Monday, November 21, 2005

SBL Again

To those who mocked my TC Heresy of writing a commentary on a single text type I say unto ye: "Ha!". I just heard Stan Porter say the exact same thing on a panel discussion on the Book of Acts!!! Yes, Michael Pahl, I'm talking about you! Maybe my idea for a commentary series based on reception and transmission of mss will one day come to fruition. Actually, it was a good discussion by five very different commentators: Loveday Alexander (history), Joel Green (history is overrated), Beverly Gaventa (Acts is about God), Robert Wall (left before it started) and Stanley Porter. Porter is also going to write the Acts commentary in the NIGTC series. Two things about Porter to note: (1) I have a terrible habit of disagreeing with him lately on matters such as the use of Greek as a criterion of authenticity in historical Jesus research and his critique of "Third Quest" for the historical Jesus. (2) I secretly harbour the ambition to equal or suprass the size of his publication lists in the ETS and IBR newsletters.

The Historical Jesus seminar had as its highlight Thomas Weeden's critique of Kenneth Bailey's idea of "informal and controlled" oral tradition. James Dunn made a good response in defense of Bailey. And for those interested, you can check out my two cents towards the debate in recent articles in WTJ and BBR. I think Bailey gives us a model much better than Homeric epics, slightly better than Gerhardsson's rabbinic models, and a lot better than Kelber's written vs. oral hermeneutics of transmission.

Lastly, I went to the rhetorical criticism section and enjoyed I. Howard Marshall's paper on the structure of the Pastoral Epistles.

I also bought some new shoes since my other one's disintegrated. Having to throw my shoes away was a hard experience, since they were the parade shoes I was issued when I joined the Army 13 yrs ago - it was the end of an era in footwear and all the more significant since I buy a pair of dress shoes about once every decade. If only women were like that hey!!! I'm gonna copy nasty comments for that one!

Tomorrow or the next day I will blog on what books I bought ($200 US were spent all up - oh forgive me my darling wife!).

7 comments:

Ben Myers said...

She'll forgive you for spending so much on books -- as long as you disarm her with some very nice gifts.

J. B. Hood said...

Remind her of the exchange rate--your saving money by buying these books in the States--you'd actually be LOSING money if you bought them in UK.

Naomi--God has mercy on the merciful...

Did Marshall interact with Ray Van Neste on The Structure of the Pastoral Epistles?

Peter M. Head said...

Michael,

could you tell us what you thought was strong about Dunn's response to Weeden?

It seems to me that it might just be possible to continue to defend the 'model'; but that it is pretty difficult to defend 'Bailey'.

Cheers

Peter

Anonymous said...

I'll forgive you my darling, but you remember that after I have been to the after christmas sales.

Brandon said...

Your wife sounds a lot like mine!

Michael Pahl said...

I've always said such a commentary would be an excellent idea--for textual critical and reception critical purposes. But there I go again, beating that poor dead horse... :-)

Good to meet you at SBL! You're redder than I thought... and more... Aussie-ish.

Ray Van Neste said...

I came across this post a bit late, but in answer to j.b.'s question, yes Marshall did interact with my work.