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How many languages does it take to get to the center?

Sep 6th, 2011
by Christian Brady.
10 comments

Duane of Abnormal Interests offers This Isn’t Kindergarten in response to James’ ”Essential Languages for New Testament Study” which was, in turn, a follow up to Larry’s discussion of what languages are essential to NT studies. Duane ups the ante quite a bit. Any serious student of the first two centuries CE

needs to know not only Hellenistic Greek, but more than a smattering of Aramaic, Hebrew (including Rabbinic Hebrew), Syriac, Coptic and Latin.

And if you are interested in Hebrew Bible, well let’s just say you better put your linguistic cap on.

A serious student will know Hebrew, Aramaic, Hellenistic Greek, Akkadian including peripheral Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Egyptian, and Classical Greek. I think they also need know Hittite.

All of this glossolalia got me thinking about the fact that none of the authors of the NT or the HB knew all or likely even more than three of these languages. Most likely only knew a couple, which is still more than most people today, I will grant you that. But does Duane or any of us really think that the author of Ruth, for example, Akkadian or Ugaritic or Phoenician? Do we really think they knew historical grammar and the development of Northwest Semitic languages? Of course not.

I understand that for us as literary scholars, historians, theologians, archaeologists and the like we need to know a far greater breadth and depth than the author’s whose works we study. Often they are influenced in ways they were unaware of and that is often grist for our scholarly mill. Each scholar takes a different tack based upon our interests and training, some linguistic and others theological, and to investigate those niches we need specialized tools.

But it might just be worthwhile sometimes to remember the original context and the limitations and expectations of the author and his/her audience.

 

Getting ready for Finland!

Jul 29th, 2010
by Christian Brady.
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Targum Scholars gathered for dinner in 2007

I am told that the weather is “beastly hot” in Finland right now. It has even approached 90º F! But I am greatly looking forward to our trip there. Why am I going to Finland? Of course you remember that the 2010 IOSOT (and IOTS) conference is in Helsinki this year! Don’t you?

It is shaping up to be a great set of conferences. In addition to IOSOT there will also be meeting:

I am looking forward to seeing my colleagues and a rare week away with my bride. We start the journey tomorrow and arrive in Helsinki on Sunday morning. You can be sure I will have some news and pictures to share once we are there!

(In the meantime, you can see some of my pictures from the 2007 IOSOT in Ljubljana at my flickr account.)

 

IOTS 2010 Schedule Posted

Jun 10th, 2010
by Christian Brady.
2 comments

The 2010 International Organization for Targumic Studies conference is nearly here! Held triennially as part of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, this year’s conference is in Helsinki, Finland during the first week in August. The program(me) has just been posted at the conference website and I will share it below as well, but first I thought I would share my abstract with you.

The Figure of Boaz in Targum Ruth

This paper will consider how the Targumist has transformed the character of Boaz from that found in the biblical text. There is no doubt that Boaz is a key player in the book of Ruth; without the male redeemer safety and security for Naomi and Ruth could not be ensured. But Boaz’s engagement is restricted to reacting to Ruth’s actions and directions. There are certain tropes and themes to be expected, Boaz is certainly presented as the pious patriarch, however it is the women, and more specifically the foreign woman Ruth, who are in complete control. As a character Boaz has more in common with Rachel or Leah than Jacob; he has certain key moments of dialogue that move the plot, but his primary function is to provide offspring.
The Targum, as we might expect, presents Boaz in a different light. In the Targum we find that Boaz is actually the judge Ibzan whose piety brings about the conclusion of the famine and the messianic dynasty. He has even received a prophecy from God that kings and prophets would descend from Ruth and is the model of rabbinic propriety. This figure who is marginally central in the biblical account now becomes the paragon of piety and the righteous judge.

International Organization for Targumic Studies (IOTS) will have
its 6th congress. Person in Charge: Dr. Willem F. Smelik, President of IOTS. For more information of IOTS, see here.

Programme of IOTS

Wednesday 4 Aug, 9:00–10:30, Main Building Hall 10

Keynote Lecture: Steven Fraade, Targum and Multilingualism in Late Antique Judaism and Jewish Society

Wednesday 4 Aug, Session A (11:00–13:00)
Main Building Hall 10

Philology & Methodology
11:00 Shamma Friedman, The Dating of Targum Onqelos
11:30 Shai Heijmans, About the ‘Unreliability’ of the Vocalization of Western Targum-Manuscripts
12:00 Margaretha Folmer, Forms and Uses of the Demonstrative Pronouns in Targum Onqelos
12:30 James K. Aitken, Septuagint and Targum Studies: Historical and Methodological Relations

Wednesday 4 Aug, Session B (14:30–18:00)
Main Building Hall 10

Genre
14:30 Alex Samely, The Targums within a New Description of Jewish Text Structures in Antiquity
15:15 Robert Hayward, ‘Targum a Misnomer for Midrash’? A new typology of the Second Targum of Esther

Afternoon coffee break 16:00

16:30 Philip Alexander, ‘Translation and Midrash Completely Fused Together’? The Form of the Targums to Canticles, Lamentations and Eccleasiastes
17:15 Rocco Bernasconi, A Literary Analysis of the Genesis Apocryphon

Thursday 5 Aug, 9:00–10:30, Main Building Hall 10

Keynote Lecture: Avigdor Shinan and Yair Zakovitch, Avoiding Anonymity in the Bible and Beyond

Thursday 5 Aug, Session A (11:00–13:00),
Main Building Hall 10

Exegesis
11:00 Willem Smelik, Targum in Talmud
11:30 Beatrice Lawrence, Jethro and Jewish Identity in Targumic Interpretation
12:00 Chris Brady, The figure of Boaz in TgRuth
12:30 Craig Morrison, dyt[/dyt[and the World to Come in the Syriac New Testament and Targum Neophyti

Thursday 5 Aug, Session B (14:30–18:00),
Main Building Hall 10

Translation Strategies
14:30 Dmytro Tsolin, The Transformation of Poetical Lines of the Song at the Sea (Ex. 15:1–18, 21) in the Targum Onqelos
15:00 Bjørn Olav Kvam, Genesis 14 as Key-text for the Balaam Texts – A Case study of Text-immanent Exegesis in the Targumim
15:30 Gudrun Lier, Translation Techniques in Malachi according to Targum Jonathan

Afternoon coffee break 16:00

Identifying Targum
16:30 Paul Flesher, Identifying the Palestinian Targums: The Case of the Cairo Geniza Manuscripts
17:00 David Shepherd, Can Anything Targumic Come from Qumran? Revisiting Klaus Beyer’s ‘Targums’ of Tobit and Isaiah
17:30 Announcements: NTCS-website

Thursday 5 Aug, 18:00, Main Building Hall 10

IOTS Business Meeting

Friday 6 Aug, 9:00–10:30, Main Building Hall 13

Keynote Lecture: Dineke Houtman, The Use of Paratextual Elements in Targum Research

Friday 6 Aug, Session A (11:00–13:00), Main Building Hall 13

Manuscripts, Reception and Edition
11:00 Luis Díez Merino, A New Complete Aramaic Bible
11:30 Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman, ‘Christian’ Targums in a Targum edition?
12:00 Hector Patmore, The Italian Textual Tradition of Targum Jonathan
12:30 Hans Van Nes, “Rome” in Targum Jonathan and its European Reception

 

Syriac news: New releases by Gorgias Press

Dec 15th, 2009
by Christian Brady.
No comments yet

I received the following email from George Kiraz and pass it along for the benefit of all.

Dear Christian,

I am writing to introduce you to some of Gorgias Press’s academic publishing programs. At the last SBL meeting, we released ca. 65 new titles, some of which are listed below under my signature. During the past nine months, we refined our acquisitions and production processes in order to meet scholarly needs, and release books very efficiently within months.

During this holiday season, we are running a 40% sale on all books. This is the perfect time to get any Gorgias book at a discount. If you would like to learn about new releases, I encourage you to sign up here. You can opt out any time.

You can download our most recent PDF catalog where you can see a list of special sale items at up to 60% discount.

Please find below some of the titles we released for SBL, as well as information on how to submit your work for publication. If you have a publication project, please write to us at submissions@gorgiaspress.com.

Yours,

George A. Kiraz, President

Gorgias Press
180 Centennial Ave., Suite #3
Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA
Tel. +1 732-885-8900
Fax. +1 732-885-8908
E-mail: helpdesk@gorgiaspress.com
www.gorgiaspress.com

Some of the Titles Released for SBL

A Syriac Lexicon by By Michael Sokoloff
ISBN 978-1-60724-620-6, $149.50

The second edition of Carl Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum, published in 1928, is the best dictionary of Syriac ever written. However, its Latin language and the ordering of words according to triliteral Semitic roots make its use difficult for most students and scholars. This revised edition by Sokoloff renders meanings in English, arranges words alphabetically, and includes many useful tools on a CD.
Qumran through (Real) Time by By Robert Cargill
ISBN 978-1-60724-058-7, $82 (Your price $49.20)

This book proposes a new occupation model for the remains of Khirbet Qumran, the site associated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Using the latest in virtual reality technology, the author reconstructs the site of Qumran and demonstrates that the site was initially built as a Hasmonean fortress, and was later expanded into a residence for a self-sufficient community responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls. (more…)
 

What happened to Beth Mardutho? (And why won’t Syriac appear in my browser?)

Sep 16th, 2008
by Christian Brady.
9 comments

Does anyone know what happened to the Beth Mardutho site? It used to be at http://www.bethmardutho.org/ and is now simply showing “forbidden.”

For those who do not know this site it is the site for The Syriac Institute, established by George Kiraz. You can read about it in an old ANE list message here. It was a great resource, although I had not visited it in quite some time.

I realized it was down today because I realized that Syriac was not appearing properly in my browser (Firefox, OS X 10.5.5). It is probably just a matter of fonts (you can check Syriac compatibility here, for example) but it was disappointing to find the Beth Mardutho site down. Anyone know what is up?

UPDATE: You can download Meltho, the suite of Syriac fonts, from Brill here, but it dates from 2001 and I think there must be newer versions. Also, I still cannot view Syriac in any browser, even with these fonts installed…)

 
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