Session A
Ronit Dassa, MF Oslo, ‘The Land of Israel, Christian Zionism, and the Quest for the Historical Jesus’
This paper explores discourses surrounding the land of Israel, Christian Zionism, and Jewishness in the so-called Third Quest in historical Jesus research. The paper focuses on the significance of the work of W. D. Davies—especially The Gospels and the Land (1974) and The Territorial Dimension of Judaism (1982)—which provides insights into the interplay between Christian theology, critical Gospel scholarship, and modern Zionism. Davies’s scholarship has been pivotal in clarifying the complex questions surrounding Israel and the Land within historical Jesus studies, particularly concerning Jesus’s relationship to land claims in both spiritual and physical contexts. This paper locates Davies’s work and the wider reception of his ideas in the context of the rise of evangelical and broader cultural support for Israel in America and after the Six-Day War in 1967. Building on the work of James Crossley on discourses about a ‘very Jewish’ Jesus in scholarship and Zygmunt Bauman’s theorising of ‘allosemitism,’ this paper shows that the positive rhetoric about Jews, Judaism, and Israel found in Davies and his reception represent an updating of the traditional supersessionist view that positions Christianity as a successor to Judaism in line with late-twentieth-century Anglo-American interests. By analysing Davies’s contributions, the research reveals how his systematic approach helped construct the bridge between the quest for the historical Jesus and the narratives of modern Christian Zionism, a task continued by subsequent scholarship, including scholars with overt Christian Zionist connections. This examination underscores the significance of understanding the rhetoric of the Jewish Jesus and the role of ‘the Land’ in Christian thought, providing a nuanced perspective on the intersections of faith, identity, and politics.
Norbert Nagy, Protestant Theological University Netherlands, ‘Once in a Lifetime? The Historical Jesus and His Only Recorded Contact with a Slave’
The relationship between slavery and the historical Jesus has largely been neglected in biblical scholarship. In alignment with The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, which highlights the urgency of this overlooked field, this paper proposes a future path forward. The fact that almost no scholar has focused exclusively on the connection between real slavery and the historical Jesus may be attributed to the absence of slaves in the Gospels. What is extremely interesting is that there is a single story where Jesus has direct contact with a slave; however, nobody has highlighted this until now. The story of Jesus touching a slave’s ear appears with minor differences in all four Gospels, which also increases the importance of the Gospel of John in the interpretation. Therefore, through close reading and exegesis, I intend to highlight the intersectionality of that slave, trying to explain the reason for the conspicuous uniqueness of this case.
Session B
This paper explores the complex material and paratextual history of Codex H (Gregory-Aland 015), a sixth-century fragmentary manuscript of the Pauline Epistles, now dispersed across collections in Paris, Turin, and Mount Athos. Traditionally valued for its early witness to the Pauline text, Codex H is more than a textual vessel; it is a dynamic artifact of Christian scribal culture with a rich history of production, use, and reuse. This study brings attention to two layers of paratextual engagement: first, the initial production layer, which preserves significant portions of the so-called Euthalian apparatus—a modular set of editorial tools including prologues, chapter lists, stichometric data, and supplementary texts on Paul’s life and writings second, the later interventions by various users, including scribes, librarians, and lay readers, who added annotations, epigrams, prayers, and other marginal notes unrelated to the biblical text. These additions, while often overlooked, are essential for understanding the manuscript’s post-production history and its continued religious and intellectual use over centuries.
Drawing on discoveries made through the AHRC-funded “Annotating the New Testament” project (University of Glasgow), including the recovery of new fragments and multispectral reconstructions of damaged folia, this paper argues that Codex H exemplifies how Christian manuscripts were living objects—read, repurposed, and reshaped across time. By combining material philology with paratextual analysis, this study repositions Codex H not just as a textual witness but as a cultural artifact. In doing so, it invites a re-evaluation of the manuscript’s role in the transmission of the New Testament and its reception in early, medieval and modern Christian communities.
Nathaniel Vette, KCL, ‘“By Way of Sidon in the Region of the Decapolis” (Mark 7:31): Mark’s Jesus and the Restoration of the Land of Israel’