Well, the first of what we hope will become an annual event here at the University of St Andrews took place the past week in the venerable College of St Mary’s.  The 1st St Andrews Graduate Conference for Biblical and Early Christian Studies was held on the 15-16 June and included grad students from more than ten universities located in various countries, including Scotland, England, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the US.

I had the great honor and privilege of working with other St Andrews grad students, including Dan Batovici, Beth Tracy, Kathleen Burt, Allen Jones, and Ryan Mullins, on the organizing committee and, IMHO, the effort was a great success!  We had a lot of fun and got to meet some wonderful people. I think it was a pleasant experience for all involved.

Because I was often involved in administrative concerns I didn’t get much chance to take the kind of notes that I would have like to. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some insights into what was said and what I learned in the near future.

We had four illustrious keynote speakers (all from right here in St Andrews):

• Prof. Kristin De Troyer
• Prof. James R. Davila
• Prof. N. T. Wright
• Dr. Mark W. Elliott

Here is the program for the conference (originally posted here, the actual order ended up being slightly different):

Wednesday 15th June

9.00 am: Kristin de Troyer, On Reconstructing the History of the Biblical Text (St Mary’s College Hall)

Session 1 (all session are held in the Senior Common Room)

10.00: Steven Harvey (Durham), Who is (are) ‘your teacher(s)’?   Hearing the voice of the prophet in Isaiah 30:18–26

10.30: Mark Stirling (St Andrews), The Davidic Temple Builder: Zechariah 6:13–15 as neglected background to Ephesians 2:11–22

11.00: Ben Johnson (Durham), Reading Septuagintal Narrative Texts as Translated Narratives: 1 Reigns 16 as an Example

11.30: coffee/tea

12.00: Michael J. Thate (Durham), The Effusive Presence Memory, Performance and the People of God (Michael was not able to be present at the conference — I read his paper for him)

12.00: Kerry Lee (Edinburgh), The Not Not Inglorious Death of Samson

1.00 pm: Lunch

2.00: N. T. Wright, Scripture and God’s Authority: Case Studies and Further Questions (St Mary’s College Hall)

Session 2 (SCR)

3.00: Martin G. Ruf (Utrecht), Elective affinities? Second Peter’s reception of Paul

3.30: Frederik Mulder (Radboud), The reception of Paul’s understanding of resurrection and eschatology in the Epistle to Rheginos: Faithful Paulinism, or further development?

4.00: Rebekah M. Devine (St Andrews), Made With Hands: The Gods of the Nations in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

4.30: coffee/tea

5.00: Moshe Blidstein (Oxford), Between Ritual and Moral Purity: Early Christian Views on Dietary Laws

5.30: Andrew Talbert (Nottingham), Poiesis, Aesthesis, and Catharsis: The Aesthetic Experience of Reading ‘the Day of the Lord’ with the Fathers

6.00: Michael A. Clark (Birmingham), The Catena of the Gospel of John by Nicetas of Heraclea

6.30: Academic Drinks reception (St Mary’s College Hall)

Thursday 16th June

9:00 am: James Davila, Quotations from the Lost Books in the Hebrew Bible (St Mary’s College Hall)

Session 3 (SCR)

10.00:   David J. Larsen (St Andrews), After the Order of Melchizedek: Royal Themes and Melchizedek Traditions Applied to Jesus by the Author of Hebrews

10.30: Beniamin Pascut (Cambridge), Jesus and the Jewish Diviner: The Use and Misuse of 4QPrNbr

11.00: Albertina Oegema (Gröningen), The Reception of Isa 40:15 in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch and Pseudo-Philo

11.30: coffee/tea

12.00: Nicholas Ellis (Oxford), The Jobraham Narratives – A Synthetic Tradition of Trial and Faithfulness

12.30:   Fiona Kao (Cambridge), ‘Fear not this tormentor’: Maccabean Predecessors and Eusebian Martyrs

1.00 pm: lunch break

2.00: Mark W. Elliott, The promise and threat of “Reception”, with reference to patristic interpretation of texts in Hebrews and Ephesians (St Mary’s College Hall)

2.45: coffee/tea

Session 4 (SCR)

3.00: Dan Batovici (St Andrews), Irenaeus’ Hermas

3.30: David L. Cann (KCL), The Holy Spirit in the Early Church: A search for the roots of the Trinitarian theology of the Holy Spirit

4.00: Marijana Vuković (CEU), Anonymous Late Antique Martyrdom Narratives: The Issues of Genre, Imitation, Narratological Patterns (Marijana wasn’t able to be present, but we watched her presentation on YouTube and then conducted a Q&A session with her via Skype — thanks to the technological prowess of Allen Jones)

4.30: coffee/tea

5.00: Justin A. Mihoc (Durham), The Reception and Interpretation of the Lucan Ascension of Christ in the Pre-Nicene Period

5.30: Kevin J. Haley (Notre Dame), Augustine’s Enarrationes and the Final Form of the Psalter

6.00: Academic Drinks reception (St Mary’s College Hall)