Torah Scroll at the University of Bologna

Picture from the BBC report

Scott Bashoor has pointed out to me that the BBC has published a report about the redating of a Torah scroll at the University of Bologna in Italy to around 850 or more years old. It was dated to the 17th century by university librarian Leonello Modona in 1889, but was recently redated by the university's Professor of Hebrew Mauro Perani. The redating is reported to have been made on the basis of carbon dating, an oriental Babylonian script, and lack of conformity to Maimonides' rules from the 12th century.

The report quotes Mauro Perani as saying that this would be "the oldest complete text of the Torah known to exist," but surely this is incorrect without some qualification. The Leningrad Codex, for instance, is complete for the Pentateuch and dates to A.D. 1008/9. I'm not sure off the top of my head how old the oldest complete Torah scroll is, however.

Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls for Sale

Jack Sasson has pointed out an interesting article in Haaretz on the history of the sale of small Dead Sea Scrolls fragments to private collections. Apparently Kando retained several fragments in Switzerland and bequeathed them to his sons. William Kando has been selling them to private collections in Norway and the United States for very high prices. There are still some that have not been sold, and quite a few still unpublished.

Limitations of Selective Apparatuses

In teaching through Luke 21 this week, I came across a significant textual problem that brings to mind an important methodological point.

In Luke 21:36, the "Western" witnesses say "that you might be counted worthy to escape" the traumatic events preceding the coming of Christ. The "Alexandrian" witnesses say "that you might have strength to escape." The "Byzantine" witnesses are sharply divided over these two readings. The former reading stresses the divine prerogative in escaping, whereas the latter reading stresses the human responsibility for endurance as requisite for escaping. This is a relatively significant and meaningful difference with strong support for both readings.

But what was most surprising to me was that this variant was not cited in the fourth edition of the United Bible Society's Greek New Testament! For an edition designed to minimize the clutter and emphasize the most meaningful variants for translation, they clearly dropped the ball on this one and cut down the apparatus too far. This is a good reminder that nearly every printed apparatus is necessarily selective, and when editors have to make such choices, inevitably they will make some errors, either including non-essential information or excluding essential information. The moral of the story (apart from standing firm in the faith, looking for the coming of Christ...) is that you have to be careful cutting corners by only considering the variants listed in selective critical apparatuses, because you may very well miss something important.

Geza Vermes Has Passed Away

Jim Davila has posted on PaleoJudaica that Geza Vermes has passed away, due to a recurring bout with cancer. He is survived by his wife Margaret. Vermes was from a Jewish family, turned Catholic priest, who later left the priesthood. He was best known as a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and historian of Christian origins with at times decidedly unorthodox views. His translation of the non-biblical scrolls from Qumran has been one of the most well-known books relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls. There can be no doubt that Vermes has left a lasting impression on Biblical Studies.

Bill Barrick's Hebrew Grammar Lectures Online

Bill Barrick at The Master's Seminary in Southern California has kindly put up his video lectures for beginning and intermediate Hebrew, along with his freely-downloadable grammar and workbook. I had the pleasure of taking a number of classes and seminars with him (including my intro to OTTC!), and he is highly competent in dealing with the Hebrew text. For those who want to brush up on their Hebrew or learn it from scratch, consider checking out his free lectures!

Hebrew Grammar I

Hebrew Grammar II

IOQS Munich Schedule

Eibert Tigchelaar has posted the schedule for the IOQS conference in Munich this summer here, along with abstracts. I will be presenting a paper on Tuesday afternoon at 15:30, for those who might be interested.
 
"Scribal Treatment of Defective Exemplars: Not Just a Modern Dilemma"
Drew Longacre (University of Birmingham)

The tasks of ancient copyists and modern editors are normally worlds apart, but when handling physically defective exemplars, these two worlds converge to a large degree. Modern scholars are accustomed to dealing with manuscripts ravaged by time, but it is easy to forget that manuscripts were also often damaged in antiquity. When ancient copyists encountered lacunose or illegible texts in their exemplars, they were forced to take on an essentially editorial role. By looking at selected examples from "biblical" and "non-biblical" Qumran scrolls (with particular reference to 1QIsaa and 4Q252), I intend to illustrate three methodologies scribes utilized in these situations. First, they could insert blank space in the new copies corresponding to the defective text and leave the resulting text untouched. Second, they could insert blank space in the new copies corresponding to the defective text and then attempt a full or partial reconstruction of the missing text based on whatever text remained legible in the exemplar, memory, and/or contextual clues. And third, they could attempt a full or partial reconstruction of the defective text without inserting corresponding blank space before proceeding. Acknowledgement of these scribal practices has the potential to illuminate numerous difficult textual problems in Dead Sea Scrolls studies.

Developmental Stage, Scribal Lapse, or Physical Defect? 1QIsa-a’s Damaged Exemplar for Isaiah Chapters 34–66

My article on the Isaiah scroll is now out in the latest volume of Dead Sea Discoveries, for those who might be interested.

Longacre, Drew. "Developmental Stage, Scribal Lapse, or Physical Defect? 1QIsaa’s Damaged Exemplar for Isaiah Chapters 34–66." Dead Sea Discoveries 20, no. 1 (2013): 17-50.

Abstract

The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsa^a) does not generally reflect a text form earlier than the Masoretic text. Instead, the convergence in 1QIsa^a of patterns of spacing irregularities, literary and textual problems, and secondary supplementations, as well as a consistent pattern of distribution, are best explained on the basis of the hypothesis of an exemplar for chapters 34-66 with a damaged bottom edge. Upon reaching the defective edge in each column of his exemplar, the scribe dealt with any lacunose or illegible text in one of two ways before continuing with the unaffected text at the top of the subsequent exemplar column. Sometimes he left blank spaces in his new copy to be filled in with the correct text from other manuscripts at a later time. At other times he attempted full or partial reconstructions of the text based on whatever text remained legible in the damaged exemplar, memory, and contextual clues.

I previously blogged about this here.