Call for Papers: 2026 CSNTM Conference

The next CSNTM Text & Manuscript Conference is scheduled for May 28-29, 2026 in Plano, TX (just north of Dallas). I went to the inaugural conference and really enjoyed it. This year's theme is on the ECM and the call for papers has just gone out. Here are the details:

Text-Types Conference

Yesterday afternoon we wrapped up our first overseas Text & Canon Institute Colloquium which was on the topic of text-types in NT textual criticism. We had a very good time over two days discussing the origin of text-types, the current problems with them, and their possible future. You can see the list of topics here. We hope to publish the proceedings in due course. In the meantime, you can read this summary from Nelson Hsieh who was there.

Putting on an event like this is no small affair. So, let me offer some thanks to those who made it possible. Thanks to all who participated both presenters and attendees for making it such a collegial time; to our hosts at Lanier Theological Library at Yarnton Manor who could not have taken better care of us; to our supporters who made this financially possible for the TCI; and to Colin O’Bier, our operations manager, for keeping all the logistics humming not just his week but over the last year he’s worked on this.

Here are some pictures.

Registration Now Open

I’m happy to report that registration for our 2024 TCI Colloquium at Yarnton Manor is now open. The fee is $100/person and includes lunch both days. I hope to see some of our readers there. You can register at textandcanon.org/events/text-types/

2024 Colloquium at Yarnton Manor on NT Text-Types

I’m happy to share a project I’ve been working on for some time here at the Text & Canon Institute. Some readers may remember that back in 2021 John Meade hosted our first colloquium on Origen as  Philologist. As the papers for that near publication, we are pleased to announce our second colloquium will be this July on the topic of NT text-types. The event will be hosted at Lanier Theological Library’s beautiful Yarnton Manor just outside Oxford, England on July 18–19. We hope to open registration for attendees in the coming weeks. For now, here are the details of the speakers.

Held just outside Oxford, England, the Text & Canon Institute’s second colloquium will bring together an international group of textual scholars to take stock of the current debate, present fresh avenues of understanding, and discuss the implications for New Testament studies. You can find more details at the conference page.

Speakers and topics 

Titles are subject to change of course

silvia castelli 
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The Origin and Early History of Text-Types

peter j. gurry 
Phoenix Seminary
What Are Text-Types For?

klaus wachtel 
Institute for New Testament Textual Research
The Text-Type Theory in Light of the CBGM

andrew edmondson 
University of Birmingham
The Contribution of Phylogenetics

peter m. head 
University of Oxford
The Alexandrian Text

peter lorenz 
University of Münster
The Western Text

maurice a. robinson
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Emeritus)
The Byzantine Text

stephen c. carlson 
Australian Catholic University
The Caesarean Text

dirk jongkind 
Tyndale House, Cambridge
In Defense of Text-Types

peter malik & darius müller
Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel
Text-Types in the Book of Revelation

h. a. g. houghton
University of Birmingham
Text-Types in the Latin Tradition

Call for Papers: 2024 CSNTM Text & Manuscript Conference

From Dan Wallace and CSNTM:

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (Plano, Texas) welcomes proposals for the second CSNTM Text & Manuscript Conference, scheduled to take place on 30–31 May 2024 in Plano.

The theme of the conference will be “Intersection.”

In keeping with this theme, we invite papers that explore ways in which New Testament Textual Criticism interacts with other disciplines (paleography, art history, exegesis, paratext, linguistics, conservation, etc.) to inform our understanding of the New Testament transmission in its broad context.

Each paper will be slotted 35 minutes, including time for Q&A. Titles and 300-word abstracts should be submitted via email to Denis Salgado at dsalgado@csntm.org and Mark Gaither at mgaither@csntm.org. Deadline: 31 January 2024

This call for papers is also available at TextAndManuscript.org.

Selected papers from the previous conference (Pen, Print, & Pixels, 2022) have been published by Hendrickson and are available for purchase here.

For more information about the conference, including venue and registration, visit the "Intersection" registration page here.

You may also secure your hotel accommodations at the conference discount rate here.

I spoke at their inaugural conference and really enjoyed it. It was the perfect size for a conference like that. If you're interested, make sure you apply.

Ending of Mark Papers Published

The papers from the Mark 16 conference around this time last year have now been published in the latest issue of Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies Bulletin. I haven't had a chance to read them yet myself but look forward to.

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The Transmission of Mark’s Endings in Different Traditions and Languages

Papers presented at the International Workshop, Lausanne, 2–3 June 2022; ed. by Claire Clivaz, Mina Monier, and Dan Batovici

Introductory Essay

• A Multilingual Turn: Introducing the ‘MARK16’ COMSt Bulletin  (Claire Clivaz) 

Greek and Latin Traditions

• Physical Discontinuities in the Transitions between the Gospels: Reassessing the Ending of Mark in Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus and Alexandrinus  (Patrick Andrist) 
• The Text and Paratext of Family 1 in Mark 16 (Tommy Wasserman) 
  
• ʻAccording to the Egyptiansʼ: Mark 16 in GA 72 (Mina Monier) 
  
• Framing Mark: Reading Mark 16 in a Catena Manuscript (Anthony P. Royle and Garrick V. Allen) 
• Was Salome at the Markan Tomb? Another Ending to Mark’s Gospel  (Elizabeth Schrader Polczer)
• ‘The End of the Beginning’: Mark’s Longer Ending (16:9–20) and the Adaptation of the Markan Storyline (James A. Kelhoffer)
• The Ending of Mark in Tatian’s Diatessaron (Nicholas J. Zola) 
• Mark 16 and the Eusebian Apparatus: Greek and Latin Solutions  (W. Andrew Smith) 

Other Languages

• The Shorter Ending of the Gospel of Mark in the Coptic Versions  (Anne Boud’hors and Sofía Torallas Tovar) 
• The Endings of the Gospel of Mark in Syriac Witnesses  (David GK Taylor) 
• Mc 16 dans les manuscrits arabes du Sinaï — Réflexions de méthode pour leur utilization en critique textuelle. Diversity of versions, rubriques, langues sources, variantes fausses et vraies (Jean G. Valentin) 
• The Endings of Mark in Ethiopian Translation and Transmission  (Curt Niccum) 
• Mark 16 in the Persian Harmony of the Gospels (Ali B. Langroudi)
• The Displaced Endings of Mark in Armenian Biblical Manuscripts  (Dan Batovici) 
  
• Mark 16:9–20 in Armenian Medieval Literature: A Commentary by Barseł Maškeworc’i (Armine Melkonyan) 
• Un essai de panorama de Marc 16 dans la tradition georgienne  (Bernard Outtier)
  

History of the Reception

• Cerinthus and the Gospel of Mark: The Priority of the Longer Ending  (Joan E. Taylor)
  
• Trajectories in the History of Textual Scholarship on Mark’s Endings: A Reconsideration (Jan Krans and An-Ting Yi)
• Mark 16 from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century: Why Were the Doubts not Expressed Earlier? (Regis Burnet)

Online Groningen Symposium on Palaeography and Hebrew/Aramaic Scribal Culture

Thanks to Drew Longacre for alerting me to the the 2021 International Online Groningen Symposium.

Details

• When: 6–8 April 2021 13:00–20:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
• Hosts: Qumran Institute and Bernoulli Institute (University of Groningen)
• Where: online, of course
• Registration: email Drew Longacre at d.g.longacre[at]rug.nl for the Zoom link

You can make this your Zoom background and pretend you’re in the Netherlands

Schedule

Tuesday, 6 April

13:00 CET Jouke de Vries (President of the University of Groningen)

Welcome

Mladen Popović (University of Groningen)

Introduction

Session 1 — The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography

Chair: Eibert Tigchelaar

13:15 Mladen Popović (University of Groningen)

Digital Palaeography for Identifying the Unknown Scribes and Dating the Undated Manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls

13:45 Maruf Dhali (University of Groningen)

Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition Techniques in Analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls

14:15 Gemma Hayes (University of Groningen)

Digital Palaeography and the Scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls

14:45 Drew Longacre (University of Groningen)

Data Mining for Writer Identification: The Test Case of the Dead Sea Psalm Scrolls

15:15 Discussion

15:30–16:15 Break

Session 2 — The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Radiocarbon Dating

Chair: Mladen Popović

16:15 Kaare Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark)

The 14C Dating in the ERC project “The Hands that Wrote the Bible”: Chemical Aspects and the Cleaning of the Samples

16:45 Hans van der Plicht (University of Groningen)

The 14C Dating in the ERC project “The Hands that Wrote the Bible”: Physical Aspects and the Measurement of the 14C Content

17:15 Discussion

17:30–18:15 Break

Session 3 — Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography

Chair: Drew Longacre

18:15 Michael Langlois (University of Strasbourg)

Deciphering Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic Inscriptions in a Digital World: Potential and Limitations

18:45 James Moore (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Toward a Systematic Description of the Imperial Aramaic Script and its Meaning for Dating and Writer Identification

PROJECT UPDATES

19:15 Bronson Brown-deVost (University of Göttingen)

Scripta Qumranica Electronica

19:30 Daniel Stoekl ben Ezra (École Pratique des Hautes Études)

eScripta

19:45 Sarah Yardney and Miller Prosser (University of Chicago)

CEDAR/OCHRE

20:00 Conclusion

Wednesday, 7 April

13:00 CET Welcome

Session 4 — Digital Palaeography

Chair: Maruf Dhali

13:15 Lambert Schomaker (University of Groningen)

TBD

13:45 Peter Stokes (École Pratique des Hautes Études)

When is a Scribe Not a Scribe? Some Reflections on Writer Identification

14:15 Nachum Dershowitz (Tel Aviv University)

Computational Paleography

14:45 Discussion

15:00–15:45 Break

Session 5 — Digital Palaeography

Chair: Lambert Schomaker

15:45 Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin (Tel Aviv University)

Algorithmic Handwriting Analysis of Iron Age Documents and its Implications to the Composition of Biblical Texts

16:15 Hussein Mohammed (Universität Hamburg)

Pattern-Recognition Approaches for Handwriting-Style Analysis

16:45 Eythan Levy (Tel Aviv University) and Frédéric Pluquet (Haute École

Louvain en Hainaut [HELHa] - Tournai and Ecole Supérieure

d'Informatique [ESI] - Brussels)

New Developments in the Scrypt Software for Old Hebrew Epigraphy

17:15 Discussion

17:30–18:15 Break

Session 6 — Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography

Chair: Gemma Hayes

18:15 Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (University of Oxford)

Hebrew Palaeography Album: A New Online Tool to Study Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts

18:45 Elvira Martín-Contreras (Spanish National Research Council)

Distinguishing Scribal Hands in the Masora of the Medieval Hebrew Bible Manuscripts

PROJECT UPDATES

19:15 Joe Uziel (Israel Antiquities Authority)

IAA projects

19:30 Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (University of Basel)

D-Scribes

19:45 James Moore (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)

Elephantine

20:00 Conclusion

Thursday, 8 April

13:00 CET Welcome

Session 7 — Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography and Textual Communities

Chair: Mladen Popović

13:15 Eibert Tigchelaar (KU Leuven)

Scribal Culture, Palaeography, and the Scrolls

13:45 Ayhan Aksu (University of Groningen)

Leaving No Scroll Unturned: Opisthographs and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls

14:15 Hanneke van der Schoor (KU Leuven)

Assessing Palaeographic Variation in Informal Manuscripts: The Scribe(s) of the Testament of Qahat and Visions of Amrame

14:45 Discussion

15:00–15:45 Break

Session 8 — Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography

Chair: Ayhan Aksu

15:45 Nadia Vidro (University College London)

Calendars from the Cairo Genizah as a Dating Tool for Palaeography

16:15 Estara J Arrant (University of Cambridge)

From Scholastic to Scribal: A Developmental Analysis of “Unprofessional” Square Hebrew Script from Cairo Genizah Bible Fragments

16:45 Elihu Shannon (Sofer STaM)

Why My Script is Different from My Teacher's

17:15 Discussion

17:30–18:15 Break

Session 9 — Final Discussion Panels

Chairs: Drew Longacre and Maruf Dhali

18:15 Digital Palaeography Panel Discussion

18:45 Hebrew/Aramaic Palaeography and Scribal Culture Panel Discussion

19:15 Final Open Discussion

20:00 Conclusion

The Future of New Testament Textual Scholarship (ed. G. V. Allen)

A new book is in the pipeline, to be published in December (or will it be available for the SBL in November?).  

The Future of New Testament Textual Scholarship: From H. C. Hoskier to the Editio Critica Maior and Beyond, edited by Garrick V. Allen (WUNT I).

Mohr-Siebeck’s description
This volume fundamentally re-examines textual approaches to the New Testament and its manuscripts in the age of digital editing and media. Using the eccentric work of Herman Charles Hoskier as a shared foundation for analysis, contributors examine the intellectual history of New Testament textual scholarship and the production of critical editions, identify many avenues for further research, and discuss the methods and protocols for producing the most recent set of editions of the New Testament: the Editio Critica Maior. Instead of comprising the minute re finement of a basically acceptable text, textual scholarship on the New Testament is a vibrant field that impinges upon New Testament Studies in unexpected and unacknowledged ways.

Contributors:
Garrick V. Allen, J. K. Elliott, Gregory Peter Fewster, Peter J. Gurry, Juan Hernández Jr., H. A. G.
Houghton, Annette Hüffmeier, Dirk Jongkind, Martin Karrer, Jennifer Wright Knust, Jan Krans, Thomas J. Kraus, Christina M. Kreinecker, Curt Niccum, D. C. Parker, Jacob Peterson, Stanley E. Porter, Catherine Smith, Jill Unkel, Klaus Wachtel, Tommy Wasserman, An-Ting Y

Approx. 540 pages
ISBN 9783161566622
cloth 145,00 €
ISBN 9783161566639
eBook PDF approx. 145,00 €

The book is the result of a wonderful conference organized by Garrick Allen (see here, here and here).