David Sclar, "Bible in Print," in the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures Online (2023) (original) (raw)
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Textual History of the Bible
Volume 3, A Companion to Textual Criticism, Volume Editors Russel E. Fuller and Armin Lange, consists of the following subvolumes: Volume 3A History of Research edited by Armin Lange and Russell E. Fuller surveys the history of research on the textual criticism and textual history of the Hebrew Bible and its versions in both Judaism and Christianity from its ancient beginnings until today for all of its important versions. Volume 3B Modern Printed Editions of the Jewish Bible and its Christian Versions edited by Richard D. Weis †, Armin Lange, and Russell E. Fuller, provides a comprehensive discussion of the printed editions of the Jewish Scriptures in all of the languages covered in THB 1 and 2 starting from the advent of the printing press in the West. Volume 3C Theory and Practice of Textual Criticism edited by Mika S. Pajunen will address in one place technical terminology, genres and media transmitting biblical texts, the practice of textual criticism, translation theory and translation technique, and theories of textual transmission. Volume 3D Science and Technology edited by Marilyn J. Lundberg brings together information on the science and technologies that increasingly impact and influence not only the decipherment, study and conservation of ancient manuscripts of all types but also the textual criticism of biblical texts itself. Issues of manuscript conservation, analytical tools, and (virtual) manuscript enhancement are thus as much discussed as electronic databases of biblical texts or digital online repositories of biblical manuscripts.
Approaches to the Bible: The Best of Bible Review, Vol, 1: Composition, Transmission and Language, 1994
Brettler rejects the widely held claim that a rabbinic "Council ofjamriia" in the first century C.E. established the canon of the Hebrew Bible. He maintains that "the canon reflects the judgment of popular rather than rabbinic groups" and that canoniza tion "did not occur at a single moment under the auspices of some religious power group." He believes that the tripartite division of Hebrew Scriptures into Torah (Law), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Kethubim (Writings) indicates that groups of books were accepted as privileged at different times. Moreover, the reason Daniel, a prophetic book, and Chronicles, a historical book, appear among the Writings is that they were too late to be admitted into sections that had already been closed by canonization.-Ed.
Background and Aims of a Scroll Approach to the Hebrew Bible
Advances in Ancient, Biblical and Near Eastern Research, 2023
This essay is an updated proposal for a material historical scroll approach to the formation of the Hebrew Bible, particularly the Pentateuch (cf. Carr in Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 2020). Since this approach draws on data concerning scroll practices in nearby ancient cultures, the article provides a brief survey of potentially significant aspects of ancient Egyptian, Levantine, Greek, Demotic and Second Temple Jewish practices surrounding literary scrolls—how compositions (or parts of them) were inscribed on them, scroll length ranges and types, and ways in which existing scrolls were revised. This preliminary survey suggests that a substantial shift occurred around early Hellenistic period toward development of scrolls with unusually high carrying capacity (both in writing density and length), facilitating somewhat of a media revolution in the amount of literary material that could be recorded on a single written object. Though possibly prompted in part by Greek writing practices and technologies, this development toward use of some high-carrying-capacity scrolls seems associated with some temple and priest-adjacent preservationist scribal contexts where scribes used such high-carrying-capacity scrolls to conserve indigenous literary traditions amidst a broader environment dominated by another language. These and other findings have significant implications for exploring the complex relation between written artifacts and memorized/performed textual works in the Ancient Near East and the development of models for the inscription of Hebrew textual traditions across scrolls in the pre-Hellenistic and Greco-Roman periods. In addition, the article proposes several measures and terms that might be adapted to discuss scroll features across multiple culture areas, such as letter spaces (or the quadrat or other equivalent for Egyptian sign systems) per linear centimeter, cumulative line space, and square centimeters of white space per linear centimeter.