Origen as Philologist Colloquium

John Meade announces that Phoenix Seminary's Text and Canon Institute will be hosting a colloquium on Origen as philologist on 18-19 November 2020. They have a great line-up of speakers presenting, so I'm sure it will be a very interesting conference. From their website:

About the Colloquium

Twenty five years after Oxford’s Rich Seminar sparked a renaissance of research on Origen’s Hexapla, the Phoenix Seminary Text & Canon Institute will host its first colloquium to explore Origen’s textual scholarship and its reception in late antiquity.

Origen of Alexandria moved to Caesarea around AD 230 and soon after began his work on the Hexapla or six-parallel-columned edition of the Old Testament. This edition inspired the preparation of subsequent scholarly editions of the Greek scriptures at the Caesarean Library that impacted the text and exegesis of the Scriptures in their Greek and Hebrew forms there and in other locales.

For its inaugural colloquium, the Text & Canon Institute is bringing together a group of international scholars to write this chapter of the Bible’s history.

Presenters & Topics

Alison Salvesen ※University of Oxford
“Symmachus at Caesarea: the Use and Reception of his Ekdosis by Caesarean Scholars”

Edmon L. Gallagher ※ Heritage Christian University
“The Hexapla in the Church according to Jerome”

Michael Graves ※ Wheaton College
“Jerome’s Epistle 106 and Origen’s Hexapla”

Bradley J. Marsh, Jr. ※ University of Oxford
“The ‘Afterlife’ of Hexaplaric Samaritan Readings”

Peter J. Gentry ※ The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“History of Hexapla and Tetrapla from the Evidence of the Colophons”

Anna Kharanauli ※ Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University

“Grammarians at Work”

John D. Meade ※ Phoenix Seminary
“Late Fourth- and Early Fifth-Century Reception of the Caesarean Ekdoseis”

Matthew Miller ※ Classical School of Wichita
“The Caesarean Hebrew Text: Insights from the Asterisked Material in Codex Colbertinus-Sarravianus”

Francesca Schironi ※ University of Michigan
“Textual Scholarship in Hellenistic Alexandria (and beyond)”

Benjamin Kantor ※ University of Cambridge
“The Pre-Hexaplaric Secunda: Greek Transcriptions of the Hebrew Bible in Roman Caesarea”

Sofer STaM

See here an interesting video on the work of a modern Jewish scribe. See also Mordechai Pinchas' informative website.

Postdocs in Helsinki

Tuukka Kauhanen is calling for applications for postdocs to work on the ancient translations of the LXX of 2 Samuel here.

Meade on Hexaplaric fragments of Job

John Meade announces his forthcoming book on the Hexaplaric fragments of Job. Congratulations on a job well done and an undoubtedly helpful resource for the field!

Vollandt on Christian Arabic Translations in the Cairo Genizah

Ronny Vollandt has a helpful survey of the Christian Arabic Bible translations from the Cairo Genizah.

HT Agade

Turnbull on the Date of the Arabic Gospels

Robert Turnbull discusses the date of the translation of the Arabic Gospels in an interesting post on Biblia Arabica.

HT Agade

Peshitta of Jeremiah et al.

Brill announces the forthcoming publication of the next volume of the Peshitta Institute on the Peshitta of Jeremiah, Lamentations, Epistle of Jeremiah, Epistle of Baruch, and Baruch.

The Hebrew Bible in the Making

I just saw an interesting panel discussion from 2016 at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, entitled The Hebrew Bible in the Making. Michael Segal, Julio Trebolle, Stephan Pisano, and Hugh Williamson discuss current editions of the Hebrew Bible, which will be of interest to those who want to know more about the current editorial projects.

HT Alessandro Borbone

Arrant on Non-Standard Tiberian Vocalization

Estara J. Arrant published the April Genizah Fragment of the Month on a fragment with intriguing patterns of Non-Standard Tiberian vocalization, along with some helpful background discussion for those not very familiar with the various Hebrew vocalization systems.

Jensen's Review of Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life

Minna Skafte Jensen writes a helpful and positive review of Anne Kolb (ed.), Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life (Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2018). The volume contributes to ongoing discussions on the rates and nuances of literacy in antiquity (especially in the Roman Empire), breaking down how exactly reading and writing may have functioned in different contexts.

New Fragments of MS London-Ashkar

In the most recent issue of Genizah Fragments, the newsletter of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Mordechai Veintrob presents exciting new identifications of Cairo Genizah fragments from MS London-Ashkar. This confirms that the scroll originally came from the Genizah, and the identified contents now preserve close to 10% of the Torah, including fragments from Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (primarily clustering into two groups containing Gen 44-Exod 3 and Exod 8-17). Relatively securely dated to the 7th-8th centuries (by C14 and paleography), this manuscript is by far the most substantially preserved biblical manuscript between the DSS and the famous Masoretic codices from the 10th-11th centuries (Veintrob is somewhat imprecise in his description at this point). Congratulations to Veintrob on these important discoveries! The total inventory of fragments according to Veintrob now include:

1. Cambridge, T-S AS 36.30 — Gen. 10:28–13:9; 
2. Cambridge, T-S AS 36.31 + Cambridge, T-S AS 37.26 — Gen. 44:23–46:20;
3. Cambridge, T-S AS 37.1 + Cambridge, T-S AS 37.22 — Gen. 47:17–50:23; 
4. Cambridge, T-S AS 36.36 —Exod. 2:14–3:21; 
5. London, Jews’ College 31 — Exod. 9:18–13:2; 
6. Cambridge, T-S AS 36.19 + Cambridge, T-S AS 37.8 + Durham, Duke University, Ashkar Collection 2 — Exod. 13:2–16:1; 
7. Cambridge, T-S NS 282.88 — Exod. 17:5–18:14;
8. Cambridge, T-S AS 36.10 — Num. 10:16–35; 
9. Durham, Duke University, Ashkar Collection 21 — Deut. 2:9–3:12;
10. Cambridge, T-S AS 37.10 + ENA 4117.13 — Deut. 32:50–end of the Pentateuch.

James Diamond on Scribal Practices in Torah Scrolls

Gary Rendsburg announces the following new book:

James S. Diamond
Scribal Secrets: Extraordinary Texts in the Torah and Their Implications
Paperback
[edited by Robert Goldenberg and Gary A. Rendsburg, with the editorial
assistance of Charles W. Loder (Eugene, Ore.:
Pickwick, 2019).]
ISBN:  9781532647994
Pages:  206
Publication Date:  April 9, 2019
Retail Price:  $25.00
https://wipfandstock.com/scribal-secrets.html

Scribal Secrets focuses on three peculiarities in the writing of Torah
scrolls:  a) the dotted letters; b) the large and small letters; and
c) the inverted nunin in Numbers 10:35-36 – with attention to both the
peshat (plain meaning) and derash (derived meaning) relevant to these
matters.

On March 2013, James Diamond was struck in Princeton NJ by a passing
vehicle and died instantaneously. He left behind a book manuscript,
entitled Scribal Secrets. With Judy Diamond's permission, Robert
Goldenberg and Gary A. Rendsburg took it upon themselves to bring the
book to publication.

New Book on the Samaritan Pentateuch

Peeters is announcing a new book edited by Michael Langlois The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

From the website:

Summary:
Seventy years after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls continue to shed light on the Samaritan Pentateuch. The textual features, orthography, script, variant readings and even theology of the Samaritan Pentateuch have parallels in various manuscripts found in the Judaean desert and copied during the Second Temple period. The fertile encounter of Samaritan and Dead Sea Scrolls studies has yielded this exceptional volume, featuring twelve contributions by some of the most respected scholars gathered at the University of Strasbourg on May 26–27, 2016. They cover such issues as scribal and editorial practices, political and religious history, textual editions and versions, palaeography and linguistics—with provocative studies challenging classical theories on the origin of the Gerizim tenth commandment or the date of the earliest Dead Sea Scrolls.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Magnar KartveitScholars’ Assessments of the Relationship between the Pre-SamaritanTextsandtheSamaritanPentateuch................. 1
Emanuel tovFrom Popular Jewish LXX-SP Texts to Separate Sectarian Texts: InsightsfromtheDeadSeaScrolls................. 19
Michaël N. van der MeerExclusion and Expansion: Harmonisations in the Samaritan Penta- teuch, Pre-Samaritan Pentateuchal Manuscripts and Non-Pentateuchal Manuscripts............................. 41
Stefan SchorchThe So-Called Gerizim Commandment in the Samaritan Pentateuch 77
Gary N. KnopperS †Altared States: The Altar Laws in the Samaritan and Jewish Penta- teuchs,andTheirEarlyInterpreters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Benjamin ZieMerA Stemma for Deuteronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Innocent hiMbaZaLooking at the Samaritan Pentateuch from Qumran: Legal MaterialofLeviticusandDeuteronomy ................... 199
Jonathan ben-dovText Duplications between Higher and Lower Criticism: Num 20-21andDeut2-3............................. 217
Abraham talDo the Samaritan Pentateuch and 1QIsaa Follow the Same Model? 243
Michael langloiSDead Sea Scrolls Palaeography and the Samaritan Pentateuch . . 255

X table of contentS
Christian StadelVariegation in Second Temple Period Hebrew: Passive t-Stems, the
in Samaritan Hebrew and in theאפואDemonstrative Series, andהלזDeadSeaScrolls........................... 287
Jan JooStenBiblical Interpretation in the Samareitikon as Exemplified in Anony-mousReadingsinLeviticusAttestedinM′. . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

HT Agade

UCL Greek Papyri Video

The University College London Department of Greek and Latin has posted an old video introducing Greek papyri that was both entertaining and informative.

Urtext, Archetype, Fluidity or Textual Convergence The Quest for the Texts of the Hebrew Bible International Conference

Jean-Sebastien Rey and Stefan Schorch have announced a call for papers for their upcoming conference Urtext, Archetype, Fluidity or Textual Convergence The Quest for the Texts of the Hebrew Bible International Conference in Metz, France, from 5-7 November 2019. The topic sounds very interesting, and I hope the discussion will be fruitful, though unfortunately I won't be able to make it.

HT Agade

Cairo Genizah Hexapla Codex

The featured Genizah Fragment of the Month for March is the important Greek Hexapla palimpsest T-S 12.182. Benjamin Kantor suggests that the codex originally had six columns including one in Hebrew characters (now lost) and discusses several interesting features of the codex.

Årstein Justnes and Josephine Munch Rasmussen on Post-2002 Forgeries

Årstein Justnes and Josephine Munch Rasmussen have posted an interesting and challenging article The Post-2002 Fragments and the Scholars Who Turned Them Into Dead Sea Scrolls on the ASOR blog. After retelling the problematic history of the modern forgery of Dead Sea Scroll like fragments, they challenge the field of scholars who participated in this process, arguing that the scholars involved did not do due diligence and contributed to the creation and expansion of the market.

Yosef Ofer on the Masorah

Yosef Ofer has a new book out The Masora on Scripture and Its Methods, which looks like a very interesting and helpful resource.

SBL Handbook of Style on Kaige

So apparently from now on it's just plain old kaige... FYI.

Tiberias Stylistic Classifier for the Hebrew Bible

Joshua Berman has announced the launch of a new stylistic classification tool for the Hebrew Bible/OT: Tiberias Stylistic Classifier for the Hebrew Bible. Tiberias permits comparison of different reference texts (classes) to identify stylistic differences and distinguishability. You can then input a text you want to classify in terms of stylistic proximity to the selected classes. Classification can be done based on specific inflected words, lexemes, morphology, and syntax, allowing for a very complex overview of stylistic differences between corpora. It would probably take some time to get the most out of this resource, but it looks like a promising database for stylistic comparisons.

Homer's Odyssy in Contemporary Scholarship

Barbara Graziosi and Johannes Haubold have a helpful review of Martin West's new edition of Homer's Odyssey that might be of interest for those following broader developments in textual scholarship. One of the most interesting passages for me was their treatment of the early papyri and the question of the orality of the Homeric epics:

"Beyond specific insights about individual passages, the new papyri confirm that the degree of textual variation in Homer is modest compared to the multiformity attested in other oral traditions. As we have argued specifically in relation to the Iliad, even the ‘so-called “wild papyri” are not as wild as all that’."

HT Agade