Quranic Textual Scholarship

There is a fascinating recent interview with Hythem Sidky on the current state of textual scholarship on the Quran that might be of interest both for its historical significance and methodological parallels with discussions in biblical textual criticism. Sidky argues that there were multiple reading traditions in interaction with a controlling written textual tradition from earliest times. Prior to the Uthmanic standardization of the tradition, we have little manuscript insight into what might have happened, though the undertext of the Sanaa palimpsest sheds some light on alternative versions of Mohammed's companions, which includes different sequences of Surahs and a higher degree of variation (though still restrained and relatively mundane) than in the later manuscripts. The discussion of the interrelationship between oral and written are particularly interesting for biblical scholarship.

Newsom on Multiple Versions of the Bible

Carol Newsom has written a nice survey of some of the factors to consider when studying different versions of biblical books for thetorah.com.

Paleographic Style and the Forms and Functions of the Dead Sea Psalm Scrolls

My article on the style and function of the Dead Sea Psalm scrolls has now been published as an advance article! By way of background, this is a crucial part of my argument that the forms of the manuscripts suggest possible functions, which in turn helps us interpret their contents.

Drew Longacre, "Paleographic Style and the Forms and Functions of the Dead Sea Psalm Scrolls: A Hand Fitting for the Occasion?" Vetus Testamentum (2021): 1-26.

Text & Canon Institute Videos

Phoenix Seminary's Text & Canon Institute has uploaded video recordings of two lectures on the history of the OT text. These are aimed at a popular audience, but it is nice to see the speakers' take on the issues.

Peter Gentry, Chaos Theory and the Text of the Old Testament

Anthony Ferguson, Listening to the Dead Sea Scrolls

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