TC of the NT, OT and Qur'an

The European Association of Biblical Studies now has a research group focused on fostering cross-disciplinary conversation on the textual criticism of NT, OT and Qur'an. The programme from the website is pasted below. For more details go here.

Programme

This research group focuses on the textual study and criticism of sacred texts from the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world that later had a global influence; the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur’anic text. All three have similarities and differences. They have influenced other writings and at the same time have themselves undergone external influence bearing on questions of interrelationship, orality, textuality and language. Not only the aforementioned characteristics, but also their preservation and the copying as well as the proliferation of manuscripts are of particular interest to textual scholars.

The sine qua non of this research unit for Textual Criticism is the study of the major witnesses to the text of the Old Testament – the Hebrew Bible, the texts from Qumran, the Septuagint, the Masoretic Text – as well as the Aramaic Targumim, the Syriac translations, the Vulgate, Commentaries and others. Of course, also the study of the Critical and the Majority Text, of the versions of the New Testament, as well as the Patristic citations and commentaries, but also Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and others. And finally, the research unit includes the textual criticism of the Qur’an, standard text or authoritative text, and the qira’at tradition (that corresponds to different readings); the cultural milieu and context in which the Qur’anic text has been transmitted and used and the tradition of the commentaries.

This research unit seeks to inspire debate among textual critics from all three fields.The scope/objectives of this group have the potential for expansion based on the materials, texts and approaches under discussion. Relevant topics for discussion would include:

• The study of OT, NT or Qur’anic writings not only in manuscripts, but also inscribed or printed,
• The texts themselves and the circumstances of their transmission
• Types or groupings of texts
• Reconstructions of forms of text
• Textual Criticism and history
• Textual Criticism and exegesis
• Textual Criticism and theology
• Textual Criticism and the world

Call for papers 2016

Two sessions are scheduled for the meeting in Leuven:

1. an open session where papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the research group are welcome.
2. a thematic session “Do margins matter?” focused on the structure and content of comments, notes, diagrams at the margins of the manuscripts, with the possibility of finding common elements and interactions between the traditions.

The “Textual Criticism of the New Testament, the Old Testament and the Qur’an” research group cordially invites the submission of proposals for papers for the forthcoming EABS meeting in Leuven. Generally the duration of papers to be read should not exceed 20 minutes. Abstracts (no more than 300 words) have to be enrolled through the EABS meeting website until 31st March 2016. More details on dates and abstract submissions please check here.

We welcome paper proposals that focus on the above mentioned topics and related aspects.

[HT Hugh Houghton]

Hundreds More Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts from the British Library

Add. MS 9401 f. 3r. Genesis. Dated 1588.

Yesterday the British Library announced that more Hebrew manuscripts have now been digitized.

Our followers and readers will be delighted to learn that over 760 Hebrew manuscripts have now been uploaded to the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts. Generously funded by The Polonsky Foundation, the Hebrew Manuscripts Digitisation Project aims at digitising and providing free on-line access to well over 1250 Hebrew handwritten books from the Library’s collection. The project, which began in 2013 is due for completion in June 2016, when the full complement of manuscripts will be available to a global audience.

I haven’t found a reliable way to filter for Old Testament manuscripts yet. If someone knows, let me know in the comments. A keyword search for “Hebrew Bible” returned 818 results but plenty of these were false hits. Just poking around though there are some beautiful Hebrew Bible manuscripts in this collection.

Add MS 11657 f. 171v. Isaiah. Dated 1300-1399.

Add MS 15282 f. 75v. Exodus. Dated 1300-1324

Add MS 9402, f. 101r. Daniel. Dated  1588.

Antwerp University Summer School

This Summer the Antwerp University Summer School: Book and Culture – Religious Manuscripts, Hand Press Books and Prints (15th–19th centuries): Collections, Materials and Methodologies – will take place on 27 June – 1 July at the Ruusbroec Institute Library. (www.uantwerpen.be/ruusbroec-summerschool).

 

The Summer School 2016 offers an interactive English-spoken training for 12 PhD students and postdocs who intensively use religious texts and visual media as source material for their research. The Summer School focuses on:  

1. the materiality of manuscripts, hand press books and prints; 
2. the way these sources have been gathered to build collections, and 
3. various methodologies which may be used to analyze these sources

The training will focus on the relationship between the physical object and its metadata, and on “big data analysis” and on other techniques used in the Digital Humanities. Through hands-on sessions in the unique Ruusbroec Institute Library, and visits to three other important Antwerp historic, religious collections, participants will familiarize with religious collections and specific documents.

 

Lectures by: Erik Kwakkel (Leiden); David McKitterick (Cambridge); Falk Eisermann (Berlin); Evelyne Verheggen (Nijmegen); Pierre Delsaerdt (Antwerp); Hubert Meeus (Antwerp); Kees Schepers (Antwerp); Goran Proot (Antwerp and Paris); Tom Deneire (Antwerp); Daniël Ermens (Antwerp)

 

Visits to: Ruusbroec Institute Library; University of Antwerp Library - Special Collections; Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience; Carolus Borromeus Church

Fee € 150: including lunches, drinks and Summer School dinner

 

For registration, please send an e-mail to ruusbroec@uantwerpen.be with the following information:

• PhD or postdoc?
• affiliation
• current research project
• short motivation for your registration

The number of participants is limited to 12 PhD students and postdocs. Admittance will be in order of registration. Master students can register but will only be admitted when the maximum number of participants is not reached. You will receive a confirmation of your admittance before 15 April 2016, which will include further details. For more information, please contact daniel.ermens@uantwerpen.be.

Monastic Economies in Egypt and Palestine

Sorry for the late notice, but some readers may well be interested in this conference:

Please find below the programme for the Monastic Economies in Egypt and Palestine conference, which will take place in Oxford 16th-17th March, 2016. Attendance at the event is free, but registration is essential. To register, please email monastic.economies@gmail.com. Further updates, including abstracts, will be posted at: monkscamelsandwine.wordpress.com

With best wishes,
Jenny Cromwell
Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

Monastic Economies in Egypt and Palestine, 5th–10th centuries CE
16th–17th March, Ertegun House, Oxford

Organisers: Louise Blanke, Jennifer Cromwell and Bryan Ward Perkins.

Wednesday 16th March

8.45 – 9.10 Registration
9.10 – 9.30 Introduction by Louise Blanke, Jennifer Cromwell and Bryan Ward Perkins.

Session I: Monastic food production and consumption
Session chair: Jennifer Cromwell

9.30 – 10.05 Alain Delattre: Agricultural management and food production at the monastery of Bawit
10.05 – 10.40 Dorota Dzierzbicka: Monastic vintages. The social and economic role of wine in Egyptian monasteries during the 5th–7th centuries.

Tea and coffee break

11.10 – 11.45 Darlene Brooks Hedstrom: Cooking, Baking and Serving: A Window into the kitchen of Egyptian Monastic Households and the Archaeology of Cooking.
11.45 – 12.20 Gábor Kalla: The refectory and the kitchen in the early Byzantine cloister of Tall Bi’a (Syria). The Egyptian and Palestinian connections.

Lunch

Session II: The monastic estate (built environments and landholdings)
Session chair: Elisabeth O’Connell

13.30 – 14.05 Tomasz Derda and Joanna Wegner: The Naqlun fathers and their business affairs
14.05 – 14.40 Karel Innemée: St Macarius’s Monastery in Sketis: Questions raised by recent surveys
14.40 – 15.15 Jacob Ashkenazi and Mordechai Aviam: Economic growth and monastic built environment in Christian Galilee in Late Antiquity

Tea and coffee break

15.45 – 16.20 Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello: Monasteries as landowners: Evidence from the Egyptian village of Aphrodito (6th-8th centuries CE)
16.20 – 16.55 Arietta Papaconstantinou: Loans, land, and the Lord: Was credit important for monastic estates?
16.55 – 17.30 Davide Bianchi: A great monastic estate between Palaestina and Arabia

Thursday 17th March

Session III: Travel and pilgrimage
Session chair: Bryan Ward Perkins

9.00 – 9.35 Gesa Schenke: Egyptian Hagiotopography: documentary and literary evidence for the martyr veneration at monastic shrines
9.35 – 10.10 Tonio Sebastian Richter: The making of memory: visitors’ inscriptions in the Upper Egyptian monastery Deir Anba Hadra

Tea and coffee break

10.30 – 11.05 Orit Shamir: Garments and Shrouds of Egyptian and Nubian Pilgrims from Qasr al-Yahud, ninth century CE
11.05 – 11.40 Daniel Reynolds: Deconstructing the pilgrim economy
11.40 – 12.15 Paula Tutty: Monastic travels in fourth and fifth century Egypt

Lunch

Session IV: Trade and the production and consumption of material goods
Session chair: Louise Blanke

13.30 – 14.05 Mennat Allah el Dorry: It’s a dung job: Exploring fuel disc production in Egyptian monasteries
14.05 – 14.40 Andrea Myers Achi: Illuminating the Scriptorium: Monastic economy and book production from the medieval monastery of St Michael in Egypt

Tea and coffee break

15.10 – 15.45 Daniel Caner: P.Colt 79 as evidence for the distinction between offerings (Prosphorai) and blessings (Eulogiai) in Byzantine Monasticism
15.45 -16.20 Sebastian Olschok: The economic complex of Deir Anba Hadra, Egypt

Break

16.50- 17.30 Summary discussion led by Louise Blanke and Jennifer Cromwell

Museum of the Bible - 90 second fly through video

New Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

An email from the librarian at Corpus Christi, Oxford informs me of a new catalogue which includes seven Biblical Hebrew manuscripts:

Corpus Library and Archives are delighted to announce the publication of A descriptive catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Edited by Peter E. Pormann (CCC 1994), the catalogue complements recently published volumes on the College’s Western and Greek manuscripts.

The editor, Profesor Peter Pormann (Manchester University) will be giving a David Patterson Lecture at 7.15 pm on Monday 7 March, in the Corpus auditorium: The Study of Hebrew in Medieval and Renaissance England: the Corpus connection

Here is a brief summary of the collection:

Although few in number, the College’s Hebrew manuscripts are outstanding in rarity and value. At the core of the collection are the seven Biblical manuscripts given to Corpus by John Claymond, each of which features an interlinear translation. Jewish and Christian scribes produced such texts in a collaborative effort during the mid-thirteenth century to provide tools for non-Jews to learn Hebrew. In addition the collection contains a near complete copy of Rashi’s biblical commentaries, and an Ashkenazi prayer book. In the latter, the owner, a Jew from Spain living in England, recorded different debts owed to him by a variety of Christian dignitaries around the year 1200. He did this in Judaeo-Arabic (i.e. Arabic written in Hebrew letters), and this document is the only one of its kind; no other texts are known to have been written in this language during the entire Middle Ages in the British Isles. Taken together, the Corpus collection forms one of the most important collections of Anglo-Jewish manuscripts in the world.

According to the VMR, Corpus Christi has only one Greek New Testament manuscript (l 2436).