Today’s the birth anniversary of John Barton of Oxford. John’s a fantastic scholar and a wonderfully congenial person. A true gem of a person.
I met Prof. Barton at SOTS when it met at the University of Chester in 2008.
So, happy birthday John.
I’m one of the moderators of the SOTS Facebook group so when folk want to join, myself or one of the other moderators (Jonathan or Jim) will approve or not. Just now… this ‘guy’ requested membership:
I don’t know what goes for acceptable in NTS or other learned societies (though SBL will let anyone join) but you can’t join SOTS just because you sell steroids and wear clothes that make you look like you belong on ‘Dancing With the Stars’. SOTS isn’t THAT kind of society!
From Jim Aitken on the SOTS facebook page-
Reminder for the SOTS Summer Meeting: tomorrow (9 May) is the early bird deadline for booking. The price goes up for bookings received after that date. http://www.sots.ac.uk/conf/conferencedetail.html
SOTS meetings are open to members and invited guests. It’s just the best conference to attend.
University of Bangor
22nd–24th JULY 2013
under the presidency of Dr Eryl W. Davies
Printable version of the SOTS programme
The booking form for the SOTS Summer meeting
Location and Directions to Bangor University
Further Directions to Bangor University
The venue for all sessions is Neuadd Reichel main hall [Ffriddoedd Site].
Publishers are invited to display books for sale during the Meeting.
Members who have had books published recently are also invited to display copies.
MONDAY 22nd JULY
(2.30 p.m.) [Committee Meeting]
4.30 p.m. Registration
6.00 p.m. Reception sponsored by Bangor University School of Theology and Religious Studies
6.45 p.m. Dinner
8.15 p.m. Professor Robert Hayward (Durham)
“A Lawgiver for the Nations: Observations on the Greek Translation of Psalm 9:21”
TUESDAY 23rd JULY
8.00 a.m. Breakfast
9.15 a.m. Revd Brian Mastin (Bangor/Cambridge) “Sheshbazzar, Servant of the Great King”
10.00 a.m. Mrs Vivienne Rowett (Barton on Humber) “‘But is it in the text, Viv?’ Exegesis by hand and machine: an illustrated presentation”
10.45 a.m. Coffee
11.15 a.m. Dr David Tollerton (Bangor) “‘Making the Story Beautiful?’ Responding to Rejections of the Hebrew Bible’s Usefulness for Post-Holocaust Thought
12.00 noon Dr Ann Jeffers (London) “The Politics of Selection: the Woodcuts from the Book of Judges in Luther’s Bible”
1.00 p.m. Lunch
2.00 p.m. OUTING to Porthmadog, and trip on Welsh Highland Railway to Caernarfon
4.30 p.m. President’s Tea (on train journey)
7.00 p.m. Dinner
8.30 p.m. Professor John Goldingay (Pasadena, CA) “Memory and Old Testament Theology”
WEDNESDAY 24th JULY
8.00 a.m. Breakfast
9.15 a.m. Professor David Wulstan (Aberystwyth) “Psalmodic Prosody – Prelates, paragoges and pausals”
10.00 a.m. Dr John Tudno Williams (Aberystwyth) “Bangor University’s contribution to Old Testament Study ”
10.45 a.m. Coffee
11.15 a.m. Professor Joachim Schaper (Aberdeen) “Ritual, Monotheism and the Place of Leviticus in the Pentateuch”
12.00 noon Business Meeting (Members only)
1.00 p.m. Lunch
2.30 p.m. Workshop for PhD students (tbc) OR Panel discussion: “Still Searching for Ancient Israel? A Debate Revisited”
4.00 p.m. Tea
4.30 p.m. Centennial Exhibition: Update and Question Session
5.30 p.m. Professor Graeme Auld (Edinburgh) “Time and the Infinitive: Writing Samuel and Kings”
6.45 p.m. Dinner
8.15 p.m. Professor John Barton (Oxford) “Ethical Digests in the Old Testament”
Dom Mattos – one of the nicest people working in publishing, gave me a copy of this new volume to review whilst I was in Cambridge for SOTS and I’m glad to do it since it looks brilliant. My review is here.
At Tyndale Tech. In sum, the same materials David mentioned during his talk at SOTS in Cambridge last week. Very helpful indeed.
Are online here. You’re welcome to view them but you may not share or copy or redistribute them without my express permission.
I’ll be leaving Gatwick soon and thought before I did I would offer some observations.
1- Britain is lovely, as always.
2- SOTS is still the most collegial conference I attend.
3- I’m glad to be going home. There’s no place like it.
4- British coins are weird.
5- British tv is awful. Truly, irrevocably, and mind numbingly awful.
6- British public transport is fantastic though overpriced.
7- The British habit of charging for toilets is just immoral.
I look forward to coming back again but it most likely won’t be for several years. I’m next going to Zurich in 2014 for the Calvin Conference. Ah Zurich and the punctual Swiss… How I’ve missed you.
She first surveyed scholarship on 7:23ff and then offered her own interpretation- doing it quite well. Another fine paper at a fine meeting. With very good questions and dialogue afterwards.
Wandering the book exhibit one final time I spotted this and thought – yes, I do believe I’d like to read that. The use of the Old Testament by the New is a longstanding research interest, my ThM thesis having been written on John’s use of Isaiah. So this book falls into the proper interest category.
The last several papers will soon be given and we will leave. But it has been a fine and informative meeting and seeing old friends has again been the very best part.
Next I’m off to Horley later today. More anon… For now, a photo of the entrance to the dining hall where we’ve had the best food I’ve ever eaten on any campus anywhere.
Tonight’s lecture was supposed to be by John Barton- who is always amazing. But he’s unable to be here so in his place George Brooke is to speak on “Some Issues Behind the Ethics in the Dead Sea Scrolls”.
George is an excellent speaker too so it should be fun. More anon…
In a wide ranging and articulate paper John described numerous Aramaic legal texts and their significance for our understanding of the ancient world.
I should have posted this earlier but was occupied. The final morning session featured a discussion of Job in oratorio and was illustrated by three different examples. It was something of a ‘reception history’ exercise.
One of the highlights of SOTS, for me, is always the time spent chatting with Philip Davies. This year we wandered around Cambridge and had Costa coffee and solved every imaginable interpretive difficulty and a few political problems to boot. It’s been a great meeting with more still to come this eve and tomorrow morning.
An interesting paper on the city in the Song- but one nearly impossible to summarize. Essentially the city is a space of darkness and concealment and functions as such.
Another to review. And it’s over 550 pages of commentary on my second favorite book after Jeremiah. The review will appear in due course in JSOT.
A very nice and thorough look mainly at 2 Kings 4. In sum, a child may well be something that every woman wants, but it may not be something that every woman needs.
