PEJE IESOUS » Society of Biblical Literature

Mark as Story at SBL

Christopher Skinner — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:37:45 +0000

I think I’ve mentioned previously that my recent book, Mark as Story: Retrospect and Prospect (co-edited with Kelly Iverson) will be featured in a session at this year’s annual meeting of the SBL. For those who are interested in attending, here is the information for that session from the online program book:

Mark

11/21/2011
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room:Room TBD – Hotel TBD

Theme: Discussion of Kelly R. Iverson and Christopher W. Skinner, ed., Mark as Story: Retrospect and Prospect (SBL, 2011)

Kelly Iverson, University of St. Andrews, Presiding
Christopher Skinner, Mount Olive College, Introduction (10 min)

Panel Discussion
Rikki Watts, Regent College, Panelist (20 min)
Francis Moloney, Salesians of Don Bosco, Panelist (20 min)
Kathleen Corley, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Panelist (20 min)
Philip Ruge-Jones, Texas Lutheran University, Panelist (20 min)

Response and Reflections
David Rhoads, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Respondent (10 min)
Joanna Dewey, Episcopal Divinity School, Respondent (10 min)
Donald Michie, Carthage College, Respondent (10 min)
Discussion (30 min)

My favorite SBL Session (New Orleans 2009)

Christopher Skinner — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:57:21 +0000

It is often difficult to identify the most helpful series of papers at a given SBL (and when I say this I mean “helpful” for my own academic interests and scholarly pursuits). The reasons for this are varied. First, there are often sessions where the quality of papers is uneven. It is not uncommon to have a gem of a paper surrounded by a few papers that are less interesting or substantive. Second (and conversely), there are usually three or four sessions throughout the week in which every paper is a “homerun,” so to speak. This year the best session I attended, hands down, was a discussion of Elizabeth Struthers Malbon’s new book, Mark’s Jesus (Baylor University Press).

The session consisted of reflections on Malbon’s book from leading Markan scholars who have also labored significantly in literary hermeneutics over the years. The session began with a paper from Joanna Dewey (Episcopal Divinity School), followed by papers from Alan Culpepper (Mercer University) and Gene Boring (Brite Divinity School). These papers were followed by a response from Malbon (who teaches at Virginia Tech); Mark Allan Powell (Trinity Lutheran Seminary) presided over the session. The panel consisted of five scholars who are both pioneers in narrative criticism (and related hermeneutics) and Markan studies–two of my prevailing interests. The session was intriguing and stimulating to me for at least three reasons: (1) first, the remarkable agreement among the panelists despite a handful of minor critiques; (2) second, the incredibly collegial dialogue that can be characterized as a “discussion among friends” (believe me, this is not always the case in such sessions); and (3) third, the emotionally compelling dedication of Malbon’s book to the families of those killed in the Virginia Tech shootings 4 years ago. When asked about the dedication toward the end of the session, Malbon was unable to control her emotions, which led to the same reaction from most of those gathered in the room. In a room filled with stoic biblical scholars, this is an unexpected response, indeed.

I began reading Professor Malbon’s book on the plane last night. It appears to be very good and advances a number of ideas she has been considering in her publications over the last two and a half decades. I will be blogging more about it in the coming days. If I don’t get back to my blog before then, have a great Thanksgiving. . . .

New Testament Theology Panel

Christopher Skinner — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:11:01 +0000

I just returned from a stimulating and somewhat humorous panel on New Testament Theology here at the annual SBL meeting in New Orleans. The panel was primarily intended to interact with Udo Schnelle’s recently released theology of the NT but also included interactions with the NT Theologies of Frank J. Matera and James D. G. Dunn. The panel was chaired by Pheme Perkins and consisted of papers by and subsequent (lengthy) dialogue between Dunn, Matera, Schnelle, and D. A. Carson.

The panel began with Dunn admitting that he had not read Matera’s volume because it had been boxed up and “lost.” That humorous moment set in motion a chain of humorous moments, especially in the presentation of Jimmy Dunn who roundly criticized Schnelle and often used a tongue-in-cheek mocking tone. Dunn confessed a disagreement with Schnelle’s presentation of the New Perspective on Paul. He also criticized Schnelle’s assertion that there is very little in the NT documents that goes back to the historical Jesus and his equally strong (and bizarre) assertion that the apostolic readings of the Old Testament constitute a “changing of the Old Testament texts.”

Schnelle responded with an equally humorous paper that not only answered Dunn’s critique but soundly reaffirmed what he had written in the new volume. Frank Matera (one of my former professors at Catholic University) went third and traced trends in recent NT Theology while situating the works of Dunn and Schnelle in that historical survey. Don Carson finished the session with a surprisingly charitable series of remarks. But it did not end here. . . .

After the papers there was a VERY lively exchange between Dunn and Schnelle with the occasional comment from Matera and Carson sprinkled in. It is too difficult for me to remember the substance of every remark in the lively exchanges but I can say that I haven’t enjoyed a session that much in years, nor have I laughed as much or as hard at an SBL panel.

SBL New Orleans

Christopher Skinner — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:05:36 +0000

Okay, let’s be honest. I said in my last post that I would be posting throughout the conference, but the truth is I have been having way too much fun to even look at my blog. Buying books, reconnecting with colleagues and former classmates, buying books, eating cajun food, buying books, and oh yeah. . . .the papers. I will try to recap when I return home. Some great sessions so far on the parables, performance criticism, and the Gospel of Mark. Tonight presents a difficult choice: do I go listen to Tom Wright discuss the historical Jesus or do I attend a panel with Frank Matera, Udo Schnelle, and Jimmy Dunn on New Testament Theology? Choices, choices. . . .

New Orleans

Christopher Skinner — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:10:06 +0000

I haven’t been here since 1997 (visiting family) but I’m back in the Big Easy. I’m here for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Litearture and I’m looking forward to papers on a number of topics. I will blogging thoughout the conference. Stay tuned. . . .

Mark As Story: Retrospect and Prospect

Christopher Skinner — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:12:15 +0000

Last month when discussing performance criticism I alluded to a book that I am currently co-editing with my good friend, Dr. Kelly Iverson (University of St. Andrews). The book is entitled Mark as Story: Retrospect and Prospect and it aims to celebrate the groundbreaking Mark as Story (originally published 1982) as well as explore the new hermeneutical trajectories spawned in the wake of its publication. The idea for this book crystalized during a discussion in Boston at last year’s SBL. Well, after nearly a year of planning, recruting contributors, securing abstracts, and sending hundreds of emails, I received the formal contract in the mail this afternoon. I must admit I was pretty excited to see it.

What is even more exciting to me though is the subject matter addressed in the book. We have a cadre of leading Markan scholars as well as those interested in narrative criticism, reader-response criticism, performance criticism, and similar hermeneutical methods. Along with the obligatory essays of the two editors, the book will include contributions from Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, R. Alan Culpepper, Stephen Moore, Francis J. Moloney, Morna Hooker, Mark Allan Powell, Whitney Shiner, Robert Fowler, Joanna Dewey, and David Rhoads.

The book will not be in print until 2011 but I share this now because I really want to raise more opportunities for discussion about literary and reader-oriented hermeneutics in the blogosphere. I have been blogging a relatively short time now but I pay very close attention to the traffic I receive. By and large, posts related to literary hermeneutics generate about one quarter the amount of traffic as posts related to something in the historical-critical realm. This surprises me a little and frustrates me a great deal. I will be talking about this a lot in the near future but for now I would like to refer readers of my blog to a volume edited by Tom Thatcher and Stephen Moore that celebrates the achievements of Alan Culpepper’s Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel.

SBL 2009 Papers related to the Gospel of Thomas:

Christopher Skinner — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:30:31 +0000

This year at SBL in New Orleans there are a few papers that touch directly on issues in or related to the Gospel of Thomas:

1. Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
11/21/2009 (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)

Wooil Moon, Claremont Graduate University, “The Ritual Construction of the Gospel of Thomas (NHC II,2)”

Abstract: This paper proposes that a catabasis ritual provides the framework of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas (NHC II,2). The majority of scholars define the Gospel as a sayings collection compiled through multiple stages of transmission. It is, for them, only intermittently connected by topic, form and/or catchwords without any coherent principle applicable to the overall structure. Nicholas Perrin (2002), however, defended the orgainc unity of the Gospel, contending that it was originally composed in Syriac by “one author at one time,” and all the sayings are “knit together as a seamless whole” by the frequent use of catchwords and paronomasia. This study reserves judgments on the original language, date, provenance, and source of the Gospel, but supports its unity by reading the sayings from history-of-religious and memesis-critical perspectives. This reading reconsiders the nature and format of the Gospel depending on the following observations. First, the Gospel contains components peculiar to a journey into a crypt, and its sayings are organized to facilitate its process. Second, the components resonate not only with the “prehistoric ritual pattern” W. F. J. Knight (1935) derived from the Sixth Aeneid and the Epic of Gilgamish but also with the factors of the “catabasis ritual” Hans Dieter Betz (1980) extracted from a “Greek magical papyrus.” Third, catabatic myths and rituals were prevalent in the Greco-Roman world, and their literary uses are readily detected in Homer, Plato, Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, Apuleius, Clement of Alexandria, etc. Fourth, another Thomasine text, i.e. the Acts of Thomas, portrays Judas Thomas as a mystic who invokes Jesus Christ to raise the dead from the underworld, and its Sixth Act, like the Sixth Aeneid, forms a nekyia. These observations indicate the significance of the descent ritual in the Thomasine tradition, and characterize the Gospel of Thomas as a manual for the ritual.

2. Christian Apocrypha
11/22/2009 (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)

Tony Burke, York University, “Christian Apocrypha in Ancient Libraries”

Abstract: Several of the most prominent literary discoveries of the past century have been the contents of ancient libraries—i.e., collection of texts, rather than single texts or single codices. Many of these libraries include Christian apocryphal literature. The Oxyrhynchus site, for example, includes material that may have derived from a Christian scriptorum or that was borrowed/copied from the library of Alexandria. Among the texts found at the site are fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, the Acts of Paul, the Acts of Peter, the Acts of John, the Gospel of Mary, and two unidentified apocrypha. The Bodmer Papyri (aka the Dishna Papers), which may have belonged to a monastery library, include the Infancy Gospel of James and 3 Corinthians. And, the most well-known collection of Christian apocrypha, the Nag Hammadi Library, which may have originated at a nearby Pachomian monastery, features numerous apocryphal texts including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip. This paper reviews the manuscript evidence of the apocryphal texts from these libraries to get a sense of how the texts were regarded by those who collected them. Do they exhibit any of the features typically found in manuscripts that derive from ancient libraries? Are the apocryphal texts treated any differently than any other texts in the collections? Given the place of the apocryphal texts in each collection, what can be said of the interests of the person or group that used them? The paper includes also a discussion of allusions in early Christian literature to other ancient Christian libraries that contained apocryphal texts.

3. Synoptic Gospels
11/22/2009 (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)

Pheme Perkins, Boston College, “Gospel of Thomas Parables and the Synoptic Tradition”

Abstract: The conventional debate over whether Gos. Thom. parables represent earlier forms elaborated in the synoptic traditions or a later epitomizing dependent upon the synoptic gospels is being reshaped. This paper will explore the impact of new approaches to textual variants and oral, performance variants in understanding the parables in Gos. Thom. It finds use of Gos. Thom. versions as exemplars of the parables tradition earlier than its synoptic exemplars problematic.

4. Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
11/23/2009 (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)

Stephen J. Patterson, Eden Theological Seminary, “Shards of Apocalypse in a Wisdom Gospel: The Function of Apocalyptic Language in the Gospel of Thomas”

Abstract: It is often noted that the synoptic parallels in the Gospel of Thomas usually do not have the same apocalyptic cast as their canonical parallels. But that does not mean Thomas is devoid of apocalyptic altogether. In this paper I will examine these apocalyptic fragments in the Gospel of Thomas to see how they function within a text whose primary orientation is to Hellenistic Jewish wisdom theology. It is hoped that this will in turn deepen our understanding of the reception history of the Jesus tradition in the region east of the Euphrates River.

5. Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
11/24/2009 (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)

Stephen C. Carlson, Duke University, “Origen’s Use of the Gospel of Thomas”

Abstract: Origen is especially well-suited for a study on the reception of the Gospel of Thomas in antiquity. He was perhaps the most well-read Christian intellectual of the third century and he amassed a huge library to support his prolific output of exegetical writings, many of which have survived. Moreover, Origen was more open-minded about citing “apocryphal” works than many other ancient Christian writers, so his vast body of work promises to contain several examples of his use of the Gospel of Thomas. This paper surveys a half-dozen cases where Origen used the Gospel of Thomas, both by name and anonymously—including one previously unrecognized instance—and assesses his attitude toward this text. In short, this survey shows that, despite Origen’s recognition that the Gospel of Thomas did not rank with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and despite the presence of some content he must have found objectionable, Origen nonetheless thought that the Gospel of Thomas contained historically useful and homiletically edifying material.

Each of these papers sounds interesting, though I am especially interested in the last two.