Courtesy of Molly Zahn, 

The program for the 12th Congress of the International Organization of Qumran Studies (Berlin, 11-14 August 2025) is now available at this link. (Please note IOQS will have a session on Monday afternoon, prior to the formal opening of the IOSOT meeting.)

Registration for the IOQS meeting requires registering for the IOSOT meeting, which can be done by following the links from the main IOSOT website (click here).

We have been advised to encourage participants and attendees to register early: fees increase after April 30. Registration is also required to secure a place at special events like the receptions and boat trip; these are available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

We hope to see many of you in Berlin!

Please see attached and below, courtesy of Hindy Najman

Knapp Lecture for the Centre of the Study of the Bible in Oriel College this coming Tuesday (2/25)  at 5 p.m.  The speakers are Mladen Popović and Maruf Dhali.

Combining AI, the Sciences and the Humanities to Innovate the Study
of Ancient Handwritten Manuscripts
 
Here are bios for our speakers: 

Prof. Mladen Popović is the Dean of the Faculty of Religion, Culture, and Society at the University of Groningen. He has been principal investigator of the ERC project The Hands That Wrote the Bible and co-directed the NWO/FWO project Models of Textual Communities and Digital Palaeography of the Dead Sea Scrolls with Eibert Tigchelaar. His current work integrates AI technology with scientific methods (chemical analysis and radiocarbon dating) and traditional humanities approaches (palaeography, history, and philology) to study ancient documents on leather and papyrus such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is editor of the Journal for the Study of Judaism and serves on the editorial boards of Dead Sea Discoveries, Journal of Biblical Literature, Oudtestamentische Studiën/Old Testament Studies, and Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism. He was curator of a major Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in the Drents Museum, Assen, together with the Israel Antiquities Authority in 2013/2014. He is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Dr. Maruf A. Dhali is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Artificial Intelligence at Bernoulli Institute. He joined the university in 2016 as a Ph.D. researcher in the multidisciplinary ERC project The Hands that Wrote the Bible on analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 2021, he joined the Department of AI as a Lecturer. He received his M.Sc. degree (with distinction) in Computer Vision and Robotics from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, in 2015. He was a recipient of the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus Masters Scholarship. During his studies, he attended the University of Burgundy, France; the University of Girona, Spain; and the University of Edinburgh, the UK. His research interests include computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He appeared in numerous news outlets for his works, including BBC News, ABC Australia, Independent, Live Science, Euro News, etc. In addition, he has been an invited speaker/ guest lecturer to several symposiums at different universities worldwide, including the University of Basel (Switzerland), NTNU (Norway), KU Leuven (Belgium), and University of Halle (Germany). He is also working on the €10 million NWO HAICu project for Dutch cultural heritage data.

Please see attached, courtesy of Kristin De Troyer 

Scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls has long been held as an example of international and interfaith cooperation. Yet, that scholarship has almost exclusively been associated with approaches and perspectives from the Global North (Europe, Israel, North America, and the UK). The purpose of this free online conference is to draw together researchers and scholarly perspectives from the Global South, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. What is the history of scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls in these regions? What is the nature and extent of public interest in the Scrolls? What methods, approaches, and perspectives have prevailed, and why? What opportunities exist to study the Scrolls and in what ways are they engaged? What new insights and/or trajectories on the Scrolls have emerged or are emerging, and why?

We invite papers on any topic connected to the Dead Sea Scrolls and related Second Temple studies from researchers trained or based in Central or South America and the Caribbean, Africa, Oceania, Asia, or Australia and New Zealand. We particularly invite papers that examine perspectives that might be considered distinctive of the regions where participants are based.

Paper presentations will be limited to researchers connected to the Southern Hemisphere and Global South, but the broader international community of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars will be invited to join the conference and participate in the discussions.

CONFERENCE DETAILS
When: 1–2 September and 8–9 September 2025

Format: Speakers will be requested to submit a video recording of their paper by 1 August 2025. Recordings should not be more than 20-minutes in length. The prerecorded papers will then be shared with participants, who will be invited to watch them before the live meetings on 1–2 September and 8–9 September.

The meetings on 1–2 September and 8–9 September will be comprised of four (4) two-hour-long meetings held on Zoom (that is, two hours each day). The live sessions will be dedicated to questions and discussion of the pre-circulated papers.

We will endeavour to coordinate the scheduling of the meetings on 1–2 September and 8–9 September 2025 to support participants from different time zones to attend.

Language: Please submit papers and paper proposals in English. The use of Translated Captions will be supported for the live online meetings on 1–2 September and 8–9 September.

Offer a paper
To submit a paper proposal, please send a 250-word abstract and short statement of eligibility (e.g., nationality, institutional affiliation) to [email protected]. Registration for the conference will be free.

Call for papers closes May 31 2025

Courtesy of Jonathan Ben-Dov, 


The Azrieli foundation is inviting applications for a prestigious and well-paid postdoctoral fellowship for international students in Israeli Universities. The deadline for application was extended to January 22, 2025. All details are found in their website:

https://azrielifoundation.org/fellows/internationalpostdoctoral/ 

​

Courtesy of M. Popovic - 

Essay competition of Teyler's Theological Society Haarlem: Scrolls, Scribes and the Making of the Hebrew Bible 

Please see the website and the attachment below for more information: https://teylersmuseum.nl/nl/ontdek/ontstaan/teylers-stichting

Courtesy of Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg- 

"Chronoi - Topoi. Time politics and the interrelation of time and space in Second Temple Judaism" International Online Conference
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 – Thursday, October 31, 2024
Philipps University of Marburg in collaboration with the Einstein Center Chronoi, Berlin

We kindly ask for your registration by Oct 15th, 2024 to: e-mail: [email protected], Philipps University Marburg, Department of Protestant Theology The Zoom link to the conference will be made available to participants after registration

Agenda
Tuesday, October 29, 2024  
2.00 pm – 7.00 pm Berlin Time / CET
2.00 pm Greetings: Menahem Ben-Sasson, Jerusalem, on be-half of the ECC Angela Standhartinger, Marburg, on behalf of the Faculty
2.15 pm Martina Kepper / Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg: Introduction and technical notes
2.30 pm Maike Schult, Marburg: “Bakhtin wrote for his time, but was read at a different time.” The Chronotopos con-cept and its historical context
3.30 pm Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg, Marburg “From mythicization of history to transcen-ding of empires: Transformations of the Chronotopos from the Priestly composition to Daniel”
4.30 pm Break
5.00 pm Bob Becking, Utrecht: “The Concept of Time in the Aramaic Documents from Elephantine”
6.00 pm Final Discussion Day 1
6.30 pm Virtual “social gathering”
7.00 pm End Day of 1
________________________________________
Day 2
Wednesday, October 30, 2024         
2.00 pm – 7.00 pm Berlin Time / CET
2.00 pm Frank Ueberschaer, Halle: “עולם in the book of Ben Sira und its translations”
3.00 pm Martina Kepper, Marburg: “Time, Space, and beyond in EzechielLXX, Baruch, Sapientia. Three Case Studies”
4.00 pm Break
4.30 pm Daniel Falk, Pennsylvania: “Time of Preparing the Way in the Desert: Prayer and Wilderness in Early Judaism”
​5.30 pm Sarah Wisialowski, Oxford: “Apocalyptic Visions and Historical Revisions: Time in the Book of Daniel”
6.30 pm Final Discussion Day 2
7.00 pm End Day 2
________________________________________
 Day 3
Thursday, October 31, 2024
2.00 pm – 6.00 pm Berlin Time / CET
2.00 pm Jonathan Ben-Dov, Tel Aviv: “The Motif of Accelerating the Progression of Time in Jewish Apocalypses”
3.00 pm Barbara Schmitz / Lucas Brum Texeiras, Würzburg “The Jewish Festive Calendar in the Book of Judith: Meaning and Impact for Space and Time Construction”
4.00 pm Molly Zahn, Yale: “Time and Space in the Qumran Temple Scroll”
5.00 pm Final Discussion of Day 3
5.30 pm General Discussion
6.00 pm End of the Conference

Please see the flyer below for more information: 

We are delighted to formally announce that the 12th Congress of the International Organization for Qumran Studies will take place at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Mon 11 Aug - Thurs 14 Aug 2025, in conjunction with the IOSOT meeting.

The theme for the Twelfth Meeting of the IOQS will be Manuscripts and Materiality. We welcome paper submissions on any aspect of this theme (broadly construed), or on any topic related to Qumran Studies. Scholars at all stages (including PhD students) are encouraged to submit a proposal.

A detailed description of the theme and instructions on how to propose a paper can be found at the IOSOT website (CLICK HERE). We look forward to seeing you in Berlin!

Dr Paul Collins and Prof Hindy Najman
Origins and resilience: The Vitality of Judaism in Archaeology, Art and Texts
Wednesday 26 June at 5.00pm (BST) on Zoom with Zoom access from 4.45pm (BST) followed by Q&A
 
Please click on this link to register your attendance
 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/origins-and-resilience-the-vitality-of-judaism-in-archaeology-art-texts-tickets-906691648127
​
The origins of Judaism in the period 900 BCE to 700 CE can be explored through a combination of archaeology, art and texts. It is a story of a Jewish world immersed in and imprinted by the peoples among whom they lived – Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs - and out of which emerged concepts fundamental to the development of early Christianity and Islam. The result was an outpouring of extraordinary architecture and visual art as well as astonishing literature, poetry and theology. The story has never been told through a public exhibition and this talk will explore early thinking about how it might be made a reality. It would challenge misconceptions about Judaism and its place in antiquity.
 
Dr Paul Collins is Keeper of the Middle East Department at the British Museum. He was previously Professor of Ancient Middle East and Jaleh Hearn Curator at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
 
Professor Hindy Najman is Oriel & Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oriel College, University of Oxford