General

CSTT Youtube-channel + new “video”-section

As you may have seen already, the CSTT now has its own Youtube channel, where we’ll showcase the latest biblical and related research to the wider Finnish public. You can reach the Youtube channel by clicking on the youtube2 button in the website’s upper-left corner.vThe videos will also be displayed in our new “video”-section on our website (see left-side menu > ‘Videot’).

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Screenshot of the CSTT Youtube channel.

We hope that these videos — so far all in Finnish — may be useful for high school teaching and to engage high school pupils with current research in biblical studies and related fields! So far two videos have been posted online, one with Saana Svärd and one with Juha Pakkala.

Please tell us below in the comment-section what you think about the videos and what you’d like to see to be changed in terms of format!

Education, Suomeksi

Voiko Raamattua käyttää maahanmuuttokeskustelussa? Katso videohaastattelu

Eksegetiikan ja Raamatun heprean yliopistonlehtori Juha Pakkala toteaa uudessa videohaastattelussa, että Vanhassa testamentissa ei ole yhtenäistä linjaa suhteessa maahanmuuttoon ja vierasmaalaisiin.

– Vanha testamentti on hyvin monen kirjoittajan toimesta, eri kontekstien ja pitkän ajan kuluessa syntynyt kirjakokoelma. Siellä on monenlaista ääntä ja monenlaista näkemystä.

Pakkala hahmottelee kolme erilaista suhtautumistapaa vierasmaalaisuuteen, jotka näkyvät eri tekstigenreissä. Yhtäältä teksteistä löytyy muinaisen Lähi-idän kontekstiin nähden poikkeuksellisen myötämielinen suhtautuminen muukalaisiin. Toisaalta useissa kirjoista kehotetaan tiukkaan erottautumiseen ja suorastaan vihamieliseen suhtautumiseen.

– Joissain teksteissä käsketään jopa tuhoamaan ja tappamaan vierasmaalaiset. Tämä tulee esille hyvin selvästi esimerkiksi Joosuan kirjassa, jossa valloitetaan maa ja käsketään tuhoamaan kaikki sen asukkaat.

Haastattelussa Pakkala muistuttaa, että suurin osa Vanhan testamentin teksteistä on itse asiassa pakolaisuudessa syntyneitä. Silloinkin kun kuvataan vanhempia aikoja, se tehdään projisoiden kirjoitushetken pakolaisuuden kokemusta historiaan. Siksi pakolaisuus ja maahanmuutto ovat aivan keskeisiä teemoja Vanhan testamentin tutkimuksessa.

Kysyttäessä Raamatun tekstien soveltamisesta nykypäivään Pakkala peräänkuuluttaa vastuullisuutta ja kriittisyyttä.

– On tärkeää ymmärtää Vanhan testamentin monimutkainen syntyhistoria ja se konteksti, jossa tekstit ovat syntyneet. Me ei voida vain ottaa sitaattia tai yhtä lausetta Raamatusta ja suoraan soveltaa sitä nykykontekstiin. Erityisesti tutkijoiden vastuulla on tuoda esille Raamatun tekstien kriittistä käyttöä.

Haastattelu on toinen osa Suomen Akatemian “Pyhät tekstit ja traditiot muutoksessa” -huippuyksikön nettihaastattelusarjaa, jossa keskustellaan ajankohtaisista aiheista yksikön tutkijoiden kanssa. Sarjan osia julkaistaan lisää talven mittaan.

Teksti: Ville Mäkipelto

Events

Programme for 2nd Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East

1 Comment

We have the pleasure to invite participants to the  “Second Workshop on Gender, Methodology, and the Ancient Near East.” The workshop will be held in Barcelona, February 1-3, 2017 and hosted by the IPOA (University of Barcelona) and organized in cooperation with The Centre of Excellence in ‘Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions’ (University of Helsinki). The aim of the meeting is to discuss different methodological and theoretical approaches to gender within the framework of ancient Near Eastern studies (including archaeology, art history and text studies) and to enable fruitful dialogues between these approaches and between different fields.

The provisional program of the meeting can be seen below. It is free for participation, but registration is needed. If you are planning to join us, please send an email to one or both of us: Dr. Saana Svärd and Dr. Agnès Garcia-Ventura
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Second Workshop on Gender, Methodology and the Ancient Near East
Universitat de Barcelona, February 1-3, 2017
Hosts: IPOA, Universitat de Barcelona / Centre of Excellence “Sacred Texts in Change” in the University of Helsinki
Organizers: Agnès Garcia-Ventura (“Sapienza”, Università degli Studi di Roma / IPOA, Universitat de Barcelona)  / Saana Svärd (University of Helsinki)

Wednesday February 1st 2017
9.00-9.45: welcome and introduction
9.00-9.15: Welcome: Adelina Millet Albà, director of the IPOA
9.15-9.45: Presentation and introduction to the workshop: Agnès Garcia-Ventura & Saana Svärd, “Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East: An Introduction”

9.45-11.15: panel 1 (Chair: Adelina Millet Albà)
9.45-10.15: Ann Guinan, “Dressing the Whore of Babylon for the 21st Century: Sex, Gender and Theory in Mesopotamian Studies”
10.15-10.45: Gioele Zisa, “Queering šà-zi.ga Therapy. Considerations on the Relations between Masculinity, Sickness and Anatomy”
10.45-11.15: M. Erica Couto-Ferreira: “Domesticating the Female Body: Ancient Mesopotamian Discourses on Fertility and (Re)production”

11.15-11.45: coffee break

11.45-13.45: panel 2 (Chair: Katrien De Graef)
11.45-12.15: Helga Vogel: “Is ‘Harem’ a Useful Category for Describing and Analysing the Living Conditions of ancient Near Eastern Women?”
12.15-12.45: Leire Olabarria: “Kinship and Gender in Dialogue: Approaching Relatedness in ancient Egypt”
12.45-13.15: Jacquelyn Williamson: “Nefertiti and the ‘Docile Agent’”
13.15-13.45: Thais Rocha da Silva: “Gender Studies and Daily Life in ancient Egypt: Theoretical Problems and new Perspectives”

13.45-15.00: lunch break (catered lunch for speakers and poster presenters)

15.00-16.30: panel 3: poster session (Chair: Agnès Garcia-Ventura)
15.00-15.30: presentation of posters (plenary, room 0.1)
15.30-16.30: discussion of posters (individually, with each presenter, room 0.3; the poster room will be also open during breaks on Thursday and Friday).

Confirmed poster presenters (by alphabetical order): Mina Dabbagh, Sara González, HESTIA research group (Ana Delgado, Meritxell Ferrer and Mireia López-Bertran), Elena Martínez Rodríguez, Michèle Meijer, Omar N’Shea, TÀCITA MUTA research group (Cristina Yúfera, Georgina Rabassó and David Muñoz).

16.30-17.00: fruit break (room 0.3)

17.00-19.00: panel 4 (Chair: Jacquelyn Williamson)
17.00-17.30: Katrien De Graef: “A Room of Her Own? On the Origin, Meaning, and Functioning of the Gagûm in Old Babylonian Sippar”
17.30-18.00: Josué J. Justel: “Remarkable Women from Tikunani: The Role of Women in Palatial Administration”
18.00-18.30: Anne-Isabelle Langlois: “The Princess Iltani’s Archives uncovered at Tell al-Rimah (18th century BC)”
18.30-19.00: Laura Cousin / Yoko Watai: “Onomastics of Women in the Neo-Babylonian Period: An Approach from Gender Studies”

Thursday February 2nd 2017
9.30-11.30: panel 5 (Chair: Ann Guinan)
9.30-10.00: Sophus Helle: “The Dynamics of a Three-sex Model”
10.00-10.30: Ilan Peled: “Identifying Gender Ambiguity in Texts and Artifacts”
10.30-11.00: Megan Cifarelli: “Problematizing Masculinity and Militarization at Hasanlu, Iran”
11.00-11.30: Laura B. Mazow: “Of War and Weaving: ‘Swords’ and the Complexities of Archaeological Reconstructions of Gender”

11.30-12.00: coffee break

12.00-14.00: panel 6 (Chair: Josué J. Justel)
12.00-12.30: Jana Matuszak: “Assessing Misogyny in Sumerian Advice Literature, Dialogues, and Diatribes”
12.30-13.00: Frauke Weiershäuser: “Narrating about women, narrating about men”
13.00-13.30: Vanessa Juloux: “Philosophy of action and pragmatic approach: a concrete example with ʿAnatu of Ugarit”

13.30-13.45: group photo

13.45-15.30: lunch break

15.30-17.00: panel 7 (Chair: Frances Pinnock)
15.30-16.00: Stephanie Lynn Budin, “Potent Images: The Nude Female Icon as Locus of Power”
16.00-16.30: Elisa Roßberger: “The gendered body as symbolic artefact. Changes in terracotta production in early second millennium Mesopotamia”
16.30-17.00: Erin Darby: “Sex Symbols: Ritual Production and Performativity in Female Near Eastern Terracottas”

17.00-17.30: fruit break (room 0.3)

17.30-19.00: panel 8 – projects panel (Chair: Saana Svärd)
In this panel some current ongoing (or just launched projects) will be presented. In addition, participants will be encouraged to discuss networking possibilities and development of future projects to promote the study of gender in the ancient Near East. The following projects (provisional list) will be presented:
Beth Alpert Nakhai: “Field Safety: Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin”
Katrien De Graef: “GAND = Gender and Assyriology: New Developments”
Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme: “Food and Identity in Biblical Literature”
Amy Gansell: “Introducing a Queen to the Virtual Reality Simulation of Nimrud’s Northwest Palace”
Josué J. Justel & Agnès Garcia-Ventura: “Editing a handbook on women in the ancient Near East in Spanish”
Ilan Peled: “LaOCOST – Law and Order: Cuneiform Online Sustainable Tool”
Stephanie Budin“Women in Antiquity. Real Women across the Ancient World”

20.00 Conference dinner (for speakers and poster presenters, by invitation)

Friday February 3rd 2017
9.30-11.30: panel 9 (Chair: Beth Alpert Nakhai)
9.30-10.00: Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme: “Death at the Hand of a Woman: Hospitality and Gender in the Hebrew Bible”
10.00-10.30: Sandra Jacobs: “’The Disposable Wife’ and Her Status in the Hebrew Bible”
10.30-11.00: Federico Dal Bo: “Women are like cattle”. Some Remarks on early Jewish Juridical Vocabulary on Women and Nature
11.00-11.30: Adelina Millet Albà: “Real characters or literary characters? The Matriarchs in the Bible”

11.30-12.00: coffee break

12.00-14.00: panel 10 (Chair: Saana Svärd)
12.00-12.30: Natalie N. May: “Female Scholarship in Mesopotamia?”
12.30-13.00: Sanae Ito: “Female and Male Scribes related to the Queen’s Household in the Assyrian Empire”
13.00-13.30: Frances Pinnock: “Amorite ladies at the Neo-Assyrian Court: building up an image, deconstructing an image, transmitting an image”
13.30-14.00: Amy Gansell: “Introducing a Queen to the Virtual Reality Simulation of Nimrud’s Northwest Palace”

14.00-15.30: lunch break

15.30-16.30: panel 11 (Chair: Stephanie Lynn Budin)
15.30-16.00: Anne-Caroline Rendu Loisel: “Gender, Sense and Sensitivity in Ancient Mesopotamian Rituals”
16.00-16.30: Mónica Palmero Fernández: “Inanna/Ishtar: religion, gender and power in the 3rd millennium B.C., or how to weave interdisciplinarity into the socio-political and socioeconomic analysis of belief”

16.30-17.00: fruit break (room 0.3)

17.00-18.30: panel 12 (Chair: Megan Cifarelli)
17.00-17.30: Beth Alpert Nakhai: “The Women of Jerusalem: Capital City Life in Israel’s Iron Age”
17.30-18.00: Helen Dixon: “Locating Phoenician Women: Space, Gender, and Social Roles in the Iron Age Central Levant”
18.00-18.30: Mireia López-Bertran: “Shrines for women?: Phoenician-Punic sanctuaries as feminine arenas”

18.30-19.00: concluding remarks and farewell

General

The Life of the Dead

Written by Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme

In late October the CSTT co-hosted a workshop on mortuary ritual together with the REECR. The workshop was a cross-disciplinary gathering, where scholars working within the fields of archaeology, religious studies and biblical studies could discuss aspects of mortuary ritual practices, such as funerary rituals, mourning, ancestor worship and other kinds of death-related ritual behaviour.

The two-day program consisted of eleven presentations by researchers working on contemporary thanatology (death studies) and ritual, the archaeology of death and mortuary ritual, and mortuary ritual in ancient texts. The workshop was an opportunity for scholars working in religious studies, archaeology and biblical studies to exchange ideas, material and methodologies and throughout the two days the discussion was lively, open and engaged.

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Helen Dixon presenting her research during the workshop, together with session chair Jutta Jokiranta (photo: Anne Katrine de Gudme Hemmer).

During the workshop it quickly became clear that although the presentations covered a timespan of almost 3000 years and the case-studies came from places as far apart as the Levant and Karelia in Eastern Finland there were many common denominators and aspects that kept appearing. The importance of space and materiality in relation to mortuary ritual was apparent both in contemporary and ancient practices. In many cases mortuary ritual aims to create presence out of absence and this is achieved by strategic interaction with objects and places. Another aspect that was central to many of the examples was the status changes that the dead undergo in mortuary ritual as they are transformed from corpses to the recently deceased and to venerated ancestors. It was apparent that the life of the dead in the sphere of mortuary ritual is surprisingly dynamic and changeable.

In the very first presentation on the first day of the workshop Professor Terhi Utriainen from the University of Helsinki introduced the concept of the ritual subjunctive mode. The ritual subjunctive, which was originally proposed by the American religious studies scholar Jonathan Z. Smith, is an ‘as-if’ mode of behaviour that combines the ways things actually are with the ways people would like them to be. This concept of ritual as an idealized version of the world turned out to be a very fruitful category to apply to several of the case-studies presented at the workshop. In tombs, in texts and in ritual practices the dead are often presented as peaceful, powerful and content and perhaps most important of all they are accessible. In this way, mortuary ritual enables continued social interaction with the dead so that although the living die, the dead live on – at least for as long as they are commemorated and their presence is ritually enacted.

The papers presented at the workshop will be revised and published by the Finnish Exegetical Society in a volume edited by Dr. Kirsi Valkama and Professor Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme. The book is expected to come out in 2018.

General

Conference Reflections on “Religion and Empire in the First Millennium BCE Levant” (Beirut, 22-25 October 2016)

Laura Wickström

Laura Wickström works as coordinator at FIME’s office in Beirut October 2015 – November 2016. She is a doctoral student at Åbo Akademi University and holds a Master of Arts degree in comparative religion and currently specializes in Islam and ecology within the Department of Comparative Religion.

The conference Religion and Empire in the First Millennium BCE Levant took place in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 2016. The three-day conference with excursions was jointly organized by the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in “Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions” at the University of Helsinki (CSTT), the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (FIME), and the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Continue reading Conference Reflections on “Religion and Empire in the First Millennium BCE Levant” (Beirut, 22-25 October 2016) →

Events

Kings and Power: Exploring Jewish Texts in their Hellenistic Contexts (Helsinki, 3-4 Dec)

Helsinki, 3–4 December 2016
Bookshop Arkadia, Nervanderinkatu 11

Please pre-register by 18 November:
https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/75042/lomake.html

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact
Tuukka Kauhanen (tuukka.kauhanen@helsinki.fi) or Elisa Uusimäki (elisa.uusimaki@helsinki.fi).

Continue reading Kings and Power: Exploring Jewish Texts in their Hellenistic Contexts (Helsinki, 3-4 Dec) →

Education, Suomeksi

Assyriologi: sukupuoli moninainen jo muinaisessa Lähi-idässä – katso videohaastattelu

Teksti: Ville Mäkipelto

Assyriologian dosentti Saana Svärd kertoo tutkimuksen huippuyksikön uudessa videohaastattelussa, että muinaisen Lähi-idän teksteistä välittyy moninainen suhtautuminen sukupuoleen. Usein ajatellaan, että Lähi-idässä naiset olivat alistettuja ja heidän roolinsa yhteiskunnassa ei ollut kovin aktiivinen

– Kun tekstievidenssiä alkaa tarkemmin seulomaan, niin sieltä nousee ensinnäkin voimakkaista naishahmoja: kuningattaria ja hovin tärkeitä naisjäseniä, jotka ovat olleet mukana talouden hallinnassa ja poliittisessa päätöksenteossa, Saana Svärd kertoo haastattelussa.

– Toiseksi, kun me ajatellaan millaisia naiset ja miehet ovat, niin me ajatellaan usein siitä näkökulmasta, miten sukupuoliroolit ilmenevät meidän omassa suomalaisessa kulttuurissa. Oleellinen asia on, että kun tekstimateriaalia käy läpi kulttuurin omilla sisäisillä silmillä, niin silloin sieltä nousee esille monenlaisia kertomuksia. Kuvasta tulee monisyisempi.

 

Svärd kertoo myös kirjoittavansa artikkelia yhdessä Martti Nissisen kanssa Assinnu-virkanimikkeellä toimineista henkilöistä. He olivat ilmeisesti biologiselta sukupuoleltaan miehiä, mutta ottivat erityisesti rituaaleissa samanlaisia sosiaalisia rooleja kuin naiset. Heillä oli oma tärkeä roolinsa Ishtar-jumalattaren temppelissä.

Videohaastattelussa näytetään myös, millaista oli muinainen nuolenpääkirjoitus savitauluilla ja keskustellaan suomalaisen assyriologian nykytilasta. Haastattelu on ensimmäinen osa Suomen Akatemian ”Pyhät tekstit ja traditiot muutoksessa” -huippuyksikön nettihaastattelusarjaa, jossa keskustellaan ajankohtaisista aiheista yksikön tutkijoiden kanssa. Sarjan osia julkaistaan lisää syksyn mittaan.

Events

CSTT contributions at SBL and ASOR Annual Meetings 2016, San Antonio

This year, the combined annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religions takes place November 19–22 in San Antonio (Texas, USA).

We have, once again, made the scheduling for your annual experience easier by gathering together all contributions of our Finland-based Centre of Excellence in Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions to these annual meetings. 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 online program book and mobile planner.

Prior to the AAR/SBL annual meeting, there is also the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in San Antonio, which takes place November 16-19 in the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta hotel. Our CSTT contributes to that meeting too!

We hope to meet you all in San Antonio!

 

Team 1. Society and Religion in the Ancient Near East

CSTT-director Martti Nissinen is a member of two editorial boards: S19-101 Ancient Near East Monographs and S20-229 Writings from the Ancient World.

Nov 20 – 16:00–18:30
Martti Nissinen: “The Ritual Aspect of Prophecy” in Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Martti Nissinen: Presiding in Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature, theme: Manuscripts, Scribal Culture, Scribal Change

Nov 18 – 16:20–18:25 (ASOR)
Helen Dixon: Presiding the session “8H. Archaeology of Lebanon”

Nov 19 – 10:40–12:45 (ASOR)
Helen Dixon: “Perfuming the Dead: Evidence for the Use of Aromatic Oil and Resins in Phoenician Mortuary Practice” in Senses and Sensibility in the Near East II

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Helen Dixon: “’Place My Name Beside Your Own!’: Publishing in Perpetuity in Achaemenid Phoenicia” in Book History and Biblical Literatures

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Izaak J. de Hulster: “There were figurines in Yehud!” in Archaeology of the Biblical World

Nov. 19 – 17:25–17:55 (ASOR)
Saana Svärd: “Arabian Queens: Constructs of Gender and Ethnicity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire” in Gender in the Ancient Near East

 

Team 2. Text and Authority

Nov 19 – 9:00–10:45
Anneli Aejmelaeus: Presiding in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings, theme: “The Antiochian Text and Manuscripts: 2 Samuel”

Nov 19 – 13:00–15:30
Anneli Aejmelaeus: Presiding in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings, theme: “The Antiochian Text and Manuscripts: 1–2 Kings and Joshua”

Nov 22 – 9:00–10:15
Anneli Aejmelaeus: “The Lucianic Text of 1 Samuel: A Revised and Augmented Edition of the Old Greek” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Tuukka Kauhanen: “Lucianic Readings in Non-Antiochian Witnesses in 2 Samuel” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Nov 19 – 13:00–15:30
Katja Kujanpää: “Altered for the sake of Argumentation: Divine Hardening in the Quotations in Rom 11:8–10” in Rhetoric and the New Testament

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Marika Pulkkinen: “The Distinct Functions of an Explicit Quotation and a Vague Reference in Paul’s Use of Psalms” in Intertextuality in the New Testament

Nov 19 – 13:00–16:00
Miika Tucker: “Renderings of the Infinitive Construct in Septuagint Jeremiah” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies

Nov 19 – 16:00–19:00
Drew Longacre: “A Text-Critical Analysis of Rahlfs 896 and 960” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:45
Drew Longacre: “Two Selective Texts of Exodus: A Material Analysis of P. Rendel Harris Inv. 54 c and P. Berlin 13994” in Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds

Nov 19 – 9:00–10:15
Pablo Torijano (visiting scholar): “Reassesing the Lucianic Tradition: Towards a New Methodology of Textual Characterisation” in Textual Criticism of Samuel – Kings

 

Team 3. Literary Criticism in the Light of Documented Evidence

The team leader Juha Pakkala is a member of the editorial board S20-104c TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Cricitism.

Nov 19 – 16:00–18:30
Juha Pakkala: “The Influence of Political Treaties on Deuteronomy and Deuteronomism” in Book of Deuteronomy

Reinhard Müller: Presiding in Book of Deuteronomy, theme: “Treaty and Covenant: Deuteronomy in Light of the Neo-Assyrian and Aramaic adê-tradition”

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Reinhard Müller: “Yhwh and Ashur in Isa 30:27–33” in Formation of Isaiah

Nov 20 – 13:00–15:30
Reinhard Müller: Panelist in The Formation of the Pentateuch Review Session, theme “Review of Jan Christian Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid, eds., The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America (Mohr Siebeck Verlag, 2016).

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Urmas Nõmmik: “Parallelism in Prose – Help from Epigraphic Evidence?” in Biblical Hebrew Poetry

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Francis Borchardt: Presiding in Hebrew Bible and Political Theory, theme: “Jewish Ethnicity in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods”

Nov 21 – 13:00–15:30
Francis Borchardt: “The Hero and the Construction of Judean Ethnicity” in Hebrew Bible and Political Theory; Hellenistic Judaism

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Francis Borchardt: “Idolatry, Retribution, and the Judean Homeland: Deuteronomic Ideology in 4 Maccabees”  in Book of Deuteronomy

Nov 19 – 13:00–15:30
Ville Mäkipelto: “Are There Old Greek Readings in the Antiochian Text of Joshua 24” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Timo Tekoniemi: “On the Verge of Textual, Literary, and Redaction Criticism: The Case of 2 Kings 17:7” in Textual Criticism Samuel – Kings

Nov 20 – 16:00–18:30
Ville Mäkipelto: “Theological Corrections in MT Joshua 24 as Revealed by the LXX” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate

Timo Tekoniemi: “Is There a (Proto-)Lucianic Stratum in the Text of 1 Kings of the Old Latin Manuscript La115?” in International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate

 

Team 4. Society and Religion in Late Second Temple Judaism

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Jutta Jokiranta: Presiding and introducing in Qumran; Mind, Society, and Religion in the Biblical World, theme: “Qumran in Mind: Exploring Cognitive Science of Religion and the Dead Sea Scrolls”

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Jutta Jokiranta: Organizing of book review session: New Books on Cognitive and Ritual Approaches to the New Testament and Early Christianity: Risto Uro, Ritual and Christian Beginnings (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Istvan Czachesz, Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Nov 19 – 16:00–18:30
Raimo Hakola: “The First Century CE Galilean Economy Reexamined: The Production and Trade of Fish as Source of Economic Growth” in Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy

Nov 18 – 8:20–10:25 (ASOR)
Rick Bonnie: “How Would Jews have Experienced the Early Synagogues?” in Senses and Sensibilities in the Near East I

Nov 19 – 16:00–18:30
Hanna Tervanotko: “Scribes and Chresmologoi as Interpreters of Prophetic Collections” in Book History and Biblical Literatures

Nov 20 – 9:00–11:30
Hanna Tervanotko: “Jeremiah and Ancient Greek Literature: Exploring Intertextual Connections between Jeremiah and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon” in Writing/Reading Jeremiah

Nov 21 – 9:00–11:30
Elisa Uusimäki: “The Maskil of the Dead Sea Scrolls among the Hellenistic Jewish Sages” in Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions

Nov 22 – 9:00–11:30
Elisa Uusimäki: “Contextualizing Ben Sira’s Understanding of Lived Wisdom” in Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature

Nov 20 – 16:00–18:30
Sami Yli-Karjanmaa: “Philo’s Position on Reincarnation” in Philo of Alexandria Seminar; theme: Reincarnation and Afterlife in Philo and His World.

Publications

New Book “Social Memory and Social Identity in the Study of Early Judaism and Early Christianity” (V&R, 2016)

Samuel Byrskog, Raimo Hakola, and Jutta Jokiranta, eds (2016) Social Memory and Social Identity in the Study of Early Judaism and Early Christianity. Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus 116. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

The concepts o9783525593752f social memory and social identity have been increasingly used in the study of ancient Jewish and Christian sources. In this collection of articles, international specialists apply interdisciplinary methodology related to these concepts to early Jewish and Christian sources. The volume offers an up-to-date presentation of how social memory studies and socio-psychological identity approach have been used in the study of Biblical and related literature. The articles examine how Jewish and Christian sources participate in the processes of collective recollection and in this way contribute to the construction of distinctive social identities. The writers demonstrate the benefits of the use of interdisciplinary methodologies in the study of early Judaism and Christianity but also discuss potential problems that have emerged when modern theories have been applied to ancient material.

CONTENTS

RAIMO HAKOLA, SAMUEL BYRSKOG, AND JUTTA JOKIRANTA
Introduction

I Social Memory

SAMUEL BYRSKOG Lund University
Philosophical Aspects on Memory: Aristotle, Augustine and Bultmann

ALAN KIRK, James Madison University, USA
The Formation of the Synoptic Tradition: Cognitive and Cultural Memory Approaches to an Old Problem

SANDRA HÜBENTHAL, Universität Passau
Reading the Gospel of Mark as Collective Memory

KARI SYREENI, Åbo Akademi University
Eyewitness Testimony, First-Person Narration and Authorial Presence as Means of Legitimation in Early Gospel Literature

DAN NÄSSELQVIST, Lund University
Dual Conventions: The Oral Delivery of New Testament Writings in Light of First-Century Delivery Practices

II Social Identity

CECILIA WASSÉN, Uppsala University
The Importance of Marriage in the Construction of a Sectarian Identity in the Dead Sea Scrolls

JUTTA JOKIRANTA, University of Helsinki
Black Sheep, Outsiders, and the Qumran Movement: Social-Psychological Perspectives on Norm-Deviant Behaviour

ELISA UUSIMÄKI, University of Helsinki
Wisdom, Scripture and Identity Formation in 4QBeatitudes

RIKARD ROITTO, Stockholm School of Theology
Forgiveness, Rituals, and Social Identity in Matthew: Obliging Forgiveness

RAIMO HAKOLA, University of Helsinki,
The Johannine Community as a Constructed, Imagined Community

NINA NIKKI, University of Helsinki
Contesting the Past, Competing over the Future: Why is Paul Past-Oriented in Galatians and Romans, but Future-Oriented in Philippians?

MARTIN WESSBRANDT, Lund University
Covenant, Conflict & Collective Identity: The Relationship between Hebrews and 1 Clement

The Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence, Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki