“From tôrāh to Torah: Variegated Notions of Torah
from the First Temple Period to Late Antiquity”

Camaldoli, 18-23 June 2017
Monastero di Camaldoli

Chairs: William M. Schniedewind (University of California at Los Angeles) and Jason M. Zurawski (University of Groningen), in collaboration with Gabriele Boccaccini (Director of the Enoch Seminar).

The Enoch Seminar and the resultant volume will examine the diverse understandings of tôrāh, beginning with the texts of the Hebrew Bible through to the Second Temple period and late antiquity, moving beyond traditional paradigms such as the early usage of tôrāh as general instruction vs. the transition to nomos, as “law,” or the development of a “normative” notion of Torah (capitalization intentional) in the Second Temple period. Participants are encouraged to rethink our scholarly assumptions and preconceptions on the topic and tackle the questions anew in light of more critical philological and historical approaches. We seek to examine the various notions of tôrāh (and nomos) in all relevant literature, regardless of scholarly or denominational corpora, both within ancient Jewish/Judean traditions and in light of broader influences, whether Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, Persian, etc. As this meeting follows and builds upon the work from the Fifth Nangeroni Meeting, “Second Temple Jewish Paideia in its Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic Contexts” (June/July 2015), discussions pertaining to the connections between tôrāh/Torah/nomos/dat and education, pedagogy, wisdom, etc., are especially encouraging. Our aim will be to discuss the variety of ways that tôrāh was defined and developed in the literature.

Sunday 18 June

16:00 Bus from Arezzo station to Camaldoli

18:15-19:15 Opening Session & Welcome

  • Welcome by Gabriele Boccaccini and Jason Zurawski
  • State of the Question by William Schniedewind

19:30 Dinner

Monday 19 June

07:00-08:45 Breakfast

9:00-10:30 Major Paper Session 1: Jacqueline Vayntrub, “Torah as Speech Performance in Pentateuchal Narrative”

  • Introduction: Jacqueline Vayntrub (10 min.)
  • Response: Lester Grabbe (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Major Paper Session 2: Stefan Schorch, “The Early Textual History of the Samaritan Pentateuch”

  • Introduction: Stefan Schorch (10 min.)
  • Response: Magnar Kartveit (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

13:00 Lunch

15:45-17:15 Short Paper Session 1

GROUP A:

  • Bob Hall, “Sirach and Law: Inquiry via Enigma”
  • Juan Carlos Ossandón, “Variegated Notions of Torah: The Prologue to Ben Sira and 4 Ezra”
  • Jonathan Vroom, “The Authorities of Torah: Notions of Torah in Ezra-Nehemiah and Ben Sira”

GROUP B:

  • Federico Dal Bo, “Paul’s Definition of ‘Circumcision of the Heart’: A Trans-Cultural Reading of Rom 2:29″
  • Jason Myers, “The Wisdom of Pseudo-Phocylides and Pauline Paraenesis: An Ethical Comparison of the Sentences & Rom 12:9-21; 13:8-10″
  • Valérie Nicolet, “Children, Slaves, Foreigners, Women, Eunuchs: Rhetorical Representations of Nomos in Galatians”
  • Jeremy Punt, “Paul and νομός, and broader perspectives: Rom 13:8-10 as case study”

17:15-17:45 Coffee Break

17:45-19:15 Major Paper Session 3: Benjamin Wright, “Where is the Torah in Ben Sira?

  • Introduction: Benjamin Wright (10 min.)
  • Response: Francis Borchardt (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

17:30 Dinner

Tuesday 20 June

7:00-8:45 Breakfast

9:00-10:30 Special Session, Review of Christine Hayes, What’s Divine about Divine Law?

  • Introduction: Christine Hayes (5-10 min.)
  • Review 1: Michael Legaspi (10-12 min.)
  • Review 2: Carol Bakhos (10-12 min.)
  • Response: Christine Hayes (5-10 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 45-60 min.

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Major Paper Session 4: Lutz Doering, “Torah and Halakhah in the Hellenistic Period”

  • Introduction: Lutz Doering (10 min.)
  • Response: Michael Satlow (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

13:00 Lunch

14:30 Walking tour to the Hermitage

17:45-19:15 Short Paper Session 2

GROUP A

  • Calum Carmichael, “The Woman Taken in Adultery and Jesus’ Writing on the Ground (John 8:2-11)”
  • Crispin Fletcher-Louis, “Jesus’ Messianic Torah in Mark 2-3″
  • Rivka Nir, “John the Baptist, the Law (Torah), and the Parting of the Ways”

GROUP B

  • Marianne Dacy, “The Binding of Isaac”
  • Antti Laato, “The Book of the Wars of Yahweh”
  • James Watts, “From the torah of polluted and inedible meats to diet as a marker of Jewish identity”

17:30 Dinner

Wednesday 21 June

7:00-8:45 Breakfast

9:00-10:30 Major Paper Session 5: Gabriele Boccaccini, “Torah and Apocalyptic Literature”

  • Introduction: Gabriele Boccaccini (10 min.)
  • Response: __ (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Major Paper Session 6: Eva Mroczek, “Always Back Up Your Torah: Data Recovery Lessons from Ancient Judaism”

  • Introduction: Eva Mroczek (10 min.)
  • Response: David Lambert (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

13:00 Lunch

15:45-17:15 Short Paper Session 3

GROUP A

  • Francis Borchardt, “Torah for the Moment: Understanding Torah in a Performative Context”
  • David Lambert, “Tôrāh as Mode of Conveyance: The Problem with both ‘Instruction’ and ‘Law’”
  • Michael Satlow, “Torah: The Material Evidence”

GROUP B

  • Jack Collins, “Authority without Text, Torah without Law: the Strange Case of Jubilees”
  • Paul Mandel, “From safar data’ to sofer da’at: The Transformation of torah from Law to Text”
  • Cana Werman, “The Pentateuch in light of the Rewritten Pentateuch”

17:15-17:45 Coffee Break

17:45-19:15 Major Paper Session 7: Joachim Schaper, “The ‘Stoic’ Solomon: From Torah to Nomos in the Hellenistic Age, from the Perspective of the Wisdom of Solomon”

  • Introduction: Joachim Schaper (10 min.)
  • Response: Jason Zurawski (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

17:30 Dinner

Thursday 22 June

7:00-8:45 Breakfast

9:00-10:30 Short Paper Session 4

GROUP A

  • Anne Kreps, “tôrāh? Torah? Flora!: Ptolemaeus Gnosticus’ Theory of Divine Law”
  • Michael Legaspi, “Nomos Human and Divine in Wisdom of Solomon”
  • Anders Klostergaard Petersen, “From tôráh to Torah and Nomos: the Israelite Jewish Development in Light of the Wider Cultural Evolutionary History of the Eurasian Continent”

GROUP B

  • Oliver Dyma, “Prophets – Levites – Scribes and their Role in the Transmission of the Torah”
  • Magnar Kartveit, “Possible Ideological Tendencies in the MT, the LXX, and the SP”
  • Patrick Pouchelle, “From tôrāh to νόμος: How the Septuagint enlightens the process that leads the word tôrāh to the concept of Torah”

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Special Session: Mauro Perani, Torah mss from the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna

13:00 Lunch

15:45-17:15 — Major Paper Session 8: Steven Fraade, “‘Enjoin Them upon Your Children to Keep’ (Deut. 32:46): The Intergenerational Fragility of ‘Words of Torah’”

  • Introduction: Steven Fraade (10 min.)
  • Response: Ishay Rosen Zvi (15 min.)
  • Moderated Discussion: 65 min.

17:15-17:45 Coffee Break

17:45-19:15 Wrap-up Session: Closing thoughts, Future directions

17:30 Dinner

Friday 23 June

7:00 Bus from Camaldoli to Arezzo Station