It is once again time for scholars of religion to start planning their personal schedules for ”the largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion in the world”. This year, the combined annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religions takes place November 21–24 in Atlanta (Georgia, USA).

To make the painstaking scheduling task easier, we gathered together the contributions of our Finland-based Centre of Excellence ”Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions” to the SBL Annual Meeting. The contributions are grouped under four headings corresponding to the different research teams in our centre. You can find the abstracts of the papers and more information on the sessions by using the excellent AAR/SBL mobile online planner.

Prior to the AAR/SBL annual meeting, there is also the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Atlanta, which takes place November 18-21 in the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta hotel. Our CSTT contributes to that meeting too! All information regarding sessions and papers can be found in the great ASOR mobile app.

Finally, please join us at the “University of Helsinki Nordic Reception” on Sunday evening (Nov 22)  from 19:00–21:00 at the Marriott-Marquis C (Marquis Level).

We hope to meet y’all in Atlanta!

Society and Religion in the Ancient Near East

CSTT-director Martti Nissinen is a member of two editorial boards: S21-104 Ancient Near East Monographs and S22-251 Writings from the Ancient World. You can also meet him in one of the following sessions:

Nov 22 — 9:30–11:30
Martti Nissinen: Panelist in ”Transforming Ancient Scribes: Review of Seth L. Sanders, From Adapa to Enoch: Scribal Culture and Religious Vision in Judea and Babylonia”

Nov 23 — 16:00–18:30
Martti Nissinen: Presiding in “Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature”

This session also includes a paper by Hanna Tervanotko: ”Seeing What Others Cannot See: Tragic Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Greek Literature”

Nov 20 — 15:40–16:00
(@ASOR Annual Meeting 2015) Helen Dixon: ”Untangling Myth and History at the Neo-Babylonian Siege of Tyre” in ”Myth, History, and Archaeology”

Nov 22 — 13:35–14:00
Helen Dixon: ”Cakes for the Queen(s) of Heaven: Women’s Worship in Phoenicia and Israel” in ”Israelite Religion in Its West Asian Environment”

Nov 22 — 9:05–9:35
Izaak J. de Hulster: ”The Iconography of ’Coastlands’: A Historical Perspective” in ”Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures”

Nov 21 — 9:00–9:15
Izaak J. de Hulster: ”Literature Studies, Liberation Theology, and Impulses for Contextual Biblical Methodologies” in ”Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics; Contextual Biblical Interpretation; Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures”

Nov 22 — 10:15–10:45
Sanna Saari: ”The Lion Scene in 1 Kings 13: A Case Study with Literary-Iconographic Approach” in ”Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible”

Text and Authority

Nov 23 — 13:00–13:30
Anneli Aejmelaeus: ”Kaige Readings in a Non-Kaige Section in 1 Samuel” in ”Textual Criticism of Samuel – Kings”

Nov 24 — 10:30–11:00
Drew Longacre: ”Textual Groups and Clusters at Qumran: The Evidence of the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls Containing Exodus” in ”Qumran”

Nov 23 — 9:00–9:35
Drew Longacre: ”The Collective Transmission of the Pentateuch: Documentary Evidence from the Judean Desert” in ”Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible”

Nov 23 — 14:45–15:15
Katja Kujanpää: ”Kaige and Paul: Romans 11 as a Witness for Hebraizing Readings in 2 Kgdms 19:10 and 18?” in ”Textual Criticism of Samuel – Kings”

Nov 23 — 16:50–17:15
Marika Pulkkinen: ”Scriptural Quotations Catena in Rom 3:10–18 and Its Influence to the Septuagint Textual Transmission” in ”Greek Bible”

Nov 22 — 17:40–18:05
Miika Tucker: ”What Can Doublets Tell Us About the Septuagint Translation of Jeremiah?” in ”International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies”

Literary Criticism in the Light of Documented Evidence

Nov 23 — 16:00–18:30
Juha Pakkala: Presiding in ”Deuteronomistic History”

This session also includes a paper by Tuukka Kauhanen: ”Yahweh’s Promise to David and Textual Criticism” and a response by Reinhard Müller.

Nov 23 — 9:00–11:30
Reinhard Müller: Respondent in ”Book of Deuteronomy”

Nov 22 — 14:30–15:00
Urmas Nõmmik: ”The Old Greek Text of Job and the Literary History of the Hebrew Job” in ”Textual Growth: What Variant Editions Tell Us About Scribal Activity”

Nov 24 — 9:25–9:50
Urmas Nõmmik: ”The Old Greek Text of Job: Is It of Any Help for Textual Criticism” in ”Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible”

Nov 22 — 16:00–16:25
Francis Borchardt: Panelist in ”Hellenistic Judaism: Pseudepigrapha”

Nov 23 — 9:00–11:30
Francis Borchardt: Presiding in ”Hebrew Bible and Political Theory”

Nov 23 — 16:25–16:45
Francis Borchardt: ”The Prologue to Sirach and the ’Book’ of Sirach in a Chain of Text Traditions” in ”Book History and Biblical Literatures”

Nov 22 — 16:30–17:00
Tuukka Kauhanen: ”Diagnosing Kaige” in ”Textual Criticism of Samuel – Kings”

Nov 22 — 9:00–9:25
Ville Mäkipelto: ”The Four Deaths of Joshua: A Lesson in the Necessity of the Septuagint in Redaction Criticism” in ”Joshua-Judges”

Society and Religion in Late Second Temple Judaism

Nov 22 — 9:00–11:30
Jutta Jokiranta: Presiding in ”Mind, Society, and Religion in the Biblical World”

Nov 23 — 16:00–16:30
Jutta Jokiranta: ”Paratextuality or Pesher Habakkuk: Case with the Prophet and the Teacher” in ”Qumran”

Nov 21 — 15:40–16:00
(@ASOR Annual Meeting 2015) Byron R. McCane (Wofford College), Raimo Hakola (University of Helsinki, Finland), Stefan Münger (University of Bern, Switzerland), and Jürgen Zangenberg (Leiden University, the Netherlands)” “Religious Diversity in Byzantine Galilee: The Evidence from Horvat Kur” in “Archaeology of the Near East: The Classical Periods”

Nov 20 — 15:00–15:30
(@ASOR Annual Meeting 2015) Rick Bonnie: “How ‘Urban’ Was Tiberias in the First Century C.E.?” in “The Role of Texts and Archaeology in the Study of New Testament Backgrounds: Essays in Honor of James F. Strange II”

Nov 22 — 13:00–15:30
Hanna Tervanotko: Presiding in ”Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts”

Nov 23 — 16:00–18:30
Hanna Tervanotko: ”Seeing What Others Cannot See: Tragic Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Greek Literature” in “Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature”

Nov 23 — 17:40–18:00
Sami Yli-Karjanmaa: ”Plant. 1–27: The Significance of Reading Philonic Parallels” in ”Philo of Alexandria”