The 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature: Reflections on the Professional Study of Religion

| Past,Present

The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880, no longer focuses primarily on literature – the texts of the Bible in their original languages (Hebrew for what is generally referred to as the Old Testament and Greek for the so-called New Testament). The Society’s international membership of over 8,000 is open to professionals and […]

Current Research on Pompeii, Part II: Paul’s Letter to the Romans

| Past

In Part I, we examined some recent research on Pompeii, focusing on archaeological studies. Here we will look at British scholar Peter Oakes’ 2009 book, Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul’s Letter at Ground Level, which combines archaeological insights from Pompeii with an exegesis (analysis) of important aspects of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. St. […]

The Legend of Abgar and Jesus, Part I: Introduction

| Past

Sometime in antiquity, a story developed that King Abgar V of Edessa, a Syrian city located in Mesopotamia, became ill, perhaps with leprosy, and wrote to Jesus of Nazareth to ask for a cure. In the correspondence, Abgar invited Jesus to come to Edessa to escape persecution. Jesus, according to the legend, replied in writing, […]

Ancient Corinth I: Gods and Goddesses

| Past

Ancient Corinth, on the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece, is known primarily to moderns as one of the cities visited by St. Paul and the setting of Paul’s pair of letters to the Corinthians. (First Corinthians is abbreviated I Cor., and Second Corinthians is abbreviated II Cor.) One of the most familiar passages of the Bible, […]

The SBL and its Annual Meeting: Why They Matter to the General Public

| Past

The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) is one of the premier professional organizations for scholars and students of religion around the world. While “religion” is often equated in the public’s mind with church-going or participation in other religions such as Judaism and Islam, it is also a discipline bounded by scholarly and ethical standards, evidence, […]

How Archaeology Can Assist Early Christian Studies and Why it Matters

| Past

In recent years, scholars of the New (Christian) Testament of the Bible – comprised of documents composed between 50 and 150 of the Common Era (CE) – have begun using the tools and interpretations of archaeologists in our quest for the context in which the earliest Christians lived. Since the apostle Paul (a Jew, let […]