Programme

In its 107th year, the Society for Old Testament Study is delighted to host its first: 

WINTER ON-LINE 1-DAY CONFERENCE 

On Zoom, THURSDAY 4th JANUARY 2024 

President: Professor Katharine Dell 

Afternoon papers are 30 minutes with 15 minutes available for Q&A. The public evening lecture is available on this page (after the programme, below) and is also available on YouTube.

PROGRAMME 

The programme is available to download as a pdf here. All times are UK times 

2.00 pm Zoom room open – participants gather online 

2.15 pm Katharine Dell (Cambridge) – President’s Welcome 

2.25 pm Alma Brodersen (Bern) – “Why Ben Sira did not read the Bible” 

3.10 pm Break 

3.15 pm Zoltan Schwab (London) – “Why Does God Expel the Human Beings from the Garden of Eden in Gen. 3:23?” 

4.00 pm Break 

4.20 pm Society business meeting – a short meeting for SOTS Members only 

4.45 pm Roundtable discussion – “Is ‘E’ a distant memory now in Pentateuchal studies?” with panellists: Graham Davies (Cambridge), Reinhard Kratz (Göttingen) and Nathan MacDonald (Cambridge) 

5.30pm Break

 

7.00 pm SOTS meeting regathers on Zoom 

7.15 pm Public Guest Lecture: William Brown (Decatur, GA) – “’Aesthetizing’ Torah: The Case of Psalm 19 ” 

8.30 pm End of the event 

RECORDING OF PUBLIC LECTURE

William Brown, “’Aesthetizing’ Torah: The Case of Psalm 19″

Programme

The Society for Old Testament Study in its 107^th year is delighted to host its 99^th Summer Meeting:

Mansfield College, Oxford

2nd-5th September 2024

Under the presidency of Dr John Jarick

Booking for the conference is now closed.

Travel information for Mansfield College is available here. 

MONDAY 2nd September

2.00pm	Committee Meeting in the Old Hall
4.30 pm	Registration in the foyer of the main building
6.00 pm	Reception at the Crypt Bar & Terrace (sponsored by the Oxford Faculty of Theology & Religion)
7.00 pm	Dinner
8.15 pm	Presidential Paper: John Jarick (Oxford), ‘Echoes of the Planetary Gods in the Primary Judean Creation Myth’
9.30 pm	Bar open at the Crypt Bar & Terrace

TUESDAY 3rd September

8.00 am	Breakfast
9.15 am	Hindy Najman (Oxford), ‘Aesthetics and Hermeneutics: Rethinking Biblical Poetry in the Hellenistic Period’
10.00 am	Samuel Hildebrandt (Manchester), ‘The Myths of Maths: A Reception History of the Numbers in Numbers 1’
10.45 am	Coffee
11.15 am	Arjen Bakker (Cambridge), ‘Reimagining Prayer in the Dead Sea Scrolls’
12 noon	Katie Woolstenhulme (Cheltenham), ‘The Matriarchs in Genesis Rabbah‘
1.00 pm	Lunch
2.00 pm	Free time
4.00 pm	Tea
4.30 pm	Preview of Understanding the Hebrew Bible: Essays by Members of SOTS: John Barton (Oxford) and contributors
6.00 pm	Reception at the Crypt Bar & Terrace (sponsored by the Oriel Centre for the Study of the Bible)
7.00 pm	Dinner
8.15 pm	Yvonne Sherwood (Oslo), ‘The Bible in the Contact Zone’
9.30 pm	Bar open at the Crypt Bar & Terrace

WEDNESDAY 4th September

8.00 am	Breakfast
9.15 am	Melissa A. Jackson (Richmond, VA), ‘Closing the Distance: Comedy, Feminist Critique, and the Hebrew Bible’
10.00 am	Ryan Comins (Cambridge), ‘Interpretation of Ecclesiastes in the Early Roman Period’
10.45 am	Coffee
11.15 am	Deborah Rooke (Oxford), ‘The Nephilim of Regent’s Park: Old Testament Scholars H. Wheeler Robinson and G. Henton Davies’
12 noon	Prolegomenon to the afternoon outing to the Pitt Rivers Museum
1.00 pm	Lunch
2.00 pm	Tours of the Pitt Rivers Museum at staged intervals, with surrounding free time in the Museum of Natural History
4.00 pm	Presidential Tea in the dining hall and quadrangle of Regent’s Park College
7.00 pm	Dinner
8.15 pm	David E.S. Stein (Santa Monica, CA), ‘Some Challenges in Preparing a Gender-Sensitive Translation of the Tanakh’
9.30 pm	Bar open at the Crypt Bar & Terrace

THURSDAY 5th September

8.00 am	Breakfast
9.15 am	David Shepherd (Dublin), ‘Blood Brothers: Abimelech and the Curse of Kingship’
10.00 am	Rosalie Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh (Cork), ‘Genesis 38:27-30 — A Davidic Coda?’
10.45 am	Coffee
11.15 am	George Nicol (Burntisland), ‘Spoiling David: (Thinking about) God’s Spoiled Stepson’
12 noon	Business Meeting: SOTS members only
1.00 pm	Lunch, followed by Departure