Book: Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction

Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction
Edited by: Alessandro Bausi (General editor), Pier Giorgio Borbone, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Paola Buzi, Jost Gippert, Caroline Macé, Marilena Maniaci, Zisis Melissakis, Laura E. Parodi, Witold Witakowski

About the book:

The volume is the main achievement of the Research Networking Programme ‘Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies’, funded by the European Science Foundation in the years 2009–2014. It is the first attempt to introduce a wide audience to the entirety of the manuscript cultures of the Mediterranean East. The chapters reflect the state of the art in such fields as codicology, palaeography, textual criticism and text editing, cataloguing, and manuscript conservation as applied to a wide array of language traditions including Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Caucasian Albanian, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Slavonic, Syriac, and Turkish. Seventy-seven scholars from twenty-one countries joined their efforts to produce the handbook. The resulting reference work can be recommended both to scholars and students of classical and oriental studies and to all those involved in manuscript research, digital humanities, and preservation of cultural heritage. The volume includes maps, illustrations, indexes, and an extensive bibliography. 

To download the book in its entirety or by chapters, go to:
http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/COMST/handbookonline.html 

Hebrew Union College Annual

For information about HUCA, click:
http://press.huc.edu/huca/#.VMPanC5iDAg

This venerable publication is now evidently open-access via JSTOR:

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=hebruniocollannu&

Hadashot Arkheologiyot: Excavations and Surveys in Israel

http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/default_eng.aspx

From the website:

Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (HA-ESI) has been published in print since 1961 by the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM) and since 1990 by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The journal contains preliminary reports of excavations and surveys in Israel, as well as final reports of small-scale excavations and surveys; it also publishes archaeological finds recorded during inspection activities. The journal is bilingual, Hebrew and English; reports submitted in English are translated into Hebrew and vice versa.

The e-journal www.hadashot-esi.org.il is the digital format of HA-ESI, replacing the printed version. The first digital publication of the journal (No. 116, 2004) is a reflection of the last printed volume. From 2005 onward, the journal will be published on-line only – each year will receive a volume number, continuing the numbering of the printed journal (e.g., No. 117 = 2005, No. 118 = 2006, etc.).

The e-journal is an unlimited data base of archeological reports, including photographs, maps, plans and pottery figures. The reports can be searched by keywords or by means of an interactive map. The results of both types of searches can be printed.

The reports submitted to the e-journal will be edited in the same manner as in the printed journal (see Guide to Contributors). They will be published on-line with the completion of their editing and translation, and will be ascribed to a specific issue according to the year of publication (issue no. = year of publication). A final excavation report is marked with as asterix*. Announcements of new publications will appear on the Home Page of the e-journal. Prints of reports are available from the web site for personal and educational use only. 

Ma'agarim Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language

http://maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il/Pages/PMain.aspx

From the website:

The paramount project of the Academy of the Hebrew Language is the Historical Dictionary; the creation of this enormous and most important enterprise was decided upon shortly after the Academy was established in 1953.

The aim of a historical dictionary is to relate the history of the words of a language by answering questions such as: When did the word first enter the language, and is it still in use? What were the word’s original form and meaning and how did they change over time?

Good answers to such questions require a large database of texts of the different historical language strata, set in a concordance form, i.e. each word is linked to its relevant dictionary-entry.

The Historical Dictionary Project has accumulated texts of all the extant Hebrew compositions from the time of the canonization of the Hebrew Bible until the end of the Geonic period, and large selections of Hebrew literature from the mid-18-th century until the founding of the State of Israel. In recent years medieval compositions have begun to be processed into the database.

After over fifty years of scholarly work done by scores of experts in Hebrew linguistics, literature and other Judaic Studies, there has emerged a unique treasure of scholarly concordances to Hebrew Literature, in the form of the present database offered to the public in this site.

A Sampling of Egyptian Texts from the Leiden Papyrological Institute

From the website:

Not just Greek

Most texts from the collection of the Leiden Papyrological Institute are in Greek, but some are written in Egyptian (Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic) and in Latin. Take a look at examples of non-Greek writing.

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Of course people paid taxes

Ostraca (mostly pottery, but also limestone shards) formed a cheap alternative for papyrus. Pots were found in every household. Pots also break easily. The shards were then recycled as writing material. Tax receipts are generally written on ostraca.

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Always borrowing things

Written proof of a loan has always been important. Take a look at examples of loans of grain, wine, and money, and a loan on mortgage.

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Other official records

Many papyrus documents are official. Examples of a registration of birth, an arrangement for overdue instalments and a receipt for payment in money and kind.

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Private letters

The meaning of many letters escapes us, when the context is lacking, as is the case in these two private letters on papyrus, from the third and sixth centuries AD.

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A mummy with a name

Egypt largely consisted of desert. Wood was a relatively rare and expensive commodity. Wooden mummy labels were often shaped like tomb stones and hung around the neck of a mummy with rope. They mostly mention the name and age of the mummy.

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Reading Homer in the Roman period

In antiquity people loved to read the authors we now call classic. Texts were copied on demand. The handwriting of literary papyri is neater and more regular than documentary writing. Some of our literary texts on papyrus: Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Euripides and a fable.

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Wax tablets

Wax tablets are little planks hollowed out on two sides, and then filled with wax. A pointed stilus was used to write letters in the wax surface. The flat back end of the stilus was then applied to erase the text, rendering wax tablets the ideal notebook for children at school.

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Small history versus big history

All papyri, each in their own way, provide information on aspects of life in antiquity. For example the complaint of a private individual about the theft of dresses, and another text on a visit of Emperor Hadrian.

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Magic, religion, superstition

Magic, religion and superstition were closely related in Antiquity. In this section we combined a drawing of a temple, a list of gods, magic, horoscopes, amulets and Christian texts.

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Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament

http://jesot.org/

From the "about" page:

Scope

Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament (JESOT) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the academic and evangelical study of the Old Testament. The journal seeks to fill a need in academia by providing a venue for high-level scholarship on the Old Testament from an evangelical standpoint. The journal is not affiliated with any particular academic institution, and with an international editorial board, online format, and multi-language submissions, JESOT cultivates and promotes Old Testament scholarship in the evangelical global community. The journal differs from many evangelical journals in that it seeks to publish current academic research in the areas of ancient Near Eastern backgrounds, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Linguistics, Septuagint, Research Methodology, Literary Analysis, Exegesis, Text Criticism, and Theology as they pertain only to the Old Testament. The journal will be freely available to the scholarly community and will be published bi-annually online. Hard copies will be produced by request. JESOT also includes up-to-date book reviews on various academic studies of the Old Testament.

Indexing

JESOT is indexed in Old Testament Abstracts, Christian Periodical Index, The Ancient World Online, and Biblicalstudies.org.uk.

Doctrinal Position

The editorial staff and board of Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament endorses the following doctrinal statement which has been adapted from the internationally oriented Lausanne Covenant:
1. The belief in the one eternal God who exists in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who creates and governs all things in accordance with his will.
2. The belief that the Old and New Testament Scriptures are divinely inspired, without error in all that they affirm, the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and able to accomplish God’s purpose of salvation.
3. The deity of Jesus Christ, his substitutionary death on the cross as the necessary means for the redemption of the world, and his bodily resurrection and return.
4. The work of the Holy Spirit in granting new life to the believer and bearing witness to the Truth through the study and proclamation of the Word of God.
* JESOT welcomes submissions from contributors that do not adhere to the above statements. However, the editorial staff and board will reserve the right to determine an article’s appropriateness for publication.