On January 28, 2011, Professor Hindy Najman delivered a lecture on Jewish responses to the destruction of the First and Second Temples, “Overcoming Destruction in Ancient Judaism”, at King’s University College at Western University, Canada.

In this lecture we will explore the struggles of ancient Jewish communities to redefine themselves in the aftermath of the destruction of the first and second temples.  What role did prayer and interpretation play in their literary witnesses from this period?  Was human-divine interaction still understood as imaginable when the Jewish community was bereft of its temple, land and independence?

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Priests and Priesthood in the Near East

From March 19-21, 2018, the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University hosted the “Priests and Priesthood in the Near East: Social, Intellectual and Economic Aspects” conference. The papers from March 19 are available on TAU’s YouTube channel:

• Dominique Charpin (Collège de France), Opening Address: Recent Discoveries from Ur / Tell Muqayyar, Priests of Ur in the Old Babylonian Period: A Reappraisal in the Light of the Discoveries at Ur / Tell Muqayyar in 2017
• Walther Sallaberger (LMU, Munich), Keynote Session I: Origins of Near Eastern Priesthood, Close to the Ruler and to the Gods: The Cultic Duties of the Cupbearer and the Role of Priestesses and Priests in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
• Piotr Steinkeller (Harvard University), Babylonian Priesthood during the Third Millennium BCE: Between Sacred
  and Profane
• Louise Quillien (EPHE, Paris), Identity Through Appearance: Babylonian Priestly Clothing
• Aren Maeir (Bar Ilan University), “The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel” (Deut 18:1): Is There Archaeological Evidence of Priests and Priesthood in Iron Age Israel and Judah?
• Yonatan Adler (Ariel University), “Is there a Priest in the House?”: Identifying Jewish Priests (Kohanim) in the Archaeology of Roman Judaea/Palaestina
• Julietta Steinhauer (University College London), Near Eastern Priests: A Graeco-Roman perspective

 

 

John W. Rogerson: The Kingdom of God

Emeritus Professor John W. Rogerson (1935-2018) delivered the Lent Lectures 2014 on “The Kingdom of God” between 12 March and 9 April 2014, at Beauchief Abbey, Sheffield.

 

Wednesday 12th March

Lecture 1: What is the Kingdom of God?

Wednesday 19th March
Lecture 2: The Kingship of God in the Old Testament

Wednesday 26th March
Lecture 3: The Kingdom of God in the preaching of Jesus

Wednesday 2nd April
Lecture 4: The Kingdom of God in Paul and John

Wednesday 9th April
Lecture 5: The Kingdom of God and Today’s Church

John W. Rogerson: The Forgiveness of Sins

Emeritus Professor John W. Rogerson (1935-2018) delivered the Lent Lectures 2018 on “The Forgiveness of Sin” between 21 February and 21 March 2018, at Beauchief Abbey, Sheffield.

Wednesday 21 February

Lecture 1  What it’s all about: Defining Sin and Forgiveness

Wednesday 28 February

Lecture 2  Sin and forgiveness in the Old Testament

Wednesday 7 March

Lecture 3 Sin and forgiveness in the teaching of Jesus

Wednesday 14 March

Lecture 4 Sin and forgiveness in Paul

Wednesday 21 March

Lecture 5. Sin and forgiveness: adjusting our theology and reinterpreting our liturgy

Dictionary of Nature Imagery of the Bible

The Dictionary of Nature Imagery of the Bible is a new online resource which will provide information on the natural, ecological context of nature imagery found in the Hebrew Bible.

In this video, Project Leader, Professor Dalit Rom-Shiloni (Tel Aviv University) discusses the approach and structure of the dictionary.

 

David M. Carr: Beyond Original Sin: Genesis on the Emergence of True Adulthood

On April 5, 2018, Professor David M. Carr (Union Theological Seminary) delivered the final lecture in the 2017-18 Killeen Chair of Theology and Philosophy lecture series, at St. Norbert College.

David M. Carr, Ph.D., professor of Old Testament at Union Theological Seminary, invites us to consider the transformative possibilities in the story of God’s creation of male and female humans in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3. Carr’s lecture will offer a new reading of Genesis 2-3 as a subtle account of what it means to be a fully adult human, neither all good nor all bad.

The lecture begins at 3:15.

John Barclay, Firth Lectures: Gift-Reciprocity and Community Construction in the New Testament

On 17 and 18 April, Professor John Barclay (University of Durham) delivered the two 2018 Firth lectures at the University of Nottingham, entitled “Beyond Charity: Gift-Reciprocity and Community Construction in the New Testament”.

John Barclay also led a postgraduate seminar on 18 April, “Reciprocity and Risk at the Economic Margin: Some Early Christian Examples”.

His most recent major book is a study of Pauline theology from the perspective of his theology of grace, called Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015). If we read Paul’s theology of grace in the light of ancient notions of gift, Barclay argues we can understand in a new way his relationship to Judaism, his theology of the Christ-event and his ethic of reciprocal generosity. Paul and the Gift explores the theological and social significance of the incongruity of grace in the formation of innovative communities, going beyond Sanders and the current antithesis between old and new perspectives on Paul. This book, focusing on divine gift/grace, is the first of a two-part series.

Simon Gathercole on Crucifixion and Resurrection in the Gospel of Peter

Dr Simon Gathercole (Cambridge University) delivered the third Lagrange Lecture at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, on May 2, 2018, entitled “The Death and Resurrection of Jesus in the Gospel of Peter”.

Gathercole examines how the Gospel of Peter takes the traditions in the canonical gospels, and rearranges them, in part in order to blame “the Jews”.

 

Thomas Römer on the Ark of the Covenant

Professor Thomas Römer (Collège de France) delivered the second Lagrange Lecture on April 25, 2018, at the École biblique et archéologique française in Jerusalem, entitled “Biblical Traditions about the Ark of the Covenant”.

The lecture begins at 3:15.

With careful attention to various diachronic puzzles posed by the often-confusing and incomplete biblical reports, Römer proposed the tentative outlines of a revisionist history of this fascinating cult object. From its mysterious origins in Shiloh to its temporary sojourn at Kiriath Yearim—for a much longer period than the biblical account would admit—the Ark belongs within a decentralized picture of Israelite worship in Römer’s view. Along these lines, Römer raised the possibility that the chest may have originally contained twinned cult stones, perhaps of YHWH and Asherah. The Ark’s ultimate, ceremonial transfer into Jerusalem should perhaps be dated to the time of Josiah and the politics of centralization, he suggests, while the account of its migrations through the Philistine cities may reflect earlier political tensions from the time of Hezekiah.

David Penchansky on Sacred Spaces in the Hebrew Bible and modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Professor David Penchansky (University of St. Thomas) spoke on “Sacred Spaces in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” at Hudson United Methodist Church, Wisconsin, on 7 November 2017.

 

#MeToo Jesus: Jesus as Victim of Sexual Abuse

On 16 January 2018, Dr Jayme Reaves (Public theologian, Dorset) and Professor David Tombs (University of Otago) delivered the joint paper “#MeToo Jesus: Why Naming Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse Matters”, a Shiloh Project lecture at the University of Sheffield.

 

The #MeToo hashtag and campaign created by Tarana Burke in 2007 and popularized by Alyssa Milano in October 2017 has confirmed what feminists have long argued on the prevalence of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexually abusive behaviour. It has also prompted a more public debate on dynamics of victim blaming and victim shaming which contribute to the silences which typically benefit perpetrators and add a further burden to survivors. As such, the #MeToo movement raises important questions for Christian faith and theology. A church in New York offered a creative response in a sign which adapted Jesus’ words ‘You did this to me’ in Mt 25:40 to read ‘You did this to #MeToo’. This presentation will explore the biblical and theological reasons for naming Jesus as a victim of sexual abuse drawing on earlier work presenting crucifixion as a form of state terror and sexual abuse (Tombs 1999). It will then discuss some of the obstacles to this recognition and suggest why the acknowledgement nonetheless matters. It will argue that recognition of Jesus as victim of sexual abuse can help strengthen church responses to sexual abuses and challenge tendencies within the churches, as well as in wider society, to collude with victim blaming or shaming.

For further reading, see David Tombs, ‘Crucifixion, State Terror, and Sexual Abuse’ in Union Seminary Quarterly Review (1999).

Jörg Frey YDS Shaffer Lecture: Gospel of John

Jörg Frey, Professor of New Testament at the University of Zurich, gives his three-part Shaffer Lectures at Yale Divinity School on January 23, 25, and 30, 2018, on “Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel.”

The three lectures are as follows:

Lecture I: “Christology as Theology: The Johannine Approach as a Challenge Then and Now”
https://livestream.com/yaledivinityschool/events/8008919/videos/169152262
Lecture II: “The Quest for the Jesus of History and Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel”
https://livestream.com/yaledivinityschool/events/8008919/videos/169280011
Lecture III: “The Spiritual Gospel: John’s Reworking of the Jesus Story for Deeper Understanding”
https://livestream.com/yaledivinityschool/events/8008919/videos/169534880

https://livestream.com/yaledivinityschool/events/8008919

Jonathan Z. Smith on his Lifetime of Learning

Professor Jonathan Z. Smith (d. December 30, 2017) delivered the plenary address at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, “Reading Religion: A Life in Scholarship” (October 31, 2010). The lecture is available on YouTube.

I am far from insensible to the honor, interest and – yes – forbearance you have extended me by your invitation to speak with you on this occasion, under the general rubric of a lifetime of learning address. I take some comfort from the implication of the first element in that assignment, that the chief criterion for your selection is a measure of longevity.

The lecture begins at 7:00.

In addition, J.Z. Smith’s  presidential address at the 2008 Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, “Religion and Bible” is available on the SBL website:

John Barclay: Paul, Grace and Liberation from Human Judgments of Worth

Professor John Barclay (Durham University) delivered the lecture, “Paul, Grace and Liberation from Human Judgments of Worth,” on April 4, 2017, at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

“His argument re-calibrates the entire discussion of Paul that has taken place over the last 30 years or so: while there certainly were various understandings of “grace” in the early Judaism Paul knew, his encounter with Christ brought him a new understanding of God’s “grace” as incongruous grace, grace given to the undeserving in Jesus Christ.”

– Mark Seifrid

 

Naomi Seidman on a more “Jewish” Yiddish and Jesus’ Jewishness

Professor Naomi Seidman (Graduate Theological Union) delivered the 2017 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecture: “When Jesus Spoke Yiddish: Translating the New Testament for Jews” on November 17, 2017.

Dr. Seidman’s lecture explores the linguistic strategies used by missionary translators between 1540 and 1940. During this period, translators abandoned Luther in search of a more “Jewish” Yiddish that could express their conceptions of Jesus’ Jewishness.

The lecture begins at 12:20. There is a response by Margaret Miles at 1:03:20.