Lugano Research Seminar on the History of the Caves of Qumran

I just returned from Lugano, Switzerland from a Research Seminar on the History of the Caves of Qumran on 20-21 February. The conference was well-attended, and was heavily dominated by discussions of the archaeology and interrelationships between the caves and the settlement of Qumran, which was very helpful for those more text-focused like me. Two text highlights are worthy of note.

1) Yonatan Adler announced the discovery of 9 (possibly 10) previously unknown tefillin slips found inside of unopened tefillin cases from Qumran. The slips have not yet been opened and read, but they promise to be very interesting.

2) Torleif Elgvin flattened out three leather fragments from the Schøyen collection he had considered to be uninscribed to find two fragmentary lines matching the known text of 4Q252 (Commentary on Genesis A). He suggested that this may be a second copy of this commentary.

We eagerly anticipate the full publication of these exciting discoveries!

Post-Doctoral Research at the University of Helsinki

Today I officially accepted an invitation to conduct post-doctoral research at the University of Helsinki as part of the Centre of Excellence in "Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions." I will be working in Helsinki from 1 September 2014 to 31 December 2016, working on the Septuagint manuscripts of Exodus. My family and I are very excited about moving to Finland, and I look forward to getting connected with my new colleagues and starting this challenging project. Thanks to everyone in Birmingham, Helsinki, and beyond, who made this opportunity possible. Below is the abstract for my research project:

Abstract

As part of the University of Helsinki’s Centre of Excellence in “Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions,” this project will entail a comprehensive (re-)consideration of the earliest, continuous-text, Greek witnesses to the text of Exodus with a view both to reconstructing the original Greek translation and to elucidating how and why the text changed over time and what this tells us about the authority and reception of the book in antiquity. I will undertake fresh transcriptions of all the Greek manuscripts dating from the 7^th century and earlier, including those that have only recently come available. I will then systematically compare each manuscript with each other manuscript and with the Hebrew scrolls from the Judean Desert to gain a clearer picture of manuscript relationships and the complex history of the Greek text of Exodus. This research will require the use of computerized tools and methods developed in the digital humanities to store, organize, manipulate, and display the large amounts of data envisaged for this project. I intend to publish the results in an electronic edition, one or more articles, and a monograph giving a synthesis of my conclusions.

Center for the Study of (New Testament) Manuscripts

I had the chance to meet Dan Wallace in Dublin this summer while viewing the Chester Beatty papyri, and I greatly appreciate his desire to make high-quality digital images of manuscripts available online. He and his team have taken photos of all of the Chester Beatty papyri (and other significant manuscripts) and posted them online here. Uncharacteristically for the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, they have also photographed and published the images of the Chester Beatty Septuagint papyri (961-968, 2149, 2150). Thanks to the CS(NT)M for posting these images!

British Library Digitizing Hebrew Manuscript Collection

The British Library has announced here that they will be digitizing 1250 of their collection of over 3000 Hebrew manuscripts. This includes some very important biblical manuscripts, as well as other Jewish literature. This is a very promising development indeed!

(HT: Blog for the Study of the Jewish Book)

InscriptiFact Digital Image Library

I have been playing around with the search facilities and images on the InscriptiFact Digital Image Library of the West Semitic Research Project at the University of Southern California. If you register an account with them, you can get access to a number of high-quality images of important manuscripts and inscriptions for personal and classroom use. I highly recommend taking a look at this helpful online resource.

Principles of Akkadian Textual Criticism Online

Martin Worthington's Principles of Akkadian Textual Criticism has been digitized by the Glascow University Library and put up on archive.org. I was quite surprised to find this 2012 book online. I'm not sure of the copyright issues at this point, but I have emailed the author to determine the legality of this digitization.

Update (16 August 2013): Michiel Klein-Swormink from De Gruyter has confirmed that this is an illegal digitalization.

Hendel's Text of Genesis 1-11 Online

Ron Hendel has now put his book The Text of Genesis 1-11: Textual Studies and Critical Edition online on Academia.edu. While I would have a few minor critiques, this is an excellent work worthy of study by anyone interested in textual criticism and an essential reference tool for anyone working on the text of Genesis 1-11. This book also gives a good taste of the kind of work we can expect from the Oxford Hebrew Bible project, though the latter editions will probably vary significantly in format from Hendel's initial work.