Monday, October 11, 2010

Exciting New Books

EXCITING NEW BOOKS are noted at the Talmud Blog. And notice also this post at Hagahot on a new book on Automatic Writing in the Zoharic literature. The latter makes me think of Ezra's reception of the 94 lost scriptures in 4 Ezra 14:37-48.

UPDATE: More new books from the SBL:
THREE NEW TITLES FROM THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE

The Bible in Theory: Critical and Postcritical Essays
Stephen D. Moore

The sixteen essays assembled in this volume, four of them co-authored, chart the successive phases of a professional life lived in the interstices of Bible and “theory.” Engaging such texts as the Song of Songs, 4 Maccabees, Mark, Luke-Acts, John, and Romans, and such themes as the quest for the historical Jesus, the essays simultaneously traverse postmodernism, deconstruction, New Historicism, autobiographical criticism, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, masculinity studies, queer theory, and “posttheory.” Individual essay introductions and periodic annotated bibliographies make the volume an advanced introduction to biblical literary criticism.

Paper $51.95 • 480 pages • ISBN 9781589835061• Resources for Biblical Study • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from Iron Age
Christopher A. Rollston

Ancient Northwest Semitic inscriptions from Israel, Phoenicia, Syria, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Philistia enlighten and sharpen our vision of the Old Testament world in various ways. Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel focuses on this epigraphic evidence in order to broaden our understanding of the techniques and roles of writing, education, and literacy during this biblical period. To that end, the volume systematically covers scribal education; scribal implements; writing media such as stones, potsherds, and plaster; and the religious, administrative, and personal uses of writing. Its “handbook” format makes it easily accessible, including for use as a textbook in courses addressing the cultural context of ancient Israel.

Paper $21.95 • 192 pages • ISBN 9781589831070 • Archaeology and Biblical Studies • Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri
James R. Royse

In textual criticism, the “scribal habits” in a manuscript (tendencies to make various sorts of changes) must be known in order to evaluate its testimony. Colwell analyzed the scribal habits in P45, P66, and P75, by examining their singular readings. This book expands on Colwell’s work by studying P45, P46, P47, P66, P72, and P75, the six most extensive early New Testament manuscripts. All the singular readings in these papyri are studied along with all the corrections. The results, which incorporate many revised readings of these papyri, make possible the more precise use of these papyri in textual criticism. Among the important discoveries is that the general tendency of these early scribes was to omit rather than to add.

Paper $89.95 • 1088 pages • ISBN 9781589835221 • Brill Reprints • Hardback edition www.brill.nl