The Society of Biblical Literature is announcing its publishing commitment to a major text-critical project: The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition (HBCE), under the general editorship of Ronald Hendel.
The HBCE will be an eclectic edition of the Hebrew Bible, featuring a critical text with extensive text-critical introductions and commentaries. The project anticipates twenty-one volumes, with an international team of volume authors.
The first volume—Michael V. Fox, Proverbs: An Eclectic Edition with Introduction and Textual Commentary—will publish in the second half of 2014.
The most distinctive feature of the HBCE project is its method of producing critical texts. HBCE constructs an eclectic text, drawing together readings from many manuscripts and, where warranted, conjectural readings. In other cases, such as Jeremiah, entirely variant texts of books are set side by side. While a common approach for critical editions of other ancient books, such as the New Testament and the Greek and Latin classics, this is not the norm for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.
In this respect, the approach and scope of this project is a first of its kind for the Hebrew Bible, since our other modern text-critical editions are diplomatic, representing a primary manuscript, in each case, the Masoretic tradition.
Brill, the international scholarly publisher, launches the online version of its well-known and respected book series, Novum Testamentum Supplements Online, this month.
This month Brill launches the online version of its well-known and respected book series, Novum Testamentum Supplements Online. Every volume published in the Novum Testamentum, Supplements is now available on the BrillOnline Books and Journals platform, beginning with the first volume published in 1963 and including more than 150 titles. For more information please visit brill.com/ntso.
http://www.theologie.uni-jena.de/Volker_Rabens.htmlSurfing around an early morning most recently, I became aware of- via Academia.edu – several articles dealing with Philo and ethics, published by Volker Rabens. This is a field of interest that, as far as I know, has not been dealt with in many other studies in recent years; hence this focus is most welcome. Once again I have profited by being a member of Acedemia.edu; hence again, this site is recommended too.
Volker Rabens is now “seit 2013 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Lehrstuhl für Neues Testament (Prof. Dr. Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr) an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena”. In his research he is mainly interested in Ethics, Pneumatology, Paul, John, 1 Peter, Early Judaism (Philo included), and hermeneutics. His List of publications, with – most graciously – a lot of links for downloading many of his works, is available here: Rabens Bibliography.
Here is a list of what I found directly related to Philo:
Volker Rabens, ‘Geistes-Geschichte. Die Rede vom Geist im Horizont der Griechisch-romischen und judisch-hellenistischen Literatur,’ Zeitschrift fur Neues Testament 25 Jahrgang 13 (2010):46-55.
Volker Rabens, ‘Johannine Perspectives on Ethical Enabling in the Context of Stoic and Philonic Ethics,’ In J. van der Watt and R. Zimmermann (eds.), Rethinking the Ethics of John: “Implicit Ethics” in the Johannine Writings (Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics III; WUNT I/291; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012): 114-139.
Volker Rabens, ‘Philo’s Attractive Ethics on the “Religious Market” of Ancient Alexandria,’ In Peter Wick and Volker Rabens, eds., Religions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West. (Dynamics in the History of Religions 5; Leiden: Brill, 2013 (Copyrighted:2014): 333-355.
Volker Rabens, Pneuma and the Beholding of God: Reading Paul in the Context of Philonic Mystical Traditions,’ In Jörg Frey and Jack Levison eds., The Holy Spirit, Inspiration, and the Cultures of Antiquity. Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Ekstasis: Religious Experience from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 5; Berlin-New York; DeGruyter – forthcoming.) I am a little confused here as prof. Rabens gives the title of the volume as The Historical origins of the Holy Spirit; the other title here is taken from the DeGruyter website.
One should probably also mention his dissertation; though this focuses primarily on Paul, it also has a few pages on Philo as part of possible background material:
Volker Rabens, The Holy Spirit and Ethics in Paul: Transformation and Empowering for Religious-Ethical Life, Second Revised Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.
Joan Taylor held her inauguration lecture last week (May 1st) as a Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at Kings College, School of Arts and Humanities, Theology and Religious Studies.
Her topic chosen for the lecture was: Mary Magdalene and the case of missing Magdala, and it is summarized thus on the Department’s webpage:
Traditionally, Mary Magdalene is assumed to have come from a place called Magdala, meaning ‘the Tower’. However, there is no such place mentioned in the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament, though there was a small village attested in rabbinic literature as Migdal Nuniya (‘Tower of Fish’), lying just one mile north of Tiberias, and many other villages called ‘Tower of [Something]’ in Galilee and wider Judaea. The place called ‘Magdala’ or ‘Migdal’ in Israel today, 3.5 miles north of Tiberias, continues a Byzantine identification, from the fifth or sixth centuries CE when pilgrim sites were plotted in Palestine, and it is often assumed that the earlier sizeable town now coming to light there was called Tarichaea-Magdala. However, Josephus clearly indicates that Tarichaea lay south of Tiberias, and that this town north of Tiberias was called Homonoia. This lecture will explore Mary’s name ‘the Magdalene’, the actual location of her home village, and the possibility that her epithet may be understood as a double-entendre, meaning ‘the Tower-ess’: a nickname like others Jesus gave to his closest apostles.
Prof. Taylor will be well-known to Philo-scholars and others interested in Philo of Alexandria. She has written, i.a., a book on Jewish Women Philosophers of First Century Alexandria. Philoæs Therapeutae’ Reconsidered (Oxford 2003), and is now (probably inter alia,) engaged in writing a commentary on Philo’s De vita contemplativa (The Contemplative Life), for the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series (PACS).
Congratulations to Joan Taylor for her new position!
PS: Sorry, Joan, for stealing the picture from your Facebook page, but I had no other! 🙂
My review of Persecution in 1 Peter: Differentiating and Contextualizing Early Christian Suffering, by Travis B. Williams, have now been posted on Review of Biblical Literature. You can read the review here: Review of Williams, Persecution.
This impressive book is probably also the most comprehensive study available concerning the topic of persecution in 1 Peter. While there have been many previous studies in forms of articles and a few larger sections in some commentaries, this volume will probably remain a standard presentation and a must reading for students of 1 Peter for years to come both because of its comprehensive discussion and its tightly knit argumentation. That is not to say that all readers will be convinced by all its arguments, but a serious discussion of the topic persecution in 1 Peter should not be carried out without engaging in its views and arguments.
Philonica et Neotestamentica 