Ancient & Late Antique Near East Lecture Series

Jews have been translating the Bible, primarily for other Jews, for more than 2,300 years. Some of these versions have themselves become the subject of intense study within Judaism, while others have sustained a decidedly less favorable reception from Jewish authorities. Although only a few of them have been accorded a status equal to the Hebrew original, almost all Jewish versions reflect the contexts in which their often accomplished translators worked. Many of them were also influential in the larger, Christian (or Muslim) world in which Jews typically lived. This is, then, a vast story, with a varied cast of characters, that spans the millennia—and yet it has not, until recently, received sufficient attention from scholars or the general public. This presentation is an effort to help remedy these circumstances. (see also: 15 Minute History Episode 67: How Jews Translate the Bible and Why: http://sites.utexas.edu/15minutehistory/2015/04/29/episode-67-how-jews-translate-the-bible-and-why/ )

The Syriac particle LAM has been assumed to be a marker of direct speech by grammarians and linguists. Several scholars has traced its history to an infinitive of the verb to say in Aramaic. In this talk I will take a fresh look at the function of the particle in Syriac texts of various genres and periods and its possible etymology. The results will shock and amaze you, and will serve as a reminder of what happens when one does not read ancient texts carefully. Na'ama Pat-El is an Assistant Professor, focusing on Semitic historical linguistics. She is the author of Studies in the Historical Syntax of Aramaic (Gorgias, 2012) and a co-author of Language and Nature: papers presented to John Huehnergard (Oriental Institute, 2012). She has published on language contact and historical syntax.

According to Second Maccabees, during the persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes in the Maccabean era, a man could not even admit that he was a Ioudaios. Dr. Collins will explore precisely what a loudaios was and what exactly, then, a person could not admit to be. More specifically he will examine how the Torah of Moses came to be definitive for Judean identity in the Second Temple period, and the shifting ways in which the Torah’s significance was understood. John Collins is Holmes Professor of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University Divinity School. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and holds an honorary D. Litt. from University College in Dublin. He has published widely on the subjects of apocalypticism, wisdom, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dr. Yarbro Collins will begin with Paul’s attitude toward women prophets in 1 Corinthians, then trace the evidence for prophetic practices in the late first and throughout the second century, investigating the participation of women and the responses it engendered. She will continue with a discussion of the “Montanist” movement and the significant leadership of women in it and will conclude with a discussion of the opposition to this “New Prophecy.” Adela Yarbro Collins is Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale University Divinity School. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate in theology by the University of Oslo, Norway.

The generation of Romans who came of age after the tetrarchic and Constantinian administrative reforms entered a world in which governmental positions were far more numerous and lucrative than ever before. The Roman educational system opened the doors to these opportunities and socialized students to take best advantage of them by developing social networks. In the 360s, 370s, and early 380s, however, we begin to see a movement in which educated elites turn against both their education and the careers for which it prepared them. Intriguingly, part of what makes their rejection of elite social norms and aspirations possible are the networks of friends their education helped them to develop. Edward Watts is the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Chair and Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego.

This lecture examines the Revelation of the Magi, an apocryphal Christian text preserved in Syriac and ostensibly narrated by the Magi of Matthew's Gospel, with a focus on understanding better the unusual phenomena described in this document. After providing a brief overview of this little-known text, it will assess how likely it is that the visionary experiences of the Magi in this writing actually represent the lived experiences of some early Christians, a methodological challenge familiar to interpreters of pseudepigraphical Jewish and Christian literature. Landau argues that there is indeed sufficient evidence to regard these textualized events as derivatives of "real world" religious experience. It will then consider in more detail several of the stranger and more distinctive practices and experiences in the Revelation of the Magi: the Magi's practice of silent prayer; their ingesting of a substance that leads to polymorphic visions of Christ; and Christ's manifestation to them as both a star and a small luminous human being. Brent Landau is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focus is on early Christian traditions about the birth and childhood of Jesus, with a special interest in the Magi, better known as the "three wise men." His forthcoming first book is a translation of the Revelation of the Magi, an ancient Christian text purporting to be the Magi's own account of Christ's coming.

This paper will take as a point of departure the ongoing work at the site of Polis-Chrysochous (ancient Arsinoë) on the western side of Cyprus where a team has worked to document both the architecture of one of two Early Christian basilicas and an associated assemblage of Late Roman ceramics. The architecture and assemblage from this site demonstrates the connections between the city of Arsinoë and other sites on Cyprus as well as southern Anatolia. At first glance, these links may appear an unremarkable consequence of the site's location, but the character of the basilica and the nature of the assemblage reveals more than simply geographic determinism and hints at the material manifestations of the human decisions that constitute culture. The significance of the past 30 years of field work on Cyprus, in this context, becomes clear as it provides an almost unparalleled potential to analyze the material culture of a series of related, yet distinct, sites in the ancient world.

Explore the origins, daily life, religion, and language of the Philistines, a cosmopolitan people who occupied the great Mediterranean seaport of Ashkelon for nearly six hundred years, until its destruction and their exile by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 604 B.C. In twenty-five seasons of excavations, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon has uncovered much new evidence about the mysterious Philistines, including a rare example of one of the ancient marketplaces that linked land routes from the southeast to a web of international Mediterranean merchants. (1175-604 BC) Lawrence Stager is is Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and is Director of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Since 1985 he has overseen the excavations of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.

The arch of Constantine has long puzzled scholars trying to trace the religious development of the first Christian emperor. Dedicated just three years after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the arch shows no trace of the Christian inspiration said to have led to Constantine's victory by Eusebius and Lactantius. Lenski argues that the arch's inscription represents not a Christian but a pagan interpretation of the victory put forward by the Roman Senate, adding further refinements to this earlier argument based on the arch's iconography. He will examine the many representations of the sun god on the monument to show that the arch's designers wished to credit Constantine's success to the intervention of Sol Invictus. He will then examine the role assigned to the Senate itself on the arch's reliefs and particularly in the two Constantinian friezes on the arch's northern side. The prominent place of senators seems designed to co-opt Constantine into the Roman Senate and its ideology and thereby to ensure his acceptance of its version of the events surrounding the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

Guest Lecturer Margaret Mitchell. In an infamous passage in his Letter to the Galatians (2:11-14), Paul called out Peter as a 'hypocrite.' This passage, especially when read in light of Paul's own appeal to himself as 'all things to all people' in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, was to cause deep trouble for later Christian interpreters, who sought to defend their movement against charges from outsiders that it had a cracked and unstable foundation in dual 'hypocrites.' This lecture will introduce this 'pagan' critique and the cultural force it had, and the various solutions to the inherited dilemma from their scriptures that were offered by patristic authors (Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Jerome and Augustine). In light of this context, turn to a sustained analysis of an untranslated homily by John Chrysostom, hom. in Gal 2:11 (In faciem ei restiti), which addresses not just the hypocrisy of Peter and Paul, but also the sticky problem of the hypocrisy of the Christian who reads this text approvingly as Paul's "in your face" to Peter. As we shall see, Chrysostom does this by engaging in a convoluted pretense of his own.

Although classical Israelite religion has very little to say about demons and other evil forces, but popular religion took it for granted that evil demons existed, haunting desert ruins and sometimes preying on people. In the late Persian and Hellenistic periods (4th—2nd centuries BCE) speculation about these types of figures proliferates. Incantations against demons, protective amulets, and practices of exorcism are all attested. Mythic accounts of the origin of evil spirits are developed, and the names and occasionally even the appearance of the demons are described. This talk will examine the origins and functions of speculation on demonic forces in early Judaism, a worldview with profound and lasting cultural effects. Although rabbinic Judaism largely rejected it, this worldview strongly shaped Christian religious beliefs. And while modernist Christians do not take the mythology of evil spirits literally, variations on these beliefs remain common among conservative evangelical and Pentecostal Christians throughout the world. Carol A. Newsom is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Old Testament at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. She has written seven books and scores of articles, book chapters, translations, encyclopedia articles, and reviews. She has received several prestigious research fellowships, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Henry Luce Foundation, and has won several awards for excellence in teaching and mentoring. She recently served as president of the Society of Biblical Literature and is a senior fellow at Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion.

Eusebius was born ca. 300 C.E. in the Syriac city of Edessa where, according to his biographers, he received his first training in biblical interpretation. He later studied with the other Eusebius in Caesarea and settled in Antioch, in the wake of the Council of Nicaea, before becoming bishop, around 340, of the Syrian city of Emesa (present-day Homs). His Commentary on Genesis, written in Greek but preserved in its entirety only in an Armenian translation, reflects much of his personal life story. Eusebius brings his knowledge of Syriac to the interpretation of the Greek Septuagint text, often in an attempt to uncover nuances in the Hebrew original.The Commentary also reflects Syriac and Antiochene Christianity’s proximity to Judaism. Basing ourselves on a select number of passages, we will explore what the new Commentary has to tell about Judaism and how it relates to early Syriac exegesis (in particular Ephrem) on the one hand and Greek Antiochene exegesis on the other.