Program 2011

2011/1

S20-119 Hebrews (Joint Session With: Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity; Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement)
11/20/2011; 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Room: Cyril Magnin II - Renaissance Parc 55

Theme: Simultaneous Cults: The Intersection of Sacred Space, Time, and Practice

Ellen Aitken, McGill University, Presiding

Jon Berquist, Disciples Seminary Foundation
Critical Spatiality and the Book of Hebrews (30 min)

Critical spatial theory depicts a world of dynamic interrelationships between physicality, perceptions, rhetorics, and actions. The book of Hebrews offers rhetorics of space that range from the heavenly to homeless cave-dwellers, often interacting through the transitional spaces of the temple. So much is connected through the sacrificed body of Jesus, a body that has moved through the many spaces of the book of Hebrews. This set of spaces – real and imagined, remembered and projected – opens up to the possible embodiment of the book’s rhetorics into practices and actions. This paper will examine recent advances in critical spatiality in an attempt to suggest possible gains for interpreting the book of Hebrews.

Jorunn Økland, Universitetet i Oslo, Respondent (15 min)

Kathryn McClymond, Georgia State University
Space and Sacrifice in Leviticus: Implications for Sacrificial Theory (30 min)

Despite careful and extensive research on Hebrew Bible sacrificial material, biblical sacrifice is still largely imagined in terms of the violent death of an innocent animal victim. However, biblical sacrifice (as in other rich sacrificial traditions) is a much more complex, nuanced phenomenon, involving multiple activities that collaborate to create rich ritual events that play out on multiple levels. Thus to reduce biblical sacrifice to an animal victim’s death is to transform a complex phenomenon into a flat, one-note theological moment. The proposed paper focuses on discussions of sacrifice in Leviticus as complex literary orientations toward sacred and social space. The description of the manipulation of the offering – which involves several activities, only one of which is killing – orients the text’s reader toward ritual, cosmic, social, and cultural worlds. The ritual play in which the reader participates is dynamic, elastic, and complex, involving sacrificial actors, elements, and the reader herself. Such an approach to the biblical sacrifice from this point of view has implications for sacrificial theory more broadly.

Christian Eberhart, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, Respondent (15 min)

Gabriella Gelardini, Universität Basel, Respondent (15 min)

Discussion (30 min)

Business Meeting (15 min)

2011/2

S21-315 Hebrews
11/21/2011; 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Room: 3011 - Convention Center

Craig Koester, Luther Seminary, Presiding

Daniel Boyarin, University of California-Berkeley
Prolegomena to a Jewish Christology in Hebrews: The Jewish Soundscape of the Midrash on Psalm 95 (25 min)

Susan Docherty, Newman University College Birmingham UK
Analysing the Interpretation of the Old Testament in Hebrews: Towards a New Methodology; Handout (25 min)

The interpretation of the Old Testament in Hebrews, so fundamental to the letter’s argument, is a subject addressed by all commentators, and it has been the specific focus of numerous very valuable studies over the years (such as those by, for instance, Markus Barth, George Caird, and Graham Hughes). This paper will argue, however, that the application to Hebrews of a new methodology may enable us to better understand the author’s use of the Old Testament and to identify some of his characteristic exegetical techniques which have been previously overlooked. The approach advocated here begins from the premise that Hebrews should be placed firmly within the context of early Jewish bible interpretation, and is inspired by current research within the field of Jewish Studies, particularly the work of Alexander Samely, who has within the last decade developed a highly sophisticated methodology for defining targumic and mishnaic exegetical techniques. Some key sections of the letter which draw heavily on scripture will therefore be analysed to illustrate this methodology, including Heb 7:1-10 (Melchizedek) and Heb 11:1-22 (the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis. The paper will use these passages to seek to explore issues such as: the relationship between Hebrews and other genres of scriptural interpretation found within early post-biblical Judaism, including targum and rewritten bible; the attitude taken to reproducing the exact wording of a scriptural text; the techniques by which a text could be assigned as relevant to a particular topic; the ways in which the author prepares his audience for his ensuing interpretation of scripture by the provision of new literary context for a citation; and the factors which allowed for the linking of two or more scriptural texts.

Harold Attridge, Yale University, Respondent (13 min)

Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory University
Suffering as Means of Moral Transformation: Hebrews in Philosophical Context (25 min)

The importance of suffering in the argument of Hebrews concerning Jesus is broadly if not universally recognized. Likewise widely acknowledged is the connection made by the author between suffering and moral education, most clearly intimated by 5:7-14, with its play on mathein pathein, and in 12:7, with its assurance, eis paideian hypomenete, best translated as, “you are enduring for the sake of an education.” In this regard, scholars have recognized how Hebrews makes use of the rich range of educational/athletic metaphors common to Greco-Roman moral discourse. This paper builds on such work in order to ask about the specific value attached to suffering in Hebrews and a selection of other Hellenistic philosophers (Epictetus, Seneca, Philo). Is the value the same in each author? Does determining the specific value of suffering in moral transformation provide insight into the character of Hebrews as an example of philosophical-religious discourse of the early empire?

Alan C. Mitchell, Georgetown University
The Death of Jesus in Hebrews: A Contribution to a Developing Tradition (25 min)

Hebrews shares similarities in its description and function of Jesus’ death with Romans and Mark, pointing to the strong probability that the author of Hebrews contributed to the development of the tradition about Jesus’ death, as that tradition was preserved in Christianity at Rome. Each of these three Roman Christian texts understands the death of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice (Romans 3:25; Mark 10:45; Hebrews 2:17), actualized by his obedient faith in God (Romans 5:19; Mark 14:36; Hebrews 5:8). Each portrays the death of Jesus as a real death (Romans 5:6-8; Mark 15: 34, 37; Hebrews 5:7) that effected redemption (Romans 3:24; Mark 8:34-35; Hebrews 9:12, 15). Hebrews’ distinctive contribution to the development of the tradition of the death of Christ lies in the relation of his suffering to his priesthood as seen in Hebrews 5:5-10, where the human suffering and death of Jesus is framed by the notice that he was appointed a high priest by God (v. 5) and then designated a high priest by God because of his suffering and death (v. 10). Building on the inherited tradition of the death of Christ among Roman Christians, the author of Hebrews contributed to the development of that tradition by explaining Christ’s death as a constitutive element of his priesthood.

Ellen Aitken, McGill University, Respondent (13 min)

Discussion (24 min)