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