Here’s a link to the entire 2010 program (WordDoc), but I have also listed belong the relevant sessions on NT, HB, early Christianity, and archaeology:

FRIDAY, March 5

6:00-8:00 pm (SESSION I)

SBL: Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament I

Brian Alderman, Lee University, Presiding

Brandon J. Simonson, Vanderbilt University

• Was Sarai a naditum? Examining the Sexuality of Sarai in an Ancient Near Eastern Milieu

Kristen L. Cox, University of Georgia

• Moses and the Motif of Water: From the Nile to the Jordan River

William L. Lyons, Regent University

• The Forgotten Casualty: Children and War in the Hebrew Bible

Joseph F. Scrivner, Samford University

• Wisdom as Cultural Capital: Socioeconomic Interests in Proverbs 1-9

SBL: New Testament I

Theme: New Testament Themes

Mark Proctor, Lee University, Presiding

Alexander Stewart, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

• Eschatology and Soteriology in 1 Peter

Kevin Larsen, Mid-Atlantic Christian University

• Neglected Considerations in Understanding the Structure of the Book of Revelation

Ricky Shinall, Vanderbilt University

• One Saturday in Capernaum: Mark’s Gentile Appropriation of the Sabbath

John Daniels, Flagler College

• Gossiping Jesus Into Being: The Oral Processing of a Social Personage in the Gospels

AAR: History of Christianity I

Theme: Early Christianity

Michael Simmons, Auburn University, Presiding

Ryan T. Woods, Emory.

• Providence, Punishment, and Perfection: Clement and Basilides on the Suffering of Martyrs

Annie Tinsley, University of Birmingham, U.K.

• Response to Harold O. Maier’s ‘A Sly Civility — Colossians and Empire’

Jonathan Schwiebert, Lenoir-Rhyne University.

• The Meaninglessness of Baptism

Alan Knox, Southeastern Theological Seminary.

• Theological Sources of Ignatius of Antioch

John Stokes, Auburn University Montgomery

• The Cult of Mithras and the Early Christians: Conflict and Competition in the Second and Third Centuries

8:15-9:30 pm

Presidential Addresses:

AAR: Michelle Tooley, Berea College

• Beyond the Peace Dividend in Guatemala: Re-membering Women’s Bodies

SBL: Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Truth and Fiction: The Talpiyot Tomb in Context

SATURDAY, MARCH 6

9:00-10:45 am (SESSION II)

ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World I

Theme: ASOR Presidential Address

Greg Linton, Johnson Bible College, Presiding

James Riley Strange, Samford University

• Economics and the Archaeological Field School: Some Thoughts on the Production and Consumption of Education in the 21st Century

SBL: Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament II

Robert Wallace, Shorter College, Presiding

Douglas Watson, Emory University

• The Rhetoric of Lament in the Book of Joel

Callie Plunket-Brewton, University of North Alabama

• Aesthetics and Architecture: The Rebuilding of Zion in Isaiah 49-55

Todd Hibbard, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

• From Name to Book: Another Look at the Composition of the Book of Isaiah

Jerry Gladson, Columbia Theological Seminary

• The Deus Absconditus in Lamentations and in Postmodern Life

SBL: New Testament II

Theme: The Gospels

Kavin Rowe, Duke University Divinity School, Presiding

James W. Barker, Vanderbilt University

• John’s Use and Disuse of Matthew

David Moffitt, Duke University

• Jonah, Jews, Jesus, and Gentiles: Matthew’s Appropriation of the Sign of Jonah Saying in Light of the Gentile Mission

Tim Wardle, Wake Forest University

• Mark, the Jerusalem Temple and Jewish Sectarianism

Jason Robert Combs, UNC Chapel Hill

• Locating Luke 6:5d: Toward a Social Context for the Sabbath Worker

2:30-4:15 pm (SESSION III)

ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World II

Theme: Jesus and the Galilean Economy

Ralph K. Hawkins, Kentucky Christian University, Presiding

Mordechai Aviam, The Institute for Galilean Archaeology — Kinneret College, in Collaboration with the Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies,

University of Miami

• Socio-Economic Conditions in Galilee at the Time of Jesus

SBL: Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament III

Bryan Bibb, Furman University, Presiding

Theme: Emerging Technologies that Enhance Biblical Scholarship and Teaching

Panelists: TBA

SBL: New Testament III

Theme: Theological Issues in the Interpretation of the New Testament

Richard Vinson, Salem College, Presiding

Jason Staples, UNC Chapel Hill

• Lord, Lord: Jesus’ Use of the Divine Name in the Synoptics

Douglas A. Hume, Pfeiffer University

• The Economics of Friendship: An Interpretation of the Narrative Summaries in Acts 2:41-47 and 4:32-35

Michael Zolondek, Florida International University

• And They Threw Him Out of the Vineyard: An Analysis of the Parable of the Wicked Tenants

Alan Knox, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

• A Theology of Mutuality

4:30-6:00 pm (SESSION IV)

ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World III

Theme: Jesus and the Galilean Economy

Ralph K. Hawkins, Kentucky Christian University, Presiding

Panelists: Tom McCollough, Centre College

David Fiensy, Kentucky Christian University

Doug Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University

Mordechai Aviam, The Institute for Galilean Archaeology — Kinneret College, in Collaboration with the Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, University of Miami

SBL: Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament IV

Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Presiding

Steve Cook, Independent Scholar

• The Biblical Hermeneutics of Margaret Walker: The Case of “Girl Held Without Bail” and Jephthah’s Daughter

B.J. Parker, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University

• The Sublime, Terrible and Ezekiel 16

Jackie Wyse, Emory University

• A Book of Daniel(s): Characterization in Bakhtinian Perspective

Joshua Vis, Duke University

• The Sacrificial System of Leviticus in the Book of Hebrews

AAR: History of Judaism II

Theme: Second Temple Judaism

Gilya Schmidt, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Presiding

Edmund Gallagher, Heritage Christian University

• The Greek Bible among Ancient Jews

Bennie Reynolds, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Lost is Assyria: Locating ’svr on the Maps and the Lexicons of Jewish Writers from the Hellenistic Period

David Stark, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

• mvrh tzdqh as a Hermeneutical Functionary in the Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts

Kenneth Henson, University of Central Florida

• Prophetic “Light” Versus Qumranic “Darkness”: Isaiah’s Audacity of Hope

SUNDAY, MARCH 7

8:30-10:15 am (SESSION V)

ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World IV

Theme: Archaeological Investigations and Reports

Terry W. Eddinger, Carolina Evangelical Divinity School, Presiding

Dan Warner, The Virtual Bible Project

• A Re-Assessment of Canaanite Cultic Structures Based Upon a Functional/Utilitarian Approach

Sharon Lea Mattila, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

• Was There an Economic Crisis under Antipas? Revisiting the Questions of Royal Estates and Taxation in Herodian Galilee

Jeff Hudon, Andrews University

• Judahite Expansion into Philistia during the Early Eighth Century BCE: What is the Historical and Archaeological Evidence?

John Wineland, Kentucky Christian University

• A Report on the 2009 Season at Khirbet Mudaybi

AAR: History of Judaism III and Hebrew Scripture/Old Testament V (joint session)

Theme: The Handwriting on the Wall and Other Tales of Old

David Garber, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Presiding

Cameron B. R. Howard, Emory University

• A Basic Conceptual Metaphor in the Serek ha-Yahad

Michael Fuller, Lee University

• Divine Intervention and Israel’s (”History’ of) Passivity in Josephus and Other Early Jewish Documents

Marian Broida, Emory University

• Textualizing Divination: The Writing on the Wall

SBL: New Testament IV

Theme: Reception History of the New Testament

Doug Hume, Pfeiffer University, Presiding

Diane Lipsett, Wake Forest University

• Stones, Scandal, and Seeing God: John Donne in the Reception History of Matthew

Wayne Coppins, University of Georgia

• Paul’s Juxtaposition of Freedom and Positive Servitude in 1 Cor 9:19 and its Reception by Martin Luther and Gerhard Ebeling

Ben White, UNC Chapel Hill

• How to Read a Book: Irenaeus and the Pastoral Epistles Reconsidered

Jeremy Barrier, Heritage Christian University

• The Earliest Christian Novels: An Analysis of the Manuscript and Literary Evidence for Christian Novel Writing in the Pre-Constantinian Era

10:30 am-12:15 pm (SESSION VI)

ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World V

Theme: Archaeological Method and Theory

Sharon Lea Mattila, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Presiding

Ted Carruth, David Lipscomb University

• A Sculpture Fragment from Iron II Moabite Khirbet Mudaybi’: A Case Study of Inter-Disciplinary Inquiry for Interpretive Purposes

Robert Darby, University of Missouri-Columbia and Erin Darby, Duke University

• “Re”-Covering the Past: How Do We Protect and Study Jordan’s Threatened Ancient Sites? Approaches at “Ayn Gharandal”

Frederick L. Downing, Valdosta State University

• When the Center Cannot Hold: A Paradigm for Reading Near Eastern Archaeology

SBL: New Testament V

Theme: Paul

Diane Lipsett, Wake Forest University, Presiding

Mark Proctor, Lee University

• If Christ Has Not Been Raised — The Inefficacy of a Qualified Gospel in 1 Cor 15:17

Thomas Whitley, Gardner-Webb University

• From Qumran to Philo: Precedence for Paul’s Use of “Israel”

Annie Tinsley, University of Birmingham (UK)

• “Colossians and Empire”: A Response to Harold O. Maier

Presian Burroughs, Duke University

• Why Await the Apocalypse of the Sons of God? Reflections on Creation’s Liberation in Romans 8:18—22

I picked up LTJ’s book but haven’t had the opportunity to read through it thoroughly. From what I have read, I think it will be a great contribution to anyone studying Greco-Roman religion. Johnson seeks to dispel notions that early Christian religion was wholly different from that of pagan religion. “The heart of the book, ” Johnson writes, “is a close and (I hope) careful comparison between the ways of being religious among Gentiles and in Christianity” (ix-x). He emphasizes that his book is written from the perspective of religious studies and not theology.

Johnson develops four ways or types of being religious in Greco-Roman religion. These four categories are (1) religion as participation in divine benefits, (2) religion as moral transformation, (3) religion as transcending the world, and (4) religion as stabilizing the world. Johnson then uses these categories to describe how early Christians understood religion in similar ways to other religions in the ancient Mediterranean. This book should be useful for patristic scholars as well as students of the New Testament since his discussion of ancient religion spans from the New Testament to the post-Constantine era.

There will be a symposium celebrating the work of Everett Ferguson [wiki] at Lipscomb University in Nashville. The symposium, scheduled for June 4, 2010, is centered around Ferguson’s recent tome, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries. The participants include Carl Holladay, J. Patout Burns, Robin M. Jensen, Thomas M. Finn, Everett Ferguson, and Abraham J. Malherbe. Ferguson’s book, Backgrounds of Early Christianity is widely popular in the field and I expect this recent book with its detailed treatment of Baptism to become a standard text for years to come.

HT: Vita Brevis

1. Gender and Nag Hammadi (Chairs: Katherine Veach and Nathan Bennett)
2. The Reception and Interpretation of Sacred Texts in Early Christianity: The Transfiguration (Chairs: Jeffrey Bingham and Bogdan G. Bucur)
3. Religion and Society in Syrian Antioch (Chair: Wendy Mayer)
4. The Rhetoric of Heaven (Chairs: Candida R. Moss and Taylor Petrey)
5. Ambrosiaster (or “De-mystifying the ‘Mysterious Ambrosiaster’”) (Chairs: David G. Hunter)
6. Syriac Homiletic Biblical Exegesis (Chairs: Robert A. Kitchen and Kristian S. Heal)
7. Love, the Mind, and Books: exegetical pedagogy and noetic exegesis (Chairs: Blossom Stefaniw and Michael V. Niculescu)
8. The Reception of Paul’s Letter to the Romans: Predestination and Divine Sovereignty (Chairs: George Kalantzis and Patout Burns)
9. The Reception of Gregory the Great in the Middle Ages (Chair: Ann Kuzdale)
10. Touching Religion in Late Antiquity (Chair: Douglas Boin)
11. The “Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy” Research Project (Chair: Charles A. Bobertz)

HT: Vita Brevis.

Matt argues that using a rhetorical-critical approach to the text will not only help one better appreciate the text as it stands, but serves as a corrective to some of the tendencies of previous scholarship that focused too much on its sources than its final product. I agree with Matt on the use of rhetorical criticism. I also look forward to seeing how he hashes out his theory that the Didache contains “a strong polemical, defensive rhetoric claiming to be the continuation of the true Israel, not a false, rogue Messianic sect and certainly not a new religion, but a very very old one.” The subject of my Master’s thesis actually dealt with this topic in part, and so it should be nice to see how he works this out. I do hope he writes a post on his methodology because “rhetorical criticism” is a very broad category.

Though I think looking at the text as a whole using a literary or rhetorical approach is very valuable, I still think that the old Wissenshaft methods of source, form, and redaction are still worth using and applying to the Didache. I would disagree with his statement that “[s]ource criticism has left the poor Didachist as a confused compiler who had no theology to offer his readership.” But that’s for another post.

Update: April DeConick responds to Skinner’s interview here. This is getting interesting!

Update 2: Skinner responds to DeConick’s response here.

English:

April D. DeConick, The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation with a Commentary and New English Translation of the Complete Gospel (LNTS 287; London/New York: T & T Clark, 2006). [Amazon]

This commentary was originally written as an appendix to April D. Deconick, Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas: A History of the Gospel and Its Growth (LNTS 286; London/New York: T & T Clark, 2005), yet it outgrew its originally intended size and developed into a freestanding commentary on the Gospel of Thomas. Thus, it should be read as a companion to her first volume on the Gospel. DeConick deals with each logion in their own section with the following formula: translation, the Coptic text (NHC), the Greek text (P. Oxy., if applicable), attribution, text and translation issues, interpretive comment, source discussion, literature parallels, agreements in Syrian Gospels, Western Text and Diatessaron, and a select bibliography. The thoroughness of DeConick’s work, the easy-to-use format, and the recent publication date makes this a necessary volume for anyone interested in the Gospel of Thomas. Kudos to T. &. T. Clark for also making it available in paperback.

Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman, The Secret Sayings of Jesus (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960).

This was an early attempt at interpreting the Gospel of Thomas. Grant and Freedman read the Gospel of Thomas as a “chiefly Gnostic” text which is derivative of the Synoptic Gospels (9). The bulk of the volume deals with introductory matters of the Gospel, detailing its discovery, its realationship to other gospels, the Gnostics and Thomas, the environment of Thomas, the Gnostics and our Gospels, and Thomas as an author and theologian. The commentary, based on the translation of William R. Schoedel (1959), is relatively short and chiefly interacts with other primary sources such as the canonical gospels. A brief subject index concludes the book.

Marvin Meyer, The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992).

Meyer’s volume contains a short (15 page) introduction, a translation of the Gospel with the Coptic text on the facing pages, and roughly 50 pages of commentary. Following the commentary there is an ‘interpretation’ by Harold Bloom, who reads the Gospel along Gnostic lines. This is accessible to non-scholars and is probably not very useful for those looking for a more technical treatment of the text.

Uwe-Karsten Plisch, The Gospel of Thomas: Original Text with Commentary (trans. Gesine Schenke Robinson; Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2008). [Amazon]

This recently published commentary by Plisch is a welcomed addition to the Gospel of Thomas commentaries in English. It was translated from a German original and has all the makings of a first-rate commentary. Plisch argues that the text is of Syrian origins and that it preserves sources dependent and independent of the Synoptic tradition dating from before and after the Synoptics. The text contains various theological traditions which cannot be put “under one theological umbrella” (16). The introduction is about 25 pages and the commentary is over 200 pages. In the commentary, each logion is given in the Coptic text with the Greek text from P. Oxy. if applicable. He also gives a retroverted translation of the Greek text from the Coptic and an English translation. Endnotes follow each logion. There is an index of ancient texts, but no author or subject index.

Richard Valantasis, The Gospel of Thomas (New York: Routledge, 1997). [Amazon]

Rather than primarily investigating the Gospel of Thomas in relation to the Synoptic Gospels or second century gnosticism, Valantasis’s commentary approaches the Gospel as a theological document in its own right. He argues that it is first necessary to give this Gospel its own voice before looking at its relationship to other forms of Christianity, which has been the trend (xiii). He views the material as a “complete collection from the first decade of the second century CE” (26), and avoids the difficult “gnostic” language altogether. The commentary is based on the English translation of the Scholar’s Version (Polebridge Press). In the commentary section, he first works through the Greek texts from P. Oxy. and then through the Coptic text from Nag Hammadi. Each logion gets its own section of about one page each. The book only contains a subject index.

French:

Rodolphe Kasser, L’Évangile selon Thomas: Présentation et commentaire théologique (Neuchâtel: Éditions Delachaux & Niestlé, 1960).

Long before his work on the Gospel of Judas, Kasser wrote this commentary on the Gospel of Thomas. It contains a relatively short (15 page) introduction, and features each logion with its own French translation, Greek text, parallel references, and a commentary. The end matter consists of a concordance of French words with their Coptic/Greek parallels and gives their location in the text of the Gospel. There are a few other appendices and a scripture index.

Jacques-É. Ménard, L’Évangile selon Thomas (Nag Hammadi Studies 5; Leiden: Brill, 1975).

This has all the signs of being the leading French commentary on the Gospel of Thomas. There is a lengthy (50 page) introduction, which addresses all of the typical issues such as date and location, the Gospel’s place in early Christianity in light of other texts, its theology, and its structure. The French translation has a few footnotes and many in-text references to the Greek. The commentary proper mostly treats the logia indvidually, and is based on the Coptic/Greek text. Although it interacts with a lot of secondary literature, there are only in-text citations (no footnotes). The indices are also quite lengthy as well.

German:

Michael Fieger, Das Thomasevangelium: Eintleitung, Kommentar, und Systematik (Münster: Aschendorffsche, 1991).

This commentary contains a short (11 page) introduction which addresses many of the standard issues such as intertextuality and the Thomas community. The commentary itself is fairly exhaustive. Each logion is treated separately and systematically: the Coptic text with a German translation and Greek parallels (if applicable). Fieger interacts with a lot of scholarship and the volume is heavily footnoted. At the end the volume there is a brief Systematische Übersicht der Ergebnisse, which includes a number of topics such as soteriology, Jesus made flesh, the kingdom, anthropology, cosmology, and the way of gnosis. He reads the Gospel of Thomas as a second century Gnostic writing which is dependent on the Synoptic Gospels.

Reinhard Nordsieck, Das Thomas-Evangelium: Einleitung — Zur Frage des historischen Jesus — Kommentierung aller 114 Logien (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2004).

Nordsieck’s volume is divided into three sections: an introduction (7-23), a section on the historical Jesus (24-30), and a commentary (31-390). The page layout and general formatting of the book is horrendous. There are no paragraph indentations, lots of in-text citations with the authors’ names in all caps, and generally too much text on each page. This makes for a difficult time reading or skimming the volume, unless one is browsing for authors’ names (all caps) because there are no indices. Nordsieck treats each logion individually with a lot of references to other scholarship and parallel passages. It’s a very sizable commentary. He argues that the Gospel is neither Gnostic nor dependent on the Synoptic tradition, but is an independent witness to the historical Jesus.