While this has been in the works for a while, a date has just been set to celebrate the inauguration of the Septuagint Institute at Trinity Western University and Associated Canadian Theological Schools (TWU/ACTS). On Saturday, September 17, 2005 there will be a celebration of the formation of the Septuagint Institute at TWU. Two of the world’s foremost authorities on the Septuagint, Professor Emanuel Tov of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor Albert Pietersma of the University of Toronto, will speak on the enduring significance of this Bible version and important developments in recent research. The Director of the Septuagint Institute, Professor Robert Hiebert of TWU/ACTS, will also give an illustrated talk.

Here is an excerpt the an announcement I received from Rob Hiebert:

The launch of the Septuagint Institute is a truly historic event, not only for our campus, but also for Canadian and international biblical scholarship. The focus of this new research and information centre, the only one of its kind in North America, will be on the Greek version of Jewish Scripture, which was also the Bible of many early Christians including the authors of the New Testament.

This is truly great news. I, and many others, have been lamenting the slow but steady demise of the Septuagint program at the University of Toronto as they have not replaced John W. Wevers and are not planning on replacing Albert Pietersma. This move is all the more ironic considering the increase of interest in the Septuagint in the last couple of decades. The creation of this Institute will ensure the continued focus on Septuagint studies in Canada for years to come. It is also a bright witness to the legacy of scholars such as Wevers and Pietersma as the Institute’s Director, Robert Hiebert, is a Toronto graduate.

For more information on this important ancient Version of the Hebrew Bible, see my Septuagint section.

The ten biblical plagues (or were there only seven? see Psalms 78 and 105) will be coming to a theatre near you soon! The Reaping is described as a “supernatural tale” about a myth debunker (played by Hilary Swank) who travels to a small, religious town in Texas to investigate occurrences that appear to be the 10 biblical plagues. The film is being produced by Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment and is set to be released in 2006. (Thanks for the heads up from Peter Chattaway)

For more films based on the Bible, see my Old Testament on Film pages.

I have updated my Step-by-Step Reconstruction of the New Leviticus Fragments based on my interview with Professor Hanan Eshel (see here for a preliminary report on my interview). The primary change I made was to incorporate the smaller fragment at the top of the first column of my reconstruction of the larger fragment (In our conversation Eshel confirmed that the fragments belonged to the same manuscript, even though the pictures released to the media were not entirely clear).

In a ground-breaking and controversial article, Israel Today reported today that the “original Hebrew writings, including the ancient Bible scrolls, did not use vowel points or punctuation.” This amazing news will send shock waves through academia as biblical scholars throughout the world will need to adjust their understanding of the history of the biblical text.

OK, so can someone tell me how is this news and why is it in the “Politics” section of Israel Today? Just wondering…

Jim West at Biblical Theology blog has already announced this, though I feel it is worth repeating since my doctoral advisor (Albert Pietersma) is one of the chief editors and I may be involved in the commentary on the Greek Psalter.

I first heard about the partnership with SBL unofficially at Pietersma’s annual Bar-B-Que earlier in the summer; here is the official announcement from SBL:

SBL and IOSCS Announce New LXX Commentary Series

The SBL’s Research and Publications Committee recently approved a proposal from the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) to publish a new series of commentaries on the Septuagint based on the Greek text as articulated in the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS). The Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint (SBLCS), which will be sponsored and developed by the IOSCS, will differ from other Septuagint commentary series by focusing on the translation at its point of origin. That is, the SBLCS will take the Septuagint seriously as a translation in order to attempt to determine what the translator was doing when he was translating.

To that end, commentaries in the SBLCS will adhere to five guiding principles: the original text as the basis for interpretation; the original meaning of the text as the goal of interpretation; the parent text as the primary context for interpretation; the text itself as the only source for determining a translator’s intent; and the wider Greek-language corpus as the sole basis for identifying normal (and abnormal) Greek constructions. In keeping with these five principles, each SBLCS volume will, in addition to addressing standard introductory issues, offer a detailed commentary on individual pericopes, including a summary of a pericope’s contents, discussion of interpretive questions pertaining to the entire passage, bibliography, a critical edition of the Greek text, a Hebrew text, the NETS translation, and a verse-by-verse commentary on the pericope. (For further details on the contents and structure of the commentaries, see here.)

Responsibility for developing the series contents, making commentary assignments, and editing volumes will lie with the IOSCS through its editorial board (see here), while the SBL publications staff will manage the actual publication tasks. The SBL and IOSCS expect the first volume of SBLCS to appear in 2007, with publication of two volumes per year until the series is complete. For further information about the SBLCS, please contact Albert Pietersma (Joint Editor-in Chief), Benjamin G. Wright III (Joint Editor-in Chief), or Bob Buller (SBL Editorial Director).