Mark Smith on The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the God of Israel

On September 22, 2019, Professor Mark Smith delivered a lecture at Boston College Department of Theology on the Jewish conception of God in the Hebrew Bible.

“Ancient Israel’s unique notions of God drew on non-Israelite material from two related sources. First, Israel arose out of a Canaanite cultural matrix that has been well studied over the past century.  Second, during its heyday, ancient Israel maintained continuous cultural, economic and political interactions with Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syrian states to the north. The culture of these places influenced the development of Israelite religious thought at every point.  Professor Smith focuses specifically on the ways such interactions helped lead to Israel’s understanding of God.”

The lecture brings at 4:45.

Mark Smith on God’s Body in the Hebrew Bible

Professor Mark S. Smith (Princeton Theological Seminary) delivered a talk entitled, “The Embodied God of the Hebrew Bible” at the John Hope Franklin Institute, Duke University, on February 9, 2017.

The talk examines “the different embodiments of God throughout the Hebrew Bible as a way to explore the entanglement of the corporeal and the divine”, and begins at 6:05:

Mark S. Smith on The Birth of Monotheism

Professor Mark S. Smith (Princeton Theological Seminary) explains the origins of monotheism in ancient Judaism, in an address to the Tangier Global Forum, University of New England, Tangier Campus Auditorium, Morocco, on January 19, 2017 (the talk begins at 5:13).

Monotheism (the belief in only one god), given birth in ancient Israel and known from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, has been a topic of fascination for centuries. In the modern times, monotheism functioned to advance Christian claims to “western” superiority as colonialist powers came into contact with “non-western” societies. Thus, monotheism has been a colonializing discourse. By contrast, the monotheistic discourse found in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament served as a means to preserve and assert Israelite identity in the face of the colonizing power of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. This monotheistic discourse was grounded in traditional Israelite practice and thought and developed fully under the impact of both internal socio-political stresses and external influence from the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. This lecture will address the various factors that contributed to Israel’s vision of one god for the world.

Christopher Hays on the Divine Suckling

Professor Christopher B. Hays (Fuller Theological Seminary) delivered a lecture at the College de France, on April 15, 2016, entitled, “Imagery of Divine Suckling in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East“.

The video may be downloaded or watched online in mp4 format.

Daniel Boyarin: Enoch or Jesus? The Quest of the Historical Metatron

Professor Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley) presents the 2016 Shaffer Lecture in Theology, at Yale Divinity School, in three parts, on March 8, 9, and 10. The topic of his series is “Enoch or Jesus? The Quest of the Historical Metatron”.

In the series, Professor Boyarin furthers his defence of the ancient roots of a greater and subordinate second god within Judaism, the “two powers in heaven”. In the lectures, he lays out the development of a complex binitarian theology in both early Judaism and early Christianity. He also disagrees with Peter Schäfer.

While there is nearly incontrovertible evidence for the interchange between Christian and Jewish circles in late antiquity, there is also good evidence for the circulation of apocalyptic traditions among Jews through the rabbinic period, independent of specific Christian contexts.

• Daniel Boyarin, 2016 Shaffer Lecture 1, 23:55ff

Lecture 1 (March 8, 2016)

Lecture 2 (March 9, 2016)

Lecture 3 (March 10, 2016)

Zlatko Plese on the Gnostic Myth, Apocryphon of John

On May 21, 2014, Professor Zlatko Plese (University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill) lectured on the Gnostic myth, with special reference to the Apocryphon of John and including discussions of negative theology and Sophia.

Zlatko Plese is the author of Poetics of the Gnostic Universe: Narrative and Cosmology in the Apocryphon of John (Brill, 2006).

 

 

Jon D. Levenson: Abraham and the Absoluteness of God

Professor Jon D. Levenson (Harvard University) delivered a lecture on “Abraham and the Absoluteness of God” at the University of Chicago on January 21, 2015.

 

Representing gods and men in the ancient Near East and in the Bible

The Collège de France hosts the videos of papers delivered at the 2015 Seminar in Thomas Römer’s series The Hebrew Bible and Its Contexts, May 5-6, 2015:

Representing gods and men in the ancient Near East and in the Bible (Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible)

The videos are available for download in *.mov format.

La question des images est un élément central pour l’intelligence des religions anciennes et modernes. Les religions monothéistes se basent toutes sur le Décalogue qui interdit la fabrication des images. Mais comment comprendre cet interdit : s’agit-il d’un refus de toutes sortes d’images ou « seulement » de la représentation du divin ? Et quelle est la raison d’être d’un tel interdit ? Pourquoi considère-t-on illégitime de représenter des dieux et des hommes, ce qui fut pratique courante dans le Proche-Orient ancien ? Le colloque s’efforcera d’apporter des éclaircissements sur plusieurs questions : Quelle est la fonction des représentations du divin mais aussi des hommes ? Quelles sont les différentes manières de représenter des dieux  et quelle est la fonction de ces représentations ? Les représentations permettent-elles de mieux comprendre les cultes officiels et les cultes privés ? Quel est le rôle des images dans le culte royal ? Le roi est-il l’image des dieux ? Y a-t-il des religions aniconiques ? Pour quelles raisons décide-t-on d’interdire des images ? Y a-t-il des précurseurs au commandement biblique dans le Proche-Orient ou ailleurs ?

The question of images is a central element in the understanding of ancient and modern religions. The monotheistic religions are all based on the Decalogue, which prohibits the making of images. But how should we understand this prohibition: is it a rejection of all kinds of images or “only” of the representation of the divine? And what is the purpose of such a prohibition? Why it is considered improper to represent gods and men, which was common practice in the ancient Near East? The symposium will seek to clarify several questions: What is the function of the representations of the divine and also of men? What are the different ways of representing the gods and what is the function of these representations? Do the representations provide insight into official and private worship? What is the role of images in the royal cult? Is the king the image of the gods? Are there any aniconic religions? For what reasons does one decide to prohibit images? Are there any precursors to the biblical commandment in the ancient Near East or elsewhere?

Mardi 5 mai 2015

9 h 30 Introduction to the Symposium (Ouverture du colloque): Thomas Römer

• 9 h 45 Stefan Maul (Université de Heidelberg), Images of Gods and Representation of the Divine in the Ancient Near East: a Warning not to Confuse the God with its Representation
• 10h15 Lionel Marti (CNRS, UMR 7192), The Question of Representing the Divine in the Assyrian World
• 10h45 Nele Ziegler (CNRS, UMR 7192), Making Divine Statues – and Then What?

Pause

Présidence : Thomas Römer

• 11h30 Pierre-Yves Brandt (Université de Lausanne), Representations of Gods in Children’s Drawings
• 12h00 Christoph Uehlinger (Université de Zürich), Sociable Gods, or how to Represent a Pantheon?
• 12h30 David Hamidovic (Université de Lausanne), Reviewing an Ancient Controversy: the Worship of the Donkey or Donkey’s Head in the Jerusalem Temple

13h00 Discussion

Déjeuner

Présidence : Michaël Guichard

• 14h30 Fabian Pfitzmann (Collège de France, UMR 7192), The “Master of the Ostriches”: a Specificity of the Representation of Yhwh in the South?
• 15h00 Martin Leuenberger (Université de Tübingen), “Here are your Gods, Israel, who Brought you up out of the Land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12.28). Representations of Yhwh in Official Worship in the Kingdom of Israel
• 15h30 Jean-Daniel Macchi (Université de Genève, UMR 7192), “Now my Eye has Seen You”: Job and the Representation of the Divine

Pause

Présidence : Christophe Nihan

• 16h15 Youri Volokhine (Université de Genève), Monotheism / Aniconism / Iconoclasm: Discussions around the “One God” of Akhenaton
• 16h45 Jacqueline Chabbi (Professeur honoraire des universités), The Koran in its Time: a Pragmatic Figure of the Divine
• 17h15 François Déroche (Collège de France, UMR 7192), Anthropomorphism and Aniconism

17h45 Discussion

Mercredi 6 mai 2015

Présidence : Nele Ziegler

• 9h30 Dominique Charpin (Collège de France, UMR 7192), Divine Symbols in the Paleo-Babylonian Archives
• 10h00 Michaël Guichard (EPHE IV^e section, UMR 7192), Statues in Mari, According to the Texts
• 10h30 Jean-Marie Durand (Collège de France, UMR 7192), The Baetyli

Pause

Présidence : Dominique Charpin

• 11h15 Herbert Niehr (Université de Tübingen), The Divinised King and his Image in Ugaritic Worship
• 11h45 Christophe Nihan (Université de Lausanne, UMR 7192), Yhwh Ṣěbā’ôt and the Powers of War
• 12h15 Sylvie Honigman (Université de Tel Aviv), Founding Figures in the Traditions of Ezra and the Books of the Maccabees

12h45 Discussion

Déjeuner

Présidence : Jean-Marie Durand

• 14h30 Shirly Ben-Dor Evian (Universités de Tel Aviv et de Lausanne), Representations of the “People of the Sea” in the Iconography of the Ancient Near East
• 15h00 Pierre Keith (Université de Strasbourg), Images for Worship and the Representation of Supernature in the Book of Daniel

Pause

• 15h45 Tallay Ornan (Université de Jérusalem) et Benjamin Sass (Université de Tel Aviv), Eyes, Triangles and Horned Animals: a Divine Journey across the Near East and the Mediterranean, 5000-550 BCE
• 16h15 Thomas Römer (Collège de France, UMR 7192), Why is it Necessary to Forbid Divine Images?

16h45 Discussion et clôture du colloque

Larry Hurtado on Early High Christology and the New Testament God

Professor Larry Hurtado (University of Edinburgh) discusses his views on the development of Christology and the concept of God in the New Testament, in two podcasts on Trinities.org.

1. (Podcast 99) “Dr. Larry Hurtado on early high christology” (begins at 10:50)

mp3 Stitcher iTunes

Dr. Hurtado explains the term “early high christology” and what it means when applied to his own work. He discusses various angels and men who in various ancient Jewish writings are in some way exalted and honored in God-like ways, and how these cases differ from that of Jesus. Dr. Hurtado has argued that in the early years of Christianity we suddenly see a distinctive pattern of Jesus-worship, as evidenced by the earliest books in the New Testament. Such practices don’t derive from a second or third century, Gentile Christian context, but rather from the earliest, largely Jewish Christian context.

Hurtado discusses this in light of various passages in the gospel according to John, and also the statements of 1 Timothy that God is immortal. (1:17,6:16) The New Testament, he observes, emphasizes that Jesus was a genuine human being, a man, although in his view it also presents Jesus as existing even when the world was made, in a pre-human phase of his existence. God and Jesus, in his view, are closely linked, but also distinguished in the New Testament. God exalts Jesus to divine glory, which is why we must worship Jesus, according to early Christians. Worship of Jesus, he argues, has a theocentric (God-centered) justification or basis.

He also comments briefly on James Dunn’s Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?, the idea that “worship” by definition can be given only to God, and whether we should start our christological thinking with fourth century or with first century sources.

2. (Podcast 100) “Dr. Larry Hurtado on God in New Testament Theology”

mp3 Stitcher iTunes

I talk with Dr. Hurtado about his book God in New Testament Theology. He talks about

• the theocentric basis of New Testament christology
• what the New Testament adds to the theology of the Old Testament
• God as “Father”
• the way Christians view God in relation to Jesus
• whether we need to interact with God through a mediator
• the New Testament picture of God as love and yet as dangerous, and of Jesus as both savior and judge – and both as sources of agape love
• how the NT picture of God differs from the theologies of pagan deities
• how recently, and even in ancient times, in popular thinking Jesus can eclipse God in Christians’ minds, becoming a friendlier, less threatening god than the Father
• ho theos vs. theos in early Christianity, and how the NT and early texts distinguish between Jesus and the one God (aka the Father)
• whether or not the NT authors rethink how Judaic monotheism should be understood
• the “dyadic devotional pattern” we see in NT-era worship practice, and whether this violated the first commandment
• the sense in which Yahweh is unique, according to the Bible
• whether Dr. Hurtado would agree with the suggestion that Jesus is “a part of” God
• how the NT as it were “redefines” God with reference to Jesus
• whether or not in his view Dr. Hurtado’s work supports “social” (three-self) Trinity theories
• that contemporary theology has tended to neglect the literature of the first three Christian centuries in favor of the “classics” of the 4th and 5th centuries
• Dr. Richard Bauckham’s “christology of divine identity” as an attempt to make sense of the NT apart from later “ontological” ways of approaching the matter

Paula Fredriksen on Paul in the Pagan, Polytheistic Ancient World

Professor Paula Fredriksen (Boston University; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) discusses the pagan background of Paul’s audience in three lectures available on YouTube.

The lecture “Paul, Pagans, and the God of Israel” was given at the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University, on October 28, 2010 (the lecture begins at 5:30), and discusses polytheism and monotheism:

The lecture “Gods Run in the Blood, or, Why Paul’s Pagans were not ‘Converts’?” was given at the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at Ben Gurion University, on March 18, 2014, and discusses the ethnic basis for ancient “religion” and the concept of conversion.

The lecture “Paul, Practical Pluralism, and the Invention of Religious Persecution in Roman Antiquity” was given to the Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law and Social Theory at the University of Ottawa, on October 24, 2013 (the lecture begins at 3:40), and discusses gods and religious persecution.

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Q&A, part 1:

Q&A, part 2:

Yair Zakovitch – The Concept Of Miracle In The Bible

Professor Yair Zakovitch (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) delivered a talk on “The Concept Of Miracle In The Bible” as part of the Orange County Community Scholars Program (OCCSP), podcasted January 21, 2005.

The talk is available in m4a audio format:

Did God Have a Wife? William Dever on Mrs God

Professor William G. Dever (Lycoming College; University of Arizona) presented the 2014 Tenenbaum Lecture on February 3, 2014 at Emory University.

His illustrated lecture showcases recent archaeological evidence that reveals the differences in beliefs and practices of ordinary people in ancient Israel compared to the elitist, idealist portrait in the Bible, particularly the ongoing veneration of the Canaanite Goddess Asherah.

The lecture begins at 16:05.

Thomas Römer on the Evolution of Yahweh and the Invention of God

Professor Thomas Römer (Professor at Collège de France and Universitè de Lausanne) lectures at Brown University, on Feb 10, 2015, on the evolution of Yahweh in biblical and extra-biblical traditions. Römer is also the author of L’Invention de Dieu [The Invention of God] (Seuil, 2014).

We all think of the Bible as a book proclaiming that there is only one God, who is the God of Israel and the God of the universe. Looking more closely, though, we find texts which admit the existence of other gods and which also indicate that Yhwh has not always been the god of Israel. Biblical traditions as well as archeology seem to agree that the origins of Yhwh are to be found somewhere in the “wilderness”. This lecture reconstructs the origins of Yhwh in the wilderness, his encounter with Israel and his transformation into the only God.

Nb. Although, in the YouTube preview, Thomas Römer appears to be delivering his lecture to only one person, there are in fact more people in the audience.

h/t: Jim West

Hanne Løland Levinson on word-pictures for God in the Hebrew Bible

Assistant Professor Hanne Løland Levinson delivers a lecture entitled “‘I will devour them like a lion’ says God: The Many Faces of God in the Hebrew Bible”, at Mount Zion Temple, University of Minnesota, March 5, 2014.

The Hebrew Bible and the Jewish tradition strongly argue that God should not be depicted in any form. At the same time, the Hebrew Bible is full of images for God. God is father, mother and leopard, among others. The Hebrew Bible also draws on many diverse and challenging metaphors for God. Hanne Løland Levinson explores the diverse “god-language” of the Hebrew Bible and reflects on the connection between language for God and concepts of God.

Nathan McDonald on why the Old Testament is not Monotheistic

On April 6, 2009, Dr Nathan MacDonald, lecturer in Old Testament at the School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, delivered this lecture at Harvard Divinity School, examining “Israel’s religious history and assumptions of its monotheism”.