Katie Turner

An excellent collection of essays from the Jesus & Brian conference (June 2014) held at King's College, London, featuring a forward by Python Terry Jones.

Essays by: Martin Goodman, George Brooke, Bill Telford, Philip Davies, James Crossley, Helen Bond, Guy Stiebel, Steve Mason, Paula Fredriksen, David Shepherd, Aaron Rosen, Katie Turner, Amy-Jill Levine, Bart Ehrman, Adele Reinhartz, Richard Burridge, Joan Taylor, and David Tollerton

The body is an entity on which religious ideology is printed. Thus it is frequently a subject of interest, anxiety, prescription and regulation in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, as well as in early Christian and Jewish writings. Issues such as the body's age, purity, sickness, ability, gender, sexual actions, marking, clothing, modesty or placement can revolve around what the body is and is not supposed to be or do.

The Body in Biblical, Christian and Jewish Texts comprises a range of inter-disciplinary and creative explorations of the body as it is described and defined in religious literature, with chapters largely written by new scholars with fresh perspectives. This is a subject with wide and important repercussions in diverse cultural contexts today.

Joan E. Taylor, ed.

Since the early days of biblical dramatisations, costume design has relied primarily on Western Christian artwork, contemporary dress, and stereotyping. Even in an age dominated by historical Jesus scholarship and archaeological research into the social world of the New Testament, 'Jesus films' and stage dramas still fall back on old motifs when creating costumes. This is not entirely the fault of those involved, as we lack any comprehensive or thorough scholarship into first-century Judean clothing that has gained public traction or awareness. And yet, by presenting a protagonist in a biblical drama that is not Jesus nor any other leading biblical figure, Monty Python's Life of Brian also presents us with some of the most historically accurate representations of Judean dress, as it was not bound to any traditional imagery or expectation. Gone is the ankle length, fourth-century tunic common in the Western Roman Empire that we so frequently see Jesus depicted in. In its place, Brian wears an outfit reminiscent of a first-century chiton more appropriate to a 'working-class' Jew of Jesus' time. This paper will consider the current state of scholarship and evidence for first-century Jewish dress. Using the Life of Brian as a reference point, it will also reflect on how future dramatisations of the New Testament could create a less-stereotyped and more historically-nuanced depiction of the narrative.

This paper will look at first-century dress, using the costuming in Passion Plays to frame the discussion. Caiaphas is usually costumed in sacramental robes, creating the (false) impression that the High Priest spent every day wearing attire meant only for specific Temple ritual. This leaves us asking, “What would Caiaphas have worn?” Whilst it is difficult to determine how the High Priest and the rest of the Sanhedrin would have dressed (Jews rarely depicted human figures in their art and artefacts), it is possible to make reasoned suppositions. We should be able to construct a sensible depiction of Jewish dress during this time period using evidence from the Greco-Roman world (mostly archaeological) in conjunction with what we know about the Hellenization of first-century Judea. In the post-Holocaust world we have made distinct progress combating antisemitism in Passion Plays; yet, the continued portrayal of Caiaphas and the other Priests in unfamiliar and potentially bizarre costumes highlights their ‘otherness’ and can result in or contribute to the audience viewing them with suspicion, disdain, or apprehension. A more accurate portrayal, involving historicity, could result in a better reflection of the complexity of the historical context and biblical text.

What Jesus was doing at the Last Supper has not been understood for the better part of 2000 years‘, writes Bruce Chilton, in his paper 'The Eucharist—Exploring its Origins‘. While many would counter that they do indeed understand what Jesus was doing, he is at least correct in so far as there has been a great deal of debate and no consensus. This paper looked at the history of the blessing itself, including its cultural origins, focusing on the common questions that have arisen: Given the prohibitions on consumption of blood found throughout the Hebrew Bible, how does one explain Jesus' use of wine as blood (either symbolically or literally)? Did the blessing even originate with Jesus, or is there evidence of a different source?

(Please be advised that the Hebrew font did not convert properly. )