The most up-to-date study of the text history of 1 and 2 Kings In this book, Tuukka Kauhanen approaches the challenging case of the textual history of 1 and 2 Kings through citations of the text found within the writings of the fourth-century bishop of Sadinia, Lucifer of Cagliari. Kauhanen presents evidence that Lucifer's Latin text sheds important light on lost Hebrew and Greek pieces of the textual puzzle in Kings. In doing so, he compares all of Lucifer's extensive quotations of Kings to extant Greek witnesses as well as Old Latin witnesses where available and subsequently analyzes the probable reasons for textual variations. In each instance he attempts to choose the best possible candidate for the Old Greek reading and where that reading might reflect a now-lost Hebrew text. Features Use of the most current research into the text of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint, including the Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition series and the forthcoming Göttingen Septuagint edition of King An appendix listing readings from the analysis sections arranged according to agreement patterns and other meaningful criteria Charts comparing readings

Biblical manuscripts from the Dead Sea and the Cairo Genizah have added immeasurably to our knowledge of the textual history of the Hebrew Bible. The papers collected in this volume compare the evidence of the biblical DSS with manuscripts from the Vienna Papyrus Collection, connected with the Cairo Genizah, as well as late ancient evidence from diverse contexts. The resulting picture is one of a dialectic between textual plurality and fixity: the eventual dominance of the consonantal Masoretic Text over the textual plurality of the Second Temple period, and the secondary diversification of that standardized text through scribal activity.

The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint features contributions from leading experts in the field considering the history and manuscript transmission of the version, and the study of translation technique and textual criticism.

King Manasseh of Judah is one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible. 2 Kings presents him as the wickedest of monarchs. In 2Kgs 24:3–4, he is accused of having provoked God to destroy Judah on account of the innocent blood he had shed in Jerusalem (cf. 2Kgs 21:16). In his study Krzysztof Kinowski investigates this accusation, viewing it against the biblical and ancient Near East backgrounds, and casts a new light upon Manasseh's role in the fall of Jerusalem. The mention of bloodshed in this affair appears to be the outcome of a process of scapegoating of Manasseh, ongoing in 2 Kings and reflecting both the legal and the cultic paradigms governing the biblical historiography. The link between Manasseh's bloodshed and the destruction of Judah on account of the cultic land's blood-defilement points towards a group of priestly scribes involved in the production of the 2Kgs 21 and 24 narratives. This assumption lies behind the scholarly discussion about the Priestly-like strata and priestly touches in the Books of Kings.

The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings provide a clear and useful introduction to the main aspects and issues pertaining to the scholarly study of Kings. These include textual history (including the linguistic profile), compositional history, literary approaches, key characters, history, important recurring themes, reception history and some contemporary readings.

Scribes and Translators is a critical reflection on the textual pluralism as reflected in the book of Kings. The first part of the book examines the diverse texts transmitted by the manuscripts. Special attention is paid to the Antiochene text of the Septuagint that is being edited in Madrid. The second part is devoted to the analysis of Old Latin readings, transmitted by a Spanish family of Vulgate Bibles, with no support in any of the known manuscripts. Finally, the whole evidence is discussed in the frame of the plurality of texts confirmed by the Qumran documents for those books. Based on Old Latin material recently published it sheds light on the text transmission of Kings and on the translation techniques and the history of the Biblical texts in general.

In der Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) erscheinen Arbeiten zu sämtlichen Gebieten der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Im Zentrum steht die Hebräische Bibel, ihr Vor- und Nachleben im antiken Judentum sowie ihre vielfache Verzweigung in die benachbarten Kulturen der altorientalischen und hellenistisch-römischen Welt. Die BZAW akzeptiert Manuskriptvorschläge, die einen innovativen und signifikanten Beitrag zu Erforschung des Alten Testaments und seiner Umwelt leisten, sich intensiv mit der bestehenden Forschungsliteratur auseinandersetzen, stringent aufgebaut und flüssig geschrieben sind.

Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, science, law, economics, and philosophy. Volume 46 is a special issue presenting the results of an international conference on the Latin Josephus, which was held at the University of Bochum, Germany, in September 2019. It comprises six articles on a wide variety of aspects of the Latin Josephus tradition and a review of a recently published edition of Josephus’s De Bello Iudaico, book 1.

Editorial Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined Literary Criticism presents and applies a model for understanding and reconstructing the diachronic development of the Hebrew Bible through historical criticism (or the historical-critical method). Reinhard Müller and Juha Pakkala refine the methodologies of literary and redaction criticism through a systematic investigation of the evidence of additions, omissions, replacements, and transpositions that are documented by divergent ancient textual traditions. At stake is not only historical criticism but also the Hebrew Bible as a historical source, for historical criticism has been and continues to be the only method to unwind those scribal changes that left no traces in textual variants.

In the history of the Greek translation of the Bible, there are two recensions that play a very important role. The first is the Hexaplaric recension of Origen. In this work, Origen displayed the different versions of the Biblical text and aimed at bringing the Greek text as it had been submitted so far closer to the then current Hebrew text. His intervention in the Greek text has "opened the gates to a flood of approximations of the Greek text to the Hebrew" (dixit Anneli Aejmelaeus). Indeed, one can find Hexaplaric readings in many manuscripts, and even in texts, manuscripts and versions that have never been labeled like that. Filtering out what are Hexaplaric readings is of utmost importance to the reconstruction of the Old Greek text, which may then point to another Hebrew text. A similar enterprise was undertaken by Lucian, and his work too needs to be reconstructed and traced in order to establish the Old Greek text. The current volume deals with the books of 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kings, as well as Joshua and Esther.