Thanks to John Anderson for pointing out that the SBL annual meeting program has now been made available online. The two papers I’ll be reading are:
The Blogging Revolution: New Technologies and their Impact on How we do Scholarship
Not that long ago, in an academic galaxy not that far away, scholars steeped in traditional models, paradigms and technologies marveled that young academics would “fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way” by engaging in that rather frivolous activity referred to as “biblioblogging.” But as blogging (and other new technologies and media) become increasingly mainstream, not only do the activities of blogging and online publication seem less frivolous, nor do they merely begin to appear to be highly appropriate topics for a session at the SBL annual meeting, but these technologies show themselves to have the potential to revolutionize the ways we do scholarship, every bit as much as the transportation and printing technologies that have made possible the types of interaction in person and in print that scholars in our time have come to take for granted. Two key examples will be discussed: the possibility of “blog conferences” to supplement if not replace conferences such as the one at which this paper is being read; and the possibility for harnessing interactive media to create textbooks which not only address readers but do so in response to readers’ answers to questions the textbook has asked them. The key issue is no longer whether new media will impact the academy, but how to utilize them to their full potential, and not merely as yet another means of transmitting and viewing material which is otherwise presented in a traditional format.
Intertextuality without an Intertext? Musings on Matthew and Method
There has been much discussion about the degree of importance of the original context of a Scripture which is quoted or alluded to in the New Testament. Matthew 2:23 provides an interesting test case, since what Scripture(s), if any, the author may have had in mind remains uncertain. This paper will consider similarities between this instance and other examples in the New Testament where the assertion that something happened “according to the Scriptures” appears to have been more important than clarifying which Scriptures were in view. It will also explore the possibility that the term Nazoraeans may have denoted an already-existing Jewish religious group with which Jesus and his followers were being associated (cf. Acts 24:5). Concluding considerations will be offered focused on methodology and intertextuality, noting that our inability to identify what Scripture was being referred to suggests that the specific text, much less its original context, was not always important in New Testament citations and allusions.
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