Published May 12, 2008
in IOTS.
I just realized I never posted my final report from the IOSOT conference, including the announcement of where the next conference in 2010 will be. So, cross-posting from my blog:
Today was the final day of the XIXth IOSOT Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. A few notes from the meeting.
Vetus Testamentum
- Carol Newsome is the editor to receive submission from North America.
- In the last three years (since the last report to IOSOT) there were 80 some articles and additional short notes for a total just over 120 (sorry, I missed the exact figures).
- Of those articles 30 were from the US, 30 from Israel, just under that from the UK and so on…
- VT is going to add an additional 20 pages per issue to accommodate additional articles.
- They will soon being using Arabic instead of Roman numerals (Yeah!)
- There will be a theme issue one/year. This fall: “Prophecy in Greece, Ugarit, and Israel.”
IOSOT President & the XXth Congress
The new President of IOSOT is the outstanding LXX scholar Prof. Raija Sollamo which means that the 2010 Congress will be held in Helsinki, Finland!
This was an amazing conference and I encourage everyone who can to submit papers and attend. I was particularly encouraged by the number of doctoral students and young scholars (I think I still qualify) who gave excellent papers. So save up your Euros now! Helsinki here we come!
I have now added the targumim files for Palm devices under the “Targumic Texts” section. You can use this link to go directly there. I am grateful to Prof. Steve Kaufman and the crew at the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon for making these texts available. They have been put into the Palm format by Prof. Kaufman’s student David Everson.
I apologize for the long down time, but I am slowly back to updating our new site. Today I added the “Bibliography” section and “Sources for Manuscripts of Targumic Literature in Public Collections Selective Bibliography: Catalogues” compiled by Willem Smelik (1992).
The bibliography needs to be updated and eventually I would like to get it into a searchable database. If you have any skills or hints about doing this within WordPress please let me know!
Published August 13, 2007
in NTCS and Wiki.
John Hobbins posted this article about Wikipedia and asks whether or not contributors to Targum.info and NTCS will also be making Wikipedia entries on Targum better as well. I personally would hope so. (See my comments here.)
The NTCS Wiki will be controlled, with only registered contributors being able to write and edit articles. While we are on this topic (and even though I do not have the wiki set up yet) I would like to go ahead and issue a call for contributors. Contributors should have an appropriate terminal degree and demonstrated contributions to the field of biblical studies and/or ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature or related fields. I do not want to be too restrictive while at the same time we want to maintain the quality and usefulness of the site. So if you are interested in contributing but have some question about requirements simply drop me an email.
I want to take a moment to thank Kevin Wilson for advice on setting this site up. His Bible Wiki will serve as a model (and his skill should add to the quality of the site as well!).
Finally, I need some help figuring out how to incorporate the bibliography. We would like to have a searchable database. We have the info in database format, but we need a way to incorporate it into our WordPress site. Many people have told me we can use php and mySQL for this but no one can seem to point me to a resource or template. Can anyone help with this? Any direction or advice would be gratefully received!
The English translations of the Targumim formerly available on the old site are all now accessible at the “Targumic Texts” page (see the tabs/links below the header). Texts currently available include:
If any of the links are broken or if you have access to translations of other Targumim that are free for distribution please drop me a note and I will place them on the site as well.
This will be the new Newsletter for Targumic and Cognate Studies! Welcome world! This newsletter is intended to be a resource to those interested in Aramaic versions of the Bible and their related studies. It is also the official organ of the International Organization for Targumic Studies.
I hope to have most of the content of the old site up by the end of the day week but our goal is to include a searchable database and that will take some time. In the meantime, put this RSS into your newsreader and look for updates as new material is uploaded or updated.
The Editor
Christian Brady
cbrady AT targum.info
Today ended our two day conference of the IOTS. We were very sorry that Paul Flesher, our President, and Robert Hayward, a distinguished Targum scholar, were unable to join us because of illness. We wish them all the very best.
It has been a wonderful conference with many excellent papers. (And mine wasn’t bad either! 
) In particular I wanted to let everyone know about a few new or perhaps under-consulted resources in the field of Targumic and cognate studies.
Targum Manuscript Database - David Kroezer, Kampen, presented on the state of the new database of targumic manuscripts. This is a tremendous project and is due to go live (although you can consult it now) in August. The funding has run out for the project at this point, with only MSS of Tg Jonathan (to the Prophets) catalogued, but that still includes several thousands MSS. The database can be found at the site http://targum.nl/. They are looking for additional funding and information on MSS. Please contact him at the website if you are able to help. David also reminded us of a few other useful databases available online: IMHM - Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts; GOLD - Genizah On-Line Database.
Critical Edition of Targum Samuel - Our keynote address on Day One was by Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman, Kampen. This project, also found at http://targum.nl/ is an ongoing project to create a critical edition of TgJon to Samuel. At the moment only 1 Sam 1-3 is available. This work represents and amazing amount of work. It is a beautiful site and resource. Sadly it too was part of the grant that was funding the manuscript database and its funding has ended as well. Both of these projects are part of the ongoing ITTEP, International Targum Text Edition Project.
At our business meeting yesterday we also discussed the Newsletter for Targum and Cognate Studies. This has been housed at http://targum.info/ and is primarily a source of bibliography as well as information concerning the IOTS. There has not a been a lot of activity on the site for the last two years, but fear not! We are going to revamp and transform the site! So stay tuned… I promise you will hear it here first!
BTW, judging from the videos on the TV in my hotel, Slovenian music seems to involve quite a lot of accordians, even in heavy metal!
And if you want to see more of my pictures from the trip, click on any of the above pictures to go to my Flickr account.
Well after a delayed flight I arrived in the capital of Slovenia, safe and sound. The room is very nice at Hotel Lev and I am settling in to finish my paper (with my socks and “things” hanging to dry in the bathroom; they wanted €2,80 to wash a pair of socks!). I have been hunting on Google maps to see where our conference will be. Why the first listed hotel, the one I choose, assuming that like the SBL that would mean it is closest to the conference, is the farthest from the university is beyond me. So here is my Google Map with the Hotel Lev an the Law School located on it.
I just received the abstracts from Willem Smelik who will be our acting chair since Paul Flesher will be unable to attend. These are posted below, just follow the link. The schedule of the papers can be found here.
Continue reading ‘Settling into Slovenia and IOTS Abstracts’
