Calvin and I attended the national SBL meeting for the first time this year, and I had a blast. We live about an hour and a half from Boston, which made it ultra-convenient – though a very early start every morning. John Hobbins crashed at our place, and we had fun chatting with and getting to know him better.

Obviously, I sat through a ton of papers. Many were terribly boring, but there were also quite a few that were really profitable or interesting. Here are some of the session/paper highlights for me:

Saturday (As a side note, Saturday started off a little rocky for us. Our train on the Blue Line broke down and we were left waiting at Airport station in the blustering cold for 30 min before someone decided to tell us that the line had been shut down and no other train would be coming to get us. Thanks, MBTA! Your efficiency in dealing with unexpected situations is indescribable. To top that off, in the middle of the first paper below, the fire alarm went off on our floor. Whew. What a morning!)

Pentateuch Section, 9-11:30
The Angel Marriages (Genesis 6:1-4) and the Greek Framing of the Primeval History, by Andreas Schuele, Union Seminary Richmond.
Good presentation, and interesting content. There is, of course, a lot out there comparing the Hebrew Bible to Mesopotamian, Canaanite, and Egyptian mythology. However, not so much with Greek.

Pentateuch Section, 4-6:30
Bits of Bethel Cult behind the Golden Calf Complaint, by Daniel Fleming, New York University
Again, nice presentation quality, easy to listen to. The general consensus is that the HB tends to smooth over the reality of Israelite religion. Here, Fleming argues that we can see some of the historical memory of real cultic practices coming through the text.

Sunday

Book of Psalms Section, 9-11:30
The Most Important Text in the Bible and a Theology of the Psalms, by J. Clinton McCann, Eden Theological Seminary
Really, this whole section was decent, but this paper in particular caught my attention because it dealt with one of my favorite Psalms, Ps 82, and postulated on its theological import for the rest of the Bible.

Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section, 1-3:30
Patterned Language, by Frederic Clarke Putnam, Philadelphia Biblical University
Putnam’s presentation of the material was phenomenal. I wouldn’t have been able to fall asleep if I had tried. He was by far the best presenter out of all I listened to, in the quality and animation of his presentation. You couldn’t help but get excited about his paper! And, of course, the content was really fascinating, and hard to describe succinctly.

Women in the Biblical World Section, 4-6:30
Regulations Regarding the Purity of Priests’ Wives in Leviticus 21, by Hilary Lipka, University of California, Los Angeles
This was another section that was quite good as a whole, with some crazy but interesting stuff and mostly attention-keeping presentations. However, for some inexplicable reason, I found this particular presentation to be really interesting in content. Purity laws are not usually something I go for, but whether it be that the presenter just did a really good job of putting together the material, or something else – I really enjoyed this one.

Monday

Israelite Religion in Its West Asian Environment Section, 4-6:30
Divvying up the Divine Council: A New Perspective on the structure of the Divine Council in the Hebrew Bible, by Ellen White, University of St. Michael’s College
I have this sort of crazy obsession with the divine council in the HB, so this was a great presentation for me. I hope that I’ll get to hear further development on this topic from her next year.

Tuesday

Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Tradition Section, 9-11:30
This whole section was phenomenal. It fit together really well and kept me awake (most of the time). The papers presented were:
Character Formation and Community Ethics in Canaanite Literature, by Richard S. Hess, Denver Seminary
Positive and Negative Human Types in the Egyptian Wisdom Literature, by Nili Shupak, University of Haifa
Character Formation and Community Ethics in Mesopotamian Wisdom Literature, by Alan R. Millard, University of Liverpool

There’s an overview of my favorite papers. Of course, I sat through a ton more and there were others that were mildly interesting as well, but didn’t make the top of the list. I was going to write a little about how my time was spent outside of sessions, but I will save that for another post as this is getting quite lengthy.