B.4 Prophets of the Hebrew Bible

Presiding: David Bernat, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Robert McBride, Providence College

The Exilic Elders of Israel: A Contextual Analysis of Ezekiel 20

Ezekiel 20 presents readers with several interpretative challenges:  the identity of the “elders of Israel;” their reason for inquiring a word from Yhwh through Ezekiel; various features of the form, style, and content of Ezekiel’s oracle.  After raising the issues and presenting the current “state of the question,” the author proceeds to identify the original content of the pericope and to then make sense of its content by comparing it to various oracles and prophetic acts in the Book of Ezekiel.  The author concludes that, rather than seek to use Ezekiel 20 in order to hypothesize the development of Israel’s exodus-wilderness traditions, one should view Ezekiel 20 as another example of Ezekiel’s prophetic creativity.  As in the allegories of chapters 16 and 23, Ezekiel 20 is about the sins of Jerusalem.

Christopher D. Anderson, Brandeis University

‘A Cedar In Lebanon’: A Picture of the Assyrians in the Book of Ezekiel

This paper explores the complicated image of Assyria in Ezek 31 from a historical perspective. It argues that the image contains a subtle, though penetrating, condemnation of both Egypt and imperial Babylon encoded in an unusually positive memory of Neo-Assyrian imperialism. The Neo-Assyrian empire had a significant impact on the people who lived in the territories of the southern Levant from the eighth century on. The administrative policies of their expansive empire, implemented by Assyrian officials, continued to shape these populations even after their actual presence. Ezekiel is one place where this is clearly evinced, containing several oracles that mention the Assyrians during a time when their empire was no longer in existence. The primary purpose of this study is to show how one particular memory of Neo-Assyrian imperialism was used by Ezekiel to interpret and judge the current policies of Egypt, as well as the Neo- Babylonian empire’s subjugation of the Levant in the aftermath of Assyrian hegemony. This paper has two parts: the first will provide the historical context in which Assyria declined and Egypt rose to power in the southern Levant, and the second will examine the picture of the Neo-Assyrian empire in Ezekiel’s oracle against Egypt in chapter 31 and assess its relevance for the political environment prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Only in the light of a brief sketch of the major episodes during the final years of the Assyrian empire in the Levant, the transition to Egyptian dominance, and the emergence of the Neo-Babylonian empire as an imperial power, can the picture of the Assyrians in Ezek 31 be properly understood.

Sung Soo Hong, Yale Divinity School

Discerning the True Prophet of YHWH: Interpreting the Death and Survival of Prophets in Jeremiah 26

The literary functions of Jeremiah 26:20-24 have long been discussed among scholars with no consensus achieved to date. Since commentators often remark that the pericope is not fabricated seamlessly with the preceding verses about the trial of Jeremiah, it is not surprising that they sometimes appeal to contingency, arguing that Uriah was an authentic prophet, even a “martyr,” who, unlike Jeremiah, happened to lack protection from princes.

The present paper offers a coherent interpretation of the chapter, reading it with regard to the Deuteronomistic concern for recognizing the true prophet of YHWH. This paper argues that the performance and the subsequent fate of prophets reveal their identity. The cowardice and death of Uriah are analyzed in contrast to the boldness and survival of Jeremiah, in light of select passages in Jeremiah including ch 1. Also, Uriah’s flight to Egypt, the behavior of the two princes, Uriah’s death by the sword, and the improper treatment of the corpse will be discussed to conclude that Uriah is not a prophet whom YHWH sent. The implication of the pericope is twofold: First, the audience can discern whether the prophets who prophesy in the name of YHWH are authentic messengers before the prophesied events, by observing their behaviors and fate. Second, as the death and survival of prophets demonstrate that YHWH’s words (cf. 1:17) do not fail, the readers are faced with the literary evidence that obeying the words of YHWH is the only way to survive.

B.3 Literary Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

Presiding: Carole Fontaine, Andover-Newton Theological School

Jason Gaines, Brandeis University

A New Method to Differentiate Between Poetry and Prose in the Hebrew Bible

Modern scholarship identifies Psalms and Isaiah as poetic works, but how can a critic identify poetry in more controversial cases?  In this paper, I reappraise the field of poetic biblical studies to show that the verses most scholars accept as poetry share varying degrees of nine “poetic markers.”  Observation of the presence, dominance, and effect of these markers in a text enables the critic to make a reasonable separation between prose and poetry.

This study of poetic markers in texts not generally considered poetic, such as narrative material in the Pentateuch, produces startling results.  When the source attribution of a text is in doubt, a poetic examination often clarifies which verses belong to which author.  Also, poetic line readings often require exciting new exegetical understandings that are different from prose readings.

No single definition of poetry can apply broadly to the Bible, as individual poets write using individual and genre-specific styles.  Moreover, no binary differentiation exists between poetry and prose, as both occur in degrees.  In other words, all writing in the Hebrew Bible exists at some point on a prose-poetry continuum.  But instead of the flat line proposed by James Kugel and others, I posit a two-dimensional continuum.  At some point, a line has a sufficient cluster of these nine poetic attributes to “round the corner” and allow a critic to reasonably—if subjectively—label it “poetry.”

Julie Faith Parker, Colby College

Jezebel, the Baby Killer: A New Understanding of 1 Kings 16:34

Jezebel is the woman the Bible loves to hate.  First Kings 16:34 offers another reason for despising the Phoenician queen. In this paper I will argue that this verse portrays a foundation child sacrifice inserted into the initial account of Ahab’s reign to malign him due to Jezebel’s influence.  This editorial addition comes from an earlier Hebrew Vorlage to serve the redactor’s purposes in five ways.  Politically, it undermines Ahab’s building campaigns. Cultically, it refers to child sacrifice.  Prophetically, it links Ahab with an ancient curse (Joshua 6:26).  Literarily, it compares cowardly Ahab to valiant Joshua.  And theologically, it implicitly indicts Ahab for his association with Jezebel.  This single verse effectively portrays Ahab as a murderous apostate due to his ruinous marriage.

Hilary Kapfer, Harvard University

Reworking Exodus 34:6-7 in Israel’s Wisdom Tradition

This paper will begin by briefly surveying the liturgical formula describing YHWH’s nature in Exodus 34:6-7 and its reuse in the Pentateuch, prophetic writings, and the historical accounts contained in Nehemiah and Chronicles in order to lay a framework through which the formula’s usage in wisdom literature can be examined.  Although it has been suggested that the vocabulary linkages between the Exodus 34:6-7 liturgical formula and the wisdom corpora indicate that Israel’s sages produced and inserted this formula into the Pentateuch, I will examine the clustering of terminology from the formula that appears in certain wisdom books in order to gain a more focused understanding of the relationship between Israel’s wisdom tradition and the notion of a compassionate and merciful deity who exercises collective accountability.  Ultimately, I will suggest that the clustering of terminology from Exodus 34:6-7 is an indication that Israel’s sages, just like her prophets and historians, reworked and interpreted this famous formula to suit their own context. Finally, I will briefly consider the proverb that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel reject:  “The fathers have eaten sour grapes.  The children’s teeth are set on edge.”  In rejecting the notion that YHWH exercises collective punishment, the prophets use a proverb, which is a literary form most frequently associated with Israel’s wisdom tradition.  I will consider why this proverb does not appear in any of Israel’s preserved wisdom books and attempt to discern the relationship between this proverb and Israel’s wisdom tradition.  In order to do this, I will look at a few selective examples of the view of collective accountability found in biblical wisdom literature in order to demonstrate that its view of collective accountability is not monolithic, neither in the position that it advocates nor in the origins of those positions.

B.2 Scriptural Interpretation in Early Judaism

Presiding: Yonder Gillihan, Boston College

Sara Ronis, Yale University

Embryonic Attitudes and Attitudes Towards Embryos: The Fetus in the Rabbinic World

The fetus is a legislatively constructed subject/object. Without the fetus being able to articulate its own personhood, the fetus is what scholars, sages and scientists project onto it.  The question of the rabbinic approach to fetal personhood has been widely discussed by scholars of Ancient Judaism, with the scholarly consensus being that the rabbis of Late Antique Palestine believed that the fetus is a dependent part of its mother and not an independent juridical or ontological person, before birth. However, these works have exclusively examined the traditionally normative material, the halakha, and have not examined how the aggada, or non-normative material, may reflect the attitudes and understandings of the rabbis. Expanding upon the work of Robert Cover, my paper addresses the issue of fetal personhood in the rabbinic world through a holistic reading of both law and narrative. Specifically, I look at the Mishnah, Midrash Halakha, Talmud Yerushalmi and amoraic midrashim to show that the rabbinic position on fetal personhood is actually far more complex than has been previously suggested.  I argue that, in fact, the legislative position of the Tannaim and Amoraim is characterized by tensions between fetal juridical personhood and non-personhood, and that the Amoraim in particular develop an understanding of the fetus as ontologically independent in conversation with their larger cultural context. The Amoraic position reflects a world that had shifted from a Roman standard in which the fetus was a juridically dependent entity that could be killed by the pater familias, to a world, both Christian and pagan, in which the fetus was a legally protected and spiritually replete individual. By moving beyond distinctions between law and narrative, normative and non-normative materials, the rabbinic understanding of the fetus is clarified and expanded upon, and important tensions within the Palestinian rabbinic worldview are brought to light.

David Levitan, Spertus College

Eye For Eye: Changing Perspectives in Greek Jewish Literature on a Woman & Her Fetus

Biblical laws of talion (Exodus 23b-25) have posed exegetical and ethical challenges to interpreters, both modern and ancient.  Jewish works written in Greek in the late Second Temple period attempt to grapple with the nuances of Biblical talionic texts. One such Biblical text (Exodus 21:22-25) entails laws about a pregnant woman who sustains a blow from two men engaged in a fight. The Septuagint translator of a Hebrew vorlage of Exodus 21:22-25 contributed an alternative legal viewpoint to Jewish discourse on the Pentateuchal laws about the injured pregnant woman who miscarries. LXX Exodus shifts the essence of this law away from compensation of the injured woman (as in the Masoretic text) to the legal status of the child.

Philo elaborated on the Septuagint version of Exodus 21:22-25. Philo’s ethical treatment of the fully formed (exeikonismenon) child LXX Exodus 21:22-25 gave him the opportunity to espouse a particular view of the human person who is created in God’s image (eikon theou). Philo believed that LXX Exodus 21:22-25 had important implications for a broader philosophy about the nature of humanity, human interaction, and social concord.

Biblical law collections give ample testimony to the ongoing development of ancient Israelite law and legal theory. As Pentateuchal texts became increasingly standardized in the late Second Temple period, opportunities for radical changes to the Hebrew Biblical corpus became severely limited. The Septuagint translator of Exodus 21:22-25 went beyond the vorlage text to become a conscious developer of Judean legal theory, and not merely a transmitter of old traditions or an interpreter of an ancient text.

Philo expanded the law about the injured pregnant woman with legal permutations not foreseen by the authors of LXX Exodus and its Hebrew vorlage. In Philo’s philosophical discourse, the woman virtually disappears from legal view. Philo refocuses this law on the child who exits its mother’s womb, and upon talionic punishments due the malfeasors. The Septuagint, Philo, and other Greek Jewish texts bear testimony to the fact that Jews of the Second Temple period consistently approached Torah as a living law whose meaning grows, deepens, and indeed changes over time—a far cry from later Christian caricatures of Judaism as subservience to a dead letter.

Elisa Uusimäki, University of Helsinki; Visiting Research Student, Yale Divinity School

The Use of Proverbs in 4QBeatitudes: Quotations and Allusions

The study of scriptural interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls has focused mainly on pesharim or such ’rewritten’ narrative and legal texts as Jubilees and the Temple Scroll, but the phenomenon is much broader. The late Second Temple ‘poetic’ material including hymnic and wisdom literature should also be considered since these texts may strongly lean on earlier writings, albeit their style is ‘anthological’ and the use of scripture thus difficult to analyze; the tendency is to mix various sources without marking them explicitly. In this paper 4QBeatitudes (4Q525) is stated to provide a rich object of examination for studying the use of proverbial traditions in the second century BCE.

Proverbs 1-9 was the main source used by the writer/s of 4Q525. The examination of quotations and allusions shows that the text includes one verbatim citation from and eight or nine allusions to the section which provided the sapiential ethos and central motifs of wisdom and folly for the new work. Moreover, the use of Proverbs 1-9 in 4Q525 can be associated with the so-called rewriting processes in two respects. The MS is fragmentary and the conclusions must thus be hesitant, but two features are distinctive. First, the author/s seem/s to have followed the order of the source to some extent which reminds one of the sequential criteria used to define ‘rewritten’ texts. Secondly, the motifs of female folly and her house were used as a ‘springboard’ when creating a whole new poem (frg. 15). These observations suggest that 4Q525 reflects exegetical and interpretative methods known so far mainly from non-sapiential contexts.

B.1 Sorting For Difference

Presiding: James Walters, Boston University

David H. Sick, Rhodes College, Memphis

Zacchaeus as the Rich Host of Classical Satire

In a 1988 article in JBL, Dennis Hamm noted thematic similarities between the story of Zacchaeus at Luke 19:1-10 and two other episodes in the gospel where dining is indicated more explicitly.  Mikeal Parsons has commented extensively on the cultural implications of the short stature of the tax collector (NTS 2001).  As a rich host of a banquet with an unusual appearance, Zacchaeus resembles infamous hosts from classical satire and related genres, such Nasidienus from Horace’s Satire 2.8 and Trimalchio from Petronius’ Satyricon.  In addition to his height, Zacchaeus may be ridiculed for his hurried movements and his tree-climbing.  The humor is amplified because of his status as a local official.  In this reading, the grammatically problematic and contextually difficult statement of Zacchaeus in verse eight may be interpreted by comparison to malaprops of other satirized hosts.  (Mitchell, Bib 1990, Ravens, JSNT 1991, and Tichý, Bib 2011, have recently reviewed the problems with verse eight.)  Those who grumble (γογγύζειν) about Jesus’ table fellowship should be understood as his fellow dining companions and the anonymous hangers-on standing around the tables.  Such complaints are in keeping with the conduct of the guests at the satirical feasts of classical literature who whisper their criticisms of the host.  The moralizing voice of the satirist is represented by these guests whose harping is similar to that of the Pharisees.   According to recent literary theory, the voice of the satirist, in this case a Pharisaic one, is undermined by its own harshness.  Moreover, in noting common human faults, such as those attributed to Zacchaeus, satire may effect social leveling.  By presenting this episode as a type of satire, Luke encourages identification with the sinner Zacchaeus (19:7) and thus fosters the gospel’s general objective of redemption.

The paper includes an appendix of passages from classical literature that ridicule or mock a rich but socially inept host.

Paul Robertson, Brown University

Specifying the Universal: Paul’s Claims in a Greco-Roman Conceptual Paradigm

Scholars have long struggled to decide whether Paul’s letters sought to usher in a new universal paradigm (Alain Badiou, 2003) or whether he was narrowly focused on his specific Christian communities (the paradigm of “Pauline communities” informing many commentaries and social-scientific works). Given that the historical and archaeological record of Pauline communities is spare, we are forced to attempt to reconcile these two approaches, both of which have generated plausible readings from the Pauline corpus. This paper argues that the dichotomy between sweeping universalism and targeted community advice is one that was common to a certain strain of Greco-Roman philosophical works, specifically those concerned with ethics such as Epictetus’ Discourses and Philodemus’ On Death and On Piety.

It is my contention that this tension in Paul is one of which he was well aware and that was shared with other philosophical works contemporary and previous to Paul’s time. Thinkers such as Epictetus and Philodemus likewise made universal claims that they paired alongside ethical advice targeted only to specific groups. By showing how these two authors confronted a similar conceptual issue, I can then fruitfully compare their rhetorical strategies used to solve this universal/specific tension with what we find in Paul’s letters. A close reading of the different texts’ structures reveals a close match in how they frame issues, their audience, and their claims.

Christopher Stroup, Boston University

Judeans from Every “Nation”? Acts 2:5-13 and the Construction of Judean Identity

The relationship between the early Jesus movement and “the Jews” in Acts has been described as oppositional, conciliatory, ambivalent, and even slippery. The first use of the Greek term Ioudaios (“Judean”) in Acts sets the stage for this variety of interpretations. Acts 2:5 makes the seemingly pedantic observation that Judeans from every “nation” gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. The verses that follow list the specific ethnē (“people groups”) of which these Judeans were members.

With the modern bifurcation of national and ethnic identities, this passage appears unremarkable. In Greco-Roman world, however, there were neither “nations” nor an analogous separation between geographic and ethnic identities. The inhabited world was populated by ethnē that were threaded together by cult, myth, culture, geography, and lineage. Luke’s uses of Ioudaios in Acts 2:5-13 strains the threads of geography and lineage in a remarkable way. Scholars have made sense of this strain by comparing Luke’s list with ancient astrological catalogues (Weinstock), the “table of nations” tradition from Genesis 10 (Scott), lists of conquered people groups found in Roman era propaganda (Gilbert), and Philo’s list of Judean communities throughout the known world (Baker). Each of these comparisons rightly highlights the universalizing power of such ethnē lists.

In this presentation, I argue that Luke uses the description of Ioudaioi in Acts 2:5 and the list
of ethnē in 2:9-13 to construct Ioudaios as both a universal and an imminently unstable ethnic category. Luke’s list offers competing presentations of ethnic boundaries and centers of Judean identity in order to realign them in a way that is more conducive for the inclusion of non-Judeans in the Judean ethnos. This, in turn, establishes a precedent for the way the fluidity and stability of Judean identity is developed with reference to non-Judean members of the Jesus movement throughout the rest of Acts.

A.4 Ancient Christianity

Presiding: Harold Attridge, Yale Divinity School

E. Bruce Brooks, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Early Christian Liturgy and the Didache

The Didache seems to reflect an early form of Christian liturgy; one which does not yet recognize the Resurrection doctrine. A similar position is attested in other texts, notably the Epistle of James and the hymn in Philippians 2.

On the basis of several unambiguous references, the Didache has been thought to be post-Matthaean and thus late, a conclusion which is inconsistent with its generally early content. I find that the Matthean affinities of the Didache are due to interpolation, and that the older parts are close to what is taught by, or anticipated by, Jesus in the earlier Gospel of Mark. They are also largely consistent with the doctrines which were so energetically opposed by Paul.

The Didache may thus be regarded as further documenting, in greater detail than is available from other sources, a pre-Pauline phase in the evolution of Christianity.

Stephen L. Young, Brown University

“I am a Son From the Father”: The Afterlife Services of Marcosian Christians and the Bacchic Gold Tablets

This paper explores aspects of the Marcosian “redemption” death ritual recounted in Irenaeus (1.21.5; c.f., 1.13.6). In particular it focuses on the Marcosians’ notion of the ascending soul requiring preparation to navigate obstacles after death in order to achieve the ideal afterlife. I will contextualize this aspect of the Marcosian ritual by situating it alongside other sources displaying similar ideas about the afterlife, particularly the Bacchic Gold Tablets – a comparison that, surprisingly, has thus far received little attention. The Bacchic Gold Tablets not only provide comparanda that share this notion of the deceased needing preparation to navigate afterlife obstacles, but also afford the opportunity to examine these ideas among their associated practices, practitioners, and practical settings. This comparison will elucidate how the Marcosian redemption ritual would have been recognizable to people as the afterlife service of ritual specialists who wove together various recognizable myths and afterlife related notions to explain and establish the efficacy of their services. In this way the ritual was comparable to the services offered by the Orphic initiators behind the Bacchic Gold Tablets – and presumably to the offerings of others in the ancient Mediterranean who trafficked in, among other things, afterlife services. This comparative exploration not only furthers our knowledge of the Marcosian ritual in its ancient settings, but also contributes to (re)describing the practices of certain Christ devotees in the mid to late 2nd century CE as recognizable practical religious activities within the “ordinary” social settings of ancient Mediterranean life.

Alexander Perkins, Yale Divinity School

Inscribing Holiness: Martyrology as an Epitaphic Genre

In this paper, I discuss how the discourse of martyrdom, much like that of epic and history, can rightly be described as monumental and epitaphic. Yet the bodies within these accounts do not become the cold stones of the Iliad. Rather, martyrdom is a genre of discourse that transforms the souls of its subjects into living texts. These texts subvert the Roman imperial mechanism of public humiliation and torture. They turn the brutal deaths of believers into loci of resistance that allow communities to recall and iteratively perform the transformative moments they narrate. As an intertext with the epitaphic tradition, I utilize the instantiation of the genre par excellence, the Athenian epitaphios logos. Illuminating the characteristics shared by each genre will bring the epitaphic qualities of martyrdom accounts into sharper focus and provide some fascinating insights into the identity formation of Early Christian communities.

Drawing on the observations of Loraux (2006) regarding the funeral oration, I begin with an investigation of similar rhetorical qualities within the Martyrs of Lyon and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity. The language of these accounts first to denies the power of words to fully describe the wondrous deeds of their subjects. They then move on to recontextualize the deaths of the figures they laud into the service of the community. Building on Shaw (1996) and Burrus (2008), I show how martyrologies and epitaphs conquer death itself and turn defeat into victory. I then move on to the letters of Ignatius and the Martyrdom of Pionius. In these texts, the figure of the martyr literally transforms into a λόγος that can then perform the “culture making” described by Castelli (2004). This λόγος is, at its root, a memorial to both the suffering and the glory of the martyr that the community could use to reenact and thereby reify the memories of their holy dead. The martyrdom account is an inscription of holiness on the bodies of imperial victims, bodies made as permanent as any stone stele.

Meghan Henning, Emory University

Pedagogical Punishments: the Rhetorical Function of Hell in the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul

Much of the history of scholarship on “hell” has been devoted to tracing genetic relationships between older texts and more recent ones, typically based upon generic elements or the specific features of hell’s landscape.  This paper suggests a new direction for classics and New Testament study, focusing instead on the rhetorical function of hell in antiquity.  This paper argues that the rhetorical devices of ekphrasis, enargeia and periēgēsis were at work in the depictions of Hell that we find in the early Christian apocalypses, namely the Apoc. Pet.  and the Apoc. Paul.  We begin with a definition of these rhetorical devices by examining the Progymnasmata as well as Quintillian’s work on rhetoric.  Next, we will demonstrate that these rhetorical devices were at work in various ancient depictions of Hades (with examples chosen from Greek and Latin authors such as Homer, Plato, Vergil, Lucian and Plutarch).   Finally we will show that this rhetorical technique was also at work in the early Christian apocalypses.  In sum, we will conclude that early Christians, like the Greeks and Romans before them, used these rhetorical techniques in order to “emotionally move” their audiences toward “right behavior.”