When Was the Psalter Compiled?

I just saw that my recent article in the Bible and Interpretation has been published on the question of "When Was the Psalter Compiled?" It summarizes and pulls together arguments for the date of the collection of the proto-MT Psalter that will appear in greater detail in my monograph forthcoming in 2026 in the FAT I series.

“Love in Lines: Syntax, Metre, and Stanza in Akkadian Love Literature” - Daniele Borkowski (University College London)

Daniele Borkowski (University College London) just delivered a fascinating online lecture regarding “Love in Lines: Syntax, Metre, and Stanza in Akkadian Love Literature.” His presentation focused on the poetics of the compositions, which has many parallels with biblical Hebrew poetry. I include my summary notes here of things that seem particularly relevant for comparative study of the poetry of the Bible.

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Summary of the Poetics of Akkadian Love Poetry of the 2nd Millennium:

• The standard Akkadian verse (he called them lines) has four stresses divided by a caesura that distinguishes two lines (he called them stichoi). Prepositions are not generally factored into the stress-count. The 2/2 pattern is the most common and comprises about 40% of the verses. Next common is 2/1 (about 20%) and 1/2 (about 10%). These three metrical patterns with four or three stressed syllables account for about 70% of verses. He has not yet studied whether any of these metrical patterns apply consistently across full compositions.
• Clausula accadica: This principle says Akkadian lines should end in a trochee (stressed followed by unstressed syllable); about 71% follow this rule, a consistency which supports the existence of meter in the corpus.
• About 70% of the time there is one syntactic clause per line (his stich, I think).
• About 75% paratactic clauses vs. 25% hypotactic; compositions usually have a mix, rather than consistently one style.
• In paratactical constructions, the verbs are often put at the beginning and end of the verse (sim. chiasm).
• He frequently sees patterns in the semantic relationships between lines (stichoi within a verse; e.g., parallelism), including reiteration, contrast, elaboration, et al.
• A substantial proportion of tablets from the 2nd millennium (8/32) draw horizontal lines (usually plus blank space) to indicate stanza breaks. The number of verses per stanza varies both within compositions, but the most common is around 5-6 verses per stanza. Most commonly, these indicate changes of speaker.
• The graphic distinction between different lines (stichoi) is standard practice from the 1st millennium onward, but rare in the 2nd millennium. Most commonly, each verse is written on a single row with a blank space/caesura in the middle separating the lines (stichoi), such that the tablet looks like it is laid out in two columns. One Neo-Babylonian tablet actually further differentiates each accentual unit within each line. Sometimes scribes misdivide the lines within a verse.

Digital Editions of Aramaic and Phoenician Sources

James Moore has released the Digital Editions of Aramaic and Phoenician Sources database. This helpful tool includes an extensive, searchable listing of Aramaic (and other) textual artifacts, map of finds and collections, metadata on each item, transcriptions (with pop-up lexical information), a lexicon, and bibliography. For a particularly relevant example, see his entry for the Elephantine Aḥiqar manuscript. Thanks to James for his hard work and useful contributions!

Coptic OT Trainee Position

Diliana Atanassova announced on Agade an opening for a trainee position on the Coptic Old Testament Project in Göttingen. See the opening and details below:

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Dear Colleagues,

Our project, the Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament, at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony is accepting applications for a trainee position beginning on the 1st of January 2026.

Further information about the position and application details can be obtained through the following link: https://coptot.manuscriptroom.com/blog/-/blogs/job-offer-trainee-positi-1

The deadline for applications is the 15th of October 2025. 

Please feel free to pass the information on to colleagues, students and any interested parties.

Many thanks and kind regards,

Diliana Atanassova

Dr. Diliana Atanassova, stellv. Arbeitsstellenleiterin
Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen

Langzeitprojekt „Digitale Gesamtedition und Übersetzung
des koptisch-sahidischen Alten Testamentes“ 

DFG-Projekt AT 193/2–1 „Digitale Edition 
und wissenschaftliche Erschließung des
koptischen Paschalektionars“ 

Friedländer Weg 11
D-37085 Göttingen
diliana.atanassova@adwgoe.de

Textual Criticism is Cool

Michael Kruger argues that textual criticism is now cool among evangelicals, after 30 years of developments in the field. Certainly this resonates with my experience. People love tangible artifacts, and it's a nice entry point for deeper discussions about the text and transmission of the Bible. I wonder how much this applies to the OT though.

McGill Septuagint Virtual Seminar

McGill University's forthcoming The Septuagint in Modern Research Virtual Seminars include the following interesting seminars:

Monday, October 20 2025 | 15:00 BST with Felix Albrecht, on LXX Psalms

Monday, December 1 2025 | 15:00 GMT with Marieke Dhont, on the T&T Clark Handbook of Hellenistic Jewish Literature in Greek

Cox's Annotated Bibliography of Septuagint Research

I just became aware of Claude Cox's annotated bibliography of Septuagint research that he has posted online. It's a great starting point for getting into the Septuagint and finding key resources on various topics and books.