Lectures
BRUCE CHILTON
The Temple in the Time of Jesus, James (his brother), Paul, and Mary Magdalene
Until its destruction in 70 C.E. by the Romans, the Temple in Jerusalem was the central focus of Christianity, as well as of Judaism. Christian engagement with the issue of how sacrifice should be offered there predated the name “Christian” as well as any attempt to see Jesus’ movement as separate from Judaism. These ten lectures are designed to explain the foundational role of the Temple in the emergence of Christianity, and how theologians after 70 C.E. attempted to deal with its destruction.
- The Temple in the first century – historical and archaeological evidence
- Galilean perspectives on the Temple, and the early fame of Jesus
- Jesus’ occupation of the Temple
- James – the “caliph” of Jesus?
- The execution of James and the fracture of Christianity
- Paul’s priestly offering on behalf of the Gentiles
- The politics of Paul’s arrest and Nero’s pogrom
- Mary Magdalene’s role as exorcist, anointer, and visionary
- The Roman genocide in Tiberias, and Mary’s death as prelude to the Temple’s destruction
- The Epistle to the Hebrew – replacing sacrifice on earth with an offering in heaven.
ZIONY ZEVIT
The Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel’s Worldview
The Hebrew Bible consists of diverse, didactic texts from ancient Israel composed over a 900-year period. Studying the Bible’s writings on crucial, defining events such as the Exodus and Conquest of Canaan, exploring its view of law and ethics, and considering how and why the Bible tells some of its stories as it does provide insight into Israelite faith and philosophy. These ten lectures, some of which introduce archaeological considerations into the analysis, illustrate how reading the Bible analytically (that is, carefully and with the refining tools of modern scholarship) enables us to comprehend part of ancient Israel’s worldview.
- Was There Really an Exodus? Text, Archaeology, History and Common Sense (illustrated)
- Was There Really a Conquest? Text, Archaeology, History, and Common Sense (illustrated)
- The Ten Commandments and Open Knowledge (lecture/discussion)
- The People's Court: Crime in the Bible (lecture/discussion)
- The Ten Plagues: A Biblical Midrash
- How the Bible Came to Be
- How Grammatical Mistakes Distort Bible Narrative
- Israelite Religion and Archaeology (illustrated)
- The Archaeology of Daily Life in Ancient Israel (illustrated)
- Revisiting the Garden of Eden
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Field Trips & Extensions
Field Trips (INCLUDED): • Walking tour of Oxford followed by tea at Randolph's Hotel • Visit to the world-famous Bodleian Library in Oxford, which houses such treasures as the Kennicott Bible, the Elephantine Papyri and the Maimondes Manuscript • Full day in London for visit to the British Museum (reliefs of Sennacherib's destruction of Lachish, the Nimrud ivories, the Gilgamesh flood tablets, the extraordinary objects from the Royal Cemetery at Ur and more); following the tour, you will have free time to spend in the museum • Guided tour of the superb antiquities collection at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum • AND MORE!
Optional Field Trips (ADDITIONAL FEE)
Two days at Oxford will be free time for you to visit places on your own or take one of the BAS organized trips listed below. Travel on BAS organized trips will be by chartered bus. If you wish to remain in Oxford or travel elsewhere, our BAS coordinator will be glad to advise you.
Bath: Spend a day at Bath, one of Britain's most elegant cities. Carefully restored, the baths are a historic showplace. Bath's hot springs, established by the Romans in 75 A.D., were a magnificent engineering feat in their day and are considered to be among the country's finest Roman remains. In the 18th century, Bath became a gathering place for royalty and high society members. On arrival, you will tour the city and the Roman baths. Cost: $75 per person
Stonehenge, Salisbury, Old Sarum: From Oxford, travel to the prehistoric religious monument Stonehenge. Eerie and mystifying, Stonehenge is the most famous and believed by many to be the best example of ancient religious sites. Leaving this fascinating area, continue to Salisbury to spend some time at the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral. Built in the 13th century, its spire rises 404 feet in the air. Near Salisbury, visit Old Sarum, the original Salisbury. Explore the remains of the Norman Castle. Cost: $75 per person.
Optional 4-Day Extension (ADDITIONAL FEE)
Sign up for four extra days of sightseeing, shows, shopping-make your own plan and tour at your own pace, while maintaining your lodging at St. Edmund Hall!
We'll offer suggestions to help you create your own schedule of activities. Samples are: day trips to London, the lovely Cotswald region, Blenheim Palace and Bladon, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle, the Isle of Wight, to name only a few.
Continue to lodge at St. Edmund Hall on a bed-and-breakfast basis from August 2-5, 2008 for $85/night per person. Meals, guided tours and entry fees will be additional costs. Call us for further information: 1-800-221-4644 x208.
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Faculty
 BRUCE CHILTON is a scholar of early Christianity and Judaism. He wrote the first critical commentary on the Aramaic version of Isaiah (The Isaiah Targum, 1987), as well as academic studies that analyze Jesus in his Judaic context (A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible, 1984; The Temple of Jesus, 1992; Pure Kingdom, 1996). He has taught in Europe at the Universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Münster, and in the United States at Yale University (as the first Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament) and Bard College. Currently Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard, he also directs the Institute of Advanced Theology there. Throughout his career, he as been active in the pastoral ministry of the Anglican Church and is Rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown, New York. His most recent books are Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (2000), Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars (2002), Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography (2004), Mary Magdalene: A Biography (2005), The Cambridge Companion to the Bible (2007) and Abraham's Curse. Child Sacrifice in the Legacies of the West (2008).
 ZIONY ZEVIT is Distinguished Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages at the American Jewish University. He is author of the award-winning book, The Religions of Ancient Israel (2001), now in its third printing. In addition to contributing widely to academic journals in the fields of Biblical literature, history, and archaeology, and lecturing in numerous academic venues, Zevit has served on the advisory board of the Jewish Publication Society’s Guide to the Bible and the editorial board of the Bible division of the New Encyclopaedia Judaica, the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Shofar, and, for seven years as senior editor of Hebrew Studies. Zevit has held visiting faculty positions at the University of California at San Diego, the University of California at Los Angeles, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Pennsylvania Center for Judaic Studies, the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, the University of Southern California and Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.
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Cost
Land Arrangements: $3,195
(Air is additional. Our agent will be happy to help you with arrangements.)
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Terms and Conditions
To Reserve a Place: Please send a deposit of $500 per person with the completed reservation form. The balance is due June 1, 2008. The number of spaces is limited, so reserve early.
Cancellation: Refund of deposit less $150 administrative fee per person will be made if reservation is cancelled 90 to 60 days prior to seminar. If cancellation is made 59 days or less prior to seminar, any costs that may be incurred from St. Edmund Hall will be passed on to the participant in addition to the administrative fee of $150. All cancellations must be in writing. There is no refund for cancellations after the seminar begins, and there is no refund for any unused portions of the seminar.
Accommodations at Oxford: All accommodations at St. Edmund Hall are for a single bed/sitting room with washbasin. Accommodations are college-style rooms with bathrooms located down the hall. Arrangements can be made for two beds to a room; however, the cost is the same per person.
NOTE: There are no elevators in these buildings; therefore, climbing stairs is necessary. There are a very limited number of lower-floor rooms, available on a first-come, first-served basis. A substantial amount of walking is part of the program. Those with walking limitations will find it difficult to participate fully.
Oxford Seminar Includes: All BAS lectures, Oxford and London field trips, accommodations for 11 nights, all meals, seminar folder containing course outlines, maps and schedule of activities, continuing education units and gratuities. To ensure your comfort, the Biblical Archaeology Society will have a full-time resident coordinator at St. Edmund Hall to care for group and individual needs.
NOTE: We recommend a departure from the U.S. on Sunday, July 20 on an overnight flight to London's Heathrow Airport (or to Gatwick Airport, one hour further from Oxford), with early morning arrival on Monday, July 21. Take the Oxford City Link coach to St. Edmund Hall in Oxford in time for lunch (instructions will be provided.) Welcome reception that evening. Lectures begin on Tuesday, July 22. Early morning bus departure from Oxford on Friday, August 1 for U.S.-bound flights in early afternoon (or on August 5, if you extend). BAS and Portfolio Travel will be happy to help with your air arrangements.
Not Included: Airfare, items of a strictly personal nature (such as laundry, liquor, etc.), tickets to any theatrical performances, passport fees, transport to and from airport, optional field trips to Bath and Stonhenge, extended stay expenses.
Passport Requirements: A valid passport, good for 6 additional months from date of return (February 1, 2009), is required of all tour members.
Continuing Education Units: CEUs are accepted by many institutions and employers in fulfillment of requirements for further learning. Each person will receive a certificate on completion of the BAS seminar.
Notice: Dates, schedules, program details and costs, although given in good faith and based on information available at the time of publication of the brochure, are subject to change and revision. In the event of such an omission or substitution, no liability will be granted by BAS. Prices are quoted in U.S. dollars and are based on tariffs and exchange rates in effect as of February 2008. These rates are subject to change prior to the operation of the tour.
Responsibility: The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) and/or their agents, affiliates, assignees and cooperative agents act only as agents for the passenger with respect to transportation, hotels and automobile contractors. They exercise every care possible but cannot be held responsible for personal injury in connection with the service of any hotel, ship, airplane, train, automobile, horse, donkey, carriage or other conveyance used in carrying out the program/tours, nor are they responsible for delay, accident, sickness, loss of personal property, strikes, armed conflict, additional expenses due to weather, disruption of advertised schedules, refusal of visas or other causes beyond their control. Further, the operation of vehicles used in this program is the full responsibility of the companies and individuals engaged in the conveying of passengers; said companies or individuals are governed by the laws of the country of operations, and recourse for any mishap must be filed locally. Unforeseen conditions may necessitate program changes and the right is reserved to make such changes or withdraw the program as deemed advisable. The right is also reserved to refuse to accept or retain any passengers on any tour at any time for any reason. Cooperating airlines and steamship companies are not to be held responsible for any act, omission or event during the time passengers are not on board; the limit of their liability is that of a common carrier, and the passage contract in use by such carriers, when issued, shall constitute the sole contract between companies and the purchaser of this tour and/or passenger. Acceptance of the services arranged by BAS and by all agents and/or travelers constitutes acceptance of all the above terms and conditions.
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Registration
Click "Register" on the left hand menu, or follow the link below for our printable registration form. You must have Adobe Reader to view this form. If you do not have Adobe Reader, click here first to download this free program.
DOWNLOAD REGISTRATION FORM
If you are unable to download this PDF file, please contact the Travel/Study department at 1-800-221-4644 ext.208
If you have any questions, please contact the Travel/Study department:
Biblical Archaeology Society Travel/Study Programs
4710 41st Street NW
Washington, DC 20016-1700
USA
Toll free: 1-800-221-4644 ext.208
Fax: 1-202-364-2636
email: travelstudy@bib-arch.org
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OXFORD UNIVERSITY SEMINAR 2008