Category Archives: SBL

Off to Washington…

Posted on by

I am flying to Washington shortly. While I may post a bit about the conference from Washington, don’t count on it! 🙂

While I am away, I am going to run a little “Best of Codex” series. These are posts that I consider somehow representative of what I do on this blog. Some of the “Best of” posts are ones that are popular, some are ones that I enjoyed writing, while others illustrate some of my academic interests.

Please note that this is not scientific or anything! These are just some of the 500+ posts that I have written in the year and a half since I started this blog. If I thought about it longer, I imagine there would be many posts I would deem better — I will save those for the next time I run a “Best of Codex.”

Have a great weekend!


2006 Society of Biblical Literature Meetings

Posted on by

Well, like many others, I am heading off Friday to the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion meetings in Washington, D.C. Unlike many others, I am not presenting a paper this time (yipee!). I typically always present something, but this year I didn’t get my act together and also made a decision not to present something since I am already busy enough with various projects (Oh, yeah, I also teach more than full time). So this year I am going to SBL to meet with some editors/publishers, see old friends, buy some books, go to the Smithsonian, and, of course, listen to a few papers.

I found this year a bit frustrating as there are multiple sections I am interested in scheduled at the same time. So I will be catching the ones that I can, including the following:

  • International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS), especially the Saturday morning session on the Greek Psalter in later Jewish and Christian Writings. (I would also like to hear Gary Knoppers on the synoptic problems in the OT at the IBR session Saturday morning, but I don’t think it will work out).
  • Early Saturday afternoon I will probably divide my time between the SBL fonts session (I’m not sure if I will attend this, though I am quite interested to see if they are going to be releasing the SBL Greek and transliteration unicode fonts) and the session on Codex Sinaiticus.
  • Later Saturday afternoon I want to catch part of the Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah section and then perhaps go to some of the Hebrew tagged texts seminar by Logos.
  • Sunday morning is nuts. There are four concurrent sections I am interested in: the History, Historical Sources, and Historiography session in honour of Nadav Na’aman looks interesting, as does the IOSCS section, the Literature and History of the Persian Period group, and the Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible section.
  • Sunday afternoon the Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah panel discussion on post-exilic Judah looks interesting and I also have to drop in to the Zondervan suite later in the afternoon for a meeting.
  • Early Monday morning I will probably drag myself to the Regent College (Vancouver, BC) breakfast and then clone myself twice so that I can attend the IOSCS, Persian Period, and Accordance seminar (I will probably just have to settle for the Persian Period session).
  • Monday afternoon I may drop into the IOSCS and Text Criticism sessions, though since I can’t be at both I will probably attend the Text Criticism section since it is on 4QSamuel-a.
  • Tuesday nothing really caught my eye, though I have a couple meetings that will keep me busy for most of the morning.

And, of course, there is the informal biblioblogger meeting Sunday afternoon after the CARG session in room 103A-CC, as announced by Tim and Rick, among others.

All in all it should be a good meeting — especially since I don’t have to worry about reading a paper!


SBL Forum: Ancient Texts, Google Books, and Wikis

Posted on by

The November edition of the SBL Forum is online. It includes articles on the biblical manuscript exhibition at the Smithsonian (as well as a review of the exhibition), an article exploring the benefits of Google Book, as well as number of articles on the value of Wikis for biblical studies (Noteworthy in this regard is Kevin Wilson’s notice on the Blue Cord Bible Dictionary). And instead of “Snakes on a Plane,” it offers “Bible Scholars on a Plane” (Gee, I wonder what is more terrifying!?). And there is even more, so make sure to check it out!

On a side note, does anyone know if previous forums are listed anywhere on the SBL site? It appears that once the new forum is posted, no index of the previous forums are available.


Is the SBL in Need of Medicine?

Posted on by

The most recent Chronicler of Higher Education has an article entitled, “What’s Wrong With the Society of Biblical Literature?” by Jacques Berlinerblau.

While I don’t have time to fully engage the article, I think it raises a number of good points, but misses the mark on just as many. I agree that it would be good to have a “census” of members (“census” sounds so biblical; I just hope our census fares better than King David’s!) to see where people are at on a whole variety of issues. I agree that the society should make a concerted effort to popularize good biblical scholarship (I think that the “SBL Forum” is a step in the right direction). Perhaps a glossy magazine is in order?

In regards to the academic freedom issue, I don’t see how an academic society (which is what SBL is and will always be; sorry Jacques) can really have much input except by encouraging standards to which institutions can strive. The SBL is not an accrediting agency. Finally, in regards to his recommendation to create “a form of biblical scholarship that goes beyond theology and ecumenical dialogue” I am not quite sure I agree with this proposal or even his perception that is is already not happening.

Perhaps the biggest problem I have with Berlinerblau’s article is that it seems just too American. Perhaps it is just my sensitive Canadian ears, but many of the examples seem to be too nationalistic (e.g., “America is in the midst of a religious revival,” suggesting that the SBL should aspire to the likes of the Brookings Institution [PEN isn’t quite as bad a comparison since one of its goals is to foster international literary fellowship], or that it should address “the rising use of Scripture in American public life,” etc.). The SBL is an international organization with members from every continent in the world; it needs to focus on promoting and fostering excellent biblical scholarship on an international level.

I also think that many of Berlinerblau’s criticisms are unfair. For instance, in regards to the great divorce between AAR and SBL, the reason why AAR tries to explain their position on their website is because they are the ones who went forward with divorce proceedings, not SBL. I guess the SBL could have a little note on their site saying, “We don’t want to separate, we love you, please come back,” but I don’t think it would work!

Anyhow, its an interesting article and I imagine it will generate much discussion in the weeks ahead.

(HT Blue Cord)


SBL Forum: Teaching, Text Criticism, and Texts

Posted on by

The latest SBL Forum is online and has a number of interesting articles. Stephen Carlson (of hypotyposeis fame) has a preview of his coming SBL presentation on “Archaic Mark” (MS 2427), while Stefan C. Reif introduces some newly discovered Genizah texts. Another announcement in this month’s forum is that the online journal TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism is now an official SBL publication.

What especially caught my eye in this month’s forum was an article by fellow Canadian and friend Tim McLay. Tim wrote a piece entitled “The Goal of Teaching Biblical and Religious Studies in the Context of an Undergraduate Education.” In this article Tim first deals with the goal of an undergraduate education, which he argues is first and foremost “to learn to think critically and to articulate one’s ideas better in oral and written form.” His second and related claim is that “the content of teaching is irrelevant.” While I have a knee-jerk reaction to Tim’s second claim, in the context of his article I can appreciate his point — especially when you think of it in light of his rhetorical question: “How often are we concerned to finish our lecture rather than entertain a question?” While I am not terribly content driven (witness the fact that I used to have a hard time getting out of the Pentateuch in my OT Literature class!), I do feel that a certain amount of content is necessary for the introductory courses. Nevertheless, Tim’s point is well taken as a reminder to be flexible in the classroom.

Perhaps my more substantial objection is to his first point. Isn’t a liberal arts education more than just critical thinking? Don’t get me wrong — the development of critical thinking skills is a crucial component of a liberal arts education — I just think that a liberal arts education should be so much more. What do you think?