RIP Takamitsu Muraoka

Martin F. J. Baasten has announced on Agade the sad news that Japanese Semitist Takamitsu Muraoka passed away yesterday. He will be remembered for his immense impact on the study of the Semitic languages and lexicography, providing critical resources and tools that remain standard reference materials in the field.

Anneli Aejmelaeus, RIP

I just learned from Kristin De Troyer that Prof. em. Anneli Aejmelaeus passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer. Anneli was a kind and generous colleague, mentor, and friend, who supervised my first postdoctoral position at the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in "Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions" at the University of Helsinki. In addition to a long and industrious career as a professor at the University of Helsinki, she also served as Professor in Septuagint at the University of Göttingen from 1991-2009. She has the further distinction of being among the first women ordained for ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in 1988.

Anneli's life work on the Septuagint culminated in preparing the Göttingen critical edition of the Old Greek text of 1 Samuel, one of the most interesting and challenging textual situations in the study of the text of the Bible. She began working on the edition of 1 Samuel during her time in Göttingen and was able to submit the completed edition for publication soon before her death. Anneli also recently reached out to me to help finalize an edition of an important papyrus of 1 Samuel that we had worked on together in Helsinki with our team at the Centre of Excellence, and she was able to see a near-final version of the edition before she passed. Christian Seppänen and I will finalize that in the near future and see it through to publication on her behalf.

Anneli is survived by her husband Lars. I remember my first time meeting Lars and Anneli at the International SBL meeting in St. Andrews and walking back to our hotels together, thinking they were a very sweet couple. My family will always fondly remember times spent with them, especially picking wild blueberries at their cabin. And I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Anneli for many long hours discussing issues of textual criticism that have helped shape who I am as a scholar today.

ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ κοιμηθήσομαι καὶ ὑπνώσω, 

ὅτι σύ, κύριε, κατὰ μόνας ἐπιʼ ἐλπίδι κατῴκισάς με. (Psalm 4:9, LXX)

Jordan Penkower z"l

On 19 September 2025, Michael Avioz informed via Agade of the sad passing of Jordan Penkower as attached below. Penkower was a prolific scholar of the late-antique and medieval Jewish Bible, whose works are of critical importance for the study of the biblical text.

______________________________

Prof. Jordan S. Penkower z"l (1943–2025)

The Department of Bible, together with the Penkower family, regret to announce the death of Prof. Jordan S. Penkower z"l.

Prof. Jordan S. Penkower was a world-renowned expert on the history of the Hebrew Bible’s textual transmission. He served for many years as a member of the Department of Bible at Bar-Ilan University, where he made pioneering contributions in three principal areas of research:

Transmission of the Hebrew Bible and the Masorah – investigating manuscripts and printed editions, with special attention to their textual history.

The Bible in Rabbinic Interpretation – exploring how rabbinic literature received and reinterpreted biblical texts.

Medieval Jewish Biblical Exegesis – with a particular focus on Rashi’s commentary and its place in Jewish intellectual history.

In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Prof. Penkower published several influential books in these fields. A full list of his publications is available here.

Prof. Penkower is survived by his brother, Prof. Monti Noam Penkower, and by his sisters and brothers-in-law, Dr. Andrea and David Rosen, and Dr. Sharon and Joseph Kaplan.

He was buried today in Beit Shemesh.

_______________________________

HT Agade

RIP Jim Aitken

This Good Friday is doubly bittersweet. I learned that Jim Aitken has passed away after a major heart attack. Jim was an outstanding scholar of the Septuagint and many other things who was always very generous with his time and energies with colleagues and students. I had the opportunity to have many interactions with him at conferences and online, as well as reading through Greek documentary papyri with him and others during Covid. He will be sorely missed.

Gordon Fee, RIP

Christianity Today pays fitting tribute on the recent passing of Gordon Fee, a man whose teachings, writings, and example have impacted so many. I never met him, but I have learned much from him.

Death of Ada Yardeni

I recently learned of the sad passing of Ada Yardeni on 29 June 2018. She will be remembered as one of the foremost Hebrew paleographers of our time, who had a profound influence on the study of the Aramaic/Hebrew scripts, especially from the 5th century BCE through late antiquity. Her artistic talents gave her a unique calligraphic perspective on the analysis of ancient handwriting. Her famous Book of Hebrew Script has served as a helpful introduction and general guide to Hebrew paleography for many. And her more detailed and technical work in the Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt and Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew and Nabatean Documentary Texts from the Judean Desert and Related Material remain essential reference tools for the Persian-period Aramaic scripts and later Jewish cursives. She has also contributed paleographic analyses of countless documents in the DJD series and other venues. In 2007, Yardeni rocked the world of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship by suggesting that about 50-100 scrolls in a round semiformal script from the Judean Desert were copied by a single prolific scribe (“A Note on a Qumran Scribe,” pages 287-298 in New Seals and Inscriptions: Hebrew, Idumean, and Cuneiform, edited by M. Lubetski [Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007]). I have personally been profoundly influenced by her work, and I have no doubt that her legacy will live on in the work of others as well.

Update 5 July 2018 - The Times of Israel has an interesting tribute to Yardeni, as well as a link to a 2017 interview in Hebrew.

Peter Flint Has Passed Away

I just received word from Andy Perrin that Peter Flint has passed away. He will be sorely missed by friends and colleagues. Peter was well known for his important contributions to the study of the text of the Bible (particularly his work on the Psalms scrolls from Qumran and the large Isaiah scroll from cave 1) and the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as his commitment to rigorous Evangelical biblical scholarship.

Geza Vermes Has Passed Away

Jim Davila has posted on PaleoJudaica that Geza Vermes has passed away, due to a recurring bout with cancer. He is survived by his wife Margaret. Vermes was from a Jewish family, turned Catholic priest, who later left the priesthood. He was best known as a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and historian of Christian origins with at times decidedly unorthodox views. His translation of the non-biblical scrolls from Qumran has been one of the most well-known books relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls. There can be no doubt that Vermes has left a lasting impression on Biblical Studies.

Frank Moore Cross Has Passed Away

I have heard from a number of people that Frank Moore Cross (July 13, 1921 – October 17, 2012) has passed away.

Frank Moore Cross was one of the prominent researchers on the Dead Sea Scrolls at an early stage in their publication. He is especially noted for his foundational contributions to Hebrew paleography and the textual history of the Old Testament. He was the strongest supporter of a theory of local texts for the Old Testament, with the MT reflecting a Babylonian text, the LXX reflecting an Egyptian text, and the SP and several other texts reflecting a Palestinian tradition. Perhaps his most lasting contribution is in his role as teacher, as many of the most prominent Dead Sea Scrolls scholars today have studied under him. He will be sorely missed by many.