Programme

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

7–9 January 2019

Under the presidency of Prof. Susan Gillingham

Printable version of the programme.  

MONDAY 7 January

• 2.00 pm Committee Meeting
• 4.30 pm Registration 
• 6.00 pm Reception sponsored by the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge 
• 6.30 pm Dinner 
• 8.15 pm Presidential Address: Prof. Susan Gillingham (Oxford) “Bifocal reading: Textual Analysis and a Critical Imagination in Biblical Studies”

TUESDAY 8 January

•  8.00 am Breakfast 
• 9.15 am Prof. John Goldingay (Oxford), “On Reading Genesis 49” 
• 10.00 am Dr Siobhán Dowling-Long (Cork), “An Exploration of Biblical Pathos Through Music” 
• 10.45 am Coffee 
• 11.15 am Dr Ekaterina Kozlova (London), “Acedic Kingship in ANE: Gilgamesh and David as Paradigmatic Kings of ‘Unfocused Energy’” 
• 12 noon Dr Katharine Dell (Cambridge), “‘The Lord loved Him’ (2 Sam 12:24): Solomon as idealized character and paradigm for character ethics within the ‘Solomonic’ canon” 
• 1.00 pm Lunch 
• 4.30 pm Tea 
• 5.00 pm Dr Holly Morse (Manchester), “Seeing Sense: Prophetic Visuality as a Response to Trauma” 
• 6.00 pm Reception 
• 6.30 pm Dinner 
• 8.15 pm Dr John Jarick (Oxford), “God as Gambler”

WEDNESDAY 9 January

• 8.00 am Breakfast
• 9.15 am Prof Joseph Blenkinsopp (South Bend), “Re-Reading Isaiah in the Light of Psalms”
• 10.00 am Dr James Aitken (Cambridge), “The Idea of the Septuagint” 
• 10.45 am Coffee 
• 11.15 am Dr Alastair Hunter (Glasgow), “Transports of Delight: Adventures in Psalms Translation” 
• 12 noon Business Meeting (Members only) 
• 1.00 pm Lunch, followed by departure 

Abstracts

Susan Gillingham (Oxford) “Bifocal reading: Textual Analysis and a Critical Imagination in Biblical Studies”

The paper first discussed (in conversation with the work of John Barton) the theory of textual analysis, arguing that it had both a diachronic and synchronic remit, challenging not only the intellect but also the imagination. The paper then examined what was meant by a critical imagination, offering as an illustration of imaginative enquiry a dialogue between ancient iconography and a biblical text. The contributions of Othmar Keel, Silvia Schroer, Izaak de Hulster and Joel LeMon were important here, alongside William Brown’s work on the theology of metaphor in biblical poetry. The final section, on the praxis of bifocal reading, began with a textual analysis of Ps. 19:5, with its two similes of the sun as a ‘strong man’ and ‘bridegroom’. This was then read in the context of ancient iconographical representations on cylinder seals of the sun-god Shamash. This imaginative visual engagement with the world ‘before’ the psalm was contrasted with a similar engagement with the world ‘beyond’ the psalm, exemplified in the specific iconographical depictions of Ps. 19:5 in three related Psalters, which when read bifocally reveal a complex relationship between mythology and poetry in Ps.19:5, evident in both its ancient setting and its later reception. Returning to the initial theme of the importance of inclusivism in the Society, the paper concluded that we need to celebrate such plurivalency and diversity in our present scholarship, and it was anticipated that the following papers as well as those in the July meeting would indeed achieve this. 

John Goldingay (Oxford), “On Reading Genesis 49” 

The paper began by noting that two lengthy monographs on the Testament of Jacob by Raymond de Hoop and Jean-Daniel Macchi, published in the same year, come to quite different views on the origin of Genesis 49 and also illustrate the diversity of scholarly views on the exegetical questions it raises. It was suggested that this double aporia can be reduced if we take more account of the fact that the Testament is a piece of poetry and a piece of rhetoric. Poetry doesn’t have to be syntactically neat; it may be allusive and elliptical. It likes anaphora; suggestions about emending the text to remove repetition are questionable. The Testament likes metaphor and likes paronomasia, and likes to play with double meanings; the Joseph blessing is the most complex and sophisticated in this respect. These features do raise the question of how the poetry with its subtlety was communicated. But they also reflect the fact that the Testament is an exercise in rhetoric, in persuasion, though Father Jacob’s approach to persuasion is very different from Father Solomon’s in Proverbs 1 – 9. Whatever the Testament’s date, it offers Israel some account of how all twelve clans may be understood, and its inclusion in the Torah implies that in this connection it continued to be significant for the people of God. It is indeed a high point in Genesis, a climax to the book, a sometimes enigmatic poem that is animated and vibrant, thought-provoking and suggestive, significant and challenging. 

Siobhán Dowling-Long (Cork), “An Exploration of Biblical Pathos Through Music” 

This presentation explored the theme of pathos in Ps. 139, Ps. 137, and 2 Sam. 18:33 as interpreted by composers and musicians. It began with a performance of the ‘Introit for Easter Day (Resurrexi)’ based on Ps. 139: 5, 6, 1-2 by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Fontgombault. It illustrated how this setting, which has been interpreted since the ninth century to refer to Christ’s awakening at his resurrection, reflects not the joyfulness of the resurrection but rather the suffering of Christ through its mournful setting in Mode 4. The second excerpt, ‘On Willows and Birches’ (A Concerto for Harp and Orchestra) (2009) by John Williams, based on a setting of Psalm 137, illustrated the lament of the Israelite people through the music of their harps which hung upon the willows and which refused to remain silent as the wind wafted through their strings. The final piece of music focused on David’s lament for Absalom (2 Sam. 18:33) through Eric Whitacre’s poignant work ‘When David Heard’ (1999). The presentation argued that music, above any other artistic medium, has the power to open up the biblical text in ways that touch the heart beyond any need for words. 

Ekaterina Kozlova (London), “Acedic Kingship in ANE: Gilgamesh and David as Paradigmatic Kings of ‘Unfocused Energy’” 

This paper began by discussing the phenomenon of ‘restlessness’ in ANE and HB sources in general, showing how it was viewed as an extreme misfortune often inflicted on people by their gods. It then proceeded to examine this phenomenon in relation to ANE kingship arguing that a monarch’s unfocused and unchecked energy could be both personally and communally damaging. Focusing on two well-known kings, Gilgamesh and David, already compared in the work of Susan Ackerman, this paper argued that these kings’ ‘restless/acedic rule’ and ‘restless/acedic slip-up’ respectively led to severe repercussions for their subjects. The discussion focused on Gilgamesh and David’s deviant eros, as well as its group consequences, as seen specifically through the lens of ‘restlessness’. While Gilgamesh’s ‘restless heart’ leads him to exploit the people of Uruk, David’s neglect of his royal duties (2 Sam. 10-11) and restlessness (2 Sam. 11:2-3), leads to an extramarital affair with Bathsheba, one of his subjects (2 Sam. 11:2-5) which unleashes a series of devastating events within David’s own family and his kingdom, and eventually climaxes in a civil war.

Katharine Dell (Cambridge), “‘The Lord loved Him’ (2 Sam 12:24): Solomon as idealized character and paradigm for character ethics within the ‘Solomonic’ canon” 

This paper argued that in describing the infant Solomon, the writer’s assurance that ‘The Lord loved Him’ (אהבו†®יהוה†in 2 Sam. 12:24 is definitive for understanding the presentation of King Solomon in I Kings 1-11. This divine ratification, accompanied by the repetition of the same principle to his father, David, echoes across the account, right up until chapter 11 where the divine favour is withdrawn. This paper also argued that the character of Solomon remains flat and idealized throughout (until the last chapter) and that, whilst he is characterized by his wisdom (the nature of which develops as the account proceeds) and role as temple builder, these descriptions remain superficial. Even when Solomon does speak, much of what he says is moralistic and pious. He is essentially a moral paradigm and this view of him is perpetuated in the canon by the ‘Solomonic’ writings that bear his name.

Holly Morse (Manchester), “Seeing Sense: Prophetic Visuality as a Response to Trauma” 

Noting that the Bible is a visual document which insists on the role of the reader’s imagination as part of the meaning making process that converts written word into vibrant message, this paper explored the trauma art of twentieth century German artist, Anselm Kiefer, analysing how the artist appropriates Hebrew prophecy in his attempts to see sense in his own post-war, post-Holocaust cultural context. Noting with Martin O’Kane that it is essential to consider the ‘very creative ways [artists have worked] in order to portray the intense personal and communal suffering so eloquently articulated in the Bible’ – this paper advocated looking at biblical representations of personal and communal suffering that have supplied a visual language for later artists to work through their own experiences of pain, not least because reception criticism should be about more than a forward trajectory, tracking the way artists have, after the text, converted word to image. The paper suggested that we might also think about how engagement with contemporary artistic appropriations of biblical trauma can allows us as modern readers to see biblical texts anew and how their encounters with biblical vision in the context of trauma can provoke us to consider whether the visuality of ancient biblical prophecy might also be bound up with its own setting of collective cultural and national trauma.

John Jarick (Oxford), “God as Gambler”

This paper explored one of the less-commented-upon pictures of God in the Old Testament, namely that of the deity as not only an instigator of ‘games of chance’ for humans to live by (the casting of lots and the deployment of urim and thummim) but also as a practitioner of decidedly chancy pursuits himself (in his activities of creation, election, and testing of mortals). It investigated: the divine sanction for the ‘games of chance’ in human affairs (including a discussion of the permutations of an urim-or-thummim dichotomy and the implications of the casting of lots over the two goats on the Day of Atonement); the great gamble of creation in the second chapter of Genesis and beyond (such aspects as the creator’s uncertainty about what he is creating and how it could be made to work properly, and whether the second toss of the coin after Noah is any more likely to succeed than the first toss of the coin with Adam); the ongoing gambling on patriarchs, priests, and princes (with a consideration of the considerable number of times that those on whom God had pinned his colours failed to perform adequately); and the preeminent case of the heavenly wager taken out on the figure of Job (including a discussion of the implications for God’s gambling character in the divine speeches at the end of the poetic section of the book).

Joseph Blenkinsopp (South Bend), “Re-Reading Isaiah in the Light of Psalms”

Given that both Isaiah and the book of Psalms are compilations of texts gathered over a long period by many contributors and together constitute the most substantial unit in the Hebrew Scriptures, this paper offered a close intertextual study highlighting themes common to both texts. In Psalms, the focus was on those compositions attributed in the psalm titles to members of the musical guilds in the Second Temple, together with similar untitled psalms, while in Isaiah, the focus was on psalms which occur throughout the three main sections of the book, and do so with much greater frequency than in any other prophetic book. Of the common themes and motifs, the most prominent is Zion which is named seventy-nine times in Psalms-Isaiah but only rarely in other prophetic books, including Ezekiel, Haggai and Malachi, despite their concern with Jerusalem and its temple. The intertextual reading offered here brought to light a way of experiencing and articulating commitment to the fundamentals of the faith of Israel which had its own distinctive character vis-à-vis torah religion in both its Deuteronomistic (D) and Priestly (P) formulations and even more so vis-à-vis the reflective and didactic compositions in the Ketuvim and elsewhere in the canonical writings. The paper concluded with an invitation to critically test the theory of Ulrich Berges that exiled members of the temple musician guilds were responsible for the core of Isaiah 40-55, especially 40-48, which were brought back to Jerusalem by them as a message of hope for the survivors who escaped exile.

James Aitken (Cambridge), “The Idea of the Septuagint” 

The paper began by observing that many theories have circulated about why the Septuagint was produced, but that the assumption of a loss of knowledge of Hebrew has been dominant. It observed further that new discoveries in Egypt of Greek papyri had shed light on varying registers of Greek and the social significance of language at the time. Having identified natural Greek usage within the Septuagint, the paper argued that the translators had native competence in Greek, and that comparison of the Septuagint with Greek literary compositions in Egypt indicated the important role of Greek even for Egyptians who still spoke their native Demotic and the value of Greek as a cultural marker of some significance for the Jewish translators as well.

Alastair Hunter (Glasgow), “Transports of Delight: Adventures in Psalms Translation”

This paper described an ongoing project focused on the translation of groups of psalms. Accordingly, it was suggested that the Psalms of Ascents depend to a high degree on formal devices, have as their shared locus the liturgy of pilgrimage and betray an intensity which may be illustrated by means of the conventions of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Instead of reading the first two books of Psalms in the context of the life of David, the paper borrowed from the tropes of Greek epic poetry to parallel the far from saintly David with the cunning but successful Odysseus. The analysis of book three of Psalms paired them with Donne’s Holy Sonnets and focused on the role of these psalms in addressing the seeming failure of everything held dear by the community.