These are some of the main categories of issues that many face when journeying in academic biblical studies. I have experienced both American and British PhD programs, denominational seminary and prestigious university, landing scholarships, job applications and interviews, working in the UK and USA, leaving an academic job, publishing in ‘top tier’ publications, the ‘ministry vs. academy’ dichotomy, etc.

In this podcast series, I plan to talk openly about these issues—the struggles, the decisions, strategies, and the successes. I will also be inviting other experts onto the podcast to help.

Whether you are new to academic biblical studies or a seasoned veteran, I hope you will listen and consider participating!

I have just created a facebook page you can follow to keep up: fb.me/ABSjourney

You can also stay up to date by subscribing to the blog (click ‘here‘ and enter name and email at top of page).

The post Coming Soon: Podcast Series on Journeying in Academic Biblical Studies appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

From the blog:

The first 12 months at Expositus have flown by, and for good reason. What have we been up to?

• Incorporation in Missouri on August 1, 2017.
• 501(c)(3) status granted (Letter of Determination dated September 28, 2017).
• Successful fundraising of startup costs (Nov-Dec 2017).
• First contract signed, working with CODEC, a major research center in the UK (December 2017—present).

Research work includes:

• Researching and writing on the subject of how technology impacts interpretation of texts.
• Writing a book on the history of Bible Software (contracted with Routledge).
• Co-editing/authoring a book on Bible reading habits of 18-35 yr old British people.
  • Includes collaboration with CODEC, Bible Society (UK), and Barna.
  • More will be posted on the blog about the findings of this research soon.
• Teaching on CODEC’s MediaLit summer course and CODEC’s MA in Digital Theology.
• Trips to Durham (UK), Turku and Koli (Finland).
• Collaboration with a potential research fellow of Expositus on computational linguistics related to New Testament texts.

In the year ahead, I expect much of this work to continue. In addition, we hope to begin working more on issues around high speed internet accessibility and digital literacy in rural Missouri. In fact, making a greater local impact is high on the priority list.

Why is this important? At the core of our work is the conviction that the impact of technology on communities, work, and even faith, is so great that we must study its influence in depth—to reap the benefits and mitigate the negative (often unintended) consequences.

Many thanks to all of Expositus’ supporters!

If you wish to support Expositus, please find out more here.

The post Expositus at 12 Months (and other work) appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

Abstract: Technologies used to represent texts are not hermeneutically neutral. Since technologies have illocutionary force, we should ask of any text, whether print or digital, In what ways are the associated technologies conveying meaning? In this article, the question will be asked of liturgical texts.

For the past few years, the Church of England has published some of its Common Worship liturgical resources, including Daily Prayer and the Common Worship Lectionary, as mobile Android and iOS apps. While the content of the resources is generally the same in its printed and digital forms, a number of interesting differences in how the resources can be used in these respective formats are apparent. Further, it is the contention of this article that these differences have discernable hermeneutical effects on the reader/user experience. After offering a framework for understanding the ways in which technologies influence the interpretation of their texts, this article will describe and interpret the differences between the print and digital versions of Daily Prayer. Finally, implications for users/readers and various other stakeholders in the religious apps space will be offered.

Full Text: PDF
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17885/heiup.rel.2017.0.23768
URN (PDF): http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heiup-rel-237683

The post New Publication: “Mobile Liturgy” appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

We already have some promising partnerships being developed in the midterm. However, our greatest need at the moment is short-term stability. For that, I am looking to raise funds over the next few weeks. Facebook users can donate via our FB page (click here) or anyone can donate via our website (here). More to come.

The post New Country, New Job appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

First, the manuscript in question can be viewed online, and has been available online at least since shortly after its discovery, but likely longer (I have not found the date it was made available online). Also a critical edition is now published: Lorenzo Perrone (ed.)  Die neuen Psalmenhomilien: Eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 (De Gruyter, 2015) [TOC online]. For a comparison of the homilies in this manuscript compared to what we find in Jerome (Epistle 33) and Rufinus’ Latin, see the chart from Perrone at the bottom of this post.

Some significant dates of the discovery and aftermath with links:

4 April 2012: While cataloguing in the Bavarian State Library (Munich), Marina Molin Pradel discovers clues that Cod. Mon. Gr. 314 contains Greek text of four Origen homilies on Psalm 36 known from Rufinus’ Latin text. The Easter holiday interrupts further inquiry.

10 April 2012: After the Easter holiday, Pradel confirms that these look like homilies of Origen.

21 May 2012: Lorenzo Perrone (U. of Bologna) is contacted to become an advisor by Anna Pontani of Padua University. Perrone was able to access the manuscript online immediately.

11 June 2012: The Bayerische StaatsBibliothek gives a press release on the discovery, translated the same day by Roger Pearse. Alin Suciu excerpts the press release on his blog and provides updates, among which includes: “Dr. Lorenzo Perrone (University of Bologna), who identified Origen’s homilies, will soon present his discovery on this blog. Stay tuned.” Updates also include information on the arrangement of the homilies.

12 June 2012: Alin Suciu publishes a letter from Lorenzo Perrone (letter dated 10 June) which summarises the discovery. Some of the content of this letter can be found in Perrone’s publications on the subject, including, “Rediscovering Origen today: First Impressions on the new collection of homilies on the Psalms in the «Codex Monacensis Graecus» 314” in Studia Patristica Vol. LVI (2013) [online]. From the letter:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

On the 21st of May, a day after the first severe earthquake since centuries began to shake my region, I was asked an expertise on a Greek manuscript of Munich.

Prof. Anna Meschini Pontani, from Padua University, informed me that Dr. Marina Molin Pradel, who is preparing the new catalogue of the Greek manuscripts of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, wished to submit to my attention a discovery she had made on Holy Thursday. While examining the content of Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 (11th-12th century), an anonymous collection of 29 homilies on the Psalms, she discovered that the manuscript included the Greek text of four of the five homilies of Origen on Psalm 36 (H36Ps I-IV). Moreover, she noticed that the list of the other homilies corresponded to a large extent to that presented by Jerome in his Letter 33 to Paula, the most important group being the series of nine homilies on Psalm 77.

I worked hastily in the following weeks to go through the considerable manuscript (371 folios) and check its content. More and more, albeit still provisionally, I have come to the conclusion that we have to do with a lot of lost homilies of Origen. My conviction is supported, among other things, by the exegetical treatment presented by the homilies, the doctrinal elements they preserve, the stylistic features which are typical of the great Alexandrian. In addition, some excerpts of these homilies were already known to us under his name in some catenae fragments edited in PG 17 and the Analecta Sacra of Pitra, especially with regard to Psalm 77.

Only a thorough examination of the texts transmitted by the Codex Monacensis Graecus 314 will permit to extend with reasonable certainty the attribution to Origen of all the remaining homilies or of part of them, besides the Homilies I-IV on Psalm 36.

I have already begun with the transcription of the manuscript and hope to complete it before the end of the summer, in order to make the texts accessible to scholars. Together with my colleagues Chiara Barilli, Antonio Cacciari and Emanuela Prinzivalli I plan to prepare without delay a critical edition of the homilies.

Marina Molin Pradel will present her discovery and offer some samples of the manuscript in the next issue of Adamantius, due to be published before the autumn.

A series of initiatives are planned to announce the discovery of the new texts to the scholarly world and to promote their knowledge and study.

On monday the 11th of June the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek will release a public statement about the discovery.

A seminar will take place at Padua University the 25th of June and a day-conference is planned for the 5th of December in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Together with the colleagues of the Italian Research Group on Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition we plan a conference in Bologna next February, exactly one year after the one devoted to the prospect of a new edition of Origen’s commentaries on the Psalms, in cooperation with the colleagues of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaft.

At the time we were submerged by the snow no less than by the uncomfortable impression of the heavy task still waiting the editors of the catenae fragments. Now, in the middle of renewed quakes, we have been given an unexpected gift that we would like to share with all those who love Origen.

Lorenzo Perrone

25 June 2012: Marina Molin Pradel presents a paper, “Novità origeniane dalla Staatsbibliothek di Monaco,” on the discovery, which appears to be published as “Novità origeniane dalla Staatsbibliothek di Monaco di Baviera: il Cod.graec. 314” Adamantius 18 (2012): 16-40. The abstract:

Cod. Graec. 314 of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich is a parchment manuscript from the 12th century containing 29 anonymous homilies on the Psalms: two homilies on Ps. 15, four on Ps. 36, two on Ps. 67, three on Ps. 73, one on Ps. 74, one on Ps. 75, four on Ps. 76, nine on Ps. 77, two on Ps. 80 and one on Ps. 81. The four homilies on Ps. 36, thanks to the comparison with the Latin translation made by Rufinus of Aquileia, are certainly to be identified as texts of Origen, but also the unedited homilies appear to go back to him. This article illustrates the history of the manuscript and its cataloguing, together with a short physical description of it. Further, it explains the methodic approach followed by the author to identify the unknown preacher. The presentation is accompanied by sixteen tables: nrs. 1-8) incipit and desinit of the four homilies on Ps. 36 juxtaposed to the corresponding passages in the Latin translation of Rufinus; nrs. 9-14) the catenae excerpts from the first homily on Ps 36 (PG 17) compared with the corresponding passages in the Munich codex; 15) a synopsis of the content of Cod. Graec. 314 and of the eusebian list of Origen’s writings in Jerome, Ep. 33; 16) a comparison between a passage from the 5th Homily on Ps. 77 (f. 264r-v) and the catenae excerpts edited by Pitra and Gallandi

9 July 2012:  Perrone delivers a paper at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The title: “Rediscovering Origen Today: First Impressions of the New Collection of Homilies on the Psalms in the Codex Monacensis Graecus 314.” A version of this was published as, “Rediscovering Origen today: First Impressions on the new collection of homilies on the Psalms in the «Codex Monacensis Graecus» 314” in Studia Patristica Vol. LVI (2013) [online] (already mentioned). A helpful chart which I’ve pasted together from pp. 106–07:

The post The ‘Discovery’ of 29 New Homilies on the Psalms Attr. to Origen appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

Samuel b. Jacob was the scribe responsible for the production of the so-called Leningrad Codex (Firkowich B19a), currently our earliest complete Masoretic Bible codex. This article demonstrates that another codex from the Firkowich Collection, containing the Former Prophets only, is also the work of Samuel b. Jacob, despite the lack of a colophon to this effect. The argument is based on a combination of eleven textual and para-textual features shared between these two manuscripts, and other manuscripts known to have been produced by the same scribe.

Searching the article, I was surprised not to find the precise url for the two catalogued sections of this manuscript, L17—EVR I Bibl. 80 and EVR I B 13, respectively. So I retrieved the following permalinks for each, followed by links for viewing these manuscripts:

(1) EVR I Bibl. 80. 

Catalogued item:

http://primo.nli.org.il/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=NLI&docId=NNL_ALEPH000151648 

Digitised Microfilm:

 http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/digitallibrary/pages/viewer.aspx?presentorid=MANUSCRIPTS&docid=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS000151648-1

(2) EVR I B 13. 

Catalogued item:

http://primo.nli.org.il/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=NLI&docId=NNL_ALEPH000151620 

Digitised Microfilm: http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/digitallibrary/pages/viewer.aspx?presentorid=MANUSCRIPTS&docid=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS000151620-1

More from the Tyndale House announcement:

Tyndale House Research Associate Dr Kim Phillips identifies the writing style of Samuel ben Jacob in newly published digitised photographs of a manuscript from the Firkowich collection in the depths of the National Library of Russia archives of St Petersburg.

…Samuel ben Jacob is the scribe who wrote the Leningrad Codex, the earliest complete copy of the Old Testament which is reproduced in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. This manuscript is behind most modern translations. Identifying this piece of work to be by the same scribe will allow scholars to check the accuracy of tiny details in the manuscript behind most modern Bible translations. This will then contribute to future scholarly Bibles.

The post Samuel b. Jacob Identified as Scribe in Another Firkowich Ms., L17 appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

For my part, I attempted to put ‘digital theology’ in the context of digital humanities and considered the potential of the University of Turku’s new Laboratory for Computational Humanities.

We also had a chance to use some augmented reality and virtual reality apps that Turku’s Technology Research Center had created, including their Wordsmith app:

Through eight scenes set in various parts of Turku Cathedral the Wordsmith app brings events from the sixteenth century to life for its users. The scenes can be viewed on your own tablet device as you move through the Cathedral with the characters virtually present in the building.

The app is part of a project called MIRACLE (Mixed Reality Applications for Culture and Learning Experiences), a nearly €1 million project that brings together Finnish Universities and industry partners.

The post Digital Humanities and Theology in Finland appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

Rightly, Bond points out a few revenue-generating schemes on the network that scholars should know about (e.g., the ability to boost your own publications to other users for a fee). She suggests alternative networks which are true open-access repositories, including Zenodo and Humanities Commons.

But before you delete your academia.edu account (or decide never to create one), consider these suggestions, reflecting how I use the site:

1. Do not use a commercial website (like academia.edu) for a repository of your publications. Rather, use your institution’s repository (where available), your own website (esp. self-hosted and archived) or one of the above alternatives.
2. Use academia.edu to create an online presence in order to benefit from the huge network of other scholars who can discover your work. List your publications but do not upload your papers. Rather, link to your papers in the above repositories. Thus academia.edu becomes a kind of networked CV, letting others know what you’re up to.

My biggest problem with Academia.edu is the (recent?) ability to see who has been looking at your papers. My understanding was this is a premium feature, but in an effort to market the feature, the service disclosed to me another scholar who looked for one of my listed publications. I happen to know who this scholar is, as well as the fact that she is writing on a similar topic to that paper. I feel uneasy about that kind of surveillance, as well as the fact that I was privy to that knowledge.

As far as the commercial nature of the site, I see little difference with it and other social media sites that scholars frequently employ for their discourse, namely Facebook and Twitter. (I wonder whether Bond is conflicted about using those networks for scholarly discourse.) Also, costly marketing features heavily in the economy of traditional academic publishing, so objecting to the pay-to-boost approach would seem consistent with objecting to traditional publishing economics (which has in fact happened a lot in DH circles).

One important stipulation to my rather pragmatic approach to social media is that it should always be subject to change. For example, if surveillance aspects of academia.edu get worse, I may feel that the cons outweigh the pros and drop it.

The post How You Should Use Academia.edu? appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

Until recently, virtually all known readings of Luke 24:45 took for granted a particular underlying Greek syntax that yields the translation, “Then he [Jesus] opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.” In an earlier issue of this journal, Matthew Bates proposed an alternative understanding of the Greek syntax, swapping the direct objects of the main verb and infinitive, substantially altering the meaning: “Then Jesus exposited the Scriptures so that the disciples could understand their meaning.” In this article, I will show that Bates’s reconstruction is syntactically infeasible and otherwise inadequately supported. Further, I present evidence from the broad context of Luke-Acts that supports the traditional reading. Illumination, the opening of the mind of the disciples, is a climactic moment at the end of the Third Gospel.

Look out for a version to appear on my academia.edu page. In the meantime, if you are interested in a copy and do not have access, get in touch with me (if by no other means, then via my Durham staff page).

The post “What is Opened in Luke 24:45, the Mind or the Scriptures?” – JBL Article appeared first on Joshua L Mann.

SBLCentral takes your SBL profile, in which you specify the research subjects in which you are interested, and automatically send you alerts when relevant articles, books, book reviews, and so on, appear. He indicated it would be highly customisable.

The title and abstract of Kutsko’s presentation are included in full below:

Building a Digital Platform that Serves Research and Supports Publishing

This paper will first describe the raison d’être of the Review of Biblical Literature in 1998 and how and why it became SBL’s most active digital resource. RBL’s impact on research and scholarly publishing has been significant in a field marked by many methodologies and specializations, as well as by a significant publishing output. Can RBL provide a proof of concept for something bigger, an online research platform that responds to a perfect storm of challenges that face academic publishers and researchers? Building on its strengths and recognizing new challenges, two years ago SBL undertook a new phase in RBL’s evolution that will harness more digital tools, metadata, tagging, and community. A project called SBLCentral envisions a highly customized and automated research platform that could serve as a model for any field in humanities and social sciences, and could integrate them as well in interdisciplinary study. The research platform would provide access to specialized content, including books, reviews, journal abstracts, and conference papers, and would deliver custom alerts to users when new research-specific resources are published. An exploratory grant from the Henry Luce Foundation will help SBL refine this project and solicit feedback from scholars, publishers, librarians, and other associations. This paper will outline the project, update members on its development, invite interaction, and discuss next steps. Third, the paper will highlight higher-ed-wide issues on how to sustain digital humanities in general and projects such as this one in particular. How can and should a learned society uniquely serve its guild? How can the members of that society produce new layers of crowd-sourced, peer-reviewed content? How can we, as a scholarly community, commit to resources that are widely accessible as well as sustainable?

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