM
Tim,
I can also meet Wed at 6 pm, I think. My tour info says it goes from 1 pm to 3 pm and includes tea so I am not sure exactly how to understand that!!
Judy
By Judy Redman, at
June 30, 2008 11:32 AM
Joe, I'll put a final notice here, and probably (depending on time, energy and finding everyone's emails) email the info round too.
Judy, in NZ before 4pm "tea" will mean "afternoon tea" which means at most a light snack and might just mean biscuits. After 4ish it gets less clear becoming a meal at some point in the late afternoon, but lighter and less formal than "dinner".
By Tim, at
June 30, 2008 11:38 AM
Will check schedule. Should be able to be there for a bit though.
Some further clarification re:meals in NZ.
Biscuits = cookies (i.e. sweet)
Supper = a snack in the evening, typically a few hours after the regular evening meal.
For others see: American Versus New Zealand Vocabulary :-)
By Stephen G, at
July 1, 2008 8:18 AM
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Zotero has begun to work on supporting the SBL Manual of Style as one of the many stylesheets it can output. At present it is "dev", but on a short test seems to be working pretty well...
Labels: bibliography, sbl, zotero
¶ 11:31 AM
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Tim, do you know if there will be any SBL Biblioblogger gathering at the SBL international meeting in July?Oh, yes Stephen, there will, the hereby announced, but as yet undated (since it was your comment that reminded me of the need to get something organised ;) Great, First Ever?, SBL International Bloggerfest. International (and indeed national, of any and all nationalities) bloggers with an interest in academic study of the Bible and/or Theology in any other of its (subsidiary? ;) forms are invited to share a meal and chat. All you will have to do is get yourself to Auckland at the time of the International SBL meeting this July. If anyone has a suitable microphone system we'll also tag on a meeting of the International Society for Theological Podcasting (and related disciplines) and do a podcast... Minor details like exact date, and location (our house, or some suitable eating house in walking distance of the conference...) to follow. But please (and seriously, folks) book the concept, and once it is announced book the date too!
PS: If you plan to be in Auckland in July and are potentially interested, please indicate this in a comment below, and say if there are particularly bad or good times for you. This may help plan the event!
Labels: biblical.studies.online, blog, podcast, sbl
¶ 1:33 PM
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I will be at SBL Auckland - I am presenting a paper in the Psychological Hermeneutics of Biblical Themes and Texts uni, but have no idea when. Assuming the plane is on time, I land in Auckland 4.45 pm on Saturday, 5 July, so will be around on the morning of the day the conference starts. I am staying for a few days afterwards, but will be in South Auckland with my brother and sister-in-law.
By Judy Redman, at
March 17, 2008 9:39 PM
Um - that would be "unit", not "uni", but I will be there.
By Judy Redman, at
March 17, 2008 9:46 PM
I will be there for the entire conference - overseeing the BibleWorks booth along with conducting demos, etc. I am sure I could be free for something.
Well, they are all doing it, first (I think) in "our" circles AKMA, then JPS both of whom run genius level blogs! Susanne gave us a brief round up, though the best anyone except John (who, I am reliably informed, cheats by pasting lots of Hebrew into every post) could achieve on her tests was Postgraduate Level. So I gave in to the temptation (I blame it on the marking it makes me go all light-headed) and tested Sansblogue. You can see the result on the right...So, for those whose heads are aching from reading all those Genius-level posts, just come over here for a rest!
In the meantime, I have four exegeses and about thirty blog assignments to mark, so you'll be on a diet of pictures for another few days yet, which will probably lower the reading age required even further ;-) but should encourage some of you to book for SBL International in this beautiful land next July!
Today's "wish I was there" photo is of Kaikoura (where we went whale watching and saw loads, but were very sick, they said the sea was "very lumpy", they were right :(
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I'm strongly inclined to think it's random. . . .
By AKMA, at
November 9, 2007 9:25 AM
It has to be random. There is no way my blog rates a real genius level :)
James
By jps, at
November 10, 2007 10:50 AM
Ideas for the Bible Dictionary (from SBL) ::
This post is partly a note to myself, partly a hope that you will help me evaluate and work through a couple of ideas for the Bible Dictionary project that came out of sessions at SBL.HBD and Bible Software
Someone suggested (sorry I never got a note of your name, if you read this please email me so I can note and remember you!) that we talk to Logos or BibleWorks about the possibility (once we have a first edition of articles) of putting the Dictionary into their software as well as making it available on the web. For the software company it would give them a good recent dictionary (currently they are all "aging", either old and out of copyright like ISBE, or elderly like The Anchor Bible Dictionary
) that they could include even in basic packages. It would give us another funding source either for starting or (more likely) for running costs and development. Semantic markup
As part of Sean Boisen's presentation for which he promises the slides soon, he showed us a cool implementation of his NT names data being used to sort and display names from the NT according to different categories. So, e.g. interested in Ephesus one could find out what other cities were in the same region, or which characters lived or visited the city (in the NT). I began to imagine making use of such a facility as part of the interface for the Dictionary...Basically Sean's NT Names is (IT geeks please bare with my inaccuracies, ignorance and oversimplifications) a system of classifying names - of people and places so far - according to their relationships. So Timothy is an "associate of" Paul, but the "son of" Eunice, "lived in" Lystra, he "visited".... etc. A user who can navigate through this web of data while "inside" a Bible Dictionary has a whole load more options for exploring!
Labels: bible.dictionary, bible.software, sbl
¶ 8:29 AM
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Tim,
I don't know if you remember me or not. I conducted a couple of BibleWorks workshops back in April in Auckland.
I am now living in Hastings and would love to talk to you about/work with you on including this work in BibleWorks and on the web.
Joe Fleener
jfleener@digitalexegesis.com
Site - http://www.digitalexegesis.com
Blog - http://emethaletheia.blogspot.com/
BibleWorks Trainer - http://schedule.digitalexegesis.com/bibleworks.html
Director of Distance Learning/Library Director
The Shepherd's Bible College
PO BOX 8229 Havelock North New Zealand
Ph. +64 6 877-8013
Mob +64 021 998617
Fax +64 6 877-5821
www.tsbc.org.nz
http://library.tsbc.org.nz
Library and Information Services Coordinator
The Master's Academy International
24307 Magic Mountain Parkway #540
Valencia, CA 91355-3402
(661) 295-6232
www.tmainternational.org
By 
, at
November 22, 2006 10:20 AM
Cheap(er) Hotels and WiFi at SBL ::
AKMA complains that his hotel charges per CPU for WiFi, so in "All But The Shopping" - his final post from SBL - he was unable to post what he wanted because he was using Margaret's laptop not his own (greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his WiFi for his wife? ;-)The answer is simple and cheap, next time go to a cheaper hotel. Both last year and this I had free WiFi as part of the package at my hotels, not because I looked for it, but because I chose cheaper hotels who use free WiFi (rather than the size of the rooms or the armchairs) as another means to attract custom.
Incidentally, the Harrington Hotel has a burger bar Ollie's Trolley (on the corner of 11th and E) which does the best chips/hot chips/fries I've had - at least of the shoestring sort - as a bonus. Several blocks from the conference, but only two from a shuttle... ¶ 7:32 AM
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Good point, Tim; it' a trade-off for shorter walks. Next year we'll be keeping a closer eye on the details (though I believe that the info on the Grand Hyatt gave Margaret the impression that there was in-room cable, for which we brought along my wifi base station).
By AKMA, at
November 23, 2006 2:22 AM
SBL Podcast (info box) ::
A bunch of the bloggers at SBL got together and made a podcast Bibliobloggers @ SBL. We just sat and chatted, and despite our fears we did not run silent as soon as the mics were switched on. At times it sounds more Marx Brothers than Biblical Scholars on a Plane, but conversation included blogging and blogging tools, as well as current research and publications and of course Hebrew Tattoos.The Firefox blogging plugin some of us plugged is Performancing, neat and cool, as we said it allows you to press F8 and then to drag and drop, type and edit your post live in the bottom of ther FF window as you surf. Then when you have finished (and I now have) just click to publish... ¶ 11:49 PM
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Tim, thanks for posting the link to this. I enjoyed listening to your (very polite) conversation.
I graduated four years ago and it is nice to hear that tutors are embracing the new media. Your conversation sent me to your archives to look for posts about teaching and technology. Thanks.
By Graham Doel, at
November 21, 2006 5:56 PM
I'm glad you enjoyed it, I was afraid our rambling conversation would be boring to outsiders to the group! I noticed your comments to the piece about chat etc. I will reply there.
By Tim, at
November 22, 2006 12:53 AM
Thanks for the plugin Tim! I will fire up FireFox and see if it works on the Mac version.
By Cb, at
November 22, 2006 1:12 PM
It is great! Thanks for plugging the plugin Tim.
By Cb, at
November 28, 2006 5:54 AM
Well, I think it is a great plugin, so deserves a plug for all or us who are wired (or today wirelessed) ;-) It did once send one of my posts down the plughole, but only because I clicked the wrong button. Otherwise it's great stuff, made blogging so much easier for a visual person as I can see what I am blogging about!
By Tim, at
November 28, 2006 8:30 AM
Best paper so far at SBL award ::
For me, and any such judgement is bound to be gloriously subjective, though in this case supported (according to the clapometer) by the others in the room, the best paper so far at SBL has to be Sara Milstein's "Recapturing the Prophet: Identifying Amos' Call Narrative in 3:2-8".Sara argued neatly and succinctly that the prey in Amos 3:3-8 is not (as is usually assumed) Israel, but Amos. The change of voice and form between 3:1-2 and 3-8 suggests that we not be too quick to identify the "two who walk together" as YHWH and Israel... None of the traps and disasters in 3-8 tells of the death of the prey, yet elsewhere Amos is not reluctant to proclaim Israel's death! The language of capture (4b & 5b) and fear (6a & 8a) serves suggest that the prophet is YHWH's prey (as Jeremiah will be in Jer 20:7ff. though the seduced Jeremiah is a human prey, while Amos the herdsman is an animal in a trap).
I haven't the space, or the memory to summarise Sara's agruments properly, sufficient for now to say that she neatly supported her claims till the conventional reading of the passage seemed forced and her reading natural. I am totally convinced by her reading, except for the name "call narrative", if Amos 3:3-8 describes or argues for Amos' call, and Sara convinced me it does, it is not a "narrative". But then as Sara points out, we name the genre after the versions in Isaiah and Jeremiah (perhaps including Ezekiel), yet Amos can (perhaps - I have doubts over the dating of the material in the book) claim "prior art". Maybe the genre already (if we include Ezekiel) quite diverse is not prophetic call narrative but something like "justification of a prophet's call".
The paper that followed Roger Nam's "Grain, Wine and Oil in the Northern Prophets:The Socio-economic Background of an Agricultural Metaphor" was also a prime example of stimulating work. Roger moved confidently from a summary recasting of the archaeological data to a comparative linguistic examination of the terms concerned. Another paper I must follow up... And perhaps more grist for a new edition of Amos ;-)
[In the interests of full disclosure of interest, I must confess that Sara cited my 1999 paper and it is always gratifying when ones work comes back to haunt one. On that, I'll wait till I read her paper at more leisure, to decide if I am convinced by her there too, or if I still stand by Bulkeley 1999!] ¶ 4:06 PM
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Technology, teaching and biblical studies (SBL plus) ::
This post is not the promised report on SBL, but a note to myself first about the conversation I had over lunch with Thomas Naef (Lausanne, BiBIL) who has been teaching a course that sounds not unlike my Bible in an Electronic Context more on that when I have a chance to look at the material that he will be putting online when he has the time to put it up ;-) (Busy aren't we!) And second, by serendipity, somehow I missed the post on Hebrew Scriptures and More . . . . which pointed to David Hymes "Technology, Internet and Teaching" site. Here are two for me to follow up once things quieten down, and maybe there are some conversations to be had here in blogaria like the one with Thomas over lunch...Labels: hypertext, internet, sbl, todo
¶ 4:05 PM
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(With apologies to all the other contributors. Especially Bob Buller who wrote on Google Books so is also a must read for me - I can probably live without Samuel Thomas' Bible Scholar on an Airplane as I'll be one in a day or two!)
But given my limited time at this season, its the "In the Classroom" articles that deserve my first read. They all focus on Wikis!
- The Blue Cord Bible Dictionary by Kevin A. Wilson
- Ethical Issues in Pedagogy: Wikipedia by Janet M. Giddings
- Wikipedia or Wackipedia? On the Reasoned Use of New Technology
- Who knows? Wikipedia, Teaching and Research by Holger Szesnat by Taylor David Halverson
Now I must run, the day is breaking and Barbara needs coffee before church...
Labels: bible.dictionary, biblical.studies.online, sbl, wikipedia
¶ 7:38 AM
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Blogger meet at SBL ::
Rico (Informal Biblioblogger Get-Together at ETS and/or SBL?) proposed that those of us who will be at SBL meet up, he is now suggesting after the CARG session on Sunday, Nov 19th (in room 103A-CC). That session ends at 3:00, and others begin at 4:00. So it should us time to meet at least briefly. As "Rico" says: "Spread the word — Seeyou there?"
Labels: sbl
¶ 9:46 AM
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