Letter from the Director
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Over the past year a variety of activities have taken place at the
Orion Center. In February, scholars from Europe, North
America, and Israel assembled for the 13th Orion Symposium.
In addition to this rich symposium, lectures and scholarly
meetings throughout the year dealt with a variety of topics,
including newly discovered texts.
This Spring we will hold a special series of seminars on
the Book of Enoch, conducted by Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck,
Orion Visiting Professor (p. 2). We look forward to the
participation of scholars and graduate students in these
seminars. Prof. Stuckenbruck, a preeminent Enoch scholar,
will guide us in reading the text and give us a chance to see his
research in the making. This is a unique opportunity to become
familiar with the working method of a leading scholar in the
field. We hope to host similar advanced research seminars in
the future. Regular Orion programs continue as usual. In
addition to lectures by senior scholars, two new Orion
researchers, Shlomi Efrati and Dr. Atar Livneh, will present
their own work. The pinnacle of the ongoing activity in the
Orion Center is its Bibliography project. In recent months, this
project has received a new impetus. Much work has been and is
being put into the planning and execution of this new stage. I
would like to thank all those who are doing the work, and
especially those who have helped me develop the new system:
Shlomi Efrati, Dr. Michael Segal, and Ofer Arbeli. The new focus
of the bibliography project requires us to read comprehensively
both current publications and all publications from the past sixteen
years on the Scrolls and related Second Temple literature. We
appeal to you especially now, to send us books and offprints
(paper or PDF), for the use of the researchers updating the
database.
I would like to extend my thanks to the dedicated Orion
staff and researchers. Likewise, I thank the Hebrew University,
the Orion Foundation, the Sir Zelman Cowen Universities Fund,
the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, the Orion Associates
in Israel and abroad, and the Orion Academic Committee,
for the diverse ways in which they support the work of the Center.
Menahem Kister
Orion Bibliography Project Gathers Momentum
In the last 16 years, over 11,400 items have been collected in the Orion
Center Online Bibliography database: books, articles, and reviews on
the Scrolls and related topics, covering the years 1995 to the present.
Last year, as we noted in these pages, the Center developed a new
search engine, which enables sophisticated bibliographical searches.
During this past academic year, the Center began a collaboration
with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which has made it possible
to considerably upgrade the Online Bibliography. The Bibliography
is to be linked to the IAA's new online scrolls database (p. 3).
By the terms of our agreement, the IAA will finance the work of
Orion researchers, who will update the existing bibliography with the
capabilities of the new IAA resource in view.
The focus of the updating project is the addition of comprehensive
keywords, to the existing database and to future entries. An
Orion team-Prof. Kister, Dr. Michael Segal, and Shlomi Efrati
has created a master list of keywords, hierarchically organized, so as
to unify the cataloguing system. All the items currently in the
database will be read and updated for keywords according to the new
cataloguing method. In addition, we have added a new search field to
the database, that of "Primary Text." This field will note Qumran and
other Second Temple texts that are discussed in detail in a given
article or book. This will enable a researcher to quickly find the
scholarly discussions of any fragment or text. We envision that in
time, links between the Bibliography and the IAA database will
allow scholars to move seamlessly between the bibliography and
images of the Scrolls. The integration of these two important
resources will benefit users of both.
The scope of the bibliography remains 1995 to the present. The
primary aim of the project continues to be the compilation of
exhaustive bibliography on the Scrolls; but we include current
research on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha as well. The vast
literature on Philo and Josephus will continue to be covered only in
part, to the extent that articles deal with issues relevant to the scrolls
and related texts, e.g., biblical interpretation.
At this stage, we appeal to you who use the database for help on
several levels. Again, it is crucial that we receive books and offprints
of articles (paper, PDF, or links) for the use of the researchers
compiling the keywords. In addition to updating the keywords, we
also want to add any items that have been published in the last 16
years but overlooked. We will be grateful for any publication that
you bring to our attention. We are also trying to update the list of
doctoral and masters'
Loren Stuckenbruck to be First Orion
Distinguished Visiting Scholar
In order to foster dialogue and interaction between
scrolls scholars in and outside of Israel, the Orion
Center has instituted a
Distinguished Visiting
Scholar program.
From time to time, we
plan to host a leading
scholar of the Scrolls
or of Second Temple
literature for a short
visit. The inaugural
Distinguished Visiting
Scholar will be
Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck
of Princeton Theological
Seminary, who will be our guest in March and
April 2012. During his term at the Center, Stuckenbruck
will conduct a series of three Hebrew University
faculty/graduate student seminars entitled, "Reading 1
Enoch: Text, Interpretation and Theology". The seminars
will address:
- the current state of research on both the Ethiopic
and Aramaic manuscripts of 1 Enoch;
and
- the significance of this research for the understanding
of the historical and theological issues arising from
the text.
Stuckenbruck will also present a Greenfield Scholars'
Seminar on New Testament traditions concerning the
birth of Jesus.
Prof. Stuckenbruck's research more generally focuses
on Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity.
in particular the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Enochic
literature, other Jewish sapiential and apocalyptic writings,
and the New Testament. He is currently preparing a
commentary on 1 Enoch (the Book of the Watchers) for
the Anchor Bible series. He is also working with Ted Erho
(University of Durham, UK) on a text-critical edition of
the Ethiopic manuscripts of 1 Enoch.
*For more information and the dates of the upcoming
programs, please check our website, at http://orion.mscc
.huji.ac.il/resources/doc/Enoch1_2011.shtml.
Congratulations
To Orion founder and Hebrew University Professor Michael
E. Stone on the publication of two new books:
- Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2011 (produced with the collaboration of
the Orion Center)
- Noah and His Book(s). Edited with Aryeh Amihay
and Vered Hillel. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2010.
An evening colloquium will be held in celebration (see
Calendar, p. 4).
Center News
The highlight of this past year at Orion was February's
13th International Orion Symposium, which dealt with the
transmission and transformation of biblically-related
traditions. No less international and diverse, however, was
the Center's lineup of regularly scheduled seminar
speakers and topics. The Fall roster featured talks on
Josephus, by HU professor Daniel Schwartz; on biblical
interpretation in postbiblical literature, by Prof. Menahem
Kister, Yakir Paz, and Shraga Bar-On; and on demonology
and sin, by Matlow Scholar Miryam Brand (New York).
The Spring semester offerings included a seminar led by
Prof. Jan Joosten (Strasbourg, France) on Septuagint
research, and a program led jointly by Prof. Andrei Orlov
(Marquette University, Wisconsin), and Dr. Reuven Kiperwasser
(The Open University, Israel) on the figure of
Leviathan in Second Temple and later literature. Prof.
Gideon Bohak (Tel Aviv University) and Prof. Alexander
Rofe (Hebrew University) led a session on newly discovered
manuscript fragments. Dr. Cana Werman (Ben-
Gurion University) spoke on the Book of Jubilees; and
Matlow Scholar Shlomit Harel-Kendi (Bar-Ilan University)
discussed polemics in the Temple Scroll.
- The new Bibliography research staff has begun its
work. HU graduate students Oren Abelman, Shlomi Efrati,
Ariel Kopilovitz, and Yakir Paz, along with Dr. Atar Livneh
(Haifa University), join veteran staff researcher Hannah
Wortzman (HU) in the task of compiling new bibliography
and updating the database. We wish them success in their
new endeavors.
- We welcome Michael Tuval as the 2011/2012 Matlow
Scholar. Tuval, a doctoral candidate at the Hebrew
University, is writing on The Priests as Leaders of
Judaism in Flavius Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- Thisyear's visitors have included both senior scholars
and graduate researchers. Among the visitors: Prof. Beate
Ego, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany; Elisabeth Levy,
Norwegian Bible Society; Dr. Claudia Losekam, Ruhr-
University Bochum, Germany; and Prof. Eileen Schuller;
McMaster University, Canada. Dr. Hakan Bengtsson, of
the Swedish Theological Institute, Jerusalem, came to Orion
with a group of faculty and students from Uppsala University.
- We have received a number of significant book
donations (see the Orion Center Library page for a list of
some recent donations: http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/resour
ces/library.shtml. Thanks to all the authors, editors, and
series editors who have arranged with the relevant presses
to have their books sent to the Center. This is a very crucial
respect in which you help us to offer the most up-to-date
resources to those who come to us for help with their
research, and we appreciate your thoughtfulness.
- Finally, a special thank you to intern Cody Gaffney
(Notre Dame), for his cheerful assistance with myriad Orion
programs and tasks; and to Ariella Amir, who juggles the
ever-expanding personnel and paperwork that keeps us going.
Orion Center Academic Committee
Dr. Esther Chazon, Chair; Prof. Menahem Kister;
Prof. Shlomo Naeh; Prof. Joseph Patrich;
Prof. Shalom Paul; Dr. David Satran;
Dr. Michael Segal; Prof. Emanuel Tov
New Fragments and New Technologies, II: The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
by Pnina Shor, Curator and Head of DSS Projects for the Israel Antiquities Authority
With relatively little fanfare but much excitement, the Israel
Antiquities Authority (IAA) has begun in earnest its scrolls
digitization project. The project involves a massive effort to
re-image all of the scrolls and fragments in the IAA's collection,
both as a conservation measure and to make the digitized
images freely available and accessible worldwide to
scholars and public alike. The anticipated end result of the
IAA initiative will be an open-access, online, searchable
database of all available scrolls and fragments, comprising
images, transcriptions, and translations of texts, along with
access to bibliography and publications on the scrolls. The
project is directed by Curator Pnina Shor; Dr Gregory Bearman,
formerly a principal scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, is the IAA Consultant for Imaging Technologies.
The database will be powered by Google Israel.
Color image of 11Q5 (Psalms Scroll), Psalms 133 &144 (Courtesy of IAA)
In November 2008, we reported on the original pilot for this
project. At that time, three separate cameras were used to
prepare a series of multiple images, using high-resolution
color, infrared, and spectral imaging. As soon as funding for
the next stage became available through the generous donations
of the Leon Levy and Arcadia Foundations, the IAA
commissioned Ken Boydston of the MegaVision company,
and Dr. Bill Christens-Barry, chief scientist at Equipoise
Imaging, to build a dedicated camera that brings together the
three originally separate capabilities. Another pilot was run
last July in Santa Barbara, California, at the end of which the
system was dismantled and fine-tuned before delivery.
In January of 2011, preparation of the database began,
with the high-resolution digital scanning of most of the PAM
negatives and all other negatives taken by the IAA to date. At
about the same time, Dr. Shani Tzoref was hired to prepare
the data already in the IAA scrolls database for the online
computerized system.
The process of re-imaging the scrolls, fragment by fragment,
began at the end of August, when the American team
came to Jerusalem to install the MegaVision system in a
specially prepared studio. The team also trained photographers
Yair Medina and Shai Halevi from Jerusalem Fine Arts
Prints, which was contracted by the IAA to conduct the
imaging. 56 spectral images of each fragment (recto and
verso) are to be produced, in 12 different wavelengths (7
visible, 5 in the near-infrared range [NIR]), with 28 different
exposures of each side. The separate images are then computer-
combined to form both color and NIR images in the
highest resolution possible. The basic database, featuring the
digitally scanned "old" images and as many as will be ready
of the new spectral images, is expected to go online (via
Google) at the end of this year or the beginning of the next.
High-resolution Infrared (NIR) image of 11Q5 (Psalms Scroll), Psalms 133 &144 (Courtesy of IAA)
The IAA has conceived this project in entirely collaborative
terms, with the goal of creating the most widely useful online
resource for scrolls study, both for the general public and for
scholars. From the earliest stages, the IAA has consulted with
experts from all relevant fields including imaging
technologies, information technologies, and scrolls scholarship.
In October of 2010, the IAA nominated a committee of
consulting scholars that includes Emanuel Tov, Menahem
Kister, and Michael Segal, of the Hebrew University;
Devorah Dimant, of the University of Haifa; and Elisha
Qimron, of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Orion
Center itself is one such collaborating partner, providing
scholarly expertise on the scrolls and consulting on the
development of the scroll search engine. We plan to link the
Scrolls database and the Orion Bibliography database so as to
facilitate research on the scrolls from either venue. Another
three-way collaboration has evolved between Hebrew
University Institute of Chemistry Prof. Zeev Aizenshtat, who
is conducting research on the physical properties of
parchment and ink, and Prof. Emilio Marengo and his
doctoral student, Marcello Manfredi, of the University of
Eastern Piedmont (Italy), who have applied spectral imaging
to the monitoring of works of art; they will apply their joint
expertise, together with Dr. Fenella France from the
Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress (USA),
to the development of a monitoring system to track the wellbeing
of the scrolls. The IAA’s eventual hope is to enfold
within the database spectroscopic images of all scroll
fragments, both those in our own collection and those housed
at other institutions, and we are eager for a variety of
academic and conservatorial conversation partners.
Image of 11Q5 (Psalms Scroll), Psalms 133 & 144, combining high-resolution NIR and color images (Courtesy of IAA)
Orion Center Calendar, Winter 2011/2012*
-
November 16. Lecture and Discussion
12:15-2:00 p.m. The Rabin Building, Room 2001
Shlomi Efrati (The Hebrew University):
"The Second Exile: A Note on the Development of The
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs"
- December 7. Jonas C. Greenfield Scholars' Seminar
12:15-2:00 p.m. The Rabin Building, Room 2001
Dr. Atar Livneh (University of Haifa and the Orion
Center):
"With My Sword and Bow': Literature, Exegesis, and
History in Jubilees"
- December 28. Evening Celebration of Two New Books
by Michael E. Stone (see p. 2)
4:30 p.m. Beit Maiersdorf Faculty Club, Room 501
Prof. Menahem Kister (The Hebrew University):
"Enoch, Noah, Abraham: Competition among Biblical
Figures in Postbiblical Literature"
Dr. Esther Chazon (The Hebrew University):
"Text, Traditions, and Religious Experience in the
Hodayot"
Dr. Alexander Kulik (The Hebrew University):
"Language and Imagination: Linguistic Factors in the
Development of Apocalyptic Traditions"
- January 19. Jonas C. Greenfield Scholars' Seminar
10:15 a.m-12 p.m. The Rabin Building, Room 2001
Prof. Vered Noam (Tel-Aviv University):
"The Story of King Jannaeus in b. Qiddushin 66a-
A Pharisaic Reply to Sectarian Polemic"
Spring Semester forecast:
Research Seminar, Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck
Reading 1 Enoch: Text, Interpretation, and Theology
March 15, March 19, and March 22, 2012
2:15-4:00 p.m., The Rabin Building, Room 2001
Spring Semester seminar speakers include Prof. Stuckenbruck
and Michael Tuval. Please check the website for the full Spring
program.
*Please note: Unless otherwise specified, Orion seminars are
held in the Mandel World Center of Jewish Studies (Rabin
Building), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus.
All Fall semester lectures are given in Hebrew.
Orion Publications (In Preparation)
New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in
Judaism of the Second Temple Period and in Early Christianity,
edited by Gary A. Anderson, Ruth A. Clements, and
David Satran.
Hebrew in the Second Temple Period: The Hebrew of the
Dead Sea Scrolls and of Other Contemporary Sources,
edited by Steven E. Fassberg, Moshe Bar-Asher, and Ruth
A. Clements.
Research Grants and Awards
The Orion Center awards Research Grants to young
scholars once a year. Priority is given to projects that a)
can be done uniquely in Jerusalem or at the Hebrew
University; and b) help integrate the new information
gleaned from the Scrolls into the broader picture of
Second Temple Judaism. Applications are submitted in
the Spring.
*Please visit our website for deadlines and applications
New DSS Fragments at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary
Ryan E. Stokes
In 2010-11, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort
Worth, Texas, purchased fragments of eight DSS manuscripts.
The collection includes hitherto unpublished fragments from
several biblical books, as well as one fragment of an unidentified
work. Among the unpublished biblical manuscripts are
fragments containing Exod 23:8-10; Lev 18:27-29; Deut 9:25-
10:1 and 12:11-14 (which appear to be from different copies of
Deuteronomy); Psalm 22:4-13; and two fragments from a
Daniel papyrus containing Dan 6:22-24 and 7:18–19. Also
among Southwestern’s acquisitions are a piece of the Paleo-
Leviticus scroll from Cave 11 (published in 1985 by D.N.
Freedman and K.A. Matthews), and a stylus from the Dead Sea
region. Bruce Zuckerman of the West Semitic Research Project
has produced high-quality images of the fragments and stylus,
and members of the seminary faculty are working with Peter
Flint of Trinity Western University to publish them. Southwestern’s
biblical fragments appear to contain a number of
interesting readings, and the editorial team will present their
preliminary findings at the November 2011 Annual Meeting of
the Society of Biblical Literature in San Francisco. The team
hopes that preliminary editions of the fragments will be in print
no later than 2012.
Israel Museum Online Scrolls Exhibit
The Israel Museum caused a sensation in September when it
unveiled its new website, The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls.
Photographer Ardon bar-Hama has created ultra-highresolution
digital photographs of five of the most important
scrolls in the Museum collection, now available online: the
Great Isaiah Scroll, the Temple Scroll, the War Scroll, the
Community Rule, and the Pesher on Habakkuk. Go here to
view and learn more: http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/.
Dead Sea Scrolls on Tour 2011-2012
October 28 - April 13
Discovery Times Square (New York City)
"The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times"
http://www.discoverytsx.com/exhibitions/dead-sea-scrolls
In May 2012, the exhibition will travel to Philadelphia's Franklin
Institute: http://www2.fi.edu/press/releases/deadseaannounce.pdf
July 2012 to January 2013
MacGorman Performing Arts Center
(Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)
"Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts,Timeless Treasures"
The exhibit will include scrolls on loan from the Hebrew
University, the Kingdom of Jordan, and other outside venues as
well as items from the Seminary’s Tandy Museum.
For information on upcoming exhibitions, please visit:
http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/resources/boardExhibits.
shtml; http://www.antiquities.org.il/dds_eng.asp;
or
http://www.deadseascrollsfoundation.com/exhibits.html.
TOP
The contents of this site, including the Dead Sea Scrolls Bibliography, are copyright (C) by the Orion Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. All rights reserved.
|
