Bill Barrick at The Master's Seminary in Southern California has kindly put up his video lectures for beginning and intermediate Hebrew, along with his freely-downloadable grammar and workbook. I had the pleasure of taking a number of classes and seminars with him (including my intro to OTTC!), and he is highly competent in dealing with the Hebrew text. For those who want to brush up on their Hebrew or learn it from scratch, consider checking out his free lectures!
Hebrew Grammar I
Hebrew Grammar II
Monday, April 29, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
IOQS Munich Schedule
Eibert Tigchelaar has posted the schedule for the IOQS conference in Munich this summer here, along with abstracts. I will be presenting a paper on Tuesday afternoon at 15:30, for those who might be interested.
"Scribal Treatment of Defective Exemplars: Not Just a Modern Dilemma"
Drew Longacre (University of Birmingham)
The tasks of ancient copyists and modern editors are normally worlds apart, but when handling physically defective exemplars, these two worlds converge to a large degree. Modern scholars are accustomed to dealing with manuscripts ravaged by time, but it is easy to forget that manuscripts were also often damaged in antiquity. When ancient copyists encountered lacunose or illegible texts in their exemplars, they were forced to take on an essentially editorial role. By looking at selected examples from "biblical" and "non-biblical" Qumran scrolls (with particular reference to 1QIsaa and 4Q252), I intend to illustrate three methodologies scribes utilized in these situations. First, they could insert blank space in the new copies corresponding to the defective text and leave the resulting text untouched. Second, they could insert blank space in the new copies corresponding to the defective text and then attempt a full or partial reconstruction of the missing text based on whatever text remained legible in the exemplar, memory, and/or contextual clues. And third, they could attempt a full or partial reconstruction of the defective text without inserting corresponding blank space before proceeding. Acknowledgement of these scribal practices has the potential to illuminate numerous difficult textual problems in Dead Sea Scrolls studies.
"Scribal Treatment of Defective Exemplars: Not Just a Modern Dilemma"
Drew Longacre (University of Birmingham)
The tasks of ancient copyists and modern editors are normally worlds apart, but when handling physically defective exemplars, these two worlds converge to a large degree. Modern scholars are accustomed to dealing with manuscripts ravaged by time, but it is easy to forget that manuscripts were also often damaged in antiquity. When ancient copyists encountered lacunose or illegible texts in their exemplars, they were forced to take on an essentially editorial role. By looking at selected examples from "biblical" and "non-biblical" Qumran scrolls (with particular reference to 1QIsaa and 4Q252), I intend to illustrate three methodologies scribes utilized in these situations. First, they could insert blank space in the new copies corresponding to the defective text and leave the resulting text untouched. Second, they could insert blank space in the new copies corresponding to the defective text and then attempt a full or partial reconstruction of the missing text based on whatever text remained legible in the exemplar, memory, and/or contextual clues. And third, they could attempt a full or partial reconstruction of the defective text without inserting corresponding blank space before proceeding. Acknowledgement of these scribal practices has the potential to illuminate numerous difficult textual problems in Dead Sea Scrolls studies.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Developmental Stage, Scribal Lapse, or Physical Defect? 1QIsa-a’s Damaged Exemplar for Isaiah Chapters 34–66
My article on the Isaiah scroll is now out in the latest volume of Dead Sea Discoveries, for those who might be interested.
Longacre, Drew. "Developmental Stage, Scribal Lapse, or Physical Defect? 1QIsaa’s Damaged Exemplar for Isaiah Chapters 34–66." Dead Sea Discoveries 20, no. 1 (2013): 17-50.
Abstract
I previously blogged about this here.
Longacre, Drew. "Developmental Stage, Scribal Lapse, or Physical Defect? 1QIsaa’s Damaged Exemplar for Isaiah Chapters 34–66." Dead Sea Discoveries 20, no. 1 (2013): 17-50.
Abstract
The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran
(1QIsaa) does not generally reflect a text form earlier than the
Masoretic text. Instead, the convergence in 1QIsaa of patterns of
spacing irregularities, literary
and textual problems, and secondary supplementations, as well as a consistent
pattern of distribution, are best explained on the basis of the hypothesis of
an exemplar for chapters 34-66 with a damaged bottom edge. Upon reaching the defective edge in each column
of his exemplar, the scribe dealt with any lacunose or illegible text in one of
two ways before continuing with the unaffected text at the top of the subsequent
exemplar column. Sometimes he left blank spaces in his new copy to be filled in
with the correct text from other manuscripts at a later time. At other times he
attempted full or partial reconstructions of the text based on whatever text
remained legible in the damaged exemplar, memory, and contextual clues.
I previously blogged about this here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)