ANZABS

ANZABS Conference 2011 - Abstracts or Papers

Anne Aalbers: John 20:17a: The Puzzle of μη μου ἁπτου
Virtually without exception, New Testament commentators agree that Jesus’ words to Mary Magdalene in John 20:17a, “do not touch me” (with or without its concomitant explanatory verses, “for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go . . .”), are to some degree puzzling. This paper seeks to explore the textual variants, the history of interpretation, the semantic somersaults employed, to date, to cater for this difficulty and it seeks to question the various degrees of success in doing so. It would seem that up until the 20th century, the verse was happily translated as ‘do not touch me,’ but many translations now prefer ‘do not hold on to me.’ Is this a justified change and what is lost or gained in this shift? Translated into the Vulgate as Noli me tangere, the scene has enjoyed the favour of artists, especially in Renaissance times, carrying over onto canvas the mystery embedded in the verse.

Jeremy Baker: The ‘Travel Club’: A Theological-Psychological Approach to Mutual Inter-dependence and the Human Relationship with God
Political and economic determinants in our present social environment are placing stress upon inter-personal relationships; these are the relationships within families, workplaces and communities, and with God. Where there is threat to relationships there is threat to emotional security, personal wellbeing and inter-personal trust. These are things that promote compensating behaviours that express themselves anti-socially, pathologically and religiously. Within this scenario there is a sub-group who will feel particularly vulnerable, misunderstood and unfairly treated. These are the mentally ill and socially broken who will succumb more easily to depression and anxiety, social phobias and personality aberrations and lack the skills required to create healthy inter-dependence, resilience and a positive relationship with God. The purpose of the Travel Club is to create an interactive (cafe-like) environment that supports patients and others experiencing emotional trauma and brokenness into meaningful relationships. It has now been running for three years in different formats. It is a forum for expressing emotional pain, and a place to realise the existence of other ‘travelling companions’, including God, with whom to share a journey to recovery. The emphasis is upon encouragement and trust. Building trust that life can have a positive side is encouraged through the building of trust in relationships within the Travel Club and through affirmation of the presence of God. This paper examines the theological and psychological implications of such an approach; New Testament theology and Attachment Theory are placed in dialogue with each other.

Peter Carrell: Resurrection Narratives and the Bodily Resurrection of the Risen Jesus
Questions about the resurrection of Jesus in relation to the resurrection narratives, including the question of what eyewitnesses experienced, and whether the tomb was empty, do not go away, though they may be quiescent in Advent compared to Easter itself! In this paper some familiar ground will be rehearsed briefly before offering some ideas for consideration when seeking answers to these questions.

Philip Church: 4Q174 and the Epistle to the Hebrews
Scholars have long noticed a relationship between 4Q174, commonly known as 4QFlorilegium, but probably better described as 4QEschatological Midrasha and the NT book of Hebrews, probably indicating indebtedness to a common tradition. In particular both texts juxtapose Ps 2:7 and 2 Sam 7:14 and read these ancient texts with reference to a messianic figure. Also common to both texts is the use of the expression “the last days” to refer to the final period of history, and considerable temple imagery. What has not been sufficiently explored is the appearance in both texts of an eschatological temple which God will prepare in the last days, something clear in 4Q174, but obscured in Hebrews with the usual emphasis on a spatial “above and below” dualism rather than a temporal, eschatological dualism between former sanctuaries and the heavenly sanctuary. I will argue in this paper that both of these texts anticipate an eschatological temple in the last days to be built by God, in which God will dwell with his people, and while 4Q174 envisages an interim “temple of men,” there is no space for this in Hebrews, since the last days have dawned with the exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God, a minister of the heavenly, eschatological temple. His exaltation indicates the inauguration of this temple, pitched by the Lord and no human (Heb 8:2).

John Douglas: Schema Theory: a Resonant Hermeneutic in Story/Textual Narrative?
Scripture as story or textual narrative is approached via a broad-range of hermeneutical treatments, among which is “Literary Theory.” Literary theory, itself broad in assumptions is essentially; a systematic study of literature’s nature, philosophy(s), analytical methods, and intentionality. Its theories, first formulated and tested in broader literary studies, have found-their-way into the analysis and applications of biblical text(s). Textual story, which generally reflects the intentionally of its “3-R’s” . . . readers, writers, and redactors; also exists and interprets in community. Theory calls for schemata. Schema theory (Bartlett, 1932; Alba and Hasher, 1983; Rumelhart and Norman, 1983; Driscoll, 2000) was initially introduced to explain why people reconstruct a story when recalling it, so as to make more sense of it in terms of their own knowledge and experience. It holds schema is essentially; an organizing and orienting attitude that involves active arranging of past experience. This paper will consider Schema Theory’s potential contributions towards a community hermeneutic embracing considerations/contributions toward textual intentionally by writers, readers, and redactors.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/75138434/SCHEMA-THEORY-A-RESONANT-HERMENEUTIC-IN-STORY-TEXTUAL-NARRATIVE

Matthew C. Easter: Hebrews 11 and Unrealized Enduring Life
In Hebrews 11, the author lists a number of heroes from Israel’s tradition who exemplify faith. Death is a key element in Heb 11: some heroes exhibit faith by accepting death (esp. 36-37), others by faith avoid death in the face of dangerous threats (esp. 7, 17-19, 23, 28, 29, 31, and 33-35), and still others in faith look beyond their own deaths to offer hope to the living (esp. 20, 21, and 22). Heb 11 closes by noting that none of the heroes “received the promise” (39) and none were “made perfect” (40). In this paper, I argue that the promise and the perfection the heroes failed to realize is that of postmortem enduring life. As part of this argument, I make the case that the mention of God as creator in Heb 11:3 relates to his ability to resurrect the faithful.

Sarah Harris: Shepherds in Lukan Birth Narrative
This paper will examine the various ways the shepherds have been understood in the Lukan birth narrative. There have been many understandings of the role of the shepherds including Jeremias’ argument that shepherds were known as sinners in first century Palestine, and a predominant view that they are examples of the poor to whom Jesus brings good news in keeping with Luke’s programmatic verses (4:18-19). However this paper will suggest that Luke is painting a vision of the shepherds whose heritage is royal and divine, and in this he is casting a new vision of king and kingdom.

Sarah Hart and Philip Church: The Tabernacle in Exodus 25–40 and Hebrews 8:5—and the 500 Years in Between
Sarah: Bible dictionaries often present the tabernacle tent [Exodus 25–40], generally regarded as part of the priestly writings according to source analysis, with linguistic approaches. I claim that more importantly a sense of physical space and a cultic environment are conveyed by the words of the tabernacle tent text. The cultic world of the tabernacle tent can be visualized. Composition of the text is posited in the Babylonian Diaspora, exilic to early Persian period. The tabernacle of Exodus and the tabernacle of Hebrews are separated by five hundred years of religious, cultural and political history. Some general comments are made on usage and interpretations of the Hebrew text on the tabernacle in the intervening five centuries.

Philip: Two first-century writers who refer to the tabernacle are Philo and the author of the NT Epistle to the Hebrews, and NT scholarship often posits dependence on Philo on the part of the author Hebrews for his understanding of the Tabernacle as a mere, inferior copy of the heavenly sanctuary. These two authors have quite different concerns and this claim does justice to neither author. Philo discusses the construction of the tabernacle, drawing on Plato’s theory of ideas, and he has a positive view of the tabernacle as being approved and designed by God. The author of Hebrews gives no evidence of awareness of Plato’s theory of ideas in his single oblique reference to the construction of the tabernacle. Like other Second Temple writers he has a positive view of the tabernacle, claiming that it anticipates God’s eschatological dwelling with his people.

Erin Heim: Adoption and Sonship: A Test Case for Reading Metaphor
Abstract: Brendan Byrne and James Scott’s foundational studies on the term υἱοθεσία have sought to explain Paul’s use of the adoption/sonship metaphor in light of an Old Testament background for adoption and sonship, and their conclusions regarding the appropriate background material are now taken for granted by much of current biblical scholarship. Against Scott and Byrne, I propose that reading υἱοθεσία in these passages through an exclusively Jewish/OT hermeneutical lens results in the loss of the metaphor’s distinctive implications when it is subsumed under the more general notion of sonship. I maintain that Paul’s point in using adoption terminology in these passages is to describe the process of entrance and the final status of the believers, and the focus on sonship in current scholarship suppresses the former implication.

Mark J. Keown: Did Paul Escape from Roman Prison (Philippians 1:19-26; 2:24)?
In Philippians 1:19-26 Paul speaks clearly of: 1) an impending crisis and potential death (1:20-20-21); 2) Complete confidence of release, esp. 1:19 (ἀποβήσεται εἰς σωτηρίαν, ‘will turn out for salvation’); 1:22 (καὶ τί αἱρήσομαι οὐ γνωρίζω, ‘what I will choose I will not make known’), 1:25 (καὶ τοῦτο πεποιθὼς οἶδα ὅτι μενῶ... ‘and persuaded of this, I know that I will remain...’). Scholars have resolved this in a number of ways including among others: 1) Paul writes after the trial; 2) Paul had news of his impending release; 3) Paul was about to play his Roman citizenship; 4) Paul was contemplating suicide or voluntary death and decided not to do so; 5) Playing down Paul’s confidence to hope and faith; 6) Rhetoric; 7) A word from God. Assuming a Roman provenance, this paper will first establish that Paul’s language is most likely to be read speaking literally of his certainty of release. Then it will posit another fresh idea, that Paul planned to escape from Roman prison with the help of insiders (1:13; 4:22 cf. 2 Cor 11:32). It will argue that this makes sense of all the data and should be a possibility alongside others that cannot fully resolve this dilemma of interpretation.

Yael Klangwisan: Ancient Poetry, Truth and Continental Philosophy
A reflection on a 3 year project on reading the Song of Songs with an alternate methodology. In particular I will reflect on the continental ideas such as jouissance, différance, and the catch-22 of translation.

Richard Neville: The Rhetoric of Ethical Exhortation in Biblical Law and Wisdom
There is an apparent reticence in the biblical record to appeal to the creation of human beings in God’s image in its ethical texts. Creation in God’s image and/or likeness features in three Old Testament texts and two New Testament texts, and only one or two of these employ the language as a motivation for ethical behaviour. This study attempts to understand this reticence by investigating the rhetoric associated with the ethical treatment of human beings in biblical wisdom literature and in biblical law. It is anticipated that an understanding of the rhetoric used in these ethical instructions and stipulations will go some way towards explaining why creation in God’s image does not feature. It is also of interest to discover how the rhetoric associated with ethical exhortation in the law differs from the rhetoric of ethical exhortation in wisdom literature.

Carlos Olivares: Rebuking Jesus’ Disciples Harshly: An “Inner Texture” Analysis in the Gospel of Matthew
The implied author of the Gospel of Matthew describes Jesus rebuking Peter using different words. He calls him, for instance, σατανᾶs (Satan; Matt 16:23), σκάνδαλον (stumbling block; Matt 16:23) and ὀλιγόπιστος (little faith; 14:31). Likewise, Jesus is depicted calling his disciples γενεὰ ἄπιστος καὶ διεστραμμένη, which has been commonly translated as “faithless and perverse generation” (17:17; NRSV). In all these examples, it is possible to see an active and probably harsh Jesus, who rebukes his disciples employing strong statements. Using an “inner texture” approach, I intend to explore Jesus’s words against his disciples from a literary perspective. It is my intention to analyze them from a narrative perspective in the Gospel of Matthew, in order to understand their literary purpose.


Bob Robinson: Jesus and Samaritans and Some Implications for the Encounter with Islam
After a survey of the history, beliefs and practices of the Samaritans, and general material in the Gospels concerning them, the paper undertakes a theological exegesis of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (John 4:4-42) and the parable of the compassionate Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The paper then discusses some thirteen characteristics shared by Samaritanism and Islam, and suggests that these point to significant religio-cultural parallels between the worlds of Samaritanism and Judaism, and the worlds of Islam and Christianity today. With these parallels in mind, the paper concludes by offering answers to the question: “what are the implications of the example of Jesus (especially with Samaritans) for contemporary Christian attitudes towards Muslims?”

Kathleen Rushton: A Theological Cosmological Eco-Rhetorical Reading of Flesh (Sarx) and Glory (Doxa) in John 1:1-18
Drawing on the work of French philosopher, Rémi Brague, this paper uses a theological cosmological, eco-rhetorical methodology to argue that when John 1:1-18 is read as a theocentric text, human life, the Earth and all living systems are valued “as the fruit of the divine action of creation” (Edwards). Symbols which create new meaning are embedded in the prologue in a cosmology which functions as a framework consisting of intertextual allusions (logos, creation, wisdom) recognisable to first century hearers and modified by Johannine intratextual strategies (sophia becomes logos, logos became sarx, in the sarx is seen divine doxa) to present creation and God’s sovereignty.

Sean du Toit: Philippians and Phronēsis
“What is the right principle that should regulate conduct?” This is the query that begins book six of Aristotle’s, The Nicomachean Ethics. Throughout this book, Aristotle argues for an answer that concerns the virtues, and especially the virtue of phronēsis as a regulating and guiding concept in one’s ethical life. In a similar way, throughout the letter to the Philippians, Paul appeals to phronēsis (Greek) one of the cardinal virtues of the classical world. While Paul does employ this concept in other letters, there is a high concentration of usage in Philippians. What is Paul communicating with this term? What does he want the Philippian Christians to understand by this concept? These questions will occupy this paper. We will see how Paul redefines and reshapes the classical understanding to suit his own exhortation and deal with various issues throughout Philippians. We shall suggest that Paul encourages and teaches a particular phronēsis, i.e., a Christologically shaped phronēsis (2:5). Furthermore, Paul appeals to various people who model and embody a Christologically shaped phronēsis throughout Philippians. Paul uses these stories as instructive and illustrative examples of a Christologically shaped phronēsis operating in daily life.

Derek Tovey: Jesus, “the Stronger One”: An Intertextual Association with Samson?
I argue that the mention of John the Baptist’s diet in Mark 1:6 as including “wild honey” is an evocation of the story of Samson in Judges 14:5-9, just as John’s clothing evokes Elijah (see 2 Kgs 1:8). This evocation of Samson, along with John’s designation of Jesus as “the stronger one” (Mk 1:7) sets up an intertextual resonance with Jesus, who is a “stronger one” than John. Further, as Samson was stronger than the lion and Israel’s enemies (the Philistines), so Jesus is stronger than Satan, Israel’s spiritual enemy. The paper discusses the textual markers for this intertext.

Kevin Waldie: “The Tree of Life”
A movie called “The Tree of Life”, in some respects the cinematic event of the year, has caused much discussion. Audiences and critics are divided in their opinion about its nature as a film and its ability to speak to today’s world of things like the transcendent. So I want to ask, What is it about? In the wake of its New Zealand cinema release, I would suggest that we revisit how we speak of and understand “The Tree of Life” as a motif which begins with the book of Genesis and ends with the book of Revelation.

posted by Derek Tovey @ 10:38 am