Open Access Journal: Journal of Textual Reasoning

[First posted in AWOL 25 September 1917, updated 23 August 2021] 

 
Journal of Textual Reasoning

The Journal of Textual Reasoning is the main publishing expression of the Society of Textual Reasoning, which sponsors an electronic list-serve [textualreasoning@list.mail.virginia.edu] and meetings at professional academic conferences. The Journal will publish essays in the exegetical analyses of Jewish texts and the practice of textual reasoning as well as statements in the on-going development of the theory of Textual Reasoning. The Journal will generally follow a particular theme in each issue and include reviews of books relevant to Textual Reasoning. In the traditions of rabbinic thought and dialogical philosophy, we aim to present individual articles along with commentaries to them. To subscribe or to check on your options, write to textualreasoning-request@list.mail.virginia.edu.

Volume 11, Number 1 (May 2018): Talmud and the Ethics of Close Reading 

Volume 10, Number 1 (December 2018): Rabbinic Texts and Contemporary Ethics

Volume 9, Number 1 (December 2016): History, the Bible, and Secular Jewish Identity

Volume 8, Number 1 (October 2014): Narrative, Textuality, and the Other

Volume 7, Number 1 (March 2012): Autonomy, Community, and the Jewish Self

Volume 6, Number 2 (March 2011): The Female Ruse: Women’s Subversive Voices in Biblical and Rabbinic Texts

Volume 6, Number 1 (December 2010): Halakhah and Morality

Volume 5, Number 1 (December 2007): Prayer and Otherness

Volume 4, Number 3 (May 2006): Jewish Sensibilities

Volume 4, Number 2 (March 2006): Rational Rabbis

Volume 4, Number 1 (November 2005): The Ethics of the Neighbor

Volume 3, Number 1 (June 2004): Strauss and Textual Reasoning

Volume 2, Number 1 (June 2003): The Aqedah: Midrash as Visualization

Volume 1, Number 1 (2002): Why Textual Reasoning? 

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Old Series
The Journal of Textual Reasoning evolved from “The Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Bitnetwork,” a collaborative project begun in 1991. An archive of these correspondences and early iterations of the journal may be found here. The year 2002 marked the official transition to the  Journal of Textual Reasoning, whose publications are listed above.

e AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

Open Access Journal: Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal (JSIJ)

[First posted in AWOL 4 November 2009. Updated 2 February 2021]

Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal (JSIJ) - Ketav-ʻet eleḳṭroni le-madaʻe Yahadut
ISSN:1565-7388

JSIJ is a peer-reviewed, electronic journal dealing with all fields of Jewish studies, which is distributed free of charge via the Internet.
 
By publishing articles electronically via the Internet, JSIJ seeks to disseminate articles much faster than is possible with paper publication, and to make these articles readily and conveniently accessible to a wide variety of readers at all times.

Indeed, we hope that the use of this new technology will eventually allow JSIJ to develop in ways not available with conventional, printed journals, including the possibility of computerized full-text searching and the use of hyperlinks to other texts.

JSIJ will include articles in both Hebrew and English. To render these articles accessible to as wide a variety of users as possible, regardless of computer program or platform, we offer two modes of "publication": via PDF files (universally accessible) and Word 97 files.

JSIJ is initially scheduled to appear twice a year, although preliminary versions of articles will be made available on our site as soon as articles are accepted for publication and copyedited.

• Vol. 19 - Special Josephus Issue

Author	Title	PDF
Michael Avioz and Meir Ben Shahar	Editors’ Preface
Kenneth Atkinson	Josephus's Use of Scripture to Describe Hasmonean Territorial Expansion
Meir Ben Shahar	Dating the Destruction of the First Temple: Tradition and Interpretation in Josephus
Silvia Castelli	Between Tradition and Innovation: Josephus's Description of the Tabernacle (Ant. 3.108-150) as an Improved Alternative to the Greek Bible
Jonathan Klawans	Heresy, Forgery, Novelty: Condemning and Denying Innovation in Josephus
Étienne Nodet	Josephus, 1 Maccabees, and Hanukkah
Ishay Rosen-Zvi	Between Ethnos and Nomos: Josephus and the Goyim
Daniel R. Schwartz	Hellenism, Judaism, and Apologetic: Josephus's Antiquities According to an Unpublished Commentary by Abraham Schalit
Jan Willem Van Henten	Herod's Law Against Theft in its Literary, Legal, and Historical Contexts

• Vol. 1
• Vol. 2
• Vol. 3
• Vol. 4
• Vol. 5
• Vol. 6
• Vol. 7
• Vol. 8
• Vol. 9
• Vol. 10
• Vol. 11
• Vol. 12
• Vol. 13
• Vol. 14
• Vol. 15
• Vol. 16
• Vol. 17
• Vol. 18
• Vol. 19 - Special Josephus Issue

Faculty Units

See the full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, and Christian and Islamic Origin

 [First posted in AWOL 23 November 2009. Updated 28 december, 2020]

4 Enoch: The Online Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, and Christian and Islamic Origin

 

The website provides a comprehensive survey of the history of research for each of the subfields listed below, including thousands of books, edited volumes, works of art and fiction, as well as biographies of authors

Second Temple Studies : Apocalyptic Studies -- Archaeology -- Bible Studies -- Christian Origins Studies -- Early Christian Studies -- Early Islamic Studies -- Early Jewish Studies-- Early Samaritan Studies -- Enochic Studies -- Gospels Studies -- Hebrew Bible Studies-- Hellenistic-Jewish Studies -- Historical Jesus Studies -- Johannine Studies -- Josephus Studies -- New Testament Studies -- NT Apocrypha Studies -- Qumran Studies -- OT Apocrypha Studies -- OT Pseudepigrapha Studies -- Pauline Studies -- Petrine Studies -- Philo Studies -- Reception History -- Septuagint Studies -- Wisdom Studies -- Women's Studies -- Varia

Fiction : Art -- Cinema -- Dance -- Literature -- Music

People's Generations -- Biographies -- Jewish Authorship -- Women Authorship -- In memoriam

Works' Chronology -- Languages -- Highlights -- Indexes

Timeline : 2020s -- 2010s -- 2000s -- 1990s -- 1980s -- 1970s -- 1960s -- 1950s -- 1940s -- 1930s -- 1920s -- 1910s -- 1900s -- 1850s -- 1800s -- 1700s -- 1600s -- 1500s -- 1450s -- Medieval

Enoch Seminar -- Nangeroni Meetings -- Enoch Colloquia -- Enoch Graduate Seminar

With the contribution of the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies and the Alessandro Nangeroni International Endowment, and the collaboration of friends and colleagues of the Enoch Seminar (Carlos Segovia, Samuele Rocca, Pierpaolo Bertalotto, Jason Zurawski, Deborah Forger, Ronald Ruark, Isaac Oliver, et al.). See also: Enoch Seminar Online and follow us on Facebook. @2009-2018. <This website is constantly revised, enlarged and updated by the Author>

 

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Open Access Journal: Journal of Greco-Roman Judaism and Christianity (JGRChJ)

 [First posted in AWOL 6 January 2009. Updated updated 11 DEcember 2020]

Journal of Greco-Roman Judaism and Christianity (JGRChJ)
ISSN: 1467-1093

Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism originates from McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1, and at www.macdiv.ca/jgrchj.

Those wishing to submit articles for consideration should send both a hard copy of the article and a disk or electronic file containing an identical form of the article, indicating the word processing program used. The article should correspond as closely as possible to the Sheffield Phoenix Press housestyle. Please do not send manuscripts only by means of e-mail.

Manuscripts and editorial correspondence should be addressed to Dr Stanley E.Porter, Senior Editor, Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, McMaster Divinity College, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1. Enquiries may be addressed to princpl@mcmaster.ca.

JGRChJ accepts books for possible review in the electronic version, including review articles of several books on a given subject. Books are to be sent to the Senior Editor for consideration for review.

JGRChJ appears continuously throughout the year. The electronic form of the previous volume is removed soon after the new volume year’s postings begin. At that time, the previous volumes of the journal will be available only in print form. The print form of the journal may be purchased through Sheffield Phoenix Press, Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.

Volume 16 (2020)

16.1	Andrew R. Talbert	The Synonymous Rendering of Aristotelian φιλέω with ἀγαπάω in the Gospel of John
16.2	Andrew Simmonds	'His Blood on Us and on Our Children' (Mt. 27.25) is Modeled on Oedipus's Unwitting Kinship Oath to His Father in Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus
16.3	Michael J.G. Gray-Fow	Pomponia Graecina: How Could She Have Heard about Christians and What Did 'Christian' Mean?

Volume 15 (2019)

Volume 14 (2018)

Volume 13 (2017)

Volume 12 (2016)

Volume 11 (2015)

Volume 10 (2014)

Volume 9 (2013)

Volume 8 (2011-2012)

Volume 7 (2010)

Volume 6 (2009)

Volume 5 (2008)

Volume 4 (2007)

Volume 3 (2006)

Volume 2 (2001-2005)

Volume 1 (2000)

See AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

Mapping the Ancient Jewish Diaspora: 117-650 ce

 [First posted in AWOL 5 August 2015, updated 19 September 2018]

Mapping the Ancient Jewish Diaspora: 117-650 ce
מיפוי התפוצה היהודית בשלהי העת העתיקה 117-650 לס' 

This project aim to construct an interactive website that will map the Jewish Diaspora in the late antiquity.

 The terminus a quo for the proposed research is the Diaspora uprisings against Trajan (115–117) and the ensuing shifts in Jewish life, one of which was the harsh blows experienced by some of the major centers of Jewish settlement in the Diaspora, first and foremost, the Jews of Alexandria and its environs, and the Jews of Cyrenaica and Cyprus.

 The chosen terminus ad quem is the Arab conquest of North Africa and southwest Europe over the course of the seventh century, before the emergence of Jewish communities in Europe in the Early Middle Ages

On the first phase of the project the foundings will be concentrated on the site. later they will be uploaded evidence to a GIS software that allows search by various parameters.

The project is coordinated by Dr. Eyal Ben-Eliyahu from the Department of History at the University of Haifa, Israel.

• Home
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• conferences
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And see AWOL's Roundup of Resources on Ancient Geography

Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature in Antiquity, c. 200 BCE to c. 700 CE

Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature in Antiquity, c. 200 BCE to c. 700 CE

Welcome to the website of the research project "Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature of Antiquity, c. 200 BCE to c. 700 CE" (TAPJLA).

This four-year project (2007-2011) took place as a collaboration between researchers at the University of Manchester and Durham University, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. It aimed to describe the literary characteristics of a large number of ancient documents important for the development of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Inventory of structurally important literary features

Database of literary profiles

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Workshop

The question we wish to answer

How we went about it

Achievements and publications

Who we are

PhD students and projects associated with TAPJLA research

Symposium and conferences

Inventory archive

The Greek Bible in Byzantine Judaism

The Greek Bible in Byzantine Judaism

 

The story of the Jewish transmission of Greek Bible versions has yet to be told. While it is recognised that the books of the Hebrew Bible were originally translated into Greek in Greco-Roman antiquity by Jews for Jews, it is generally supposed that at some early point Jews gave up using the translations, along with the use of the Greek language generally, and they were preserved and used only in the Christian Church. However, materials have come to light, some very recently, that make it plain that some Jews continued to use the Greek language throughout the Middle Ages, and that, while the Hebrew Bible came to play a central part in their religious and cultural life, they also knew the Bible in Greek.

The aim of the Greek Bible in Byzantine Judaism project is to gather evidence for the use of Greek Bible translations by Jews in the Middle Ages, and to make these texts available to scholars as a corpus, together with the information necessary for an appreciation of their historical background, meaning and exegetical implications.

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Elyonim veTachtonim: Electronic inventory of angels, demons and ghosts in the early rabbinic literature

Elyonim veTachtonim: Electronic inventory of angels, demons and ghosts in the early rabbinic literature

What's in the name?

A passage in tractate bMegillah 11a-b conveys a tradition of three kings who have “ruled over the whole firmament” (Heb. shloshah malkhu bakipah): Ahab, Ahasuerus and Nebuchadnezzar. These emperors, however, are surpassed in proficiency and the range of power by king Solomon about whom it is said that “he ruled over the denizens of the upper world as well as of the lower (Heb. al haelyonim veal hatachtonim)”. The phrase itself came to function as a merism denoting the totality of the supernatural creatures, both good and evil.

What's inside?

Elyonim veTachtonim is also the code name for the project aimed at reconstructing the comprehensive inventory of the entities of various classes in the early rabbinic literature [ERL]. Since the task is laborious, the sources vast and the human resources scarce, the project expands gradually but slowly.

What's the purpose?

First of all, the database serves the function of a specialized thematic concordance and as such provides the means for a quick localization and juxtaposition of all the appearances of a given entity. Second, the detailed division into separate units allows the introduction of the quantitative methods of analysis, some of which are already published in the "summaries" sheets of the database. Third, the manipulation with the hashtags and filtering commands makes it possible to discern some particular regularities like the correlation between the given entity, topic and genre. This is just a small fraction of the potential applications, and the larger the database the more diverse the purposes. 

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Open Access Journal: Enoch Seminar Online

[First posted in AWOL 17 July 2013, updated 1 November 2015]

Enoch Seminar Online

The Enoch Seminar is an academic group of international specialists in Second Temple Judaism (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Origins), who share the results of their research in the field and meet to discuss topics of common interest. The Enoch Seminar was founded in 2001 at the initiative of Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan

• Home
• FORUMS
• Reviews
• Papers
• Enoch Seminars
• Enoch Graduate Seminar
• Nangeroni meetings

See the full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

Open Access Journal: Haḳedem: Vierteljahrschrift für die Kunde des alten Orients und der Wissenschaft des Judentums

Haḳedem: Vierteljahrschrift für die Kunde des alten Orients und der Wissenschaft des Judentums

1907

1908

1909

See the full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

And see: Compact Memory Judaica Periodicals Online

Compact Memory Judaica Periodicals Online

[First posted in AWOL 11 April 2012, updated 19 November 2014]

Compact Memory

The collection contains 110 most important Jewish German newspapers and periodicals in Central Europe in the period from 1806-1938 and is one of the most important historic resources for Jewish Studies in modern times. The periodicals cover the complete range of religious, political, social, cultural and academic aspects of Jewish life. 

The database contains ca. 700.000 pages as images, some periodicals have been processed by OCR, others have been indexed thoroughly. The database offers advanced search options, downloading and printing of articles.

The database was sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the years of 2000-2006. Partners of the project were the Judaica Division of the University Library Frankfurt am Main, Prof. em. Dr. Hans Otto Horch, former Professor at the Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Europäisch-Jüdische Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte at the RWTH Aachen University and the Germania Judaica, Cologne.

While Compact Memory is not specifically focused on Antiquity, it does include several pertinent journals:  Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums;  Zeitschrift für die religiösen Interessen des Judenthums;  Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums; Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für jüdische Theologie;  Magazin für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. Click through above for the list of All Titles,
All Titles All Titles

Open Access to Yaakov Sussman’s Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts

The Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, associated with the Friedberg Genizah Project, has just posted online in PDF format Yaakov Sussman’s Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts

 

The Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, associated with the Friedberg Genizah Project, has just posted online in PDF format Yaakov Sussman’s Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts. - See more at: http://menachemmendel.net/blog/sussman-catalogue-of-talmud-mss-online/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sussman-catalogue-of-talmud-mss-online#sthash.kRdQtNxf.dpuf

The Friedberg Jewish Manuscript Society, associated with the Friedberg Genizah Project, has just posted online in PDF format Yaakov Sussman’s Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts. - See more at: http://menachemmendel.net/blog/sussman-catalogue-of-talmud-mss-online/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sussman-catalogue-of-talmud-mss-online#sthash.kRdQtNxf.dpuf

"Geazim Digital" is pleased to announce the launching of a new website as part of the Friedberg Portal: the Sussmann Catalog website. "The Thesaurus of Talmudic Manuscripts" is a catalog of all manuscripts in the word that can possibly be found of the Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud Yerushalmi, Talmud Bavli and Rif. The catalog was recently published by Prof. Yaacov Sussmann. A list and description of all manuscripts, whole or of the smallest size of these works are included in the catalog. In the current site the three Sussmann volumes are displayed in the format of the original book as PDF pages. Besides simple browsing through the book additional processing functions are available. For details, see the site Homepage.

The site requires registration, but is otherwise open access

Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature Edited by Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth L. Sanders

Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature
Edited by Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth L. Sanders
©2014 The Authors

Cloth edition available from NYU Press (ISBN: 9781479823048).

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth L. Sanders
• 2. Enoch and the Beginnings of Jewish Interest in Natural Science Philip Alexander
• 3. Enoch’s Science James VanderKam
• 4. “I Was Shown Another Calculation” (חשבון אחרן אחזית): The Language of Knowledge in Aramaic Enoch and Priestly Hebrew Seth L. Sanders
• 5. Philological and Epistemological Remarks on Enoch’s Science: Response to Papers by Seth L. Sanders and James VanderKam Loren Stuckenbruck
• 6. Ideals of Science: The Infrastructure of Scientific Activity in Apocalyptic Literature and in the Yahad Jonathan Ben-Dov
• 7. Networks of Scholars: The Transmission of Astronomical and Astrological Learning between Babylonians, Greeks and Jews Mladen Popović
• 8. “Ancient Jewish Sciences” and the Historiography of Judaism Annette Yoshiko Reed
• A Bibliography for Ancient Jewish Sciences

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ancient Jewish sciences and the history of knowledge in Second Temple literature / editors Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth Sanders.
volumes cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4798-2304-8 (cloth) -- ISBN 978-1-4798-7397-5 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4798-6398-3
1. Science, Ancient--History. 2. Astronomy, Ancient. 3. Astrology, Hebrew. 4. Judaism and science. 5. Physiognomy--Religious aspects--Judaism. I. Ben-Dov, Jonathan, editor. II. Sanders, Seth L., editor.
Q124.95.A53 2013
509.33'09014--dc23
2013016449

Open Access Books by Lawrence H. Schiffman

Open Access Books by Lawrence H. Schiffman

The Jews in Late Antiquity

The Hellenistic period begins formally with Alexander’s arrival in the Near East in 334 B.C.E. However, this date should not be seen as the beginning of Hellenistic influence in this region. The Near East as a whole and the Land of Israel and its Jewish residents more particularly were subject to increasing Aegean influence beginning already in the fourteenth century B.C.E. Due to increased trade connections, this influence became much more extensive during the Persian period when Greek coinage became the standard in the Land of Israel. The cultural phenomenon we call Hellenism was a power which would have a lasting impact on Judaism and the Jewish people.
Click here to download or read online: The Jews in Late Antiquity.

Challenge and Transformation: Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism

The years of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine rule in Judea and of Sassanian rule in Babylonia were years of great challenge to the ongoing continuity of Judaism, and, at the same time, years of great accomplishment which resulted in the successful meeting of these challenges. By the time the period of Late Antiquity drew to a close, Judaism had survived the challenges of Hellenization, sectarianism, violent revolution, and even anti-Semitism. In addition, the development of Israelite religion into the rabbinic tradition took place in these very same years. The many transitions that took place in this period are what effectively made possible the long-term continuity of Judaism as an exilic religion, able to enter the medieval period with a new consensus on how to face the future and explain the past.
Click here to download or read online: Challenge and Transformation: Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism