Divided Worlds? Challenges in Classics and New Testament Studies ed. by Caroline Johnson Hodge, Timothy A. Joseph and Tat-Siong Benny Liew (review)

Reviewed by: Divided Worlds? Challenges in Classics and New Testament Studies ed. by Caroline Johnson Hodge, Timothy A. Joseph and Tat-Siong Benny Liew Mark Whitters caroline johnson hodge, timothy a. joseph, and tat-siong benny liew (eds. ), Divided Worlds? Challenges in Classics and New Testament Studies (SBLSS 100; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2023). Pp. xiii + 385. Paper 60. This collection of essays and responses represents the interaction among scholars of classics and biblical studies at a virtual conference in 2020. The focus of their dialogue was on the "divided worlds" of university disciplines (Why are classics and biblical studies so alienated? ) and academia (Why is the scholarship of both fields so removed from disenfranchised groups? ). Each presentation deals with topics that challenge "status quo" prescriptions for marginalized people, at least as taught by the aforementioned disciplines. Two introductory essays by the volume's editors ("Introduction: Divided Worlds? , " pp. 1–38) and by Denise Kimber Buell ("An Argument for Being Less Discipled, " pp. 39–64) give the status quaestionis. Why are the disciplines divided (the editors)? Why are the disciplines so narrow in their purviews (Buell)? The editors point to a troubled history of church–secular relations in higher education, an anti-Jewish pedigree to the academy, and an increased compartmentalization for what was once a unified liberal arts education. Eurocentrism undergirded both fields and could only complicate things for answering the second question. Buell's answer therefore is that the whole educational enterprise needs restructuring so that disenfranchised souls find space for "living and breathing" (p. 58). Nine essays then address specific instances of othering implied by the introduction: ethnocentricity (Gay L. Byron, "The World of Kandake: Foregrounding Ethiopian Queens and Empires, " pp. 65–82), immigrants (Yii-Jan Lin, "An Apocalyptic Epidemiology of Foreignness: The Use of Revelation in American Associations of Immigrants with Disease, " pp. 83–104), End Page 414 disabilities (Candida R. Moss, "What Large Letters: Invisible Labor, Invisible Disabilities, and Paul's Use of Scribes, " pp. 105–22), gender (Joseph A. Marchal, "Wayward and Willful Members: Twisting Figures Past Porneia in Paul's Letters, " pp. 123–54), slavery (Jennifer A. Glancy, "Master Jesus and the Enslaved Apostles, " pp. 155–74), race (Abraham Smith, "Visualizing Oppression: Slavery and the Arts of Domination, " pp. 175– 202), income distribution (Allen Dwight Callahan, "r > g, " pp. 203–16), women (Jorunn Økland, "Equality: A Modern, Ancient Greek, and Pauline History of the Concept, " pp. 217–46), and aesthetics (Laura Salah Nasrallah, "Aesthetics: New Testament, the Classics, and a Case Study in 1 Corinthians, " pp. 247–77). Seven shorter responses follow the main essays (Timothy A. Joseph, "On Polycentrism, Simultaneity, and the Priority of Ethical Urgency: The Example of Walker's Appeal, " pp. 279–88; Shelley P. Haley, "Divided Worlds: How Divided Are They? , " pp. 289–96; Thomas R. Martin, "A Classicist's Reflections on Greco-Roman Epidemiologies of Foreignness and Categorizations of Disability, " pp. 297–314; Dominic Machado, "Freedom, Slavery, and Beyond: A Reflection, " pp. 315– 28; Douglas Boin, "Two Approaches to Equality, Inequality, and Justice in the Ancient World, " pp. 329–36; Katherine Lu Hsu, "On Being Disciplined, " pp. 337–42; Joy Connolly, "Afterword: The Ancient World and the Ancient World, " pp. 343–54). For the sake of space this review will cover only a few selections in both categories. Moss considers how Paul signs off the letter to the Galatians (Gal 6: 11). She asks, Why do commentators almost never attribute his "large letters" signature to sight-impairment? Should not this exegetical possibility then provoke more research about scribes and clerical services as an essential—and possibly exploited—component of ancient writing? The latter question aside, speculation about eyesight might be plausible. It seems more convincing, however, that Paul was simply giving his bold "John Hancock" signature to close a rather dramatic letter. Marchal's contribution to the book is the longest and most strident. This essay deals with the context of porneia and pointedly does not gloss over its omnipresence in the ancient world. Marchal would subvert commentators' intentions to "straighten" out implied "crooked" behaviors in NT audiences, past and present. His method is to profile parallel graffiti inscriptions at a Pompey brothel that would parallel porneia contexts in. . .