I had the privilege of participating in this past weekend's Stone Campbell Journal Conference at Lincoln Christian University over this past weekend (Apr. 13-14). I delivered a paper in the session Mark's Gospel in Mediterranean Context on the subject of Jesus' sighs in Mark 7.34; 8.12. I essentially argued for the difference b/t the two sighs being one of compassion in 7.34 and one of distress in 8.12. I was able to garner some good, positive feedback during the Q&A, and also meet some great people along the way, some whom I only had the chance to chat with on Facebook until this weekend!
Other highlights for me included: Sitting in on the session concerning David Watson's important monograph,Honor Among Christians: The Cultural Key to the Messianic Secret, as both the respondents and the author included many penetrating insights into the work; meeting Anthony LeDonne and Rafael Rodriguez for the first time, two bright Historical Jesus scholars working in social memory theory, as well as Chris Keith, whom I finally met in person, after a few months of digital correspondence. It was with Chris that I had a great conversation with about my future plans, and I look forward to more.
I would be remiss, if I failed to mention the forthcoming conference that will feature the three gentleman mentioned above as well as scholars named Goodacre, Allison and McKnight! Click here to see more on that.
Other highlights included finally meeting another online friend in David J. Stark, whom recently finished his PhD at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary under Andreas Kostenberger, and meeting with Barry Blackburn, who was very encouraging of my work and my future.
Thanks so much, Matthew. It was very good meeting you too . . . and hearing your paper, of course. :-)
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