This summer there is a great opportunity to learn more about the Septuagint with a leading scholar in the discipline at the University of Salzburg. Now for the second year in a row, Dr. Kristin De Troyer is offering a week-long summer school dealing with textual criticism and history.

As I have said before, if you are a graduate student considering further study in Septuagint, you should consider being supervised by De Troyer in the beautiful city of Salzburg.

Last year’s summer school focused on the book of Esther in Greek (see here). This year’s topic will be both the Hebrew and Greek versions of Joshua. This book is one of De Troyer’s area of expertise, so it will be an excellent opportunity to learn from an expert in the field about an ongoing and complicated question.

Why Greek Joshua?

Although the Greek version of Joshua is, like many other books, very faithful to its Hebrew exemplar in general, there are also some significant differences. When compared with the Masoretic Text, the Greek text(s) of Joshua contains large plusses. These come particularly in sections dealing with geography, which some scholars believe to represent an older Hebrew text no longer available to us. At the same time, Greek Joshua also has several minuses where there are complete verses in MT, especially in chapter 6.

So the question arises, which tradition(s) represent the older text of Joshua? For more discussion, see van der Meer 2015.

Here’s a blurb from De Troyer discussing the content of the course:

The next Salzburg Summer School for Text Criticism is devoted to the book of Joshua. Focusing on Josh 8:30-35, we will journey through Hebrew Bible editions, Hebrew Manuscripts, Dead Sea Scrolls editions, Dead Sea Scrolls images, Old Greek critical editions, Greek manuscripts, Latin manuscripts, and even a bit of Josephus. We will also take the time to work on how to retrovert texts, do some translation technique exercises, and wonder (and worry) about the Lucianic/Antiochean text, kaige and the Early Jewish Revisers. Finally we will put all the pieces together and come up with a solution for the Josh 8:30-35 problem. During the week, there will also be a senior scholars´seminar where the following brilliant minds will speak about manuscripts, texts, and contexts. Accommodation is available at the guesthouse of the Benedictine monastery, which is less than 300 feet away from the faculty of theology, in the amazingly beautiful old historic centre of Salzburg. Small scholarships are available on request.

What are the Details?

You can find most of the relevant details in the flyer below. But I’ll take this space to draw attention to two things:

There is ten-student limit for the course. That means you’ll need to make a competitive application.
There is a “Seniors’ Seminar” included. As part of the summer school, you will not only have access to Dr. De Troyer for a week, but you will also get to hear and interact with the following speakers dealing with these topics:
- William Horbury (Cambridge) – [tba]
- Andrew Macintosh (Cambridge) – Ancient commentators
- Johann Maier (Cologne) – Hebrew/Aramaic philology
- Tessa Rajak (Reading) – Jewish-Greek culture
- Stefan Reif (Cambridge) – Cairo Genizah
- Günther Stemberger (Vienna) – Rabbinics