Professor James Davila, of the University of St Andrews, shared some recent news today, on his PaleoJudaica blog, regarding the monumental More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project that he is directing, together with Professor Emeritus Richard Bauckham, and with Dr. Alexander Panayotov as co-editor. In his words:
I am very happy to announce that the first volume of texts edited for the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project has been sent to the publisher (Eerdmans) and we anticipate its publication within the next year.
This is an epic undertaking that many have been waiting anxiously to see come to fruition. This is a new collection of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha that goes beyond previous collections, such as the two-volume work of James Charlesworth (The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha). This new collection includes about 100 documents, including texts most of us have never even heard of! Some of those include:
- The Apocryphon of Eber
- The Dispute over Abraham
- The Inquiry of Abraham
- The Story of Melchizedek with the Melchizedek Legend from the Chronicon Paschale
- The Syriac History of Joseph
- The Eighth Book of Moses
- The Balaam Text from Tell Deir ‘Allā
- Songs of David
- The Aramaic Song of the Lamb (Dialogue between David and Goliath)
- Exorcistic Psalms of David and Solomon
- The Selendromion of David and Solomon
- Jeremiah’s Prophecy to Pashhur
- The Apocryphon of Ezekiel
- The Treatise of the Vessels (Massekhet Kelim)
- The Seventh Vision of Daniel
- Sefer Zerubbabel: The Prophetic Vision of Zerubbabel ben Shealtiel
- Fifth Ezra
- Sixth Ezra
And there are obviously many more. These are just some of the texts that are covered in the first volume!
These publications will open the way for a much wider appreciation and understanding of these texts. Professor Davila comments, regarding the importance of the publication of these documents:
“Some of these compositions provide us with fascinating background material to the New Testament. Others are a rich source of information on the reception history of the Hebrew Bible by Jews, Christians, and pagans through late antiquity. They frequently give us different perspectives from those found in writings of the same period which later acquired an authoritative status in Judaism (the rabbinic literature) and Christianity (the patristic literature). Together they present us with the sacred legends and spiritual reflections of numerous long-dead authors whose works were lost, neglected, or suppressed for many centuries. By making these documents available in excellent English translations and authoritative but accessible introductions we aim both to promote more scholarly study of them and to bring them to the attention of the vast lay audience who appreciate such treasures.”
Many thanks to Professors Davila, Bauckham, Dr. Panayotov, and their many associates on the project (including the Maxwell Institute’s Kristian Heal), for making these exciting texts available to us!
For the full flier (which will be handed out to participants of our grad conference tomorrow) and Table of Contents of Volume 1, see Jim Davila’s post at PaleoJudaica.
I’m Still Here!!
You may have been wondering as I have not posted anything here for about two months!! I apologize to anyone who is actually still interested in reading this blog! Over the Summer I was compelled by my financial situation here in Scotland to get a full-time summer job, so between that and my research, I have had very little time for anything else.
Now the new Fall semester has started up again here at St Andrew, I have set aside the summer job and gone back to the school-year routine (what a relief). This semester, I’m tutoring (basically acting as a Teaching Assistant) for the freshman Old Testament course, with Dr. William Tooman as lecturer. I am also sitting in on a class by N. Tom Wright on Paul and the Epistle to the Philippians. Also, I am starting up an LDS Institute of Religion class here in St Andrews (there hasn’t been one here), and we will be studying the Book of Mormon course.
I don’t have much else to say at the moment. I probably still won’t be posting too frequently; as you can see from the above, I will still be very busy for the foreseeable future. I did want to alert you, if you haven’t seen these already, to some cool things that I’ve seen and read over the past little while.
Professor Jim Davila (my dissertation supervisor) on his More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_09_25_archive.html#4299376576250797913 (unfortunately, the links to download his interview don’t seem to be working at the moment — UPDATE: try this link http://vaca.bayradio.com/kgo_archives/?d=0 and listen to the 7-8:00 am hour)
Jim Davila on the “lost books” that are mentioned in the biblical texts: http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2011_06_12_archive.html
The Holy Temple Conferences recently held in Jerusalem, focusing on building awareness of Jewish desires to build a temple on the Temple Mount: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148029#.ToHJJezwvzP
Modern Reenactment of the Psalms of Ascents ritual on the Southern Steps of the Temple in Jerusalem: http://www.jpost.com/Travel/Jerusalem/Article.aspx?id=238580
Google makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available online: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-desert-to-web-bringing-dead-sea.html?spref=tw
LDS Media Talk tells you how to build links to your website: http://ldsmediatalk.com/2007/12/22/how-to-build-links-to-your-web-site/
Finally, and on a somber note, I would like to request that you offer some prayers on behalf of my friend and colleague, Matthew B. Brown, author of many excellent LDS-themed titles, including Symbols in Stone, The Gate of Heaven, All Things Restored, and many others. Matthew has recently had a medical emergency and would benefit from your prayers on his behalf at this time. He is a great asset to the LDS community and we pray for his speedy and full recovery.