Targuman » IOTS

All good things must come to an end

Christian Brady — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:24:14 +0000

Willem Smellik, President IOTS

And so the triennial meeting of IOSOT/IOTS/IOQS (and the other associated groups) is coming to an end. As usual I have not been to all the sessions I would have liked or seen all the sights I had hoped to see but at least I have this afternoon to remedy the latter! It was a wonderful conference in a tremendous city. The folks from U of Helsinki did an incredible job organizing this incredibly complex set of meetings and in just over an hour they will announce where it will be in 2013. Stay tuned!

In the meantime for those who are interested I have placed my notes from the papers I did attend on a shared folder in Evernote. I am not sure how long I will leave it available, but in the meantime you can read them here. (I will do a post another time on how valuable the free Evernote is for note taking and research.) And don’t forget, you can see my Helsinki pictures on my flickr account.

In Finland

Christian Brady — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:07:21 +0000

I am here at the IOSOT/IOQS/IOTS conference in Helsinki and it is beautiful with excellent papers. So good, in fact, that I have not had time to blog. I hope to later today as well as uploading some of my photos.

If you are twitter I have started relevant hash tags, but i don’t believe there are many twitterers at the conference.

Off to Finland and IOSOT!

Christian Brady — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:35:43 +0000

Boarded and getting ready to take off. Next stop Frankfurt and then Helsinki.

Getting ready for Finland!

Christian Brady — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:27:44 +0000

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

Christian Brady — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:51:24 +0000

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

IOSOT Registration

Christian Brady — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:41:00 +0000

Willem Smelik, the President of the International Organization for Targumic Studies, has sent round the announcement for registering for the IOSOT, IOSCS, IOMS, IOQS, and IOTS conference.

Dear All,

I would like to remind you to register before the end of April to benefit from lower fees.

For registration, please use the following website:
http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/pro/iosot/general/registration.htm

For accommodation, see
http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/pro/iosot/general/accomodation.htm

For hotels in close proximity to the synagogue, as well as information about kosher catering, see the attached file “touristinfo”. However, do check current prices, as they seem to be out of date. In contrast to other conferences, it seems that the organization has been able to offer reduced prices for the accommodation.

Please note that the IOTS organization allows for kosher lunches and a kosher dinner on Thursday evening: “Kosher lunch/lunches must be pre-booked with the online registration form. The price depends of final number of participants (EUR 28–45). Payment at the restaurant.”

With kind regards

Willem Smelik

Call for papers: International Organization for Targum Studies

Christian Brady — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:34:57 +0000

We are only a year away from the triennial IOSOT meeting and its associated meetings which includes the IOTS. The Congress will be held at the University of Helsinki and the associated meetings will overlap a bit more this time which should help to reduce costs, 10 days in Slovenia was great, but tough on the budget.

So with the Congress only a year away it is time to announce the call for papers. It is shaping up to be a very good IOTS meeting with Steven Fraade and Dineke Houtman confirmed for two of our three keynote addresses.

Please forward this call and feel free to this link to the Newsletter for Targumic and Cognate Studies site.

International Organization for Targum Studies

Sixth Meeting
HELSINKI, FINLAND
August 4-6, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

The 6th meeting of the IOTS will cover a wide range of topics related to Targum Studies:

Philology;
Typology and Genre;
Translation Strategies and Theory;
Exegesis;
Theology;
Text-criticism and Manuscript Studies;
Relationship to Rabbinic Literature.

We are pleased to announce a call for short papers in any of these categories. Papers should be of twenty-minutes length, allowing ten additional minutes for discussion. The deadline for paper proposals is September 15, 2009, and March 1, 2010 for the submission of written abstracts.

DATE
The sixth meeting of the IOTS will be held from August 4-6, 2010 in conjunction with the XXth Congress of IOSOT, the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, and other specialized congresses (IOQS, IOSCS, IOMS), to be held from 1st to 6th August 2010 in Helnsinki, Finland. All information on these congresses, registration, accommodation, etc. can be found on http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/pro/iosot/abstracts/iosot.htm.

PAPER PROPOSALS
If you are interested in participating and presenting a paper, please send your proposal (title and/or subject of paper) to:

Dr. Willem Smelik,
willem.smelik @ ucl.ac.uk / willem.smelik @ gmail.com

Dept. of Hebrew and Jewish Studies
University College London
Foster Court, Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT

Please forward this call for papers to any student or scholar you think may be interested.

The 20th Congress of IOSOT 1-6 August 2010

Christian Brady — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:23:58 +0000

The website for the next IOSOT is now up! I will certianly be going for IOSOT and of course IOTS, the International Organziation for Targum Studies. Details of the IOTS program including a call for papers will appear at the NTCS/IOTS website in due course.

President of the IOSOT Professor Raija Sollamo

Welcome to IOSOT-congress

The International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) is happy to celebrate its 60th anniversary and its 20th meeting on 1-6 August 2010 in Helsinki. Scholars from all over the world are invited to attend the lectures, participate in the discussions, and give papers. We also invite you to take part in associated specialized congresses to be held from 29th July to 6th August 2010 in Helsinki.

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