Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism (Festschrift for Larry Hurtado)

Recently, I had the great privilege to contribute to a Festschrift for my friend and colleague Larry Hurtado, Mark, Manuscripts and Monotheism, edited by two of his outstanding students and friends of mine, Chris Keith and Dieter Roth, and published by T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, just in time for the SBL.

Two years ago, I suggested to Chris that he and Dieter should edit this FS that would give Larry's former students the opportunity to honor their Doktorvater, and there were already three contributions to include by Thomas Kraus (on manuscripts as artifacts), Richard Bauckham (on Christology) and myself (on textual criticism) from the Larry Hurtado day held in Edinburgh in 2011.

Chris and Dieter gladly accepted the task, and in conjunction with the SBL in San Diego in November, we could present the volume to Larry at a nice Brazilian restaurant (see image), where each contributor present said a few words about their essay and what Larry has meant to them as mentor, colleague and friend. Many memories were shared and we had many good laughs (this was the first time I heard Chris tell about this crazy experience from his time as a PhD student in Edinburgh).

Larry was apparently deeply moved and filled with gratitutde, and just recently he has started a blog series to engage with the contributions in the volume, several of which will be very interesting for readers of this blog. So far the following posts have appeared:

• Manuscripts as Artefacts: Kraus on Hurtado
• Sense-Unit Divisions in Ancient NT Manuscripts: Artifacts of Ancient Readers
• Mark’s Christology–Plausibility Factors
• Jesus as God’s Chief Agent in Mark
• Mark and the Emergence of Early Christian “Book Culture”