SBL 2015 Society Report is now available. Find out all the stats

Interview with Jessica Keady.

Course Report for Laura Nasrallah’s early Christianity course on the letters of Paul.

HOT OFF THE PRESS:

Nyasha Junior’s An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation in now available.

Aviya Kushner’s The Grammar of God: A Journey Into the Words and Worlds of the Bible is now available.

Catherine McDowell’s The ‘Image of God’ in the Garden of Eden is now available.

Jane Draycott has a new article out entitled “Reconstructing the Lived Experience of Disability in Antiquity: A Case Study from Roman Egypt.”

Tiffany Webster published “A Miner Knows Better Than Anybody You Have Little Power Over Mother Nature”: Exploring Genesis 1:26–31 and the Concepts of Control and Power with South Derbyshire Coal Miners” in Journal of the Bible and Its Reception.

Corinna Guerrero writes about “Costly Scripture:Encountering Trauma in the Bible” for America Magazine.

Adele Reinhartz writes on “The Journal of Biblical Literature and the Critical Investigation of the Bible.”

Maria E. Doerfler writes about “The Synod and the Spirit: Reviving the Diaconate for Women in the Roman Catholic Tradition?” on her new blog.

Joan E. Taylor writes on “Jesus was a Refugee.”

Christine Hayes on “Divine Law in Greco-Roman, Christian, and Rabbinic Conceptions.”

Recent Journal of Biblical Literature issue has articles by Nicole Ruane, Anne Marie Kitz, and Paula Fredriksen.

Congratulations to Shayna Sheinfeld on successfully defending her dissertation! Check out the abstract on “Crises of Leadership in the Post-Destruction Apocalypses 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch.”

Read more about Courtney VanWeller’s dissertation research on “Paul’s Therapy of the Soul: A New Approach to John Chrysostom and Anti-Judaism” over at Ancient Jew Review.

Sarah Bond writes about sports and ancient Roman referees.

Karen Keen writes on “How to Be a Biblical Scholar Without Losing Your Faith.”

EVENTS:

Two archaeology lectures in Washington D.C. Dr. Ann Killebrew will lecture on “Egyptians, Canaanites, Sea Peoples and Early Israel at the End of the Bronze Age” on November 15th, 2015. Dr. Maryl Gensheimer presents “Landscapes of Allusion at Oplontis and Stabiae” on November 18, 2015.

CALL FOR PAPERS:

“Imagining the Afterlife in the Ancient Mediterranean World”, Birmingham, UK at the University of Birmingham and Newman University, June 21-23, 2016.

The British Association of of Jewish Studies Conference requests papers for The Texture of Jewish Tradition: Investigations in Textuality (July 2016).

St John’s College, Durham University announces Call for Papers for conference on Exploring the Glory of God: Past and present perspectives of biblical, theological, and aesthetic dimensions of God’s glory (July 2016).

SCHOLARSHIPS AND JOBS:

$7,000 archaeology fellowship for summer of 2016

Eerdmans is hiring a Project Editor. NT specialization, Master’s, and proficiency in Greek.

Lecturer in Classics and Archaeology Faculty of Arts The School of Historical and Philosophical Studies The University of Melbourne, Australia (closes November 15th).

Postdoc in Religion and Media in Contemporary Societies at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany for 2015-2018

Catholic Biblical Association lists job openings, including for Old Testament and New Testament posts at Loyola.

Ambrose University is hiring a professor in Christian Theology.

Postdoc in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Uppsala University in Sweden.

SAVE MONEY AT SBL/AAR! Women scholars looking to share housing with other women scholars to cut costs send an e-mail to: women.biblical.scholars@gmail.com

Cynthia Shafer-Elliott blogs about experimental archaeology on her dig this summer.

Ellen F. Davis to serve as interim dean at Duke University Divinity School following Dean Hays stepping down for medical reasons.

Wil Gafney writes an article on Hagar.

Need syllabus ideas and resources for this fall? Browse resources at Bible Odyssey.

Carrie Schroeder starts a popular hashtag called #mySBL. Check out all the great comments.

Jobs:

Assistant Professor job at Yale in Ancient Christianity. Review of applications begins October 1st.

Harvard University is now hiring for a Senior Professorship of the Archaeology of Israel.

Review of Biblical Literature:

Jennifer Houston McNeel
Paul as Infant and Nursing Mother: Metaphor, Rhetoric, and Identity in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-8
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9921

Laura C. Sweat
The Theological Role of Paradox in the Gospel of Mark
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9726

Leann Snow Flesher, Carol J. Dempsey, and Mark J. Boda, eds.
Why? … How Long? Studies on Voice(s) of Lamentation Rooted in Biblical Hebrew Poetry
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9724

Lisbeth S. Fried
Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10026

Rivka Ulmer and Moshe Ulmer
Righteous Giving to the Poor: Tzedakah (“Charity”) in Classic Rabbinic Judaism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10023

Clare K. Rothschild, Jens Schröter
The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries of the Common Era
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9214

Angela Thomas
Anatomical Idiom and Emotional Expression: A Comparison of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9923

Kathryn D. Blanchard and Jane S. Webster, eds.
Lady Parts: Biblical Women and The Vagina Monologues
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9089

Judy Fentress-Williams
Ruth
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8831

Amy L. B. Peeler
You Are My Son: The Family of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9870

L. Juliana Claassens and Klaas Spronk, eds.
Fragile Dignity: Intercontextual Conversations on Scriptures, Family, and Violence
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9439

Patricia Dutcher-Walls
Reading the Historical Books: A Student’s Guide to Engaging the Biblical Text
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9834

Jörg Frey and Angela Standhartinger, eds.
Neues Testament und frührabbinisches Judentum
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9540

Amy-Jill Levine
Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9937

Shelly Matthews
The Acts of the Apostles: Taming the Tongues of Fire
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9647

Joan E. Taylor, ed.
The Body in Biblical, Christian and Jewish Texts
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9867

Journal for Biblical Literature articles:

“A Stratified Account of Jephthah’s Negotiations and Battle: Judges 11:12–33 from an Archaeological Perspective”
Elizabeth Bloch-Smith
abstract

“’The Thoughts of Many Hearts Shall Be Revealed’: Listening in on Lukan Interior Monologues”
Michal Beth Dinkler
abstract

“The Afterlives of New Testament Apocrypha”
Annette Yoshiko Reed
abstract

Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc.

1. Krista Dalton reviews Brennan Breed’s book Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History.

2. Call for Papers for 2016 Midwest Consortium on Ancient Religions.

3. Joan Taylor writes on what Jesus looked like.

4. Pamela Barmash writes about Cain.

5. Book review of Ellen Muehlberger’s Angels in Late Ancient Christianity by Robin Darling.

6. Archaeology scholarships available

7. SBL student board has two openings.

8. Job Opportunities:

Postdoctoral Fellowship applications in Humanities fields now being accepted through the University of Pennsylvania.

Yale is hiring a Lector in Semitic Languages

One year Visiting Professorship applications are being accepted by the Marquette University theology department.

Lecturer in Religious/Biblical Studies at Sheffield

Visiting Assistant Professor in Jewish Studies at Wesleyan University

Tenure Track Bible position at William Jessup University.

9. Review of Biblical Literature Book Reviews:

Katharina Galor and Hanswulf Bloedhorn
The Archaeology of Jerusalem: From the Origins to the Ottomans
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9688

Alison Ruth Gray
Psalm 18 in Words and Pictures: A Reading through Metaphor
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9827

Ronald Jolliffe, Gertraud Harb, Christoph Heil, Anneliese Felber, and Angelika Magnes
Q11: 39a, 42, 39b, 41, 43-44: Woes against the Pharisees
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9197

Valérie Nicolet-Anderson
Constructing the Self: Thinking with Paul and Michel Foucault
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8853

Diana V. Edelman, ed.
Deuteronomy-Kings as Emerging Authoritative Books: A Conversation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9772

Steven J. Friesen, Sarah A. James, and Daniel N. Schowalter, eds.
Corinth in Contrast: Studies in Inequality
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9668

Christl M. Maier and Carolyn J. Sharp, eds.
Prophecy and Power: Jeremiah in Feminist and Postcolonial Perspective
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9733

Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs
The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of Its Pluses and Minuses
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9920

Mark A. Chancey, Carol Meyers, and Eric M. Meyers, eds.
The Bible in the Public Square: Its Enduring Influence in American Life
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9915

Laurel W. Koepf-Taylor
Give Me Children or I Shall Die: Children and Communal Survival in Biblical Literature
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9561

Katherine Low
The Bible, Gender, and Reception History: The Case of Job’s Wife
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9708

Miguel Pérez Fernández and Olga Ruiz Morell
El Beso de Dios: Midrás de la Muerte de Moisés. Edición bilingüe hebreo-español y comentario
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9532

Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc.

Rebecca Raphael writes about team-teaching a course.

Seventeen Jewish female clergy and scholars describe their struggles and success.

Amy-Jill Levine writes about the difference between “Old Testament,” “Hebrew Bible,” and the Tanakh.

Interview with Eliska Havelkova, Th.D. student at Charles University in Prague.

Karen R. Keen writes Private Thoughts of a Biblical Scholar on Faith and Academia.

Julie Faith Parker on children in the Hebrew Bible.

 Ellen Muehlberger completes a two year project collecting stats on 70 issues of Review of Biblical Literature (April 2013-April 2015). Out of 1650 authors, editors, reviewers featured,  1385 were men and 265 women (16%). Read her thoughts here.

Lynn Huber’s recent book is now out in paperback: Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation

Check out the website for the journal on Dead Sea Scrolls, Revue de Quman.

New website for Sardis excavations.

Check out some of these history apps including for ancient Mesopotamia, as well as coins from the Graeco-Roman world

Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc.

1. Mary Ann Beavis writes about the book of Hebrews and its relationship to the wisdom tradition (reviewed by Larry Hurtado).

2. Jennifer Guo hosted February’s Biblical Carnival.

3. Nyasha Junior’s new book, An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation, is now available.

4. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott will be speaking on April 18th on the subject of ancient Israelite families at First Congregational Church of Auburn in California.

5. Congratulations to Krista N. Dalton and her crew on being awarded an AAJR grant for their work at Ancient Jew Review.

6. Leslie Baynes writes a post on The Heavenly Horses of C.S. Lewis.

7. Jennifer Guo writes a three part review on Studies in the Pauline Epistles: Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo.  See Part I, Part II, and Part III.

8. Candida Moss is consulted for CNN’s special Finding Jesus

9. Corrine Carvalho on The God that Gog Creates.

10. Abigail Ann Young writes Reflections on 1 Thessalonians

11. Alison Joseph’s book Portrait of the Kings: The Davidic Prototype in Deuteronomistic Poetics has been published and is now available.

12. RBL Book Reviews:

Angelika Berlejung and Michael P. Streck, eds.
Arameans, Chaldeans, and Arabs in Babylonia and Palestine in the First Millennium B.C.
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9425

Chantal Reynier
Pour lire la lettre de Saint Paul aux Romains
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8940

Katharine J. Dell
Interpreting Ecclesiastes: Readers Old and New
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9579

Sarah J. K. Pearce
The Words of Moses: Studies in the Reception of Deuteronomy in the Second Temple Period
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9476

13. Michigan’s Near Eastern Studies Dept needs a Hebrew Language Coordinator. Apply by March 31st deadline.

14. The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies is accepting applications for its 2015-2016 Graduate Student Research Fellowship.

15. Digital tools:

• SHEBANQ Search Engine for the Hebrew Bible
• Digital Mishnah Project
• Online Critical Pseudepigrapha
• The HMML MSS library at St. John’s University
• Syriac Reference Portal
• Gateway to Syriac Saints

Web Round Up provides links to relevant news from around the Web, including job openings, new books, articles on women biblical scholars, etc.

1. Gail Wallace writes on “Towards a Deeper Theology of Women: 4 Contributions of Women Scholars”

2.Hindy Najman, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University, speaks about the Art of Lecturing (video)

3. Kristine Garroway reviews Brettler and Enns and Harrington, The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically and Religiously

4. From Wabash Center: Free download of “Teaching Theology & Religion – Volume 18, Issue 1”

5. Enigma is an online resource for deciphering illegible Latin words

6. Codex Vaticanus is now digitized

7. Candida R. Moss on “Who is Ignatius of Antioch?” (short video).

8. JBL reviewed books:

Martha Himmelfarb
Between Temple and Torah: Essays on Priests, Scribes, and Visionaries in the Second Temple Period and Beyond
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9102

Cornelia Linde
How to Correct the Sacra Scriptura? Textual Criticism of the Bible between the Twelfth and Fifteenth Century
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=8803

Kim Lan Nguyen
Chorus in the Dark: The Voices of the Book of Lamentations
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9646

Nili Wazana
All the Boundaries of the Land: The Promised Land in Biblical Thought in Light of the Ancient Near East
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=9576

9. Job Openings:

One year Visiting Professor in New Testament at Valparaiso University

Online instructor of Judaism wanted by Utah State:

The Religious Studies Program at Utah State University seeks a part-time instructor for its new online minor in Religious Studies. The successful applicant should be able to teach an “Introduction to Judaism” course, as well as specialized course(s) in one or more of the following areas: Biblical Studies, Jewish history or practice, Holocaust, or Science and Religion. Utah State offers both funding and support staff to help with online course development. Online instructors may teach from anywhere in the United States, although the Program would provide shared office space and a collegial environment to an instructor who could be physically present on campus. The initial appointment will be made for one year, with the potential for renewal based on satisfactory performance and the availability of funding. Applicants should hold a Ph.D. or ABD in Religious Studies or a related discipline. The Religious Studies Program is housed in the History Department within the College of Humanities & Social Sciences. Send applications by email to Ms. Diane Buist: diane.buist@usu.edu. These should include a cover letter describing the candidate’s teaching and research, two letters of reference, evidence of teaching effectiveness if available, and a CV. For questions about the position, contact Dr. Ravi Gupta: ravi.gupta@usu.edu, 435-797-1196. Review of applications will begin on March 13, 2015. The successful candidate must be able to pass a background check.