Studies in Second Temple Judaism
and Christian Origins
Austin, 22 – 25 May 2016
University of Texas

Chairs:
Jonathan Kaplan, The University of Texas, USA
Kelley Coblentz Bautch, St. Edward’s University, USA
The Sixth Enoch Graduate Seminar, chaired by Jonathan Kaplan and Kelley Coblentz Bautch, will be hosted by the University of Texas at Austin from the evening of May 22 to the evening of May 25, 2016. The University of Texas at Austin is the flagship university of the University of Texas system. With over 50,000 students, the university hosts graduate programs in Ancient Mediterranean Religions in the Religious Studies department and Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East in the Middle Eastern Studies department. Faculty and students in these programs are part a burgeoning cohort of scholars in the region working in Second Temple Judaism and Christian and Rabbinic origins.
Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers working in all fields of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins are invited to participate and present papers. Papers proposals in English (500-1000 words) from all fields of early Judaism (Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, Christian origins, Rabbinic origins, Jewish-Hellenistic literature, etc.) should be submitted by email to the seminar secretary, Isaac W. Oliver (ioliver@bradley.edu), by December 15, 2015. Completed papers of 6000 words should be submitted by the end of March 2016, to be distributed in advance among the invited Seminar participants.
The Sixth Enoch Graduate Seminar will include for the first time a session with papers by Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers dealing with the Quran and the history of early Islam read in conversation with Jewish and Christian traditions of the Second Temple period and Late Antiquity. Using the tools of historical criticism and the new methods put forth in the study of Second Temple Judaism and Christian and Rabbinic origins, the papers will contribute to the renewed study of formative Islam as part and parcel of the complex process of religious identity formation in Late Antiquity.
Invited speakers, including Gabriele Boccaccini, Matthias Henze, Na’ama Pat-El, and L. Michael White will deliver plenary lectures on topics of special interest. Revised versions of the best papers will be collected and published in a peer-reviewed volume. Room and board will be completely covered for seminar participants. Further funding is currently being sought to cover partial travel expenses for seminar participants. For further information and application, please contact Dr. Oliver (ioliver@bradley.edu).

Sunday, May 22 | Monday, May 23 | Tuesday, May 24 | Wednesday, May 25 | |
8:00-9:00am | Breakfast for out-of-town participants | Breakfast for out-of-town participants | Breakfast for out-of-town participants | |
9:00-10:30am |
Session 1
History and Cosmos · Elena Dugan (Princeton) “A (More) Elegant Universe: The Astronomical Book against its Seleucid Context” · Kyle Roark (FSU) “Why is Watchers Concerned with Antediluvian History?: Native Competition Over the Origins of Civilization and the Rhetoric of Watchers” · Jason Ford (Rice) “The Eschatological Plan of the Apocalypse of Abraham: Judgment, Time, and Self-Identity” |
Session 4
Intermediaries and Prophets · Carson Bay (FSU) “ἄγγελοι and δαίμονες: Locating Flavius Josephus’s Supernatural Vocabulary” · Jacob A Lollar (FSU) “Of Lawgivers, Priests and Prophets: Philo and the Alexandrian Jews as an Allegory of Moses and the Israelites in the De Vita Mosis” · Joshua Falconer (Catholic University of America) “Spectres of the Ethiopic Book of Jubilees in the Qurʾānic Jinn” |
Session 7
Nachleben of Early Jewish Traditions · Bradley N. Rice (McGill) “From the Watchers to the Sethites to the Magi: Reinterpretations of Genesis in the Syriac Revelation of the Magi” · Ilona Gerbakher (Columbia University) “The Throne of Iblīs is Upon the Waters: Discovering Chaos, The Dark Merkavah, and the Savage God in Islam” · Sarah Fein (Brandeis University) “Such a Time as This: Women and Resistance in the Early Jewish Imagination” |
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10:30-11:00am | Coffee break | Coffee break | Coffee break | |
11:00am-12:30pm |
Session 2
Burial Practices, Eschatology and the Resurrected Body · G. Anthony Keddie (UT-Austin) “The Lives of the Prophets and the Archaeology of Burials in Early Roman Judaea: Class Distinctions between Life and Death” · Christopher Brenna (Marquette) “The Heavenly Warrior Tradition and Eschatological Journey in Joseph and Aseneth” · Tyler Stewart (Marquette University) “The Resurrection Apologetic of 1 Corinthians 15 in the Context of Adamic Traditions” |
Session 5
Torah and Philosophy · Jesse Peterson (University of Durham) “Is Coming Into Existence Always a Harm? Qoheleth in Dialogue with David Benatar” · Rebecca Harris (Rice) “Torah and Transformation: The Centrality of the Torah in the Eschatology of 2 Baruch” · Ethan Schwartz (Harvard) “From the Torah of Life to the Gospel of Eternal Life: The Deuteronomistic Framework of John’s Realized Eschatology” |
Session 8
Engaging Others · Barbara K.M.M.O. Holcátová (Charles University in Prague) “Reading Pre-Islamic References in the Quran” · María Enid Rodríguez (CUA) “Talking Back to God…or Not: Mary’s Response in Luke 1:26-38 and Q. 19:16-22 and Its Reception History” · Rufino H. Dango (Notre Dame); “lahā mā kasabat wa-lakum maa kasabtum (Q2:134), Exploring the Qur’anic Concept of Individual Responsibility as an Allusive Critique to the Alleged Concept of Predestination of its Jewish and Christian Audience” |
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12:30-1:30pm | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | |
1:30-3:00pm | Lecture – L. Michael White (UT-Austin) “Jewish Synagogues of the Diaspora and the Question of Synagogue Origins: Looking Back after Half-a-Century” | Lecture – Matthias Henze (Rice University) “The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha in Modern Research” | Lecture – Na’ama Pat-El (UT-Austin) “The Linguistic Dating of (Biblical) Texts” | |
3:00-3:30pm | Coffee break | Coffee break | Coffee break | |
3:30-5:00pm |
Session 3
DSS and Rewritten Bible · Christina Bryant (Brite) “’Death is a Fearful Thing’: An Intertextual Reading of the Female Personification of Death in 4Q184 and Carlos Schwabe’s The Death of the Gravedigger” · Giancarlo P. Angulo (FSU) “Speaking Righteousness: The Teacher of Righteousness, Collective Memory, and Tradition at Qumran” · Michael Gabizon (McMaster University) “The Development of the Matrilineal Principle in Ezra-Nehemiah, Jubilees, and Acts” |
Session 6
Community and Narratives · Nathan Hays (Baylor University) “Orphanhood and Parenthood in Joseph and Aseneth” · Rodney Caruthers II (University of Michigan) “Jewish Narrative Composition and Authorial Commentary” · Simon Krause-Heiber (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg: Duke Divinity School) “The Theological Character of the Old Latin Version of Esther”
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Session 8
Panel Discussion: Establishing a Research Agenda · Jonathan Kaplan (UT-Austin), moderator · Kelley Coblentz-Bautch (St. Edward’s University) · Brent C. Landau (UT-Austin) · Song-Mi (Suzie) Park (Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary) |
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6:00-9:00pm | Dinner for presenters, Welcome Address, and Desert Reception | Dinner for presenters | Dinner for presenters | Dinner for presenters |
Austin 2016 – papers
Christopher Brenna – The Divine Warrior Tradition in Joseph and Aseneth
Christina Bryant – “Death is a Fearful Thing”: The Female Personification of Death in 4Q184
Elena Dugan – A (More) Elegant Universe: The Astronomical Book against its Seleucid Context
Joshua Falconer – Spectres of the Ethiopic Book of Jubilees in the Qurʾān
Sarah E. G. Fein – “Such a Time as This”: Women and Resistance in the Early Jewish Imagination
Jason Ford – Judgment as the Eschatological Plan in the Apocalypse of Abraham
Michael Gabizon – The Development of the Matrilineal Principle in Ezra-Nehemiah, Jubilees and Acts
Ilona Gerbakher- The Throne of Iblīs is Upon the Waters: Discovering Chaos, Coincidentia Oppositorum and the Savage God in Islam
Rebecca Harris – Torah and Transformation: The Centrality of Torah in the Eschatology of 2 Baruch
Nathan Hays – Orphanhood and Parenthood in Joseph and Aseneth
Simon Krause-Heiber – The Theological Character of the Old Latin Version of Esther
G. Anthony Keddie – The Lives of the Prophets and the Archaeology of Burials in Early Roman Judaea
Jacob Lollar – Of Lawgivers, Priests, and Prophets: Philo and the Alexandrian Jews as an Allegory of Moses and the Israelites in the De Vita Mosis
Barbara Oudová-Holcátová – Reading Pre-Islamic References in the Quran
Jesse Peterson – Is Coming Into Existence Always a Harm? Qoheleth in Dialogue with David Benatar
María Enid Rodríguez – Mary’s Response – Talking Back to God…or Not: An Exegetical Comparison of Luke 1:26-38 and Q 19:16-22
Tyler A. Stewart- Putting Adam in his Place: The Resurrection Cosmology of Psalm 8 in 1 Corinthians 15