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Author:
Twenty-eight rewritten and updated essays on the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls mainly published between 2019 and 2022 are presented in the fifth volume of the author's collected essays. They are joined by an unpublished study, an unpublished "reflection" on the development of text-critical research in 1970-2020 and the author's academic memoirs. All the topics included in this volume are at the forefront of textual research.
This volume comprehensively examines all texts dealing with social justice in the Prophecy of Amos. It also provides evidence of contemporary systemic social injustice. The volume then reflects on how biblical social justice is relevant to the contemporary quest for social justice. This volume demonstrates that irrespective of the hermeneutical challenges, the principles gleaned from the pages of the Hebrew Bible can dialogue effectively with modern issues and deduce living principles that could enable us to deal with issues that confront us today. It is thus a framework by which biblical social justice illuminates the contemporary quest for social justice.
Author:
Christianus Ravius (Christian Raue, 1613-1677) led a life of remarkable variety, which illustrates many aspects of the career of a scholar in seventeenth century Europe. This biography, the first full-length treatment of him since 1744, covers the first three decades of his eventful career, from the Gymnasium in his native Berlin through Germany, Scandiniavia, Holland, England and the Ottoman Empire. Drawing on much previously unexploited evidence, and on detailed analyses of his numerous published works, it presents a picture of a scholar trying to establish himself in the Republic of Letters, cultivating the acquaintance of many contemporary scholars, including such great names as Hugo Grotius, John Selden, James Ussher, Claudius Salmasius, Johannes Buxtorf II, G. J. Vossius and Jaobus Golius.
In the background of his precarious existence looms the Thirty Years’ War, which was a cause not only of his parents’ early death but also of the devastation of his family’s estate and his persistent poverty. Despite his failure to obtain a permanent position in any 0f the universities with which he was associated during this time, he persisted in promoting the study of oriental languages, especially Arabic. This led to his stay of two years in Constantinople and other parts of the Ottoman Empire, where he managed to acquire the remarkable collection of oriental manuscripts which was an important element in his attempts to attain employment and recognition. This study includes an account of the identity and present location of almost three hundred of those manuscripts, and also an edition of many unpublished letters from his extensive correspondence which are relevant to the narrative of his life. Ravius’s idiosyncratic theories on linguistic history receive due attention.
Editor:
More than 80 years ago, the first volume of Oudtestamentische studiën/Old Testament Studies (OTS) was published by Brill. Originally, this series was published on behalf of the Society for Old Testament Studies in the Netherlands. From 2009 on, OTS is published on behalf of the Societies for Old Testament Studies in the Netherlands and Belgium (OTW), South Africa (OTSSA), and the United Kingdom and Ireland (SOTS).

The series presents high quality volumes – both monographs and edited volumes – on linguistic, textual, historical and theological topics pertaining to the Old Testament.

The series published an average of 2 volumes per year over the last 5 years.
This series publishes monographs and edited collections on texts traditionally studied as “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and related topics. It seeks to foster new research, not just on the importance of such texts for understanding early Judaism and Christianity, but also on their significance for the later periods in which they were copied, translated, excerpted, and transmitted. The scope of the series includes the material philology and manuscripts of so-called “pseudepigrapha” as well as the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and other contexts of their reception in late antique, medieval, and modern eras. Special concerns include broadening the scholarly conversation around "pseudepigrapha" to include more diverse and global perspectives.

The series published two volumes over the last 5 years.
Editor-in-Chief:
The Supplements to Vetus Testamentum series covers the whole range of Old Testament study, including Septuaginta studies, Ugaritic research relevant to the study of the Old Testament, Hebrew studies, studies in ancient Israelite history and society, and studies in the history of the discipline. There are both monographs and collected volumes, the latter including the Proceedings of the Triennial International Congresses of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament.

The series published an average of 3 volumes per year over the last 5 years.
Jahrbuch der Franz Delitzsch-Arbeitsgemeinschaft E.V.
Author:

Abstract

It is well established in the literature that the vocalization of verbs in the Bible occasionally reflects late linguistic developments, specifically, changes in the Hebrew stem system during the Second Temple period, which affected the vocalization but not the consonantal orthography of the verb. This paper discusses five phenomena involving changes in the tense system, rather than the stem system, during the Second Temple period which are reflected in the orthography itself, namely, in the addition or omission of matres lectionis. I argue that the Second Temple scribes did not consider orthographical amendments involving matres lectionis as actual changes of the biblical text. As a result, they sometimes made such amendments, even in the conservative text of the Pentateuch. The five phenomena discussed here are examples of such amendments, reflecting changes in the Hebrew tense system during the Second Temple period. The reason tense-system developments are evident in the verbal orthography, while stem-system developments are not, is that the latter affected not only the vowels but also the consonants of the verbal forms, which the scribes avoided changing.

In: Vetus Testamentum

Abstract

I argue that the Levitical Prayer offered in Neh 9:5–37 (LP) offers a version of Judean history that does not include the Babylonian exile. Instead, it narrates an unbroken chain of possession of Judean territory that spans from the conquest and settlement of Canaan to the post-monarchic context of the prayer’s composition. Drawing insights from the study of cultural trauma, I make the case that the interpretive importance of such a catastrophic event cannot be assumed for subsequent Judean communities who sought to form a sense of cultural identity through the retelling of a shared past. Potentially traumatic events like the Babylonian exile are not actualized naturally; communal trauma is instead the product of social processes in the present that serve the needs of present and future communities. An elision of the Babylonian exile from a piece of post-monarchic period literature like the LP does not, therefore, require the interpretative conclusion that the prayer was written by the descendants of Judeans who avoided exile and remained in Judea during the sixth century ʙᴄᴇ. Importantly, neither does it exclude the possibility that the LP was produced by a community whose ancestors were displaced and resettled in Babylonia during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. Through this analysis I invite scholars to explore a broader range of interpretative possibilities in their study of Ezra-Nehemiah as a composition and the understanding of the defining elements of Judean identity in the post- monarchic period.

Open Access
In: Vetus Testamentum

Abstract

Septuagint Kingdoms, the Greek translation of Samuel-Kings, has an ambiguous linguistic reputation. While scholars sometimes note natural linguistic features, its isomorphic and literal translation style is typically emphasised. This ambiguity has apparently caused several scholars to misinterpret LXX 1 Kgdms 3:2, which uses the verb βαρύνω in reference to the failing eyesight of the priest Eli. When examined against other evidence, notably Euripides’ Alcestis, Kingdoms is shown to use a natural though poorly attested Greek expression meaning “go blind.” This paper demonstrates the natural idiomatic use of βαρύνω in 1 Kgdms 3:2 and shows its value in refining our understanding of “heavy eyes” in other non-translation Greek texts. More broadly, it promotes the reading of the LXX against the wider history of the Greek language.

Open Access
In: Vetus Testamentum