Samaritan books at the Rylands Library

THE RYLANDS BLOG: The Samaritans and their books. The John Rylands Research Institute and Library has a large collection of Samaritan manuscripts some of which are now available online. This blog offers you a brief introduction into the little-known world of the Samaritans and the books (Zsofia Buda).

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Tony Burke's Regensburg Year: December

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: My Regensburg Year Part 5: December 2024

Tony Burke is on research sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

For earlier posts in the series and more on Tony's work, see the links collected here (cf. here). And one with the full text of a paper he presented last month is noted here.

Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha Watch.

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Albrecht & Kratz (eds.), Editing the Greek Psalter (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, open access)

THE AWOL BLOG: Editing the Greek Psalter.

Notice of a New Book: Felix Albrecht & Reinhard Gregor Kratz (eds.), Editing the Greek Psalter. eISBN 978-3-666-56094-1. ISBN 978-3-666-56094-1. pages 671. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, eLibrary. Open access.

Follow the link for links to the downloadable text.

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Late-antique monastery and inscribed mosaic excavated near Kiryat Gat

ARCHAEOLOGY: Byzantine-era monastery mosaic discovered in southern Israel. “Blessed are you when you come in and blessed are you when you go out” (Deuteronomy 28:6), is inscribed in ancient Greek on the mosaic floor (JNS).

The monastery’s colorful mosaic floor features crosses, lions, doves, an amphora (a ceramic maritime shipping jug), flowers and geometric patterns. The biblical inscription in Greek is set in its center.

The article has photos and a link to an IAA YouTube video.

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Israeli rabbi seeks assurances about Jobar Synagogue etc.

AFTER ASSAD, CONTINUED: Julani asked to protect historic Syrian synagogue in Syria by Israeli rabbi. Rabbi Binyamin Hamra, son of the late Rabbi Avraham Hamra, appealed to Julani to protect the country’s Jewish community and preserve its historic sites, including the Jobar Synagogue (Jerusalem Post).

It's worth asking. A positive reply would be welcome.

Background here and links.

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Burke on defining "Christian Apocrypha"

THE APOCRYPHICITY BLOG: (Too Far) Beyond Canon: Has the Re-defining of “Christian Apocrypha” Lost Its Way? (Tony Burke).

I’d like to focus today on the parameters of our field, on deciding what texts we study, whether we call them apocryphal, noncanonical, or parabiblical. That is an area in which I have experience, not from writing about the problem, but from having to make choices in several projects about what texts to include or not to include and provide justification for doing so. For the most part I have argued for a broad definition—the more texts the better—but have recently become concerned that this approach may be too unwieldy, that our space outside the canon has become too crowded, that perhaps we have wandered too far beyond the canon and lost our way.

The question of definition of terms has certainly come up for the Old Testament pseudepigrapha. It came up in the 2013 SBL review of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 1, and I posted my comments on it here (scroll down to the update).

I stand by my comments there. It's good to keep in mind that words are not things. They can never perfectly represent reality. There will never be a perfect term for those amalgamations of texts that we clumsily call Old Testament pseudepigrapha or Christian apocrypha. It is more important that a definition be useful than it be precise. A vague definition can sometimes be more useful than an overly precise one.

It is interesting and informative to follow Tony wrestling with these challenges.

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