NT Gateway Weblog

It is the time of year for resolutions, and I am going to hold myself to account by publishing my academic ones here. All horribly self-indulgent, of course, but then resolutions are a bit like that.

1. Write more: 2008 was the best year for writing for me since the move to Duke. They say that it takes a couple of years to get stuck into a new job, a new home, a new culture, a new country, and the distractions of applying for the Green card, and other related things, were over. Even so, I think I should have written more.

2. Publish more: although I wrote quite a lot, I did not publish a lot in 2008, and I need to be more strategic about the ratio of writing to publication. It's high time my next book was out, and it is full steam ahead to get it finished.

3. Focus on the book: I am easily distracted with a range of research interests, and I tend to nibble at a topic here and a topic there, making gradual progress on each of them instead of radical progress on just one of them. I need to stop trying to juggle so many research projects and writing commitments and focus on the book.

4. Be less nice : I need to be much less nice. I notice that other academics focus on their own careers, they ignore emails, or they default to "no" every time. They look after number 1. In recent years, I have spent far, far too much time trying to be kind, collegiate and helpful.

5. Don't over-research everything: it is easy to keep on reading and reading and reading and to end up over-thinking a problem that you have, in fact, already solved. One of my Oxford supervisors, John Ashton, used to say "Solve it or scribendo".

6. Invest time in your teaching: It really came home to me last year just how much I enjoy undergraduate teaching. I am lucky here at Duke -- I have clever, motivated and confident students who make the job enjoyable. And I have superb Teaching Assistants too. But until recently, I had not experimented with classes of 100+ and I have enjoyed the challenge.

7. Keep the teaching fresh: I have now taught the same suite of courses (New Testament, Jesus, Paul) on several occasions here so it would be easy to let the teaching become stagnant. I am committing myself, therefore, to making sure that I have a fresh angle, or some fresh questions, or some fresh perspectives, every time I go to class.

8. Invest time in disseminating scholarship outside of the classroom: I have always attempted to think about how scholarship can reach a broader public, but the dwindling amount of my own spare time (reference 4. above) has severely limited the amount of time that I have had to work on internet resources. 2009 is the year when fresh life will be breathed into the New Testament Gateway, with a little help from my friends.

It will be interesting to see how good I will be at keeping these. I expect that I find 6, 7 and 8 quite easy, 1-3 more challenging, but will struggle most with number 4.

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Leslie Houlden offers reflections on the life of John Fenton on the Christ Church website:

Canon John Fenton

John Fenton was the kind of priest the English like: friendly to everyone but not in the least pushy, intelligent but more interested in your view than his own and apparently diffident in his often surprising assertions. These features are of course clues to his wide-ranging influence, on individuals rather than official bodies . . .

. . . . And there was a long succession of books and articles on the writings of the New Testament, especially the Gospels. His Penguin Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew has been a standby for many over a long period, together with his work on the Gospel of John . . .

Labels: obituaries

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I was sorry to hear this morning of the death of Canon John Fenton on 27 December. I am grateful to Ian Boxall for sharing the sad news with me. There is a brief note in the Oxford Mail but no obituaries have so far been published. I hope to share my reflections on his life later today.

Labels: obituaries

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I realize that it is already a few days into the new year, of course, but I have only recently returned from England, where it turned out that I had only limited time to blog. Term starts pretty much straight away for us here at Duke, but I am looking forward to renewed posting to the blog over the coming days, including some thoughts about the Historical Jesus ahead of a course I am teaching by that name this semester.

There has been plenty of interesting material around the blogs in recent weeks, even if it is disappointing to see so few offering their 2008 Ralphies. It's mainly the old guard (Jim Davila's on Paleojudaica here, with excellent comments on the year's TV, similar to my own thoughts). Perhaps the fact that many bibliobloggers regularly post on matters that are off-topic takes away some of the appeal of the Ralphies of old.

I am grateful to Jim also in mentioning the absence of the NT Gateway blog from the idiosyncratic listing of the Top 50 Ancient History Blogs (Paleojudaica), though I was pleased to see several of the top biblioblogs there. And speaking of those, it is nice to see the NT Gateway blog holding its place at number 2 in NT Wrong's Biblioblog Top 50. Not quite sure how it finds its way up there, but it's nice that it does, and thanks.

The New Testament Gateway and this blog will be changing in 2009, I hope for the better, and news will be forthcoming. In the meantime, thank you for your continued support in 2008, and best wishes for a very happy 2009.

By the way, you can now follow me on Twitter, at twitter.com/goodacre, should you be so inclined.

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I am at my parents' place at the moment in Derbyshire, England, and I was pleased to spot their copy of The Passion (BBC) DVD sitting in front of the TV. I took a look at the "Special Features" and was pleasantly surprised to see that my article on The Passion and Its Historical Context was included. I was asked about this several months ago, and I gave my permission for it to be included. It's a small thing, I know, but it was a pleasure for me to see the article up there with the other handful of extras.

Labels: BBC Passion

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I am back in England for Christmas, but as usual I have brought my blogging machine with me and as time allows, I will continue to blog over the Christmas period, though probably with a little less regularity than usual what with eating, drinking and watching TV to do.
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One of the central arguments in my recent paper on Dating the Crucial Sources in Early Christianity (Handout; Blog Series on Dating) was that Mark's focus on the temple, in which prophecies of its destruction, alongside a narrative climax that stresses its connection with Jesus' death, makes best sense in a post-70, post-destruction context. I suggested that arguments about whether or not Jesus actually prophesied the destruction of the Temple were largely beside the point. What I wanted to stress was the narrative function of prophecies like this in a text like Mark. It is all about the way in which the reader is led to recognize successful prophecy, and how that successful prophecy functions to legitimate the words of the speaker, and the text where they are found.

The inevitable difficulty, however, with an argument like this is that people do not actually hear the argument about narrative function and instead only hear phrases like "ex eventu", phrases that trigger a particular kind of response along the lines that "Jesus could have prophesied the destruction of the Temple", as if the argument had been "Jesus could not have prophesied the destruction of the Temple". Now if the discussion of the dating of Mark's Gospel is only allowed to constrain itself to the issue of whether or not Jesus could or could not have prophesied the destruction of the Temple, the argument is unlikely to move forward. It gets stuck on questions that unhelpfully draw in the writer's own prejudices about what Jesus could or could have done, could or could not have said. It is a bit like those discussions of Gospel miracle stories that get stuck on whether or not a given miracle could have occurred when the writer is attempting to reflect on its function in its narrative context.

What I am suggesting is that the way forward in this context is to by-pass the historical Jesus questions and to focus instead on literary context and narrative function, to notice that the clearest parallels to what is happening here in Mark are found in texts that post-date the events that are being prophesied. Josephus reports Jesus ben Ananias's prophecies of doom because they turn out to be accurate predictions of what in fact happened. The very point of narrating them is that the reader says, "Ah-ha -- they did not listen to Jesus just as they failed to listen to the prophets of old." Indeed, the story of the persecution of the prescient prophet (try saying that before breakfast) is one that provides a model for both Josephus and the Synoptic evangelists -- it is the old Deuteronomistic history's means of showing that the punishment of exile was an unavoidable consequence of the people's failure to hear the prophets' warnings.

I discovered Adam Winn's book about Mark late in the process of writing my paper on "Dating" and he has a helpful passage here that bears on the topic:

Much of the debate surrounding the authenticity of this prophecy has centered on whether is is an authentic Jesus tradition. The logic works in the following way: 'If it can be shown that this prophecy is an authentic Jesus tradition, it cannot be considered a vaticinium ex eventu and, therefore, Mark can be dated prior to the destruction of Jerusalem." But here, we suggest that this prophecy's identity as an authentic Jesus tradition is only indirectly related to Mark's date. Mark could have just as easily recorded an authentic Jesus tradition at a point after the temple's destruction as before it and doing so would make the tradition no less authentic. The days in which we concluded that Mark simply recorded all the tradition that was available to him are long past. We have come to recognize Mark as a creative and selective author who intentionally shaped his material. The prophecy then must be considered Mark's own prophecy that comes from either his (possibly authentic) sources or his own imagination. The focus of the debate over Mark's date of composition, therefore, should not be on whether this saying is an authentic Jesus tradition, but on whether Mark recorded (or created) this prophecy (essentially adopting it as his own) at a time before or after the temple's destruction (Adam Winn, The Purpose of Mark's Gospel: An Early Response to Roman Imperial Propaganda (WUNT, 245; Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 57-8).

It is, in other words, a question about the success of prophecy. The prophecies embedded in this narrative that stresses the destruction of the temple tell the reader about the prophet's authority. They are, by their nature, retrospective, celebratory, confirmatory of the speaker's authority and prescience. The point here is as it is in the Hebrew Bible: the prophets told them so, and just look at what happened.

Labels: Dating

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The RAE 2008 (Research Assessment Exercise for British Universities, 2008) results are out today (HT: James Crossley):

RAE 2008

The means of representing the results is different from previous RAEs, where each department was given just one number, from 1 to the coveted 5*. This time, it appears that the number of active researches is given, along with a number representing the percentage of research activity in each of four major categories, from 4 (world leaders) to 1 (national quality) as well as unclassified (see Quality Profiles). The results for departments of Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies are here:

Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies

You have to do a bit of work with the results to work out how well everyone has done, but it looks to me like Durham is the clear winner in this category, with a whopping 40% in the 4 (world leader) category, and 20 in the 3 (internationally excellent) category. Next up are, I would say, Cambridge with 35% at 4 and 25% at 3, Oxford with 30% at 4 and 35% at 3, University College London with 30% at 4 and 40% at 3, then Edinburgh with 30% at 4 and 30% at 3. Manchester has 25% at 4 and 45% at 3; Sheffield has 20% at 4 and 45% at 3. My old University, Birmingham, has an honorable 15% at 4 and 45% at 3, a little below Nottingham with 20% at 4 and 40% at 3 and Aberdeen, with 15% at 4 and 65% at 3. I think that by these very rough indicators, weighing 4s more highly than 3s, and looking at the number of 4s and 3s together, this makes the top ten something like this:

1. Durham
2. Cambridge
3. University College London
4. Oxford
5. Edinburgh
6. Manchester
7. Sheffield
8. Nottingham
9. Aberdeen
10. Birmingham

I haven't "done the math" here, though by crunching in the numbers from all the categories, so this is a very rough indication.

After doing those rough calculations, I looked at the Guardian's ranked list, which comes out like this, with a radical difference with respect to Aberdeen; SOAS is higher and Birmingham lower:

RAE 2008: theology, divinity and religious studies results:

1. Durham
2. Aberdeen
3. Cambridge
4. Oxford
5. University College London
6. Manchester
7. Sheffield
8. Nottingham
9. Edinburgh
10. SOAS

Labels: rae

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My nominations for the fifth annual ralphies are now up. In a break from tradition, I am moving them over this year to The Resident Alien.

Labels: Ralphies

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Over the last year or so at Duke, and with encouragement from the deans, I have raised the caps on my classes, first to 70, then to 100 and above. The larger numbers have required some rethinking about how I do things. One of the great advantages of teaching somewhere like Duke is that one can ask for teaching assistants, and I have had three now each time that I have taking a larger course. And I am lucky to have outstanding Teaching Assistants. However, students still want to talk to their professors (I am speaking in American here) and frankly, I like talking to students and getting to know them. Without regular interaction, crafting the course as you go would be difficult. But how does one cope with interacting with larger numbers of students? Of course I have regular office hours, but only a small percentage of the class will come to the professor's office unless they have to.

A year or so ago I began to experiment with another way of interacting with students -- using Instant Messaging (IM). I decided to tread carefully at first because I was not sure if it would work, and I was not sure if I might find it too much of an imposition on my time. Would my time be dominated by endless IM queries? Did I want a student popping up with an essay question when I was on the second or third glass of the Beaujolais on a Friday night? So I did not advertise my IM contact details on the syllabus, but I let them know that I was available to talk on IM if they emailed me to ask for my details. Several students took me up on this and in each case I found the experience a rewarding one, and I decided to continue the experiment. I now publish my IM contact details on the course syllabus and I have found that many of the students enjoy using this means of communicated with me. It has several advantages.

One of the major advantages of using IM for students is that this is a very natural medium for them. They are using it themselves all the time to communicate with one another, and they find it easier to communicate through IM than they do in other more formal meda, even email. This leads to some productive conversations. They ask you what they want to talk about without feeling that they need to flower it up in an email. I have found myself wasting much less time with mis-firing email conversations. I misunderstand students less and they misunderstand me less. And sometimes I have been able to ask students quick questions about certain elements in the course, which can be very helpful for getting a feeling for the lie of the land.

This is not, of course, going to be an option for professors who do not do any IMing of their own to friends and family. My guess is that it only works for those who are already familiar with the medium, who enjoy using it. But there are practical difficulties that one needs to think through. The biggest one is that there are several different IM clients. Some students have YIM, some AIM, some MSN, some Google Talk, some combinations. When I discovered Pidgin, this problem was solved instantly -- it is a free multi-platform IM aggregator and you can pull everything together in the one programme.

But what about the problem of students imposing on your free time, popping up to chat to you about the course while you are communicating with your mates? So far, this has really not been a problem for me. My students have used this service really responsibly, and if they do pop up at an unusual time, they quite understand if I explain that I cannot talk. It has not made them any more demanding; quite the contrary -- they have been civil and appreciative. And there are also the options of playing with the settings on Pidgin (or whatever you use), hiding yourself when you don't wish to be seen online and so on.

In short, this experiment has been more than just "so far, so good". I have been surprised by how successful it has been.

Labels: Teaching Notes

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April DeConick makes two fresh contributions to the ongoing discussion of the use of contemporary studies on memory and their use in shedding light on antiquity, human memory is THE factor and I was surprised too. I have been waiting for the book in which her article appears to arrive at Duke before adding another comment in this discussion, hence the gap since my last contribution on this topic.

The new article is April DeConick, "Human Memory and the Sayings of Jesus" in Tom Thatcher (ed.), Jesus, the Voice and the Text: Beyond The Oral and Written Gospel (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008): 135-80. The article is similar in several respects to the earlier piece Robert K. McIver and Marie Carroll: "Experiments to Develop Criteria for Determining the Existence of Written Sources, and Their Potential Implications for the Synoptic Problem," JBL 121 (2002): 667-87 though it improves on that one in avoiding some of its logical errors (for which see John Poirier, "Memory, Written Sources and the Synoptic Problem: A Response to Robert K. McIver and Marie Carroll", JBL 123/2 (2004): 315–322) and in the extent of its realization that "the synoptic problem is mainly a problem of literary dependence" (178-9). McIver and Carroll appeared strangely lukewarm on this issue (especially 683; cf. Poirier 316), though in the end they list several passages that they regard as establishing some kind of literary dependence. DeConick* adds several more (179), though she does not reflect on the fact that the passages she gives are different in nature on her preferred (Two-Source) Theory, direct borrowing (Matt // Mark and Mark // Luke) versus mutual dependence on a third document (Matt // Luke double tradition), an issue that is important because of the high verbatim agreement in these passages (cf. Poirier 317; cf. my blog post on the degree of verbatim agreement in Q).

But the discussion of the Synoptic Problem is peripheral in DeConick's article, where the main focus is on pre-Synoptic traditions, and in particular the question of how memory might have functioned in the transmission of those traditions. So is it possible for experiments with contemporary students' memories to shed light on the memories of the bearers of early Christian traditions about Jesus? I am sceptical about the experiments for the following reasons:

(1) The difficulties of transferring the data. Like McIver and Carroll, DeConick is sanguine about her ability to transfer the results from the experiments to the ancient world. In the conclusion to her article (entitled "What does it all mean?"), for example, the new experimental data is used in order to refute Rudolf Bultmann -- "In this case, the data says that Rudolf Bultmann's form-critical theory about orality was incorrect because his assumptions were wrong" (177). I admire this confidence, but I do not share it. The ways in which the memories of contemporary students are formed and trained are so different from the ways in which the ancients' memories were formed and trained that we simply cannot read off the results from one onto the other. We do not do it when we conceptualize ancient compositional practices and we should avoid it too when we conceptualize ancient memory.

(2) The difficulties of setting up the experiments. There is a related problem. It is not just that we have direct access to the modern mind and only indirect access to the ancient mind through the literary deposits, but it is also that we don't know how to replicate the conditions in which the ancients in general or the evangelists in particular worked. In one of their experiments, McIver and Carroll provided financial incentives for their subjects to repeat a joke word for word (674) and DeConick directed those in her experiments to repeat the materials "as accurately as possible" (142-3). But how far and in what way does this replicate the way in which early Christian tradents worked? Were they attempting to remember and retell what they heard "as accurately as possible", whatever we might mean by that?

(3). The text-based nature of the experiments. DeConick's experiments appear to work with a very text-based model. As far as I can tell from the descriptions of the set up of the experiments (e.g. 142-3), specific, fixed texts were always involved. The students either listened to the text on a tape, or they read it. Unless one thinks that early Christian tradents were at all times performing from a fixed text, what we are dealing with here is therefore quite different from early Christian tradition. Our best guess about the transmission of tradition in the pre-Synoptic period is that the process was a dynamic one in which material was communicated, not read aloud. It is important, in other words, to distinguish between memory of communicated tradition and memory of a text that has been read aloud.

(4). The use of unfamiliar material. DeConick's experiments used texts that would be unfamiliar to the students, a version of Thomas 75, a version of Thomas 97 and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas 10.1-2. The choice of these texts is understandable -- DeConick wishes to avoid contamination from previous memory (143). The difficulty with these choices, though, is that it sets up an experiment in which the students are immediately operating at a distance from the material that is being conveyed to them. In the transmission of early Christian traditions, this experience may have obtained at least once for every hearer, but that one off experience would be replaced subsequently by repeated hearings of the same, now increasingly familiar material. DeConick rightly discusses both short term memory and long term memory, but does not discuss the progress from unfamiliarity to familiarity, in interaction, repetition and creative re-interpretation. In other words, the students' brief exposure to unfamiliar texts is unlikely to replicate the early Christian tradents' encounters with the traditions they subsequently carried.

(5) Composition and creativity. The experiments' focus on memory, and the instruction to the students to attempt to engage in accurate reproduction, means that there is no room to factor in parallels to the creative, compositional work of the evangelists and, for that matter, of the tradents before them. The same difficulty obtains in McIver and Carroll's article -- distance from the source text is measured largely in terms of memory distortion with little attention to attempting to replicate the evangelists' own creativity. (See further Poirier, especially 318 and 322).

Lest I appear too sceptical, too harsh on what are, after all, innovative and interesting studies, let me finish with a positive word. The ancient historian's constant battle is the attempt to understand and describe a world that is so very different from ours. One of the weapons in that battle is the well chosen, contemporary analogy. Sometimes, in our bid to describe and analyze what is distant, we need good analogies. The experimental data on contemporary students' memories might well provide the kind of analogies that aid our attempts to do ancient history. They can help us to craft good questions, to make clear contrasts and to remind us where our evidence of the ancient world is wanting. It is important, though, to remind ourselves that contemporary analogies are always partial, often limited and sometimes misleading.

* I am employing what I take to be academic convention in talking about April DeConick's published work using her surname, where the emerging blogging convention is to use first names when talking about blog posts. I mention this lest anyone thinks that I have developed some unwelcome frostiness!

Labels: Forbidden Gospels, memory

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Posted on behalf of Luke Tallon:
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Call for Papers: Genesis and Christian Theology
14-18 July 2009
St Mary's College, University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews is pleased to announce its third conference on Scripture and Christian Theology. Since the first conference on the Gospel of John in 2003, the St Andrews conferences have been recognized as one of the most important occasions when biblical scholars and systematic theologians are brought together in conversation about a biblical text. The conferences aim to cut through the megaphone diplomacy or the sheer incomprehension that so often marks attempts to communicate across our disciplines. We invite you then to join us and some of the best theological and biblical minds in careful and often lively interaction about one of the most theologically generative of biblical books: the book of Genesis.

We are now calling for papers that integrate close readings of Genesis with Christian theology. While we are particularly interested in explorations of the dynamic relationship between Genesis and Christian doctrine, we also welcome proposals that combine careful reading of the text of Genesis with theological attention to art, creativity, ecology, ethics, the history of interpretation (including New Testament usage of Genesis), or Jewish and Christian dialogue.

The call for paper proposals closes on 15 March 2009. Please visit our website for further details or to submit a proposal:
www.st-andrews.ac.uk/divinity/rt/conf/genesis09/.

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I am posting the following on behalf of Ulrich Luz:
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Sacra Scripta
the new Romanian journal for Biblical Studies

edited by the Centre for Biblical Studies
of Babes Bolyai Universität Cluj-Napoca
Chief editor: Stelian Tofana
Executive editor: Korinna Zamfir
Editorial board: Gjörgy Benyik, Ioan Chirilla, Erik Eynikel, Marius Furtuna, Hans Klein, Lehel Lszai, Ulrich Luz, Sorin Martian, Janos Molnar, Tobias Nicklas, Zoltan Olah, Joseph Verheyden

Two issues of ca 120 pages per year.

Articles are accepted in English, German, French and Italian.
Among the authors of the years 2007/08 were Ioan Chirilla, Walter Dietrich, Marco Frenschkowski, Hans Klein, Johannes Klein, Ulrich Luz, Daniel Mihoc, Vasile Mihoc, David Moessner, Tobias Nicklas, Constantin Oancea, Armand Puig y Tarrech, Stelian Tofana, Gerd Theißen, Michael Tilly, Michael Wolter, Korinna Zamfir

Subcriptions: for two issues 35 € incl. postage (in Europe) (for students 20 €)
Subscribers from Eastern European countries get special prices.
Applications for subscriptions to: Anisoara Taut: anisoara_t@yahoo.com
Bank account: Associatia Diatheke, Banca Transilvania, Sucursala Cluj-Napoca, B-dul Eroilor 36. Please add: For "Sacra Scripta". IBAN: RO11BTRL01304205B80615XX

Please support the emerging Romanian Biblical Scholarship through a subscription for your library!
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Posted on behalf of Susan Docherty:
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PhD Studentship in Biblical Studies: the Use of the Old Testament in the New

Newman University College is offering a PhD Studentship in Biblical Studies for three years. The studentship is open to students from within the UK or EU, and the successful candidate will be required to take up the position on a full time basis on 1 April 2009 or earlier.

Applicants must have a good first degree (1st or high 2i) in Theology or Biblical Studies. An MA or MTh in Biblical Studies, or a closely related area, will be a distinct advantage, and a working knowledge of New Testament Greek is also highly desirable. It is important to demonstrate in the application evidence of the skills necessary to undertake independent research (e.g. details of research methods modules undertaken and/or successful dissertations completed). Those called for interview will be asked to supply in advance samples of their previous written work.

The successful candidate will be expected to focus on a specific topic within the general research area of the Use of the Old Testament in the New. She or he will be free to decide which book(s) of the New Testament and which aspect of the research area to study in depth (e.g. direct OT citations; OT allusions; the exegetical techniques of a NT author; the representation in a NT book of an OT narrative or characters; Septuagintal text-form; parallels in the Qumran texts, other ancient Jewish commentaries or Hellenistic literature; the biblical interpretation in the NT against the background of Second Temple Judaism; the contribution to this field of rhetorical or narrative criticism; the way the OT is used to develop the theological intentions of a NT author; comparisons between the use of the OT in the NT and other early Christian literature etc.). Candidates will be invited to state on their application form the aspect(s) of New Testament study in which they are particularly interested, and to outline a draft research topic/proposal.

The supervisory team will be:
Dr Susan Docherty (areas of expertise: Use of the OT in the NT, Septuagint, Second Temple Judaism);
And Dr Martin O’Kane, Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies at Newman University College and Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter (areas of expertise: Hebrew Bible, literary and inter-disciplinary approaches to the text).

For further information about the conditions of the Studentship, the application process and application forms please visit www.newman.ac.uk/studentships or contact: John Howard Research Office Administrator (john.howard@newman.ac.uk; tel. 0121 476 1181 ext. 2246).
For informal enquiries/discussion about the topic or the supervisory team please contact: Dr. Susan Docherty (s.e.docherty@newman.ac.uk; tel. 0121 476 1181 ext. 2231).
Please note that the College will be closed over the Christmas holiday period, so it will not be possible to respond to any enquiries between 20 December 2008 and 4 January 2009 inclusive.

Closing date for applications: 23 January 2009; interviews to be held on 5 February 2009.
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