MOTB Dead Sea Scrolls Volume

Peter Gurry has pointed out that Brill has released information on the publication of the Museum of the Bible volume Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments in the Museum Collection. In addition to several introductory and overview articles, there are publications of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments of the following passages:

• Genesis 31:23–25?, 32:3–6
• Exodus 17:4–7
• Leviticus 23:24–28
• A Fragment of Leviticus?
• Numbers 8:3–5
• Jeremiah 23:6–9
• Ezekiel 28:22
• Jonah 4:2–5
• Micah 1:4–6
• Psalm 11:1–4
• Daniel 10:18–20
• Nehemiah 2:13–16C
• A Fragment of Instruction

Congratulations to all the authors and editors who have worked so hard to get this important volume published. I look forward to looking through it at some point in the near future.

Lugano Research Seminar on the History of the Caves of Qumran

I just returned from Lugano, Switzerland from a Research Seminar on the History of the Caves of Qumran on 20-21 February. The conference was well-attended, and was heavily dominated by discussions of the archaeology and interrelationships between the caves and the settlement of Qumran, which was very helpful for those more text-focused like me. Two text highlights are worthy of note.

1) Yonatan Adler announced the discovery of 9 (possibly 10) previously unknown tefillin slips found inside of unopened tefillin cases from Qumran. The slips have not yet been opened and read, but they promise to be very interesting.

2) Torleif Elgvin flattened out three leather fragments from the Schøyen collection he had considered to be uninscribed to find two fragmentary lines matching the known text of 4Q252 (Commentary on Genesis A). He suggested that this may be a second copy of this commentary.

We eagerly anticipate the full publication of these exciting discoveries!

Hendel's Text of Genesis 1-11 Online

Ron Hendel has now put his book The Text of Genesis 1-11: Textual Studies and Critical Edition online on Academia.edu. While I would have a few minor critiques, this is an excellent work worthy of study by anyone interested in textual criticism and an essential reference tool for anyone working on the text of Genesis 1-11. This book also gives a good taste of the kind of work we can expect from the Oxford Hebrew Bible project, though the latter editions will probably vary significantly in format from Hendel's initial work.