Familial Dimensions of Group Identity

Another article that might make up some interesting reading for the weekend, is this one written by Philip Harland:'Familial Dimensions of Group Identity (II):
“Mothers” and “Fathers” in Associations and
Synagogues of the Greek World,'Originally published in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period 38 (2007) 57-79. Reproduced here by permission His own Abstract runs like this:

"Fictive parental language (e.g. "mother of the synagogue" , "father of the association") has drawn limited attention within two scholarly circles, namely, those who study diaspora synagogues, on the one hand, and ancient historians, on the other. This article brings these two scholarly interests together and argues, based on inscriptional evidence, that parental metaphors were more widespread and significant in cities and associations of the Greek East than often acknowledged. Such terminology was an important way of expressing honour, hierarchy, and/or belonging within the association or community, and it could also pertain to functional leadership roles (rather than mere honorifics) in certain cases. The Jewish practice of calling figures "mother" or "father" of the synagogue can be better understood within this cultural framework and in relation to associations specifically."

The Word is Near You

(Photo by Hege Fagerheim)

Another study of Philo by a Norwegian is about to be published. The Norwegian scholar Per Jarle Bekken(1) - he too is a former student of Peder Borgen - has revised his 1998 dissertation from the University of Trondheim (NTNU), and it is now to be published by DeGruyter in Germany: Per Jarle Bekken, The Word is Near You. A Study of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Paul's Letter to the Romans in Jewish Context(Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche 144; Berlin - New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2007). 23 x 15.5 cm. Approx. 300 pages. Cloth. Approx. Euro [D] 88.00 / approx. sFr 141.00 / for USA, Canada, Mexico approx. US$ 118.80. ISBN 978-3-11-019341-1. Congratulations to Per Jarle. The study is to be published in April this year. Per Jarle has published several studies earlier on Philo and Paul and/or John, and hopefully, now there is more to come.

The publisher characterizes the volume thus: The study deals with a difficult and much-debated text in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, 9:30-10:21. The study in particular analyses Paul’s use and interpretation of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:4-17. Scholars have characterized Paul’s exegesis here as idiosyncratic, fanciful, baffling, and arbitrary. By a comparison with Jewish writings near Paul in time, such as the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Baruch, the thesis is argued that Paul’s treatment of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be located within Jewish exegetical method, expository structure, terminology as well as content and context.
In comparison with Baruch and Philo, it has been shown that Paul’s handling of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be placed within a Jewish context as to the way the biblical quotations are rendered. The thesis is substantiated that Paul’s expository rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 follows the method of exegetical paraphrase of a biblical quotation. So, in comparison with Baruch and Philo, Paul’s interpretative rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 falls within a form of exposition, in which words, phrases and sentences from the Old Testament quotation are either repeated or replaced by interpretative terms and supplemented with other qualifying terms. Thus, Paul’s christological exposition of Deut 30:12-14 can be located within the method of exegetical paraphrase, with a parallel in Baruch’s application of this OT Scripture to the personified ‘Wisdom’.
(1) This link above also represent an intervju with Per Jarle Bekken (in Norwegian). For the present time he is working in an administrative position at Høyskolen i Oslo (Oslo University College), but hope to be able to spend more time with Philo in the future.

More on Meals

There is almost always something new and interesting to be found on Philip A. Harland's websites. This time, in adddition to a new picture of this guy, I found his website on Meals in the Greco-Roman World. A Seminar of the Society of Biblical Literature. It contains several interesting seminar papers, and at least four are directly dealing with the works of Philo. Alas several of them are only presently available as abstracts.
Consider these:Matthias Klinghardt, “The Therapeutae’s Dance.” (abstract)

Andrew McGowan, “The Food of the Therapeutae: A Thick Description.” (abstract)

Hal Taussig, “Ritual Perfection and/or Literary Idealization in Philo’s On the Contemplative Life and Other Greco-Roman Symposia.” (abstract)

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, “Contrasting Banquets: A Literary Commonplace in Philo's On the Contemplative Life and Other Greco-Roman Symposia.”There should be a lot of information here relevant for both teaching and further research.

More on the Diaspora

A couple of reviews on the BrynMawr Classical Review site may be interesting to students of Philo and of his Diaspora world. The volumes do not seem to contain chapters explicitlyu devoted to Philo, but are nevertheless relevant for studies of his social world:
Jas Elsner, Ian Rutherford (edd.), Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity. Seeing the Gods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 532. ISBN 0-19-925079-0. $125.00. Reviewed by Laura Nasrallah, Harvard University Divinity School.

The Reviewer says, inter alia, Part III of the volume addresses Jewish and Christian Pilgrimage. While this section makes a strong contribution in addressing literary texts, it does not present the rich analysis of material culture found in
previous sections of the volume.

"David Noy's "Rabbi Aqiba Comes to Rome: A Jewish Pilgrimage in Reverse?" uses a story from the Talmud -- the accounts of four rabbis who traveled to Rome perhaps at the end of the first century CE -- to "throw some light on what it was like for influential people from Palestine to travel to Rome" (376). Ancient sources assume that regular contact existed between Jews in Palestine and in Rome. Noy interprets such travel not as simple tourism to the center of empire, but as Jewish pilgrimage to see cult objects captured from Jerusalem in 70 CE, placed in Vespasian's Temple of Peace. Such travel, he argues, substituted for pilgrimage to the now-destroyed Jerusalem temple; it was a "pilgrimage in reverse" "(385).

This part also contain articles as Wendy Pullan's "'Intermingled Until the End of Time': Ambiguity as a Central Condition of Early Christian Pilgrimage" and David Frankfurter's "Urban Shrine and Rural Saint in Fifth-Century Alexandria".
Another relevant volume is Ardle MacMahon, Jennifer Price (edd.), Roman Working Lives and Urban Living. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2005. Pp. 223. ISBN 1-84217-186-0. GBP 20.00. Reviewed by Miko Flohr, Radboud University Nijmegen.The reviewer introduces his review thus: "This volume is a collection of twelve papers written by eleven British scholars and advertises itself as being devoted to issues concerning
the life and work of craftsmen in the cities of the Roman world. While this is not completely true, the book contains some very interesting papers offering new insights into the social and spatial contexts of urban production and touches on several topics that are in desperate need of attention by archaeologists and historians. The internal cohesion of the book, however, is rather weak: a good introduction to
the overall theme is lacking and some of the contributions seem to be out of place. There is little interplay between the individual articles. As most authors concentrate on either Roman Britain or central Italy, other urbanized areas, such as Roman Africa, Egypt or Asia Minor, are mostly neglected. Thus, readers should not expect a coherent volume that constitutes a systematic contribution to the discussion about urban craftsmen in the Roman world. Nevertheless, on the basis of the individual papers, the book deserves a place in many university libraries."

Half dead?

People may wonder if I - or the blog - am/is half dead since there has been so little blogging for several months. Well, some time I have asked myself if the blog should be totally dead, but it turn out to be still opposed to such thoughts...

The problem is frankly a question of time. Moving to Stavanger and taking up a new position has made me more occupied than expected with lecture preparations and teaching, and even the books on Philo have had a quiet time on my shelves. Looks like my co-blogger Kåre has similar problems, since he hasn't been blogging for a long time ...

Recently, however, I have had to deal with some books on mission in the NT, and several of them also try to look into the works of Philo for some possible background material... I intend to present some of these works here, so stay tuned. Something may turn up before you change your shirt....

Then I am to pay a visit to a dr.student of mine in Cameroon; that will be exciting, as I have never been in Africa before. Have you...?..