So-called “carpet” page from the Burgos Bible | Dated 1260, from Burgos in Spain | Image Source
On AJR
Dissertation Spotlight! Daniel Picus on the rabbinic division of the biblical text.
Picus: “These divisions—the practice of segmentation—shape how we read the text, and what we do with it subsequently. It is this set of observations that I applied to rabbinic reading of the Biblical text. These insights led me to a clearer picture of how verses, phrases, paragraphs, and parshiyyot (something between our idea of a paragraph and a chapter) functioned for the rabbis of late antiquity. The division of a text into smaller pieces was a fundamental practice of reading in the ancient Mediterranean world and shaped numerous other reading practices in turn.”
Book Note: Thomas R. Blanton IV, A Spiritual Economy: Gift Exchange in the Letters of Paul of Tarsus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017)
Quigley: “Christian and especially protestant theology has emphasized the importance of the term charis, or gift, frequently translated as “grace,” as central to human salvation through divine charis. This is due in no small part to the frequent use of the term in Romans, and the importance of that letter in Protestant exegesis, especially Martin Luther’s commentary on the letter. Blanton, by situating this language from Paul’s letters in broader studies of gift exchange, reminds us that “free gifts” are never actually free but rather a part of complex social systems which involve reciprocity and response.”
Articles and News
Initial collections launch for the new Bibliography of the Arabic Bible, aimed to facilitate growth in attention to the Bible in Arabic.
Images of the Bodmer Papyri now online thanks to the Bodmer Lab.
Courtesy of the Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer, discussion of digital tools available for the study of Biblical Hebrew.
The British Library blog tackles digitization of Judeo-Persian manuscripts.
Call for submissions for inaugural issue of the Journal of Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies: Bible and Science Fiction!
Laura Lieber on late antique Aramaic poetry at ASOR.
Amy-Jill Levine on differences between terminologies: Old Testament, Tanakh, and Hebrew Bible.
Reflections on Elliott Horowitz at the Jewish Quarterly Review.
I really find a lot of hope and inspiration from the work of some powerhouse women in my field. Today, I am particularly blown away by Denise Kimber Buell https://t.co/yw6sUlFBUS I mean look at her contributions. What female scholars are you inspired by today?
— Dr. Jenny Barry (@jennisifire) 4 November 2018
The 5thC Neonian baptistery in #Ravenna is famous for its amazing ceiling mosaics. Maximian redecorated it in the 6thC: he added #mosaic tituli feat. monograms displaying the names of the 2 patrons who embellished the building: NEON EPiscopuS DEI FAMULUS and MAXImianuS EPiscopuS. pic.twitter.com/F3Gr27x6xN
— GiorgiaV (@ParvaVox) 8 November 2018
#BehindTheScenes just started cataloguing these mystical amulet fragments, Or 14057 🕎#HebrewProject pic.twitter.com/YbIFmVipcB
— BL Hebrew Project (@BL_HebrewMSS) 8 November 2018