Happy feast day of the Conversion of St Paul!

My friend David Sloan just won the internet today on Facebook.

One major SBL highlight this year—watching @jasonstaples.bsky.social introduce @davidaburnett.bsky.social (who gave a great response to a paper) with walk up music: Never Gonna Give You Up. #SBLAAR2024 Apparently, videos don’t work on this site so I’ll just leave this photo of David’s reaction.

Listening to Sam Johnson, “Assumption of Moses, Assumption of Mary: A Shared Tradition?” #SBLAAR2024

At the first Paul within Judaism session. Listening to Paula Fredriksen on 1 Cor 9:19-22. What does it mean to be “under the law”? #SBLAAR24

Listening to Christopher Stroup, “Questions about Your Own Law” (Acts 18:15): Paul and the Jewishness of Christians in the Acts of the Apostles #SBLAAR2024

Listening to Judith Gundry: Give No Offense to Jews, Greeks, and God’s Assembly: 1 Cor 8-10 in Paul’s Defense of Monotheism among Pagans and Jews in the Diaspora #SBLAAR2024

At the Enoch Seminar’s event reviewing Paula Fredriksen’s new book, Ancient Christianities. Been looking forward to this. She begins by saying the key ideas for her book are: “monotheism” (problematic for her!) ethnicity, apocalyptic eschatology, and imperial power #SBLAAR2024

“Perhaps we finally did away with God indirectly, by exterminating silence.”—Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Luminous Dusk: Finding God in Deep, Still Places (Eerdmans, 2006), 38.

Today in my Synoptic Gospels and Acts seminar we looked at the stories of Jesus's anointing by a woman. I find this topic endlessly fascinating. These are from my handout:

The superscriptions of the psalms are often overlooked. This is a shame—there are some remarkable details there.

I am especially excited about going to this panel on Paul within Judaism at SBL this year. Any other #SBLAAR24 #SBL recommendations?