When: June 9, 2022, 3:30 pm - Thursday

Where: Swang 232

Session 5

Session Abstract

In the second session of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Colloquium, Fuller Ming and Joshua Turpin will each present a paper. Fuller Ming’s paper addresses the text critical value of the Syriac Peshitta compared to the Masoretic Text. Joshua Turpin’s paper presents a Womanist approach to reading the pledge of loyalty in Ruth 1:16-17. The papers will be circulated to participants of the colloquium in advance, and prepared respondents will critique each the papers. To receive a copy of the papers in advance, please contact Kipp Swinney at Kipp_Swinney@Baylor.edu.

 

Paper Abstracts

Fuller Ming, Lancaster Bible College, “Recycling from Exodus: Why the Syriac Peshitta May Be a Better Foundation for Some Parts of the OT than the Masoretic Text for Text Critical Analysis”

This paper will consider how a critical version of the Syriac Peshiṭta Old Testament, specifically the Pentateuch is used in establishing the original Hebrew text that predates the Masoretic Text.  It will address how the Peshiṭta and other ancient witnesses are effectively used to establish what variants were likely part of the original manuscript purportedly written by Moses as traditionally ascribed. Using examples primarily from Exodus but also elsewhere in the OT, several examples will be presented. The goal is to show how the Peshitta Bible helps to solidify our confidence in the biblical text.

 

Joshua Turpin, Brite Divinity School, “Pledging Loyalty: A Womanist-Accomplice Approach to Ruth 1:16-17”

This paper examines Ruth’s pledge of loyalty in 1:16-17 in light of assimilationist language that foregrounds homogeneity. I apply a text-focused approach to this examination trough my developing womanist-accomplice hermeneutic. Despite Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi and Boaz, the town forces Ruth to live as a “perpetual foreigner,” which I connect to the rhetoric of assimilation and the pressure to prove one’s worth in conversations around immigration and Black lives—a rhetoric that provides an impermeable barrier around white-citizenship. This reading exposes the racism/ethnocentrism that is inherent in readings of Ruth that support assimilationist rhetoric.

Speakers

Ryan Replogle, Hebrew Union, Convener

• Fuller Ming, Lancaster Bible College, “Recycling from Exodus: Why the Syriac Peshitta May Be a Better Foundation for Some Parts of the OT than the Masoretic Text for Text Critical Analysis”
• Laura Locke Estes, Pepperdine University, Respondent
• Joshua Turpin, Brite Divinity School, “Pledging Loyalty: A Womanist-Accomplice Approach to Ruth 1:16-17”
• Grant Testut, Oklahoma Christian University, Respondent