Polumeros kai Polutropos: November 2009

Here are the papers on Hebrews to be delivered at the annual meeting of the SBL in New Orleans:

21-307

Bible Translation
11/21/2009
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Studio 3 - MR

Chang-Wook Jung, Chongshin University
Translation of Two Conjunctions, One Aorist Participle and One Present Verb, in Hebrews 4:3

The sentence in Hebrews 4:3 presents some interesting features concerning the translation. First, the usage and meaning of the two conjunctions ga,r and kai,toi in this verse, where five conjunctions appear, require an explanation. Some English versions (NIV, NJB) and Korean translations do not interpret the first conjunction as indicating a causal sense. It is also noteworthy that the second conjunction may mean either ‘although’ or ‘and yet’ and the punctuation problem emerges with the meaning ‘and yet’- period (NIV, NIB; cf. Luther’s German Version) or comma (NAB). Second, the translation of the participial phrase oi` pisteu,santej also draws our attention. While most English versions translate the phrase as ‘who have believed’, other versions like NJB and NLT understand it as ‘who have faith’ or ‘who believe’ (cf. Luther’s German Bible). The peculiarity of the Greek verb ‘believe’ needs to be investigated. Finally, the function of the present tense for the verb e;rcomai has to be decided in this verse, since the present tense may point to future as well as present action. This study will demonstrate that the careful look at grammatical features as well as translation theories is even today necessary to translate the Bible appropriately.

21-335

Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
11/21/2009
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Balcony N - MR

Theme: Codicology, Poetics, Performance

Gaby Abou Samra, Lebanese University (Beirut)

Biblical Syriac Texts in a Fifteenth-Century Maronite Manuscript

This paper offers an examination of New Testament texts (Matthew, Acts, Hebrews) contained in a Maronite manuscript, dated to 1468. The paper first presents and comments upon the Syriac texts of the NT materials and their translation into Arabic (Karshuni). It then discusses aspects of the translation from Syriac into Arabic. Linguistic observations will be joined by comparisons of the textual material to the Peshitta text and other Bible translations in the Syriac tradition

22-217

Greek Bible
11/22/2009
1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Room: La Galerie 4 - MR

John W. Taylor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

From Proof to Text: Mapping Hebrews' Messianic Exploration of the Psalms

Older scholarship stressed the use within the early Christian community, including Hebrews, of a common pool of messianic proof texts, taken largely from the Psalms. But a feature of Hebrews’ use of the Greek Bible is how messianic resources are also found in places not frequented by other New Testament writers, both within recognized messianic Psalms, and in other texts altogether. A growing body of work has shown that the author of Hebrews not only reads scriptures with careful regard to their context, but also finds links to other passages on the basis of a network of thematic and linguistic parallels, often stimulated by the Greek translation which is used. This paper attempts to map the reading strategy of Hebrews, and suggests that the author has moved from proof text to context, and from familiar messianic passages to the unfamiliar, in an exploratory and creative process which is driven by both verbal connections and theological convictions.

22-218a

Hebrews
11/22/2009
1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Room: Napoleon B1 - SH

Theme: Reading the Book of Hebrews in its Jewish Context

Gabriella Gelardini, University of Basel, Presiding

Hananel Mack, Bar-Ilan University
Echoes of the Judeo-Christian Polemic in the Biblical Commentaries of the Sages

The sages did not interpret the Bible in a sequential fashion, in the manner of the medieval rabbinic scholars. Instead, in their halakhic and aggadic literature they primarily left us a non-sequential array of commentaries on the verses of the Bible. Many of these commentaries reflected the reality of their lives, including the religious polemic with the Christian world, particularly in the third and fourth centuries C.E. in Palestine. Sermons against the Jews appear already in the New Testament, and later, in the writings of the Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr, Origen, Jerome. We will discuss several examples of anti-Christian components in the commentaries of the sages as well as a number of practices relating to prayer and the synagogue service which should be understood against the background of the religious conflict between Jews and Christians in the early centuries. Based on the verse “Write thou these words” (Exod. 34:27), the sages learned that the words of the Bible should be written out, but the words of the Oral Law should not. They thus underscored the distinction between the Bible, which is in written format and familiar to one and all, and the Oral Law, which belongs solely to the Jews. The sages understood the words of Balaam, “God is not a man, that he should lie” (Num. 23:19) as pointing to the clear distinction between God and man: should a man come and say, I am God, that man is lying! They interpreted the verse in the Song of Songs “Look not upon me, that I am swarthy” (1:6) as the words of the Jewish nation to the world, which explain the hatred towards the Jewish people. The verse “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3) was interpreted by the sages as referring to the holiness of God who is in the heavens, on earth and in the future, thus rejecting the Christian interpretation that the verse is referring to the Trinity. The important place of the verse “Hear, O Israel… the Lord is One” (Deut. 6:4) in Jewish liturgy was apparently intended to emphasize the oneness of God and thus negate the Christian Trinity. In addition, the reading of chapters of the Prophets in the synagogue, Haftara's (Heb.: Haftarot), reflects a distancing from chapters which the Christians regarded as the foundation stones of their faith.

Joshua Garroway, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
A New Sort of a Priest for a New Sort of People: Reconfiguring Descent in Hebrews and Romans

This study proposes that Hebrews in its primary socio-historical context was an interpretation of Paul's epistle to the Romans, designed to clarify aspects of that epistle for a readership devoted to its content. As others already have suggested, internal and external evidence bespeak a relationship between the two texts. According to this study, the grist for Hebrews‚ mill is Paul's claim, in Rom 3:21ff., that Christ's death as a hilasterion not only offers atonement apart from the Law for those who believe, but also enables such believers, most of whom are gentiles, to become the genuine descendants of Abraham and consequently to inherit the promises stored up for those of such status. The latter is a theme to which Paul will famously return in Romans 9-11. The link between faith in Christ's sacrifice and reconfigured Abrahamic descent and inheritance is hardly transparent, however. Hebrews, I will argue, clarifies and enhances this link through its identification of Christ as a self-sacrificing High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. On the one hand, this identification underscores the novelty of Christ's sacrifice and its ability to mediate a new covenant and a new (and superior) mode of atonement; on the other hand, it provides the prototype for the reconfiguration of descent experienced by believers, for just as Christ reckons his priestly status through an alternative to the old covenant and the fleshly descent of the Levites, so the people he serves in the new covenant reckons its descent from Abraham, and its pursuant claim to the promises, in non-fleshly terms. Hebrews, then, advances Paul's assertion that the genuine „descendants of Abraham" (Heb 2:16) and the „heirs of the promise" (Heb 6.17) are those who have hope in Christ's unique and unprecedented sacrifice, not those whose descent is reckoned through flesh and the Law.

Carl Mosser, Eastern University
Halakhic Controversy and Hebrews 13

New Testament scholars have found the study of first-century Jewish halakha beneficial for understanding the canonical gospels and the letters of Paul. Hebrews has not received similar treatment. However, the author of Hebrews warns his readers against diverse teachings related to meats or foods that "have not benefited those who walk" (hoi peripatountes) (Heb. 13:9). This phrase suggests that the teachings in view are halakhic in nature (halak = walk). Furthermore, 13:11-13 employs the terminology of “camp” and “outside the camp.” In the Qumran scrolls and early rabbinic literature these same terms are technical halakhic designations utilized in discussions about purity and sacrifice. References in the surrounding context to the Levitical “altar” (13:10), the "sacrifice of praise" (13:15), and "sacrifices pleasing to God" (13:16) strongly suggest that Hebrews 13 is likewise concerned with halakha. This paper shows how first-century halakhic disputes shed light on two important aspects of Hebrews 13:9-16. First, the sacrificial language in the passage appears to reference the activity of the Jerusalem cult and halakhic innovations regarding the shared sacrifices eaten by worshipers. The author addresses his readers’ concerns by redefining the most prominent of the shared sacrifices, the thank offering, commonly identified as the “sacrifice of praise” in Greek Jewish texts. Second, first-century halakhic controversy about the precise scope of “camp” and “outside the camp” helps us to firmly identify the referents of these terms in Hebrews and rules out many of the explanations commentators have offered. The “camp” is Jerusalem; “outside the camp” is outside Jerusalem. These two insights testify to the value of paying closer attention to the Jewish context of Hebrews than has been common in recent decades. If sound, they also have significant implications for the social setting and location of the recipients.

Marius Heemstra, University of Groningen
Epistle to the Hebrews: Jewish Christians and the Fiscus Judaicus

The Epistle to the Hebrews has often been called enigmatic and has caused a lot of debate among scholars. In this paper I will try and answer some of the most important questions that have not been fully answered until now: (1) when was this document written, (2) to whom was it addressed (who were the ‘Hebrews’), (3) how could the information about past and possible future persecutions in Hebrews be interpreted and (4) why had some people recently given up the habit of attending the community meetings? The combination of these answers should also present a consistent explanation for this document in the context of early Christianity. It will be argued that this document was written to Jewish Christians (indeed ‘Hebrews’), some of whom had been persecuted under Domitian as tax-evaders of the Jewish tax. For this purpose accused persons had been exposed in public for the inspection of their genitals to find out whether they were circumcised. Conviction would lead to the confiscation of their property. Both elements, the confiscations and the public examination of genitals (theatrizomenoi!), can be found in Hebrews 10.32-34 and in Suetonius, Domit. 12.1-2, as will be made clear. Furthermore a date will be suggested as well: the year 96, after Nerva’s reform of the Fiscus Judaicus. Nerva probably introduced the notion that the Jewish tax only needed to be paid by Jews who followed their ancestral customs. Jewish Christians (who under Domitian had been prosecuted as Jews for 'dissimulata origine imposita genti tributa non pependissent') were thus formally exempted from the tax and this exemption had one huge consequence: it formally led to the loss of their legal status as Jews under Roman law. This could have led to Jewish Christians returning to the synagogue, which the author of Hebrews wants to prevent.

Discussion (30 min)

23-120

Greco-Roman Religions
11/23/2009
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Balcony J - MR

Theme: Hybridization and Creolization in the Greek and Roman Worlds

George H. van Kooten, University of Groningen

Competition between Heracles and Christ

Many scholars take a wrong view on the uniqueness of Christianity in the ancient world. According to Mitchell, among others, ‘Faith in Christ the redeeming god, which was at the core of Christian self-definition, was extraordinary by pagan and Jewish standard’ (2007:233). This is, however, not the case and for that reason gives a wrong perception of the success of Christianity in the ancient world. This can be demonstrated by an extensive comparison between Christ and the concept of the immortals, who started off as half-god, half-human and gained immortality (Talbert 1975). Particularly a comparison with Heracles will be drawn whose deeds, according to philosophers such as Seneca and Epictetus, were accomplished ‘pro salute gentium’, for the salvation and well-being of mankind. Already the pagan philosopher Celsus gives insight into the competition between Christ and Heracles when he asks why Christians are not satisfied with Heracles (Celsus apud Origen, Against Celsus 7.53). This competition was very important in the first three centuries CE. The Christian author of Hebrews modelled Christ on the figure of Heracles (Aune 1990), whereas Heracles, in turn, ‘became paganism’s last, desperate choice to head off the appeal of Christianity’ (Galinsky 1972:106; cf. Simon 1955). A sustained analysis of the similarities and competitive dissimilarities between Christ and Heracles will reveal why actually Christianity did appeal to the pagan world, not by way of simple opposition and proclamation, but through a process of hybridization in which mutual encounters and reciprocal negotiations took place. In this paper I shall suggest that the appeal of Christianity had probably to do with the unambiguous morality of Christ, compared with the moral ambiguity of the Heracles figure even in pagan sources.

23-239

Society for Pentecostal Studies
11/23/2009
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Room: Napoleon D2 - SH

Theme: Prophecy and Eschatology in the New Testament

Scott D. Mackie, Logos Evangelical Church

Eschatological Experience in the Epistle to the Hebrews

Hebrews quite possibly possesses the most developed, realized eschatology in the NT. The author everywhere assumes the community’s familiarity with the supernatural; he even wagers the success of his “word of exhortation” on it. Thus his calls to persevere, warnings against “falling away,” and promises of imminent vindication are all based on appeals to the community’s eschatological experiences (2:1-4; 3:14; 4:1-3; 6:4-6; 10:10-39; 12:22-29). These experiences include: “signs, wonders, and miracles,” heavenly “rest,” “partaking” of the Spirit and Christ, “tasting the powers of the age to come,” enlightenment, and a profound psychological cleansing. Perhaps the most remarkable occurrences of realized eschatology, the author’s exhortations to “draw near” and enter the heavenly sanctuary, have been largely overlooked or misinterpreted (4:14-16; 6:18-20; 10:19-23; 12:22-24). Though typically viewed as a denoting prayer or worship, these calls to enter the heavenly sanctuary are in fact essential to the author’s hortatory effort, and therefore must represent real and substantial access to the heavenly realm. They have as their goal the community’s participation in a divine adoption ceremony, which includes: (1) a dramatic enactment of the Son’s exaltation (chapters 1 & 2); (2) the Son’s conferral of family membership on the community (2:12-13; 10:24-25); (3) and their reciprocal confession of Jesus as the Son of God (4:14-16; 10:19-23). Hebrews is also notable for its emphasis on visuality. Besides numerous ekphrastic descriptions of the heavenly sanctuary and Jesus’ sacral actions, the author exhorts the community to both “see” the exalted Jesus (2:9; 9:24-28) and their involvement in the aforementioned divine adoption ceremony (2:13; 10:24-25). This visual program ultimately serves a hortatory purpose, reversing the recipients’ waning commitment by helping them “see” in Jesus that their steadfastness in suffering will surely issue in exaltation (2:6-10). Like Moses, they will “persevere by seeing him who is invisible” (11:27).

Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University

"He Has Prepared a City for Them" (Hebrews 11:8-16): Escapist Eschatology or Ecological Expedience?

In Heb 11:8-16, the author commends Abraham for his faith, citing the example of Abraham’s setting out from his home country to an unknown land in obedience to the command of God. The author notes that Abraham settled for a time in the land that had been given him in the promise of God, but that he did so as a stranger and alien upon the earth (v. 9). The focus of the author is not on Abraham or his posterity receiving the promised land, but is rather on an eschatological interpretation of the promised homeland that is aimed at exhorting the readers of the letter-sermon to keep their eyes fixed on the eternal reward of perseverance. Thus the example of Abraham is but one of many in ch. 11 that urges the readers to look beyond their present circumstances to the eschatological promise of eternal life. Frequently, however, this passage among others is used to justify an escapist eschatology that minimizes attention on the present order and its afflictions in favor of a rather singular focus on the world to come. If indeed believers are strangers and foreigners upon the earth, living as those just passing through, with eyes fixed on the eternal city God has prepared for them, then believers may be justified to pay little attention to a homeland not their own. This paper will attempt to put the passage into proper perspective by placing its teaching into the larger context of what the NT (Hebrews included) has to say about the place of creation in God’s redemptive scheme. The conclusion will affirm the integrity of Heb 11:8-16 within its own rhetorical context while maintaining the larger biblical picture of the believer’s responsibility to care for creation in light of its eschatological redemption.

23-314

Ecological Hermeneutics
11/23/2009
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Studio 3 - MR

Jeffrey S. Lamp, Oral Roberts University
The Promise of God's Rest (Hebews 4:1-11): Joshua, Jesus, Sabbath, and the Care of the Land

Hebrews 4:1-11 continues the rhetorical strategy of the letter by asserting the superiority of the Son to another key figure of the old covenant, Joshua. Specifically, the author asserts that the Israelites of Joshua’s day failed to enter God’s rest because of their disobedience, so that the promise of rest ostensibly given in terms of the land ultimately lay unfulfilled. The author contends that in the Son, the promise of entering God’s rest remains open to the present day, and that this rest is superior to that available through Joshua because it is connected with the Sabbath rest enjoyed by God since the conclusion of the works of creation. What the author of Hebrews has effectively done is both to spiritualize and eschatologize the promise of Joshua’s rest embodied in the land such that in Jesus the promise of rest is currently realized, to be realized in full in the eschaton. This is in keeping with the author’s anthropological and christological agendas throughout the letter. However, the voice of earth, in this context specifically the land, is heard through one of the scriptural citations proffered by the author in support of his argument (v. 4). The appeal to the establishment of Sabbath at the end of God’s creative work in Gen 2:2-3 allows for the voice of the land to assert for itself a place in the enjoyment of God’s rest, both in the present and in the eschaton. The land will appeal to traditions in the Hebrew Bible that demonstrate God’s concern for the land in terms of Sabbath observance. The resulting reading will be one that tempers the rhetorical concerns of the author, in which a denigration of the actual land is implied, with a call to expand the scope of God’s promised rest to include all creation.

23-334

Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
11/23/2009
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: Rhythms Ballroom 1 - SH

Theme: Topics in the Study of Sacrifice and Atonement

Wolfgang Kraus, University of the Saarland
Why Must the Heavenly Things have better Sacrifices?: Hebrews 9:23 and the Line of Argumentation in Hebrews.

According to Hebr 9:23 the sketches of the heavenly things have to be purified by blood rites at the earthly temple. The heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices. There is no consensus in today's commentaries about the understanding of this verse. The paper tries to show that Hebr 9:23-25 aims at a consecration/inauguration of the heavenly sanctuary. This is proven by analysing the passage itself and putting it into the line of argumentation in the letter to the Hebr as a whole, especially by showing the close relation of Hebr 9:23ff to Hebr 7:26-28 and 10:19-22, i.e. the heavenly ministry of Jesus, the High Priest in the order of Melchisedek

24-106

Book of Acts
11/24/2009
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Studio 4 - MR

Kenneth L. Schenck, Indiana Wesleyan University
Acts and the Temple: Possible Insights from Hebrews

William Manson suggested over fifty years ago that the author of Hebrews was a Hellenist of the same sort as Stephen had been. We might now more appropriately reverse his suggestion. The author of Acts, writing after the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, portrayed Stephen similarly to a certain segment of Christian Judaism in his own day, a segment typified by the author of Hebrews. Several scholars have recently explored the possibility that Hebrews might be more of a “coping strategy” in the wake of Jerusalem and the temple’s destruction, rather than a polemic against the temple per se. If this interpretation is correct, it might have implications for our understanding of Acts 7, as well as of the author of Acts’ own understanding of the temple in general. This paper makes some suggestions as to what those implications might be. For one, this understanding of Hebrews potentially provides a via media between those, on the one hand, who see no word against the temple in Stephen’s speech (e.g., those in Acts 16:13 are false witnesses) and those who highlight some of its inflammatory language (e.g., cheiropoietos in 7:48). If Stephen is meant to resemble the author of Hebrews, we might take him to recognize the transitory and anticipatory nature of the Jerusalem temple, while not opposing it as a holy place per se, particularly at that point in time. His words ironically echo God’s judgment on the temple leadership and the foolhardiness of those who participated in the Jewish War, while not opposing the sanctuary itself. Meanwhile, we have no clear indication on the author of Acts’ own part from which to argue that he or she saw no role for a rebuilt temple in the future, particularly after the “times of the Gentiles” would be fulfilled.

Here are the papers on Hebrews that will be delivered at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society:

SHERATON NAPOLEON A3/3RD FLOOR
LETTER TO THE HEBREWS
Section
Moderator: Herb Bateman
(Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)

8:30–9:10am
Carl Mosser
(Eastern University)
Bringing Sons to Glory: Hebrews 2, Psalm 8, and Christian Deification

9:20–10:00am
Barry Joslin
(The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
The How and Why of It: New Covenant Promises and Direct Connection between Hebrews 8 and 9

10:10–10:50am
John Taylor
(Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)
From Proof to Text: Mapping Hebrews’ Messianic Exploration of the Psalms

11:00–11:40am
Josh Walker
(Reformed Theological Seminary)
Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews: A Pauline/Lukan Perspective

J. W. MARRIOTT CONDE/3RD FLOOR
Open Session

9:20–10:00am
Joseph Pak
(Taylor University)
False Believers in the Letter to the Hebrews

SHERATON RHYTHMS 2/2ND FLOOR
GOD AND GOD INCARNATE
Study Group
Moderator: Douglas Blount
(Dallas Theological Seminary)
Theme: God in the Letter to the Hebrews

2:50–3:30pm
Nathan Holsteen
(Dallas Theological Seminary)
God in the Letter to the Hebrews

3:40–4:20pm
Herbert Bateman
(Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary)
Response to Nathan Holsteen

J. W. MARRIOTT MAUREPAS/3RD FLOOR
LETTER TO THE HEBREWS
Open Section
Moderator: Jon Laansma
(Wheaton College and Graduate School)

9:10–9:50am
D. Jeffrey Bingham
(Dallas Theological Seminary)
Irenaeus and Hebrews

10:00–10:40am
Pamela Bright*
(Concordia Theological Seminary)
Hebrews in the Church Fathers: The Implications for Christology

10:50–11:30am
Charles Kannengiesser*
(Concordia Theological Seminary)
Hebrews in Chrysostom

11:40–12:20pm
Mark Beatty
Personal Ethics in the Letter to the Hebrews: Clues from Word Order

SHERATON GALLERY/1ST FLOOR
Open Session

10:00–10:40am
Charlie Bing
Is There Hellfire in Hebrews?

Polumeros kai Polutropos

Pages

Monday, November 30, 2009

November 2009 Hebrews Carnival

Saturday, November 28, 2009

New Article Added

Saturday, November 14, 2009

SBL Paper Online

Friday, November 13, 2009

New Article Added

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Volume 17

Friday, November 6, 2009

Hebrews and Hermeneutics

Hebrews at the SBL Annual Meeting in New Orleans

Hebrews at the Evangelical Theological Society Annual Meeting

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