New Book: Dimant (ed.), "The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective"

NEW BOOK from Brill:

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarly Perspective: A History of Research

Edited by Devorah Dimant

The volume consists of 27 surveys of research into the Dead Sea Scrolls in the past 60 years, written by 26 authors. An innovation of the volume is that it covers Qumran scholarship in separate countries: the USA, Canada, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy and the Eastern bloc. Each essay also carries a detailed bibliography for the respective country. Biographies of all the major scholars active in the field are briefly given as well. This book thereby exhaustively surveys past and present Qumran research, outlining its particular development in various circumstances and national contexts. For the first time, perspectives and information not recorded in any other publication are highlighted.

Afghan manuscripts update

THE AFGHAN JEWISH MANUSCRIPTS are mentioned briefly in a Reuters article on another Afghan antiquity: Germany returns two millennia old Afghan sculpture. The relevant passage:

Ancient Jewish scrolls, which [Omara Khan] Massoudi [the director of Afghanistan's National Museum] confirmed were recently smuggled out, are currently being kept by private dealers in London.

This is the first confirmation I have seen from an Afghan official that the manuscripts come from Afghanistan. Assuming, of course, that he was understood and cited correctly.

Background here.

Cuts in Hebrew at Temple U

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE:

Hebrew major cut deserves a fair compromise

January 30, 2012 by Donald Hopkins
Filed under Commentary, Opinion, (The Temple News)

PMHopkins argues that while the decision to cut Hebrew as a major is logical, the non-tenured track position is still necessary.

This year, many of the interdisciplinary programs have fallen to the wayside, in the wake of budget cuts and student apathy toward certain academic subjects. Recently, Temple administration announced its intentions to eliminate the Hebrew major effective Fall 2012 and consolidate it within the Jewish studies major. Furthermore, the administration plans to eliminate the only non-tenured track position for Hebrew – occupied by Dr. Ayala Guy. Temple has justified this consolidation as part of a larger trend to save money as well as a response to lack of student interest.

Two questions have to be addressed, when considering whether this elimination and consolidation of the Hebrew major is a good idea for the university and its’ student body. First, is there a benefit to Hebrew existing outside the Jewish studies program as a separate major? Second, is the plan to eliminate the only stable teaching position for the Hebrew language, conducive to the study of language?

[...]

The authorities at Temple do seem to be trying to think this through and not just make random cuts to meet a budget. As long as these cuts have been preceded by, say, the cutting of two administrative posts, I would say they are reasonable.

Ostromir Gospels added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program

CHURCH SLAVONIC WATCH:

Old Russian book part of Memory of the World

Tags: Russia, World, UNESCO World Heritage , Commentary, Culture, Gospel
Olga Bugrova

Jan 30, 2012 17:11 Moscow Time

The Ostromir Gospels, the second oldest dated East Slavic book, has been included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, an international initiative launched to preserve the documentary heritage of humanity. The Voice of Russia’s Olga Bugrova reports.

The Ostromir Gospels was written in Church Slavonic in 1057 for St.Sofia’s Cathedral in Veliky Novgorod. The book was created by deacon Gregory for his patron, Posadnik Ostromir, possibly as a gift for the monastery. Though classified as the first Russian book, in fact, it isn’t. The Novgorod Psalm Book discovered in 2000 was written several decades earlier. It consists of four wooden plates covered in wax with the text scribbled over it with a sharpened stick. Researchers have yet to establish the exact date of the Novgorod Psalm Book.

The Ostromir Gospels has survived in good condition, which makes the manuscript still more valuable. All 294 sheets covered with large Church Slavonic characters used for solemn occasions have been preserved in full. The book is richly studded with miniatures and gems. At present, the monument is kept at the Russian National Library in St.Petersburg. Alexei Alekseev, who heads the Library’s manuscript department, comments:

"The original is stored in a special case. Each sheet is stored separately with special paper inserted between the sheets. We take it out when it needs airing. In the near future, we plan to post a digital copy of the manuscript on our website so that it could be accessible to all people interested in Russian history."

[...]

Book review: Hidary, "Dispute for the Sake of Heaven"

BOOK REVIEW:

Richard Hidary. Dispute for the Sake of Heaven: Legal Pluralism in the Talmud. Providence Brown Judaic Studies, 2010. xii + 441 pp.
$65.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-930675-77-3.

Reviewed by David Levine (Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem)
Published on H-Judaic (January, 2012)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman

Excerpt:

This is a knowledgeable and broad-minded study, and Hidary brings a variety of skills to his research. Philological technique is coupled with literary sensitivity throughout the book, and textual analyses and their resultant conclusions are placed within theoretical
considerations of legal pluralism. Historical contextualization plays a prominent role in the conclusion when explanations are considered for the differing approaches of the Talmudim. In the spirit of Hillel's _u'dela mosif yesuf_ (Avot 1:13: "One who does not add, will meet his end"), I will offer a few thoughts and responses to some of
the points made.

A list of biblical verses cited in the Talmud

MICHAEL SATLOW and his team have compiled a list of all the biblical verses cited in the Babylonian Talmud. Like the new index of the Talmud, this a resource that will undoubtedly be very useful. For details see his recent post at the Talmud Blog: One pesuk, two pesuk, three pesukim more…- Guest Post by Michael Satlow.

Review of Roberge, "The Paraphrase of Shem"

RBL REVIEW:

The Paraphrase of Shem (NH VII,1): Introduction, Translation and Commentary
Roberge, Michel

Leiden: Brill, 2010 pp. xii + 192. $122.00

Series Information
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, 72

Description: This book presents the first comprehensive interpretation of the Paraphrase of Shem, Codex VII,1 in the Coptic Nag Hammadi Library. The lenghty introduction discusses the literary genre of the treatise, its plan and system, its situation among the Gnostic systems, its provenance and date. The translation sets out the text in paragraphs, with headings and subheadings. A short commentary follows the translation. The analysis of the system shows that the author is working from a model of the universe, whose principles have been drawn from Stoicism and Middle Platonism. While dipping into the springs of the major Sethian and Valentinian systems, the author follows his own way and offers an original system, anticipating in many respects Manichaeism.

Subjects: Nag Hammadi and Gnostic, Literature

Review by James F. McGrath

A Herod's Tomb theme park?

CONTROVERSY OVER HEROD'S TOMB:

Top archeologists condemn Israeli plan to rebuild ancient tomb

The plan, promoted by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council, includes rebuilding the tomb of Herod the Great in West Bank.

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz) Tags: West Bank Jerusalem Israel archeology

An unusual plan to rebuild the tomb of Herod the Great at the Herodium site, southeast of Jerusalem, has spurred opposition on the part of top archeologists.

The plan, which is being promoted by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council, includes building a lavish mausoleum in its original size out of light plastic material, and turning it into a visitor’s center. The plan is the first of its kind in the realm of Israeli archeological digs, as most sites consist of either miniaturized or renovated historical sites that use the original materials found at the site.

[...]

Well it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Best quote in the article: "'It’s crazy - Archeology is not Disneyland,' said one top archeologist who asked to remain anonymous."

Background on Herod's tomb (if that's what it is) is here and links.

Tur Abdin

(NEO-)ARAMAIC WATCH:

Exploring the Tur Abdin a forgotten treasure of southeastern Turkey

29 January 2012 / PAT YALE , MARDİN (Sunday's Zaman)

Imagine a landscape of narrow country roads hemmed in by dry stone walls. Imagine village after honey-colored village, each with its church tower punctuating the skyline.

Imagine golden-stoned houses blending softly into the scenery. The cotswolds in the UK? No, believe it or not this is a description of the Tur Abdin, the strangely named area immediately around Midyat in Turkey that was, until recently, off-limits to visitors because of the troubles in the Southeast.

Tur Abdin sounds as if it should be the name of a tour company bringing visitors to the area, but actually it just means “Mountain of the Servants,” a name that extends way back to the pre-Roman era. The name is actually a bit of an oddity since although the land is undoubtedly high in relationship to its surroundings most visitors will think it hilly rather than mountainous. Mostly you will find yourself roaming around a lofty plateau that was once the local heart of Syriac (Suryani) Orthodoxy, a form of Christianity believed to have evolved from that taught by St. Peter in Antioch (Antakya) in the first century.

In the fourth century monasticism was introduced to the area, and at one time there were so many monasteries here that some writers called it “the Mount Athos of the East.” Today, however, a mere 5,000 Syriac Orthodox Christians are thought to live in Turkey compared with, say, 80,000 in Sweden. Most of them speak Turoyo, a variation of the Aramaic believed to have been spoken by Jesus.

[...]

That is, a very late and developed dialact of an Anatolian branch of Aramaic, not directly related to the first-century Galilean dialect that Jesus spoke.

Fellowships and grants

SOME FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES for various relevant areas of research are gathered below. Click on the links for further details for each.

3 POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWS
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY, BERLIN (GERMANY)

FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Within the European Research Council Advanced Grant 2011 "FOUNDMED. Foundations in medieval societies. Cross-cultural comparisons" there are three open positions for postdoctoral research fellows to be filled at the Department of History of Humboldt-University, Berlin (TV-L HU 13, 100 %, approx. EUR 2.000 net./month) to run from June 1, 2012 initially for five years.

reference number DR/007/12
Job description: research services within the framework of the ERC Advanced Grant 2011 “FOUNDMED. Foundations in medieval societies. Cross-cultural comparisons” for the field of Jewish Studies / Medieval Jewish History; collaboration in an intercultural comparative study of foundations in the premodern era; tasks to upgrade one’s academic qualifications

Requirements: (preferably above-average) graduate and doctoral degree in the field of Jewish Studies / Medieval Jewish History; willingness to work in Berlin; good command of Hebrew and English, at least passive command of German; willingness to collaborate with scholars from four other academic disciplines in preparing an “Encyclopedia of Premodern Foundations” based on intercultural comparative research; knowledge of the history of foundations is an advantage but not a requirement

The other two ERC fellowships mentioned above are in Byzantine studies and Islamic/Middle Eastern studies.

BINAH NEMOY MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Yale University invites applications for support of publication of texts and studies in Judeo-Arabic Literature of the Karaite Sect.

GORGIAS BOOK GRANT

In its efforts to promote education, Gorgias Press offers annually the Gorgias Book Grant. This program offers outstanding graduate students grants in the form of Gorgias Press publications. Grants consist of books in the value of $500.00 per grant. Each year, two grants are distributed.

2011-2012 Grant Field: Any field within the scope of Gorgias Publications
Application Deadline: February 29, 2012
Grant Date: April 2012

NPR interviews Talmud indexer

DANIEL RETTER is interviewed by NPR about his new index of the Babylonian Talmud: A Lawyer, Not A Sage, Creates Talmud Index. Excerpt from the transcript:

RETTER: Well, it was a seven-year labor of love. The methodology involved was the idea of being able to find entries or topics. And once we had the entries or the topics, we would build on them and have subentries and subtopics. And once we had all of those, then we would develop the sources or find the sources. So about seven - almost seven years ago, I decided that this was what was needed.

And my wife, Margie - who's a lawyer in her own right - said to me, Danny, one minute. You know, we're very traditional. The Talmud study's very traditional. The rabbis are very traditional. And I'm not so sure that you want to do something as revolutionary as this without getting the haskamah, or the approbations or the endorsements of the various rabbis throughout Israel, throughout America, throughout the world. And if you work for - on this for many, many years and you finish it and then it's not accepted for whatever reason, then you've really worked for nothing.

So taking her good advice, I worked for about two years, and we developed a template where we covered all of the various track dates, the 63 track dates. And then I basically went around the world, went to Israel, rather than went to America. And unlike the normal author who writes a book and then seeks endorsements, here was a situation where I just sketched out the basic idea, the basic plan with many, many examples, and then I went to the various rabbis, both rabbis - the Sephardic rabbis, the Ashkenazic rabbis, the Chassidish Rebbes, the Lithuanian scholars. And they not only were very much encouraging, but they said, Mr. Retter, or Daniel, do it quickly, because this is needed.

"Track dates" is, of course, an amusing error for "tractates."

Background on the Talmud index is here.

Ancient Wine

ANOTHER CRUCIAL CONTRIBUTION of ancient Israel to modern civilization: Ancient Wine.

Fun fact (unverified): "The Talmud describes 60 types of wines."

"Footnote" nominated for an Oscar

FOOTNOTE has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Background on the film is here and links.

More murder at Nag Hammadi

NAG HAMMADI is back in the news; not, alas, for any new discoveries of Gnostic manuscripts: Two Copts Killed in Egypt For Refusing to Pay Extortion Money (AINA).

It seems that this is getting to be a dangerous place.

Background here.

New issue of Hugoye

HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES has just published a new issue (15.1). TOC:

Volume 15 (Winter 2012)

Introduction
George A. Kiraz

Papers

Ktabe Mpassqe, Dismembered and Reconstituted Syriac and Christian Palestinian Aramaic Manuscripts: Some Examples, Ancient and Modern
Sebastian P. Brock, University of Oxford

A Tentative Checklist of Dated Syriac Manuscripts up to 1300
Sebastian P. Brock, University of Oxford

Syriac in Library Catalogues
J.F. Coakley, University of Cambridge

Corpora, eLibraries, and Databases: Locating Syriac Studies in the 21st Century
Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University

A Guide to Manuscripts of the Peshitta New Testament
Andreas Juckel, University of Münster

Bibliograpy

Recent Books on Syriac Topics
Sebastian P. Brock, University of Oxford

Book Reviews

Martin Heimgartner, Timotheos I, Ostsyrischer Patriarch: Disputation mit dem Kalifen al-Mahdi
Vittorio Berti, Theologisches Seminar, Universität Zürich

Patrik Hagman, The Asceticim of Isaac of Ninevah
Robert A. Kitchen, Knox-Metropolitan United Church

Françoise Petit, Lucas Van Rompay, Jos J.S. Weitenberg, eds., Eusèbe d'Émèse, Commentaire de la Genèse. Texte arménien de l'édition de Veise (1980), Fragments grecs et syriaques, avec traductions
Edward G. Mathews, Jr., Independent Scholar

Bernhard Maier, Semitic Studies in Victorian Britain. A Portrait of William Wright and his World through his Letters
Adam C. McCollum, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library

Barsawm, Ignatius Afrem I, Omid & Mardin Manuscripts
Andrew Palmer, University of Münster

Reports

Beth Mardutho Summer 2011 Internship Report

Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions at SBL (2011)

International Syriac Language Project (2011)

16th International Conference on Patristic Studies

Sixth North American Syriac Symposium

And don't forget that this journal has a call for papers out, noted here.

Virtual Bible museum

THE BIBLE AND ARCHAEOLOGY - ONLINE MUSEUM is noted by Todd Bolen at the Bible Places blog. Lots of nice photos, and the captions seem pretty reasonable.

Afghan manuscripts update

THE AFGHAN JEWISH MANUSCRIPTS are treated in a JTA article by Ben Harris: Mystery swirls around Judaic manuscripts discovered in Afghanistan. It has some new information, or at least new rumors:

But that doesn't mean there aren't lots of colorful stories floating around. One story, which several of those involved had heard, involves a Russian-Jewish billionaire who supposedly had expressed interest in purchasing the manuscripts but had pulled out after his attorneys advised that he may run into legal difficulties. No one would divulge his name.

It “adds an element of mystique,” [antiquities dealer Lenny] Wolfe said. “I personally never spoke to any Russian oligarch. What I’ve heard is hearsay. I don’t trust hearsay.”

Menashe Goldelman, a London-based expert in Middle Eastern antiquities who has authored a 23-page report on the documents, told JTA that they emerged on the London market several months ago. Goldelman said he had been enlisted by a dealer to sell the documents on his behalf. At present, Goldelman said he was trying to broker an agreement with the various dealers to bring the collection together. Goldelman estimates their total value at about $5 million.

“They are not things that are stolen from an institution or found in a legal excavation,” Goldelman said. “At some point, everything that comes from the ground goes to the black market. The black market, this is the institution that helps to save this material. If something has, let’s say, commercial value, it gets saved. If you don’t have a commercial value for the manuscript, they go and put it in the fireplace.”

Goldelman's involvement may not reassure skittish buyers about their provenance. In 2010, two professors reportedly accused him of trafficking in stolen antiquities and protested his scheduled appearance at a conference in Israel. Goldelman's lawyer denied the accusations and threatened to sue for libel.

None of the experts who have spoken publicly on the matter of the Afghan documents appeared to be too troubled by unanswered questions about their origins, seeming to accept such things as the cost of doing business in ancient artifacts.

“What is important for us is that these fragments and documents don’t get buried again in some safe of a collector,” said Haggai Ben-Shammai, a professor of Arabic at Hebrew University and the academic director of Israel's National Library. Ben-Shammai said the library was searching for a donor who would acquire the manuscripts on its behalf.

“We don’t have the means to acquire them on our own,” Ben-Shammai said. “We need some assistance in this.”

I note that the number of texts is back down to 150. The number "200 or more" was suggested at one point. The current article raises the possibility of a Karaite connection for the manuscripts. And this is the first I've heard that "a few are probably older" than a thousand years. I wonder what that means.

This case illustrates the difficult choices scholars have to make in dealing with unprovenanced antiquities. On the one hand, we don't want to encourage looting. But on the other, it would be culpable negligence to ignore discoveries like this because they were not excavated in situ. I don't have a good solution.

Meanwhile, if you know of any philanthropists with a few million to spare, you might want to show them this article.

Background here and links.

New book: Hovhanessian (ed.), "The Canon of the Bible and the Apocrypha in the Churches of the East"

NEW BOOK on the Christian Orthodox biblical tradition from Peter Lang:

Hovhanessian, Vahan S. (ed.)

The Canon of the Bible and the Apocrypha in the Churches of the East

Series: Bible in the Christian Orthodox Tradition - Volume 2

Year of Publication: 2012

New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2012. VIII, 113 pp.
ISBN 978-1-4331-1035-1 hb.

Book synopsis

The Canon of the Bible and the Apocrypha in the Churches of the East features essays reflecting the latest scholarly research in the field of the canon of the Bible and related apocryphal books, with special attention given to the early Christian literature of Eastern churches. These essays study and examine issues and concepts related to the biblical canon as well as non-canonical books that circulated in the early centuries of Christianity among Christian and non-Christian communities, claiming to be authored by biblical characters, such as the prophets and kings of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament.

Contents

Contents: Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou: The Canon of Scripture in the Orthodox Church - Daniel Alberto Ayuch: The Prayer of Manasses: Orthodox Tradition and Modern Studies in Dialogue - Slavomír Céplö (bulbul): Testament of Solomon and Other Pseudepigraphical Material in Ahkam Sulayman (Judgment of Solomon) - Anushavan Tanielian: The Book of Wisdom of Solomon in the Armenian Church Literature and Liturgy - Nicolae Roddy: Visul Maicii Domnului («The Dream of the Mother of the Lord»): New Testament Romanian Amulet Text - Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou: Banned from the Lectionary: Excluding the Apocalypse of John from the Orthodox New Testament Canon - Vahan S. Hovhanessian: New Testament Apocrypha and the Armenian Version of the Bible.

Noted by Vahan S. Hovhanessian at the Hugoye List.

Incidentally, Dr. Hovhanessian is a contributor to volume one of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project, now in press.

Some Coptic biblical fragments in Dublin

ALIN SUCIU: A Preliminary Report Concerning the Coptic Biblical Fragments in the Possession of the Trinity College in Dublin.

Errata list for Sokoloff's "A Syriac Lexicon"

THE NEW EDITION OF BROCKELMAN'S LEXICON SYRIACUM, edited by Michael Sokoloff and published by Gorgias press, has now produced a pdf document with corrections to first printing and orthographic variants. I noted the first printing of the Sokoloff edition in 2009 here. The current advert for the book is here.

This is an excellent way of circulating errata lists for complex works such as lexicons.

(HT Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni on FB.)