It’s the dog days of summer when everyone in academics is supposed to be resting from the sprint of the last school year yet also producing a ton of top-notch research. Many conferences are afoot as well and, as everyone knows, these can either help or hinder the dual tasks of rest and research. I’ve been trying to stay moving just like everyone else, so hopefully my readers can tolerate a more personal update.

Here’s some of the stuff I’ve been up to recently, whether in print or in person.

Septuaginta Deutsch Conference

I posted a while back that I was going to attend the 7th International Septuaginta Deutsch Conference, and so I did this past weekend. You can read a little more about this event in my original post here. It’s the second time I’ve participated and I have to say that it was just as good this time around. There was a great group in attendance (the largest so far from what I understood) and a number of excellent papers. In the picture to the right is Rob Hiebert giving a brief address for the “Pre-50th Anniversary” of the IOSCS.

I presented some of my work on early modern bible concordances. I mentioned viewing one mid-17th century manuscript in Dublin a little while ago (here) since it has not yet been digitized. The reason I’ve become interested in this topic is not only because these reference works have a fascinating history linked into the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, but also (and especially) because of their links to the history of Biblical (read: Septuagint) lexicography. This is some preliminary work in a longer-term research project I am contemplating.

Other Recent or Upcoming Activities

I am very much in a time of personal/family and professional transition. My dissertation is nearing completion and, I hope, will be submitted and out of my hands within the next month or two. We’re coming closer to a family move from Cambridge and back to the States. I am also wrapping up some projects and starting new ones. Here’s a brief run-down:

Complete

• After several years of constant work, Septuaginta: A Reader’s Edition is finally going to press. I posted about this previously here, and my co-editor Greg Lanier and I are keeping a separate blog with extra information here. It was a massive project that took a ton of energy, but I learned a lot in the process (and got a ton of ideas).
• The volume from the last Septuaginta Deutsch conference is now in print with Mohr Siebeck (see right). I have an essay in this one entitled “The Septuagint as Catalyst for Language Change in the Koine: A Usage-Based Approach.” You can read a little about that here.

 

Forthcoming

• I just got word that my article entitled “David’s Spiritual Walls and Conceptual Blending in Psalm 51″ was accepted by the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. It’s unclear whether this will come out this year or early 2019, but it’s the result of a paper I wrote for the Cognitive Linguistics section of SBL 2016, which you can read about here.
• Pending final confirmation I have an article forthcoming entitled “The Background of Παιδάριον and Νεανίσκος in Ptolemaic Egypt.” This one was kind of a left-hand turn from a paper I presented last summer in Finland at a symposium you can read about here. The essay will be published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in a volume I believe is to be titled The Legacy of Soisalon-Soininen: Towards a Syntax of Septuagint Greek.
• I also have a little over twelve thousand words worth of entries coming out in an expository dictionary of Old Testament (and New Testament) words. I am not really sure whether the book is public knowledge yet so I’ll refrain from naming it. This resource is meant to come out early 2019 as far as I know. I was asked to write the entries for a few dozen Hebrew words, which is now complete and out of my hands.
• A few book reviews, as usual.

 

In Progress

• Without giving any real details away, I am continuing to work with Greg Lanier on a project that is related and complementary to the Reader’s Edition. It’s a fairly simple project but I think will be valuable, and it’s on track for publication in 2019.
• Another project I can mention but cannot describe in much detail is an edited volume I am working on with Dr. W. Edward Glenny (U. Northwestern – St. Paul). This too is a Septuagint project that has something like twenty-four chapters covering numerous topics by some very excellent scholars. I’m excited to keep this project moving along and will give more details as I’m able.
• Speaking of Septuagint (as usual), I’m just getting started on writing a lexical entry for the ongoing Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint, published by Mohr Siebeck (here). The editors have asked me to write the entry for δέξιος for Volume 2, which I am determined to find interesting somehow.
• You may remember that last summer Steve Runge and I co-organized the Tyndale House Workshop in Greek Prepositions (here). It was a great event with a number of fine contributors, so we’ve been working on collecting the essays for publication. It’s an ongoing task but it’s hopefully on the horizon for 2019 or early 2020.
• I am continuing my investigation of the history of Septuagint scholarship in Cambridge. You may have read my previous posts (here, here, and here) about archival hunts at the University Library. I am systematically collecting everything that is here at the University. I have some ideas percolating for what I’d like to do with it, but I’ll definitely be posting more of this soon.
• More book reviews.

That about covers it. I’ll be posting again with more news some time in the next two or three weeks.