Research
reports CBA 2009
David
A. Bosworth, The
“Does
Lamentations Help?: Paradoxes of Emotional Expression”
Does the book of Lamentations (and lament generally) serve a
therapeutic purpose? Conventional wisdom answers affirmatively and sometimes
grounds this claim in the “grief work” theory of Sigmund Freud. However, modern
psychological study has undermined the grief work hypothesis. The paper will
briefly summarize the psychological trauma that follows foreign military occupation
and address whether or how the poetry of lament serves to facilitate healing.
The analysis will draw on modern empirical psychological studies to understand
the situation of the Israelite under Babylonian rule and how ritual and writing
may serve therapeutic ends or intensify psychic injury.
Susan A. Calef,
“‘It Shall Not
Be So Among You’ (Mark 10:43): Implications for A Markan Spirituality”
This report focuses on the critique of abusive authority that is
an essential element of Mark’s narrative theology. Part I attends to two
troubling aspects of Mark that cannot be ignored when reading for the purposes
of spirituality: 1. the portrayal of the Jewish leaders as “villains” in the
plot; and 2. the comparative marginality and passivity of women in the Markan
narrative. Part II consists of a narrative analysis of the Jesus and the
Powers-That-Be story-line that will simultaneously expose the workings of
abusive authority and illumine the nature of true authority.
Warren
Carter,
“Festivals
and John's Rhetoric of Distance”
This paper explores the intertextuality between the numerous
references in John's Gospel to festivals and the festivals that pervaded the
urban context of
Mary L. Coloe, P.B.V.M.,
“Pentecost in the Fourth Gospel”
The Jewish
Festival of Weeks/Pentecost is a major Feast missing from the sequence of
Jewish festivals in John 5-10. This paper argues that the Festival of
Pentecost provides the background for the opening scenes in John 1:19-2:12. The
opening days of the Gospel narrative draw upon the structure and liturgical
themes of this festival and the festival provides insight into Johannine
theology.
Joan E.
Cook, S.C.,
“Malachi
and Memory”
In its efforts to teach the members of the
***
John
Granger Cook,
“Suffering
in 1 Peter: local anxiety, empire, and
the imitatio Christi”
The issue of suffering in 1 Peter has been a lively one in
recent scholarship. The question of
persecution is fundamental for understanding the letter. Specialists, however, have recently tended to
pass over the relevance of Roman law.
History (Nero's and Trajan's persecutions), law, and an analysis of the
semantic field of the words for suffering in the letter need to be synthesized
anew. "
Deirdra A. Dempsey,
Rudolph H. Dornemann, ASOR
“Continuing Excavations at
Tell Qarqur, 2009 Season”
In the 2009
season, we continued to excavate in all of the Areas excavated in 2008. In Area A, we removed the majority of the
Roman and Hellenistic levels thereby opening the underlying Iron II building
sequence. We widened and deepened the step
trench east of Area B. In Area E, we
worked deeper in the Early Bronze IV levels at the north edge of the
Peter Dubovsky, S.J., Pontifical Biblical Institute
“Causes of
the Downfall of the
Deuteronomist redactors provided two sets of theological and sociological
interpretations of the downfall of the
Susan M.
Elliott, Independent Scholar, Red Lodge,
“Jesus’ Teachings about
God’s Family Empire vs. Caesar’s Family Empire”
Family metaphor
grounds assumptions in much political and moral discourse. Linguist
George Lakoff has discerned different family models at the root of current
political divisions. Family models in the first century also framed
understandings of nation and Empire. Early Christians assumed a variety
of family models to counter the metaphorical “family” of the
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J.,
“Soteriology in the Wisdom
of Solomon”
The paper
examines the book of Wisdom from the perspective of soteriology. That is, it
explores each of its three major parts with an eye toward what the audience is
being saved from, what it is being saved for, and how it might be saved. In
each part the process of salvation —the initial state, the new state, and how
the transition happens—is somewhat different. Likewise the meaning of what the
audience is being saved from ranges from “ungodly” or unrighteous behavior, to
ignorance, and then to idolatry. The author looks for help from God as “the
Savior of All” and from his surrogates or mediators—Wisdom and the Word of God.
Jozef
Janćovǐc, Faculty of Catholic Theology of
“Ambiguous
Echo of the Golden Calf narrative in Torah”
The Golden Calf narrative about the great sin of
Likewise, the overall structure of Exo 32-34, with the
reconciliation and the renewal of covenant, contains allusions to the original
fall (Gen 2-3), the Flood narrative (Gen 6-9), and partly to the subsequent
story in Num 13-14. The paper offers the inner-biblical exegesis of the stories
along with their intertextuality in the canonical context. Finally, it compares
the concepts of human sinfulness (Gen 6:5;8:21; Exo 32:9; 33:3.5; 34:9) and of
God´s repentance (Gen 6:6; Exo 32:14).
Joseph
E. Jensen, The
“Unforgivable
Sin: A Contextual and Intertextual Study”
Mark's pericopes "Collusion with Satan" (3:19b-30)
and "Healing the Paralytic" (2:1-12) form an inclusio, sharing
concerns for forgiveness or non-forgiveness of sin, and blasphemy (2:5, 7,
9-10; 3:28-29). In one intervening pericope, "Plucking Grain on the
Sabbath" (2:23-28) Jesus relates an incident "when Abiathar was high
priest", when according to 1 Sam 21:1-9 Ahimelech was the priest. Mark's
substitution of Ahimelech's son Abiathar better serves to associate Mark 2:1 -
3:30 with the "Sin of the House of Eli"(1 Sam 3:13-14),
"blaspheming God", a sin that "shall not be expiated by
sacrifice or offering forever".
Henry Ansgar Kelly,
“Lucifer:
the Good, the Bad, and the Really Bad (Jesus, Nabuchodonosor, and Satan)”
Light images
(stars, dawn, sun) regularly designate the coming of the Messiah in the NT
(e.g., Matt. 2.2; Luke 1.78), and the figure of Venus as Morning Star (Lucifer)
is applied to Jesus three times. One exception is the "failed
stars" of Jude 13 (drawing on 1 Enoch 18 and 20). An earlier
failed star was Helel ben Shahar in Isaiah 14, referring to the King of
Babylon, a passage that came into prominence in the LXX version among the early
Fathers. Origen transferred the Lucifer reference from Nabuchodonosor to
Satan, and this identification came to overshadow the Messianic applications of
the NT.
Karl Allen Kuhn, Lakeland College
“The Cardiography of Biblical
Narrative”
Affective
appeal in varying forms is the means by which narratives, including biblical
narratives, compel readers to enter their storied world and entertain the
version of reality they present. Biblical scholarship, however, has long
neglected the pathos of biblical narrative, pursuing instead the meaning of
texts as reconstructed through a solely cognitive, non-affective,
methodological lens. This paper introduces several techniques authors of
biblical narrative commonly employ to engage their readers, not only
cognitively but also emotionally. It then illustrates the exegetical
benefits of attending to the pathos of biblical narrative by presenting an
“affective-rhetorical” reading of the annunciation of John’s birth in Luke
1:5-25.
Alice L. Laffey, College of the Holy Cross
“Recovering the Metaphor: Hosea 1-3”
Hosea 1-3 and
the text’s traditional biblical interpretation have identified Hosea with God
and Gomer with Israel in a marriage metaphor that depicts Gomer as whoring,
idolatrous Israel. More recently
feminist scholars have decried the text that, produced in Israel’s patriarchal
society, divinizes the male, and identifies the female with infidelity; they
also decry the patriarchal assumptions of most male biblical scholars (and some
female scholars) whose interpretations have confirmed the assumptions, and
identified the female with sin. This
paper attempts to rehabilitate the female, identify the male head of household
as the proper audience for the passage, and provide an more inclusive canonical
interpretation.
Eric F.
Mason, Judson University
“The
Heavenly Sanctuary in Hebrews and Second Temple Judaism”
A significant issue in interpretation of the Epistle to the
Hebrews concerns how to understand the author’s discussion of a heavenly
sanctuary. Does the author conceive of
an actual sanctuary in heaven, or should language of a heavenly sanctuary be
read metaphorically? In large part the
decision about how to understand the heavenly sanctuary language is determined
by one’s understanding of the author’s conceptual framework, whether primarily
Platonic or apocalyptic. I will argue that the author of Hebrews—like numerous
contemporary writers in Second Temple Judaism—did indeed think in terms of an
actual sanctuary in heaven.
Geoffrey D. Miller, St. Louis University
“All Because of a Woman?
Tobit's Exclusion from the Jewish Canon”
Previous attempts to explain Tobit's omission from the Jewish canon have focused on its late date of composition, its allegedly faulty marriage contract, and other aspects of the book. More plausible is that Tobit was denied canonical status because Tobit's wife Anna is too radical for patriarchal sensibilities. Anna's success as a wage earner and her eloquent attacks against her husband pose a threat to the status quo, reversing traditional gender roles. This situation is analogous to the Book of Judith, a book also excluded from the Jewish canon where a female character contravenes cultural norms.(96)
Robert
D. Miller II, The Catholic University of America
“Revisiting
Oral Tradition and The Deuteronomistic History”
"Oral tradition," with its checkered past in
biblical studies, is used arbitrarily, invoked to identify orally-composed
texts. We have borrowed from folklore- and orality-scholarship, especially the
"Oral-formulaic" school of Parry and Lord, that proposed telltale
features in writing revealing oral origins. Yet by 1990, the Parry-Lord School
was obsolete, its main tenets questioned by fieldwork. My essay outlines
contemporary linguistic scholarship in mythology and folklore, which is then
applied to the Deuteronomistic history and used to model its genesis from the
7th to 5th centuries. In so doing, insights of the Scandinavian Traditions
Historians of a century ago are revived.
Robert
L. Mowery, Illinois Wesleyan University
“A
Ring-Shaped Pattern in the Sermon on the Mount”
The Sermon on the Mount contains a five-step movement from
theological statements which contain divine passives (Matt 5:4-43) to direct
theological statements which refer to the heavenly Father (5:45-6:8) to the
Lord's Prayer (6:9-13) to a second series of direct theological statements
(6:14-32) to a second series of statements with divine passives
(6:33-7:19). The fact that the Lord's
Prayer stands at the center of this five-step ring-shaped pattern provides
additional support for the claim of Ulirch Luz and others that this prayer
stands at the center of the Sermon.
David Penchansky,
University of St. Thomas
“Wisdom, Madness and Folly:
The Vexation of Qoheleth”
One of the
difficulties with interpreting the Book of Ecclesiastes is that the text makes
conflicting assertions: The quest for wisdom is meaningless/wisdom
exceeds folly; All is empty and pointless/hard work and close relationships
give life meaning; life is bitter a short and holds no pleasure or meaning/God
enables humans to enjoy life; piety is futile/humans must fear God . To
understand Qoheleth requires one to come to grips with these tensions.
Some claim that the author “tries out” different ideas, only to reject
them. Some see the hands of different authors. Others privilege
certain positions. I suggest that the book is about these
tensions, and each of the book’s tensions give insight that cannot be obtained
by isolating a particular voice. (122)
Ahida E. Pilarski, Saint Anselm College
“A Study of the References to BaT-`ammî in Jer 8:18-23: A Gendered
Lamentation”
Jer 8:18-23 is generally categorized as a lament and the
phrase BaT-`ammî, "daughter of my people," appears four times within
this lament. Scholars have proposed that
the main voice behind this lament could be that of the prophet Jeremiah
himself, or of Lady Jerusalem. Based on
significant elements present in this literary unit, and on recent studies in
Mesopotamian laments, this study argues, first, that the main lamenter in Jer
8:18-23 is Yahweh, and second, that this lament reflects the influence of a
Mesopotamian motif, the one of the weeping goddess, showing in this way the
gendering of a lament.
Barbara E. Reid, O.P., Catholic Theological Union
“Birthed
from the Side of Jesus”
The theme of birthing weaves throughout
the Gospel of John (1:3-4, 12-13; 2:1-11; 3:1-21; 4:4-42; 7:37-39; 16:21) and
culminates in the crucifixion and post-resurrection scenes (19:25-27, 34;
20:19-23), offering an interpretation of the death of Jesus as a birthing of
new life. These birthing images,
accompanied by the portrait of Jesus as one who willingly lays down his life
for his friends (10:17-18; 13:1-20; 15:13-17), offer a strong antidote to atonement
theologies.
Earl
Richard, Loyola University, New Orleans
“Structure,
Function, and Meaning of Mark 8:22-26”
At the end of a boat trip Jesus heals a blind man at
Bethsaida. Does this striking miraculous
episode mark the end of Jesus’ mission stay in Galilee or does it signal the
start of a lengthy journey to Jerusalem?
What is the episode’s structural and thematic relation either to the
healing of a deaf-mute (7:31-37) or the giving of sight to Bartimaeus (10:46-52)? Further, why is Jesus presented as healing a
blind man in stages? Is the episode
meant primarily as a symbolic event; if so, symbolic of what? Goal: analysis of Markan redaction in search
of Markan meaning.
Mark S.
Smith, New York University
“Warrior
Culture in Early Israel and the "Voice" of David in 1 Samuel 2”
This presentation asks about the social locus that gave rise to
several of the allegedly old poems preserved in the prose books of the
Pentateuch that surround military activity.
These poems point to a subculture of warriors in ancient Israel that
produced texts celebrating victories and lamenting the losses. I will focus on the poem in 2 Samuel 1 as an
examplar of Israel's warrior culture, with particular attention focussed on the
voice of the speaker.
Thomas D. Stegman, S.J., Boston College School of Theology and
Ministry
“Reading egrapsa in
2 Cor 2:9 as an Epistolary Aorist: Argument and Implications”
The verb egrapsa
in 2 Cor 2:9 is almost universally interpreted, in light of the previous
paragraph (esp. v. 4), as a simple aorist. That is, Paul’s statement in 2:9 is
regarded as further explanation for writing the “tearful letter.” I propose
reading egrapsa as an epistolary aorist, describing why Paul is writing
in the present. This interpretation allows a smoother reading of the flow of
Paul’s presentation in vv. 7-10 and avoids the difficulty of his providing
conflicting reasons for writing. Reading egrapsa as an epistolary aorist
also has implications for the question of the unity of 2 Corinthians.
Blažej
Štrba, Comenius University, Bratislava
“The
Prophet like Moses”
According
to the majority of diachronic theories, Deut 34:9 was supplemented by the later
redaction of vv. 10‑12. Such a solution receives support from a
synchronic reading, which finds a tension between 34:10 and 18:15, 18. The
widely accepted description of 34:10‑12 as MosesĆ epitaph exalts him as a
prophet without equal. In spite of the present tendency to stress the prophetic
incomparability of Moses, I challenge a superlative interpretation of v. 10,
and I present a different reading of 34:9‑12, considering vv. 10‑12
as dependent on v. 9. In other words, the proposal is to see Joshua as the
prophet like Moses.
Charles H. Talbert, Baylor University
“Is Matthew Interested in
Character Formation?”
This report
attempts to answer briefly several questions: What is character? What is
character formation and how did the ancients try to do it? How does
Matthew fit into the ancient context? How can Matthew function today to shape the
character of its readers?
Jerome T. Walsh, School of Ministry, University of Dallas
“The Rab Shaqeh between Rhetoric and
Redaction”
Abstract:
Analysis of the complex use of quoted speech in the Rab Shaqehʼs first discourse (2 Kgs 18:19-25) clears
the way for observations about the persuasive force of the discourse on three
levels: the rhetorical strategy of Sennacheribʼs putative original speech, the
rhetorical strategy of the Rab Shaqehʼs presentation of that speech, and the rhetorical effects of
several other quoted speeches that pervade the discourse.
Peter S. Williamson, Sacred Heart Major
Seminary, Detroit
“Scripture Across the
Curriculum”
The 2008 Synod
of Bishops on “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church” called
for “a renewal of academic programs… so that the systematic study of theology
is better seen in the light of Sacred Scripture…and a revision of courses in
seminaries and houses of formation …[so] that the Word of God have its deserved
place in the various dimensions of formation.”
This paper proposes remedial interdisciplinary principles and practices to
revive Scripture as the soul of theology, spirituality, pastoral ministry and
mission in the formation of clergy and other pastoral ministers.
John T. Willis,
Abilene Christian University
“Crucial Dream and Vision
Experiences”
The
Hebrew Bible contains several dreams and visions, including those of
Abram (Gen. 15:12-21), Jacob (Gen. 28:10-17), several individuals in the story
of Joseph, a Midianite (Judg 7:9-18), Samuel (1 Samuel 3), Nathan (2 Sam.
7:1-17); the calls of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, dreams in the story
of Daniel, Solomon (1 Kgs 3:4-15), and Eliphaz and Elihu in Job. In such
experiences, Yahweh assures his people, announces forthcoming events, and calls
individuals to accomplish Yahweh's mission.
Ziony
Zevit, American Jewish University
“Jewish
Liturgy in Late Antiquity and the Jewish Jesus Movement Until ca. 200 CE”
In 1 Cor 1: 22-23, Paul writes that "... Jews demand signs and Greeks desire
wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews
...." In this verse, Paul
recognizes that the Jews with whom he spoke didn't get "Christ
crucified,” By implication, he indicates
that there were other teachings that
were not “stumbling blocks.”
This paper
reports on research into which stories and which claims about Jesus would have
been acceptable and why. It proposes that a consideration of Jewish liturgy
with its implicit theology helps to provide a suitable response to these
questions.