Greek Manuscripts on Mt. Athos

Katie Leggett has posted a very thorough and informative article on the Greek manuscripts on Mt. Athos. While she focuses on the 1037 recorded Greek New Testament manuscripts, her detailed discussion of the collections and catalogues is very valuable also for setting context for the Old Testament manuscripts. For comparison, I did a quick search of the Göttingen Verzeichnis from 2012 and found 250 Septuagint manuscripts from Mt. Athos dating from the 9th–16th centuries. Of these, not surprisingly, almost 200 contain the Psalms.

Etnachta and Masoretica

Idan Dershowitz has published two different online resources for the study of the Bible:

1. Etnachta (https://www.etnachta.org/) - A site that facilitates study and searching of the Masoretic accents. I haven't poked around much with this one yet.
2. Masoretica (https://www.masoretica.org/) - This site allows you to look up a verse in a number of manuscripts (Hebrew--Masoretic and Samaritan--and Greek). It's a great tool for easily looking up images of manuscripts for a particular verse.

HT Joshua Alfaro 

Yiftah 2025 - The Taxonomy of the Legal Document

Uri Yiftah has published online here a very useful book on the typology of language in ancient Greek legal documents.

Johnson and Wagner on Material and Scribal Features of Greek Bookrolls

William Johnson and Nicholas Wagner have published their curated dataset of material and scribal features of early Greek bookrolls (3rd cent CE and earlier) at https://ancientbooks.papyrology.org/. They expect to supplement this and add their work on early codices in 2026. This is an extremely valuable database for those interested in the study of early scroll formats and scribal practices. Congratulations to both for seeing their hard work come to fruition, and thanks for making it so easily accessible!

Sikes' Catalogue of Early Greek Psalms Fragments

Ryan Sikes has uploaded an updated version of his catalogue of early Greek Psalms fragments here. This is a very helpful resource with links to images and editions, which I use regularly.

Ezekiel Papyrus in Madrid

Sofia Torallas Tovar gives a good discussion of Ra 967, parts of which are on display currently in Madrid. They have compiled digital images of the entire manuscript, which will be nice to have for such an important manuscript.

Typology of Greek Documents

The Grammateus website has a useful explanation of the typology of Greek documentary texts and a search engine to search for documents by certain criteria. The typology and database do not include literary texts like biblical manuscripts, but it is still interesting for understanding Greco-Roman writing culture.

Oxyrhynchus Papyri

The Oxyrhynchus papyri have a new dedicated page with images of all of the manuscripts in the Sackler Library. The site gives a brief history of the collection and imaging, as well as instructions for accessing images, databases, and reproductions.

The Editio critica maior of the Greek Psalter catalogue

I just noticed that the Editio critica maior of the Greek Psalter project has put a catalogue online that includes images to many Greek manuscripts.

New Dead Sea Scroll Fragments

Haaretz, the New York Times, and the AP (among others) report on some new Greek Minor Prophets fragments from the Nahal Ḥever Cave of Horrors, including a few nice images. Presumably these are from the same scroll as the famous Kaige Greek Minor Prophets scroll.

Mount Athos Repository

The Mount Athos Monastery has opened up a digital repository, including many of its manuscripts.

HT Claire Clivaz

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.

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.

Zachary Cole on Greek Numerals

Zachary Cole has published a new book on Numerals in Greek NT manuscripts that sounds very interesting, including for those interested in Septuagint manuscripts.

Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts Text-Critical, Scribal, and Theological Studies

Zachary J. Cole, Union Theological College

In Numerals in Early Greek New Testament Manuscripts, Zachary J. Cole provides the first in-depth examination of the seemingly obscure, yet important topic: how early Christian scribes wrote numbers and why. While scholars have long been aware that Christian scribes occasionally used numerical abbreviations in their books, few have been able to make much sense of it.

This detailed analysis of numerals in manuscripts up through the fifth century CE uncovers a wealth of palaeographical and codicological data. Among other findings, Zachary J. Cole shows that some numerals can function as “visual links” between witnesses, that numbers sometimes—though rarely—functioned like nomina sacra, and that Christians uniquely adapted their numbering system to suit the needs of public reading.

Zachary J. Cole, Ph.D. (2016), University of Edinburgh, is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Union Theological College in Belfast, UK. His research interests include New Testament studies and Christian manuscripts.

Genizah Research Newsletter

In the latest newsletter of the Genizah Research Institute, Stefan Reif reports on a conference on the Hebrew texts of Ben Sirah.

They also highlight a new book on Greek translations in Byzantine Judaism, which will be of interest to those interested in the Greek Bible:

Nicholas de Lange, Japheth in the Tents of Shem: Greek Bible Translations in Byzantine Judaism (Mohr Siebeck, 2015).