orion-list Update/Reminder, Toronto PSCO Panel of Parabiblical Literature
Please find below updated information about the special Toronto session of the PSCO this Friday, to which all are welcome to attend. Apologies, as always, for the inevitable host of cross-postings... All the best, Annette ***Announcement of a Special, pre-SBL/AAR Toronto Meeting of the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins (PSCO) on "Parabiblical Literature"*** 22 November 2002, 8-10 pm, Quebec Room of the Royal York Hotel. Moderated by Robert Kraft (University of Pennsylvania) and Annette Y. Reed (Princeton University) Panelists: *Gary Anderson (Harvard University) *James R. Davila (St.Andrews University, Scotland) *Devorah Dimant (Haifa University, Israel) *Ingrid Hjelm (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) *Andrew Jacobs (University of California, Riverside) *John Reeves (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) The PSCO is in its 40th year (see http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/). Since its topic for the current year -- "Parabiblical Literature" -- is of wide interest for students and scholars of both Jewish and Christian scriptures and related literature, its co-chairs have decided to take advantage of the presence of a large and international group of specialists at the Toronto meetings and hold a special session there. The session hopes to bring together experts (both on our panel and in our audience) whose knowledge and insights will contribute to productive discussion of the topic of apparently authoritative written materials that we look back on as "extrabiblical" yet as, at the same time, similar in various ways to what became "biblical" for (especially but not only) Judaism and Christianity. Part of the discussion will involve the question of appropriate terminology (e.g. "pseudepigrapha," "rewritten Bible," "biblical paraphrase," etc.). For summaries of our discussions so far, both at the first meeting of this year's PSCO and in Bob's graduate seminar on the same theme, see: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/735/Parabiblical/intro.htm. A separate email will follow with more details about the panelists in the upcoming Toronto session and the topics that they will be discussing. Updated information, both about the Toronto session and about the rest of the PSCO schedule for this year, can be found at: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/topic.shtml Please feel free to distribute this notice to anyone who might be interested in attending the Toronto PSCO session, or in the project more broadly. We hope to see you in Toronto! Annette Yoshiko Reed (Princeton University), co-chair Robert A. Kraft (University of Pennsylvania), co-chair Todd C. Krulak (University of Pennsylvania), special recording secretary Tennyson J. Wellman (University of Pennsylvania), recording secretary Jay C. Treat (University of Pennsylvania), technical coordinator For private reply, e-mail to "Annette Yoshiko Reed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
orion-list Addendum - Descriptions of PSCO Toronto Panelists (long!)
iblical! Back in 1976, at the invitation of Jim Charlesworth, I presented at the SNTS Congress a major survey of the use of "pseudepigrapha" in (early) Christianity -- an essay that was available for years in electronic form until John Reeves footnoted it and brought it into hardcopy publication in the volume he co-edited on Tracing the Threads (1994). Subsequently, I've played a bit with questions of "scriptural consciousness" in comparison to "canonical consciousness" in a couple of publications, and did some updating of the older "pseudepigrapha" essay for the SNTS group at Tel Aviv in 2000, which subsequently appeared with other essays from that group in the Journal for the Study of Judaism last year. Meanwhile, when DSS research (and the English edition by Florentino Garcia Martinez in 1994) brought the term "parabiblical" into some prominence, my former student Jay Treat and I plotted to put this topic area on the queue for a future PSCO year. As things worked out, the topic was accepted as appropriate in this the 40th, celebratory, year of PSCO, and Annette (having just finished her dissertation on the Enochic Watchers tradition) was willing to co-chair. At the same time, my advanced graduate students and I are exploring the subject week by week in more depth, as some of you hopefully will have noticed through our class website. For me, "parabiblical" covers two somewhat distinguishable sets of data: (1) What we used to call "rewritten bible," where there seems to be a consciousness by the author/editors that authoritative scriptural materials are being repurposed, sometimes even resulting in a new "scriptural" work; and (2) materials considered authoritative in some socio-religious contexts (functionally "scripture") that may or may not resemble what later came to be considered "biblical" by the surviving traditions, but did not itself become "biblical." I'm hoping that a year of close study of the materials and the problems of definition may lead to more clarity of terminology and of analysis of these fascinating texts, traditions, and perspectives. _ Annette Yoshiko Reed (Princeton University) My name is Annette Reed. I am presently a postdoc at Princeton University, and I am the other co-chair of this year's PSCO. The topic of "Parabiblical Literature" lies at the intersection of three of my major research interests: first is a specific concern for the composition, redaction, and reception of Enochic literature, both in the Second Temple period and beyond. Second is a focus on the history of biblical interpretation -- broadly construed to include the emergence of the very concept of "Scripture" as a privileged site of interpretation and the formation of biblical canons in Judaism and Christianity. Third is a broader methodological interest in moving beyond our own modern notions about authors, books, and readers, in order to explore the nature of literary production, collection, and reception in early Judaism and early Christianity -- an issue that proves most pertinent for the study of biblical and parabiblical literature, due to the large gap between ancient notions of textual authority, which varied widely with time and place, and their modern counterparts, which have been shaped by our encounters with "the Bible" as a single volume, clearly distinct from volumes with names like "OT Pseudepigrapha" and "NT Apocrypha." I combined these interests in my (recently completed) dissertation on the reception-history of the Book of the Watchers in Judaism and Christianity. By focusing on the Nachleben of its traditions about teachings of the fallen angels and correlating the influence of these traditions with explicit comments about Enochic books in Jewish and Christian writings, I there sought to chart the changing status of this early Jewish apocalypse and its influence on the interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 in Second Temple, Rabbinic, and early medieval Judaism and early, late antique, and Byzantine Christianity. At the very outset of the project, Bob pushed me to explore its potential for exposing the "tyranny of canonical assumptions" that still shapes modern scholarship about so-called "OT pseudepigrapha." I must confess that I was not, at first, convinced of the pressing need to tackle such issues; indeed, my own interest lay in using the afterlife of this early Jewish text as a lens through which to explore the continued interactions between Jewish and Christian communities after the so-called "Parting of the Ways," and I thus feared that my proverbial plate was already too full with methodological challenges to deep-seated scholarly beliefs. Throughout t
RE: orion-list Colloquium, "The Ways that Never Parted"
Below is the full schedule for "The Ways that Never Parted," an up-coming conference at Princeton University. The event is free and open to the public. Apologies yet again for cross-posting. Best wishes! Annette --- Princeton University, Department of Religion, and the Oxford-Princeton Research Partnership, "Culture and Religions of the Eastern Mediterranean" Project present THE WAYS THAT NEVER PARTED: JEWS AND CHRISTIANS IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Colloquium, Princeton University, January 9 to 11, 2002 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9TH Beyond the Parting of the Ways? Traditional Models and New Directions 5:00 to 6:30 pm, Senate Chamber, Whig Hall Fritz Graf (Princeton University) Martin Goodman (Oxford University) Martha Himmelfarb (Princeton University) Robert Kraft (University of Pennsylvania) Elaine Pagels (Princeton University) David Stern (University of Pennsylvania) Elliot Wolfson (New York University) THURSDAY, JANUARY 10TH SESSION 1: Problems of Definition and Interpretation 9:30 am to 12:30 pm, Jones Hall 202 Paula Fredriksen (Boston University) What Parting of the Ways? Adam Becker (Princeton University) The Discourse on Priesthood: A New, Anti-Jewish Text from the Early Islamic Period? Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley) Semantic Differences: The Language of Judaism and Christianity Peter Schäfer (Princeton University) The Anxiety of Influence: Some Remarks on Influence, Origins, and Proof SESSION 2: Reconsidering Jewish-Christianity 2:00 to 4:30 pm, Jones Hall 202 David Frankfurter (University of New Hampshire) Beyond Jewish-Christianity: Apocalypses in Continuous Communities Annette Yoshiko Reed (Princeton University) Demons, Jews, and Gentiles in the Pseudo-Clementines: Three Jewish-Christian Approaches to Historiography and Self-Definition John Gager (Princeton University) Did Jewish-Christianity See the Rise of Islam? FRIDAY, JANUARY 11TH SESSION 3: Cultural, Discursive, and Exegetical Commonalities 9:00 am to 11:45 am, Jones Hall 202 Simon Price (Oxford University) The Mithras Liturgy and the Interaction of Revelatory Traditions Raanan Abusch (Princeton University) The Physics of Procreation: Miraculous Conception in Late-Antique Jewish and Christian Hagiography Alison Salvesen (Oxford University) Jewish and Christian Interpretation of the Bible Naomi Koltun-Fromm (Haverford College) Zippora's Complaint: He is not Conscientious in the Deed! The Tradition of Moses' Celibacy in Jewish and Christian literature SESSION 4: Conflict, Contact, and Competition 1:00 pm to 3:45 pm, Jones Hall 202 E. Leigh Gibson (Oberlin College) The Jews and Christians of Smyrna: Entangled or Parted Ways? Amram Tropper (Oxford University) Mishnah Avot and Christian Succession Lists Daniel Stökl (visiting, Princeton University) Whose Fast is it Anyway? Yom Kippur and the Roman Christian Fast of September Averil Cameron (Oxford University) Jews and Heretics: A Category Error? For private reply, e-mail to "Annette Yoshiko Reed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
orion-list Colloquium, "The Ways that Never Parted"
Please find below an announcement of an upcoming conference at Princeton University. I apologize in advance for cross-posting. Best wishes, Annette Y. Reed [EMAIL PROTECTED] Princeton University, Department of Religion, and the Oxford-Princeton Research Partnership, "Culture and Religions of the Eastern Mediterranean" Project THE WAYS THAT NEVER PARTED: JEWS AND CHRISTIANS IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Colloquium, January 9-11, 2002, Princeton University http://www.princeton.edu/~religion/ways/ Recent scholarship has increasingly questioned the assumption that Judaism and Christianity were shaped by a definitive "Parting of the Ways" after which these two religions followed separate trajectories. According to the traditional model, Judaism and Christianity decisively institutionalized their differences after the Bar Kokhba Revolt (135 CE); thereafter, the two religions developed in relative isolation from one another, interacting mainly through polemical conflict and mutual misperception. Our evidence, however, suggests a more complex reality, in which the boundaries of religious identity was often less clear and in which the developments in both traditions were shaped by their shared cultural contexts. In response, many scholars have attempted to explore new models for understanding the relationship between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. By acknowledging that neither tradition was monolithic, they have been able to highlight the fascinating diversity of belief and practice that continued to characterize both traditions, illuminating the diverse spectrum that stretched between their respective orthodoxies. This research has also catalyzed important discussions about broader issues, such as the shortcomings of scholarly categorization, the persistence of theological biases, and the challenge of using textual evidence to reconstruct social realities. The traditional model had privileged internal developments within each tradition as more authentic and, in the process, tacitly reasserted the intractability of the ideological and social boundaries between Judaism and Christianity. In contrast, recent discussions have highlighted the powerful ambivalence that often underlies efforts at negotiating religious difference and have exposed the problematic nature of any notion of "influence" that only acknowledges the delimited exchange of ideas between two otherwise discrete entities. Throughout the fall semester 2001, faculty and graduate students in the Religions of Late Antiquity subfield of the Princeton University Department of Religion have met bi-weekly to discuss papers on these issues. As part of the "Culture and Religions of the Eastern Mediterranean" project of the Oxford-Princeton Research Partnership, a parallel seminar has been held by Simon Price and Martin Goodman at Oxford University. The joint Colloquium at Princeton represents the culmination of our on-going discussions on this topic and will include participants from both universities, together with invited speakers. PARTICIPANTS Raanan Abusch (Princeton University) Adam Becker (Princeton University) Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley) Averil Cameron (Oxford University) Paula Fredriksen (Boston University) John Gager (Princeton University) E. Leigh Gibson (Oberlin College) Martin Goodman (Oxford University) Fritz Graf (Princeton University) Martha Himmelfarb (Princeton University) Robert Kraft (University of Pennsylvania) David Frankfurter (University of New Hampshire) Naomi Koltun-Fromm (Haverford College) Elaine Pagels (Princeton University) Simon Price (Oxford University) Annette Yoshiko Reed (Princeton University) Alison Salvesen (Oxford University) Peter Schäfer (Princeton University) David Stern (University of Pennsylvania) Daniel Stökl (visiting, Princeton University) Amram Tropper (Oxford University) Elliot Wolfson (New York University) This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Adam Becker ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Annette Yoshiko Reed ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). For more information about the Oxford-Princeton Research Partnership's "Culture and Religions of the Eastern Mediterranean" project, see: http://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/faculty/oxprinceton.html For private reply, e-mail to "Annette Yoshiko Reed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILOR BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
orion-list Princeton University, Bar Kokhba conference
Please find below the tentative schedule for the up-coming conference at Princeton University on the topic of the Bar Kokhba War. There is no charge to attend the conference and no need to register in advance. For more information, please contact either myself ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or the manager of our Jewish Studies program, Marcie Citron ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). In addition, please feel free to forward the schedule to any scholars or students that may be interested in attending. Apologies in advance for cross-posting. Best wishes, Annette Y. Reed _ THE BAR KOKHBA WAR RECONSIDERED: ARCHAEOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND LITERARY PERSPECTIVES ON THE SECOND JEWISH REVOLT AGAINST ROME Princeton University, November 11-13, 2001, Jones Hall 202 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2001 12:00 noon, Welcome 12:20 pm, Peter Schäfer, Princeton University "Bar Kokhba and the Rabbis" 1:10 pm, Benjamin Isaac, Tel Aviv University "Roman Religious Policy and the Bar Kokhba Revolt" 2:00 pm, Martin Goodman, Oxford University "The Origins of the Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered: The Role of Trajan" Coffee Break, 2:50 to 3:50 pm 3:50 pm, Aharon Oppenheimer, Tel Aviv University "The Ban of Circumcision as Cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration" 4:40 pm, Ra'anan Abusch, Princeton University "Negotiating Difference: Circumcision and Castration within Roman Law during the First Two Centuries of the Empire" 5:30 pm, Hanan Eshel, Bar-Ilan University Slide Session on New Discoveries MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2001 9:30 am, Menahem Mor, University of Haifa "The Geographical Scope of the Bar Kokhba Revolt" 10:20 am, Hanan Eshel, Bar-Ilan University "The Bar Kokhba Era and the Date when Bar Kokhba Came into Power" 11:10 am, Hannah M. Cotton, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "The Bar Kokhba Revolt and the Papyrology of the Judaean Desert" Lunch Break, 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm 1:30 pm, Werner Eck, University of Cologne "Hadrian, the Bar Kokhba Revolt and the Epigraphic Tradition" 2:20 pm, Glen Bowersock, Institute for Advanced Study "The Tel Shalem Arch and P. Nahal Hever/Seiyal 8" Coffee Break, 3:30 to 4:20 pm 4:20 pm, Yuval Shahar, Tel Aviv University "The Underground Hideouts in Galilee and their Historical Meaning" 5:10 pm, Boaz Zissu, Israel Antiquities Authority and Bar Ilan University "The Fate of the Rural Settlement in Judaea after the Bar Kokhba Revolt: New Archaeological Surveys and Excavations" TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2001 9:30 am, Yaron Eliav, University of Michigan "The Urban Layout of Aelia Capitolina: A New View from the Perspective of the Temple Mount" 10:20 am, Yoram Tsafrir, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem "The Aftermath: Aelia Capitolina - Jerusalem of Hadrian" 11:10 am, Yael Zerubavel, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey "Bar Kokhba's Image in Modern Israeli Culture" For private reply, e-mail to "Annette Yoshiko Reed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." Archives are on the Orion Web site, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il. (PLEASE REMOVE THIS TRAILER BEFORE REPLYING TO THE MESSAGE)
orion-list Colloquium: "In Heaven as it is on Earth"
Please find below an announcement of an upcoming Colloquium at Princeton University, organized by myself, Ra'anan Abusch, and Peter Schäfer. Please feel free to distribute it to anyone who might be interested. I apologize in advance for cross-posting. Best wishes, Annette Yoshiko Reed [EMAIL PROTECTED] Announcement of Colloquium: "In Heaven as it is on Earth:" Imagined Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions January 14-15, 2001, Princeton University Despite the diversity of late antique religions, the post-classical period appears to be marked by an intensification of interest in the specific features of the heavenly realms. Topics of speculation include the topography of heaven, the architecture and contents of celestial structures, the identity and function of myriad angelic hosts, the character of heavenly liturgies and rituals, and the nature of heavenly objects (e.g., tablets, scrolls, books). Examples are as plentiful as our sources are diverse. In organizing a colloquium on this topic, our aim is to encourage research and discussion on this complex of themes, as it occurs within the full range of late antique religious traditions -- including post-biblical and rabbinic Judaism, formative Christianity, the variety of so-called "gnostic" traditions, diverse magical traditions, and Greco-Roman philosophy and religion. The colloquium represents the culmination of a workshop on this topic in the Religions of Late Antiquity sub-field of the Princeton University Religion Department, which has met on a bi-weekly basis throughout the fall semester 2000 to discuss a variety of papers related to this topic. We hope to foster a similarly informal yet productive atmosphere for dialogue at the colloquium, and we invite interested scholars in the fields of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, History, and Classics to attend. Tentative List of Colloquium Participants: Ra'anan Abusch (Princeton University) Gary Anderson (Harvard University) Jane Baun (Institute for Advanced Study) Adam Becker (Princeton University) Kirsti Copeland (Princeton University) Radcliffe Edmonds (Bryn Mawr College) Susanna Elm (visiting, Princeton University) Christopher Faraone (University of Chicago) Fritz Graf (Princeton University) Karen King (Harvard University) Sarah Iles Johnston (Ohio State University) Martha Himmelfarb (Princeton University) Dayna Kalleres (Brown University) Elaine Pagels (Princeton University) Yannis Papadoyannakis (Princeton University) Annette Yoshiko Reed (Princeton University) Jeffrey L. Rubenstein (New York University) Peter Schäfer (Princeton University) More information about the Colloquium and associated Workshop can be found on the website of the Princeton University Religion Department, at the following URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~religion/heaven/ If you are interested in the possibility of attending the colloquium or have any further questions about it, please contact either Ra'anan Abusch ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Annette Yoshiko Reed ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). For private reply, e-mail to "Annette Yoshiko Reed" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe from Orion, e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: "unsubscribe Orion." For more information on the Orion Center or for Orion archives, visit our web site http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.
