Books in the Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam pertinentes series

This collected edition presents the published texts of over 2500 Old and Imperial Aramaic inscriptions (10th - 3rd cents. BC). They cover an area extending from Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria and Palestine to Afghanistan. It serves as a reference volume for the concordance, which will be published in 2006.

Presents the texts of the more than 2500 Old and Imperial Aramaic inscriptions (10th-3rd cents BC). The extracts in this book cover an area extending from Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria and Palestine to Afghanistan.

Because of different versions in Hebrew and Greek manuscripts pertaining to Ben Sira, the text editions in common use partly conform to the Greek text, but some restore the original organization or use a new enumeration. This text seeks to dispel the confusion caused by differing enumerations.

The relationships between the many different versions of Tobit present a famous and important problem for text-critics and historians of Judaism; however, study of the subject has been hindered by the lack of any single, reliable collection. This book brings together, for the first time, a wide range of texts (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac), some previously overlooked or virtually inaccessible, based in many cases on new readings. A single system of verse numeration is applied to all, and the key versions are presented synoptically, to facilitate comparison. Introductions and critical notes are provided for each text, along with succinct observations on the relationships between them in each passage, and concordances to assist stylistic and linguistic study.

The starting point for any study of the Bible is the text of the Masora, as designed by the Masoretes. The ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain thousands of Masora comments of two types: Masora Magna and Masora Prava. How does this complex defense mechanism, which contains counting of words and combinations from the Bible, work?Yosef Ofer, of Bar-Ilan University and the Academy of the Hebrew Language, presents the way in which the Masoretic comments preserve the Masoretic Text of the Bible throughout generations and all over the world, providing comprehensive information in a short and efficient manner.The book describes the important manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and the methods of the Masora in determining the biblical spelling and designing the forms of the parshiot and the biblical Songs. The effectiveness of Masoretic mechanisms and their degree of success in preserving the text is examined. A special explanation is offered for the phenomenon of qere and ketiv.The book discusses the place of the Masoretic text in the history of the Bible, the differences between the Babylonian Masora and that of Tiberias, the special status of the Aleppo Codex and the mystery surrounding it. Special attention is given to the comparison between the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex (B 19a). In addition, the book discusses the relationship between the Masora and other tangential domains: the grammar of the Hebrew language, the interpretation of the Bible, and the Halakha.The book is a necessary tool for anyone interested in the text of the Bible and its crystallization.

Die Reihe Fontes et Subsidia (FoSub) will bibelwissenschaftlichen Referenzwerken ein festes Forum geben. Es werden grundlegende Forschungshilfen wie Einzel- und Spezialeditionen, Textsammlungen, Worterbucher, Synopsen, Konkordanzen etc. prasentiert, die fur die bibelwissenschaftliche Arbeit unentbehrlich sind.