My proposal to the Rhetoric and Early Christianity program unit of the Society of Biblical Literature was accepted. Praise God! With his will, I’m planning to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting in San Diego in November.

The proposal titled “The ‘Chair of Moses’ Saying (Matt 23.2-3) in Tertullian’s De Monogamia 8” is copied here:

This paper examines Tertullian’s use of the “chair of Moses” saying (Matt 23:2–3) in chapter 8 of De Monogamia with special attention to its situation within the treatise’s larger argument and the way the “chair of Moses” saying functions as a means of persuasion. Chapter 8 falls within Tertullian’s argumentatio in defense of a double thesis that both celibacy and marriage are good and that all remarriage is illicit. More narrowly, ch. 8 falls within a section in which Tertullian is attempting to demonstrate the antiquity of monogamy and its appropriateness for Christians who live in the “end-times.” Blending means of persuasion (arguing from general to specific, reductio ad absurdum, analogy, arguing a fortiori), Tertullian uses the “chair of Moses” saying to navigate the complexity of continuity and discontinuity between the old and new covenants, between non-moral (ceremonial and civil) laws and moral laws, between the administration of God through Moses and that through Christ. In the end, Tertullian’s complex argument for monogamy in the church’s officers relativizes the “chair of Moses” to that of Christ and abrogates a multitude of non-moral OT laws not suited to the eschatological moment.

Thankfully, I have basically written this paper already as part of my dissertation, in a chapter on ecclesial concerns arising from the “chair of Moses” saying. I look forward to hearing feedback and connecting with other scholars involved in similar projects.