SBL sessions on Reception 1

Over the next few posts I want to note the sessions at SBL which have a particular focus on reception issues. Some of these are sessions whose primary focus is on reception of the Bible, but a number are individual sessions that look particularly interesting too.


S18-10
History of Interpretation11/18/20069:00 AM to 11:30 AMRoom: 302 - CC

Theme: Biblical Interpretation since the Reformation

Carol Bakhos, University of California-Los Angeles, Presiding

James Brashler, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Teaching and Preaching Isaiah 6: A Comparison of Aquinas, Oecolampadius, and Calvin (30 min).

David Tabb Stewart, Southwestern University, The Politick Text: 17th Century Text-Reception of Leviticus in English (30 min).

Nicholas Perrin, Wheaton College, From Holtzmann to Harnack: The Nineteenth-Century ‘Quest for Origins’ and the Quest of the Historical Jesus (30 min).

Peter Feinman, Institute of History, Archaeology, and Education, William Foxwell Albright: Creating Order Out of Chaos (30 min).

Business Meeting (30 min)

S20-120
History of Interpretation11/20/20064:00 PM to 6:30 PMRoom: 144B - CC

Theme: Early and Medieval Biblical Interpretation

Mark Granquist, Gustavus Adolphus College, Presiding

C. Kavin Rowe, Duke University Divinity School, “God made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36): The History of Exegesis and the Context of Interpretation (30 min).

Rev. Colin H. Yuckman, Princeton Theological Seminary ('05)', Spoiling the Egyptians': Exodus 3:22 at the Crossroads of Christendom and Empire (30 min).

David A. Lambert, Yale University, Reading Repentance into the Bible: Some Medieval Strategies (30 min).

Aaron Canty, Notre Dame Seminary, Graduate School of Theology, John of La Rochelle and "divisio textus" (30 min).

Joshua Garroway, Yale UniversityWWJD: The Exegetical Implications of John Chrysostom’s Synagogue Problem (30 min).

This last paper looks especially interesting in the light of my current work, but, hey, there you go.

Abstract of WWJD: The Exegetical Implications of John Chrysostom’s Synagogue Problem

Did 4th century Antiochene Christians wear “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets? Doubtful. But there is good reason to believe that the sentiment, if not the fashion, had indeed caught hold in the community. Chrysostom’s increasingly well-known Homiliae Adversus Iudaeos reveal unmistakably that one of the chief reasons given by Christians for attending the synagogue and participating in other Jewish rituals was the desire to imitate Christ’s behaviors in the flesh. Christ had been circumcised, frequented synagogues, and observed the festivals, and some Antiochene Christians felt compelled in some measure to follow suit. This study first examines Chrysostom’s strategy for combating this mimetic urge – why, on his reckoning, Christians should not do what Jesus had done. The second and more substantive section examines the exegetical implications of this social crisis for Chrysostom’s approach to the Jewishness of Jesus in the gospel narratives. Particularly in his commentary on the Fourth Gospel, one sees how Chrysostom acknowledges but subtly undercuts Jesus’ Jewish identity and his observance of Jewish rites.