Verse Order in Hebrew Acrostics

I just reread a fascinating article on varying alphabetical orders and the (re-)arrangement of verses accordingly in alphabetic acrostics like Lamentations and the Psalms. A very interesting read, if you're not familiar with the issue.

Christian Palestinian Aramaic Fragment of Joshua

In this Fragment of the Month, Christa Müller-Kessler discusses a Christian Palestinian Aramaic fragment of the book of Joshua on a palimpsest from the Cairo Genizah. The Christian Palestinian Aramaic is a very interesting version, but not well attested or widely known, so any fragment that has survived is important.

Competition for Deciphering Herculaneum Rolls

Brent Seales and his team have announced a new competition to see who can read rolled up and carbonized Herculaneum scrolls. Unlike the En Gedi Leviticus scroll that had metallic ink, up to now it has proven very difficult to read these Herculaneum scrolls that used a carbon-based ink. So this would truly be an important development in the field.

Saqqara Book of the Dead

Owen Jarus republishes images of the new 16 meter-long Book of the Dead recently discovered intact in Saqqara.

Mirotadze on Greek Esther

Natia Mirotadze has published a brief and helpful discussion of the various Greek versions of Esther and the Old Georgian evidence. At risk of a shameless plug, for those who are interested in further details on the tradition of Esther and the Old Georgian texts, see several articles in the volume From Scribal Error to Rewriting that we co-edited together with Anneli Aejmelaeus.

Brent Nongbri's List of Radiocarbon Dated Manuscripts

Brent Nongbri has compiled a useful list of papyrus and parchment manuscripts that have been radiocarbon dated.

Authoritative NT Citations of the OT?

In Christian circles, the question often comes up whether NT authors' citations of OT passages are authoritative for textual decisions regarding to the OT passages. To this, the answer must simply be "No!" Such authoritative pronouncements were far from the minds of the original authors, and so we should by no means appropriate them in this way. Furthermore, the NT authors frequently cite different forms of the OT, so they cannot be said to give a unified voice in favor of a single original. They rather used a variety of texts that were available to them at that time generally without making text-critical judgments of the sort we are used to making today.

In my reading today, I came across a good example of this in the parallel texts Ps 6:9, Matt 7:23, and Luke 13:27. Both gospels disagree with each other and what seems to be the OG of the Psalm. Both gospel writers seem to have a mix of OG and revision towards the MT, but in different places. Matthew omits "all" against MT, LXX, and Luke, and he uses a different Greek word for "depart" that could perhaps be a revision towards the Hebrew (?--I'd have to look into this more). Luke keeps the OG except the final phrase, where he reflects a revision towards a more literal rendering of the Hebrew. So here we have just one example where it makes no sense to look to NT usage for authoritative textual judgments in favor of a single inspired original. The authors had access to an array of texts, translations, and revisions, and they used them creatively for their own purposes. But they have no claim to making authoritative pronouncements about the precise original text of the Hebrew or Greek Bibles.

Ps 6:9

 ס֣וּרוּ מִ֭מֶּנִּי כָּל־פֹּ֣עֲלֵי אָ֑וֶן

ἀπόστητε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, πάντες οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν,

Matt 7:23

ἀποχωρεῖτε ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν.

Luke 13:27

ἀπόστητε ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ πάντες ἐργάται ἀδικίας.