Chairs

Programme

Archaeology provides Biblical Studies with information essential for understanding the biblical text in its historical context. An important branch of archaeology is iconography, the study of pictorial expressions. Pictorial expressions depict a vast range of subjects: the natural and cultivated world, daily life, rituals, ideas - even imaginative notions (e.g. symbols, imagery). Thus, ancient Near Eastern iconography provides the (scholarly) community not only with information about the world in which the Bible emerged and was written, but also evidence relating to the perception, symbol systems, and so forth of the people who inhabited this 'world'. Studying pictorial material contemporary to the biblical documents (Hebrew Bible and New Testament) affords insight into the historical context of the text and facilitates an awareness of how the people contemporaneous with the text thought, imagined, and observed reality. For these reasons, and others, iconography merits sustained attention and effort as a road which leads to a more nuanced and more complete picture of many aspects of Biblical Studies.
Papers presented in this programme will deal with methodological issues and/ or address case studies in the common area of ancient Near Eastern iconography and Biblical Studies. Papers can be presented in the field of exegesis or history of religion (Israelite, Judaist, early Christian and pre-Islam).

Papers from the Vienna conference (2007) are due to be published: for more informaton, see here.

Agenda for 2010

For the Tartu conference the SBL group on Hebrew Bible and Iconography will hold an iconography session (although only Hebrew Bible/ OT). There will be an open call for papers to this session.