More McGrath on the Mandaeans

JAMES MCGRATH is an ever-flowing font of resources for Mandaean (Mandean) studies. His latest: Mandaean Resources Online.

Apocryphicity latest

TONY BURKE has some good new posts over at Apocryphicity.

First, more supplements to Secret Scriptures Revealed:

More Secret Scriptures 5: Pseudo-Memoirs of the Apostles.

More Secret Scriptures 6: The Preaching of Simon Cephas in the City of Rome.

The earlier posts in the series are noted here.

Second, Tony has been posting profiles of speakers for his upcoming conference “Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspectives” (September 26–28, 2013).

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Brent Landau.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lee McDonald.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lorenzo DiTommaso.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Stephen Shoemaker.
2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: F. Stanley Jones.

The BNTC begins

THE BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE begins today in St. Andrews, with registration opening this afternoon. Welcome to the 150 delegates arriving from all over Britain, and in a few cases, farther afield!

Petra Papyri II

NEW BOOK FROM ACOR: L. Koenen, J. Kaimio, M. Kaimio, R. W. Daniel edd., Petra Papyri II (P.Petra II) (G.W. Schwendner, What's New in Papyrology). Another important documentary text from late antiquity. One more volume to go and the series will be complete.

Goff, 4QInstruction

NEW BOOK, JUST OUT FROM THE SBL:

Matthew J. Goff, 4QInstruction (22 August, 2013)

Schiffman on studying the DSS

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN: How to Study a Dead Sea Scrolls Text. This is an article from Bible History Daily, but it was originally a series of recent posts on his blog which I had not yet noted.

Another grant for the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PERSEPOLIS FORTIFICATION ARCHIVE PROJECT, which has just received a $30,000 grant for its work: Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute grant to the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project.

Background on the project and the international legal controversy over the archive is here with many links.

Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics

NOW PUBLISHED IN HARD COPY BY BRILL:

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (4 Vols.)

General Editor: Geoffrey Khan Associate Editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven E. Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi Advisory Board: Moshe Bar-Asher, Aharon Maman, Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé, Yael Reshef

The Hebrew language has one of the longest attested histories of any of the world’s languages, with records of its use from antiquity until modern times. Although it ceased to be a spoken language by the 2nd century C.E., Hebrew continued to be used and to develop in the form of a literary and liturgical language until its revival as a vernacular in the 20th century.
In a four volume set, complete with index, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day. The encyclopedia contains overview articles that provide a readable synopsis of current knowledge of the major periods and varieties of the Hebrew language as well as thematically-organized entries which provide further information on individual topics, such as the Hebrew of various sources (texts, manuscripts, inscriptions, reading traditions), major grammatical features (phonology, morphology, and syntax), lexicon, script and paleography, theoretical linguistic approaches, and so forth. With over 950 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.

There is an online version as well.

Noted as forthcoming here.

More on Shenoute

PHILIP JENKINS has two more posts on the ancient Egyptian monastic leader Shenoute: SHENOUTE’S WARS and SHENOUTE AND THE GNOSTICS. From the latter:

Shenoute wrote against both Origenists and Gnostics, and (not surprisingly, being Shenoute) he also undertook direct action. One of his campaigns, against the temple of Pneuit near Akhmim, around 412, was probably directed against still-surviving Sethian Gnostics. He particularly wanted to seize their “books full of abominations” – presumably, a collection very much like what was found at Nag Hammadi in modern times.

[...]

We can understand why Shenoute was hunting for Gnostic books. But the more interesting question might be, why were other monks likely using them? Did they still value them for their religious truth? Or were they mining them for evidence to denounce heresy? Scholars have debated this for years. Increasingly, I think these were books that monks themselves were reading for enlightenment and spiritual revelation, or at least had at some stage in their institutional development.

Background here.