Ancient Language Colloquium @ Macquarie

I just got this in my email. It looks like a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon to me!

Museum of Ancient Cultures Language Showcase Series X

A Language Colloquium

Friday, 16 October, 2009
2.00–5.00pm
Seminar Room, Museum of Ancient Cultures
Building X5B, Macquarie University

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As part of the 40th anniversary celebration of Ancient History at Macquarie University, the 10th installment of the Museum of Ancient Cultures Language Showcase Series looks back over the history of the Language colloquium series, and onto the future of research on the ancient languages at Macquarie, with a program taking in Biblical, Classical, and Egyptological linguistic work.

PROGRAM

First Session

2.00–2.10: Welcome

2.10–2.45: Ian Young, University of Sydney
‘“Late” Language, Loanwords, and Linguistic Dating of Books of the Hebrew Bible’

2.45–3.20: Marie-Louise Craig, Charles Sturt University
‘Pioneers and No Through Roads: The Story of Early Hebrew-English Lexicons’

3.20–3.50: Afternoon Tea

Second Session

3.50–4.25: Trevor Evans, Macquarie University
‘Counting Chickens in a Third-Century BC Papyrus’

4.25–5.00: Boyo Okinga, Macquarie University
‘Topicalisation and the assassination of King Amenemhet I – The Instruction of Amenemhet to his Son §7c-d’

Life Update

My semester is nearly halfway finished already and I have yet to list the classes I’m taking, so here goes:

AHPG809 – Advanced Latin Documents
Prof. Alanna Nobbs

This unit provides an advanced study of Latin for those who have previously completed an introductory unit in Latin at tertiary level at least equivalent to AHPG801.

AHPG902 – Pagans, Jews and Christians: Athens and Jerusalem
Dr. Malcolm Choat

This unit focuses on the theme embodied in Tertullian’s question ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ It uses contemporary sources in translation as the basis for an examination of the relationship and tensions between Greeks, Jews, and Christians, especially from the perspective of the inheritors of the Classical tradition, the Romans.

AHPG806 – Greek Coins
Dr. Ken Sheedy

Teaching will be based on the important numismatic collections of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies. Students will be offered a very practical approach to the study of this crucial resource for the study of ancient history. The unit has two components: the theory and methodology of numismatics and case studies in Greek society. (We also study Roman coinage, so I’m not sure why this course is entitled ‘Greek Coins’.)

AHPG883 – Thesis

I’m researching ‘house/household’ language in the Gospel of John, particularly the phrase οἶκος τοῦ πατρός (‘father’s house[hold]‘) in chs. 2, 8, and 14.

I’m also sitting in on Prof. Stephen Llewelyn’s honours seminar on Ancient Israel, which I have really enjoyed so far.

Taking three units and sitting in on (and doing most of the work for!) another while, at the same time, working on my thesis is proving to be difficult. There just isn’t enough time to do it all. Thankfully, though, I have a summer break coming up—yes, summer break in December-February—in which I’ll have lots of free time to do nothing but work on my thesis. And take Aramaic. And possibly teach Koine Greek.

Getting out of theology departments, which is the only context in which I’ve studied the NT until now, and into a non-confessional Ancient History department in a large secular university has already been extremely rewarding and challenging. Here’s what I’m discovering so far:

1. Australian undergrad honours students, at least the ones in the Ancient History department here, would put a lot of American graduate students to shame. There are some of them in my classes, and they frequently make me feel completely incompetent. I think some changes probably need to be made to our education system in the US.
2. Studying the New Testament and early Christianity in a secular university is completely different from studying it at a theological seminary. Some of the faculty and students are Christians, some aren’t. It’s hard to tell who is and who isn’t. I’m also finding it difficult to separate history and theology. Until now, they’ve been one in the same. I’ve been trained to read the NT through a theological/exegetical/homiletic lens, but they don’t do theology here. It’s more challenging than it may sound, but it’s a good exercise for me.
3. I sort of considered myself something of an ancient historian until I came here. I wasn’t; I was a theologian. Of course, that isn’t a bad thing. That is, after all, what I do. But I’m finding that the knowledge I had about the ancient world—most of which, by the way, I picked up from NT scholars—was cursory, biased, sometimes used improperly, and occasionally just plain wrong. I’m here to correct all that and fill in the gaps.
4. The field of NT studies needs more scholars who are actually trained as historians. Many try, but if we’re being honest, only a handful are actually successful at it. How many exegetes are actually competent archaeologists? Philologists? Papyrologists? Numismatists? Classicists? Very few. My goal is to be one of those few in four years.

I’m glad to be here. I’m being stretched in many ways, I’m learning loads, I’m among world class scholars and top notch students, I’m meeting lots of wonderful people, and winter isn’t cold. I do wish the birds would shut up at 4am, though.

Some Video Interviews You Can’t Miss from CPX

In the latest Biblical Studies Carnival (number XLV) over at “The Golden Rule,” Michael Kok links to a video (via “Biblical Paths“) of an excellent no nonsense, straight forward interview with Dr. Chris Forbes on Josephus and the issue of Christian forgery. Dr. Forbes is Professor of Early Christianity and Judaism in the Department of Ancient History here at Macquarie Uni, where I study. The interviewer, Dr. John Dickson, is the director for the Centre for Public Christianity and Senior Research Fellow of Ancient History at Macquarie—and he’s also my thesis supervisor.

Please go watch more of the videos at CPX. The videos they produce really are excellent. Recently, for example, there have been interviews with Darrell Bock and Don Hagner. The series of interviews with Prof. Edwin Judge, founder of the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie Uni and an internationally celebrated scholar, are absolutely outstanding—in my opinion, the best so far. And certainly don’t miss the extended interview with the late great Martin Hengel, one of my all time favorite scholars.

The Star of Bethlehem and Roman Imperial Coinage

Last night as I was doing some reading for my course on ancient numismatics in the peaceful ambiance of Sydney’s Darling Harbour, I came across a bit of information that immediately aroused my curiosity—namely, that the deification of Roman emperors was typologically communicated on Imperial coinage by means of a star over the emperor’s head. “What’s so interesting about that?” you may ask. Try this:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they head the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. (Mt 2:1-10)

So when I got home, naturally I checked a couple numismatic databases to get a look for myself, and sure enough, I found quite a few coins with a DIVVS (“divine”) inscription and a star over, or near, the emperor’s head.

Obverse: head of Augustus, star/comet above
Reverse inscription: AVGVST DIVI F LVDOS SAE (“Augustus, Son of the Divine [Caesar], Secular Games”)

Obverse: Head of Octavian, star, inscription: DIVI F (“Son of the Divine [Caesar]“)
Reverse inscription: DIVOS IVLIVS (“Divine Julius”)

Obverse: Head of Tiberias, inscription: TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS
(“Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus”)
Reverse: Head of Augustus, star above, inscription: DIVOS AVGVST DIVI F
(“Divine Augustus, Son of the Divine [Caesar]“)

The star seems to have been associated initially with Julius and then adopted by subsequent emperors who claimed to be divine by association. At any rate, if this is the image to which the author of Matthew’s Gospel is referring, then his point is a profound protest against Imperial rule: There is a new King, Jesus, the only Divine Son of the True God.

What do you think?

I Really, Really Want This…

The new Hebrew and Greek Bible by Zondervan, that is. I’ve always wished someone would make a combo Hebrew/Greek Bible to bring with me to church, but to my knowledge no one has until now. Carrying both a Hebrew OT and a Greek NT to church is both cumbersome and, well, embarrassing.

I must own it. Who wants to buy it for me?