The Symposium, hosted by the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam together with Radboud University, Nijmegen, brings together several scholars who examine the various ways that “old age” is conceptualized in literary, social, and political contexts of the ancient Mediterranean, especially among early Jewish and Christian communities.

During the day of June 2 there will be a Conference on location at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam (De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam) where several international scholars of early Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman antiquity will give presentations on “old age” as a dynamic and meaningful concept in relation to a variety of issues, such as gender, family, society, and wisdom. See the Program below.

The in-person conference is preceded by virtual Keynote Lecture, on the evening of June 1 (19:00-20:30 CEST), entitled “The Ageless Self and the Selfless Age,” given by Prof. Mira Balberg (UC San Diego) in consultation with Prof. Haim Weiss (Ben Gurion); the lecture extends their recent groundbreaking study of “old age” in rabbinic literature (When Near Becomes Far, Oxford UP 2021).

All interested parties are warmly invited to attend the conference as well as the virtual keynote address. Attendance at both the keynote and conference is free. Refreshments will be provided during the conference.

There is a separate registration for the virtual keynote address:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/keynote-lecture-prof-mira-balbergthe-ageless-self-and-the-selfless-age-tickets-329738977157

Topic/Outline

The symposium aims to examine and map out the many conceptual varieties of "old age" among a diverse group of texts and contexts, particularly those coded as Jewish or Christian, but with the understanding that these communities and their discourses are part and parcel of a much larger historical and cultural continuum in the ancient Mediterranean world, broadly conceived. How, for example, did the various Jewish and Christian communities in the ancient Mediterranean world respond – whether discursively or through other social mechanisms – to the observed and/or imagined psychosomatic changes associated with old age? How was old age (in)formally signified in these respective communities? What social roles and attendant responsibilities, constraints, and privileges, were afforded the elderly? What sorts of norms and values were associated with senescent identifications? Even a passing consideration of “old age” in an ancient context reveals several different, sometimes conflicting, conceptualizations. Of particular interest is how these studies may speak to the complexities of early Jewish and Christian identify formations from the Second Temple period through Late Antiquity.

Program for Symposium on Thursday, 2 June, 2022

09:00–09:30 Informal Opening & Coffee/Tea

09:30-09:40 Albertina Oegema & Seth A. Bledsoe, Opening

09:40–10:50 Session A: Old Age & Masculinity

09:40-10:15 Peter-Ben Smit (Vrije University/Utrecht University), “Beyond Gender: Polycarpus’s Martyrdom at the Intersection of Old Age and Masculinity”

10:15-10:50 Larry L. Welborn (Fordham University), “The Anxious Old Man”

10:50–11:10 Coffee/Tea Break

11:10–12:20 Session B: Old Age & the Family

11:10-11:45 Klaas Spronk (Protestant Theological University), “A Happy Ending: Jacob's Final Years as the Ideal of Old Age in Tanakh”

11:45-12:20 Seth A. Bledsoe (Radboud University), “Old Age, Gender, and Reciprocity”

12:20–13:30 Lunch Break

13:30–14:40 Session C: Old Age & Wisdom

13:30-14:05 Barry Hartog (Protestant Theological University), “Wisdom Comes With Age? Old Age and Knowledge in Ancient Jewish Literature”

14:05-14:40 Lieve Teugels (Protestant Theological University), “New Wine in Old Bags? Torah, Wine, Wisdom and Age in Rabbinic Literature”

14:40–15:00 Coffee/Tea Break

15:00–16:45 Session D: Social Status of the Elderly

15:00-15:35 Silvana Dayan Delatte (University of Fribourg), “Making Sense of Diverse Conceptualizations of Old Age in Classical Athens: Norms and Values Associated to Senescence in Literary and Visual Sources”

15:35-16:10 Christoph Michels (University of Münster), “The Social Implications of Old Age in Imperial Rome”

16:10–16:45 Albertina Oegema (Protestant Theological University), “The Marginalisation of the Elderly in Early Rabbinic Literature”

16:45-17:00 Albertina Oegema & Seth Bledsoe, Final Words

17:00 Reception w/ drinks & light hors d’oeuvres

Conceptualizing Old Age in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Contexts