As usual, we are excited about the upcoming Annual Meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society of Biblical Literature, with the customary Institute for Biblical Research occurring in between. The following are the papers and sessions that we at D33 are involved in.

At ETS, on Thursday morning, 8:30–11:40am, Stan will be in the New Testament Greek Language and Exegesis section focusing on his recent book with Matthew Brook O’Donnell, Discourse Analysis and the Greek New Testament: Text-Generating Resources, LNTG 2 (T&T Clark, 2024). Stan will give a summary and comments on the book, with two respondents, David Mathewson and James Dvorak. Stan will then respond to Mathewson and Dvorak, before the session is opened up to questions. Porter and O’Donnell’s volume is the most comprehensive treatment of discourse analysis for the Greek New Testament, especially from the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Although it concentrates upon the textual metafunction, the model presented includes discussion of all of the metafunctions, as well as theories regarding register/genre and narrative.

On Thursday afternoon, 3:30–6:10pm, Stan is moderating the New Testament Greek Language and Exegesis section with the following papers: Todd Chipman, “Faith and the Future: The Articular Substantival Participle of πιστεύω in John’s Gospel”; Aaron Jung, “Intention and the Text in New Testament Studies”; Courtney J. Veasey, “A Lexical Semantic Case for καταστολή as ‘Self-restraint’ in 1 Timothy 2:9”; and Joshua M. Greever, “Boasting in the Crucified King: Mark’s Use of Mid-Episodic, Non-Speech Historical Presents.”

On Friday morning, 8:30–11:40am, Dave will be moderating the New Testament – Studies in Paul III section, with the following papers: Zachary Cole, “Paul’s Collection for the Saints in Jerusalem: How Much Did Luke Know?”; Peter J. Gurry, “Eve Will Not Be Saved through Childbirth: A Better Reading of 1 Timothy 2:15”; Trevor Clark, “Rhetorical Framing: A Paradigm Shift in the Study of Pauline Boasting”; and James Crockett, “Seated at God’s Right Hand: Paul’s Use of Jewish Royal Ideology in Colossians.”

To finish ETS, Stan is presenting a paper, Friday afternoon at 2:00pm, in the New Testament Canon, Textual Criticism, and Apocryphal Literature section, entitled “The Christology of the Greek Fragmentary Gospels.” Stan has recently co-authored a book on Christology with Bryan Dyer, Origins of New Testament Christology: An Introduction to the Traditions and Title Applied to Jesus (Baker, 2023) and is working on another book on Jesus as God’s Divine Son. This paper supplements these studies by investigating the Christology in the early Greek fragmentary gospels such as P.Egerton 2 and the Fayyum fragment, among several others. The intriguing question regarding these fragmentary gospel texts is whether and what kind of Christology can be discerned within them. Other papers in this section include: David Wilhite, “The Christology of the Early Infancy Gospels”; Benjamin P. Laird, “The Christology of the Gospel of Thomas”; and Michael J. Kruger, “The Christology of the Gospel of Peter.”

At SBL, on Saturday afternoon, 1:00–3:30pm, Stan will be the respondent to a panel discussion on his recent book, New Testament Theology and the Greek Language: A Linguistic Reconceptualization (Cambridge University Press, 2022). The panelists include Douglas Huffman (presiding), Linda Bellville, Max Botner, Darian Lockett, and Stephanie Black. We anticipate a stirring discussion on the intersection of theology and linguistics.

On Tuesday morning, 9:00–11:30am, during the final session of SBL, Dave will be presenting a paper in the Psychology and Biblical Studies seminar entitled “Antilanguage in the New Testament: Inclusion and Exclusion through Relexicalization.” Antilanguage is a term coined by British sociolinguist Michael Halliday, referring to the language of an antisociety that is used for exclusion from the majority society. Halliday briefly stated that the early Christian community would be an antisociety, but did not elaborate on this. This paper seeks to apply the concept of antilanguage to the early Christian community and its writings, and provide a starting point as to how we can determine how much inclusion and exclusion a particular book of the New Testament displays through its use or nonuse of antilanguage.

We look forward not only to the sessions and discussions but to the social aspects of the annual meetings, such as dinners, lunches, breakfasts, coffee meetings, and receptions (yes, lots of food related events). We also look forward to the IBR Annual Lecture and following annual reception, as our colleague and friend (and Stan’s former doctoral student), Beth Stovell of Ambrose University and Seminary, will be presenting a paper entitled “The Word Made Flesh, Our Tabernacling King: Johannine Kingdom Theology.”

Those who will be attending either or both meetings and are considering enrolling in a PhD program may qualify to attend a complementary dinner hosted by McMaster Divinity College, although space is limited at this time. Those interested should send an email to Dave (yoond2@mcmaster.ca) for more information on this.

We look forward to the festivities starting next week, in sunny Southern California!

— David I. Yoon and Stanley E. Porter