Those familiar with New Testament scholarship are aware that many theories that have popped up to explain the strange and variegated endings of the gospel called Mark. While I am no New Testament enthusiast, I do have a theory that I have not heard before, which might explain the abrupt and confused ending(s) of Mark in terms of the historical and literary milieu of the text.
We take for granted the fact that our scriptures today come in packages called books. But in the ancient world, books did not come onto the scene until Hellenistic times. Even then, it was not until the fourth century of our Lord that the use of books supplanted more ancient forms. One of those ancient forms was the scroll. A scroll differed from a book in many ways. While a book was meant to encompass an entire work and could be expanded to accommodate the necessary text, a scroll was more like an archive or storage room. The length of a scroll did not accommodate a work or works, but a work or works were accommodated to a scroll. Thus, for instance, multiple, independent texts could be included on a single scroll until it was filled. In the case of lengthy texts, they would have to be interrupted and continued on other scrolls.
My theory is that the text of Mark was originally written on a scroll either after another text or on its own, but the author ran out of room for its complete composition. Whether the rest of the text was written elsewhere and has been lost or whether the rest was never completed, we may never know. Expanded or contracted endings could have resulted from the extra space or lack thereof that presented itself to those who copied the scroll onto another papyrus of equal length.
This is a hot topic in evangelical Christian faith and politics. Personally, I don’t believe abortion can be successfully legislated and prohibited any more than alcohol or drugs. As a Libertarian, I hold to the golden rule that governmental/legislative interference causes more problems than it solves and that the best solution is almost always the one which doesn’t include an oppressive, controlling Uncle Sam, but requires instead a free, contract-abiding, self-government. However, because I am a follower of Yeshua and an adopted member of Israel, I also believe human life is sacred. This sacredness is demonstrated in Genesis 9:6 when it proclaims that whatever value there is in one’s own human life is the same as the value of another’s by making equivalent the status of one who takes a human life with the human life that has been taken. We have in this statute a respect of human life so profound that it dissolves all prejudice, all partiality, all segregation, all racism, and all sexism. Herein, the life of a female is neither lesser nor greater than the life of a male. Herein, the life of a vigorous and healthy child is neither lesser nor greater than that of an invalid. Herein, the life of a poor laborer is as worthy and dignified as the life of a king. Because human life exists in the image of YHWH.
When it comes to abortion then, the question is when is the foetus, child, or whatever you want to call it, considered human life? My perspective has been that just as science has not determined the point at which life enters the seed of a plant, so it may never determine at which point life enters a seed of humanity. I have, therefore, seen in the process from fertilization to formation and to birth not many possible points for the beginning of human life, but a continuum of two former human lives in a unity of one.
Although I have begun my inquiry with a supposed admiration for the ancient Hebrew perspective, it has begun to occur to me that my Modern mind conceives of human life altogether differently. Genesis 2:7 speaks of a human becoming living (or having life in it) through the imposition of breath. This concept of life being conditional upon breath is actually fundamental to the definition of the words translated living being
throughout Genesis. The Hebrew word nefesh,
although traditionally translated soul, refers biologically to the neck or throat in order to give concrete expression to the idea of the passage of breath into and out of a person. Thus without a neck or breath to go through it, there is no nefesh, no living being, no human life.
The Pharisees, who wanted to build a fence around the Torah
(Mishnah Aboth 1:1), established a host of conservative principles meant to restrict someone from coming close to destroying human life. I have no idea how old the concept is, but the Pharisees and fathers of Rabbinicism accepted a terminus a quo for human life at the 41st day after conception. When the rights of the first-born are discussed in the Oral Law, we find it said that nothing which might come from the womb of a woman during the first 40 days of pregnancy can be considered life (Mishnah Bekoroth 8:1). The Rabbis elaborated on this idea in their commentary on the Oral Law, saying:
if she is found pregnant, the semen, until the fortieth day, is only a mere fluid.
Babylonian Gemara, Yebamoth 69b
However, in the case of a woman whose life or well-being was endangered by an unborn child, because the child was not technically a living human being until breath, the Pharisees allowed an abortion up until emergence of the head. An arm or even a foot could come out momentarily, but until the head through which breath enters had left the woman’s body, the baby had no claim to human life.
If a woman was in hard travail, the child must be cut up while it is in the womb and brought out member by member, since the life of the mother has priority over the life of the child; but if the greater part [the head] of it has already been born, it [the baby] may not be touched, since the claim of one life cannot override the claim of another life.
Mishnah, Oholoth, 7:6
Such authoritative religious knowledge from those whose scriptures we adore should have some impact on how we approach the issue.
There is a verse that gave me pause. Amos 1:3. The traditional text states that YHWH will bring judgment upon Syria because she threshed Gilead with threshing tools of iron.
The LXX adds something here.
…they were sawing pregnant women of those in Galaad asunder with iron saws.
New English Translation of the Septuagint, pre-publication version (italics added)
The Dead Sea Scrolls as represented by 5QAmos and 4QXIIg support the additional words pregnant women
against the Masoretic Texts. So it seems that the sin of Syria that incurred the wrath of YHWH was more specific than general murder. It was the threshing of pregnant women. However, from historical context, I think that it is not abortion itself that is being condemned—it is the use of cruel and violent means against the innocent (and chosen people of YHWH) by political enemies whose aim is not simple abortion of babies, but complete genocide. The very idea of one using iron threshing tools on a pregnant woman cannot reasonably be equated with the will to abort a child any more than speaking of shoving screwdrivers in an ear can be equated with trying to pick at earwax.
Friday November 16:
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
AM16-123 (Room: Ford AB - GH)
Mennonite Scholars and Friends Reception
Saturday November 17:
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
S17-29 (Room: Madeleine B - GH)
Theological Perspectives on the Book of Ezekiel
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
S17-63 (Room: Manchester F - GH)
Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
S17-119 (Room: Del Mar A - GH)
Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
San Diego Natural History Museum
Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition
9:30 PM to 11:30 PM
S17-137 (Room: MM Salon 5)
Student Members Reception
Sunday November 18:
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
S18-17 (Room: Manchester 1 - MM)
Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
S18-76 (Room: 24 A - CC)
Pentateuch
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
S18-107 (Room: Santa Rosa - HI)
Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Monday November 19:
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
S19-32 (Room: Ford C - GH)
Qumran
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
S19-76 (Room: Manchester C - GH)
Pentateuch
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
S19-128 (Room: 25 A - CC)
Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
S19-138 (Room: Santa Rosa - MM)
Book Review Session: Christopher R. Seitz, Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets
9:00 PM to 11:00 PM
(Room: Marriott Hotel and Marina, Salon 1)
CGU/CST Faculty and Student Reception
Although I’ve downloaded every available book in its electronic, pre-publication form, the NETS is one book that I won’t leave SBL/AAR 2007 without! For far too long, those interested in an English translation of the LXX have depended either on ancient and out-of-date translations from over a century ago or non-scholastic, extremely dynamic/paraphrased versions released by the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church (and shaded by those organizations and their agendas). But no more! There is a new English translation in the mix and I can attest through use of the electronic version that this thing is not only fun to read, but brilliant!
The hardest part is ditching one incredible event to attend another. But unless you’re a quantum particle or a dead cat, you can’t be in two places at the same time.
Friday November 16:
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
AM16-123 (Room: Ford AB - GH)
Mennonite Scholars and Friends Reception
Saturday November 17:
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
S17-29 (Room: Madeleine B - GH)
Theological Perspectives on the Book of Ezekiel
- Ezekiel’s Theology of Divination and the Authority of Prophetic Speech in Ezekiel 21:26
- A Reassessment of the Different Editions of Ezekiel 7 in the Septuagint and Masoretic Text: Relating Ezekiel’s Composition-History to its Inclusion in the Emerging Scriptural Canon
- The Transformation of Royal Ideology in Ezekiel
- The Imaginative Effects of Ezekiel’s Merkavah Vision: A Day in the Life of Hashmal
- Edwards’ Ezekiel: The Interpretation of Ezekiel in the Blank Bible and Notes on Scripture
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
S17-63 (Room: Manchester F - GH)
Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
- Scribal Culture and the Transmission of Cuneiform Texts in Mesopotamia
- Scribal Culture and the Tablet of the Heart
- Israelite and Judahite Scribal Culture in Epigraphical Perspective
- Comments on Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
S17-119 (Room: Del Mar A - GH)
Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
- The Textualisation of Israelite Religion in the Context of the Orality and Literacy
Debate
- The Voiced Text in the Hebrew Bible: From Epic Song to Biblical Narrative and Midrashic Exegesis
- Rethinking Inner-biblical Exegesis and Biblical Criticism in Light of Orality & Textuality
- Implications of the Oral-Scribal Approach to Tanach Studies
Sunday November 18:
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
S18-17 (Room: Manchester 1 - MM)
Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
- The Spoils of War
- The Hebrew Sheol and the Emarite Shuwalu
- He Subdued the Water Monster
: God’s Battle with the Sea according to Egyptian Sources
- Princess as Political Pawn
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
S18-78 (Room: Betsy C - GH)
Qumran
- Refining Sociological Models for Understanding Scribal Practices in the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls
- Reading the Wiles of the Wicked Woman (4Q184 1) in Its Manuscript Context
- From the Wilderness to a Door of Hope
: Thematic (Re)conceptualization of the Wilderness in Liturgical Texts (4QBarkiNapshi and 4QWords of the Luminaries)
- Qumran Yahad and Rabbinc Havurah: A Comparison Reconsidered
- Ancient Halakhic Homilies in the Writings of the Qumran Sect and of the Tannaim
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
HELP! I CAN’T DECIDE!
either…
S18-107 (Room: Santa Rosa - HI)
Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
- Myth and History in Ezekiel’s Oracle Concerning Tyre (Ezekiel 26-28)
- Ancient Interpretations of the Mythic Structures of Sacred History
- Classical Greek Demythologizing
- Beyond the Dichotomy between Myth and History
or…
S18-123 (Room: Del Mar B - GH)
Midrash
- Derashah as Performative Exegesis in Tosefta and Mishna
- The Origins of the Flood in Second Temple and Rabbinic Interpretation
- Dialogues between Sages and Outsiders to the Tradition
: Creation of Difference as a Literary Method of Religious Polemics in Rabbinic Literature
- The Demise of the School of Shammai
Monday November 19:
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
S19-32 (Room: Ford C - GH)
Qumran
- In the Second Degree
- 4QApocryphon of Jeremiah C and the Problem of Genre
- Resurrection and Biblical Tradition: The Relation between the Pseudo-Ezekiel Fragments and Ezekiel 37 Reconsidered
- The Centrality of the Temple in 4QMMT
- X and Duqah in Some Calendrical Scrolls: Are We any Closer to an Identification?
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
S19-76 (Room: Gregory B - GH)
Pentateuch
- A New King Arose over Egypt Who Did Not Know Joseph
: The Joseph Novella as Prologue to the Moses Biography
- Is the Joseph Story
a Misnomer for Genesis 37-50?
- Pentateuch and Exile
- YHWH’s Mercy and Wrath: The Contribution of Exodus 34:6-7 to the Canonical Shape of the Torah
- Integrating the Alien
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
S19-128 (Room: 25 A - CC)
Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
- Masoretic Insights into the Text of Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 32:43 and Textual Criticism: New Proposals for an Old Puzzle
- All that Glitters is Not Gold: The Masorah of Spanish Bible Manuscripts and Its Peculiarities
- Conjectural Emendations in Bible Translations: Past, Present, and Future
- II.B.17: A Manuscript Ascribed to the Scribe of the Aleppo Codex
