Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts from the National Library of Israel

Haaretz has a brief article highlighting the Hebrew manuscript digitization project of the National Library of Israel that gives some background to the project. This project is opening access to a vast trove of Hebrew manuscripts to a broad audience, and it will be very exciting to see its further progress. On my Online Digital Manuscripts and Editions page I have already highlighted the large number of Bible manuscripts available on the Ktiv site.

New Codex by Shmuel ben Yaakov

Kim Phillips has identified a new codex as written by Shmuel ben Yaakov, the scribe of the famous "Leningrad Codex". This is a codex of the former prophets (labelled L17), and Kim takes the interesting opportunity to compare it to the Leningrad Codex to better understand the scribe's work. A very interesting piece of detective work!

Ph.D. and Postdoc Scholarship at the University of Groningen

Mladen Popović has put up a call for applications for the Dirk Smilde Scholarship at the University of Groningen. Highly recommended!

Book Notices on Editing the Bible and the Legacy of Barthélemy

Two new books from Helsinki colleagues that are sure to be of interest:

Insights into Editing in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East

What Does Documented Evidence Tell Us about the Transmission of Authoritative Texts?

edited by R. Müller and J. Pakkala

Documented evidence has shown that the Hebrew Bible was edited by successive scribes for centuries, and the impact of editing on the resulting text has proven to be crucial. A better understanding of any issue in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel requires a deep understanding of the editorial processes. As a consequence, the editorial processes of the Hebrew Bible have come to the fore in the most recent scholarly debates. Nevertheless, editorial processes in the Hebrew Bible are still poorly understood and a methodological overview is lacking. It is apparent that collaboration between scholars of different fields is needed, and a methodological discussion that takes into account all the editorial techniques witnessed by documented evidence in the Hebrew scriptures and the rest of the ancient Near East is required. This book is a step in this direction. Contributions in this volume by leading scholars approach the issue from various perspectives, including methodology, textual criticism, redaction criticism, Dead Sea Scrolls, Assyriology, and Egyptology.

The Legacy of Barthélemy

50 Years after Les Devanciers d'Aquila

edited by Anneli Aejmelaeus and Tuukka Kauhanen

Les Devanciers d'Aquila by Dominique Barthélemy (1963) is an epoch-making work on the textual history of the Septuagint. On the basis of his analysis of the Nahal Hever Minor Prophets Scroll, Barthélemy developed his theory of an early Hebraizing revision (so-called kaige revision), designed to bring the traditional text of the Septuagint closer to the Hebrew text, and recognized examples of it in the B-text of books such as Joshua, Judges, and Samuel-Kings. The work of these early Hebraizing revisers resembled the later very literal translation by Aquila; hence the name of the book, "the predecessors of Aquila". Textual scholars of today continue in the footsteps of Barthélemy and work on the same questions that were raised in Devanciers: How extensive was the influence of the kaige revision and how can it be recognized? What is the nature of the Lucianic text: when does it represent the Old Greek and when does it give a stylistically revised text? What is the relationship between the kaige revision and Theodotion's revision of the Septuagint?The present volume mainly consists of papers presented at the 50th anniversary symposium of Les Devanciers d'Aquila that was held in connection with the SBL International Meeting in St Andrews, Scotland, in 2013. The papers focus on history of research, case studies on the text of Samuel-Kings (1-4 Kingdoms), and studies on the text-historical position of specific witnesses.

LAB Blog Post on Two Significant Uses of the Dead Sea Scrolls

I just posted a short blog post on two ways to use Logos Bible Software Dead Sea Scrolls resources to help in Biblical Studies. Thanks to Tavis Bohlinger and Logos for the opportunity!

Dan Machiela on The Aramaic Language of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dan Machiela writes on Ancient Jew Review The Aramaic Language of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Why it Matters and What Lies Ahead. In this interesting post he discusses the linguistic dating and classification of this important corpus.

Zachary Cole on Greek Numerals

Zachary Cole has published a new book on Numerals in Greek NT manuscripts that sounds very interesting, including for those interested in Septuagint manuscripts.

Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts Text-Critical, Scribal, and Theological Studies

Zachary J. Cole, Union Theological College

In Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts, Zachary J. Cole provides the first in-depth examination of the seemingly obscure, yet important topic: how early Christian scribes wrote numbers and why. While scholars have long been aware that Christian scribes occasionally used numerical abbreviations in their books, few have been able to make much sense of it.

This detailed analysis of numerals in manuscripts up through the fifth century CE uncovers a wealth of palaeographical and codicological data. Among other findings, Zachary J. Cole shows that some numerals can function as “visual links” between witnesses, that numbers sometimes—though rarely—functioned like nomina sacra, and that Christians uniquely adapted their numbering system to suit the needs of public reading.

Zachary J. Cole, Ph.D. (2016), University of Edinburgh, is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Union Theological College in Belfast, UK. His research interests include New Testament studies and Christian manuscripts.