The Hebrew Bible Workshop will convene on Monday, November 12th 4:00-5:30 in Swift 403.  There will be whiskey, wine, and stimulating conversation.

4:00-4:30 Ben Thomas, PhD Candidate in NELC, will do a practice run of his SBL presentation: “The Beginning of Solomon’s Reign in the Septuagint at 3 Reg 2:46l-3:2.”

4:30-5:30 Matthew Richey, first year PhD student in NELC, will present his paper, “Baruch Among the Scribes: A New Model for the Redaction of Jeremiah 36.”

Abstract:

This paper treats differences between the Masoretic and Septuagint editions of Jeremiah 36 (43 in LXX) – in which Jeremiah’s prophecies are first inscribed, then read, burned, and finally reconstituted – as the basis for a history of the chapter’s redaction. This model explains, as parsimoniously as possible, the seemingly contradictory picture of the named “officials” (שרים) and further significant disagreements in the two major text traditions. Variants in the MT and LXX expose the processes by which editors of the chapter sought to claim certain literate authorities as supporters of Jeremiah, to elevate Baruch’s position relative to government officials while emphasizing his inferiority to the inspired prophet, and to reinterpret the position of “scribe” (סופר) along Persian period – rather than now outdated Iron II – lines. While the earliest retrievable version of Jeremiah 36 did not posit the inviolability of the written prophetic word or the unity and reliability of literate authority, later redactors assumed and enforced such peculiarly textual values in seeking to bring the received text into accord with their worldview.