"This collection of essays is dedicated to Eibert Tigchelaar. Individual studies engage with new approaches to materiality, hermeneutics, digital humanities, and philology in the context of biblical research. The articles reflect on reading practices, methodological innovation, textual criticism, and ancient fragments. Particular attention has been given to new approaches to the material aspects of ancient manuscripts. There are also extensive treatments of translations and reconstructions across Hebrew,Greek, and Aramaic biblical traditions. Overall, the essays honour the work of Eibert Tigchelaar in the ways they build on his incisive insights and exemplary contributions"--
This collection of essays reflects upon new approaches to materiality, hermeneutics, digital humanities, and philology. Focuses are on reading practices, methodological innovation, textual criticism, and ancient fragments. The topics cover Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, and ancient Jewish literature.
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations
Contributors
Bibliography of the Publications of Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar
1 Introduction
Arjen F. Bakker, George J. Brooke, P. Bärry Hartog, Hindy Najman, Mladen
Popovi and Pierre Van Hecke
2 The Scope of Scriptural Passages in Tefillin in Light of a Comprehensive
Paleographic Analysis of Tefillin from the Judean Desert
Yonatan Adler and Gemma Hayes
3 Early Nabataean Scribal Culture: Rise of a National Script?
Ayhan Aksu
4 Mathematical Concepts: Functional Guides for Understanding Early Jewish
Textual Description of Architecture?
Hugo Antonissen
5 Offering of the Lips: Bridging Prayer in the Psalms of Solomon and the Dead
Sea Scrolls
Arjen Bakker
6 Expressions of Truth in Qumran and Piyy
Wout van Bekkum
7 Probing the Principles of Principal Editions of the Dead Sea Scrolls
George J. Brooke
8 (John 4:24): Pneumatological Aspects in the Gospel of John
Revisited
Veronika Burz-Tropper
9 The Pursuit of Truth in the Sectarian Association of the Dead Sea Scrolls
John J. Collins
10 A Partial Reedition of 4Q112 (4QDan): New Readings and Rereadings
Amanda M. Davis Bledsoe
11 The Beginning of Musar LaMevin: an Improved Edition
Shlomi Efrati, Asaf Gayer and Jonathan Ben-Dov
12 Ideological Nuances in 4QMMT
Ananda B. Geyser-Fouché
13 All in the Family: the Book of Tobit, the Legend of Ahiqar, and the
Cultural Politics of Kinship in the Hellenistic Age
Matthew Goff
14 Teachers and Students in the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls: a Material
Perspective
Bärry Hartog and Marieke Dhont
15 Ultimately Not Important? The Publication of the Post-2002 Dead Sea
Scrolls-Like Fragments
Årstein Justnes
16 Texts Uttered in Sectarian Events of Transition: Nuances of Self-Identity
Menahem Kister
17 The Dead Sea Scrolls in Historical Perspective
Reinhard G. Kratz
18 The Same Strokes for Different Folks: the Ornate Rectilinear Formal
Scripts and Early-Roman Jewish Material Book Culture
Drew Longacre
19 Spacing Systems in Greek Scrolls from the Judean Desert
Shem Miller
20 Sacrifice in the Thirteenth Song of the Sabbath Sacrifice
Noam Mizrahi
21 Pluriformity and Compositional Practices in Ancient Jewish Texts:
Traditionary Processes, Ongoing Openness, and Compositional Hermeneutics
Hindy Najman
22 Rethinking the Transmission and Composition of Early Jewish Texts in
Relation to Prayer: the Confession of Daniel as a Case Study
Judith H. Newman
23 The Relationship between the Hodayot and Barkhi Nafshi: a Case Study of
1QH 13:721
Carol A. Newsom
24 I Saw Satan Fall Like Lightning from Heaven (Luke 10:18):
Some Observations on the Basis of Jewish Sources
Hector M. Patmore
25 The Return of the Scribe with Artificial Intelligence: Looking Again at
the Reversed Writing and Mixed Scripts of 4Q186
Mladen Popovi and Maruf A. Dhali
26 Poetry and Textual Transmission in the Rhymed Paraphrases of Sir 35:1126
(T-S NS 193.99 and T-S AS 137.436)
Frédérique Michčle Rey and Eric D. Reymond
27 Corrections in Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls as a Window into Copying
Practices
Hanneke van der Schoor
28 (Daniel 9:23; 10:11, 19): a New Lexical Interpretation and Its
Biblical Context
Michael Segal
29 The Varying Size of the Sodom Coalition in Genesis 14
Benjamin D. Suchard
30 Scribal Practices Mentioned in Rabbinic Sources Compared with the Judean
Desert Scrolls
Emanuel Tov
31 I Am a Vessel of Clay: Metaphorical Anthropology in the Hodayot
Pierre Van Hecke
32 Avoiding Lady Folly along the Path of Wisdom: Metaphors in the Wiles of
the Wicked Woman (4Q184)
Danilo Verde
33 The Other Manuscripts of the Temple Scroll (11Q20, 11Q21, 4Q524, and
5Q21) and Scholarly Constructions of the Text
Molly M. Zahn
Arjen Bakker is Assistant Professor of Second Temple Judaism at the University of Cambridge. He is on the editorial board of STDJ. His first monograph is The Secret of Time: Reconfiguring Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Brill, 2023).
George J. Brooke is Rylands Professor Emeritus of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, University of Manchester. He is editor of Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah and Area Editor of Brill's on-line Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Bärry Hartog is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Ancient Judaism at the Protestantse Theologische Universiteit. He is a member of the editorial board of Dead Sea Discoveries and the author of Pesher and Hypomnema (Brill, 2017).
Hindy Najman is Oriel and Laing Professor of the interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford and is Director of the Oriel Centre for the Study of the Bible. Her most recent book is Scriptural Vitality (Oxford, 2025).
Mladen Popovi is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism and Dean of the Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society at the University of Groningen. He is editor of Journal for the Studies of Judaism and of Oudtestamentische studiėn/Old Testament Studies.
Pierre Van Hecke is Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies and the Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven. He is the Coordinator of the Research Unit of Biblical Studies, and the Secretary of the annual Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense.
