Announcing: DARIUS

 

Where learning a new language is tough, learning rare, obscure or ancient languages that are no longer spoken is exceedingly difficult.

DARIUS: The Digital Aramaic Research Initiative for Students is an upcoming Internet-based tool that uses modern living-language techniques adapted for individuals who wish to learn various Aramaic dialects.

More information forthcoming. :-) I'm really excited about this.

Peace,
-Steve

The First Hugoye Symposium!

Two fantastic bits of news came in on the Hugoye List:

The First Hugoye Symposium

ܥܐܕܐ ܕܣ̈ܝܡܐ ܣܘܪ̈ܝܝܐ: ܐܘܪܚܐ ܐܪܝܟܬܐ ܡܢ ܒ̈ܬܝ ܐܪ̈ܟܐ ܠܢܘܠܐ

Libraries in the Syriac Tradition

May 20, 2010 at the
Beth Mardutho Research Library, Piscataway, N.J.

Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute will hold its First Hugoye Symposium on May 20, 2010 to celebrate the opening of the Beth Mardutho Research Library in Piscataway, NJ. The Symposium papers will focus on libraries in the Syriac tradition, and will be published in Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies

The speakers are:

Keynote Address: Sebastian P. Brock (University of Oxford): Kthobe Mphasqe: Some Examples, Ancient and Modern, from the Libraries of St Catherine's Monastery Sinai and Dayr al-Suryan.

David Taylor (University of Oxford): Syriac Printing in the 19th and early 20th-Century Middle East: Tool of Western Propaganda or Local Resistance?

Andreas Juckel (Münster University): A Guide to Syriac New Testament Manuscripts and Editions.

Muriel Debie (CNRS, Paris): Cataloging a Syriac MS collection in the Middle East: the Case Study of Charfet.

Kristian Heal (Brigham Young University): Corpora, eLibraries and databases: Locating Syriac Studies in the 21st Century.

George A. Kiraz (Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute): The Beth Mardutho Research Library: A Modest Beginning.

The Symposium will begin at 10 AM and end at 5 PM. A dinner will follow at a local restaurant (for which there will be a fee for those who choose to participate).

Those who would like to attend the symposium are requested to register with helpdesk [at] gorgiaspress [dot] com (please have the subject line read “Hugoye Symposium Registration”). Please provide your name, affiliation, contact information, whether you request parking, and whether you would like to attend the dinner. Registration is free (donations to Beth Mardutho to support the library are appreciated). Deadline for registration is April 15th, 2010.

Those attending from afar are expected to arrange for their own accommodation. Information can be found at http://www.piscatawaynj.org/hotels.

And secondly:

Internship : Cataloguer in Syriac and Arabic

Gorgias Press, an academic publishing firm based in Piscataway, NJ, is seeking applicants for a 3-month internship for the position of cataloguer in Syriac and Arabic. The candidate will be asked to catalogue books in Syriac and Arabic (mostly on Syriac topics) published in the Middle East during the 1800s and early 1900s. The cataloguing involves entering bibliographical information about the books (author, title, subject, etc.) in an Excel sheet, as well as writing a 200 word abstract in English for each of the books. A good command of Syriac and Arabic is required, as well as general knowledge in the field and literature. Strong writing skills in English are also required. The candidate is expected to catalog an average of 10 books a day. The candidate must be in residence in the area for the duration of the Internship (apart from weekends).

The candidate will receive free housing, a stipend totaling $2,250 payable in monthly installments (or $5,000 in Gorgias books), and up to $500 towards travel. The housing is in the same complex as the Gorgias office for female candidates, and 1 mile (20 minute walk, 2 minutes by car) for male candidates.

Piscataway is located 40 miles from New York City, and 30 miles from Princeton. The nearest train station is New Brunswick, 3 miles from Piscataway. The only public transportation available within Piscataway is taxis.

The position is open until filled. The candidate may start anytime between March and June, 2010. Interested applicants should send a CV, and letter expressing their interest to jobs [at] gorgiaspress [dot] com indicating their strength in Syriac and Arabic.

Peace,
-Steve

The Gemara Not Written in Aramaic?

I was shocked as well!

Apparently, Yeranen Yaakov over on their blog found definitive attestation from a very well known and well-respected source that the Gemara was not written in Aramaic as is commonly believed. Apparently it was originally written in Indonesian!

Peace,
-Steve ;-)

Syriac Medical Palimpsest Imaging at Walters

(Not the MSS in question, but it sure looks pretty. :-))

Via Michael Thoth's blog on EUREKA!:

Today we begin imaging a Syriac Medical Palimpsest believed to be a work of Galen, with an integrated spectral large-format imaging and LED illumination system. Over the past decade, our imaging capabilities have been refined and adapted in the Archimedes Palimpsest Program and at the Library of Congress. We set up the camera and illumination system yesterday, and with the support of Vincent, a conservator who is an expert in manuscript handling, we hope to begin moving forward with full imaging tomorrow after calibration, focus checks and workflow prototyping today.

Read more here: http://digitalarchimedes.ning.com/profiles/blogs/syriac-medical-palimpsest?xg_source=activity

Peace,
-Steve

Stephan Huller's Musings on "Peter"

Looking over my news feeds today, I came across an interesting article by Stephan Huller entitled "Could the Editors of the Catholic Canon Have Thrown 'Cephas' as a Diversion from the Real Meaning of Simon's Name."

In essence, the argument is that the origin of the title "Peter" is not from כיפא ['kefa'] but from פתור ['pitor'].

Where I'm not sure I agree with some of their assertions (for example that כיפא ['kefa'] means "little stone" when it is used in phrases such as "ארון דכיף" ['arun d-kif'; "a coffin/chest of stone"] in Ham 575:152 etc., because both אבנא ['ebna'] and כיפא ['kefa'] are used in either sense) as well as some of their conclusions (I'm one who takes conspiracy theories with skepticism by default, especially when kephas as כיפא ['kefa'] is a less-elaborate, more Occam's Razon-friendly solution), it is certainly thought provoking and draws some interesting connections.

In Palestinian Aramaic (but rarely in other dialects) the root פתר ['ptar'] did carry the sense of "to interpret" as the cognate to the Hebrew פשר ['pesher'] which makes his connection between Peter as an "interpreter" an alluring one. However, interpreting πετρος ['petros'] as פתור ['pitor'; i.e. 'interpreter'] is a bit sketchy, as besides being very rare, פתור ['pitor'] was almost exclusively used in the context of interpreting dreams (i.e. פתור חלמיה).

(Also as a completely frivolous side-note, I must admit that when I first read the proposal, when I saw "pitor" I immediately though to myself, "Well then, what about פַתוּר ['patur' = table]?" a much more common homograph. :-) )

In either case, the blog post is certainly worth a read. :-)

Peace,
-Steve

Family-Friendly Jesus is Unavailable...

I came across an interesting tweet on Twitter today, culled from my large Aramaic-seeking nets that wasn't completely a match for the Aramaic Blog's regular musings. However it was too long to retweet, so I've decided to post it here instead for everyone's enjoyment:

From messianicisrael on Fri 19 Feb 10:47 AM EST via Facebook:

For those looking for a family friendly, Yeshua... { "errorCode": 503, "errorMessage": "Service unavailable.", "statusCode": "ERROR" }

It seems that when technologies don't mesh quite right...

We now return you to your regular Aramaic blogging. :-)

Peace,
-Steve

The Eisenbrauns Valentine's Day Contest

Stumbling upon this from James McGrath's "Exploring Our Matrix", I nearly keeled over!

Apparently every year since 2008 Eisenbrauns, a publisher of great notoriety in Middle Eastern Studies, has held a contest where contestants compose valentines an ancient near-eastern languages, the winners receiving gift certificates for their books.

If I had only known about this earlier, I would have submitted one of my Syriac Heart pendants. :-)

To read more, and see this year's winners check out:

http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/VDAY2010 .

Next year we shall see!

Peace,
-Steve

Aramaic Course at University of Washington

For those of you in the Pacific Northwest looking to learn Aramaic in Spring of 2010, the University of Washington has just posted enrollment information for a course in Biblical Aramaic.

More information can be found here.

Peace,
-Steve