The registration for the EABS Annual Conference 2023 is Siracusa, Sicily is open! Please be reminded that all participants need to be members in good standing for the year 2023. If you receive the message 'Access Denied' when trying to access the registration page please renew your membership. 

You can register for the conference here.

Please see the attached leaflet for a Colloquium on Jewish Readings in New Testament Manuscripts, to be held at the Monastery of Montserrat on 22-25 January 2024.

The deadline for registration is 15 December 2023.

Contributions are invited on the Jewish features of NT variant readings and/or the current state of research on the text of early versions and patristic/apocryphal writings. Written papers may be submitted in English, French or Spanish and will sent out to participants 2 weeks before the Colloquium. Discussion during the colloquium will mainly be in English, with translation available as necessary. Hybrid arrangements may be possible.

For further information, please contact the organisers:

Professor Susan Docherty:
[email protected]

Dr Jenny Read-Heimerdinger:
[email protected]

In search of the unity of the book of Isaiah

The Book of Isaiah is too diverse to be considered as a unified whole but too united to be regarded as just a mere compilation of different parts. The issue is not about unity or complexity, but about unity in complexity. After decades of combat, the time is ripe not only for a cease-fire but for a common effort among synchronists and diachronists. Both should mutually accept the restrictions of their approaches and recognize the strengths of each other’s methodology. One restriction concerns the possibility to decipher in full the redaction history, the different stages of the literary development. There is a growing scepticism about editorial layers that shaped the whole Book of Isaiah from the beginning to the end. But this does not mean the end of any redaction-critical work, but calls for a self-limitation to separate first of all the more probable from the less probable and to consider the consequences of a diachronic decision on one pericope on the whole of the book. The paradigm appropriate to this book seems not that of one final redaction or final redactions, but that of sectional compositions (Teilkompositionen) building upon one another. Methodologically needed is a »diachronically- reflected synchrony«, which analyses the existing textual fabric keeping in mind the nearly four hundred years of literary growth. A promising way seems to apply the »diachronically-reflected synchrony« to the commonly recognized sections of the book (1–12; 13–27; 28–35; 36–39; 40– 55; 56–66). The outcome might be that each of these sections represents the book of Isaiah in a nutshell under different aspects but surely always from the perspective of Israel in the Late Persian/ Early Hellenistic Period.

But what is the whole book about? It is certainly not sufficient to single out key words or similar phenomena and follow them throughout the sixty-six chapters, since the book of Isaiah is as complex on the synchronic as on the diachronic level. Every synchronic observation should be accompanied by a diachronic reflection taking into account the changing historical situation of the text-producer and their first addressees. It’s not enough to pretend that the book of Isaiah has grown more or less stringently from front to back so that the oldest texts stand at the beginning and the youngest at the end. The requirements for the interpretation of Proto-Isaiah are particularly high in this respect, because not only in the first chapter, but in all others as well, the growth of the entire book must always be taken into account. If one takes the interpenetration of older and younger texts seriously, then only scribal circles can be held responsible for this ambitious enterprise. This is all the more valid when one considers the literary connections both in the 66 chapters itself and with regard to other parts of the Hebrew Bible, to the Pentateuch, to other prophetic books and especially to the Psalms. The leading traditions of Ancient Israel like the ones of the patriarchs, Exodus, Moses, David, Zion, but also of the Paradise Garden, Noah, etc. were creatively integrated into this multi-layered, multifaceted literary masterpiece from four centuries of prophetic reflection on YHWH, His people and the nations. The dynamics, the poetical forces, the tradents (Trägerkreise) behind this magistral book will be examined, as well as the question of how the earliest receptions read and understood it.

10 Main lectures (4 english; 4 german; 2 french)

Ulrich Berges: Presidential address:

1. Auf der Suche nach der Einheit des Buches Jesaja. Zwischen synchronem Anspruch und diachroner Herausforderung

2. Hugh Williamson: Redaction-criticism in Proto-Isaiah and its repercussions on the Book of Isaiah

3. Marvin Sweeney: Gains and losses of a one view reading of the book of Isaiah

4. Konrad Schmid: Zeit und Geschichte als Determinanten des Jesajabuchs

5. Judith Gärtner: Das Buch Jesaja und seine Trägerkreise

6. Katie Heffelfinger, Lyrics and Poetics in the Book of Isaiah and the consequences for the history of composition

7. Uta Schmidt : Das Buch Jesaja in genderkritischer/ feministischer Perspektive

8. Marcello Fidanzio/ Hagit Maoz: Le grand rouleau d’Isaïe de Qumrân : approche matérielle.

9. Rodrigo de Sousa: L’Isaïe grec et ses implications pour la recherche de l‘unité du livre d'Isaïe hébreu

10. Antti Laato : The Book of Isaiah in Jewish-Christian reception

4 Seminars

 
Nederlands: Archibald van Wieringen: Leesstrategieën in en van het boek Jesaja

German: Joachim Eck: Intra-textuelle Verbindungen des Jesajabuchs zur hebräischen Bibel

English: Alphonso Groenewald/ Liza Esterhuizen: The Book of Isaiah and trauma/ resilience studies

French: Pierre van Hecke: Métaphores et langage figuratif et la cohérence du livre d’Ésaïe

Offered short papers

 
The offered short lectures can cover all topics related to the book of Isaiah and its ancient versions. A wide variety of methods is expressly desired. The focus is on literary, historical, literary-historical and reception-historical observations. It would be desirable if these individual studies would always also take into account the book of Isaiah.

Parallel Session I/ V: Literary Issues

Parallel Session II/ VI: Historical Issues

Parallel Session III/ VII: Literary Historical Issues (Especially Intra- and Intertextuality; redaction and composition)

Parallel Session IV/ VIII: Reception Historical Issues

The Colloquium will meet (live) at The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University May 14–18, 2023 for options to join remotely, see below.

The Emory University and Tel Aviv University colloquium is a joint project designed to foster unique interdisciplinary discourse. It seeks to address open questions in Hebrew Bible scholarship and in the study of ancient Near Eastern and East Mediterranean cultures of the second and first millennia BCE. Did these ancient cultures have conceptions of nature? And if so, how could we discern such conceptions of nature in pictorial and literary sources? How might the conceptions of nature found in the Hebrew Bible relate to the conceptions of nature within the cultures of the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean?
An interdisciplinary team of scholars will convene  for three days of discussions indoors (in the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University) and two days of outdoor research excursions. Over thirty scholars from the USA, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Israel will participate in the workshop. Specialists in the disciplines of Hebrew Bible, Assyriology, Hittitology, Egyptology, and Classics will engage archaeologists with particular expertise in Iconography, Archaeobotany, and Archaeozoology, along with other experts in Botany, Zoology, Climatology, and Geography.
The Colloquium is open for interested audiences. Scholars, students, and the general public are welcome to participate during the three days of indoor sessions. Please pre-register at the website or write to us at [email protected]
The Colloquium will also be hybrid, and allow remote participation. If you are able to join us remotely, please, mention that on the registeration form. 
This colloquium is funded by a Collaborative Research Grant provided by the Halle Institute for Global Research at Emory University and Tel Aviv University, and by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF 1642/23).

More information…

Organizing Committee: Izaak de Hulster, Universities of Göttingen and Helsinki • Joel LeMon, Emory University • Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Tel Aviv University

The colloquium investigates aspects of emotions in psychology, but also in history, with special emphasis on Byzantium. We focus on time, gender, and society and to the ways in which emotions influence and are themselves influenced by them. In particular, we explore the endurance of emotions, their relevance and dependance to historical circumstances, their relation to ideological, religious, societal, family and personal frameworks. 

10:00 – 18:00 (CEST)

Participation cost: 20 euros

For registration contact: [email protected]

Waivers available upon application.

The colloquium investigates aspects of emotions in psychology, but also in history, with special emphasis on Byzantium. We focus on time, gender, and society and to the ways in which emotions influence and are themselves influenced by them. In particular, we explore the endurance of emotions, their relevance and dependance to historical circumstances, their relation to ideological, religious, societal, family and personal frameworks. 
 
10:00 – 18:00
Registration Cost: Euro 20 
To register, please email: [email protected]
 
Waivers available upon application.

Online Symposium:

"Rethinking Class in Intersectional Activism and Faith-Based Community Organizing:

Continuing Reflections on the Work of Norman K. Gottwald"

Saturday, March 11, 2023 (11:00 am – 4:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time)

CLBSJ and the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice are very pleased to invite you to a special online seminar to honor and continue to reflect on the scholarly legacy of CLBSJ’s co-founder, Rev. Dr. Norman K. Gottwald. The event will be held on the one-year anniversary of Dr. Gottwald’s passing, March 11.

This online seminar will continue discussions begun at the Society for Biblical Literature annual meeting on the effects that Dr. Norman Gottwald’s 1992 presidential address, Social Class as an Analytic and Hermeneutical Category in Biblical Studies, has had on the role of class analysis in biblical studies. The gathering will consist of eight prepared remarks (speakers noted below), interspersed by facilitated small group discussion.

To register for this session, click here: https://vanderbilt.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUpde-srjoqGNG5_O69G434A-xX8gvzONpW#/registration

It will also be live-streamed on Facebook: https://fb.me/e/2F4eaoZ46 

Panelists:

Joerg Rieger, Vanderbilt University & Wendland-Cook Program

Madipoane Masenya, University of South Africa

Gerald West, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Monica Melanchthon, University of Divinity

Stacy Davis, Saint Mary’s College

Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary

Gregory Cuellar, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Ched Myers, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries & CLBSJ

Moderators:

Ludwig Beethoven J. Noya, Vanderbilt University

Matthew J.M. Coomber, St. Ambrose University

EABS members are invited to join the two-day symposium ‘Understanding Judaism: New Approaches to Rabbinic Literature’, featuring honored Yale Professor Christine Hayes and other notable speakers such as Professors Peter Tomson, Martin Goodman, Lutz Doering, and Annette Merz. 

The symposium addresses the ways recent developments in the study of Rabbinic literature affect long-standing modes of approaching culture, religion, and society in Late Antiquity.  The seminar will take place at Utrecht University on March 20th and 21st, 2023, and celebrates the publication of Christine Hayes’ groundbreaking volume of The Literature of the Sages: A Re-Visioning (CRINT 16; Leiden: Brill, 2022). The symposium will include a masterclass featuring up-and-coming students and their work. 

Symposium Programme

 Day 1

09:30 Entrance

10:00 Eric Ottenheijm, Opening

10:10 Introduction by Peter J. Tomson 

10:45 Coffee/Tea Break

11:00 Christine Hayes, Introductory Lecture

11:45 Questions from the audience

12:15 Lunch

13.30 Responses by three external specialists: Lutz Doering; Martin Goodman; Annette Merz.

15.00 Tea Break 

15.30 Response of prof. Hayes

Followed by a general discussion on the volume’s merits and final words by Eric Ottenheijm

16.00 Reception

18:00 Dinner

Day 2

09:30 Entrance

10:00 Eric Ottenheijm, Opening

10:15 Masterclass (part I)

11:30 Coffee/Tea break

11:45 Masterclass (part II)

13:00 Lunch

You can sign up with this sign-up link to register for the symposium or receive more information: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeqcJ4MQm2xbnH5mrHEvGW7YLW0JFPmS5kRr6yHe7nYshg-Kw/viewform?usp=sf_link 

Call for Papers:

“Exploring Rest in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Contexts”

Symposium organized by Seth A. Bledsoe and Ludwig Beethoven J. Noya

4 July 2023

Faculty of Philosophy, Theology & Religious Studies

Radboud University

Erasmusplein 1, 6525 HT Nijmegen, Netherlands

We are excited to open the call for papers for this symposium hosted by the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, & Religious Studies at Radboud University. This symposium aims to examine the various ways that "rest" is conceptualized in literary, social, and political contexts of the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Near East, especially in relation to ancient Jewish and Early Christian contexts. The symposium would be a combination between the open call and invited papers. The questions pursued in this conference include but are not limited to: 

• Rest as a (Literary) Metaphor

• Rest and its Manifestations: physical, emotional, social, etc.

• Rest and Labor

• Rest and Leisure. 

• Rest and Rituals/Festivals

• Rest and Empire

Abstracts for a 25-minute presentation (150-200 words) in English and a Curriculum Vitae are to be submitted by 4 pm (CET) on 31 December 2022 to [email protected] and ludw[email protected]. Funding for transportation and accommodation may be available for the accepted papers depending on available funds. We also intend to publish the symposium proceedings in a top-tier series (details to follow).

For questions or inquiries about the Symposium, please contact:

Seth A. Bledsoe ([email protected]) or Ludwig Beethoven J. Noya ([email protected]) 

We are looking forward to your submission.

A conference on divine-human dimensions of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient world will take place at the University of Hamburg between 20-23 March 2023. Both on site and online participation will be possible. For registration, please write an informal e-mail to Marcel Krusche ([email protected]hamburg.de) stating whether you will participate on site or via Zoom. For participation on site, please register by 31 January 2023.

Further details can be found in the attached poster. 

CALL FOR PAPERS: IV International Congress of the Spanish Biblical Association, "Biblia y ecología: nuevas lecturas en un mundo herido / Bible and ecology: new readings in a wounded world". The conference will take place from 4 to 6 July 2023 at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid.

Further details at the address below:

https://abe.org.es/iv-congreso-internacional-2023/

EABS members are warmly invited to the Yirmeyahu Online Research Seminars on "Exegesis and Theology of the Book Of Jeremiah".

Further information can be found in the attached posters.

The next seminars are scheduled on the following dates at 16:15 CET:

Mon 9 January           Anne-Marie PELLETIER (Fr)
Mon 6 March             Dalit ROM-SHILONI (En)
Mon 8 May                 Samuel HILDEBRANDT (En)

The Research Unit also has its call for papers currently open for the 2023 EABS Annual Conference, with the deadline of 13th January:

https://www.eabs.net/EABS/Research-Units/Research_Units/EABS_Research_Units/Book_of_Jeremiah.aspx

Call for Papers

From 1st - 3rd June 2023, the Centre for Women's Studies in Theology at KU Leuven will be hosting 'Female Corporeality and Religion' an interdisciplinary conference taking place in Leuven, Belgium and supported by KOSMOI - The Leuven Centre for the Study of Religion and World View. 

Confirmed plenary speakers include: 

Dr. Nontando Hadebe, Prof. Juliane Hammer, Prof. Candida Moss and Prof. Heidemarie Winkel 

See the website for more information: https://theo.kuleuven.be/kosmoi/conference2023

Call for Papers

"(Anti)-Apocalypticism throughout Antiquity". A conference in the events series "Congressi Stefano Franscini".

The University of Zurich is organising a conference on the subject of “(Anti-)Apocalypticism in Antiquity”, which is going to take place at the Monte Verità Conference Centre in Ascona, Switzerland, from July 16th to 19th 2023. The event is part of the “Congressi Stefano Franscini” events series. This international congress will serve as a platform for interdisciplinary exchange on the subject of apocalyptic thinking, its critiques, and the cultural and intellectual history surrounding apocalyptic traditions in ancient cultures. Besides a number of invited sessions with participants from the disciplines of theology, history, classics, philology, and other areas of research interested in various ancient cultures, the organisers invite offered papers for contributions of a maximum of 15 to 20 minutes.
 
This call for papers is open to both junior and senior scholars from all disciplines within the study of ancient texts, languages, cultures and thought, while there is some focus on Ancient Near Eastern, Mediterranean, Levantine, Egyptian, and Persian contexts.

Scholars researching questions in relation to (anti-)apocalypticism are invited to send abstracts for proposed papers to the organisers by email to the following address: [email protected] Abstracts should be of an approximate length of 300-400 words and be supplemented by a small paragraph describing the scholar’s academic background.
 
For more information and continuous updates, please visit our website at www.apocalypticism.uzh.ch.
 
Proposals by junior researchers, women, as well as scholars of marginalised backgrounds and fields of study are especially invited.
 
We look forward to receiving your abstracts by the 1st of December 2022.

Multiracial Biblical Studies Symposium

June 6-16, 2022 

Week 1 registration

Week 2 registration

Registration is free and open to the public. 

Each week has a separate registration. 

Please join us on June 6-16 for the Multiracial Biblical Studies Symposium. The two overarching aims are to decenter whiteness as eurocentric, normative, and monoracial and to create multiple foundations, sources, methods, and starting points towards multiracial biblical studies. The symposium pursues both goals by bringing together Africana, African American, Asian, Asian American, Euro American, European, Indigenous, Islander, Latinx, and Latino/a American scholars as a multiracial coalition to rethink the practice of biblical interpretation. 

The symposium is cosponsored by Baker Academic, Baylor University Press, Belmont University, NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, Society of Biblical Literature, and Westminster John Knox Press. Contact: [email protected].

This conference will explore the role played by discoveries and debates about the ancient past in the development of ideas about the Middle East in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. What competing imperial, national, and transnational narratives about the present and future of this geopolitically crucial region were fed by archaeology, philology, and history? How were these emergent disciplines themselves forged through Middle Eastern contexts they purported to study? How were temporalities of modernity and progress constructed in relation to the ruptures, continuities and heuristic challenges suggested by the excavation and exegesis of traces of ancient civilisations? How did the return of the remains of the past assist Western and Eastern empires, and new Middle Eastern countries in understanding their own national destinies?

We are interested in the concept of the ancient past as a means of constructing modern identities: of ‘the Middle East’ as a region, of diverse new nations within it, and of Western nations whose colonial projects and political interests in the region became part of their own modern identities.

Symposium organized by Albertina Oegema and Seth Bledsoe from the 1–2 June 2022

We would like to invite all who are interested to attend this symposium, hosted by the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam together with Radboud University, Nijmegen. The event brings together several scholars who examine the various ways that “old age” is conceptualized in literary, social, and political contexts of the ancient Mediterranean, especially among early Jewish and Christian communities.  

The Symposium comprises two parts: 

On the evening of June 1 (19:00-20:30 CEST) a public Keynote Lecture will be held virtually and open to the public, entitled “The Ageless Self and the Selfless Age,” given by Prof. Mira Balberg (UC San Diego) in consultation with Prof. Haim Weiss (Ben Gurion); the lecture extends their recent groundbreaking study of “old age” in rabbinic literature (When Near Becomes Far, Oxford UP 2021). 

During the day of June 2 there will be a Conference on location at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam (De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam) where several international scholars of early Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman antiquity will give presentations on “old age” as a dynamic and meaningful concept in relation to a variety of issues, such as gender, family, society, and wisdom. Program attached below. 

All interested parties are warmly invited to attend the virtual keynote address. We also welcome those who would like to attend the symposium in person. Attendance at both the keynote and conference is free. Refreshments will be provided during the conference. 

To attend the virtual keynote address, please register at: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/keynote-lecture-prof-mira-balbergthe-ageless-self-and-the-selfless-age-tickets-329738977157  

To attend the in-person conference on 2 June, please register by May 25 at: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conceptualizing-old-age-in-ancient-jewish-and-early-christian-contexts-tickets-330503945197  

For questions or inquiries about the Symposium, please contact:
Seth Bledsoe ([email protected]) or Albertina Oegema ([email protected]) 

“Open Theology” (https://www.degruyter.com/opth) invites submissions for the topical issue “Elders in Religions of Antiquity”, edited by Janelle Peters (Loyola Marymount University).
 
This topical issue analyzes the ways in which elders could accrue religious power throughout the ancient world. In Mesoamerica, jaguars represented deceased leaders and provided guides for living leaders. In Africa, ancestors have long been a part of traditional practice. Elders in early Judaism and Christianity vary in prestige. On the one hand, Daniel must use his wits against unscrupulous elders threatening Susanna. On the other hand, presbyters/elders give their blessing to Judith, widows such as Anna play a prominent role in establishing Jesus' divine character, and presbyters seem to take the place of apostles in the earliest house-churches. Elders in China could transcend class and gender limitations according to bamboo slips and stelae, enabling elders to have beatings redressed and to bestow property according to their wishes. Such piety extends past the family and encourages the whole society to respect age as a virtue. Funerary evidence suggests elaborate afterlife preparations for those of considerable age. Very little has been published on the role of elders in establishing virtue, particularly with respect to women, and further reflections on the tensions involving elders defining and leading religious practice are in order. 

Articles could engage with the following questions: How do elders in global religions of antiquity establish authority within the rhetoric of our textual evidence? What other textual features combine with elders to accentuate or diminish their roles within their texts and possible communities that might be attached to them? What is the relationship of elders with other societal categories? How do elders configure virtue ethics and religious values?
 
Authors publishing their articles in the topical issue will benefit from:

– transparent, comprehensive and fast peer review,
– free language assistance for authors from non-English speaking regions.

Because "Open Theology" is published under an Open Access model, as a rule, publication costs should be covered by Article Publishing Charges (APC), paid by authors, their affiliated institutions, funders or sponsors. Authors without access to publishing funds are encouraged to discuss potential discounts or waivers with Managing Editor of the journal Katarzyna Tempczyk ([email protected]) before submitting their manuscripts. 

How to submit

Submissions will be collected from October 1 to November 30, 2022 via the on-line submission system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/openth/

Choose as article type: Elders in Religions of Antiquity

Before submission the authors should carefully read over the Instruction for Authors, available at: https://www.degruyter.com/publication/journal_key/OPTH/downloadAsset/OPTH_Instruction%20for%20Authors.pdf

All contributions will undergo critical peer-review before being accepted for publication.

Further questions about this thematic issue can be addressed to Janelle Peters at [email protected] In case of technical or financial questions, please contact journal Managing Editor Katarzyna Tempczyk at [email protected].

CRASIS invites applications for its eleventh Annual Meeting and Masterclass, which will take place on 24 (Masterclass) and 25 (Annual Meeting) February 2022 at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The Annual Meeting and Masterclass is an annual two-day event, designed to promote discussion and the exchange of ideas about the ancient world across traditional disciplinary boundaries among graduate students, postdocs, and established scholars. This year, our theme will be exemplarity, and we are honoured to welcome Prof. Rebecca Langlands (University of Exeter) as keynote speaker and master. We invite papers exploring exemplarity, exemplars, and examples in relation to any aspect of the ancient world and from any perspective including linguistic, literary, historical, philosophical, material, art-historical, archaeological, or reception-based. 

PhD and Research Master students submit a proposal of a topic (500 words) for the Master Class, explaining how their own research relates to the theme. All other researchers are invited to submit a title and abstract (250 words) for a lecture at the Annual Meeting. Proposals must be submitted no later than 1 December 2021 via [email protected].

For the full Call for Papers and further particulars, see our website. Any queries can be addressed to the CRASIS secretary Evelien de Graaf at [email protected].

The registration is now open for the International Psalter Colloquium „Editing the Greek Psalter“, Göttingen, 1–3 December 2021.

The colloquium is organized in a hybrid format, and in order to follow it online, you have to register for free on its website, where you will also find the programme.

Following the success of the Categories and Boundaries in Second Temple Jewish Literature conference (event programme link below), we are delighted to be partnering with AABNER (Advances in Ancient Biblical and Near Eastern Research), a Diamond Open Access, forum peer-review journal, to produce a special issue on the topic of Rethinking Categories in the Study of Second Temple Judaism, edited by Joseph Scales and Charles Comerford.

We encourage articles that reflect on current issues relating to how particular theoretical models, methodological approaches, and categorical frameworks continue to shape our understanding of the ancient world, its literature, peoples, and history, with a particular focus on Second Temple Judaism. Suggested fields and topics include, but are not limited to:

• Categorical or genre-related distinctions, similarities, and/or tensions in ancient Biblical and Near Eastern literature
• Understanding vocational roles (e.g., priests, prophets, sages)
• Cross-border cultural interaction (e.g., travel, international trade, migration)

We invite submissions of articles ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 words in length. Completed and anonymised articles should be sent to [email protected] by 1st February 2022. Articles should follow CMS author-date style with footnotes (full citation details).
We will accept submissions in English, German, and French.

All papers will be subject to “forum review.” This is an open peer-review system where anonymised submissions are sent to a group of reviewers whose comments are visible to all other reviewers. This system is intended to create a balanced and discursive environment while minimising the time it takes to review submitted papers. For a full overview of this peer-review system.

Original Conference Programme can be found here.

The opening session of the EABS Annual Conference 2021 is open for all!

Feel free to watch the YouTube premiere stream at 18:00 PM CEST (2nd August) and join us for the get-together afterwards.

Click here to enter the opening session stream.

From Josephus to Josippon and Beyond: A Digital, International Conference 23–26 August, 2021

This conference will take place over Zoom. Registration is required but open to all. Please see the following link for conference info and to register:

www.fromjosephustojosippon.com

Featuring the following speakers:

Martin Goodman (University of Oxford), Steve Mason (University of Groningen), Michael Avioz (Bar-Ilan University), Silvia Castelli (Leiden University), Saskia Dönitz (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Meir Ben Shahar (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Ruth Nisse (Wesleyan University), Jan Willem van Henten (University of Amsterdam), Carson Bay (University of Bern), David Levenson (Florida State University), Yael Feldman (New York University), Steven Bowman (University of Cincinnati), Nadia Zeldes (Ben Gurion University of the Negev), Daniel Stein Kokin (University of Greifswald), Katja Vehlow (Jewish Theological Seminary), Ayub Naser (University of Groningen), Andrea Schatz (King’s College London), Yonatan Binyam (University of California – Los Angeles), Tessa Rajak (University of Reading / University of Oxford)

Also featuring: 2 Masterclasses on 1) Translating Josephus’ Greek into Modern Hebrew and English and 2) Josephus’ Reception in Latin and Hebrew, and a special presentation of the Oxford Josephus Reception archive.

Sponsored by:

European Association of Jewish Studies (EAJS)

University of Bern – Institute for Jewish Studies

Bar-Ilan University – Department of Bible

University of Amsterdam – Amsterdam School of Historical Studies

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)

Thursday June 3, 3:30–7:00 pm

The Septuagint in the Hellenistic World. Workshop to mark the publication of The Oxford Handbook of Septuagint Studies, edited by Alison Salvesen and Timothy Michael Law

3:30-4:30 pm:
Hindy Najman (Oriel): opening remarks Robert Parker (New)
Scott Scullion (Worcester)

4:45-5:45 pm:
Andrew Erskine (Edinburgh) Sylvie Honigman (Tel Aviv)

6:00-7:00 pm:
Erich Gruen (Berkeley) Alison Salvesen (Mansfield)
Martin Goodman (Wolfson): closing remarks

Register.

8th–10th of June

Recently, scholarship has turned to the connections between material aspects of scrolls production on the one hand, and the production, redaction, and transmission of ancient texts on the other. One example in the field of biblical studies is the article by David Carr entitled "Rethinking the Materiality of Biblical Texts: From Source, Tradition and Redaction to a Scroll Approach" (ZAW 132/2020). This symposium will offer an exploratory conversation on the opportunities (and possible pitfalls) of enriching the study of the Hebrew Bible through more focused attention on ancient practices of creating and using scrolls. The interconnection of relatively recent theoretical movements (e.g., New Philology, sociological study of bibliography and New Materialism) and continuing analysis and collection of material evidence from ancient scrolls (especially from Egypt and the Dead Sea Caves) offers an opportunity to add precision to models for the formation and reception of (what would become) biblical texts by attending to practices surrounding their likely original material form—as parts of scrolls. Though pioneers in pursuing a ‘scroll approach’ were confined to limited descriptions from the Bible and later rabbinic literature, we now have a wealth of information from actual ancient scrolls and scribal practices from Egypt, Levantine sites like Deir ʿAlla, and especially the Judaean Desert (Qumran and other sites).

Wednesday 16 June 2021, 3.30pm-6.30pm (Brussels time zone)

Registration is free of charge but mandatory, deadline is Monday the 14th of June 2021: More info and registration

Registration for the "Apocalyptic Thinking" seminar at the Centre for the Study of the Bible, Oriel College (University of Oxford) is now open.

 The event is free and open to the public.

More information can be found from the attached pdf.

The Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense
The Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense is an annual international conference on Biblical Studies jointly organised by the theological faculties of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université Catholique de Louvain. The meetings take place in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the KU Leuven and are alternately dedicated to a topic in Old and in New Testament Studies. 

The Colloquium offers a forum and meeting place for research and scholarly discussion in the field of Biblical Studies. As a rule the annual conference focuses on a biblical book or a collection of writings, but it also addresses thematic subjects.

Programme design 10 main papers by invited speakers; languages: French, German or English
4 seminars conducted by invited speakers; languages: Dutch, French, German and English
about 20 short papers, selected from proposals by participants

Online Survey: Forum Exegese und Hochschuldidaktik

At the Seminar for Protestant Theology of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal a study on didactic concepts for the use of tutorials in the Biblical Studies is currently being developed within the framework of a degree dissertation. Since the study has an empirical part, I would like to ask you for your assistance. 

I would be very grateful if you would participate in the online survey if tutorials in the field of Biblical Studies were offered in your institute / seminar / at your chair: https://umfrage.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php/778319?lang=en.

The survey is active until 15.01.2020.

Thomas Wagner

Protestant Bible Scholarship: Antisemitism, Philosemitism, and Anti-Judaism (26-27 May 2019, Oxford)

This conference brings prominent biblical scholars and scholars of Judaism together for a conversation about the foundations of our fields. We want to generate a discussion of how a biased understanding of Judaism became integral to the discipline. This conversation is about understanding, healing and changing that discussion through critical thinking and ethical reading.

The conference will take place on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May in Oriel College, Oxford.

To download the conference programme, please click here

This event is organised by the Centre for the Study of the Bible in the Humanities at Oriel College, Oxford.

All are welcome and participation is free, but places are limited and registration is required. Please register as soon as possible by filling out the online registration form here.

Hindy Najman and Arjen Bakker

Call for Papers

Biblical Poetry: the Legacy of the Psalms in Late Antiquity and Byzantium

Ghent University, April 23-24 2020

The Psalms, in their Greek Septuagint translation, were a fundamental corpus of biblical poetry, and as such were continuously referred to in Christian literature. They played a key role in the daily life and in the development of religious sensitivity of late antique and Byzantine people. The production of Psalm-related literature, notably exegetic, was impressively widespread. The Psalms, however, influenced other genres of religious literature as well, and their poetical nature remained an important feature that later authors were well aware of.

In preparation of a volume on the reception of the Psalms in poetry from Late Antiquity and Byzantium, we invite scholars of all levels of experience to present a paper at a colloquium on this subject.

Confirmed speakers are Andrew Faulkner, Antonia Giannouli, Christian Høgel and Maria Ypsilanti.

We welcome contributions on the following topics especially:

·         the appreciation of the Psalter’s poetical nature in exegesis and in the biblical manuscript tradition (e.g. recognition, by patristic and Byzantine exegetes, of the presence or

·         absence of poetical features);

·         rhetorical aspects of the Psalms as highlighted in late antique and Byzantine treatises;

·         the influence of the Psalms on Byzantine poetry (e.g. what was their role in the composition of

·         eis heauton poems? How does self-expression in Christian poetry

·          relate to the Psalms?);

·         the reception of the Psalms in hymnographic poetry;

·         the reception of the Psalter in specific genres of poetry, such as Byzantine catanyctic poetry;

·         the metrical metaphrases by ps-Apollinaris and Manuel Philes;

·         metrical paratexts on the Psalms.

These examples are not exclusive and papers on other related topics are welcome.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers. Each paper will be followed by a reaction from a respondent, who will open the discussion with the audience. Contributors whose abstract is accepted will be asked to submit prior to the colloquium a rough draft of their full text. After the conference, they are expected to offer their re-worked paper for inclusion (upon acceptance after peer-review) in a volume on the reception of the Psalms in Byzantine poetry.

Please send a title and a short abstract (max. 300 words) of your paper to [email protected] no later than May 31, 2019. Accepted speakers will be notified by the end of June 2019.

For more information, please visit our website: http://www.psalms2020.ugent.be

Organisers: Floris Bernard, Reinhart Ceulemans, Cristina Cocola, Kristoffel Demoen, Anna Gioffreda, Andreas Rhoby, Rachele Ricceri.

This colloquium is organised within the framework of the projects David, our Orpheus. Reception, Rewritings and Adaptations of the Psalms in Byzantine Poetry (funded by the FWO - Flemish Research Foundation) and The Legacy of the Psalms in Byzantine Poetry: Book Epigrams and Metrical Paraphrases (funded by the FWO - Flemish Research Foundation and the FWF - Austrian Science Fund), which are being carried out at Ghent University, KU Leuven and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense LXVIII 

Leuven, 24-26 July 2019 

President: Judith Lieu, University of Cambridge

Topic: Peter in the Early Church: Apostle – Missionary – Church Leader

Whereas in the past interest in Peter has largely focussed on the ecclesiastical or institutional dynamics of the Petrine traditions, or on Peter as a shadowy foil for Paul, mediating between him and James as the representative of ‘Jewish Christianity’, recent study has offered fresh insights into both the canonical letters that bear his name, but also into the range of non-canonical ‘Petrine’ texts as well as into the development of the traditions regarding his death and burial. It is therefore a very apposite time to hold a Colloquium which will bring together both established and more early career scholars who have been at the centre of these diverse new developments, and stimulate dialogue and deeper analysis. The Proceedings of the Colloquium are expected to make a significant contribution to the role and representation of Peter and associated writings in the Early Church and to their reception. 

CALL FOR SHORT PAPERS: Short paper proposals (including name, institutional affiliation, postal address, e-mail address, title and abstract of ca. 200 words) should be sent to: 

Judith Lieu, President CBL 2019, [email protected] 

no later than 31 March 2019.

More Information

- See: https://theo.kuleuven.be/en/research/centres/centr_collbibl

This conference will bring together leading scholars from around the world to discuss the why and how of reading Biblical Hebrew poetry as Scripture in today's world. The aim of the conference is recontextualization with the goal of moving beyond reconstructive historical work to constructive theological work.

Featured speakers include:

·         John Goldingay: On Reading Genesis 49

·         Benjamin Sommer: Parallelism and Preaching: Poetic Form and Religious Function

·         Ellen Davis: The Psalms, the Poetry of Healing

·         David Firth: Hannah's Song (1 Samuel 2:1-10): On the Interface of Poetics and Ethics in an Embedded Poem

·         Revd Megan Daffern: How Wise are the Psalms as Prayers?

·         Katie Heffelfinger: Truth and Hidden Things: Reading Isaiah 45:9-25 as Scripture

·         Rabbi Shai Held: Can the Psalms of Lament Redeem Us?

·         Yisca Zimran: The Dynamic Relationship between God and Man in the Book of Hosea: A Synchronic Reading

·         The conference will include an After-Dinner Poetry Reading and Discussion with award-winning poet and professor, Michael Symmons Roberts.

An outline programme, paper abstracts, and the online booking site are available at:

www.newsongconference.com or www.centreforcatholicstudies.co.uk

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN. See the links and attachment for more information.

The Call for Papers for this year’s European Association of Biblical Studies Annual Conference is now open! The Conference will be taking place at the University of Warsaw, ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, Warsaw, Poland, from Sunday, 11th August, afternoon, to Wednesday, 14th August, 2019, evening, followed by two days of post-conference tours. 

Paper proposals will be accepted until 28th February, and individual EABS units’ Calls can be seen on their webpages. To browse the list of EABS research units, click here.

The EABS is excited to announce the eleventh Graduate Symposium, which will take place at the Lammi Biological Station (LBS) of the University of Helsinki, in Lammi, Finland, from 12^th-14^th April 2019. The LBS is a world class research station situated 90 minutes north of Helsinki [Click here to find out more about the venue]. The symposium, which seeks to engender a supportive atmosphere for dialogue across a variety of biblical studies fields and subfields (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, its reception/interpretation history, the ancient Near East, and any relevant cognate areas, New Testament, its reception/interpretation history, early Christianity, Rabbinics, Patristics and any relevant cognate areas, also, areas such as Qumran studies, Alexandrian Judaism, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, etc.), welcomes PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers to present on a topic related to their research area(s). Participants may format their presentations according to their preference: paper, seminar discussion, poster or another form.

Every abstract will be anonymously reviewed by a team of scholars who will give feedback and suggestions for improvement, if necessary. Our goal is to assist in developing the abstracts to the best possible form and to encourage authors to submit them to research seminars of the 2019 EABS Annual Conference. We also encourage authors to enter the EABS Student Prize by submitting their papers for evaluation after the symposium. Only papers presented at the EABS Annual Conference are eligible for the Student Prize which is typically awarded at the opening ceremony of the Annual Conference. Also, only doctoral students are eligible for the Student Prize. Next year’s conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland from 11^th-14^th August 2019. Please click here for more information.

Each participant will be given 20-25 minutes to present their paper which will be followed by an extended discussion. We look forward to welcoming Professor Juha Pakkala (HB), Professor Jutta Jokiranta (HB, STJ, DSS), Professor Petri Luomanen (NT and Early Christianity), and Professor Outi Lehtipuu (NT and Early Christianity), all affiliated to the University of Helsinki. These scholars will offer feedback and share from their experiences in their respective fields. In addition, the symposium looks forward to continuing its tradition of holding a joint trans-Atlantic session with graduate students from the University of Emory.

Candidates should submit their abstracts and/or posters of no more than 300 words to [email protected] by 11:59 pm (CET) on March 3 rd, 2019. Please do not forget to mention the preferred format in the abstract (i.e. paper, workshop, pre-circulated paper, discussion, poster, etc.). Participants have to be members of the EABS. The one-year student membership for 2019 is €10. Please note that this fee does not apply to postdoctoral researchers whose membership fee for 2019 is €30.

Batanayi I. Manyika
Graduate Student Representative
[email protected]

The EABS Annual Conference / SBL International Meeting 2018 took place at the University of Helsinki on 30th July - 3rd August. The following pictures, taken by Lauri Laine, take you back to our great moments in Helsinki.


Outi Lehtipuu, the chair of the local organizing committee, welcoming people at the opening session.


EABS Executive officer Dominika Kurek-Chomycz giving greetings from the EABS to the joint meeting.


The opening session ended with a panel discussion "What I would like to see happen in biblical studied?" The panel was chaired by Martti Nissinen and the other participants were Jutta Jokiranta, Ismo Dunderberg, Siiri Toiviainen and Rick Bonnie.


The plenary sessions took place at the Think Corner of the University. In the picture, Raija Sollamo and Antti Marjanen reflect on their career. Interview conducted by Cecilia Wassén, with an introduction by Marianne Bjelland Kartzow.


A magnificent cultural event, concert at the famous rock church, took place on Thursday evening.

The 14th International Biblical Conference, 23-24 October 2018

“For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to her dead” (Isa. 26:19): Resurrection in the Bible and Ancient Mediterranean World

The Catholic University of John Paul II, Lublin, Poland

This year’s symposium will focus on the resurrection in the Bible and extra-biblical traditions of the ancient Mediterranean World. The topics covered by conference papers can include: the shape and character of the idea of resurrection in the Bible and extra-biblical literature; the historical, anthropologico-cultural and theological analysis of the ancient texts and traditions on resurrection in relation to the Bible; the genesis and development of the idea of resurrection in the Hebrew Bible; the historical, socio-cultural and theological analysis of the idea of resurrection in New Testament texts together with their moral and ecclesiological implications; resurrection in Early Christian writings and traditions.

Please submit paper proposals by 15th August 2018. For more information and to submit your abstract, see: ocs.academicon.pl.