 2014 - 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 0690-4425-01 | The Pentateuch: Text, Language and Interpretation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 4.0
Course description
The Pentateuch: Text, Language and Interpretation
For many generations, the text of biblical books in general and of the Pentateuch in particular has been considered as sacred to the degree that even the alteration of a single letter has been severely prohibited. However, it turns out that the Second Temple period, during which the foundational institutions of Judaism took shape, is characterized by plurality of texts of the biblical and specifically Pentateuchal books. We now know of manuscripts that significantly differ from the received, Masoretic text of the Pentateuch; such sources also reflect traditions of the Hebrew language that markedly diverge from Biblical Hebrew in its authoritative, Tiberian crystallization. The seminar intends to introduce the textual variety of Pentateuchal literature (in its various genres), to learn of the linguistic and exegetical aspects of the textual pluriformity, and to train the participants with the use of a range of philological tools that are required for scholarly research of the primary sources. Special attention will be given to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, which can now be compared to scrolls from Qumran that reflect a similar text-type.
For many generations, the text of biblical books in general and of the Pentateuch in particular has been considered as sacred to the degree that even the alteration of a single letter has been severely prohibited. However, it turns out that the Second Temple period, during which the foundational institutions of Judaism took shape, is characterized by plurality of texts of the biblical and specifically Pentateuchal books. We now know of manuscripts that significantly differ from the received, Masoretic text of the Pentateuch; such sources also reflect traditions of the Hebrew language that markedly diverge from Biblical Hebrew in its authoritative, Tiberian crystallization. The seminar intends to introduce the textual variety of Pentateuchal literature (in its various genres), to learn of the linguistic and exegetical aspects of the textual pluriformity, and to train the participants with the use of a range of philological tools that are required for scholarly research of the primary sources. Special attention will be given to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, which can now be compared to scrolls from Qumran that reflect a similar text-type.