Origen and the Hexapla: the Text & Canon Institute Interviews Dr. Peter Gentry

Several months ago, I and Peter Gurry had the chance to sit down and talk with Peter Gentry about Origen as philologist, his Hexapla, and the Text & Canon Institute’s upcoming colloquium (now rescheduled for March 11–12, 2021). In just over 20 minutes we touch on Origen, his great scholarly editions (the Hexapla and the Tetrapla), and also modern efforts to reconstruct the remains of Origen’s work. Also, I’m told I’m quite distracting in the video (but in a good way!). So enjoy that at least :).

Origen as Philologist: Inaugural Text & Canon Institute Colloquium

My colleague and coblogger, Peter Gurry, and I were busy in 2019 planning the first big events for Phoenix Seminary's Text & Canon Institute. Last year, we announced our first church conference, Sacred Words: A Conference on the History of the Bible, to take place on February 21-22, 2020.

This year we announce our first academic colloquium will be on Origen as Philologist. From the colloquium website:

Twenty five years after Oxford’s Rich Seminar sparked a renaissance of research on Origen’s Hexapla, the Phoenix Seminary Text & Canon Institute will host its first colloquium to explore Origen’s textual scholarship and its reception in late antiquity.

Origen of Alexandria moved to Caesarea around AD 230 and soon after began his work on the Hexapla or six-parallel-columned edition of the Old Testament. This edition inspired the preparation of subsequent scholarly editions of the Greek scriptures at the Caesarean Library that impacted the text and exegesis of the Scriptures in their Greek and Hebrew forms there and in other locales.

For its inaugural colloquium, the Text & Canon Institute is bringing together a group of international scholars to write this chapter of the Bible’s history.

The colloquium will take place November 18–19, 2020.

We have assembled a stellar group of scholars for this colloquium to describe classical philology in the Alexandrian tradition and its reception and use by Origen and others of the Caesarean Library. As you make plans to attend conferences in 2020, please consider attending this one in Phoenix. The weather promises to be wonderful and the conversation over Origen to be even better!

The Text & Canon Institute Fellowship at Phoenix Seminary

A few months ago, co-blogger, Peter Gurry, announced here that Phoenix Seminary had launched its Text & Canon Institute (TCI; read more about it here, here, and most recently here on the LAB).

And last week, we rolled out the Text & Canon Institute Fellowship as part of the TCI’s mission of training and mentoring ThM students specifically planning on further study in the areas of text, canon, and ancillary fields. The benefits of the TCI fellows are:

• A scholarship worth up to $10,000 for one year of the ThM program (in addition to any other scholarships or financial awards)
• Specific mentorship with the directors of the Text & Canon Institute and participation in appropriate research projects
• Opportunities to lecture at the master’s level

You can read more about the TCI Fellowship and even review the application to become a fellow here, but what exactly will ThM students study? The ThM is positioned currently as a residential, research degree in biblical studies. Here are a few highlights about the program.

1. We have already taught the following research seminars: Gospels Criticism (taught by my colleague, John DelHousaye), Advanced Greek Grammar, and Old Testament Textual Criticism. Gurry plans to offer a seminar in New Testament Textual Criticism this fall, and I plan to offer either Advanced Hebrew Grammar or OT TC again in the spring of 2020. The ThM at Phoenix Seminary tilts heavily (though not exclusively) in the direction of the textual critical :-).
2. Students can also expect to take German, advanced biblical/theological research methods, and MDiv courses (with ThM level work load).
3. We would expect TCI fellows to write a ThM thesis in the areas of text, canon, or ancillary fields, while other ThM students may or may not choose to research those areas.
4. Finally, and not to be trifled, one can expect to receive Peter Gurry’s excellent tutelage in the ways of Phoenix fast food.

Check out the materials linked above as well as the ThM and TCI Fellowship pages, if you are interested in studying biblical textual criticism with me and Gurry out in the wild, wild west of Phoenix, AZ.

New Text & Canon Institute at Phoenix Seminary

By now, some of our ETC readers may have heard about a new venture that John Meade and I are co-directing at Phoenix Seminary called the Text & Canon Institute.

A number of confessional institutions in the U.S. have professors doing research on the Old or New Testament text, or work on the Biblical canon. But Phoenix Seminary seems unique to me in that we are doing detailed work in all three areas. The desire to leverage this unique combination for the church and the academy has led to this new Institute. The mission is to

encourage research and publication of scholarly work on the history of the canon and the text of the Bible (1) by fostering and supporting scholarly research, academic colloquia, conferences, and professional presentations on biblical and related ancient texts, traditions, languages, methods of textual criticism, and the history of the canon and (2) by serving the church through publications and public events that illuminate the integrity of the Bible’s textual history and canonization.

There is more info about the Institute here along with the list of our advisory board members, among whom are several ETC contributors. We hope to have more to announce in the near future, but for now readers can sign up to get updates at the previous link.