On Performance Criticism, Lived Religion, and the Hebrew Bible
by Shane M. Thompson
Currents in Biblical Research 2024, vol 22(3) 173–188
Abstract: This article provides an overview of the application of a performance criticism framework within scholarship on the Hebrew Bible. A natural progression from conversations concerning orality, performance studies allows for increased explication of the biblical texts, most notably pertaining to life, religion, and culture in ancient Israel. The addition of ‘lived religion’ through a performance studies lens advances the understanding of peoples and areas of life commonly deemed absent from the biblical record. Instead, they are present in the form of an audience witnessing or hearing the performances of, or contained within, these texts.
Video
Natural Performances with Artificial Intelligence
Using GPT for Scenes, Imagery, Focal Points and Emotion
Paper by Jonathan Robie and Discussion
A video of Jonathan Robie presenting his paper "Natural Performances with Artificial Intelligence: Using GPT for Scenes, Imagery, Focal Points and Emotion" with discussion following. Analyses of the Psalms referenced in the discussion may be found at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H8H6XvNSN20io2NbBDiQK4Q84g-TQm4z?usp=sharing
Oral Performance and the Veil of Text
Detextification, Paul's Letters, and the Test Case of Galatians 2-3
by Ben F. van Veen
(Pickwick, 2024)
It is now common opinion that the biblical documents functioned in an oral context dominated by the spoken word. The present study centres on the letters of Paul, especially Galatians, and addresses the complex relation between this functioning in the original oral setting and the daily praxis of current biblical scholarship in which these documents function as autonomous texts, detached from the context of its original oral delivery. It will be argued that in addition to the difference in media (oral performance there-and-then versus reading the text here-and-now) it is crucial to differentiate the mindsets involved. A highly literate reader in the present structures thought differently from someone in the past who is formed by oral-aural communication. The leading question of this investigation is: How can a biblical scholar here-and-now relate to the text of the letters of Paul (in a printed or digital version) in such a way that he or she can understand (in the typically accompanying highly literate mindset) how the apostle envisioned his original addressees to understand (in their rather unfamiliar oral mindset) the documented words in the event of delivery? It is argued that by textualizing history and historicizing text a detextification of our understanding of these ancient documents is possible. Two testcases of detextification are provided, viz. Gal 3.10-12, in which the presence of a self-evident and simple enthymematic (syllogistic) reasoning is put to the test, and Gal 2.18-20, in which it is argued that Paul counters the call to circumcision by his opponents by a recalling of the baptism of the Galatian converts.
Translation and Performance
A Report from PC-BOAT sessions at SBL 2024 in San Diego
Translation Theory and Performance (S23-139)
James Maxey helps us to explore contemporary translation theories and performance criticism to facilitate synergy between these two approaches and to contribute to the advancement of both. Kelly Iverson responds.
Watch below or use this link: https://vimeo.com/1033494923
Gerald West explores the relationship between translation and performance based on his research on community-based praxis. Elizabeth Struthers Malbon responds.
Watch below or use this link: https://vimeo.com/1033674126
Scribal Memory and Word Selection
Text Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
(SBL Press, 2023)
by Raymond F. Person, Jr.
A Review by Werner Kelber
15 June 2024
From the review:
In the most general sense, this book is about scribal practices reflected in texts that were leading up to and culminating in the Masoretic consolidation of the Hebrew Bible. More explicitly, it examines the work of scribes who were engaged in rewriting previously existing ancient Jewish manuscripts, undertaking “one of the most literate tasks in the ancient world: Vorlage-based copying” (299). When ancient scribes were copying manuscripts, what were the compositional, cognitive, and linguistic processes they were involved in? It stands to reason, therefore, that Person’s study concerns itself with compositional practices rather than recitational activities, and with the reproduction of manuscripts more than their transmission to hearers. In sum, the objective of this monograph is to reexamine rudimentary aspects of the ancient Jewish copying culture and, in considering the ramifications, to explore “what a new model for historical criticism might look like” (ix).
Download the full review by clicking here. Or:
Read more: Kelber on Person Scribal Memory and Word Selection
Page 1 of 2