Bible as Notepad Conference

IN DECEMBER IN OSLO: Bible as Notepad: Bible as Notepad is a conference that gathers an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to study notes, comments, and scribbling, in biblical and related manuscripts.

Whereas the Bible is among the world’s most studied books, most scholars are primarily occupied with its textual contents, and most editors of biblical texts concentrate on the text found within manuscripts’ columns. However, annotations are found in manuscripts cross-culturally and the notes may sometimes shed new light on the development of text traditions and historical engagement with biblical manuscripts. These other categories of writing on manuscript folios and the cultural practices that produced them have not received the attention they deserve. Hence, the Bible as Notepad conference will address annotations in different manuscript and language traditions, the various relationships between text in the column and notes in the margins, and the roles and functions of annotated manuscripts as cultural artifacts, exploring – empirically and theoretically - the various practices that produced them.

As you will see from the conference program at the link, I will be there and will be presenting a paper on an unusual manuscript of the Hekhalot Rabbati.