Japanese Biblical Studies

The Japan Bible Society recently completed its “Spring Bible Seminars” (no. 28) in Tokyo.

In four afternoon sessions – held every other Saturday, beginning June 2 and running through July 14 – four eminent lecturers spoke on these topics while considering the merits and challenges of translating the Bible by committee vs. individually:

1. “The Bible: From the Perspective of New Testament Studies” – Kiyoshi Tsuchido (土戸清氏, b. 1933)
2. “The Bible: Use in Worship” – Tsuneaki Katō (加藤常昭, b. 1929)
3. “Translating the New Interconfessional Translation” – Kenichi Kida (木田献一, b. 1930)
4. “The Bible: Use in Mass” – Shunichi Takayanagi (高柳俊一, b. 1932)

The Japan Bible Society held its third International Bible Forum in Tokyo on July 5th and 6th. Foreign and Japanese lecturers spoke on topics related to both testaments, as well as the intertestamental period.

Here are this year’s lecturers and lecture titles (all but Grabbe’s are translated from the Japanese titles), with links to Japanese abstracts of the talks:

• Werner H. Schmidt (University of Bonn) gave two Old Testament lectures: “Faith of the Old Testament and Christian Faith” and “Jeremiah, the Prophet of Trials.”
   
• Petra von Gemünden (University of Augsburg) gave two New Testament lectures: “Paul’s Fear of Death: A Key to Understanding Romans” and “Anxiety and Coping with Attacks in the Gospel of John: A Contribution to the Psychology of Primitive Christianity” (the German title is simply “Angst und Angstbewältigung im Johannesevangelium”). 
   
• Lester L. Grabbe (University of Hull) gave two Second Temple Period lectures: “Jewish Literature in the Second Temple Period” and “The Jewish Religion in the Time of the Maccabees.”
   
• Kenzo Tagawa (formerly a visiting professor at University of Strasbourg) gave a New Testament lecture: “The Gospel of John and the Facts of Jesus: Why did John Attempt to Relate Historical Facts in Detailed Accuracy?“

The Japan Bible Society has English pages for the International Bible Forum 2006 and International Bible Forum 2007, so it will likely add one for this year’s forum at some point. 

Did you attend the forum? If so, what did you think about it?