The Divine Flautist

I've been reading a lot of second and third century literature - right now focused predominantly on the second - for my newest project on "The Christian Moses."  I rather enjoyed the following from Athenagoras (Plea for Christians 9):

"...for I think you also...cannot be ignorant of the writings either of Moses or of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the other prophets, who, lifted in ecstasy above the natural operations of their minds by the impulses of the divine spirit, uttered the things with which they were inspired, the spirit making use of them as a flute-player breathes into a flute..." (ANF trans)

Irenaeus, too, at one point refers to the prophets as God's instruments (though I think he meant more in terms of general instrumentality rather than musical instruments).  So, there you go: the prophets are flutes into which the divine spirit blows.  

Spring Courses for University of Mississippi - Desoto

If you are a University of Mississippi student and looking around for some courses to take as classes start up on Wednesday (and happened to stumble onto my blog), check out the following, both of which the first class is Thursday, Jan 23:

Rel 395: Sacred Road-Tripping: Pilgrimage from Mecca to Memphis
Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-4:15 p.m.

Description:

As a practice, pilgrimage stands at many intersections, crisscrossing the complex topographies of a multi-religious world.  It ties together sacred place, sacred time, and myths and legends of heroes, saints, and gods.  As one traverses a landscape, one may try to connect to the past, while providing another link for future travelers.  A pilgrimage may be a religious requirement or an individual quest.  It blurs the line between a religious journey and tourism.  Its destination may be a physical place, but also may be within oneself.  In this class we will explore this multi-faceted phenomenon from antiquity to modernity and across several religious traditions.

Rel 366: Sex, Gender, and the Bible

Meets Thursdays 6-8:30 p.m.

Description:

This course will critically examine images of women, gender, and sexuality in biblical sources, including the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the Apocrypha, and the New Testament, which biblical readers throughout the centuries have reinterpreted to changing circumstances to reconstruct “normative” views and values of gender, sex, and the body for each new generation.  Our investigations will make these values explicit, and will help us explore what different groups of people think ought to be the case.  In order to do this, we will expose the value issues to alternative theories and systematic analysis.  In this course, the normative values that we are interested in are attitudes toward sexuality and the body prevalent in Christian societies.  Historical Biblical Criticism, Feminist Biblical Criticism, and Queer Theory will be some of the perspectives used to explore these values, exposing for us the values and opening up for us alternative worldviews.

I also have an Introduction to New Testament course that will meet Tuesday nights 6-8:30:  here is a short description for it as well:

The Bible has been one of the most influential collections of literature on religion, other literature, politics, society, and culture.  Jesus and Paul are immediately recognizable figures, popularly invoked in daily life and even public policy.  From the Gospels to Revelation, the books of the New Testament saturate our culture from popular films and novels to shaping people’s behavior and national politics.  Despite the New Testament’s seeming familiarity in religious institutions and public life, however, it can be very strange and disorienting.  In this class we will recover the strangeness of the New Testament in order to read it anew in their ancient Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern contexts.  To do this we will critically examine their transmission, development, historical contexts, and literary aspects.    

Bart Ehrman Good for the Church?

On why Bart Ehrman is good for the church - or, at least, evangelical Christians (by Greg Monette, himself an evangelical Christian): here.

Review of My Book!

Mike Kibbe, a student at Wheaton, has reviewed my monograph here.  I would like to thank him for giving it some attention!

The Melons of Valentinus

I am re-reading Irenaeus's Against Heresies, and came across one of my favorite passages of the book - his reductio ad absurdum discussion of Valentinus's aeonic realms:

But along with it there exists a power which I term a Gourd; and along with this Gourd there exists a power which again I term Utter-Emptiness. This Gourd and Emptiness, since they are one, produced (and yet did not simply produce, so as to be apart from themselves) a fruit, everywhere visible, eatable, and delicious, which fruit-language calls a Cucumber. Along with this Cucumber exists a power of the same essence, which again I call a Melon. These powers, the Gourd, Utter-Emptiness, the Cucumber, and the Melon, brought forth the remaining multitude of the delirious melons of Valentinus. (AH 1.11.4; ANF translation)

Say what you want about Irenaeus, he is funny!

Touching Mary's Breasts: A Forgotten Aspect of Marian Devotion?

Reading ancient Christian materials can, I hate to admit, become monotonous at times.  At other times, between all of the sermonizing and exhortations and apologies, one reads something that catches you off-guard.

I was reading through some of the spurious letters of Ignatius, and found this one allegedly addressed to  John the Presbyter, who according to tradition was Mary's (mother of Jesus - not Mary Magdalene) protector.  In any case, "Ignatius" writes to John the following that made me do a double-take:

There are also many of our women here, who are desirous to see Mary [the mother] of Jesus, and wish day by day to run off from us to you, that they may meet with her, and touch those breasts of hers which nourished the Lord Jesus, and may inquire of her respecting some rather secret matters.

I have never heard of such a desire/request in terms of devotion before.  Perhaps medievalists have?  Of course, paintings of Mary from much later often picture her breastfeeding and it becomes a significant part of Marian devotion then.  Perhaps its roots are here in some way?  Nonetheless, definitely out of the ordinary after reading so much about obeying your bishop.

More Jesus' Wife Fragment (Non)-Inquiries

Larry Hurtado continues to raise questions about the utter silence on the so-called Jesus' Wife Fragment, which begins to elaborate a sad state of scholarship in which scholars do not read those who take a different perspective than they do nor admit (alleged) fault.

See further comments by Mark Goodacre.

Reminiscing on Alan Segal

Anthony LeDonne and Chris Keith asked me to offer some memories of Alan as his final Ph.D. student that he saw to completion in honor of their book giveaway of Two Powers in Heaven.  I thought I would reproduce what I wrote for them for my readers here.

My reflections of Alan Segal as his final Ph.D. student. 

Alan was a brilliant man. He was the stereotypical absent-minded professor with his head in the clouds. Often I would walk into his office to discuss my research projects with him, and he seemed to be in another world. Nonetheless, months later he could quote what I said to him back to me verbatim. Who knows how many languages he knew!? He could recite poetry and/or order a meal in most of them. As an advisor, he let his students develop their own ideas and follow them wherever they led. That is, one thing I really appreciated was that he was not trying to create carbon copies of himself or make us elaborate his ideas, but was there to guide our very different projects to develop as independent scholars. Perhaps the greatest quality he inculcated in each of us is to develop an insatiable curiosity and if that meant that for our research we had to transverse usually disparate fields of Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, Rabbinics, Early Christianity, etc., so be it. 

That is, in my opinion, one of the greatest legacies of his own research. From Two Powers to Rebecca's Children to Paul the Convert, he pursued his research with little regard to traditional scholarly boundaries. For him, to focus exclusively on Christianity or Judaism in antiquity was at best a simple anachronism; at worst, bad history. In an era of scholarship in which are projects are increasingly smaller, focusing on our little boxes (NT, DSS, etc.), he taught us to think big. I only hope I can carry on that legacy as best I can.

Two Powers in Heaven

Anthony LeDonne and Chris Keith are giving away a copy of my late advisor, Alan Segal's first book, Two Powers in Heaven here.  Three and a half decades after it was first published by Brill, it remains a foundational book that discusses intermediation, Christology, and the interrelationships between the emergent Rabbis and emergent Christians.  A seminal work, Baylor University Press has now republished it in a far more affordable form.  So now we can actually assign it in a graduate course!

The Mysterious Disappearance of Jesus' Wife

Larry Hurtado asks an important question: What has happened to the Jesus' Wife Fragment?  Perhaps as Anthony Le Donne's newest book, The Wife of Jesus, gets more circulation, scholars will continue to want to know (even if - or especially because - the popular hype has subsided). (I have just started reading this book, by the way.  Thought it would be some good, light reading.)

Because Britney Spears and Jesus are Pretty Much the Same

We have been begging for this for years now.  We have all noticed the similarities.  "Hit me, baby, one more time" is basically the same message as "turn the other cheek."  "I'm a slave for you" is clearly about being a servant (as Jesus was in the Last Supper in the Gospel of John).  "Oops, I did it again," is really about all of the mysterious repetitions of miracles in Mark's gospel.  

Finally, someone has done it.  Look out Jesus Christ Superstar.  Watch it Godspell.  Someone has turned Britney Spears music into a story--an opera no less--about Jesus called SPEARS: The Gospel according to Britney.  See the information here.  Here is the official website.

It appears that the creator developed this originally for Columbia University!

From the creator, Pat Blute:

So many of the heartaches, loneliness, and miscommunications that we feel are direct results of not listening. We don’t listen to the pleas for help. We don’t hear the desperations of family and friends. But we will eavesdrop. We will infiltrate the personal space of others to get some type of satisfaction. To take context out of consideration through images. Through materialism. Through greed. So listen. These are Britney’s lyrics. These are Jesus Christ’s images. The Britney Spears you see is not Britney Spears. Remember that. The Jesus Christ you read is not Jesus Christ. These are manifestations. Accounts through the media, through the words of followers, of friends, of foes, of villains, of heroes, of liars, of biases. It’s a falsehood that people believe fame and fortune create happiness. That all ‘deaths’ receive a resurrection. I hope this project will show you otherwise through the power of listening and the power of forgiveness. Special thanks to all involved in this production. Much love.

Will I see it if I get a chance?  Oh yeah!

The Real Exorcist

Coming from the St. Louis area, I always knew that the movie the Exorcist was based upon events that occurred in St. Louis.  Recently, a group of Jesuit scholars at St. Louis University gave a public presentation discussing those events to a packed house.  You can read about it here.

Christopher Skinner on Anthony LeDonne's Newest Book

Christopher Skinner has a review of Anthony LeDonne's newest book, The Wife of Jesus, on his blog Peje Iesous.  Check it out here.

Dorothy King on "Vampires" in Archaeology

Dorothy King of PhDiva has written an extensive post on the European burials of "vampires" and/or "zombies" (the differentiation of which she repeatedly notes is a more modern invention) for this holiday season.  Check it out here.

Newest Painting: Sock Monkey

"Embodying the Ancestors" and Late Antiquity

Jim Davila posts about an upcoming paper by Seth Sanders from a talk he gave a few years ago.

Seth writes (from 2009):

"I am Adapa, Sage of Eridu" How and Why did Mesopotamian Exorcists Embody their Ancestors?
Rencontre Assyriologique paper, coming to Paris this summer!
The modern “Friday Apostolics” of Zimbabwe actually embody their revealers, speaking as Moses and St. Paul; by contrast, ancient Jews did not directly embody Moses in performance. But did Mesopotamian exorcists become the mythical fish-man who revealed their secrets? The semi-human sage Adapa might be considered the patron saint of Mesopotamian ritual. He also became the mediator of privileged knowledge par excellence—a culture hero for the scribes who managed writing and ritual for Mesopotamian courts. But ritual experts were not satisfied to inherit his knowledge—in certain texts they claim to not just be descended from him but to be him. Beginning with its roots in archaic Sumerian art and ritual, this paper will examine narratives, images, and ritual performances in which Mesopotamian scholars embodied their mythical ancestor. Taking a cue from linguistic anthropology, we will ask on what planes this embodiment was accomplished and what its effects were.

Jim notes that there might be some application of this type of embodiment for the later Pseudepigraphical writings.  Maybe so, but I began to wonder if a closer application occurs in the Greek and Demotic Magical Papyri, where the practitioner does claim to become an ancestor or even divine being through certain ritualized actions and speech.

For example, calling upon the sun, one says, “I am Adam the forefather; my name is Adam.  Perform for me the NN deed, because I conjure you by the god IAO, by the god Abaoth, by the god Adonai, by the god Michael…” (PGM II.145-149).  Perhaps the most interesting example comes from a series of “I am" statements that resemble the Gospel of John or Thunder:  Perfect Mind:  “I am an outflow of blood from the tomb o the great One [between] the palm trees; I am the faith found in men, and am he who declares the holy names, who [is] always alike, who came forth from the abyss.  I am CHRATES who came forth from the eye [of the sun].  I am the god whom no one sees or rashly names….” (PGM XII.227-230).  The passage continues in the same manner, equating the speaker with Krates, Helios, Aphrodites, Kronos, the Mother of the Gods, Osiris, Isis, etc. 

At this point, the speaker appears to become the avatar of the God on earth, of the ancestor in the present.  Or, as Sanders questions, on what planes does this occur?  Perhaps one steps out of normal space and time in this ritual event of embodiment.

I, moreover, begin to wonder the significance of such a study of embodiment for the performance The Thunder: Perfect Mind from the Nag Hammadi Codices.  When one recites the litany of "I am" statements, does one, in fact, become those things, or, better put, embody those things through the series of speech-acts?  While Seth Sanders's work focuses on a far earlier period than mine, I do wonder if his insights into Adapa might persist through the millennia unto late antiquity.

 

Green Pumpkin

Again, a painting I finished just before moving to Mississippi: Green Pumpkin.  Appropriate for the upcoming fall season.

Sunburst

One of the latest studies I did before moving to Mississippi: Sunburst.