2022 SBL Annual Meeting
November 20–23, 2021
San Antonio, TX (and Virtual)

Time Immemorial/In Memorial: Time Modeling and Social Remembering in and beyond the Hebrew Bible

This response will engage the four papers offered by the panelists in this session —Judith Newman, Jenna Kemp, and Aubrey Buster—and the value of this discourse for the various conceptions of time within and beyond the Hebrew Bible. In addition to highlighting the unique contributions of the research of each presenter, this paper offers a reflection on the usefulness of theories of social remembering (collective and cultural memory) for theorizing and analyzing time and temporality in the Hebrew Bible.

2021 SBL Annual Meeting
November 21–24, 2020
Boston MA

The Curious Case of the Contrafacted King: The Death of Josiah in 2 Chronicles 35

In his work on Chronicles (“Die Suche nach Identität in der nachexilischen Theologiegeschichte“), Reinhard Kratz offered the compelling suggestion that reception history within the canon and “cultural memory” are nearly interchangeable concepts. Kratz submitted that the very act of the Chronicler’s reception of older traditions is in itself memory work. This paper builds on the work of Kratz by proffering a specific example of such activity in the Chronicler’s reception of the exodus tradition. In this paper, I argue that the Chronicler’s deliberate inversion of the exodus motif within its (re)telling of Josiah’s reign (2 Chronicles 34–35) functions as a form of “social remembering,” as Ian Wilson calls it. By scrutinizing the enmeshing of the exodus and legal traditions in the related accounts of Josiah’s legal reforms (2 Chronicles 34) and his death (2 Chronicles 35), we can readily see how the Chronicler recasts events not previously understood as cyclical in order to perpetuate a model of time witnessed elsewhere in the biblical corpus. In so doing, this paper establishes Josiah’s death in 2 Chronicles as an inversion of the exodus, a significant departure from 2 Kings 22–23. I ultimately propose that the reception of older traditions—in this case the exodus tradition and 2 Kings 23—in 2 Chronicles 34–35 is a form of memory work intended to (re)construct identity in the post-exilic period.

2019 SBL Annual Meeting
November 23–26, 2019
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA

We Will Rock You:
Stone Monument Construction as Sites of Memory in the Deuteronomistic History
Historiography and the Hebrew Bible

This paper seeks to apply memory studies—in particular, Pierre Nora’s notion of sites of memory (les lieux de mémoire)—to biblical texts concerning the erection of stone monuments (Deut 27) at Gilgal (Joshua 4; Judges 3), Shechem (Josh 24), and Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). I will argue that these sites demonstrate the characteristic features of sites of memory in that they function to develop a shared notion of the past that reciprocally shapes and is shaped by the present for the purposes of inculcating specific values in future generations. To do so, I will (1) demonstrate the explicit and implicit (i.e., inner-scriptural) presentation of each site as evoking the watershed exodus event of the past in order to (2) inculcate a consistent and preeminent interest in Torah observance. That is, I will show that each of the stone monuments functions as its own mirco-historical overview, manifesting the exodus event from the sea event to the law-giving at Mt. Sinai at various points in Israelite history. Such an investigation will not only clarify the methods and aims of Nora’s notion of lieux de mémoire, but also offer a productive framework through which we are able to read biblical monuments as sites of memory.

Memory in Exile:
Current Debates and Future Directions
Exile and Forced Migrations

This response will critically engage the four papers offered by this panel and the value of this discourse for cases of exile and forced migrations within the Hebrew Bible. In addition to highlighting the unique contributions of the research of each presenter, this paper offers clarification of some of the disparate approaches and terminology used within these papers and the field of memory studies more broadly. In line with the work presented, this response endeavors to examine the potential exilic and post-exilic catalysts for memory activity specific to this crucial period in the literary development of the Hebrew Bible.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to hear more about these projects or get together at the meeting.

Research Seminar
October 24, 2019
King’s College London
London, England

On October 23, 2019, I will present a paper in the Research Seminar at King’s College London. Speakers on Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, New Testament and Second Temple themes are drawn from King's, from other universities in the UK and beyond. The usual format is a one hour paper followed by 30 minutes of questions and discussion. Academic staff and graduate students from King's and other London-based colleges are warmly invited to attend. All are warmly invited to stay after the seminar for refreshments.

The paper I will be presenting is based on my dissertation research and is entitled:

A Legal Allusion: The Holiness Code and the Exodus Pattern in Ezekiel 20

Feel free to contact me if you would like to hear more about this project .

Old Testament Research Seminar
October 22, 2019
Durham University
Durham, England

On October 22, 2019, I will present a paper in the Old Testament Research Seminar at Durham University. The purpose of the seminar is to enable those researching in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and related fields, to meet in a congenial and collegial context where issues related to our subject can be explored. The seminar is open to full-time postgraduates in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and related areas, for whom the seminar should be a communal forum, MATR students are welcome, as are interested postgraduates from other fields of study. Please contact the conveners for more information.

The paper I will be presenting is based on my dissertation research and is entitled:

Looking Back to Look Forward: Allusion and the Exodus Pattern in 2 Chronicles

Feel free to contact me if you would like to hear more about this project.

Old Testament Seminar
October 16, 2019
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England

On October 16, 2019, I will present a paper in the Old Testament Seminar at University of Cambridge. It is the main gathering for graduate students, scholars and visiting scholars in the University interested in the field of Old Testament studies. Visitors are welcome to attend, and are invited to contact one of the chairs in advance to introduce themselves.

The paper I will be presenting is based on my dissertation research and is entitled:

Statutory History: Legal Precedent and the Exodus Pattern in Ezekiel 20

Feel free to contact me if you would like to hear more about this project .

2019 IOSOT
August 4–9, 2019
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Scotland

At the 2019 IOSOT, I will present two papers related to my dissertation research. Schedule information will be updated as it becomes available.

De Futuro, De Jure, De Novo: The Correlation of Law and History in Ezekiel 20

A Sea Change Event: Allusion and Inversion in 2 Chronicles 34–35

Feel free to contact me if you would like to hear more about these projects or get together at the meeting.

2019 SBL International Meeting
July 1–5, 2019
The Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Gregorian University
Rome, Italy

EXODUS REDUX:
INVERSION OF THE EXODUS IN 2 CHRONICLES 34–35
03 July 2019
9:00 AM
L301 - Lucchesi

In his work on Chronicles (“Die Suche nach Identität in der nachexilischen Theologiegeschichte“), Reinhard Kratz suggestively asserts that reception history within the canon and “cultural memory” are nearly interchangeable concepts. Kratz thus proposes that the very act of the Chronicler’s reception of older traditions is in itself memory work. This paper endeavors to provide further evidence to the bold assertion of Kratz and argues that the reception of the exodus tradition in the Chronicler’s (re)telling of Josiah’s reign (2 Chron 34–35) is, indeed, memory work.

To do so, I will begin by exposing the intertextual relationship between the exodus event(s) and Josiah’s legal reforms, Passover celebration, and apparent untimely death, focusing specifically on its inversion of the earlier material (Exod 12–20). Second, I will discuss how such an inversion of the past functions to create and codify a specific re-envisioning of post-exilic identity. In so doing, I will demonstrate the effectiveness of memory studies as a critical lens and its potential usefulness for further study of biblical texts.

AS THEY DO IN EGYPT:
INTERTEXTUAL RECONSIDERATIONS OF LEVITICUS 18–20
02 July 2019
11:00 AM
C211 - Central

This paper examines the diachronic development of Leviticus 18–20 in light of its intertextual relationship to Ezekiel’s so-called revisionist history (Ezk 20). I argue that the Holiness Code is the primary textual referent for Ezekiel’s history (cf. Michael Lyons), and that Ezekiel 20 can be used to reconstruct an earlier redactional layer of Leviticus 18–20. Such an intertextual exploration of H in light of Ezekiel 20 (1) underscores the argument of Jacob Milgrom, i.a., that the sexual morality codes (e.g., Lev 18:6–23) are, in fact, secondary to the pericope; (2) indicates possible redactional arrangements of summary blocks within this portion of H; and (3) demonstrates a synchronic reading of H as essential to Ezekiel’s rhetorical strategy.

I will conclude by briefly assessing the value of the emerging field of memory studies to discuss the mnemonic activity in Ezekiel 20, and, in particular, how the reception of H by Ezekiel demonstrates a preeminent interest in codifying a normative version of the past for future generations. That is, Ezekiel uses (proto-)Leviticus 18–20 to provide a contemporary presentation of the past for the purpose of shaping future identity; i.e., using the past in the present for the future.

2018 AJS Annual Meeting
December 16-18, 2018
Boston Seaport Hotel
Boston, MA

“Why Is This Night Different?”:
Memorialization and Reenactment in Mishnah Pesahim

Although memory studies has emerged as a productive analytical tool through which we might better understand biblical texts, its effectiveness, as well as the extent to which its application accurately represents the various theories’ methods or aims, has yet to be critically applied to many of the texts of early Judaism.

This paper offers an investigation into the theories of memory studies and their applications to Mishnah Pesahim 10 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of memory theory as a critical lens and its potential usefulness for further study of rabbinic texts.

I will attempt this investigation in three parts. First, I will briefly rehearse the relationship of Mishnah Pesahim 10 to its biblical antecedent in Exodus 12 with a particular focus on each text’s injunction concerning inter-generational celebration. Second, I will explore the dynamics of reciprocal memorialization invoked through the enactment of the passover ritual. Third, I will demonstrate the theoretical usefulness of memory studies as a useful tool for analyzing the apparent multi-generational impulse prominent in both the biblical and rabbinic texts.

2018 SBL Annual Meeting
November 17–20, 2018
Colorado Convention Center
Denver, CO

Beyond Use and Abuse of History:
Constructed Memory in Ezekiel 20

The (ab)use of historical data in Ezekiel 20 is often alliteratively characterized by scholars as revisionist (Block, Allen), rhetorical (Osborne; Krüger), and radical (Evans, Idestrom). Many of these efforts, though, assume an extant literary source (Exodus, Joshua 24) upon which Ezekiel has based his historiographical efforts, and from which Ezekiel is intentionally departing. This paper abandons those attempts at reconstruction and comparative analysis. Rather, in this paper I will engage the emerging and promising contributions of memory studies in order to argue that Ezekiel 20 represents a divinely constructed counter memory. I will undertake this argument in three parts. First, I will briefly outline the cyclical nature of the exodus pattern in biblical memory. Second, I will examine the reciprocal impulses between divine and Israelite remembrance and forgetting throughout this cyclical pattern. Third, I will demonstrate how and why Ezekiel 20 constructs a specific memory of the past in the imagined present to define and shape future identities.

"Now You're in the Sunken Place”:
Constructed Monsters in Daniel 7 and Get Out

This paper seeks to explore constructed monsters in Daniel 7 and the 2017 film Get Out. Specifically, it examines the similar ways in which the biblical text and film both externalize their respective social anxieties by fictionalizing their oppressor in monstrous form. I will undertake this investigation in three parts. First, I will examine dread and fearfulness around white appropriation and abuse of black culture and bodies in Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning screen play Get Out. Second, I will review the four beasts of Daniel 7 with particular attention to each beast's capacity for destruction and their prophesied demise. Third, I will propose that the construction of monstrous beings in both texts function as creative expressions of political resistance in their respective eras, and that both serve to empower oppressed groups with an imagined escape from tyrannical structures of political abuse.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to hear more about these projects or get together at the meeting.