At the 2008 International Catholic Biblical Association Meeting

I'm here at Fordham University in the Bronx at the 71st international CBA meeting. A wonderful meeting so far, and I've seen lots of friends. Thunderstorms over New York yesterday caused the airports to shut down, so I along with many others were delayed in arriving. Many of the rooms were freezing with the air conditioning, but that seems to be the only glitch and all is going well. The presidential address by Jerome Neyrey last evening argued that very often the translation "give thanks" in the NT Greek does not capture the social reality and that much is lost in translation. In Greek culture, praise was rendered in return for gifts, which is much different than our current private, interior idea of "thanks." This morning we discussed work on Genesis 1 by Mark Smith in one of the several continuing seminars. Among the debated topics: was light actually created? Mark argured probably not, for among other things, light is a pre-extant reality of God, who appears in glory and light. His position shifted a bit in the course of discussion, in which I argued that God's light is merely analogous to physical, created light (cf. Zech 14:6-7). Mark's present thinking: Perhaps creation involved a process in which conditions were created in our human world where we now experience something analogous to God's pre-existing light...