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A Latin-Greek Index of the Vulgate New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers

In Apostolic Fathers, Dan Batovici, Latin Christianity, Mohr Siebeck, New Testament, Theodore A. Bergren, Translation, Uncategorized, Vulgate on October 8, 2019 at 1:40 am

Bergren

2019.10.12 | Theodore A. Bergren. A Latin-Greek Index of the Vulgate New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. WUNT 403. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018. ISBN 978-3-16-156024-8.

Review by Dan Batovici, KU Leuven.

The structure of this volume—published in the primary WUNT series—is straight forward: a brief introduction explaining the intention of the volume, a short bibliography of the comparatively less-known editions of Latin translations of the Apostolic Fathers, acknowledgements, and the three sigla used throughout, before moving to the bulk of the book, which is the list of Latin words (and their Greek correspondents) found in the early translations of the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, organised alphabetically. Read the rest of this entry »


Inconsistency in the Torah

In HB/OT, Joshua A. BERMAN, Lindsey A. Askin, Oxford University Press, Pentateuch, Source Criticism, Uncategorized on March 20, 2019 at 6:06 pm

Inconsistency

2019.3.4 | Joshua A. Berman. Inconsistency in the Torah: Ancient Literary Convention and the Limits of Source Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 9780190658809.

Review by Lindsey A. Askin, University of Bristol.

Why do modern biblical scholars problematize disparity and dissonance in ancient law and narrative? Joshua A. Berman’s Inconsistency in the Torah explores this question in Pentateuchal criticism, critically approaching the methodological fallacies and analytical shortcomings that come as a result of becoming nobly but ideologically entrenched in detecting redactional layers diachronically in biblical and cognate texts (p.203). Read the rest of this entry »

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Isidore de Péluse, Lettres III

In Editions du Cerf, Egypt, Egyptian Christianity, Epistolography, Isidore of Pelusium, Late Antiquity, Letter collections, Madalina Toca, Monastic letters, Monasticism, Nicolas Vinel, Patristics, Pierre Évieux, Uncategorized on January 31, 2018 at 5:40 pm

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2018.01.03 | Pierre Évieux and Nicolas Vinel, eds. Isidore de Péluse, Lettres III (1701-2000). Sources Chrétiennes 586. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2017.

Reviewed by Madalina Toca, KU Leuven.

Isidore de Péluse, Lettres III (1701-2000) is the third volume with Isidore’s letters in the Sources Chrétiennes series (SC 586), edited and translated in French by the late Pierre Évieux with the collaboration of Nicolas Vinel. Read the rest of this entry »


A Question of Beginnings, a Debate without End

In De Gruyter, HB/OT, Jürgen van OORSCHOT, Kurtis Peters, Markus Witte, review article, Uncategorized on January 11, 2018 at 9:33 am

Yahwism

2018.01.01 | Jürgen van Oorshot and Markus Witte (eds.). The Origins of Yahwism. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft 484. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017.

Review article by Kurtis Peters, University of British Columbia.

Introduction

Among the long-standing controversial subjects in biblical studies the discussion surrounding the geographical and cultural origins of Yahweh worship sits comfortably. Read the rest of this entry »


The Jewish Literary Imagination in Antiquity

In Book of Psalms, Eva MROCZEK, Hebrew Bible, Jeremiah Coogan, Oxford University Press, review, Scribal culture, Second Temple, Uncategorized on November 9, 2017 at 8:04 am

Mrocz mare

2017.11.23 | Eva Mroczek, The Jewish Literary Imagination in Antiquity. New York, NY/Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780190279837

Reviewed by Jeremiah Coogan, University of Notre Dame.

Before the categories of “book” and “Bible” dominated the literary imagination, Mroczek asks, “What did this literary world seem like to Second Temple writers?” (4). How did the creators and users of literary artifacts organize and conceptualize writing? We note that this literary world of Second Temple Judaism is explicitly textual; Mroczek avoids the temptation to see orality as the only alternative to our familiar models of textuality: she explores literary modes that are “deeply, self-consciously textual, but shaped differently from our own” (5). Read the rest of this entry »

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The Formation of the Pentateuch

In Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, HB/OT, Jan C. Gertz, Konrad SCHMID, Mohr Siebeck, Pentateuch, review, Uncategorized, William L. Kelly on June 27, 2017 at 11:54 pm

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2017.06.13 | Gertz, Jan C., Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid. The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 111. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016. pp. xi + 1204. ISBN: 978-3-16-153883-4.

Review by William L. Kelly, University of Edinburgh.

The Pentateuch, as the editors of this volume rightly point out, is one of the foundational texts in the humanities. For critical scholarship on the Hebrew Bible, few areas of research could claim to be as foundational, and equally few involve such a tremendous range of critical issues, methods, and approaches. Where did this literature come from? How was it written and from what sources did its writers draw? When did it become ‘scripture’ and what does that designation mean? And, considering the various paradigms and hypotheses to have emerged in the last century of scholarship, how can a diverse field build toward consensus? Addressing questions such as these with fifty-six peer-reviewed essays and more than twelve-hundred pages,The Formation of the Pentateuch is a substantial and valuable contribution to a vital area of study. Read the rest of this entry »

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La syntaxe du codex

In Brepols, Codicology, Dan Batovici, Manuscript Studies, Manuscripts, Marilena Maniaci, Patrick ANDRIST, Paul CANART, Uncategorized on January 23, 2017 at 2:56 pm

syntaxe

2017.01.03 | Patrick Andrist, Paul Canart, Marilena Maniaci. La syntaxe du codex: Essai de codicologie structurale. Bibliologia 34; Turnhout: Brepols, 2013. ISBN: 9782503543932.

Review by Dan Batovici, KU Leuven.

This book, a collaborative project based on the extensive previous work in the field of the three authors, is an attempt to produce a comprehensive and coherent typology for describing complex codices. While the most obvious aim of this book is to offer an extensive tool for manuscript cataloguing, it is also meant and will likely prove quite useful in all connected fields. Indeed, there are well known difficulties in describing complex manuscripts in biblical studies as well—for  instance the generalised use of the ever-ambiguous ‘miscellany’ term—where a plus of specificity as well as descriptions up to date with technical codicological terminology would be welcome. Read the rest of this entry »


New Cambridge History of The Bible (Vol. 3)

In Cambridge University Press, Emanuel CONTAC, Euan CAMERON, Printing, Reception history, Translation, Transmission history, Uncategorized on January 13, 2017 at 2:00 pm

nchb3

2017.01.02 | Euan Cameron, ed. The New Cambridge History of The Bible. Volume 3: from 1450 to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xx + 975 pages. Hardback £125. ISBN: 9780521513425.

Review by Emanuel Conțac, Pentecostal Theological Institute of Bucharest.

The third volume in the New History of the Bible series published by CUP, assembles 34 papers and essays surveying the complex evolution and influence of the most disseminated hypertext in the printing era.
Whereas the editors of the initial series had compressed the post-Reformation period into a single volume, in the revised series the past 500 years are covered by two separate volumes, each addressing a wider variety of topics than would have been possible to include in a single 650-page volume. Read the rest of this entry »


The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers

In De Gruyter, Jennifer R. STRAWBRIDGE, Jonathon Lookadoo, NT reception history, Paul, Reception history, Uncategorized on July 11, 2016 at 10:20 pm

strawbridge

2016.07.13 | Jennifer R. Strawbridge. The Pauline Effect: The Use of the Pauline Epistles by Early Christian Writers. SBR 5. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2015. pp. vii + 309. ISBN: 978-3-11-043770-6.

Review by Jonathon Lookadoo, University of Otago

Many thanks to Walter de Gruyter for providing a review copy.

Amid the increasing popularity of reception histories in Humanities scholarship and particularly in early Christian studies, Jennifer Strawbridge has added a unique and timely study of the way in which Paul’s letters were received in the ante-Nicene period. A two-fold emphasis frames the book, which began as an Oxford DPhil thesis supervised by Christopher Rowland and Teresa Morgan. First, the book investigates the way in which early Christian authors used Pauline letters. Second, the volume considers how the interpretation of Paul’s letters may illuminate their role in early Christian formation. Read the rest of this entry »


An Introduction to the Medieval Bible

In Cambridge University Press, Frans van LIERE, Hermeneutics, Manuscripts, Mark W. ELLIOTT, Medieval, Uncategorized on June 6, 2016 at 2:28 pm

IMB

2016.06.08 | Frans van Liere, An Introduction to the Medieval Bible. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014 Hardback ISBN: 9780521865784.

Review by Mark W. Elliott, University of St Andrews.

The author seems to wish to address the guild of biblical studies, at least as part of his audience. He is prepared from the outset to contend that the bible cannot be read ‘naively’, as though the history of its interpretation did not exist.  He wants the rich tradition of medieval biblical interpretation to be made known to biblical scholars and students, as something relevant for understanding the bible today (p. xii).  This is a noble aim.

Indeed, a book written by a historian might be the most useful kind of ‘Bible in the Middle Ages’ for it offers things hitherto beyond the ken of biblical scholars.  Who knew just how important the Codex Amiatinus as the oldest extant copy of Jerome’s bible was in the middle ages, as produced in England by Ceolfrid, which would do much to make the Vulgate standard in the Western Church? Read the rest of this entry »