Vacation time!

Today I am taking 4 weeks off work and blogging.

The first three weeks will be spent at my cabin, relaxing and hopefully have some golfing at the main golf course of that area. Then my wife and I will go to Aberdeen to attend the Society of New Testament Studies 2006 General Meeting July 25-29.

The weather is wonderful today, and I hope it will remain, as we have had a rather cold spring time.

All the best to all of you; see you in August!

Conferences in July

July is the time for two great conferences for scholars in Biblical studies: the International Meeting of SBL, and the SNTS General Meeting. I will only be able to attend the latter, while my co-blogger Kåre will go to the SBL meeting
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I July 2-6, the SBL 2006 International Meeting will be held in Edinburgh. As usual this conference will provide aa lot of lectures and seminars, covering both testaments. The program is available online here. As far as I can see, there will only be one paper dealing directly with Philo, namely the first paper in this seminar:
Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
7/03/2006 2:00 PM to 5:15 PM
Room: Seminar 10 - William Robertson

Theme: More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

Pierluigi Piovanelli, University of Ottawa, Presiding
Archie T. Wright, Regent University
Philo and the Book of Watchers (30 min)
Markus H. McDowell, Westmont College
Jael in Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum: A Comparative and Intertextual Approach (30 min)
J.R.C. Cousland, University of British Columbia
When, Where, and Why: Space and Time in the “Books of Adam and Eve” (30 min)
Break (45 min)
James R. Davila, University of St. Andrews-Scotland
More Jewish Pseudepigrapha (30 min)
Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University
Ps. Basil's History of Joseph: A Key to the Early Syriac Tradition (30 min)

Kåre Fuglseth wil participate in the following session:

Methods in New Testament Studies
7/03/2006
8:45 AM to 12:30 PM
Room: G.01 - William Robertson

Paul Danove, Villanova University, Presiding
Dennis R. MacDonald, Claremont School of Theology
My Turn: A Critique of Critics of Mimesis Criticism (30 min)
Steven Richard Scott, University of Ottawa
Chiasm, Structure, and Rhetoric in Mark (30 min)
Daniel E. Goodman, Gardner-Webb University
Hear Then the Satire: The Militant Irony of the Parables of Jesus (30 min)
Break (45 min)
Kåre Fuglseth, Teacher's College of Bodoe
The Bible Read in the Polar Night: Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Methods in New Testaments Studies (30 min)
David Reis, College of Santa Fe
Constructing Identity and Imaginative Geographies: The Soul in the Formation of Early Christian Self-Definition (30 min)
Andrew D. Scrimgeour, Drew University
In Search of the Real Jesus Seminar (30 min)

I do hope Kåre will be able to report from the SBl International Meeting.

The SNTS General Meeting will be held in Aberdeen, July 25-29. This will be my first participation as a member, and I am looking forward to that.

The Program of this conference can be found ont the web reference given above. This conference is focusing on the New Testament. It looks like there will be no paper dealing primarily with Philo. Nevertheless, it may turn out to be an interesting event!

Site Meter

I have added a site meter counter, that is a counter that counts visits, to my website on Resources on Philo of Alexandria. It is always interesting to see how many visitors a page receives, and from where in the world. So now you are counted. Hope you don't mind . :-)

'Does a Serpent Give Life?'

First; Congratulations to James H. Charlesworth who has passed his 65th Birthday, and who received a great Festschrift on that occasion:Ian H. Henderson and Gerbern S. Oegema (eds), The Changing Face of Judaism, Christianity, and Other Greco-Roman Religions in Antiquity. Studien zu den Jüdischen Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit Band 2 (Gütersloh; Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2006).
Second, I would like to point attention to a brief article in that volume related to our studies of Philo:Amy Birkan-Shear, "Does a Serpent Give Life?" Understanding The Brazen Serpent According to Philo and Early Rabbinic Literature, pp. 416-426.The author of this study want to focus on some interpretations of Num 21:4-9 from Jewish scholars of the first centures CE. In light of the first commandment, one might wonders how one managed to cope with the issue of this brazen serpent figure, an image that even became the object of worship at one particular time by the israelites (2 Kgs 18:4).

The author deals first with Philo's version of Num 21 as given in Leg. All. 2,76-81, then with Mishnah Rosh HaShanah 8, and Mekilta of Rabbi Yishmael, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and the 'Jerusalem Fragment'.

Her conclusions runs like this (p. 425): Most of the sources analysed deviate from the literal reading of Num 21:8-9; the role of the serpent is minimized to various degrees. Philo and the Mishnah alike remove the serpent from the role of healing the Israelites. To Philo the serpent becomes a means of observing God, and it is this observation that brings healing. According to m.Rosh Hash. 8, the Israelites looks 'upwards' for healing, not at the serpent. The Mekilta, Pseudo-Jonathan, and the JF do not remove the serpent, but this is accompanied by another action; by looking at the serpent, they believed in Him who commanded Moses to make it.
Thus it seems to be an uneasiness shared by the sources, each modifying the text's very straightforward meaning. The main change or addition is an emphasis on 'intention of mind' or 'belief' to accompany the act of looking at the serpent.

This study is interesting in and by itself, but also because one also meets the brazen serpent in the Gospel of John (3:14-15), and here too faith is emphasized. The author of this article, does not, however, comment on this passage.

Philo und das neue Testament

SBL's service, www. bookreviews.com. has another set of reviews published. Among these is the following on Philo: Deines, Roland and Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr, editors, Philo und das Neue Testament: Wechselseitige Wahrnehmungen, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 172 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004). For several reasons, among these the fact that I am a contributor to the volume, this volume has been mentioned several time before on this blog... The volume is a result of a conference held in Eisenach, Germany 1-4 May 2003.

The God-fearers between facts and fiction

The Scandinavian journal Studia Theologica (published by Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group) is out (Volume 60, Number 1 / June 2006), and while it does not contain any articles directly related to Philo, I would like to point the attention of my readers to at least one article that is related to the field of Diaspora Judaism:

Dietrich-Alex Koch,
The God-fearers between facts and fiction
Two theosebeis-inscriptions from Aphrodisias and their bearing for the New Testament
Vol. 60, No 1/June 2006, pp. 62 - 90.

The Abstract presented by the journal runs thus:
The discussion concerning the God-fearers of the first centuries C.E. seemed to have come to a dead end. But in 1987, the situation changed when an inscription from Aphrodisias was published containing more than 50 persons who were called Theosebeis/God-worshippers. Since then, a vivid discussion has taken place and it is time for a re-evaluation of this important publication. Meanwhile, it has turned out that the stele of Aphrodisias contains two different texts, independent from each other and deriving from different dates (the 4th and 5th centuries CE). It is argued that in both texts the term ‘God-worshipper’ is used in different ways – as a designation for a mere social relationship (on the front side) and as a designation for a religious commitment (on the left side). Going back to earlier periods, Theosebeis-inscriptions from Tralles and Sardes are discussed. Concerning the Acts of the Apostles it is acknowledged that Luke indeed draws a literary picture when he uses the ‘God-worshippers’ (as he does when uses the proselytes), but it is maintained that this picture has its equivalence in the social and religious world of Luke and his readers.

Philo books on sale

Dove Booksellers announces that they have several books for sale, some rather heavily discounted. Among these are also some books on Philo. Here you have an opportunity to fill up some empty space in your book shelves:

Calabi, Francesca
Italian Studies on Philo of Alexandria
Publishers List $91.00 Dove 56.99

Sly, Dorothy
Philo's Perception of Women
Publishers List $59.95 Dove 28.99

Winter, Bruce W
Philo and Paul Among the Sophists: Alexandrian and Corinthian Responses to a Julio-Claudian Movement
Publishers List $32.00 Dove 16.99