Video: Claiming Your Expertise

I came across this video from Emory University's Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. It is a clip from Carol Newsom who is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. I did not have the chance to take a seminar with her (my one regret!) but I did have the chance to work for her for a different project temporarily and all the interactions I had with her were very positive. From everything I've seen and heard she is not only a great scholar (and teacher!, this is an important distinction, one does not follow the other, but my friends in HB have told me what a great teacher she is) but also an awesome and thoughtful person. She came to Candler almost 40 years ago and you can imagine she must have endured a whole lot to get to this point in her career.

I think her short talk is worth listening to and hope it will give everyone resolve to be positive agents of change for the academy as well as strength for their own pursuit of excellence and development as scholars/citizens of this world.

Book announcement: Miracles

I would like to make a quick announcement regarding the recent publication by my doctoral supervisor, Luke Timothy Johnson:

Titled, Miracles: God's Presence and Power in Creation. Throughout the early period of writing my dissertation (he's already moved on to another project while I'm just about putting the finishing touches on trying to publish my first book!), we talked about him writing various chapters of this book. I'm glad to see it is finally out.

The idea of "miracles" is not an easy topic to discuss, still less to analyze and write about. I haven't picked this up yet but I will in the near future. I suggest you go and do the same!

My article is out (VC)

I'm happy to announce that my article titled, "Τὸ πνεῦμα in 1 Corinthians 5:5: A Reconsideration of Patristic Exegesis" is now out with Vigiliae Christianae in volume 72, issue 2.

Here's the abstract:
This article questions the assumption that there was a standard patristic interpretation regarding the identity of “spirit” in 1 Corinthians 5:5 (ἵνα τὸ πνεῦμα σωθῇ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου). Recent scholarship on 1 Corinthians 5 either fails to provide a fair representation of the available data or ignores the patristic exegesis altogether. The present essay addresses this deficiency in current scholarship by presenting the varieties of ways that early Christians read and interpreted “spirit” in 1 Cor 5:5.

This was a couple years' worth of work in the making (from editing, submission, acceptance, etc.), a work that was derived out of my current dissertation. I hope scholars find it to be a good article.

Check it out here (you'll need to be part of an institution or a paid subscriber to access the article).

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

I want to report that one of my teachers here at Emory University (and a member of my dissertation committee), Carl Holladay, the Charles Howard Candler Professor was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is one of the most prestigious honorary societies for scholars and the ceremony took place on Oct. 7, 2017. Here is Carl signing the book of AAAS members after the induction:

See the news press here.
I am also co-editing a collection of essays by Carl Holladay, contracted with Mohr Siebeck, which we hope will be of great benefit to scholars of Hellenistic Judaism and the New Testament. I will report back here once we are further along in the publication process.

New issue of NTS + a little extra

The new issue of New Testament Studies 63.2 (April 2017) appears to be available online now (see their website here).

I also wanted to point my readers to one particular article in this issue written by my teacher Carl R. Holladay from Emory University. He served as the president of the SNTS (Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas) for 2016–17. Following tradition, he gave the presidential address at the SNTS general meeting last summer, held in Montreal and it is published in this issue of NTS.

Title: "Acts as Keryga: λαλεῖν τὸν λόγον"

Abstract: This essay argues that Acts is essentially kerygmatic in its literary texture and purpose. It assumes that literary purpose, even genre to some extent, can be determined by examining how language is used in two respects: (1) through the authorial voice of the narrative, and (2) by the direct speech of characters within the story. This is especially the case when there is a strong convergence in the pattern of usage in the narrative voice and the dialogical voice. Three literary aspects are investigated: (1) kerygmatic vocabulary, (2) the speeches, and (3) the expression ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ/ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου. The operative kerygmatic vocabulary in Acts is displayed in two appendices containing statistical information comparing Lukan usage with other NT writings.

Go check it out.

New commentary on Acts

Hello readers! I know it's been a long time since my last post, it has been a truly busy season trying to write the dissertation, finish up some teaching work, work as a TA for the college, send stuff off for review, etc. etc. I hope this post finds all of you in good spirits despite what is a tumultuous season in American politics.

I wanted to point out a fairly new commentary by one of my teachers, Professor Carl Holladay, Acts in the New Testament Library series. It was a long work in progress and I know he's very happy to see it finally out in print:

It's a beautiful hardback volume and it also contains a very good section (among other important things throughout!) concerning the text of Acts, which I'm sure many scholars will benefit from for years to come.

I think it will be out in the bookstands at SBL/AAR in San Antonio, so get yourself a copy there if you are able! Unfortunately, I will not be attending this year, but if you are going, I wish you all safe travels and an enjoyable time in SA.

Novum Testamentum 58.1 (2016)

Just wanted to bring to your attention the newest issue of Novum Testamentum 58.1 (2016), that includes an article by my friend and colleague here at Emory University, Devin White.

See the TOC:

Armin D. Baum, "Mark's Paratactic και as a Secondary Syntactic Semitism," 1–26

Devin L. White, "Confronting Oracular Contradiction in Acts 21:1–14," 27–46

Hans Förster, "Der Begriff σημειον im Johannesevangelium," 47–70

Seon Yong Kim, "Paul and the Stoic Theory of οικειωσις," 71–91

And a few book review articles.

Go check it out.

Christian Theology and the World of Law? (VIDEO)

One of the great things about being at Emory is that it is a school that values the study of religion and maintains on its campus the Center for the Study of Law and Religion. Early last year, Richard Hays of Duke Divinity School and Michael Welker of Heidelberg University came to give the McDonald Distinguished Scholar Lectures about the subject of Christian theology and Law.

Check out the video below:

Ernst Käsemann Remembered (Audio)

A few months ago, the Pitts Theology Library at Emory University's Candler School of Theology hosted an event inviting Prof. Calvin Roetzel to lecture about Ernst Käsemann (see details here). This is part of an exciting project here gathering Käsemann's correspondence with various scholars around the world. It appears that the audio is now available, check it out here (the audio quality is bad at first, but picks up a bit into the lecture).

Candler Centennial (1914–2014/15)

This academic year marked the 100 year anniversary of the founding of Candler School of Theology here at Emory University. In order to mark this significant milestone of Candler, the school ran a year-long program, including a conference during this spring semester (Mar. 18–20). This conference kicked off with a keynote address from my doktorvater, Luke Timothy Johnson, titled "Theological Challenges of the New Century."

I saw that Candler now has uploaded all the videos from this conference to their Vimeo website, and I thought I would share with you Luke's address:

ZNW (Vol. 105, Issue 1)

It was brought to my attention on my social media feed (HT: Brian LePort) that ZNW has a new issue out this year. I'm glad to report that one of my mentors here at Emory, Walter Wilson, has published an article in this issue. See the TOC:

Walter T. Wilson, “Words of Wisdom (Matt 9,9-17; 11,16-19),” 1-20. 

Kylie Crabbe, “Being found fighting against God: Luke’s Gamaliel and Josephus on human responses to divine providence,” 21-39. 

Nils Neumann, “Die πανοπλία Gottes. Eph 6,11–17 als Reflexion der Belagerung einer Stadt,” 40-64. 

Michael Theobald, “Vom Werden des Rechts in der Kirche,” 65-95. 

Ole Jacob Fitvedt and Martil Wessbrandt, “Exploring the High Priesthood of Jesus in Early Christian Sources,” 96-114. 

Gerhard Rignhausen, “Das Rätsel der Ἡρῳδιανοί im Markusevangelium,” 115-125. 

Jason Staples, “Altered Because of Transgressions? The ‘Law of Deeds’ in Gal 3,19a,” 126-35. 

Garrick V. Allen, “Textual Pluriformity and Allusion in the Book of Revelation. The Text of Zechariah 4 in the Apocalypse,” 136-45. 

Walter has been working through the Gospel of Matthew for some time now (see now his recently published book with Fortress Press, Healing in the Gospel of Matthew: Reflections on Method and Ministry) and in the course I am TA-ing for him this semester at Candler School of Theology, students have been given various passages from Matthew, one of which they must choose for their final exegesis papers. If you're at all interested in this gospel, I suggest you take a look at his article then pick up his book.

Book Review by LTJ

My teacher here at Emory University, Luke Timothy Johnson, has recently posted a short book review of Bart Ehrman's How Jesus Became God on the Commonweal Magazine website. Check it out here.

On this note, if you are interested in pursuing LTJ's comments further, check out his Religious Experience in Earliest Christianity.

Kenneth W. Clark Lectures @ Duke Div

One of my teachers here at Emory University, Carl Holladay, mentioned to me sometime last year about giving the Kenneth W. Clark Lectures at Duke Divinity School in 2015. I'm glad to see that the details are now available for those of you that are interested (see here). If you are in the area, you're definitely in for some good talks and conversations. Carl is a fantastic teacher as well as a great mentor for all of us here so I hope the students/faculty at my alma mater will benefit also from his time spent at Duke in February.

On another note, he will be giving the presidential address for the SNTS meeting later this year in Montreal so if you are part of that society, look forward to his address then as well.

HT: NT Blog


EDIT: I should note an error above: Carl is giving the presidential address for the SNTS meeting in the summer of 2016.

(In)stability of Oral Tradition

I'm currently reading for my comprehensive exams that will take place in the Fall, and that means wading through a ton of books having to do with topics ranging from historical Jesus research, to Pauline theology, to the Synoptic Problem, critical introductions, NTT, history of interpretation, etc. etc. etc. Right now I'm working through a couple different books and one of them is Bart Ehrman's The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (5th ed.) and in chapter 5, he discusses the issue of the Jesus tradition (particularly oral) and writes the following (p. 70):

"No one knows for certain when Jesus died, but scholars agree that it was sometime around 30 C.E. In addition, most historians think that Mark was the first of our Gospels to be written, sometime between the mid-60s to early 70s. Matthew and Luke were probably produced some ten or fifteen years later, perhaps around 80 or 85. John was written perhaps ten years after that, in 90 or 95. These are necessarily rough estimates, but almost all scholars agree within a few years. Perhaps the most striking thing about these dates for the historian is the long interval between Jesus' death and the earliest accounts of his life. Our first written narratives of Jesus (i.e., the Gospels) appear to date from thirty-five to sixty-five years after the fact. This may not seem like a long time, but think about it in modern terms. For the shortest interval (the gap between Jesus and Mark), this would be like having the first written record of Richard Nixon's presidency appear today."

Now, most of this is fairly bland and nothing surprising from a critical standpoint, but what got me scratching my head are the last two sentences of this quotation. Why should I think about this in modern terms? Is the modern sociocultural milieu even remotely close to that of first century Palestine? Was Richard Nixon ever venerated as a miracle worker, exemplary moral figure, much less a divine being (and does that make a difference in how the memory of a person is transmitted?) I take his point that it is not as if some news reporter followed Jesus around and wrote everything down the minute he said them, but to use "modern terms" to highlight the apparent gap between the event and the written narrative seems rather unconvincing. I can't say I have read a whole lot on 'orality' in antiquity, but if my memory serves me right, plenty of scholars have already shown that our current paradigm in which events, memory, knowledge, etc. are passed down and how that occurred in the past are certainly not the same. I don't know if Ehrman is right or wrong entirely on this point, though he could nuance his argument without appealing to 'modern' sensitivities. Yes 5 years in modern terms is certainly a lot; these days not many can even recall with great clarity about events/people from 15 years ago (much less 50 years), but what I am wondering is if that was exactly the same in antiquity.

One stage finished, new stage begins

Happy to say I've finished the coursework phase of my PhD program and now reading for preliminary exams. Hope you will all enjoy a productive summer!

Talk @ Emory

Prof. Shaun Casey who is heading up the State Department's new Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives gave a talk here at Emory just over a week ago. Check it out:

 

Philo's Etymology

I'm entering into my final week of the semester and am in the process of finishing two more final papers. One of them is for my Jewish milieu seminar where my teacher has given us a variety of choices for our final exam, which is really a written exam that he gave us about 10 days ago. I've chosen to look at Barrett's The New Testament Background and critique it in a constructive/comprehensive way given all that we have discussed in the semester.

I'm currently on Barrett's section on Philo and I thought his excerpt from De Abrahamo 81-3 was quite interesting:

"What has been said is attested by the alteration and change in his name, for his original name was Abram, but afterwards he was addressed as Abraham [Greek, Abraam]. To the ear there was but the duplication of one letter, alpha, but in fact and in the truth conveyed this duplication showed a change of great importance. Abram is by interpretation 'uplifted father'; Abraham, 'elect father of sound'. The former signifies one called astrologer and meteorologist, one who takes care of the Chaldean tenets as a father would of his children. The latter signifies the Sage, for he uses 'sound' as a figure for spoken thought and 'father' for the ruling mind, since the inward thought is by its nature father of the uttered, being senior to it, the secret begetter of what it has to say. 'Elect' signifies the man of worth, for the worthless character is random and confused, while the good is elect, chosen out of all for his merits."

Fun stuff.

Carmichael-Walling Lectures

One of my teachers here, Carl Holladay, recently gave a set of lectures, the Carmichael-Walling lectures at Abilene Christian University. These lectures are quite distinguished, as they have invited other well respected scholars from the guild such as Margaret Mitchell, Luke Timothy Johnson (another Emory prof.), J.D.G. Dunn, Gail O'Day, James VanderKam, etc.

He gave two lectures a few weeks ago, "The Church of the Spirit" and "The Spirit of the Church."

Check them out below:

Books Carousel

It's been a while since I've really updated anything substantial on my blog. I don't want to keep apologizing to my readers but the school semester is certainly very busy! My books carousel has been updated and some of the books should give you an idea of what's been taking up my time these days.

Lighter stuff:

(1) Parenting Without Borders: I don't have children right now but I do have a lot of friends who either have children already or will in the near future. This is a subject that has always fascinated me, particularly given my own background that was a mixture of both Asian and American style of parenting (though mostly the former?). Gross-Loh is a Harvard trained Asian historian and this book is a very accessible account of her experience overseas in various cultures (Asian, European, etc.) and how parenting is done elsewhere. I'm not a big fan of her writing style but some of the lessons she learned overseas is fascinating and it should be something that all American parents should be aware of.

(2) Bonhoeffer, Christ and Culture: If I remember right, this was a collection of papers presented at the annual Wheaton Theology Conference a few years ago. As I have mentioned before, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and thought is something of a side hobby for me so when I saw that these conference papers were available, I had to check it out.

(3) Forgery and Counterforgery: I just happened to see this recently published Oxford volume by Ehrman on the library shelves, so I picked it up. As always Ehrman has a flair for rhetoric and his writing style is cogent. This is a thoroughly researched monograph (comes in at 600 some pages!), but it doesn't bog down like some technical work. This isn't an area that I'm terribly interested in, but I think it's fascinating (whether you agree with Ehrman or not) and so far I'm enjoying the read. 

 (4) Thinking, Fast and Slow: Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winner in economics, so he definitely knows what he's talking about. This is a fascinating study into how the human mind works and though I haven't been able to get into this book lately due to my schedule, so far so good.

Heavier stuff:

(5) Theology of the New Testament (Bultmann + Strecker): Need I say more? Just read through the Paul section of Bultmann (I should get to his John stuff soon) and the Johannine material in Strecker is next.

(6) Translation and Survival: I just finished T. Michael Law's When God Spoke Greek and I figure I should just continue along in this study of the LXX. Coincidentally, one of my seminar session this week will be on that topic, so I'm looking forward to continuing the research.

(7) Architecture and Meaning on the Athenian Acropolis + Greek Architecture: I'm taking an art history seminar right now on the connections between gods and people in ancient Greece. These two books are a must read for anyone interested in this topic, and though I'm just getting my feet wet, the class has been thoroughly enjoyable and informative.

There's probably a few more books here and there that's always jumping in and out of my to-read list, but these were the main ones that I could think of right now. I just wish I had more time and ability to read/digest all these books faster than my current pace. Read anything very interesting lately? Let me know!

New Issue of Novum Testamentum

I'd like to point out that a new issue of NovT came out recently (Vol. 55.4). Great to see that my colleague here at Emory, Chris Holmes, has an article in this issue. Here's the line-up:

James R. Harrison, "Paul's 'Indebtedness' to the Barbarian (Rom 1:14) in Latin West Perspective," 311-348

Christopher T. Holmes, "Utterly Incapacitated: The Neglected Meaning of ΠΑΡΕΣΙΣ in Romans 3:25," 349-366

Jam Lambrecht, "1 Corinthians 2:14: A Response to Laura B. Dingeldein," 367-370

Jacqueline Assaël, "L'allègement du chagrin partagé: 2 Co 2:5," 371-372

John A.L. Lee, "Etymological Follies," 383-403

Check it out here.