Tuesday, December 22, 2015

New book on Hebrew philology and epigraphy

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/9780884140801_OA.pdf

The hyperlink will connect you to a PDF download of:

Hutton, Jeremy, and Aaron D. Rubin, eds. Epigraphy, Philology, and the Hebrew Bible: Methodological Perspectives on Philological and Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible in Honor of Jo Ann Hackett. Ancient Near East Monographs 12. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2105.
 

Friday, December 18, 2015

Oqimta: Studies in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature

http://www.oqimta.org.il/english/HomePage.aspx

The Jews were, and remain, formidable interpreters of Scripture, so it makes sense to post this resource here.

From the web site:
Oqimta is a digitized research journal devoted to all spheres and types of talmudic and rabbinical literature – Halakha and Agada
The articles in this journal undergo academic appraisal and redaction, and are published in the accepted languages for Judaica research.
Oqimta appears once a year, in digitized form, and is available free of charge to the reading public. Articles that have completed the publication process are uploaded to the site prior to the finalization of the volume, and can be found on the "In Publication" page.
We are pleased to present Oqimta 2 (5774 [2014]) containing eight articles. We take this opportunity to invite you to subscribe to our mailing list (see subscribe), and to send us your submissions (see Instructions for Authors).
Editor: Shamma Friedman
Assistant Editor: Avraham Yoskovich
Editorial Board: Yeshayahu Gafni
+++
Links to articles from the present edition:
Volume 2 (5774 [2014]


Ephraim Bezalel Halivni
The Influence of an Adjoining Halakha upon the Formulation of a Halakha (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Eliashiv Fraenkel
The Yoke of The Kingdom of Heaven (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Gary A. Rendsburg
תפילה לדוד: A Short Note (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Richard Hidary
A Rhetorical Reading of the Bavli as a Polemic against the Yerushalmi: Regarding Halakhic Pluralism and the Controversy between the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Amram Tropper
From Tatlafush to Sura: On the Foundation of the Academy of Sura according to Rav Sherira Gaon (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Yosaif Mordechai Dubovick
On the use of Rabbenu Hananel's Talmud commentary in Raavan's "Even HaEzer" (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Aharon Gaimani
Dowry and compensation in Yemenite communities (Heb.)
פתח קובץ Summary

Jay Rovner
Hillel and the Bat Qol: A Toseftan Discourse on Prophecy in the Second Temple and Tannaitic Periods
פתח קובץ Summary








Wednesday, December 16, 2015

del Olmo Lete's Bibliography of Semitic Linguistics

http://www.aulaorientalis.org/semiticbibliography/index.html

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For all you Semitic philologists, this is from one of the world's foremost:

It seems obligatory at the beginning of this bibliography to set out its limits and justify its objectives. The aim of the bibliography is to collect and arrange systematically only those studies directly or mainly related to subjects of Semitic linguistics, namely, those centered on the study of languages and their phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic constituents, from both the comparative perspective(close and distant relationship) and the immanent perspective (grammar and lexicon). Consequently, all other studies dealing with the history of the societies which use or used those languages and with everything that is built on them (socio-political history, literature, religion and ‘culture’ in general), remain excluded.

This limitation may seem impossible or at the very least without justification and minimalist, in some way resorting to ‘formalism’, giving up the basic element, whose development a language has to perform, namely, the shaping of a universe of socialrepresentations, which generates a particular way of communication and creativity. One could say that it means abandoning the ‘context’ in which every linguistic formulation has its meaning, being at the same time its outcome. But we cannot forget, in answer to such an objection, that our purpose has a fixed point of support: it is constructed exclusively on ‘texts’ as the products of language, which are the reference point for testing and validating results. And if it is true that ‘the proposition is the world’ (Wittgenstein), then linguistic analysis is the basis for the understanding of any representation.

Our intention is to provide specialist information that arranges and classifies as much as possible the vast amount of data constantly presented by the general bibliography on Semitic languages and cultures. In this way, access to such information will be made easier, with better focus on the more important issues of research. At the same time we intend to collect the information and classify it in a uniform manner, in this way making it possible to compare across languages the research being carried out within the various languages, since such research often ignores other languages.

The first installment is devoted to general topics in respect of the Semitic family as a whole. In this connexion, studies dealing with its relationship to other linguistic groups and families (Nostratic, Hamitic or Afro-Asiatic) will be taken into account in as much as they bear on the study of Semitics proper. Here, Nostratic is taken in its wider meaning, as used today amongIndo-European scholars. In order to avoid any prejudgements, in successive installments we will offer linguistic bibliographies for each Semitic language as well as for each Semitic language family according to its name, without attempting to decide on its suitability or incorporate it within a particular preferred classification. This is precisely one of the problems the present bibliographical tool aims to address. The series will include the following headings: [East and North Semitic], Akkadian, Eblaite, Amorite, Ugaritic, [Northwest Semitic/Canaanite],Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, South Semitic, Old (Epigraphic) North and South Arabian, Modern South-Arabian, Arabic and Ethiopic,both classic and modern, the pertinent dialectal variations being included under the appropriate heading.The steady general bibliographical references are ordered, to easy their use, according to titles instead of authors, which may vary along the years. Otherwise, the alphabetic order according to author’s name is followed.

The cross-references to the individual bibliographies of each of these languages and groups of languages are essential for extracting full information on a specific linguistic issue at either a general or a comparative level. In the first installment, any comparison of (at least two) languages is noted. When the title specifies the language compared, the item will be repeated in the corresponding bibliography (“Comparative Level”). Unlike the other topics, where the aim is to be exhaustive, the Bibliography on Semitic lexicography has been kept within less strict limits, otherwise the task would have been endless.

Studies or references to particular lexemes have not been recorded in the installment devoted to Common Semitics, unless they bear on comparative issues. In principle, only treatments of ‘roots’ or ‘semantic fields’ have been taken into account. Nevertheless, the criterion has not always been applied stringently, since often it is difficult to draw the line between particular and comparative treatments. In the other installments, devoted to particular languages, concrete lexemes also have been recorded, although in a non exhaustive way. In any case, this section of the bibliography has to be taken as merely indicative and perfunctory, and reference to up-to-date lexicographic records is unavoidable. A thorough lexicographical entry should even include reference to the main studies on editions and commentaries on the texts, where the particular lexeme appears, but such textual studies have not been included. As for book reviews, only the most significant that appeared in the last years have been listed.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

The Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project

https://hittitedictionary.uchicago.edu/
From the home page:

The Hittite language is the earliest preserved member of the Indo-European family of languages. It was written on clay tablets in central Asia Minor, modern Turkey, over a five hundred year span (c. 1650-1180 B.C.). The vast majority of Hittite tablets were excavated from the ruins of the ancient Hittite capital Hattusa located near the modern Turkish town of Boghazkale (formerly Boghazköy) about 210 kilometers east of Ankara.
Scientific excavation of these ruins by a German expedition began in 1906. About 10,000 clay tablets inscribed with the familiar Assyro-Babylonian script were recovered at that moment. Although some were written in the Akkadian language and could be read immediately, most were in an unknown language, correctly assumed to be Hittite. Within ten years the language had been deciphered, and a sketch of its grammar published. Gradually, the interational community of scholars, led by the Germans, expanded the knowledge of the language. The number of common Hittite words that one could translate with reasonable certainty increased steadily. Glossaries published in 1936 by Edgar Sturtevant (in English) and in 1952 by Johannes Friedrich (in German) admirably served the needs of their contemporaries. Yet today, seventy-five years after the decipherment, there still exists no complete dictionary of the Hittite language.
The Chicago Hittite Dictionary Project (CHD) was officially started in 1975 with the awarding of an NEH grant to Harry A. Hoffner and Hans G. Güterbock, the editors. It was conceived in answer to a recognized need for a Hittite-English lexical tool, a concordance for lexicographical research for all parts of the corpus of Hittite texts.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

time-limited access to some T&T Clark titles

This from an email I received today:
 
Recently published in
Old Testament studies
Bringing you a selection of books from The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies, the Feminist Companion to the Bible (Second) series, and our Guides for the Perplexed series. 
On Her Account
"On Her Account"
Reconfiguring Israel in Ruth, Esther, and Judith
Anne-Mareike Wetter
More info »
Daniel Evokes Isaiah
Daniel Evokes Isaiah
Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel 
G. Brooke Lester
More info »
Wisdom Intoned
Wisdom Intoned
A Reappraisal of the Genre 'Wisdom Psalms'
Simon Chi-Chung Cheung
More info »
Monotheism and Yahweh's Appropriation of Baal
Monotheism and Yahweh's Appropriation of Baal
James S. Anderson
More info »
Available in Bloomsbury Collections »
'And He Will Take Your Daughters...'
'And He Will Take Your Daughters...'
Woman Story and the Ethical Evaluation of Monarchy in the David Narrative 
April D. Westbrook
More info »
Available in Bloomsbury Collections »
'Perhaps there is Hope'
'Perhaps there is Hope'
Reading Lamentations as a Polyphony of Pain, Penitence, and Protest 
Miriam J. Bier
More info »
A Feminist Companion to Tobit and Judith
A Feminist Companion to Tobit and Judith
Edited by
Athalya Brenner-Idan & Helen Efthimiadis-Keith
More info »
The History of Ancient Israel: A Guide for the Perplexed
The History of Ancient Israel: A Guide for the Perplexed
Philip R. Davies
More info »
Available in Bloomsbury Collections »
 
Bloomsbury Collections
BIBLICAL STUDIES COLLECTIONSGet instant access to research including
The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies series
Bloomsbury Collections
 
Academic Book Week: Win 60 days of free access to Bloomsbury Collections! 
Academic Book Week

Friday, November 6, 2015

Cambridge Digital Library

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/

Although wide in scope, the CDL has collections of interest to biblical scholars, including the Cairo Geniza and ancient Hebrew Bibles.

From the home page:
Many items within the Library’s collections deserve to be highlighted. This may be because of their historical importance, uniqueness, beauty, fascinating content, or perhaps their personal associations. In this special collection within the Cambridge Digital Library we will draw together books, manuscripts and other items from across our collections that are especially significant. Many of them have been displayed in Library exhibitions in the past – now they can be accessed at any time, from anywhere in the world, and browsed cover to cover.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

New open-access book from Brill: Heger, Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature: Their Status and Roles

http://www.brill.com/products/book/women-bible-qumran-and-early-rabbinic-literature

Heger, Paul. Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature: Their Status and Roles. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 110. Leiden: Brill, 2014.


From the website:
Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature: Their Status and Roles portrays the tension between the unity of husband and wife and their different legal and social status from a wide range of perspectives, as deduced from the texts of the three corpora. The volume discusses the related topics of divorce, polygamy, woman’s obligations to fulfill precepts, membership in the community, genealogy and attitudes toward sex, such as rejection of asceticism. Women in the Bible, Qumran and Early Rabbinic Literature begins with an objective interpretation of the biblical narratives of the Creation and the Fall, the intellectual basis of Jewish attitudes toward women, and then analyzes the divergent interpretations of Qumran and the Rabbis, the grounds of their distinct doctrines and halakhot.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Open-access work by Emmanuel Tov

From AWOL, great news that updates earlier posts on this site about Tov's publications:

Sources: Books are presented here as they appear in public domain websites. In addition, Scribal Practices 1-2 and all the papers present PDF files of the manuscripts submitted to the respective publishers. In all these cases minute changes have been inserted in the printed versions. Words in pink refer to changes subsequent to the publication. 

Hebrew: The files included in this website were first recorded in different versions of MS-Word, and then converted to MS-Word 2004. In the wake of this conversion a few Hebrew word pairs now appear in the wrong order.

Books written or edited

Collected Papers 1999 - The Greek and Hebrew Bible

Collected Papers 2008 - Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible and Qumran

Reviews

Varia (the numbers refer to the bibliography )